"Out, Damned Scot"

Coming December 1 from Severn House: Out, Damned Scot (A Last Ditch Mystery, 9) by Catriona McPherson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Pregnant Lexy Campbell races to hunt down a killer before she goes into labour in this hilarious cosy mystery from award-winning author Catriona McPherson. A Burns Night to die for . . . literally. Pregnant and a week overdue, Lexy Campbell’s hope for a quiet Burns Supper at the Cuento Celtic Society is dashed in minutes. The haggis is ceremonial only. The actual dinner is disappointing. And then the haggis cutter’s missing dagger turns up in the back of a dead guest no one can identify ― because of course it does. With a room full of potential suspects, and contractions potentially minutes away, Lexy together with the rest of Trinity for Trouble must untangle a mystery involving old grudges, family feuds, and some very convincing magical misdirection. But as the trio race to uncover a killer, Lexy’s running out of patience, time, and possibly all dignity. A Burns Night celebration, a mysterious dead guest, and an extremely overdue Lexy Campbell who came for haggis but left with a murder to solve. Perfect for fans of Janet Evanovich, M.C. Beaton, and Clare Chase who love laugh-out-loud cosy mysteries featuring chaotic heroines, awkward situations and messy murder cases.

Visit Catriona McPherson's website.

The Page 69 Test: Go to My Grave.

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (November 2018).

My Book, The Movie: The Turning Tide.

The Page 69 Test: The Turning Tide.

My Book, The Movie: A Gingerbread House.

The Page 69 Test: Hop Scot.

The Page 69 Test: Deep Beneath Us.

Q&A with Catriona McPherson.

The Page 69 Test: The Witching Hour.

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (September 2024).

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (December 2024).

The Page 69 Test: Scotzilla.

My Book, The Movie: Scotzilla.

The Page 69 Test: Scot's Eggs.

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (November 2025).

The Page 69 Test: The Dead Room.

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (May 2026).

--Marshal Zeringue

"Unmaking Eden"

New from Cambridge University Press: Unmaking Eden: Genesis and the Domestication of the World by David M. Carr.

About the book, from the publisher:

Domestication is not just something that humans impose on animals, but an ancient structure binding both creatures within shared systems of subjugation. Advancing trenchant new ideas, David Carr unpacks Genesis 1–11 to reveal ways in which embedded human–animal, gender, and group hierarchies constitute our world. Drawing on animal studies and Indigenous perspectives alike, he treats the Bible's origin stories as an invitation to rethink inter-species flourishing and re-imagine community based on intrinsic worth rather than mere utility. Tracing human rule over creation in Eden to slavery and concentrated human power at Babel, the author exposes an escalating trajectory of domination. Yet these foundational stories also suggest that global subjugation is not inevitable, but instead the consequence of a fall from an earlier relational, reciprocal mode of living. Here is a hopeful framework that recognizes this crisis while offering alternatives rooted in respectful relations and multispecies kinship.

The Page 99 Test: Holy Resilience.

Writers Read: David M. Carr (November 2014).

--Marshal Zeringue

"Revenge Plot"

Coming November 10 from Berkley: Revenge Plot by Stephanie Wrobel.

About the book, from the publisher:

A desperate writer’s pursuit of a powerful literary agent takes a dark turn in this new novel from the internationally bestselling author of The Hitchcock Hotel and Darling Rose Gold.

All Arnie Tenderton wants this Christmas—all he’s ever wanted—is to be a published author. For decades he has toiled over one novel after another. Each was missing something. Until now.

He’s finally written his perfect book.

What he needs next is a literary agent, someone who can get his book into publishers’ hands. Not just any agent will do, of course. Arnie wants the best. Arnie wants Claudia Conley.

She already rejected him once, and Arnie has never forgiven her. He could move on. Instead, he finds out where Claudia is spending the holidays: alone in a remote house in the Catskill Mountains. He decides to show up there to make his pitch.

Claudia may try to turn him down again, but this time Arnie won’t take no for an answer.

Because his book is about her.

And he’s not leaving until the story ends the way he wants.

Visit Stephanie Wrobel's website.

The Page 69 Test: Darling Rose Gold.

My Book, The Movie: Darling Rose Gold.

Q&A with Stephanie Wrobel.

The Page 69 Test: The Hitchcock Hotel.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Seeing Like a Supply Chain"

New from Yale University Press: Seeing Like a Supply Chain: The Hidden Life of Logistics by Miriam Posner.

About the book, from the publisher:

A history of the technology of supply-chain management from punch cards to neural nets, and how the ambiguity built into that technology helps companies and exploits workers

Seeing Like a Supply Chain is a compelling investigation into the hidden networks that drive our global economy. Miriam Posner presents a blow-by-blow account of the technology of supply-chain management from punch cards to neural nets, revealing how the system’s built-in ambiguity shields companies from accountability while exploiting workers.

Drawing on more than a decade of research, Posner shows how computation converged with the growth of global trade to allow for a lightning-quick, astoundingly efficient supply chain that lets corporations source products without any notion of where their goods are actually being produced. At a time when multinational firms fear the reputational damage of human rights violations in the making of their products, the supply chain’s shroud of vagueness is a feature, not a bug. Posner shows how this is technically accomplished―and how the strategic disavowal of information extends through every step of that chain.

Visit Miriam Posner's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Queen of Roses"

New from Gallery Books: The Queen of Roses by Julia Kelly.

About the book, from the publisher:

Spanning the ballrooms of Pasadena and the sunlit gardens of Altadena, a new novel of love and sacrifice from the internationally bestselling author of The Light Over London and The Last Garden in England.

1960: Frustrated reporter Theresa Johnson’s life changes when she receives a phone call from a Miss Pearce who claims her obituary about one of Pasadena’s last great hoteliers is wildly inaccurate. Seeking the truth, Theresa drives to the mysterious Rosewood House nestled high in the Altadena foothills. Even more intriguing than the house’s beautiful garden is Miss Pearce’s proposal that Theresa help her settle old scores by writing her biography.

1903: Beautiful but haughty, Adele Pearce is reluctant to leave the London Season and her last hope of a proposal. When she arrives in California, she discovers the startling truth of why her mother has called her there: her father has squandered his fortune and Adele must marry a wealthy American to save the family.

