What is Megan Chance reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Megan Chance, author of Glamorous Notions: A Novel.

Her entry begins:

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

Okay, this book … There’s so much to be said about it that can’t really be said without spoiling it, but I can tell you this: it’s set in the early 1960s in the Dutch countryside, which has finally recovered from WWII. The story deals with Isabel and her brother’s fiancée, Eva, who comes to stay at their family house—where only Isabel currently lives—while the brother is on a long business trip. Eva and Isabel try to get along, but they just don’t like one another, and Isabel is paranoid and suspicious. As their relationship grows and changes, we begin to see that though the land is healed, the scars from the war may still be there in other, more psychological and emotional ways.

This book is beautiful and subtle and heart-wrenching. It’s a love story, and a story about obsession, and it is a book...[read on]

About Glamorous Notions, from the publisher:

A costume designer’s past casts a long shadow over her well-constructed lies in this intriguing story about stolen identities, friendship, and betrayal from the author of A Splendid Ruin and A Dangerous Education.

Hollywood, 1955. As head costume designer for Lux Pictures, Lena Taylor hears startling confessions from the biggest movie stars. She knows how to keep their secrets―after all, none of their scandals can match her own.

Lena was once Elsie Gruner, the daughter of an Ohio dressmaker. Her gift for fashion design helped her win a coveted spot at an art academy in Rome. While in Italy, she became enthralled by the charismatic Julia, who drew her into a shadowy world of jazz clubs, code words, and mysterious deliveries. When one of Julia’s intrigues ended in murder, Elsie found herself in the middle of a bewildering sinister international plot. So she ran.

After fleeing to LA, Elsie became Lena―but she’s never stopped looking over her shoulder. Now, as her engagement to a screenwriter throws her into the spotlight, she’s terrified her façade won’t hold up. Will she figure out the truth about her past before everything falls apart?

Visit Megan Chance's website.

My Book, The Movie: A Splendid Ruin.

The Page 69 Test: A Splendid Ruin.

Q&A with Megan Chance.

The Page 69 Test: A Dangerous Education.

My Book, The Movie: A Dangerous Education.

Writers Read: Megan Chance (February 2023).

Writers Read: Megan Chance.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Martin Hewitt's "Darwinism's Generations"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Darwinism’s Generations: The Reception of Darwinian Evolution in Britain, 1859-1909 by Martin Hewitt.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Reception of Darwinian Evolution in Britain, 1859-1909: Darwinism's Generations uses the impact of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) in the 50 years after its publication to demonstrate the effectiveness of a generational framework for understanding the cultural and intellectual history of Britain in the nineteenth century. It challenges conventional notions of the 'Darwinian Revolution' by examining how people from across all sections of society actually responded to Darwin's writings. Drawing on the opinions and interventions of over 2,000 Victorians, drawn from an exceptionally wide range of archival and printed sources, it argues that the spread of Darwinian belief was slower, more complicated, more stratified by age, and ultimately shaped far more powerfully by divergent generational responses, than has previously been recognised. In doing so, it makes a number of important contributions. It offers by far the richest and most comprehensive account to date of how contemporaries came to terms with the intellectual and emotional shocks of evolutionary theory. It makes a compelling case for taking proper account of age as a fundamental historical dynamic, and for the powerful generational patternings of the effects that age produced. It demonstrates the extent to which the most common sub-periodisation of the Victorian period are best understood not merely as constituted by the exigencies of events, but are also formed by the shifting balance generational influence.

Taken together these insights present a significant challenge to the ways historians currently approach the task of describing the nature and experience of historical change, and have fundamental implications for our current conceptions of the shape and pace of historical time.

Visit Martin Hewitt's website.

The Page 99 Test: Darwinism’s Generations.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five novels featuring houses to die for

Camilla Bruce is a Norwegian writer of speculative and historical fiction. She has a master’s degree in comparative literature and has co-run a small press that published dark fairy tales. Bruce currently lives in Trondheim with her son and cat.

Her new novel is At the Bottom of the Garden.

At The Nerd Daily Bruce tagged five "novels with powerful houses that the characters are willing to fight, live, die – and even kill – for." One title on the list:

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

No list of beguiling houses is complete without a mention of this classic. Without the existence of this novel, we might not have had so many other books about bewitching houses to enjoy. There is a reason why it’s still being widely read – I, for one, didn’t feel normal for a week after cracking its cover for the first time. Maybe it’s the setting: a group of sensitives of various flavors who come together to conduct an experiment, or maybe it’s Elanor: a protagonist that is so painfully sad and insecure that it’s impossible not to feel something for her. Or, maybe it’s just Hill House with its many – shifting – rooms, and the way it subtly seduces with a promise of belonging and home. Whatever the reason, this novel will forever hold the power to send chills down even the sturdiest of spines, and make you look twice (twice) at the shadows in your own home.

Read about another title on the list.

