Clare Mulley's "Agent Zo," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Agent Zo: The Untold Story of a Fearless World War II Resistance Fighter by Clare Mulley.

The entry begins:

Agent Zo opens with Zo perched on the edge of the circular hole cut in the floor of the mighty four-engine British Halifax bomber in the seconds before she becomes the only woman to parachute from Britain to Nazi-German occupied Poland during the Second World War. The adrenalin rarely drops as Zo served variously as an intelligence officer, resistance courier, Home Army soldier, and the only woman in the Polish elite special forces, the Cichociemni or Silent Unseen, from the early hours of 1 September 1939 to the end of the conflict. She is perfect movie material: brilliant, funny, courageous and highly effective in the fight against Nazism.

Zo was one of many remarkable women who played crucial active service roles on or behind enemy lines during the war, and I often wonder why they rarely appear on our screens. Before casting, I would want to secure a good screenwriter to ensure that Zo’s role is not diminished, and her achievements not side-lined. Phoebe Waller Bridge could produce the perfect script. Alternatively, I would give Steve McQueen a shot, but perhaps he could direct!

As for actors, I would like someone who reflects Zo’s Polish roots. Resistance in the Second World War usually conjures up images of Paris, but this is very much a Polish story, and all the more resonant for that today. Agnieszka Grochowska could probably do Zo justice, and Scarlett Johansson, Angelina Jolie and Natalie Portman all have Polish roots, so they could also audition. Alternatively,...[read on]

Visit Clare Mulley's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Women Who Flew For Hitler.

The Page 99 Test: The Women Who Flew For Hitler.

My Book, The Movie: Agent Zo.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top dysfunctional book families

At B&N Reads Isabelle McConville tagged five favorite dysfunctional book families, including:

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

We know you’ve seen the Emmy-nominated show starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, but have you read the book that started it all? Engrossing, complex and poised, Celeste Ng explores the power of perception, the friction between creativity and conformity, and the futility of trying to outrun your past in this compelling domestic drama. Following two families in one stuffy Cleveland suburb, Ng asks questions of race, identity and class that makes this a perfect read (and discussion) for any book club.

Read about another entry on the list.

Little Fires Everywhere is among Beth Morrey‘s top ten single mothers in fiction, R.J. Hoffmann's six titles featuring adoptions gone awry, Amy Stuart's five thrilling novels with deeply flawed fictional characters you’ll learn to appreciate as you turn the pages and Kate Hamer's top ten teenage friendships in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Melissa Zinkin's "Depth: A Kantian Account of Reason"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Depth: A Kantian Account of Reason by Melissa Zinkin.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Depth : A Kantian Account of Reason Melissa Zinkin provides a new and highly original interpretation of Kant's view of reason. Unlike recent interpretations, which claim that for Kant reason is valuable because it is the source of moral value, this book argues that Kant considers reason to be the source of a more fundamental and wider ranging value: depth. Although philosophers often use the term “depth” to indicate a kind of value, they rarely make explicit what they mean. For instance, they strive to make objections that go “deep into the theory” at issue. They stress the importance of beliefs that are “deeply held” and of “deep desires.” They praise works of great “emotional depth.” Often, these references to depth do real work in an argument. Yet the concept of depth itself remains obscure.

Zinkin argues that depth is the value of the cognition that results from systematic reflection, which is the distinctive activity of human reason. This value, however, is not just a moral or an epistemic value. Rather, it is best understood as an aesthetic value. In other words, what is good about deep cognition is the same as what is good about our experience of a work or art--it engages us, it makes us think, and it is meaningful. An account of Kant's view of reason as the source of depth has advantages over other accounts because it can solve several interpretative puzzles and can show that, throughout his texts, Kant has a unified view of reason. Moreover, it can reveal the deep connection that Kant saw between our reason and our humanity. An implication of this account is that the deep, rational, reflection that is exemplified, and cultivated, by the arts, is important for other human endeavors, such as science and moral action.

Learn more about Depth: A Kantian Account of Reason at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Depth: A Kantian Account of Reason.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Suja Sukumar

From my Q&A with Suja Sukumar, author of When Mimi Went Missing:

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

My title will give readers some idea of what the story is about since the plot revolves around the events leading up to and after Mimi's disappearance. Though, while it tells you that Mimi does disappear, you won't know (until you read the first chapter) that it actually centers around the fractured relationship between once close cousins Mimi and Tanvi. As you read further, you'll realize the depth of that fracture as Mimi vanishes and Tanvi becomes a suspect in the murder investigation.

What's in a name?

One of my characters goes by the nickname Mimi but...[read on]

Visit Suja Sukumar's website.

Q&A with Suja Sukumar.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven thought-provoking books about models and the dark side of beauty

Laura Elizabeth Woollett is the author of a short story collection, The Love of a Bad Man (2016), and three novels, Beautiful Revolutionary (2018), The Newcomer (2021), and West Girls (2024). The Love of a Bad Man was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction and the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction. Beautiful Revolutionary was shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction and the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal. West Girls was longlisted for the 2024 Stella Prize and is shortlisted for the South Australian Literary Award for Fiction. Woollett was the City of Melbourne’s 2020 Boyd Garret writer-in-residence, a 2020-22 Marten Bequest scholar for prose, and will be a 2025 writer-in-residence at the Keesing Studio in Paris.

