"The Party Line"

New from Montlake: The Party Line by Carolyn Brown.

About the book, from the publisher:

A niece’s inheritance comes with family secrets, new romance, and sweet Texas strawberries in a refreshing and warmhearted novel by New York Times bestselling author Carolyn Brown.

Returning home to Ditto, Texas, is bittersweet for Lila Matthews. Her dear and feisty aunt Gracie has passed away, leaving Lila her estate. That includes a centuries-old house, a field of the freshest strawberries in Atascosa County, more money than Lila can count, and a secret Aunt Gracie took to her grave. All the angels in heaven won’t be able to pry it out of her.

For more than eighty years, generations of folks in Ditto have whispered and gossiped about what the secret could be. When Lila inherits Aunt Gracie’s legacy, ears perk up and tongues start wagging. As Lila reacquaints herself with locals, finds warmth in family―extended and otherwise―and cozies up to a handsome new neighbor, she begins collecting clues to the past. They’re revealing an Aunt Gracie nobody knew―and a life of rebellion, broken hearts, and selfless love that affected more people than anyone realized.

Whatever reason Aunt Gracie had for leaving Lila the secret, will it now be Lila’s secret to keep?

Visit Carolyn Brown's website and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: The Wedding Pearls.

Writers Read: Carolyn Brown (January 2016).

My Book, the Movie: The Wedding Pearls.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Savings and Trust"

New from W.W. Norton: Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman's Bank by Justene Hill Edwards.

About the book, from the publisher:

A leading historian exposes how the rise and tragic failure of the Freedman’s Bank has shaped economic inequality in America.

In the years immediately after the Civil War, tens of thousands of former slaves deposited millions of dollars into the Freedman’s Bank. African Americans envisioned this new bank as a launching pad for economic growth and self-determination. But only nine years after it opened, their trust was betrayed and the Freedman’s Bank collapsed.

Fully informed by new archival findings, historian Justene Hill Edwards unearths a major turning point in American history in this comprehensive account of the Freedman’s Bank and its depositors. She illuminates the hope with which the bank was first envisioned and demonstrates the significant setback that the sabotage of the bank caused in the fight for economic autonomy. Hill Edwards argues for a new interpretation of its tragic failure: the bank’s white financiers drove the bank into the ground, not Fredrick Douglass, its final president, or its Black depositors and cashiers. A page-turning story filled with both well-known figures like Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Jay and Henry Cooke, and General O. O. Howard, and less well-known figures like Dr. Charles B. Purvis, John Mercer Langston, Congressman Robert Smalls, and Ellen Baptiste Lubin. Savings and Trust is necessary reading for those seeking to understand the roots of racial economic inequality in America.

Visit Justene Hill Edwards's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Misery Hates Company"

New from Crooked Lane Books: Misery Hates Company: A Novel by Elizabeth Hobbs.

About the book, from the publisher:

A young woman is invited to a mysterious relative’s estate and winds up entangled in a murder investigation in this witty historical mystery that pits the gothic eeriness of Crimson Peak against the comic absurdities of Knives Out.

Miss Marigold Manners may be steeped in the etiquette of her old-money Boston family, but she is also an accomplished, modern woman and an avid student of archaeology who can handle any situation with poise. When the death of her parents leaves her too destitute to pursue her academic career and she receives a letter from a distant relative on Great Misery Island, Marigold decides she must do what any person of superior sense and greater-than-average curiosity would: she mounts her trusty bicycle and heads up the craggy, fog-shrouded coast of New England for a date with fate.

Marigold arrives at Hatchet Farm, a moldering, gothic pile of a house inhabited by relatives so mired in the sins of the past, they have no future. She sets out to modernize the recluses with a brisk, ruthless efficiency, but her well-intentioned plans to manage their lives lead to malice—and murder. Marigold spies a body floating in the stormy waters surrounding the island, and her suspicions immediately turn to her hostile, weapon-wielding relatives when one of the local girls turns up missing. And she might not be the only one.

When another dead body is found in the garden of the estate, Marigold finds herself accused. She must enlist the help of an eccentric, colorful cast of friends and found family to save herself—and everything she holds dear. As secrets are uncovered and lies exposed, the question of “who done it?” turns into “who didn’t do it?” and Marigold must face a truth that shatters her steely poise and shakes her very sense of self.

