"Spectacle Earth"

New from the University of Virginia Press: Spectacle Earth: Media for Planetary Change by Andrew Kalaidjian.

About the book, from the publisher:

Artistic, literary, and technological depictions of the climate crisis and how they influence humanity’s response

What does it mean to watch a disaster unfold? Does exposure to a source of dread spur people to action or lull them into fatalism and complacency? Andrew Kalaidjian takes up these and other vital questions in Spectacle Earth, a lively and wide-ranging consideration of media engagement, passivity, and virtual environments in relation to ecological crises and climate change.

Kalaidjian begins by tracing the long trajectory of environmental aesthetics and natural sciences that have led up to the Anthropocene. He then looks at the lessons learned from artist and activist movements of the 1960s and 1970s before laying out the new challenges in the digital age of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and virtual reality. The result is groundbreaking, offering readers a new media literacy that goes beyond individual therapeutic experience to provide forms of expression that can lead to the sorts of solidarity and connection needed to change the planet for the better.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Shot Through the Book"

New from Crooked Lane Books: Shot Through the Book by Eva Gates.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the twelfth installment of the Lighthouse Library mysteries, Lucy McNeil is back on the case, but this time she’s on the case alone.

The upcoming YA book festival at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library is bringing in renowned authors from all over the world. When best selling author Todd Harrison unexpectedly visits librarian Lucy McNeil at her Outer Banks beach house after a meeting, she is puzzled by his presence, since they’re virtually strangers. After she steps inside to get him a drink, she’s shocked to discover that he’s been murdered on her deck in the few minutes she left him alone.

Not knowing why he wanted to meet with her in private, or how someone managed to kill him in the time it takes to make lemonade, Lucy is determined to help with the investigation and figure out what happened. WhenHeather Harrison, Todd’s widow, shows up in town, her motivations aren’t inspired by grief. She’s intending to use her husband’s tragic death to launch her candidacy for state senator and her first order of business is to go after the local police force–and Lucy herself.

Caught between an intrusive fan club mourning Todd, squabbling authors fighting for prominence in his absence, and a politically ruthless widow, Lucy must roll up her sleeves and and catch the killer before the chapter closes on justice.

Follow Eva Gates on Facebook, and visit Vicki Delany's website.

The Page 69 Test: Death By Beach Read.

Writers Read: Eva Gates (June 2022).

The Page 69 Test: Death Knells and Wedding Bells.

Writers Read: Eva Gates (June 2023).

Writers Read: Eva Gates (May 2024).

The Page 69 Test: The Stranger in the Library.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Cyrenius Chapin"

New from State University of New York Press: Cyrenius Chapin: Buffalo’s First Physician and War of 1812 Hero by Thomas C. Rosenthal.

About the book, from the publisher:

America's geographic and ideological frontier as lived by Buffalo's first physician, renegade militia officer, and founding citizen.

Cyrenius Chapin tells the story of life in the young American republic through the experiences of a local physician, land speculator, and patriotic citizen. Chapin arrived in Buffalo in 1803 blessed with a forceful personality, infuriating gall, and a caring nature. He became a leader in the growing community, tending to its sick, training its future doctors, and engaging in local politics. A determined Federalist, he challenged Joseph Ellicott of the Holland Land Company, raised a family, and was a personal friend of Native American leaders. During the War of 1812, Dr. Chapin single-handedly resisted the British advance on the city but ultimately failed to prevent Buffalo's burning by the royalist forces. Pneumonia struck him down in 1838 following his third attempt to drive the British out of upper Canada. Extensively researched, this is the story about the age of revolution and a time when American independence and self-determination were inseparable.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Thrashers"

New from Wednesday Books: The Thrashers: A Novel by Julie Soto.

About the book, from the publisher:

Either you're in or you're out.

Welcome to the Thrashers, the elite friend group at New Helvetia High.

They’re everything everyone wants to be.

