What is Vicki Delany reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Vicki Delany, author of The Incident of the Book in the Nighttime.

Her entry begins:

I’m not usually one for seasonal reading. I’ll read a book anytime, and not much care about the season. But, this year I’ve accidently found myself reading two Christmas set books.

First is Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stephenson. This is a short book by the hugely popular author of Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone and Everyone on this Train is a Suspect, both of which I enjoyed enormously. The new book is in the same style as the earlier, with constant interruptions by the narrator, pointing the reader to important plot points, chatting about the rules of writing mysteries. It’s Christmas in Australia, which is...[read on]

About The Incident of the Book in the Nighttime, from the publisher:

Bookshop owner Gemma Doyle heads to London for a wedding, but when a body is found in connection with a rare book, Gemma sets out to sleuth the slaying in bestselling author Vicki Delany's tenth Sherlock Holmes Bookshop mystery.

Gemma Doyle and her friends have packed their bags and headed to London for her sister Pippa’s wedding. Waiting for her in the hotel lobby is none other than Gemma’s ex-husband, Paul Erikson. Paul has a rare book he wants her to see—calling it “the real deal”—so Gemma agrees to meet him at their old shop, Trafalgar Fine Books, the following day. But when Gemma arrives, accompanied by Grant, a rare book dealer, they find Paul dead in his office.

Paul had been down on his luck, but Gemma never expected this. Had he borrowed money from people he shouldn’t have? And where is the valuable book he was so anxious for Gemma to see? It’s nowhere to be found in the shop. Because of their previous relationship, Gemma feels she owes something to Paul and vows to find his killer.

As Gemma and her best friend Jayne Wilson follow Paul’s trail of friends, enemies, clients, and ex-lovers through London to Yorkshire, she realizes the puzzle of Paul’s last days is more twisted than she originally thought.

This mystery is anything but elementary, and Gemma and Jayne have to use all their wit to get to the bottom of it before their time in London—or in life—is over.

Visit Vicki Delany's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen.

The Page 69 Test: A Scandal in Scarlet.

The Page 69 Test: Murder in a Teacup.

Writers Read: Vicki Delany (September 2021).

The Page 69 Test: Deadly Summer Nights.

The Page 69 Test: The Game is a Footnote.

Writers Read: Vicki Delany (January 2023).

Writers Read: Vicki Delany (January 2024).

The Page 69 Test: The Sign of Four Spirits.

The Page 69 Test: A Slay Ride Together With You.

Writers Read: Vicki Delany.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine thrillers & suspense books that turn on a hallmark event

Jen Marie Wiggins's first book, the gifty nonfiction title Married AF: A Funny Guide for the Newlywed or Bride, was published in 2022. She has a background in advertising and public relations, and her writing has appeared in Southern Coastal Weddings, Savannah Magazine, Savannah Homes, and elsewhere.

Wiggins's new novel is The Good Bride.

[My Book, The Movie: The Good Bride; Q&A with Jen Marie Wiggins]

At CrimeReads the author tagged nine psychological thrillers and suspense books in which the plot turns on a hallmark event. One title on the list:

The Engagement Party, Finley Turner

Kass Baptiste is newly engaged to her fiancé Murray Sedgemont. Before they even get to share the news, an invitation arrives via messenger – to an engagement party hosted by Murray’s parents. But their glittering engagement soiree goes horribly wrong when Kass’s own dark past gets intertwined with murder.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: The Engagement Party.

Q&A with Finley Turner.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Matthew Fuhrmann's "Influence without Arms"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Influence without Arms: The New Logic of Nuclear Deterrence by Matthew Fuhrmann.

About the book, from the publisher:

How does nuclear technology influence international relations? While many books focus on countries armed with nuclear weapons, this volume puts the spotlight on those that have the technology to build nuclear bombs but choose not to. These weapons-capable countries, such as Brazil, Germany, and Japan, have what is known as nuclear latency, and they shape world politics in important ways. Offering a definitive account of nuclear latency, Matthew Fuhrmann navigates a critical yet poorly understood issue. He identifies global trends, explains why countries obtain nuclear latency, and analyzes its consequences for international security. Influence Without Arms presents new statistical and case evidence that nuclear latency enhances deterrence and provides greater influence but also triggers conflict and arms races. The book offers a framework to explain when nuclear latency increases security and when it incites instability, and generates far-reaching implications for deterrence, nuclear proliferation, arms races, preventive war, and disarmament.