Stifled by expectation as Pasadena’s newest doyenne, Adele’s only comfort is Rosewood House and the beautiful garden she creates with the help of taciturn gardener Alexander Macalister. However, as Adele’s feelings for Alex flourish, a fire ignites in the San Gabriel Mountains above Rosewood House, threatening everything Adele holds dear, while in 1960, Miss Pearce learns that history has a terrible habit of repeating itself.

Visit Julia Kelly's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Lost English Girl.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Wallace Terry"

New from High Road Books: Wallace Terry: A Reporter's Journey from Selma to Saigon to Bloods by Ray E. Boomhower.

About the book, from the publisher:

Award-winning biographer Ray Boomhower tells the story of a journalist who spent his life smashing barriers, from his childhood in Indiana and his Ivy League education at Brown to his reporting on the Civil Rights Movement in the Deep South in the 1960s and, finally, covering what he described as “the biggest story in the world” of his time, the Vietnam War.

Pioneering Black journalist Wallace Terry risked his life on the battlefield writing for Time magazine during the Vietnam War. While in Vietnam, he captured the voices and experiences of Black soldiers and used the insights he gained to produce Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans. The book remains a classic reflection of a war that fractured US society and cost the lives of nearly fifty-eight thousand Americans.

Before risking his life on the front lines, Terry became deeply involved in reporting about the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s in the United States. “It was a story that I passionately cared for because it was going to affect me, my family, my children, and generations of Black people to come,” said Terry. Working for the Washington Post, he wrote the first newspaper series about the Nation of Islam, during which he interacted with Malcolm X, who sheltered him from harm when his stories upset some members of the movement. He also grew close to those who sacrificed their lives in the struggle for equality, including Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King Jr., who became godfather to Terry’s eldest son. Making civil rights his focus gave him the opportunity to report on such seminal events as the Birmingham campaign, the March on Washington, and the Selma to Montgomery marches.

During his two years covering the Vietnam War, Terry traveled overseas to conduct numerous interviews with Black fighting men—soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines—that he later used as the basis for Bloods. He sought with his work to topple the conviction that “white soldiers are invincible and black soldiers are invisible.” Terry faced numerous challenges, including rejections from publishers who believed the public did not want to read about Black veterans from the conflict. Finally published in 1984, Bloods became a bestseller and remains a landmark work of military and oral history.

Boomhower has written the first-ever biography of one of the first Black national correspondents to be hired in the overwhelmingly white mainstream media, a reporter whose name belongs with the greats in American journalism. Wallace Terry lived a life filled with danger and betrayal, scoops and cover-ups, while immersing himself in events that changed the course of US history.

Follow Ray E. Boomhower on Instagram and Threads.

The Page 99 Test: Richard Tregaskis.

The Page 99 Test: The Ultimate Protest.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Girl in the Glasshouse"

Coming November 16 from Lake Union: The Girl in the Glasshouse by Anna Stothard.

About the book, from the publisher:

A perfect family. A missing child. But everyone is lying.

On the idyllic island of Guernsey, twelve-year-old Celeste Everett vanishes from her bed during a storm.

The last people to see Celeste were her best friends―identical twin sisters who refuse to tell the whole truth about that night.

The Everetts are one of the island’s wealthiest and most powerful families, while the twins’ mother, Jess, is a struggling single parent with secrets of her own. But when suspicion begins to circle her daughters, Jess is drawn into the search for the missing girl―and into the orbit of a family used to getting exactly what they want.

As the magical island turns in on itself, Jess must decide how far she is willing to go to protect her children. Because in a small community, you’re always being watched. And someone knows exactly what happened that night.

Visit Anna Stothard's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Pink Hotel.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Flying Brothers"

New from Cornell University Press: Flying Brothers: From Dogfights to Diplomacy in Cold War Southeast Asia by Daniel Jackson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Flying Brothers drops you into cockpits and crisis rooms across the Cold War: supersonic F-5s herding rebel "Tora-Toras" over Manila in 1989, F-86 Sabres firing the first Sidewinder missiles against MiG-17s above the Taiwan Strait in 1958, and AT-6s striking a mutinous warship on a river in downtown Bangkok in 1951.

Instead of retelling Vietnam, Flying Brothers follows America's three treaty allies in Southeast Asia―Taiwan, Thailand, and the Philippines―showing how they built airpower that actually worked. The deal was stark: trade territory for technology. By hosting US bases, these countries gained jets, radar, and training they couldn't otherwise afford―while wrestling with the sovereignty headaches that came with a foreign force on their soil.

At the heart of the story are "diplomats in flight suits": American advisors flying, fixing, and planning alongside their counterparts to turn hand-me-down aircraft into credible defenses and hard-won victories―from the Philippines' air-ground campaign against the Huks to Taiwan's measured, missile-age deterrence. Along the way, Daniel Jackson highlights dogfights, ramp-side ingenuity, and the annual "Flying Brothers" weapons meets that forged real fraternity among allied airmen.

For readers of military and aviation history, Cold War strategy, and Southeast Asia, this is a fast-moving, clear-eyed account of how alliances actually fight: not with speeches, but with checklists, radar tracks, and pilots who know when to hold fire―and when to press the attack. The result is a persuasive case that well-run advisory missions, tied to coherent political-military aims, can succeed at far lower cost than direct US intervention.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Fatal Love"

New from Bloomsbury: A Fatal Love by Louisa Treger.

About the book, from the publisher:

Following Ruth Ellis' long-awaited posthumous conditional pardon in July 2026, never has there been a more compelling moment to revisit the woman behind one of Britain's most enduring legal cases.

It is Easter Sunday in 1955 and a young man lies face-down on the ground covered in blood. A woman, blonde and petite, stands over him with a gun in her hand. This is the story of Ruth Ellis as never told before...

As Ruth awaits her trial in Holloway Prison, she recollects growing up in England during the Second World War and the events that led to the death of her lover, David Blakely.

Meanwhile, Kitty Carrington - the assistant to Ruth's trial lawyer - tries to forge her own path through the male-dominated legal world of the 1950s and ensure that Ruth receives a fair trial.

Navigating secrets, betrayal and a broken justice system, Ruth and Kitty try to take control of their own lives and narratives. But do we ever really know the full story?

Visit Louisa Treger's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Louisa Treger & Monty.

The Page 69 Test: The Lodger.

My Book, The Movie: The Lodger.

My Book, The Movie: The Dragon Lady.

