What is John Gimlette reading?

The latest featured contributor to Writers Read: John Gimlette, author of the newly released Panther Soup: Travels Through Europe in War and Peace.

His entry opens:

Most of my reading relates to research for the book I am working on. My next book is about Guyana, and so I am reading Seductive Poison, an account of the events that led to the Jonestown Massacre. It's not particularly well-written and it sometimes feels like watching a train crash in slow motion. Nonetheless it's quite an important book, demonstrating how easily a large and vulnerable section of society were brain-washed by the crank, Jim Jones. [read on]

John Gimlette has won the Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize and the Wanderlust Travel Writing Award, and he writes regularly for The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, and Condé Nast Traveller.

His books include At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig and Theatre of Fish, both nominated by the New York Times as being among the "100 Notable Books of the Year."

When not traveling, he practices law in London, where he lives with his family.

Read an excerpt from Panther Soup, and visit John Gimlette's website.

Writers Read: John Gimlette.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Daniel Kalla's "Cold Plague"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Daniel Kalla's Cold Plague.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Pristine water — hidden for millions of years, untouched by pollution, and possessing natural healing powers — is found miles under Antarctic ice. The scientists who make this astonishing discovery stand to win worldwide acclaim and earn billions. While people around the world line up for a taste of the therapeutic water, a cluster of new cases of mad cow disease explodes in a rural French province. Dr. Noah Haldane and his World Health Organization team are urgently summoned.

Fresh from a brush with a pandemic flu, Noah recognizes the deadliness of a prion — the enigmatic microscopic protein responsible for mad cow disease — that kills with the speed and ferocity of a virus. Despite intense international pressure to declare the outbreak a random occurrence, Noah suspects that factors other than nature have ignited the prion’s spread among animals and people in France. Facing a spate of disappearances and unexplained deaths, Noah uncovers a conspiracy that stretches from St. Petersburg, Russia, to Beverly Hills, and from the North to the South Pole. He soon realizes that the scientific find of the century — a lake the size of Lake Superior buried three miles under Antarctica — might hold the key to a microscopic Jurassic Park.

With a billion-dollar industry hanging on his silence, Noah has to stay alive long enough to sound the alarm.

Among the praise for Dan Kalla's novels:

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

“Daniel Kalla expertly weaves real science and medicine into a fast-paced, nightmarish thriller—a thriller all the more frightening because it could really happen.”
—Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author, on Pandemic

“An absorbing, compulsive thriller, the sort of book you could stay up too late reading.”
—The Vancouver Sun on Pandemic

“Fans of 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)

“A taut psychological thriller that will pull you into a world of sexual deviancy, murder, and mind games. A very good read.”
—Nelson DeMille, New York Times bestselling author, on Rage Therapy

“Kalla strikes again with another perfect page-turner.”
—Lee Child, New York Times bestselling author, on Blood Lies

“A damn fine read.”
—John Lescroart, New York Times bestselling author, on Blood Lies

Read an excerpt from Cold Plague, and learn more about the novel and author at Dan Kalla's website.

Daniel Kalla is the international bestselling author of Pandemic, Resistance, Rage Therapy, and Blood Lies. He works as an emergency-room physician in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Read January Magazine's "Author Snapshot: Daniel Kalla."

The Page 99 Test: Blood Lies.

The Page 69 Test: Cold Plague.

--Marshal Zeringue

The Page 123 meme: follow-up

Linda L. Richards, author of Death Was the Other Woman, tagged me with the Page 123 meme and I tagged a few writers. Here's a sample what they did with it:

The nearest book at hand for Steve Hockensmith was a classic left near his desk by his 4-year-old, Pooh and the Dragon, which does not have 123 pages, so he turned to the next nearest book: The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson. Here are lines 6-8 from Pooh -- "No, we weren't scared," Roo giggled. "Why would we be?" He yawned. -- and the meme-relevant lines from Thompson's novel:

"You hurt me."

"I did?" I said. "Gosh, I'm sorry, honey."

Actually, I can imagine those lines in a Pooh book, too.

For Katherine Howell, the nearest book was James Lee Burke's Bitterroot.

Sentences 6, 7 and 8:

"Can you explain to me what your son is doing with Sue Lynn Big Medicine?" he said.
"Dancing, the last time I saw her."
"You were an officer of the federal court."

Pete Anderson wrote:

I'm reading Nelson Algren's novel Never Come Morning. (An interesting coincidence, given the fact that I once wrote a Page 69 essay for Marshal on Algren's The Man With the Golden Arm.)

The meme-rable lines:

"Bullet through the groin - zip," he added, his words coming flat and unempathetic, reading from the charge sheet without understanding. "Five children. Stella. Mary. Grosha. Wanda. Vincent. All underage."

Good stuff.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Allen Wyler's "Deadly Errors"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Allen Wyler's Deadly Errors.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Brain surgeon Allen Wyler has written a thriller on the bleeding edge of new-millennium hospital technology.

When a brain surgeon discovers that a revolutionary computerized medical-records system is responsible for a series of patient deaths---and threatens many more---he must navigate a treacherous maze of conspiracy. And risk his life to expose it.

* A comatose man is given a fatal dose of insulin in the Emergency Room---even though he isn't diabetic.

* An ulcer patient dies of hemolytic shock after receiving a transfusion---of the wrong blood type.

* A recovering heart patient receives a double dose of the same medication---triggering a fatal cardiac arrest.

When the doctors and nurses at Seattle's prestigious Maynard Medical Center start making preventable drug and treatment errors that kill their patients, neurosurgeon Dr. Tyler Mathews suspects that something is murderously wrong with the hospital's highly touted new "Med-InDx" electronic medical record. But when he airs his concerns to the hospital's upper management, he's met with stonewalling, skepticism---and threats.

Millions of dollars, and the future of Med-InDx, are at stake. And powerful corporate forces aren't about to let their potential profits evaporate. Tyler soon finds that his career, his marriage, and his very life are in jeopardy---along with the lives of countless innocent patients.

Among the praise for Deadly Errors:

"A thriller that only a doctor could have written. Wyler's sense of the worlds of the hospital and operating room are unsurpassed. You'll feel as if you are right there."
--Michael Palmer, New York Times bestselling author of Miracle Cure and The Sisterhood

"Deadly Errors has a fascinating and frightening premise that gives it the potential to be a bestseller in the Robin Cook mold."
--William Dietrich, author of Hadrian's Wall

"Deadly Errors is a wild and satisfying ride! An up-all-night pass into troubled places that only hardworking doctors know about, a turbulent world of trusting patients and imperfect humans struggling with the required image of perfection. Only a gifted surgeon could craft such a wild and wonderful medical thriller!"
--John J. Nance, New York Times bestselling author of Pandora's Clock

"Just when you thought it was safe to go back and have your tonsils removed, Dr. Allen Wyler writes a fast-paced thriller that reawakens your scariest misgivings about the Medical-Industrial Complex and the profit motive corrupting the art of healing. This is a story told with authority by an insider, an unsettling backstage tour through the labyrinth of that place we have come to both fear and revere---the American hospital."
--Darryl Ponicsan, author of The Last Detail

"Deadly Errors will curl your toes and make you afraid to enter the hospital for even a minor procedure. No one can write operating room scenes like Allen Wyler. You couldn't get any closer to the action if you scrubbed in and held a retractor."
--Don Donaldson, author of Do No Harm and In the Blood

Read an excerpt from Deadly Errors, and learn more about the author and his work at Allen Wyler's website.

The Page 69 Test: Dead Head.

My Book, The Movie: Deadly Errors.

The Page 99 Test: Deadly Errors.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Tom Rob Smith's "Child 44"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Tom Rob Smith's Child 44.

About the book, from the publisher:

An amazingly assured and exciting debut set in Soviet Russia in 1953, with a wonderfully realised sense of all-pervading fear and the desperateness of a chilling race against time. How do you solve an impossible crime?

MGB officer Leo is a man who never questions the Party Line. He arrests whomever he is told to arrest. He dismisses the horrific death of a young boy because he is told to, because he believes the Party stance that there can be no murder in Communist Russia. Leo is the perfect soldier of the regime.

But suddenly his confidence that everything he does serves a great good is shaken. He is forced to watch a man he knows to be innocent be brutally tortured. And then he is told to arrest his own wife.

Leo understands how the State works: Trust and check, but check particularly on those we trust. He faces a stark choice: his wife or his life.

And still the killings of children continue...

Among the early praise for the novel:

"An amazing debut - rich, different, and thrilling."
--Lee Child

"[A] brilliant debut novel that had me clutching it with both hands as if my life depended on reading it in a single night."
--Ali Karim, The Rap Sheet

"Child 44 telegraphs the talent and class of its writer from its opening pages, transporting you back to the darkest days of post-war Soviet Russia and ruthlessly drawing you into its richly atmospheric and engrossing tale."
--Raymond Khoury, bestselling author of The Last Templar

"This is truly a remarkable debut novel. A rare blend of great insight, excellent writing and a refreshingly original story... Favourable comparisons to Gorky Park are inevitable, but Child 44 is in a class of its own."
-- Nelson de Mille

"Child 44 contrasts the bleakness of Stalinist Russia with a love story that unexpectedly and ironically blooms only because the lovers are nearly crushed by a relentless totalitarian regime hell bent on their destruction. As a husband and wife seemingly trapped in a chilly state-endorsed marriage attempt to solve a series of brutal shild murders the government is determined not to acknowledge, they must avoid being killed themselves in a simultaneous flight and pursuit across the wintry Russian landscape. Achingly suspenseful, it's full of feeling and of the twists and turns that one expects from Le Carre at his best. It's a tale that grabes you by the throat and simply never lets you go."
--Robert Towne, Oscar-winning screenwriter, director, and actor

"The phrase 'master storyteller' is horribly over-used. In the case of young, first-time novelist Tom Rob Smith, it simply cannot do him justice. Child 44 is not only a thriller of the highest quality - addictive, pacey, frighteningly unpredictable -- but also a magnificently written novel with far more to offer than carefully managed tension and twists."
--Fiona Atherton, Scotsman

"A thrilling, intense piece of fiction."
--Peter Guttridge, Observer

"Child 44 is a thrilling read from the first page"
--The Sun

"Smith is good at keeping us in suspense. He also succeeds in saying something new on a well-worn subject."
--TLS

Read an excerpt from Child 44, and learn more about the book at the publisher's website.

Child 44 is Tom Rob Smith's first novel.

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

The Page 69 Test: Child 44.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five best books for Holocaust Remembrance Day

At the Wall Street Journal, Robert Rozett named five "essential books to keep in mind for Holocaust Remembrance Day on May 2."

One title on his list:

Ordinary Men
by Christopher R. Browning
HarperCollins, 1992

In "Ordinary Men," Christopher R. Browning tells the story of the German Reserve Police Battalion 101 and in the process addresses fundamental questions about the motivations of the Holocaust's perpetrators. How did "middle-aged family men of working- and lower-middle-class background from the city of Hamburg" become calloused murderers who killed 38,000 Jews and deported 45,000 more to Nazi death camps? Anti-Semitism certainly was a central cause, Browning says: others included the urge for conformity, the desire for advancement and the fear of appearing weak. One may argue with some of Browning's conclusions, in part because he relies on postwar statements by the criminals themselves, but this book will make any reader stop to ponder the ordinary man's capacity for evil.

Read about the book that topped Rozett's list.

Robert Rozett is the director of the Yad Vashem Library in Jerusalem and author of Approaching the Holocaust: Texts and Contexts.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Sean Williams reading?

The latest contributor to Writers Read: Sean Williams, a New York Times-bestselling author of speculative fiction.

One book he tagged:

While working on a novel, I always try to read something that will influence my writing just the right way. That doesn't necessarily mean a book in the same genre; more often it's the style and tone I'm looking for, like finding the right up-beat tempo to keep the weights pumping at the gym (not that I spend much time doing that). Because I've just started something intimate and fantastical for younger readers, the book I'm reading at the moment is Sylvia Engdahl's Enchantress from the Stars, a 1970 novel I somehow managed to miss during my childhood that an editor friend handed as inspiration. I can see why Firebird re-released it. Its devices are all completely visible, but it remains engaging. [read on]

Sean Williams is the author of over sixty published short stories and twenty-two novels, including the Books of the Cataclysm and The Resurrected Man.

He has been nominated at least thirty times for the major Australian awards (Ditmar, Aurealis, and McNamara) and has won ten times. He was recently nominated for the Ditmar, the Aurealis and the prestigious Philip K Dick Award for Saturn Returns.

As well as his original work, Williams has written several novels in the Star Wars universe.

Visit Sean Williams' website and his LiveJournal.

Writers Read: Sean Williams.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Bill Emmott's "Rivals"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Rivals: How the Power Struggle Between China, India and Japan Will Shape Our Next Decade by Bill Emmott.

About the book, from the publisher:

The former editor in chief of the Economist returns to the territory of his bestselling book The Sun Also Sets to lay out an entirely fresh analysis of the growing rivalry between China, India, and Japan and what it will mean for America, the global economy, and the twenty-first-century world.

Though books such as The World Is Flat and China Shakes the World consider them only as individual actors, Emmott argues that these three political and economic giants are closely intertwined by their fierce competition for influence, markets, resources, and strategic advantage. Rivals explains and explores the ways in which this sometimes bitter rivalry will play out over the next decade—in business, global politics, military competition, and the environment—and reveals the efforts of the United States to manipulate and benefit from this rivalry. Identifying the biggest risks born of these struggles, Rivals also outlines the ways these risks can and should be managed by all of us.

Among the early acclaim for Rivals:

"Rivals is remarkable for the clarity of its economic and historical analysis and the cogency of its arguments."
--Victor Mallet, Financial Times

"[A] striking new book.... Rivals is clever and concise."
--Michael Sheridan, The Sunday Times

"[Emmott] combines solid economic and political analysis with entertaining personal accounts to discuss three countries in the center of the phenomenon. Emmott paints richly detailed portraits of China, India and Japan, examining the global implications of their growing rivalry while remaining attentive to issues that extend beyond the region, such as the environment and nuclear weapons proliferation.... The true strength of the book lies in Emmott’s ability to guide the reader through the intricate—often fraught—relationships between these countries without losing focus. Particularly welcome is his ability to discuss potential trouble spots in the region without degenerating into alarmism. This serious and stimulating book will be indispensable to anyone interested in where these countries are headed—and where they might take us."
--Publishers Weekly

Read an excerpt from Rivals, and learn more about the author and his work at Bill Emmott's website.

The Page 99 Test: Rivals.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Judy Collins reading?

The folk and standards singer-songwriter Judy Collins talked to the Christian Science Monitor about what she's been watching and listening to. And reading:

I'm reading my second book by Robert Richardson, his book on Emerson called 'The Mind on Fire,' and Steve Martin's 'Born Standing Up,' which I am loving. I just read the Jeffrey Archer book, which is fantastic, the new one, 'A Prisoner of Birth' – quite an extraordinary book – is sort of like reading Alexandre Dumas, which they say in the notes, but which is really true.

Read more about what Collins has been listening to and watching.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Dan Elish's "The Misadventures of Justin Hearnfeld"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Dan Elish's The Misadventures of Justin Hearnfeld.

About the book, from Publishers Weekly:

From the author of Nine Wives comes this amusing tale of an insecure college grad who wants nothing more than to drop a few pounds, write the great American novel and lose his virginity. Raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Justin Hearnfeld is plagued by his lackluster track record with the opposite sex. After landing a job teaching English at the Clarke School for Boys, his abhorrent former high school, Justin becomes obsessed with striking yet unattainable co-worker Beverly Kinney. But his friend and fellow teacher David Grinstein, persuades him to instead try for Sadie Black, a teacher at Clarke's sister school. To add to the complication, Justin's pious ex-girlfriend, Abigail Wilson, comes back into his life with a newfound enthusiasm for sex. Enmeshed in an awkward and slightly unbelievable love triangle, Justin has to contend with the many uproarious obstacles standing between his virginal self and sex....

Read an excerpt from The Misadventures of Justin Hearnfeld, and learn more about the author and his work at Dan Elish's website.

Dan Elish is also the author of the novel Nine Wives as well as several books for young adults and children including the award-winning Born Too Short, Confessions of an 8th Grade Basket Case, The Worldwide Dessert Contest, Jason and the Baseball Bear, and The Great Squirrel Uprising.

Read Elish's mini-essay on "four differences between writing for adults and kids."

The Page 69 Test: The Misadventures of Justin Hearnfeld.

--Marshal Zeringue

Craig Johnson's "The Cold Dish," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Craig Johnson's The Cold Dish.

There is some real interest among moviemakers for adapting Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire mysteries, so the author cast "no longer active" actors in his entry.

Before clicking over for Johnson's idea about which late, great movie star ought to play Sheriff Walt Longmire, try to cast his lead using these guiding characteristics:

Some of the physical qualities I had in mind when I was constructing Walt were as far flung as Athos from The Three Musketeers, to Jean Val Jean from Les Miserables, specifically the scene where the ex-convict reveals himself by lifting a wagon off of an injured man. Marine investigator and USC offensive tackle, Walt Longmire is a big man simply for the reason that I wanted him to be capable, but not studied. Personally, I’ve had enough of the seventh-degree black-belt types, and just wanted a sheriff who could put a bad guy up against the wall if need be..... The other major ability would be a sense of humor and timing.... [read on]

The Walt Longmire mysteries are The Cold Dish, Death Without Company, Kindness Goes Unpunished and Another Man’s Moccasins.

