The Plot Twist, a romance bookstore and bar, held a grand opening celebration earlier this month in Denton, Tex., Hoodline reported.

Co-owners and mother-daughter team Dawn Conner and Darci Middleton founded the Plot Twist as a pop-up shop in July 2024, per the Denton Record-Chronicle. In November they moved to a bricks-and-mortar space at 227 W. Oak St. #101, and on January 18 hosted the store's official grand opening. The event was a success, with Conner and Middleton selling out of their inventory of local authors.

The store carries a diverse selection of romance novels spanning plenty of sub-genres, while the bar serves coffee, tea, mocktails, a variety of alcoholic beverages, and drinks inspired by romance novels. The store's events include book clubs as well as bookbinding classes, tarot reading workshops, and writing courses.

Dawn Conner told the Denton Record-Chronicle: "We are a bookstore that happens to have a bar in it. We're not a bar that sells books. Our focus is on putting the authors out here that people want to see, and supporting those local authors."

Farrar, Straus and Giroux is launching Quanta Books in partnership with Thomas Lin, the founding editor of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Quanta magazine. The mission of the imprint, which Lin will head, is "to publish books that illuminate and elucidate the central questions and fundamental ideas of modern science for readers," FSG noted, adding that the titles "will invite a deeper understanding of the universe through artful storytelling that speaks to our shared sense of curiosity and wonder."

The imprint is an editorially independent subsidiary of the Simons Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences. Quanta Books will publish its first title, The Proof in the Code by Kevin Hartnett, in spring 2026

"The partnership between FSG and Quanta Books brings together two companies and two teams committed to offering readers the most mind-, culture-, and life-expanding ideas, delivered in elegant, stylish, and clarifying prose," said Jenna Johnson, senior v-p and editor in chief of FSG. "Quanta Books will nestle in seamlessly alongside the rest of the FSG list, even as they expand our publishing in numerous and exciting ways. We have long admired Quanta magazine's work in the world and, given our shared values and emphasis on innovation, possibility, truth, and the highest quality, we are truly delighted to be welcoming them to our publishing program."

Lin, publisher of Quanta Books, commented: "I'm thrilled to partner with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, whose storied tradition of editorial excellence has long inspired me. Quanta magazine was built on the hypothesis that an underserved readership craves serious science writing that does not skirt the richly rewarding complexities of the science itself. We believe those readers will be eager for books in the same vein--exceptional science and math books driven by important, original ideas (and thinkers), intellectual rigor, and literary craft. With the support of the Simons Foundation, we are aiming to focus on a select list of books each year with in-depth editorial development for each. We're honored to spotlight scientists and journalists who tell essential stories about humanity's pursuit of knowledge--ones that delight readers and challenge us to think in new ways."

Senior editor Tisse Takagi will work with Lin to acquire and develop projects for the imprint. Takagi was previously a literary agent at the Science Factory (now Curious Minds Agency) and an editor for the science lists at Basic Books and Oxford University Press. They are joined by editorial assistant Sheena Meng.

NetGalley, the digital galley and marketing platform, has launched an upgrade to its Reading Options, which includes the debut of a proprietary NetGalley Reader app and introduces LCP-protected downloads to the NetGalley platform. The global upgrade is now live across all NetGalley domains in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, and Japan. NetGalley is part of the Firebrand Group, which is owned by Media Do International.

As part of ongoing security efforts, NetGalley has replaced the older Adobe DRM with EDRLab's Readium Licensed Content Protection (LCP). However, e-reader devices that do not currently support LCP, including Kobo and Nook, will no longer be able to read NetGalley titles.

The new NetGalley Reader uses a proprietary digital content protection system designed by NetGalley. It "combines sophisticated cryptography techniques to lock digital content to specific users and devices, with a front-end UI layer to restrict attackers' abilities to lift decrypted content from the browser," according to the company, which added that NetGalley members can now start reading their approved books without having to leave the NetGalley website, download any files, or use an external device.

