Eight novels about (literally) divided countries

Tamar Shapiro grew up in both the U.S. and Germany and now lives in Washington, DC with her husband, two children, and the world’s best dog. Her debut novel is Restitution. Shapiro’s writing also appears in Electric Literature, Poets and Writers, and Literary Hub (forthcoming). A former housing attorney and non-profit leader, she is a 2026 MFA candidate at Randolph College in Virginia.

At Electric Lit Shapiro tagged eight novels "set in countries that have fractured, shifting our maps and our conceptions of the world. The reconfigurations covered on these pages take many different shapes, but all are born of violence, and the scars are still visible." One title on the list:

Milkman by Anna Burns

Milkman, which won the 2018 Booker Award, does not explicitly mention Northern Ireland. In fact, the book steers clear of proper nouns and names, instead using descriptors, such as “country over the water” and “country over the border.” Still, it is clear Milkman is about a young woman in 1970s Northern Ireland, who is being stalked by a paramilitary leader in her neighborhood. At the same time (and perhaps because of his interest), she faces constant surveillance. Intimate and political oppression quickly become one and the same. In a place of violence and divided loyalties, everyday items and mundane choices are deadly political symbols. At once horrifying and deeply revealing, Milkman lays bare the ways in which communities and individuals fall apart.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Aaron Sheehan-Dean's "Fighting with the Past"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Fighting with the Past: How Seventeenth-Century History Shaped the American Civil War by Aaron Sheehan-Dean.

About the book, from the publisher:

Civil War Americans, like people today, used the past to understand and traverse their turbulent present. As Aaron Sheehan-Dean reveals in this fascinating work of comparative intellectual history, nineteenth-century Americans were especially conversant with narratives of the English Civil Wars of the 1600s. Northerners and Southerners alike drew from histories of the English past to make sense of their own conflict, interpreting the events of the past in drastically different ways. Confederates, for example, likened themselves to England’s Royalists (also known as Cavaliers), hoping to preserve a social order built on hierarchy and claiming the right to resist what they perceived as radicals' assaults on tradition. Meanwhile, conservative Northerners painted President Lincoln as a tyrant in the mold of English Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, while radical abolitionists drew inspiration from Cromwell and sought to rebuild the South as Cromwell had attempted with Ireland.

Surveying two centuries of history-making and everyday engagement with historical thought, Sheehan-Dean convincingly argues that history itself was a battlefront of the American Civil War, with narratives of the past exercising surprising agency in interpretations of the nineteenth-century present. Sheehan-Dean’s discoveries provide an entirely fresh perspective on the role of historical memory in the Civil War era and offer a broader meditation on the construction and uses of history itself.

Visit Aaron Sheehan-Dean's website.

The Page 99 Test: Fighting with the Past.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Stephanie Cowell

From my Q&A with Stephanie Cowell, author of The Man in the Stone Cottage:

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

I can’t remember when I chose my title, but I feel it has air of mystery about it. Who could this man be? I found a very early draft of the novel from years ago from Charlotte’s pov but it eventually became more of Emily’s journey and the title changed. I was always so drawn to the remoteness of half-ruined houses/cottages on the Yorkshire moors -- the loneliness of them, the allure. I first saw such cottages in my adolescence and climbed in one and wondered if the owner would step through time and come in. I could see him standing in the doorway.

What's in a name?

The Man in the Stone Cottage is about real people, the Brontë sisters who wrote Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, etc. so those names are factual. The only fictional characters are...[read on]

Visit Stephanie Cowell's website.

The Page 69 Test: Claude & Camille.

The Page 69 Test: The Man in the Stone Cottage.

Q&A with Stephanie Cowell.

--Marshal Zeringue

Thirty top literary mean girls we love to hate

In 2015 at Flavorwire, Sarah Seltzer tagged thirty of literature’s most delightfully nasty mean girls. One character on the list:

Caroline Bingley, Pride and Prejudice

You didn’t think we’d forget Caroline, did you? She does everything in her power to turn Mr. Darcy’s attention away from Elizabeth Bennet’s fine eyes and towards her muddy petticoat. She fails; we exult.

Read about another mean girl on the list.