Q&A with Louisa Treger.

--Marshal Zeringue

"In Latin America You Could Be Free"

New from Basic Books: In Latin America You Could Be Free: An African American History by Yesenia Barragan.

About the book, from the publisher:

A hemispheric history of how free and fugitive antebellum African Americans sought freedom in Latin America.

Fifty years before the United States went to war over the issue, Chile abolished slavery. Colombia followed in 1821, and Mexico soon after. Black Americans took note. As plantation slavery terrorized their communities, Latin America emerged as the place they could be free.

Many have written about the Underground Railroad and northward migration to Canada, but for thousands of African Americans, freedom lay to the south. Abolitionists from Boston to San Antonio celebrated anti-slavery efforts in Latin America.

Freed and fugitive slaves began to see the region as a viable place to migrate, a land where they could find stability, safety, and opportunity. Some went on their own initiative. Others were motivated by organized political movements, like a Lincoln-backed colony in Panama and hotly debated proposals for mass emigration to Central America.

Drawing on travelogues, runaway slave ads, and hundreds of other archival sources across the Americas, Yesenia Barragan rewrites conventional histories of slavery in the antebellum era to prove that emancipation was a hemispheric effort. Eloquent and cutting-edge, In Latin America You Could Be Free is a powerful account of how African Americans pursued freedom in the darkest of circumstances.

--Marshal Zeringue

"When They Find Me"

New from Poisoned Pen Press: When They Find Me: A Novel by Carter Wilson.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Some secrets don't fade. They hunt.

Expanse, Colorado. Population 313. A town so remote it barely exists on a map―the perfect hiding place for Annie Wolfe and her daughter, Coral. Their cabin is nearly off the grid, and Annie has done everything to keep them safe. Everything. But she knows the people hunting her don't forget. And they don't forgive.

Riven knows about survival. She and her family have lived off the land for years, moving like shadows through the wilderness. Now her father has led them to this forgotten town, tracking the man he swears destroyed their lives. The plan is simple: strike fast, take revenge, and disappear.

But when Riven knocks on Annie's door, their worlds collide. What follows is darker, stranger, and more dangerous than either woman ever imagined―because the hunt isn't just for vengeance. It's for the truth. And in Expanse, Colorado, the truth can kill.

Visit Carter Wilson's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Remix, Reuse, Recycle"

New from Oxford University Press: Remix, Reuse, Recycle: Music, Media Technologies, and Remediating the Environment by Kate Galloway.

About the book, from the publisher:

How do we remix the environment? What do the sonic landscapes of video games, friendship bracelets made and shared by Taylor Swift fans, and experimental music composed from the sonification of climate change data have in common? They are examples of environmental remix, a creative and political practice of reshaping, translating, and recycling environmental knowledge into sound media.

Organized around a series of case studies ranging from the well-known to the rare and fascinating, Remix, Reuse, Recycle explores how artists work with sound technologies to remediate and repackage environmental information, including climate change data, soundscape field recordings, sensory experiences of nonhuman nature, and environmentalism discourse into sound-work that can be understood by a non-specialist audience. Author Kate Galloway argues that practices of remixing, reusing, and recycling are interpretive tools through which artists challenge conventional ways of communicating pressing environmental issues and aesthetic experiences of sonic environments to the public.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Wood You Be Mine"

New from Berkley: Wood You Be Mine (Lovewell Lumberjacks) by Daphne Elliot.

About the novel, from the publisher:

The first time I met the grumpy lumberjack next door, I almost burnt down his cabin.
The second time, I was in an argument with a moose (don’t ask).
The third time, I was naked.

Henri Gagnon is not just my neighbor and landlord, but a flannel-clad foe who helps run his family’s lumber business. His protective streak clearly does not apply to me, since he’s convinced I won’t make it through the Maine winter.

But I’m going to show Henri and the rest of this small town that they’re wrong. I have one year to prove myself as the elementary school’s principal or I’ll be getting the axe.

So I simply just don’t have time to pine away for the lumberjack next door, no matter how good he looks chopping wood in his suspenders, or the way it makes me feel when he calls me buttercup.

I definitely don’t have time to wonder what would happen if I asked him if he wood be mine...

Visit Daphne Elliot's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"All Eyes on Space"

New from the University of Pittsburgh Press: All Eyes on Space: An Architectural History of Television by Samuel Dodd.

About the book, from the publisher:

In All Eyes on Space, Sam Dodd looks at television and sees architecture: a dynamic system of spatial design, environmental planning, and bodily control operating behind and beyond the small screen. By transmitting images and sounds across vast distances, television brings faraway places into immediate view and, in the process, reshapes how space is imagined and inhabited. Yet, this seemingly effortless presentation of “distant sight” is only possible because of deliberate architectural investments made throughout the second half of the twentieth century. From the 1940s onward, American architects and planners designed stations, studios, towers, cables, and screens while also experimenting with television as a medium for public communication and engagement. Drawing on archival records, original broadcasts, and works of art and design, Dodd plots a history of television architecture in the United States to show how the medium produced a distinctly American spatial logic that tethered expansionist ambitions to the management of visibility and access. Ultimately, this book reveals how a ubiquitous medium commonly understood as immaterial―if not ephemeral―became one of the century’s most consequential built environments.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Deadlock"

Coming November 17 from Margaret K. McElderry Books: Deadlock (The StrangeLoom Trilogy) by Chloe Gong.

About the book, from the publisher:

The danger ramps up as Lia works as a double agent against NileCorp in this second book in the dystopian Strangeloom trilogy, in which humanity has moved to virtual reality to flee their deteriorating world, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Chloe Gong.

One wrong move will end the world…

The nation can’t stop talking about Eirale Ward. After a perilous mission with the enemy, she has been rescued and returned to NileCorp. Her gracious employer cleared her charges of treason and restored her status as an elite soldier.

Once, that would have been enough—but she is not that same Eirale anymore. She is a spy for the Coalition, tasked to take down NileCorp from the inside.

Meanwhile, everyone in Atahua is watching Nik Grant. Though he succeeded in his mission to retrieve Project Wit, he has put a target on his loved ones, and NileCorp will stop at nothing to bring him in. Working for the Coalition was supposed to help him destroy NileCorp, but the Coalition is pushing restraint while he wants action. He’s running out of time.

