Five classic novels well worth reading if you haven’t yet

At the Barnes & Noble Book Blog, Amelia Schonbek came up with five approachable must-read classics, including:

Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen

There’s a reason this book has inspired so many retellings and spinoffs, in film and in print: Pride and Prejudice is both a love story and a thriller. (What more do you need?!) From the first paragraph, Austen wastes no time getting into the plot: Mrs. Bennet has five unmarried daughters, and a single man has moved into the neighborhood. Things move quickly from there, though the path isn’t always clear. Austen’s story is full of switchbacks and dead ends, and unforeseen circumstances that frequently get in the way of tidy resolutions. All these intricacies make the book fun to read even if you think you know what happens—there are many small dramas you’re bound to have forgotten.

Read about another book on the list.

Pride and Prejudice also appears on Melissa Albert's list of recommended reading for eight villains, 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

Cara Black's "Murder in Pigalle," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Murder in Pigalle by Cara Black.

The entry begins:

Hmmm... great question. I always picture the actor Philippe Noiret, who’s sadly passed away, as Commisaire Morbier - Aimée Leduc’s godfather. His basset hound eyes, grease stain on his tie, slipping some Franc notes to his informers, an old school ‘flic’ that Noiret, an actor played in a classic buddy cop film Ripoux. Noiret played many varied roles but...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Cara Black's website.

The Page 69 Test: Murder at the Lanterne Rouge.

My Book, the Movie: Murder at the Lanterne Rouge.

The Page 69 Test: Murder below Montparnasse.

Writers Read: Cara Black.

The Page 69 Test: Murder in Pigalle.

My Book, The Movie: Murder in Pigalle.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five notable books on New Orleans

One title on the Barnes & Noble Review's list of five top books on New Orleans:

The Moviegoer
by Walker Percy

Winner of the 1961 National Book Award, Walker Percy's wry masterpiece is an erotically charged romp through NOLA's Dionysian underbelly alongside young stockbroker Binx Bolling. A keen and imaginative discourse on the search for meaning and redemption, The Moviegoer could be considered the great New Orleans novel (another contender is John Kennedy Toole's hilarious, posthumously lauded satire A Confederacy of Dunces).

Read about another book on the list. 

The Moviegoer is among Jon Krakauer's five best books about mortality and existential angst and Richard Ford's 5 most essential books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Isla Morley's "Above"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Above by Isla Morley.

About the book, from the publisher:

I am a secret no one is able to tell.

Blythe Hallowell is sixteen when she is abducted by a survivalist and locked away in an aban­doned missile silo in Eudora, Kansas. At first, she focuses frantically on finding a way out, until the harrowing truth of her new existence settles in—the crushing loneliness, the terrifying madness of a captor who believes he is saving her from the end of the world, and the persistent temptation to give up. But nothing prepares Blythe for the burden of raising a child in confinement. Deter­mined to give the boy everything she has lost, she pushes aside the truth about a world he may never see for a myth that just might give mean­ing to their lives below ground. Years later, their lives are ambushed by an event at once promis­ing and devastating. As Blythe’s dream of going home hangs in the balance, she faces the ultimate choice—between survival and freedom.

Above is a riveting tale of resilience in which “stunning” (Daily Beast) new literary voice Isla Morley compels us to imagine what we would do if everything we had ever known was taken away. Like the bestselling authors of Room and The Lovely Bones before her, Morley explores the unthinkable with haunting detail and tenderly depicts our boundless capacity for hope.

Learn more about the book and author at Isla Morley's website.

The Page 69 Test: Come Sunday.

Writers Read: Isla Morley.

The Page 69 Test: Above.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Bruce DeSilva reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Bruce DeSilva, author of Providence Rag.