The Haunting of Hill House also appears on Jen Williams's list of the five best novels about hauntings, Sara Flannery Murphy's five top thriller and horror books with “House” in the title, Lisa Unger's list of five great horror novels that explore the darkest corners of our minds, Dell Villa's list of seven of the best haunted houses in literature, Kat Rosenfield's list of seven scary October reads, Michael Marshall Smith's top ten list of horror books, Carlos Ruiz Zafón's top ten list of 20th-century gothic novels,  and Brad Leithauser's five best list of ghost tales.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Angela Brown's "Some Other Time"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Some Other Time: A Novel by Angela Brown.

About the book, from the publisher:

A hopeful, funny, and untraditional love story about second chances, the ripple effects of love, and the myriad ways in which the simplest lives have the power to change the world.

The next step in Ellie Baker’s marriage: divorce. She and her husband, Jonah, are heading to Florida to break it to the family. No great drama to share. After twenty years of marriage, they’ve just fallen out of love. Simple.

Not to their college-age daughter, Maggie, who is devastated. Or to Ellie’s father, Frank, who grows as cold as a retiree can get in Orlando. As for Ellie’s mother, Bunny: no, no, no. She doesn’t want to hear it. After a dreadful weekend, Ellie and Jonah return home to New Jersey with hearts and minds still set on a split. Until the extraordinary morning Ellie wakes up to an alternate version of the present day―one in which she, and a passing stranger named Jonah, never married.

Over the span of an inexplicable week, Ellie sees how her world―and the world of everyone she loves―unfolded through a different course in time. And this time could change everything all over again.

Visit Angela Brown's website.

The Page 69 Test: Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time.

Q&A with Angela Brown.

The Page 69 Test: Some Other Time.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Edward Armston-Sheret's "On the Backs of Others"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: On the Backs of Others: Rethinking the History of British Geographical Exploration by Edward Armston-Sheret.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the Victorian and Edwardian eras British explorers sought to become respected geographers and popular public figures, downplaying or reframing their reliance on others for survival. Far from being solitary heroes, these explorers were in reality dependent on the bodies, senses, curiosity, and labor of subaltern people and animals.

In On the Backs of Others Edward Armston-Sheret offers new perspectives on British exploration in this era by focusing on the contributions of the people and animals, ordinarily written out of the mainstream histories, who made these journeys possible. He explores several well-known case studies of enduring popular and academic interest, such as Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke’s Nile expeditions (1856–59 and 1860–63); Isabella Bird’s travels in North America, Persia, and East Asia (1872–c. 1900); and Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s two Antarctic expeditions (1901–4 and 1911–13). Armston-Sheret argues that numerous previously ignored stories show the work and agency of subaltern groups. In rethinking the history of exploration On the Backs of Others offers the first book-length study of the relationship between exploration and empire and their legacies within academic geography.

Visit Edward Armston-Sheret's website.

The Page 99 Test: On the Backs of Others.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight top historical novels that add a little magic

Susie Dumond is a queer writer originally from Little Rock, Arkansas. She is the author of Queerly Beloved, Looking for a Sign, and Bed and Breakup, and she also talks about books as a senior contributor at Book Riot and a bookseller at her local indie bookstore. Dumond lives in Washington, D.C., with her spouse, Mickey, and her cat, Maple. When she’s not writing or reading, you can find her baking cupcakes or belting karaoke at the nearest gay bar.

At Book Riot Dumond tagged "eight novels that combine historical fiction with magical realism and fabulism to create something truly special." One title on the list:

The Monstrous Misses Mai by Van Hoang

Cordelia dreams of becoming a famous fashion designer, but 1959 Los Angeles is less than kind to her as the child of Vietnamese immigrants. Desperate for an affordable place to live, Cordelia meets a mysterious stranger who leads her to an opening in an apartment with three roommates, all of whom share Cordelia’s middle name, Mai. It must be a sign that she’s found the right place. Then, the stranger offers Cordelia and her roommates a little spell to help them find jobs in exchange for a small sacrifice. It sounds reasonable, and it works! But as their wishes get bigger, so do their spells and their sacrifices, and getting what they want might lead them to lose everything.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: The Monstrous Misses Mai.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Sejal Badani

From my Q&A with Sejal Badani, author of The Sun's Shadow: A Novel:

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

Quite a bit. In The Sun’s Shadow, the title symbolizes two key ideas: first, that even in moments of light and joy, shadows can loom over lives; and second, that one of the boys—a son—would cast a shadow over all their lives while also being a source of light and healing. Similarly, in The Storyteller’s Secret, the title reflects the layers of hidden truths. While the protagonist is a storyteller with a significant secret, it is the former servant, recounting the tale to the granddaughter, whose secret ultimately changes the course of all their lives, giving deeper meaning to the title.

What's in a name?

I love naming characters. I have a passion for...[read on]

Visit Sejal Badani's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Sejal Badani & Skyler.

My Book, The Movie: The Storyteller's Secret.

Q&A with Sejal Badani.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Brent Sohngen & Douglas Southgate's "Reversing Deforestation"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Reversing Deforestation: How Market Forces and Local Ownership Are Saving Forests in Latin America by Brent Sohngen and Douglas Southgate.

