What is Susan O'Doherty reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read is the writer and clinical psychologist Susan O'Doherty.

O'Doherty is the author of Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued: A Woman's Guide to Unblocking Creativity. Her popular advice column for writers, “The Doctor Is In,” appears every Friday on MJ Rose’s publishing blog, Buzz, Balls, & Hype.

Her stories, poems, and essays have appeared in Eureka Literary Magazine, Northwest Review, Apalachee Review, Eclectica, Literary Mama, Reflection’s Edge, VerbSap, Carve, Word Riot, Style & Sense, Phoebe, and the anthologies About What Was Lost: Twenty Writers on Miscarriage, Healing, and Hope, It’s a Boy!, The Best of Carve, Volume VI, and Familiar.

Writers Read: Susan O'Doherty.

--Marshal Zeringue

Richard Morgan on writers and liars

From a Powells.com interview with today's featured contributor to the Page 69 Test, Richard K. Morgan:

Writers are better liars than other people: true or false?

Well, from personal experience I'd say false. I'm a catastrophic liar, so bad in fact that these days I don't even bother to try. I think the point being missed here is that a good writer isn't lying when they lay out their fiction for you — in the act of writing, you believe in the characters and situations you're creating almost as much as you do the real people around you, and certainly as much as the semi-real people we see on our television screens day to day. You have to, otherwise you couldn't make it matter enough to write it all down (and, no, the money you make from it wouldn't, on its own, be enough to force the issue — well at least it wouldn't for me — and that's the truth, honest!)

(Not that I doubt Morgan, but his answer did bring to mind the Epimenides' paradox.)

Also in the interview, Morgan was invited to "Recommend five or more books on a single subject of personal interest or expertise." He named "Essential Reading for Modern Humans: Six Books That Will Change the Way You View the World (Though You May Not Thank Them for It)."

Read the entire Powells.com Ink Q & A with Richard Morgan.

The Page 69 Test: Thirteen.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Richard K. Morgan's "Thirteen"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Richard K. Morgan's Thirteen.

About the book, from the publisher:

The future isn’t what it used to be since Richard K. Morgan arrived on the scene. He unleashed Takeshi Kovacs – private eye, soldier of fortune, and all-purpose antihero – into the body-swapping, hard-boiled, urban jungle of tomorrow in Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, and Woken Furies, winning the Philip K. Dick Award in the process. In Market Forces, he launched corporate gladiator Chris Faulkner into the brave new business of war-for-profit. Now, in Thirteen, Morgan radically reshapes and recharges science fiction yet again, with a new and unforgettable hero in Carl Marsalis: hybrid, hired gun, and a man without a country ... or a planet.

Marsalis is one of a new breed. Literally. Genetically engineered by the U.S. government to embody the naked aggression and primal survival skills that centuries of civilization have erased from humankind, Thirteens were intended to be the ultimate military fighting force. The project was scuttled, however, when a fearful public branded the supersoldiers dangerous mutants, dooming the Thirteens to forced exile on Earth’s distant, desolate Mars colony. But Marsalis found a way to slip back–and into a lucrative living as a bounty hunter and hit man before a police sting landed him in prison–a fate worse than Mars, and much more dangerous.

Luckily, his “enhanced” life also seems to be a charmed one. A new chance at freedom beckons, courtesy of the government. All Marsalis has to do is use his superior skills to bring in another fugitive. But this one is no common criminal. He’s another Thirteen – one who’s already shanghaied a space shuttle, butchered its crew, and left a trail of bodies in his wake on a bloody cross-country spree. And like his pursuer, he was bred to fight to the death. Still, there’s no question Marsalis will take the job. Though it will draw him deep into violence, treachery, corruption, and painful confrontation with himself, anything is better than remaining a prisoner. The real question is: can he remain sane – and alive – long enough to succeed?

Richard K. Morgan is the acclaimed author of Woken Furies, Market Forces, Broken Angels, and Altered Carbon, a New York Times Notable Book that also won the Philip K. Dick Award.

Among the early praise for Thirteen (or Black Man, in the U.K.):

"Richard Morgan writes pumped-up steroid fuelled cyber punk. This is an unashamedly male, rip-roaring boy's own thriller for the 21st century. If Andy McNab ate a year's worth of issues of New Scientist, this is the kind of stuff he might write afterwards. Black Man is kick-ass SF from the hard end of the spectrum."
--Death Ray

"Brilliantly plotted and unremittingly violent."
--Eric Brown, Guardian

"Since his ferocious debut novel Altered Carbon roared into town, Richard Morgan has been at the forefront of this breed of full-on, edgy science fiction, and his latest tech-noir thriller is also looking dangerously like his best yet. Smart, gripping, and downright indispensable- the search for the best sci-fi thriller of 2007 might just have come to an end..."
--SFX

"BLACK MAN is exciting and extremely violent but is driven by passionate moral concerns."
--Lisa Tuttle, Times (London)

"Richard Morgan has produced a stunning book with this gritty tech-noir thriller. Exciting and thought-provoking, this is destined to be a science fiction classic."
--Aberdeen Evening Express

Read Ali Karim's interview with Morgan at The Rap Sheet.

The Page 69 Test: Thirteen.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Keith Lockhart reading?

Keith Lockhart, conductor for the Boston Pops Orchestra, talked to the Christian Science Monitor about what he's been watching on basic cable and listening to.

And reading:

The last book I actually finished was a Paulo Coelho novel, The Zahir. It's an exploration of what it means to find a true-love relationship and then what it means to be able to stay in that. I love the works of Milan Kundera. I'm a huge fan of his writing. I find it, even in translation, to be incredibly poetic and immensely thought provoking.

Read more about what Lockhart is watching on TV and listening to.

--Marshal Zeringue

More summer crime reads

Marcel Berlins of the London Times suggested a number of crime titles for the summer, starting with:

THE OPENING SENTENCE is hard to beat: “On the same day Umberto Anastasia was killed in New York, a hippopotamus escaped from the zoo in Havana.”

The crucial link between the two events – the first of them real – is the basis of the Cuban-born Mayra Montero’s exuberant Dancing to Almendra (translated by Edith Grossman, Picador, £14.99/offer £13.49), an elegant story of crime and passion set mainly in 1957 Havana, when the city was the glamorous playground of movie stars and elite gangsters.

The narrators, Joaquin, an ambitious young journalist who stumbles on the connection between the hippo and the Mafia, and Yolande, his reminiscing one-armed lover, paint a vivid portrait of a louche, exciting underworld that was soon to disappear.

Read about the other recommended titles.

Need more suggestions? See what the usual suspects at The Rap Sheet suggest.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jane K. Cleland's "Deadly Appraisal"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Jane K. Cleland's Deadly Appraisal.

About the book, from the publisher:

Josie Prescott is settling into her new life in New Hampshire. Her antiques business is thriving, she’s beginning to make some close friends, and her relationship with the local police chief is becoming more interesting. Not bad for someone who has completely uprooted her life as a New York City auction house expert in order to get a fresh start in a small New England town.

With so much suddenly to lose, Josie can’t help but worry when murder invades her seemingly quiet community. Josie is sponsoring the Portsmouth Women’s Guild Annual Black and Gold Gala and is looking forward to receiving a kindly worded thank-you for her efforts. Instead, the Guild representative, Maisy Gaylor, dies a horrible death in the midst of the banquet. Who could have wanted to kill earnest, drab little Maisy? “Funny, isn’t it,” muses the hostile Detective Rowcliff, “how a lot of people end up dead when no one has any enemies.”

Everyone who had access to the wine Maisy drank, including Josie herself, soon comes under suspicion. Can Josie manage to ferret out the truth, keep her business running smoothly, and continue to put down roots in her new town, or will everything prove too much for her to handle on her own?

Among the praise for Deadly Appraisal:

"Jane K. Cleland’s first mystery, Consigned to Death, was nominated for an Agatha Award for best first novel in 2006 -- I reviewed it and gave it 4½ quills. Deadly Appraisal is a worthy successor.... With great dialogue and description, a strong but insecure heroine and enough inside info about Josie’s business to satisfy an Antiques Roadshow fan – what’s not to like?"
--Mystery News, April-May 2007

"Josie is a multifaceted, vulnerable character ... the story is framed with details of the antiques business, and numerous well-developed secondary characters populate the book."
--Booklist

"I love this series. Josie is such a fun character. Even though antiques are not my thing, I really enjoy this antiques mystery series. The mystery is very well crafted and the information about antiques does not hit us over the heads. The author has done a great job of this! I love the New Hampshire setting as well. Great place to set a mystery. I highly recommend this book and the series."
--Dawn Dowdle

"I give this book a 5/5 because it carried the storylines from the previous book very well. I felt like I was coming home and I hope there are more to come. It was wonderfully written and expressed. I loved seeing how things changed and how Josie did get some more confidence. Great series and one I highly recommend....
--Lover of Books Blog, May 2007

Visit Jane Cleland's website and her blog, and read an excerpt from Deadly Appraisal.

The Page 69 Test: Deadly Appraisal.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: "Mistress of the Elgin Marbles"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Susan Nagel's Mistress of the Elgin Marbles: A Biography of Mary Nisbet, Countess of Elgin.

About the book, from the publisher:

The remarkable Mary Nisbet was the Countess of Elgin in Romantic-era Scotland and the wife of the seventh Earl of Elgin. When Mary accompanied her husband to diplomatic duty in Turkey, she changed history. She helped bring the smallpox vaccine to the Middle East, struck a seemingly impossible deal with Napoleon, and arranged the removal of famous marbles from the Parthenon. But all of her accomplishments would be overshadowed, however, by her scandalous divorce. Drawing from Mary's own letters, scholar Susan Nagel tells Mary's enthralling, inspiring, and suspenseful story in vibrant detail.

Among the praise for Mistress of the Elgin Marbles:

"Absorbing ... required reading for anyone interested in cultural history as well as the art of biography."
--Booklist

"A unique life related with animation, admiration, and affection but also faithfully and unfancifully."
--Kirkus

"A sympathetic and emotionally charged portrait of Mary ... [written] with insight and compassion yet without sentimentality."
--Publishers Weekly

"A highly entertaining biography of the alluring Lady Elgin, whose husband notoriously swiped the legendary sculptures from Athens’ Parthenon and shipped them back to England. Nagel’s heroine belongs to my favorite species of aristocratic women — the fearless, headstrong wanderer."
--Tina Brown

Browse inside Mistress of the Elgin Marbles and read a brief excerpt.

Susan Nagel has written for the stage, the screen, scholarly journals, the Gannett newspaper chain, and Town & Country, and is the author of a critically acclaimed book on the novels of Jean Giraudoux.

The Page 99 Test: Mistress of the Elgin Marbles.

--Marshal Zeringue

Thomas Perry's list

This week at The Week magazine, Thomas Perry, one of my favorite thriller writers, named "The List."

One of his picks:

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Marlow recounts his arrival in the hell of the Belgian Congo to run a riverboat. He goes up the river into the interior, becoming more and more convinced that finding the legendary trader Kurtz will somehow help him understand the evil and cruelty he sees around him.

Read more about Perry's list.

Silence, Perry's new novel, is due out in July.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Six years ago, Jack Till helped Wendy Harper disappear. But now her ex-boyfriend and former business partner, Eric Fuller, is being framed for her presumed murder in an effort to smoke her out, and Till must find her before tango-dancing assassins Paul and Sylvie Turner do.

The Turners are merely hired to do a job, though, and prefer to remain anonymous. When they find that a middleman has let the true employer know their identities, finishing the job is no longer enough. Their fee just went up. And now they must double-cross the man who wants Wendy dead before he can double-cross them — if their jealousy and cold-blooded calculations don’t result in a fatal lovers’ quarrel first.

Read an excerpt from Silence.

The Page 99 Test: Thomas Perry's Nightlife.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Patrick Radden Keefe reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read is Patrick Radden Keefe, a writer who focuses on intelligence, international security, technology, and the globalization of crime.

His first book is Chatter: Dispatches from the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping.

Visit Patrick Radden Keefe official website for an excerpt from Chatter and links to his many articles.

The Page 69 Test: Chatter.

Writers Read: Patrick Radden Keefe.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Till the Cows Come Home," the movie

Till the Cows Come Home, the first of Judy Clemens's "Stella Crown" mystery series, is the current feature at My Book, The Movie.

Clemens writes:

When Marshal asked me to write a blog about my Stella Crown series, giving thought to what actors I would choose for the movie, I had to laugh. Which one of us authors doesn’t dream of our book hitting the big screen? Or even the little screen, these days. Seems like television gets as much play as theaters anymore.

Till the Cows Come Home, the first book in my series, introduced the protagonist – a twenty-nine year old female dairy farmer and HOG enthusiast. She is edgy, brittle, and somewhat foul-mouthed, but also has more likable traits, such as loyalty, honesty, and a solid work ethic. People have often asked me who I’d cast in her role, and the actresses that come to mind are ones who have dared to play characters with a harder personality.... [read on]

The fourth "Stella Crown" mystery, The Day Will Come, is due out in August.

Visit Judy Clemens's website and her blog, and read excerpts from all four "Stella Crown" mysteries.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: "Things Kept, Things Left Behind"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Jim Tomlinson's Things Kept, Things Left Behind.

About the book, from the publisher:

The stories in Things Kept, Things Left Behind explore the ambiguities of kept secrets, the tangles of abandoned pasts, and uneasy accommodations. Jim Tomlinson’s characters each face the desire to reclaim dreams left behind, along with something of the dreamer that was also lost. Starkly rendered, these spiraling characters inhabit a specific place and class — small-town Kentucky, working-class America — but the stories, told in all their humor and tragedy, are universal.

In each story the characters face conflict, sometimes within themselves, sometimes with each other. Each carries a past and with it an urge to return and repair. In “First Husband, First Wife,” ex-spouses are repeatedly drawn together by a shared history they cannot seem to escape, and they are finally forced to choose between leaving the past or leaving each other. LeAnn and Cass are grown sisters who conspire to help their prideful mother in “Things Kept.” “Prologue” is a voyeuristic journey through the surprisingly different lives of two star-crossed friends, each with its successes and pitfalls, told through their letters over thirty-five years. In “Stainless,” Annie and Warren divide their possessions on the final night of their marriage. Their realtor has advised them to “declutter” the house they are leaving, but they discover that most of the clutter cannot be so easily removed.

The choices are never simple, and for every thing kept, something must be abandoned. Tomlinson’s characters struggle but eventually find their way, often unknowingly, to points of departure, to places where things just might change.

Among the praise for Things Kept, Things Left Behind:

"Tomlinson's tales capture the desires and dreams of small-town, working-class America with heart, humor and a bit of sadness."
—Chicago Sun-Times

"In the tradition of many classic story collections -- from the Deep South back roads of Flannery O'Connor's short masterpieces to the sleepy towns of Huron County, Ontario, found in Alice Munro's exquisite work -- ... deeply rooted in a sense of place. [Tomlinson] skillfully packs suspenseful plot turns into these economical stories."
—New York Times

"Jim Tomlinson's Things Kept, Things Left Behind -- short stories that prove that the best fiction need not be more than sixty pages."
—Esquire

"a book of unusual merit"
—Kirkus (starred review)

“Jim Tomlinson uses the traditional gifts of the writer — love of place, a keen eye for the telling detail, unflagging interest in the human heart — to bring to life a very specific and eye-opening version of America, particularly working-class, rural America. In Things Kept, Things Left Behind, his care for these people and his generosity toward them are evident on every page.”
—George Saunders

“In one story within his brilliant debut collection, Jim Tomlinson describes the effect of a headshot to a rabbit’s body, using words that are applicable to the emotional impact I experience when reading his work: ‘startling, paralyzing,’ as he snatches my breath away and leaves me with an ache that is ‘sudden, sharp, and bone-deep.’ With his flawless ear for speech and great compassion and wisdom regarding measures of the human heart, Tomlinson drops us right into lives and situations that mesmerize and stun and shock each and every time. A perfect collection of headshots and heartshots from a gifted first-rate storyteller.”
—Jill McCorkle

“Jim Tomlinson’s Things Kept, Things Left Behind is a splendid debut collection of short stories that explores the enduring theme of our quest for an identity. Though deeply connected to the spirit of small towns, these stories reveal aspects of the human condition that have universal resonance. This is an impressive first book in a venerable series by a very talented new voice in American fiction.”
—Robert Olen Butler, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

"Things Kept, Things Left Behind is set in Kentucky, and these are the kinds of stories I love to see written (and strive to write) about my home state: realistic, certainly, but also dignified and tender. My favorites are the two that comprise the book’s title: “Things Kept” and “Things Left Behind.” These linked stories both center on the infidelity of their central character, but Jim writes about this familiar material in surprising and poignant ways. What I also love about these pieces, especially “Things Left Behind,” is their breadth. Here’s a twenty-three page story that does as much work as a novel — that has a novel’s scope and texture, and alternates seamlessly between several points of view, both male and female. But it’s a testament to Jim’s skill that he can just as successfully write the more succinct, “an-afternoon-in-the-life-of” kind of story, and those are in Things Kept, Things Left Behind, as well. The final story, “Stainless,” is such a piece, and it’s masterful.
—Holly Goddard Jones

Jim Tomlinson's fiction and poetry have been published in The Pinch, Five Points, Bellevue Literary Review, Potomac Review, and Arts Across Kentucky magazine. His newest story appears this spring in Shenandoah. He was awarded a 2005 Al Smith Fellowship by the Kentucky Arts Council, a teaching fellowship at Wesleyan Writers Conference, and a Walter E. Dakin Fellowship to the 2006 Sewanee Writers Conference.

The Page 69 Test: Things Kept, Things Left Behind.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: "Kindness Goes Unpunished"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Craig Johnson's Kindness Goes Unpunished.

About the book, from the author's website:

Walt Longmire has been sheriff of Wyoming's Absaroka County for almost a quarter of a century and has meted out justice with charm and a high-powered sense of humor, but when Walt tags along with good friend Henry Standing Bear on a trip to Philadelphia, he's in for a shock. When a vicious attack on his daughter Cady leaves her near death, Walt discovers that she has unwittingly become embroiled in a deadly political cover-up.

With Henry, Deputy Victoria Moretti, the entire Moretti clan of Philadelphia police officers, and Dog as backup, Sheriff Longmire intends to introduce a little western justice from his saddlebag of tricks to the City of Brotherly Love, where no act of kindness goes unpunished.

Among the praise for Kindness Goes Unpunished:

"Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire series ... [is] a true standout. It's a spine-tingling throwback to a tougher era.... And there's more than enough ... action, driven by a very busy plot, to keep you feverishly turning pages and starting with surprise, right up to the final chapter."
--Karen G. Anderson, January Magazine

"The quick pace and tangled web of interconnected crimes will keep readers turning pages."
--Publishers Weekly

"Absaroka County Sheriff Walt Longmire and his sidekick, Henry Standing Bear, aka the Cheyenne Nation, venture to Philadelphia, which duly succumbs. When Standing Bear is invited to travel from Wyoming to the Philadelphia Art Museum to display his vintage photographs, Walt comes along to look in on his daughter Cady, a legal associate about to celebrate her engagement to Devon Conliffe. But after Cady is assaulted and thrown into a coma on the steps of the Franklin Institute, Devon maintains that their relationship was merely casual, although 26 vitriolic messages on her answering machine say otherwise. Barely able to control his fury, Walt begins his own investigation. Together with Standing Bear, his deputy Vic "The Holy Terror" Moretti, and her Philadelphia relatives, he follows the trail of William White Eyes, a pro bono client of Cady's with ties to her almost-fiance, an ADA, and a few local drug distributors of note. The chase circles around Philadelphia's Indian statuary, with pauses at the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, off of which someone throws Devon; a convenient alley, where the ADA gets done in; and Fairmount Park, where the venal tale of drugs, money laundering and cover-up comes to an end. Johnson deftly integrates country and city sensibilities; makes Walt's love and fear for Cady palpable; and casts a droll eye on Walt and romance. Even better than Death Without Company (2006): a must-read for both the tough and the tender-hearted."
--Kirkus, starred review

Craig Johnson's first two Walt Longmire mysteries are The Cold Dish and Death Without Company.

Read more about Kindness Goes Unpunished, including an excerpt, at Johnson's website.

The Page 69 Test: Kindness Goes Unpunished.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Robert Wilder's "Daddy Needs A Drink"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Robert Wilder's Daddy Needs A Drink.

About the book, from the publisher:

A Santa Fe dad shares heartwarming, comic, often ludicrous tales of raising a family in this laugh-out-loud book perfect for anyone who enjoys the edgy humor of David Sedaris or the whimsical commentary of Dave Barry. Waxing both profound and profane on issues close to a father’s heart — from exploding diapers to toddler tantrums, from the horrors of dressing up as Frosty the Snowman to the moments that make a father proud — Robert Wilder brilliantly captures the joys and absurdities of being a parent today.