Visit Matthew Fuhrmann's website.

The Page 99 Test: Atomic Assistance.

The Page 99 Test: Influence without Arms.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Kristi Jones

From my Q&A with Kristi Jones, author of Murder in the Ranks: A Novel:

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

I think Murder in the Ranks immediately tells the reader my book is a mystery and there is some military element to the story. Dottie Lincoln, my book’s sleuth, is a member of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in WWII. The word ‘ranks’ does some heavy lifting here to show that these pioneering women, serving in the first American women’s expeditionary force, were indeed soldiers. I hope the title brings up the question, who would want to kill one of these soldiers? And why?

What's in a name?

I wanted Dottie Lincoln’s name to be as American as apple pie. I wanted her to be relatable. At the same time, her name is...[read on]

Visit Kristi Jones's website.

Q&A with Kristi Jones.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight gripping novels based on real murders

Midge Raymond is the author of the novels Floreana and My Last Continent, the short-story collection Forgetting English, and, with coauthor John Yunker, the mystery novel Devils Island. Her writing has appeared in TriQuarterly, Bellevue Literary Review, the Los Angeles Times magazine, Chicago Tribune, Poets & Writers, and many other publications. She has taught at Boston University, Boston’s Grub Street Writers, Seattle’s Hugo House, and San Diego Writers, Ink. Raymond lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she is co-founder of the boutique publisher Ashland Creek Press.

[The Page 69 Test: My Last Continent; Writers Read: Midge Raymond (June 2016); The Page 69 Test: Floreana; Q&A with Midge Raymond]

At Electric Lit the author tagged eight novels "based on real murders, and, as fiction allows us to do, the books go beyond the tragic events to explore issues that often don’t make it into the news headlines: deeper insights into the lives of the victims, the survivors, and even the perpetrators." One title on the list:

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

This novel, which recalls Ted Bundy’s horrific murders without ever naming him, opens with the killings at a Florida sorority house in 1978 and is told from the points of view of a surviving sorority president and the friend of a victim from the other side of the country. As the sorority president connects with the Seattle victim’s friend, the two seek answers and justice. Readers familiar with Bundy’s infamy will appreciate that this chilling story focuses on the victims and survivors, the bright young women who persevere—not on the unnamed “Defendant,” as he is called in the novel.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: James Chappel's "Golden Years"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Golden Years: How Americans Invented and Reinvented Old Age by James Chappel.

About the book, from the publisher:

A “learned and lively” (Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains) account of the history of old age in modern America, showing how we created unprecedented security for some and painful uncertainty for others

On farms and in factories, Americans once had little choice but to work until death. As the nation prospered, a new idea was born: the right to a dignified and secure old age. That project has benefited millions, but it remains incomplete—and today it’s under siege.

In Golden Years, historian James Chappel shows how old age first emerged as a distinct stage of life and how it evolved over the last century, shaped by politicians’ choices, activists’ demands, medical advancements, and cultural models from utopian novels to The Golden Girls. Only after World War II did government subsidies and employer pensions allow people to retire en masse. Just one generation later, this model crumbled. Older people streamed back into the workforce, and free-market policymakers pushed the burdens of aging back onto older Americans and their families. We now confront an old age mired in contradictions: ever longer lifespans and spiraling health-care costs, 401(k)s and economic precarity, unprecedented opportunity and often disastrous instability.

As the population of older Americans grows, Golden Years urges us to look to the past to better understand old age today—and how it could be better tomorrow.

Learn more about Golden Years at the Basic Books website.

The Page 99 Test: Golden Years.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Orlando Murrin's "Knife Skills For Beginners"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Maid meets Knives Out with a dash of Top Chef in the debut locked room culinary mystery set in a London cooking school by MasterChef semi-finalist and cookbook writer Orlando Murrin.

“Some people are natural dancers, others marvelous in bed, but—not wishing to boast—I’m good with a knife. Most chefs are.”

