Top ten goddesses in fiction

E. Foley and B. Coates are writers and editors based in London. They are the authors of the number-one bestseller, Homework for Grown-ups: Everything You Learnt at School and Promptly Forgot, as well as Advanced Homework for Grown-ups, The Homework for Grown-ups Quiz Book and Shakespeare for Grown-ups, and What Would Boudicca Do?: Life Lessons from History's Most Remarkable Women. Their latest book is You Goddess! Lessons in Being Legendary from Awesome Immortals.

At the Guardian, they tagged ten "brilliantly varied examples of how goddesses have been approached in fiction, sometimes revelling in the divine spotlight and sometimes in more background roles." One title on their list:

Circe by Madeline Miller

This magnificent story of the famous witch goddess from Homer’s Odyssey was shortlisted for the 2019 Women’s prize for fiction. It is both hugely enjoyable, showing the very male classical epic from a female point of view, and profoundly affecting in its depictions of the trials of immortality. This book is the closest you can get to experiencing what it might really be like to be a goddess, with all its benefits and sacrifices.

Read about another entry on the list.

Circe is among Jordan Ifueko's five fantasy titles driven by traumatic family bonds, Eleanor Porter's top ten books about witch-hunts, Emily B. Martin's six stunning fantasies for nature lovers, Allison Pataki's top six books that feature strong female voices, Pam Grossman's thirteen stories about strong women with magical powers, Kris Waldherr's nine top books inspired by mythology, Katharine Duckett's eight novels that reexamine literature from the margins, and Steph Posts' thirteen top novels set in the world of myth.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Gerald Elias

From my Q&A with Gerald Elias, author of The Beethoven Sequence:

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

For The Beethoven Sequence, I took my cue from the master of the thriller, Robert Ludlum, he of The Bourne Identity and dozens of his other best sellers with a similar title structure. As a reader, when I see a title like that, I think, "Hmm, that's intriguing. I feel a secret conspiracy coming on, or an international plot, or power behind the throne lurking somewhere in the darkness. I wonder, "What that's all about?"

Of course, the title has to have an integral relationship to the story, whether it's the name of the main character or whatever device it is that functions as the drama's trigger. In the case of my book, the Beethoven Sequence is a musical construct that was created by the mentally imbalanced protagonist, Layton Stolz, whose obsession with Beethoven's vision of liberty is so perverted that in the end he becomes a monomaniacal despot. I hope the prospective reader will look at the title and say, "Ooh, The Beethoven Sequence. Now that...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Gerald Elias's website.

The Page 69 Test: Devil's Trill.

The Page 69 Test: Danse Macabre.

My Book, The Movie: Devil's Trill and Danse Macabre.

The Page 69 Test: Death and the Maiden.

My Book, The Movie: Playing With Fire.

The Page 69 Test: Playing With Fire.

My Book, The Movie: Spring Break.

The Page 69 Test: Spring Break.

The Page 69 Test: The Beethoven Sequence.

Q&A with Gerald Elias.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Christopher Capozzola's "Bound by War"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Bound by War: How the United States and the Philippines Built America's First Pacific Century by Christopher Capozzola.

About the book, from the publisher:

A sweeping history of America’s long and fateful military relationship with the Philippines amid a century of Pacific warfare

Ever since US troops occupied the Philippines in 1898, generations of Filipinos have served in and alongside the US armed forces. In Bound by War, historian Christopher Capozzola reveals this forgotten history, showing how war and military service forged an enduring, yet fraught, alliance between Americans and Filipinos.

As the US military expanded in Asia, American forces confronted their Pacific rivals from Philippine bases. And from the colonial-era Philippine Scouts to post-9/11 contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, Filipinos were crucial partners in the exercise of US power. Their service reshaped Philippine society and politics and brought thousands of Filipinos to America.

Telling the epic story of a century of conflict and migration, Bound by War is a fresh, definitive portrait of this uneven partnership and the two nations it transformed.

Learn more about Bound by War at the publisher's website.

The Page 99 Test: Bound by War.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top Native American crime novels

David Heska Wanbli Weiden is an enrolled citizen of the Sicangu Lakota Nation and received his MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts. He's a MacDowell Colony Fellow, a Tin House Scholar, and the recipient of the PEN America Writing for Justice Fellowship. A lawyer and professor, he lives in Denver, Colorado, with his family.

Weiden's new novel is Winter Counts.

