In her first book, sociologist Strings (sociology, Univ. of California, Irvine) explores the historical development of prothin, antifat ideologies deployed in support of Western, patriarchal white supremacy. Beginning in the aesthetic ideals circulated by Renaissance thinkers and artists and bringing her narrative up into the 1990s, Strings charts how white Europeans and Anglo-Americans developed ideals of race and beauty that both explicitly and figuratively juxtaposed slim, desirable white women against corpulent, seemingly monstrous black women. The work is divided into three sections. The two chapters in the first part consider how Renaissance white women and women of color were depicted as plump and feminine, separated by class, yet belonging to the same gender. The second part of the work charts the rise of modern racial ideologies that yoked feminine beauty to Protestant, Anglo-Saxon whiteness. Later chapters and the epilogue consider how Americans normalized the "scientific management" of white women's bodies for the purpose of racial uplift, a project that continued to situate black women as the embodied Other. The author does not address fat from the angle of health or previous attitudes white Europeans held towards corpulence.

What my eyes are showing me can’t be possible. Can’t be real. Because if they are, then I have to accept that Julian Conrad has been alive for a very long time. Too long to be human. A stay-up-all-night, smart, spicy romance following a doctor who finds herself falling for an alluring, much-younger man with a deadly secret Sean’s not in the market for love. The only female, let alone Black, interventional cardiologist at her hospital, she’s watched too many of her male colleagues divorce their first wives to marry younger models—and then there’s the abusive relationship she’s spent the better part of her early 30s healing from. Her passions are reserved for her best friend, her goddaughter, and her job. Then she meets Julian. Brooding, beautiful and eleven years her junior. In short: A bad idea. Julian pursues her in a way that sets off alarm bells in her mind, but she finds herself unable to resist their undeniable chemistry—even starts fantasizing about him in dreams that feel altogether too real. They also have a lot in common despite their age gap. So, to hell with it: If men can date younger, why can’t she? But the more Sean gets to know him, the more impossible Julian seems: He has a depth and sorrow to him that’s beyond his years, and sometimes there’s a look in his eyes that’s less than human, and leaves her feeling more like prey. Plus, Sean herself has been exhibiting odd symptoms—memory lapses, a lack of restraint that's unlike her, persistent exhaustion—that all trace back to Julian, making Sean feeling more than a little afraid. Who—or what—is she falling, irrevocably, in love with? Extraordinarily transfixing, suspenseful, and addictive, Die for Me is nothing short of a seduction.

This darkly funny and provocative novel reimagines classic fairy tale characters as modern women in a support group for trauma. In present-day New York City, five women meet in a basement support group to process their traumas. Bernice grapples with the fallout of dating a psychopathic, blue-bearded billionaire. Ruby, once devoured by a wolf, now wears him as a coat. Gretel questions her memory of being held captive in a house made of candy. Ashlee, the winner of a Bachelor-esque dating show, wonders if she really got her promised fairy tale ending. And Raina's love story will shock them all. Though the women start out wary of one another, judging each other’s stories, gradually they begin to realize that they may have more in common than they supposed . . . What really brought them here? What secrets will they reveal? And is it too late for them to rescue each other? Dark, edgy, and wickedly funny, this debut for readers of Carmen Maria Machado, Kristen Arnett, and Kelly Link takes our coziest, most beloved childhood stories, exposes them as anti-feminist nightmares, and transforms them into a new kind of myth for grown-up women.

From Chuck Tingle, USA Today bestselling author of Bury Your Gays, comes Fabulous Bodies, a supernatural joyride where Drive meets Beetlejuice. Fashion influencer by day and grave-robber by night, Poppy Stringer is on call when Eddie Michaels—a flamboyant, piano-slamming rockstar and queer icon—unexpectedly dies. All Poppy has to do is retrieve Eddie’s body from the medical examiner’s office, but what starts as a routine delivery quickly goes off course when Eddie wakes up. Poppy must fight for her life in a blood-soaked night of carnage and fabulous entertainment all across Palm Springs. Also by Chuck Lucky Day Bury Your Gays Camp Damascus Straight