Five top works involving weird, unsettling isolation

Liz Harmer's debut novel is The Amateurs. She is working on a second novel, and a story collection, which was a finalist for the 2014 Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction Award.

At Tor.com she tagged five works involving weird, unsettling isolation, including:

The Sundial by Shirley Jackson

The Sundial is one of Jackson’s lesser known works, behind novels like We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House, and, of course, her story “The Lottery.” It is hilarious, absurd, and cruel: a sundial in the middle of a large property reads “WHAT IS THIS WORLD?” Indeed. One horrible rich person starts receiving visions and the other horrible rich people become her believers, even as they snipe at each other. The Sundial offers humor, cultish behavior, and brutal commentary: “Only rabid animals and humans turn on each other,” one character thinks. It delivers the empty earth awe feeling filtered through a particularly WASPy stiff upper lip.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Dave Patterson's "Soon the Light Will Be Perfect"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Soon the Light Will Be Perfect by Dave Patterson.

About the book, from the publisher:

A twelve-year-old boy lives with his family in a small, poverty-stricken town in Vermont. His father works at a manufacturing plant, his mother is a homemaker, and his fifteen-year-old brother is about to enter high school. His family has gained enough financial stability to move out of the nearby trailer park, and as conflict rages abroad, his father’s job at a weapons manufacturing plant appears safe. But then his mother is diagnosed with cancer, and everything changes.

Set over the course of one propulsive summer, Soon the Light Will Be Perfect chronicles the journey of two brothers on the cusp of adulthood, a town battered by poverty and a family at a breaking point. In spare, fiercely honest prose, Dave Patterson captures what it feels like to be gloriously, violently alive at a moment of political, social and familial instability.

Visit Dave Patterson's website.

My Book, The Movie: Soon the Light Will Be Perfect.

Writers Read: Dave Patterson.

The Page 69 Test: Soon the Light Will Be Perfect.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Tembi Locke's "From Scratch"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home by Tembi Locke.

About the book, from the publisher:

A poignant and transporting cross-cultural love story set against the lush backdrop of the Sicilian countryside, where one woman discovers the healing powers of food, family, and unexpected grace in her darkest hour.

It was love at first sight when Tembi met professional chef, Saro, on a street in Florence. There was just one problem: Saro’s traditional Sicilian family did not approve of him marrying a black American woman, an actress no less. However, the couple, heartbroken but undeterred, forges on. They build a happy life in Los Angeles, with fulfilling careers, deep friendships and the love of their lives: a baby girl they adopt at birth. Eventually, they reconcile with Saro’s family just as he faces a formidable cancer that will consume all their dreams.

From Scratch chronicles three summers Tembi spends in Sicily with her daughter, Zoela, as she begins to piece together a life without her husband in his tiny hometown hamlet of farmers. Where once Tembi was estranged from Saro’s family and his origins, now she finds solace and nourishment—literally and spiritually—at her mother in law’s table. In the Sicilian countryside, she discovers the healing gifts of simple fresh food, the embrace of a close knit community, and timeless traditions and wisdom that light a path forward. All along the way she reflects on her and Saro’s incredible romance—an indelible love story that leaps off the pages.

In Sicily, it is said that every story begins with a marriage or a death—in Tembi Locke’s case, it is both. Her story is about loss, but it’s really about love found. Her story is about travel, but it’s really about finding a home. It is about food, but it’s really about chasing flavor as an act of remembrance. From Scratch is for anyone who has dared to reach for big love, fought for what mattered most, and needed a powerful reminder that life is…delicious.

Visit Tembi Locke's website.

The Page 99 Test: From Scratch.

--Marshal Zeringue

The ten best moms in fiction

At the B&N Reads blog, Nicole Hill tagged the ten best moms in fiction, including:

Molly Weasley
Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling

Where else to start but with the harried matriarch of the unruly Weasley brood? A mother of seven and the wife of a moony Muggle enthusiast, Molly keeps her household running and her children awash in fine knitwear—and she still takes time to lavish the same maternal affection (and sometimes consternation) on her children’s wayward friends. She’s the unsung hero of the Order of the Phoenix whose bravery caused me (and all of you) to cheer aloud when she faced off with Bellatrix Lestrange.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Harry Potter books made Jane Corry's list of five fearsome families in literature, Meghan Ball's top ten list of the unluckiest characters in science fiction & fantasy, Anna Bradley's list of the ten best literary quotes in a crisis, Nicole Hill's list of seven of the best literary wedding themes, Tina Connolly's top five list of books where the girl saves the boy, Ginni Chen's list of the eight grinchiest characters in literature, Molly Schoemann-McCann's top five list of fictional workplaces more dysfunctional than yours, Sophie McKenzie's top ten list of mothers in children's books, Nicole Hill's list of five of the best fictional bookstores, Sara Jonsson's list of the six most memorable pets in fiction, Melissa Albert's list of more than eight top fictional misfits, Cressida Cowell's list of ten notable mythical creatures, and Alison Flood's list of the top 10 most frequently stolen books.

Professor Snape is among Sophie Cleverly's ten top terrifying teachers in children’s books.

Hermione Granger is among Brooke Johnson top five geeky heroes in literature, Nicole Hill's nine best witches in literature, and Melissa Albert's top six distractible book lovers in pop culture.

Neville Longbottom is one of Ellie Irving's top ten quiet heroes and heroines.

