Pg. 99: Derek S. Burdette's "Miraculous Celebrity"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Miraculous Celebrity: The Christ of Ixmiquilpan and Colonial Piety in Mexico City by Derek S. Burdette.

About the book, from the publisher:

A study of the Christ of Ixmiquilpan, a historically beloved religious icon from sixteenth-century Mexico, and its evolving cultural importance.

The life-sized crucifix known as the Christ of Ixmiquilpan (also the Señor de Santa Teresa) was one of the most important artworks in colonial Mexico. The statue began as an ordinary devotional image, but in 1621 devotees witnessed it undergo a miraculous renovation that gave it a supernatural beauty. Over the next two and half centuries, its perceived power increased until it was surpassed in importance only by the Virgin of Guadalupe. Despite its historical significance, the Christ of Ixmiquilpan’s history has yet to be fully told.

Derek Burdette brings the miraculous crucifix out of the shadows and explores its instrumental role in shaping the devotional culture of New Spain. Following the arc of the statue’s life, he chronicles the story of the statue’s creation, miraculous renovation, and subsequent veneration at the heart of Mexico City. He also reveals how colonial politics were woven into the statue’s life from the very start. Reconstructing the history of a key artwork, Miraculous Celebrity sheds new light on the intersection of art, faith, and politics in the Spanish colonial world.

Learn more about Miraculous Celebrity at the University of Texas Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Miraculous Celebrity.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Michael Kardos's "Fun City Heist"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Fun City Heist by Michael Kardos.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A washed—up rockstar gets his old band back together for one final gig . . . and one daring robbery! A brilliantly funny, twisty heist caper from Pushcart Prize—winning author Michael Kardos.

Mo Melnick used to be a drummer in rock band Sunshine Apocalypse. He used to be someone. These days he rents beach umbrellas on the Jersey Shore.

The last thing he expects is for Johnny Clay, his old bandmate turned enemy, to ask him a favor. Johnny’s dying, and before he passes he wants Sunshine Apocalypse to reunite for one last gig at Fun City, the beachfront amusement park where their musical journey began.

Mo’s in—reluctantly. But then Johnny reveals his real plan: He doesn’t just want to play at Fun City on the fourth of July. He wants to rob it.

The plan is crazy. It has more holes than a golf course. But Mo’s sick of barely keeping his head above water, so he and his gang of middle—aged has—beens dive into what will be the most outrageous heist New Jersey’s ever seen—if, that is, they can pull it off alive . . .

Packed with astonishing twists and laugh—out—loud moments, Michael Kardos’ unique comedic thriller is perfect for fans of Elmore Leonard and Donald Westlake.

Visit Michael Kardos's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Three Day Affair.

My Book, The Movie: The Three-Day Affair.

My Book, The Movie: Before He Finds Her.

The Page 69 Test: Before He Finds Her.

The Page 69 Test: Bluff.

The Page 69 Test: Fun City Heist.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five novels featuring monstrous men

Heather Parry is a Glasgow-based writer and editor, originally from South Yorkshire. Her debut novel, Orpheus Builds a Girl, was shortlisted for the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award and longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. She is also the author of a short story collection, This Is My Body, Given For You, and the non-fiction book, Electric Dreams: On Sex Robots and the Failed Promises of Capitalism. Parry lives in Glasgow with her partner and their cats, Ernesto and Fidel. Her second novel, Carrion Crow, will be published in 2026.

At CrimeReads the author tagged five "books that continue to inspire me for their bold, unflinching ways of looking at the monstrous man, both the real and fictionalized versions of him." One title on the list:

Patrick Süskind, Perfume: the Story of a Murderer

The 1980s might have been the decade that Hannibal Lecter was introduced to the world by Thomas Harris, first in Red Dragon and then in The Silence of the Lambs, but on the other side of the Atlantic, German writer Patrick Süskind was dreaming up another killer with sharp senses: Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an orphan born in eighteenth-century France, whose preternatural sense of smell leads him first to the business of perfume and then onto somewhere darker.