Members will continue to use the free NetGalley Shelf app (iOS and Android) as the exclusive way to listen to audiobooks.

"We're committed to making books easily and securely accessible to NetGalley members, however they like to read," said Firebrand Technologies and NetGalley chief technology officer Tom Shawver. "This major upgrade expands our Reading Options to allow for a seamless in-browser reading experience, while also strengthening our partnership with EDRLab to offer portable, Readium LCP-protected downloads. We're thrilled to pull from our extensive experience to create a simple and convenient reading platform for our community, and a first-of-its-kind content protection solution for our publishers."

Kazuo Iwamura, the creator of the Squirrel series and the 14 Mice series, died December 19, 2024, He was 85. Iwamura's books were originally published in Japan in the 1980s. His "Hooray For" titles, featuring the squirrel siblings, were recently re-released in the U.S. by NorthSouth Books, which is distributed by Simon & Schuster.  

Kazuo Iwamura

In 1998, Iwamura opened the Kazuo Iwamura Picture Book Museum of the Hill in Nasu-Karasuyama, Tochigi Prefecture, where he promoted the art of the picture book and the inspiration of nature to visitors of all ages. 

Herwig Bitsche, publisher of NorthSouth and NordSüd, said, "We are deeply grateful to Kazuo Iwamura... for trusting us with his stories. Kazuo Iwamura has passed, but his stories will live on in the hearts of many children." 

In a recent interview with NorthSouth, Iwamura said: "I'm simply delighted by this lasting success. Obviously children all over the world are responsive to tales like these.... When I was a child, I often played out in the countryside. This love of nature is still deep inside me. When I was young, I went to art school and learned the basics of how to draw and how to express character. And today I still study plants and animals very closely, and try to sense and then depict the inner 'life' which one can't see from the outside."

Kemper Donovan, on tour for his second Ghostwriter Mystery, Loose Lips (Kensington), visited the Poisoned Pen, Scottsdale, Ariz., where he was in conversation with bookstore owner Barbara Peters.

Barnes & Noble has chosen This Is a Love Story by Jessica Soffer (Dutton) as its February national book club pick. In a live virtual event on Tuesday, March 4, at 3 p.m. Eastern, Soffer will be in conversation with Lexie Smyth, category manager for fiction at B&N.

B&N described the book this way: "In this love letter to New York City, Jane and Abe recount the life they've spent together as Jane's nears its end. Theirs is a stained-glass story, made up of fragmented moments in time that together create a colorful mosaic. Soffer's prose is lyrical and lethal on the page, capturing our hearts and bruising them with this intimate portrait of relationships and how they evolve and devolve over time. This book is one that will live in readers' hearts long after the last page."

Click here to join the March 4 event.

IPG is adding six publishers to its sales and distribution programs:

Zero Zero Enterprises, a graphic novel publisher that partners with artists in the entertainment industry to develop original IP, grow fan bases, and roll out relevant merchandise. Founder and CEO Josh Frankel commented, "I've spent nearly 20 years in comic publishing, and I've always believed in doing things differently. That's why teaming up with IPG just clicks. Looking at the global appeal of what we have coming up, I can't wait to see what we can build together." (Effective June 1.)

Write Bloody Publishing, Hollywood, Calif., a small press committed to literature and the belief that great poetry changes people for the better. As a nonprofit organization, it is dedicated to amplifying diverse voices in American poetry through touring, workshops, and publishing. (Effective June 1.)

Wicked House Publishing, a small publishing house that brings the most dark and terrifying nightmares into this world. (Effective June 1.)

Founded in 2023, Under the BQE Press, a Brooklyn, N.Y., is a collective of writers, artists, and musicians dedicated to celebrating creative communities that flourish in the shadows of the mainstream. Each year's publication list is acquired by the authors who were published in the year prior. (Effective May 1.)

