Q&A with Sariah Wilson

From my Q&A with Sariah Wilson, author of A Tribute of Fire:

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

The title ended up surprising me. I had chosen it because my female main character’s battle master tells her that in the past, an enemy nation demanded a tribute of earth and water (as it signified total surrender) and he tells her to give them a tribute of fire and steel instead. (The book was originally called A Tribute of Fire and Steel but the “and steel” was cut because it was deemed to be too similar to another book my publisher had put out.) After I had submitted the book to my editor I realized that the FMC is the tribute of fire herself since she bribes her way into a death trial in order to save her nation. It works on a couple of different levels, totally unintentionally!

What's in a name?

The names of all the characters in this book were very, very...[read on]

Visit Sariah Wilson's website.

The Page 69 Test: A Tribute of Fire.

My Book, The Movie: A Tribute of Fire.

Q&A with Sariah Wilson.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top nonfiction books about history’s greatest mysteries

At Mental Floss Jennifer Byrne tagged ten gripping nonfiction books about history’s greatest mysteries. One title on the list:

Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste, by Brian Hicks

Here’s more good news for True Detective fans who aren’t quite ready to commence their cold turkey withdrawal from season four: Lopez has also cited the Mary Celeste as one of the inspirations for “Night Country.”

For those not yet totally obsessed with ghost ships, the Mary Celeste was a 100-foot brigantine found in December of 1872 floating aimlessly through the North Atlantic. The undamaged, two-masted vessel was fully stocked (with 1700 barrels of raw alcohol, no less) and completely abandoned, with no trace of the captain, his wife, their 2-year old daughter, or the ship’s crew.

In Ghost Ship, award-winning journalist Brian Hicks digs into the spooky tale and offers his theory as to the baffling disappearance. In an interesting side note, the ghost ship was so intriguing to a young ship’s physician named Arthur Conan Doyle that he reportedly quit his profession and committed himself to creating a fictional detective who solved just about every mind-boggling mystery that ever came his way. We’re pretty sure if the Mary Celeste could talk, she’d say “you’re welcome.”

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Ashley Lawson's "On Edge"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: On Edge: Gender and Genre in the Work of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett by Ashley Lawson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Ashley Lawson’s On Edge presents a new picture of postwar American literature, arguing that biases against genre fiction have unfairly disadvantaged the legacies of authors like Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett. Each of these authors deftly navigated a male-dominated postwar publishing world without compromising their values. Their category-defying treatment of both gender roles and genre classifications created a thematic suspense in their work that spoke to the tension of an age saturated with nervousness stemming from quotidian fears and from the prospect of nuclear annihilation. Lawson engages with foundational voices in American literature, genre theory, and feminism to argue that, by merging the dominant mode of literary realism with fantastical or heightened elements, Brackett, Jackson, and Highsmith were able to respond to the big questions of their era with startling and unnerving answers that perfectly illustrate the feelings of suspense that defined the “Age of Anxiety.” By elevating genre play to a marker of literary skill, Lawson contends, we can secure for these writers a more prominent place within the canon of midcentury American literature, as well as open the door for the recovery of their similarly innovative peers.

Learn more about On Edge at the Ohio State University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: On Edge.

--Marshal Zeringue

Marshall Fine’s "The Autumn of Ruth Winters," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Autumn of Ruth Winters: A Novel by Marshall Fine.

The entry begins:

The Autumn of Ruth Winters focuses on three central characters. Ruth is 68-year-old widow who has lived an unfulfilling life, punctuated by her fractious relationship with her younger sister Veronica. But Ruth is forced to re-engage with her sister when Veronica suffers a health crisis—at the same time that Ruth is corresponding with a high-school classmate and crush, Martin, who is coming to town for their fiftieth high school reunion.

Ruth is someone who deals with her constant social anxiety by being stand-offish and even snappish, while Veronica is someone who has always been able to ask for just what she wants in life, and usually got it. Martin is a bit of a dark horse, someone remembered fondly in flashback who turns out to be even better in person, even after fifty years.

If you’re casting any movie about a woman of a certain age like Ruth, the first choice is always going to be Meryl Streep, who I believe would be lovely as this lonely, repressed character. But I could just as easily see Mary Steenburgen, Alison Janney, Jean Smart, Sigourney Weaver or...[read on]

Follow Marshall Fine on Facebook.