The Chester Square Cookery School in the heart of London offers students a refined setting in which to master the fine art of choux pastry and hone their hollandaise. True, the ornate mansion doesn’t quite sparkle the way it used to—a feeling chef Paul Delamare is familiar with these days. Worn out and newly broke, he’d be tempted to turn down the request to fill in as teacher for a week-long residential course, if anyone other than Christian Wagner were asking.

Christian is one of Paul’s oldest friends, as well as the former recipient of two Michelin stars and host of Pass the Gravy! Thanks to a broken arm, he’s unable to teach the upcoming session himself, and recruits Paul as stand-in. The students are a motley crew, most of whom seem more interested in ogling the surroundings (including handsome Christian) than learning the best ways to temper chocolate.

Yet despite his misgivings, Paul starts to enjoy imparting his extensive knowledge to the recruits—until someone turns up dead, murdered with a cleaver Paul used earlier that day to prep a pair of squabs. Did one of his students take the lesson on knife techniques too much to heart, or was this the result of a long-simmering grudge? In between clearing his own name and teaching his class how to perfectly poach a chicken, he’ll have to figure out who’s the killer, and avoid being the next one to get butchered . . .

Visit Orlando Murrin's website.

The Page 69 Test: Knife Skills for Beginners.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five of the best books from the children of celebrities

Charley Burlock is the Associate Books Editor at Oprah Daily where she writes, edits, and assigns stories on all things literary. She holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from NYU, where she also taught undergraduate creative writing. Her work has been featured in the Atlantic, the Los Angeles Review, Agni, and on the Apple News Today podcast. She is currently completing an MFA in creative nonfiction at NYU and working on a book about the intersection of grief, landscape, and urban design.

At Oprah Daily Burlock tagged five "books that make us see our celebrity heroes—and their gilded lives—from a totally new perspective." One title on the list:

Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs

In 1985, Steve Jobs was one of the richest people in America, living in a sprawling 30-room mansion and frequently appearing beneath headlines and on magazine covers. Meanwhile, his only child was moving—thirteen times in the first seven years of her life— between illegal sublets and inconsistently furnished spare bedrooms, surviving off of her single mother’s ingenuity and her father’s meager court-mandated child support checks. Although Jobs denied his paternity for many years, telling Time magazine when Lisa was four that “Twenty-eight percent of the male population of the United States could be the father” (against the findings of a DNA test and a legal case), he eventually the two grew closer later in her childhood, with Lisa living with her father on-and-off and eventually taking his surname. But for Steve Jobs, love, like success, could only be chased, never caught. While the circumstances of Lisa’s childhood would have easily justified a scathing tell-all takedown, this book is not that. Infinitely wise, intensely curious, and exquisitely written, Small Fry is a nuanced portrait or both a man and an era, the legacies of which we are all still reckoning with.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Ivan Gaskell's “Mindprints: Thoreau’s Material Worlds”

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Mindprints: Thoreau's Material Worlds by Ivan Gaskell.

About the book, from the publisher:

A rediscovery of Thoreau’s interactions with everyday objects and how they shaped his thought.

Though we may associate Henry David Thoreau with ascetic renunciation, he accumulated a variety of tools, art, and natural specimens throughout his life as a homebuilder, surveyor, and collector. In some of these objects, particularly Indigenous artifacts, Thoreau perceived the presence of their original makers, and he called such objects “mindprints.” Thoreau believed that these collections could teach him how his experience, his world, fit into the wider, more diverse (even incoherent) assemblage of other worlds created and re-created by other beings every day. In this book, Ivan Gaskell explores how a profound environmental aesthetics developed from this insight and shaped Thoreau’s broader thought.

Learn more about Mindprints at the University of Chicago Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Mindprints.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Midge Raymond

From my Q&A with Midge Raymond, author of Floreana: A Novel:

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

I hope it pulls readers right in! This was a tough book to title because Floreana has two narrators—women who, a century apart, struggle with love, family, and buried secrets—and it’s set in two eras on one island that has changed remarkably in the past hundred years. It was challenging to find a title that would incorporate a real-life, unsolved murder mystery, penguin conservation, and two women who seem very different but whose struggles are very similar despite the years between them. In the end, my hope is that the title Floreana offers a sense of place and of...[read on]

Learn more about the author and her work at Midge Raymond's website.