When Atahua’s charismatic vice president joins the scene at NileCorp, the company grows untouchable. Kieren is unwavering in his belief in Lia and her ability to rupture the power in virtual reality—but NileCorp sees all, and it has long set its trap. Before total and absolute control can land in NileCorp’s hands, Lia must embrace what she was built to do…

Either change the world or burn it all down.

Visit by Chloe Gong's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Culture and Containment"

New from The University of North Carolina Press: Culture and Containment: Race, Geographic Mobility, and Popular Culture in Nineteenth-Century America by Colin Anderson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Movement—who moves, where they move, and how they move—has long been perceived as a racial threat in the United States. To better understand why, Colin Anderson examines how popular culture played a central role in shaping these perceptions during the transformative period of Greater Reconstruction (1845–1900). From sheet music and lithographs to plantation reenactments and Wild West shows, white cultural producers depicted Black and Native mobility as destabilizing. These depictions normalized fears of movement and justified the rise of systems designed to confine these communities, such as Jim Crow segregation and Native American reservations. Using a trans-regional framework spanning the North, South, and West, Anderson places these histories side by side, revealing the shared logic of racial spatial control and reframing nineteenth-century US history as a story of nation-building intertwined with segregation and capitalism.

Yet popular culture was a contested space. Black and Native performers, writers, and activists used the same platforms as white creators to assert agency, resist confinement, and challenge dominant narratives of mobility. By illuminating these dynamics, Culture and Containment reshapes our understanding of nineteenth-century race relations while offering vital insight into enduring legacies—from residential segregation to mass incarceration—that continues to define the racial landscape through the twenty-first century.

--Marshal Zeringue

"An Embodiment of Souls"

New from Union Square & Co.: An Embodiment of Souls: A Novel by Julia Laurel.

About the novel, from the publisher:

In this queer political necromantasy, a secret marriage pact for suvival might undo a kingdom...

As the daughter of a foreign ambassador, Rissa hoped living abroad would protect her from home’s puritanical customs where women are forbidden to walk at night or use magic except to support a necromancer’s dual identity.

Alek, the youngest prince of the Memric Isle, hasn’t yet taken his Second body. Fearing he’ll be accused of sin and his body claimed as a Second himself, Alek lives piously while studying abroad, even though he’s distracted by magic―and his handsome roommate, Gable.

When Alek meets Rissa by chance, his quiet life is thrown into chaos. One of Rissa’s fathers has been abducted, and Alek and Gable are witnesses. Alek and Rissa form a secret alliance to find her father and uncover the truth behind the conspiracy, risking life and freedom as they follow clues straight to the heart of the Memric Isle’s government.

Visit Julia Laurel's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Settling: Women Who Sued the News"

New from the University of Massachusetts Press: Settling: Women Who Sued the News by Ashley Walter.

About the book, from the publisher:

A history of courage and collective action inside the most powerful newsrooms in America

In 1971, Susan Smith, a young researcher at Reader’s Digest, dared to imagine herself as an editor. Her ambition was swiftly dismissed by a hiring manager who told her, “Single girls just don’t do well in this job.” Crushed―and then furious―Smith sought out Harriet Rabb, the attorney who had successfully sued Newsweek for sex discrimination just a year earlier. Their meeting helped spark a class-action lawsuit that ultimately united two thousand women at the magazine and became part of a broader revolt inside American newsrooms. Smith’s experience was far from unique. For much of American history, journalism has been rigidly segregated by gender, with women confined to research, clerical work, or the “women’s pages,” while men dominated reporting, editing, and leadership. That system began to crack in the 1970s, as the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the women’s liberation movement emboldened newswomen to challenge daily discrimination. Yet this development has remained largely hidden, buried by editors reluctant to document inequities within their own institutions. Settling recovers this lost story.

Tracing class-action sex discrimination lawsuits at some of the most powerful news organizations in the United States―including The Washington Post, the Associated Press, The New York Times, and Time―Ashley Walter draws on oral histories and long-forgotten documents to reconstruct legal battles at eight major outlets. She argues that meaningful change came not from institutional goodwill but from the courage of women who organized, testified, and risked their careers to demand equality. Their victories reshaped journalism itself. As women assumed reporting and editorial roles, they broadened the scope of who counted as newsworthy, covering women as workers, political leaders, and authoritative sources. With this new illumination of women’s full participation in public life, newswomen shifted social norms and helped build women’s power across American society. By recovering these accounts, Settling reveals how newsroom struggles for gender equality transformed both journalism and the nation, offering urgent lessons for our present moment.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Family Friends"

Coming November 17 from Pegasus Books: Family Friends: A Novel by Chloë Ashby.

About the book, from the publisher:

A "sultry and evocative" novel about the secrets and entanglements between a group of friends holidaying in the south of France.

Since they first met at university twenty years ago, Maggie and Will have spent the last two weeks of every summer in France with their close friends, Lydia and Roland. Both families always look forward to this annual ritual—but this summer things are different.

Will has been hiding something from his wife, and is struggling to keep his deceit from seeping into the cracks in their marriage. Maggie is worried about their withdrawn teenage son. Roland is grappling with how to grieve the death of his first wife. Lydia is trying to ignore past chemistry with an old friend while learning to play second fiddle to a ghost.

Into this already conflicted fray steps Issy, Roland’s beguiling, irrepressible daughter from his first marriage. And as the August heat beats down, and the children behave in unexpected ways, the two couples find that tensions they have been trying their best to temper have begun to bubble over…

Family Friends is a deeply atmospheric, sophisticated and compelling novel about what happens when the ties of love and loyalty are stretched to the breaking point, how relationships change (and don’t change) over time, and how we navigate the challenges thrown at us in every season of life.

Visit Chloë Ashby's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Toxic Fear"

New from the University of Georgia Press: Toxic Fear: Pollution Anxieties in the American 1980s by Michael Egan.