Just as Lecter spends his time considering the perfect meal, Grenouille is obsessed with harnessing the perfect smell, one that he first smelled on the skin of a young woman, with which he has become dangerously preoccupied. His attempts to distill that essence into a liquid push him down a path of multiple murders as his singular goal overwhelms his respect for life, but despite being caught, he performs a trick at the end of the book which reveals the latent desires within the population in general, showing that he is not alone in having a streak of pure evil in him, bound up in sensory pleasure.

This is a novel that luxuriates in both filth and opulence, and says more about the nature of lust than we would like to admit.

Read about another novel on the list.

Perfume is among Liz Nugent's top ten first lines in fiction, Liz Boulter's ten best novels about France, Glenn Skwerer's top ten real-life monsters in fiction, four books that changed Meg Keneally, four books that changed Katrina Lawrence, Karen Runge's five (damn-near) perfect (dark) novels, and Lara Feigel's top ten smelly books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Brahim El Guabli's "Desert Imaginations"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Desert Imaginations: A History of Saharanism and Its Radical Consequences by Brahim El Guabli.

About the book, from the publisher:

Desert Imaginations traces the cultural and intellectual histories that have informed the prevalent ideas of deserts across the globe. The book argues that Saharanism—a globalizing imaginary that perceives desert spaces as empty, exploitable, and dangerous—has been at the center of all desert-focused enterprises. Encompassing spiritual practices, military thinking, sexual fantasies, experiential quests, extractive economies, and experimental schemes, among other projects, Saharanism has shaped the way deserts not only are constructed intellectually but are acted upon. From nuclear testing to border walls, and much more, Brahim El Guabli articulates some of Saharanism's consequential manifestations across different deserts. Desert Imaginations draws on the abundant historical literature and cultural output in multiple languages and across disciplines to delineate the parameters of Saharanism. Against Saharanism's powerful and reductive vision of deserts, the book rehabilitates a tradition of desert eco-care that has been at work in desert Indigenous people's literary, artistic, scholarly, and ritualistic practices.

Learn more about Desert Imaginations at the University of California Press website.

Read an interview with Brahim El Guabli about Desert Imaginations.

The Page 99 Test: Desert Imaginations.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Cindy Jiban

From my Q&A with Cindy Jiban, author of The Probable Son: A Novel:

The entry begins:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

I love that my title is essentially a very-distilled elevator pitch. Someone is only probably the main character’s son. The title could refer to the boy Elsa has been mothering for thirteen years, or it could be about the familiar boy who just walked into her life and made her realize she can’t bury her secret suspicions forever.

The title is also a variation on a biblical story about a prodigal son. Elsa is firmly not religious – she teaches math and thinks about probability instead of faith – but the title activates the idea of a long-missing son re-entering a family. That this might occur brings a mixture of hope and dread, and it helps to...[read on]

Visit Cindy Jiban's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Probable Son.

Q&A with Cindy Jiban.

--Marshal Zeringue

Brionni Nwosu's "The Wondrous Life and Loves of Nella Carter," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Wondrous Life and Loves of Nella Carter: A Novel by Brionni Nwosu.

The entry begins:

If The Wondrous Life and Loves of Nella Carter were ever adapted for the screen, I would love to see Laura Harrier play Nella. When I was drafting the book, I came across an image of her that immediately clicked for me — something about her poise, the directness of her gaze, and the period nature of her clothes that just felt like Nella. I kept that image nearby as I wrote, especially during the scenes where Nella steps into new eras and new identities.

The novel follows Nella, a woman who should have died young but instead gains immortality after making a bargain with Death, if she can continue to believe that life is worth saving. She moves through cities and centuries — from New Orleans to London to Paris — collecting evidence and writing stories to prove it, with Death testing her throughout time. Along the way, she finds love, community, and moments of wonder that she never imagined she would get to experience. Because the story spans so many eras and emotional tones, I think it would need a lead actress who can play both the grounded, everyday moments and the sweeping, epic ones. Harrier strikes that balance beautifully.