Pride and Prejudice also appears on Sarah A. Parker's list of five of the best female leads in fiction, Kerry Wolfe's list of ten of the greatest love stories in novels, Annabelle Thorpe's top ten list of aunts in fiction, Harriet Evans's top ten list of close families in literature, Amelia Morris's top ten list of captivating fictional frenemies, David Annand's list of the top ten buildings in fiction, Off the Shelf's list of ten of the most fantastical (and sometimes fanatical) parties imaginable in novels, KT Sparks's seven best graceless literary exits, Lit Hub's list of twenty-five actually pretty happy couples in literature, Ellie Eaton's list of eight of literature's notable mean girls, Sarah Vaughan's list of nine fictional bad mothers in fiction, Jessica Francis Kane's top ten list of houseguests in fiction, O: The Oprah Magazine's twenty greatest ever romance novels, Cristina Merrill's list of eight of the sexiest curmudgeons in romance, Sarah Ward's ten top list of brothers and sisters in fiction, Tara Sonin's lists of fifty must-read regency romances and seven sweet and swoony romances for wedding season, Grant Ginder's top ten list of book characters we love to hate, Katy Guest's list of six of the best depictions of shyness in fiction, Garry Trudeau's six favorite books list, Ross Johnson's list of seven of the greatest rivalries in fiction, Helen Dunmore's six best books list, Jenny Kawecki's list of eight fictional characters who would make the best travel companions, Peter James's top ten list of works of fiction set in or around Brighton, Ellen McCarthy's list of six favorite books about weddings and marriage, the Telegraph's list of the ten greatest put-downs in literature, Rebecca Jane Stokes' list of ten fictional families you might enjoy more than the one you'll actually spend the holidays with, Melissa Albert's lists of five fictional characters who deserved better, [fifteen of the] romantic leads (and wannabes) of Austen’s brilliant books and recommended reading for eight villains, Molly Schoemann-McCann's list of ten fictional men who have ruined real live romance, Emma Donoghue's list of five favorite unconventional fictional families, Amelia Schonbek's list of five approachable must-read classics, Jane Stokes's top ten list of the hottest men in required reading, Gwyneth Rees's top ten list of books about siblings, the Observer's list of the ten best fictional mothers, Paula Byrne's list of the ten best Jane Austen characters, Robert McCrum's list of the top ten opening lines of novels in the English language, a top ten list of literary lessons in love, Simon Mason's top ten list of fictional families, Cathy Cassidy's top ten list of stories about sisters, Paul Murray's top ten list of wicked clerics, John Mullan's lists of ten of the best housekeepers in fiction, ten great novels with terrible original titles, and ten of the best visits to Brighton in literature, Luke Leitch's top ten list of the most successful literary sequels ever, and is one of the top ten works of literature according to Norman Mailer. Richard Price has never read it, but it is the book Mary Gordon cares most about sharing with her children.

The Page 99 Test: Pride and Prejudice.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Simon Cordery's "Gilded Age Entrepreneur"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Gilded Age Entrepreneur: The Curious Life of American Financier Albert Benton Pullman by Simon Cordery.

About the book, from the publisher:

Simon Cordery's Gilded Age Entrepreneur illuminates the fascinating and chaotic business world of Albert Pullman. The influential but little-known older brother of George Pullman and the craftsman of the family, Albert designed the first luxurious Pullman railroad cars and hosted promotional trips to show them off. In those heady early days, he met national business and political leaders and hired the first Pullman porters.

Albert and George made a formidable team, but as the Pullman Company grew, Albert's role shrank. He turned to his own investment portfolio, often with disastrous results. Beginning with the industrial laundry that cleaned sleeping-car linens, Albert appeared before the Supreme Court after a catastrophic insurance investment, ran afoul of federal banking regulations, and failed in an attempt to corner wheat futures. With evermore unsuccessful speculations, Albert was tempted by extralegal land sales and entered the silver-mining game. Finally, his own family in crisis and his relationship with George shattered, Albert Pullman launched into one last round of adventurous investments with mixed results.

Gilded Age Entrepreneur demonstrates that Albert Pullman embodied the small-time investors who were legion after the Civil War. From banking and insurance to manufacturing and mining, a host of hopeful dreamers like Albert Pullman fueled the circulation of capital by forging political connections, creating and losing businesses, issuing shares, and longing for profit.

Learn more about Gilded Age Entrepreneur at the Cornell University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Gilded Age Entrepreneur.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Ron Base and Prudence Emery's "Curse of the Savoy"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Curse of the Savoy: A Priscilla Tempest Mystery (Book 4, Priscilla Tempest Mysteries) by Ron Base and Prudence Emery.

About the book, from the publisher:

Curse of the Savoy, the fourth in the Priscilla Tempest mystery series, is a gripping tale of suspense set against the backdrop of high society and 1960s London.

In the luxurious setting of London’s Savoy Hotel, an opulent dinner party hosted by the legendary filmmaker Orson Welles takes a sinister turn. Amidst the grandeur of the Pinafore Room, fourteen renowned guests, including Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant, and the scandalous Miss Christine Keeler, gather for an unforgettable evening. However, the spectre of an old curse looms over the event—a curse said to bring doom to the first guest who leaves a dinner with thirteen attendees. Kasper, a three-foot-tall sculpture of a sleek black cat is said to be the antidote to the curse—if only the reckless attendees had paid heed to the superstition!

In the aftermath of the party, blackmail, betrayal, and murder ensue, entwining the guests in a web of deceit and danger. Once again, Priscilla Tempest, plucky head of the Savoy’s press office, finds herself at the heart of the intrigue. The mysterious events even draw the attention of the Queen, hinting at a conspiracy that reaches the highest echelons of society. Is the curse real, or is something more sinister at play? This riveting mystery, as sparkling as a Buck’s Fizz, promises celebrity gossip and scandal along with twists and turns that will delight readers until the very last page.

Visit Ron Base's website.

The Page 69 Test: Curse of the Savoy.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten fictional towns in children's books

Shane Hegarty, born and raised in Skerries, Ireland, is a children's book author. His books include the Darkmouth series.