About the book, from the publisher:

Toxic Fear explores how fear shaped the public and private lives of those seeking to make sense of pollution in the 1980s. Driving Egan’s interest in environmental anxieties is an exploration of the social and political infrastructure that took shape during the final quarter of the twentieth century. Egan ties the uncertainties rippling through American communities and across mainstream media to the neoliberal project and its deference to self-interest as the only path to prosperity. In the 1980s, that meant less government intervention, lower taxes, more privatization, and fewer controls. Above and beyond any economic or social theory, fear unsettled established ways of American life. Just as toxic chemicals became a prominent feature of the American social and physical landscape in the 1980s, traditional forms of state oversight designed to provide security for its people were eroded. Social problems and public safety were outsourced to individuals. The onus of responsibility moved from government and government agencies to a public that had, in the previous decade, abdicated environmental oversight and the necessary scientific literacy to experts no longer equipped for the job.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Grim Reaper's Guide to Living Twice"

New from Berkley: A Grim Reaper's Guide to Living Twice (A S.C.Y.T.H.E. Mystery) by Maxie Dara.

About the novel, from the publisher:

He’s been charged with possession before, but never like this.

Jack McCoy was a thief and a liar. Then he died.

Margaret Chen transported souls for the biggest afterlife collection company in North America. Then she met Jack.

Possession isn’t really supposed to be possible, but Jack McCoy never let a little thing like reality stop him. Now he’s committing the ultimate identity theft, living a new life in Margaret’s body while his own lies six feet under. Keeping up appearances as a geriatric grim reaper for S.C.Y.T.H.E. is a full-time job, but when Jack is sent to collect the soul of an old friend, his criminal past catches up with him and suddenly he’s planning the heist of his (after)life with a gang of misfits he never thought he’d see again.

Now the only woman he’s ever loved depends on his success in stealing a priceless list of souls from S.C.Y.T.H.E., but someone keeps beating him at his own game. Time is running out. If Jack puts one bunioned foot out of line it will cost him not only the people who matter most but also his second chance at life...

Visit Maxie Dara's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Original City, Original Sin"

New from Cambridge University Press: Original City, Original Sin: King, the Klan, and the Fight for Civil Rights in St. Augustine, Florida by Martin Dobrow.

About the book, from the publisher:

A Klan rally where four Black men were almost burned alive. A hotel manager pouring acid into a pool to chase out Black swimmers. Brutal assaults of peaceful demonstrators at the site of a former slave market downtown. A shooting into the cottage rented for Martin Luther King, Jr. Each form part of a rarely told and riveting story of civil rights in the nation's oldest city, St. Augustine, Florida. At the height of his fame, King found his treasured doctrine of nonviolence challenged as never before-all as the fate of the Civil Rights Act, the most consequential legislation of the twentieth century, hung in the balance. In this intimate exploration based on hundreds of interviews, Martin Dobrow introduces an extraordinary collection of idealists-Black and white, young and old, gay and straight-who were drawn into the movement, putting their lives on the line for racial justice.

Visit Martin Dobrow's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Tribes"

New from Dutton: The Tribes: A Novel by Mari Howes.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A dark and daring debut thriller exploring power, control and resilience against all odds, The Tribes tells the story of a cult member accused of a shocking crime and the lawyer who chooses to defend her.

One quiet night in a rural Vermont town, a panicked woman calls 9-1-1 on a gas station payphone to report that a newborn baby has died. Local police respond to the call and charge Heather Garner, a college drop-out and member of fringe religious community The Messiah’s Tribes, with the murder of her son. Heather’s future is in the hands of her family: but they haven’t seen or heard from her in almost 20 years.

Lawyer Abby Harris’s friends and colleagues are puzzled by her choice to take on the case, especially given she’s pregnant with her first child. But Abby is convinced that there’s more to Heather’s story than meets the eye. The investigation leads her to understand that the community Heather belonged to may not be a peaceful, eccentric bunch of hippies, but a well-organized, exploitative criminal enterprise.

Engrossing and suspenseful, The Tribes reveals the mystery of Heather’s past piece by piece, until a jury must decide: does her indoctrination make her a victim, or a perpetrator?

Visit Mari Howes's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Nile Revealed"

New from Princeton University Press: The Nile Revealed: A Deep History of Earth’s Longest River by Martin Williams.

About the book, from the publisher:

The untold story of an iconic river, from its origins to its possible futures on a rapidly warming planet

The Nile River has captivated explorers and scientists for centuries, and its age and origins have been the subject of intense speculation since at least the days of Herodotus. The Nile Revealed is an authoritative account of how Earth’s longest river came into being, how its flow has changed dramatically and at times almost ceased altogether, and how these changes affected human societies in the Nile valley down through the centuries.

An internationally renowned expert on the Nile and its extraordinarily rich geological history, Martin Williams has traveled the length and breadth of the river during his career. In this book, he draws on his own experiences to explain how scientists reconstruct and date past environments in the Nile basin and offers vivid descriptions of the river and its three major tributaries—the White Nile, the Blue Nile, and the Atbara. He guides readers from the Ethiopian Highlands and downstream to the Nile delta and deep-sea fan, where soils and sediments preserve the record of the Nile’s eventful life. Williams visits prehistoric sites in the Nile valley and considers how its inhabitants adapted to floods, droughts, and other climatic changes—and how the river itself might respond to climate change in the future.

Blending evocative storytelling with the latest science, The Nile Revealed provides an incomparable look at a majestic river whose course has fluctuated widely over time, and whose waters have sustained diverse ecosystems and humankind for millions of years.

Visit Martin Williams's website.

The Page 99 Test: When the Sahara Was Green.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Hate and Other Acts of Fiction"

Coming November 10 from Berkley: Hate and Other Acts of Fiction by Megan Oliver.

About the book, from the publisher:

Former lovers turned rival tour guides must join forces to overcome scandal—in this steamy second-chance romance from the author of Secret Nights and Northern Lights.

Sadie Stockton has the almost-perfect job leading tours through the former home of her favorite author, the enigmatic recluse Hazel Wilmont. But when the owners of the Wilmont House announce plans to increase the estate’s revenue by hosting an overnight murder mystery set in a cocktail lounge, Sadie is less than thrilled. Yet again, Hazel’s legacy is being tarnished by the fictitious, decades-old rumors she poisoned her husband(s).

Worse? The new tour will mean working with none other than Ryan Pearson—local mixologist, owner of Pearson’s Pub Crawls, and Sadie’s long-standing professional rival and personal regret. She can’t stand him. Or his smug grin. Or his boastful T-shirt declaring his pub crawl the city’s number-one rated tour. And no, she doesn’t still think about their short-lived, meaningless college fling. Ever.