Read more about the novels and the author at Craig Johnson's website.

The Page 69 Test: Kindness Goes Unpunished.

My Book, The Movie: The Cold Dish.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Steven Heyman's "Free Speech and Human Dignity"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Steven J. Heyman's Free Speech and Human Dignity.

About the book, from the publisher:

Debates over hate speech, pornography, and other sorts of controversial speech raise issues that go to the core of the First Amendment. Supporters of regulation argue that these forms of expression cause serious injury to individuals and groups, assaulting their dignity as human beings and citizens. Civil libertarians respond that our commitment to free speech is measured by our willingness to protect it, even when it causes harm or offends our deepest values.

In this important book, Steven J. Heyman presents a theory of the First Amendment that seeks to overcome the conflict between free speech and human dignity. This liberal humanist theory recognizes a strong right to freedom of expression while also providing protection against the most serious forms of assaultive speech. Heyman then uses the theory to illuminate a wide range of contemporary disputes, from flag burning and antiabortion demonstrations to pornography and hate speech.

Among the early acclaim for Free Speech and Human Dignity:

“Steven J. Heyman’s liberal humanism exhibits a profound understanding of the tragic conflicts often presented in free speech cases. This is an exciting contribution to the first amendment literature.”
—Steven Shiffrin, Charles Frank Reavis Sr. Professor of Law, Cornell University

“In Free Speech and Human Dignity, Steve Heyman shows us the original understanding of the First Amendment guarantees of free speech, thought, and worship as a part of a broad array of natural rights including dignity, personal security, personality, and community. This important book gives us a fresh interpretation of the First Amendment that is both liberal and humanist and leaves the reader with a far deeper appreciation of the natural rights tradition at its heart.”
—Robin West, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center

"Free Speech and Human Dignity offers an elegant, clear-headed, and fair-minded argument for the regulation of speech that is inconsistent with human dignity. Heyman presents the most convincing possible case for the legal prohibition of such speech. His book should be studied by all who are concerned to understand this difficult and significant issue."
—Robert Post, David Boies Professor of Law, Yale Law School

“A fascinating work demonstrating how insights from the eighteenth century may properly inform answers to pressing constitutional problems of the present.”
—Mark Graber, Professor of Law and Government, University of Maryland School of Law and author of Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil

Learn more about Free Speech and Human Dignity at the Yale University Press website.

Steven J. Heyman is Professor of Law, Chicago-Kent College of Law. He is a 1984 graduate of Harvard Law School, where he was a Supreme Court editor of the Harvard Law Review. In addition to many law review articles, he is the editor of Hate Speech and the Constitution.

The Page 99 Test: Free Speech and Human Dignity.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Chris Forhan reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Reads: Chris Forhan, author of The Actual Moon, The Actual Stars and Forgive Us Our Happiness.

Part of his entry:

Books by more recent poets include No Starling by Nance Van Winckel (whose work has gotten noticeably and gorgeously strange in the last few years); Laura Kasischke’s Lilies Without; Dean Young’s embryoyo; Tomaž Šalamun’s The Book for My Brother; and Alessandra Lynch’s it was a terrible cloud at twilight. Lynch’s poems are deeply musical and emotionally rich—they persuade, finally, by their distinctive voice: by its often incantatory, even obsessive, quality and by its shifts and veerings that are both surprising and right. [read on]

Forhan's poems have been published in magazines such as Poetry, Paris Review, New England Review, Plougshares, Parnassus, Antioch Review, Georgia Review, and Slate, and anthologies including The Best American Poetry 2008, The Book of Irish American Poetry from the Eighteenth Century to the Present, Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, The Pushcart Prize XXVII, Hammer and Blaze: A Gathering of Contemporary American Poets, and The New American Poets: A Bread Loaf Anthology.

He received a 2007 NEA fellowship in poetry, and teaches at Butler University in Indianapolis, Ind.

Writers Reads: Chris Forhan.

--Marshal Zeringue

Critic's chart: Arthur C. Clarke Award winners

The Arthur C. Clarke Award is the UK’s premier prize for science fiction literature. The 2008 award ceremony will take place on April 30th as part of the Sci-Fi-London Film Festival. On the shortlist: Matthew de Abaitua, Stephen Baxter, Sarah Hall, Steven Hall, Ken MacLeod and Richard Morgan.

Lisa Tuttle, a sci-fi reviewer for the Times (London), selected a critic's chart of the top Arthur C. Clarke Award winners.

One title on her list:

Air Geoff Ryman (2006)

Brilliantly imagined novel of ordinary lives in a remote village transformed by a technological great leap forward.

Read about Number One on Tuttle's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Michael Allen Dymmoch's "M.I.A."

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Michael Allen Dymmoch's M.I.A..

About the book, from the author's website:

The accidental death of Mickey Fahey leaves his wife Rhiann paralyzed by grief, his stepson Jimmy cutting school and drinking. The widow's problems are compounded by the unwanted advances of her dead husband's friend.

Rhiann does her best to cope, going back to work, dealing patiently with her son's misbehavior, telling Rory Sinter she's not interested.

A mysterious stranger moves in next door. John Devlin offers Rhiann beer and sympathy, and gives Jimmy a job.

When Sinter tries to discredit John, then beat him to death, Rhiann comes to John's rescue. But she discovers her perfect neighbor isn't what he'd seemed.

Which leads Rhiann to investigate. And to see John in a different light altogether.

This is a story of violent men and violent passions, of missing friends, of loss and discovery. A love story.

Read an excerpt from M.I.A., and learn more about the author and her work at Michael Allen Dymmoch's website.

Check out Dymmoch's "Graphic Sex" post at The Outfit, in which she writes: "I recall graphic sex scenes from several mystery novels—don’t remember the plots or how the stories came out—but I remember that the sex stood out. (Having said that, I’ll admit to putting fairly graphic foreplay in my upcoming novel, M.I.A. — which I hope doesn’t stop the action.)"

Michael Allen Dymmoch has served as President and Secretary of the Midwest Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, and as newsletter editor for the Chicagoland Chapter of Sisters in Crime. Her books include Death In West Wheeling and White Tiger.

The Page 69 Test: White Tiger.

My Book, The Movie: Death in West Wheeling.

The Page 69 Test: M.I.A..

--Marshal Zeringue

Swierczynski's "The Blonde" -- on the big screen?

When Duane Swierczynski shared the news that his terrific novel The Blonde had been optioned by Hollywood, I unaccountably failed to report it here. But little in the world of crime fiction escapes The Rap Sheet's J. Kingston Pierce, and he has the latest details on the story.

For those not following the story from the start, here's a timeline.

*December 2006: An as-yet-unproduced screenwriter reviews The Blonde. The opening paragraph:

If Duane Swierczynski's new book The Blonde hasn't been optioned by a movie producer yet, Hollywood's paid novel readers aren't doing their jobs. And once they do "discover" this book, I hope they'll hire me to write the adapted screenplay. Why? Because the story will make a cracking good movie and the screenplay almost writes itself.

*July 2007: Duane Swierczynski contributes an entry for The Blonde to My Book, The Movie. The money paragraph:

"The Blonde": You'd need someone who's beautiful with the potential for being badass. Michelle Monaghan (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) comes to mind, as does Melissa George, who played Lauren Reed in season three of Alias.

*March 2008: Swierczynski shares the news that the book has been optioned. Here's the official announcement:

Film rights to Duane Swierczynski's THE BLONDE, about a soon-to-be-divorced young father who is poisoned by a beautiful woman at an airport bar, and told if he wants to live, he must stay by her side for the next 12 hours, optioned by "Mission Impossible: III" and "Gone Baby Gone" co-star Michelle Monaghan, with screenwriter Paul Leyden attached, by Angela Cheng Caplan on behalf of DHS Literary Inc.

*April 2008: The Rap Sheet links to a Los Angeles Times story with more details on the deal, including the news that "Monaghan and Leyden had been looking to collaborate (he's married to her best friend)..."--which doesn't leave me the least bit bitter. Not one bit. Really. Not. One. Bit.

The Blonde was one of my favorite books of 2006. I hope it makes it to the big screen.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten books about wilderness

At the age of 10, Sarah Anderson's arm was amputated as a result of cancer. She has gone on to write several travel books, including the newly released (in the U.K.) Halfway to Venus, which is "about life with one arm, about phantom and prosthetic limbs, about what hands and arms mean in different cultures and how they are portrayed in art and literature."

Anderson also founded the Travel Bookshop, the setting for the movie Notting Hill.

For the Guardian, she named her top ten books about wilderness. One book on her list:

The Land of Little Rain by Mary Austin

I love the range of subjects that Mary Austin wrote about; her books and articles include fiction, autobiography, mysticism, Native American culture and mathematics - but it is of course her landscape and wilderness writing that particularly appeal to me. Austin is barely known in the UK but her writings about the desert in the south west of the United States, an area she calls the "Country of Lost Borders", are vivid and evocative and again prove that what at first can seem unwelcoming and unforgiving can actually be sustaining and life-giving. The desert is where she went to restore her sense of mystery.

Read more about Anderson's top ten list.

Read more about Halfway to Venus.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: James M. O'Toole's "The Faithful"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: James M. O'Toole's The Faithful: A History of Catholics in America.

About the book, from the publisher:

Shaken by the ongoing clergy sexual abuse scandal, and challenged from within by social and theological division, Catholics in America are at a crossroads. But is today’s situation unique? And where will Catholicism go from here? With the belief that we understand our present by studying our past, James O’Toole offers a bold and panoramic history of the American Catholic laity.

O’Toole tells the story of this ancient church from the perspective of ordinary Americans, the lay believers who have kept their faith despite persecution from without and clergy abuse from within. It is an epic tale, from the first settlements of Catholics in the colonies to the turmoil of the scandal-ridden present, and through the church’s many American incarnations in between. We see Catholics’ complex relationship to Rome and to their own American nation. O’Toole brings to life both the grand sweep of institutional change and the daily practice that sustained believers. The Faithful pays particular attention to the intricacies of prayer and ritual—the ways men and women have found to express their faith as Catholics over the centuries.

With an intimate knowledge of the dilemmas and hopes of today’s church, O’Toole presents a new vision and offers a glimpse into the possible future of the church and its parishioners. Moving past the pulpit and into the pews, The Faithful is an unmatched look at the American Catholic laity. Today’s Catholics will find much to educate and inspire them in these pages, and non-Catholics will gain a newfound understanding of their religious brethren.

Among the early praise for The Faithful:

"O'Toole's history, focusing especially on personal narratives, makes for captivating reading... A history worth reading."
--Kirkus Reviews

"For readers who are familiar with the church, the primary joy of this book will be found in checking their own experiences against those described by O'Toole. Still, the genial style of writing together with a plentiful amount of fascinating tidbits will keep all but the most jaded expert going."
--Publishers Weekly

"O'Toole deftly tells the history of lay Catholics in America. Beginning with the priestless church of the Colonial period, he goes on to explore the church in the democratic republic, the immigrant church, the church of Catholic Action, the church of Vatican II, and the church in the 21st century."
--Augustine J. Curley, Library Journal

"The Faithful is a truly original and mature work that gives us a rich history of American Catholics. There is simply no comparable book."
--David O'Brien, Holy Cross

"An ambitious narrative history of American Catholicism, written with great historical range and attention to lived experience. It has profound contemporary resonance. This courageous book, unafraid to explore the story's darker moments, is destined to become the new standard text on American Catholicism."
--Robert Orsi, Northwestern University

"Solidly researched, engagingly told and insightfully interpreted, The Faithful is the first comprehensive history of lay Catholic prayer, politics and creative fidelity to church teaching, even in times of crisis such as the present. It could not come at a better time, as American Catholics struggle to reclaim a legacy of moral leadership and stalwart service to the nation."
--R. Scott Appleby, University of Notre Dame

"O'Toole surveys the lay Catholic experience in America with remarkable breadth and mastery. Lively and accessible, this book provides a valuable introduction to American Catholic history."
--Leslie Tentler, Catholic University of America

Read an excerpt from The Faithful, and learn more about the book at the Harvard University Press website.

Visit James O'Toole's faculty webpage.

The Page 99 Test: The Faithful.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Sally Gunning's "Bound"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Sally Gunning's Bound.

About the book, from the publisher:

Alice Cole spent her first seven years living in two smoky, crowded rooms in London with her family. But a new home and a better life waited in the colonies, or so her father promised—a bright dream that turned to ashes when her brothers and mother took ill and died during the arduous voyage. Arriving in New England unable to meet the added expenses incurred by their misfortunes at sea, her father bound Alice into servitude to pay his debts.

By the age of fifteen, Alice can barely remember the time when she was not a servant to John Morton and his daughter, Nabby. Though work fills her days, life with the Mortons is pleasant; Mr. Morton calls Alice his "sweet, good girl," and Nabby, only three years older, is her friend, companion, and now newly married, her mistress.

But Nabby's marriage is not happy, and soon Alice is caught up in its storm; seeing nothing ahead but her own destruction, she defies her new master and the law and runs away to Boston. There she meets a sympathetic widow named Lyddie Berry and her lawyer companion, Eben Freeman. Frightened and alone, Alice impulsively stows away on their ship to Satucket on Cape Cod, where the Widow Berry offers Alice a bed and a job making cloth in support of the new boycott of British wool and linen.

At Widow Berry's, Alice believes her old secret is safe, until it becomes threatened by a new one. As the days pass, the political and the personal stakes rise and intertwine, ultimately setting off a chain of events that will force Alice to question all she thought she knew. Bound by law, society, and her own heart, Alice soon discovers that freedom—as well as gratitude, friendship, trust, and love—has a price far higher than any she ever imagined.

Library Journal hailed Sally Gunning's previous novel, The Widow's War, as "historical fiction at its best." With Bound, this wonderfully talented writer returns to pre-Revolutionary New England and evokes a long-ago time filled with uncertainty, hardship, and promise.

Among the early acclaim for Bound:

"Heartrending.... Gunning’s vibrant portrayal shows that the pursuit of happiness is not for the faint of heart."
—Boston Globe

"Historical fiction at its best."
—Library Journal, starred review

"[A] colonial page-turner...horrifying, spellbinding."
—Publishers Weekly

"If The Widow's War identified Sally Gunning as a masterful new voice in historical fiction, Bound confirms her place as one of the very best in the field. Beautifully researched and ardently imagined, Gunning's writing is so vivid you can taste the salt in the Cape Cod air. She has a special gift for rendering the spare, constrained dialogue of the colonial Puritans and at the same time giving her characters emotional lives that are rich, moving and utterly convincing. Her Satucket novels are destined to become classics."
—Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Year of Wonders and March

"Two hundred years ago, Cape Cod was not a haven for visitors in sun hats with boxes of fudge. It was an unforgiving spit of sand, where women's lives were as harsh as those of the men who went down to the sea in ships and came back in shrouds. In her novel of pitiless beauty, Bound, author Sally Gunning demonstrates again what she did in The Widow's War. Unlike many historical novelists, Gunning makes the long-ago feel like this very day. Elegantly, she tells bitter truths;that dignity and grace and even abiding love can flourish where it seems nothing can grow."
—Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean and Still Summer

"Skillfully employing the language, imagination and character that literary fiction demands, [Gunning] illuminates a fascinating moment in our past."
—Washington Post Book World

Read an excerpt from Bound, and learn more about the author and her work at Sally Gunning's website.

The Page 69 Test: Bound.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Alex Kingsbury reading?

The latest contributor to Writers Read: Alex Kingsbury, an associate editor at U.S. News & World Report.

One book mentioned in his entry:

Among the Dead Cities: The History and Moral Legacy of the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany and Japan by A.C. Grayling. [read on]

Alex Kingsbury met Staff Sgt. Darrell Griffin 18 days before the soldier was killed by a sniper. View the web feature, "A Soldier's Life and Death," which includes Kingsbury's cover story about Griffin, photos the soldier took, his personal emails, videos, and journal entries.

Kingsbury's articles have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post Express, National Geographic Traveler, the Dallas Morning News, and been distributed by the New York Times.

He has also written for the Watchdog Project, an initiative of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

Visit Alex Kingsbury's website.

Writers Read: Alex Kingsbury.

--Marshal Zeringue

The Page 123 meme

I see Linda L. Richards, author of Death Was the Other Woman, has pulled me into the Page 123 meme-thread.

The skinny:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

The nearest book: Steve Hockensmith's Holmes on the Range.

Sentences 6-7-8:

["]You'd be better off shootin' the son of a gun"

Blackwell turned and gave my brother a bashful grin. The young Englishman had picked up a touch of color in his travels in the West, but he didn't show it now.

(The POV is Otto "Big Red" Amlingmeyer's.)

I'm tagging--

• Steve Hockensmith
• Katherine Howell (whose new novel, The Darkest Hour, is right next to Steve's)
• writer and lit-blogger Pete Anderson
• sci-fi writer Karen Miller
• John A. Adam, author and professor of mathematics

--all of whom have contributed entries to CftAR blogs.

Pass it on.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Blaize Clement's "Even Cat Sitters Get the Blues"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Even Cat Sitters Get the Blues by Blaize Clement.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Critics and readers agree that Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter was a bona fide cozy hit. Its follow-up, Duplicity Dogged the Dachshund, won Blaize Clement a whole new set of fans. Now Floridian pet-sitting sleuth Dixie Hemingway is back in this third mesmerizing installment.

Dixie Hemingway discovers the dead body of the gatekeeper of a mansion. She’s had her fill of homicide investigations, so she leaves the corpse to be found by somebody else. But that somebody else sees Dixie leaving the scene of the crime, and the bullet that killed the man could have come from a gun she owns. To make matters worse, the owner of the mansion is a new client---a pain-wracked scientist who is either quite insane or a genius whose clandestine work may save millions of lives. Or both.

In either case, Dixie is stuck caring for him and his pet iguana. All that, plus a calico kitten Dixie is determined to save, put her right in the middle of a bizarre crisis fueled by dark secrets....

Among the praise for Even Cat Sitters Get the Blues:

"In the third Dixie Hemingway mystery (after 2007's Duplicity Dogged the Dachshund), Clement blends elements of cozy and thriller to produce an unusual and enjoyable hybrid. Pet-sitter Dixie, a former sheriff's deputy on leave after the death of her husband and daughter, finds a corpse in the gatehouse of a mansion, but leaves the body for someone else to find. Traumatized by having killed someone recently, Dixie wants nothing to do with homicide, but fate decrees otherwise. Her new client, a mysterious scientist wracked by pain, owns the mansion, and Dixie ends up caring for him and his pet iguana as she tries to solve the murder and juggle her conflicting feelings for heartthrob Lieutenant Guidry and seductive attorney Ethan Crane. Clement's deft hand with plot and characters is sure to delight readers."
--Publishers Weekly

"A call to care for an iguana involves pet-sitter Dixie Hemingway in yet another murder case.... A complicated tale of stolen secrets. Once more she puts her life on the line to save a pet and solve a crime.... An enjoyable tale."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Warning: If you have things you need to do, wait to start reading this Dixie Hemingway mystery. The plot is thick and continues to thicken, characters are real enough to make you care, and the setting so lovely and well-described that I’m tempted to pack my bags and join the southward emigration."
--Mary Garrett, Stories Make the World Go Around

"...by far the most complex of Dixie's adventures to date. This is an extremely mature piece of fiction that deals with knotty personal questions within the framework of an artfully crafted mystery. In Dixie, Clement has created a protagonist who is gutsy, sexy, caring and funny...Over the course of the three novels, Clement has pushed Dixie along from being a grieving widow to a young woman willing to open her life up to love again. That transition furnishes a subplot to 'Cat Sitters.'"
--Bob Morrison, Sarasota Herald-Tribune

"Clement puts plenty of humor in storytelling, without skipping the main ingredient, intrigue and mystery. Dixie's sleuthing in this book reveals a complicated tale of stolen secrets and she puts her life on the line to save a pet and solve a crime... the reader is held captive by the clever twists and turns Clement weaves into her story, even to the iguana eventually saving her from death at the hands of one of the bad characters... In the book Dixie declines pet sitting for clients who have pet snakes and if she'd thought it through probably would not have taken on an iguana, but then the readers would have missed a great mystery."
--Bill Duncan, The News-Review, Roseburg, Oregon

Read an excerpt from Even Cat Sitters Get the Blues, and learn more about the author and her work at Blaize Clement's website and her blog.

Earlier books in Clement's Dixie Hemingway mystery series include Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter and Duplicity Dogged the Dachshund.

The Page 99 Test: Even Cat Sitters Get the Blues.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Sandra Ruttan's "What Burns Within"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Sandra Ruttan's What Burns Within.

About the book, from the publisher:

One year ago, a brutal case almost destroyed three cops. Since then they’ve lost touch with one another, avoiding painful memories, content to go their own ways. Now Nolan is after a serial rapist. Hart is working on a string of arsons. And Tain has been assigned a series of child abductions, a case all too similar to that one. But when the body of one of the abduction victims is found at the site of one of the arsons, it starts to look like maybe these cases are connected after all….

Among the early praise for What Burns Within:

"Three Vancouver constables—son-of-a-sergeant Craig Nolan, bombshell in the boys’ club Ashlyn Hart, and stolidly antisocial cop Tain—are drawn together as the rapes, arsons and child abductions they’re working on respectively converge. The three, who have a beef over a prior case gone bad, must get over their personal differences and chase scant leads before another raped woman, burned building or missing girl turns up. Ruttan manages to keep the multiple leads and seconds on the same page admirably: she doesn’t drop too many clues in their laps or allow the tension to flag. The child abduction and sex crime aspects of the story are handled without exploitation or kid gloves; the straight proceduralism from Ruttan (Suspicious Circumstances) serves the story well through the rewarding climax."
--Publishers Weekly

“A totally mesmerizing narrative and a plot that burns off the page.”
--Ken Bruen, Author of Ammunition

“Ruttan is talented in the way that a natural musician is talented, making all the notes seem effortless.”
--Crimespree Magazine

"A taut, crackling read with switch-blade pacing."
--Rick Mofina, internationally best-selling author of A Perfect Grave

"Sandra Ruttan writes with utter ferocity. Twists and turns that stun and dialog that absolutely crackles with wit and authenticity. With each page, Ruttan delivers the goods. What Burns Within is a nonstop chiller of a mystery that keeps you turning the pages."
--Gregg Olsen, New York Times bestselling author of A Wicked Snow

"Ruttan combines devilishly clever plots with genuinely empathic characters..."
--Russel D. McLean, Crime Scene Scotland

Sandra Ruttan is also the author of Suspicious Circumstances and an editor with Spinetingler Magazine. Her writing has appeared in Pulp Pusher, Crimespree Magazine and Out of the Gutter.

Learn more about Sandra Ruttan and What Burns Within at her website and her blog.

The Page 69 Test: What Burns Within.

--Marshal Zeringue

Junot Díaz: most important books

Junot Díaz, the Dominican-born author who won a Pulitzer this month for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, told Newsweek about his five most important books.

And answered two related questions:

A Book You Always Return To:

Samuel R. Delany's "Dhalgren," which best captures that late '60s eruption that has shaped so much of what we call the Now.

A Book You Hope Parents Will Read To Their Kids:

Richard Adams's "Watership Down," which is about the very thing kids dream of: that something small can still be a hero.

Read about Díaz's most important books.

Junot Díaz's fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The Best American Short Stories. His debut story collection, Drown was a national bestseller and won numerous awards. Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times called The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao “a book that decisively establishes him as one of contemporary fiction's most distinctive and irresistible new voices.”

The Page 99 Test: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Robert Wilder reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Robert Wilder, author of Daddy Needs a Drink: An Irreverent Look at Parenting from a Dad Who Truly Loves His Kids--Even When They're Driving Him Nuts and Tales from the Teachers' Lounge: What I Learned in School the Second Time Around--One Man's Irreverent Look at Being a Teacher.

One book he tagged:

I also just finished a terrific book of short stories: The Mother Garden by Robin Romm. I had a horrible bout of insomnia before we left for Florida and after tossing and turning, I went out to the loveseat in our living room and devoured these delightful stories. What I like about Romm’s work is that she allows so much mystery (some would say magic) into otherwise realistic premises. A daughter finds her father roaming in the desert; a woman washes up on the shore during a disconnected family reunion; all her stories invite us to wonder and wander along the twisted roads of her wonderful prose. [read on]

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

Visit Wilder's website, his Facebook presence, and his MySpace page.

The Page 99 Test: Daddy Needs A Drink.

Writers Read: Robert Wilder.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Robert Schlesinger's "White House Ghosts"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Robert Schlesinger's White House Ghosts: Presidents and Their Speechwriters.

About the book, from the publisher:

In White House Ghosts, veteran Washington reporter Robert Schlesinger opens a fresh and revealing window on the modern presidency from FDR to George W. Bush. This is the first book to examine a crucial and often hidden role played by the men and women who help presidents find the words they hope will define their places in history.

Drawing on scores of interviews with White House scribes and on extensive archival research, Schlesinger weaves intimate, amusing, compelling stories that provide surprising insights into the personalities, quirks, egos, ambitions, and humor of these presidents as well as how well or not they understood the bully pulpit.

White House Ghosts traces the evolution of the presidential speechwriter's job from Raymond Moley under FDR through such luminaries as Ted Sorensen and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., under JFK, Jack Valenti and Richard Goodwin under LBJ, William Safire and Pat Buchanan under Nixon, Hendrik Hertzberg and James Fallows under Carter, and Peggy Noonan under Reagan, to the "Troika" of Michael Gerson, John McConnell, and Matthew Scully under George W. Bush.

White House Ghosts tells the fascinating inside stories behind some of the most iconic presidential phrases: the first inaugural of FDR ("the only thing we have to fear is fear itself ") and JFK ("ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country"), Richard Nixon's "I am not a crook" and Ronald Reagan's "tear down this wall" speeches, Bill Clinton's ending "the era of big government" State of the Union, and George W. Bush's post-9/11 declaration that "whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done" -- and dozens of other noteworthy speeches. The book also addresses crucial questions surrounding the complex relationship between speechwriter and speechgiver, such as who actually crafted the most memorable phrases, who deserves credit for them, and who has claimed it.

Schlesinger tells the story of the modern American presidency through this unique prism -- how our chief executives developed their very different rhetorical styles and how well they grasped the rewards of reaching out to the country. White House Ghosts is dramatic, funny, gripping, surprising, serious -- and always entertaining.

Among the early praise for White House Ghosts:

"White House Ghosts takes you into the minds and machinations of presidents in a way no other book has -- through the insights of succeeding generations of White House speechwriters. As a long-time student of the American presidency, I was constantly engaged, intrigued, and amused by this very smart and ambitious book."
--Tom Brokaw, author of Boom! and The Greatest Generation

"A president's words can frame an era or shape world history. That makes his speechwriters critical. Robert Schlesinger, son of one of the greatest, brings the flair of a storyteller and the insight of a scholar to the White House's obscure but glorious ghosts."
--Jonathan Alter, author of The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope

"Robert Schlesinger's White House Ghosts is a welcome addition to the literature on presidents. His book not only adds a significant dimension to our understanding of how presidential speeches were constructed but also deepens our knowledge of the way in which major policies were developed. Schlesinger has given us an altogether delightful and informative study that will become essential reading for anyone interested in the modern presidency."
-- Robert Dallek, author of Nixon and Kissinger

"Robert Schlesinger has given us an absorbing, detail-packed tour behind the scenes of some of the great defining moments of the modern presidency."
--John F. Harris, author of The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House and editor in chief of Politico.com

"Here's a book about politics and presidents that says something new. Robert Schlesinger gives readers a captivating inside glimpse at the anonymous wordsmiths whose talent at crafting a president's speeches can make or break a presidency."
--John A. Farrell, author of Tip O'Neill and the Democratic Century

Read an excerpt from White House Ghosts, and learn more about the book and its author at Robert Schlesinger's website.

Robert Schlesinger is deputy assistant managing editor, opinion at U.S. News & World Report. Formerly political editor of the insider publication The Hill and a Washington correspondent for The Boston Globe, he has written for The Washington Monthly, Salon.com, The Weekly Standard, and People. He teaches political journalism at Boston University's Washington Journalism Center.

The Page 99 Test: White House Ghosts.

--Marshal Zeringue

Karen Miller's "Empress," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Karen Miller's Empress.

Miller's entry begins:

Hollywood being what it is, the chances of this, or any of my books, being made into a movie are slim to none. But I do have a lot of fun playing casting director when I’m writing – sometimes it helps to have a known ‘face’ in your head when you’re searching for a character’s physicality. Or sometimes once you’re done, you suddenly see a face that fits the face you’ve been writing about for ages. That can be quite freaky, actually. As though your inner dreams are suddenly dressed in flesh.

Empress is my latest book, the first installment of the Godspeaker trilogy. It’s epic, historical fantasy, I suppose you’d describe it. The scope of the trilogy is pretty wide, in a geographical and socio-political sense. In Empress, the reader is introduced to the harsh land of Mijak, where the god isn’t just some theoretical, possibly non-existent being, but a living, breathing, physically manifested presence. Not believing in the god is like saying you don’t believe in trees – even as a tree is falling on top of you. It’s the story of one unwanted girl-child, Hekat, who’s sold into slavery, and rises to the very heights of power … at an enormous cost not only to herself, but the people around her. And it’s about what happens when she sets her sights on giving her bloodthirsty god the whole world.

Initially, thinking of Hekat, Halle Berry came to mind because Hekat’s beautiful and so is Ms Berry. Then I saw an episode of America’s Next Top Model, and my perfect Hekat was on it! [read on]

Read an excerpt from Empress, and learn more about the author and her work at Karen Miller's website and her LiveJournal.

Karen Miller is the author of the bestselling fantasy duology Kingmaker, Kingbreaker, the currently releasing fantasy trilogy Godspeaker, and the bestselling tie-in novel Stargate SG-1: Alliances.

My Book, The Movie: Karen Miller's Empress.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Marisa Silver's "The God of War"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Marisa Silver's The God of War.

About the book, from the publisher:

The year is 1978. Ares Ramirez, age 12, lives with his mother, Laurel, and his younger brother Malcolm in a trailer at the edge of the Salton Sea, an unintentionally man-made body of water in the middle of the Southern California desert. It is a desolate, forgotten place, whose inhabitants thrive amidst seemingly impossible circumstances.

Where birds fly by day across the desert sky, by night government fighter planes and helicopters make training runs using live ammunition, and an anonymous dead body floats in from the sea. These events inspire Ares, on the cusp of his adolescence, to enact elaborate fantasies of mortal combat. His membership in a troubled family marks Ares as a casualty of a different kind of war. Malcolm, age 7, is mentally handicapped, and his mother chooses not to do anything about it.

Ares' struggle with the burden of responsibility -- to himself and to others -- draws him into a world of drugs, violence, and sex that he is not prepared for, launching him into a very personal battle for his own identity, one that has a lethal outcome.

Among the early acclaim for the novel:

“Marisa Silver is the author for whom we've all been waiting. With unabashed voice she steadily, bravely, unerringly tells a heartbreakingly beautiful story for our time. The God of War is the truest novel I've read in ages.”
--Alexandra Fuller, author of Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight

“The God of War is such a stunning dive into a desert landscape few have understood and loved as deeply as Marisa Silver. It is no man's land, and every man's land — there, her people wage epic battles for their lives, for their loyalties, and for their very fierce versions of love.”
--Susan Straight, author of A Million Nightingales and Highwire Moon

“Marisa Silver's The God of War is as gripping as it is beautifully written. By the end I ached for these brothers, Ares and Malcolm, as if they were my own family, and I will not forget them.”
--Peter Orner, author of Esther Stories and The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo

“An elegantly observed coming-of-age story steeped in poverty and violence, this novel by the author of No Direction Home offers a poignant and often heartbreaking account of Ares Ramirez. The year is 1978, and 12-year-old Ares has outgrown the cramped trailer in the California desert that he shares with his mother, Laurel, and six-year-old brother, Malcolm. Malcolm has profound developmental disabilities, but Laurel, out of a free-spirited and self-righteous view of motherhood, has only recently (and very reluctantly) allowed Malcolm to get treatment. A horrific childhood accident and encroaching adolescence, meanwhile, fill Ares with a potent and inarticulate anger. In the absence of any outlet for his preoccupation with violence, Ares falls into an uneasy friendship with Kevin, the troubled foster child of Malcolm's new speech therapist. Conflict with Laurel, her on-again-off-again boyfriend and a small community that will not accept Malcolm, drive Ares into Kevin's manipulative sway, and Ares will have to choose between protecting his family or embracing the violence building inside him. The characters are painted with compassion and unflinching honesty, and the climax is pithy and consequential.”
--Publishers Weekly

“A stunning second novel.... Finely wrought characters and an illuminating portrait of the secret world of autism makes for a powerful, often tragic tale.”
--Kirkus Reviews

“Marisa Silver's The God of War is a novel of great metaphorical depth and beauty. It stays with you like a lesson well and truly learned.”
--Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls

Read an excerpt from The God of War, and learn more about the author and her work at Marisa Silver's website.

Silver is the author of Babe in Paradise, a collection of stories that was a New York Times Notable Book and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year, and the novel No Direction Home. She made her fictional debut in The New Yorker when she was featured in that magazine's inaugural “Debut Fiction” issue. Her fiction continues to be published in The New Yorker, including "The Visitor" from the December 3, 2007 issue.

The Page 69 Test: The God of War.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: John A. Adam's "Mathematics in Nature"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: John A. Adam's Mathematics in Nature: Modeling Patterns in the Natural World.

About the book, from the publisher:

From rainbows, river meanders, and shadows to spider webs, honeycombs, and the markings on animal coats, the visible world is full of patterns that can be described mathematically. Examining such readily observable phenomena, this book introduces readers to the beauty of nature as revealed by mathematics and the beauty of mathematics as revealed in nature.

Generously illustrated, written in an informal style, and replete with examples from everyday life, Mathematics in Nature is an excellent and undaunting introduction to the ideas and methods of mathematical modeling. It illustrates how mathematics can be used to formulate and solve puzzles observed in nature and to interpret the solutions. In the process, it teaches such topics as the art of estimation and the effects of scale, particularly what happens as things get bigger. Readers will develop an understanding of the symbiosis that exists between basic scientific principles and their mathematical expressions as well as a deeper appreciation for such natural phenomena as cloud formations, halos and glories, tree heights and leaf patterns, butterfly and moth wings, and even puddles and mud cracks.

Developed out of a university course, this book makes an ideal supplemental text for courses in applied mathematics and mathematical modeling. It will also appeal to mathematics educators and enthusiasts at all levels, and is designed so that it can be dipped into at leisure.

Among the acclaim for the book:

"Mathematics in Nature is an excellent resource for bringing a greater variety of patterns into the mathematical study of nature, as well as for teaching students to think about describing natural phenomena mathematically.... [T]he breadth of patterns studied is phenomenal."
--Will Wilson, American Scientist

"John Adam has combined his interest in the great outdoors and applied mathematics to compile one surprising example after another of how mathematics can be used to explain natural phenomena. And what examples! ... [He] has done a great deal of reading and exposition, indulging his passions to create this compilation of mathematical models of natural phenomena, and the sheer number of examples he manages to cram into this book is testament to his efforts. There are other texts on the market which explore the connection between mathematics and nature ... but none this wide-ranging."
--Steven Morics, MAA Online

"Adam has laced his mathematical models with popular descriptions of the phenomena selected.... Mathematics in Nature can accordingly be read for pleasure and instruction by the select laity who are not afraid of reading between the lines of equations."
--Philip J. Davis, SIAM News

"John Adam's quest is a very simple one: that is, to invite one to look around and observe the wonders of nature, both natural and biological; to ponder them; and to try to explain them at various levels with, for the most part, quite elementary mathematical concepts and techniques.
--Brian D. Sleeman, Notices of the American Mathematical Association

"Reading this book progressively creates a course in mathematical modeling built around familiar, tangible, human-scale examples, with a trajectory that takes readers from dimensional estimates through geometrical modeling, linear and nonlinear dynamics, to pattern formation."
--Choice

Read an excerpt from Mathematics in Nature, and learn more about the book at the Princeton University Press website.

John A. Adam is professor of mathematics at Old Dominion University. His new book, with Lawrence Weinstein, is Guesstimation: Solving the World's Problems on the Back of a Cocktail Napkin.

The Page 99 Test: Guesstimation.

The Page 99 Test: Mathematics in Nature.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Harlan Coben reading?

Harlan Coben talked to the Christian Science Monitor about what he's been watching and listening to. And reading:

I've been reading mostly manuscripts and advance copies of books because I always feel an obligation, when I can, to blurb somebody who is unknown. It's been a while since I've read something unpredictable that has really knocked my socks off.

I liked Jesse Kellerman's new book, which will be out soon, called "The Genius." He's the son of very famous crime writers Jonathan and Faye Kellerman. It's actually an interesting story set in the art world [about] a man who discovers these drawings and [that] leads back to some terrible crimes that even reverberate in the hero's own family.

Almost every year, between [writing] books, I reread a book by Anne Lamont called "Bird by Bird." It's purported to be a writers guide, but it's a hilarious essay book about the insecurities and the mind of anyone involved in creative endeavors. I read it constantly, every year. It just sort of fills me up and gets me revved up to write another book.

Read about what Coben has been watching and listening to.

Visit Harlan Coben's website and MySpace page.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five best books about New York society

For the Wall Street Journal, Frances Kiernan named a five best list of books that helped her understand "the ways of New York society."

The second title on the list:

The Age of Innocence
by Edith Wharton
D. Appleton, 1920

I was starting as a receptionist at The New Yorker when I picked up this novel, in which Wharton looks back half a century, to a time when leaders of a proudly parochial society were intent on maintaining standards while fending off new millionaires. My job left me plenty of time to read. Fortunately, Countess Olenska, in flight from a dissolute husband, was a heroine very much to my liking, while Newland Archer, trapped between duty to his innocent young fiancée and love for the countess, his betrothed's glamorous but badly compromised older cousin, was a hero out of Henry James. That duty trumped love wasn't surprising. What startled me was a detail mentioned in passing: Paris gowns had been fitted and then put away for a season, apparently to avoid the appearance of undue haste. I chose to make no use of this revelation, even as I noted that, for most of my New Yorker co-workers, there was such a thing as being too fashionable.

Read about Number One on Kiernan's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Aravind Adiga's "The White Tiger"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger.

About the book, from the publisher:

Introducing a major literary talent, The White Tiger offers a story of coruscating wit, blistering suspense, and questionable morality, told by the most volatile, captivating, and utterly inimitable narrator that this millennium has yet seen.

Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life -- having nothing but his own wits to help him along.

Born in the dark heart of India, Balram gets a break when he is hired as a driver for his village's wealthiest man, two house Pomeranians (Puddles and Cuddles), and the rich man's (very unlucky) son. From behind the wheel of their Honda City car, Balram's new world is a revelation. While his peers flip through the pages of Murder Weekly ("Love -- Rape -- Revenge!"), barter for girls, drink liquor (Thunderbolt), and perpetuate the Great Rooster Coop of Indian society, Balram watches his employers bribe foreign ministers for tax breaks, barter for girls, drink liquor (single-malt whiskey), and play their own role in the Rooster Coop. Balram learns how to siphon gas, deal with corrupt mechanics, and refill and resell Johnnie Walker Black Label bottles (all but one). He also finds a way out of the Coop that no one else inside it can perceive.

Balram's eyes penetrate India as few outsiders can: the cockroaches and the call centers; the prostitutes and the worshippers; the ancient and Internet cultures; the water buffalo and, trapped in so many kinds of cages that escape is (almost) impossible, the white tiger. And with a charisma as undeniable as it is unexpected, Balram teaches us that religion doesn't create virtue, and money doesn't solve every problem -- but decency can still be found in a corrupt world, and you can get what you want out of life if you eavesdrop on the right conversations.

Sold in sixteen countries around the world, The White Tiger recalls The Death of Vishnu and Bangkok 8 in ambition, scope, and narrative genius, with a mischief and personality all its own. Amoral, irreverent, deeply endearing, and utterly contemporary, this novel is an international publishing sensation -- and a startling, provocative debut.

Among the early acclaim for The White Tiger:

"Compelling, angry, and darkly humorous, The White Tiger is an unexpected journey into a new India. Aravind Adiga is a talent to watch."
--Mohsin Hamid, author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist

"An exhilarating, side-splitting account of India today, as well as an eloquent howl at her many injustices. Adiga enters the literary scene resplendent in battle dress and ready to conquer. Let us bow to him."
--Gary Shteyngart, author of Absurdistan and The Russian Debutante's Handbook

"Balram Halwai is a clever and resourceful narrator with a witty and sarcastic edge that endears him to readers.... It's the perfect antidote to lyrical India."
--Publishers Weekly

"...extraordinary and brilliant..."
--Adam Lively, Times (London)

"In the grand illusions of a 'rising' India, Aravind Adiga has found a subject Gogol might have envied. With remorselessly and delightfully mordant wit, The White Tiger anatomizes the fantastic cravings of the rich; it evokes, too, with startling accuracy and tenderness, the no less desperate struggles of the deprived."
--Pankaj Mishra, author of Temptations of the West

"Aravind Adiga's riveting, razor-sharp debut novel explores with wit and insight the realities of [the' two Indias, and reveals what happens when the inhabitants of one collude and then collide with those of the other."
--Soumya Bhattacharya, Independent

"Unlike almost any other Indian novel you might have read in recent years, this page-turner offers a completely bald, angry, unadorned portrait of the country as seen from the bottom of the heap; there's not a sniff of saffron or a swirl of sari anywhere.... [Narrator] Balram himself is an enticing figure...but even more impressive is the nitty-gritty of Indian life that Adiga unearths -- the corruption, the class system, the sheer petty viciousness."
--Andrew Holgate, The Sunday Times ( London)

"Darkly comic. . . Balram's appealingly sardonic voice and acute observations of the social order are both winning and unsettling."
--The New Yorker

Read an excerpt from The White Tiger, and learn more about the novel at the publisher's website.

Aravind Adiga was born in India and raised partly in Australia. He attended Columbia and Oxford universities. A former correspondent for Time magazine, he has also been published in the Financial Times.

The Page 69 Test: The White Tiger.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Katharine Weber reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Katharine Weber, author, most recently, of Triangle, which was longlisted for the 2008 International Dublin Impac Literary Award.

One book mentioned in her entry:

Helen Bannerman's 1899 classic for children, The Story of Little Black Sambo. It figures hugely in Temper, my novel in progress, the story of a chocolate candy business. [read on]

About Katharine Weber's Triangle:

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.

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

The Page 99 Test: Triangle.

Writers Read: Katharine Weber.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: David Ownby's "Falun Gong and the Future of China"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: David Ownby's Falun Gong and the Future of China.

About the book, from the publisher:

On April 25, 1999, ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners gathered outside Zhongnanhai, the guarded compound where China's highest leaders live and work, in a day-long peaceful protest of police brutality against fellow practitioners in the neighboring city of Tianjin. Stunned and surprised, China's leaders launched a campaign of brutal suppression against the group which continues to this day. This book, written by a leading scholar of the history of this Chinese popular religion, is the first to offer a full explanation of what Falun Gong is and where it came from, placing the group in the broader context of the modern history of Chinese religion as well as the particular context of post-Mao China.

Falun Gong began as a form of qigong, a general name describing physical and mental disciplines based loosely on traditional Chinese medical and spiritual practices. Qigong was "invented" in the 1950s by members of the Chinese medical establishment who were worried that China's traditional healing arts would be lost as China modeled its new socialist health care system on Western biomedicine. In the late 1970s, Chinese scientists "discovered" that qi possessed genuine scientific qualities, which allowed qigong to become part of China's drive for modernization. With the support of China's leadership, qigong became hugely popular in the 1980s and 1990s, as charismatic qigong masters attracted millions of enthusiastic practitioners in what was known as the qigongg boom, the first genuine mass movement in the history of the People's Republic.

Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi started his own school of qigong in 1992, claiming that the larger movement had become corrupted by money and magic tricks. Li was welcomed into the qigong world and quickly built a nationwide following of several million practitioners, but ran afoul of China's authorities and relocated to the United States in 1995. In his absence, followers in China began to organize peaceful protests of perceived media slights of Falun Gong, which increased from the mid-'90s onward as China's leaders began to realize that they had created, in the qigong boom, a mass movement with religious and nationalistic undertones, a potential threat to their legitimacy and control.

Based on fieldwork among Chinese Falun Gong practitioners in North America and on close examinations of Li Hongzhi's writings, this volume offers an inside look at the movement's history in Chinese popular religion.

Among the early acclaim for the book:

"Falun Gong and the Future of China challenges students of Chinese society and politics to reconsider the continued influence of religiosity in the narrative of modern China. Touching on ancient history, peasant rebellions, religious revivals, Chinese medicine, the qigong movement, diaspora studies, the Internet in China, Communist Party politics, and more, Ownby uncovers the rich layers of context which are essential to understanding the Falun Gong issue. The book, written in clear, engaging and often humorous prose, will be an invaluable resource for specialists and general readers alike."
--David A. Palmer, author of Qigong Fever: Body, Science and Utopia in China

"In his splendid book, David Ownby takes you behind the images of self-immolating protesters, baton-wielding security personnel, and a unique religious and political phenomenon to place Falun Gong, perhaps the most important mass movement in China in decades, in its historical context. This book is crucial to anyone seeking to understand the role that religion and the search for meaning play in today's China."
--John Pomfret, author of Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China

"In a readable style that will appeal to the general reader while satisfying the demands of specialists, Ownby makes a hugely important contribution to our understanding of Falun Gong. To situate Falun Gong in its full context, past and present, is to lay the basis for a fair and full assessment. No other book on the subject has yet done this. There are so many crucial elements here that are missing from other works on the subject: Falun Gong's deliberate efforts to affiliate itself to science, its less deliberate links to the religious movements of China's past, the revival of spirituality in post-Mao China, and the regime's crisis of legitimacy. Above all, this book shows the deadly consequences of the blindness of those within and without the movement to China's own religious history."
--Michael Szonyi, John Loeb Associate Professor of Chinese History, Harvard University, and author of Cold War Island: Quemoy on the Frontlines

Read more about Falun Gong and the Future of China at the Oxford University Press website, and visit David Ownby's faculty webpage.

Ownby is Professor of History and Director of the Center for East Asian Studies at the Université de Montréal, in Montreal, Canada. He is the author of Brotherhoods and Secret Societies in Early and Mid-Qing China: The Origins of a Tradition, and the co-author, with Qin Baoqi and Susan J. Palmer, of The Millennium and the Turning of the Kalpa: The Historical Evolution of Apocalyptic Discourse in China and in the West.

The Page 99 Test: Falun Gong and the Future of China.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Elisa Albert's "The Book of Dahlia"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Elisa Albert's The Book of Dahlia.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the author of the critically acclaimed story collection How This Night Is Different comes a dark, arresting, fearlessly funny story of one young woman's terminal illness. In The Book of Dahlia, Elisa Albert walks a dazzling line between gravitas and irreverence, mining an exhilarating blend of skepticism and curiosity, compassion and candor, high and low culture.

Meet Dahlia Finger: twenty-nine, depressed, whip-smart, occasionally affable, bracingly honest, resolutely single, and perennially unemployed. She spends her days stoned in front of the TV, watching the same movies repeatedly, like "a form of prayer." But Dahlia's so-called life is upended by an aggressive, inoperable brain tumor.

Stunned and uncomprehending, Dahlia must work toward reluctant emotional reckoning with the aid of a questionable self-help guide. She obsessively revisits the myriad heartbreaks, disappointments, rages, and regrets that comprise the story of her life -- from her parents' haphazard Israeli courtship to her kibbutz conception; from the role of beloved daughter and little sister to that of abandoned, suicidal adolescent; from an affluent childhood in Los Angeles to an aimless existence in the gentrified wilds of Brooklyn; from a girl with "options" to a girl with none -- convinced that cancer struck because she herself is somehow at fault.

With her take-no-prisoners perspective, her depressive humor, and her extreme vulnerability, Dahlia Finger is an unforgettable anti-heroine. This staggering portrait of one young woman's life and death confirms Elisa Albert as a "witty, incisive" (Variety) and even "wonder-inducing" writer (Time Out New York).

Among the praise for the novel:

"Albert writes with the black humor of Lorrie Moore and a pathos that is uniquely her own, all the more blistering for being slyly invoked."
—The New Yorker

"Hilarious and heartbreaking...Albert's superb first novel...delivers Dahlia's laissez-faire attitude toward other people and lack of ambition with such exactness as to strip them of cliché and make them grimly vivid. Her brilliant style makes the novel's central question-should we mourn a wasted life?-shockingly poignant."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Elisa Albert has the unique gift of making bedmates out of humor and heartbreak. The Book of Dahlia is wonderful."
—Gary Shteyngart, author of Absurdistan

"While Elisa Albert's darkly brilliant first novel, "The Book of Dahlia," may well keep you up at night, it's hardly a thriller. Instead, Albert has written something far rarer - a book so original in its voice and vision that it's truly thrilling... Readers looking for a depiction of illness as a crucible for the triumph of the human spirit will be disappointed. But this book keeps its steadfast focus on a more complicated truth, and that is its triumph."
—San Francisco Chronicle

"Is Dahlia's wasted life a waste of life? Maybe. But the time we spend with her isn't."
—Los Angeles Times

"Albert has given readers a no-holds-barred portrait of terminal illness. This is not a gentle book, but it is an authentic and important one."
—Library Journal, starred review

“Dahlia’s high-stakes story is always compelling.”
—Booklist

"[I]t's Dahlia's vulnerability, captured in conversational prose, that makes her struggle poignant... a resonant tune that shifts from being fierce and funny to lovely and moving as it ultimately turns into a lament."
—Time Out New York

Read an excerpt from The Book of Dahlia, and learn more about the author and her work at Elisa Albert's website.

Albert is also the author of the short story collection, How This Night is Different.

The Page 69 Test: The Book of Dahlia.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Elizabeth Zelvin's "Death Will Get You Sober"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Elizabeth Zelvin's Death Will Get You Sober.

About the book, from the publisher:

On Christmas Day, Bruce Kohler wakes up in detox on the Bowery in New York City. He knows it’s time to change his life, but how can he stay sober without dying of boredom?

When homeless alcoholics start to die unexpectedly, Bruce is surprised to find he cares enough to want to find out why. Most of them had been down and out for many years, but Bruce’s friend Guff was different: a cynical aristocrat with a trust fund and some secrets.

Two old friends give Bruce a second chance and agree to help him with his investigation: his best friend, Jimmy, a computer genius and history buff who’s been in AA for years, and Jimmy’s girlfriend Barbara, a counselor who sometimes crosses the line between helping and codependency.

Barbara works a night shift at the detox and confronts a counselor who might still be dealing drugs. Bruce gets a job temping for Guff’s arrogant nephew. Between the three of them, suspects start piling up. The trail leads back to the detox. Or does it?

In Death Will Get You Sober, Bruce discovers that the church basements of AA are a small world in the big city of New York. As he grapples with staying sober, he finds that not drinking is only the beginning of coming back to life--a life he finds he wants to keep when it’s threatened by a killer.

Debut author Elizabeth Zelvin has used her expertise as an addiction councilor to pen a riveting mystery filled with memorable, realistic characters who are as flawed as they are heroic.

Among the early praise for Death Will Get You Sober:

"A hell of a job .... Great characters and a wonderful voice....an author to keep your eye on."
--Crimespree magazine

"Entertaining.... [gives] readers a view of the recovery process as they turn the pages to a good surprise ending."
--Booklist

"[Zelvin's] smooth prose and outstanding storytelling ability ... [make] this a remarkable and strongly recommended first novel."
--Library Journal

"An intriguing setting and well-developed characters....Deft prose...."
--Publishers Weekly

"...endearing...."
--Kirkus

"Zelvin will get you hooked with her pitch-perfect depiction of addiction."
--Chris Grabenstein, Anthony Award-winning author

Read an excerpt from Death Will Get You Sober, and learn more about the author and her work at Elizabeth Zelvin's website, her MySpace page, and the group blog, Poe's Deadly Daughters.

Zelvin is a New York City psychotherapist who directed an alcoholism treatment program on the Bowery for more than six years. Death Will Get You Sober is her first mystery. A related story, “Death Will Clean Your Closet,” has been nominated for an Agatha award for Best Short Story. Another story, “Death Will Tie Your Kangaroo Down,” won an honorable mention in the first annual CrimeSpace Short Story Competition.

The Page 99 Test: Death Will Get You Sober.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Brenda Cooper reading?

The latest contributor to Writers Read: Brenda Cooper, technology professional, science fiction writer, and futurist.

One book she mentions:

The Final Warning, by James Patterson. I enjoyed it for a few reasons - as a pleasure read, it's fun. Mr. Patterson is good enough at the hook that he can get me through his books without my writerly-mind derailing into studying technique on the first read, so they entertain (yes, I do go back and try to learn from him. I don't want to write books that are quite that fast paced, but I would love to be that good at hooks). The Final Warning is also an engaging look at a tough problem I'm otherwise blogging about. And besides, his main character, Max, flies. [read on]

Brenda Cooper is the co-author of the novel, Building Harlequin's Moon, which she wrote with Larry Niven. Her solo and collaborative short fiction has appeared in multiple magazines, including Analog, Asimov’s, Strange Horizons, Oceans of the Mind, and The Salal Review.

Last year, she applied the Page 99 Test to The Silver Ship and the Sea, the first book in The Silver Ship trilogy. Her new book, Reading the Wind, is due out in July.

Visit Brenda Cooper's website and her LiveJournal; read an excerpt from The Silver Ship and the Sea, and learn more about Reading the Wind.

The Page 99 Test: The Silver Ship and the Sea.

Writers Read: Brenda Cooper.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: the "Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries" by Jane Cleland.

Cleland took the My Book, The Movie challenge down a new and slightly different path: she's letting you cast her adaptation ... and offering rewards to those who do the job well:

I love the idea of thinking about casting the Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries: Consigned to Death, Deadly Appraisal, and Antiques to Die For. It’s fun—and it’s relevant because I wrote Josie with one of two actresses in mind. But I’m not going to tell you who they are because I want to know the picture in your head.

Here’s my thinking: I’ll tell you about some of the repeating characters in the Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries, and you tell me which actors should play them. You submit your entries to me by July 4, 2008, and I’ll select the winners randomly from all the entries that align with my vision. The winner for each character gets a pair of Josie’s martini glasses and an autographed copy of one of the books in the series. Worth playing for? You bet! [read on]

Visit Jane Cleland's website and her blog.

Watch the Antiques to Die For trailer.

The Page 69 Test: Deadly Appraisal.

My Book, The Movie: the "Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries."

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Joseph Olshan's "The Conversion"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Joseph Olshan's The Conversion.

About the book, from the publisher:

Russell Todaro, a young American translator, moves to Paris to take stock of his life and goals only to further lose himself in the surprising twists fate has in store for him. One night, two men waving guns and knives break and enter their Paris hotel room, terrorizing Russell and his much older companion, a famous American poet named Edward Cannon. The intruders, not finding what they seemingly expected, leave without further incident but the baffling, traumatic events overwhelm Cannon who dies in his sleep later that night. Now Russell is left to ponder the meaning of the attack, what to do with the poet’s unfinished, problematic memoir and, perhaps most importantly, how to reconstruct and move forward with his own life.

Hearing of the disturbing circumstances of Cannon’s death, an Italian writer, Marina Vezzoli, invites Russell to recuperate at her villa in Tuscany. But what at first seems like a generous invitation slowly reveals itself to be a calculated offer. As Russell’s stay in Italy lengthens, he begins to realize that the people in his life are using or manipulating him, most of all the poet’s New York publishers who, against the dying man’s wishes, are trying to acquire his unfinished manuscript. Looming over everything is the long and fascinating legacy of Villa Guidi, where during Word War II a Jewish family hid in the subterranean floors, later undergoing a conversion to Catholicism. In an echo of this dramatic history, Russell is forced to undergo a conversion of his own in order to find redemption and meaning in his life.

Among the early praise for the novel:

"Time and sexual boundaries are transcended in Olshan's eighth novel... The relationships between Olshan's characters are sultry and multifaceted, mapped across a richly delineated landscape of intimacy and yearning. European sensibility and sensuality add new dimensions to Olshan’s writing."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Olshan's crisp, satisfying new novel follows American translator and author Russell Todaro, a Jewish gay man who becomes embroiled in the death and ensuing scandal of a former lover. Set against a plush and evocatively described European backdrop, Olshan has produced a compelling story of forbidden desire, deception, religion and love's intoxicating allure."
--Publisher's Weekly

The Conversion is a May 2008 Book Sense pick.

Read an excerpt from The Conversion, and learn more about the author and his work at Joseph Olshan's website.

Olshan is an award-winning American writer. His first novel, Clara's Heart, won the Times/Jonathan Cape Young Writers' Competition and went on to be made into a feature film starring Whoopi Goldberg. His other novels include Nightswimmer and Vanitas, as well as The Waterline, A Wrmer Season, The Sound of Heaven and In Clara's Hands, a sequel to Clara's Heart.

The Page 69 Test: The Conversion.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Lawrence Weinstein & John A. Adam's "Guesstimation"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Lawrence Weinstein and John A. Adam's Guesstimation: Solving the World's Problems on the Back of a Cocktail Napkin.

About the book, from the publisher:

Guesstimation is a book that unlocks the power of approximation--it's popular mathematics rounded to the nearest power of ten! The ability to estimate is an important skill in daily life. More and more leading businesses today use estimation questions in interviews to test applicants' abilities to think on their feet. Guesstimation enables anyone with basic math and science skills to estimate virtually anything--quickly--using plausible assumptions and elementary arithmetic.

Lawrence Weinstein and John Adam present an eclectic array of estimation problems that range from devilishly simple to quite sophisticated and from serious real-world concerns to downright silly ones. How long would it take a running faucet to fill the inverted dome of the Capitol? What is the total length of all the pickles consumed in the US in one year? What are the relative merits of internal-combustion and electric cars, of coal and nuclear energy? The problems are marvelously diverse, yet the skills to solve them are the same. The authors show how easy it is to derive useful ballpark estimates by breaking complex problems into simpler, more manageable ones--and how there can be many paths to the right answer. The book is written in a question-and-answer format with lots of hints along the way. It includes a handy appendix summarizing the few formulas and basic science concepts needed, and its small size and French-fold design make it conveniently portable. Illustrated with humorous pen-and-ink sketches, Guesstimation will delight popular-math enthusiasts and is ideal for the classroom.

Among the early acclaim for Guesstimation:

"Guesstimation is a delightful book that, page after page, gleams with insight into the measure of all things--from house pets to lottery tickets and from the kitchen to the cosmos. Meanwhile, the authors cleverly teach you some fundamental chemistry, physics, and biology, leaving you enlightened and curiously comfortable with all that once seemed intractable in the world."
--Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History, author of Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries

"Wow, I suddenly grasped concepts that have eluded me for a lifetime. If you work anywhere in the professional world and are aiming for the corner office, this little book could have significant impact on both your analytical abilities and the way you are perceived by others. An absolute eye-opener!"
--Martin Yate, New York Times best-selling author of the Knock 'Em Dead job-search and career-management books

"In a world where we are constantly bombarded with quantitative information (and disinformation) and where implausible factoids become established truths by repetition, acquiring a sound grounding in 'numeric literacy' has almost become a civic duty. Weinstein and Adam show to us that it can also be fun! An extremely useful book--not just for the intelligent layperson, but for virtually everyone: politicians, students, policymakers and, yes, sometimes even physicists."
--Riccardo Rebonato, Royal Bank of Scotland, author of Plight of the Fortune Tellers

"As well as giving insight into how scientists think, this book packs in more amazing facts than you could shake a stick at. Learn the technique of 'guesstimation' and you will be able to astound your friends at parties, as well as avoid getting ripped off by misleading advertising claims. You may even be able to work out how many facts you can shake a stick at."
--John Gribbin, author of Deep Simplicity: Bringing Order to Chaos and Complexity

Read an excerpt from Guesstimation, and learn more about the book at the Princeton University Press website.

Lawrence Weinstein is professor of physics at Old Dominion University; John A. Adam is professor of mathematics at Old Dominion University.

The Page 99 Test: Guesstimation.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Outfit" & "The Long Goodbye"

Regular visitors to this site will recognize most of the writers associated with the "The Outfit," the collective of Chicago area crime writers who collaborate on a group blog.

Sean Chercover, Michael Allen Dymmoch, Kevin Guilfoile, Libby Hellmann, and Marcus Sakey have been valued contributors here.

Now they've been asked to write about different aspects of Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye, the spring selection of Chicago’s “One Book, One City” program. Their blogs begin today (April 14) with Sara Paretsky and go through the next two weeks. They’ll have a different blog up almost every weekday. Visit "The Outfit" and see what they have to say.

Related:

Libby Fischer Hellmann:

• The Page 69 Test: A Shot To Die For.
• My Book, The Movie: A Shot To Die For.
• The Page 69 Test: Easy Innocence.

Marcus Sakey:

• The Page 69 Test: The Blade Itself.
• The Page 69 Test: At the City's Edge.

Michael Allen Dymmoch:

• The Page 69 Test: White Tiger.
• My Book, The Movie: Death in West Wheeling.
• The Page 69 Test: M.I.A. (forthcoming)
  

Sean Chercover:

• The Page 69 Test: Big City, Bad Blood.

Kevin Guilfoile:

• The Page 69 Test: Cast of Shadows.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jennifer Cody Epstein's "The Painter from Shanghai"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Jennifer Cody Epstein's The Painter from Shanghai.

About the book, from the publisher:

Reminiscent of Memoirs of a Geisha, a re-imagining of the life of Pan Yuliang and her transformation from prostitute to post-Impressionist.

Down the muddy waters of the Yangtze River and into the seedy backrooms of “The Hall of Eternal Splendor,” through the raucous glamour of prewar Shanghai and the bohemian splendor of 1920s Paris, and back to a China ripped apart by civil war and teetering on the brink of revolution: this novel tells the story of Pan Yuliang, one of the most talented—and provocative—Chinese artists of the twentieth century.

Jennifer Cody Epstein’s epic brings to life the woman behind the lush, Cezannesque nude self-portraits, capturing with lavish detail her life in the brothel and then as a concubine to a Republican official who would ultimately help her find her way as an artist. Moving with the tide of historical events, The Painter from Shanghai celebrates a singularly daring painting style—one that led to fame, notoriety, and, ultimately, a devastating choice: between Pan’s art and the one great love of her life.

Among the praise for The Painter from Shanghai:

"In this age of memoir and thinly veiled autobiographical fiction, writers who take high dives into deeply imagined waters have become increasingly rare — and valuable. What a pleasure, then, to discover that Jennifer Cody Epstein, whose luminous first novel, “The Painter From Shanghai,” is based on the actual life of Pan Yuliang, a former child prostitute turned celebrated painter, also happens to be one such writer.... In an epigraph, Epstein quotes the American painter John Sloan, who wrote that 'though a living cannot be made at art, art makes life worth living. It makes starving, living.' In the end, this is precisely what Epstein illustrates in her moving characterization of Pan Yuliang, who even as an abused young girl notes the way a 'slap mark glows red at first but fades slowly to peach-pink,' and as an adult, torn between her love for her husband and her desire to be unconstrained as an artist, chooses the nourishment of her work: 'She cocks her head ... and starts anew. She paints until the light outside has seeped away into the black sky; until the monks go home and the mourners leave, and all that’s left is the soft click of the gamblers’ ivory.'”
--Sarah Towers, New York Times Book Review

"Epstein's sweeping debut novel, set in early 20th-century China, fictionalizes the life of Chinese painter Pan Yuliang. Born Xiuquing, she is orphaned at a young age and later sold into prostitution by her uncle, who needs the money to support his opium habit. Renamed Yuliang, she becomes the brothel's top girl and soon snags the attention of customs inspector Pan Zanhua, who makes her his concubine. Zanhua sets her up in Shanghai, where she enrolls in the Shanghai Art Academy and early on struggles with life study, unable to separate the nude's monetary value from its value in the currency of beauty. She eventually succeeds, winning a scholarship to study in Europe. But when she returns to China, itself inching toward revolution, the conservative establishment is critical of Yuliang, balking as she adopts Western-style dress and becomes known for her nudes (one newspaper deems her work pornography). Simmering resentments hit a flashpoint at a disastrous Shanghai retrospective exhibit, and the fallout nearly destroys Yuliang's artistic ambition. Convincing historic detail is woven throughout and nicely captures the plight of women in the era. Epstein's take on Yuliang's life is captivating to the last line."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Fans of Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha and Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan will enjoy this engrossing story of a woman forced to choose between following her heart and pursuing her art."
--Library Journal (starred review)

Learn more about the novel and author at Jennifer Cody Epstein's website.

Jennifer Cody Epstein has written for Self, the Wall Street Journal, and the Chicago Tribune. She has published short fiction in several journals and was a finalist in a Glimmer Train fiction contest.

The Page 69 Test: The Painter from Shanghai.

--Marshal Zeringue

The Telegraph's 110 best books

The (U.K.) Telegraph came up with "the perfect library," 110 books across several categories--classics, poetry, literary fiction, romantic fiction, etc.--that comprise the ultimate reading list.

Here are the books from the "crime" section:

The Talented Mr Ripley
Patricia Highsmith

Tom Ripley is one of 20th-century literature's most disturbingly fascinating characters: a suave, charming serial killer, who's utterly amoral in his pursuit of la dolce vita.

The Maltese Falcon
Dashiell Hammett

A tale of greed and deceit that's also the archetypal work of 20th-century detective fiction: complete with flawed hero (Sam Spade), femme fatale and a convoluted plot that unravels grippingly.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

It's one of literature's most wonderful ironies that Conan Doyle himself became a spiritualist so soon after creating the most famously rational character in all literature.

The Big Sleep
Raymond Chandler

His oeuvre may be small, but with the help of long-time protagonist PI Philip Marlowe – who appears here for the first time – Chandler helped define the genres of detective fiction and, later, film noir.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
John le Carré

Le Carré, master of the Cold War novel, follows British spymaster George Smiley as he tries to uncover a Moscow mole, and faces his KGB nemesis, Karla.

Red Dragon
Thomas Harris

Hannibal Lecter's second literary appearance sees him called upon by old FBI chum (and near-victim) Will Graham, to help solve the case of the serially morbid 'Tooth Fairy'.

Murder on the Orient Express
Agatha Christie

From Istanbul to London, Hercule Poirot's little grey cells rattle away to improbable effect as he untangles the mystery of the life and violent death of a sinister passenger.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Edgar Allan Poe

Poe's blackly ingenious tale of brutal murder in 19th-century Paris establishes C. Auguste Dupin, a man of 'peculiar analytic ability', as the model for pretty much every intellectual detective to come.

The Woman in White
Wilkie Collins

A sensational 19th-century epistolary tale of women in peril adds one of the most charismatic, refined and straightforwardly fat villains to the pantheon.

Killshot
Elmore Leonard

Leonard is known for his pithy dialogue and freaky characters. Here he manages to create a sweatily suspenseful thriller, with a married couple as the unexpected heroes.

Read about the books to make the "history" section.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is James Gustave Speth reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: James Gustave Speth, author of The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability.

Two books tagged in his entry:

I like good historical fiction, so I'm reading C.J. Sansom's Dissolution, wherein Thomas Cromwell takes on the monasteries for Henry VIII. I'm also reading Wolfgang Benz's, A Concise History of the Third Reich. One can never know enough about that disaster. [read on]

Speth is Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. Dean of the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, and Sara Shallenberger Brown Professor in the Practice of Environmental Policy at Yale University.

From 1993 to 1999, Speth served as administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and chair of the UN Development Group. Prior to his service at the UN, he was founder and president of the World Resources Institute; professor of law at Georgetown University; chairman of the U.S. Council on Environmental Quality; and senior attorney and co-founder, Natural Resources Defense Council. He was awarded Japan’s Blue Planet Prize for “a lifetime of creative and visionary leadership in the search for science-based solutions to global environmental problems.”

Read more about Speth's teaching, research, and publications at his Yale faculty webpage and visit The Bridge at the End of the World website.

Writers Read: James Gustave Speth.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: R. Bartlett's "The Natural and the Supernatural in the Middle Ages"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Robert Bartlett's The Natural and the Supernatural in the Middle Ages.

About the book, from the publisher:

How did people of the medieval period explain physical phenomena, such as eclipses or the distribution of land and water on the globe? What creatures did they think they might encounter: angels, devils, witches, dogheaded people? This fascinating book explores the ways in which medieval people categorized the world, concentrating on the division between the natural and the supernatural and showing how the idea of the supernatural came to be invented in the Middle Ages. Robert Bartlett examines how theologians and others sought to draw lines between the natural, the miraculous, the marvelous and the monstrous, and the many conceptual problems they encountered as they did so. The final chapter explores the extraordinary thought-world of Roger Bacon as a case study exemplifying these issues. By recovering the mentalities of medieval writers and thinkers the book raises the critical question of how we deal with beliefs we no longer share.

Inside the Medieval Mind, BBC4, April 17 2008, is a television program which is based on parts of the book.

Read an excerpt from The Natural and the Supernatural in the Middle Ages, and learn more about the book at the Cambridge University Press website.

Robert Bartlett is a Professor in the School of History at the University of St. Andrews. His books include The Hanged Man: A Story of Miracle, Memory, and Colonialism in the Middle Ages and England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings, 1075-1225.

The Page 99 Test: The Natural and the Supernatural in the Middle Ages.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Dianne Reeves reading?

The jazz singer Dianne Reeves talked to the Christian Science Monitor about what she's been watching and listening to. And reading:

Lately, I've found myself reading a lot of biographies and autobiographies. I read the book on Marian Anderson [Marian Anderson: A Singer's Journey, by Allan Keiler]. She broke the color barrier in a lot of ways. It inspires me more than anything, because it was through something that she loved and absolutely devoted her life to. She made changes and made an awareness of not only who she was, but who African-Americans at that time were as a people. Through her music and her excellence, she could not be denied – not even by Eleanor Roosevelt, who came to her aid later on. She ended up singing in front of the Lincoln Memorial. It's a story of a life as a great opera singer when people didn't think opera was something that African-Americans could do or should pursue.

Read more about what Reeves has been listening to and watching.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jenny Gardiner's "Sleeping With Ward Cleaver"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Sleeping With Ward Cleaver by Jenny Gardiner.

About the novel, from the author's website:

Claire Doolittle realizes her life hasn't quite met up with her expectations. Overwhelmed with the demands of motherhood and life in general, it doesn't help that the funny, romantic and thoughtful man she once married has turned into a real-life version of Ward Cleaver, the famously dull, bossy father from the 1950's sitcom Leave it to Beaver. And the last person in the world Claire ever imagined having to sleep with for the rest of her life is a man whose sex appeal more closely resembles that of George Washington than George Clooney.

Throw in an ex-fiance who returns via e-mail to try to woo Claire back with promises of what was, and a sexy young colleague of husband Jack's, whom Claire suspects of some sort of hanky panky, and you have the ingredients for a mid-life crisis that threatens to plunge Claire's world into chaos.

Among the praise for Sleeping With Ward Cleaver:

"Jenny Gardiner's debut novel offers a boisterous and engaging glimpse of the realities of marriage. As brash and funny as it is moving and insightful, Sleeping with Ward Cleaver will leave readers wanting more from this delightful new author."
--Kristy Kiernan, author of Catching Genius

"You won't kick Jenny Gardiner's debut book out of bed for eating crackers! Sleeping with Ward Cleaver is a sassy and sexy read."
--Eileen Cook, author of Unpredictable

"Honest, real, and wickedly funny, Sleeping with Ward Cleaver is a keeper!"
--Jane Porter, author of Flirting with Forty and Odd Mom Out

"If you enjoy funny, laugh-out-loud books, stories of women going through mid-life crises, you will enjoy Sleeping with Ward Cleaver. Although the situations are serious, the author looks at them with such a comedic bent that readers will laugh, even when the situation is somewhat grim... Well written and well paced, Sleeping with Ward Cleaver is a romp and a lot of fun -- it is a book readers are sure to enjoy."
--Marilyn Heyman, Romance Reviews Today

"Fast paced and funny...Sleeping With Ward Cleaver is a clever and engaging romance with humor and heart."
--Carrie Padgett, Armchair Interviews

Read an excerpt from Sleeping With Ward Cleaver, and learn more about the author and her work at Jenny Gardiner's website and The Debutante Ball group blog.

Jenny Gardiner's work has appeared in Ladies Home Journal, the Washington Post, and on NPR’s Day to Day.

The Page 69 Test: Sleeping With Ward Cleaver.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Susan Nagel reading?

The latest featured contributor to Writers Read: Susan Nagel, author of Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter; Mistress of the Elgin Marbles: A Biography of Mary Nisbet, Countess of Elgin; and The Influences of the Novels of Jean Giraudoux on the Hispanic Vanguard Novels of the 1920s-1930s.

Caroline Weber, author of Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution, wrote of Nagel's Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: "If there is a more fascinating or unbelievable life than the one led by Marie-Therese Charlotte, Marie Antoinette's sole surviving child, I certainly am not familiar with it. In this lively, gripping new biography, Susan Nagel recounts Marie-Therese-Charlotte's roller-coaster itinerary from a revolutionary prison, where she spent three years of her girlhood, to the throne of Restoration France, where she reigned for a mere twenty minutes. Royal orphan and republican bete noire, the subject of fervent monarchist adoration and the object of obsessive conspiracy theories, this princess emerges in Nagel's telling as one of the nineteenth century's most captivating heroines. A must-read for lovers of French history and royal biography alike."

See what Susan Nagel has been reading.

Learn more about Susan Nagel and her work at her blog and at her Marie Antoinette's Daughter blog.

The Page 99 Test: Mistress of the Elgin Marbles.

Writers Read: Susan Nagel.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Nicolas Rasmussen's "On Speed"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Nicolas Rasmussen's On Speed: The Many Lives of Amphetamine.

About the book, from the publisher:

Uppers. Crank. Bennies. Dexies. Greenies. Black Beauties. Purple Hearts. Crystal. Ice. And, of course, Speed. Whatever their street names at the moment, amphetamines have been an insistent force in American life since they were marketed as the original antidepressants in the 1930s. On Speed tells the remarkable story of their rise, their fall, and their surprising resurgence. Along the way, it discusses the influence of pharmaceutical marketing on medicine, the evolving scientific understanding of how the human brain works, the role of drugs in maintaining the social order, and the centrality of pills in American life. Above all, however, this is a highly readable biography of a very popular drug. And it is a riveting story.

Incorporating extensive new research, On Speed describes the ups and downs (fittingly, there are mostly ups) in the history of amphetamines, and their remarkable pervasiveness. For example, at the same time that amphetamines were becoming part of the diet of many GIs in World War II, an amphetamine-abusing counterculture began to flourish among civilians. In the 1950s, psychiatrists and family doctors alike prescribed amphetamines for a wide variety of ailments, from mental disorders to obesity to emotional distress. By the late 1960s, speed had become a fixture in everyday life: up to ten percent of Americans were thought to be using amphetamines at least occasionally.

Although their use was regulated in the 1970s, it didn't take long for amphetamines to make a major comeback, with the discovery of Attention Deficit Disorder and the role that one drug in the amphetamine family—Ritalin—could play in treating it. Todays most popular diet-assistance drugs differ little from the diet pills of years gone by, still speed at their core. And some of our most popular recreational drugs—including the "mellow" drug, Ecstasy—are also amphetamines. Whether we want to admit it or not, writes Rasmussen, were still a nation on speed.

Among the acclaim for On Speed:

"Rasmussen, who has taught life sciences and medicine at UCLA and other universities, examines amphetamine as a case study on the place drugs occupy in our culture and our fantasies (of miracle cures and elixirs). The story begins with chemist Gordon Alles's creation of amphetamine in 1929 and continues through its use for weight loss, attention deficit disorders and today's crystal meth craze. Smith, Kline & French (now GlaxoSmithKline) bought the rights for use of the drug and marketed it to treat depression. During WWII, British and American soldiers developed an amphetamine appetite as RAF medics distributed wakey-wakey tablets to bomber crews. At the book's core is an outstanding chapter, Bootleggers, Beatniks and Benzedrine Benders, describing how Benzedrine inhalers, available without a prescription, could be cracked open for a totally new kind of amphetamine experience, exerting a potent influence on music and literature, from Charlie Parker to Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Rasmussen has mined magazines, books and newspapers in addition to extensive explorations through U.K. and American archives. He concludes by calling for strong and immediate action to curb the widespread, dangerous use and abuse of amphetamines, emphasizing treatment and harm reduction (like needle exchange) rather than punishment, and better regulation of the pharmaceutical industry."
—Publishers Weekly

"Rasmussen documents America's eighty year love affair with amphetamine and its various permutations. Monumental in scope and research, the book traces the history of this seductive drugs uses for a myriad of illnesses when the true sickness may be inherent to our unique American society. Given our current extraordinary use of this drug, On Speed is an urgent and necessary read.
—Lawrence Diller, M.D., author of Running on Ritalin

"I've been waiting for a book on amphetamines for years and On Speed delivers. Crammed full of eye-popping detail, it brings the history of this extraordinary group of drugs and their effect on American culture vividly to life."
—David Healy, M.D., author of Let Them Eat Prozac

"A magnificent work: measured, thorough, strong on both the technical details and the larger socio-cultural and ethical issues surrounding the development, marketing, and distribution of these dangerous mood-altering drugs. Rasmussen has dug into the medical literature and available archives to find new information on every aspect of the process by which amphetamines were invented, patented, and twinned with various 'disorders.' Rasmussen' s book is a must-read."
—Robert A. Nye, Professor Emeritus, Oregon State University

"On Speed deftly captures amphetamine's impact on medicine, culture, and society. Rasmussen lays bare the decades-long attempts to employ amphetamine to gain strategic advantage on the battlefield, wage war against depression and attention deficit disorder, fight weight gain, counteract boredom, and seek thrills in everyday life. Along this journey, we learn about the dysfunctional American policies that failed to adequately address the toll amphetamine took on countless lives. As the title promises, Rasmussen's account tracks the many manifestations of amphetamine from the 1930s to today in intricate and fascinating detail, from miracle drug to public enemy, a trajectory filled with lessons for the future."
—John P. Swann, Historian, Food and Drug Administration

Read an excerpt from On Speed, and learn more about the book at the publisher's website.

Visit Nicolas Rasmussen's faculty webpage for more information about his research and other publications.

The Page 99 Test: On Speed.

--Marshal Zeringue

Where to start with Australian crime fiction

Karen of the "AustCrime Fiction" weblog has some suggestions for where to start with Australian crime fiction.

A couple of the entries:

Peter Corris is the master of the hard-bitten PI style here.

For a bit of a switch on the crime scene viewpoint (and the victim's for that matter) Katherine Howell has a second book in the works - and her first Frantic was a great book.

Read the complete post.

Also see:

Writers Read: Peter Corris

The Page 99 Test: Peter Corris' Appeal Denied

The Page 69 Test: Katherine Howell's Frantic

Visit Peter Corris' website.

Learn more about Katherine Howell and her writing at her website.

(h/t to Matilda)

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jay Bonansinga's "Shattered"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Jay Bonansinga's Shattered.

About the novel, from the publisher:

FBI profiler Ulysses Grove is sure he’s this close to trapping a serial killer ... but the killer is planning a gruesome surprise that will come far too close to home…

The Image Of Murder

The Mississippi Ripper likes to work in pairs—of victims. For every dead body laid to waste, a second one faces it, a grotesque mirror image of terror and torment. Special Agent Ulysses Grove thinks he knows the method to the killer’s madness. But grasping the twisted logic behind the brutal slayings propels him onto a path of danger—to him and to everything he holds dear.

Pushed to the limit, Grove’s only hope is to dig deep into his own past. But this is one serial killer with powerful resources—and Grove’s worst fears are already one step ahead of him...

Among the praise for Shattered:

"Bonansinga's third outing with FBI profiler Ulysses Grove is a first-rate suspense thriller, as compelling as it is frightening. Grove is living with his wife, Maura, and their infant son, Aaron, in northern Virginia when he receives his latest assignment, tracking down a serial killer who offs his victims in pairs before systematically eviscerating them. As he continues his brutal rampage, with Grove doggedly in pursuit, the killer turns his sights on Grove's family—and the villain's preternatural powers may just lead him to their front door. Fortunately for Grove, he's got supernatural aid of his own in his mother's psychic visions; even more fortunate is the way Bonansinga never lets the intensity flag while balancing believable characters, forensic science, hard-nosed detective work and paranormal flourishes. Grove proves to be one of the most genuine, flesh-and-blood suspense-thriller protagonists out there, and the foe Bonansinga pits against him is truly chilling."
--Publishers Weekly

"M. Night Shyamalan, meet Harlan Coben."
--David Ellis

Read an excerpt from Shattered, and learn more about the author and his work at Jay Bonansinga's website.

Watch the video for Shattered.

Shattered is a finalist for ITW's 2008 Thriller Award in Best Paperback Original.

Jay Bonansinga is the author of several acclaimed suspense novels, as well as three original screenplays currently in development in Hollywood.

The Page 69 Test: Shattered.

--Marshal Zeringue

Interview: Emma Anderson

In the latest of the blog's original interviews, the political scientist Ray Taras, whose scholarship includes many publications on ethnic conflict and belonging, interviewed historian and religionist Emma Anderson about her new book, The Betrayal of Faith: The Tragic Journey of a Colonial Native Convert (Harvard University Press, 2007).

One exchange from the interview:

Taras: You explain on page 49 that all-night torture sessions of prisoners carried out by both Innu and Mohawk were an affirmation of key cultural values shared by these antagonistic groups. Torture was understood as a mark of respect for the victim. Elsewhere you seem to regard physical privations (as in the winter trip of the protagonists made in 1633-34) as less severe than psychological traumas. Can you elaborate on why you are more concerned with psychological than corporal scars?

Anderson: I’m not sure that the pain explored in this book can be separated into neat categories of “physical suffering” and “psychological suffering” in quite the way in which you suggest, or that the amount of attention given to each can be neatly tallied. As you point out, suffering is a prominent theme in this book, be it the abstract analysis of the religious and sociological rationale behind indigenous post-war practices that you mention, or in its examination of the experiences of the young man who is the primary subject of this book.

Take, for instance, my presentation of Pastedechouan’s death. By any measure, to die alone of starvation and exposure would represent a terrifying ordeal. In the pages devoted to Pastedechouan’s death, I try to evoke what such an experience would likely have been like – the panic, the attempts to re-establish contact with potential rescuers, the attempt to construct shelter and create fire – and to chart the physiological symptoms of death from exposure – first pain, then numbness, then the illusion of warmth and the overwhelming desire to sleep. After evoking Pastedechouan’s likely actions and somatic experiences, however, I also address his likely state of mind. How would Pastedechouan have interpreted his apparent abandonment by his human kin? by the Innu pantheon? by the Christian God? How would he have interpreted the world which awaited him after death? How would these musings have inflected his experiences during his last hours? My assumption in posing these questions is that the two forms of suffering cannot be separated, as “physical” experiences are always inflected by psychological perceptions, and vice versa.

Another brief example from the book makes the same point. In Chapter Four, Paul Le Jeune’s experiences on the winter hunt are examined. In this case, too, physical and psychological torment are prominent, and, arguably, inescapably intertwined. In the middle of his winter with Pastedechouan’s kin, Le Jeune falls seriously ill, displaying a range of symptoms from vomiting to dizzy spells. Le Jeune’s own analysis of his sickness combines prosaic causations (the dried meat did not agree with his stomach) to a much more complex religious explanation in which he contrasts his spiritual health in a time of dearth to his spiritual sickness in a time of plenty. My analysis of Le Jeune’s ailment explores its physical, psychological, and spiritual dimensions, as well as exploring how his ill-health was explained by the Innu community in which he was embedded.

There is one sense, however, in which I am, as you suggest “more concerned with psychological than corporal scars.” If I were forced at gunpoint to admit a distinction between physical and psychological suffering, and to indicate which is the more painful, I would indeed hold that psychological suffering is the more severe, simply because one’s psychological outlook regarding the meaning or meaninglessness of one’s physical suffering seems to affect how this suffering is perceived and experienced (for good or for ill). For example, Pastedechouan`s documented obsession with hellfire in the last years of his life would doubtless have sharpened rather than blunted the agony (both physical and psychological) of his final hours.

Read the complete Taras-Anderson interview.

Read about The Betrayal of Faith at the Harvard University Press website. Learn more about Emma Anderson's teaching, research, and other publications at her faculty webpage.

The Page 69 Test: The Betrayal of Faith.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Matthew Stanley's "Practical Mystic"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Matthew Stanley's Practical Mystic: Religion, Science, and A. S. Eddington.

About the book, from the publisher:

Science and religion have long been thought incompatible. But nowhere has this apparent contradiction been more fully resolved than in the figure of A. S. Eddington (1882–1944), a pioneer in astrophysics, relativity, and the popularization of science, and a devout Quaker. Practical Mystic uses the figure of Eddington to shows how religious and scientific values can interact and overlap without compromising the integrity of either.

Eddington was a world-class scientist who not only maintained his religious belief throughout his scientific career but also defended the interrelation of science and religion while drawing inspiration from both for his practices. For instance, at a time when a strict adherence to deductive principles of physics had proved fruitless for understanding the nature of stars, insights from Quaker mysticism led Eddington to argue that an outlook less concerned with certainty and more concerned with further exploration was necessary to overcome the obstacles of incomplete and uncertain knowledge.

By examining this intersection between liberal religion and astrophysics, Practical Mystic questions many common assumptions about the relationship between science and spirituality. Matthew Stanley’s analysis of Eddington’s personal convictions also reveals much about the practice, production, and dissemination of scientific knowledge at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Among the acclaim for Practical Mystic:

"In this extraordinary book about the life of the distinguished English astrophysicist Sir Arthur Eddington, Matthew Stanley examines the entangled roles of science and religion in his work.... Practical Mystic is not a biography but a biographical study—a fascinating one."
—Owen Gingerich, Nature

"In this fascinating study of Eddington and his worldviews, author Stanley offers glimpses of the conflicts between science and the religious spirit more than six decades ago. He also gives the reader insights into Eddington's astrophysics and the gist of some of his more popular books. This very interesting and well-researched work is enormously relevant in the context of current confrontations. Though very little seems to have changed in the debates, in actuality, there are no scientists of Eddington's stature today who dare to speak about their religious convictions as openly as Eddington did without risking their professional reputation."
—Choice

Learn more about Practical Mystic at the University of Chicago Press website.

Matthew Stanley is Assistant Professor in the Lyman Briggs College of Science and Department of History at Michigan State University.

The Page 99 Test: Practical Mystic.

--Marshal Zeringue

L. E. Modesitt, Jr.'s "Flash," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: L. E. Modesitt, Jr.'s Flash.

Modesitt's entry opens:

I normally don’t consider who might star if one of my books were made into a movie, because, based on an experience some ten years ago, when a most notable Hollywood director showed an interest in one of my books – and then decided against going further because, despite a high level of destruction, the underlying story was “too complex,” i.e., it actually had significant moral dimensions and questions – it became apparent that whether a book gets to the screen is a form of creative lottery.

Most likely, the book of mine most structurally conducive to being made into a movie, thus far, at least, is Flash, a PI/consultant thriller set three centuries in the future, which features one Jonat deVrai, a former Marine officer who has turned his hand to consulting and analysis of media influence and who is asked to investigate and analyze the use of a new high-tech approach to media in political campaigns. Needless to say, once he discovers what is really happening, everything in his life becomes a target – his occupation, his family, and himself.

Personally, I’d like to see....[read on]

L. E. Modesitt, Jr. is the bestselling author of over forty novels encompassing two science fiction series and three fantasy series, as well as several other novels in the science fiction genre.

Learn more about the author and his many books at L. E. Modesitt, Jr.'s website and his blog.

My Book, The Movie: L. E. Modesitt, Jr.'s Flash.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Jim DeRogatis reading?

The latest contributor to Writers Read: Jim DeRogatis, the pop music critic at the Chicago Sun-Times, the co-host of Public Radio’s “Sound Opinions,” the world’s only rock ’n’ roll talk show, and the author of several books about music, including Let It Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America’s Greatest Rock Critic and Staring at Sound: The True Story of Oklahoma’s Fabulous Flaming Lips.

His entry begins:

By necessity, as part of the music beat, I read almost all of the major pop-music books published in a given year, often because I have to review them; these can range from the ridiculous (one recent assignment was to tackle Everybody Wants Some: The Van Halen Saga by Ian Christe) to the, um, if not exactly sublime (the four greatest rock books ever: Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs; Hellfire: The Jerry Lee Lewis Story by Nick Tosches; The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones by Stanley Booth, and The Night (Alone: a novel) by Richard Meltzer), than at least the slightly less ridiculous (Clapton: The Autobiography or Chronicles: Volume One by Bob Dylan).

When it comes to reading for sheer pleasure, however, along with sucking up every issue of The New Yorker, I devour almost anything I can get my hands on in the totally unrelated realm of military campaigns and the politics and social movements behind them, ranging from almost-current affairs... [read on]

Visit the website of Jim DeRogatis to read his Chicago Sun-Times blog and recent articles (including album reviews of R.E.M.'s Accelerate and Gnarls Barkley's Odd Couple), and to learn more about his books and other projects.

Writers Read: Jim DeRogatis.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Fiona Maazel's "Last Last Chance"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Fiona Maazel's Last Last Chance.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Last Last Chance, Fiona Maazel’s first novel, is one of the most distinctive debuts of recent years: a rollicking comic tale about (in no particular order) plague, narcotics recovery, and reincarnation.

A lethal strain of virus vanishes from a lab in Washington, D.C., unleashing an epidemic—and the world thinks Lucy Clark’s dead father is to blame. The plague may be the least of Lucy’s problems. There’s her mother, Isifrid, a peddler of high-end hatwear who’s also a crackhead and pagan theologist. There’s her twelve-year-old half sister, Hannah, obsessed with disease and Christian fundamentalism; and Lucy’s lover, Stanley, who’s hell-bent on finding a womb for his dead wife’s frozen eggs. Lastly, there’s her grandmother Agneth, who believes in reincarnation (and who turns out to be right). And then there is Lucy herself, whose wise, warped approach to life makes her an ideal guide to love among the ruins. Romping across the country, from Southern California to the Texas desert to rural Pennsylvania and New York City, Lucy tries to surmount her drug addiction and to keep her family intact—and tells us, uproariously, all about it.

Last Last Chance is a novel about survival and recovery, opportunity and despair, and, finally, love and faith in an age of anxiety. It introduces Maazel as a new writer of phenomenal gifts.

Among the praise for Last Last Chance:

"Read this book now for the sentence-by-sentence brilliance of Maazel's inimitable voice, and enjoy it to the finish for its sophisticated and vulnerable portrayal of survival -- of the individual and the world-at-large, despite so much stacked against both. Maazel was born in 1975, but her imagination has been on fire for 1000 years."
—Joshua Ferris, author of Then We Came to the End

"Somehow Fiona Maazel has made plague funny and the drug recovery narrative, ossified by predictable writers and their wounds, fresh and moving again. Last Last Chance is a stylish first wonder."
—Sam Lipsyte

"Last Last Chance is not for the faint of heart or dim of humour. It's wicked, witty, a little whacked and surprisingly warm: what more did you want?"
—Wesley Stace, author of Misfortune and By George

"You have to look to Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son for a narrative voice as darkly funny and drug-inflected as Maazel's. This sprawling, wonderfully digressive novel is up to the task at hand: love at the end of the world as we know it."
—Amy Hempel

"Fiona Maazel’s novel Last Last Chance turns heartsickness, family dysfunction, substance abuse and a superplague into the sharpest — and most forgiving — comedy you will find between two covers. It is an absurdist generational saga that ranges widely for its wisdom, shows no mercy in its satire, and stakes out hopeful truths to dwell in during troubling times."
—Benjamin Anastas

"Vigor in every line and a wit about bodies, drugs and plague that forms a positively original voice of our day."
—Barry Hannah, author of Yonder Stands Your Orphan

Learn more about Last Last Chance and its author at Fiona Maazel's website.

Maazel is a writer and freelance editor. Her work has appeared in Bomb, The Boston Book Review, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Mississippi Review, Pierogi Press, Salon.com, Tin House, The Village Voice, and The Yale Review.

The Page 69 Test: Last Last Chance.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Lisa Appignanesi's "Mad, Bad and Sad"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Lisa Appignanesi's, Mad, Bad, and Sad: Women and the Mind Doctors.

About the book, from the publisher:

A brave and brilliantly researched intellectual history of the relationship between women and mental illness since 1800.

This is the story of how we have understood extreme states of mind over the last two hundred years and how we conceive of them today, from the depression suffered by Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath to the mental anguish and addictions of iconic beauties Zelda Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe. From Mary Lamb, sister of Charles, who in the throes of a nervous breakdown turned on her mother with a kitchen knife, to Freud, Jung, and Lacan, who developed the new women-centered therapies, Lisa Appignanesi’s research traces how more and more of the inner lives and emotions of women have become a matter for medics and therapists. Here too is the story of how over the years symptoms and diagnoses have developed together to create fashions in illness and how treatments have succeeded or sometimes failed. Mad, Bad, and Sad takes us on a fascinating journey through the fragile, extraordinary human mind.

Among the praise for the book:

"The triumph of Mad, Bad and Sad is to mix ... evocative case studies with potted histories of the great and good of psychology and psychiatry. Without wanting to sound too glib about an intelligent and academically rigorous study, this book is an excellent one-stop shop for those wanting to find Freud, Lacan and Melanie Klein among the same pages as Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Wurtzel. There is an attractive mix of the everyday and the clinical."
--Viv Groskop, Guardian

"There is some wonderful writing here and plenty of sharp insights.... Lisa Appignanesi has said it is the book she has been writing all her life. It is also, in many ways, the book we have been waiting for."
--New Statesman

"Endlessly fascinating"
--Independent on Sunday

"Informative in startling ways, and never dull in the academic way, Appignanesi's genuinely new History of the Mind Doctors is a subtle and accessible account of that perhaps most daunting of modern relationships, the one between the Mind Doctor and his female patient. Because Appignanesi has a complex story to tell there is no blaming at work in this wonderful book, but a shrewd and sympathetic apprehension of what is at stake in the difficult histories of both the Mind Doctors and those they seek to help. It is a remarkable achievement."
--Adam Phillips

"Marvellous. At last! A serious, well-researched book on this important subject."
--Pamela Stephenson

"[A]n intelligent and academically rigorous study."
--Observer

Read more about Mad, Bad, and Sad at the publisher's webpage, and visit Lisa Appignanesi's official website.

Lisa Appignanesi is a novelist and writer who has been made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in recognition of her contribution to literature. She is president of English PEN.

The Page 99 Test: Mad, Bad, and Sad.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Robert Bateman reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Robert L. Bateman, an infantryman, historian, and prolific writer. He is the author of two books -- Digital War, A View from the Front Lines (Presidio: 1999) and No Gun Ri, A Military History of the Korean War Incident (Stackpole, 2002) -- and has contributed to or co-authored seven others.

Bateman was a Military Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and has taught Military History at the U.S. Military Academy.

One paragraph from his entry:

Sitting on my desk is one book that I just now completed, and about which I wrote a review for the US Army War College journal Parameters, Muhammad, Islam's First Great General by military historian Richard Gabriel. The second book resting open here is Vietnam Awakening, My Journey from Combat to the Citizens' Commission of Inquiry on U.S. War Crimes in Vietnam, by Michael Uhl. I'll be doing a review of that one for Vietnam magazine. Finally, one book through which I am selectively fishing, The Interagency and Counterinsurgency Warfare: Stability, Security, Transition, and Reconstruction Roles, published by the Strategic Studies institute of the Army War College and edited by Joseph Cerami and Jay Boggs. [read on]

Read many of Bateman's recent articles at the Committee of Concerned Journalists website and visit Robert L. Bateman's website.

Writers Read: Robert L. Bateman.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Katie Crouch's "Girls in Trucks"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Katie Crouch's Girls in Trucks.

About the book, from the publisher:

Sarah Walters is a less-than-perfect debutante. She tries hard to follow the time-honored customs of the Charleston Camellia Society, as her mother and grandmother did, standing up straight in Cotillion class and attending lectures about all the things that Camellias don't do (like ride with boys in pickup trucks).

But Sarah can't quite ignore the barbarism just beneath all that propriety, and as soon as she can she leaves South Carolina for a life in New York City. Th ere, she and her fellow displaced Southern friends try to make sense of city sophistication, to understand how much of their training applies to real life and how much to the strange and rarefied world they've left behind.

When life's complications become overwhelming, Sarah returns home to confront with matured eyes the motto "Once a Camellia, always a Camellia"—and to see how much fuller life can be, for good and for ill, among those who know you best.

Girls in Trucks introduces a narrative voice that is astonishing and irresistible—a true, sweet, and wise voice that heralds the arrival of an exciting new talent.

Among the early praise for Girls in Trucks:

“Wise, wry and heartbreaking.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Gentle humor and sharp observation couched in straightforward prose with none of the preening preciosity so often seen in Southern fiction.”
—Kirkus

“There are more gasps, sobs, laughs and surprises in these pages than in most people's entire bookshelves. Love never felt so sharp or real as in Katie Crouch's debut.”
—Andrew Sean Greer, author of The Story of a Marriage and The Confessions of Max Tivoli

“Katie Crouch's hip and saucy debut is exquisite, the best kind of book out there: It seduces you into inhaling it while at the same time begging to be savored. Perfect for beach, bus or rehab.”
—Karen Karbo, author of How to Hepburn: Lessons on Living From Kate the Great

“Girls in Trucks is an extraordinary first novel, one that I'm betting will win the hearts of every reader who has ever sought love or dodged it, and anyone who just plain likes to read a book that's savvy, funny-and-sad, wise, and beautifully written. Katie Crouch has the best ear for dialogue I've come across in years; and she knows how to tell a story that catches us up and spirits us into a world that's achingly familiar but full of surprises. Wow.”
—Josephine Humphreys, author of Rich in Love and Nowhere Else on Earth

"Sarah Walters, the heroine of Katie Crouch's Girls in Trucks, is one of those people who never quite fits in—not with her Southern gothic family, not with her comically flawed lovers, not with her for-better-or-worse society sisters. The question is, at what cost? In spare, confident prose, Crouch perfectly captures the peculiar joys and pain of a life lived mostly alone. She is an author who knows the hunger, and resilience, of the human heart. She's also damn funny.”
—Will Allison, author of What You Have Left

“It’s always exciting to hear a new voice – and Katie Crouch speaks in a funny, spiky, highly original voice that carries a reader happily along through this charming novel. Her “Camellia Girls” carry the sweet scent of Charleston, but they’ve got a lot more going on in their heads than most ladies of Southern fiction. I enjoyed this book from beginning to end.”
—Mark Childress, author of One Mississippi and Crazy in Alabama

“In Girls in Trucks everything is cockeyed and wonderful--white-gloved drunks and stoned debutantes, the social rules of hot Charleston and icy New York. And at the center of it all Katie Crouch has brought us Sarah Walters, a devastatingly funny character trying to figure out not just how to manage the waltz, the cha-cha and various dances of heartbreak—but how to stay alive.”
—Victoria Redel, author of Loverboy

Read an excerpt from Girls in Trucks, and learn more about the author and her work at Katie Crouch's website and her blog.

Watch a video of Katie Crouch talking about her novel.

The Page 69 Test: Girls in Trucks.

--Marshal Zeringue

Louis Ferrante's "Unlocked," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Louis Ferrante's Unlocked: A Journey from Prison to Proust.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the freewheeling rush of hijacking trucks to the brutal race wars that marked his decade-long stint in jail, former Mafia insider Louis Ferrante describes his remarkable journey from rising mobster to federal prison inmate to full-time writer.

As Louis Ferrante tells it, the bottom line was money—and his word was good. During his teenage years, Ferrante and his crew members hijacked delivery trucks and drove them to drop-offs all over New York, reselling the merchandise and pocketing thousands of dollars per load. For a seventeen-year-old who liked fist fighting and fast cars, it was the quickest money on the street, and it soon earned Ferrante the attention of the infamous Gambino crime family, led by late Mob boss John Gotti. In the early nineties, Ferrante's growing Mafia connections enabled him to pull off some of the most lucrative heists in American history—all by the age of twenty-one.

But the same handshakes that once sealed deals soon could no longer be trusted, and the betrayal by several of his close friends brought the feds banging down Ferrante's door. Symptomatic of the nation's larger crackdown on organized crime, indictments came from the Secret Service, the Nassau County Organized Crime Force, and the FBI. By 1994, Ferrante faced a life sentence in prison. He pleaded guilty and would serve nearly a decade in some of the most notorious penitentiaries in America. With raucous violence teeming around him, Ferrante relied on his Mob connections and street smarts to keep him alive—until an unexpected exchange with a guard propelled him to a painful self-reckoning: Who am I? What is it that makes me this way? Do I have a purpose?

Desperate to escape from his bleak surroundings, Ferrante immersed himself in the study of history and literature. Over the term of his incarceration, each book became a much-needed sanctuary from the brutal chaos of his everyday existence, each page a challenge to his rapidly expanding knowledge of the world. Ferrante read voraciously—a journey of the mind that took him from philosophy and ancient classics to nineteenth-century fiction. He also learned the art of writing and studied the major world religions, eventually deciding to become an Orthodox Jew. And with only limited access to legal texts, Ferrante taught himself enough about the American justice system to successfully appeal his own conviction, in a case that is now cited in courtrooms across the country.

Gritty and hard-hitting, Ferrante's memoir recounts his rapid rise to the upper echelons of the Mafia hierarchy, his time in prison, and his struggle to turn his life around. Unlocked is an astonishing journey—a true story of personal transformation that is both shocking and unforgettable.

Read more about Unlocked at the publisher's webpage and at Louis Ferrante's website.

My Book, The Movie: Unlocked.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Louise Penny's "The Cruelest Month"

The latest feature at the Page 99 Test: Louise Penny's The Cruelest Month.

About the book, from the author's website:

Easter in Three Pines is a time of church services, egg hunts and seances to raise the dead.

A group of friends trudges up to the Old Hadley House, the horror on the hill, to finally rid it of the evil spirits that have so obviously plagued it, and the village, for decades. But instead of freeing a spirit, they create a new one. One of their numbers dies of fright. Or was it murder? Enter Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his team from the Surete du Quebec. As they peel back the layers of flilth and artiface that have covered the haunted old home, they discover the evil isn't confined there. Some evil is guiding the actions of one of the seemingly kindly villagers.

But Gamache has a horror all his own to confront. A very personal demon is about to strike.

Easter in Three Pines. A time of rebirth, when nature comes alive. But something very unpleasant has also come alive. And it become clear - for there to be a rebirth, there first must be a death.