In 2016, at the Guardian, he tagged ten of the greatest fictional towns and cities in children’s and YA writing. One setting on the list:

Bayport from The Hardy Boys books by Franklin W Dixon

A surprisingly crime-ridden spot on the Atlantic coast of the USA whose various mysteries could only be solved by a couple of teenage boys (and, on occasion, their pal Nancy Drew). They must have chased villains across every spot of Bayport and Barmet Bay several times over in a series that has run for almost 85 years. Franklin W Dixon never existed either, but was a pseudonym under which many authors contributed. Along with Alfred Hitchcock And The Three Investigators (also not written by Alfred Hitchcock) these were vital books in my 80s childhood, although I was unaware of how much of the horrible racial stereotypes had been stripped from the earliest stories.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Manu Bhagavan's "The Remarkable Madame Pandit"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Remarkable Madame Pandit: Champion of India, Citizen of the World by Manu Bhagavan.

About the book, from the publisher:

A pioneering politician and diplomat, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (1900–1990) was an Indian icon, admired worldwide for her brilliance and glamour. Eleanor Roosevelt called her “the most remarkable woman” she had ever met. Madame Pandit, as she was widely known, moved in elite global circles even as she worked to improve the lives of millions. She traded quips with Winston Churchill, worked alongside Albert Einstein, and was detained for the attempted assassination of Benito Mussolini. She even came out of retirement to campaign against her own niece, Indira Gandhi, to stop an authoritarian takeover and save Indian democracy.

The Remarkable Madame Pandit is the definitive biography of India’s greatest modern diplomat. Manu Bhagavan chronicles Pandit’s life and times, from her upbringing in an illustrious family to her role in her country’s fight for independence and through her globe-trotting career bridging East and West. Pandit was India’s first woman cabinet minister, an ambassador to the United States and the Soviet Union, and the first woman elected president of the UN General Assembly. Her influence extended well beyond these formal roles: she became one of the most prominent international voices for peace while paving the way for women in many fields. Based on eight years of research using material in five languages from seven countries, this book tells Madame Pandit’s gripping story in full―and in so doing, retells the history of India and the world in the twentieth century.

Visit Manu Bhagavan's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Remarkable Madame Pandit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight suspense novels set around the world

Carolina Ciucci is a teacher, writer and reviewer based in the south of Argentina. She hoards books like they’re going out of style. In case of emergency, you can summon her by talking about Ireland, fictional witches, and the Brontë family. At Book Riot she tagged eight suspense titles that "will make you feel like you traveled thousands of miles — and in some cases, dozens of years — to get to know a new city or town." One novel on the list:

Wife of the Gods (Darko Dawson #1) by Kwei Quartey
Setting: Ghana

Detective Inspector Darko Dawson loves living with his wife and son in Accra, Ghana. He’s less than enthused when he’s assigned a murder investigation outside of a small town, especially because the town in question carries the weight of decades-old painful memories.

Read about another entry on the list.

Wife of the Gods is among Michael Stanley's top ten crime novels.

The Page 69 Test: Wife of the Gods.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is James R. Benn reading?

Featured at Writers Read: James R. Benn, author of A Bitter Wind (A Billy Boyle WWII Mystery).

His entry begins:

Re-reading, actually. More than three decades ago I read Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of the Village of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There by Philip P. Hallie. It tells the true story of a French village during the Second World War, and how the residents came together to save thousands of Jews from certain death at the hands of the Nazis. I never forgot that story and have recommended the book many times. But it was only recently that I decided to look into Le Chambon as a setting for a future Billy Boyle WWII mystery novel, so a re-read is in order. I’m excited about this possibility and hope I can do it justice.

The basic facts are that in one small French town in Nazi-occupied France, some 4,000 Jews were taken in and sheltered by a group of Huguenot Christians, who understood from their own history the threat of persecution. From 1940 until Liberation in 1944, the people of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon joined in what can be called a conspiracy of goodness. Risking all, the village literally doubled itself, giving sanctuary to some three or four thousand people who were escaping from the Vichy authorities and the Nazi regime. They organized themselves to forge identification and ration cards and to help refugees escape into neutral Switzerland.

The author, a professor of philosophy, was a decorated Army veteran of WWII. After years of...[read on]

About A Bitter Wind, from the publisher:

To solve a murder at an English airbase, US Army Captain Billy Boyle must immerse himself in the fascinating and secretive world of WWII radio espionage.

Christmas Day 1944: After his last mission put him in the tailspin of the Battle of the Bulge, Captain Billy Boyle travels to southeast England to visit his girlfriend, Diana Seaton, for a brief holiday respite. Diana is engaged in classified work at RAF Hawkinge, including Operation Corona, which recruits German-speaking Women’s Auxiliary Air Force members—many of them Jewish refugees from the Kindertransport rescue—to countermand German orders and direct night fighters away from Allied bombers.

It’s fascinating and critical espionage work, but it’s laced with peril, as Billy finds out. On a scenic Christmas walk along the White Cliffs of Dover, Billy and Diana stumble upon the dead body of a US Air Force officer. In the dead man’s pocket are papers with highly confidential information about radio interception operations. Information worth killing over.

