New Edelweiss E-galleys (4/17/23)

Hello e-galley readers! Check out some of the exciting e-galleys that were recently added to Edelweiss for your downloading pleasure:

RED RABBIT by Alex Grecian
9781250874689 | 9/19/23

Sadie Grace is wanted for witchcraft, dead (or alive). And every hired gun in Kansas is out to collect the bounty on her head, including bonafide witch hunter Old Tom and his mysterious, mute ward Rabbit.

On the road to Burden County, they’re joined by two vagabond cowboys with a strong sense of adventure – but no sense between them – and a recently widowed schoolteacher with nothing left to lose. But as their posse grows, so too does the danger.

Racing along the drought-stricken plains in a stolen red stagecoach, they encounter monsters more wicked than witches lurking along the dusty trail. But the crew is determined to get that witch, or die trying.

BLACKOUTS by Justin Torres 
9780374293574 | 10/10/23

Out in the desert in a place called the Palace, a young man tends to a dying soul, someone he once knew briefly, but who has haunted the edges of his life. Juan Gay—playful raconteur, child lost and found and lost, guardian of the institutionalized—has a project to pass along to this new narrator. It is inspired by a true artifact of a book, SEX VARIANTS: A Study in Homosexual Patterns, which contains stories collected in the early twentieth century from queer subjects by a queer researcher, Jan Gay, whose groundbreaking work was then co-opted by a committee, her name buried. As Juan waits for his end, he and the narrator trade stories—moments of joy and oblivion—and resurrect lost loves, lives, mothers, fathers, minor heroes. The past is with us, beside us, ahead of us; what are we to create from its gaps and erasures? 

Inspired by KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, PEDRO PARAMO, VOODOO MACBETH, the book at its own center and the woman who created it, oral histories, and many more texts, images, and influences, Justin Torres’s BLACKOUTS is a work of fiction that sees through the inventions of history and narrative. An extraordinary work of creative imagination, it insists that we look long and steady at the world we have inherited and the world we have made—a world full of ghostly shadows and flashing moments of truth.

AS LONG AS YOU LOVE ME by Marianna Leal 
9781990778346 | 9/12/23

How can rivals and opposites seem like they’re meant to be?

A sweet and sometimes serious romance about a young woman who has fled Venezuela to complete her engineering degree in Florida, but when her student visa is unexpectedly declined, she needs to accept a fake-dating proposal from her nemesis, Gabe, the campus heartthrob.

WANT YOUR SELF: SHIFT YOUR SELF-TALK AND UNEARTH THE STRENGTH IN WHO YOU WERE ALL ALONG by Katie Horwitch
9781649630742 | 10/3/23

“I’m not good enough.” “Not smart enough.” “Not talented enough.” We all do it. Belittling who we are, what we do, what we stand for—often without realizing it. And it’s stuck on a loop. Shifting your self-talk is a two-part process: shifting your self, and shifting your talk. “Whether it’s affirmations or some other word-based strategy, you’re usually encouraged to jump to the talk part,” says Katie Horwitch, founder of WANT: Women Against Negative Talk. “But to make real, lasting changes, you must start with what’s at the heart of your self-talk: the self part.” 

WANT YOUR SELF guides you through the journey of shifting your negative self-talk by focusing on three steps: finding, being, and staying yourself in this complex world. By taking a microscope to the everyday moments that define your narratives and unpacking your emotional DNA, Horwitch helps you sift through years of pretending and perfecting to unearth the strength in who you were all along. “Shifting your self-talk doesn’t start by finding nicer words,” she says. “It starts by finding a truer you.”

This book is a pragmatic, proactive alternative to the toxic positivity that keeps us disconnected from ourselves and each other. Reimagining the greater purpose of “self-development,” WANT YOUR SELF is a call to action for anyone who wants to change the world—and is willing to do the not-easy-but-oh-so-right work of changing their own world first.

THE LAST OUTLAWS: THE DESPERATE FINAL DAYS OF THE DALTON GANG by Tom Clavin
9781250282385 | 11/7/23

THE LAST OUTLAWS is the thrilling true story of the last of the great gang of outlaws. The Dalton Gang consisted of four brothers and their rotating cast of accomplices who saw themselves as descended from the legendary James Gang. They soon became legends themselves, beginning their career as common horse thieves, before graduating to robbing banks and trains.

On October 5, 1892, the Dalton Gang attempted the most brazen heist of that era: robbing two banks in broad daylight in Coffeyville, Kansas, simultaneously. The gang was made up of Grat, Bob, and Emmett Dalton; Bill Power, and Dick Broadwell. As the gang crossed the plaza to enter the two banks, the Daltons were recognized by townspeople, who raised the alarm. Citizens armed themselves with weapons from nearby hardware stores and were ready for the gang when they tried to leave the banks. The ensuing gun battle was a firefight of epic proportions. When the smoke cleared eight men were dead including Grat and Bob Dalton, Bill Power, and Dick Broadwell. 

For the first time ever, the full story of the Dalton Gang’s life of crime, culminating in this violent heist, are chronicled in detail–the final act of the Wild West, its last bloody gasp.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE DEMOCRATS GONE?: THE SOUL OF THE PARTY IN THE AGE OF EXTREMES by John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira
9781250877499 | 11/7/23

Leading up to the 2024 election, it’s becoming clear that the Democrats could easily lose the White House, whether Biden or a replacement is heading the ticket. But this is not as big a surprise as we might think. Since 1992, American politics has been plagued by a breakdown between the Democratic and Republican parties, in which victory has inevitably led to defeat, and vice versa.

Both parties have lost sight of the political center of the American electorate, leading to polarization and paralysis, and resulting in an inability to meet challenges at home and abroad. While many are likely to blame our presidents for leading the country astray, the politicians are mere symptoms of the underlying disease. John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira reveal the major driving forces behind the current state of American politics—the tectonic changes shaping the country’s new political landscape that pundits and political scientists alike have missed. 

The Democratic party, once the preserve of the industrial working class and racial minorities, has become the party of new post-industrial metro centers. In the process, Democrats have abandoned and even actively alienated immigrants and working-class voters, pushing them toward the right. 

In this incisive critique, Judis and Teixeira provide a clarion and essential argument for common sense and common ground to fix our broken political system. Provocative and illuminating, WHERE HAVE ALL THE DEMOCRATS GONE? reveals the transformation of American politics and serves as a much-needed wake-up call for Democrats and Republicans alike.

FIVE YEARS AFTER: A JOHN MATHERSON NOVEL by William R. Forstchen
9781250854568 | 8/22/23

Five years after THE FINAL DAY, the Republic of New America has all but collapsed into regional powers and the world at large struggling to remain stable as regional conflicts ravage the post EMP landscape. After several years of attempting to lead a quiet life, John Matherson receives the news that the President is dying from a possible assassination attempt, and is asked to step in to negotiate with what appears to be a new military power hidden in the wreckage of the world.

Pulled back into the fray, John struggles to hold the tottering Republic together. Facing threats on multiple fronts, he races against time to stop another EMP attack on the former United States and China, putting years of progress at risk. With so much of his work under threat, John must find the strength within to start over, so that he can save the country and the people that he holds dear from even greater calamity.

ACTIVATE YOUR GREATNESS by Alex Toussaint
9781250852038 | 10/10/23

Alex Toussaint is known for his grueling workouts where he promises “to kick your ass” – yet thousands keep coming back for more. Why? Because he might be the most motivational teacher out there right now. His mantra is “Feel good, Look Good, Do Better.” He expects more from you, and from himself. Yet so much of what he talks about is NOT about the bike. 

Alex’s enthusiasm for life is infectious –“You woke up today!” “Breathe in confidence, exhale doubt.” Because Alex knows what it is like to be overlooked and undervalued, to be the underdog. He knows what it’s like to not expect the best from yourself. The child of Haitian immigrants who sacrificed so much to give him an education, he knows what it is like to be one of the few Black kids growing up in East Hampton. After a turbulent adolescence that saw him being sent to military school, Toussaint dropped out of college and was mopping floors at a gym. A few years later, he’s one of the most iconic cycling instructors on Peloton, helping thousands of users along their fitness journeys through his inspirational workouts.

Finally, Alex gets off the bike to help readers activate their own greatness in every aspect of their lives. Part self-help, part memoir, ACTIVATE YOUR GREATNESS details Toussaint’s mental and physical practices, on and off the bike, that have influenced his daily habits, fueled his motivation, and that have ultimately contributed to his astronomical success – and shows readers how they can do the same.

STARLING HOUSE by Alix E. Harrow
9781250799050 | 10/31/23

Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote THE UNDERLAND—and disappeared.

Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house—and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling—go to rot. Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she’s never had: a home.

As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire choice: to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares.

If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.

STUFF MOM NEVER TOLD YOU: THE FEMINIST PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE by Anney Reese and Samantha McVey 
9781250268600 | 8/29/23

The concept of feminism has evolved and changed so much over the last few decades that it can be confusing for people to keep up. Luckily, Anney Reese and Samantha McVey break it all down every week on their popular iHeart podcast, Stuff Mom Never Told You. In this book—their first—they explore the history, strategy, and emotion that went into several milestones and emergent issues of the recent feminist movement. Starting with Billie Jean King’s famous “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match, they also talk about the Civil Rights movement and the women who helped shape it; the disturbing prevalence of major backlogs in rape-kit testing; how LGBTQ rights and women’s right intersect; and how women have been critical to the advancement of disability rights, and more.

Written with a sharp tongue, an infectious curiosity, and a deeply empathetic voice, STUFF MOM NEVER TOLD YOU shows the true breadth of what feminism can stand for, what it can achieve, and whom it can help lift up.