New Books Network

Hear "American Girl" or "Born in the U.S.A." and, like it or not, chances are you begin to hum along. The soundtrack of grocery stores, pool halls, bowling alleys, flea markets, chain restaurants, drug stores, and political rallies--heartland rock, while beloved by some and derided by others, is inescapable even today. As rollicking as the music it describes, acclaimed music critic Erin Osmon's Won't Back Down: Heartland Rock and the Fight for America (W. W. Norton & Company, 2026) tells the story of the origins, chart-topping development, and tangled legacy of heartland rock, the music that ruled the airwaves of the 1980s and remains instantly recognizable to millions.

Spinning an entertaining and eye-opening account, Osmon delves into the complicated afterlife of heartland rock's classic albums and songs, including Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run," Bob Seger's "Against the Wind," John Mellencamp's "Small Town," and Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down." She demonstrates the centrality of often-overlooked women like Melissa Etheridge, Bonnie Raitt, and Lucinda Williams--explaining how some of the most popular music of the time was made beyond its white-male stereotypes. She traces the genre's connections to country and Americana, and reveals how legendary figures like Prince were inspired by and expanded heartland rock. And she shows how its success revitalized the careers of figures like Bob Dylan and Neil Young. Through it all, she explores the '80s cultural developments that fostered the genre--such as the rise of MTV and the switch to CDs--and argues that the music played a vital role in opposition to '80s conservatism and in support of LGBTQ rights, labor issues, and the environmental movement.

A fair-minded critic with an ear for a great behind-the-scenes story, Osmon makes clear that at its best, heartland rock connected with millions of overlooked people longing to be heard.

Erin Osmon is a music journalist, critic, and author of books on John Prine and Jason Molina. Her writing appears in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Rolling Stone, and others. She won the Deems Taylor/Virgil Thompson Award for album notes in 2023 and several LA Press Club Southern California Journalism awards. She lives in Nashville.

Erin Osmon’s website and Instagram.

Bradley Morgan is a media arts professional in Chicago and author of U2's The Joshua Tree: Planting Roots in Mythic America (Backbeat Books, 2021), Frank Zappa's America (LSU Press, 2025), and U2: Until the End of the World (Gemini Books, 2025). He manages partnerships on behalf of CHIRP Radio 107.1 FM and is the director of its music film festival.

Bradley on Facebook and Bluesky.
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In This Beautiful Country: How Italy's Nature Shaped Its Culture and Civilisation (Chelsea Green, 2026), discover Italy’s unique ecological past and how it has shaped its present—and its future, with this riveting look at the incredibly diverse natural history and our need to preserve it.

Italy is renowned for its antiquity, classical literature, philosophy, and modern-day culture, cuisine and fashion, but what has gone largely overlooked – and undocumented, even by its people – is its uniquely biodiverse landscape and wildlife. Italy has over 58,000 different species of wildlife, of which 4,777 are endemic, the highest in Europe. Italy provides a home for a third of all European flora and fauna, with a vast range of fruit and vegetable varieties: more grape varieties than France, more wheat than the US and more olives than Spain. 

Edward Cutler, an art historian by trade, began to explore this history when, four years ago on his small Tuscan farm, he found a salamander that turned out to be endemic to that specific location. In understanding how Italy came together as a country, one of the youngest and still geologically active landscapes in the world, and made up of mountains, volcanoes, earthquakes, glacial lakes, desert islands, caves and forests, Ed realised that this natural history has also had an incredibly important influence on its human history, especially its food culture and low-impact agriculture. And along the way, Ed discovers that Italy once was home to pygmy elephants, giant killer hedgehogs, and vampire-toothed deer. Today we can see the relics of those ancient creatures in the flashy blue lizard of Capri, gladiator crabs under the forum in Rome, the crested porcupine, the beautiful Apennine chamois and of course the Marzipan brown bear and Italian grey wolf, not forgetting its flora, including the world’s rarest Christmas tree in Sicily.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
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Emily Charlotte's second Varsity Novel book Catching Feelings (Margaret
K. McElderry Books, 2026) follows Sabrina and her first rule for a
drama-free senior year? Don’t fall for the mysterious new football
transfer. When Sabrina and Tyler meet by accident outside (okay, inside)
the football locker rooms, it’s not a big deal. After a rocky summer,
Sabrina is focused on leading the Spirit Committee to its best year
ever, while Tyler is eager to leave behind the mess from his old school
with a second chance playing football as a transfer. Neither is looking
for romance. But as the team’s newest (and most eligible) varsity
athlete, Tyler is suddenly the center of attention. And Sabrina is busy
dodging Ryan, her longtime flirtationship who is determined to take her
to the homecoming dance. Ryan is exactly the kind of chaos Sabrina
doesn’t need, so she asks Tyler to go as friends instead. Eager to fend
off other unwanted advances, Tyler is happy to accept. Of course, this
was before Sabrina realized Tyler is Ryan’s cousin. But as long as
they’re just friends, everything should be fine. Tyler is less willing
to ignore the connection he feels toward Sabrina, but he’s also
desperate to keep his past buried. When the chemistry between them
becomes impossible to deny, can their carefully laid plans survive the
fallout, or will secrets and social pressure threaten everything they’ve
built?
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Our Strange Duet: Inspired by Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera (Delacorte
Press, 2026) is a reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the
Opera, spotlighting Christine Daaé as she rises to fame while torn
between love, ambition, and the haunting secrets of the opera house from
#1 New York Times bestselling author Erin A. Craig. This gorgeous hardcover edition of Our Strange Duet
features stunning sprayed edges, custom character endpapers, a
foil-stamped case, and a ribbon! She was never just the voice he shaped .
. . A rising soprano with a gift she is only just learning to embrace,
Christine Daaé has moved through the glittering world of the Opera
Populaire longing to find her purpose. Instead, she finds herself caught
between two men who refuse to let her slip quietly into the chorus. One
is Raoul, her childhood friend turned devoted admirer, offering her a
future filled with warmth, safety, and a love that feels like sunlight.
The other is a mysterious masked figure who lurks beneath the Opera
House: The Phantom. His brilliance, obsession, and dangerous devotion to
nurturing Christine’s talents ignites a dark and complicated passion in
her heart. As Christine’s star ascends, so does the tension between
Raoul and the Phantom. She must decide who she is when the curtain
falls—and what she’s willing to risk for the life she wants. Set against
the sweeping, romantic world of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the
Opera, Our Strange Duet allows Christine Daaé to take center stage to tell her own story: fierce, emotional, and unforgettable.
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As a child, Lim Muy Lang grew up in a prosperous Sino-Khmer family in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. When the Khmer Rouge seized power in April 1975, her family, along with the entire population of Phnom Penh, was forced to immediately leave the city for the countryside. What followed was a harrowing struggle for survival under the Khmer Rouge’s radical revolutionary regime, which led to the deaths of all of Muy Lang’s immediate family members, and much of her extended family. In the Shadow of the Khmer Rouge: A Child Survivor’s Memoir (NUS Press, 2026), is Muy Lang’s account of what happened. It’s a story of almost unimaginable pain, cruelty, and loss, but also an incredible struggle for survival. And not least, the book is a delightful, deeply personal recollection of childhood and family life in Cambodia before 1975.
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