About the book, from the publisher:

Dire reports of surging deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon appear often in international headlines, with commentators decrying the destruction of tree-covered habitats as an act of environmental vandalism. Although forest losses are alarming, broader trends are bending in the direction of forest recovery. In this book, Brent Sohngen and Douglas Southgate address the long-term recovery of forests in Latin America. The authors synthesize trends in demography, agricultural development, and technological change, and argue that slower population growth and increasing crop and tree yields—in conjunction with protecting local ownership of natural resources—have encouraged forest transition. This book explores how market forces, ownership arrangements, and the enforcement of property rights have influenced this shift from net deforestation to net afforestation. Forest transitions have happened before, such as the recovery of tree-covered habitats in Europe and the United States. Signs of a similar transformation in land use are now present in Latin America. Ending deforestation requires a strengthening of forest dwellers' property rights while ensuring that biodiversity conservation is no longer treated as a value-less externality. The resulting forest landscape, actively managed for ecosystem services, will be more resilient, as is needed to overcome climate change.

Learn more about Reversing Deforestation at the Stanford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Reversing Deforestation.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top mystery novels with unique settings

Jenny Elder Moke is the award-winning author of children’s and adult literature. She enjoys fast-paced adventures with plenty of mysteries, surprising turns, and laughs along the way. Her adult debut, She Doesn’t Have A Clue, is a murder-mystery rom-com mash-up for fans of Clue and Knives Out.

At CrimeReads she tagged

five selections that range from haunting thrillers to whip-smart homages to detective novels of a bygone era, [in which] setting plays a critical role in the execution of the story. The stories are worth reading not only to solve the murder, but to lose yourself in their immersive worlds.

One title on the list:

A Midnight Puzzle by Gigi Pandian

The Secret Staircase series introduces Tempest Raj’s delightful family, along with their unique line of work – using their backgrounds in stage magic to create reality-defying interior designs for their customers. In this third book in the series, Tempest has purchased the local derelict theater in hopes of reviving her former magic career. But what happens instead seems impossible – a door that spouts knives, killing her dear friend and mentor. Is the theater haunted? Or is the Raj family curse coming for Tempest? The set designs are as elaborate as the mysteries, and fans of a classic cozy locked room mystery will adore this series for the dedicated work that Pandian puts into the set piece solutions.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

James Byrne's "Chain Reaction," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Chain Reaction (A Dez Limerick Thriller, 3) by James Byrne.

The entry begins:

I quite literally had this conversation with a Hollywood producer in the spring of 2024.

When asked about casting, here’s what I said:

Yes, Dez Limerick is a strong, powerfully built fighter. But I don’t think anyone producing my books should worry about casting guys with “Marvel Cinematic Universe” muscles. As near as I can tell, most actors, when offered a couple million dollars, can bulk up. I wouldn’t call Tom Holland a gym rat, but he got pretty buff for both Uncharted and Spider-Man. (In Spider-Man, Tom Holland plays a nerdy high schooler who gets bitten by a radioactive spider and gains the power to attract Zendaya. At least that’s how I remember it.)

And yes, Dez is from the U.K. He moved around a lot as a kid and lived in Ireland, Scotland and near Liverpool. But I wouldn’t worry about...[read on]

Visit James Byrne's website.

Q&A with James Byrne.

The Page 69 Test: Deadlock.

My Book, The Movie: Deadlock.

Writers Read: James Byrne.

The Page 69 Test: Chain Reaction.

My Book, The Movie: Chain Reaction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Nicholas H. Wolfinger & Matthew McKeever's "Thanks for Nothing"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Thanks for Nothing: The Economics of Single Motherhood since 1980 by Nicholas H. Wolfinger and Matthew McKeever.

About the book, from the publisher:

In 1980, single mother families were five times more likely than two-parent families to be poor. Forty years later, single-mother families are still five times more likely to be poor. How can this be given the vast increases in education and employment achieved by American women over this period?

In Thanks for Nothing, Nicholas H. Wolfinger and Matthew McKeever explore the contradictions that lie at the heart of single motherhood. Drawing on forty years of data from two large national surveys, they find that the mystery of single mothers' economic stagnation can be explained by changes in the kind of women most likely to become single mothers. In 1980, most single mothers were divorced women; forty years later, the majority are mothers who gave birth out of wedlock. On paper, divorced women look a lot like their married contemporaries, but with one income instead of two. Never-married mothers are a completely different population--they have less education, work less, and receive lower economic returns on their educational credentials when they do work. They're also far more likely to have grown up in underprivileged families. Ultimately, Wolfinger and McKeever find that some single mothers are doing better even as others have fallen through the cracks.

Providing an in-depth look into the economics of single motherhood, Thanks for Nothing offers the most detailed statistical portrait of single mothers to date and, importantly, provides concrete suggestions for how policymakers should respond to persisting inequalities among mothers.

Learn more about Thanks for Nothing at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Thanks for Nothing.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven novels where real estate drives the plot

Daniel Kenitz is a freelance writer and the author of the thriller The Perfect Home. He has also published several short stories, including the Pushcart Prize-nominated "A Hand to the Plow" (2022, Red Rock Review), "Tickleneck" (2022, Spotlong Review), "The Cycle" (2021, Evening Street Review), "Seen" (2020, Every Day Fiction), "The Parent License" (2020, The Virginia Normal), and "Sunset 9037" (2013, Strangelet Magazine).

