In Between The Pages with James Lott Jr.

During the second half of the nineteenth century, the rise of industrialization and a gendered division of labor set the stage for tastemakers, architects, and social reformers to elevate the home parlor as a space for leisure and family gathering. Board game makers and marketers capitalized on these trends by peddling a certain exclusionary brand of the American dream.
In Family Game Night, Susan R. Asbury provides a history of US board games from the 1880s through the 1920s, the morals and tropes they conveyed, and the influence game designers and manufacturers had on consumers. Drawing from historical documents, marketing materials, patents, diaries, and photographs, Asbury shows how games incorporated and promoted concepts related to progress and abundance, including a clear delineation of the purported beneficiaries: white middle-class families. Asbury further analyzes box covers and game components to uncover the ways in which manufacturers and designers crafted narratives to maintain a sense of cultural hegemony in a rapidly changing society.
Through the imagery and instructions woven into the framework of play, Family Game Night reveals how these board games influenced players' values and associations, shaping their worldview.

First the first time on the series, a couple answers! their new novel: Beyond Honor by KB Brodsky is out now!

In Deadly Dilemma, Anthony takes you on a journey of remembrance and reflection. Everyone has a story. Sometimes, we need a nudge to revisit our stories and confront the experiences that have shaped our lives.Anthony is not famous. He is not a celebrity, an athlete, or a politician. He's an ordinary guy with a story to tell, asking that bigger question about life. He grew up in a small town in eastern North Carolina. A stellar student, he enrolled in college, where it took him ten years to get a four-year degree. He got married, started raising a family, and embarked on a lifelong career working with college students and mentors.Anthony has battled poor self-image and lack of self-esteem all his life. His daddy told him to "Get out of the way. I can't see through muddy water" and "Don't ask me for a damn thing." Those words have haunted him as he struggled to value his own self-worth.As a college counselor, Anthony's advice to young people reflects his life experience:Friends- choose them carefully, and cultivateChoices- make them wisely, and learnConsequences- embrace them graciously, and move on."In a world where many who state their faith seem focused on 'looking' perfect, Anthony simply shares his life's highs and lows (and reflections). This book is relatable, surprising, inspiring, shocking, and believable."- Chris Arline, Guilford College '95"The 'Deadly Dilemma' is real to all of us, and I stand with you, Anthony, in the eternal street fight to live an authentic life."- Jeff Thigpen, author of On Point: Voices and Values of Young Elected Officials
Out now everywhere! 

A man forged by war, paramilitary operative Kevin Rhoads is recruited for a solo extraction mission deep inside Siberia. CIA analyst Whitney Skyler’s investigation into a Russian-backed bank on American soil leads to the President of the United States. Director Cynthia King plays an audacious gambit, leveraging a thirty-year debt of honor to save a captured American agent. But in this world of shifting alliances, even the most careful plans can unravel. Skyler faces an impossible choice: expose her mentor’s dangerous game to protect national security or reveal the truth to Rhoads. Already shattered by loss, Rhoads discovers the devastating betrayal that will transform him into a force of vengeance, leaving death in his wake. From the war-torn streets of Damascus to the merciless Siberian tundra, from the rugged Kenai Peninsula to the polished corridors of Langley, Virginia, Beyond Honor is a white-knuckled thriller about duty, betrayal, and the impossible choices made by those who serve in the shadows. K.B. Brodsky is the pen name of Bill and Karen Brodsky, a husband-and-wife writing team based in New York City and Colorado. They are the authors of the new political and espionage thriller Beyond Honor, their debut novel and the first installment in a planned series. The book combines international espionage, CIA intrigue, special operations, political conspiracy, and personal betrayal, with comparisons to works such as Red Sparrow and The Terminal List. Beyond Honor is published by Atria/Emily Bestler Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, and releases September 1, 2026. The novel has already received starred reviews from Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews.

by Gerald R Patnode
In 1889, Archibald Stirling is a man of wealth, privilege, and prestige. As a respected Baltimore criminal defense attorney and partner in a renowned law firm, his life is steeped in tradition and order. But when he accepts a single desperate plea for help; everything he believes will be challenged,One morning, the familiar routine in the Stirling household is shattered. Outside, the shouts of an angry mob rise as four Black men in chains are paraded through the streets by federal marshals. Among them is Henry Jones, the son of the Stirling family's loyal housemaid, Elsie Tolson who has been accused of leading a violent uprising on Navassa Island, where Black laborers fought back against their brutal white overseers. Henry now faces certain execution. With tears in her eyes and fear in her voice, Elsie begs Archibald to save her son.This real event, fictionalized through The Stirling Defense, is a gripping exploration of justice, sacrifice, and moral courage. Through one man's fall from privilege into the crucible of social change. The novel reveals the extraordinary cost of standing for what is right and the lasting impact of one man's fight against an unjust system.Determined to seek justice, Archibald takes Henry's case, setting off a chain of devastating consequences that include expulsion from his partnership, divorce from his wife, his young son brutally assaulted, and their home is torched in an arson attack. Even with several attempts at Archibald's life, he refuses to back down.As the trial unfolds, Archibald exposes the horrors of Navassa Island, where Black laborers were starved, beaten, and worked to death. His defense is not just for Henry but for an entire cla