Man Mo Media, Hong Kong, which specializes in books on Asian cultures and lifestyles. Its titles are coffee table books and guides that are visually pleasing, informative, and insightful. (Effective June 1.)

Pichoncito Fly Books, a Spanish- and English-language publisher in Peru that focuses on books for children on all aspects of North, Central, and South American history, culture, cuisine, and natural sciences. (Effective February 1.)

Rachel Carson and the Power of Queer Love by Lida Maxwell (Stanford University Press).

Today:
Fresh Air: Ricky Riccardi, author of Stomp Off, Let's Go: The Early Years of Louis Armstrong (Oxford University Press, $34.99, 9780197614488).

Tomorrow:
CBS Mornings: Brian Kelly, author of How to Win at Travel (Avid Reader Press, $30, 9781668068656).

Kelly Clarkson Show: Jessica Seinfeld, co-author of Not Too Sweet: 100 Dessert Recipes for Those Who Want More with Just a Little Less (Gallery Books, $32.50, 9781668015360).

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 this weekend from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more information, go to Book TV's website.

Saturday, February 1
4:40 p.m. Joe Pappalardo, author of Four Against the West: The True Saga of a Frontier Family That Reshaped the Nation--and Created a Legend (St. Martin's Press, $32, 9781250287540), at BookPeople in Austin, Tex.

Sunday, February 2
9 a.m. Colette Shade, author of Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything (‎Dey Street, $29.99, 9780063333949), at Greedy Reads Bookstore, Baltimore, Md. (Re-airs Sunday at 9 p.m.)

10 a.m. Eva Dou, author of House of Huawei: The Secret History of China's Most Powerful Company (Portfolio, $34, 9780593544631). (Re-airs Sunday at 10 p.m.)

3:50 p.m. Terry Szuplat, author of Say It Well: Find Your Voice, Speak Your Mind, Inspire Any Audience (Harper Business, $32, 9780063337718).

5 p.m. Thom Hartmann, author of The Hidden History of the American Dream: The Demise of the Middle Class--and How to Rescue Our Future (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, $19.95, 9781523007288).

6 p.m. Maurice Isserman, author of Reds: The Tragedy of American Communism (Basic Books, $35, 9781541620032).

Samuel Teer

Samuel Teer is the author of the 2025 Michael L. Printz Award-winner Brownstone (Versify/Harper), illustrated by Mar Julia, and Veda: Assembly Required. Raised outside of St. Louis, Mo., he lives in Aurora, Colo.

Huge congratulations to you! This is the second graphic novel you have written, is that correct?

It's the second published graphic novel--my first was Veda: Assembly Required--but I've written many, many unpublished graphic novels. LOL.

In an interview, you said the inspiration for this book came from growing up in a trilingual household. Tell us a bit more about that.

I never really thought of it as a trilingual household--a chaotic, loud, and boisterous household, certainly.

Growing up in a trilingual household just made it easier for me to see different types of communication, understanding, and affection from various cultures. That was formative to my upbringing.

Do you still have Spanish and ASL speakers around you in your adult life?

Yes, both of my parents. My collaborator, Mar, speaks Spanish. I also live in a predominantly Latino area. We have a close friend, who we now sadly only intermittently see, that uses ASL predominantly. Despite all of that, my Spanish and ASL are still terrible.

How did the character of Almudena develop? Why did you want to tell this story through her eyes?

Almudena is really me unleashing the 14-year-old girl that lives inside of me. She's bratty but endearing--maybe in ways that I wasn't when I was 14.

Telling the story through her eyes was important because she's an outsider to her relationship with her dad, Xavier, and an outsider to this Latin American community she finds herself in.

I didn't really connect with my own heritage until I was around Almudena's age and went to Guatemala for the first time.

What made you interested in focusing on a character who was raised entirely outside of her Guatemalan heritage?

I mean, that was my upbringing. We had little bits and bobs of Guatemalan aesthetics in the house, but I didn't really connect with my heritage until that summer trip to Guatemala.

