Advertise on podcast: In Between The Pages with James Lott Jr.

A magisterial journey through the epic life and transformative times of John Quincy Adams In this masterful biography, historian Randall B. Woods peels back the many layers of John Quincy’s long life, exposing a rich and complicated family saga and a political legacy that transformed the American Republic. Born the first son of John and Abigail Adams, he was pressured to follow in his father’s footsteps in both law and politics. His boyhood was spent amid the furor of the American Revolution, and as a teen he assisted his father on diplomatic missions in Europe, hobnobbing with monarchs and statesmen, dining with Ben Franklin, sitting by Voltaire at the opera. He received a world-class education, becoming fluent in Latin, Greek, German, and French. His astonishing intellect and poise would lead to a diplomatic career of his own, in which he'd help solidify his fledgling nation’s standing in the world. He was intertwined with every famous American of his day, from Washington to Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, Jackson, Calhoun, Clay, and Webster. He was on stage, frequently front and center, during the Revolutionary Era, the fractious birth of American party politics, the War of 1812, the Era of Good Feelings, and the peak of Continental Expansion. It was against this backdrop that he served as an ambassador, senator, secretary of state, and, unhappily, as president. The driving force behind both the Transcontinental Treaty and the Monroe Doctrine, this champion of Manifest Destiny spent the last years of his life fighting against the annexation of Texas because it would facilitate the spread of slavery. This deeply researched, brilliantly written volume delves into John Quincy’s intellectual pursuits and political thought; his loving, yet at times strained, marriage to Louisa Catherine Johnson, whom he met in London; his troubling relationships with his three sons; and his fiery post-presidency rebirth in Congress as he became the chamber’s most vocal opponent of slavery.

A man’s quest to resolve an inherited family trauma leads him to an enigmatic priory in a war-ravaged region, from which he’s not sure he will be able to flee.HOPING TO MAKE SENSE OF HIS GRANDFATHER’S UNSPOKEN TRAUMA, Malachi journeys to return a family heirloom to the land of its origin. He finds himself in a seaside town surrounded by rumors of war. He visits the priory, a place of welcome that quickly draws him in―and also a place of duty that refuses to let him go.The priory, its people, and its resident Angel have their own purpose in a far larger history of trauma and conflict. Malachi learns of ancient and modern atrocities and his grandfather’s helplessness in the face of both. Past echoes become present concerns as a new battle approaches. Malachi repeatedly tries and fails to leave the escalating danger. Available where all books are sold!

One million people follow Stella Lerner’s every move. And now the buzzy fashion designer is fulfilling her lifelong dream and taking her indie clothing brand global with the help of the industry’s biggest investor. Sounds perfect. Except offline, the optics aren’t so great.Her relationship with her boyfriend, Alex, is crumbling just as the pressure to curate her image online only builds. Feeling trapped between the picture-perfect life she’s promised her followers and the messy reality she’s facing, Stella anonymously joins a new dating app. Blindr promises deep, private conversations, free from the burden of anyone’s expectations, especially her own. That’s when Stella connects with a stranger called Pineapple who’s intuitive, honest, and empathetic. Stella may be watched by millions, but this man, who’s never even laid eyes on her, makes her feel seen.What starts as a diversion becomes a journey of radical transformation. As Stella’s search for authenticity intensifies, every chat with Pineapple takes her further down a path she never could’ve imagined. Jessica Siskin earned her MFA from the New School. She is a former fashion executive and the founder of Misterkrisp, a popular Instagram-based food art business specializing in custom Rice Krispies Treats and social media content. She is the author of Treat Yourself!, a cookbook featuring her inventive food art. Jessica lives in New York City.