At Electric Lit Kenitz tagged seven novels in which "authors have skillfully used unique real estate situations for all sorts of literary purposes: metaphors, side plots, symbols, and entanglements." One title on the list:

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

A literal House of Horrors here as the protagonist, Maggie Holt, inherits the mansion that had inspired her late father to write a bestselling book about the haunted house. Finding out the causes of the haunting feel a bit like demo day during a renovation—you’re never sure what’s going to turn up behind the walls. The House of Horrors book-within-a-book is a fun way to unravel the mysteries here, including a collapsed kitchen ceiling that reveal a secret love affair. You know. Standard demo day stuff.

Read about another novel on the list.

Home Before Dark is among Tom Ryan's six top suspense novels featuring mysterious mansions, Chanel Cleeton's nine novels about grand homes that are filled with secrets, Philip Fracassi's ten best thrillers with supernatural elements, Ana Reyes's six top books with embedded narratives, James S. Murray's five top books about women fighting their way out and Karen Dionne's eight top thrillers that turn home into a place of mortal danger.

The Page 69 Test: Home Before Dark.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Kira Jane Buxton "Tartufo"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Tartufo by Kira Jane Buxton.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the author of Hollow Kingdom, a fantastically funny story featuring a cast of colorful characters in a dying Italian village and a giant truffle that changes their fate forever in this “deliciously absurd tale....I savored every page of this book.” (Shelby Van Pelt, author of Remarkably Bright Creatures)

After nearly losing the election to a geriatric donkey, newly installed Mayor Delizia Miccuci can’t help but feel like the sun has finally set on the rural Italian village of Lazzarini Boscarino. Tourists only stop by to ask for directions, Nonna Amara’s cherished ristorante is long shuttered, and the town hall is disgustingly overrun with glis glis poo—even Postman Duccio has been disgraced. All that’s left is Bar Celebrità, a rustic establishment where weary locals gather to quibble over decades-long disputes, submit their poor stomachs to bartender Giuseppina’s volcanic espresso, and wonder what will become of the place where together they’ve spent their entire lives.

Little do the villagers know that local truffle hunter Giovanni Scarpazza has just happened upon something that could change everything. A truffle—un tartufo, that is—sits beneath the soil with the power to either be the greatest gift or the foulest curse the village has ever seen.

Written in the same enchanting style and raucous humor that defines Hollow Kingdom and Feral Creatures, Tartufo is a reflection on the interconnectedness of life in all its manifestations—and how holding on to harmony in the face of hardship can grow something beautiful and rare beneath the surface.

Visit Kira Jane Buxton's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Kira Jane Buxton & Ewok.

My Book, The Movie: Hollow Kingdom.

The Page 69 Test: Hollow Kingdom.

My Book, The Movie: Feral Creatures.

Q&A with Kira Jane Buxton.

The Page 69 Test: Feral Creatures.

My Book, The Movie: Tartufo.

The Page 69 Test: Tartufo.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Katie Beisel Hollenbach's "The Business of Bobbysoxers"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Business of Bobbysoxers: Cultural Production in 1940s Frank Sinatra Fandom by Katie Beisel Hollenbach.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Business of Bobbysoxers reconsiders the story of American popular music, celebrity following, and fan behavior during World War II through close examination of “bobbysoxers.” Preserved in popular memory as primarily white, hysterical, teen girl devotees of Frank Sinatra clad in bobby socks and saddle shoes, these girls were accused of displaying inappropriate behavior and priorities in their obsessive pursuit of a crooning celebrity at a time of international crisis. Author Katie Beisel Hollenbach peels back the stereotypes of girlhood idol adoration by documenting the intimate practices of wartime Sinatra fan clubs, revealing a new side of this familiar story in American history through the perspective of the bobbysoxer.

In World War II America, fan clubs and organizations like Teen Canteens offered a haven for teenage girls to celebrate their enjoyment of popular culture while cultivating relationships with each other through media icons and the entertainment industry. Many of these organizations attempted to encourage diverse memberships, influenced in part by Frank Sinatra's public work on racial and religious tolerance, and by Sinatra's own identity as an Italian American. Away from the critical public eye, these communities offered girls a place to safely explore and discuss issues including civil rights, politics, the war, patriotism, internationalism, and professional development in the context of their shared Sinatra fandom. With these broader social and political complexities in mind, The Business of Bobbysoxers shines a light on musical fan communities that provided teenage girls with peer groups at a critical moment of personal and historical change, allowing them to creatively express their desires and imagine their futures as American women together.

Visit Katie Beisel Hollenbach's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Business of Bobbysoxers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six great thrillers featuring sisters (and murder)

Kate Alice Marshall is the bestselling author of thrillers and horror for kids and adults. Her middle grade books include the Secrets of Eden Eld trilogy and Extra Normal. In YA, she’s written the survival thriller I Am Still Alive, as well as supernatural suspense including Rules for Vanishing and The Narrow. She made her adult thriller debut with What Lies in the Woods, followed by the USA Today bestseller No One Can Know.

She lives outside Seattle with her family, two very friendly (but not very smart) golden retrievers, and a growing collection of fancy pens.