It's also a clear entry point for readers to engage with a culture outside of their own.

Almudena's father is kind of a cinnamon roll--a man who made mistakes in his past but is now just doing his best. How did you develop his character?

Xavier as a cinnamon roll is a pretty apt description! I'm going to have to start using that!

Xavier was just going to be that "cinnamon roll" for Almudena. But as I got to scripting the book, I became a foster parent to a 17-year-old LGBTQ+ young woman, so a good deal of Xaiver's anxieties about being a parent are just me nakedly expressing my own anxieties about being a foster parent. 

Everything in Brownstone is very messy and sweet and genuine and difficult and it feels a lot like real life. How did you get so much nuance into your plot, especially when working almost entirely with speech bubbles?

Nuance comes from treating the characters like real people. Real people are messy, and cinnamon rolls, and so frustrating that you want to pull out your hair and, also, you can't live without them.

Comics as a medium is the one (outside of film) that I understand intrinsically. I've been reading comics since I was, like, five or six years old, and I never stopped reading them.

I once had a teacher claim that I seemingly learned by osmosis--I think I picked up a lot of comics storytelling through osmosis. I also spent decades writing failed comic after failed comic. All of that is just getting reps in.

What did it feel like when you started seeing some of Mar Julia's art? How much revising happened to make sure text worked with art?

Seeing Mar's art makes my heart soar every single time. It never gets old.

A good deal of revising on my end is cutting dialogue and captions and letting Mar's art sing and tell the story. I always feel like when I'm writing a book that my contributions should merge with the artist's so that it feels like a singular entity made the book.

What are you working on now?

My next graphic novel, Castles and Cholos, is entering art production right now.

And Mar and I are cooking up something that might be of interest to readers of Brownstone. But that's all I can say at the moment.

Is there anything you'd like to tell Shelf Awareness readers?

Honestly and truly, I just want to say thank you for your support and for carrying our book.

Mar Julia

Mar Julia is an illustrator from South Florida who is currently living and making things in Baltimore, Md., on the unceded traditional lands of the Piscataway and Susquehannock nations. They live with their partner, Sunmi, and four rats named after sweet potatoes. The 2025 Michael L. Prinz winner, Brownstone (Versify/Harper), written by Samuel Teer, is their illustration debut.

Congratulations! This is your full-length graphic novel debut. How are you feeling about it winning the Printz?

Yes, it is! I'm very grateful that Brownstone has been able to resonate with so many people so far. While it is my debut graphic novel, I've been making comics for many years, and I'm happy to be able to share my work with more people than ever before.

How would you describe this book to someone unfamiliar with it?

Brownstone is about a mixed Latina teenager, Almudena, spending the summer with the Guatemalan father she's never met and learning about him, his community at large, and herself through their budding relationship. I like to think of it as one part classic coming-of-age story and one part goofy yet touching '90s/'00s teen movie.

What is the process of illustrating a full-length graphic novel? Do you receive text and start drawing? Is there a period where you and the author are making the text and illustration work together in a different or better way?

Everyone's exact process and amount of collaboration is different! For us, I like to be collaboratively involved in big projects like this one, so Sam placed a lot of trust in me with the script. First, he and our editor did a few script-only editing rounds, then it got sent to me. I laid out the book from the script, with the go-ahead to suggest changes and adjustments in pacing, flow, and other elements wherever I thought they might make the book read better. After everyone approved of the thumbnails and layouts, as well as any adjustments, I jumped into inking and coloring it all. Doing it this way made sure there weren't any big changes after I'd already started on the final art.

I feel like there were moments early on, when it was just small thumbnails and my layout notes, where I had to be like, "Trust me, this will really work!" and I'm grateful to have had a supportive team.

How did you feel when you first saw the text for this novel? Does any of it mirror your own experiences?

