A continuing series that highlights books recently acquired by publishing houses for future release. Each post features a book we’re looking forward to, and a book we’re . . . not.

The Cherry:

Jill Lepore’s Backstories, excavating the forgotten history of contemporary problems and explaining the contested origins of American democracy, the chronic volatility of the economy, the wrenching separation of home and work, the antecedents of the war on terror, the checkered history of the idea of progress, and the centuries-long debate about the relationship between the past and the present.

The Pit:

Josie Brown’s The DILF, in which a stay-at-home mom befriends a former Master of the Universe turned stay-at-home dad, until the neighborhood’s mean mommies vying to make him the next notch on their bedposts turn on her.