With an artist wife and two kids — a daughter, Poppy, and a son, London — Robert Wilder considers himself as open-minded as the next man. Yet even he finds himself parentally challenged when his toddler son, London, careens around the house in the buff or asks the kind of outrageous, embarrassing questions only a kid can ask. A high school teacher who sometimes refers to himself jokingly as Mister Mom (when his wife, Lala, is busy in her studio), Wilder shares warmly funny stories on everything from sleep deprivation to why school-sponsored charities can turn otherwise sane adults into blithering and begging idiots.

Whether trying to conjure up the perfect baby name (“Poppy” came to his wife’s mother in a dream) or hiring a Baby Whisperer to get some much-needed sleep, Wilder offers priceless life lessons on discipline, potty training, even phallic fiddling (courtesy of young London). He describes the perils of learning to live monodextrously (doing everything with one hand while carrying your child around with the other) and the joys of watching his daughter morph into a graceful, wise, unique little person right before his eyes.

By turns tender, irreverent, and hysterically funny, Daddy Needs a Drink is a hilarious and poignant tribute to his family by a man who truly loves being a father.

Among the praise for Daddy Needs A Drink:

"Wilder's collection is spiced with sharp-eyed but never cruel observations of kids' befuddling behavior and hilarious scatology…. His love for his family comes through without ever seeming cloying…. Capture[s] the absurdity and joy to be found in the most important job a man can do."
—Los Angeles Times

“Robert Wilder’s hilarious and boldly candid essays about the realities of parenting go down like gin and tonic on a hot summer afternoon.”
—People

"More profane, more ironic and at times more touching than a whole stack of well-meaning child-rearing manuals.... Even if your husband or father or brother isn't much of a reader, Daddy Needs a Drink would be sure to make him laugh."
—Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Daddy Needs a Drink hits you in the face like a fully loaded diaper. These hilarious tales of fatherhood are both shockingly foul and utterly humane. This is a spectacular book - even if you don't have kids and may never want to. If you do have kids, Robert Wilder will make you feel like you aren't the only one screwing it all up."
—Augusten Burroughs, author of Running With Scissors and Magical Thinking

"Robert Wilder doesn't just a need a drink, he deserves one, for writing the funniest, most irreverent book about parenting in recent memory. Daddy Needs a Drink is an affectionate, wickedly observant, unexpectedly tender account of one man's sleepless journey through the brave new world of diapers, toy trains, and very smelly snowman suits."
—Tom Perrotta, author of Election and Little Children

Robert Wilder's column, “Daddy Needs a Drink,” is published monthly in the Santa Fe Reporter.

Daddy Needs a Drink is his first book.

Visit Wilder's website to read more about Daddy Needs A Drink, including a few choice excerpts.

The Page 99 Test: Daddy Needs A Drink.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Jennifer 8. Lee reading?

Jennifer 8. Lee is a metropolitan reporter at the New York Times, where she has worked for many years.

She harbors a deep obsession for Chinese food, the product of which is The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, a book that explores how Chinese food is all-American, due out in March 2008.

Last week I asked her what she was reading. Read her reply at Writers Read.

Lee tagged fiction and non-fiction, including an acclaimed novel featured at The Page 99 Test, and a work of non-fiction that recently appeared at The Page 69 Test.

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles is currently being edited, so excerpts are not yet available. Lee has this placeholder paragraph until the excerpts are online:

I can tell you that the current draft has chapters on General Tso’s chicken (I meet his family in China!), chop suey (with a new theory on who invented it and why, it’s not the historically bantered-about theory), fortune cookies (surprises galore here), how delivery got started in New York City, why Jews love Chinese food (or as I like to say “Why is chow mein the chosen food of the chosen people?), and the hunt for the greatest Chinese restaurant in the world outside Greater China.

Visit the website for The Fortune Cookie Chronicles.

Writers Read: Jennifer 8. Lee.

--Marshal Zeringue

Most important books: Patricia O'Toole

Patricia O'Toole is the author of When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House, Money and Morals in America: A History, and The Five of Hearts: An Intimate Portrait of Henry Adams and His Friends, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

She told Newsweek about her five most important books.

And about two other books in related categories:

An Important Book I haven't read:

The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad. Conrad gets my prize for Least Seductive Great Writer. I did see the movie. Does that count?

A book I hope parents will read to their children:

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson. With his crayon and his imagination, Harold is able to remake the world — a wonderful possibility for 2-year-olds (and their parents) to entertain.

Read more about Patricia O'Toole's most important books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: David Sloan Wilson's "Evolution for Everyone"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: David Sloan Wilson's Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives.

About the book, from the publisher:

What is the biological reason for gossip?
For laughter? For the creation of art?
Why do dogs have curly tails?
What can microbes tell us about morality?

These and many other questions are tackled by renowned evolutionist David Sloan Wilson in this witty and groundbreaking new book. With stories that entertain as much as they inform, Wilson outlines the basic principles of evolution and shows how, properly understood, they can illuminate the length and breadth of creation, from the origin of life to the nature of religion. Now everyone can move beyond the sterile debates about creationism and intelligent design to share Darwin’s panoramic view of animal and human life, seamlessly connected to each other.

Evolution, as Wilson explains, is not just about dinosaurs and human origins, but about why all species behave as they do — from beetles that devour their own young, to bees that function as a collective brain, to dogs that are smarter in some respects than our closest ape relatives. And basic evolutionary principles are also the foundation for humanity’s capacity for symbolic thought, culture, and morality.

In example after example, Wilson sheds new light on Darwin’s grand theory and how it can be applied to daily life. By turns thoughtful, provocative, and daringly funny, Evolution for Everyone addresses some of the deepest philosophical and social issues of this or any age. In helping us come to a deeper understanding of human beings and our place in the world, it might also help us to improve that world.

Among the praise for Evolution for Everyone:

"In this age of mounting mistrust between science and religion in American society — especially in America's classrooms — David Sloan Wilson's Evolution for Everyone comes as a breath of fresh air. Without stooping to condemn those whose religious beliefs lead them to reject evolution, Wilson clearly but gently shows how evolution is essential to understanding all aspects of our daily lives. Wilson knows the power of a good story — and most of his 36 chapters are short, riveting accounts of evolution and the scientists who have puzzled out the intricacies, and importance, of understanding evolution in human life. Evolution for Everyone fills a gap in understanding evolution, and will help in the much-needed bridge building across the divide that has threatened educational values in recent years."
—Niles Eldredge, Division of Paleontology The American Museum of Natural History New York, New York

"Evolution for Everyone is a remarkable contribution. No other author has managed to combine mastery of the subject with such a clear and interesting explanation of what it all means for human self-understanding. Aimed at the general reader, yet peppered with ideas original enough to engage scholars, it is truly a book for our time. "
—Edward O. Wilson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of On Human Nature

"A mind-stretching and unforgettable synthesis of biology, psychology, religion, and politics, this engrossing story is evolutionary biology at its very best."
—Martin Seligman, author Learned Optimism and Authentic Happiness

"There tend to be two types of science books, those for professional scientists and those for the general public. Every once in awhile a book comes along that bridges this gap, and David Sloan Wilson's Evolution for Everyone is just such a book — a well written, page-turning narrative that can be enjoyed by anyone, that also contains original ideas that simply must be read by professional scientists because they push the science forward. I was amazed by how much new ground Wilson covers, how many new ideas he presents, so in this case "everyone" means just that: general readers and professional scientists alike."
–Michael Shermer, Publisher of Skeptic magazine, columnist for Scientific American, and the author of Why Darwin Matters

“Evolution for Everyone is tremendous fun. But don't be deceived. David Sloan Wilson is a master biologist, who just happens to be a wonderful story teller.”
–Sarah B. Hrdy, author of Mother Nature

“Wilson does for evolution what Steve Levitt does for economics in his book Freakonomics.... Evolution for Everyone is full of gripping stories about the natural world, related with humor and a rare flair for language.”
—Chicago Sun Times

"With a clear passion for the subject, Wilson shows that understanding evolution is easy, even intuitive — it really is for everyone. If only everyone would read his book."
—New Scientist

Learn more about Evolution for Everyone at the publisher's website and read an excerpt.

David Sloan Wilson is Distinguished Professor, Departments of Biology and Anthropology, and Director of EvoS, Binghamton University. Read more about his scholarship and research program.

Learn more about Wilson's decision to become a scientist.

The Page 69 Test: Evolution for Everyone.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Exit Strategy," the movie

Exit Strategy, the first of Kelley Armstrong's "Nadia Stafford" series, is the current feature at My Book, The Movie.

Armstrong writes:

Ah, the “casting game.” One of the first contests I ran on my website was a fantasy casting for my first novel, Bitten. At the time, Warner Bros had optioned it, and Angelina Jolie was signed to star. The project died in development, but it was fun while it lasted.

One thing I learned from that experience was that any casting choice (even hypothetical!) is bound to be controversial among readers. There were lengthy and heated debates on my discussion board about the suitability of Ms. Jolie to the role. At the time, I avoided any prodding to pick my own choices, but for this new novel, I’m going to have some fun and play the game.

Exit Strategy is a crime novel about a contract killer for the Mob who is persuaded to join a small group of her colleagues tracking down a hitman who appears to have turned serial killer.

Read on for Armstrong's ideas about cast and director.

Learn more about Exit Strategy at Armstrong's website and read the first three chapters online.

No Humans Involved, Armstrong's most recent novel in her "Otherworld" series, hit the New York Times bestseller list this summer.

The Page 69 Test: No Humans Involved.

My Book, The Movie: Exit Strategy.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: John Rickards's "The Darkness Inside"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: John Rickards's The Darkness Inside.

About the book, from the author's website:

“It’s your choice,” Williams says. “Nice easy one. You get to decide which is worth more to you - your career, or that girl’s life.”

Seven years ago, Cody Williams was the FBI’s prime suspect in a series of horrific New England abductions.

Seven years ago, Alex Rourke put Cody Williams behind bars.

Now Cody Williams is dying. He wants to set the record straight. And he’ll only talk to Alex…

Former FBI agent Rourke has successfully reinvented himself as a private detective, but he’s still haunted by the Williams case. And facing the monster again will mean squaring up to some demons from the past. For Cody has nothing left to lose - and a big final hand to play.

When it appears that one of Cody’s victims, Holly Tynon, might still be alive but still held hostage, Alex is left to make a terrible choice that, either way, will mean the end of at least one life…

The Darkness Inside is the third and darkest installment in the Rourke series, and was deliberately written to be a suitable launching-point for new readers.

Among the praise for the novel:

"[W]ith THE DARKNESS INSIDE Rickards proves he’s getting better with every book. Just as soon as you think you start to have things figured out, Rickards pulls the rug out from under your feet. THE DARKNESS INSIDE never lets up, continuing to raise the stakes to the very end of the book and Rickards is one author who doesn’t pull punches. I felt as physically and emotionally battered as [the novel’s protagonist, FBI Special Agent Alex] Rourke must have been by the time I finished the last page."
--Sandra Ruttan, Spinetingler Magazine

"The Darkness Inside is a well constructed thriller with a likeably down to earth protagonist caught up in an increasingly dangerous situation."
--Russel McLean, Crime Scene Scotland

"[A] well plotted, fast-paced slice of modern New England gothic."
--Peter Guttridge, Guardian

Rickards shared some of the backstory to the novel at The Rap Sheet.

Visit John Rickards's website, his MySpace page, and his Crime Space page.

The Page 69 Test: The Darkness Inside.

--Marshal Zeringue

Gordon Brown's favorite books

Gordon Brown, the incoming Prime Minister of Great Britain, talked to Mariella Frostrup of the BBC's Radio 4 about his five all-time favorite books.

One children's book made the grade:

The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson

Read more about Brown's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Katharine Weber's "Triangle"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: Katharine Weber's Triangle.

About the book, from the author's website:

Esther Gottesfeld is the last living survivor of the notorious 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire and has told her story countless times in the span of her lifetime. Even so, her death at the age of 106 leaves unanswered many questions about what happened that fateful day. How did she manage to survive the fire when at least 146 workers, most of them women, her sister and fiancé among them, burned or jumped to their deaths from the sweatshop inferno? Are the discrepancies in her various accounts over the years just ordinary human fallacy, or is there a hidden story in Esther’s recollections of that terrible day?

Esther’s granddaughter Rebecca Gottesfeld, with her partner George Botkin, an ingenious composer, seek to unravel the facts of the matter while Ruth Zion, a zealous feminist historian of the fire, bores in on them with her own mole-like agenda. A brilliant, haunting novel about one of the most terrible tragedies in early twentieth-century America, Triangle forces us to consider how we tell our stories, how we hear them, and how history is forged from unverifiable truths.

Among the reviews and endorsements for Triangle:

“Katharine Weber’s Triangle is a marvel of ingenuity, bridging history and imagination, astonishing musical inventiveness and genuine social tragedy. It is a wide-awake novel as powerful as it is persuasive, probing and capturing human verities.”
—Cynthia Ozick

“Katharine Weber has always been a brilliant and ingenious formalist; at last she has found a subject deep and durable enough to bear the jeweled precision of her gaze. Here one of our most irresistible writers meets one of the most immovable events of our history. Triangle is an incandescent novel.”
—Madison Smartt Bell

“Triangle is a finely written contemplation of love, memory, terror, music and DNA. Precise and clear-eyed, the novel examines the power of recollection in surviving overwhelming tragedy with both pathos and humanity.”
—Barbara Chase-Riboud, author of Hottentot Venus

“Blending music and memory together in arresting arrangement, Triangle is a unique and poignant tale of the varieties of love and loss.”
—Rebecca Goldstein, author of Mazel and The Mind-Body Problem

"Slippery as an unreliable witness, Triangle maps the gap between memory and history. Out of the most unlikely materials, Katharine Weber has fashioned a generational mystery that plays as both academic farce and real-life tragedy."
—Stewart O'Nan

Triangle was selected by Maureen Corrigan on NPR/FRESH AIR as a favorite book of 2006 and was named by the Chicago Tribune as a Best Book of 2006.

Visit Katharine Weber's website and read an excerpt from Triangle.

The Page 99 Test: Triangle.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Joanna Scott reading?

Joanna Scott has received numerous honors for her writing, including Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundation fellowships, a Pushcart Prize, the Rosenthal Award from the Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and most recently a Lannan fellowship. She has been a finalist for the prestigious Pen/Faulkner Award twice (for Arrogance and Various Antidotes) and was selected as a finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for The Manikin. Her stories, have been included in Best American Stories (1993) and The Pushcart Prize, and in 1992 she won the Aga Khan Award from The Paris Review for her story "A Borderline Case."

Last week I asked her what she was reading. Read her reply at Writers Read.

Then visit Lit Lists for her list of five books "that cast a spell, whatever that means."

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Susan Shirk's "China: Fragile Superpower"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Susan Shirk's China: Fragile Superpower.

About the book, from the publisher:

Once a sleeping giant, China today is the world's fastest growing economy -- the leading manufacturer of cell phones, laptop computers, and digital cameras -- a dramatic turn-around that alarms many Westerners. But in China: The Fragile Superpower, Susan L. Shirk opens up the black box of Chinese politics and finds that the real danger lies elsewhere -- not in China's astonishing growth, but in the deep insecurity of its leaders. China's leaders face a troubling paradox: the more developed and prosperous the country becomes, the more insecure and threatened they feel.

Shirk, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State responsible for China, knows many of today's Chinese rulers personally and has studied them for three decades. She offers invaluable insight into how they think -- and what they fear. In this revealing book, readers see the world through the eyes of men like President Hu Jintao and former President Jiang Zemin. We discover a fragile communist regime desperate to survive in a society turned upside down by miraculous economic growth and a stunning new openness to the greater world. Indeed, ever since the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square and the fall of communism in the Soviet Union, Chinese leaders have been haunted by the fear that their days in power are numbered. Theirs is a regime afraid of its own citizens, and this fear motivates many of their decisions when dealing with the U.S. and other foreign nations. In particular, the fervent nationalism of the Chinese people, combined with their passionate resentment of Japan and attachment to Taiwan, have made relations with these two regions a minefield. It is here, Shirk concludes, in the tangled interactions between Japan, Taiwan, China, and the United States, that the greatest danger lies.

Shirk argues that rising powers such as China tend to provoke wars in large part because other countries mishandle them. Unless we understand China's brittle internal politics and the fears that motivate its leaders, we face the very real possibility of avoidable conflict with China. This book provides that understanding.

Among the reviews and endorsements for China: Fragile Superpower:

"Shirk's depth of knowledge about China - including personal acquaintance with many of its leaders - makes this book a valuable read."
--Christian Science Monitor

"Susan Shirk has written the definitive book at the right time. For those seeking an objective look at the new China, your search is over. The bonus is that Fragile Superpower is as fascinating as it is informative. A great accomplishment."
--Madeleine K. Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State

"Now more than ever we need a realistic approach for dealing with China's rising power. Susan Shirk has an insider's grasp of China's politics and a firm understanding of what makes its leaders tick. China: Fragile Superpower is an important and necessary book."
--Brent Scowcroft, former U.S. National Security Advisor

"Although other problems dominate the news today, a rising China presents America's greatest long-term challenge. Susan Shirk's excellent book argues compellingly that it also poses the greatest challenge to China's leaders. How they meet this challenge affects not only China, but also the U.S. and, indeed, the world."
--William J. Perry, former U.S. Secretary of Defense

"Susan Shirk's lively and perceptive book examines the constraints on Chinese foreign policy in an era of rapid socio-economic change. Shirk brings a wealth of experience as an astute observer of Chinese politics and as a practitioner of track I and II diplomacy toward China to illuminate the relationship between domestic legitimacy dilemmas and foreign security dilemmas."
--Alastair Iain Johnston, The Laine Professor of China in World Affairs, Harvard University

Susan Shirk is director of the University of California system-wide Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation and professor of political science in the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego. She first traveled to China in 1971 and has been doing research there ever since.

During 1997-2000, Dr. Shirk served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs, with responsibility for the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mongolia.

She founded in 1993 and continues to lead the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD), an unofficial “track-two” forum for discussions of security issues among defense and foreign ministry officials and academics from the United States, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea, and North Korea.

Dr. Shirk’s other publications include her books, How China Opened Its Door: The Political Success of the PRC’s Foreign Trade and Investment Reforms; The Political Logic of Economic Reform in China; and Competitive Comrades: Career Incentives and Student Strategies in China.

Read a Q & A about China: Fragile Superpower with the author at the OUP blog.

The Page 69 Test: China: Fragile Superpower.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: "A History of Witchcraft"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: Jeffrey Burton Russell and Brooks Alexander's A History of Witchcraft: Sorcerers, Heretics, Pagans.

About the book, from the publisher:

For nearly thirty years, Jeffrey B. Russell’s authoritative book has been the one illustrated history to which anyone interested in this subject could turn with confidence. Now, in collaboration with Brooks Alexander, who has himself conducted innovative research in the field, this classic book has been fully revised, with an updated introduction and bibliography, new information throughout, and an extended account of witchcraft from ancient times to the present day.

Drawing comparisons between modern sorcery and that of the ancient world, the book shows how the European witch craze in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries developed out of a combination of ancient sorcery and medieval Christian heresy, paganism, folklore, scholastic theology, and inquisitorial trials. Whether the diabolical witchcraft for which men and women went to the stake ever existed is open to question. What matters more is that it was believed to exist by intellectuals and peasants alike.

Among the praise for the book:

"It separates centuries of supernatural nonsense from documented fact ... spellbinding."
—Los Angeles Times

“Good stuff … a useful classic updated for witchcraft aficionados.”
—Fortean Times

Jeffrey Burton Russell is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara and author of at least seventeen books. His five-volume history detailing the concept of the Devil is recognized by scholars as the definitive text on the subject. Brooks Alexander is the author of Witchcraft Goes Mainstream and has written numerous articles on witchcraft and neo-paganism and their effect on contemporary religious movements.

The Page 99 Test: A History of Witchcraft: Sorcerers, Heretics, Pagans.

--Marshal Zeringue

The best books to travel with

The Guardian polled a number of eminent authors for their tales about the books they have taken on journeys. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie reports on reading Balzac's Le Père Goriot on a bus trip in her home country of Nigeria, and later reading Marie-Elena John's novel Unburnable on a flight from New York to Copenhagen; Julian Barnes writes about reading John Updike's "Rabbit" novels on the way to, and then traveling around, America; and Bill Bryson's remembers the two books that bucked him up on a 21-day winter visit to Norway.

There is much more, so read on.