My Book, The Movie: The Autumn of Ruth Winters.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine books about the Spanish Civil War

Julian Zabalbeascoa's fiction has appeared in American Short Fiction, The Gettysburg Review, Glimmer Train, One Story, and Ploughshares, among other journals. He divides his time between Boston and the Basque Country in Spain.

What We Tried to Bury Grows Here is Zabalbeascoa's first novel.

At Electric Lit the author tagged nine books -- memoirs and novels that can be found in English -- about Spain’s bloody civil war that served as a dress rehearsal for World War II. One title on the list:

Savage Coast by Muriel Rukeyser

In Rodoreda’s novel, the Spanish Civil War creeps toward the page. That is not the case in the poet Muriel Rukeyser’s novel Savage Coast. It manifests as an explosion in time that does not literally derail the train that Helen, the novel’s protagonist, is on but stalls it on its tracks. Helen is traveling to Barcelona to cover as a reporter what would have been the People’s Olympiad, an alternative to the 1936 Summer Olympics that was to take place in Nazi Germany the following month. Those countries and athletes boycotting the Nazis were to participate in the People’s Olympiad in Barcelona. German exiles were among those who set to compete in the games, and at the start of the novel Helen has just had sex with one of them, Hans, who will soon join the International Brigades, as so many of the athletes would, to fight against the fascist-backed coup attempt. Helen is witness to the first days of the war, from the perspective of revolutionary Barcelona, the epicenter of Catalonia, a distinct area of Spain that would be unmatched in its concentration of revolutionary zealots. The novel, which plays with genres and was unpublished during Rukeyser’s lifetime, is one of awakenings – sexual, political – to a greater sense of a woman’s personhood in a teetering world desperate for change.

Read about another entry on the list.

Savage Coast is among Sarah Watling's ten top neglected books about the Spanish Civil War.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Lindsay Weinberg's "Smart University"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Smart University: Student Surveillance in the Digital Age by Lindsay Weinberg.

About the book, from the publisher:

How surveillance perpetuates long-standing injustices woven into the fabric of higher education.

Higher education increasingly relies on digital surveillance in the United States. Administrators, consulting firms, and education technology vendors are celebrating digital tools as a means of ushering in the age of "smart universities." By digitally monitoring and managing campus life, institutions can supposedly run their services more efficiently, strengthen the quality of higher education, and better prepare students for future roles in the digital economy. Yet in practice, these initiatives often perpetuate austerity, structural racism, and privatization at public universities under the guise of solving higher education's most intractable problems.

In Smart University, Lindsay Weinberg evaluates how this latest era of tech solutions and systems in our schools impacts students' abilities to access opportunities and exercise autonomy on their campuses. Using historical and textual analysis of administrative discourses, university policies, conference proceedings, grant solicitations, news reports, tech industry marketing materials, and product demonstrations, Weinberg argues that these more recent transformations are best understood as part of a longer history of universities supporting the development of technologies that reproduce racial and economic injustice on their campuses and in their communities.

Aimed at anyone concerned with the future of surveillance on higher education, Smart University empowers readers with the knowledge, tools, and frameworks for contesting and reimagining the role of digital technology on university campuses.

Learn more about Smart University at the Johns Hopkins University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Smart University.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Elizabeth Hobbs

From my Q&A with Elizabeth Hobbs, author of Misery Hates Company: A Novel:

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

A great deal! Misery Hates Company is set on a small—and very real—island just off the north shore of Massachusetts, Great Misery Island. My heroine finds herself unwillingly drawn into family intrigue and murder on the island, so it is a lovely little shorthand for the plot of the novel!

What’s in a name?

I love naming characters. There is something lovely and powerful and delightful about finding just the right name to enhance a story and aid in the reader’s understanding of the character. Since Misery Hates Company is set in New England, I plucked my names...[read on]

Visit Elizabeth Hobbs's website.

Q&A with Elizabeth Hobbs.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Elise Hart Kipness's "Dangerous Play"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Dangerous Play (Kate Green, book 2) by Elise Hart Kipness.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the author of Lights Out comes sports reporter Kate Green’s next harrowing story, where a famous former teammate is found murdered, and the only way to close the case is to open up old wounds.