At Electric Lit the author shared a list of "books about models, ranging from young adult fiction to critical thinking, [that] exposes the contradictory ugliness and transcendence of being professionally beautiful." One title on the list:

Look At Me by Jennifer Egan

Charlotte Swenson, a falling star of Manhattan’s fashion scene, gets into a near-fatal car crash outside her hometown in Illinois, becoming unrecognisable. While the premise of Jennifer Egan’s second novel could be the jumping-off point for deep-dive into the beauty and disfigurement, the concerns of Look At Me are much broader: small town life, family madness, industrialisation, American dreams and nightmares, the construction and commodification of identity. It’s an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink novel, and doesn’t always cohere, yet it’s packed with ideas and weirdly prescient about online self-curation.

Read about another entry on the list.

Look At Me is among Jennifer Banash's seven novels about selling your soul, Jenny Shank's five big, engrossing books, and Julie Christie's seven favorite books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jen Marie Wiggins's "The Good Bride," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Good Bride: A Novel by Jen Marie Wiggins.

The dreamcast includes:

Ruth: A young Natalie Portman (a la Black Swan)

Kayla (the wedding planner): Zendaya

Mother of the Bride: Robin Wright or...[read on]

Visit Jen Marie Wiggins's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Good Bride.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Yvonne Battle-Felton's "Curdle Creek"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Curdle Creek: A Novel by Yvonne Battle-Felton.

About the book, from the publisher:

For fans of “The Lottery” and The Hunger Games, this novel set in a small town with a sinister tradition is chilling in the best possible way.

Welcome to Curdle Creek, a place just dying to make you feel at home. Osira, a forty-five-year-old widow, is an obedient follower of the strict conventions of Curdle Creek, an all-Black town in rural America stuck in the past and governed by a tradition of ominous rituals. Osira is considered blessed, but her luck changes when her children flee, she comes second to last in the Running of the Widows and her father flees when his name is called in the annual Moving On ceremony.

Forced into a test of allegiance, Osira finds herself transported back in time, then into another realm where she must answer for crimes committed by Curdle Creek. Exile forces her to jump realms again, landing Osira even farther away from home, in rural England. Safe as long as she sticks to the rules, she quickly learns there are consequences for every kindness. Each jump could lead Osira anywhere but back home.

Curdle Creek is a unique, inventive novel exploring themes of home, belonging, motherhood and what we inherit from society. This American gothic offers a mash-up of the surreal and literary horror that will appeal to fans of Ring Shout, The Underground Railroad and Lovecraft Country. Yvonne Battle-Felton’s fever dream of a tale is enthralling, layered and quite unlike anything else.

Visit Yvonne Battle-Felton's website.

The Page 69 Test: Curdle Creek.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten terrifying literary horror novels

Mason Coile is a pseudonym of Andrew Pyper, the award-winning author of ten novels, including The Demonologist, which won the International Thriller Writers Award, and Lost Girls, which was a New York Times bestseller and Notable Book of the Year.

[My Book, The Movie: The Wildfire Season; The Page 69 Test: The Wildfire Season; The Page 69 Test: The Killing Circle; My Book, The Movie: The Only Child; The Page 69 Test: The Only Child]

Coile's debut sci-fi thriller is William.

At People magazine he tagged ten "horror novels [that] have something to say about being human while scaring us silly in the most artful ways." One title on the list:

The Troop by Nick Cutter

Full disclosure: Cutter is a friend of mine. But I promise this has no bearing on my declaration of The Troop as the most effective — and often moving — work of body horror I’ve ever read. It also has the veracity of a journal, a believable account of real events that’s been kept from the public. Who knows? Perhaps it is.

Read about another entry on the list.

Also see Alena Bruzas's seven best literary horror novels.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Karen Bloom Gevirtz's "The Apothecary's Wife"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Apothecary's Wife: The Hidden History of Medicine and How It Became a Commodity by Karen Bloom Gevirtz.

About the book, from the publisher:

A groundbreaking genealogy of for-profit healthcare and an urgent reminder that centering women's history offers vital opportunities for shaping the future.

The running joke in Europe for centuries was that anyone in a hurry to die should call the doctor. As far back as ancient Greece, physicians were notorious for administering painful and often fatal treatments—and charging for the privilege. For the most effective treatment, the ill and injured went to the women in their lives. This system lasted hundreds of years. It was gone in less than a century.

Contrary to the familiar story, medication did not improve during the Scientific Revolution. Yet somehow, between 1650 and 1740, the domestic female and the physician switched places in the cultural consciousness: she became the ineffective, potentially dangerous quack, he the knowledgeable, trustworthy expert. The professionals normalized the idea of paying them for what people already got at home without charge, laying the foundation for Big Pharma and today’s global for-profit medication system. A revelatory history of medicine, The Apothecary’s Wife challenges the myths of the triumph of science and instead uncovers the fascinating truth. Drawing on a vast body of archival material, Karen Bloom Gevirtz depicts the extraordinary cast of characters who brought about this transformation. She also explores domestic medicine’s values in responses to modern health crises, such as the eradication of smallpox, and what benefits we can learn from these events.