At CrimeReads Marshall tagged six of her "favorite stories featuring sisters—the good, the bad, and the complicated." One title on the list:

My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

I couldn’t resist including Oyinkan Braithwaite’s compulsively readable story of Korede, whose sister Ayoola is either deeply unlucky in love or maybe (probably) a cold-blooded serial killer. She’s always got a perfectly reasonable excuse for why her latest boyfriend had to go. Korede is always there to clean up her sister’s mess, moral qualms or no, but when Ayoola starts cozying up to the man Korede is in love with, Korede has to decide if it’s time to put an end to her sister’s bad habits.

Read about another entry on the list.

My Sister the Serial Killer is among Margot Douaihy's four novels that show the power of siblings in mysteries & thrillers, Francesca McDonnell Capossela's seven books about women committing acts of violence, Tessa Wegert's five thrillers about killer relatives, Catherine Ryan Howard's five notable dangers-of-dating thrillers, Sally Hepworth's top five novels about twisted sisters, Megan Nolan's six books on unrequited love and unmet obsession, Sarah Pinborough's top ten titles where the setting is a character, Tiffany Tsao's top five novels about murder all in the family, Victoria Helen Stone's eight top crime books of deep, dark family lore, and Kristen Roupenian's six best books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Lydia Reeder's "The Cure for Women"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Cure for Women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine That Changed Women's Lives Forever by Lydia Reeder.

About the book, from the publisher:

How Victorian male doctors used false science to argue that women were unfit for anything but motherhood―and the brilliant doctor who defied them

After Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to graduate from medical school, more women demanded a chance to study medicine. Barred entrance to universities like Harvard, women built their own first-rate medical schools and hospitals. Their success spurred a chilling backlash from elite, white male physicians who were obsessed with eugenics and the propagation of the white race. Distorting Darwin’s evolution theory, these haughty physicians proclaimed in bestselling books that women should never be allowed to attend college or enter a profession because their menstrual cycles made them perpetually sick. Motherhood was their constitution and duty.

Into the midst of this turmoil marched tiny, dynamic Mary Putnam Jacobi, daughter of New York publisher George Palmer Putnam and the first woman to be accepted into the world-renowned Sorbonne medical school in Paris. As one of the best-educated doctors in the world, she returned to New York for the fight of her life. Aided by other prominent women physicians and suffragists, Jacobi conducted the first-ever data-backed, scientific research on women's reproductive biology. The results of her studies shook the foundations of medical science and higher education. Full of larger than life characters and cinematically written, The Cure for Women documents the birth of a sexist science still haunting us today as the fight for control of women’s bodies and lives continues.

Visit Lydia Reeder's website.

My Book, The Movie: Dust Bowl Girls.

The Page 99 Test: The Cure for Women.

--Marshal Zeringue

Books that show how to be alone

Rebecca Joines Schinsky is the Chief of Staff for Riot New Media Group and a co-host of the Book Riot Podcast.

At Book Riot she tagged a few "books to help you savor solitude, sink into silence, and be alone with your thoughts in a world filled with noise." One title on the list:

If you’re dreaming of becoming a person who can eat dinner alone at the bar in a restaurant or go see a movie by yourself without feeling like everyone is staring at you, Glynnis MacNicol’s I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself is a great place to start. About a post-covid summer she spent in Paris, the book is an ode to the freedom of not being subject to anyone’s desires but your own. Though MacNicol travels and lives alone, she is far from lonely; the book is full of wine-soaked meals with friends, sexy encounters, and the kinds of spontaneous experiences and adventures that become available when you show up by yourself and let the world work its magic.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: James Byrne's "Chain Reaction"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Chain Reaction (A Dez Limerick Thriller, 3) by James Byrne.

About the book, from the publisher:

Dez Limerick, a man of many skills and a murky past, faces the impossible-a skilled, deadly opponent who anticipates his every move in James Byrne's Chain Reaction.

Desmond Aloysius Limerick ("Dez" to his friends and close personal enemies) is a man with a shadowy past, certain useful hard-won skills, and, if one digs deep enough, a reputation as a good man to have at your back. He was trained as a "gatekeeper"―he can open any door, keep it open as long as necessary, and control who does―and does not―go through. Now retired from his previous life, Dez still tries to keep his skills up to date.

Knocking around the country, picking up the occasional gig as a guitarist, Dez is contacted by a friend in urgent need of his musical skills. At his behest, Dez flies to the East Coast to a gig at the brand new massive complex, the Liberty Center. But he's barely landed before he finds himself in the midst of a terrorist attack, a group has taken over the whole center and thousands of hostage lives are in danger. With the semi-willing help of a talented thief, Dez takes on the impossible task of outfighting and outwitting a literal army. But that's just the beginning, as Dez learns he was actually lured there under false pretenses, by someone who knows more about Dez, his past and his skills than any living person should.

Visit James Byrne's website.

Q&A with James Byrne.

The Page 69 Test: Deadlock.

My Book, The Movie: Deadlock.

Writers Read: James Byrne.

The Page 69 Test: Chain Reaction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Hemangini Gupta's "Experimental Times"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Experimental Times: Startup Capitalism and Feminist Futures in India by Hemangini Gupta.