After a tumultuous murder case that almost cost more than her job, sports reporter Kate Green is back on assignment covering women’s Olympic soccer. Between her experience with athletic stardom and days playing with Savannah Baker, head coach of the USA team, Kate is sure to get the story that will reestablish her career.

She just didn’t expect that story to involve murder.

When famous jewelry designer Alexa Kane is found dead in the locker room, Kate’s promising future screeches to a halt as her past resurfaces. Alexa played with Kate and Savannah on the U.S. Youth National Team, but there was no reason for her to be at the stadium now.

Kate’s investigation puts her in close contact with her estranged father, an NYPD detective who has his own past to answer for. As their secrets collide, Kate will have to decide which ones to keep―and which ones to reveal to stop the killer.

Visit Elise Hart Kipness's website.

The Page 69 Test: Lights Out.

Q&A with Elise Hart Kipness.

The Page 69 Test: Dangerous Play.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven chilling novels featuring young people taking charge of their lives

Marie Tierney was a finalist in the Daily Mail First Novel competition. When she isn’t researching criminal history, she writes plays and poetry. Born and raised in Birmingham, England, Tierney dedicated almost twenty years to working in education before becoming a full-time writer. She lives in East Anglia with her husband and son.

Tierney's new novel is Deadly Animals.

At CrimeReads the author tagged seven books that "feature young people who have taken responsibility for their own lives when the adults around them have abandoned or betrayed them." One title on the list:

Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller

In the summer of 1976, eight-year-old Peggy Hilcott is torn away from her peaceful life in London, kidnapped by her survivalist father James who believes that the end of the world is nigh. He takes them to a cabin in the middle of a German forest which is off-grid and miles from civilisation. For nine years, Peggy grows up learning how to survive in the wilderness while becoming increasingly lonely and her father becomes slowly insane. This is a bleak and beautifully written novel with a shocking revelation conclusion but hope is always present in the pragmatic yet imaginative Peggy.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: Our Endless Numbered Days.

--MarshaL Zeringue

Sariah Wilson's "A Tribute of Fire," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: A Tribute of Fire by Sariah Wilson.

The entry begins:

This question is a bit difficult for me because these characters become so real to me that I can’t imagine any actor in Hollywood ever doing them justice. I definitely drew inspiration from Reylo (the Star Wars pairing of Kylo Ren/Ben Solo and Rey), so I can easily envision Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley playing these parts—the problem is that they’re too old for these characters (although I still think they’d both do an amazing job playing Jason and Lia). I am not as familiar with younger actors , but I think Xolo Maridueña and Ariana Greenblatt would do an excellent job.

Choosing a director would be incredibly easy. I would pick...[read on]

Visit Sariah Wilson's website.

The Page 69 Test: A Tribute of Fire.

My Book, The Movie: A Tribute of Fire.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top nonfiction books on history’s greatest medical mysteries

At Mental Floss Marla Mackoul tagged ten books that "delve into some of the wildest moments in medical history." One title on the list:

Mr. Humble & Dr. Butcher: A Monkey’s Head, the Pope’s Neuroscientist, and the Quest to Transplant the Soul by Brandy Schillace

Those interested in a bit of real-life horror need look no further than the work of neurosurgeon Dr. Robert White. As a two-time Nobel Prize nominee, Dr. White was famous for his groundbreaking research into treating head trauma and spinal cord injuries. His brain research was considered cutting-edge, life-saving work.

But Dr. White was researching during the early days of the Cold War, when nearly every scientific advance was considered a race against time. Surgeons across the globe were competing to be the first to transplant vital organs like kidneys and hearts in a rivalry reminiscent of the Space Race. On the other hand, Dr. White dreamed bigger: he wanted to transplant the human brain.

In 1970, he conducted his most infamous experiment: a nine-day, monkey-to-monkey head transplant in a Cleveland hospital lab. Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher reveals the eerie story of Dr. White’s Frankenstein-like research, all the while grappling with the same question that tormented him: where in the body is the human soul?

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Margarette Lincoln's "Perfection"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Perfection: 400 Years of Women's Quest for Beauty by Margarette Lincoln.