Here's Ian Rankin's entry:

A few years back, my wife and I headed off on a rare holiday without our two sons. My brother-in-law was a diplomat stationed in Nairobi, and we were going to stay with his family for a few days, then embark on a couple of five-day safaris. My wife and elder son had done the same thing the previous year, so I was forewarned: out in the bush, facilities are limited. We would be packing insect-repellent, torches and plenty of batteries. With the prospect of a publess, tellyless two weeks, I started looking for a big fat book to take along. I had the notion of rereading Bleak House, but couldn't find it amid the clutter in my study and was determined not to buy a duplicate copy. Instead, I decided it was time to tackle Tolstoy's War and Peace. The first couple of hundred pages certainly filled the Heathrow-Nairobi flight, but while I enjoyed it, I wasn't so sure about that "greatest ever novel" tag. Tolstoy is good on the upper classes, great at set-pieces, but I found few characters from the lower orders in the story - something separating him straight away from Dickens. Mind you, Dickens wasn't a Count.

War and Peace really came into its own, however, as we lay down to sweat the night away at sundown. My wife had bought me the sort of torch cyclists sometimes use. It could be attached around the head by a strap. This made it the perfect reading companion. Miranda would get me to read bits aloud, especially the lengthy, realistic descriptions of deep Russian winters and the frostbite suffered by the Napoleonic soldiers. The various tents and lodges we slept in didn't run to air conditioning, but here was a worthwhile alternative. By day we had plenty of adventures and misadventures (the near-submersion of our vehicle in a flood being the least of them), and one evening were left to dine alone at a candlelit dinner-table, interrupted only by the roar of a lion in the near-distance. We retreated to our lodge and I strapped my reading-light on again, ready with the next chapter. By the end of the fortnight I'd finished the book. Probably not many people associate War and Peace with the heart of sweltering Africa, but I do.

--Marshal Zeringue

Chandler to the big screen?

If I've got it right, 1978's The Big Sleep is the most recent Raymond Chandler adaptation to make it to the big screen.

Now comes news that Clive Owen will take on the role of Philip Marlowe in an adaptation of a Chandler short story.

The Rap Sheet's editor J. Kingston Pierce, who has been on the story for some time, has fresh details on this production. Read on.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Peter Abrahams's "Nerve Damage"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Peter Abrahams's Nerve Damage.

About the book, from the publisher:

Sometimes the dead live on in your dreams ... at least that's true for Roy Valois. His wife, Delia, died fifteen years earlier while working for a private think tank and he has never forgotten her. Roy is a well-known sculptor in the art world. His newest piece, a magnificent creation he calls Delia, has just been finished, a sign that he's found a little closure at last.

Then Roy gets some news of the grimmest kind. It's the kind of news that forces thoughts in unexpected directions, such as the contents of one's obituary. Roy and his lawyer, a close friend, find themselves wondering whether Roy's obituary will mention a big goal he scored in college hockey. Roy's friend suggests that they could probably find out. With some help, they hack into the morgue files of the New York Times. There's no mention of the goal, but something else about his obituary bothers Roy. According to the New York Times, his wife was working for the United Nations when she died — not the think tank.

At first, Roy thinks it's a simple mistake, but when a conversation with the writer of his obituary fails to clear things up, he suspects something more. The deeper he digs, the more confusing his wife's past becomes. Delia's former colleagues deny ever knowing her, the building that housed the think tank has supposedly served as the offices for another organization for decades, and Roy can't find any records of its existence. Who was Delia? Who did she work for? How did she really die? Did she really die? With time running out, a desperate Roy won't stop until he knows the truth about the woman he can't stop loving.

Among the praise for Nerve Damage:

"From the reliably marvelous Peter Abrahams comes Nerve Damage, another top-drawer psychological thriller."
- Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly

"I swear, if one more literary person says in that oh-so-condescendng tone, 'Oh, I don't read ... mysteries,' I'm going to take a novel by Peter Abrahams and smack him on his smug little head."
- Michele Ross, Cleveland Plain Dealer

"The care with which Abrahams brings his characters to life sets him apart from most thriller writers working today."
- The New Yorker

"gripping ... the action and suspense are first rate."
- Publishers Weekly

"...gripping, captivating, and so well written."
- Library Journal

Visit Peter Abrahams's website and browse inside Nerve Damage.

The Page 69 Test: Nerve Damage.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five best: books about Germany & Germans

Steven Ozment is a professor of ancient and modern history at Harvard University. His most recent book is A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People.

He selected five books that "excel in their portraits of Germany and the German people" for Opinion Journal.

One title to make the list:

The Origins of Modern Germany by Geoffrey Barraclough (Blackwell, 1946).

In a robust history of the German Middle Ages, Geoffrey Barraclough traces Germany's geographic and political fragmentation over 12 centuries (800-1939). It turns out that the most difficult problem in German history was not the rise of National Socialism, whose existence (1920-45) was relatively brief, but the long struggle to arrive at political unity and, eventually, representative government. The failure of Germans to unify their medieval empire, according to Barraclough, is "a story of discontinuity, of development cut short, of incompleteness and retardation." It was only with German reunification in 1990 that the problem was solved, and by the formula that Barraclough prescribed: "a limited democratic Germany within historic boundaries."

Read about the book that topped Ozment's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Dana Stabenow reading?

Edgar Award–winning Dana Stabenow is the current featured author at Writers Read.

Her account opens:

I was at the winter meeting of the ALA in Seattle in January, where I had breakfast with Nancy Pearl and Talia Ross, my publisher’s (Holtzbrinck) library marketing manager. I was telling the two of them about a science fiction lit workshop I would be teaching at the Kenai Public Library in March, and how I was using classics (H. Beam Piper’s Little Fuzzy, the Heinlein juveniles, Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War, Sheri Tepper’s The Gate to Women’s Country) in my syllabus and very few new books because I hadn’t read a lot of new sf or fantasy that I liked.

Well. That was a mistake.... [read on]

Dana Stabenow is the author of fifteen novels in her "Kate Shugak" series, three Liam Campbell mysteries, three science-fiction novels, and a stand-alone novel.

Visit Stabenow's official website and her Amazon blog.

The Page 69 Test: A Deeper Sleep.

Writers Read: Dana Stabenow.

--Marshal Zeringue

Matt Richtel's list

This week at The Week magazine, author/journalist/cartoonist Matt Richtel named "The List."

One of his picks:

The Magus by John Fowles

When I read this (at the age of 22), I wondered how Fowles could possibly understand all of my own personal insecurities and fears and capture them in protagonist Nicholas Urfe. I learned later that many readers wrote to Fowles saying he had captured their fears. The book is a great story and also a kind of Rorschach test that tells each of us something about ourselves.

Read about another title on Richtel's list which nearly caused him to injure himself laughing.

Matt Richtel is author of the new Silicon Valley thriller Hooked, his first novel.

He is currently writing a second, tentatively titled Idle's Mind. He makes most of his living as a New York Times reporter, covering technology and telecommunications from the San Francisco bureau.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Ron Carlson's "Five Skies"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Ron Carlson's Five Skies.

About the book, from the publisher:

Award-winning short story writer Ron Carlson delivers a stirring novel about three men confronting their pasts and their purpose

Beloved story writer Ron Carlson’s first novel in thirty years, Five Skies is the story of three men gathered high in the Rocky Mountains for a construction project that is to last the summer. Having participated in a spectacular betrayal in Los Angeles, the giant, silent Arthur Key drifts into work as a carpenter in southern Idaho. Here he is hired, along with the shiftless and charming Ronnie Panelli, to build a stunt ramp beside a cavernous void. The two will be led by Darwin Gallegos, the foreman of the local ranch who is filled with a primeval rage at God, at man, at life. As they endeavor upon this simple, grand project, the three reveal themselves in cautiously resonant, profound ways. And in a voice of striking intimacy and grace, Carlson’s novel reveals itself as a story of biblical, almost spiritual force. A bellwether return from one of our greatest craftsmen, Five Skies is sure to be one of the most praised and cherished novels of the year.

Among the praise for Five Skies:

"Carlson writes with uncommon precision, and this return to long-form fiction after four well-received story collections is stunning."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Carlson's focus is transporting, absorbing. It shakes you from stupor, strips you down. He understands that most of us live in a world of enervating crap, whether in the cliffs of Idaho or the canyons of the city. And Five Skies offers a longed-for blueprint of the antidote.... We agree when Carlson describes civilization as 'a hundred layers of ten thousand decisions, only a few of them even interesting.'"
—Allison Glock, Esquire

"Carlson's style -- low-key, deliberate, reminiscent of both early Hemingway and contemporary James Salter -- possesses the kind of serene assurance that disdains the show-offy. Carlson doesn't need it, since he can turn even a shopping list into a poem..."
—Michael Dirda, Washington Post

"Carlson, critically acclaimed for his short stories, has written a note-perfect novel that will challenge and reward all who care about literary fiction."
—Booklist, starred review

"A beautiful novel, as unique and insular as the quiet and powerful landscape it inhabits, and as braided with hope and despair, and hope again, as are the lives of the three men at its center."
—Rick Bass

"In Five Skies Ron Carlson has fashioned such a moving and elemental meditation on every man's struggle toward family, toward the embrace of his individual soul, that, by its end, I found my appreciation for both grief and redemption to be profoundly altered. Here is a fine and gracefully rendered novel."
—Mark Spragg, author of An Unfinished Life

"Ron Carlson knows there's a hole in the middle of our lives, a chasm we can hardly imagine looking into. So when he sends three men out west to see what they can do about it, the reader must pay close attention. Five Skies is not only a deeply moving contemporary western masterpiece -- it is also a philosophical query about what it means to be a grown man, a grown person. You must read this book because it's going to make a beautiful blockbuster film, and you're going to want to be able to claim that you read it first."
—Antonya Nelson, author of Female Trouble

Ron Carlson has received citations in Best American Short Stories twelve times since 1984. His work has appeared in Harper's, GQ, North American Review, Esquire, and Double Take. He is the author of two previous collections, Plan B for the Middle Class and The News of the World, and two novels, Betrayed by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Truants.

Learn more about Five Skies at the publisher's website and listen to an audio excerpt. Read or listen to an excerpt at the NPR website.

The Page 69 Test: Five Skies.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Shaena Lambert's "Radiance"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Shaena Lambert's Radiance.

About the book, from the publisher's website:

Later, when Daisy remembered that night, she could smell the scent of honeysuckle at the window and see the moon on the floorboards. But in her memories Keiko wasn’t bandaged: her face was broken down the middle, just like the moon. One half was pure and white, the other half mottled and porous. The unbroken side was as smooth as porcelain, terrifying in its brightness, but in every memory it was the pocked side that drew Daisy in. (From Radiance, p. 192)

It’s 1952. Eighteen-year-old Hiroshima survivor Keiko Kitigawa arrives in New York City for surgery to cut away the scar marring her lovely face. Sponsored by The Hiroshima Project, Keiko is expected to be a media darling, “The Hiroshima Maiden,” selected for her scarred beauty and for the talent she briefly revealed to Project doctors in Japan for putting words to the inexpressible horrors she has witnessed. But the Keiko who arrives in America does not perform as scripted, preferring to recall instead her grandfather’s dappled gardens and tales of trickster foxes. Frustrated by her recalcitrance, the Project presses Keiko’s suburban host mother, Daisy Lawrence, into duty, tasking her with drawing out the girl’s horrific story, the one they need for the media circuit. When Daisy reluctantly agrees, she must fight to enter Keiko’s sphere of intimacy, and is shocked by what she learns there.

Like Keiko, Daisy has a few surprises in store for the Project. Her gentle maternal character has been vouched for by her long-time friend Irene Day, the glamorous Manhattan women’s columnist who recruited her. But even Daisy is taken aback by what bubbles up from beneath her calm domestic existence in Riverside Meadows, drawn to the surface by Keiko’s presence. Life will never be the same.

Also deeply affected by Keiko’s stay is Daisy’s husband, Walter, a nearly extinguished literary light whose off-Broadway play once garnered critical acclaim. He has been fighting for years with a hopelessly unfinished manuscript, obsessing over the tragic story of a friend who fell victim to the turmoil of Stalinist Russia. But Walter is haunted by another event in his past, something that happened in the shadows of the McCarthy trials and that he has never divulged to his wife.

Keiko, bandaged after her surgery like the Invisible Man, becomes a conduit for secret grief. A barrage of letters and gifts from strangers arrive at their door. Riverside Meadows housewives, a photographer covering her story, and even a former Japanese-held POW heap their weightiest confidences upon her. Perhaps it is the force of her tragedy that pulls them in, or perhaps it is because her bandages make her seem like a blank receptacle for their own pain. Whatever the cause, Daisy finds it increasingly difficult to find the real Keiko beneath these burdens. But she will fight with all her strength to protect the girl, even at incalculable cost.

Set against the backdrops of the Atomic Age and McCarthyism, Radiance is a precise and nuanced rendition of an historic time, depicted through a highly intimate lens and driven by acts of great love, terrible betrayals and immense compassion.

Among the praise for Radiance:

"The emerging lawn-lined suburbs of 1950s America Shaena Lambert describes in her debut novel Radiance are familiar - rendered by contemporary chroniclers such as Richard Yates. Though Lambert was born a decade later in Canada, this is no watery pastiche. She skilfully threads her characters' emotions and relationships with a brilliantly rendered historical background of McCarthyism and idealistic internationalism. Radiance is an absorbing debut which exquisitely locates unsentimental emotional histories in an America buoyant with post-war consumerism and racked with paranoia."
- Financial Times of London

'Fascinating… skilful…artful.'
- Scotland on Sunday

"It's brilliant, really, the way this author deals with these characters. Without wasting time Lambert gives us so much."
- January Magazine

"It must be something in the water up there, but Canadian women writers are a remarkable breed - names like Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood and Carol Shields offer a guarantee of a good story well told. And now there's a new name to add the pantheon: Shaena Lambert, whose debut novel, Radiance, is as compelling, as thoughtful and as fundamentally readable as those of her better-known sisters. It is a mark of Lambert's skill as a writer that I wept. And it's entirely possible that you will too."
- Sunday Independent

"This beautifully written novel captures the essence of Fifties America without striving for effect. Lambert, who has published an acclaimed collection of short stories, adds to Canada's reputation for nurturing its literary writers."
- The Independent

'Lambert's writing, like Keiko herself, is detached, cool and compelling'
- Daily Mail

"Lambert's powerful debut novel is more subtle than its plot line suggests. Lambert paints with fresh colours the now familiar setting of manicured, 1950s US suburbia."
- Metro London

"A fascinating debut novel."
- Bella

Shaena Lambert is also the author of a book of short stories, The Falling Woman, which was chosen by The Globe and Mail as a top book of the year and was short-listed for the Danuta Gleed Award. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in many prominent journals and magazines, including Toronto Life, Image (Dublin), Marvels & Tales – The Journey of Fairytale Studies, Nimrod, Descant, The Malahat Review, The North American Review and Prism International, as well as being selected for The Journey Prize Anthology, a yearly publication of Canada’s best new short fiction.

Visit Lambert's website and read an excerpt from Radiance.

The Page 99 Test: Radiance.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Dead Fathers Club," the movie

The current feature at My Book, The Movie: Matt Haig's The Dead Fathers Club.

The Dead Fathers Club is based on Hamlet and is a "hilarious and touching novel narrated by an eleven-year old boy who is visited by his father’s ghost."

The novel has been optioned by the high-powered producer David Heyman, so there's a very good chance of the story making it to the big screen.

"But [Haig writes] I’m pretty sure every writer daydreams about how what once existed solely inside their own head could be projected onto the screen, and I’m no exception." So he came up with some ideas for screenwriter, director, and cast for the major roles. Check it out.

Visit Matt Haig's website and MySpace page.

The Page 69 Test: The Dead Fathers Club.

My Book, The Movie: The Dead Fathers Club.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Bryan Ferry reading?

Bryan Ferry, noted musician, talked to the Christian Science Monitor about what he's been watching and listening to.

And reading:

I just finished this Agatha Christie book. It's called The Mystery of the Blue Train. It was all about jewelry theft on an exotic train at high speeds. Fantastic! It's a new thing [for me]. Somebody gave it to me as a present, so I went out and bought all the rest of [her books]. They're about 20 of them. I find them quite relaxing. And I just picked up another one, Death on the Nile. I will start that tonight.

Read more about what Ferry is watching at the movies and listening to.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Ron Currie, Jr.'s "God Is Dead"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Ron Currie, Jr.'s God Is Dead.

About the book, from the publisher:

From a mind-blowing new talent, an audacious novel that imagines the world after God takes human form and dies

When God descends to Earth as a Dinka woman from Sudan and subsequently dies in the Darfur desert, the result is a world both bizarrely new yet eerily familiar. In Ron Currie's provocative, wise, and emotionally resonant novel we meet God himself; the Dinka woman whose mortality He must suffer when He inhabits her body; people all over the world coping with the devastating news of God's demise; a group of young men who, fearing the end of the world, take fate into their own hands; mental patients who insist that a god still exists; armies taking up the eternal war between fate and free will; and parents who, in the absence of a deity and the "lack of anything to do on Sundays," worship their children. On the surface, this is a world utterly transformed — yet certain things remain unchanged: protective parents clash with willful, idealistic teenagers; idols are exalted; small-town rumor mills run unabated; and children often don't realize how to forgive their parents until it's too late.

In God Is Dead, Currie brings together a prescient satirical gift worthy of Jonathan Swift, the raw appeal of Chuck Palahniuk's blackest comedy, and the thought-provoking ethical questions of Kurt Vonnegut, all with a light touch, empathy, and wisdom that make for an exhilarating reading experience. Offbeat yet accessible, God Is Dead is an exciting debut from a fresh new voice in contemporary fiction.

Among the advance praise for God Is Dead:

"Bereft and deranged earthlings struggle to adapt to a world without divine guidance in this mordant dystopian fable, its Maine author's abrasively funny first novel.... Very clever indeed: Kurt Vonnegut laced with Louis-Ferdinand Celine."
--Kirkus, starred review

"Ron Currie Jr. has a voice to reckon with. God Is Dead is a stunning work of fiction."
--Marisha Pessl, author of Special Topics in Calamity Physics

"God Is Dead is funny, haunting, and unlike anything you've ever read. You'll think about Ron Currie's world long after you've turned the last page. Weirdly wonderful and wonderfully weird, God Is Dead is absolutely unforgettable."
--Sara Gran, author of Dope and Come Closer

"God Is Dead is a rare gem: a novel of ideas that is full of deep human empathy. It’s been a while since I’ve read a book so brave, so darkly funny, so eager to provoke in all the right ways. This is an exhilarating read."
--Matt Haig, author of The Dead Fathers Club

Ron Currie, Jr.’s prizewinning fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train, The Sun, Other Voices, and Night Train. He has been shortlisted for the Fish International Short Story Award and Swink magazine’s Emerging Writer Award.

Visit Currie's website and his MySpace page to learn more about God Is Dead and his other writing and enthusiasms.

The Page 69 Test: God Is Dead.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Michael Boylan's "A Just Society"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Michael Boylan's A Just Society.

About the book, from the publisher's website:

A Just Society represents a complete account of Boylan's original worldview theory of ethics and social philosophy. The author sets out the foundation and application of the personal worldview imperative (for ethics) and the shared community worldview imperative (for social philosophy). These form the structure for a rights-based deontological theory that is holistic and underscored by an understanding of the good will that incorporates novel depictions of the sincere and authentic agent who displays sympathy, care, openness, and love. In the end, A Just Society strikes a balance between extreme liberalism (libertarianism) and those advocating the rule of the general will (utilitarianism). As such, the book makes an important contribution to ethical and political theory, as well as grounding an original approach to public philosophy.

Among the praise for A Just Society:

"Boylan develops an original, provocative, and interesting socio-political philosophy for a more just society. Boylan loads his philosophy with interesting examples, and his writing style results in very clear and enjoyable reading. Highly recommended."
—M.P. Maller, College of DuPage, CHOICE

"Michael Boylan's A Just Society, like Plato's Republic, canvasses the concept and problems of justice in the individual and society. The combination of big picture perspective, historical background, and contemporary ethical and social policy applications of Boylan's normative worldview approach to the nature of justice make his new book a highly recommended contribution to central issues in moral and political philosophy for students and professionals alike. "
—Dale Jacquette, The Pennsylvania State University

"This is not an ordinary book on what counts as a just person and just society. It is an extraordinary explanation of how a society can transform itself from an unjust society into a just one, and, more importantly, how a chaotic self can become an integrated self able and willing to create and sustain a community. Particularly impressive about Boylan's book is his chapter on public policy, be it at the local, national, or global level. Rarely is an author able to move between theory and practice as adroitly as Boylan. His book is a must to read."
—Rosemarie Tong, Distinguished Professor in Health Care Ethics and director of the Center for Professional and Applied Ethics and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Read more about A Just Society at the publisher's website.

Michael Boylan is Chair of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies at Marymount University. His many other publications include The Extinction of Desire and Basic Ethics.

Boylan recently applied the Page 69 Test to his recent book, The Extinction of Desire: A Tale of Enlightenment, "a novel that seeks to portray a philosophical depiction of the author’s worldview theory."