About the book, from the publisher:

Experimental Times is an in-depth ethnography of the transformation of Bengaluru/Bangalore from a site of "backend" IT work to an aspirational global city of enterprise and innovation. The book journeys alongside the migrant workers, technologists, and entrepreneurs who shape and survive the dreams of a "Startup India" knitted through office work, at networking meetings and urban festivals, and across sites of leisure in the city. Tracking techno-futures that involve automation and impending precarity, Hemangini Gupta details the everyday forms of experimentation, care, and friendship that sustain and reproduce life and labor in India's current economy.

Learn more about Experimental Times at the University of California Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Experimental Times.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top books on belonging and identity

Charlene Carr has published eleven novels. Her first agented novel, Hold My Girl, was named one of the Best Books of 2023 by CBC, shortlisted for multiple awards, and has been optioned for adaptation to the screen. Carr lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia with her husband and young daughters.

Her new novel is We Rip the World Apart.

At The Nerd Daily Carr tagged six books that explore themes of identity and belonging. One title on the list:

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

The Vanishing Half is the story of identical twins who take on differing racial identities—one Black, one white—which leads them to lead extremely different lives. The sister who is ‘passing’ has chosen to live a lie, hiding her true racial background from everyone she knows and loves, even her child.

Spanning decades, the novel is a compelling, emotional read that kept me compulsively turning the pages as it explored questions of identity and the ways in which so many of us, either in small or massive ways, present multiple versions of ourselves as we search for a place to belong.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Vanishing Half is among Beth Morrey‘s top ten single mothers in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Kemper Donovan

From my Q&A with Kemper Donovan, author of Loose Lips:

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

Quite a lot, I hope! My title, Loose Lips, is the first part of a common phrase: “Loose lips sink ships.” To make certain that this word association occurs in the mind of a would-be reader, I made sure to include a picture of a sinking ship on the cover of the book. The idea is to convey: 1) the action of the story takes place entirely on a boat, and 2) matters on this boat go seriously awry. There is also a subtitle, A Ghostwriter Mystery, which clarifies that this book is a mystery, one in a series, and furthermore, that it does not matter where the book falls within that series, since any one of the Ghostwriter Mysteries can be read on its own. The Ghostwriter in question is the narrator of each book, and in this outing, she reluctantly joins a literary-themed cruise as a lecturer, along with a handful of writer colleagues and a few hundred paying passengers. Would you be surprised to learn that...[read on]

Visit Kemper Donovan's website.

Q&A with Kemper Donovan.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Victoria Sturtevant's "It's All in the Delivery"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: It's All in the Delivery: Pregnancy in American Film and Television Comedy by Victoria Sturtevant.

About the book, from the publisher:

How changing depictions of pregnancy in comedy from the start of the twentieth century to the present show an evolution in attitudes toward women’s reproductive roles and rights.

Some of the most groundbreaking moments in American film and TV comedy have centered on pregnancy, from Lucille Ball’s real-life pregnancy on I Love Lucy, to the abortion plot on Maude; Murphy Brown’s controversial single motherhood; Arnold Schwarzenegger’s pregnancy in Junior; or the third-trimester stand-up special Ali Wong: Baby Cobra.

In the first book-length study of pregnancy in popular comedy, Victoria Sturtevant examines the slow evolution of pregnancy tropes during the years of the Production Code; the sexual revolution and changing norms around nonmarital pregnancy in the 1960s and ‘70s; and the emphasis on biological clocks, infertility, adoption, and abortion from the 1980s to now.

Across this history, popular media have offered polite evasions and sentimentality instead of real candor about the physical and social complexities of pregnancy. But comedy has often led the way in puncturing these clichés, pointing an irreverent and satiric lens at the messy and sometimes absurd work of gestation. Ultimately, Sturtevant argues that comedy can reveal the distortions and lies that treat pregnancy as simple and natural “women’s work,” misrepresentations that rest at the heart of contemporary attacks on reproductive rights in the US.

Learn more about It's All in the Delivery at the University of Texas Press website.

The Page 99 Test: It's All in the Delivery.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine books combining the Gothic & the glamorous

Layne Fargo has a background in theater, women’s studies, and library science, so it’s only fitting that she now writes deliciously dramatic, unapologetically feminist stories for a living. She’s the author of the novels The Favorites, They Never Learn, and Temper, as well as co-author on the bestselling Young Rich Widows series.

[My Book, The Movie: They Never Learn]

At CrimeReads Fargo tagged nine books "that pair the Gothic with the glam." One title on the list:

Kismet by Amina Ahktar

Hoping for healing and enlightenment, New Yorker Ronnie Khan follows socialite wellness guru Marley to Sedona. But soon a series of murders disturbs the woo-woo desert community, proving that no amount of clean living can cover up dirty secrets. Ahktar, who lives in Arizona, mines the stark landscape for all sorts of Gothic spine-tingling; turns out the desert is perfect for wellness retreats and corpse disposal! Kismet is also partially narrated by a chorus of talking ravens, and you can’t get much more goth than that.

Read about another title on the list.