Mr. Weasley is one of Melissa Albert's five weirdest fictional crushes.

Hedwig (Harry's owl) is among Django Wexler's top ten animal companions in children's fiction.

Scabbers the rat is among Ross Welford's ten favorite rodents in children's fiction.

Butterbeer is among Leah Hyslop's six best fictional drinks.

Albus Dumbledore is one of Rachel Thompson's ten greatest deaths in fiction.

Lucius Malfoy is among Jeff Somers's five best evil lieutenants (or "dragons") in SF/F.

Dolores Umbridge is among Melissa Albert's six more notorious teachers in fiction, Emerald Fennell's top ten villainesses in literature, and Derek Landy's top 10 villains in children's books. The Burrow is one of Elizabeth Wilhide's nine most memorable manors in literature.

Remus Lupin is among Aimée Carter's top ten shapeshifters in fiction.

Fang (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) is among Brian Boone's six best fictional dogs.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban appears on Amanda Yesilbas and Katharine Trendacosta's list ot twenty great insults from science fiction & fantasy and Charlie Jane Anders's list of the ten greatest prison breaks in science fiction and fantasy.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone also appears on Nicole Hill's list of nine top meet cutes in YA lit, Kenneth Oppel's top ten list of train stories, Jeff Somers's top five list of books written in very unlikely places, Phoebe Walker's list of eight mouthwatering quotes from the greatest literary feasts, John Mullan's lists of ten of the best owls in literature, ten of the best scars in fiction and ten of the best motorbikes in literature, and Katharine Trendacosta and Charlie Jane Anders's list of the ten greatest personality tests in sci-fi & fantasy, Charlie Higson's top 10 list of fantasy books for children, Justin Scroggie's top ten list of books with secret signs as well as Charlie Jane Anders and Michael Ann Dobbs's list of well-known and beloved science fiction and fantasy novels that publishers didn't want to touch. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire made Chrissie Gruebel's list of six top fictional holiday parties and John Mullan's list of the ten best graveyard scenes in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Daniel Kennefick's "No Shadow of a Doubt," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: No Shadow of a Doubt: The 1919 Eclipse That Confirmed Einstein's Theory of Relativity by Daniel Kennefick.

The entry begins:

It’s not so difficult to imagine how the film world would decide to adapt my book for the screen, because it’s already been done! The story of the 1919 eclipse which confirmed Einstein’s theory of Relativity is of such scientific importance that the television movie Einstein and Eddington was made by the BBC in 2008. It starred David Tennant (of Dr. Who fame) as Arthur Stanley Eddington, the most famous of the Astronomers involved in the expedition, and Andy Serkis as Einstein. The movie was not without its flaws. The opening scene shows Eddington completing his preparations on the island of Principe the night before the eclipse with the scene illuminated by an enormous full Moon. Of course an eclipse of the Sun can only take place at the dark of the Moon! But it was quite entertaining with convincing performances. So, why even write my book if the story I’m telling is that well known? Well, the characters I wanted to bring to the fore were almost completely left out of the film. That’s common enough when adapting for the screen, but even written accounts have neglected or slighted these other astronomers, most notably the man who actually led the planning of the expeditions and who oversaw the analysis of the data they took. That man was...[read on]

Learn more about No Shadow of a Doubt at the Princeton University Press website.

My Book, The Movie: No Shadow of a Doubt.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine top books in the new vanguard of climate fiction

Siobhan Adcock is the author of the novels The Barter and The Completionist.

One of nine top books in the new vanguard of cli-fi she tagged at LitHub in 2018:

Ashley Shelby, South Pole Station

Deeply funny and wonderfully nerdy, this debut novel by an environmental journalist about climate scientists in the Antarctic reinforces that there’s no hope without science—and no more stark reminder of our own humanity than a landscape so hostile to human life, one that’s nevertheless being irreversibly damaged by our influence.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Dave Patterson reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Dave Patterson, author of Soon the Light Will Be Perfect.

His entry begins:

I like to have a balance of fiction, nonfiction, and craft books going at all times--leaning harder on fiction.

I just finished up Wildlife by Richard Ford. I’m a huge Ford fan. Like a zealot. The short story collection, Rock Springs, and the novel, The Sportswriter, were game changers for me in my twenties. Paul Dano recently co-wrote and directed a film adaptation of Ford’s 1990 novel. I had the opportunity to watch the film and hear Ford discuss the process of writing Wildlife and seeing it turned into a movie. It was fascinating. I immediately...[read on]

About Soon the Light Will Be Perfect, from the publisher:

A twelve-year-old boy lives with his family in a small, poverty-stricken town in Vermont. His father works at a manufacturing plant, his mother is a homemaker, and his fifteen-year-old brother is about to enter high school. His family has gained enough financial stability to move out of the nearby trailer park, and as conflict rages abroad, his father’s job at a weapons manufacturing plant appears safe. But then his mother is diagnosed with cancer, and everything changes.

Set over the course of one propulsive summer, Soon the Light Will Be Perfect chronicles the journey of two brothers on the cusp of adulthood, a town battered by poverty and a family at a breaking point. In spare, fiercely honest prose, Dave Patterson captures what it feels like to be gloriously, violently alive at a moment of political, social and familial instability.

Visit Dave Patterson's website.

My Book, The Movie: Soon the Light Will Be Perfect.

