This review was first published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
​In Flee North: A Forgotten Hero and the Fight for Freedom in Slavery's Borderland, Scott Shane (Objective Troy; Dismantling Utopia) tells the story of the man who led hundreds along the underground railroad and the first--in a letter published in 1842--to call it by that name in print. (The letter "marked a signal moment in the history of both the American battle against slavery and the American language.") Thomas Smallwood, born into slavery in Maryland, was in the rare position of being able to purchase his freedom from an enslaver who first ensured he was taught to read and to write, and then fulfilled a pledge to manumit him when he turned 30. Smallwood lived and worked quietly for a decade as a shoemaker in Washington, D.C. Although his own journey to freedom did not begin with an escape to the northern states, Smallwood reached out to white activist Charles Torrey and formed a partnership that would actively encourage and aid hundreds in fleeing slavery, often taking whole carriage-loads of families at a time. All the while, Smallwood wrote biting satirical articles for the newspapers in which he mocked the slave traders and slave catchers his charges eluded.
Using Smallwood's newspaper columns, his memoirs, and other contemporaneous documents, Shane builds a convincing case that history unjustly erased Smallwood and left the spotlight on Torrey alone. Readers will find this riveting account an excellent step toward restoring to Smallwood the place in public memory he richly deserves. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library

This review was first published in and reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
​There's no loyalty among thieves or supervillains in Starter Villain, the laugh-out-loud science fiction comedy from John Scalzi (The Kaiju Preservation Society; The Last Emperox; The End of All Things). Charlie's life has hit a wall. He's a divorced journalist-turned-substitute teacher, living in a house owned by his late father's estate, and has hopes to buy the local pub. But he can't put the house up for collateral on a loan without the agreement of his half-siblings, who would rather sell it. Then his estranged Uncle Jake dies, and what initially seems like a small provision in the will to reward him for representing the family at the funeral turns out to be much more. Besides the parking-structure empire via which Jake allegedly made his billions, he had a thriving supervillain business, and Charlie has inherited it all. That includes a feud with a band of villainous competitors.
Starter Villain is one of Scalzi's lighter works, as evident by the premise. There is the occasional pointed jab at the nefarious and frequently incompetent nature of billionaires as a class, but things like talking dolphins who go on strike and discussions of the logistics of throwing somebody into a volcano make for a summer blockbuster action-comedy of a novel. The genetically enhanced cats employed as spies and trained in typing are particularly delightful, especially when it comes to Charlie's bond with Hera, whom he unwittingly took in as a stray. Fans of Scalzi's more comedic novels will find this to be everything they could want. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library