The Page 99 Test: A Just Society.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Patricia Smiley's "Short Change"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Patricia Smiley's Short Change.

About the book, from the author's website:

Savvy management consultant Tucker Sinclair is trying to get her own firm off the ground in Los Angeles. But when you're mixed up in a private investigator's business, trouble is always a prospect...

Tucker Sinclair is a free woman. She's finally escaped from the oppressively corporate Aames & Associates and now runs her own business consulting firm. But with freedom comes unpredictability. What was supposed to be a short stint helping private investigator Charley Tate get his practice established turns into a full-time job. Charley pushes her to go beyond the call of duty — to try to save not only his business, but possibly his life.

It all starts when Eve Lawson stumbles into the Tate Investigations office hoping to find out who is following her. But who would want to follow a bland writer working on a book about the post-World War II real estate boom in Los Angeles? With Eve's wardrobe hopelessly stuck in the eighties, Tucker can only imagine it's the fashion police. But work means much-needed income for Tucker and Charley. They soon learn that they've struck gold when this far-fetched case explodes into murder — and Eve Lawson, who's gone missing, is the prime suspect.

Now Tucker and Charley have to piece together the complex life of Eve Lawson, the troubled daughter of a real estate tycoon. She's been writing a memoir that may have rattled a few skeletons in the family closet. Tucker is on the case — and not even LA traffic can stop her...

Among the praise for Patricia Smiley's writing:

"A fun and feisty heroine."
--Janet Evanovich

"Patricia Smiley and her heroine, Tucker Sinclair, are two of the brightest stars to light up detective fiction in a long time."
--Elizabeth George

Smiley's other books include Los Angeles Times bestsellers Cover Your Assets and False Profits. She is a regular contributor to the crime fiction blog www.nakedauthors.com.

Visit Patricia Smiley's website to learn more about Short Change.

The Page 69 Test: Short Change.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Sarah Salway reading?

After Sarah Salway's "top ten list of books about unlikely friendships" caught my eye, I got in touch with her to find out what she has been reading.

She replied with an interesting report that included one poetry collection: Susan Wicks' latest book, De-Iced.

Read on to see what other books have recently captured Salway's attention.

Sarah Salway has published numerous short stories, as well as winning several writing competitions. Her first novel Something Beginning With, an extremely funny and sad story of love, self-discovery and the alphabet, was published in 2004 by Bloomsbury in the UK and Ballantine in the US (as The ABCs of Love), and has been translated into many languages. Her latest novel is Tell Me Everything.

Learn more about Salway's writing -- and read some of her poetry and journalism -- at her website and at her blog, Sarah's Writing Journal.

Writers Read: Sarah Salway.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: "Science, Religion and the Meaning of Life"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Mark Vernon's Science, Religion and the Meaning of Life.

About the book, from the author's website:

The Story

Mark Vernon was a priest in the Church of England. For two and a half years he preached, baptised, married and buried in a working-class parish in the North East of England. But then he left the priesthood, an atheist. He had become disillusioned with a church gripped by conflict and, moreover, had been swayed by the humanist philosophy that argued God was dead. But next, something else unexpected happened. Gradually, he came to the belief that the triumphalism of atheism entailed a poverty of spirit that was detrimental to people's humanity. Atheism tends to ignore or ridicule the 'big' questions of life - those questions that must be asked, if never finding conclusive answers. He became a passionate agnostic, convinced that religions carry a wisdom that human beings cannot do without, though equally convinced that the church is not necessarily the place to find it. The question, though, is how to be an agnostic? Can it be more than just a shrug of the shoulders? Is a spirituality based on the consumption of culture enough? Does it add up to a way of life?

The Philosophy

The key to wisdom, Socrates said, is understanding the limits of what one knows. The founder of Western philosophy came to realise that humans are ignorant but that they need not be pig ignorant. We are in between beasts and angels and grow by exploring that condition. His philosophy - his love of the wisdom he lacked - dominated his life. With reason, honesty, friends and questions he pursued the Delphic injunction to 'Know Thyself!'. Philosophy was only partly a matter of thinking clearly for more profoundly it was a matter of transforming oneself. Socrates was also, crucially, religious, finding in god-talk the perfect reflection of human uncertainty since matters divine are nothing if not ultimately unknown. Socrates' agnosticism provides the basis for a philosophy that puts reason's limits centre stage and even more importantly inspires an ethos - a way of seeing the world - that can add up to a way of life. It is fascinated by the big questions of how to live and where to find meaning in life.

The Relevancy

Today, we live in a culture with a lust for certainty. Scientific dogmatism would have us believe that it has all the answers and can feed us body and soul. Religion, too, is being hijacked by a conservatism that turns 'faith seeking understand' into statements of unquestioning belief. This matters because many of the things that are going wrong in the world appear to stem from the resulting hubris - be that the aggravation of conflicts because of religious fundamentalism or the danger of environmental disaster because of technological utopianism. The answer, though, is not an equal and opposite militant secularism or Luddite technophobia. Rather, it is a passionate agnosticism that sees science as inspired by wonder, nurturing a piety towards the world. And religion as the wellspring of humility and search since all theology is provisional and relative. It is not just those individuals disillusioned with dogmatic science and religion alike who seek how to be agnostic. Our future flourishing as human beings arguably demands it too.

Among the endorsements for the book:

"At last, a well-written and well-reasoned defense of agnosticism that one can sign on to regardless of prior religious or nonreligious commitments. Vernon's book is also a thoughtful critique of religion from the inside, respectful of his own and others' beliefs, while at the same time honest and honorable in laying bare the shortcomings of both religion and science. I recommend this work be read by skeptics and believers alike."
--Michael Shermer, Skeptic magazine and author of How We Believe

"Encouraging us to widen our imagination and to open our lives to a sense of wonder, Mark Vernon is convinced, in the tradition of Socrates, that we achieve this by avoiding the certainties of faith and the rigidities of atheism. Believers and non-believers will find this a richly rewarding read."
--John Gladwin, Bishop of Chelmsford

"For twenty years I have been waiting for a book that exposes the empty certainties of religious fundamentalism and its secular twin: scientific triumphalism. Mark Vernon has delivered that and much, much more. Mystery and doubt are elevated to where they should be: at the very heart of what it is to be human. Savour this as a wonderful gift."
--Mark Dowd, religious broadcaster and film-maker

"Fewer and fewer of us, at least in post-Christian Britain, are committed churchgoing believers; few of us on the other hand are militant atheists; which means that there is plenty of space between for people with a sense of wonder at scientific discoveries and an appreciation of art, music and philosophy: Mark Vernon's rich, moving and entertaining account of 'Christian agnosticism' is exactly what they have been waiting for."
--Fergus Kerr, Honorary Fellow in the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh

"Philosophically erudite, yet engagingly personal, Vernon's book presents a fluent account of his spiritual journey towards agnosticism."
--John Cottingham, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading, and author of On the Meaning of Life and The Spiritual Dimension

Mark Vernon is a writer, broadcaster and journalist. He began his professional life as a priest in the Church of England. His academic interests led him from physics to philosophy via theology. Michel Foucault introduced him to the ancient Greeks on friendship; he thinks that Plato has it just about right on that one at least. His other books include The Philosophy of Friendship and Business: the Key Concepts. He has a PhD from Warwick University in philosophy, degrees in theology from Oxford University and Durham University, and a physics degree from Durham University.

Visit Vernon's website, his blog, and read an excerpt from Science, Religion and the Meaning of Life.

The Page 99 Test: Science, Religion and the Meaning of Life.

--Marshal Zeringue

Summer crime reading

The few of the authorities at The Rap Sheet have already weighed in with a sample of their summer reading.

• J. Kingston Pierce’s Summer 2007 Picks
• Stephen Miller’s Summer 2007 Reading Picks
• Anthony Rainone’s Summer 2007 Reading Picks

Linda L. Richards joined in yesterday with her contribution. One title from her list (that I particularly enjoyed as well):

I began my summer reading with a book I’d squirreled away for a delicious treat. Since Kate Atkinson’s One Good Turn (Bond Street Books) was published in 2006, I knew no one would expect me to write about it. That seemed reason enough for it to be the book I brought out to the tree when the skies cleared enough to invite a few well-spent outdoor hours. I’d heard enough about One Good Turn that I figured I’d enjoy it, but I didn’t plan on being staggered, and I am. One Good Turn follows up Case Histories, the novel that introduced former detective Jackson Brodie, now a retired millionaire living a life of leisure in France. In One Good Turn he meets up with sometime girlfriend Julia, an actress, in Edinburgh, Scotland, and ends up on the side of the law he’s less familiar with. One Good Turn is brilliant. The writing here is sharp and vivid, often moving and occasionally even humorous in a way that provokes thought. One Good Turn is not the sort of book that wants a qualifier -- if you like this, then you’ll enjoy that. If you like to read any sort of mystery and enjoy a tightly written and tautly plotted book, you won’t go wrong with One Good Turn.

Read more about Richards' summery picks.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Joe Bageant's "Deer Hunting with Jesus"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Joe Bageant's Deer Hunting with Jesus.

About the book, from the publisher's website:

After thirty years spent scratching together a middle-class life out of a “dirt-poor” childhood, Joe Bageant moved back to his hometown of Winchester, Virginia, where he realized that his family and neighbors were the very people who carried George W. Bush to victory. That was ironic, because Winchester, like countless American small towns, is fast becoming the bedrock of a permanent underclass. Two in five of the people in his old neighborhood do not have high school diplomas. Nearly everyone over fifty has serious health problems, and many have no health care. Credit ratings are low or nonexistent, and alcohol, overeating, and Jesus are the preferred avenues of escape.

A raucous mix of storytelling and political commentary, Deer Hunting with Jesus is Bageant’s report on what he learned by coming home. He writes of his childhood friends who work at factory jobs that are constantly on the verge of being outsourced; the mortgage and credit card rackets that saddle the working poor with debt, i.e., “white trashonomics”; the ubiquitous gun culture — and why the left doesn’t get it; Scots Irish culture and how it played out in the young life of Lynddie England; and the blinkered “magical thinking” of the Christian right. (Bageant’s brother is a Baptist pastor who casts out demons.) What it adds up to, he asserts, is an unacknowledged class war. By turns brutal, tender, incendiary, and seriously funny, this book is a call to arms for fellow progressives with little real understanding of “the great beery, NASCAR-loving, church-going, gun-owning America that has never set foot in a Starbucks.”

Deer Hunting with Jesus is a potent antidote to what Bageant dubs “the American hologram” — the televised, corporatized virtual reality that distracts us from the insidious realities of American life.

Among the praise for Deer Hunting with Jesus:

“This recounting of lost lives — of white have-nots in one of our most have-not states — has the power of an old-time Scottish Border ballad. It is maddening and provocative that the true believers in 'American exceptionalism' and ersatz machismo side with those stepping all over them. Bagaent's writing is as lyrical as Nelson Algren's, and if there's a semblance of hope, it's that he catches on with new readers thanks to the alternative media.”
—Studs Terkel

"Joe Bageant is a brilliant writer. He evokes working class America like no one else. The account of his revisit to his Virginia roots is sobering, poignant, and instructive."
—Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States

"This book is righteous, self-righteous, exhilarating, and aggravating. By God, it's a raging, hilarious, and profane love song to the great American redneck. As a blue state man with a red state childhood, I have been waiting for this book for years. We ignore its message at our peril."
—Sherman Alexie, author of Reservation Blues

“This fine book sheds a devastating light on Bush & Co.'s notorious 'base,' i.e. America's white working class, whose members have been ravaged by the very party that purports to take their side. Meanwhile, the left has largely turned them out, or even laughed at their predicament. Of their degraded state — and, therefore, ours — Joe Bageant writes like an avenging angel.”
—Mark Crispin Miller, author of Fooled Again: The Real Case for Election Reform

"Deer Hunting with Jesus is one of those rare books that is colorful, depressing, hilarious, and biting all at the same time. Joe Bageant has given us a glimpse into the vicious class war that is too often ignored or hidden by those happily perpetrating this war."
—David Sirota, author of Hostile Takeover

“Dead serious and damn funny ... Bageant writes with the ghosts of Hunter S. Thompson, Will Rogers, and Frank Zappa kibitzing over his shoulder ... Takes Thomas Frank’s What’s the Matter With Kansas, to the next level. “
—Mother Jones

Check out Joe Bageant's website and read more about Deer Hunting with Jesus.

The Page 69 Test: Deer Hunting with Jesus.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Steel Drivin' Man," the movie

Scott Reynolds Nelson is the latest contributor to My Book, The Movie.

About Nelson's Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, the Untold Story of an American Legend, from the Oxford University Press website:

The ballad "John Henry" is the most recorded folk song in American history and John Henry--the mighty railroad man who could blast through rock faster than a steam drill -- is a towering figure in our culture. But for over a century, no one knew who the original John Henry was -- or even if there was a real John Henry.

In Steel Drivin' Man, Scott Reynolds Nelson recounts the true story of the man behind the iconic American hero, telling the poignant tale of a young Virginia convict who died working on one of the most dangerous enterprises of the time, the first rail route through the Appalachian Mountains. Using census data, penitentiary reports, and railroad company reports, Nelson reveals how John Henry, victimized by Virginia's notorious Black Codes, was shipped to the infamous Richmond Penitentiary to become prisoner number 497, and was forced to labor on the mile-long Lewis Tunnel for the C&O railroad. Nelson even confirms the legendary contest between John Henry and the steam drill (there was indeed a steam drill used to dig the Lewis Tunnel and the convicts in fact drilled faster).

Equally important, Nelson masterfully captures the life of the ballad of John Henry, tracing the song's evolution from the first printed score by blues legend W. C. Handy, to Carl Sandburg's use of the ballad to become the first "folk singer," to the upbeat version by Tennessee Ernie Ford. We see how the American Communist Party appropriated the image of John Henry as the idealized American worker, and even how John Henry became the precursor of such comic book super heroes as Superman or Captain America.

Attractively illustrated with numerous images, Steel Drivin' Man offers a marvelous portrait of a beloved folk song -- and a true American legend.

Read on to see which directors and actors make the author's dream-list for a film adaptation of his award-winning book.

The Page 69 Test: Steel Drivin' Man.

My Book, The Movie: Steel Drivin' Man.

--Marshal Zeringue

Most important books: Neil deGrasse Tyson

American Museum of Natural History astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson told Newsweek about his five most important books.

And about two other books in related categories:

A classic that, on rereading, disappointed:

George Orwell's 1984. Why I would believe it would be interesting beyond the date, I don't know. In the 1970s it was scary. By the 1990s it was quaint. You almost can't blame it.

A Certified Important Book you haven't read:

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. For not having read it, I feel I may be a little undereducated. I could be missing some insight into the human condition, because after all, what is life but the interplay between war and peace?

Read more about Neil deGrasse Tyson's most important books.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Lynne Tillman reading?

Lynne Tillman is the latest contributor to Writers Read.

One book she mentioned:

I'm reading Javier Marias' A Heart So White, whose style and intelligence I admire. I wish it compelled me more. I think it's the concern with marriage, its effect on the protagonist's supposed autonomy, but I'm not sure, I go in and out of it. Attracted and annoyed or repelled. But I will finish it, in part because of my ambivalence. [read on]

Tillman is Professor/Writer-in-Residence in the Department of English at the University at Albany. Her novels include American Genius, A Comedy (2006), No Lease on Life (1998), which was a New York Times Notable Book of 1998 and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Cast in Doubt (1992), Motion Sickness (1991), and Haunted Houses (1987). She also publishes short stories, essays, and other non-fiction.

The Page 69 Test: American Genius, A Comedy.

Lynne Tillman: Writers Read.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jonathan B. Tucker's "War of Nerves"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Jonathan B. Tucker's War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare from World War I to Al-Qaeda.

About the book, from the publisher's website:

Statesmen, generals, and diplomats have long debated the military utility and morality of chemical warfare. In 1925, the use of chemical weapons in war was prohibited by international treaty; in 1997 the ban on the use of chemical weapons was extended to cover their development, production, and stockpiling. Nevertheless, Iraq employed chemical weapons on a large scale as recently as the 1980s, first during its eight-year war with Iran and then against its rebellious Kurdish minority.

In War of Nerves, Jonathan Tucker, a leading expert on chemical and biological weapons, writes about chemical warfare from World War I to the present.

The author makes clear how, at the turn of the twentieth century, the large-scale use of toxic chemicals on the battlefield became feasible and cheap; how Germany first developed and employed toxic weapons during World War I, burying some 6,000 cylinders (containing 168 tons of chlorine) opposite the Allied trenches defending the town of Ypres, in Belgium. German troops simultaneously opened the chlorine cylinders, panicking two French divisions and tearing a gap four miles wide in the Ypres front.

Chemical warfare had begun: five months later, the Allies retaliated with their own use of chlorine gas. By the end of the war, chemical warfare had inflicted roughly one million casualties, 90,000 of them fatal.

Tucker writes about the synthesis of the first nerve agent — Tabun — in 1936 by a German industrial chemist developing new pesticides how its high toxicity made it unusable as a pesticide but viable as a weapon for the Nazi regime. A few years later, two even more toxic nerve agents — Sarin and Soman — were developed for military use. Hitler never employed this secret weapon; German intelligence concluded — incorrectly — that the Allies had developed a similar capability.

Following World War II, we see the rise of a Cold War chemical competition between the United States and the Soviet Union that paralleled the nuclear arms race, as each pursued the secrets of the German nerve agents; how the United States and Britain planned to mass-produce Sarin (only the United States did); how the superpowers developed and mass-produced V-agents, a new generation of nerve agents of extraordinary potency; and how nerve agents spread to the Third World, including their suspected use by Egypt during the Yemen Civil War (1963—1967), as well as Iraq’s use of nerve agents in its war against Iran and on its own people. Iraq’s use of nerve agents hastened the negotiation of an international treaty banning the use of chemical weapons, which went into effect in 1997. Although the treaty now has more than 175 member-states, al-Qaeda and related terrorist groups are seeking to acquire nerve agents.

In this important and revelatory book, Jonathan Tucker makes clear that we are at a crossroads that could lead either to the further spread of these weapons or to their ultimate abolition.

Among the praise for War of Nerves:

“Chilling ... a history of the race between the advance of this taboo technology and the political efforts to abolish it. Tucker ... has a gift for making military science readable”
—New York Times

“[Tucker] writes clearly and forcefully, making his case not through argument but through the patient accumulation of appalling detail.... An immensely useful book, presenting a vast trove of vital information in highly readable form.”
—The San Francisco Chronicle

“Compelling ... offers a comprehensive history of chemical weapons, the most widely used WMD in modern history.”
—Washington Post Book World

“Outstanding ... fascinating.... Everyone who believes weapons of mass destruction exist only in fantasy need but read this book. They are closer than you think.”
—The Decatur Daily

Jonathan B. Tucker is a Visiting Fellow, Security Policy Research Group, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (German Institute for International and Security Affairs) and a Senior Fellow in the Washington, D.C. office of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, where he specializes in chemical and biological weapons issues. He is the editor of Toxic Terror: Assessing Terrorist Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons (MIT Press, 2000) and the author of Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox (Grove/Atlantic, 2001).

Learn more about War of Nerves and read an excerpt at the publisher's website.

The Page 99 Test: War of Nerves.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Michael Boylan's "The Extinction of Desire"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Michael Boylan's The Extinction of Desire: A Tale of Enlightenment.

About the book, from the publisher's website:

What would you do if you suddenly became rich?

Michael O’Meara had never asked himself this question. A high school history teacher in Maryland, Michael is content to not ask too many questions - until, after a freak accident, he unexpectedly finds himself the beneficiary of a million dollars. As friends, adversaries, and a greedy ex-wife emerge from the background to lay claim to the fortune, Michael finds himself caught up in a number of troubling situations that disrupt his life and leave him questioning everything he had and everything he thought he wanted.

Haplessly swept from the United States and Europe, among international jet setters, the IRA, the Mob, and everyday people, Michael slowly begins to uncover what is truly valuable in life through the teachings of Buddhist philosophy. The Extinction of Desire maps the course of his voyage, blending philosophy and fiction to discover fundamental truths.

Among the early endorsements for the book:

"Michael Boylan's The Extinction of Desire reads like a fast-paced philosophical fable. Call it Candide, where the best of all possible worlds turns out to be the least exciting. You will read this book in a gulp. It will make you laugh, catch you off guard, and most importantly make you think."
--Mark Noll, University of Notre Dame

"The elements of Buddhism in Extinction, no less than the pieces of Western philosophy and literature (e.g., Dante), set the stage for a deeper philosophical journey. Like Kierkegaard's 'knight of faith', Michael O'Meara comes to grasp what he ought to seek. In Extinction we find the subtle development of the philosophy of 'Worldview'."
--Robert Paul Churchill, George Washington University

Visit the publisher's website for more information about The Extinction of Desire.