His entry begins:

When I’m writing a novel, I rarely read anything but newspapers, and I make a special point to avoid crime novels. If I read them, my writing begins to mimic their voices instead of sounding like my own. But when I finish writing a book, I take a break from work and binge-read novels and American history. Last night I tore through Cold Storage, Alaska, the fourth novel by John Straley, who also works as a criminal investigator for that state. Straley’s publisher markets him as a crime novelist, and crimes certainly do occur in his books, but I see them as novels of place. The setting for the new one is a tiny village on the Alaskan coast, where it always seems to be raining--except when...[read on]

About Providence Rag, from the publisher:

Providence Rag finds Liam Mulligan, an investigative reporter at a dying Rhode Island newspaper, at an ethical crossroads. The youngest serial killer in U.S. history was supposed to be released from prison on a technicality at age 21, but for years, the authorities have been fabricating new charges to keep him locked up. Mulligan knows that if authorities can get away with framing the killer, they could do the same thing to anybody. But he also knows the killer is much too dangerous to be set free. The dilemma pits Mulligan and his colleagues at the paper against one another in a high-stakes struggle over which matters most--protecting public safety or reporting the truth. And in the end, it embroils the entire state in an angry confrontation over where justice truly lies. Providence Rag is the third novel in Bruce DeSilva’s Edgar Award-winning Mulligan series—and the first to be inspired by a true story.

Learn more about the book and author at Bruce DeSilva's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: Rogue Island.

Coffee with a Canine: Bruce DeSilva and Brady.

The Page 69 Test: Cliff Walk.

Coffee with a Canine: Bruce DeSilva & Rondo and Brady.

Writers Read: Bruce DeSilva.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: S. R. Palumbi & A. R. Palumbi's "The Extreme Life of the Sea"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Extreme Life of the Sea by Stephen R. Palumbi & Anthony R. Palumbi.

About the book, from the publisher:

The ocean teems with life that thrives under difficult situations in unusual environments. The Extreme Life of the Sea takes readers to the absolute limits of the ocean world--the fastest and deepest, the hottest and oldest creatures of the oceans. It dives into the icy Arctic and boiling hydrothermal vents--and exposes the eternal darkness of the deepest undersea trenches--to show how marine life thrives against the odds. This thrilling book brings to life the sea's most extreme species, and tells their stories as characters in the drama of the oceans. Coauthored by Stephen Palumbi, one of today's leading marine scientists, The Extreme Life of the Sea tells the unforgettable tales of some of the most marvelous life forms on Earth, and the challenges they overcome to survive. Modern science and a fluid narrative style give every reader a deep look at the lives of these species.

The Extreme Life of the Sea shows you the world's oldest living species. It describes how flying fish strain to escape their predators, how predatory deep-sea fish use red searchlights only they can see to find and attack food, and how, at the end of her life, a mother octopus dedicates herself to raising her batch of young. This wide-ranging and highly accessible book also shows how ocean adaptations can inspire innovative commercial products--such as fan blades modeled on the flippers of humpback whales--and how future extremes created by human changes to the oceans might push some of these amazing species over the edge.

Learn more about The Extreme Life of the Sea at the Princeton University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Extreme Life of the Sea.

--Marshal Zeringue

Rachel Weil's "A Plague of Informers," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: A Plague of Informers: Conspiracy and Political Trust in William III's England by Rachel Weil.

The entry begins:

I will resurrect Robert Altman to direct my movie because his films gave viewers exactly the sensation that historians get working with documents. You hear snatches of conversation that you don't quite understand, and only with time in patience can you fit (some of) the parts together. That is especially true if your subjects, like mine, are spies, informers, and political spin-meisters.

A Plague of Informers is a set of linked stories rather than a grand narrative, and like many Altman films it could have a cast of hundreds. The episode I'll cast here concerns Matthew Smith, who joined a Jacobite conspiracy in 1696 to overthrow the English government (Jacobites were rebels who wanted to put King James II, who had been deposed in 1688, back on the throne of England). Then Smith changed sides and tried to reveal the conspiracy to the Duke of Shrewsbury, the "secretary of state" responsible for national security. Of course Smith asked Shrewsbury for money so that he could keep pretending to be a conspirator -- he needed to buy a horse, armor, and drinks for his Jacobite companions, he said, so that the conspirators would trust him and spill their secrets. Shrewsbury, deciding that Smith was a fraud, refused to pay him. Unfortunately for Shrewsbury...[read on]

Learn more about A Plague of Informers at the Yale University Press website.