At The Strand Magazine he tagged seven of the most important crime novels by Native writers, including:

Mean Spirit (1990) by Linda Hogan (Chickasaw).

Not just one of the most important indigenous crime novels, this is a seminal work in the Native American canon. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the book tells the story of the Osage murders in the 1920s. The brutal killing of the character Grace Blanket drives the narrative although it soon expands to larger questions of societal justice. The novel is not only a mystery, but also an engrossing view into Native culture, spirituality, and the struggle against colonization. Kirkus Reviews in 1990 noted about the book: “Justice prevails for the most part, though not all of it is brought about through the courts. Meanwhile, the Indians’ efforts to influence events through the spirit world, their ever-tightening circle of defense, and their steady dread of the fate they fully expect to overtake them evoke a brutal time and place in American history, giving this tale an odd beauty.”

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jenny Milchman's "The Second Mother," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Second Mother by Jenny Milchman.

The entry begins:

I’m going to try to set aside the experience I’m having now with my third novel, which is currently in development as a film—all the real world constraints of an industry as nuts as Hollywood—to focus on my fifth novel, which by the time you’re reading this will have just come out. If we’re not weighed down by reality, we can bring someone out of retirement.

If The Second Mother were being made into a movie, I would want Rob Reiner to direct it.

Rob (if I may call him that, and I think I can, because I worship the guy as a creative) has directed two of my all-time favorite movies, both based on works by...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Jenny Milchman's website.

My Book, The Movie: Cover of Snow.

The Page 69 Test: Cover of Snow.

The Page 69 Test: Ruin Falls.

My Book, The Movie: Ruin Falls.

My Book, The Movie: The Second Mother.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jesse Wegman's "Let the People Pick the President"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College by Jesse Wegman.

About the book, from the publisher:

The framers of the Constitution battled over it. Lawmakers have tried to amend or abolish it more than 700 times. To this day, millions of voters, and even members of Congress, misunderstand how it works. It deepens our national divide and distorts the core democratic principles of political equality and majority rule. How can we tolerate the Electoral College when every vote does not count the same, and the candidate who gets the most votes can lose?

Twice in the last five elections, the Electoral College has overridden the popular vote, calling the integrity of the entire system into question—and creating a false picture of a country divided into bright red and blue blocks when in fact we are purple from coast to coast. Even when the popular-vote winner becomes president, tens of millions of Americans—Republicans and Democrats alike—find that their votes didn't matter. And, with statewide winner-take-all rules, only a handful of battleground states ultimately decide who will become president.

Now, as political passions reach a boiling point at the dawn of the 2020 race, the message from the American people is clear: The way we vote for the only official whose job it is to represent all Americans is neither fair nor just. Major reform is needed—now. Isn't it time to let the people pick the president?

In this thoroughly researched and engaging call to arms, Supreme Court journalist and New York Times editorial board member Jesse Wegman draws upon the history of the founding era, as well as information gleaned from campaign managers, field directors, and other officials from twenty-first-century Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns, to make a powerful case for abolishing the antiquated and antidemocratic Electoral College. In Let the People Pick the President he shows how we can at long last make every vote in the United States count—and restore belief in our democratic system.

Visit Jesse Wegman's website.

The Page 99 Test: Let the People Pick the President.

--Marshal Zeringue

The best romantic novels that aren’t riddled with cliches

Kate Kellaway is a feature writer and deputy theatre critic for the Observer.

A reader wrote in asking her to "recommend some good romantic novels that are not cliched." Part of Kellaway's reply:

Your question makes me think about what it is to be cliched – if only because you might argue that love is the greatest and most necessary of cliches, and if you steer too far from the heart’s core in literature, romance sometimes retreats. Or did you mean that there are obvious romantic books to mention – Gone With the Wind, Anna Karenina, Jane Eyre? You also got me thinking about Jane Eyre in particular because, in her case, it is the lack of cliche that makes for romance. Neither Jane Eyre nor Rochester is conventionally good looking, yet imperfection arrives at its own perfection (there is hope for us all). In her cunning way, Charlotte Brontë does what Mills & Boon novels are required to do: she sees that love triumphs over obstacles. But her casting (among other things) is superior. She knows about ordinary magic.

Read about more of Kellaway's recommendations.