The Page 69 Test: My Last Continent.

Writers Read: Midge Raymond (June 2016).

The Page 69 Test: Floreana.

Q&A with Midge Raymond.

--Marshal Zeringue

Steve Donoghue's ten best mystery books of 2024

Steve Donoghue is a writer and critic who shares his opinions and insights on books of various genres and topics.

One of his top ten mysteries of the year:

The Phantom Patrol by James Benn

Benn's series detailing the adventures of former Boston copy Billy Boyle during the Second World War is an unfailing source of reading pleasure, and this latest installment, dealing with the ever-fruitful world of Nazi art pillaging and set during the Battle of the Bulge.

Read about another mystery on the list.

The Page 69 Test: The Phantom Patrol.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Matthew H. Kramer's "Rights and Right-Holding"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Rights and Right-Holding: A Philosophical Investigation by Matthew H. Kramer.

About the book, from the publisher:

Building on many years of scholarship, Matthew H. Kramer sets out his definitive philosophical investigation of rights and rights-holding with this monograph, as he sometimes revisits and modifies his previous positions. Beginning with the analytical schema propounded by the American legal theorist Wesley Hohfeld, the book provides a defence of the proposition that every claim-right with a certain content is correlative to at least one duty with the same content and that every duty with a certain content is correlative to at least one claim-right with the same content. The volume then addresses the longstanding debates over the nature of right-holding, with a sustained defense of the Interest Theory and with some innovative critiques of the Will Theory. Finally, it considers the ethical and analytical questions involved in determining who can hold claim-rights at all. It argues that the beings capable of holding claim-rights include not only human adults of sound mind but also all other living human beings, many dead people, and all future generations of people, along with most non-human animals.

Addressing some major topics within moral, legal, and political philosophy, Rights and Right-Holding: A Philosophical Investigation will be a key work for philosophers and academic lawyers alike.

Learn more about Rights and Right-Holding at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Rights and Right-Holding.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top thrillers with couples who don’t get (or deserve) a happy ending

Darby Kane is the pseudonym for a former divorce lawyer and #1 international bestselling author of domestic suspense. Her books have been optioned for television and featured in numerous venues, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Cosmopolitan.

Kane's new novel is What the Wife Knew.

At CrimeReads the author tagged seven thrillers with dysfunctional couples who lose control. One title on the list:

My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing – This is a few years old. If you haven’t read it, buy it then go in blind. I’ll keep it brief: A lovely couple. Cute kids. Very together. Also, serial killers.

Read about another entry on the list.

My Lovely Wife is among Misha Popp's eight titles featuring truly fatal femmes fatales, Sarah Bonner's thirteen psychological thrillers with gobsmacking twists, Kaira Rouda's thirteen books highlighting the wives in domestic suspense, Alice Feeney's eight top novels featuring odd couples & unexpected partnerships, Pip Drysdale's seven top revenge thrillers featuring women who have had enough, Christina McDonald's seven top thrillers with flawed characters, C.J. Tudor's seven crime novels where murder is a group activity, Lisa Levy's top seven psychological thrillers with manipulative male narrators, Kaira Rouda's top seven literary couples whose relationships are deeply disturbing in the most fascinating ways possible, and Margot Hunt's top five villains who have had about enough of domestic life.

The Page 69 Test: My Lovely Wife.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Kate MacIntosh

From my Q&A with Kate MacIntosh, author of The Champagne Letters: A Novel:

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

Over twenty years ago, I was lucky enough to be traveling in France and I visited the Champagne region. In between tours of different wineries and copious amounts of free samples, I heard the story of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot, the founder of Veuve Clicquot. How do you not find a woman fascinating who runs a business, develops new innovations, works with smugglers to get her champagne out of the country during the Napoleonic war, and was a widow raising a daughter? I scribbled in my travel journal that I thought she would make a great character. That’s when I learned widows founded many of the great champagne houses. At the time, the only way a woman could own a business was if they were a widow. The present-day character is divorced, but she often thinks it would be easier if she were a widow, if her husband died instead of that he chose to leave her. That gave me the initial title for the story: The Champagne Widows.