As Billy digs into the secret world of codebreakers and radio jammers stationed at Hawkinge, another body turns up. Now Billy must find out what connects these two men—and who was so hell-bent on silencing them. Enlisting the help of his long-time associates, Billy undertakes another thrilling investigation that brings him to war-torn Yugoslavia, where he must rescue an escaped POW who may be the only person who knows the truth.

Learn more about the Billy Boyle WWII Mystery Series at James R. Benn's website.

The Page 99 Test: The First Wave.

The Page 69 Test: Evil for Evil.

The Page 69 Test: Rag and Bone.

My Book, The Movie: Death's Door.

The Page 69 Test: The White Ghost.

The Page 69 Test: Blue Madonna.

Writers Read: James R. Benn (September 2016).

Q&A with James R. Benn.

The Page 69 Test: Proud Sorrows.

The Page 69 Test: The Phantom Patrol.

Writers Read: James R. Benn (September 2024).

The Page 69 Test: A Bitter Wind.

Writers Read: James R. Benn.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Victoria Redel's "I Am You"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: I Am You by Victoria Redel.

About the book, from the publisher:

At eight years old, Gerta Pieters is forced to disguise herself as a boy and sent to work for a genteel Dutch family. When their brilliant and beautiful daughter Maria sees through Gerta’s ruse, she insists that Gerta accompany her to Amsterdam and help her enter the elite, male-dominated art world.

While Maria rises in the ranks of society as a painting prodigy, Gerta makes herself invaluable in every way: confidante, muse, lover. But as Gerta steps into her own talents, their relationship fractures into a complex web of obsession and rivalry—and the secrets they keep threaten to unravel everything.

A mesmerizing historical novel, I Am You is a meditation on gender, an ode to artistic creation, and an unforgettable love story that reimagines the life of renowned still life painter Maria van Oosterwijck during the Dutch Golden Age.

Visit Victoria Redel's website.

The Page 69 Test: Before Everything.

The Page 69 Test: I Am You.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: David Woodman's "The First King of England"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom by David Woodman.

About the book, from the publisher:

From one of today’s leading historians of the early medieval period, an enthralling chronicle of Æthelstan, England’s founder king whose achievements of 927 rival the Norman Conquest of 1066 in shaping Britain as we know it

The First King of England is a foundational biography of Æthelstan (d. 939), the early medieval king whose territorial conquests and shrewd statesmanship united the peoples, languages, and cultures that would come to be known as the “kingdom of the English.” In this panoramic work, David Woodman blends masterful storytelling with the latest scholarship to paint a multifaceted portrait of this immensely important but neglected figure, a man celebrated in his day as much for his benevolence, piety, and love of learning as he was for his ambitious reign.

Set against the backdrop of warring powers in early medieval Europe, The First King of England sheds new light on Æthelstan’s early life, his spectacular military victories and the innovative way he governed his kingdom, his fostering of the church, the deft political alliances he forged with Europe’s royal houses, and his death and enduring legacy. It begins with the reigns of Alfred the Great and Edward the Elder, Æthelstan’s grandfather and father, describing how they consolidated and expanded the “kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons.” But it was Æthelstan who would declare himself the first king of all England when, in 927, he conquered the viking kingdom at York, required the submission of a Scottish king, and secured an annual tribute from the Welsh kings.

Beautifully illustrated and breathtaking in scope, The First King of England is the most comprehensive, up-to-date biography of Æthelstan available, bringing a magisterial richness of detail to the life of a consequential British monarch whose strategic and political sophistication was unprecedented for his time.

Visit David Woodman's website.

The Page 99 Test: The First King of England.

--Marshal Zeringue

Twenty-five top books about the Asian American experience

At Esquire Adrienne Westenfeld and Sirena He tagged twenty-five essential books about the Asian American experience, including:

Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee

If you fell in love with Apple TV+’s sensational adaptation of Pachinko but haven’t read the award-winning source material yet, it’s time to get caught up. With the epic sweep of Zola or Dickens, Min Jin Lee chronicles four storied generations of a Korean immigrant family, beginning with a pregnant young woman’s decision to enter a marriage of convenience that ferries her to a new beginning in Japan. Her decision to leave home echoes across the generations, all of it playing out against the rich tapestry of an ever-changing twentieth-century Japan, where the Zainichi (Korean immigrants and their descendants) encounter brutal racism and class discrimination. The sheer bigness of this novel is majestic, as are its themes of joy, sacrifice, and heartbreak.

Read about another entry on the list.

Pachinko is among Daphne Fama's seven top novels set during times of great political upheaval, Mia Barzilay Freund's eighteen best historical fiction books of the last several decades, Courtney Rodgers's best historical fiction of the 21st century so far, Bethanne Patrick's twenty-five best historical fiction books of all time, Asha Thanki seven books about families surviving political unrest, the Amazon Book Review editors' twelve favorite long books, Gina Chen's twelve books for fans of HBO’s Succession, Cindy Fazzi's eight books about the impact of Japanese imperialism during WWII, Eman Quotah's eight books about mothers separated from their daughters, Karolina Waclawiak's six favorite books on loss and longing, Allison Patkai's top six books with strong female voices, Tara Sonin's twenty-one books for fans of HBO’s Succession, and six books Jia Tolentino recommends.