Writers Read: Dave Patterson.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Richard A. Knaak's "Black City Dragon"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Black City Dragon by Richard A. Knaak.

About the book, from the publisher:

A historical urban fantasy set in Prohibition-era Chicago, which combines action, mystery, and romance against a backdrop of gangland wars and the threat of supernatural horror. For sixteen hundred years, Nick Medea has guarded the gate between our world and Feirie, preventing the Wyld--the darkest Feirie of all--from coming into Chicago to find human prey. But since he defeated Oberon, more and more Wyld have been slipping through. Nick and his Feirie companion, the shapeshifter, Fetch, have been busy hunting them down. Nick keeps coming across the Dacian Draco, the sign of his ancient enemy Galerius, including a tattoo worn by a human thug. Unfortunately, every trail ends as if years old. Claryce, Nick's reincarnated love, has narrowly escaped two attempts on her life, and when Nick sees her wearing a broach with the Draco on it, he knows they must look more deeply into her former lives. With Wyld and gangsters wreaking havoc in Chicago, Nick and Claryce must confront the secrets of their pasts if they are to have any hope of finding out Galerius's plans before it's too late to stop them. Nick will need the help of all his friends, both human and Feirie, and the powers of the dragon within him, to keep Galerius from endangering the gate, Chicago, and all of humanity.

Visit Richard A. Knaak's website.

The Page 69 Test: Black City Dragon.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten crime novels that strike a balance between humor & noir

Adi Tantimedh is the author of Her Nightly Embrace, Her Beautiful Monster, and Her Fugitive Heart.

At CrimeReads he tagged ten funny crime novels that have influenced him, including:

Metzger’s Dog by Thomas Perry

One of the few spy novels not by Ross Thomas that’s also a comedy, and the only one of its type written by Thomas Perry, who went on to write the June Whitfield novels, which are not known for their humor. I wonder if Perry was influenced by Ross Thomas’ books here. A suave career thief and his smart girlfriend set out to steal a large box of cocaine but ends up with secret CIA papers that The Agency desperately wants back. This kicks off a story of the thief and his girlfriend cook up a scheme to ransom the papers and end up running rings around a bunch of clueless and inept CIA agents who think they’re up against ruthless terrorists and nearly destroy Los Angeles in their pursuit of the papers. It’s too bad Perry never wrote more books about these characters. This is still my favorite of his novels.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Peter Cole's "Dockworker Power"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area by Peter Cole.

About the book, from the publisher:

Waterfront battles for rights and justice

Dockworkers have power. Often missed in commentary on today's globalizing economy, workers in the world’s ports can harness their role, at a strategic choke point, to promote their labor rights and social justice causes. Peter Cole brings such overlooked experiences to light in an eye-opening comparative study of Durban, South Africa, and the San Francisco Bay Area, California. Pathbreaking research reveals how unions effected lasting change in some of the most far-reaching struggles of modern times. First, dockworkers in each city drew on longstanding radical traditions to promote racial equality. Second, they persevered when a new technology--container ships--sent a shockwave of layoffs through the industry. Finally, their commitment to black internationalism and leftist politics sparked transnational work stoppages to protest apartheid and authoritarianism.

Dockworker Power brings to light surprising parallels in the experiences of dockers half a world away from each other. It also offers a new perspective on how workers can change their conditions and world.

Learn more about Dockworker Power at the University of Illinois Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Dockworker Power.

--Marshal Zeringue

The best books to understand modern terrorism

Iain Overton is the Executive Director of Action on Armed Violence (AOAV). Prior to joining AOAV in 2013, he worked as a journalist, notably for the BBC, ITN, the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, and the Guardian, Telegraph, and Independent newspapers. He is the recipient of two Amnesty Media Awards, a BAFTA, and a Peabody Award, among others. He holds two degrees from Cambridge University.

Overton is the author of The Way of the Gun: A Bloody Journey into the World of Firearms and the newly released The Price of Paradise: How the Suicide Bomber Shaped the Modern Age.

At the Guardian he tagged the best books to understand modern terrorism, including:

In the decade following the 11 September attacks, 1,742 books are estimated to have been written about that fateful New York day. But the sheer spread and number of Salafi-jihadist groups – who are responsible for more than 95% of modern day suicide bombings – has meant that many attempts to explain the rise of global terrorism have descended into exercises in book-keeping. You can’t go far wrong, though, with Jason Burke’s The New Threat from Islamic Militancy, a natural, albeit depressing, extension of his previous work The 9/11 Wars. Both books place the current globalisation of terror within wide political and social contexts.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Claire Needell reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Claire Needell, author of The First True Thing.

Her entry begins:

About a month ago, I found myself telling everyone in my writers’ group to read Iris Murdoch. I hadn’t actually read Murdoch in years, but in my late twenties I read pretty much everything she wrote. Her books stuck in my mind as novels that have a bit of Everything—interesting historical detail, incisive philosophical ponderings, viciously motivated narcissists. Sex, suspense, flawless pacing and a sense of the absurd. This is the impossible mix that is an Iris Murdoch novel.

Having heard myself say this over and over again for weeks (and noting the nodding tolerance of my audience), I decided to go back to an early Murdoch novel The Flight from the Enchanter, a lovely edition of which I happened to...[read on]

About The First True Thing, from the publisher:

Claire Needell’s evocative novel, perfect for fans of The Girl on the Train, explores the risks of substance abuse as well as what it means to take control of your life when it seems like the only path forward is the one that will take all of your courage.