Jane Eyre also made Julia Spiro's list of seven titles told from the perspective of domestic workers, Jane Healey's list of five favorite gothic romances, Annaleese Jochems's list of the great third wheels of literature, Sara Collins's list of six of fiction's best bad women, Sophie Hannah's list of fifteen top books with a twist, E. Lockhart's list of five favorite stories about women labeled “difficult,” Sophie Hannah's top ten list of twists in fiction, Gail Honeyman's list of five of her favorite idiosyncratic characters, Kate Hamer's top ten list of books about adopted children, a list of four books that changed Vivian Gornick, Meredith Borders's list of ten of the scariest gothic romances, Esther Inglis-Arkell's top ten list of the most horribly mistreated first wives in Gothic fiction, Martine Bailey’s top six list of the best marriage plots in novels, Radhika Sanghani's top ten list of books to make sure you've read before graduating college, Lauren Passell's top five list of Gothic novels, Molly Schoemann-McCann's lists of ten fictional men who have ruined real live romance and five of the best--and more familiar--tropes in fiction, Becky Ferreira's lists of seven of the best fictional depictions of female friendship and the top six most momentous weddings in fiction, Julia Sawalha's six best books list, Honeysuckle Weeks's six best books list, Kathryn Harrison's list of six favorite books with parentless protagonists, Megan Abbott's top ten list of novels of teenage friendship, a list of Bettany Hughes's six best books, the Guardian's top 10 lists of "outsider books" and "romantic fiction;" it appears on Lorraine Kelly's six best books list, Esther Freud's top ten list of love stories, and Jessica Duchen's top ten list of literary Gypsies, and on John Mullan's lists of ten of the best governesses in literature, ten of the best men dressed as women, ten of the best weddings in literature, ten of the best locked rooms in literature, ten of the best pianos in literature, ten of the best breakfasts in literature, ten of the best smokes in fiction, and ten of the best cases of blindness in literature. It is one of Kate Kellaway's ten best love stories in fiction.

The Page 99 Test: Jane Eyre.

--Marshal Zeringue

Gerald Elias's "The Beethoven Sequence"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Beethoven Sequence by Gerald Elias.

About the book:

From the pen of Salt Lake City novelist Gerald Elias, author of the critically acclaimed Daniel Jacobus mystery series, comes his first thriller. The Beethoven Sequence is the story of a mentally imbalanced political outsider who makes an improbable ascent to the presidency of the United States.

A rural Colorado machine shop mechanic, Layton Stolz is obsessed with the music of Beethoven and its message of freedom for mankind. Building a cult-like empire of acolytes, by the time he is elected president his message has metastasized into a cancerous ideology, and his political machine is bent upon eliminating his opponents. One of them is Ballard Whitmore, a graduate of Brigham Young University who was imprisoned on trumped-up sexual misconduct charges. Whitmore and female reporter Sandy Duckworthy, the only person who believes his story, risk their lives in their quest for his exoneration and the downfall of President Layton Stolz.

The Beethoven Sequence is truly a novel suited to our turbulent times. Conceived well before the current White House administration, it contains prescient parallels of what could happen when political power, supported by a critical mass of indoctrinated acolytes, goes unchecked.

Learn more about the book and author at Gerald Elias's website.

The Page 69 Test: Devil's Trill.

The Page 69 Test: Danse Macabre.

My Book, The Movie: Devil's Trill and Danse Macabre.

The Page 69 Test: Death and the Maiden.

My Book, The Movie: Playing With Fire.

The Page 69 Test: Playing With Fire.

My Book, The Movie: Spring Break.

The Page 69 Test: Spring Break.

The Page 69 Test: The Beethoven Sequence.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five novels on motherhood & maternal fear

Kate Riordan is a British writer and journalist who worked for the Guardian and Time Out London.

Her new novel is The Heatwave.

[Q&A with Kate Riordan; The Page 69 Test: The Heatwave.]

At The Strand Magazine, Riordan tagged five "novels about maternal fear which challenge as much as they chill," including:

Little Face by Sophie Hannah

New mother Alice returns home from a dutiful postpartum session at the health club to find the front door open, her husband fast asleep and baby Florence missing. Except that there’s a big twist: there is a baby in the crib – it’s just that Alice is certain it’s not hers. With a controlling live-in mother-in-law and a husband whose first wife was murdered, both of whom try to convince Alice she’s lost her mind, the relentlessly creepy and claustrophobic Little Face is not only a great example of modern gothic literature, but slyly political, too – demonstrating that the misogynistic trope of ‘hysterical woman’ is still alive and well.