About the book, from the publisher:

A colourful account of women’s health, beauty, and cosmetic aids, from stays and corsets to today’s viral trends

Victorian women ate arsenic to achieve an ideal, pale complexion, while in the 1790s balloon corsets were all the rage, designed to make the wearer appear pregnant. Women of the eighteenth century applied blood from a black cat’s tail to problem skin, while doctors in the 1880s promoted woollen underwear to keep colds at bay. Beautification and the pursuit of health may seem all-consuming today, but their history is long and fantastically varied.

Ranging across the last four hundred years, Margarette Lincoln examines women’s health and beauty in fascinating detail. Through first-hand accounts and reports of physicians, quacks, and advertising, Lincoln captures women’s lived experience of consuming beauty products, and the excitement—and trauma—of adopting the latest fashion trends.

Considering everything from body sculpture, diet, and exercise to skin, teeth, and hair, Perfection is a vibrant account of women’s body-fashioning—and shows how intimately these practices are related to community and identity throughout history.

Visit Margarette Lincoln's website.

The Page 99 Test: London and the Seventeenth Century: The Making of the World's Greatest City.

The Page 99 Test: Perfection.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with James Tucker

From my Q&A with James Tucker, author of The Paris Escape: A Novel:

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

Various titles work for novels, but in the case of The Paris Escape I wanted a title that included the word 'Paris', as that is the setting of the story and one that fascinates readers all over the world. And I chose 'Escape' because it has a double meaning that becomes clear during the course of the story: Henry and Laura are escaping from the rules and restrictions of the American Midwest in the 1930s, and later, they must escape from Paris when their lives are at stake.

What's in a name?

Finding the right name for a character...[read on]

Visit James Tucker's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Holdouts.

The Page 69 Test: The Holdouts.

Q&A with James Tucker.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Tessa Wegert's "The Coldest Case"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Coldest Case (A Shana Merchant Novel, 6) by Tessa Wegert.

About the book, from the publisher:

News of a missing Instagram celebrity brings Senior Investigator Shana Merchant to a frozen island community of just eight people. When the visit turns deadly, her hunt for a killer collides with a cold case she'll never forget . . .

It's February in the Thousand Islands and, cut off from civilization by endless ice, eight people are overwintering on tiny, remote Running Pine. Six year-rounders, used to the hard work, isolation and freezing temperatures . . . and two newcomers: social media stars Cary and Sylvie, whose account documenting their year on the island is garnering thousands of followers, and thousands of dollars' worth of luxury gifts.

The long-term islanders will tell you Running Pine can be perilous - especially for city slickers who'll do anything to get the perfect shot. So when Cary doesn't return from ice fishing one morning, his neighbors fear the worst.

With the clock ticking to find the missing influencer, a police team is dispatched to take the dangerous journey to the island . . . but Sylvie, his frantic partner, will only talk to one person: newlywed Senior Investigator Shana Merchant.

Where is Cary - and what is it that Sylvie's not sharing? With aspects of the case reminding Shana of an unsolved homicide from her past that haunts her still, she risks her ownelp. But little does she know that a storm is coming - and if she doesn't solve both crimes soon, she may become the island's next victim . . .

The latest taut, thrilling small-town mystery featuring New York State senior investigator Shana Merchant, and set against the beautiful backdrop of the Thousand Islands, is perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and Ruth Ware.

Visit Tessa Wegert's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Dead Season.

The Page 69 Test: The Dead Season.

Q&A with Tessa Wegert.

The Page 69 Test: Dead Wind.

Writers Read: Tessa Wegert (April 2022).

Writers Read: Tessa Wegert (December 2022).

The Page 69 Test: Devils at the Door.

The Page 69 Test: The Coldest Case.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven speculative feminism books written by women

Vanessa Saunders is a writer from the San Francisco Bay Area. Her experimental novel, The Flat Woman, won the Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize and was published by Fiction Collective Two and University of Alabama Press. Her writing has appeared in magazines such as Seneca Review, Los Angeles Review, Passages North, and other journals. Saunders currently works as a Professor of Practice at Loyola University in New Orleans.

At Electric Lit she tagged seven works of speculative feminism written by women. One title on the list:

House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

House of the Spirits is a feminist, socialist work of magical realism. Modeled after Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, Isabel Allende’s novel follows four generations of the Trueba family in post-colonial Chile. Some of the book’s characters are thought to be based on real-life figures, such as Salvador Allende, a prominent Chilean socialist, and former president, as well as Pablo Neruda, poet and senator of the Chilean communist party.