Jodi Dillon was never meant to be one of them. Julian, Lucy, Paige, and the infamous Zack Thrasher are rich, sophisticated, and love attention. Jodi feels out of place, but Zack’s her childhood best friend, so she’s in.

Then Emily Mills, who desperately wanted to be a Thrasher, dies—and the whispers about the Thrashers begin. As Emily’s journal surfaces, detectives close in, and Jodi faces an impossible choice: betray her friends or protect herself.

But as eerie messages and strange occurrences escalate, it becomes clear—Emily isn’t done with them yet.

A twisty thrill-ride of unforgettable drama and suspense that "encapsulates the vulnerability of adolescents playing adult games" (Ali Hazelwood) from USA Today bestselling author Julie Soto, The Thrashers will keep you up at night desperate to read just one more page.

Visit Julie Soto's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Girl in the Middle"

New from Princeton University Press: The Girl in the Middle: A Recovered History of the American West by Martha A. Sandweiss.

About the book, from the publisher:

A haunting image of an unnamed Native child and a recovered story of the American West

In 1868, celebrated Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner traveled to Fort Laramie to document the federal government’s treaty negotiations with the Lakota and other tribes of the northern plains. Gardner, known for his iconic portrait of Abraham Lincoln and his visceral pictures of the Confederate dead at Antietam, posed six federal peace commissioners with a young Native girl wrapped in a blanket. The hand-labeled prints carefully name each of the men, but the girl is never identified. As The Girl in the Middle goes in search of her, it draws readers into the entangled lives of the photographer and his subjects.

Martha A. Sandweiss paints a riveting portrait of the turbulent age of Reconstruction and westward expansion. She follows Gardner from his birthplace in Scotland to the American frontier, as his dreams of a utopian future across the Atlantic fall to pieces. She recounts the lives of William S. Harney, a slave-owning Union general who earned the Lakota name “Woman Killer,” and Samuel F. Tappan, an abolitionist who led the investigation into the Sand Creek massacre. And she identifies Sophie Mousseau, the girl in Gardner’s photograph, whose life swerved in unexpected directions as American settlers pushed into Indian Country and the federal government confined Native peoples to reservations.

Spinning a spellbinding historical tale from a single enigmatic image, The Girl in the Middle reveals how the American nation grappled with what kind of country it would be as it expanded westward in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Visit Martha A. Sandweiss's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Perturbation of O"

New from the University of Iowa Press: The Perturbation of O by Joseph G. Peterson.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Perturbation of O tells the comic story of how a loser became a winner with the publication of his memoir, Gideon’s Confession, and the chaotic aftermath that the book and an encounter with Oprah Winfrey have had on two people: Gideon Anderson and Regina Blast, a woman about whom Gideon wrote intimately in his memoir.

Told mostly in a single conversation between Gideon and Regina as they sit on a spring morning drinking coffee and eating pastries, The Perturbation of O deals with concepts of fame and intimacy, and who has the right to speak about whom.

Visit Joseph G. Peterson's website.

The Page 69 Test: Beautiful Piece.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Alias Agnes"

New from the University Press of Kentucky: Alias Agnes: The Notorious Tale of a Gilded Age Spy by Elizabeth A. DeWolfe.

About the book, from the publisher:

Jane Armstrong Tucker was a Boston stenographer scrabbling to get by as a single woman in the Gilded Age, until she was offered a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Madeleine Pollard was a Kentuckian with humble roots who had used charisma to work her way into the parlors of the Washington, DC, elite. Tucker hid behind an alias―Agnes Parker―but Pollard had a secret, too.

Alias Agnes details the story of Jane Tucker, who took a job as an undercover detective with a ten-week mission. Her target: Madeleine Pollard, former mistress of Congressman William C. P. Breckinridge, whom she had sued for breach of promise when he failed to marry her. Exploring the intricacies of this trial and a scandal that captivated the nation, author Elizabeth A. DeWolfe demonstrates that a shared lack of power did not always lead to alliances among women. DeWolfe uncovers the strategies women used to make their way in the world, drawing parallels between the previously forgotten and incomplete tales of Tucker, Pollard, and the women who testified in the trial―from formerly enslaved persons, to white socialites, to single government clerks, to divorced physicians.