When I had a publishing deal, the editor and I discussed the title. There was already a book with the title The Champagne Widows. Although there are many books with the same title, we decided to change it to avoid confusion. There were endless lists of options. Contenders included: Champagne Secrets, The Women of Champagne, The Widow’s Guide, The Champagne Gamble. In the end we went with The Champagne Letters, which, when we stumbled upon it, seemed the perfect fit.

The book goes back and forth between the 1800s where the Barbe-Nicole Clicquot is writing letters to her great-granddaughter to tell her about her life, and the present day when Natalie has fled her divorce and run away to Paris for vacation. Natalie finds...[read on]

Visit Kate MacIntosh's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Champagne Letters.

My Book The Movie: The Champagne Letters.

Q&A with Kate MacIntosh.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Daniel Light's "The White Ladder"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The White Ladder: Triumph and Tragedy at the Dawn of Mountaineering by Daniel Light.

About the book, from the publisher:

A sweeping history of mountaineering before Everest, and the epic human quest to reach the highest places on Earth.

Whether in the name of conquest, science, or the divine, humans across the centuries have had myriad reasons to climb mountains. From the smoking volcanoes of South America to the great snowy ranges of the Himalaya, The White Ladder follows a cast of extraordinary characters―conquistadors and captains, scientists and surveyors, alpinists and adventurers―up the slopes of the world’s highest peaks.

A masterpiece of edge-of-your-seat narrative history, The White Ladder describes the epic rise of mountaineering’s world altitude record, a story of ever higher climbs by figures great and small of mountaineering during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Daniel Light describes how climbers used revolutionary techniques to launch themselves into the most forbidding conditions. The expeditions illustrate evolutionary changes in climbing style, the advancement of high-altitude science, and the development of mountain climbing as an industry.

Throughout, Light pays special attention to Incan climbers, Gurkha guides, Sherpa mountaineers, and many others who are often overlooked. He offers nuanced new perspectives on familiar characters, for example, calling out the famed female pioneer Fanny Bullock Workman for racism and for abusing her porters. He presents a complex new portrait of notorious occultist Aleister Crowley, who was at once a ruthless expedition leader, but also an innovative strategist who could read mountains and would risk everything trying to climb them. Light also makes bold new arguments about classic debates, for example, arguing that the much-maligned Jewish climber Oscar Eckenstein shaped mountaineering as we know it today.

A story of innovation, invention, and determination, The White Ladder immerses readers in a fascinating historical period. With their breathtaking exploits, these climbers laid the groundwork for the historic ascents of K2 and Everest that came after―and heightened the spectacle of their dangerous sport.

Visit Daniel Light's website.

The Page 99 Test: The White Ladder.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine novels that capture the complexity of sisters

Lilli Sutton writes contemporary adult fiction. She holds a BA in English from Shepherd University. From Maryland, she now lives in Colorado. She draws inspiration for her writing from the natural world and the intricacies of human relationships.

When she's not writing, she's usually cooking, hiking, or trying to keep up with her ever-growing TBR list.

Sutton's new novel is Running Out of Air.

[Q&A with Lilli Sutton]

At Electric Lit Sutton tagged "nine books [that] ask their own questions about sisterhood, depict the many kinds of conflict that arise between siblings, and reflect the compassion extended by family, even in extreme circumstances." One title on the list:

One Two Three by Laurie Frankel

Laurie Frankel’s fourth novel features two of my favorite things: sister stories and environmentalism. One Two Three is set in the town of Bourne, where contaminated water has left an aftermath of health issues and developmental disorders throughout the population. Though the threat of future chemical pollution unites triplet sisters Mab, Monday, and Mirabel, they have different ambitions and ways of navigating the world—not to mention that they’re sixteen, an age rife for disagreements. Told through all three sisters’ points of view, this novel tackles themes from environmental justice to disability representation to first crushes, with the intricate nature of sisterhood at its very center.

Read about another novel on the list.

The Page 69 Test: One Two Three.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Katie Tallo reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Katie Tallo, author of Buried Road: A Novel.