--Marshal Zeringue

Third reading: D.W. Buffa on Leo Strauss's "The City And Man"

The Dark Backward is among D.W. Buffa's more recent novels to be released. The story revolves around not just the strangest case William Darnell had ever tried;

it was the strangest case ever tried by any lawyer anywhere. It was impossible to explain; or rather, impossible to believe. The defendant, who did not speak English or any other language anyone could identify, had been found on an island no one knew existed, and charged with murder, rape and incest. He was given the name Adam, and Adam, as Darnell comes to learn, is more intelligent, quicker to learn, than anyone he has ever met. Adam, he learns to his astonishment, is a member of an ancient civilization that has remained undiscovered for more than three thousand years.

Buffa is also the author of ten legal thrillers involving the defense attorney Joseph Antonelli. He has also published a series that attempts to trace the movement of western thought from ancient Athens, in Helen; the end of the Roman Empire, in Julian's Laughter; the Renaissance, in The Autobiography of Niccolo Machiavelli; and America in the twentieth century, in Neumann's Last Concert.

Buffa's latest take in his "Third Reading" series is on Leo Strauss's The City And Man. It begins:

The question that used to be put with monotonous regularity to authors was: what book would you choose to have with you if you were marooned on a desert island. One author, a well- known woman who was not immodest about her own literary achievements, insisted that instead of something someone else had written, she would choose to have a paper and pen and write for herself what she would then get to read. With far greater cause for modesty, but with perhaps a better understanding of what life on a desert island really meant, I replied when asked: “Any book with the title: How to Build a Boat.”

This was not fair of me. I should have have taken that question more seriously, imagined that I was never going to get off the island, and that the only book I had to read would have to be one worth reading over and over again. It is a choice that requires more thought than might at first be expected. War and Peace, for example, may well be the greatest novel ever written, but how many times could you read it before the words began to lose all meaning. Plutarch’s Lives, the comparison of famous Greeks and Romans, would allow you to debate with yourself which was the greater: Cicero or Demosthenes, Caesar or Alcibiades, but that would be to devote your life to the outlines of what other people did or tried to do. And how you read it, what you gained from it, would depend on what you had read before.

This is the issue that goes unnoticed. Which one book would you wish to be your only companion depends on what you had you read before, how you had spent your life, or that part of it you had devoted to reading. Did you read to be entertained; reading, for example, mysteries in which the main attraction was the feeling of suspense as you were led through the search for the person or persons responsible for the crime that had been committed until, at the end, you discovered, and were surprised to discover, who the guilty party really was? But, having discovered that, would you really want to read it a second time, much less read it over and over again until your last, dying day? If, on the other hand, you had read to learn, read to study the serious things that attempt to discover what it means to be a human being; if you had studied with close attention the works of Plato and Aristotle and Thucydides; if, that is to say, you had spent years reading the great books that constitute the beginning, and the basis, of Western thought, read them so often that at the bare mention of a phrase in one of their classic works, you remembered, if not the exact words, the main thought expressed on the page, the book you would want, the book you would need, is a book few people have even heard of: The City And Man, written in l962 by Leo Strauss.

Two sentences, the first paragraph of the Introduction, tell you immediately that this is...[read on]

Visit D.W. Buffa's website.

Buffa's previous third reading essays: The Great Gatsby; Brave New World; Lord Jim; Death in the Afternoon; Parade's End; The Idiot; The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; The Scarlet Letter; Justine; Patriotic Gore; Anna Karenina; The Charterhouse of Parma; Emile; War and Peace; The Sorrows of Young Werther; Bread and Wine; “The Crisis of the Mind” and A Man Without Qualities; Eugene Onegin; The Collected Works of Thomas Babington Macaulay; The Europeans; The House of Mirth and The Writing of Fiction; Doctor Faustus; the reading list of John F. Kennedy; Jorge Luis Borges; History of the Peloponnesian War; Mansfield Park; To Each His Own; A Passage To India; Seven Pillars of Wisdom; The Letters of T.E. Lawrence; All The King’s Men; The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus; Naguib Mahfouz’s novels of ancient Egypt; Main Street; Theodore H. White's The Making of the President series, part I; Theodore H. White's The Making of the President series, part II; Thus Spoke Zarathustra; Fiction's Failure; Hermann Hesse's Demian; Frederick Douglass, Slavery, and The Fourth of July; Caesar’s Ghost; The American Constitution; A Tale of Two Cities; The Leopard; Madame Bovary; The Sheltering Sky; Tocqueville’s America and Ours; American Statesmen; Ancient and Modern Writers Reconsidered; Père Goriot; The Remarkable Edmund Burke; The Novels of W.H. Hudson; America Revised; The City And Man.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top literary reboots

Brittany K. Allen is a writer and actor living in Brooklyn.

At Lit Hub she tagged six notable re-tellings. One entry on the list:

Zadie Smith’s On Beauty nods to E.M. Forster’s Howard’s End.