Read about another entry on the list.

Little Face is among the Guardian's fifty top thrillers by women.

The Page 69 Test: Little Face.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Katja M. Guenther's "The Lives and Deaths of Shelter Animals"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Lives and Deaths of Shelter Animals by Katja M. Guenther.

About the book, from the publisher:

Monster is an adult pit bull, muscular and grey, who is impounded in a large animal shelter in Los Angeles. Like many other dogs at the shelter, Monster is associated with marginalized humans and assumed to embody certain behaviors because of his breed. And like approximately one million shelter animals each year, Monster will be killed. The Lives and Deaths of Shelter Animals takes us inside one of the country's highest-intake animal shelters. Katja M. Guenther witnesses the dramatic variance in the narratives assigned different animals, including Monster, which dictate their chances for survival. She argues that these inequalities are powerfully linked to human ideas about race, class, gender, ability, and species. Guenther deftly explores internal hierarchies, breed discrimination, and importantly, instances of resistance and agency.

Visit Katja M. Guenther's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Lives and Deaths of Shelter Animals.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Sarah Warburton

From my Q&A with Sarah Warburton, author of Once Two Sisters:

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

I chose Once Two Sisters because it felt like the beginning of a fairy tale. Right away you know that these two sisters are different, and that is the seed of the story. The older sister, Ava, used to tell stories to her younger sister Ava, and as an adult and best-selling novelist, she mined Zoe’s life for her plots. Ava is controlled, successful, and cerebral. Zoe is bold, reckless, and passionate. Each sister measures herself against the other. Also Once Two Sisters is only a half step away from Once Upon a Time, and throughout the novel Ava continues to use the storytelling technique as a coping mechanism. I hope that in addition to setting up the conflict, Once Two Sisters also hints at the promise of...[read on]

Visit Sarah Warburton's website.

My Book, The Movie: Once Two Sisters.

Q&A with Sarah Warburton.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five crime novels that explore social issues

Alyssa Cole is an award-winning author of historical, contemporary, and sci-fi romance. Her Civil War-set espionage romance An Extraordinary Union was the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award’s Best Book of 2017 and the American Library Association’s RUSA Best Romance for 2018, and A Princess in Theory was one of the New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2018.

Cole's new novel is When No One Is Watching.

At CrimeReads she tagged five "books that explore social issues, and the effects that ripple out from them in ways large and small," including:

And Now She’s Gone by Rachel Howzell Hall

Howzell Hall’s fantastic Detective Lou Norton series followed a Black female detective in LA through the underbelly of the glitz and glamor so often associated with the city. Her newest thriller takes readers back to LA with a taut, twisty tale about Grayson Sikes, an amateur private detective on her first case. Grayson, who’s not doing so hot herself, has to find a missing woman for a jerky client who claims to have been a caring boyfriend. As the parallels between the woman’s story and her own begin to stack up, a story unfolds of what women do to survive in a society that often looks the other way when they most need help.

Read about another entry on the list.

Hall's Lou Norton series is among Amy Stuart's five deeply flawed characters you’ll learn to appreciate and Sara Sligar's seven California crime novels with a nuanced view of of race, class, gender & community. Land of Shadows is among Steph Cha's top ten books about trouble in Los Angeles.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Kenneth Austin's "The Jews and the Reformation"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Jews and the Reformation by Kenneth Austin.

About the book, from the publisher:

The first comprehensive account of Protestant and Catholic attitudes toward Jews and Judaism in the European Reformation

In this rich, wide-ranging, and meticulously researched account, Kenneth Austin examines the attitudes of various Christian groups in the Protestant and Catholic Reformations towards Jews, the Hebrew language, and Jewish learning. Martin Luther’s writings are notorious, but Reformation attitudes were much more varied and nuanced than these might lead us to believe. This book has much to tell us about the Reformation and its priorities—and has important implications for how we think about religious pluralism more broadly.

Learn more about The Jews and the Reformation at the Yale University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Jews and the Reformation.

--Marshal Zeringue

Fifteen great campus novels published in the last decade

Emily Temple holds a BA from Middlebury College and an MFA in fiction from the University of Virginia, where she was a Henry Hoyns fellow and the recipient of a Henfield Prize.

Temple's new novel, her first, is The Lightness.