Michael Boylan is Chair of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies at Marymount University

The Page 69 Test: The Extinction of Desire.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Steve Mosby's "The 50/50 Killer"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Steve Mosby's The 50/50 Killer.

About the book, from the author's website:

Mark Nelson is a young and ambitious police officer, beginning his first day on assignment to the team of John Mercer. A highly-decorated and successful detective, and the author of a bestselling true crime book based on his years of experience catching killers, Mercer is a legend in the force. It’s a huge opportunity for Mark. Still haunted by the death of his girlfriend, he’s dedicated the intervening time to his career, and now he’s determined to do well.

When a man is found burned to death in his own home, Mercer’s team is thrown into an investigation that grows darker and more complex at every turn. As they follow the trail of evidence, it begins to point to a man known as the Fifty-Fifty Killer: a murderer the team are well-acquainted with. His targets are young couples, who he stalks and subjects to a single night of torture and manipulation, testing and destroying the love between them. Only one of them ever survives until dawn. And his victims include a former member of Mercer’s team.

It has been two years since the murder of Detective Andrew Dyson, a period of time that saw Mercer suffer a breakdown before returning to work a more cautious man. Now it seems the killer has surfaced again, with a new plan and new methods. Another couple’s lives are in danger. And as the pressure begins to mount, the cracks in Mercer’s resolve become more apparent to his team. They need to break this investigation, or else it will break him.

Later that night, Scott escapes from a makeshift prison deep within the woods. Badly tortured, with his memory in tatters, he knows only that his girlfriend, Jodie, is still being held captive. But the team are aware of the killer’s intentions and know that, by escaping, Scott has sealed her fate. If they can’t piece together his experience by daybreak then Jodie will die in his place.

As events move towards a climax, Mark unravels Scott’s story in the hospital, while Mercer leads a search team through the woods and Jodie is drawn into a dangerous confrontation with her captor. All the time, the killer’s plan is coming slowly into focus, and as the true extent of his game becomes clear, all of them will be forced to play by his rules and face the question he offers. What would you give up to save the life of someone you love, and what would you be prepared to do?

Among the praise for The 50/50 Killer:

“Steve Mosby’s third novel, The 50/50 Killer, is so tight, lightening paced and terrifying, the words “breakthrough novel from one of the most talented crime writers around” might just – for once – be accurate … The 50/50 Killer is an outstanding read guaranteed to get you running for its two predecessors as soon as you’ve finished. (9/10)”
--Chris High

“Mosby has followed his startlingly original The Cutting Crew with a novel somewhat less surreal and more grounded in police procedure, but no less thrilling, compulsive and difficult to put down … as in the very best thrillers, you should not presume to think you know what is going on until you have read to the very last page.”
--Matthew Lewin, The Guardian

“This is the book that should see him acclaimed as a potential great of the crime genre as it’s an instant classic. … Mosby’s background is in horror and that’s often clear here - there are some distressing scenes. But he’s also an excellent writer who steers well clear of genre formulae and manages some really deft characterisation - this is no standard potboiler. And there’s a switchback twist at the climax that is brilliantly conceived and consummately executed. Pretty much flawless.”
--Paul Connolly, London Lite

“Mosby — a 30-year-old from Leeds, on his third novel — writes with confidence and originality, and displays an impressive feel for horror.”
--Marcel Berlins, The Times

“Mosby is an extremely talented writer. … [he] writes with an unrelenting pace and with such heart that I tore through this book. I can’t wait to see what he does next.”
--Jon Jordan, Crimespree

“A fabulous read”
--CrimeSquad

“Thriller new boy Mosby is shaping up to be a king of the craft.”
--Daily Sport

“Mosby has established himself as a writer who stretches the genre, his writing and the particular atmosphere he brings to the story takes this out of the realm of run-of-the-mill serial killer land into much fresher territory.”
--Cath Staincliffe, Tangled Web

“This is a terrific addition to the canon of crime fiction and hails Mosby as a writer of terrific, if terrifying, ability.”
--Ben Hunt, Material Witness

Steve Mosby is the author of two additional novels -- The Third Person and The Cutting Crew -- and is now working full-time on a fourth.

Read more about The 50/50 Killer at Mosby's website, The Left Room, and at his MySpace and CrimeSpace pages.

The Page 69 Test: The 50/50 Killer.

--Marshal Zeringue

Books essential to appreciating 1920s American lit

Jeffrey Hart, an emeritus professor of English at Dartmouth College, selected five books "essential to appreciating American literature of the 1920s" for Opinion Journal.

One title to make the grade:

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Scribner, 1920)

Though everyone reads "The Great Gatsby," F. Scott Fitzgerald's "This Side of Paradise" is largely forgotten. Lionel Trilling once told me that when he read it he thought: "That's the way to go to college." He compared the novel with Goethe's "Sorrows of Young Werther." Both evoke the special intensity and pain of first love, and each was written when the author was very young. When Werther loses Lotte to a clod, he kills himself. But when Amory, Fitzgerald's hero, loses his golden girl, Rosalind Connage, he merely drowns himself in a bottle. In this first Fitzgerald novel, we see the emergence of his elegiac, lyrical style, with its dying-fall rhythm: Amory's mother, Beatrice, "absorbed the sort of education that will be quite impossible ever again."

Read about the Hemingway novel on Hart's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Cody Mcfadyen's "The Face of Death"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Cody Mcfadyen's The Face of Death.

About the book, from the author's website:

“I want to talk to Smoky Barrett or I’ll kill myself.”

The girl is sixteen, at the scene of a grisly triple homicide, and has a gun to her head. She claims “The Stranger” killed her adoptive family, that he’s been following her all her life, killing everyone she ever loved, and that no one believes her.

No one has. Until now.

Special Agent Smoky Barrett is head of the violent crimes unit in Los Angeles, the part of the FBI reserved for tracking down the worst of the worst. Her team has been handpicked from among the nation’s elite law enforcement specialists and they are as obsessed and relentless as the psychos they hunt; they’ll have to be to deal with this case.

For another vicious double homicide reveals a killer embarked on a dark crusade of trauma and death: an “artist” who’s molding sixteen-year-old Sarah into the perfect victim -- and the ultimate weapon. But Smoky Barrett has another, more personal reason for catching The Stranger -- an adopted daughter and a new life that are worth protecting at any cost.

This time Smoky is going to have to put it all on the line. Because The Stranger is all too real, all too close, and all too relentless. And when he finally shows his face, if she’s not ready to confront her worst fear, Smoky won’t have time to do anything but die.

Among the early reviews of The Face of Death:

McFadyen's outstanding sequel to his debut, Shadow Man (2006), provides a chilling reminder: "However bad things may become, evil men only triumph in the most important ways when we let them." FBI Special Agent Smoky Barrett is barely back in fighting form six months after killing the man who murdered her family and best friend before she must deal with another threat. "The Stranger," a serial killer seeking revenge for a miscarriage of justice, has targeted 16-year-old Sarah Langstrom, who asks for Smoky's help after the Stranger kills Sarah's latest foster family. The Stranger's murder spree actually began on Sarah's sixth birthday with her biological parents and dog. Smoky's crackerjack L.A. Violent Crimes Unit whirls into action to catch a monster who inflicts pain on Sarah by systematically killing anyone she loves. Smoky's fierce first person narrative and Sarah's eerie diary excerpts, supplemented by a great cast, lift this scary thriller far above the usual serial-killer norm.
--Publishers Weekly, starred review

A scarred FBI agent faces her own past as well as a strange teen’s demons as she tracks a bloodthirsty serial killer. Smoky Barrett has her hands full. Not only is she grieving her own brutal rape and the murder of her husband and daughter, she’s raising silent Bonnie, the ten-year-old daughter of a friend who was also the killer’s victim. When her boss offers her a chance to leave the field and teach, she is tempted. She wants to give both Bonnie and herself a chance at recovery. But she’s still on the job when the call comes in. A teenage girl, covered in blood and holding a gun to her head, asks for Smoky. Smoky talks young Sarah into relinquishing the gun, and removes her from the home where her family has been slaughtered. But not before promising to read the girl’s diary, which details a mysterious man she calls “The Stranger.” Has there really been a stalker bringing tragedy to Sarah’s life? When other bodies start stacking up, Smoky has no choice but to continue with the case, despite the cost to her own recovery, her adopted daughter and her coterie of loyal friends. In this follow-up to Shadow Man (2006), the author never strays far from standard serial-killer formula. Smoky may no longer be beautiful, but she’s a classically spunky heroine, as well as an ace with a gun. Her elusive prey is a chilling monster who leaves messages (“THIS PLACE = JUSTICE”) in his victims’ blood and is smart enough to confuse the FBI’s profilers. All the expected thrills in a readable package.
--Kirkus Reviews

McFadyen builds on the strengths of his debut novel, Shadow Man (2006), which introduced the scarred FBI agent Smoky Barrett, who is still recovering from the slaughter of her husband and daughter at the hands of a serial killer. Now she’s reached a turning point: she is ready to put away her family’s clothes and possessions, to come to terms with the fact that they’re gone. But her recovery is interrupted by a new case: a teenage girl who claims that her adopted family was murdered by a man who calls himself “The Stranger.” Smoky, who herself has a young adopted daughter (the only survivor from a more recent case), pushes herself to her emotional and physical limits to catch the killer and to protect her new family. McFadyen writes like a veteran, and Smoky proves that she’s a strong enough protagonist to support a series.
--David Pitt, Booklist

Read more about The Face of Death -- including an excerpt -- at Mcfadyen's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Face of Death.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Joseph Margulies reading?

Joseph Margulies is the latest contributor to Writers Read.

Margulies is an attorney with the MacArthur Justice Center and an Associate Clinical Professor at Northwestern University Law School in Chicago, and the author of Guantánamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power (Simon and Schuster 2006).

His current reading is guided mainly by a book he's researching and he suggested that others may not be particularly interested in his report. That's not true in my case: I've read one of the three books he mentions -- it's among the top memoirs by a U.S. Secretary of State -- and I'm now considering the others.

Joseph Margulies: Writers Read.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Terry L. Leap's "Dishonest Dollars"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Terry L. Leap's Dishonest Dollars.

About the book, from the publisher's website:

In an environment where corporate scandals fill the headlines and ethics courses have suddenly become standard fare in business schools, Terry Leap offers welcome insights into and useful ways of thinking about a critical problem that permeates our society. His main contribution is an integrative model of white-collar crime, which smoothly incorporates influences from sociology, psychology, public policy, and business. As he explains the process that occurs across the many different categories of crimes within organizations, he finds that there are more similarities than differences between “criminals in the suites” and “criminals in the streets.”

Leap's definition of crimes within organizations and the people who commit them are laid out in his first chapter. He then goes on to discuss the causes of and events surrounding white-collar crime, types of crimes and criminals, the decision-making processes of white-collar criminals, and the impact of these crimes. His concluding chapter predicts future trends in corporate crime, including an explanation of why we are likely to see more crime in health care. Throughout, Leap presents numerous specific examples and cases — from famous meltdowns such as Enron and WorldCom to less-publicized incidents including a weight-loss franchisee mislabeling doughnuts as low fat and a CEO of a South Carolina regional transportation authority misusing taxpayer money for lavish meals, personal expenses, and world travel.

Among the praise for Dishonest Dollars:

"Dishonest Dollars is a provocative, useful, and readable book."
—D. Quinn Mills, Albert J. Weatherhead, Jr., Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

“I have spent more than thirty-six years evaluating and treating offenders — men and women from nearly all walks of life who have committed almost every kind of crime imaginable. I found this book to be insightful, thought provoking, and full of information that was new to me. This practical book will have wide appeal. It addresses all aspects of the problem, from the mental makeup of the criminal to the attitudes of the public toward white-collar offenders. This comprehensive and compelling book will appeal to the general public as well as professionals in law enforcement, corrections, and mental health. One would also anticipate that officers and board members of both large and small businesses would read Dishonest Dollars and encourage their employees to do the same.”
—Dr. Stanton E. Samenow, author of Inside the Criminal Mind

"Drawing skillfully on several disciplines, the author presents a complete up-to-date analysis of factors that contribute to white-collar crime and its costs to individuals, organizations, and society at large. In the wake of the most recent corporate scandals, this book will prove to be an invaluable resource in several areas, including business ethics, business and society, organizational behavior, corporate governance, public administration, sociology, and criminology. Given the increasingly high profile of white-collar crimes, this book is a must-read for all who want to understand and prevent the social harms inflicted by this type of behavior. In particular, all business degree candidates should be required to read this book prior to graduation, given the ethical dilemmas they will face in the workplace. It is a book whose time has come."
—Diane Swanson, The von Waaden Business Administration Professor and Founding Chair, Business Ethics Education Initiative, Kansas State University

Terry L. Leap is Professor of Management at Clemson University. His other publications include Tenure, Discrimination, and the Courts and Collective Bargaining and Labor Relations.

The Page 69 Test: Dishonest Dollars.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tina Brown's list

This week at The Week magazine, Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker and author of a new biography of Princess Diana, named "some of her favorite recent reads" for "The List."

One of her picks:

Mistress of the Elgin Marbles by Susan Nagel

A highly entertaining biography of the alluring Lady Elgin, whose husband notoriously swiped the legendary sculptures from Athens’ Parthenon and shipped them back to England. Nagel’s heroine belongs to my favorite species of aristocratic women — the fearless, headstrong wanderer.

Read about more of Brown's picks.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Robert Ellis's "City of Fire"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Robert Ellis's City of Fire.

About the book, from the publisher's website:

When a vibrant young woman is found in bed by her hotshot businessman husband, carved from belly to throat with a very sharp knife, the elite Robbery-Homicide division of the LAPD responds in full force. Best-case scenario for lead Detective Lena Gamble: Nikki Brant’s husband killed her, case closed, and on to the next crime scene before the ravenous Hollywood media can get their lurid tabloid machinery up and running.

Unfortunately for Lena, though, she knows that best-case scenarios only happen in the movies. The murder is the first in a series of brutal crimes against beautiful women thought to be perpetrated by the same man, a killer dubbed Romeo in the press. It’s the case of a lifetime, and promises to either elevate Lena to the upper echelons of a publicity-hungry department in need of heroes, or bring about a very public and painful fall from grace. Lena has been in the public eye before, on the night her rock-star brother was gunned down on a dark street in Hollywood -- an unsolved murder so grisly she’s never recovered. She knows the score when the press and the LAPD collide.

As the investigation plays out and a massive forest fire blankets the city with acrid smoke, a cloud of conspiracy descends on Lena’s investigation, and she knows she’ll have to grind this one out ... because Nikki Brant’s death just breathed new life into more than one closed case ... because the web of conspiracy is spun more intricately than she can possibly imagine ... and because Lena knows there’s only one rock solid rule to murder in L.A.: The bigger the spectacle, the deeper the horror.

Among the early praise for City of Fire:

"City of Fire is my kind of crime novel. Gritty, tight and assured. Riding with Detective Lena Gamble through the hills of Los Angeles is something I could get used to. She's tough, smart and, most of all, she's real."
-- Michael Connelly

"City of Fire crackles along with the heat and intensity of a five-alarm conflagration. Robert Ellis has crafted an incandescent tale of detection that will have mystery and thriller fans burning through its pages."
--Joe Drabyak, Chester County Books & Music Company, West Chester, PA

"With City of Fire Robert Ellis joins the elite company of California crime writers like Robert Crais, Michael Connelly, Don Winslow and T. Jefferson Parker. City of Fire captures the L.A. landscape with a crackling good story, great character development and solid writing. Robert Ellis is a writer to watch. City of Fire is sure to please."
-- Barry Martin, Book´em Mysteries, Pasadena, CA

"This books pumps your blood, keeps you racing through the night, with a cast of characters at full throttle. Ellis´s prose has the visceral punch of the best Ellroy. And his heroine, Lena Gamble, is the most complex, tightly wound detective in years. She´s strong, smart, uncompromised, and I´d follow her anywhere."
-- Mark Moskowitz, Director of the award-winning film Stone Reader

Check out Robert Ellis's website and read an excerpt from City of Fire.

The Page 69 Test: City of Fire.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: William Martel's "Victory in War"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: William Martel's Victory in War: Foundations of Modern Military Policy.

About the book, from the Cambridge University Press website:

For millennia, policymakers and statesmen have grappled with questions about the concept of victory in war. How long does it take to achieve victory and how do we know when victory is achieved? And, as highlighted by the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq, is it possible to win a war and yet lose the peace? The premise of this book is that we do not have a modern theory about victory and that, in order to answer these questions, we need one. This book explores historical definitions of victory, how victory has evolved, and how it has been implemented in war. It also subsequently develops the intellectual foundations of a modern pre-theory of victory, and discusses the military instruments necessary for victory in the twenty-first century using case studies that include U.S. military intervention in Panama, Libya, Persian Gulf War, Bosnia/Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

• Historical analysis of the origins of victory that examines the ideas of the principal theorists of strategy and war since ancient Greece

• Case studies from the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries of cases of intervention by the United States

• A framework by which people can evaluate what it means for the state to achieve victory in war

Among the praise for Victory in War:

"The single most important nonfiction book of this season."
--Carlin Roman, The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Bill Martel's expert analysis of recent American military interventions dares to ask and works to answer a question that's dogged historians, generals, politicians and citizen soldiers for generations: what defines a victory? Martel's case studies engage an important discussion with real-world implications for our times that can't possibly be overstated."
--Senator John Kerry

“William Martel’s Victory in War is a scholarly and well researched exploration of a subject that is increasingly drawing our attention; what is the meaning of victory in today’s context. Drawing on history, Martel explores thoroughly different victories and defeats and what led to them. His study will be a major contribution to the evolution of military strategy. I commend it to all who are serious students of international affairs.”
--Frank C. Carlucci, Former Secretary of Defense and National Security Adviser

"This book addresses an important and pertinent topic. It contributes substantially to the ongoing debate in the United States and, indeed, in most countries, about the meaning of victory in war."
--James F. Miskel, Professor, National Security Affairs, Naval War College

"Martel gives us an important book on a pressing subject of overriding importance to policy makers and military planners. Namely, how do we define victory in the post-modern, post-heroic age of gritty little wars waged to stop regional bullies, terrorists and other desperadoes?"
--Geoff Wawro, Professor of Military History, University of North Texas

"What does it mean to win a war? This question has never been more important than it is today, as ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan raise existential questions about the meaning of victory. Yet among the hundreds of works of serious military theory from ancient times to the present, few writers have addressed this question directly, and none has done so systematically. In Victory in War, William Martel takes on the complicated question of what victory in war really means. He has produced an important work on a vitally important subject that should serve as the starting point for productive research for decades to come."
--Fred Kagan, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute

William C. Martel is Associate Professor of International Security Studies at The Fletcher School, Tufts University.

The Page 99 Test: Victory in War.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Suze Orman reading?

Suze Orman, TV's personal-finance expert, talked to the Christian Science Monitor about what she's been watching and listening to.

And reading:

When I do read something, when I'm not writing, I'd rather read [nonfiction]. There's a dancer, Edward Villela, who's now the artistic director of the Miami City Ballet. His story, The Prodigal Son, fascinated me. Stories of people and their lives fascinate me and him – in particular, a young boy who wanted to be a dancer [while] his parents wanted his sister to be the dancer. But what he did absolutely amazed me. There's also a book I'd like to read called Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. She took a year off to do three things: To eat and to pray and to love. It's her adventure with that.

Read more about what Orman is watching at the movies and listening to on satellite radio.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Suspicious Circumstances," the movie

Sandra Ruttan is the latest contributor to My Book, The Movie.

Here is how she describes the critical elements of her debut crime novel, Suspicious Circumstances:

In Suspicious Circumstances reporter Lara Kelly suspects there’s more to the story than what meets the eye – or in this case, the lens. When Duane Brodie turns up in her office with a video of a woman apparently falling to her death, Lara’s curious. When Duane claims he took the video to the police and they dismissed him, she’s intrigued.

Her article on an apparent suicide could have been the end of the story. Instead, her editor talks about smearing the local police captain. Captain Patrick Collins sends Detective Tymen Farraday to check out Lara’s story. When Lara is attacked Farraday is forced work with her to find out what really happened to the woman on the video.

This is the kind of story where the catalyst is just the tip of the iceberg. It delves into conspiracies, the politics of power and people who manipulate the law for personal gain. At the heart of the story, the issue is one of trust. Lara and Farraday both have reasons to be reluctant to trust each other, and the heart of the book is about the evolution of their relationship, and how they deal with their doubts about each other and all the people around them, while knowing their lives are at risk in a case that’s anything but what it originally appeared to be. Suspicious Circumstances could make a great movie if it had the right director and great writers handling the screenplay.

Read on to see which directors and actors make the author's dream-list.