Smith’s “sly and inventive recasting of E.M. Forster’s masterpiece” is one of those vibier response books. Certain plot furniture has been airlifted into a present day context, while some has been left behind. In Forster’s Howard’s End, a legacy dispute draws two families together around an estate. On Beauty, on the other hand, brings its players together on a college campus.

Bohemianism in the first text is made into multiculturalism in the second. And though Smith makes open reference to the language in Forster’s classic, she also invents a plenty.

Read about another entry on the list.

On Beauty is among Kate McCusker's five top campus novels, Michael Woodson's top ten campus novels, Michelle Webster-Hein's eight titles that wrestle with the complexities of religion, Ali Benjamin's top ten classic stories retold, Brian Boone's twenty books that are absolute dorm room essentials, Ann Leary's top ten books set in New England, and Tolani Osan's ten top books that "illuminate how disparate cultures can reveal the mystery and beauty in each other and make us aware of the hardships, dreams, and hidden scars of those we share space with."

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Laura Garbes's "Listeners Like Who?"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Listeners Like Who?: Exclusion and Resistance in the Public Radio Industry by Laura Garbes.

About the book, from the publisher:

How public radio has perpetuated racial inequality since its founding—and how journalists of color are challenging white dominance in the workplace and on the public airwaves

National Public Radio was established in 1970 with a mission to provide programming for all Americans, yet the gap between public radio’s pluralistic mandate and its failure to serve marginalized communities has plagued the industry from the start. Listeners Like Who? takes readers inside the public radio industry, revealing how the network’s sound and listenership are reflections of its inherent whiteness, and describing the experiences of the nonwhite journalists who are fighting for change.

Drawing on institutional archives, oral histories, and original in-depth interviews with journalists of color in public radio, Laura Garbes shows that when NPR and its affiliate stations first began its appeals for donations from “listeners like you,” it was appealing to white, well-educated donors. She discusses how this initial focus created a sustainable financial model in the face of government underfunding, but how these same factors have alienated broad swaths of nonwhite and working-class audiences and limited the creative freedoms of nonwhite public radio workers. Garbes tells the stories of the employees of color who are disrupting the aesthetic norms and narrative practices embedded in the industry.

Centering sound in how we think about the workplace and organizational life, Listeners Like Who? provides insights into the media’s role in upholding racial inequality and the complex creative labor by nonwhite journalists to expand who and what gets heard on public radio.

Visit Laura Garbes's website.

The Page 99 Test: Listeners Like Who?.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Danila Botha

From my Q&A with Danila Botha, author of A Place for People Like Us:

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

A Place for People Like Us was actually a very hard title to choose, which isn’t usually the case for me. Often the title comes to me relatively early, and I use it to frame the story as I go through each draft. For example, before I’d even written the title story in my short story collection, For All the Men (and Some of the Women) I’ve Known, I knew the kind of story I wanted to write, and that it would capture the theme of love lost in the collection. In this case, the original draft was told from both Hannah’s and Jillian’s points of view. I was listening to a lot of Fiona Apple at the time, and she has this amazing song, "Fast As You Can," with lyrics that go “oh darling/ it’s so sweet/ you think you know how crazy/ how crazy I am.” How Crazy I Am was an early title I considered, but I worried that it both trivialized mental health struggles and was reductive, because both women are so much more complex. Another title I considered was The World Is Dead and I’m Full of Joy, which comes from...[read on]

Visit Danila Botha's website.

Writers Read: Danila Botha (May 2011).

Q&A with Danila Botha.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven great horror novels inspired by "Frankenstein"

Leah Rachel von Essen is an editor, writer, and book reviewer. She is a copyeditor and fact-checker at Encyclopedia Britannica, as well as a contributing editor, Adult Books, for American Library Association’s magazine Booklist. She writes regularly for Chicago Review of Books and is a senior contributor at Book Riot.

At Book Riot she tagged seven "horror novels [that] retell, draw from, or are inspired by Frankenstein, using its rich cultural influence and references to tell their own stories or retell it in new and exciting ways." One title on the list:

Frankenstein: Prodigal Son by Dean Koontz and Kevin J. Anderson

In this mystery by the author of perhaps a countless number of suspense novels, a serial killer is haunting the streets of humid New Orleans. He seems to be collecting body parts from the corpses, but to what end? The mysterious Deucalion, detective O’Connor, and partner Maddison come together to try and solve the mystery, only to break open a can of worms much bigger than one serial killer case. It’s a Koontz series, so be ready for cliffhangers and being roped into the sequels.

Read about another novel on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Christine Shepardson's "A Memory of Violence"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: A Memory of Violence: Syriac Christianity and the Radicalization of Religious Difference in Late Antiquity by Christine Shepardson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Through the fifth and sixth centuries, major divisions rocked Christianity as different factions vied to make their teachings the doctrine of the Roman Empire’s imperial church. In the aftermath of the Council of Chalcedon in 451, miaphysite Christians, often targeted as heretics by the imperial church, confronted periodic violence and persecution. In this book, Christine Shepardson reshapes our understanding of late antiquity by centering Syriac Christianity in these complex and politicized doctrinal conflicts. Drawing on critical studies of violence and memory, she traces narratives of resistance and other rhetorical strategies by which miaphysite leaders radicalized their followers to endure physical deprivation and harm rather than abandon their church community.