With a potential promotion on the line, Sadie must play nice with Ryan in order to make the “Mixtures & Murder” tour a success. But over late nights and cocktail tastings, all clues indicate a reigniting attraction between the two. And as new discoveries at the mansion unfold, Sadie is forced to confront her own narratives about Ryan, about Hazel, and about the past she’s tried for years to bury.

Visit Megan Oliver's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The World of Markets"

New from Georgetown University Press: The World of Markets: A Theology of Moral Agency in Economic Life by Christina McRorie.

About the book, from the publisher:

A theological map of markets as ambiguous―and improvable―moral contexts

Do markets corrupt us, or support our character? They do both, argues Christina McRorie in The World of Markets. She engages empirical research on economic decision-making to identify both the conditions under which markets encourage selfish and opportunistic behaviors and those under which markets do the opposite, encouraging just and even generous actions. This influence over our decisions suggests that markets may also shape our agency itself, over time. How should Christians make theological sense of this?

Highlighting the tensions woven into the theological concept of "the world"―given that it is beloved by God and yet also a dangerous realm of moral darkness―The World of Markets builds a case for viewing markets as ambiguous worlds that mediate both sin and grace in our daily lives by influencing our moral agency. In light of God's own love for the world, it proposes that Christians are called to approach markets with an attitude that balances critique with appreciation and to collaborate with others to make markets more grace-filled contexts. Toward this end, The World of Markets identifies concrete ways that markets can become a world where it is easier to be good.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Seduction"

Coming November 24 from Montlake: The Seduction (Arlington Hall Revisited) by Jodi Ellen Malpas.

About the book, from the publisher:

She’s a London florist who can’t resist an enigmatic man of mystery―or escape his dark past in a blistering-hot romance by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the This Man series.

Abbie Pearson has spent three years trying to forget the night that ruined her for other men―a tryst in France with a dominant stranger who bent her to his will and disappeared by morning. Now a successful florist in London, she meets her best friend’s future brother-in-law…and her world stands still. It’s him. From the Paris hotel. The man who still prowls her fantasies.

A self-made millionaire and London’s most enigmatic new celebrity chef, Casey Harrison is used to getting what he wants. It’s Abbie. As they reconnect with a thousand bolts of pleasure, she can’t resist being drawn deeper into Casey’s world of wealth and wicked sensations. He claims he wants it all―love, marriage, and a future. For Abbie, surrendering to a powerful man never felt so good. This is the second chance she’s dreamed of. But can she trust him? Because Casey comes with secrets.

And when his past finally catches up to them, it could shatter everything between Abbie and Casey forever.

Visit Jodi Ellen Malpas's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Thinkers and Believers"

New from Oxford University Press: Thinkers and Believers: The Making of Modern Islam by Fitzroy Morrissey.

About the book, from the publisher:

It is related that the Prophet Muhammad announced that God would send someone to renew Islam--a concept called tajdid--at the beginning of every century. Over the last two centuries, Islam has been transformed through its encounter with modernity. Yet that transformation was not simply something that happened to Muslims; it was brought about by Muslim thinkers through a process of engagement with their religious tradition. In reforming Islam to meet the challenges of their time, they were able to draw on tajdid. Often claiming to be renewers of the faith themselves, these thinkers set the contours of modern Islam by calling for an end to the blind emulation of juristic authority and fanatical devotion to the schools of law, while also challenging key features of popular piety and introducing the egalitarian idea that ordinary believers could interpret and understand their religion for themselves. They were in fact calling for a return to the Qur'an and Hadith.

Thinkers and Believers traces the development of these ideas, from 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi and Shah Wali Allah in the 18th century through to Muhammad 'Abduh and Abu A'la Mawdudi in the 20th century. In so doing, it highlights the relevance of classical traditions of Islamic mysticism, theology, philosophy, and law to modern Islamic reform. Covering such topics as the role of dreams and visions in inspiring projects of religious renewal, the rise of Wahhabi and Salafi scripturalism, modern developments in legal theory and philosophy among the Shi'ah, and competing interpretations of the relationship between Islam and politics in the modern Middle East and South Asia, it offers both a comprehensive survey of Islamic reformist thought and a detailed dive into the texts that have defined modern Islam.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Other Kind of Lion"

New from Lake Union: The Other Kind of Lion: A Novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde.

About the book, from the publisher:

A war widow and a neglected boy form a chosen family in a profoundly moving multigenerational saga about the transformative power of kindness by New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde.

It’s 1970 in rural California where Shirley Bennett, a forty-year-old Vietnam War widow, lives with her two sons. It’s a routine life until she sees Cash Pierce, a scruffy eleven-year-old boy, trailing the fence alongside her Appaloosa, Phoenix. The horse has never given such a welcoming nicker to anyone but her late husband. Even her stubborn old dog Edsel takes to the boy. Out of curiosity and compassion, so does Shirley.

Abandoned by his father, his mother in jail, and being raised by his teenage brother, Cash is lonely, bullied, but smart as a whip and starved for attention. Shirley begins inviting him for dinners, providing lunch money, sewing his shirts, and offering the maternal care he desperately needs. Neither realizes that such simple acts of kindness create a bond that will span five decades and redefine family itself. No matter where life takes Cash, he will never forget her.

Through war, loss, grief, illness, second chances, and years of separation, they will meet again. Shirley was there for Cash. Now it’s his turn to be there for Shirley when she needs him the most.

Visit Catherine Ryan Hyde's website.

Q&A with Catherine Ryan Hyde.

The Page 69 Test: Brave Girl, Quiet Girl.

The Page 69 Test: My Name is Anton.

The Page 69 Test: Seven Perfect Things.

The Page 69 Test: Boy Underground.

The Page 69 Test: Dreaming of Flight.

The Page 69 Test: So Long, Chester Wheeler.

The Page 69 Test: A Different Kind of Gone.

The Page 69 Test: Life, Loss, and Puffins.

The Page 69 Test: Rolling Toward Clear Skies.

The Page 69 Test: Michael Without Apology.

The Page 69 Test: Falling Apart and Other Gifts from the Universe.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Class Politics and the Creation of the American State"

New from the University of Michigan Press: Class Politics and the Creation of the American State by James Parisot.

About the book, from the publisher:

Why does the American federal government seem to prioritize elite capitalist interests over those of other groups? Class Politics and the Creation of the American State draws on a wide range of sources—personal letters, official government documents, private notes, and newspaper articles—to reveal that the federal government was built to give the emerging capitalist elite a way to consolidate and institutionalize their power. Challenging both liberal and conservative interpretations about what the US Constitution means, this book tells a new story about how the American state took shape.