Sam and I had a few back-and-forth chats about our experiences, and the themes we wanted to explore with Brownstone. I remember telling Sam that I wasn't as concerned with Almudena's narrative accurately reflecting my own experience as well as his, because my main wish for this book was just for it to feel grounded and engaging and, to me, relatability can follow that. Which meant I think Sam had to dig deep into what that meant for him when writing the script and shaping the narrative, and it really shows. There are some Easter eggs from things I told him on my end, though!

I do relate to Almudena not being fluent in Spanish, and how she struggles to fully express herself to her father and other family members. Unlike Almudena, though, I probably felt more commiseration from other first- or second-generation kids in my life growing up who were in a similar spot due to their parents' maybe not teaching them Spanish as fluently, too.

The illustrations are packed with art. Every panel is full of colors and textures and people overlapping each other and speech bubbles. How do you get so much into each image? What do you think it does for the story to have so much visual content?

Well, the "how" part is probably just practice! It's like a fun puzzle to create a visual hierarchy with compositions and details to make the world feel real and lived-in, but not overwhelming or lacking in focus while helping the narrative unfold. And that goes for within panels as well as across the entire page, and even across every spread. It's a balance!

To me, Brownstone taking place in a city always meant I was destined to have to draw lots of people, buildings, and details. Part of what makes good fiction really stick in my memory is when it strikes a balance of being both detailed and believable in its world-building. Both things are important to me because they reel you in and make you feel engaged in the story. With this book, it also helped with communicating how Almudena felt in a completely new environment. All those details are what makes it feel different from a comic I'd draw taking place somewhere else, even if it was just in a different city!

I love how active the illustrations are--you can see how heavy the bucket is that Almudena is dragging down the stairs or the fast actions of people on the street. How do you get such a sense of movement in your art?

This is another one of those things that everyone has a lot of different answers to, but for me one of the big factors is that I sketch very loosely. My pencils and underlying sketches have as little detail as I can get away with and err on the side of being more gestural. This helps me not get in my head when I'm inking the final drawings--it makes them more fluid, helps avoid them feeling stiff and makes the action really hit home, hopefully. I also grew up with a lot of friends involved in or interested in theater, so I kind of approach it like character or stage acting, which adds a fun layer for me while drawing.

Was there any specific part you enjoyed illustrating in particular? Any piece that was more difficult than you imagined?

Drawing streets with cars parked in perspective, all along the city was definitely the most dreaded part of any wide shot for me! One of my favorite things to draw on the other hand, are character interactions, and with this book it was whenever Beto and Almudena had a scene together. They played off each other in ways that were always fun to draw, evoking fun emotions in one another.

Are you working on something new?

I am! I'm working on a few new projects, including another YA graphic novel and I just signed on to a nonfiction graphic novel project, each with their own respective writers. Sam and I have also been talking about working together again!

I've been also working on developing my own YA graphic novel and hopefully will be able to work on that in a more official capacity very soon. 

Is there anything you'd like to tell Shelf Awareness readers about Brownstone, illustrating, or winning the Printz?

We really couldn't have made Brownstone without a wonderful and supportive team behind us; our editors, agents, and book designer. I'd especially like to give a shout out to our color designer Ashanti Fortson, who I was really happy to have working with me while we colored Brownstone. They really did an amazing job, adding a whole other layer to the visual narrative in the book with wonderful and evocative color palettes throughout! --Siân Gaetano, children's/YA editor, Shelf Awareness

A longlist has been released for the €100,000 (about $104,415) Dublin Literary Award, which is sponsored by Dublin City Council to honor a single work of fiction published in English. Libraries from 34 countries around the world nominated 71 titles. If the winning book has been translated, the author receives €75,000 (about $78,310) and the translator €25,000 (about $26,105).

The shortlist will be announced March 25 and the winner named May 22, as part of the International Literature Festival Dublin. Check out the complete International Dublin Literary Award longlist here.

---

Winners have been selected for the annual Sydney Taylor Book Award, sponsored by the Association of Jewish Libraries and recognizing "books for children and teens that exemplify high literary standards while authentically portraying the Jewish experience."

