"Falling Wisteria"

New from Lake Union: Falling Wisteria: A Novel (Yellow Crocus) by Laila Ibrahim.

About the book, from the publisher:

As America enters WWII, two women on the home front strive to stay strong in a heartfelt novel about hope, friendship, and family by the bestselling author of Yellow Crocus and Golden Poppies.

Kay Lynn Brooke is a wife and mother in Berkeley, California, building a solid future with her husband and family. Then on December 7, 1941, the bombing of Pearl Harbor throws Kay Lynn’s life, and the lives of everyone she knows and loves, into chaos.

Within weeks, Kay Lynn’s dearest friend, Kimiko, is forcibly relocated with her family to an internment camp. Kay Lynn’s brother, fortified with a youthful and patriotic spirit, ships out for the Pacific. Her husband enlists ahead of the draft and leaves home for basic training, while Kay Lynn’s sister works for the war effort on the home front―and holds a secret that places her in a different kind of danger.

As Kay Lynn struggles to parent, keep the household together, and challenge the social mores of the time, she both finds and gives strength through her letters to Kimiko. Over the next few uncertain years, and longing for the safe and simple clarity of the past, Kay Lynn has no choice but to find her own place and purpose in a rapidly changing world.

Visit Laila Ibrahim's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Plausible Man"

New from The New Press: A Plausible Man: The True Story of the Escaped Slave Who Inspired Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Susanna Ashton.

About the book, from the publisher:

The remarkable story of the man behind the book that helped spark the Civil War, in a stunning historical detective story

In December of 1850, a faculty wife in Brunswick, Maine, named Harriet Beecher Stowe hid a fugitive slave in her house. While John Andrew Jackson stayed for only one night, he made a lasting impression: drawing from this experience, Stowe began to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin, one of the most influential books in American history and the novel that helped inspire the overthrow of slavery in the United States.

A Plausible Man unfolds as a historical detective story, as Susanna Ashton combs obscure records for evidence of Jackson’s remarkable flight from slavery to freedom, his quest to liberate his enslaved family, and his emergence as an international advocate for abolition. This fresh and original work takes us through the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the restoration of white supremacy—where we last glimpse Jackson losing his freedom again on a Southern chain gang.

In the spirit of Tiya Miles’s prizewinning All That She Carried and Erica Armstrong Dunbar’s Never Caught, Susanna Ashton breathes life into a striving and nuanced American character, one unmistakably rooted in the vast sweep of nineteenth-century America.

Visit Susanna Ashton's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Freedom Is a Feast"

New from Little, Brown and Company: Freedom Is a Feast by Alejandro Puyana.

About the book, from the publisher:

A Finalist for the Westport Prize for Literature

A multigenerational, Latin American saga of love and revolution in which a rebel who commits a youthful betrayal receives a late-life chance at redemption and a new life: “a tour de force” from “the new master” (Luis Alberto Urrea, New York Times bestselling author of Good Night, Irene).

In 1964, Stanislavo, a zealous young man devoted to his ideals, turns his back on his privilege to join the leftist movement in the jungles of Venezuela. There, as he trains, he meets Emiliana, a nurse and fellow revolutionary. Though their intense connection seems to be love at first sight, their romance is upended by a decision with consequences that will echo down through the generations.

Almost forty years later, in a poor barrio of Caracas, María, a single mother, ekes out a precarious existence as a housekeeper, pouring her love into Eloy, her young son. Her devotion will not be enough, however, to keep them from disaster. On the eve of the attempted coup against President Chávez, Eloy is wounded by a stray bullet, fracturing her world. Amid the chaos at the hospital, María encounters Stanislavo, now a newspaper editor. Even as the country itself is convulsed by waves of unrest, this twist of fate forces a belated reckoning for Stanislavo, who may yet earn a chance to atone for old missteps before it’s too late.

With its epic scope, gripping narrative, and unflinching intimacy, Freedom Is a Feast announces a major new talent. Alejandro Puyana has delivered a wise and moving debut about sticking to one’s beliefs at the expense of pain and chaos, about the way others can suffer for our misdeeds even when we have the best of intentions, and about the possibility for redemption when love persists across time.