One thing I love about the idea of adapting this story is that Nella has several different loves...[read on]

Visit Brionni Nwosu's website.

Writers Read: Brionni Nwosu.

The Page 69 Test: The Wondrous Life and Loves of Nella Carter.

My Book, The Movie: The Wondrous Life and Loves of Nella Carter.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eleven festive mystery books for the holidays

Sabienna Bowman is a Digital News Editor at People magazine, where she has been working since 2023. She previously worked at PopSugar, Bustle and Scarymommy.

She tagged eleven festive mystery books that are to die for this holiday season, including:

Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife by Martin Edwards

A small British village is on the verge of being cut off from the outside world due to a winter storm as this delightfully twisty novel begins. Enter six people with links to the world of crime writing, each with their own sad tale and in need of a reversal of fortunes. They each receive an invite from the mysterious Midwinter Trust to visit the town and solve a fictional murder in exchange for a prize, but there's more to this strange invitation than first meets the eye.

Read about another entry on the list.

My Book, The Movie: Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife.

Q&A with Martin Edwards.

The Page 69 Test: Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Patrick Adamson's "Projecting America"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Projecting America: The Epic Western and National Mythmaking in 1920s Hollywood by Patrick Adamson.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the mid-1920s, the heyday of silent film, the epic Western swept Hollywood and the nation. Movie moguls sought to add gravitas to their output with the productions—films they argued offered American audiences authentic history and lessons in citizenship at a time when Hollywood faced criticism for its movies’ morals and star scandals. Initially extremely popular, these now nearly forgotten Westerns were hailed by the movie industry’s proponents and critics alike for their “authentic” reconstruction of America’s nineteenth-century frontier period and the social benefits in portraying historical episodes foundational to American identity to the melting pot of moviegoers. In Projecting America, the first-ever book on these silent epic Westerns, Patrick Adamson demonstrates how these films indelibly impacted the genre, historical filmmaking, and Hollywood, inviting audiences to accept uncritical visions of Manifest Destiny as accurate history.

Drawing on a wealth of primary sources and punctuating his argument with film stills and intertitles, Adamson introduces readers to a variety of epic Westerns, with a particular emphasis on The Covered Wagon (1923), The Iron Horse (1924), and The Vanishing American (1925). These productions depict such key moments as pioneers on the Oregon Trail, the construction of the transcontinental railroad, and challenges faced by Indigenous peoples. Combining close analysis of these films’ historiography with exploration of their production and reception, Adamson investigates how the epic Western's emergence responded to and informed discourses far beyond those traditionally associated with the Western genre. He demonstrates that these movies not only represent an important chapter in film history but also collectively illustrate how American identity was formed and the motion picture medium was used as a vehicle for mass historical and cultural education.

In Projecting America, Adamson deftly shows how epic Westerns, at the heart of the 1920s’ pressing debates about cinema’s social influence, are integral to a broader understanding of the history of Western films and American identity.

Learn more about Projecting America at the University of Oklahoma Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Projecting America.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman's "Ten Thousand Light Years from Okay"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Ten Thousand Light Years from Okay: A Novel by Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman.

About the book, from the publisher:

A widowed and grieving young novelist believes her words create realities―both tragic and charmed―in a hopeful and surprising novel about family, newfound love, and moving on.

Four years after her husband Sam’s tragic death mirrored a fatal plotline in her debut novel, Thea Packer hasn’t written another word, afraid that what she writes could come true again. Resigned to raising her young daughter in her in-laws’ guesthouse, Thea is on the verge of abandoning her literary career when inspiration strikes.

Her new book is a fairy-tale romance featuring a long-lost astronaut who miraculously returns home to his family, with the hero loosely drawn from Thea’s memories of Sam. Thea considers the fantasy a harmless way to process her grief.

That is, until a charismatic man walks into her life―and he’s an astronaut.