Visit Sandra Ruttan's website, her blog, and Spinetingler Magazine.

The Page 69 Test: Suspicious Circumstances.

My Book, The Movie: Suspicious Circumstances.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Michelle Moran reading?

Michelle Moran is the latest contributor to Writers Read.

Her new novel, Nefertiti: A Novel, releases this July.

Read more about the novel at Moran's website, and visit her blog History Buff.

Among the advance praise for Nefertiti:

"Nefertiti is a fascinating window into the past, a heroic story with a very human heart. Compulsively readable!"
--Diana Gabaldon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“There haven’t been two more fascinating or outrageous siblings since the Boleyn sisters burst onto the pages of historical fiction. Nefertiti is totally obsessive reading.”
--Robin Maxwell, Los Angeles Times bestselling author of The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn

“Nefertiti: A Novel brings ancient Egypt to life as two royal sisters struggle to find fulfillment and happiness — one craving ultimate political power, the other desiring only to follow her heart.”
--India Edghill, author of Wisdom's Daughter

Writers Read: Michelle Moran.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Ian Shapiro's "Containment"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Ian Shapiro's Containment: Rebuilding a Strategy against Global Terror.

About the book, from the Princeton University Press website:

In this powerfully argued book, Ian Shapiro shows that the idea of containment offers the best hope for protecting Americans and their democracy into the future. His bold vision for American security in the post-September 11 world is reminiscent of George Kennan's historic "Long Telegram," in which the containment strategy that won the Cold War was first developed.

The Bush Doctrine of preemptive war and unilateral action has been marked by incompetence -- missed opportunities to capture Osama bin Laden, failures of postwar planning for Iraq, and lack of an exit strategy. But Shapiro contends that the problems run deeper. He explains how the Bush Doctrine departs from the best traditions of American national-security policy and accepted international norms, and renders Americans and democratic values less safe. He debunks the belief that containment is obsolete. Terror networks might be elusive, but the enabling states that make them dangerous can be contained. Shapiro defends containment against charges of appeasement, arguing that force against a direct threat will be needed. He outlines new approaches to intelligence, finance, allies, diplomacy, and international institutions. He explains why containment is the best alternative to a misguided agenda that naively assumes democratic regime change is possible from the barrel of an American gun.

President Bush has defined the War on Terror as the decisive ideological struggle of our time. Shapiro shows what a self-defeating mistake that is. He sets out a viable alternative that offers real security to Americans, reclaims America's international stature, and promotes democracy around the world.

Among the reviews and endorsements for Containment:

"Containment is both a forceful critique of current foreign policy and a prescriptive response to it. . . . Shapiro offers a series of complicated and detailed strategies to confront global terror, including greater investment in human intelligence to methodically track and stop weapons proliferation, and to his credit, he avoids oversimplification and instead offers thorough analyses of individual situations.... If only such a clear and thorough analysis existed before the last election."
--Joshua J. Kearney, The Harvard Crimson

"The Bush administration's post-9/11 national security strategy has come in for tremendous criticism, but opponents have had difficulty articulating a coherent alternative. Here is one. Shapiro ... offers a brilliant sketch of a new strategic vision that draws on Cold War-era containment ideas."
--G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs

"It's to be hoped that Shapiro is not done -- his ideas here deserve extended discussion. And as the post-Bush world starts to take form, there will be a continued need for creative thinking and the rediscovery of intellectual resources we have unwisely abandoned."
--Aziz Huq, American Prospect

"This book succeeds in showing that there are sound alternatives to the dominant unilateralist approach for dealing with the national security and foreign policy challenges confronted by the United States. Bravo for Professor Shapiro!"
--Ernesto Zedillo, former President of Mexico, Director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization

Ian Shapiro is Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University, where he also serves as Henry R. Luce Director of the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies. He has written widely and influentially on democracy, justice, and the methods of social inquiry. With Containment, his most recent books are The Flight From Reality in the Human Sciences, and Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Fight Over Taxing Inherited Wealth (with Michael Graetz).

Read more about Containment at the Princeton University Press website, including Chapter One.

The Page 69 Test: Containment.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Emily Maguire's "Taming the Beast"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Emily Maguire's Taming the Beast.

About the book, from the author's website:

Sarah Clark's life is irrevocably changed at the age of fourteen when her English teacher, Mr Carr, seduces her after class. Their affair is illegal, erotic, passionate and dangerous - a vicious meeting of minds and bodies. But when Mr Carr's wife discovers the affair he has to choose between them and moves to another city with his family.

Sarah is devastated and from that day on her life is defined by a series of meaningless, self-abasing sexual encounters, hoping with each man that she will experience the same delicious feelings she had with Mr Carr.

Seven years later Daniel Carr walks back into Sarah's life and she is drawn once again into the destructive relationship. Is Sarah strong enough to 'tame the beast'?

Among the praise for Taming the Beast:

"A thought-provoking and often searing first novel."
—The Age (Australia)

"...powerful and compelling..."
—Kirkus Reviews

"Emily Maguire embodies the great romantic myth of the writer who emerges from nowhere, fully formed."
—Sydney Morning Herald

"[S]ections of the book pulse with sexual energy… Maguire keeps the prose crackling and the dialogue lively from the first page to the last."
—Publishers Weekly

"Emily Maguire [is] the new bad girl of erotic fiction..."
—Esquire (UK)

Emily Maguire's first novel, Taming the Beast, was nominated for the Dylan Thomas Prize and received a Special Commendation in the Kathleen Mitchell Awards. Her latest novel, The Gospel According to Luke, "a witty contemporary morality tale bursting with lust, longing, and the meanings of life" is published in Australia by Brandl & Schlesinger and by Serpent's Tail in the UK.

Visit Maguire's website and read an excerpt from Taming the Beast.

The Page 99 Test: Taming the Beast.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: "Kiss Her Goodbye"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Robert Gregory Browne's debut thriller, Kiss Her Goodbye.

About the novel, from the author's website:

In a gripping thriller that matches one cop’s love for his only daughter against the diabolical cunning of a charismatic madman, debut novelist Robert Gregory Browne announces his presence in territory long ruled by the likes of Dean Koontz and John Sandford.

ATF Agent Jack Donovan has two ambitions: take down cult leader Alex Gunderson after years of violent mayhem, and reconnect with his daughter Jessie, who has somehow managed to slip from his life. But none of Jack’s experience as a stellar cop or an absent father has prepared him for the unthinkable way these two parts of his life are about to collide.

In a desperate act of revenge, Gunderson kidnaps Jessie and buries her alive. But just as Jack’s team is closing in, fate intervenes in the form of a bullet and the secret to Jessie’s location is lost. With only a few precious hours of oxygen to sustain her, and with not a single clue pointing in her direction, Jessie is sure to die — unless Jack can somehow find her. Jack would trade anything in the world for just one shot to save his little girl — even his own life.

Among the praise for Kiss Her Goodbye:

“From rich characters to heart-pounding suspense, Kiss Her Goodbye explores not only the deadly terrain of murder but the nuances of the soul. It’s a first-rate novel that will glue you to your chair until you finish the last satisfying word.”
—Gayle Lynds, author of The Last Spymaster

“Kiss Her Goodbye is a smashing good read. It moves at such a breakneck pace that you’ll scarcely have time to take a breath.”
—Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author of The Mephisto Club

“A cracking debut….This is a fast-paced action thriller that is as exciting as GM Ford and Michael Connelly…. The action doesn’t let up for a second and keeps going right up until the final page. It isn’t easy to do this sort of fiction well but Browne succeeds in combining a tight plot with engaging characters and a tense finale that will delight all diehard crime fans.”
—Kate Bradley, BCA

“Kiss Her Goodbye delivers with nonstop pacing, breathless prose, and page-turning urgency. Provocative and edgy, this book is sure to be the thriller of the year and Robert Gregory Browne the next big thing in heart-stopping fiction.”
—Kathy Mackel, author of The Hidden

“Provocative violence, a colorful Chicago background and a dollop of the supernatural lift Browne’s debut thriller… breathtaking pace.”
—Publishers Weekly

“[A] cat-and-mouse game between two desperate men… a nerve-wracking race against time…”
—Kirkus

Read the first three chapters of Kiss Her Goodbye online and check out other features at Browne's website.

The Page 69 Test: Kiss Her Goodbye.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Punishment and Inequality in America

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Bruce Western's Punishment and Inequality in America.

About the book, from the publisher:

Over the last thirty years, the prison population in the United States has increased more than sevenfold to over 2 million people, including vastly disproportionate numbers of minorities and people with little education. For some racial and educational groups, incarceration has become a depressingly regular experience, and prison culture and influence pervade their communities. Almost 60 percent of black male high school drop-outs in their early thirties have spent time in prison. In Punishment and Inequality in America, sociologist Bruce Western explores the recent era of mass incarceration and the serious social and economic consequences it has wrought.

Punishment and Inequality in America dispels many of the myths about the relationships among crime, imprisonment, and inequality. While many people support the increase in incarceration because of recent reductions in crime, Western shows that the decrease in crime rates in the 1990s was mostly fueled by growth in city police forces and the pacification of the drug trade. Getting “tough on crime” with longer sentences only explains about 10 percent of the fall in crime, but has come at a significant cost. Punishment and Inequality in America reveals a strong relationship between incarceration and severely dampened economic prospects for former inmates. Western finds that because of their involvement in the penal system, young black men hardly benefited from the economic boom of the 1990s. Those who spent time in prison had much lower wages and employment rates than did similar men without criminal records. The losses from mass incarceration spread to the social sphere as well, leaving one out of ten young black children with a father behind bars by the end of the 1990s, thereby helping perpetuate the damaging cycle of broken families, poverty, and crime.

The recent explosion of imprisonment is exacting heavy costs on American society and exacerbating inequality. Whereas college or the military were once the formative institutions in young men’s lives, prison has increasingly usurped that role in many communities. Punishment and Inequality in America profiles how the growth in incarceration came about and the toll it is taking on the social and economic fabric of many American communities.

Read the Introduction to Punishment and Inequality in America and learn more about the book at the publisher's website.

Read Western's "Introduction" to Gresham’s Sykes’s The Society of Captives (Princeton University Press, new edition).

Bruce Western is Professor of Sociology at Princeton University.

The Page 99 Test: Punishment and Inequality in America.

--Marshal Zeringue

Roman Simic's lit list

Roman Simic, a short fiction writer from Croatia, contributed a literary top ten list at Pulp Net.

One item from Simic's list:

Best film of the book I've seen

Possibly not the best one, but the one I'm most sentimentally attached to is Tom Jones, directed by Tony Richardson based on the novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

Read more about Simic's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: "MacGregor Tells the World"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Elizabeth McKenzie's debut novel, MacGregor Tells the World.

About the book, from the author's website:

An inventive and dazzling debut novel -- at once a mystery of identity, sly literary satire and coming of age story -- capturing a young man's impossible and heroic first love. Macgregor West, orphaned as a boy, is on quest to understand the mystery surrounding his mother’s untimely death. On a foggy San Francisco evening, guided by a stack of old envelopes, Mac finds himself at the mansion of cultural icon Charles Ware and encounters the writer’s beautiful and enigmatic daughter, Carolyn. Soon Mac is seduced into the world of the eccentric Ware family and a love affair with a woman whose murky history may be closely linked to his own.

MacGregor Tells the World is a poignant and hilarious ride through present day San Francisco, a city brimming with memorable characters who help Mac discover just what story is his to tell.

Among the early praise for MacGregor Tells the World:

"Elizabeth McKenzie's wonderful, winning and sympathetic novel frees you by enchanting you. Her hero, MacGregor West, glides around San Francisco, dappled in the liberal summer light of first love, wolfing tacos, suffering truths. When MacGregor begs his girlfriend not to freak out but to freak in -- to stick by him and his dizzy, determined way of reckoning with the world, make sure you take his dare. You'll want to buy a drink for this kid and for the first-rate author who gave him to us."
--David Schickler, author of Kissing in Manhattan and Sweet and Vicious

"Reading MacGregor Tells the World was like being kidnapped and carried off. I found myself peering into cryptic yet fully rendered lives and eavesdropping on delicious conversations ... and completely unable, unwilling to tear myself away. Elizabeth McKenzie's writing spirited me away to a stunning denouement on a carefully crafted tide of wit and words that can only be described as irresistible."
--Alfredo Vea, author of La Maravilla and Gods Go Begging

Elizabeth McKenzie's writing has appeared in The New York Times, Best American Nonrequired Reading, Pushcart Prize XXV, Other Voices, Threepenny Review, TriQuarterly, and ZYZZYVA. Her stories have been performed at Symphony Space in New York and Stories on Stage in Chicago, and recorded for NPR's "Selected Shorts." She is a former staff editor at The Atlantic Monthly.

McKenzie's acclaimed first book is Stop That Girl, "a series of chronological stories that, taken together, uncover the life story of Ann Ransom, a native Californian who moves from childhood to adulthood with poise, intelligence, and humor. The state of California itself serves as an important supporting character, helping to keep Ann rooted in time and space as she moves through each chapter of her life."

Visit Elizabeth McKenzie's website and read an excerpt from MacGregor Tells the World.

The Page 69 Test: MacGregor Tells the World.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Erin McKean reading?

Erin McKean is the latest contributor to Writers Read.

Part of her report about what she has been reading:

My summer reading goal is to redeem my promises to all the books that I bought with good intentions and never read: so far I've galloped through Marilynne Robinson's Gilead (and dog-eared a dozen pages because the words she used were so lovely and rare: covetise, lour, robustious), immersed myself in Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and am rambling at a leisurely pace through Neil Gaiman's Sandman trades -- I just finished A Game of You. All winners -- and I can't believe it took me so long to get to them! [read on]

From McKean's "official biography" at Dictionary Evangelist:

Erin McKean likes to call herself a Dictionary Evangelist. She is Chief Consulting Editor, American Dictionaries for Oxford University Press, and the editor of VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly. She was the editor in chief of the New Oxford American Dictionary, 2e, and is the author of Weird and Wonderful Words, More Weird and Wonderful Words, Totally Weird and Wonderful Words, and That's Amore (also about words). Previously, she was the editorial manager for the Thorndike-Barnhart Dictionaries at ScottForesman, a Pearson company. She has served on the board of the Dictionary Society of North America and on the editorial board for its journal, Dictionaries, as well as on the editorial board for the journal of the American Dialect Society, American Speech. She also serves on the advisory boards of the Wikimedia Foundation and XRefer. She lives in Chicago, rants about dresses on her blog (A Dress A Day), and she's actually really bad at Scrabble (but surprisingly good at roller-skating).

The Page 69 Test: That's Amore.

Writers Read: Erin McKean.

--Marshal Zeringue

Most important books: Jennifer Egan

Jennifer Egan is the author of three novels, The Invisible Circus, Look at Me, a finalist for the National Book Award, and the bestselling The Keep, and a short story collection, Emerald City.

She has published short fiction in The New Yorker, Harper's, McSweeney's and Ploughshares, among others, and her journalism appears frequently in the New York Times Magazine.

Egan told Newsweek about her five most important books.

And about two other books in related categories:

An Important Book you haven't read:

The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil. It's still in plastic, in a beautiful box set. I feel so bad about it; what can I say? I'll get there eventually.

A book you want your kids to read:

Little House on the Prairie. I really want them to love the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, because they were important to me, but I'm worried they won't because they're boys.

Read more about Jennifer Egan's most important books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: K.J. Erickson's "Alone at Night"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: K.J. Erickson's fourth Mars Bahr mystery, Alone at Night.

About the book, from the author's website:

Mars Bahr and Nettie Frisch’s first assignment in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s Cold Case Unit is the 1984 abduction of a young woman working alone at night in a rural Minnesota convenience store. The last sight of Andrea Bergstad is a fuzzy image on a surveillance camera. Then she disappears, without a trace, for 19 years.

Mars works with retired Redstone Chief of Police Sigvald Sampson to bring the cold case back to life. What they find reveals a deeper and darker conspiracy than anyone suspected. A conspiracy that ultimately puts Mars and the most important people in Mars’s life at risk.

Among the praise for the novel:

"Erickson does a nice job of making Andrea a real person, seamlessly integrating past and present by using Sampson's memories and Bahr's contemporary investigation. Be warned: there's a shocker here that will bring a gasp from readers familiar with this series."
--St. Paul Pioneer Press

"A tense, suspenseful, even poignant human drama."
--Kirkus Reviews

Alone at Night was a winner of 2005 Minnesota Book Award for Popular Fiction and a Barry Nominee for Best Novel.

Visit K.J. Erickson's website and read an excerpt from Alone at Night.

The Page 99 Test: Alone at Night.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Fourth Perspective," the movie

Robert Greer is the latest contributor to My Book, The Movie.

Greer is the author of five CJ Floyd mysteries -- The Fourth Perspective is the latest --with a sixth, The Mongoose Deception, due in October.

Here's how he introduced CJ Floyd in The Devil's Hatband:

Cheroot smoking African-American bail bondsman CJ Floyd is a man who plays the odds whether chasing down bond skippers, keeping a thumb on Denver's gang-banging vermin, or working on the occasional bounty hunting case that comes his way. Dressed in a Stetson, cowboy boots and a black leather gamblers vest, CJ, a Vietnam veteran help keeps his "home front" community of Five Points together and its denizens on the straight and narrow.

So who would the author entrust to bring his character to life in the movies? Here's the start to Greer's answer:

There’s an old Hollywood bromide that states that you have to have a bankable box office star to have a chance at financial and artistic success with a movie. Hogwash! At least when it comes to films that star white actors. Take L.A. Confidential and the first Star Wars movie, for instance, no superstars bringing home the bacon there, although some of the actors went on to become superstars. When it comes to movies with black actors in lead roles, however, Hollywood finds it even more prudent — some might say necessary in fact, to go with an actor with a name. So, if your lead actor is black, the rule of thumb is, “hit a home run with your casting.” Even Denzel Washington, a Hollywood golden boy, found the going tough in the classic noir film, Devil in a Blue Dress, a directorial artistic gem but box office flop. I always felt that Washington was miscast as Walter Mosley’s Easy Rollins character, but “bankable” he was, and that’s the ultimate show biz buzz word.

That said, and given my choice of choices when considering who I’d like to see play my mystery series protagonist CJ Floyd, I’d go with... [read on]

There are also some important considerations about who might best direct an adaptation.

My Book, The Movie: The Fourth Perspective.

The Page 69 Test: The Fourth Perspective.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: "It's Kind of A Funny Story"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Ned Vizzini's It's Kind of A Funny Story.

About the book, from the publisher:

Like many smart, ambitious New York City teenagers, Craig Gilner seeks entry into Manhattan’s most prestigious school, Executive Pre-Professional High School. With single-minded determination, he works night and day to ace the entrance exam and gets in. That’s when everything starts to unravel.

Once Craig starts his new school, he realizes he’s just one of many brilliant kids, and he isn’t even brilliant, he’s average. As Craig starts getting so-so grades, he sees his once-perfect future crumbling away. He begins to have trouble eating, sleeping, and thinking -- that’s when he tells his parents he’s depressed. He goes on medication and talks to therapists, but things keep getting worse, until one night Craig feels so low that he seriously considers suicide.

But instead, Craig calls a hotline. The counselor tells him to get to the nearest hospital, and before he knows it, he’s signed, sealed, and delivered into one of Brooklyn’s finest psychiatric units.

Craig’s new roommate is an Egyptian schoolteacher who refuses to get out of bed. His neighbors include a transsexual sex addict, and a girl who has scarred her own face with scissors. But somehow in this motley crew, Craig finds real friends and kindred spirits who give him strength.

This is a remarkably moving and authentic picture of the physicality, the despair, and even the hilarity, of depression.

Among the praise for It's Kind of A Funny Story:

"This is an important book."
--New York Times Book Review

"This book offers hope in a package that readers will find enticing, and that’s the gift it offers."
--Booklist, starred review

"...highly readable and ultimately upbeat.... The author clearly has not lost his knack for conveying the textures of teenage life."
--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Craig's well-paced narrative, carefully and insightfully detailing his confusing slide and his desperate efforts to get well, is filled with humor and pathos."
--School Library Journal, starred review

"…the wise witty narrator and sensitive handling of a hot topic should win over older teens-- and their parents."
--People Magazine

Visit Ned Vizzini's website, his MySpace page, and the It's Kind of a Funny Story MySpace page; read an excerpt from It's Kind of a Funny Story.

The Page 69 Test: It's Kind of A Funny Story.

--Marshal Zeringue

Larry Doyle's list

This week at The Week magazine, debut novelist Larry Doyle named "The List."

One of his picks:

The Dog of the South by Charles Portis

The funniest book ever written. Ray Midge’s wife, Norma, has taken off with Guy Dupree in Ray’s car. He goes after her to get the car back. Portis also wrote True Grit, which was turned into a decent John Wayne movie, and three other novels, all of which will be bought by anybody who reads this.