Learn more about A Memory of Violence at the University of California Press website.

The Page 99 Test: A Memory of Violence.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Stephanie Cowell's "The Man in the Stone Cottage"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Man in the Stone Cottage by Stephanie Cowell.

About the book, from the publisher:

In 1846 Yorkshire, the Brontë sisters— Charlotte, Anne, and Emily— navigate precarious lives marked by heartbreak and struggle. Charlotte faces rejection from the man she loves, while their blind father and troubled brother add to their burdens. Despite their immense talent, no one will publish their poetry or novels. Amidst this turmoil, Emily encounters a charming shepherd during her solitary walks on the moors, yet he remains unseen by anyone else. After Emily’ s untimely death, Charlotte— now a successful author with Jane Eyre— stumbles upon hidden letters and a mysterious map. As she stands on the brink of her own marriage, Charlotte is determined to uncover the truth about her sister’ s secret relationship. The Man in the Stone Cottage is a poignant exploration of sisterly bonds and the complexities of perception, asking whether what feels real to one person can truly be real to another.

Visit Stephanie Cowell's website.

The Page 69 Test: Claude & Camille.

The Page 69 Test: The Man in the Stone Cottage.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top books about the lives of divas

Jerome Charyn is the author of more than fifty works of fiction and nonfiction, including Maria La Divina; Ravage & Son; Sergeant Salinger; Cesare: A Novel of War-Torn Berlin; In the Shadow of King Saul: Essays on Silence and Song; Jerzy: A Novel; and A Loaded Gun: Emily Dickinson for the 21st Century. Among other honors, his work has been longlisted for the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award and PEN Award for Biography, shortlisted for the Phi Beta Kappa Christian Gauss Award, and selected as a finalist for the Firecracker Award and PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Film Culture at the American University of Paris, Charyn has also been named a Commander of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture and received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Manhattan.

[The Page 69 Test: Under the Eye of God; My Book, The Movie: Big Red; Q&A with Jerome Charyn; The Page 69 Test: Ravage & Son; Writers Read: Jerome Charyn (August 2023); My Book, The Movie: Maria La Divina]

At Lit Hub Charyn tagged "five of [his] favorite books about the lives of divas." One title on the list:

Annie Zaleski, Lady Gaga: Applause

Lady Gaga never stands in one place. She’s always on the move. She’s much more intelligent than most pop artists. She sings, she dances, she writes songs, models clothes, and she acts, each with a novel twist. We can’t take our eyes off her. She casts us in a hypnotic spell. She can sing hard rock and then do ballads with Tony Bennett.

Lady Gaga is a singer-entrepreneur, who inherited some of her skills from her parents, both of whom had businesses of their own. Born Stefani Germanotta on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, she would explode on the rock scene as a most unusual icon, according to Zaleski. She suffered her own misfortunes, was taunted by her fellow high school students as a misfit and was sexually assaulted by her first producer when she was only nineteen. But Stefani survived and morphed into Lady Gaga.

“I want people to feel invaded when I sing. It’s very confrontational.” That’s one of the reasons she wears outrageous costumes whenever she performs, like a rhino horn on her forehead, or an outfit that turns her into an Alice in Wonderland teacup. There’s also another side to her art—she’s never confrontational with her fans. “They are the kings. They are the queens. They write the history of the kingdom, while I am something of a devoted jester.”

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: David L. Sloss's "People v. The Court"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: People v. The Court: The Next Revolution in Constitutional Law by David L. Sloss.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Constitution divides power between the government and We the People. It grants We the People an affirmative, collective right to exercise control over the government through our elected representatives. The Supreme Court has abused its power of judicial review and subverted popular control of the government. The Court's doctrine divides constitutional law into rights issues and structural issues. Structural constitutional doctrine ignores the Constitution's division of power between the government and We the People. The Court's rights doctrines fail to recognize that the Constitution grants the People an affirmative, collective right to exercise control over our government. People v. The Court presents an indictment of the Supreme Court's constitutional doctrine. It also provides a set of proposals for revolutionary changes in the practice of judicial review that are designed to enable We the People to reclaim our rightful place as sovereigns in a democratic, constitutional order.

Learn more about People v. The Court at the Cambridge University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Tyrants on Twitter.

The Page 99 Test: People v. The Court.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Francesca Catlow reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Francesca Catlow, author of Under a Greek Sky.

Her entry begins:

Currently I’m reading In Another Life by Imogen Clark. This book was chosen by me to be in September’s book box for Gaia’s Library. In Another Life is a fabulous book to launch the project as it's packed with family struggles and tons of mystery to keep everyone hooked. I want to...[read on]

About Under a Greek Sky, from the publisher:

Escape to sun-drenched Corfu, where family secrets and second chances bloom under endless Mediterranean skies. Under a Greek Sky is perfect for fans of Karen Swan, Kate Frost and Paige Toon.