This book blends a story of a country’s history with the story of a family, focusing on the magical and the fantastic like One Hundred Years of Solitude. But, unlike its predecessor, House of the Spirits focuses on the relationships between women: mother and daughter, sisters-in-law, and grandmother and granddaughter. Using a roving, omniscient point-of-review, the book highlights the impact of toxic masculinity on the women of the Trueba family.

Read about another entry on the list.

The House of the Spirits is among Lois Parkinson Zamora's five top books to capture the magic of magical realism, Christopher Barzak's five books about magical families, and Elif Shafak's five favorite literary mothers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Erik Kenyon's "Philosophy at the Gymnasium"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Philosophy at the Gymnasium by Erik Kenyon.

About the book, from the publisher:

Philosophy at the Gymnasium returns Greek moral philosophy to its original context—the gyms of Athens—to understand how training for the body sparked training for the mind. The result is an engaging inroad to Greek thought that wrestles with big questions about life, happiness, and education, while providing fresh perspectives on standing scholarly debates.

In Philosophy at the Gymnasium, Erik Kenyon reveals the egalitarian spirit of the ancient gym, in which clothes—and with them, social markers—are shed at the door, leaving individuals to compete based on their physical and intellectual merits alone. The work opens with Socratic dialogues set in gyms that call for reform in character education. It explores Plato's moral and political philosophy through the lens of mental and civic health. And it holds up Olympic victors as Aristotle's model for the life of happiness through training.

Visit Erik Kenyon's website.

The Page 99 Test: Philosophy at the Gymnasium.

--Marshal Zeringue

Christina Lynch's "Pony Confidential," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Pony Confidential by Christina Lynch.

The entry begins:

Pony Confidential was actually born as a movie idea and only later morphed into a novel, so it’s a natural fit for this blog. Although it’s billed as a comic mystery, I'm not afraid to admit it's operatic in its internal and external conflicts (opera directors, take note!). The story of a pony who is trying to find the little girl who ruined his life by selling him twenty-five years earlier, it’s also the story of that little girl, now grown up and accused of a murder she didn’t commit. The novel is full of small satiric observations about human and animal behavior but it's also epic in scope: the pony crisscrosses America in various modes of transport many times, and faces all kinds of challenges including how to traverse a lake on a paddleboard.

I’m a little torn about animation vs. live action, but I think we’ve got the technology now to make a round and very furry little pony—and all his many feelings-- come alive in either format. If it’s live action, it would be incredibly funny to see a pony and a goat running through the streets of Los Angeles, and rat having therapy sessions with a racehorse in a trailer rolling across America. The birthday party scenes where the pony commits gentle violence on unsuspecting children would also be funnier in live action. I would love to have Bobcat Goldthwait, with whom I worked for many years on a sitcom, do the voice of the pony in his normal voice. He would be great at playing the many moods of the pony, from pissed-off critiques of humans to epiphanies about love. Bill Murray would also be perfect. Kristen Bell would be a great...[read on]

Visit Christina Lynch's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Italian Party.

The Page 69 Test: The Italian Party.

Writers Read: Christina Lynch (April 2018).

My Book, The Movie: Sally Brady's Italian Adventure.

Writers Read: Christina Lynch (June 2023).

The Page 69 Test: Sally Brady's Italian Adventure.

The Page 69 Test: Pony Confidential.

Q&A with Christina Lynch.

My Book, The Movie: Pony Confidential.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Alex Kenna reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Alex Kenna, author of Burn this Night: A Mystery.

Her entry begins:

I just finished No Visible Bruises by Rachel Louise Snyder, which is an in-depth exploration of domestic violence and familicide in our culture. As a crime fiction writer, I explore themes of good and evil, and how people are affected by tragedy and despicable acts. Right now, I’m working on a project that involves domestic violence, so I’ve been doing my homework.

This book is incredibly thorough and insightful. When writing about victims, Snyder treats them with the respect they deserve. She delves into the profoundly complex emotional and physical landscape that victims and survivors navigate – both before and after abuse. Most importantly, she explains how the question ‘why doesn’t she leave,’ greatly oversimplifies the situation that many women face.