Thea can’t believe it’s happening again. Or is it? Her mother-in-law doesn’t think so―she sees only a woman increasingly detached from reality. Now, as coincidences between Thea’s writing and reality pile up, Thea must unravel the secrets of her past and tackle her grief head-on before she loses more than she ever imagined.

Visit Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman's website.

The Page 69 Test: Ten Thousand Light Years from Okay.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Ruth Mancini

From my Q&A with Ruth Mancini, author of The Day I Lost You: A Novel:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

The Day I Lost You is, at its core, a story about one very all-important day in the lives of each of the three central characters: Lauren, Hope and Drew. Clearly, someone loses a baby that day, so I think the title reflects that, but the question the reader will want answered is who? And why? What happened? Because it’s clear from the outset that both women are laying claim to the same child and he can’t belong to them both. My working title was ‘The Lost Child’ but I knew this was wrong for the genre. When the book was finished it went to my editor and to the sales and marketing teams at my publisher. We toyed with ‘You Belong to Me’ but this, again, was considered wrong for the genre. The cover needed to say, ‘this is a psychological thriller’ and I think...[read on]

Follow Ruth Mancini on Facebook and Instagram.

Q&A with Ruth Mancini.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Robert E.C. Davis's "Lieutenants and Light"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Lieutenants and Light: Mapping the US Army Heliograph Networks in Late Nineteenth-Century Arizona and New Mexico by Robert E.C. Davis.

About the book, from the publisher:

Lieutenants and Light provides an accurate, detailed historical study of the U.S. Army’s use of the heliograph as a tactical means of communication and command and control in the desert environment of Arizona and New Mexico in the late nineteenth century.

The heliograph network in the Southwest, which began development in 1882, used mirror-based signaling devices to facilitate communication across remote outposts, forts, and detachments. Heliographs enabled soldiers to send messages over long distances using Morse code transmitted through sunlight reflections. During and immediately following the campaign against Geronimo in 1886, General Nelson A. Miles implemented a heliograph network that connected key locations from Nogales, Arizona, to Fort Stanton, New Mexico, enhancing command and control. Additional tests and expansions solidified the heliograph’s role as an essential military communication tool.

Reports from the officers tasked with establishing these stations and modern geospatial analysis have identified almost ninety networked heliograph stations established between 1882 and 1893, culminating in the greatest heliograph network ever built.

Many of the officers who helmed these stations went on to distinguished careers in the military, business, or public service. Some had served in the Civil War, and most were veterans of the Indian Wars. Almost a third of these young officers would go on to become general officers, several serving in leadership roles during World War I. Thus, the heliograph not only connected points across the Southwest but also linked a group of officers whose experience and leadership spanned from the Civil War through World War I.

Visit Robert E.C. Davis's website.

The Page 99 Test: Lieutenants and Light.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the best YA historical fantasy books

Susie Dumond is a queer writer originally from Little Rock, Arkansas. She is the author of Queerly Beloved, Looking for a Sign, and Bed and Breakup, and she also talks about books as a senior contributor at Book Riot and a bookseller at her local indie bookstore. Dumond lives in Washington, D.C., with her spouse, Mickey, and her cat, Maple. When she’s not writing or reading, you can find her baking cupcakes or belting karaoke at the nearest gay bar.

At Book Riot Dumond tagged ten of the most enchanting YA historical fantasy books. One title on the list:

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose

Set in an alternate-history North America, To Shape a Dragon’s Breath beautifully blends Native American history and culture into an extraordinary tale of dragons. Teenager Anequs finds the first dragon egg seen on her island home in generations. But when the colonizers on the mainland hear of Anequs’s dragon, they make it clear that she must attend their school for dragon training or else her dragon will be killed. It’s a dragon fantasy unlike any you’ve read before, full of layered characters and powerful reckonings. This first book in the Nampeshiweisit series left me begging for the sequel, and it will finally hit shelves on January 27 with the title To Ride a Rising Storm. This is another title that wasn’t technically published as a YA read, but it has great appeal to fans of YA.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Brionni Nwosu's "The Wondrous Life and Loves of Nella Carter"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Wondrous Life and Loves of Nella Carter: A Novel by Brionni Nwosu.