Marcelle is clean and sober, attending a tough-love version of after-school rehab, and barely hanging out with her user friends. But one night she gets a text from her best friend, Hannah, asking Marcelle to cover for her.

The next morning, Hannah is missing. Marcelle was the last one to hear from her...and now she’s lying to everyone—about the text, and more.

How long can Marcelle go on before she admits to herself what she has to do? If she comes clean, can she save Hannah?

Visit Claire Needell's website.

Writers Read: Claire Needell.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eleven top hipster mysteries

Lisa Levy is a columnist and contributing editor at LitHub and CrimeReads. At the latter she tagged 11+ hipster mysteries, including:

The Pete Fernandez series, by Alex Segura

It didn’t seem proper to single out one of the books in Segura’s series, when all of them are steeped in the alternative music of the 1990s and beyond. It’s hard to imagine Pete without his trusted music collection, from The Replacements to Nirvana.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: Blackout.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Juliette Fay's "City of Flickering Light"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: City of Flickering Light by Juliette Fay.

About the book, from the publisher:

It’s July 1921, “flickers” are all the rage, and Irene Van Beck has just declared her own independence by jumping off a moving train to escape her fate in a traveling burlesque show. When her friends, fellow dancer Millie Martin and comedian Henry Weiss, leap after her, the trio finds their way to the bright lights of Hollywood with hopes of making it big in the burgeoning silent film industry.

At first glance, Hollywood in the 1920s is like no other place on earth—iridescent, scandalous, and utterly exhilarating—and the three friends yearn for a life they could only have dreamed of before. But despite the glamour and seduction of Tinseltown, success doesn’t come easy, and nothing can prepare Irene, Millie, and Henry for the poverty, temptation, and heartbreak that lie ahead. With their ambitions challenged by both the men above them and the prejudice surrounding them, their friendship is the only constant through desperate times, as each struggles to find their true calling in an uncertain world. What begins as a quest for fame and fortune soon becomes a collective search for love, acceptance, and fulfillment as they navigate the backlots and stage sets where the illusions of the silver screen are brought to life.

With her “trademark wit and grace” (Randy Susan Meyers, author of The Murderer’s Daughters), Juliette Fay crafts another radiant and fascinating historical novel as thrilling as the bygone era of Hollywood itself.

Visit Juliette Fay's website.

The Page 69 Test: Deep Down True.

The Page 69 Test: The Shortest Way Home.

The Page 69 Test: The Tumbling Turner Sisters.

The Page 69 Test: City of Flickering Light.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight science fiction novels that explore the “human dilemma”

Emily Wenstrom is a freelance writer with a deep love for anything monstrous, magical, or strange. She is a regular contributor to BookRiot and DIY MFA, and her debut novel was named the 2016 Book of the Year by the Florida Writers Association. At the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog she tagged eight science fiction novels that explore the “human dilemma,” including:

Infomocracy, by Malka Older

In these dark political times, what’s more human than exploring the idealism and failure of a vast complex political system, via the everyday lives that hang in the balance? In a future world, nations have been replaced. Humanity is now divided into 100,000-person segments—centenals that run their own micro-democracies. It’s within this fragmented system that Older starts a countdown to a high-stakes election, but the story doesn’t rely on typical high-action spy chases to drive it forward. Instead, its heroes are number crunchers and behind-the-scenes analysts (and yes, okay, one field agent) who let big thinking do the driving as political parties manipulate the system to win over the world, one centenal at a time.

Read about another entry on the list.

Infomocracy is among Jeff Somers's fifty science fiction essentials written by women, Joel Cunningham's twelve science fiction & fantasy books for the post-truth era, and Sam Reader's six most intriguing political systems in fantasy and science fiction.

The Page 69 Test: Infomocracy.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Sara M. Benson's "The Prison of Democracy"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Prison of Democracy: Race, Leavenworth, and the Culture of Law by Sara M. Benson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Built in the 1890s at the center of the nation, Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary was designed specifically to be a replica of the US Capitol Building. But why? The Prison of Democracy explains the political significance of a prison built to mimic one of America’s monuments to democracy. Locating Leavenworth in memory, history, and law, the prison geographically sits at the borders of Indian Territory (1825–1854) and Bleeding Kansas (1854–1864), both sites of contestation over slavery and freedom. Author Sara M. Benson argues that Leavenworth reshaped the design of punishment in America by gradually normalizing state-inflicted violence against citizens. Leavenworth’s peculiar architecture illustrates the real roots of mass incarceration—as an explicitly race- and nation-building system that has been ingrained in the very fabric of US history rather than as part of a recent post-war racial history. The book sheds light on the truth of the painful relationship between the carceral state and democracy in the US—a relationship that thrives to this day.

Learn more about The Prison of Democracy at the University of California Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Prison of Democracy.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top medical mysteries and thrillers

Kathleen Valenti is the author of the Maggie O’Malley Mysteries, a pharmaceutical/medical mystery series that includes her Agatha- and Lefty-nominated debut novel, Protocol, fan favorite 39 Winks, and recently released As Directed.