Rachel Weil is professor of history at Cornell University. She lives in Seneca Falls, NY.

The Page 99 Test: A Plague of Informers.

My Book, The Movie: A Plague of Informers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Leah Cypess's "Death Sworn"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Death Sworn by Leah Cypess.

About the book, from the publisher:

Ileni is losing her magic. And that means she's losing everything: Her status as the renegade sorcerers' most powerful rising star. Her purpose in life. The boy she loves. Her home.

Exiled to teach sorcery to the assassins hidden deep within the mountains, she expects no one will ever hear from her again. The last two tutors died within weeks of each other. As Ileni unravels the mystery surrounding their deaths, she'll uncover secrets that have been kept for decades—and she'll find an unexpected ally and dangerous new love.

But even he may not be able to protect her. Not when she's willing to risk everything.

Visit Leah Cypess's website.

The Page 69 Test: Death Sworn.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top books about Alaska

Brian Payton's latest novel is The Wind Is Not a River.

Two of his top ten books about Alaska, as shared at the Guardian:

White Fang by Jack London

One of the most popular books by American writer Jack London also happens to be set in the Yukon during the time of the Klondike Gold Rush. The story follows the life story of a wolf-dog hybrid that finds its way from the chaos of famine and violence, in both the natural world and at the jagged edge of human society, to a kind of redemption in a life of domesticity in the care of one gentle man. Brutal and gripping.

Call of the Wild by Jack London

A novella that preceded White Fang, London's Call of the Wild tells a similarly engrossing tale of sled dogs and men set in the Klondike. Unlike White Fang, with its ultimate redemption, Call of the Wild details a fall from a civilised to a primitive state. Influenced by both Charles Darwin and Friedrich Nietzsche, London's most famous work is rich in symbolism and imagery, a blend of allegory and fable about the "survival of the fittest". This classic and enduring tale of the mythic north secured London's place in the cannon of American literature.

Read about another entry on the list.

Jack London is on Alexandra Silverman's list of four famous writers who spent time in jail.

The Call of the Wild is among Joshua Glenn's top 32 list of adventure novels of the 19th century, Sarah Lean's top ten animal stories, Ben Frederick's eleven essential books for dog lovers, Megan Miranda's top ten books set in a wintry landscape, Jill Hucklesby's top 10 books about running away, Charlie English's top ten snow books, and Thomas Bloor's top ten tales of metamorphosis. It appears on John Mullan's list of ten of the best wolves in literature and Alice-Azania Jarvis's reading list on dogs. 

White Fang is among Amy Wilkinson's top seven books with "white" in the title, Emma Barnes's top ten books with wolves, and Marcus Sedgwick's top ten books from cold climes.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Brian Jeffrey Maxson's "The Humanist World of Renaissance Florence"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Humanist World of Renaissance Florence by Brian Jeffrey Maxson.

About the book, from the publisher:

This book offers a major contribution for understanding the spread and appeal of the humanist movement in Renaissance Florence. Investigating the connections between the individuals who were part of the humanist movement, Brian Jeffrey Maxson reconstructs the networks that bound them together. Overturning the problematic categorization of humanists as either professional or amateurs, a distinction based on economics and the production of original works in Latin, he offers a new way of understanding how the humanist movement could incorporate so many who were illiterate in Latin, but who nonetheless were responsible for an important intellectual and cultural paradigm shift. The book demonstrates the massive appeal of the humanist movement across socio-economic and political groups and argues that the movement became so successful and so widespread because by the 1420s¬-30s the demands of common rituals began requiring humanist speeches. Over time, deep humanist learning became more valuable in the marketplace of social capital, which raised the status of the most learned humanists and helped disseminate humanist ideas beyond Florence.