Winning authors and illustrators will receive their awards at the Annual Conference of the Association of Jewish Libraries, to be held online from June 23-26.

Gold Medalists:

Picture Book: An Etrog from Across the Sea by Deborah Bodin Cohen and Kerry Olitzky, illustrated by Stacey Dressen McQueen (Kar-Ben Publishing).
Middle Grade: The Girl Who Sang: A Holocaust Memoir of Hope and Survival by Estelle Nadel with Sammy Savos and Bethany Strout, illustrated by Sammy Savos (Roaring Brook Press)
Young Adult: Night Owls by A.R. Vishny (Harper)

See the nine Silver Medalists and eight Notable books here.

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, February 4:

Source Code: My Beginnings by Bill Gates (Knopf, $30, 9780593801581) is an autobiography of the Microsoft co-founder's early life.

Bonded in Death by J.D. Robb (St. Martin's Press, $30, 9781250370792) is the 60th mystery starring Lieutenant Eve Dallas.

Open Season by Jonathan Kellerman (Ballantine, $30, 9780593497692) is the 40th thriller with psychologist Alex Delaware.

Written in the Waters: A Memoir of History, Home, and Belonging by Tara Roberts (National Geographic, $30, 9781426223754) is the memoir of a woman who dove around the globe in search of lost slave ships.

Deep End by Ali Hazelwood (Berkley, $30, 9780593641057) is a romance about a diver and a swimmer.

Black Woods, Blue Sky: A Novel by Eowyn Ivey and Ruth Hulbert (Random House, $29, 9780593231029) is a dark fairy tale set in Alaska.

Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Bailey (Avon, $30, 9780063380776) is a romance complicated by the couple's parents getting engaged.

Doctored: Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer's by Charles Piller (Atria/One Signal, $28, 9781668031247) explains how fraudulent research wasted decades of efforts to cure Alzheimer's.

How to Win at Travel by Brian Kelly (Avid Reader Press, $30, 9781668068656) shares ways to use airline and credit card points for low-cost travel.

The Mother Next Door: Medicine, Deception, and Munchausen by Proxy by Andrea Dunlop and Mike Weber (St. Martin's Press, $30, 9781250284273) explores cases in which mothers poison their children for sympathy.

Bird of a Thousand Stories by Kiyash Monsef (Simon & Schuster, $18.99, 9781665928533) is a companion middle-grade to the author's debut, Once There Was, in which an Iranian American girl secretly takes care of mythical creatures.

The Meadowbrook Murders by Jessica Goodman (Putnam, $19.99, 9780593698716) is a YA murder mystery that takes place in a New England boarding school.

Paperbacks:
The Love Lyric: The Greene Sisters Book 3 by Kristina Forest (Berkley, $19, 9780593817100).

Grave Empire by Richard Swan (Orbit, $19.99, 9780316577007).

Steps: A Guide to Transforming Your Life When Willpower Isn't Enough by John Ortberg and John Mark Comer (Tyndale Refresh, $19.99, 9781496447043).

Your Radical Living Challenge: 7 Questions for Leading a Meaningful Life by Marni Battista (Hay House, $17.99, 9781401976187).

Diana in Love: A Dirty Diana Novel by Jen Besser and Shana Feste (Dial Press, $18, 9780593447680).

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:

Hardcover
The Lotus Shoes: A Novel by Jane Yang (Park Row, $28.99, 9780778310679). "A suspenseful novel, The Lotus Shoes follows Linjing and her maidservant Little Flower in 19th-century China. As the two struggle to define their own relationship, they are caught between old traditions and their desire for freedom. Completely absorbing!" --Janet Hutchison, The Open Door Bookstore, Schenectady, N.Y.