Visit Karen Bloom Gevirtz's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Apothecary's Wife.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Anna Rasche

From my Q&A with Anna Rasche, author of The Stone Witch of Florence: A Novel:

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

The Stone Witch of Florence does a lot of work to take readers into the story! The (Blank) of (Blank) is a really classic title formula, and it was something my agents and I landed on before pitching the book to publishers. We wanted to make sure the most tempting bits of the story were apparent right away: the gem magic, the history of witchcraft, and the evocative Florentine setting. My working title was actually The Plague Saint, which is a historical reference to a specific set of saints that were prayed to in plague times. I still like it, but I'm glad we moved on from this because it didn't communicate more magical and fun parts of the book.

What's in a name?

I thought a lot about my characters' names. I named the...[read on]

Visit Anna Rasche's website.

Q&A with Anna Rasche.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top "And Then There Were None" inspired thrillers

Alexa Donne is the Edgar Award–nominated author of Pretty Dead Queens and The Ivies. By day she lives in Los Angeles and works in television marketing. The rest of the time she contemplates creative motives for murder and takes too many pictures of her cats.

Donne's latest young adult thriller, The Bitter End, is Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None with a Gossip Girl flair.

At CrimeReads Donne tagged six other novels inspired by Christie's classic. One title on the list:

Shiver by Allie Reynolds

Not every book that scratches this sub-genre itch sits slasher adjacent! People aren’t picked off at intervals in Shiver, but the book’s multi-timeline format creates its own unique escalation of tension, so by the time the body falls, you are chomping at the bit. Shiver volleys between a reunion between old snowboarding friends at a ski resort in the off-season and the last time the friends were all together, ten years ago before one of their own mysteriously disappeared. So often isolation trope mysteries hinge on sins of the past, something I love and drew on myself, and Shiver is no exception, executing the idea very well! It’s a feat where the past timeline is as intriguing, if not more so, than the present one.

Read about another title on the list.

Shiver is among Isabelle McConville's nine books with deadly invitations, C.J. Tudor's five notable winter thrillers, and B.P. Walter's five top winter mysteries.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jacob Flaws's "Spaces of Treblinka"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Spaces of Treblinka: Retracing a Death Camp by Jacob Flaws.

About the book, from the publisher:

Spaces of Treblinka utilizes testimonies, oral histories, and recollections from Jewish, German, and Polish witnesses to create a holistic representation of the Treblinka death camp during its operation. This narrative rejects the historical misconception that Treblinka was an isolated Nazi extermination camp with few witnesses and fewer survivors. Rather than the secret, sanitized site of industrial killing Treblinka was intended to be, Jacob Flaws argues, Treblinka’s mass murder was well known to the nearby townspeople who experienced the sights, sounds, smells, people, bodies, and train cars the camp ejected into the surrounding world.

Through spatial reality, Flaws portrays the conceptions, fantasies, ideological assumptions, and memories of Treblinka from witnesses in the camp and surrounding towns. To do so he identifies six key spaces that once composed the historical site of Treblinka: the ideological space, the behavioral space, the space of life and death, the interactional space, the sensory space, and the extended space. By examining these spaces Flaws reveals that there were more witnesses to Treblinka than previously realized, as the transnational groups near and within the camp overlapped and interacted. Spaces of Treblinka provides a staggering and profound reassessment of the relationship between knowing and not knowing and asks us to confront the timely warning that we, in our modern, interconnected world, can all become witnesses.

Visit Jacob Flaws's website.

The Page 99 Test: Spaces of Treblinka.

--Marshal Zeringue

Alex Kenna's "Burn this Night," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Burn this Night: A Mystery by Alex Kenna.

The entry begins:

Burn This Night follows Kate Myles, a former cop, who became a private detective after an accident and resulting pain pill addiction ended her police career. Early in the book, she learns that the man who raised her is not her biological father, and that she’s distantly related to a cold case killer. Kate looks into this mystery after she’s hired to investigate an arson murder that occurred in the same small town. In the arson case, Jacob, a mentally ill man is accused of setting the blaze that killed his sister, Abby. Along the way, Kate finds romance with Sam, a local chain saw artist and bar owner.

KATE – I originally envisioned Kate as the Irish actress, Jessie Buckley. Buckley has incredible emotional range and a vulnerability that fits the character. However, after seeing Shailene Woodley in Big Little Lies, I’d have to choose her to play Kate. Woodley excels at playing strong, introverted characters who hold their cards close to the vest. When Burn This Night picks up, Kate has lost her career. She’s renting her house and living with her mother to save money for a custody battle, and she’s just learned that her dad is not her dad. As an ex-cop, Kate is also someone who rarely complains and is good at suppressing her own emotions – for better or for worse. Woodley has a great ability to show strength and vulnerability at the same time. She can play an understated character while projecting emotional nuance, which makes her a perfect fit for Kate.

JACOB – Jacob is a troubled man, who makes a series of bad decisions that lead him down a path of crime. Tormented by his own mistakes, Jacob turns to methamphetamine as an escape. He progressively loses touch with reality...[read on]

Visit Alex Kenna's website.

Q&A with Alex Kenna.

My Book, The Movie: What Meets the Eye.

Writers Read: Alex Kenna.

The Page 69 Test: Burn this Night.

My Book, The Movie: Burn this Night.