Visit Alejandro Puyana's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Civil Rights in Bakersfield"

New from the University of Texas Press: Civil Rights in Bakersfield: Segregation and Multiracial Activism in the Central Valley by Oliver Rosales.

About the book, from the publisher:

A multiracial history of civil rights coalitions beyond the farm worker movement in twentieth-century Bakersfield, California.

In Civil Rights in Bakersfield, Oliver Rosales uncovers the role of the multiracial west in shaping the course of US civil rights history. Focusing on Bakersfield, one of the few sizable cities within California’s Central Valley for much of the twentieth century in a region most commonly known as a bastion of political conservatism, oil, and industrial agriculture, Rosales documents how multiracial coalitions emerged to challenge histories of racial segregation and discrimination. He recounts how the region was home to both the historic farm worker movement, led by César Chávez, Dolores Huerta, and Larry Itliong, and also a robust multiracial civil rights movement beyond the fields. This multiracial push for civil rights reform included struggles for fair housing, school integration, public health, media representation, and greater political representation for Black and Brown communities. In expanding on this history of multiracial activism, Rosales further explores the challenges activists faced in community organizing and how the legacies of coalition building contribute to ongoing activist efforts in the Central Valley of today.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Divide"

New from Knopf: The Divide: A Novel by Morgan Richter.

About the book, from the publisher:

A failed actress turned grifting psychic searches for her missing doppelgänger and is plunged into a web of murder and corruption among Hollywood A-listers.

When Jenny St. John was eighteen, she moved to Los Angeles from her rural midwestern hometown and scored the lead role in an independent film called The Divide. Under the intimate direction of young auteur Serge Grumet, Jenny was on her way to becoming the next indie darling. But then the movie tanked, and Jenny never caught a second break. Now, two decades later, after floundering on the fringes of the entertainment industry, she’s barely keeping afloat running a low-level grift as a psychic life coach.

But when news surfaces that Serge has been murdered, Jenny’s life is turned upside down. Unbeknownst to Jenny, Serge’s ex-wife, painter Gena Santos, looks alarmingly similar to Jenny. So much so that when Gena goes missing, the cops think Jenny is Gena.

Jenny finds herself pulled into Gena’s world and manages to leverage both her resemblance to Gena and her faux psychic abilities to infiltrate the affluent yet unstable inner circle of friends, which include a Korean pop idol–turned–social media star and an Oscar-winning actress–turned–wellness guru. Soon Jenny’s search to find Gena unearths dark secrets about her own past while putting her squarely in the sights of a killer.

Visit Morgan Richter's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Inside the Invisible Cage"

New from the University of California Press: Inside the Invisible Cage: How Algorithms Control Workers by Hatim Rahman.

About the book, from the publisher:

In a world increasingly run by algorithms and artificial intelligence, Hatim Rahman traces how organizations are using algorithms to control workers in an “invisible cage.”

Inside the Invisible Cage uses unique longitudinal data to investigate how digital labor platforms use algorithms to dictate the actions of high-skilled workers by determining accepted behaviors, work opportunities, and even success. As Hatim Rahman explains, employers can use algorithms to shift rules and guidelines without notice, explanation, or recourse for workers. The invisible cage signals a profound shift in the way markets and organizations categorize and ultimately control people.

Unlike previous forms of labor control, the invisible cage is ubiquitous, yet it is also opaque and shifting, which makes breaking free from it difficult for workers. This book traces how the invisible cage was developed over time and the implications it has for the spread of new technology, such as generative artificial intelligence. Inside the Invisible Cage also provides organizations, workers, and policymakers with insights on how to ensure the future of work has truly equitable, mutually beneficial outcomes.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Shell Games"

Coming November 19 from Harper Paperbacks: Shell Games: A Novel by Bonnie Kistler.

About the book, from the publisher:

A dazzling thriller about a young woman whose fabulously wealthy mother might be the victim of an elaborate con or might be losing her mind––and the daughter can’t tell where the truth lies.

Julie’s mother Kate is a force of nature––a glamorous woman of seventy, a self-made real estate developer, a grande dame in Florida society, and a power broker in Florida politics. It wasn’t easy for Julie to grow up in the shadow of such a dynamo, but she loves her mother, and she and her husband Eric are thrilled when Kate marries her long-lost high school sweetheart, a salt-of-the-earth man named Charlie.