“I’m very picky about romance, but Melissa completely won me over―her writing is sharp, charming, and just incredibly readable in the best way.” ―Mindy Kaling A brilliant spine surgeon gains the power to perfectly recall her past―only to discover that some memories are better left undisturbed. A witty, emotional story about the intersection of medicine, memory, and the messy reality of loving imperfectly. Melissa R. Collings is an award-winning novelist and former spine-surgery physician associate. She writes across several genres, particularly women's fiction, romance, and psychological suspense. She describes her lighter fiction as warm, witty and hopeful, while she publishes darker psychological suspense under the name M. R. Collings. melissacollings.com

Francisco de Saavedra’s American Revolutionary War: The Spanish Contribution to the Battle of Yorktown by James Giesler is out now! Everywhere books are sold!  This is the story of how the decisive victory in the American Revolutionary War, at the Battle of Yorktown in October 1781, was the result of French and Spanish cooperation in the Caribbean. This cooperation started with Francisco de Saavedra’s arrival in Havana in early 1781. Although Spain had joined the war against Britain in 1779 little had been done by the Havana War Council, or Junta de Generales, to achieve Spain’s war aims. Saavedra united the Junta and established a close liaison with a French naval squadron which was present in Havana. This resulted in the fall of British held Pensacola in West Florida, in May 1781, to forces led by Bernardo de Gálvez. Saavedra would go on to meet Lt. General de Grasse in St. Domingue (Haiti) who was arriving from France with a large fleet. Together they agreed a plan of action for French and Spanish forces for the next nine months known as the de Grasse-Saavedra convention. As a result de Grasse was able to sail promptly to Chesapeake Bay with a large fleet, troops, artillery and desperately needed Spanish silver dollars to fund the Yorktown campaign. De Grasse’s forces united with those of generals Washington and Rochambeau and trapped the British army at Yorktown in September 1781. Together they would deliver the coup de grace that led the British to abandon the war in North America. Saavedra would go on to play a significant role in the war as an adviser to the French and Spanish courts.

A mother who has vanished into seclusion is forced to revisit her son’s heinous crimes in a haunting psychological thriller by the Edgar Award–winning author of Or Else. Joe Hart is the Edgar Award-winning and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of seventeen novels that include The River Is Dark, Obscura, The Last Girl, and Or Else. His work has been translated into eight languages and has been optioned for film. He lives with his family in Minnesota. Niight Calls out today (Sept 22nd) EVERYWHERE. joehartbooks.com

Poontown: A Novel of Chasing Tarpon and Glory is out now!!!!

FIVE TEAMS. FIVE DAYS. ONE LEGENDARY FISH. The Sabalo Cup Invitational is the most prestigious tarpon fly-fishing tournament in the world, attracting an unforgettable collection of obsessives, oddballs, and glory-chasers to the sun-scorched backcountry and turquoise ocean of the Tequesta Isles. For five brutal days, elite guides and determined anglers battle giant tarpon, sharks, weather, rivals, aging bodies, and their own stubborn ambitions in pursuit of victory. The competitors are as colorful as the waters they fish. A burned-out lawyer chasing one last shot at glory. A French magnate who somehow arrives at every tournament start looking like he never went to bed. A retired exotic dancer turned psychologist battling self-doubt as fiercely as the fish themselves. Together, they plunge into a world where carefully crafted plans unravel with spectacular efficiency. Naked Frenchmen. Jet ski disasters. Crocodile encounters. Midnight rescue missions. And somewhere amid the chaos swims the fish of a lifetime. L. M. ("Mark") Weeks is the award-winning author of Bottled Lightning and Poontown. Before turning to fiction, he spent more than three decades as an international technology lawyer, advising companies from around the world on their cross-border legal matters. For more than ten years, he served as Managing Partner of the Tokyo office of the global law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.Born in Alaska and raised in Idaho, Mark has spent nearly half his life in Japan. An International Rotary Club Scholar to Japan during high school, he later graduated from International Christian University in Tokyo before earning his law degree from Fordham University School of Law. He speaks, reads, and writes fluent Japanese. BOOK OUT NOW!

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!