--Marshal Zeringue

Twenty-five of the best historical fiction books of all time

At Oprah Daily Bethanne Patrick tagged the twenty-five best historical fiction books of all time. One title on the list:

The Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller

The Achilles of Homer’s The Iliad wept for days over his comrade Patroclus’s corpse, refusing to let it be buried. Miller, a scholar of classical literature, takes that tiny detail and uses it to re-imagine the hero of the Trojan War as a man in love with his best friend and most faithful ally. This intimate, romantic story reveals more about soldiers, lovers, and queer couples than most of the classic literature combined, yet sticks close to the historical and literary context on which it’s based. Miller’s fresh look at this epic poem has inspired many other fiction writers to write about ancient works, but sometimes we all know that the first entry is the best entry.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Song of Achilles is among Mark Skinner's nineteen top Greek myth retellings, Alexia Casale's top eight titles sparked by the authors' work life, Allison Epstein's eight queer historical fiction books set around the world, Phong Nguyen's seven titles that live halfway between history & myth, The Center for Fiction's 200 books that shaped two centuries of literature, Sara Stewart's six best books and Nicole Hill's fourteen characters who should have lived.

My Book, The Movie: The Song of Achilles.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Myles Ethan Lascity's "The Abercrombie Age"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Abercrombie Age: Millennial Aspiration and the Promise of Consumer Culture by Myles Ethan Lascity.

About the book, from the publisher:

Be popular and good-looking—it's the key to a happy life. Luckily, with a bit of know-how and money, you, too, can have it all. At least, that's what teen pop culture was selling in surround sound at the turn of the millennium. From movies like Clueless to TV's Dawson's Creek to the music videos on MTV's Total Request Live and the catalogs of Abercrombie & Fitch, a consumer-minded ethos drove pop culture storytelling as millennials came of age in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But in the long shadow of the Great Recession, the upwardly mobile aspirations fostered by the era's popular culture and media seem to have been thwarted. Many millennials today lack the wealth their parents had at the same age, and the gaps between rich and poor rival those of the Gilded Age.

The Abercrombie Age reconsiders teen popular culture from the turn of the twenty-first century, revealing how it told young people that life not only could but surely would get better. Far from frivolous or forgettable, the era's superficial, materialistic culture sold millennials unrealistic expectations of what life could offer, setting up a stark juxtaposition with the realities of today.

Visit Myles Ethan Lascity's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Abercrombie Age.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Andrew Welsh-Huggins's "Sick to Death"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Sick to Death by Andrew Welsh-Huggins.

About Sick to Death, from the publisher:

After years of personal and professional turmoil, things are finally looking up for Columbus, Ohio, private eye Andy Hayes. As Sick to Death opens, Andy is relishing his new gig: a drama-free, family-friendly stint as a guard at the Columbus Museum of Art. What could be better than regular hours, a steady paycheck, and an attractive coworker who may be just as interested in him as he is in her? Right on schedule, Andy’s newfound equilibrium comes crashing down when he interrupts the theft of a painting by famed Ashcan school realist George Bellows—and is promptly fired for breaking museum protocols. Helping him thwart the robbers is a young woman whom Andy has caught staring at him several times at the museum. To his shock, she reveals she’s an adult daughter he never knew he had, the result of a one-night stand during his misspent youth a quarter century earlier. But Alex Rutledge, about to enter the Columbus Police Academy, isn’t looking for family time. She wants to hire her newly discovered father to find the driver who killed her mother, Kate, five months earlier in a still unsolved hit-skip accident. Even as Andy reels from this personal development, he uncovers troubling details about Kate’s death that increasingly point toward murder and an angry anti-vax sentiment roiling below the surface at the hospital where she worked. Complicating Andy’s case, he finds himself in the crosshairs of an FBI investigation into the attempted art theft. With time running out and his and Alex’s lives on the line, Andy rushes to defend his reputation as a private eye and find Kate’s killer.

Visit Andrew Welsh-Huggins's website.

My Book, The Movie: An Empty Grave.

Q&A with Andrew Welsh-Huggins.

The Page 69 Test: An Empty Grave.

Writers Read: Andrew Welsh-Huggins (April 2023).

My Book, The Movie: The End of the Road.

The Page 69 Test: The End of the Road.

Writers Read: Andrew Welsh-Huggins.

My Book, The Movie: Sick to Death.

The Page 69 Test: Sick to Death.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven of the best werewolf books

Brian Asman is a writer, actor, and director from San Diego. He’s the author of Man, F*ck This House (and Other Disasters). His other books include I’m Not Even Supposed to Be Here Today, Neo Arcana, Nunchuck City, Jailbroke, and Return of the Living Elves.

Asman's new novel is Good Dogs.

At Electric Lit he tagged seven howlingly good werewolf books, including:

When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord

For another inventive take on the werewolf mythos, look no further than Joshua Gaylord’s 2015 Shirley Jackson-nominated novel When We Were Animals (which sounds kinda like a Killers song, doesn’t it?). WWWA centers on Lumen Fowler, a teenage girl growing up in a midwestern town with a very odd tradition: when its children come of age, for one year, they turn feral during the full moon. While the children don’t turn into wolves, their inner bestial natures reveal themselves, providing for a unique commentary on puberty, tradition, and familial secrets.

Read about another entry on the list.