Learn more about The Humanist World of Renaissance Florence at the Cambridge University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Humanist World of Renaissance Florence.

--Marshal Zeringue

Megan Hustad's "More Than Conquerors," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: More Than Conquerors: A Memoir of Lost Arguments by Megan Hustad.

The entry begins:

I am tempted to joke that Keira Knightley should play everyone—my sister, my mother, me, my father, grandmother, great grandmother, etc. All non-family members, male and female, would be played by either Peter Sarsgaard or Bobby Cannavale and we'd arrive at some Charlie Kaufman-esque caper.

The problem is that this memoir spans a lot of time as far as actors' appearances are concerned. You have me at age four and age 27. My mother at 31 and 64. So we'll need to suspend physical law. Picking from actors both quick and dead, too old or not old enough:

Sandy Duncan for my mother. There's the sweet smile. The bob. Duncan has the same perkiness, somewhat undercut by wistfulness, that my mother has. They came of age in the 1950s and something of that era still animates their expressions. I'm thinking of Duncan circa this episode of The Muppet Show. All this said, my mother's a brunette but doesn't sound like one.

In the book I mention that my father was said to look like Marlon Brando when he was younger. But I'd give the role to Mark...[read on]

Visit Megan Hustad's website.

My Book, The Movie: More Than Conquerors.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Sandra Parshall's "Poisoned Ground"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Poisoned Ground: A Rachel Goddard Mystery by Sandra Parshall.

About the book, from the publisher:

When a powerful development company sets its sights on Mason Country, Virginia, as the location for a sprawling resort for the rich, the locals begin taking sides. Many residents see the resort as economic salvation for the small Blue Ridge Mountains community, while others fear the county will become financially dependent on a predatory company.
Few oppose the development more vocally than veterinarian Rachel Goddard. She sides with locals reluctant to sell their land and, in the process, complicates the life of her new husband, Sheriff Tom Bridger.

When a beloved couple is gunned down on the very farm they refused to sell, it seems supporters will stop at nothing to ensure the success of the resort. Now disagreement in the community has exploded into civil war with both sides lashing out. As the violence escalates, Rachel discovers the attacks are more sinister than they appear.

Can she bring the truth to light before her community tears itself apart?

Learn more about the book and author at Sandra Parshall's official website.

The Page 69 Test: Disturbing the Dead.

The Page 69 Test: Poisoned Ground.

--Marshal Zeringue

Fifteen top hot affairs in literature

Kyle Minor is the author of two collections of stories: In the Devil’s Territory (2008) and Praying Drunk (2014).

One entry on his list of fifteen of the hottest affairs in literature, as shared at The Huffington Post:

Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones: Secret long-term bigamy is at the center of this story of two sisters, daughters of different mothers but the same deceptive father.

Read about another entry on the list.

Visit Kyle Minor's website and Facebook page.

Writers Read: Kyle Minor.

My Book, The Movie: Praying Drunk.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Laurel Corona reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Laurel Corona, author of The Mapmaker's Daughter.

Her entry begins:

Since I discovered audiobooks, I don’t curl up with a book nearly as much as I used to. My involvement with books of the conventional sort is now mostly connected to research for potential historical novels, and for my role as a lecturer for Silversea and Seabourn Cruise Lines. When it comes to books for pleasure, I put in the headphones and go for a walk or a workout at the gym, and in that way I “read” more than two dozen novels a year.

Adding a narrator is a tricky business. Some are so irritating that I’ve abandoned the book within an hour or so. A mature upper class woman with great restraint in her outward behavior and personality, for example, might make a good protagonist, but someone who reads with the lack of affect that might go with that personality is going to put me to sleep. It’s also tricky to handle dialogue, because voices of different characters need to be distinguished, but it’s hard to do this without sounding gruff when a woman speaks in a man’s voice, or high and breathy when a man tries to speak with the voice of a woman. Sometimes accents are perfect and sometimes they are just annoying. Still, when the marriage is strong between a good book and the audio narrator the experience is truly memorable.