At Lit Hub she tagged fifteen great campus novels published in the last ten years. One title on the list:

Julie Schumacher, Dear Committee Members (2014)

A very funny, very cranky novel-in-recommendation letters: the academic’s version of the epistolary novel.

See also: The Shakespeare Requirement (2018).

Read about another entry on the list.

Dear Committee Members is among Jenn Ashworth and Richard V. Hirst's ten top modern epistolary novels, Maureen Corrigan's top 12 books of 2014, Kate DiCamillo's 3 favorite books of 2014, and Ellen Wehle's four top novels "in which teachers and students run just a little bit off the rails."

The Page 69 Test: Dear Committee Members.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Teri Bailey Black

From my Q&A with Teri Bailey Black, author of Chasing Starlight:

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

For a year, this book didn’t have a title as I waited for the right words to pop into my head. You know, that perfect little phrase that explained to readers that this is a murder mystery set in Old Hollywood, with a main character inspired by Katharine Hepburn and Nancy Drew; a mansion filled with quirky, aspiring actors; a gangster subplot; the inner workings of a movie studio; and romance.

Then cover design started and I needed a title fast. I frantically scribbled ideas in a notebook. At first, I wanted something a bit obscure and literary. Maybe ... The Luminosity of Stars? My publisher (wisely) wanted something more sellable.

Since my main character is an aspiring astronomer, I thought it would be fun to play off the double meaning of stars—both the glamorous type and heavenly. I wrote down every star-related phrase I could think of, but nothing felt right—until I wrote down Chasing Starlight and knew it was perfect. I couldn’t understand why I hadn’t thought of it sooner. But isn’t that always the way with good ideas?

What's in a name?

My main character was inspired by Katherine Hepburn—a smart, no-nonsense, say-it-like-it-is girl, who’s trying to remain sensible as she’s caught up in the allure of Hollywood and a murder mystery. I named her Katherine Hildebrand, and she went by Kate.

As the story evolved, I realized something significant...[read on]

Visit Teri Bailey Black's website.

The Page 69 Test: Chasing Starlight.

Q&A with Teri Bailey Black.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Brandi Reeds's "The Day I Disappeared"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Day I Disappeared by Brandi Reeds.

About the book, from the publisher:

A terrifying crime reunites a mother and daughter in a novel of psychological suspense by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of Trespassing.

Three months after four-year-old Holly Gebhardt was kidnapped, she was inexplicably returned to the same park from which she’d vanished…with no memory of the ordeal. Though a local handyman was convicted, suspicion also fell on his friend—Holly’s mother, Cecily. The troubling doubts about her involvement shattered the family, forever driving a wedge between mother and daughter.

Twenty years later, another girl goes missing under eerily similar circumstances. It’s just the latest in a series of kidnappings that Detective Jason Guidry thinks Holly can help solve. Though Holly has tried to move on with her life, a young girl’s life hangs in the balance. All she has to do is try to remember…

With her memory still mostly blank, Holly is missing vital pieces of the puzzle, and she believes her mother can put them in place. In desperation and fear, Holly and her mother come together again. But in a chilling rush toward the past, Cecily still has secrets she’s yet to share with her daughter. Should she dare to breathe a word, she could lose Holly all over again.

Visit Brandi Reeds's website.

My Book, The Movie: Third Party.

The Page 69 Test: Third Party.

The Page 99 Test: The Day I Disappeared.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top thrillers with riveting mother-daughter dynamics

S.F. Kosa (aka Sarah Fine) is a long-time clinical psychologist. She was born on the West Coast, raised in the Midwest, and is now firmly entrenched on the East Coast.

The Quiet Girl is her debut psychological suspense novel.

At The Strand Magazine, Kosa tagged five favorite thrillers with riveting mother-daughter dynamics, including:

Pretty Baby by Marie Kubica

This one isn’t a straight up mother-daughter focused tale, except it also is. In this twisty but grounded thriller, Heidi, who has a twelve-year-old daughter but had deeply hoped to have more children, invites a homeless teenage girl and her baby to stay with the family. Of course, this addition disrupts existing family dynamics in ever-escalating ways, as Heidi’s workaholic husband becomes suspicious about the teenager’s past, and as Heidi’s own psychological pain and thwarted mothering instinct drives her—and the plot—forward … straight over a cliff.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sarah Warburton's "Once Two Sisters," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Once Two Sisters: A Novel by Sarah Warburton.