Visit Elizabeth Hobbs's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Against Exclusion"

New from the Ohio State University Press: Against Exclusion: Disrupting Anti-Chinese Violence in the Nineteenth Century by Audrey Wu Clark.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Against Exclusion, Audrey Wu Clark dramatically reframes Asian American resistance via the lives of five early Chinese American public figures. In contrast to later activists who sought to defy stereotypes, Ah Toy, Mary Tape, Wong Chin Foo, Yan Phou Lee, and Yung Wing deployed the model minority and yellow peril tropes to make themselves visible during a period of rampant anti-Chinese violence and legal exclusion. In making themselves visible, they sought to expose and dismantle the contradictory exceptionalism of nineteenth-century US liberalism that both required and “disavowed” the deaths of Chinese Americans. In examining these figures and the ways in which they fought their exclusion as Chinese Americans—via court cases, autobiographical writings, journalism, and other forms of activism—Clark contributes to prevailing scholarly conversations about stereotypes of Asian Americans but contextualizes them in the nineteenth century. She traces the twinned emergences of the model minority and the yellow peril, excavating the exceptionalism with which Chinese Americans were racialized and subject to death—whether by lynching, other forms of driving out, or loss of citizenship or rights—and mapping its reverberations into the present day.

Visit Audrey Wu Clark's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Naturalist Society"

New from 47North: The Naturalist Society by Carrie Vaughn.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this magical tale of self-discovery from New York Times bestselling author Carrie Vaughn, a young widow taps into the power that will change the world―if the man’s world she lives in doesn’t destroy her and her newfound friends first.

In the summer of 1880, the death of Beth Stanley’s husband puts her life’s work in jeopardy. The magic of Arcane Taxonomy dictates that every natural thing in the world, from weather to animals, can be labeled, and doing so grants the practitioner some of that subject’s unique power. But only men are permitted to train in this philosophy. Losing her husband means that Beth loses the name they put on her work―and any influence she might have wielded.

Brandon West and Anton Torrance are campaigning for their expedition to the South Pole, a mission that some believe could make a taxonomist all-powerful by tapping into the earth’s magnetic forces. Their late friend Harry Stanley’s knowledge and connections would have been instrumental, but when they attempt to take custody of his work, they find that it was never his at all.

Tied together by this secret and its implications, Beth, Bran, and Anton must find a way for Beth to use her talent for the good of the world, before she’s discovered by those who would lay claim to her rare potential―and her very freedom.

Learn more about the author and her work at Carrie Vaughn's website and Facebook page.

The Page 99 Test: Kitty and the Silver Bullet.

The Page 99 Test: Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand.

The Page 69 Test: Discord's Apple.

The Page 69 Test: The Wild Dead.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Governing Climate"

New from the University of California Press: Governing Climate: How Science and Politics Have Shaped Our Environmental Future by Zeke Baker.

About the book, from the publisher:

After decades of debate about global warming, the fact of the climate crisis is finally widely accepted. People at all scales—from the household to the global market—are attempting to govern climate to deal with its causes and impacts. Although the stakes are different now, governing climate is centuries old. In this book, Zeke Baker develops a genealogy of climate science that traces the relationship between those who have created knowledge of the climate and those who have attempted to gain power and govern society, right up to the present, historic moment. Baker draws together over two centuries of science, politics, and environmental change to demonstrate the "co-production" of climate knowledge and power-seeking activity, with a focus on the United States. This book provides a fresh account of contemporary issues transecting science and climate politics, specifically the rise of "climate security," and examines how climate science can either facilitate or reconcile the unequal distribution of power and resources.

Visit Zeke Baker's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Legend in the Baking"

Coming soon from St. Martin's Griffin: A Legend in the Baking: A Novel (Sugar Blitz, 2) by Jamie Wesley.

About the book, from the publisher:

In A Legend in the Baking, the new romance from Jamie Wesley, a cupcake-baking football player gets assistance from a social media maven―and his best friend's little sister―to help promote his new bakery after accidentally going viral online.

August Hodges was supposed to be the silent partner in Sugar Blitz Cupcakes. Emphasis on silent. That is until his impromptu feminist rant about how women bakers are the backbone of the industry and baking cupcakes isn’t a threat to masculinity goes viral, making him the hottest bachelor in town. With a new location in the works, August and his partners decide to capitalize on this perfect opportunity to help cement their place in the community. But the hiring of his best friend’s younger sister, the woman who has haunted some of his best dreams for years, was as much of a shock as his new-found fame.