Written in engaging prose with all the intrigue and suspense of a detective tale, Alias Agnes chronicles the lives of women at the cusp of the twentieth century―the opportunities that beckoned them and the challenges that thwarted their dreams.

Visit Elizabeth A. DeWolfe's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Tell Me How You Really Feel"

Coming May 6 from St. Martin's Griffin: Tell Me How You Really Feel: A Novel by Betty Cayouette.

About the book, from the publisher:

Podcasters Maeve and Finn have just gotten a life-changing, blockbuster deal for their viral sex and relationships podcast, Tell Me How You Really Feel. Unfortunately, given their history, they can barely be in the same room together.

Now, Maeve needs to find a way to keep the show going without letting Finn completely ruin her. But to make things even more challenging, Finn is dead set on winning her back over. Told between flashbacks to the start of their show and the present, Tell Me How You Really Feel follows Maeve and Finn as they navigate their growing celebrity, try to make podcast history, and rediscover what they mean to each other.

Visit Betty Cayouette's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Iron Horse in Indian Country"

New from Oxford University Press: The Iron Horse in Indian Country: Native Americans and Railroads in the US West by Alessandra La Rocca Link.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Iron Horse in Indian Country examines the relationships between Indigenous peoples and railroads that unfolded in the American West during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Historians have long pondered the railroad's profound and far-reaching role in transforming the United States' economic, political, social, and physical landscapes. The Iron Horse in Indian Country de-centers and reframes this scholarship by spotlighting both the inner workings of railroad colonialism and the means by which Indigenous peoples incorporated railroads into their own networks. By foregrounding Indigenous entanglements with railroads, La Rocca Link challenges deep-seated stereotypes of Indians as either violently resisting the juggernaut of the Iron Horse, or simply vanishing at the first blast of a locomotiveâs whistle.

This project begins with a study of Indigenous contributions to the Pacific Railway Surveys of the 1850s, and extends through to the rise of automobile travel and the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act in the 1920s. The Iron Horse in Indian Country demonstrates that even as railroad-driven colonialism brought calamities to Indigenous communities, Native peoples turned trains into a literal and figurative vehicle of survival, repurposing this novel technology to establish themselves as decisive actors in a modern world.

Visit Alessandra La Rocca Link's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Mother Always Knows"

Coming July 1 from Harper Perennial: A Mother Always Knows: A Novel by Sarah Strohmeyer.

About the book, from the publisher:

The beloved, award-winning author of Do I Know You? and We Love To Entertain returns with an electrifying novel of psychological suspense that explores the way our pasts shape our futures in so many unexpected ways.

Stella O'Neill is just your average millennial, working at a public library and worrying about making rent. No one would suspect she's been living under an assumed name or that she was raised in a Vermont commune of "diviners" where, and as a ten-year-old, she witnessed her mother’s brutal murder—a crime that has gone unsolved for years.

But her quiet, anonymous existence is upended when a true-crime obsessive posts her current name and location on the internet. Now, Stella has to get out of Boston before her mother’s killer can find her and finish the job he started all those years ago. Fed up with living in fear, she heads to the off-the-grid retreat of her childhood to confront her mother’s unhinged guru who controlled their lives for so long--the infamous Radcliffe MacBeath.

Stella has two powerful assets: determination and a supernatural gift. Relying on her mother’s beloved rose quartz pendulum, Stella will have to outwit the charismatic leader who’s ruined so many lives and discover once and for all the true identity of her mother's killer—before becoming his next victim.

Visit Sarah Strohmeyer's website.

The Page 69 Test: This Is My Brain on Boys.

My Book, The Movie: This Is My Brain on Boys.

My Book, The Movie: We Love to Entertain.

Writers Read: Sarah Strohmeyer (April 2023).

The Page 69 Test: We Love to Entertain.

--Marshal Zeringue