Read more about Doyle's list.

Larry Doyle, a former writer for The Simpsons, works in showbiz and writes funny things for the New Yorker. He lives outside Baltimore with his wife, Becky, their three children, and one dog, until it dies, and then no more dogs, according to the wife.

I Love You, Beth Cooper is his first novel.

Visit Larry Doyle's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Stona Fitch's "Senseless"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Stona Fitch's Senseless.

About the book, from the author's website:

Senseless is a disturbing, controversial novel that tells the story of Eliott Gast, a middle-aged American economist who is abducted in Brussels one fall night by a shadowy anti-globalization group. Gast spends forty days in a white apartment, tortured by masked captors, every moment broadcast on the Internet. His mind racing, Gast tries to explain why he is here, unearthing sins both small and large.

Through the fascinating, disturbing ordeal of Eliott Gast, Senseless traces the precise boundaries of empathy, searching for humanity in the digital era.

Among the praise for Senseless:

"Published as that world struggles with issues of justice, vengeance, proportionality, Senseless combines the taut plotline of a made-for-TV thriller with the ruminations of a sophisticated literary novella.... Fitch draws us into the forbidding truth that we're now stuck among amoralists capable of anything. As much as any novel can, this disturbing one forces us to face what we're capable of - what we should be capable of - in such a predicament."
--Carlin Romano, Philadelphia Inquirer

"Small like a stick of dynamite, Fitch's second novel delves into the horrific experience of a hostage forced to endure torture that ultimately deprives him of his five senses. Fitch's otherwise grim, one-sitting novel, his first in nine years (after Strategies for Success), has many moments of poignant reflection as Eliott Gast ponders his past and future. He also wonders about the gruesome use the Internet is being put to - an issue that Fitch resolves with brevity and ingenuity."
--Publishers Weekly

"Kafka in overdrive."
--Cincinnati Enquirer

"Fitch skillfully builds suspense in this story, which is short enough and compelling enough to finish in one sitting. In fact, the entire novel serves as a sort of extended life-flashing-before-one's-eyes experience. A harrowing thriller that is also an absorbing and thought-provoking character study."
--Booklist

The book...has us writhing, but that is its genius.... We are left with a riveting and exhausting novel, one that hits a number of extremes - delights full of horror, with numerous civilized touches to assuage the wounds they make.
--The Bloomsbury Review

"Senseless is a grimly elegant novel with a studiously ambiguous take on both its protagonist and its subject: the moral responsibilities of global powers to those less fortunate."
--Houston Chronicle

Stona Fitch is a novelist living in Concord, Massachusetts, where he also directs Gaining Ground, a non-profit organic farm. He is a former crime reporter and musician with the seminal Boston underground band Scruffy the Cat.

Visit Stona Fitch's website to learn more about Senseless.

The Page 99 Test: Senseless.

--Marshal Zeringue

Rebecca Ford's favorite five non-fiction books

Rebecca Ford is the editor of OUP Blog, the official blog of Oxford University Press. Prior to joining OUP she worked at Creative Loafing, an alternative newspaper in Atlanta.

In February 2007, she named her favorite five (non-Oxford) non-fiction books:

• Peggy Orenstein, Schoolgirls
• Mark Kurlansky, Salt
• Mary Karr, The Liar’s Club
• Gretel Ehrlich, The Solace of Open Spaces
• V. S. Naipaul, The Enigma of Arrival

Read about Ford's favorite five fiction books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Kelley Armstrong's "No Humans Involved"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Kelley Armstrong's No Humans Involved.

About the book, from the author's website:

Jaime, who knows a thing or two about showbiz, is on a television shoot in Los Angeles when weird things start to happen. As a woman whose special talent is raising the dead, her threshold for weirdness is pretty high: she’s used to not only seeing dead people but hearing them speak to her in very emphatic terms. But for the first time in her life – as invisible hands brush her skin, unintelligible fragments of words are whispered into her ears, and beings move just at the corner of her eye – she knows what humans mean when they talk about being haunted.

She is determined to get to the bottom of these manifestations, but as she sets out to solve the mystery she has no idea how scary her investigation will get. As she digs into the dark underside of Los Angeles, she’ll need as much Otherworld help as she can get in order to survive, calling on her personal angel, Eve, and Hope, the well-meaning chaos demon. Jeremy, the alpha werewolf, is also by her side offering protection. And, Jaime hopes, maybe a little more than that.

Among the praise for Kelley Armstrong:

“Mesmerizing.... Armstrong is a talented and original writer whose inventiveness and sense of the bizarre is arresting.”
—London Free Press

“[She] brings a new brand of ferocity to horror literature.”
—The Hamilton Spectator

“[Armstrong’s] take on the well-travelled world of supernatural beings is witty and original. She’s at her best when examining the all-too-human dilemmas of being superhuman.”
—The Globe and Mail

“Armstrong has created a persuasive, finely detailed other-worldly cosmology.”
—Toronto Star

“It’s easy to spot Armstrong’s greatest writing strength. She writes likable characters ... [She] has a singular ability to tell an action story without degenerating into cliché.... A strong female lead, an interesting plot and well-placed humour are clear hallmarks of Armstrong’s writing.”
—Winnipeg Free Press

Kelley Armstrong is the author of the internationally bestselling series, The Otherworld, and the new crime novel, Exit Strategy.

Visit Armstrong's website and read an excerpt from No Humans Involved.

The Page 69 Test: No Humans Involved.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Ian Patterson's "Guernica and Total War"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Ian Patterson's Guernica and Total War.

About the book, from the publisher:

One of the most horrific innovations of the twentieth century was the deliberate strategy of total warfare -- the obliteration of entire civilian populations. The first and in many ways the most striking use of this extreme measure came nearly 70 years ago when the ancient Basque hilltop town of Guernica was destroyed by the bombs of the German Condor.

Ian Patterson begins with a graphic account of what happened in Guernica on April 26, 1937, and its place in the course of the Spanish Civil War. This event focused the spotlight of media attention on the town of Guernica, and established Picasso's painting as the most famous modern image of the horrors of war. Yet Picasso's Guernica was only one of a huge number of cultural artifacts -- paintings, films, novels, poems, plays -- to explore the idea of indiscriminate death from the air. From the Blitz to Hiroshima to the destruction of the World Trade Center to daily carnage in Darfur and Iraq, war has been increasingly directed against civilians, who constitute an ever larger proportion of its casualties. Patterson explores how modern men and women respond to the threat of new warfare with new capacities for imagining aggression and death. An unflinching history of the locationless terror that so many people feel today, Guernica and Total War will engage anyone interested in the survival of cultures amid the disasters of war.

Among the advance praise for Guernica and Total War:

"This is potent stuff. Guernica symbolizes the ethical dilemma of modern warfare. Patterson is a masterful storyteller, who seeks to convey the experience of 'the sky falling on one's head.' He offers profound historical reflections as well as a thoughtful meditation on our own times."
--Joanna Bourke, Professor of History, Birkbeck College

Read Patterson's essay, "Why Guernica Speaks to Us Now More than Ever."

Ian Patterson teaches Modern English Literature at the University of Cambridge, where he is a Fellow of Queens’ College.

The Page 99 Test: Guernica and Total War.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Benjamin Wittes reading?

Benjamin Wittes is the latest contributor to Writers Read.

He is author of Starr: A Reassessment and Confirmation Wars: Preserving Independent Courts in Angry Times, a columnist for The New Republic online, a former editorial writer for the Washington Post, a contributing editor for The Atlantic Monthly, and a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution.

Part of his reply to my query about what he has been reading:

It's an eclectic mix actually. I read a steady diet of legal opinions, since I write almost exclusively about law. As we are coming up on the end of a Supreme Court term, I am spending a fair bit of time -- and will be spending more in the coming weeks -- keeping up with the institutional output of the courts.

I am also currently working on a book about the legal architecture of the war on terror. As a result, I have been reading the rather voluminous literature that has developed around that. Specifically, I've been reading the documentary compilations, The Torture Papers and The Torture Debate in America -- along with Joseph Margulies's recent book, Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power and John Yoo's two books on the war. I have a long stack of thematically-related literature to read, and I expect this will occupy most of my reading time for the next several months. The most interesting book on this general subject I have read recently is James F. Simon's Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney -- which deals with many of the same liberty-in-wartime themes Americans are fighting about now but as they played out during the Civil War. [read on]

Writers Read: Benjamin Wittes.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Patricia Gussin's "Shadow of Death"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Patricia Gussin's Shadow of Death.

About the book, from the author's website:

Pull a trigger and everything changes. Whatever is good and normal dissolves before your eyes. Medical student Laura Nelson had just finished examining her first patient – bullet wound to the head. As she leaves the hospital, an angry voice erupts with obscenities. Shaken and confused, she quickly walks the deserted two blocks to her car, keeping an eye on the dark, riot-torn neighborhood around her – eager to get home to her husband and young sons. Suddenly, a rough hand drags her into a violent double crime. A trigger is pulled, and Laura’s world changes forever.

Set amidst the upheaval and smoldering chaos of the Detroit riots of 1967, this story unfolds in a real place at a real time. These riots created a terrible fissure in the social fabric of that city engulfing ordinary people and spinning the normal patterns of life into a downward spiral. Shadow of Death is a story that could happen to any of us, especially those who believe their world and all they cherish will hold together no matter what.

Among the praise for Shadow of Death:

“Shadow of Death is a surefire winner. I couldn’t put it down. The suspense is riveting, the pacing masterful. Patricia Gussin is a wonderful storyteller, and Shadow of Death is medical suspense at its best … original and masterfully plotted. Only a physician who is also a great writer could have crafted this novel. This book will have you gasping for breath.”
–Michael Palmer, author of eleven New York Times bestsellers, including The Patient

“…a very promising first novel about a little-explored incident in 20th century American history about which the author knows a great deal. Protagonist Laura Nelson, a medical student, finds herself in the middle of a riot in Detroit, tribulations as a student, wife and mother, and life and death challenges that keep coming.”
–Stuart Kaminsky, best-selling author, Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and Mystery Writers of America 2006 Grand Master Award

“A riveting, non-stop suspense novel from newcomer Patricia Gussin. Gussin taps into the deepest fears of women and places them artfully in the world of 1960’s Detroit.”
–Judy Clemens, Agatha Award-nominee and author of Till the Cows Come Home

“Nail-biting tension and suspense drive the story to its shocking climax. This is, surprisingly, a first novel by the author, and it is a remarkable debut.”
–Gloria Fiet, Spinetingler Magazine

Patricia Gussin attended medical school in Detroit after which she did an internship and pediatric residency at Tampa General Hospital. Board Certified in Family Medicine -- and known to colleagues as Dr. Patricia Stewart -- she has practiced medicine and has directed medical research in her role as worldwide vice president for a leading healthcare company.

Gussin's second novel, Twisted Justice, is due out in later this year.

The Page 69 Test: Shadow of Death.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five favorite books on the criminal mind

Theodore Dalrymple, author of, most recently, Romancing Opiates: Pharmacological Lies and the Addiction Bureaucracy, is a former prison doctor.

He selected a list of "favorite books on the criminal mind" for Opinion Journal.

One title to make the list:

The Adversary by Emmanuel Carrère

People kill for a variety of reasons. Some do so for the sake of their equilibrium. One man (a prisoner I was attending) who had just killed his girlfriend said to me: "I had to kill her, doctor, or I don't know what I would've done." Emmanuel Carrère, in "The Adversary," explains how a lie led a Frenchman to kill his wife, children and parents many years later. Unable to face his mother and father when he failed his exams at medical school, he pretended to have passed them and then found that he had to pretend to be a doctor to sustain the lie. He kept it up for years, marrying and going to live with his wife near the French border with Switzerland and commuting every day to Geneva, where he claimed to have an important job with the World Health Organization. When exposure finally became inevitable, he could think of no other way to save his pride than to kill his family.

Read about Number One on Dalrymple's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Tony Eprile's "The Persistence of Memory"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: Tony Eprile's The Persistence of Memory.

About the book, from the publisher's website:

In this humane yet savagely witty portrait of apartheid South Africa in its waning years, Tony Eprile renders his homeland's turbulent past with striking clarity. The Baltimore Sun declared Eprile's "horrifying yet heartrendingly beautiful" prose to be "comparable to his fellow authors of Apartheid Andre Brink and Nadine Gordimer." As the novel builds to a harrowing conclusion, the protagonist, a veteran of the secret war in Angola and Namibia, is forced to appear before the Truth and Reconciliation Committee with astonishing results. Nobel Prize-winning author J. M. Coetzee calls The Persistence of Memory "a story of coming to maturity in South Africa in the bad old days. Always warm-hearted, sometimes comic, ultimately damning."

Among the praise for The Persistence of Memory:

"Rarely are the psychological incidents of life brought to readers with such cinematic vividness."
--Howard Norman

"Always warm-hearted, sometimes comic, ultimately damning."
--J. M. Coetzee

"I was enthralled by [Eprile's] gorgeous prose ... and ... by the fiercely comic gift of his unforgettable, and unforgetting, narrator."
--Margot Livesey

"Charged with a shining imagination, The Persistence of Memory is reflective of everything that it meets up with, at once capacious and finely honed. Think Laurence Sterne meets Proust meets the antic, dissembling spirit of Stanley Elkin."
--Daphne Merkin, Los Angeles Times

"It is exhilarating to see some of its well-worn tricks -- the unreliable narrator, the fable-like conceit, the learned digression -- deployed with such intensity and made so relevant to the bigger picture. Eprile, himself a South African now living in the United States, has written a novel that is not just clever but also a passionate fictional attempt to wake from a nightmare of historical complicity."
--Theo Tait, New York Times Book Review

"A richly imagined novel of growing up, its political revelations leavened by absurdist humor and social satire."
--Frances Taliaferro, Washington Post

Tony Eprile is also the author of Temporary Sojourner and Other South African Stories, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. The Persistence of Memory, which won the Koret Jewish Book Award, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and was listed as a best book of 2004 by the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.

The Page 99 Test: The Persistence of Memory.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Tara McKelvey's "Monstering"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Tara McKelvey's Monstering: Inside America's Policy of Secret Interrogations and Torture in the Terror War.

About the book:

In April 2004, the Abu Ghraib photographs set off an international scandal. Yet until now, the full story has never been told. Tara McKelvey — the first U.S.journalist to speak with female prisoners from Abu Ghraib — traveled to the Middle East and across the United States to seek out victims and perpetrators. McKelvey tells how soldiers, acting in an atmosphere that encouraged abuse and sadism, were unleashed on a prison population of which the vast majority, according to army documents, were innocent civilians.

Drawing upon critical sources, she discloses a series of explosive revelations: An exclusive jailhouse interview with Lynndie England connects the Abu Ghraib pictures to lewd vacation photos taken by England's boyfriend Charles Graner; formerly undisclosed videotapes show soldiers "Robotripping" on cocktails of over-the-counter drugs while pretending to stab detainees; new material sheds light on accusations against an American suspected of raping an Iraqi child; and first-hand accounts suggest the use of high-voltage devises, sexual humiliation and pharmaceutical drugs on Iraqi prisoners. She also provides an inside look at Justice Department theories of presidential power to show how the many abuses were licensed by the government.

Among the praise for Monstering:

Tara McKelvey is an extraordinarily gifted writer and Monstering is an extraordinary book. While much of the focus on torture has been limited to a few celebrated cases, McKelvey shows that the technique was both widespread and accepted throughout occupied Iraq. In Monstering, she brings the reader not just to Abu Ghraib, but to the Black Room, a torture chamber run by a special CIA and military task force. In the end, the most troubling revelation in the book is not that there are monsters, but that they look like you and me.
--James Bamford, bestselling author of The Puzzle Palace and A Pretext for War

The tale of the Iraq war and the so-called war on terrorism is riddled with nightmarish accounts of torture and abuse. But for all the attention devoted to these matters in recent years, the full story has not come out. Monstering, though, takes the reader into this hellish and secret world and advances the story, disclosing new revelations of U.S. power gone wrong and detailing how the Bush administration destroyed America's image across the globe. McKelvey has produced a frightening, disturbing and valuable book.
--David Corn, bestselling author (with Michael Isikoff) of Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War

Some say it is the Devil who resides in the details; some say it is God who is found there. With Monstering, McKelvey reminds us that sometimes—usually—both exist in the same room, the same body, the same mind. McKelvey has gone deeper into what it means to be an American in our post 9/11 world than most of us can fully contain in our heads, and she has emerged with an amazingly lucid act of reportage.
Monstering is not simply about the handful of soldiers depicted in the Abu Ghraib photographs, and it is not even simply about the still-hidden chain of command, those at the top, who led us into this hell. With painstaking detail and unflinching humanity, McKelvey reveals that the current crisis is about all of us, a hell of our own making.
--Nick Flynn, author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City

From “How could it have happened?” to “How could it not have happened?” McKelvey’s investigation into the stories of individuals who perpetrated, witnessed and suffered from US detention policy in Iraq is a careful expose -- must-reading for all those who seek to understand more fully the unfortunate, sordid side of the war on terror.
--Karen J. Greenberg, co-editor of The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib

The story of the infamous Abu Ghraib photograph has been told again and again. But curiously, very few journalists have ventured beyond the accepted story and attempted to uncover new material, new evidence and to provide a new perspective. McKelvey has done so. Her reporting breaks new and important ground -- from interviews with ex-prisoners from Abu Ghraib, through the comic-book farce of the false identification of the Hooded-Man, to the spectacle of American servicemen left high and dry in an under-financed, ill-prepared war. More importantly, her new book has provided an account that embraces the scope of the human tragedy and reminds us of the human cost of war.
--Errol Morris, Academy-Award-winning filmmaker, The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara

Tara McKelvey is a senior editor at The American Prospect and a research fellow at New York University School of Law's Center on Law and Security.

The Page 69 Test: Monstering.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Catherine Coulter reading?

Catherine Coulter, author of historical romance and contemporary suspense thrillers, talked to the Christian Science Monitor about what she's been watching and listening to.

And reading:

Harry Potter is my favorite series of all time, and, bitter tears, the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is coming out in July. Ah, the possibilities: Is Harry going to die in a final duel with Voldemort? Will Dumbledore come back, proving Snape isn't really a villain? Will all three of the kids survive? Listen up, Rowling can't kill Harry – I want Harry to be headmaster at Hogwarts in 50 years. There is a big worry here though: If they don't pick up their pace on producing Harry Potter movies, the three main kids will be grandparents by the time they finish filming Rowling's series. Another of my favorite series is Elizabeth Peters's tales about Amelia Peabody. But, you know, bottom line, I simply can't imagine not going to sleep without a book open over my chest.

Read more about what Coulter is watching on television and listening to.

Coulter's new novel, Double Take, will be published by G.P. Putnam this month.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Mercy of Thin Air," the movie

Jodi Picoult called Ronlyn Domingue's The Mercy of Thin Air, "that rarest of first novels -- a truly original voice, and a truly original story."

Over at My Book, The Movie, Domingue shares some thoughts about the casting for a film adaptation of the novel:

Here’s the basic story of The Mercy of Thin Air: New Orleans, 1920s. Raziela Nolan is in the throes of a magnificent love affair when she dies in a tragic accident. In an instant, she leaves behind her one true love and her dream of becoming a doctor -- but somehow, she still remains. Immediately after her death, Razi chooses to stay between -- a realm that exists after life and before whatever lies beyond it. Seventy-five years later, in this ghost-like state, Razi takes residence with a troubled couple whose history mirrors her own. Her intervention in their lives forces her to face the truth of what happened to her beloved Andrew and the nature of her very existence.

Read on to see which contemporary actors might best bring Domingue's characters to life on the big screen.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top 10 books about unlikely friendships

Sarah Salway, a prize-winning short story writer, poet, and novelist, selected a top ten list of books about unlikely friendships for the Guardian.

Her framework:

Everyone knows the value of a 'friend in need' but what about the friendships that take us by surprise, and in doing so, change the way we think?

Fiction's full of these often difficult relationships: some good, some bad, some completely, bloodily, awful. So in order to pick 10, I had to make rules: no love interest (which cut out the Empress of Blandings and Lord Emsworth), no traditional master-servant relationships (step down Rebecca and Mrs Danvers), and nothing I haven't read but people keep telling me to put in (Don Quixote. Oh, the shame).

One American classic from Salway's list:

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

From the funny to the tragic. Lennie and George's unlikely friendship is centred round their dream of owning a farm, but it all goes terribly wrong. The end, when George is put in the position where he has to shoot Lennie, is totally heart-wrenching. Still worse is how none of the other characters can really understand George's pain at losing the one person who "gives a hoot in hell" about him, and who still trusts him absolutely, even when the gun is at his head.

See which title captured the top spot on Salway's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Maureen Child's "More Than Fiends"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Maureen Child's More Than Fiends.