I think now of The Help, which used several narrators, all of which added immeasurably to a wonderful experience. Likewise, listening to the narrator for Margaret George’s novel Helen of Troy made me fall completely in love with Helen beyond what I think I would just reading it in the conventional way.

In the last year, The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani, about a Persian woman several centuries ago trying to achieve her dreams while working as a rug maker, was excellent, as was...[read on]

About The Mapmaker's Daughter, from the publisher:

How Far Would You Go To Stay True to Yourself?

Spain, 1492. On the eve of the Jewish expulsion from Spain, Amalia Riba stands at a crossroads. In a country violently divided by religion, she must either convert to Christianity and stay safe, or remain a Jew and risk everything.

It's a choice she's been walking toward her whole life, from the days of her youth when her family lit the Shabbat candles in secret. Back then, she saw the vast possibility of the world, outlined in the beautiful pen and ink maps her father created. But the world has shifted and contracted since then.

The Mapmaker's Daughter is a stirring novel about identity, exile, and what it means to be home.

Learn more about the book and author at Laurel Corona's website.

Writers Read: Laurel Corona.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five notable books about Moscow

As a historian, Simon Sebag Montefiore's works include Jerusalem: The Biography, Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, and Young Stalin, which was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography, the Costa Biography Prize (UK), and Le Grand Prix de Biographie Politique (France). His novels include the critically acclaimed Sashenka and the newly released One Night in Winter.

One title on the author's list of five top books about Moscow:

War and Peace (1869) by Leo Tolstoy about Austerlitz, Borodino and the fall of Moscow is the ultimate Muscovite novel: the city is home to the Rostov family, including Tolstoy’s heroine, the adorable Natasha.

Read about another book on the list.

War and Peace appears among Oliver Ford Davies's six best books, Stella Tillyard's four favorite historical novels, Ann Shevchenko's top ten novels set in Moscow, Karl Marlantes' top ten war stories, Niall Ferguson's five most important books, Norman Mailer's top ten works of literature, and John Mullan's lists of ten of the best battles in literature, ten of the best floggings in fiction, and ten of the best literary explosions.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Rachel Weil's "A Plague of Informers"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: A Plague of Informers: Conspiracy and Political Trust in William III's England by Rachel Weil.

About the book, from the publisher:

Stories of plots, sham plots, and the citizen-informers who discovered them are at the center of Rachel Weil's compelling study of the turbulent decade following the Revolution of 1688. Most studies of the Glorious Revolution focus on its causes or long-term effects, but Weil instead zeroes in on the early years when the survival of the new regime was in doubt. By encouraging informers, imposing loyalty oaths, suspending habeas corpus, and delaying the long-promised reform of treason trial procedure, the Williamite regime protected itself from enemies and cemented its bonds with supporters, but also put its own credibility at risk.

Rachel Weil is professor of history at Cornell University. She lives in Seneca Falls, NY.

Learn more about A Plague of Informers at the Yale University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: A Plague of Informers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Carol Weston's "Ava and Pip"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Ava and Pip by Carol Weston.

About the book, from the publisher:

Meet outgoing Ava Wren, a fun fifth grader who tries not to lose patience with her shy big sister. When Pip's 13th birthday party turns into a disaster, Ava gets a story idea for a library contest.

But uh-oh, Ava should never have written "Sting of the Queen Bee." Can Ava and her new friend help Pip come out of her shell? And can Ava get out of the mess she has made?

Visit Carol Weston's website.