About the book, from the publisher:

A young woman at the crossroads of life and death embarks on an extraordinary journey across time in an epic novel about beauty, hope, endurance, and endless loves.

Most humans cower in the face of Death. Not Nella May Carter. She sees him. She doesn’t hide. Instead, she bargains.

Born enslaved in eighteenth-century Georgia, Nella still believes in the will to survive amid the most untenable of conditions, in the glory of life, and in the ultimate goodness of the human race. She asks that Death, doubtful and curious, allow her to live long enough to prove it. He’s giving Nella all the time in the world.

Challenged, Nella embarks on an epic journey across the globe and centuries. Each new incarnation records the joys and losses, and the friendships and heartbreaks, throughout her lifetimes. When she meets handsome and passionate professor Sebastian Moore―the first man to whom she has ever revealed her secrets―Nella yearns for the mortality that escapes her. She can’t bear to leave this love behind.

As Death keeps watch, has Nella’s journey come to an end? Or is a new one just beginning?

Visit Brionni Nwosu's website.

Writers Read: Brionni Nwosu.

The Page 69 Test: The Wondrous Life and Loves of Nella Carter.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Al Filreis's "The Classroom and the Crowd"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Classroom and the Crowd: Poetry and the Promise of Digital Community by Al Filreis.

About the book, from the publisher:

For more than a decade, Al Filreis has taught a free online course about experimental poetry, known as “ModPo,” that has drawn some 435,000 students from 179 countries. Online classes even a fraction of ModPo’s size have been criticized as impersonal and unengaging. But the citizens of ModPo have formed a generous and enduring intellectual community as together they read poems typically dismissed as difficult and inaccessible.

In The Classroom and the Crowd, Filreis reflects on his decades of experience as a founder of participatory literary communities and teacher of online courses, demonstrating that student-centered education offers new possibilities for humane social networking. Introducing readers to ModPo participants and their open-ended, round-the-clock conversations, he shows how online learning can not only be accessible and educational but also deepen our commitment to democracy. Filreis argues that the emphasis on collaborative learning, space for discussion, and the inherent openness of poetry allows for a sense of community, continuity, and even intimacy that often eludes other online educational endeavors. ModPo embodies principles underlying both modern poetics and cooperative education: Writers and readers, like teachers and learners, create meaning together; many voices are clearer than one; and democracy is a creative practice. Proposing an optimistic vision of mass learning, this book contends that asynchronous education has surprising advantages over the traditional classroom, that panics about a crisis of attention and the death of reading are overblown―and that instead of logging off, we should all start reading with a crowd.

Learn more about The Classroom and the Crowd at the Columbia University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Classroom and the Crowd.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top books where women were pushed to the edge

L.M. Chilton is a journalist with fifteen years of experience working on a variety of television shows, such as This Morning, Loose Women, and more. His writing has appeared in Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Metro (London), and The Mirror (London).

The author's novels include Swiped and Everyone in the Group Chat Dies.

In 2024 at The Strand Magazine Chilton tagged "ten books where women take their lives and (mostly men’s’) deaths into their own hands." One title on the list:

BAD MEN by Julie Mae Cohen

Saffy is a glamorous socialite who also just happens to be a rather proficient serial killer. For the past fifteen years, she’s hunted down and dispatched ‘bad men’ – rapists, murderers and domestic abusers. But her double life has left her lonely, after all, dating can be tricky when your boyfriend might turn out to be your next victim. With cocktails, romance, and a whole lot of stabbing, Bad Men is an irresistible mix of Sex and The City and Silence of the Lambs.

Read about another title on the list.

The Page 69 Test: Bad Men.

Q&A with Julie Mae Cohen.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Brionni Nwosu reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Brionni Nwosu, author of The Wondrous Life and Loves of Nella Carter: A Novel.