At CrimeReads she tagged "a short list of medical mysteries and thrillers that function as great-reads therapy," including:

Speaking in Bones, by Kathy Reichs

Kathy Reichs’ longstanding Temperance Brennan series proves that more is more. The eighteenth(!) book in the series, Speaking in Bones is a forensic thriller featuring a (potentially) murdered girl, a (slightly annoying) amateur sleuth, and a (strangely) secretive religious sect, all wrapped up in mélange of mystery and suspense. It’s almost enough to make a reader want to hang around the morgue. Almost.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is David Quantick reading?

Featured at Writers Read: David Quantick, author of All My Colors.

His entry begins:

I’m in a random selection of books right now. I bought Rex Warner’s The Aerodrome, which is a Penguin paperback from the 1930s and is a kind of parable about the rise of fascism (I have a slightly dubious obsession with Nazi counterfactuals like The Man In The High Castle and, in a different vein, Norman Spinrad’s astonishing, hilarious The Iron Dream). It’s quite eccentric and not at all manly, which...[read on]

About All My Colors, from the publisher:

It is March 1979 in DeKalb Illinois. Todd Milstead is a wannabe writer, a serial adulterer, and a jerk, only tolerated by his friends because he throws the best parties with the best booze. During one particular party, Todd is showing off his perfect recall, quoting poetry and literature word for word plucked from his eidetic memory. When he begins quoting from a book no one else seems to know, a novel called All My Colors, Todd is incredulous. He can quote it from cover to cover and yet it doesn’t seem to exist.

With a looming divorce and mounting financial worries, Todd finally tries to write a novel, with the vague idea of making money from his talent. The only problem is he can’t write. But the book – All My Colors – is there in his head. Todd makes a decision: he will “write” this book that nobody but him can remember. After all, if nobody’s heard of it, how can he get into trouble?

As the dire consequences of his actions come home to both Todd and his long-suffering friends, it becomes clear that there is a high – and painful – price to pay for his crime.

Visit David Quantick's website.

The Page 69 Test: All My Colors.

Writers Read: David Quantick.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six great books of correspondence

Isabella Hammad was born in London. She won the 2018 Plimpton Prize for Fiction for her story “Mr. Can’aan.” Her writing has appeared in Conjunctions and the Paris Review. The Parisian is her first novel.

At LitHub she tagged six top books of correspondence, including:

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera (1985)

This novel is bursting with letters. In Marquez’s universe—as, arguably, in ours—romantic love is essentially literary, and lovers are readers and often also writers. Florentino Ariza falls in love with Fermina Daza when, while delivering a telegram to her father, he sees her teaching her spinster aunt to read. He woos Fermina with letters. He takes a job writing love letters for other people, channelling his feelings for Fermina Daza and sometimes, farcically, playing both parts on the side of an amorous exchange. Later on, he types his letters on a typewriter, numbers them and keeps carbon copies: Marquez is highlighting Ariza’s awareness that his letters might ultimately have a reading public beyond his beloved. Although Love in the Time of Cholera parodies romantic love and its conventions of courtly address, the novel ultimately constitutes a compelling, totally moving, and vivid portrayal of it.

Read about another entry on the list.

Love in the Time of Cholera also made Sameer Rahim's list of five essential works by Gabriel García Márquez, Jill Boyd's top six list of memorable marriage proposals in literature, the Christian Science Monitor's list of six novels about grand passions, Ann Brashares' six favorite books list, and Marie Arana's list of the best books about love; it is one of Hugh Thomson’s top ten books on South American journeys.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Heather Gudenkauf's "Before She Was Found"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Before She Was Found by Heather Gudenkauf.

About the book, from the publisher:

A gripping thriller about three young girlfriends, a dark obsession and a chilling crime that shakes up a quiet Iowa town, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Weight of Silence.

For twelve-year-old Cora Landry and her friends Violet and Jordyn, it was supposed to be an ordinary sleepover—movies and Ouija and talking about boys. But when they decide to sneak out to go to the abandoned rail yard on the outskirts of town, little do they know that their innocent games will have dangerous consequences.

Later that night, Cora Landry is discovered on the tracks, bloody and clinging to life, her friends nowhere to be found. Soon their small rural town is thrust into a maelstrom. Who would want to hurt a young girl like Cora—and why? In an investigation that leaves no stone unturned, everyone is a suspect and no one can be trusted—not even those closest to Cora.

Before She Was Found is a timely and gripping thriller about friendship and betrayal, about the power of social pressure and the price of needing to fit in. It is about the great lengths a parent will go to protect their child and keep them safe—even if that means burying the truth, no matter the cost.

Visit Heather Gudenkauf's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Heather Gudenkauf and Maxine.

Coffee with a Canine: Heather Gudenkauf & Lolo.

My Book, The Movie: Not A Sound.

The Page 69 Test: Not A Sound.

Writers Read: Heather Gudenkauf.

The Page 69 Test: Before She Was Found.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten thrillers about siblings

Alafair Burke is a New York Times bestselling author whose most recent novels include The Wife and The Ex, which was nominated for the Edgar Award for best novel. She also co-authors the bestselling Under Suspicion series with Mary Higgins Clark. A former prosecutor, she now teaches criminal law and lives in Manhattan and East Hampton.

Burke's new novel is The Better Sister.