The Page 69 Test: Ava and Pip.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight novels for "Divergent" fans

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Melissa Albert tagged eight books for Divergent fans, including:

How I Live Now, by Meg Rosoff

In this speculative YA fiction, war takes the place of apocalypse. American teen Daisy has been sent by her distant dad to spend a summer with her cousins in the British countryside—but soon after her arrival, Great Britain is taken hostage by a group of unnamed terrorists. In the weeks that follow, their life is an unsupervised idyll, as Daisy slowly drops her defenses and falls in love with her cousin Edmund. After they’re separated by advancing war, she makes her way across a treacherous, combat-blighted England in the hopes of reuniting with him.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

J.T. Ellison's "When Shadows Fall," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: When Shadows Fall by J.T. Ellison.

The entry begins:

It’s strange how characters change, come to life, become real people in the writer’s mind as the books take shape. Dr. Samantha Owens is evolving for me. She’s come out of her grief, is looking forward, and that’s changed her whole outlook, and as such, her personality.

I always saw her as a young Natalie Portman, with that presence, that intense gaze, but I’ve come across a new to me actress who would be a great for the role. Her name is Phoebe Tonkin. She looks more like Sam to me now, she’s no less intense, but she’s got a delicacy to her that embodies the vulnerability and strength of the new Sam Owens.

Xander Whitfield was always Josh Hartnett to me, but he...[read on]

Visit J.T. Ellison's website, or follow her on Twitter or Facebook.

The Page 69 Test: Edge of Black.

Writers Read: J. T. Ellison.

The Page 69 Test: When Shadows Fall.

My Book, The Movie: When Shadows Fall.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top graphic adaptations of classic literature

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Scott Greenstone tagged seven of the best graphic adaptations of classic literature, including:

Dante’s Divine Comedy, adapted by Seymour Chwast

Chwast has done covers for Time, has been exhibited at the Louvre, and has work in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. He gave Dante’s masterpiece a Roaring 20′s look, drawing Dante wearing a trenchcoat and fedora and smoking a pipe as he traverses through hell.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Peter Stamatov's "The Origins of Global Humanitarianism"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Origins of Global Humanitarianism: Religion, Empires, and Advocacy by Peter Stamatov.

About the book, from the publisher:

Whether lauded and encouraged or criticized and maligned, action in solidarity with culturally and geographically distant strangers has been an integral part of European modernity. Traversing the complex political landscape of early modern European empires, this book locates the historical origins of modern global humanitarianism in the recurrent conflict over the ethical treatment of non-Europeans that pitted religious reformers against secular imperial networks. Since the sixteenth-century beginnings of European expansion overseas and in marked opposition to the exploitative logic of predatory imperialism, these reformers - members of Catholic orders and, later, Quakers and other reformist Protestants - developed an ideology and a political practice in defense of the rights and interests of distant "others." They also increasingly made the question of imperial injustice relevant to growing "domestic" publics in Europe. A distinctive institutional model of long-distance advocacy crystallized out of these persistent struggles, becoming the standard weapon of transnational activists.

Learn more about The Origins of Global Humanitarianism at the Cambridge University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Origins of Global Humanitarianism.

--Marshal Zeringue

Rosie Perez's 6 favorite books

Rosie Perez is an Oscar-nominated actress, whose credits include Do the Right Thing, White Men Can't Jump, Fearless, and The Counselor. She is the Artistic Chair of Urban Arts Partnership and sits on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. Her new memoir is Handbook for an Unpredictable Life: How I Survived Sister Renata and My Crazy Mother, and Still Came Out Smiling (with Great Hair).

One of Perez's six favorite books, as shared at The Week magazine:

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

The movie is really good, but it pales in comparison with Goldman's 1973 novel. I have loved this story forever. So adventurous. So utterly romantic. And so witty it still makes me laugh.

Read about another book on the list.

The Princess Bride is among Stephanie Perkins' top ten most romantic books, Matthew Berry's six favorite books, and Jamie Thomson's top seven funny books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Cara Black's "Murder in Pigalle"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Murder in Pigalle by Cara Black.