The framers of the Constitution constructed an image of the state, enshrined in the Constitution, that presented their power as universal: a system meant to serve all Americans equally. This image helped legitimize the new order, even if the rising capitalist class stood to benefit most of all. Since the United States of the late 1780s was not yet a fully capitalist society, the state that was built opened space for less capitalistically incorporated social classes, including some artisans and yeoman farmers, to have limited representation. Class Politics and the Creation of the American State shows how the structure of the early American state worked primarily to advance capitalist interests, while incorporating other groups enough to maintain a sense of broad representation and inclusion.

Visit James Parisot's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"When the Night Comes Knocking"

New from Berkley: When the Night Comes Knocking by Katherine Daniel.

About the novel, from the publisher:

In this Appalachian horror novel, two estranged siblings become trapped in a convenience store under attack by a monster from the mountains who feasts on guilty hearts.

Rattle, rattle in the dark…
The mountain’s bones seek out a heart. Jane has not spoken to her brother Thomas since the accident that nearly killed them both. Their drive from college through the North Georgia mountains is uncomfortably silent, until they stop at a roadside convenience store, where a man stumbles in with a mutilated body, claiming to have been attacked by a monster.

At first, no one believes the man’s ravings, but when the next person to leave the store is brutally killed, they fear that local legend might be true:

There’s a beast in these mountains who feasts on guilty hearts… and someone among them has lured it out of hiding.

Jane and Thomas each harbor secrets, but so do the other patrons, and as the monster claims more hearts, the survivors turn on each other, desperate to save themselves by uncovering the guiltiest among them.

If the siblings can’t overcome the rift between them, they’ll surely become the monster’s next victims…or worse, become monsters themselves.

Visit Katherine Daniel's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Prizefighter"

New from the University of Virginia Press: Prizefighter: Yankee Sullivan and the Hands That Built the Modern World by Patrick Griffin.

About the book, from the publisher:

The globetrotting champion of the oppressed who shook his fist at the world in an era of profound change

Prizefighter is the extraordinary saga of James “Yankee” Sullivan, who, in the first half of the nineteenth century, traveled the globe as a refugee, convict, laborer, and pugilist―and helped bring our modern world into being. Sullivan was born as Francis Ambrose in Ireland in 1813, ventured to London as a boy, was arrested for thieving and shipped to Australia (where he learned to box), escaped from New Zealand on a whaler, won his first match out of Liverpool, reigned as a prizefighter and leading political figure in New York City in the 1840s, moved to Gold Rush California, coached the king of Hawaii in boxing, and spent his last days in a jail cell in San Francisco in 1856. But Sullivan’s life story is much more than a tale of adventure. He helped tie together a world being redefined by free trade, mass migration, industrialization, and democracy, becoming both a champion in the ring and a champion of the people. In this first era of globalization, as the life of Yankee Sullivan attests, prizefighters were world-makers.

The Page 69 Test: American Leviathan: Empire, Nation, and Revolutionary Frontier.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Killer Abyss"

Coming November 24 from Kensington: Killer Abyss (An FBI K-9 Novel) by Sara Driscoll.

About the book, from the publisher:

For FBI handler Meg Jennings and her K-9 partner, Hawk, the search for a missing girl leads to the underground caves of Kentucky—ones darker than she ever fathomed.

No descent into the unknown has ever been too treacherous for Meg Jennings and her colleagues in the FBI K-9 unit. They are prepared for anything. But when 14-year old Larissa Whorlow disappears on her way home from school in Nashville, Tennessee, Meg may be proved wrong.

Their only hope is a tracker tag on Larissa’s shoe, worn at her protective mother’s insistence. Unfortunately, the trail stops dead at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. Meg and her black Labrador, Hawk, are among four teams scrambling to solve a kidnapping that has crossed state lines. All Meg can do is follow Hawk, who’s on the scent of the missing girl—right through a narrow break in a limestone rise and straight into a cavernous labyrinth.

With all communication cut off and miles of undiscovered passages and subterranean rivers to navigate, Meg’s search gets deeper and darker with every uncertain move forward. Then, at the edge of a dangerous abyss, Meg makes a shocking discovery and realizes that Larissa’s vanishing was no random snatch and grab. It’s the work of a serial killer who’s pulling Meg into a terrifying game of hide-and-seek. And the only way out is through the blackness below.

Visit Sara Driscoll's website.

The Page 69 Test: Lone Wolf.

The Page 69 Test: Storm Rising.

The Page 69 Test: No Man's Land.

The Page 69 Test: Leave No Trace.

The Page 69 Test: That Others May Live.

The Page 69 Test: Echoes of Memory.

The Page 69 Test: Deadly Trade.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Die Your Own Death"

New from Princeton University Press: Die Your Own Death: Walt Whitman’s Existential Democracy by Jack Turner.

About the book, from the publisher:

Humans fantasize about immortality. Billionaires dabble in cryonics, politicians build monuments to themselves, and writers donate their papers to libraries. In Die Your Own Death, Jack Turner argues that the quest for immortality—literal or symbolic—is politically destructive. He does so through a meditation on the work of Walt Whitman. Whitman held that democracy prepares individuals to “die their own deaths”—free of fear, resentment, and illusion. In Whitman’s “existential democracy,” accepting death strengthens freedom and equality. And yet, Turner finds, Whitman only half succeeded in forging a democratic philosophy of death. As Whitman’s thought evolved in response to changing ideas about nation, race, and empire, he encouraged citizens to seek immortality through racial imperialism—the expansion of white empire from North America to the Pacific Islands—as a monument to American greatness.

Turner explores the poetics of death in Leaves of Grass and its relationship to Whitman’s democratic theory (“I exist as I am, that is enough”). Through a close analysis of Drum-Taps and Memoranda During the War, Turner shows that Whitman sought to redeem the mass slaughter of the Civil War by cloaking it in poetic and national glory. And in Whitman’s greatest prose work, Democratic Vistas, Turner argues, Whitman envisioned an antidemocratic national immortalism that ignored Native sovereignty and Black equality. Turner exposes the dark side of Whitman’s philosophy of death, but he also reveals how that philosophy can still be a resource in the ongoing struggle for freedom and equality.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Star Swindler"

Coming November 17 from Orbit Books: Star Swindler: A Snarky, High-Stakes Space Opera (Blackjack Interstellar, 2) by A. Zaykova.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Incorrigible con artist Levi and whiz programmer Vera meet their greatest challenge yet in this fast-paced, galaxy-spanning continuation of the Blackjack Interstellar series.