The entry begins:

I wrote Once Two Sisters with a very clear sense of setting in mind, but the two main characters, older sister Ava and younger sister Zoe, were always standing right behind me, directing my gaze. Because the novel is alternating first person, it’s almost like they are the camera and we experience the story through them. Stepping back to include Ava and Zoe in the frame was a lot of fun.

Ava is cerebral, successful and driven. Although she’s very much in control, once she’s in physical danger, she discovers she can be just as much of a fighter as her younger sister. I think Shailene Woodley would be great in this role. She’s got a great way of playing a character with secrets. She can be reserved, and yet hint at the passion underneath. And Ava is the character who’s literally in a life or death situation, and Shailene Woodley has also nailed action roles. She combines controlled strength with the capacity for great emotion.

Zoe is the rebel, the younger sister who burns her old identity and starts a new life under an assumed name. She’s angry, resentful, impulsive, and yet longs for a loving family. I would love to see...[read on]

Visit Sarah Warburton's website.

My Book, The Movie: Once Two Sisters.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Emine Fidan Elcioglu's "Divided by the Wall"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Divided by the Wall: Progressive and Conservative Immigration Politics at the U.S.-Mexico Border by Emine Fidan Elcioglu.

About the book, from the publisher:

The construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border—whether to build it or not—has become a hot-button issue in contemporary America. A recent impasse over funding a wall caused the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, sharpening partisan divisions across the nation. In the Arizona borderlands, groups of predominantly white American citizens have been mobilizing for decades—some help undocumented immigrants bypass governmental detection, while others help law enforcement agents to apprehend immigrants. Activists on both the left and the right mobilize without an immediate personal connection to the issue at hand, many doubting that their actions can bring about the long-term change they desire. Why, then, do they engage in immigration and border politics so passionately?

Divided by the Wall offers a one-of-a-kind comparative study of progressive pro-immigrant activists and their conservative immigration-restrictionist opponents. Using twenty months of ethnographic research with five grassroots organizations, Emine Fidan Elcioglu shows how immigration politics has become a substitute for struggles around class inequality among white Americans. She demonstrates how activists mobilized not only to change the rules of immigration but also to experience a change in themselves. Elcioglu finds that the variation in social class and intersectional identity across the two sides mapped onto disparate concerns about state power. As activists strategized ways to transform the scope of the state’s power, they also tried to carve out self-transformative roles for themselves. Provocative and even-handed, Divided by the Wall challenges our understanding of immigration politics in times of growing inequality and insecurity.

Visit Emine Fidan Elcioglu's website.

The Page 99 Test: Divided by the Wall.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten women-authored novels set in remote & forgotten places

Annie Lampman is the author of the novel Sins of the Bees and the limited-edition letterpress poetry chapbook Burning Time. Her short stories, poetry, and narrative essays have been published in sixty-some literary journals and anthologies such as The Normal School, Orion Magazine, The Massachusetts Review, and Women Writing the West. She has been awarded the 2020 American Fiction Award in Thriller: Crime, the Dogwood Literary Award in Fiction, the Everybody Writes Award in Poetry, a Best American Essays “Notable,” a Pushcart Prize special mention, a Literature Fellowship special mention by the Idaho Commission on the Arts, and a wilderness artist’s residency in the Owyhee Canyonlands Wilderness through the Bureau of Land Management. Lampman is an Associate Professor of Honors Creative Writing at the Washington State University Honors College. She lives with her husband, three sons, and a bevy of pets (including a tabby named Bonsai and a husky named Tundra) in Moscow, Idaho on the rolling hills of the Palouse Prairie in another 1800s farmhouse. She has a pollinator garden full of native flowers, herbs, berries, song birds, squirrels, butterflies, bumble bees, solitary bees, and honeybees.

At CrimeReads, Lampan tagged "ten novels [that] fulfill all the promise settings of the remote or forgotten have to offer to compelling and diverse women-authored fiction," including:

Perma Red, Debra Magpie Earling

Set on Montana’s Flathead Reservation in the 1940s, this lyrical novel explores the heart of the stark Montana landscape with characters and events that have stayed with me vividly over a decade-and-a-half after I first read it. The sensory detailing of the natural world is exquisite, conjuring the place so fully you feel it as deeply as your own experience and that of the characters as well. Gritty, horrific, gorgeous, haunting, and deeply-wrought portrayals of a place and the people within it make for a kind of rare magic that embodies the land and the characters of the land, making this novel have universal lasting power.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue