Four top romance novels

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Sara Brady tagged four of the best romance novels, including:

There’s a reason Nora Roberts has more than 400 million copies of her books in print: her writing is accessible, engrossing, and, to a longtime reader, as comforting as a bowl of soup and a mom-knit blanket. She also doesn’t get enough credit for writing some truly chilling thrillers, but that’s a rant for another day. With a catalog of 209 titles (and counting), it’s tough to know where to start with Roberts. My entry point was her 2002 standalone Three Fates, which tells the story of the Sullivan siblings, descendants of a survivor of the sinking of the Lusitania, who embark on a globetrotting pursuit of three priceless heirlooms. It’s sexy and speedy and includes a makeover scene and a stripper with a heart of gold. It’s basically perfect.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Free book: "Three Things You Need to Know About Rockets"

Atria Books/Marble Arch Press and the Campaign for the American Reader are giving away a copy of Three Things You Need to Know About Rockets: A Real-Life Scottish Fairy Tale by Jessica A. Fox.

HOW TO ENTER: (1) send an email to this address:

(2) In the subject line, type Rockets.

(3) Include your name (or alias or whatever you wish to be called if I email you to tell you you've won the book) in the body of the email.

[I will not sell or share your email address; nor will I be in touch with you unless it is to tell you you have won the book.  I promise.]

Contest closes on Monday, September 30th.

Only one entry per person, please.

Winner must have a US mailing address.

Read more about Three Things You Need to Know About Rockets: A Real-Life Scottish Fairy Tale at Jessica A. Fox's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Kathleen Kent's "The Outcasts"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: The Outcasts by Kathleen Kent.

About the book, from the publisher:

A taut, thrilling adventure story about buried treasure, a manhunt, and a woman determined to make a new life for herself in the old west.

It's the 19th century on the Gulf Coast, a time of opportunity and lawlessness. After escaping the Texas brothel where she'd been a virtual prisoner, Lucinda Carter heads for Middle Bayou to meet her lover, who has a plan to make them both rich, chasing rumors of a pirate's buried treasure.

Meanwhile Nate Cannon, a young Texas policeman with a pure heart and a strong sense of justice, is on the hunt for a ruthless killer named McGill who has claimed the lives of men, women, and even children across the frontier. Who--if anyone--will survive when their paths finally cross?

As Lucinda and Nate's stories converge, guns are drawn, debts are paid, and Kathleen Kent delivers an unforgettable portrait of a woman who will stop at nothing to make a new life for herself.

Learn more about the book and author at Kathleen Kent's website, blog, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

My Book, The Movie: The Outcasts.

The Page 69 Test: The Outcasts.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Matt J. Rossano reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Matt J. Rossano, author of Mortal Rituals: What the Story of the Andes Survivors Tells Us About Human Evolution.

His entry begins:

Two recently read books that have stuck with me are Thomas Wynn and Fred Coolidge’s How to Think like a Neandertal and Michael Tomasello’s Why We Cooperate. Both of them deal with the issue that I have been pondering in one way or another my entire professional life, which is – what makes us human? Wynn and Coolidge’s book addresses the question by way of comparison with our closest hominin cousins (Neandertals). While Tomasello’s book does it by comparison with our closest primate relatives (chimpanzees).

I see a broad convergence between the two in that the big, glaring intellectual differences that had once seemed so certain, such things as only humans have symbols or only humans have language, are nowhere near as certain as once believed. This is not to say that...[read on]

About Mortal Rituals, from the publisher:

On December 21, 1972, sixteen young survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 were rescued after spending ten weeks stranded at the crash site of their plane, high in the remote Andes Mountains. The incident made international headlines and spawned several best-selling books, fueled partly by the fact that the young men had resorted to cannibalism to survive.

Matt Rossano examines this story from an evolutionary perspective, weaving together findings and ideas from anthropology, psychology, religion, and cognitive science. During their ordeal, these young men broke “civilized” taboos to fend off starvation and abandoned “civilized” modes of thinking to maintain social unity and individual sanity. Through the power of ritual, the survivors were able to endure severe emotional and physical hardship. Rossano ties their story to our story, seeing in the mortal rituals of this struggle for survival a reflection of what it means to be human.

Learn more about Mortal Rituals at the Columbia University Press website.

Matt Rossano is head of the Psychology Department at Southeastern Louisiana University and the author of Evolutionary Psychology: The Science of Human Behavior and Evolution and Supernatural Selection: How Religion Evolved.

The Page 99 Test: Supernatural Selection: How Religion Evolved.

The Page 99 Test: Mortal Rituals.

Writers Read: Matt J. Rossano.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jojo Moyes' six favorite books

Jojo Moyes's new novel is The Girl You Left Behind.

One of her six favorite books, as told to The Week magazine:

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

A book I thought I wasn't going to enjoy about a subject I wasn't interested in. This novel showed me the value of research, of taking a reader somewhere new. If the characters are compelling, readers will follow anywhere.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Mark Larrimore's "The Book of 'Job': A Biography"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: The Book of "Job": A Biography by Mark Larrimore.

About the book, from the publisher:

The book of Job raises stark questions about the nature and meaning of innocent suffering and the relationship of the human to the divine, yet it is also one of the Bible's most obscure and paradoxical books, one that defies interpretation even today. Mark Larrimore provides a panoramic history of this remarkable book, traversing centuries and traditions to examine how Job's trials and his challenge to God have been used and understood in diverse contexts, from commentary and liturgy to philosophy and art.

Larrimore traces Job's obscure origins and his reception and use in the Midrash, burial liturgies, and folklore, and by figures such as Gregory the Great, Maimonides, John Calvin, Immanuel Kant, William Blake, Margarete Susman, and Elie Wiesel. He chronicles the many ways the book of Job's interpreters have linked it to other biblical texts; to legends, allegory, and negative and positive theologies; as well as to their own individual and collective experiences. Larrimore revives old questions and provides illuminating new contexts for contemporary ones. Was Job a Jew or a gentile? Was his story history or fable? What is meant by the "patience of Job," and does Job exhibit it? Why does God speak yet not engage Job's questions?

Offering rare insights into this iconic and enduring book, Larrimore reveals how Job has come to be viewed as the Bible's answer to the problem of evil and the perennial question of why a God who supposedly loves justice permits bad things to happen to good people.

Learn more about The Book of "Job": A Biography at the Princeton University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Book of "Job": A Biography.

--Marshal Zeringue

The ten best science fiction stories where humans are the villains

At io9 Emily Stamm and Charlie Jane Anders came up with a list of the ten best science fiction stories where humans are the villains, including:

The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin

This novel explores the relationship between the natives of the planet Athshe and the humans from Earth who are attempting to colonize the planet and exploit its natural resources. The Terrans enslave the small, green, furry natives and treat them more like animals than people, despite their proven intelligence and advanced social structures.

We see the Terrans primarily from two points of view, Captain Davidson and Raj Lyubov. Davidson is a small minded, violent man who begins the war after he rapes and kills an important Athshean’s wife. Lyubov is an anthropologist, and one of the few Terrans who take the time to understand the Athsheans.

Through Davidson and Lyubov’s interactions with other Terrans we see the selfish, violent nature of the humans on the planet. They refer to the Athsheans by the slur “creechies” while trying to hide their mistreatment of them from other humanoid races. When Lyubov protests one man tells him, “You know the people you’re studying are going to get plowed under, and probably wiped out. It’s the way things are. It’s human nature, and you must know you can’t change that.”

Read about another novel on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Carrie Brown's "The Last First Day"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: The Last First Day by Carrie Brown.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the author of The Rope Walk, here is the story of a woman’s life in its twilight, as she looks back on a harrowing childhood and on the unaccountable love and happiness that emerged from it.

Ruth has always stood firmly beside her upstanding, brilliant husband, Peter, the legendary chief of New England’s Derry School for boys. The childless couple has a unique, passionate bond that grew out of Ruth’s arrival on Peter’s family’s doorstep as a young girl orphaned by tragedy. And though sometimes frustrated by her role as lifelong helpmate, Ruth is awed by her good fortune in her life with Peter. As the novel opens, we see the Derry School in all its glorious fall colors and witness the loosening of the aging Peter’s grasp: he will soon have to retire, and Ruth is wondering what they will do in their old age, separated from the school into which they have poured everything, including their savings. The narrative takes us back through the years, revealing the explosive spark and joy between Ruth and Peter—undiminished now that they are in their seventies—and giving us a deeply felt portrait of a woman from a generation that quietly put individual dreams aside for the good of a partnership, and of the ongoing gift of the right man’s love.

Learn more about the book and author at Carrie Brown's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Last First Day.

The Page 69 Test: The Last First Day.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Drew Karpyshyn reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Drew Karpyshyn, author of Children of Fire (The Chaos Born, Book One).

His entry begins:

Most of the fiction I read is speculative in some way: horror, sci-fi or fantasy. I read mostly for escapism, enjoyment and entertainment, and I usually find that in stories that I know couldn't happen in real life. I also think that sf/f/h books can be far more imaginative and amazing than movies in the same genre, because the author isn't limited by special effects or budget constraints. Give me a book with supernatural monsters, magic or highly advanced technologies, throw in some good characters and an interesting plot, and I'm hooked.

I tend to travel a lot, and I love to read while I'm on a plane or in a hotel room on the road. Having said that, it's hard for me to find stuff I like. I'm very particular about what I read, and I often become frustrated with the books I pick up. Fortunately, I've had a recent run of titles that I'd strongly recommend.

Let's begin with Elantris and Mistborn: The Final Empire. I'm a bit late to the Brandon Sanderson party, but I can see why he's become one of fantasy's most popular authors. Elantris focuses on a prince who is stricken by a very rare, very strange illness that causes him to be banished to a ruined wasteland...[read on]

About Children of Fire, from the publisher:

Drew Karpyshyn has made his mark with imaginative, action-packed work on several acclaimed videogames, including Mass Effect and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, as well as in a succession of New York Times bestselling tie-in novels. Now Karpyshyn introduces a brilliantly innovative epic fantasy of perilous quests, tormented heroes, and darkest sorcery—a thrilling adventure that vaults him into the company of such authors as Terry Goodkind, Brandon Sanderson, and Peter V. Brett.

Long ago the gods chose a great hero to act as their agent in the mortal world and to stand against the demonic spawn of Chaos. The gods gifted their champion, Daemron, with three magical Talismans: a sword, a ring, and a crown. But the awesome power at his command corrupted Daemron, turning him from savior to destroyer. Filled with pride, he dared to challenge the gods themselves. Siding with the Chaos spawn, Daemron waged a titanic battle against the Immortals. In the end, Daemron was defeated, the Talismans were lost, and Chaos was sealed off behind the Legacy—a magical barrier the gods sacrificed themselves to create.

Now the Legacy is fading. On the other side, the banished Daemron stirs. And across the scattered corners of the land, four children are born of suffering and strife, each touched by one aspect of Daemron himself—wizard, warrior, prophet, king.

Bound by a connection deeper than blood, the Children of Fire will either restore the Legacy or bring it crashing down, freeing Daemron to wreak his vengeance upon the mortal world.

Learn more about the book and author at Drew Karpyshyn's website.

Writers Read: Drew Karpyshyn.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kathleen Kent's "The Outcasts," the movie

The current feature at My Book, The Movie: The Outcasts by Kathleen Kent.

The entry begins:

For Lucinda Carter, the main female character who is a young prostitute fleeing her miserable life for rumored gold on the Gulf Coast of Texas, I would cast Jena Malone (who was in Hatfield & McCoys). Jena is young, beautiful, and intelligent and I think she’d have the depth to portray a woman who would stop at nothing to make a new life for herself.

For Nate Cannon, the newly minted Texas State Policeman, I would cast someone young and athletic, un-jaded, handsome but not too “pretty,” like...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Kathleen Kent's website, blog, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

My Book, The Movie: The Outcasts.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five great contemporary British-Asian novels

Sathnam Sanghera is a British journalist and author of Marriage Material: A Novel and The Boy With The Topknot: A Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies in Wolverhampton.

One of his best contemporary British-Asian novels, as published in the Telegraph:

[T]here is Gautam Malkani’s Londonstani (2006). There was a lot of hype about this book when it came out, hype which, oddly, distracted people from its originality and freshness. I reread it last year and was amazed at how it, uniquely, captured a particular phase of the British-Asian second-generation experience. People will look back at it and consider it a very important British novel.

Read about another novel on the list.

Also see Nikesh Shukla's top ten Anglo-Asian books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Lorrie Thomson's "Equilibrium"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Equilibrium by Lorrie Thomson.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the year since her husband died, Laura Klein’s world has shifted on its axis. It’s not just that she’s raising two children alone—fact is, Laura always did the parenting for both of them. But now her fifteen-year-old daughter, Darcy, is dating a boy with a fast car and faster hands, and thirteen-year-old Troy’s attitude has plummeted along with his voice. Just when she’s resigning herself to a life of worry and selfless support, her charismatic new tenant offers what Laura least expects: a second chance.

Darcy isn’t surprised her mom doesn’t understand her, though she never imagined her suddenly acting like a love-struck teen herself. With Troy starting to show signs of their father’s bipolar disorder, and her best friend increasingly secretive, Darcy turns to her new boyfriend, Nick, for support. Yet Nick has a troubled side of his own, forcing Darcy toward life-altering choices.

Exploring the effects of grief on both mother and daughter, Equilibrium is a thoughtful, resolutely uplifting novel about finding the balance between holding on and letting go, between knowing when to mourn and when to hope, and between the love we seek and the love we choose to give.

Learn more about the book and author at Lorrie Thomson's website, Twitter perch and Facebook page.

Writers Read: Lorrie Thomson.

The Page 69 Test: Equilibrium.

--Marshal Zeringue

Four top novels that may drive you to drink

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Melissa Albert tagged four books that "will drive all but the staunchest teetotaler to the nearest cocktail shaker," including:

Some Hope, by Edward St. Aubyn.

The third in St. Aubyn’s mordantly brilliant Patrick Melrose series, Some Hope depicts its newly sober antihero, Patrick, attending a glittering party of snobs and decaying relics of the British upper crust that spawned him. He reveals a painful secret to a friend, drifts through the party, experiences the stirring of hope promised by the novel’s title, and doesn’t drink a drop, having managed, at last, to give up the vices that almost killed him. But oh, does this book make you long for a drink. Something clear, quick, and cold, just to make St. Aubyn’s casual cruelties and painful revelations cut a little less deeply.

Read about another novel on the list.

Mickey Sumner is a big fan of the Patrick Melrose series.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Matt J. Rossano's "Mortal Rituals"

This weekend's feature at the Page 99 Test: Mortal Rituals: What the Story of the Andes Survivors Tells Us About Human Evolution by Matt J. Rossano.

About the book, from the publisher:

On December 21, 1972, sixteen young survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 were rescued after spending ten weeks stranded at the crash site of their plane, high in the remote Andes Mountains. The incident made international headlines and spawned several best-selling books, fueled partly by the fact that the young men had resorted to cannibalism to survive.

Matt Rossano examines this story from an evolutionary perspective, weaving together findings and ideas from anthropology, psychology, religion, and cognitive science. During their ordeal, these young men broke “civilized” taboos to fend off starvation and abandoned “civilized” modes of thinking to maintain social unity and individual sanity. Through the power of ritual, the survivors were able to endure severe emotional and physical hardship. Rossano ties their story to our story, seeing in the mortal rituals of this struggle for survival a reflection of what it means to be human.

Learn more about Mortal Rituals at the Columbia University Press website.

Matt Rossano is head of the Psychology Department at Southeastern Louisiana University and the author of Evolutionary Psychology: The Science of Human Behavior and Evolution and Supernatural Selection: How Religion Evolved.

The Page 99 Test: Supernatural Selection: How Religion Evolved.

The Page 99 Test: Mortal Rituals.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Lorrie Thomson reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Lorrie Thomson, author of Equilibrium.

Her entry begins:

I recently finished reading an ARC for T. Greenwood’s new novel, Bodies of Water. Absolutely mesmerizing, the love story left me aching for the characters long after I’d closed the book. T. Greenwood’s lyrical prose pull you into the lives of the lovers until their obsession is yours, until you taste their fear and worry. Until you appreciate all the sweet...[read on]

About Equilibrium, from the publisher:

In the year since her husband died, Laura Klein’s world has shifted on its axis. It’s not just that she’s raising two children alone—fact is, Laura always did the parenting for both of them. But now her fifteen-year-old daughter, Darcy, is dating a boy with a fast car and faster hands, and thirteen-year-old Troy’s attitude has plummeted along with his voice. Just when she’s resigning herself to a life of worry and selfless support, her charismatic new tenant offers what Laura least expects: a second chance.

Darcy isn’t surprised her mom doesn’t understand her, though she never imagined her suddenly acting like a love-struck teen herself. With Troy starting to show signs of their father’s bipolar disorder, and her best friend increasingly secretive, Darcy turns to her new boyfriend, Nick, for support. Yet Nick has a troubled side of his own, forcing Darcy toward life-altering choices.

Exploring the effects of grief on both mother and daughter, Equilibrium is a thoughtful, resolutely uplifting novel about finding the balance between holding on and letting go, between knowing when to mourn and when to hope, and between the love we seek and the love we choose to give.

Learn more about the book and author at Lorrie Thomson's website, Twitter perch and Facebook page.

Writers Read: Lorrie Thomson.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Mary-Rose MacColl's "In Falling Snow"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: In Falling Snow by Mary-Rose MacColl.

About the book, from the publisher:

A bestselling Australian writer’s American debut and a heart-wrenching novel of World War I

Iris Crane’s tranquil life is shattered when a letter summons memories from her bittersweet past: her first love, her best friend, and the tragedy that changed everything. Iris, a young Australian nurse, travels to France during World War I to bring home her fifteen-year-old brother, who ran away to enlist. But in Paris she meets the charismatic Dr. Frances Ivens, who convinces Iris to help establish a field hospital in the old abbey at Royaumont, staffed entirely by women—a decision that will change her life. Seamlessly interwoven is the story of Grace, Iris’s granddaughter in 1970s Australia. Together their narratives paint a portrait of the changing role of women in medicine and the powerful legacy of love.

Learn more about the book and author at Mary-Rose MacColl's website, and follow MacColl on Facebook and Twitter.

My Book, The Movie: In Falling Snow.

Writers Read: Mary-Rose MacColl.

The Page 69 Test: In Falling Snow.

--Marshal Zeringue

Free book: "The 'Book of Common Prayer': A Biography"

Princeton University Press and the Campaign for the American Reader are giving away a copy of The Book of Common Prayer: A Biography by Alan Jacobs.

HOW TO ENTER: (1) send an email to this address:

(2) In the subject line, type Book of Common Prayer.

(3) Include your name (or alias or whatever you wish to be called if I email you to tell you you've won the book) in the body of the email.

[I will not sell or share your email address; nor will I be in touch with you unless it is to tell you you have won the book.  I promise.]

Contest closes on Monday, September 30th.

Only one entry per person, please.

Winner must have a US mailing address.

Read the introduction, and learn more about The Book of Common Prayer: A Biography at the Princeton University Press website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top 10 books about Paris

Lisa Appignanesi is a prize-winning writer, novelist, broadcaster and cultural commentator. A Visiting Professor at King’s College London, she is former President of the campaigning writers association, English PEN, and Chair of London’s Freud Museum. Her books include Mad, Bad, and Sad: Women and the Mind Doctors and the novel Paris Requiem.

One of her top ten books about Paris, as told to the Guardian:

Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert

Published in 1869, this is the great prose master's ironic tale of city life, to counterpoint with his provincial Madame Bovary, who yearns for the capital. Set around the revolution of 1848, which put an end to Louis Philippe's materialist reign and inadvertently ushered in a new emperor, this is the novel of modern disaffection and anomie. Frederic Moreau, an intellectual manque, floats through life, paralysed by the many choices the city offers and able to decide on none. The city induces shifts in attention, passing sensations. Ultimately both the city and this new god comprised of sex, money and power defeat him.

Read about another book on the list.

The Page 99 Test: Lisa Appignanesi's Mad, Bad, and Sad.

--Marshal Zeringue

Carrie Brown's "The Last First Day," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: The Last First Day by Carrie Brown.

The entry begins:

Much of the novel takes place at a beautiful and isolated boarding school for boys near the Maine coast. If I am invited to think about a film adaptation – may the gods bless me and keep me – I think about the novel’s setting and the brilliant quality of Northern coastal light, especially at the potent hours of dawn and dusk. I think about the light in forests, such as the one that surrounds the school in the novel, and the gleam of oak desks in darkened rooms, the crackled surface of old portraits, the green radiance of playing fields, the pewter tarnish of old trophies. I think of autumn light and spring light and winter light and …well, I think Vermeer, because what is more beautiful or beautifully lit than a Vermeer? Who could capture that on film? I don’t know. The novel is ruminative, quiet, the story of a long marriage. It is a story of devotion and happiness but also regret and loneliness and inevitable loss. Light -- and dark -- seem important to a story as deeply interior as this one. The score would be classical, I think. Piano mostly. Perhaps Fanny Mendelshon’s Das Jahr.

The novel follows the two main characters over their long lifetime together, so it would be a neat trick to cast actors. A talented make-up artist would be required. A good deal of the novel, however, occurs when Ruth and Peter, the couple at the novel’s center, are in what people sometimes carefully refer to as the “advancing years.” For Ruth, a friend suggests Julie...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Carrie Brown's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Last First Day.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Nina Schuyler reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Nina Schuyler, author of The Translator.

Her entry begins:

I’ve just started reading Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II, by Keith Lowe. Not long after World War II, my husband’s parents left Germany and came to America. His father was thirteen when he arrived in New York. His mother was twenty. A courageous act, to be sure, but I’ve always been curious: what did they leave behind? Lowe goes far beyond the known celebratory mood that accompanied the war’s end. He reveals ravaged landscapes, razed cities, a Europe where law and order were non-existent, where German civilians all over Europe were beaten, arrested and used as slave labor or murdered. Women who slept with German soldiers were stripped, shaved and...[read on]

About The Translator, from the publisher:

When renowned translator Hanne Schubert falls down a flight of stairs, she suffers from an unusual but real condition — the loss of her native language. Speaking only Japanese, a language learned later in life, she leaves for Japan. There, to Hanne’s shock, the Japanese novelist whose work she recently translated confronts her publicly for sabotaging his work.

Reeling, Hanne seeks out the inspiration for the author’s novel — a tortured, chimerical actor, once a master in the art of Noh theater. Through their passionate, volatile relationship, Hanne is forced to reexamine how she has lived her life, including her estranged relationship with her daughter. In elegant and understated prose, Nina Schuyler offers a deeply moving and mesmerizing story about language, love, and the transcendence of family.

Learn more about the book and author at Nina Schuyler's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Translator.

Writers Read: Nina Schuyler.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Lyndsay Faye's "Seven for a Secret"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Seven for a Secret by Lyndsay Faye.

About the book, from the publisher:

From Edgar-nominated author Lyndsay Faye comes the next book in what Gillian Flynn calls “a brilliant new mystery series.”

Six months after the formation of the NYPD, its most reluctant and talented officer, Timothy Wilde, thinks himself well versed in his city’s dark practices—until he learns of the gruesome underworld of lies and corruption ruled by the “blackbirders,” who snatch free Northerners of color from their homes, masquerade them as slaves, and sell them South to toil as plantation property.

The abolitionist Timothy is horrified by these traders in human flesh. But in 1846, slave catching isn’t just legal—it’s law enforcement.

When the beautiful and terrified Lucy Adams staggers into Timothy’s office to report a robbery and is asked what was stolen, her reply is, “My family.” Their search for her mixed-race sister and son will plunge Timothy and his feral brother, Valentine, into a world where police are complicit and politics savage, and corpses appear in the most shocking of places. Timothy finds himself caught between power and principles, desperate to protect his only brother and to unravel the puzzle before all he cares for is lost.

Learn more about the book and author at Lyndsay Faye's website.

Writers Read: Lyndsay Faye (April 2012).

The Page 69 Test: The Gods of Gotham.

The Page 69 Test: Seven for a Secret.

--Marshal Zeringue

Free book: "The Book of 'Job': A Biography"

Princeton University Press and the Campaign for the American Reader are giving away a copy of The Book of "Job": A Biography by Mark Larrimore.

HOW TO ENTER: (1) send an email to this address:

(2) In the subject line, type The Book of "Job".

(3) Include your name (or alias or whatever you wish to be called if I email you to tell you you've won the book) in the body of the email.

[I will not sell or share your email address; nor will I be in touch with you unless it is to tell you you have won the book.  I promise.]

Contest closes on Monday, September 30th.

Only one entry per person, please.

Winner must have a US mailing address.

Read the introduction, and learn more about The Book of "Job": A Biography at the Princeton University Press website.

--Marshal Zeringue

The seven worst wingmen in literature

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Becky Ferreira tagged seven of the worst wingmen in literature, including:

Iago of Shakespeare’s “Othello”

If your supposed BFF is secretly plotting an epic downward spiral tailored just for you, it’s probably time to dump him. Iago hates Othello’s guts, but instead of being a man about it, he gaslights his master into believing his wife is unfaithful. Iago is such a butthead that he can’t even own up to his own treachery, simply saying, “Demand me nothing” as his defense. Watch out for this slippery schemer; he is nothing but trouble.

Read about another awful wingman on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: David T. Gleeson's "The Green and the Gray"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: The Green and the Gray: The Irish in the Confederate States of America by David T. Gleeson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Why did many Irish Americans, who did not have a direct connection to slavery, choose to fight for the Confederacy? This perplexing question is at the heart of David T. Gleeson's sweeping analysis of the Irish in the Confederate States of America. Taking a broad view of the subject, Gleeson considers the role of Irish southerners in the debates over secession and the formation of the Confederacy, their experiences as soldiers, the effects of Confederate defeat for them and their emerging ethnic identity, and their role in the rise of Lost Cause ideology.

Focusing on the experience of Irish southerners in the years leading up to and following the Civil War, as well as on the Irish in the Confederate army and on the southern home front, Gleeson argues that the conflict and its aftermath were crucial to the integration of Irish Americans into the South. Throughout the book, Gleeson draws comparisons to the Irish on the Union side and to southern natives, expanding his analysis to engage the growing literature on Irish and American identity in the nineteenth-century United States.

Learn more about The Green and the Gray at the University of North Carolina Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Green and the Gray.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Mary-Rose MacColl reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Mary-Rose MacColl, author of In Falling Snow.

Her entry begins:

This week, I’m re-reading Angels of Mercy, Eileen Crofton’s great history of the women who took a hospital to an old abbey in France in World War I which inspired my novel In Falling Snow. It’s a book I first discovered accidentally in a library when I transposed two digits in a call number some years back – the title was The Women of Royaumont then. I’m re-reading the book because it’s been republished this year by Birlinn in the UK and because I so love these marvellous women who took their hospital to France. Crofton’s history is packed with interesting facts about Dr Frances Ivens and the women doctors who established one of the finest hospitals in France during the war. I find their story endlessly fascinating, that in a time when...[read on]

About In Falling Snow, from the publisher:

A bestselling Australian writer’s American debut and a heart-wrenching novel of World War I

Iris Crane’s tranquil life is shattered when a letter summons memories from her bittersweet past: her first love, her best friend, and the tragedy that changed everything. Iris, a young Australian nurse, travels to France during World War I to bring home her fifteen-year-old brother, who ran away to enlist. But in Paris she meets the charismatic Dr. Frances Ivens, who convinces Iris to help establish a field hospital in the old abbey at Royaumont, staffed entirely by women—a decision that will change her life. Seamlessly interwoven is the story of Grace, Iris’s granddaughter in 1970s Australia. Together their narratives paint a portrait of the changing role of women in medicine and the powerful legacy of love.

Learn more about the book and author at Mary-Rose MacColl's website, and follow MacColl on Facebook and Twitter.

My Book, The Movie: In Falling Snow.

Writers Read: Mary-Rose MacColl.

--Marshal Zeringue

Free book: "Three Things You Need to Know About Rockets"

Atria Books/Marble Arch Press and the Campaign for the American Reader are giving away a copy of Three Things You Need to Know About Rockets: A Real-Life Scottish Fairy Tale by Jessica A. Fox.

HOW TO ENTER: (1) send an email to this address:

(2) In the subject line, type Rockets.

(3) Include your name (or alias or whatever you wish to be called if I email you to tell you you've won the book) in the body of the email.

[I will not sell or share your email address; nor will I be in touch with you unless it is to tell you you have won the book.  I promise.]

Contest closes on Monday, September 30th.

Only one entry per person, please.

Winner must have a US mailing address.

Read more about Three Things You Need to Know About Rockets: A Real-Life Scottish Fairy Tale at Jessica A. Fox's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Nina Schuyler's "The Translator"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: The Translator: A Novel by Nina Schuyler.

About the book, from the publisher:

When renowned translator Hanne Schubert falls down a flight of stairs, she suffers from an unusual but real condition — the loss of her native language. Speaking only Japanese, a language learned later in life, she leaves for Japan. There, to Hanne’s shock, the Japanese novelist whose work she recently translated confronts her publicly for sabotaging his work.

Reeling, Hanne seeks out the inspiration for the author’s novel — a tortured, chimerical actor, once a master in the art of Noh theater. Through their passionate, volatile relationship, Hanne is forced to reexamine how she has lived her life, including her estranged relationship with her daughter. In elegant and understated prose, Nina Schuyler offers a deeply moving and mesmerizing story about language, love, and the transcendence of family.

Learn more about the book and author at Nina Schuyler's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Translator.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top books by musicians

Claire Zulkey is a writer who lives in Chicago.  Her books include the novel, An Off Year. She also edits the aptly named website, Zulkey.com.

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Zulkey tagged five top books "written by folks more famous for rocking out," including:

The English Roses, by Madonna

Those among us who are of a certain age remember the uproar that surrounded Madonna’s Sex, a pornographic coffee-table book that helped Madonna do what she does best: get attention. In 2003, the singer switched direction and began releasing a series of children’s books, which were loosely kabbalah-themed (she first started writing them while in her “Look at me I’m British and keep chickens and wear prim floral dresses!” phase). Did you know that she—with the help of some coauthors—has since released over 15 kids’ books? I didn’t.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Yona Zeldis McDonough & Willa and Holden

Today's featured trio at Coffee with a Canine: Yona Zeldis McDonough & Willa and Holden.

The author, on how she and Holden and Willa were united:

I know a wonderful woman who is a dog breeder on Long Island. She had these two dogs she was retiring and she called to ask me if I wanted them. After I finished doing cartwheels around the living room...[read on]

About Two of a Kind, from the publisher:

Ten years after losing her husband, Christina Connelly has worked through the pain, focusing on raising her teenage daughter and managing her small decorating business. But her romantic life has never recovered. Still, it’s irksome to be set up with arrogant, if handsome, doctor Andy Stern at her friend’s wedding. If he wasn’t also a potential client, needing his Upper East Side apartment redesigned, she would write him off.

This is never going to work, Andy thinks. Still grieving his wife and struggling with a troubled son, he’s not looking for a woman, and certainly not someone as frosty and reserved as Christina. Their relationship will be strictly business. Yet to everyone’s surprise—including their own—these two find themselves falling in love.

But if reconciling with their pasts is difficult, blending their lives and children to create a new family is nearly impossible. They’ve been given a second chance…but can they overcome all the obstacles in the way of happily ever after?

Learn more about the author and her work at Yona Zeldis McDonough's website.

Yona Zeldis McDonough's other novels include A Wedding in Great Neck, Breaking the Bank, In Dahlia's Wake, and The Four Temperaments, as well as numerous books for children.

My Book, The Movie: Two of a Kind.

The Page 69 Test: Two of a Kind.

Writers Read: Yona Zeldis McDonough.

Coffee with a Canine: Yona Zeldis McDonough & Queenie, Willa and Holden (October 2012).

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Yona Zeldis McDonough & Willa and Holden.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nicola Phillips's "The Profligate Son," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: The Profligate Son: Or, A True Story of Family Conflict, Fashionable Vice, and Financial Ruin in Regency Britain by Nicola Phillips.

The entry begins:

When I first started researching The Profligate Son almost everyone I told about the amazingly dramatic, but unpublished, three volume ‘diary’ it was based on, thought it must be a work of fiction. So naturally, while my long days in the archive were taken up with forensic research to check its veracity, my evenings were often passed in pleasant discussions of ‘who would play the key characters’ if the book ever became a movie.

The lead character is of course the Profligate Son himself, William Jackson, a slight but handsome lad with hazel eyes and brown hair, who was equally capable of exuding great charm and practicing shocking deceit. The actor who plays William would need to be convincing as a carefree, popular public schoolboy of 16 and then portray the corrosive physical and mental effects of a dissipated lifestyle, frequent imprisonment, and mounting disillusion, until his tragic death at the age of 35. Six years ago, when I started writing this book, I thought a young looking David Tennant (Dr Who) would be perfect for the part, but who would I choose now? I think Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has boyish charm and an ability to portray dark brooding emotion; or, perhaps the talented Andrew...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Nicola Phillips's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Profligate Son.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Jeff Somers reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Jeff Somers, author of Chum.

His entry begins:

Oh boy, my reading.

I should be staying up to date with the new trends, what’s publishing, etc. I’m a guy trying to make money by selling books, I should be reading what all the kids and middle-aged former punk rockers are reading right? I am not.

I just got done reading Kings of Albion by Julian Rathbone, which I picked up in a used book store. It’s a historical adventure story that lacks adventure. The characters all come together in India and travel to England during the War of the Roses and get caught up in local events ... and get separated and spend quite a lot of the book sitting around having English history explained to them. MY GOD WHERE ARE THE SWORD FIGHTS? Very...[read on]

About Chum, from the publisher:

Mary and Bickerman are the center of their circle of friends—but these friends are strangers as well as family to them. In the course of year, under the influence of a stressful wedding and a whole lot of alcohol, relationships and nerves are twisted and broken as the dynamics of the cozy-seeming group shift. Secrets are kept, emotions withheld, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to end well for anyone.

Told always in first person, but not the same person, and unfolding in double-helix chronology that provides a Rashomon-like narration, Chum is the story of love, liquor, and death.

Learn more about the book and author at Jeff Somers's website.

My Book, The Movie: Chum.

The Page 69 Test: Chum.

Writers Read: Jeff Somers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Douglas E. Richards's "The Cure"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: The Cure by Douglas E. Richards.

About the book, from the publisher:

Psychopaths cause untold misery. If you found the cure for this condition, just how far would you go to use it?

Erin Palmer had a devastating encounter with a psychopath as a child. Now a grad student and scientist, she’s devoting her life to studying these monsters. When her research catches the attention of Hugh Raborn, a brilliant neuroscientist who claims to have isolated the genes responsible for psychopathic behavior, Erin realizes it may be possible to reverse the condition, restoring souls to psychopaths. But to do so, she’ll not only have to operate outside the law, but violate her most cherished ethical principles.

As Erin becomes further involved with Raborn, she begins to suspect that he harbors dark secrets. Is he working for the good of society? Or is he intent on bringing humanity to its knees?

Hunted by powerful, shadowy forces, Erin teams up with another mysterious man, Kyle Hansen, to uncover the truth. The pair find themselves pawns in a global conspiracy—one capable of destroying everything Erin holds dear and forever altering the course of human history...

American society in the early twenty-first century seems to be experiencing a growing epidemic of psychopathic monsters. Douglas E Richards’s The Cure explores this condition, and the surprisingly thorny ethical and moral dilemmas surrounding it, within an explosive, thought-provoking, roller-coaster-ride of a thriller that will have readers turning pages deep into the night.

Learn more about the book and author at Douglas E. Richards’s website.

My Book, The Movie: The Cure.

Writers Read: Douglas E. Richards.

The Page 69 Test: The Cure.

--Marshal Zeringue

Free book: "The 'Book of Common Prayer': A Biography"

Princeton University Press and the Campaign for the American Reader are giving away a copy of The Book of Common Prayer: A Biography by Alan Jacobs.

HOW TO ENTER: (1) send an email to this address:

(2) In the subject line, type Book of Common Prayer.

(3) Include your name (or alias or whatever you wish to be called if I email you to tell you you've won the book) in the body of the email.

[I will not sell or share your email address; nor will I be in touch with you unless it is to tell you you have won the book.  I promise.]

Contest closes on Monday, September 30th.

Only one entry per person, please.

Winner must have a US mailing address.

Read the introduction, and learn more about The Book of Common Prayer: A Biography at the Princeton University Press website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Alison Brysk's "Speaking Rights to Power"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Speaking Rights to Power: Constructing Political Will by Alison Brysk.

About the book, from the publisher:

How can "Speaking Rights to Power" construct political will to respond to human rights abuse worldwide? Examining dozens of cases of human rights campaigns and using an innovative analysis of the politics of persuasion, this book shows how communication politics build recognition, solidarity, and social change. Building on twenty years of research on five continents, this comprehensive study ranges from Aung San Suu Kyi to Anna Hazare, from Congo to Colombia, and from the Arab Spring to Pussy Riot. Speaking Rights to Power addresses cutting edge debates on human rights and the ethic of care, cosmopolitanism, charismatic leadership, communicative action and political theater, and the role of social media. It draws on constructivist literature from social movement and international relations theory, and analyzes human rights as a form of global social imagination. Combining a normative contribution with judicious critique, this book shows how human rights rhetoric matters-and how to make it matter more.

Learn more about the book and author at Alison Brysk's website and the Speaking Rights to Power Facebook page.

The Page 99 Test: Speaking Rights to Power.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top books about women

Bidisha is a writer and broadcaster specializing in human rights, international affairs and the arts and culture. She also does outreach work in UK detention centers and prisons. She is an International Reporting Project 2013 Fellow, working with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to raise awareness of global development issues. Her most recent book is Beyond the Wall: Writing a Path Through Palestine.

One of her top ten books about women, as told to the Guardian:

Little Women
Louisa May Alcott 1868

Don’t let the bonnets fool you. This classic about four sisters is a savage black comedy disguised as a pinafore fancy. The author brutally debunks the notion that feminine submission and integrity will be rewarded: good sister Beth dies, housewifey sister Meg goes all Feminine Mystique with drudgery and boredom, bimbo Amy winds up with himbo Laurie, and writer Jo has to flog her own hair to a wigmaker and marry some weird random Svengali type to survive. Women can’t have it all – or, indeed, anything – Alcott hints slyly, under all the cuteness.

Learn about another entry on the list.

Little Women also appears among Katherine Rundell's top ten descriptions of food in fiction, Gwyneth Rees's ten top books about siblings, Maya Angelou's 6 favorite books, Tim Lewis's ten best Christmas lunches in literature, and on the Observer's list of the ten best fictional mothers, Eleanor Birne's top ten list of books on motherhood, Erin Blakemore's list of five gutsy heroines to channel on an off day, Kate Saunders' critic's chart of mothers and daughters in literature, and Zoë Heller's list of five memorable portraits of sisters. It is a book that disappointed Geraldine Brooks on re-reading.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Kate Quinn reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Kate Quinn, author of The Serpent and the Pearl.

Her entry begins:

Historical fiction tops my reading list, since that's the genre I write in. But I do like to get out of my genre from time to time, just for a change of pace. Lately on my reading list?

Longbourn, by Jo Baker. I devoured Longbourn in two days, filled with equal parts admiration and envy. Admiration because the writing is so fine, and envy because I couldn't help thinking, “Now why didn't I have the idea of mixing the Downton Abbey craze with the Jane Austen craze, and telling the story of the servants in Elizabeth Bennet's house? Genius!” This is a fine, sensitive drama for Regency lovers, focusing on...[read on]

About The Serpent and the Pearl, from the publisher:

One powerful family holds a city, a faith, and a woman in its grasp from the national bestselling author of Daughters of Rome and Mistress of Rome.

Rome, 1492. The Holy City is drenched with blood and teeming with secrets. A pope lies dying and the throne of God is left vacant, a prize awarded only to the most virtuous or the most ruthless. The Borgia family begins its legendary rise, chronicled by an innocent girl who finds herself drawn into their dangerous web .

Vivacious Giulia Farnese has floor-length golden hair and the world at her feet: beauty, wealth, and a handsome young husband. But she is stunned to discover that her glittering marriage is a sham, and she is to be given as a concubine to the ruthless, charismatic Cardinal Borgia: Spaniard, sensualist, candidate for Pope and passionately in love with her.

Two trusted companions will follow her into the Pope's shadowy harem: Leonello, a cynical bodyguard bent on bloody revenge against a mysterious killer, and Carmelina, a fiery cook with a past full of secrets. But as corruption thickens in the Vatican and the enemies begin to circle, Giulia and her friends will need all their wits to survive in the world of the Borgias.

Learn more about the book and author at Kate Quinn's website and blog.

Writers Read: Kate Quinn (April 2012).

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Kate Quinn and Caesar.

My Book, The Movie: Empress of the Seven Hills.

Writers Read: Kate Quinn.

--Marshal Zeringue