When We Were Animals is among Meghan Tifft's seven novels about mythical creatures.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: William M. Wiecek's "The Dark Past"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Dark Past: The US Supreme Court and African Americans, 1800―2015 by William M. Wiecek.

About the book, from the publisher:

For most of its existence, the US Supreme Court has sustained slavery, racial discrimination, segregation, racial inequality, and white preference through constitutional interpretation and legal doctrine. During America's first two centuries, slavery was the law of the land. The Court initially avoided challenging it, and in 1857, it seemed that the justices were committed to defending it with the disastrous Dred Scott decision, which denied that Black Americans could claim any rights under the Constitution. The Court also failed to sustain Congress's effort to accord rights and status to Black Americans during Reconstruction, and it accepted white supremacy in the 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, which ratified the doctrine of "separate but equal." It did better in the Civil Rights Era, 1954-1972, but then again retreated in the face of political backlash.

The Dark Past offers a historical overview and interpretive guide to all the major cases decided by US Supreme Court that have affected the freedom and rights of Black Americans since 1800. It lends coherence to what could otherwise be a disjointed chronicle of cases and connects the events of the past to the current era of racial inequality-most recently exhibited in the Shelby County v. Holder (2015) decision, which hobbled the Voting Rights Act. Throughout the six hundred volumes of the United States Reports the justices have almost never alluded to the reality of racism or used words that denote it. Only once has the phrase "white supremacy" appeared in an opinion of the Court, and only thirty or so times has a member of the Court referred to "racism." The Dark Past, on the other hand, incorporates structural racism as a principal definition of inequality in the contemporary Black legal experience as it updates and enlarges our understanding of how the legal foundations of inequality structure American society.

Learn more about The Dark Past at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Dark Past.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Marshall Fine

From my Q&A with Marshall Fine, author of The Autumn of Ruth Winters: A Novel:

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

Hopefully, quite a bit, at least in terms of inciting curiosity. Once I had settled on the character name of Ruth Winters and a story about a moment of transition in her life, the combination of her name and the word “autumn”—both the name of a season—seemed to hit a certain sweet spot. It felt a lot more on-target than my first seasonal impulse, which was “The Fall of Ruth Winters.” Oops, too many unintended meanings possible with that one.

What's in a name?

Again, quite a bit, more than I even initially thought. Ruth struck me as an old-fashioned name with a no-nonsense feel. It wasn’t until later, when...[read on]

Follow Marshall Fine on Facebook.

My Book, The Movie: The Autumn of Ruth Winters.

Q&A with Marshall Fine.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Robin Morris's "The Days Between"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Days Between: A Novel by Robin Morris.

About the book, from the publisher:

In a South Florida beach town, a chance meeting unravels a web of secrets in this gripping novel about the consequences of lying to protect the ones we love.

Andrew Williams’s perfect Delray Beach house has become a pressure cooker. He and his wife, Amy, are struggling to conceive, and it’s fracturing their marriage. When a chance encounter reunites him with Kathryn Moretti, the former love of his life, Kathryn confesses that Andrew is already a father―of a son he didn’t know existed. Though Kathryn’s deception sends him reeling, their secret meetings quickly rekindle old obsessions.

Behind Kathryn’s manicured facade is a life of constant damage control. She tries desperately to protect her son, Max, from her past mistakes―and his own dangerous impulses. She can’t let anyone get too close, especially a local cop to whom she owes a favor. And her home has become a refuge for Emmy, the troubled daughter of an old friend who has her own reasons to distrust Kathryn. With Andrew back in the picture, Kathryn can no longer contain all her lies.

As their reunion sends ripples through their lives, Andrew and Kathryn must face their destructive past and figure out if it’s worth risking the futures of everyone they love to hold on to what might have been.

Visit Robin Morris's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Days Between.

--Marshal Zeringue

Twenty-five top books like "Yellowstone"

Emily Burack is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects.

At Town & Country she tagged twenty-five of the best books like Taylor Sheridan's hit show Yellowstone (and 1883 and 1923), including:

Outlawed by Anna North

This alternative history novel is set in an America in 1849 where female infertility is against the law. (It doesn't feel too far from reality, to be honest.) Ada, 17, flees after one year of marriage has not produced a child; she joins up with the Hole in the Wall Gang, a gang of female outlaws. The publisher describes Outlaws as The Crucible meets True Grit. It's a gripping feminist Western.

Read about another entry on the list.

Outlawed is among Brittany Bunzey's thirteen top wilderness novels, Claudia Cravens's eleven westerns that break the genre's rules, Robin McLean's eight top books about surviving in the wilderness and Christina Sweeney-Baird's seven books that imagine a world without men.

The Page 69 Test: Outlawed.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Daniel Silverman's "Seeing Is Disbelieving"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Seeing Is Disbelieving: Why People Believe Misinformation in War, and When They Know Better by Daniel Silverman.

About the book, from the publisher:

Factual misinformation is spread in conflict zones around the world, often with dire consequences. But when is this misinformation actually believed, and when is it not? Seeing is Disbelieving examines the appeal and limits of dangerous misinformation in war, and is the go-to text for understanding false beliefs and their impact in modern armed conflict. Daniel Silverman extends the burgeoning study of factual misinformation, conspiracy theories, and fake news in social and political life into a crucial new domain, while providing a powerful new argument about the limits of misinformation in high-stakes situations. Rich evidence from the US drone campaign in Pakistan, the counterinsurgency against ISIL in Iraq, and the Syrian civil war provide the backdrop for practical lessons in promoting peace, fighting wars, managing conflict, and countering misinformation more effectively.