One of the author's ten favorite thrillers about siblings, as shared at the Guardian:

What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman

Before the recent wave of popular “are they or aren’t they unreliable?” narrators, the brilliantly talented Lippman told the story of a woman who claims to be Heather Bethany, one of two adolescent sisters last seen at a shopping mall in 1975. Lippman has said that this was inspired by the real-life disappearance of two sisters in suburban Washington DC when the author herself was a teenager. Her fictional rendering of these girls is careful and beautiful.

Read about another entry on the list.

What the Dead Know is among Jessica Knoll's top ten dark thrillers.

The Page 69 Test: What the Dead Know.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Colin Asher's "Never A Lovely so Real"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Never a Lovely So Real: The Life and Work of Nelson Algren by Colin Asher.

About the book, from the publisher:

This definitive biography reclaims Nelson Algren as a towering literary figure and finally unravels the enigma of his disappearance from American letters.

For a time, Nelson Algren was America’s most famous author, lauded by the likes of Richard Wright and Ernest Hemingway. Millions bought his books. Algren’s third novel, The Man with the Golden Arm, won the first National Book Award, and Frank Sinatra starred in the movie. But despite Algren’s talent, he abandoned fiction and fell into obscurity. The cause of his decline was never clear. Some said he drank his talent away; others cited writer’s block. The truth, hidden in the pages of his books, is far more complicated and tragic. Now, almost forty years after Algren’s death, Colin Asher finally captures the full, novelistic story of his life in a magisterial biography set against mid-twentieth-century American politics and culture.

Drawing from interviews, archival correspondence, and the most complete version of Algren’s 886-page FBI file ever released, Colin Asher portrays Algren as a dramatic iconoclast. A member of the Communist Party in the 1930s, Algren used his writing to humanize Chicago’s underclass, while excoriating the conservative radicalism of the McCarthy era. Asher traces Algren’s development as a thinker, his close friendship and falling out with Richard Wright, and his famous affair with Simone de Beauvoir. Most intriguingly, Asher uncovers the true cause of Algren’s artistic exile: a reckless creative decision that led to increased FBI scrutiny and may have caused a mental breakdown.

In his second act, Algren was a vexing figure who hid behind a cynical facade. He called himself a “journalist” and a “loser,” though many still considered him one of the greatest living American authors. An inspiration to writers such as Hunter S. Thompson, Martha Gellhorn, Jimmy Breslin, Betty Friedan, Cormac McCarthy, Don DeLillo, Russell Banks, and Thomas Pynchon, Algren nevertheless struggled to achieve recognition, and died just as his career was on the verge of experiencing a renaissance.

Never a Lovely So Real offers an exquisitely detailed, engrossing portrait of a master who, as esteemed literary critic Maxwell Geismar wrote, was capable of suggesting “the whole contour of a human life in a few terse pages.”

Visit Colin Asher's website.

The Page 99 Test: Never a Lovely So Real.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Heather Gudenkauf reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Heather Gudenkauf, author of Before She Was Found.

Her entry begins:

Right now I’m reading an advanced reading copy of The Nanny by Gilly MacMillan. This atmospheric thriller follows Jo as she returns to her childhood home and tries to rebuild a relationship with her estranged mother. After a skull is found in the lake behind the house, Jo is forced to face the confront the truth the mysterious disappearance of her beloved nanny decades earlier. The Nanny has...[read on]

About Before She Was Found, from the publisher:

A gripping thriller about three young girlfriends, a dark obsession and a chilling crime that shakes up a quiet Iowa town, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Weight of Silence.

For twelve-year-old Cora Landry and her friends Violet and Jordyn, it was supposed to be an ordinary sleepover—movies and Ouija and talking about boys. But when they decide to sneak out to go to the abandoned rail yard on the outskirts of town, little do they know that their innocent games will have dangerous consequences.

Later that night, Cora Landry is discovered on the tracks, bloody and clinging to life, her friends nowhere to be found. Soon their small rural town is thrust into a maelstrom. Who would want to hurt a young girl like Cora—and why? In an investigation that leaves no stone unturned, everyone is a suspect and no one can be trusted—not even those closest to Cora.

Before She Was Found is a timely and gripping thriller about friendship and betrayal, about the power of social pressure and the price of needing to fit in. It is about the great lengths a parent will go to protect their child and keep them safe—even if that means burying the truth, no matter the cost.

Visit Heather Gudenkauf's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Heather Gudenkauf and Maxine.

Coffee with a Canine: Heather Gudenkauf & Lolo.

My Book, The Movie: Not A Sound.

The Page 69 Test: Not A Sound.

Writers Read: Heather Gudenkauf.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: David Quantick's "All My Colors"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: All My Colors by David Quantick.

About the book, from the publisher:

It is March 1979 in DeKalb Illinois. Todd Milstead is a wannabe writer, a serial adulterer, and a jerk, only tolerated by his friends because he throws the best parties with the best booze. During one particular party, Todd is showing off his perfect recall, quoting poetry and literature word for word plucked from his eidetic memory. When he begins quoting from a book no one else seems to know, a novel called All My Colors, Todd is incredulous. He can quote it from cover to cover and yet it doesn’t seem to exist.

With a looming divorce and mounting financial worries, Todd finally tries to write a novel, with the vague idea of making money from his talent. The only problem is he can’t write. But the book – All My Colors – is there in his head. Todd makes a decision: he will “write” this book that nobody but him can remember. After all, if nobody’s heard of it, how can he get into trouble?

As the dire consequences of his actions come home to both Todd and his long-suffering friends, it becomes clear that there is a high – and painful – price to pay for his crime.