About the book, from the publisher's website:

Cassidy Burke is finding it hard to believe that she's next in a long line of demon dusters — Burke women paired with centuries-old cleaning solution to shine windows and spot demons. Sure, her "Clean Sweep" maid service is taking off, but wiping out supernatural bad guys? Come on.

But Cassie's surprised by her sudden fighting instincts and fierce new strength ... both of which she's going to need. For one thing, her teenage daughter thinks her dad is dead, but in truth he just never knew about her ... and now he's moved back to town. And after many dateless years, men are finally lining up on Cassie's doorstep. Sadly, most of them aren't human.

Maureen Child, author of over seventy books, including some written under the pseudonyms Ann Carberry, Sarah Hart and Kathleen Kane, has "written historical romances set in the wild west, and paranormal romances. She's written Americana and even, once, a romance set in Victorian England, which she absolutely loved doing. Now, she writes Silhouette Desires and mainstream contemporary romances."

Visit Maureen Child's website and her blog.

The Page 69 Test: More Than Fiends.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Vicki Hendricks's "Cruel Poetry"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Vicki Hendricks's, Cruel Poetry.

About the book, from the author's website:

Renata is young, beautiful, and enjoys sex for money and kicks. Few are immune to her intoxicating allure – even her pet Burmese python, Pepe, seems captive to her charm. Richard, a poetry professor with a wife and two sons, refuses to give up his erotic fascination with Rennie, though it threatens his home and career. Julie, a shy wannabe-novelist, spies from her next door room, lusting for Rennie between bouts of frustrated writing. Both would do anything to save Rennie from her dangerous occupation and become her one true love.

Among the praise for Cruel Poetry:

"I loved this book. It’s a private ticket into a secret world of desire and sex and the raw edge between them. I don’t know why the book has chapters. I read it page to page with the fever of the addicted."
--Michael Connelly

“The authentic heir to James M. Cain, Vicki Hendricks is the high priestess of neo-noir. A fierce and fearless talent.”
--Dennis Lehane

“I never miss a book by Vicki Hendricks. No one on the current scene is writing supercharged, erotic, real noir novels like these.”
--George P. Pelecanos

“Cruel Poetry opens with a sex scene as hot as the scorching Florida sun and grips as tightly as the heroine’s pet python. Strap yourself in for another rollercoaster ride of sexual obsession and perversion from Vicki Hendricks, reigning queen of American noir.”
--Lauren Henderson

“... An enormous amount of damn fine sex in Vicki Hendricks’ take on the folie a deux — mad passionate beach-front lust, entertaining sexual practices, and an ever-welcome python. But more than this, in Renata she gives us a femme fatale with the courage to see herself honestly ... enough blood to turn the Everglades red ... a Thelma and Louise with the guts to stay alive.”
--Stella Duffy

“Vicki Hendricks is a true original. She is undoubtedly one of the most important noir writers of the past twenty years.”
--Jason Starr

“Frighteningly close to perfection.”
--Allan Guthrie

Hendricks's previous books include Miami Purity, Iguana Love, Voluntary Madness, and Sky Blues.

Visit Vicki Hendricks's website and read an excerpt from Cruel Poetry.

The Page 99 Test: Cruel Poetry.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Mary Sharratt reading?

Mary Sharratt, author of Summit Avenue, The Real Minerva and, most recently, The Vanishing Point, is the latest contributor to Writers Read.

She is also Reviews Editor for the Historical Novel Society, so her report is rich with historical fiction, including:

Currently I’m reading Michelle Moran’s debut novel, Nerfertiti, which publishes in July. I will be interviewing the author for Solander, the sister publication of [The Historical Novels Review].

Read more about The Vanishing Point, including an excerpt, at Mary Sharratt's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Vanishing Point.

The Page 69 Test: The Vanishing Point.

Writers Read: Mary Sharratt.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Daniel Kalla's "Blood Lies"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Daniel Kalla's new thriller, Blood Lies.

About the book, from the publisher's website:

Ben Dafoe, a young emergency-room doctor and part-time crime-scene consultant for the Seattle Police Department, is haunted by addiction. Two years earlier, a cocaine and crystal-meth habit claimed the life of his identical twin, Aaron. Now Ben walks onto the scene of a savage stabbing to find that the victim is his former fiancée, Emily Kenmore — another loved one who fell prey to drugs. Part of the carnage in Emily’s bedroom is a single streak of blood caked on the wall.

When the DNA from that sample matches Ben’s, he becomes the prime suspect.

Convinced his identical twin is still alive and somehow involved in Emily’s death, Ben goes on the run, aiming to find Aaron. Working under an assumed identity at an inner-city clinic, Ben desperately searches for Aaron while playing cat-and-mouse with the authorities.

But someone is determined to thwart his hunt at any cost. In the story’s final twist, the truth hits closer to home and more lethally than Ben ever imagined.

Set against the backdrop of the ER, Blood Lies is a medical thriller and a Fugitive-style suspense novel with a major twist. As Ben struggles to solve a tragic mystery from his past and clear his name, he might just learn that, sometimes, blood lies....

Among the early praise for Blood Lies:

"Fans of intelligent contemporary whodunits who enjoyed Scott Turow's debut, Presumed Innocent, will find welcome echoes of that modern classic in Blood Lies... The twists are well done, and Kalla has a gift rare in the thriller field for creating sympathetic characters."
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Fast paced and smartly written. Kalla has quickly matured into a force to be reckoned with.... The novel springs several fresh surprises on the reader (including one whopping great shocker)."
— Booklist

"Kalla strikes again with another perfect page-turner."
— Lee Child, New York Times best selling author

"Daniel Kalla has penned a winner with his new one, BLOOD LIES. It's well-written, intelligent, complex, and satisfying -- all good things -- and all amounting to a damn fine read."
— John Lescroart, New York Times best selling author

"Kalla gets the details right... Solid details flesh out a nicely complicated plot."
— Kirkus Reviews

Dan Kalla spends his days (and sometimes nights) working as an Emergency Room physician at an urban teaching hospital. Blood Lies is his fourth novel.

Visit Kalla's website and read an excerpt from Blood Lies.

The Page 99 Test: Blood Lies.

--Marshal Zeringue

Most important books: Scott Turow

Scott Turow told Newsweek about his five most important books.

And about two other books in related categories:

A Certified Important Book you haven't read:

The list is so long. I've never read Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I'd like to, although it's a lot to take on. My tastes run to fiction.

The book you want your kids to read:

Shakespeare, especially The Merchant of Venice, because there's the ethnic hook. Once you learn to decode him, you enter a realm of unbelievable wisdom and power.

Read more about Scott Turow's most important books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Brent Ghelfi's "Volk's Game"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Brent Ghelfi's Volk's Game.

About the book, from the author's website:

A firefight reverberates through Moscow’s dark, rain-soaked streets; shattered glass and screams echo in the air. In the lawless ways of Russia’s capital city, the gunmen melt away into the night. Two men are dead, the targets not what they seem.

A shadowy figure lopes along the riverbank outside the Kremlin walls. Known to all as Volk, a battle-hardened veteran of Russia’s brutal war in Chechnya, he prowls Moscow’s grim alleyways, a knife concealed in his prosthetic foot at all times.

As both a major player in the black market and a covert agent for the Russian military, Volk serves two masters: Maxim, a psychotic Azeri mafia kingpin with hordes of loyal informers; and a man known only as the General, to whom Volk is mysteriously indebted. By his side is Valya, an exotic beauty charged with protecting her lover from his unsavory associates. Valya is the most dangerous weapon in Volk’s arsenal.

Together they are commissioned to steal a long-lost da Vinci painting called Leda and the Swan from St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum. Leda’s ethereal radiance is undeniably captivating and incalculably dangerous. Volk must choose which powerful man he will betray in order to escape with the painting -- and with his life.

With the high-octane rush and vivid intensity of a feature film, Volk’s Game delivers at every turn, announcing Alexei Volkovoy as the boldest hero of a new generation.

Among the early praise for Volk's Game:

"Moving at breakneck speed through Moscow, St. Petersburg and Manhattan, leaving a slippery trail of body parts and exploded vehicles, Ghelfi handles the conventions of his genre like a pro."
--(New York) Newsday

"Brent Ghelfi writes like Dostoevsky's hooligan great-grandson on speed. Volk is hard, fast, and a truly excellent debut. Highly recommended."
--Lee Child, New York Times bestselling author of The Hard Way

“Volk’s Game is no ordinary thriller: it’s a 500-horsepower Mercedes blasting through the Moscow night. Alexei Volkovoy is the most original thriller character to come down the Russian pike since Arkady Renko, yet he inhabits a Russia that Renko might have difficulty surviving. Volk moves through this frenetically paced novel like an avenging angel in the employ of both God and Satan. Brent Ghelfi’s insights are rapier-sharp, and his prose seems to illuminate the page. Be glad, because you’ll be finishing this novel at four a.m. I’m ready to read the next installment NOW.”
--Greg Iles, New York Times bestselling author of Turning Angel

"Everything we look for when we read -- freshness of setting, intriguing characters, vivid prose, new understandings -- is well and truly here. Brent Ghelfi may not know Vincente Huidobro’s work, but in his own he does exactly what that poet counseled: Invent new worlds, and be careful what you say."
--James Sallis, author of Drive

"Hypnotically suspenseful and ballistic paced, Volk’s Game by Brent Ghelfi is a fascinating journey into the dark world of international intrigue. From a plot full of surprises to crackling dialogue and often lyrical prose, this masterful debut novel belongs on every thriller-lover's bookshelf."
--Gayle Lynds, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Spymaster

"It's rare to find a thriller this fast paced and breathlessly dangerous that is also beautifully written. Ghelfi hits as hard as his hero Volk. Like staring down the barrel of a Sig-Sauer, you can't look away from Volk's Game."
--David L. Robbins, author of The Assassin’s Gallery

Visit the Volk's Game website, read Chapter One, and watch the video trailer.

The Page 69 Test: Brent Ghelfi's Volk's Game.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Lynne Viola's "The Unknown Gulag"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Lynne Viola's The Unknown Gulag: The Lost World of Stalin's Special Settlements.

About the book, from the Oxford University Press website:

One of Stalin's most heinous acts was the ruthless repression of millions of peasants in the early 1930s, an act that established the very foundations of the gulag. Solzhenitsyn barely touched upon this brutal episode in his magisterial Gulag Archipelago and subsequent writers passed over the subject in silence. Now, with the opening of Soviet archives, an entirely new dimension of Stalin's brutality has been uncovered. The Unknown Gulag is the first book in English to explore this untold story.

Historian Lynne Viola reveals how, in one of the most egregious episodes of Soviet repression, Stalin drove two million peasants into internal exile, to work as forced laborers. The book shows how entire families were callously thrown out of their homes, banished from their villages, and sent to the icy hinterlands of the Soviet Union, where in the course of a decade, almost a half million would die as a result of disease, starvation, or exhaustion. Drawing on pioneering research in the previously closed archives of the central and provincial Communist Party, the Soviet state, and the secret police, Viola documents the history of this tragic episode. She delves into what long remained an entirely hidden world within the gulag, throwing new light on Stalin's consolidation of power, the rise of the secret police as a state within the state, and the complex workings of the Soviet system. But first and foremost, she movingly captures the day-to-day life of Stalin's first victims, telling the stories of the peasant families who experienced one of the twentieth century's most horrific instances of mass repression.

A compelling story of human suffering and survival in Stalin's Soviet Union, here is a new chapter in the history of the gulag, virtually hidden from sight until now.

Among the early praise for The Unknown Gulag:

"This scholarly, nuanced work shines light on Stalin's forced resettlement of two million Soviet peasants in the 1930s. ... likely to become the scholarly standard on one of the 20th century's most horrific crimes."
--Publishers Weekly

"Historians have long been aware of the scale of collectivization and the exile of the kulaks. But The Unknown Gulag provides the human voices that were secreted away for decades in formerly closed archives. Ms. Viola's painstaking research lays the foundation for a compelling and, in certain ways, surprising narrative."
--The Wall Street Journal

Lynne Viola is a Professor in the Department of History at the University of Toronto. She is the author of many scholarly articles as well as editor or coeditor of several edited volumes. Her books include The Best Sons of the Fatherland: Workers in the Vanguard of Soviet Collectivization and Peasant Rebels Under Stalin: Collectivization and the Culture of Peasant Resistance.

She recently contributed a five-part series to the Oxford University Press blog about researching and writing The Unknown Gulag.

The Page 99 Test: The Unknown Gulag.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Allan Guthrie's "Hard Man"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Allan Guthrie's Hard Man.

About the book, from the author's website:

Has Pearce finally found his match? The time-served Edinburgh hard man is still recovering from the loss of his mother when he’s invited by the dysfunctional Baxter family to protect their pregnant 16-year-old daughter from Wallace, her 26-year-old husband. Having found out that the baby’s not his, Wallace – a man with a reputation for violence – has sworn vengeance. Pearce declines the job: he’s no babysitter. But when Wallace starts taunting Pearce, he goes too far. Before long, Pearce is forced to confront him. Now it’s deeply personal. Time to find out who the real hard man is...

Among the praise for Hard Man:

"By turns hilarious and horrifying, Guthrie’s original voice grabs the reader and doesn’t let go."
--Kirkus (starred review)

"The mixture of black comedy and relentless action makes this a hardboiled romp to remember."
--Library Journal

"If there's going to be a better crime novel in 2007, it's one that will have to do a lot to beat Hard Man."
--Shots Mag

"one of those books that makes you wonder what the writer will come up with next"
--Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine

"a dark, perfectly placed journey through psychoses, surreality and the twilight world of noir that is Guthrie’s twisted vision of Edinburgh"
--Crime Scene Scotland

"a thoroughly engaging tale, complete with some twists that are so stealthily deployed they're pure genius."
--Sandra Ruttan, Spinetingler Magazine

“If you’re looking at this book wondering if you should buy it, let me save you some trouble: Buy it. Because about halfway through it, when the floor completely drops out from under you, you’re going to want to call me and say, “Jesus, what did you do to me?” but you won’t be able to, because you’ll be too busy feverishly turning pages. Sure, I could throw the usual machine-gun barrage of adjectives at this book — violent, funny, smart, stark, sacreligious, utterly screwed — but again, let’s cut to the chase. Allan Guthrie’s Hard Man is already my favorite book of 2007 because, frankly, I can’t imagine what would top it.”
--Duane Swierczynski, author of The Blonde

"Dark, twisted, violent, and brilliant."
--Stuart Macbride, author of Dying Light

"The characters of Allan Guthrie's Hard Man suffer all the consequences that pluck and thick-skulled stupidity can bring upon them, and Guthrie describes it all with skill, wit, and originality: I promise this is a story you haven't read before."
--Thomas Perry, bestselling author of Nightlife

Visit Allan Guthrie's Noir Originals Website and the Hard Man blog.

The Page 69 Test: Hard Man.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Four Kinds of Rain," the movie

The novelist Robert Ward knows about television and movies. His book Grace was adapted as a TV movie for Carol Burnett (although never produced), and his novel Cattle Annie and Little Britches was adapted for film starring Burt Lancaster, Rod Steiger and Diane Lane.

After the publication of his acclaimed Red Baker, Ward was asked by David Milch to write a script for crime drama "Hill Street Blues," then in its sixth season. Soon after that he joined the staff of that series.

In 1988 he became a co-executive producer and writer of "Miami Vice." He later wrote for such shows as "New York Undercover" and "The Division." He has also worked on several television movies and pilots.

So who would Ward cast in the leads for the adapted movie of his latest novel, Four Kinds of Rain? Read on to find out.

Visit Robert Ward's website and read an excerpt from Four Kinds of Rain.

The Page 69 Test: Four Kinds of Rain.

My Book, The Movie: Four Kinds of Rain.

--Marshal Zeringue

Writing "The Unknown Gulag"

Coming soon to the Page 99 Test: Lynne Viola's The Unknown Gulag: The Lost World of Stalin’s Special Settlements.

Viola recently contributed a five-part series to the Oxford University Press blog about researching and writing her book. It's worth a look:

• Part I: Looking for the Kulaks
• Part II: The Central Archives
• Part III: The Provincial Archives
• Part IV: Why did the Soviets Document their Crimes?
• Part V: Another Source: The Survivors’ Testimony

Visit the publisher's website for more about The Unknown Gulag.

--Marshal Zeringue

Marcus Sakey's second novel

Marcus Sakey's debut crime novel, The Blade Itself, pulled in many, well-deserved, rave reviews.

Now he's posted the first chapter of his second novel, At the City's Edge, on his website.

At the City's Edge is the story of a discharged soldier who returns from Iraq to find a similar war raging in his Chicago neighborhood. It will be published early in the coming year.

The Page 69 Test: The Blade Itself.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is J. Kingston Pierce reading?

J. Kingston Pierce is the latest contributor to Writers Read.

Of course, one can always find out what Pierce is reading by visiting The Rap Sheet, the blog he edits that specializes in news and short features about crime fiction, in print and other media.

For a glimpse at his recent reading, here's part of his contribution to Writers Read:

To satisfy my craving for crime, I am in the midst of enjoying several recent or forthcoming novels. Right on top of that stack is Martin Cruz Smith’s new Arkady Renko adventure, Stalin’s Ghost, in which the Moscow detective (who we first met in 1981’s Gorky Park) investigates a formerly heralded fellow cop’s alleged corruption, while simultaneously dealing with his girlfriend’s decision to go back to her former lover, and looking into reports that the late Soviet leader Joseph Stalin is haunting a metro train platform. Below that, I find works by a couple of Irishmen — John Connolly’s The Unquiet, his sixth novel featuring private eye Charlie Parker; and Declan Hughes’ second P.I. Ed Loy novel, The Color of Blood — followed by Eternal, my introduction to Craig Russell’s half-Scottish, half-German detective, Jan Fabel of the Hamburg murder squad. (Earlier this year, Russell’s work won the Hamburg Polizeistern Award, or annual Police Star Award, so I’m expecting great things.)

There is much more of interest on Pierce's bookshelf, so read on.

Pierce is the author most recently of Eccentric Seattle, about the troubled, tragic, and often bawdy history of the Pacific Northwest’s most publicized city. His previous books include America’s Historic Trails with Tom Bodett (companion to the 1996 PBS-TV series) and San Francisco, You’re History! (a celebration of the crooks, madams, politicians, and performers who created California’s favorite town). In addition to blogging and writing non-fiction books, Pierce has also hosted a cable-TV series based on Eccentric Seattle. Episodes of that series can be viewed here.

He is currently working on his first novel, a historical mystery.

Writers Read: J. Kingston Pierce.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Leslie Schnur's "Late Night Talking"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Leslie Schnur's Late Night Talking.

About the book, from the author's website:

Late Night Talking is a tender and funny novel about bad behavior, the fragility of friendship and family, and how we cannot choose who we love.

Jeannie Sterling, host of a late night NYC talk show, vents with her listeners about everyday injustices, from rude cell phone users and poor gym etiquette, to bad drivers and many other annoyances of modern urban life. An idealistic California girl raised by two free-spirited parents, Jeannie believes in a life of value through activism. She's passionate about making a difference, about making the world a better place, one annoying person at a time.

For as long as she can remember, success in her career has been more than enough. But after all these years of being single, Jeannie realizes that some of the pieces of her perfect puzzle aren't fitting quite right. The people she thought she knew best all harbor secrets, secrets Jeannie can't be prepared for, secrets that can't be digested, processed, and solved in the neat three-hour window of her show. Her best friend, Luce, is growing distant and distracted; her wayward father unexpectedly moves in; and an ambiguous relationship with her college crush ignites.

When the radio station is bought by a maverick mogul, Jeannie's career, her one safe haven, descends into chaos. She is pushed to increase ratings and goes too far, risking the loss of everything and everyone important to her.

Delightfully real and deliciously flawed, Jeannie Sterling is a character we can't help but root for as she faces her life's biggest -- and both hilarious and heartbreaking -- challenges.

Among the praise for Late Night Talking:

"Accomplished.... Will resonate with a wide range of readers, while Schnur's meditations on women's friendships make Late Night Talking a humorous but not trivial read."
--Publishers Weekly

"A cute, lighthearted novel about expectations, love, and the cost of doing the right thing."
--Booklist

"Leslie Schnur's Late Night Talking is an appealing novel about sophisticated people who are certain they know all about life and love, manners and morals, right from wrong. Of course, that's when all the fun starts!"
--Susan Isaacs, author of Past Perfect

"A modern day tale of friendship, love, and doing the right thing. It's a funny, thought-provoking story that stayed with me long after reading the last page."
--Karen Quinn, author of The Ivy Chronicles and Wife in the Fast Lane

"Late Night Talking is the thinking girl's romance."
--Helen Schulman, author of P.S. and A Day At The Beach

"Filled with joy and humanity, Late Night Talking is more than just talk. It's a charming, uplifting novel where doing what's