Visit Daniel Silverman's website.

The Page 99 Test: Seeing Is Disbelieving.

--Marshal Zeringue

Bonnie Kistler's "Shell Games," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Shell Games: A Novel by Bonnie Kistler.

The entry begins:

Shell Games features Kate Sawyer, a self-made billionaire of 70, who’s just married her long-lost, high-school sweetheart, Charlie Mull. On their wedding night, Kate calls the police in hysterics to report that Charlie confessed to the Tylenol Murders, a notorious unsolved crime from decades before. Charlie says she imagined it––too much wedding champagne––and the authorities quickly establish that he couldn’t possibly have committed those murders. But Kate insists that he did confess, so if he didn’t do it, he must be trying to gaslight her to get control of her fortune.

The story then becomes the plight of her daughter Julie who doesn’t know what to believe. Is her brilliant mother sinking into dementia as her husband Eric argues? Or is her beloved new stepfather actually a con man?

I didn’t cast actors in any of these roles while I was writing it Shell Games––I never do this in any of my books––but the images of the four leading characters were so clear in my mind that it wasn’t hard for me to find real-life stand-ins when I thought about it for this piece.

Kate is glamorous and shrewd and steel-willed but with a tender heart when it comes to her love for Charlie. This would be a plum role for any of our amazing older actresses for whom there isn’t enough good material anymore. The obvious choices come to mind: Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Helen Mirren.

All would be outstanding. But the one who best fits this bill is...[read on]

Visit Bonnie Kistler's website.

Q&A with Bonnie Kistler.

The Page 69 Test: The Cage.

The Page 69 Test: Her, Too.

Writers Read: Bonnie Kistler (July 2023).

My Book, The Movie: Shell Games.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top novels featuring what-if “Sliding Doors” narratives

Sung J. Woo's short stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, PEN/Guernica, and Vox. He has written five novels, Lines (2024), Deep Roots (2023), Skin Deep (2020), Love Love (2015), and Everything Asian (2009), which won the 2010 Asian Pacific American Librarians Association Literature Award. In 2022, his Modern Love essay from The New York Times was adapted by Amazon Studios for episodic television. A graduate of Cornell University with an MFA from New York University, he lives in Washington, New Jersey.

[Coffee with a Canine: Sung J. Woo & Koda; The Page 69 Test: Everything Asian; My Book, The Movie: Skin Deep; Q&A with Sung J. Woo; The Page 69 Test: Skin Deep; My Book, The Movie: Deep Roots; The Page 69 Test: Deep Roots; Writers Read: Sung J. Woo (September 2023); The Page 69 Test: Lines; My Book, The Movie: Lines; Writers Read: Sung J. Woo]

At Shepherd Woo tagged five novels featuring what-if Sliding Doors narratives, including:

Pretty Little Mistakes: A Do-Over Novel by Heather McElhatton

If you are of a certain age, you may remember Choose Your Own Adventure novels, where you read an enticing setup of a story, and then you are asked to choose–go to page xx for this action or page yy for this other action. These books were often adventure or mystery tales, and they were fairly short.

Well, this author took this concept to new heights–she wrote over 150 different endings. All written in the second person, in this book, you can fall madly in love as well as die tragically, so caveat emptor!

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 99 Test: Pretty Little Mistakes.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Bruno Leipold's "Citizen Marx"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Citizen Marx: Republicanism and the Formation of Karl Marx’s Social and Political Thought by Bruno Leipold.

About the book, from the publisher:

The first book to offer a comprehensive exploration of Marx’s relationship to republicanism, arguing that it is essential to understanding his thought

In Citizen Marx, Bruno Leipold argues that, contrary to certain interpretive commonplaces, Karl Marx’s thinking was deeply informed by republicanism. Marx’s relation to republicanism changed over the course of his life, but its complex influence on his thought cannot be reduced to wholesale adoption or rejection. Challenging common depictions of Marx that downplay or ignore his commitment to politics, democracy, and freedom, Leipold shows that Marx viewed democratic political institutions as crucial to overcoming the social unfreedom and domination of capitalism. One of Marx’s principal political values, Leipold contends, was a republican conception of freedom, according to which one is unfree when subjected to arbitrary power.

Placing Marx’s republican communism in its historical context—but not consigning him to that context—Leipold traces Marx’s shifting relationship to republicanism across three broad periods. First, Marx began his political life as a republican committed to a democratic republic in which citizens held active popular sovereignty. Second, he transitioned to communism, criticizing republicanism but incorporating the republican opposition to arbitrary power into his social critiques. He argued that although a democratic republic was not sufficient for emancipation, it was necessary for it. Third, spurred by the events of the Paris Commune of 1871, he came to view popular control in representation and public administration as essential to the realization of communism. Leipold shows how Marx positioned his republican communism to displace both antipolitical socialism and anticommunist republicanism. One of Marx’s great contributions, Leipold suggests, was to place politics (and especially democratic politics) at the heart of socialism.