Her entry begins:

I just finished Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby as part of one of my book clubs, The Virtual Book Club for Black Women, and it was a fantastic pick, enjoyed by our entire group. I even recommended it to my father, and he enjoyed it as well. I really liked seeing a story written by a Black male author with two male leads, especially how they handled fatherhood, grief, and their complicated feelings about their sons’ sexuality. The descriptions were so vivid, and there were several craft moments I highlighted because they were just that strong.

One moment that stayed with me was when...[read on]

About The Wondrous Life and Loves of Nella Carter, from the publisher:

A young woman at the crossroads of life and death embarks on an extraordinary journey across time in an epic novel about beauty, hope, endurance, and endless loves.

Most humans cower in the face of Death. Not Nella May Carter. She sees him. She doesn’t hide. Instead, she bargains.

Born enslaved in eighteenth-century Georgia, Nella still believes in the will to survive amid the most untenable of conditions, in the glory of life, and in the ultimate goodness of the human race. She asks that Death, doubtful and curious, allow her to live long enough to prove it. He’s giving Nella all the time in the world.

Challenged, Nella embarks on an epic journey across the globe and centuries. Each new incarnation records the joys and losses, and the friendships and heartbreaks, throughout her lifetimes. When she meets handsome and passionate professor Sebastian Moore―the first man to whom she has ever revealed her secrets―Nella yearns for the mortality that escapes her. She can’t bear to leave this love behind.

As Death keeps watch, has Nella’s journey come to an end? Or is a new one just beginning?

Visit Brionni Nwosu's website.

Writers Read: Brionni Nwosu.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top espionage novels with charmingly clueless protagonists

Jonathan Payne is a British-American writer based in New York City.

His first novel, Citizen Orlov, was named a Book of the Month by Apple Books. It won the 2024 IBPA Silver Medal for Mystery/Thriller and the 2024 IPPY Bronze Medal for Suspense/Thriller.

Payne previously worked in national security for the British government.

He holds a Master of Arts degree in Novel Writing from Middlesex University, London.

Payne's new novel is Hotel Melikov.

[Q&A with Jonathan Payne]

At CrimeReads the author tagged six favorite espionage novels with charmingly clueless protagonists, including:

Chris Pavone, The Travelers

Will Rhodes is a travel writer and a recently-married New Yorker with financial troubles who jets around the world writing articles about hotels and wine for ‘Travelers’ magazine. After a tryst with an Australian woman in Argentina, he is surprised to be propositioned by the CIA. Like James Wormold and Harry Pendel, Rhodes needs the money, so agrees to provide information about the rich and powerful folks he meets on his travels.

But soon Rhodes begins to suspect that the CIA is actually interested in information about something else. If so, what? And then he begins to suspect that the CIA officers who recruited him might be imposters. If so, who are they? This one has more twists than a plate of rotini.

Read about another title on the list.

The Page 69 Test: The Travelers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Rebecca Jumper Matheson's "Artisans and Designers"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Artisans and Designers by Rebecca Jumper Matheson.

About the book, from the publisher:

One couple's bold vision for American fashion

Long before the fashion industry formally addressed questions of sustainability and advocated for “slow fashion,” William and Elizabeth Phelps, a husband-and-wife design duo, were already working to create hand-crafted leathergoods and functional women’s sportswear that could be worn for decades. Active from the 1940s to the late 1960s, Phelps Associates quickly won acclaim and found commercial success, attracting a broad clientele and becoming known for quality, utility, and craftsmanship.

Using vintage metal insignia and hardware, often military surplus, the Phelpses designed bags and belts that answered the need for American-made luxury goods during and after World War II. In the post-war period, the Phelpses experimented with new methods of production and branched into ready-to-wear fashion. Meanwhile, the pair worked to revive artisan workshops, emphasized fostering positive work environments for their employees, and offered employment opportunities for injured veterans.