Visit David Quantick's website.

The Page 69 Test: All My Colors.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top books about fandom

Britta Lundin is a TV writer, author, and comic book writer. She currently writes on the hit CW show Riverdale. Her YA book Ship It, about a gay teenage fanfiction writer, is described as “the book that fandom has been waiting for, and the lived-in, fleshed-out portrait it deserves.” A longtime fanfiction reader and writer herself, she is still passionate about fan communities and shipping. Before becoming a writer, she worked as a political organizer for organizations such as MoveOn.org and a digital media producer for Geek & Sundry and Nerdist. She earned a BA in Political Science from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and an MFA in Film Production from the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, she spends her time reblogging memes and analyzing the work of One Direction and its members. Originally from a small town on the Oregon coast, she now lives in Los Angeles with her wife.

At Tor.com Lundin tagged five favorite books about fandom, including:

Grace and the Fever by Zan Romanoff

Real Person Fiction (RPF) / Bandfic

Grace and the Fever follows teenager Grace, who is deep in the fandom for boyband Fever Dream, which has long been deemed uncool by her nonfandom (read: civilian) friends. In a fantasy-like coincidence, Grace accidentally meets the lead singer one day and gets swept up in his world of celebrity and backstage drama, all while trying to reconcile her current unbelievable level of access to her favorite band with her inner fangirl who is freaking the hell out.

Beautifully written, Grace and the Fever brilliantly weaves together the RPF self-insert fantasy of suddenly finding yourself friends with the people you’ve been fanning over for years with the real-world truths of how hard it is being in the spotlight. Like Almost Famous for the boyband set, it’s a fun and emotional peek behind the curtain of music celebrity. It’s also generous about fandom while still being clear-eyed about the ways fans can overreach or cross the line. Romanoff is clearly working from a personal and intimate knowledge of fandom, which makes it an authentic and loving portrait of the community.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: Grace and the Fever.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Allie Larkin & Stella

Featured at Coffee with a Canine: Allie Larkin & Stella.

The author, on how she and Stella were united:

Before we moved to the Bay Area, we lived in Rochester, NY. We had a German Shepherd named Argo (who was actually the cover-dog for the hardcover version of my first novel, Stay). When we had to travel, we used to board him at a great place just outside of Rochester. The people who ran the boarding facility knew of a thirteen-month-old German Shepherd who needed a new home and called to see if we’d be interested in adding to our family.

Stella was a holy terror when we first got her and Argo was miserable about it. But eventually, they settled in and became best friends. When Argo got cancer, Stella was the most brilliant comfort to him. All of her anxiety and young dog hyperactivity faded away, and she was calm and careful for him. It was beautiful to witness. The...[read on]

About Larkin's Swimming for Sunlight, from the publisher:

When recently divorced Katie Ellis and her rescue dog Bark move back in with Katie’s grandmother in Florida, she becomes swept up in a reunion of her grandmother’s troupe of underwater performers—finding hope and renewal in unexpected places, in this sweet novel perfect for fans of Kristan Higgins and Claire Cook.

Aspiring costume designer Katie gave up everything in her divorce to gain custody of her fearful, faithful rescue dog, Barkimedes. While she figures out what to do next, she heads back to Florida to live with her grandmother, Nan.

But Katie quickly learns there’s a lot she doesn’t know about Nan—like the fact that in her youth Nan was a mermaid performer in a roadside attraction show, swimming and dancing underwater with a close-knit cast of talented women. Although most of the mermaids have since lost touch, Katie helps Nan search for her old friends on Facebook, sparking hopes for a reunion show. Katie is up for making some fabulous costumes, but first, she has to contend with her crippling fear of water.

As Katie’s college love Luca, a documentary filmmaker, enters the fray, Katie struggles to balance her hopes with her anxiety, and begins to realize just how much Bark’s fears are connected to her own, in this thoughtful, charming novel about hope after loss and friendships that span generations.

Visit Allie Larkin's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Allie Larkin & Stella.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight messed up fictional families

Sally Hepworth is the bestselling author of The Secrets of Midwives, The Things We Keep, The Mother's Promise, and The Family Next Door.

Her new novel is The Mother-in-Law.

At CrimeReads Hepworth tagged eight fictional families that will make you feel better about your own dysfunctional family, including:

Baby Teeth, by Zoje Stage

In this creepy thriller, Zoje Stage pits a mute, seven-year-old bad seed (Hanna), against her physically and emotionally vulnerable stay-at-home mom (Suzette). Hanna is a girl who barks at her teachers, feeds a schoolmate paint, antagonizes her babysitters, and…contemplates how to best murder her mother. And there’s another problem: Hanna is a perfect angel in the presence of her father, and Suzette’s struggling to make him believe they have a very disturbed daughter on their hands. Oh, and reader beware: There’s one scene that will induce an unshakable fear of thumbtacks.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Vaughn Scribner's "Inn Civility"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Inn Civility: Urban Taverns and Early American Civil Society by Vaughn Scribner.

About the book, from the publisher:

Examines the critical role of urban taverns in the social and political life of colonial and revolutionary America

From exclusive “city taverns” to seedy “disorderly houses,” urban taverns were wholly engrained in the diverse web of British American life. By the mid-eighteenth century, urban taverns emerged as the most popular, numerous, and accessible public spaces in British America. These shared spaces, which hosted individuals from a broad swath of socioeconomic backgrounds, eliminated the notion of “civilized” and “wild” individuals, and dismayed the elite colonists who hoped to impose a British-style social order upon their local community. More importantly, urban taverns served as critical arenas through which diverse colonists engaged in an ongoing act of societal negotiation.