Kismet is among Rachel Koller Croft's eight top thrillers in which the characters actually get to have fun, Jamie Lee Sogn's eight top mysteries & thrillers set in the wellness industry, Molly Odintz's twelve wacky, weird, and wildly entertaining mysteries & thrillers and Meredith Hambrock's five recent crime novels featuring messy female characters.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Becky Masterman's "Her Prodigal Husband"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Her Prodigal Husband by Becky Masterman.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the award-winning author of the internationally-bestselling Brigid Quinn thrillers, which have been translated into 20 languages, comes this gripping series spin-off: an upmarket novel of domestic suspense about a pair of sisters nicknamed Malice and Lethal, and a husband who vanishes into thin air, only to reappear and throw a bomb into both their lives

Alice Einstein - known as "Malice" to her former schoolfriends - likes to tell herself stories. There's a good one she's workshopping about how, despite once being a critically acclaimed literary novelist, she's ended up blocked and uninspired, living in her timid, conflict-averse sister Liesl's spare room.

But then Liesl sends her an SOS worthy of a thriller novel. The horror! The horror! Sam is back.

Sam, Liesl's wealthy ex-husband, vanished ten years ago, leaving her a chunk of money but no explanation. Sam is handsome, charming, manipulative . . . and now he claims he's sick. But Alice, with her experience of spinning tales, knows a liar when she sees one.

Haunted by a childhood tragedy that gave birth to the cruel nickname "Lethal", Liesl now specialises in saving things: dogs, children, sisters. Telling herself it's time she returned the favor, Alice engages the services of Brigid Quinn, a hardboiled local private investigator with a shady past, to help her get rid of Sam for good.

But as the plot thickens, Alice begins to wonder if she knows anyone involved - most of all herself - quite as well as she thinks . . .

Packed with quirky, colorful characters, and with a nail-biting, slow-burn plot, Her Prodigal Husband is a nail-biting novel of domestic suspense that raises thought-provoking questions about self-deception, the power of stories, and what it means to be a family, and marks the long-awaited return of Brigid Quinn, "one of the most memorable FBI agents since Clarice Starling" (Publishers Weekly).

Visit Becky Masterman's website.

My Book, The Movie: Rage Against the Dying.

The Page 69 Test: Rage Against the Dying.

My Book, The Movie: Fear the Darkness.

The Page 69 Test: Fear the Darkness.

My Book, The Movie: A Twist of the Knife.

My Book, The Movie: We Were Killers Once.

The Page 69 Test: We Were Killers Once.

The Page 69 Test: Her Prodigal Husband.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Donald S. Lopez Jr.'s "Buddhism: A Journey through History"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Buddhism: A Journey through History by Donald S. Lopez Jr.

About the book, from the publisher:

One of the world’s leading scholars of Buddhism presents the story of its dramatic journey across the globe, from 2,500 years ago to the present day

Over the course of twenty-five centuries, Buddhism spread from its place of origin in northern India to become a global tradition of remarkable breadth, depth, and richness. In this ambitious book, Donald S. Lopez Jr. draws on the latest scholarship to construct a detailed and innovative history of Buddhism—not just as a chronology through the centuries or as geographic movement across a map, but as a dense matrix of interconnections.

Beginning with the life and teachings of the Buddha, Lopez shows how a set of evolving ideas and practices traveled north and east to China, Korea, Japan, Mongolia, and Tibet, south and southeast to Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Indonesia, and finally westward to Europe and the Americas. He provides insights on questions that Buddhism has asked and answered in different times and different places—about apocalypse, art, identity, immortality, law, nation, persecution, philosophy, science, sex, war, and writing.

Vast in its erudition and expansive in its vision, this is the most complete single‑volume history of Buddhism in its full historical and geographical range.

Learn more about Buddhism: A Journey through History at the Yale University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Buddhism and Science.

The Page 99 Test: Buddhism: A Journey through History.

--Marshal Zeringue

Historical fiction titles about little known history

Rachel Brittain is a writer, Day Dreamer, and Amateur Aerialist. Her short fiction has appeared in Luna Station Quarterly, Andromeda Spaceways, and others. She is a contributing editor for Book Riot, where she screams into the void about her love of books. Brittain lives in Northwest Arkansas with a rambunctious rescue pup, a snake, and a houseful of plants (most of which aren’t carnivorous).

At Book Riot she tagged five "historical fiction books about little-known history [that] bring the more obscure sides of history to light." One entry on the list:

A Sign of Her Own by Sarah Marsh

The name Alexander Graham Bell likely brings to mind images of the telephone, but you may not know he also has a long and complicated history with the Deaf community. Marsh takes inspiration from the journals of Bell’s real-life deaf students to tell the story of how he helped and then ultimately betrayed the Deaf community. Now, asked to vouch for him when his telephone patent is contested, Ellen Lark must decide whether to risk her reputation and her future to tell the truth about Bell’s actions.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kira Jane Buxton's "Tartufo," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Tartufo by Kira Jane Buxton.

The entry begins:

Tartufo is a funny Italian caper about a dying village, its cast of delightfully eccentric characters and what happens when truffle hunter Giovanni (along with his truffle hunting dogs) unearth the biggest truffle the world has ever seen. There are a lot of characters, so it is a tremendously fun novel to imagine casting. I will focus on the three main characters to avoid this becoming a novella!