Social media manager Sloane Dell fell hard for her brother’s best friend the moment she met him more than a decade ago, but that teenage infatuation cost her dearly. Still, she accepts her brother’s request to revamp the bakery’s social media presence to take advantage of August’s newfound popularity, knowing it’s the big break her fledgling career needs. She’ll just ignore the fact that August is still August, i.e. sexier and sweeter than any man has a right to be. And that he drives her crazy with his resistance to all her ideas.

They vow to leave the past in the past. But when an explosive make-out session makes it clear their attraction burns hotter than ever, Sloane and August are forced to reconsider what it means to take a risk and chase your dreams.

As they’re both about to find out, all’s fair in love and cupcakes.

Visit Jamie Wesley's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Firebrands"

New from the University of Chicago Press: Firebrands: The Untold Story of Four Women Who Made and Unmade Prohibition by Gioia Diliberto.

About the book, from the publisher:

Guaranteed to change how you picture Prohibition, this lively history turns the spotlight on four women in the immediate aftermath of winning the vote who played influential roles on all sides of the Eighteenth and Twenty-First Amendments.

In the popular imagination, the story of Prohibition in America is a story of men and male violence, one full of federal agents fighting gangsters over the sale of moonshine. In contrast, Firebrands is the story of four Jazz Age dynamos—all women –who were forces behind the passage, the enforcement, the defiance, and, ultimately, the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. They battled each other directly, and they learned to marshal clout with cowed and hypocritical legislators, almost all of them men. Their clash over Prohibition stands as the first significant exercise of women’s political power since women gained the right to vote, and their influence on the American political scene wouldn’t be equaled for decades.

In Gioia Diliberto’s fresh and timely take on this period of history, we meet Ella Boole, the stern and ambitious leader of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, who campaigned fiercely to introduce Prohibition and fought desperately to keep it alive. We also meet Mabel Walker Willebrandt, the most powerful woman in America at the time, who served as the top federal prosecutor charged with enforcing Prohibition. Diliberto tells the story, too, of silent film star Texas Guinan, who ran New York speakeasies backed by the mob and showed that Prohibition was not only absurd but unenforceable. And, she follows Pauline Morton Sabin, a glamorous Manhattan aristocrat who belatedly recognized the cascading evil in Prohibition and mobilized the movement to kill it.

These women led their opposing forces of “Wets” and “Drys” across a teeming landscape of bootleggers, gangsters, federal agents, temperance fanatics, and cowardly politicians, many of them secret drunks. Building on the momentum of suffrage, they forged a path for the activists who followed during the great civil rights battles of the mid-twentieth century. Yet, they have been largely lost to history. In Firebrands, Diliberto finally gives these dynamic figures their due, creating a varied and dramatic portrait of women wielding power, in politics, society, and popular culture.

Visit Gioia Diliberto's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Secret of the Brighton House"

New from Lake Union: The Secret of the Brighton House by Cathy Hayward.

About the book, from the publisher:

Her family lied to protect her. Will the truth tear them apart?

Joanne’s always been told her mother died in childbirth, but she never questioned her dad’s love. When unpacking a box of her own old baby clothes, Joanne accidentally discovers a photo of her birth mum holding a newborn, and realises she’s been lied to.

As Joanne begins to dig into the past, she uncovers layers of secrets that threaten to destroy the very family she holds dear. What really happened to her mum? What could be so devastating that her dad has kept it from her for her whole life―and is she ready to find out?

Visit Cathy Hayward's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Medieval Scriptorium"

New from Reaktion Books: The Medieval Scriptorium: Making Books in the Middle Ages by Sara J. Charles.

About the book, from the publisher:

Illuminated with illustrations, an exploration of medieval manuscript production that offers insight into both the early history of the book and life in the Middle Ages.

This book takes the reader on an immersive journey through medieval manuscript production in the Latin Christian world. Each chapter opens with a lively vignette by a medieval narrator—including a parchment maker, scribe, and illuminator—introducing various aspects of manuscript production. Sara J. Charles poses the question “What actually is a scriptorium?” and explores the development of the medieval scriptorium from its early Christian beginnings through to its eventual decline and the growth of the printing press.

With the written word at the very heart of the Christian monastic movement, we see the immense amount of labor, planning, and networks needed to produce each manuscript. By tapping into these processes and procedures, The Medieval Scriptorium helps us to experience medieval life through the lens of a manuscript maker.

--Marshal Zeringue