Inn Civility exhibits how colonists’ struggles to emulate their British homeland ultimately impelled the creation of an American republic. This unique insight demonstrates the messy, often contradictory nature of British American society building. In striving to create a monarchical society based upon tenets of civility, order, and liberty, colonists inadvertently created a political society that the founders would rely upon for their visions of a republican America. The elitist colonists’ futile efforts at realizing a civil society are crucial for understanding America’s controversial beginnings and the fitful development of American republicanism.

Visit Vaughn Scribner's website.

The Page 99 Test: Inn Civility.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six of the best books on the gender pay gap

Laura Bates is the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project.

At the Guardian, she tagged six of the best books on financial inequality, including:

[T]he ugly reality is laid bare in actor Taraji P Henson’s memoir, Around the Way Girl, which details the Empire star’s battle against financial inequality in a Hollywood that privileges white male stars above all others.

Henson describes shocking experiences, from being dropped from a role originally written for her in favour of a white actor seen as a safer financial bet, to being paid a tiny fraction of her male co-star’s fee for a film for which she earned an Oscar nomination. “The math really is pretty simple: there are way more talented black actresses than there are intelligent, meaningful roles for them, and we’re consistently charged with diving for the crumbs of the scraps, lest we starve … I knew the stakes: no matter how talented, no matter how many accolades my prior work had received, if I pushed for more money, I’d be replaced and no one would so much as blink.”

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: M. G. Wheaton's "Emily Eternal"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Emily Eternal by M. G. Wheaton.

About the book, from the publisher:

Meet Emily, “the best AI character since HAL 9000″ (Blake Crouch). She can solve advanced mathematical problems, unlock the mind’s deepest secrets, but unfortunately, even she can’t restart the sun.

Emily is an artificial consciousness, designed in a lab to help humans process trauma, which is particularly helpful when the sun begins to die 5 billion years before scientists agreed it was supposed to.

Her beloved human race is screwed, and so is Emily. That is, until she finds a potential answer buried deep in the human genome that may save them all. But not everyone is convinced Emily has the best solution–or the best intentions. Before her theory can be tested, the lab is brutally attacked, and Emily’s servers are taken hostage.

Narrowly escaping, Emily is forced to go on the run with two human companions–college student Jason and small-town Sheriff, Mayra. As the sun’s death draws near, Emily and her friends must race against time to save humanity. Soon it becomes clear not just the species is at stake, but also that which makes us most human.

Visit Mark Wheaton's website.

Writers Read: M. G. Wheaton.

The Page 69 Test: Emily Eternal.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six of the best books about nature

Andrea Wulf is a full-time writer and the author of six books. She has written for many newspapers including the New York Times, the Guardian, Financial Times, The Atlantic and the Wall Street Journal.

Her latest books are The Invention of Nature and The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt.

One of Wulf's six favorite books about nature, as shared at the The Week magazine:

The Moth Snowstorm by Michael McCarthy (2015).

Some books change the way you see things and stay with you forever. This is one of them. It's an unashamed plea for the importance of seeking joy in nature — a joy that humans have experienced for more than 50,000 generations. Our ability to imagine developed as we evolved, McCarthy explains, and our bond with the natural world lies buried in our DNA. It's the best argument I've heard so far for nature appreciation as part of our very essence.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Michael Moreci reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Michael Moreci, author of We Are Mayhem (Black Star Renegades, Volume 2).

His entry begins:

Oftentimes, I find myself reading for research and inspiration purposes. Don't get me wrong, I'm reading stuff I love because I'm writing--for the most part--stuff I love. But it's still connected to work; I love fully immersing myself in my writing projects, and that means reading books that correspond.

That said, my current bookshelf, as always, is a mix of novels and comics. I just finished reading The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson, which was terrific. Just--outstanding. I love Wilson in general (Spin is out of this world), but this book was especially remarkable. It hit a chord with me because...[read on]

About We Are Mayhem, from the publisher:

The second entry in the Star Wars-inspired series that Nerdist calls "the next big thing."

Though the ragtag group of misfits known as the Black Star Renegades won a decisive battle by destroying Ga Halle’s War Hammer, the war is far from over. In response to losing the crown jewel of its fleet, the evil Praxis empire has vengefully reinforced its tyranny across the galaxy--but its rule won't be had so easily. Led by hotshot pilot Kira Sen, a growing rebel force stands in the way of Praxis’s might. Not only do they possess the will to fight for galactic freedom, they also possess the ultimate ace in the hole: The mythical Rokura, the most powerful weapon ever known.

Too bad Cade Sura hasn’t figured out to use it.

As Kira wages an increasingly bloody war against Praxis, Cade is left with only once choice: With Ga Halle scouring every star system for the coveted weapon, Cade embarks on a dangerous mission into uncharted space to discover the Rokura’s origins. Only then can he learn how it can be wielded. Because if he doesn’t, all hope for the galaxy might be lost.

Visit Michael Moreci's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Michael Moreci & Charlie.

Writers Read: Michael Moreci.

--Marshal Zeringue