Visit Bruno Leipold's website.

The Page 99 Test: Citizen Marx.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Timothy Jay Smith reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Timothy Jay Smith, author of Istanbul Crossing.

His entry begins:

The best way to hide a secret is to keep it from yourself, or so muses Maggie Burkhardt, an octogenarian who’s perfected the practice of ignoring the dark secrets in her own life. Widowed when her “perfect” husband Peter died, and only days later losing her daughter, Maggie has fled her once-idyllic but ultimately grief-filled life in Wisconsin to live in Europe, where she develops a penchant for meddling in other people’s – mostly couples’ – lives.

Occasionally, a couple’s problems arise from infidelity, but in most cases it’s Maggie’s perception that they are temperamentally mismatched, and she sets out to liberate them from relationships in which they don’t even know they’re stuck. Frequently, she concocts evidence of extramarital sex that she backs up with false accounts of what she’s witnessed. She has a remarkable list of success stories in breaking up couples, preventing marriages, and stopping adoptions; but when one situation becomes homicidal, she...[read on]

Visit Timothy Jay Smith's website.

Writers Read: Timothy Jay Smith (May 2019).

My Book, The Movie: The Fourth Courier.

The Page 69 Test: The Fourth Courier.

Q&A with Timothy Jay Smith.

The Page 69 Test: Fire on the Island.

The Page 69 Test: Istanbul Crossing.

Writers Read: Timothy Jay Smith (October 2024a).

Writers Read: Timothy Jay Smith (October 2024b).

Writers Read: Timothy Jay Smith.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the most original murders in mystery

Lucy Connelly travels around the world, usually with her bossy dog in tow. Her favorite pastime is sipping tea in a quaint cafe as she turns each passerby into a murder victim, witness, or suspect. If she stares at you strangely, don’t worry. She only murdered you in her book.

[The Page 69 Test: Death at a Scottish Wedding; Q&A with Lucy Connelly]

Connelly's new novel is Death at a Scottish Christmas.

At CrimeReads the author tagged ten of "the most ingenious and novel killings in a long tradition of (fictional) killings." One title on the list:

Sometimes it is the motive that makes a mystery or thriller twisty. And Linda Castillo’s Amish mysteries featuring Chief of Police Kate Burkholder never disappoints in that regard. The methods of murder are also interesting. A Gathering of Secrets is book ten in the series but it’s a good twisty story. Again, the death is brutal and fiery, but nothing is what it seems. You can’t go wrong with any of the novels in this series when it comes to cleverness.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Gemma Liviero

From my Q&A with Gemma Liviero, author of An Age of Winters: A Novel:

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

An Age of Winters and the cover set the stage for a chilling if not chilly read against the backdrop of a mini Ice Age. For The Road Beyond Ruin, set mainly in the post-war chaos in Europe, it took me weeks to land on a title that I was happy with. This too, I felt, was perfect for the story.

What's in a name?

In the book, In a Field of Blue, the names were taken from writers I admire. In my new release, I chose character names from historical records. I often look for common names...[read on]

Visit Gemma Liviero's website.

The Page 69 Test: An Age of Winters.

Q&A with Gemma Liviero.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Paul M. Renfro's "The Life and Death of Ryan White"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Life and Death of Ryan White: AIDS and Inequality in America by Paul M. Renfro.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the 1980s, as HIV/AIDS ravaged queer communities and communities of color in the United States and beyond, a straight white teenager named Ryan White emerged as the face of the epidemic. Diagnosed with hemophilia at birth, Ryan contracted HIV through contaminated blood products. In 1985, he became a household name after he was barred from attending his Indiana middle school. As Ryan appeared on nightly news broadcasts and graced the covers of popular magazines, he was embraced by music icons and well-known athletes, achieving a curious kind of stardom. Analyzing his struggle and celebrity, Paul M. Renfro's powerful biography grapples with the contested meanings of Ryan's life, death, and afterlives.

As Renfro argues, Ryan's fight to attend school forced the American public to reckon with prevailing misconceptions about the AIDS epidemic. Yet his story also reinforced the hierarchies at the heart of the AIDS crisis. Because the "innocent" Ryan had contracted HIV "through no fault of his own," as many put it, his story was sometimes used to blame presumably "guilty" populations for spreading the virus. Reexamining Ryan's story through this lens, Renfro reveals how the consequences of this stigma continue to pervade policy and cultural understandings of HIV/AIDS today.

Learn more about The Life and Death of Ryan White at the University of North Carolina Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Life and Death of Ryan White.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg, 69: Catherine Ryan Hyde's "Rolling Toward Clear Skies"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Rolling Toward Clear Skies: A Novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde.

About the book, from the publisher:

A foster mother must contend with the emotional turmoil of her new blended family in a heartfelt novel of hope and second chances by New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde.

Maggie Blount, divorced mother of two and California physician, puts her private practice on hold when disaster strikes. Doctors on Wheels takes her and Alex―Maggie’s professional and romantic partner―wherever they’re needed. After rolling into rural Louisiana in the wake of a category five hurricane, Maggie immediately bonds with two sisters and their puppy, all orphaned by the storm. It’s enough to break Maggie’s heart, and she’s not leaving them behind.