About Murder in Pigalle, from the publisher:

June, 1998: Paris’s sticky summer heat is even more oppressive than usual as rowdy French football fans riot in anticipation of the World Cup. Private Investigator Aimée Leduc has been trying to slow down her hectic lifestyle, take on only computer security assignments, and maybe try to learn how to cook (quelle catastrophe!). She’s vowed not to let herself get involved in any more dangerous shenanigans—she’s five months’ pregnant and has the baby’s wellbeing to think about now, too.

But all of her best intentions to live the quiet life fall away when disaster strikes close to home. A serial rapist has been terrorizing Paris’s Pigalle neighborhood, following teenage girls home from junior high school and attacking them in their own houses. It is sad and frightening but has nothing to do with Aimée—until Zazie, the 14-year-old daughter of the proprietor of Aimée’s favorite café, disappears. The police aren’t mobilizing quickly enough and when Zazie’s desperate parents approach Aimée for help, she knows she couldn’t say no even if she wanted to. In the frantic race against time that ensues, Aimée discovers a terrifying secret neighborhood history that will leave lives in the whole quartier upended.

Inspired by a true crime story of a serial killer who wreaked havoc on Paris in the summer of 1998, Cara Black’s fourteenth Aimée Leduc mystery is a thrilling follow-up to her 2013 New York Times bestseller, Murder Below Montparnasse.

Learn more about the book and author at Cara Black's website.

The Page 69 Test: Murder at the Lanterne Rouge.

My Book, the Movie: Murder at the Lanterne Rouge.

The Page 69 Test: Murder below Montparnasse.

Writers Read: Cara Black.

The Page 69 Test: Murder in Pigalle.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Isla Morley reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Isla Morley, author of Above.

Her entry begins:

I am reading C.S. Lewis – A Life by Alister McGrath which was a Christmas gift sent to me from my wonderful publisher in the U.K. We aren’t supposed to be swayed by book covers, but what about subtitles? This one is “Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet” – who can pass that up? It’s a fascinating, almost voyeuristic, look into his life, with notes about a hush-hush affair between the nineteen-year-old Lewis and his best pal’s mom, the forty-five year old Mrs. Moore. Also, there is discussion about Lewis’ “flagellant fantasies.” Lewis [was] into...[read on]

About Above, from the publisher:

I am a secret no one is able to tell.

Blythe Hallowell is sixteen when she is abducted by a survivalist and locked away in an aban­doned missile silo in Eudora, Kansas. At first, she focuses frantically on finding a way out, until the harrowing truth of her new existence settles in—the crushing loneliness, the terrifying madness of a captor who believes he is saving her from the end of the world, and the persistent temptation to give up. But nothing prepares Blythe for the burden of raising a child in confinement. Deter­mined to give the boy everything she has lost, she pushes aside the truth about a world he may never see for a myth that just might give mean­ing to their lives below ground. Years later, their lives are ambushed by an event at once promis­ing and devastating. As Blythe’s dream of going home hangs in the balance, she faces the ultimate choice—between survival and freedom.

Above is a riveting tale of resilience in which “stunning” (Daily Beast) new literary voice Isla Morley compels us to imagine what we would do if everything we had ever known was taken away. Like the bestselling authors of Room and The Lovely Bones before her, Morley explores the unthinkable with haunting detail and tenderly depicts our boundless capacity for hope.

Learn more about the book and author at Isla Morley's website.

The Page 69 Test: Come Sunday.

Writers Read: Isla Morley.

--Marshal Zeringue

The ten beastliest brats in fiction

For the Guardian, Michael Hogan tagged the ten best fictional evil children, including:

Kevin Khatchadourian
We Need to Talk About Kevin

Lionel Shriver’s 2003 Orange prize-winning novel, whose title has become much spoofed, is structured around mother Eva writing letters to her estranged husband in a bid to come to terms with the fact that their sociopathic son committed a school massacre. Obnoxious, cunning Kevin is obsessed with archery, kills his little sister’s pet rodents, half-blinds her with caustic drain cleaner and seems to loathe pretty much everyone – especially his mother, with whom he has an unsettlingly adversarial relationship. Despite its troubled development, the BBC-funded, Lynne Ramsay-directed 2011 film version was excellent, starring Tilda Swinton as Eva and Ezra Miller as Kevin.