When her happily-ever-after is shattered by a fiancé who disappears along with her life savings, Lorena desperately needs a new start. Then her seemingly perfect parents separate, and her mother decides to return to Corfu, the island of her birth, to renovate a family beach house. Lorena goes too, keen for a chance to shut the world out for a while.

The sun-soaked island with its stunning beaches and glittering sea is just the distraction Lorena needs. Not least handsome, mysterious Christos. But as long-held family secrets start to emerge, clouds gather over their Greek island paradise.

Why has Lorena’s mother always refused to return to Corfu until now? What secrets of his own is Christos keeping? When her father reappears on the scene, all hope of peace seems lost. Is Lorena about to watch another happily-ever-after implode, or can she learn from the past and open herself up to a new future?

Let Francesca Catlow sweep you away to enchanting Corfu―the perfect place to rediscover romance and embrace new beginnings.

Visit Francesca Catlow's website.

Writers Read: Francesca Catlow.

--Marshal Zeringue

Mariah Fredericks's "The Girl in the Green Dress," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Girl in the Green Dress: A Mystery Featuring Zelda Fitzgerald by Mariah Fredericks.

The entry begins:

Who should play Zelda Fitzgerald?

I am reliably informed that no one in Hollywood wants to make period movies these days. So the chances of someone playing Zelda Fitzgerald as she’s depicted in The Girl in the Green Dress, are slim to none. But let’s take a page from Zelda’s book and not let boring reality stand in our way.

A surprising number of actresses have played Zelda, from Natasha Richardson to Christina Ricci. Richardson was a feminine, fluttery Zelda. Ricci more pert than provocative, although she only got one season and might have evolved. (It’s usually a mistake to make a famously dark actress blonde. Edgy deadpan is Ricci’s hallmark and I kept waiting for her to cut David Hoflin’s fratboy Scott to pieces with the raise of an eyebrow.) There are reportedly several Zeldas in the works: Jennifer Lawrence, Keira Knightley, Scarlett Johansson.

Before I knew much about Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, I would have said she was...[read on]

Visit Mariah Fredericks's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Girl in the Park.

The Page 69 Test: A Death of No Importance.

My Book, The Movie: Death of an American Beauty.

The Page 69 Test: Death of an American Beauty.

Q&A with Mariah Fredericks.

The Page 69 Test: The Lindbergh Nanny.

My Book, The Movie: The Girl in the Green Dress.

--Marshal Zeringue

The eight best sci-fi graphic novels of all time

The son of a librarian, Chris M. Arnone's love of books was as inevitable as gravity. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Missouri - Kansas City. His cyberpunk series, The Jayu City Chronicles, is available everywhere books are sold. His work can also be found in Adelaide Literary Magazine and FEED Lit Mag. You can find him writing more books, poetry, and acting in Kansas City.

At Book Riot Arnone tagged the eight best sci-fi graphic novels of all time. One title on the list:

Alex + Ada by Jonathan Luna, Sarah Vaughn

The scale of this sci-fi graphic novel is so small, but that intimacy is part of what makes it so great. Alex is a lonely, introverted guy. The last thing he wants is an android companion, but he’s gifted one anyway. While the topic of android personhood storms around the world at large, Alex struggles to deal with his new android named Ada. But contempt soon turns to companionship, friendship, and so much more.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: C. Yamini Krishna's "Film City Urbanism in India"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Film City Urbanism in India: Hyderabad, from Princely City to Global City, 1890-2000 by C. Yamini Krishna.

About the book, from the publisher:

The book is about the reciprocal relationship between cinema and the city as two institutions which co-constitute each other while fashioning the socio-political currents of the region. It interrogates imperial, postcolonial, socio-cultural, and economic imprints as captured, introduced, and left behind by politics of cinema, in the site of Hyderabad. It traverses through the makings and remakings of Hyderabad as princely city, linguistic capital city, and global city, studied through capital, labour, and organization of the film industry. It brings together diverse, and rich historical material to narrate the social history of Hyderabad, over a hundred years.

Learn more about Film City Urbanism in India at the Cambridge University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Film City Urbanism in India.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Catherine Chidgey's "The Book of Guilt"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey.

About the book, from the publisher:

In an alternate world where nobody won WWII, three brothers are the only boys left in an orphanage whose dark secret is the reason for their existence—and the key to their survival—from the acclaimed author of Pet.

After a very different outcome to WWII than the one history recorded, 1979 England is a country ruled by a government whose aims have sinister underpinnings and alliances. In the Hampshire countryside, 13-year-old triplets Vincent, Lawrence and William are the last remaining residents at the Captain Scott Home for Boys, where every day they must take medicine to protect themselves from a mysterious illness to which many of their friends have succumbed. The lucky ones who recover are allowed to move to Margate, a seaside resort of mythical proportions.

In nearby Exeter, 13-year-old Nancy lives a secluded life with her parents, who dote on her but never let her leave the house. As the triplets' lives begin to intersect with Nancy’s, bringing to light a horrifying truth about their origins and their likely fate, the children must unite to escape – and survive.

Follow Catherine Chidgey on Facebook and Instagram.

Q&A with Catherine Chidgey.

The Page 69 Test: The Book of Guilt.

--Marshal Zeringue