Feeling blessed and looking forward to their new foster home in affluent Vista del Mar―a world apart from the one they’ve known―Jean and Rose are polite, appreciative, and humble. Frankly, they're the polar opposite of Maggie’s own self-involved teenage daughters, Willa and Gemma, who resist this intrusion by strangers into their privileged lives. Soon enough, Maggie’s new blended family is in chaos.

Teaching Willa and Gemma about gratitude and empathy will be hard enough. Maggie must also admit her own role in their entitled upbringing, undo the damage, and anticipate the needs of all four girls and a puppy, all amid faraway natural disasters and those closer to home.

Visit Catherine Ryan Hyde's website.

Q&A with Catherine Ryan Hyde.

The Page 69 Test: Brave Girl, Quiet Girl.

The Page 69 Test: My Name is Anton.

The Page 69 Test: Seven Perfect Things.

The Page 69 Test: Boy Underground.

The Page 69 Test: Dreaming of Flight.

The Page 69 Test: So Long, Chester Wheeler.

The Page 69 Test: A Different Kind of Gone.

The Page 69 Test: Life, Loss, and Puffins.

The Page 69 Test: Rolling Toward Clear Skies.

--Marshal Zeringue

Andrew Welsh-Huggins's "Sick To Death," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Sick to Death by Andrew Welsh-Huggins.

The entry begins:

Sick To Death is the eighth book in my series about Andy Hayes, a former Ohio State and Cleveland Browns quarterback turned private eye. When thinking about who would play Hayes in a movie, I always remind people that Keanu Reeves has twice played a former Ohio State quarterback—FBI agent Johnny Utah in 1991’s Pointbreak, and down-and-out NFL player Shane Falco in The Replacements in 2000. However, though I’m a big Reeves admirer, I don’t think he’s right for the role of Hayes. Thinking about Sick to Death on the big screen, I decided to focus on four characters:

Hayes; his newly discovered adult daughter, Alex Rutledge; Hayes’ friend and sometimes collaborator Otto Mulligan, a bail bondsman; and Suzanne Gregory, an award-winning TV journalist who also happens to be Hayes’ ex-fiancée. This time around, I’m selecting Jake Gyllenhaal to play Hayes. Although I like the breadth of his work, I’m leaning mainly on his performance in the 2024 remake of Roadhouse. Gyllenhaal is a lot buffer than I imagine Hayes, but what draws me to him is the baggage that Gyllenhaal’s character carries in the movie from a violent incident in his past as a UFC fighter. Hayes has baggage to spare, and I think Gyllenhaal could aptly portray Hayes’ ongoing efforts at redemption.

For Alex, I would tap...[read on]

Visit Andrew Welsh-Huggins's website.

My Book, The Movie: An Empty Grave.

Q&A with Andrew Welsh-Huggins.

The Page 69 Test: An Empty Grave.

Writers Read: Andrew Welsh-Huggins (April 2023).

My Book, The Movie: The End of the Road.

The Page 69 Test: The End of the Road.

Writers Read: Andrew Welsh-Huggins.

My Book, The Movie: Sick to Death.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nineteen of the best novels to understand America

The literary team of The Times (UK) and Sunday Times asked novelists, journalists and US experts to recommend great fiction about America.

One of Lionel Shriver's picks:

American Rust by Philipp Meyer (2009)

Since Pennsylvania played an outsize part in this election, reach for a brilliant if painful novel set in the rust-belt state. A genius-level IQ doesn’t save the protagonist from the scale of tragedy that disabled his father, a former steel worker. But then, there are no more steel mills. And, Meyer warns, “You could not have a country, not this big, that didn’t make things for itself. There would be ramifications eventually.” Those being the welfare dependency, petty criminality and substance abuse of a region no longer providing steady, dignified employment. If these characters are logical Trump voters, it’s more likely they wouldn’t vote at all.

Read about another title on the list.

American Rust is among Jordan Farmer's seven novels about the beauty & hardship of life in rural America.

The Page 69 Test: American Rust.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Cruz Medina's "Sanctuary"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Sanctuary: Exclusion, Violence, and Indigenous Migrants in the East Bay by Cruz Medina.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Sanctuary, Cruz Medina presents a powerful counterstory to dominant narratives surrounding Latin American and Global South im/migration by bringing attention to the displacement of Indigenous Guatemalan Maya people who seek refuge in the United States. These migrants have exchanged gang and narcotrafficker violence for the dehumanizing and exclusionary rhetoric of US political leaders, militarized immigration enforcement, false promises of empowerment through literacy, and further displacement from gentrification. Medina combines decolonial critical race theory with autoethnography to examine white supremacist policies that impact US and transnational Indigenous populations who have been displaced by neocolonial projects of capitalism.

Taking a Northern California community of migrants from Guatemala as a case study, Medina demonstrates the ways in which immigration policy and educational barriers exclude Indigenous migrant populations. He follows the community at the “Sanctuary”—a Spanish-speaking church in the East Bay Area that serves as a place of worship, English language instruction, and refuge for migrants. Medina assembles participant observations, interviews, surveys, and other data to provide points of entry into intersecting issues of immigration, violence, language, and property and to untangle aspects of citizenship, exclusion, and assumptions about literacy.

Visit Cruz Medina's website.

The Page 99 Test: Sanctuary.

--Marshal Zeringue