For years, three couples have gathered at The Villa―billionaire Lincoln Foster’s Hamptons estate―for lavish weekends among friends. But this year, mysterious blue cards appear in each bedroom, exposing secrets: their host’s betrayals and the guests’ own dark deeds. Everyone has something to hide. Marley and Marshall Foster. Suzy and Sean McTeague. Juliet and Josh Jacoby. Lincoln and his new wife, Hazel. Even uninvited guests hoping to be accepted among the elite. With a hurricane bearing down, no one is getting out. When the revelations turn deadly, the trapped friends must confront what their lies have cost them―possibly their lives. Kieran Scott is the author of the domestic suspense novels The Getaway, Wish You Were Gone, Regrets Only and People Will Talk. She has also written dozens of books for teens, including eight New York Times bestsellers under the penname Kate Brian. Follow her on Instagram, Threads and Substack @kieranscottauthor

Her new book You Know Why is out now!

Kieran Scott is the author of the domestic suspense novels The Getaway, Wish You Were Gone, Regrets Only and People Will Talk. She has also written dozens of books for teens, including eight New York Times bestsellers under the penname Kate Brian. Follow her on Instagram, Threads and Substack @kieranscottauthor

It’s the holidays, and photographer Brooklyn Locke is bound for Italy with her husband, Trey, and their two children. But when Trey vanishes from the airport, missing their connecting flight, their impromptu vacation―and life as she knows it―begins to unravel.Desperate to find her husband, Brooklyn accepts help from a stranger on the same flight, Eden Barrow. But Eden soon makes a shocking claim. She is the sister of Trey’s first wife, and ten years ago he was the main suspect in her murder.Struggling to comprehend these accusations, fate delivers one more blow: a violent accident that leaves Brooklyn fighting for her life. With nowhere else to turn, Brooklyn leans on Eden for support. But each kindness feels too rehearsed, feeding her doubts about Eden’s motives and Trey’s true past.Brooklyn has her own dark history she’d rather forget and confronts an unsettling possibility. Her life is not what it seems, and the truth is a trap―laid by someone waiting for the perfect time to strike.
J.T. Ellison is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than thirty novels of psychological suspense, including the Lt. Taylor Jackson series, the Dr. Samantha Owens series, and numerous acclaimed standalones. She is the Emmy Award–winning cohost of A Word on Words, the literary television series on PBS.Over a twenty-year career, her work has earned widespread critical recognition, with titles optioned for television and published in thirty countries, and millions of copies in print worldwide.A dedicated voice in the writing community, she also publishes The Creative Edge, a newsletter and blog for writers navigating the craft and business of fiction.She lives with her husband and twin kittens—one of whom is a ghost in Nashville, Tennessee.

On the eve of D-Day, the fate of the world hangs not on the beaches of Normandy, but deep within a secret Nazi facility in occupied France. Here, in a claustrophobic, slave-driven mine codenamed Noball 109, German scientists are racing to perfect a terror weapon that would render the Allied invasion obsolete: atomic-tipped V-2 rockets aimed at the heart of London
 Enter Miriam Maduro, a ghost haunted by her past. A brilliant and courageous Dutch-Jewish SOE agent, she has already been captured, tortured, and escaped the Nazis once. Now, the British pull her from the shadows for an offer she can't refuse: undertake a suicide mission to infiltrate and destroy the rocket facility, and they will guarantee safe passage for her young son and sister from Palestine to England.
 John Winn Miller is an award-winning investigative reporter, foreign correspondent, editor, newspaper publisher, screenwriter, movie producer, and novelist. The Lexington, Ky., native was a foreign correspondent for The Associated Press and Wall Street Journal/Europe based in Rome, Italy; a reporter and editor at the Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader; executive editor of the Centre Daily Times (State College, Pa.) and the Tallahassee Democrat; and was publisher of The Olympian in Olympia, WA., and The Concord (N.H.) Monitor. He also helped produce four independent feature films: “Hitting the Cycle” with Bruce Dern; “Armed Response”; “Band of Robbers,” written and directed by Adam and Aaron Nee, and “Ghost in the Family.” Miller and his wife Margo live in Lexington Their daughter Allison Miller is an actress-screenwriter-director who most recently starred on the ABC series “A Million Little Things.”