Among the acclaim for The Cruelest Month:

"If I thought for one minute this place really existed, I would be packing the car. As it was, on finishing "The Cruelest Month," I grabbed the first two books, "Still Life" and "A Fatal Grace," and spent a lovely weekend in the village. The mouthwatering food, the beautiful gardens, the quirky and literate villagers -- Three Pines is a charming oasis for the spirit....it's more about the journey than the destination in these wonderful books full of poetry, and weather, and a brooding manor house, and people who read and think and laugh and eat a lot of really excellent food.
Move over, Mitford."
--Salem Macknee, Charlotte Observor

“Many mystery buffs have credited Louise Penny with the revival of the type of traditional murder mystery made famous by Agatha Christie.... The book’s title is a metaphor not only for the month of April but also for Gamache’s personal and professional challenges--making this the series standout so far.”
--Sarah Weinman

"Chief Insp. Armand Gamache and his team investigate another bizarre crime in the tiny Québec village of Three Pines in Penny's expertly plotted third cozy (after 2007's A Fatal Grace). As the townspeople gather in the abandoned and perhaps haunted Hadley house for a séance with a visiting psychic, Madeleine Favreau collapses, apparently dead of fright. No one has a harsh word to say about Madeleine, but Gamache knows there's more to the case than meets the eye. Complicating his inquiry are the repercussions of Gamache having accused his popular superior at the Sûreté du Québec of heinous crimes in a previous case. Fearing there might be a mole on his team, Gamache works not only to solve the murder but to clear his name. Arthur Ellis Award–winner Penny paints a vivid picture of the French-Canadian village, its inhabitants and a determined detective who will strike many Agatha Christie fans as a 21st-century version of Hercule Poirot."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Gamache is a prodigiously complicated and engaging hero, destined to become one of the classic detectives.”
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Gamache is an engaging, modern-day Poirot who gently teases out information from his suspects while enjoying marvelous bistro meals and cozy walks on the village common…Penny is an award-winning writer whose cozies go beyond traditional boundaries, providing entertaining characters, a picturesque locale, and thought-provoking plots. Highly recommended."
--Library Journal (starred review)

Read an excerpt from The Cruelest Month, and learn more about the book and its author at Louise Penny's website and her blog.

Penny's first Three Pines mystery, Still Life, won the Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada and the New Blood Dagger from the British Crime Writers' Association. In the United States, it received the Dilys Award for the book that the members of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association most enjoyed selling over the past year.

The Page 69 Test: Still Life.

My Book, The Movie: A Fatal Grace.

The Page 99 Test: The Cruelest Month.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five best: books about journalism

Roger Mudd, a former correspondent for CBS, NBC, the PBS "NewsHour" and the History Channel, is the author of The Place to Be: Washington, CBS and the Glory Days of Television News.

He selected a list of the five best books about journalism for the Wall Street Journal.

One title on his list:

Reporting From Washington
By Donald A. Ritchie
Oxford, 2005

Not until I read Donald Ritchie's superb book did I learn why Dan Rather and Fred Graham and Bob Schieffer and Marvin Kalb and I had to report while standing in front of the buildings we covered, even in the rain. It was because CBS News management declared that only Walter Cronkite and Eric Sevareid could be filmed indoors and sitting down. This engrossing, finely written book covers the past 75 years of news coverage from the nation's capital. The chapters on the press are rich in detail, but I'm in awe of the account of television, the field I know best. Yet I did not know that R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, which underwrote NBC's entire news operation in the late 1940s, would not allow "Camel News Caravan" to show pictures of anyone holding a cigar except Winston Churchill (cigarettes were fine, of course) and that on the desk of the show's anchor, the nonsmoking John Cameron Swayze, was a prominently placed ashtray.

Read about another title on Mudd's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Libby Fischer Hellmann's "Easy Innocence"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Libby Fischer Hellmann's Easy Innocence.

About the book, from the publisher:

When pretty, smart Sara Long is found bludgeoned to death, it’s easy to blame the man with the bat.

But Georgia Davis — former cop and newly-minted PI — is hired to look into the incident at the behest of the accused’s sister, and what she finds hints at a much different, much darker answer. It seems the privileged, preppy schoolgirls on Chicago’s North Shore have learned just how much their innocence is worth to hot-under-the-collar businessmen. But while these girls can pay for Prada pricetags, they don’t realize that their new business venture may end up costing them more than they can afford.

Among the early praise for Easy Innocence:

"Libby Hellmann can get into the mind of a character, whether the character is a mentally ill man or a teenage girl. I kept reading after the first brutal and fascinating pages because I... wanted to know what would happen to the good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly people. PI Georgia Davis, the no-nonsense heart of this tale, is an original who cuts through the surface of the wealthy Chicago suburban North Shore and finds a darkness I didn't see coming. This is good stuff, very good stuff."
—Stuart M. Kaminsky, Grand Master, Mystery Writers of America

"Hellmann's done her homework here and it shows: the writing is assured, the voices authentic, and the understanding both of criminal investigations and relationships among cops, lawyers and prosecutors come to life with great urgency. Her PI, Georgia Davis, works the affluent suburbs north of Chicago, fertile territory for crime that's lain fallow far too long. Davis' arrival on the mean streets is long overdue."
—Sara Paretsky, author of the V.I. Warshawski series and Bleeding Kansas

"Easy Innocence grabs you and doesn't let go. Hellmann's cool style and sleight-of-hand plotting draw you in deep before you know what's happened. This one will keep you up at night."
—SJ Rozan, author of In This Rain

"Hellmann brings to life the reality of hazing and bullying among teenage girls in a story with enough twists and turns to keep you reading to the end. Highly recommended."
—Library Journal (starred review)

"Just what's needed in a mystery... Depth of characterization sets this new entry apart from a crowded field."
—Kirkus Reviews

Read an excerpt from Easy Innocence, and learn more about the author and her work at Libby Fischer Hellmann's website.

Hellmann has edited the acclaimed crime fiction anthology, Chicago Blues, and published over a dozen short stories. Her four novels featuring Chicago video producer and amateur sleuth Ellie Foreman have won numerous awards. Easy Innocence is a spin-off from the Ellie Foreman series. It grew out of Hellmann's experience with her own daughter, and what she imagined as "every mother's nightmare."

The Page 69 Test: A Shot To Die For.

My Book, The Movie: A Shot To Die For.

The Page 69 Test: Easy Innocence.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Paul Berman reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Paul Berman, a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University whose articles and reviews on politics and literature have appeared in The New York Times, the New Republic, the New Yorker, Slate, the Village Voice, Dissent, and various other American, European and Latin American journals.

He has written or edited eight books, including, most recently, Power and the Idealists: Or, the Passion of Joschka Fischer and Its Aftermath, with a new preface by Richard Holbrooke for the 2007 paperback edition; Carl Sandburg: Selected Poems, edited with an introduction, published in 2006 by the American Poets Project of the Library of America; and Terror and Liberalism, a New York Times best-seller in 2003.

The opening paragraph from Berman's Writers Read entry:

I have just finished reading an excellent study of Nazi influences on Islamist radicalism called Jihad and Jew-Hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11 by Matthias Küntzel, translated from the German by Colin Meade, with a preface by Jeffrey Herf (Telos Press Publishing). This is quite an eye-opening book. [read on]

Learn more about Paul Berman at his NYU profile webpage.

Writers Read: Paul Berman.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top books on time from the London Times

Iain Finlayson, who reviews nonfiction for the Times (London), named his top six books on time for the newspaper.

One title on his list:

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...” French Republicans devised a “rational” calendar reckoned from September 22, 1792.

Read about the book that topped Finlayson's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Gene Wilder reading?

The actor and comedian Gene Wilder is the author of several books including the memoir, Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art.

His first novel, set in France during World War I, is My French Whore.

Wilder has just published a new novella, The Woman Who Wouldn't.

He talked to the Christian Science Monitor about what he was listening to and watching on DVD and on the stage. And about what he was reading:

Anton Chekhov, Short Stories; two volumes. He's my favorite author. He was very influential, actually, in the writing of my new book, The Woman Who Wouldn't, because it was one of his short stories that set something stirring in me. I knew his plays, but then I was asked to do something at the Westport Country Playhouse [in Connecticut], and I said, 'I've always wanted to do a play by Chekhov, a one-act comedy called The Marriage Proposal.' I got so intrigued with Chekhov from that, it set me off on me off on wanting to read short stories. He said he felt that the short stories were better than his plays.

Read more about Gene Wilder's taste in music and movies.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Walter A. McDougall's "Throes of Democracy"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Throes of Democracy: The American Civil War Era 1829-1877 by Walter A. McDougall.

About the book, from the publisher:

"And then there came a day of fire!" From its shocking curtain-raiser—the conflagration that consumed Lower Manhattan in 1835—to the climactic centennial year of 1876, when Americans staged a corrupt, deadlocked presidential campaign (fought out in Florida), Walter A. McDougall's Throes of Democracy: The American Civil War Era, 1829-1877 throws off sparks like a flywheel. This eagerly awaited sequel to Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History, 1585-1828 carries the saga of the American people's continuous self-reinvention from the inauguration of President Andrew Jackson through the eras of Manifest Destiny, Civil War, and Reconstruction, America's first failed crusade to put "freedom on the march" through regime change and nation building.

But Throes of Democracy is much more than a political history. Here, for the first time, is the American epic as lived by Germans and Irish, Catholics and Jews, as well as people of British Protestant and African American stock; an epic defined as much by folks in Wisconsin, Kansas, and Texas as by those in Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia; an epic in which Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, showman P. T. Barnum, and circus clown Dan Rice figure as prominently as Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, and Henry Ward Beecher; an epic in which railroad management and land speculation prove as gripping as Indian wars. Walter A. McDougall's zesty, irreverent narrative says something new, shrewd, ironic, or funny about almost everything as it reveals our national penchant for pretense—a predilection that explains both the periodic throes of democracy and the perennial resilience of the United States.

Among the early acclaim for Throes of Democracy:

"A broad-ranging portrait of America in a time of torment.... McDougall ventures that in the Civil War era something of the nation’s essential nature came through: progressive yet conservative, pious yet sanguinary. Provocative and richly detailed--a welcome contribution to popular history."
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"History buffs will definitely gravitate to this thick book. The second in a projected multivolume history of the U.S., it proves as boisterous as the busy, mid-nineteenth-century Americans whose expanding, industrializing, and warring McDougall chronicles.... A provocative survey from a premier historian."
—Booklist (starred review)

Read an excerpt from Throes of Democracy and learn more about the book at the publisher's website.

Walter A. McDougall is Professor of History and the Alloy-Ansin Professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania. His many books include the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age and Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History, 1585-1828.

The Page 99 Test: Throes of Democracy.

--Marshal Zeringue

The Rap Sheet’s “Crime Life List”

Time is running out to contribute to The Rap Sheet's survey of "mystery and thriller novels that you think every fan of this genre ought to read before he or she dies."

Here's the latest reminder from J. Kingston Pierce, editor of The Rap Sheet:

Don’t forget that we’re still looking for nominations to The Rap Sheet’s “Crime Life List” of mystery and thriller novels that you think every fan of this genre ought to read before he or she dies. Simply e-mail the title and author of the book you’d like to nominate, plus two or three sentences explaining why you think it deserves a place on our roster, to jpwrites@sprynet.com. And in the subject line, please type “Book List.”

The deadline for submissions is this coming Friday, April 4.

See Pierce's original post for more details.

My own nomination:

James Ellroy, American Tabloid

Ellroy made the Telegraph's list, singled out for The Black Dahlia and the rest of the L.A. Quartet. Those are great crime novels, yet Ellroy's finest work is American Tabloid, perhaps the best American novel of 1995 ... and not measured against only crime novels. Superbly written, it's packed with more crimes than any other novel I can think of--and, outrageous as it seems, many of crimes are based on actual events.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Elizabeth Crane reading?

The latest featured contributor to Writers Read: Elizabeth Crane, author of three collections of short stories -- When The Messenger is Hot, All This Heavenly Glory, and You Must Be This Happy to Enter.

From her entry:

The thing about this book [I've been reading] is that there was so much hype about it, even more by the time I finally cracked it, that for me it was almost destined to fail in some way. I'm always suspicious when there's that much attention on a book, you know, that isn't mine. You think - there's no way that all these people could be right about this. [read on]

About You Must Be This Happy to Enter, from the publisher:

Whether breathlessly enthusiastic serenely calm, or really concentrating on their personal zombie issues, Crane's happy cast explore the complexities behind personal satisfaction. You Must Be This Happy to Enter exists in a world very much like our own but infused with more joy and magic. It's a place where the happy are jailed, the sincere cause confusion, and pop culture so seamlessly melds with real life that characters can walk right out of the television and come live with you.

Crane's third collection, aims to convey something fresh in literature: utter sincerity. With a trademark mix of hyperreality, humor, and heartfelt emotion, You Must Be This Happy to Enter asks readers to connect with the loopy ways of her characters. Because even though they're occasionally severed from reality, they still seem to know something you don't about keeping upbeat in a strange and crumbling environment.

The opening story features a woman who can speak only in exclamations. Betty may be a zombie on a reality TV show, but she's a woman willing to work on herself. Sally is just plain old freaking happy. (You shouldn't even read this story.) Another woman gives birth to a baby who turns into Ethan Hawke, but by golly, she's not going to let that stop her from being a good parent. What happens when a town turns transparent overnight? Do people run away just because they're basically naked? No. What would you do if your perfect man was jailed for being happy? What would you do if you had words on your forehead? You'd use it to your advantage, that's what! How does a couple manage their differences over bananas? They freak out, and then they laugh. Do you have a better idea?

Visit Crane's website and her blog.

Writers Read: Elizabeth Crane.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: "Modern China: A Very Short Introduction"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Rana Mitter's Modern China: A Very Short Introduction.

About the book, from the Oxford University Press:

China today is never out of the news: from human rights controversies and the continued legacy of Tiananmen Square, to global coverage of the Beijing Olympics, and the Chinese "economic miracle." It is a country of contradictions and transitions: a peasant society with some of the world's most futuristic cities, an ancient civilization that is modernizing as rapidly as possible, a walled-off nation that is increasingly at the center of world trade. This Very Short Introduction offers an indispensable starting point for anyone who needs to quickly know the themes and controversies that have shaped modern China. Prize-winning author and scholar Rana Mitter examines the modern history, politics, economy, and thriving cultural scene of contemporary China, and its relations with the wider world. This lively guide covers a range of social issues from the decline of footbinding and the position of women in society, to the influence of television and film, and the role of the overseas Chinese diaspora. It covers many prominent figures as well, such as the Communist leaders, the last emperors, and prominent writers and artists throughout China's history.

Among the early praise for the book:

"[A]s historian Rana Mitter argues, modern China has become a bewildering mix of nationalism, communism, Confucian values and what Mao condemned as "economism" - the pursuit of ever higher living standards. Above all, says Mitter memorably, "China is a plural noun." He neatly surveys the last 200 years of its history with a view to defining China's unique brand of modernity."
--PD Smith, Guardian

"[C]overs a great deal of ground in a consistently engaging fashion and manages to remain accessible even when tackling complex issues."
--Jeff Wasserstrom

Watch a video of Mitter introducing his book.

Read more about Modern China: A Very Short Introduction at the Oxford University Press website.

Learn more about Rana Mitter's research and publications at his faculty webpage.

Rana Mitter is University Lecturer in the History and Politics of Modern China and Fellow of St Cross College, University of Oxford. His previous publications include The Manchurian Myth: Nationalism, Resistance, and Collaboration in Modern China. (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2000)
and A Bitter Revolution: China's Struggle with the Modern World. (Oxford, 2004).

The Page 69 Test: Modern China: A Very Short Introduction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Susan Levine's "School Lunch Politics"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Susan Levine's School Lunch Politics: The Surprising History of America's Favorite Welfare Program.

About the book, from the publisher:

Whether kids love or hate the food served there, the American school lunchroom is the stage for one of the most popular yet flawed social welfare programs in our nation's history. School Lunch Politics covers this complex and fascinating part of American culture, from its origins in early twentieth-century nutrition science, through the establishment of the National School Lunch Program in 1946, to the transformation of school meals into a poverty program during the 1970s and 1980s. Susan Levine investigates the politics and culture of food; most specifically, who decides what American children should be eating, what policies develop from those decisions, and how these policies might be better implemented.

Even now, the school lunch program remains problematic, a juggling act between modern beliefs about food, nutrition science, and public welfare. Levine points to the program menus' dependence on agricultural surplus commodities more than on children's nutritional needs, and she discusses the political policy barriers that have limited the number of children receiving meals and which children were served. But she also shows why the school lunch program has outlasted almost every other twentieth-century federal welfare initiative. In the midst of privatization, federal budget cuts, and suspect nutritional guidelines where even ketchup might be categorized as a vegetable, the program remains popular and feeds children who would otherwise go hungry.

As politicians and the media talk about a national obesity epidemic, School Lunch Politics is a timely arrival to the food policy debates shaping American health, welfare, and equality.

Among the early praise for School Lunch Politics:

"With School Lunch Politics, Sue Levine has served up a rich plate on which the histories of food, public policy, childhood, and social reform come together in complicated, intermingling ways. The result is a capacious and balanced book about the elusive quest for an equitable society and a balanced meal."
--Daniel Horowitz, author of The Anxieties of Affluence

"School Lunch Politics tells the fascinating history of the National School Lunch Program, which officially began in 1946 and continues to this day. This is an important book and will be valuable for many audiences. It should receive attention not only from historians (especially historians of twentieth-century social policy) but also a broader audience interested in the current obesity crisis and the commercialization of public life. Any reader of Fast Food Nation will love this book."
--Robyn Muncy, University of Maryland

Read the introduction and learn more about the book at the Princeton University Press website.

Susan Levine is professor of history at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her previous books include Labor’s True Woman: Carpet Weavers, Industrialization, Labor Reform in the Gilded Age and Degrees of Equality: The American Association of University Women and the Challenge of Twentieth Century Feminism.

The Page 99 Test: School Lunch Politics.

--Marshal Zeringue