Artisans and Designers is the first in-depth analysis of the Phelpses’ partnership, their often overlooked contributions to the fashion industry, and their forward-thinking business practices. Rebecca Jumper Matheson draws on their pieces to connect their work to larger conversations about sustainable fashion, consumerism, industrialization practices, and the intersection of art with American identity during and after World War II. The result is an engagingly written, richly illustrated account of a brand committed to creating classic pieces that have stood the test of time.

Learn more about Artisans and Designers at the The Kent State University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Artisans and Designers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Cindy Jiban's "The Probable Son," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Probable Son: A Novel by Cindy Jiban.

The entry begins:

Teacher Elsa Vargas has always suspected that the boy she is raising is the wrong child, accidentally switched at birth. But because of her deep love for Bird, Elsa has planned to keep her doubts buried forever.

Then one day, a student named Thomas in her middle school classroom is uncannily familiar. When she learns that he shares a birthday with Bird, she realizes: Thomas is probably her son.

If she’s right, what will that mean for Bird?

Here’s my dream cast for The Probable Son:

Elsa, the mother

Casting Elsa well is critical. She is a warm and inherently funny mother and teacher who has to navigate the possibility of terrible loss. Still, her sometimes-clumsy search for the truth becomes a bit cringeworthy, at turns. Her yearning drives her forward, but her penchant for rattling the school parent community fills her path with obstacles.

I need an actress who can portray a layered Elsa: hilarious eyerolls but also escaped tears; clever planning but also moments of love-fueled but unhinged judgment.

 To give us a complex and lovable Elsa we can’t look away from, I trust Emily Blunt.

Bird and Thomas, the possibly-switched sons

The son Elsa has been mothering, Bird, is a quiet and serious optimist within a family of extroverted skeptics. Meanwhile, Thomas is a charismatic questioner of the world, someone much more like the rest of Elsa’s family. Both are...[read on]

Visit Cindy Jiban's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Probable Son.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Marshall Karp's "NYPD Red #8"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: NYPD Red 8: The 11:59 Bomber (Book 8 in The NYPD Red Series) by Marshall Karp.

About the book, from the publisher:

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Marshall Karp comes the next installment in the endlessly thrilling NYPD Red series.

It's 11:59.

And the city that never sleeps is afraid to get out of bed.

A bomb explodes in a crowded New York subway station at exactly 11:59 a.m. The next day, a second blast rips through a busy department store--again at 11:59.

As the bombs go off with clockwork precision, the death toll climbs and businesses shut their doors as the city hunkers down in fear.

NYPD Red Detectives Kylie MacDonald and Zach Jordan face their most twisted case ever, as they race against the clock in search of one man who has vowed "to destroy New York City the way it destroyed my family."

Visit Marshall Karp's website.

The Page 69 Test: NYPD Red 8: The 11:59 Bomber.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top literary thrillers set in the artworld

Laura Leffler is a writer and art historian who builds stories within the gorgeous, strange, and sometimes terrifying art world. After receiving a master’s degree in post-war and contemporary art, she spent more than a decade working in commercial galleries, doing everything from art fair sales to condition reporting and logistics. Along the way, she witnessed more of that glittering world’s dark underbelly than she thought possible. Laura currently lives in Colorado with her family.

Tell Them You Lied is her first novel.

At Tertulia the author tagged ten favorite literary thrillers set in the artworld. One title on the list:

Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson

Reading Mouth to Mouth feels like eavesdropping. Two acquaintances meet by chance in the first-class lounge at JFK airport, one (Jeff) begins to tell the other (our unnamed narrator) a long, strange story—a confession of sorts–about saving a drowning man’s life on a Los Angeles beach. When the drowning man turns out to be a gallerist-to-the-stars, and not a totally moral one, Jeff decides to take advantage of the situation. Part Talented Mr. Ripley, part Great Gatsby, full of dread and foreboding.

Read about another entry on the list.

Mouth to Mouth is among Maris Kreizman's twenty-three wonderful short books.

Q&A with Antoine Wilson.

--Marshal Zeringue