After reluctantly saving the galaxy, former con artist Levi Adder could’ve had it all―if only holding down an honest job didn’t prove so soul-crushing. His latest grift is meant to be a one-off financial fix, but ghosts of his past are waiting at every turn. And they’re hungry for retribution.

When a visit to his girlfriend Vera’s government workplace ends with Levi’s arrest for stealing a data card he’s never seen before, Vera wants nothing more to do with him. Fed up and betrayed, she takes an assignment at a remote military base, not realizing she’s about to be framed for treason.

With political tension between humans and Jaemlens continuing to escalate, the threat of war looms, thrusting Vera – the only person Levi’s grown to care about – into the line of fire. Levi could choose himself, as he always does, or try to pull his most reckless con yet to protect the woman who despises him.

Visit A. Zaykova's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"George Washington and His World"

New from Oxford University Press: George Washington and His World: Enslaver, Revolutionary, President by Denver Brunsman.

About the book, from the publisher:

Enslaver and revolutionary, destroyer of Native American communities and father of American liberty, Washington filled numerous roles in the Founding Era.

Following his death in December 1799, writers, artists, and eulogists hailed George Washington as if he were a god. It was all too much for Abigail Adams, who contended that "Simple Truth is his best, his greatest Eulogy." The plea sounds easy enough, but capturing the truth about Washington has never been straightforward. Since his death, individuals and groups have projected their values and aspirations for the United States onto Washington's memory―a process that has obscured the actual person.

George Washington and His World takes simple truth as its charge. In this compelling, fresh portrait of America's indispensable founder, the canvas is broadened to include not only Washington, but his world and surroundings, so readers might better understand his legacy. Combining the latest historical findings with original primary research, award-winning historian Denver Brunsman provides new understanding of Washington's rise and influence by focusing on the people and society who made the first president's accomplishments possible. Enslaver and revolutionary, destroyer of Native American communities and father of American liberty, Washington filled numerous roles in the Founding Era. Rather than shy away from these contradictions, Brunsman embraces them to explain Washington to a twenty-first century audience. What emerges is a study in human complexity that neither celebrates nor vilifies but aims to better understand this remarkable American life.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Every Pretty Thing"

New from Lake Union: Every Pretty Thing: A Novel by Elizabeth Klehfoth.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the author of The Lost Heiress comes a twisty, emotional novel about the fragility of memory, the long arc of betrayal, and the blind spots we protect for love and survival.

Eleanor “Elle” Collins has gone to great lengths to distance herself from the tragedy that reshaped her life as a teenager. Now thirty and struggling to salvage her stalled acting career, she’s given one last chance at her dream when director Jace Wilder asks her to cowrite and star in his next film. But there’s a catch: The movie is about the infamous Hancock Park murders―the tragedy Elle has spent half her life running from.

Then

At fifteen, Eleanor is sent to live with her wealthy relatives in Hancock Park. There, she falls under the thrall of her cousin Liam and his popular friend group at the prestigious Brearly School. But dangerous secrets will lead to a devastating end.

Now

As Elle works with Jace on the film, her growing feelings for him complicate everything―and what she thought was the truth begins to shift.

What really happened that fateful night?

And can she survive it a second time?

Visit Elizabeth Klehfoth's website.

Writers Read: Elizabeth Klehfoth (July 2018).

--Marshal Zeringue

"How Americans Enforce the Law"

New from Stanford University Press: How Americans Enforce the Law by Diego Zambrano.

About the book, from the publisher:

In most countries, bureaucratic agencies handle regulatory enforcement. But the United States does things differently. Embedded in statutes governing consumer protection, antitrust, employment, civil rights, and the environment are more than 10,000 "private rights of action"―legal provisions that empower ordinary citizens and their lawyers to enforce the law through lawsuits. This is how Americans regulate everything from wage theft to air pollution to corporate fraud.

How Americans Enforce the Law tells the story of this distinctively American approach to governance. Diego Zambrano reveals that private enforcement is not a modern innovation but an inherited tradition dating to medieval English "penal statutes" that colonial America adopted and intensified. The book traces how this system evolved through critical junctures and was boosted by twentieth-century procedural innovations like broad discovery rules and class actions that transformed scattered statutory clauses into a mass-litigation engine.

This is the first comprehensive account of private enforcement's origins, operations, and future. Offering both celebration and critique, Zambrano shows why private enforcement works well in employment law, for instance, but has been weaponized in environmental law. He creates a framework for determining when this uniquely American form of governance serves the public interest, and when it can be used to undermine democracy.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Now That We Don't Talk"

New from Berkley: Now That We Don't Talk by Rachel Pologe.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A commitment-phobe finds herself stuck spending Hanukkah with her childhood best friend turned nemesis, only for holiday chaos to ensue and complicated feelings to resurface, in this emotionally resonant debut romance.

Norah Gold is a bolter. She avoids emotional situations at all costs, doesn’t do meaningful relationships, and when things get a little too real, she runs. She hasn’t let herself fall in love in nearly a decade, not since her whole world fell apart when her dad suddenly passed away. Desperate to escape a friends-with-benefits situation gone clingy, she returns home to Chicago for the holidays. Her one goal? Avoid Henry Cole, the boy who blew up her life and broke her heart back in high school. Easier said than done when she discovers that their mothers are dating and insist on celebrating the holidays together.

A decade later, Henry Cole is all custom suits and condescension. He is order to her chaos and absolutely insufferable about it. When Norah and Henry get snowed in together and learn just how serious their moms’ relationship is, they call a truce to make it through all eight nights of Hanukkah without setting each other on fire. As they begin to rediscover the foundation that made them so close growing up, Norah is desperate to keep her distance—the last thing she can handle is reopening decade-old emotional wounds. But even though they’ve tried to escape the past, Norah and Henry have unfinished business too pressing to ignore. Can Norah shake off her deep-seated impulse to bolt, or are they destined to flame out just like they did as teenagers?

Visit Rachel Pologe's website.

--Marshal Zeringue