Snyder also interviews and spends time with...[read on]

About Burn this Night, from the publisher:

Told in alternating timelines, this gripping mystery about a PI and her quest for answers is full of twists and turns, perfect for fans of Allison Brennan and Gytha Lodge.

Struggling private investigator Kate Myles is shattered to learn her late father isn’t her biological dad. She’s still reeling when she discovers that an unknown distant relative is the prime suspect in a decades-old murder investigation. Trying to convince her to take on the case for free, an old colleague recommends her as an investigator for a recent arson murder in the same small town.

After giving up on a failed acting career, Abby Coburn is starting over as a promising social work student. With her life on the right track, she’s determined to help her brother, Jacob, whose meth addiction triggered a psychotic break and descent into crime. But when Abby dies in a fire that kills two other people and destroys part of the town, the police immediately suspect Jacob.

As the Coburn family grapples with the tragedy, Kate begins unraveling the cold case but finds herself caught in the middle of an emotional minefield. Pretty soon, she discovers that this town is full of dark secrets, and as she comes closer and closer to figuring out the truth, Kate must solve both murders before she becomes the next victim.

Visit Alex Kenna's website.

Q&A with Alex Kenna.

My Book, The Movie: What Meets the Eye.

Writers Read: Alex Kenna.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books about talented criminals & con artists

Jesse DeRoy lives in New York with their family. DeRoy is a former consultant, rock-climbing instructor, and award-winning journalist.

Safecracker is DeRoy's first novel.

At CrimeReads the author tagged seven titles about literature's greatest thieves: talented criminals and con artists that provided inspiration for writing their novel. One title on the list:

Elmore Leonard’s Out of Sight

My first exposure to Leonard was through the silver screen, but when I started reading his novels, that’s when I really understood how much of his work is about smart people being dumb and dumb people being smart. In Out of Sight, Jack Foley is as clever as they come. After breaking out of prison, he robs a bank by convincing a bank teller that another customer — who has nothing to do with Foley and is completely innocent — is carrying a bomb in a briefcase. And yet, he’s not smart enough to steer clear of U.S. Marshall Karen Sisco. I’ve joked that Safecracker is a bit like if Out of Sight and the Ocean’s Eleven had a baby, not just because of the heists, but because of the how much the criminals involved enjoy themselves.

Read about another entry on the list.

Out of Sight is among Lina Chern's seven crime books where characters make terrible yet totally believable decisions.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Sarah Kornfield's "Invoking the Fathers"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Invoking the Fathers: Dangerous Metaphors and Founding Myths in Congressional Politics by Sarah Kornfield.

About the book, from the publisher:

Why is the metaphor of the "Founding Fathers" so insidious—and how does it impact American politics?

American politicians routinely invoke the metaphor of the "Founding Fathers" when referring to the men who supposedly set the United States on a path to greatness. On average, the term "Founding Fathers" is uttered by a congressional member every single day that Congress is in session. Why is this metaphor repeated constantly—and what effect does it have on policy? In Invoking the Fathers, communication scholar Sarah Kornfield links this rhetorical strategy to the rise of patriarchal white supremacy and Christian nationalism in the United States.

Using the House and the Senate as the objects of her study, Kornfield traces the trope of fatherhood across congressional discourse and theorizes a rhetoric of sovereignty in which the founders' most obvious heirs—white Christian men—inherit America and its governance. Congressional politicians use this metaphor in four ways: to supposedly advocate for rights and liberties, to demand checks and balances, to celebrate American exceptionalism, and to call for bipartisan politics. These four situations are all, at their core, disputes over what kind of nation America is or should be.

Metaphors are not harmless, Kornfield argues, and this one is particularly pernicious: the fatherhood metaphor is taken up and violently embodied by men's rights groups, white supremacist groups, and Christian nationalists. Ultimately, the book demonstrates how this gendered metaphor creates and reinforces a legislative system in which some are considered more equal than others.