Sweet Fury: A Novel by Sash Bischoff (Simon & Schuster, $27.99, 9781668043257). "Sweet Fury is sure to please readers who want a solid, twisty, character-driven thriller with a film industry background. Obsessive love, misogyny, deceit, revenge--this carefully crafted, well-written debut has it all. Dig in." --Kathy Mailloux, East City Bookshop, Washington, D.C.

Paperback
The Fetishist: A Novel by Katherine Min (Putnam, $19, 9780593713679). "The Fetishist is an exploration of serious emotions, accompanied by a degree of absurdity and humor. Min expertly highlights the female Asian American experience of being fetishized with unforgiving, razor-sharp prose." --Stuart McCommon, Interabang Books, Dallas, Tex.

Ages 4-8
Lily's Dream: A Fairy Friendship by Bea Jackson (Aladdin, $18.99, 9781665941174). "Stunning! A truly beautiful book, full of messages about perseverance, friendship, and appreciating what makes each of us unique. This story will also leave readers itching to build fairy houses of their own." --Amanda Zarni, Book Ends Winchester, Winchester, Mass.

Ages 8-12
Cinderella and the Beast (or, Beauty and the Glass Slipper) by Kim Bussing (Random House, $17.99, 9780593708033). "A fun mashup of Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella that will delight Disney fans and appeal to readers who appreciate a well-told story. Bussing brings some fun updates to these familiar stories, including a fairy godfather and a glass prosthetic." --Amanda Grell, Pearl's Books, Fayetteville, Ark.

Teen Readers
No Place Left to Hide by Megan Lally (Sourcebooks Fire, $12.99, 9781728270142). "Buckle up! You're in for a wild ride. No Place Left to Hide is a gripping thriller full of twists and turns, both figuratively and literally." --Alyssa Leibow, Beach Books, Seaside, Ore.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

In Propaganda Girls, biographer Lisa Rogak (Rachel Maddow) presents a well-researched, approachable, and captivating account of four women's lives and careers, each instrumental to the "black propaganda" efforts of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)--the precursor to the CIA--during World War II.

Rogak introduces Elizabeth "Betty" MacDonald, a reporter from Hawaii; polyglot Barbara "Zuzka" Lauwers; Jane Smith-Hutton, the wife of a naval attaché in Toyko; and actress and singer Marlene Dietrich (yes, that Marlene Dietrich). Rogak depicts the many trials these women faced, professionally and personally, in their journeys to work with the Morale Operations branch (MO) within the OSS, a division whose job was to break the spirits of Axis soldiers in both the European and Pacific arenas.

Propaganda Girls opens with a scene of defecting soldiers from Axis forces surrendering to Allied troops. The defeated soldiers brandished "leaflets, newspapers, and letters that had served as personal breaking points" and though "neither the Allied nor Axis soldiers realized it," many of the "documents that the defectors presented in surrender came from a common source." That source was the MO branch of the OSS, where Rogak's four subjects forged reports, newspapers, letters, and broadcasts cunningly contrived to counteract any victory narratives put forth by the Axis powers.

The work of these women was largely unknown and often unrecognized, although they shared a common purpose and tailored their tasks according to their skills and experiences. They developed their own methods to fight, to contribute to the war efforts beyond the limited ways in which women were expected to participate. Rogak takes readers behind the scenes as Jane navigated Tokyo at the beginning of the war, and as Marlene insisted on performing for soldiers at the front even when declared a target--even making recordings specifically encouraging German soldiers to surrender and defect. Rogak shows how Zuzka used her multilingual skills to interrogate defectors in order to glean information to start new rumors for the MO's black propaganda, and how Betty's former journalism career gave her the know-how to tell the stories that would encourage the surrender of the opposing forces.

These women found innovative and courageous ways to rebrand how the narrative of war was told even as it was happening in front of them. Rogak's sweeping work brings readers into their lives, and makes their stories known for the first time. --Michelle Anya Anjirbag, freelance reviewer

Shelf Talker: Lisa Rogak shines a light on the efforts of four long-overlooked women who were instrumental to the work of the OSS during World War II.