For the role of Delizia Micucci, I have only ever envisioned Sabrina Impacciatore. She is a phenomenal comedic actress whom you might have seen steal the show in season two of The White Lotus. I imagine she would be phenomenal at playing the stressed out Delizia Micucci as she tries to save her village from extinction.

Giovanni Scarpazza is the kind, sensitive truffle hunter of the village. He is grieving his partner, and being in the woods with his dogs is where he feels most at home. I can picture...[read on]

Visit Kira Jane Buxton's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Kira Jane Buxton & Ewok.

My Book, The Movie: Hollow Kingdom.

The Page 69 Test: Hollow Kingdom.

My Book, The Movie: Feral Creatures.

Q&A with Kira Jane Buxton.

The Page 69 Test: Feral Creatures.

My Book, The Movie: Tartufo.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Kieran Connell's "Multicultural Britain"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Multicultural Britain: A People's History by Kieran Connell.

About the book, from the publisher:

Between the end of the Second World War and the early twenty-first century, Britain became multicultural. This vivid book tells that remarkable story. Kieran Connell, an historian of Irish and German heritage who grew up in Balsall Heath, inner-city Bir-mingham, takes readers into multicultural communities across Britain at key moments in their development.

Journeying far beyond London, Multicultural Britain ex-plores the messy contradictions of the country's transition into today's diverse society. It reveals the ordinary people who have forged Britain's multiculturalism; skewers public leaders, from Enoch Powell to Harold Wilson to Margaret Thatcher, who have too often weaponized race for their own political ends; and shines a light on the shifting nature of British racism, revealing its enduring day-to-day impact on ethnic-minority groups.

Between postcolonial reckonings and immigration anxieties, how people live together in Brexit Britain remains an urgent question for our time. Connell's fresh, thought-provoking book unveils British multiculturalism not as a problematic idea, but as a rich and complex lived reality.

Visit Kieran Connell's website.

The Page 99 Test: Black Handsworth.

The Page 99 Test: Multicultural Britain.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eleven thrillers featuring the mega-rich

Trisha Sakhlecha grew up in New Delhi and now splits her time between Berlin and London. She is a diplomat, currently working as Director of The Tagore Centre at the Embassy of India. In the past, Sakhlecha has worked in the fashion industry as a business consultant, designer, and trend forecaster.

The Inheritance is her U.S. debut.

At Electric Lit Sakhlecha tagged thrillers featuring the mega-rich in which "the themes of betrayal, secrecy, and ambition [are] explored with razor-sharp intensity." One title on the list:

Pretty Things by Janelle Brown

Two women, from vastly different backgrounds, find their lives entwined in this novel that delves into the world of luxury, deceit, and revenge. One is a grifter, and the other, a wealthy socialite. Throw in a plot abounding with secrets and you have a twisty thriller that explores the disparity between rich and poor, while building suspense around what happens when the two worlds collide.

Read about another entry on the list.

Pretty Things is among Julie Clark's four top books featuring female con artists and Lindsay Cameron's five thrillers to warn you away from social media.

The Page 69 Test: Pretty Things.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is James Byrne reading?

Featured at Writers Read: James Byrne, author of Chain Reaction (A Dez Limerick Thriller, 3).

His entry begins:

I shouldn’t read mysteries and thrillers when I’m in a first-draft mode — as I am now — so I’m re-reading Wind, Sand and Stars by aviator, novelist, journalist Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It’s a collection of the most amazing stories about the earliest days of aviation. He writes about flying over hostile tribes in North Africa and the treacherous Andes Mountains in South America, delivering the mail in the 1930s. His prose style is beautiful and lyrical, and his descriptions are elegant.

Although he’s most famous for The Little Prince, it’s his aviation writing that mesmerizes me.

Adding to his mystique...[read on]

About Chain Reaction, from the publisher:

Dez Limerick, a man of many skills and a murky past, faces the impossible-a skilled, deadly opponent who anticipates his every move in James Byrne's Chain Reaction.

Desmond Aloysius Limerick ("Dez" to his friends and close personal enemies) is a man with a shadowy past, certain useful hard-won skills, and, if one digs deep enough, a reputation as a good man to have at your back. He was trained as a "gatekeeper"―he can open any door, keep it open as long as necessary, and control who does―and does not―go through. Now retired from his previous life, Dez still tries to keep his skills up to date.

Knocking around the country, picking up the occasional gig as a guitarist, Dez is contacted by a friend in urgent need of his musical skills. At his behest, Dez flies to the East Coast to a gig at the brand new massive complex, the Liberty Center. But he's barely landed before he finds himself in the midst of a terrorist attack, a group has taken over the whole center and thousands of hostage lives are in danger. With the semi-willing help of a talented thief, Dez takes on the impossible task of outfighting and outwitting a literal army. But that's just the beginning, as Dez learns he was actually lured there under false pretenses, by someone who knows more about Dez, his past and his skills than any living person should.

Visit James Byrne's website.

Q&A with James Byrne.

The Page 69 Test: Deadlock.

My Book, The Movie: Deadlock.

Writers Read: James Byrne.

--Marshal Zeringue