But their storybook romance ends abruptly. On their wedding night, Kate calls the police in hysterics to report that Charlie just confessed to a notorious unsolved crime from decades before.

Charlie says she imagined it. Eric says that Kate has dementia. And the FBI says that Charlie couldn’t possibly have committed that crime.

Julie doesn’t know what to believe. Is her brilliant mother losing her mind? Or is sweet, lovable Charlie gaslighting Kate to gain control of her fortune?

As Julie tries to navigate through this maze of paranoia and mind games, cracks start to develop in her own marriage as it seems that Eric is keeping secrets....

Set against a backdrop of rampant development and devastating climate change, Shell Games is a psychological thriller that will make your head spin and the pages turn as you wonder exactly who is doing what to whom.

Visit Bonnie Kistler's website.

Q&A with Bonnie Kistler.

The Page 69 Test: The Cage.

The Page 69 Test: Her, Too.

Writers Read: Bonnie Kistler (July 2023).

--Marshal Zeringue

"Between the Wires"

New from the University of Nebraska Press: Between the Wires: The Janowska Camp and the Holocaust in Lviv by Waitman Wade Beorn.

About the book, from the publisher:

Between the Wires tells for the first time the history of the Janowska camp in Lviv, Ukraine. Located in a city with the third-largest ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe, Janowska remains one of the least-known sites of the Holocaust, despite being one of the deadliest. Simultaneously a prison, a slave labor camp, a transit camp to the gas chambers, and an extermination site, this hybrid camp played a complex role in the Holocaust.

Based on extensive archival research, Between the Wires explores the evolution and the connection to Lviv of this rare urban camp. Waitman Wade Beorn reveals the exceptional brutality of SS staff alongside an almost unimaginable will to survive in prisoners facing horrendous suffering, whose resistance included an armed uprising. This integrated chronicle of perpetrators, victims, and bystanders follows the history of the camp into the postwar era, including attempts to bring its criminals to justice.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Love Requires Chocolate"

New from Joy Revolution: Love Requires Chocolate by Ravynn K. Stringfield.

About the book, from the publisher:

A new romance series that's Emily In Paris meets A Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants! In this first book, budding theatre nerd Whitney Curry studies abroad in Paris, France, where she meets her match in a cute, aloof footballer.

Whitney Curry is primed to have an epic semester abroad. She’s created the perfect itinerary and many, many to-do lists after collecting every detail possible about Paris, France. Thus, she anticipates a grand adventure filled with vintage boutiques, her idol Josephine Baker’s old stomping grounds, and endless plays sure to inspire the ones she writes and—ahem—directs!

But all is not as she imagined when she’s dropped off at her prestigious new Parisian lycée. A fish out of water, Whitney struggles to juggle schoolwork, homesickness, and mastering the French language. Luckily, she lives for the drama. Literally.

Cue French tutor Thierry Magnon, a grumpy yet très handsome soccer star, who’s determined to show Whitney the real Paris. Is this type-A theater nerd ready to see how lessons on the City of Lights can turn into lessons on love?

Visit Ravynn K. Stringfield's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Style and Meaning in Late Antique Art"

New from Cambridge University Press: Style and Meaning in Late Antique Art: Ancients and Moderns on Seeing and Thinking by Sarah Bassett.

About the book, from the publisher:

How do we best see and understand the art of late antiquity? One of the perceived challenges of so doing is that this is a period whose visual production has been defined as stylistically abstract and emotionally spiritual, and therefore elusive. But this is a perception which – in her path-breaking new book – Sarah Bassett boldly challenges, offering two novel lines of interpretative inquiry. She first argues, by focusing on the art of late antiquity in late nineteenth-century Viennese intellectual and artistic circles, that that period's definition of late antique form was in fact a response to contemporaneous political concerns, anticipating modernist thinking and artistic practice. She then suggests that late antique viewers never actually abandoned a sense of those mimetic goals that characterized Greek and Roman habits of representation. This interpretative shift is transformative because it allows us to understand the full range and richness of late antique visual experience.

--Marshal Zeringue