Learn more about Invoking the Fathers at the Johns Hopkins University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Invoking the Fathers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Christina Lynch

From my Q&A with Christina Lynch, author of Pony Confidential:

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

Quite a bit, and I can’t take any credit except recognizing a great title when I heard it. The project was originally called Christmas Pony and it was only after it had floated around for a while without any nibbles that my agent asked if I would retitle it. I happened to be in a house full of writers on a freezing island when her email arrived. I read it aloud and my pal Anna Kovel looked at me and said “Pony Confidential.” Boom! It was a genius title that sold the book and shaped its future. Christmas Pony was the story of a pony looking for the one little girl he really loved, twenty-five years after he last saw her. Pony Confidential suggested a mysterious crime as well as a tell-all about pony life. It became not just three-foot-tall Pony’s hilarious critique of everything wrong about humans, but also the story of Penny, his long-lost human, who stands accused of a murder only...[read on]

Visit Christina Lynch's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Italian Party.

The Page 69 Test: The Italian Party.

Writers Read: Christina Lynch (April 2018).

My Book, The Movie: Sally Brady's Italian Adventure.

Writers Read: Christina Lynch (June 2023).

The Page 69 Test: Sally Brady's Italian Adventure.

The Page 69 Test: Pony Confidential.

Q&A with Christina Lynch.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Carlie Sorosiak's "Shadow Fox"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Shadow Fox by Carlie Sorosiak.

About the book, from the publisher:

Shadow the plucky fox and a girl named Bee might be the only ones who can save a secret magical island in the Great Lakes.

Shadow the fox does not trust humans. Well, except for Nan, who feeds her chunks of fish behind a lakeside motel every night. When Nan goes missing, a man from the mysterious Whistlenorth Island comes ashore to seek the aid of Nan’s granddaughter, Bee, whom he thinks is destined not only to help Nan, but also to save Whistlenorth from the greedy and destructive Night Islanders. The plans go topsy-turvy when it becomes obvious that Bee does not have the magic powers of a chosen one—but Shadow does! Can a fox really rescue an island of people? As Shadow grudgingly comes to trust her new human companions, she and Bee develop a mystical bond, a special connection between human and animal that might be the key to driving the Night Islanders from Whistlenorth for good. This enchanting adventure is narrated by Shadow herself, whose mind is unflinchingly “fox” and whose spirit is charming and bold.

Visit Carlie Sorosiak's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Carlie Sorosiak & Dany.

The Page 69 Test: Shadow Fox.

--Marshal Zeringue

Twelve top books on history’s most fearsome diseases

At Mental Floss Marla Mackoul tagged twelve books that dive "into an infamous disease and the people battling it in various capacities, showcasing the unwavering courage and resilience of individuals in the face of indescribable tragedy." One title on the list:

Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail by Stephen Bown

Stephen Bown’s Scurvy offers a vivid exploration of how scurvy, the devastating “plague of the sea,” was finally conquered. With engaging storytelling, Bown brings the harsh realities of 18th-century naval life into striking color while also showcasing the perseverance of three individuals who solved one of the greatest medical mysteries of the era, thereby revolutionizing military capabilities. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in maritime history.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Susan A. Brewer's "The Best Land"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Best Land: Four Hundred Years of Love and Betrayal on Oneida Territory by Susan A. Brewer.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Susan A. Brewer's fascinating The Best Land, she recounts the story of the parcel of central New York land on which she grew up. Brewer and her family had worked and lived on this land for generations when the Oneida Indians claimed that it rightfully belonged to them. Why, she wondered, did she not know what had happened to this place her grandfather called the best land. Here, she tells its story, tracing over the past four hundred years the two families―her own European settler family and the Oneida/Mohawk family of Polly Denny―who called the best land home.

Situated on the passageway to the west, the ancestral land of the Oneidas was coveted by European colonizers and the founders of the Empire State. The Brewer and Denny families took part in imperial wars, the American Revolution, broken treaties, the building of the Erie Canal, Native removal, the rise and decline of family farms, bitter land claims controversies, and the revival of the Oneida Indian Nation. As Brewer makes clear in The Best Land, through centuries of violence, bravery, greed, generosity, racism, and love, the lives of the Brewer and Denny families were profoundly intertwined. The story of this homeland, she discovers, unsettles the history she thought she knew.

With clear determination to tell history as it was, without sugarcoating or ignoring the pain and suffering of both families, Brewer navigates the interconnected stories with grace, humility, and a deep love for the land. The Best Land is a beautiful homage to the people, the place, and the environment itself.

Learn more about The Best Land at the Cornell University Press website.

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--Marshal Zeringue