Her entry begins:

Wayne Ng’s Johnny Delivers. I'm absolutely loving this rollercoaster of a mystery. Can’t wait to get back to it every time I have to put it down. It’s wonderful, charming, funny and fast-paced. Dripping with 70s nostalgia, it’s as much an action-packed thrill ride as it is a poignant, funny, nuanced story about a Chinese teenager coming-of-age amidst complicated family dynamics. Equal parts naïve and wise, scared and brave, Johnny...[read on]

About Buried Road, from the publisher:

When the love of her life disappeared on a camping trip, Gus Monet was devastated. Her daughter was only nine at the time, but young Bly still remembers the heartbreak vividly. Howard had been like a father to her. He was a journalist working on a story that took a dark and dangerous turn. The last time they saw him, he was going to meet a source he believed could blow the story wide open.

Three years later, shocked to see Howard’s obituary in the paper, Gus and Bly are drawn back to Prince Edward County where he was last seen and where the camper Howard was driving has been found. Sneaking into the camper, mother and daughter find what investigators missed. Hidden behind a secret panel are Howard’s notebook, cell phone, and a video message recorded right before he vanished, evidence that turns the cold case red hot. Searching for answers, Gus and Bly vow to follow the story Howard was pursuing and to expose whoever went to deadly lengths to stop him from revealing the truth.

Told in the compelling, thoughtful voice of young Bly, this edge-of-your-seat thriller ratchets up the tension, culminating in a heart-pounding, soul crushing, shocking finale. Infused with vivid summer imagery, set among eerie abandoned places, and steeped with sinister small-town secrets, Buried Road is the story of a young girl and a mother whose reckless resolve leads them ever closer to lethal danger—but ultimately might be what ensures their survival.

Visit Katie Tallo's website.

The Page 69 Test: Dark August.

Q&A with Katie Tallo.

Writers Read: Katie Tallo (June 2022).

The Page 69 Test: Buried Road.

Writers Read: Katie Tallo.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Lauren E. Oakes's "Treekeepers"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Treekeepers: The Race for a Forested Future by Lauren E. Oakes.

About the book, from the publisher:

“A frank, probing, but ultimately hopeful book” (Elizabeth Kolbert) that shows how the path from climate change to a habitable future winds through the world’s forests

In recent years, planting a tree has become a catchall to represent “doing something good for the planet.” Many companies commit to planting a tree with every purchase. But who plants those trees and where? Will they flourish and offer the benefits that people expect? Can all the individual efforts around the world help remedy the ever-looming climate crisis?

In Treekeepers, Lauren E. Oakes takes us on a poetic and practical journey from the Scottish Highlands to the Panamanian jungle to meet the scientists, innovators, and local citizens who each offer part of the answer. Their work isn’t just about planting lots of trees, but also about understanding what it takes to grow or regrow a forest and to protect what remains. Throughout, Oakes shows the complex roles of forests in the fight against climate change, and of the people who are giving trees a chance with hope for our mutual survival.

Timely, meticulously reported, and ultimately optimistic, Treekeepers teaches us how to live with a sense of urgency in our warming world, to find beauty in the present for ourselves and our children, and to take action big or small.

Visit Lauren E. Oakes's website.

The Page 99 Test: In Search of the Canary Tree.

The Page 99 Test: Treekeepers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top novels featuring women and art

At B&N Reads Isabelle McConville tagged six "novels chronicling the lives of college students, visual artists, painters, performance artists and more," tales that supply a "peek into the creative mind." One title on the list:

The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud

Blurring the boundaries between art and life, Claire Messud’s The Woman Upstairs is a stunning tale of a flawed heroine, life’s broken promises, and the lengths we’d go to for fulfillment. When Nora meets her new neighbors, an enigmatic, artistic couple and their adorable son, she falls headfirst for their glamorous way of life — and loses herself in the process. If you’ve ever wondered how the other half lives, The Woman Upstairs is a sharp, illuminating story.

Read about another novel on the list.

The Woman Upstairs is among Jenny Shank's five terrific novels about art and artists, Joyce Maynard's six favorite books, and Alex Hourston’s top ten unlikely friendships in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue