Hot Type

Mary Solberg ’68
A Church Undone
Fortress Press 
 

With the rise of Hitler, a branch of German Protestantism emerged that sought to interpret the role of the church in service to Nazi ideology. By stripping Scripture of Judaic ties and promoting a raft of anti-Semitic propaganda, the Deutsche Christen, or “German Christians,” played a significant—and complicit—role in the Third Reich. For the first time in English, Solberg, a religion professor, presents sobering analysis of this group’s writings “during a period that cried out for ethical and religious courage and found very, very little of it.” 

Joe McGinniss Jr. ’94
Carousel Court
Simon & Schuster 

Almost a decade after his acclaimed debut novel, The Delivery Man, McGinniss’s newest—“a bold, original, and exhilarating novel of marriage as blood sport”—has drawn comparisons to the cold eyes cast on California by Joan Didion and Bret Easton Ellis. It’s the tale of a young couple who follow the American Dream to Los Angeles, but nd themselves drowning in a society as underwater as its real-estate market. “Carousel Court is that all- too-rare thing,” says its editor, “an ambitious literary novel that’s also a genuine page-turner.” 

Katie Crawford ’93
mine
Deeds Publishing 

Inspired by her grandmother’s life, Crawford’s debut novel tells the coming-of-age tale of two sisters, steeped in grief and love, regret and hope. Raised in Pennsylvania coal country, their lives diverge in unexpected directions, echoing always the twin loss of their mother and other sister. Beautifully written and deeply felt, mine plays upon the notion of something possessed, something sought after, and something subterranean—the human heart, perhaps, or the ever-changing definition of “home.” 

Maiah Jaskoski ’99 (co-editor)
American Crossings
Johns Hopkins University Press 

This collection of writings from nine scholars explores the 2014 crisis that unfolded when more than 60,000 unaccompanied children arrived in the U.S. from Central America. “The human tragedy of this surge ... highlights the complexity of borders, even in a region as peaceful and integrated as the Americas,” Jaskoski writes. The book explores the myriad issues that led to this swell, including violence and terrorist groups, precarious economic factors, and misinformation about changes to U.S. immigration policies.