Misgivings

An intense, refractory memoir by a major poet Misgivings is C. K. Williams's searing recollection of his family's extreme dynamics and of his parents' deaths after years of struggle, bitterness, and inner conflict. Like Kafka's self-revealing Letter to His Father, Misgivings is full of doubt, both philosophical and personal, but as a work of art it is sure and true. Williams's father was an "ordinary businessman"--angry, demanding, addicted to the tension he created with the people he loved; a man who could read the Greek myths aloud to his son yet vowed never to apologize to anybody. His mother was a housewife, a woman with a great capacity for pleasure, who was stoical about the family's dire early poverty yet remained affected by it even when they became well-off. Together, these two formed what Williams calls the "conspiracy that made me who I am." His account of their life together and their deaths--his father's with suicidal despair, and his mother's with calm resignation--is a literary form of the reconciliation the family achieved at the end of his parents' lives. And as literary form it is novel, a series of brilliant short takes, a double helix of experience and recollection. Few contemporary writers have understood their origins so acutely, or so eloquently.

Faith Taylor has a secret. Several, actually: One, she's been in love with her sister's husband, Myles Wellington, for years. Two, she's having his baby. Three, he doesn't know it. Myles is consumed with grief, having lost his wife to a terminal illness. Then he discovers that his late wife convinced her sister to be a surrogate to their baby. Torn between fury and gratitude, Myles insists that Faith move in so they can raise the child together, and unknowingly gets too close to Faith's biggest secret of all... until an even bigger secret threatens a loss neither ever imagined. Previously titled: Behind Closed Doors SHADES OF DECEPTION, in series order Just a Little Lie Just a Little Taboo Just a Little Misgiving Just a Little Sin OTHER TITLES by Mallory Rush Outlaws and Heroes, a three book series Bad Boy of New Orleans Hurts So Good Between the Sheets Half-Moon Hearts Kissed by the Beast

How does one talk about love? Is it even possible to describe something at once utterly mundane and wholly transcendent, that has the power to consume our lives completely, while making us feel part of something infinitely larger than ourselves? Taking a unique approach to this age-old problem, the nameless narrator of David Levithan's The Lover's Dictionary constructs the story of a relationship as a dictionary. Through these sharp entries, he provides an intimate window into the great events and quotidian trifles of coupledom, giving us an indelible and deeply moving portrait of love in our time.

They thought they were safe in their elite little world. They couldn't have been more wrong. When Charity Daniels was seventeen she fell in love with Literature, and a man who taught it. Their forbidden love was held back until graduation, until legally she could be his. Flash forward three years, Charity is studying at Yale and still in love with her Princeton Man. Quinn (Q) Everett is on scholarship at Yale, and finds himself inexplicably in Charity's path. He tries to stay away, but his mouthy best friend thinks he knows better. Suddenly it's lunches and crashing private plans for the duo just to see her. But their flirtations do not go unseen, and Logan's love turns and goes from jealousy to murderous intent. Can these unproven lovers stay the course and avoid the devious plot of a scorn man or will everything crash and burn?

In 2019, Islamic State lost its last remaining sliver of territory in Syria, and its Caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed. These setbacks seemed to herald the Caliphate's death knell, and many now forecast its imminent demise. Yet its affiliates endure, particularly in Africa: nearly all of Islamic State's cells on the continent have reaffirmed their allegiance, attacks have continued in its name, many groups have been reinvigorated, and a new province has emerged. Why, in Africa, did the two major setbacks of 2019 have so little impact on support for Islamic State? The Islamic State in Africa suggests that this puzzle can be explained by the emergence and evolution of Islamic State's provinces in Africa, which it calls 'sovereign subordinates'. By examining the rise and development of eight Islamic State 'cells', the authors show how, having pledged allegiance to IS Central, cells evolved mostly autonomously, using the IS brand as a means for accrual of power, but, in practice, receiving relatively little if any direction or material support from central command. Given this pattern, IS Central's relative decline has had little impact on its African affiliates-who are likely to remain committed to the Caliphate's cause for the foreseeable future.

Nothing slips by Brecken Hancock's deft ear as she seductively plumbs the depths of the evolution of bathing, doppelgangers, the Kraken, and the minutiae of family with all its tragic misgivings. The poems in Broom Broom pervert the rational, safe parts of the world to extoll and absorb the sweep of human history. What I mean to say is, the evidence is always there. From where we stand, we confuse lampposts for ghosts. Brecken Hancock's poetry, essays, interviews, and reviews have appeared in several journals, including Event and Fiddlehead. She is reviews editor for Arc Poetry Magazine.