Read about another entry on the list. 

We Need to Talk about Kevin is on Fiona Maazel's list of the ten worst fathers in books, John Mullan's list of ten of the best sentences as book titles, and Shirley Henderson's six best books list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Doug Most's "The Race Underground," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Race Underground: Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry That Built America’s First Subway by Doug Most.

The entry begins:

I have thought about the cinematic aspects of this book, because the story has a number of riveting, dramatic scenes and storylines. And certain characters it's quite easy to imagine them being played on screen.

The most obvious is Alfred Ely Beach. He was a skinny, opera-loving inventor, who was in perpetual motion and loved to work with his hands. His stand-off with the 300-pound crime boss, Boss Tweed, is an incredible David-and-Goliath tale. For Beach I could envision Steve Buscemi, who is sort of this wired character, skinny and could really capture the quirks of Beach. For the nemesis, Tweed, that would have been a great role for James Gandolfini, sadly. Instead, John...[read on]

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

My Book, The Movie: The Race Underground.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top aliens in literature

Mohsin Hamid is the author of the novels Moth Smoke, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia. His fiction has been translated into over 30 languages, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, featured on bestseller lists, and adapted for the cinema. His short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, and the Paris Review, and his essays in the Guardian, the New York Times, and the New York Review of Books. Born in 1971, he has lived about half his life, on and off, in Lahore. He also spent part of his early childhood in California, attended Princeton and Harvard, and worked for a decade as a management consultant in New York and London, mostly part-time.

One title from his account of favorite literary aliens, as shared at the Telegraph:

To transcend gender, crack open Ursula K LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness (1969).

Read about another entry on the list. 

The Left Hand of Darkness is among Damien Walter's five top books that tell immediately relevant, compelling tales and Ian Marchant's top 10 books of the night. Charlie Jane Anders included it on her list of ten science fiction novels that will never be movies.

Mohsin Hamid's most influential book.

Mohsin Hamid's 10 favorite books.

Writers Read: Mohsin Hamid (March 2013).

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Christopher Leonard's "The Meat Racket"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business by Christopher Leonard.

About the book, from the publisher:

The biggest takeover in American business that you’ve n ever heard of

The American supermarket seems to represent the best in America: abundance, freedom, choice. But that turns out to be an illusion. The rotisserie chicken, the pepperoni, the cordon bleu, the frozen pot pie, and the bacon virtually all come from four companies.

In The Meat Racket, investigative reporter Christopher Leonard delivers the first-ever account of how a handful of companies have seized the nation’s meat supply. He shows how they built a system that puts farmers on the edge of bankruptcy, charges high prices to consumers, and returns the industry to the shape it had in the 1900s before the meat monopolists were broken up. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the greatest capitalist country in the world has an oligarchy controlling much of the food we eat and a high-tech sharecropping system to make that possible.

Forty years ago, more than thirty-six companies produced half of all the chicken Americans ate. Now there are only three that make that amount, and they control every aspect of the process, from the egg to the chicken to the chicken nugget. These companies are even able to raise meat prices for consumers while pushing down the price they pay to farmers. And tragically, big business and politics have derailed efforts to change the system.

We know that it takes big companies to bring meat to the American table. What The Meat Racket shows is that this industrial system is rigged against all of us. In that sense, Leonard has exposed our heartland’s biggest scandal.

Visit Christopher Leonard's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Meat Racket.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: J.T. Ellison's "When Shadows Fall"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: When Shadows Fall by J. T. Ellison.

About the book, from the publisher:

Dear Dr. Owens,

If you are reading this letter, I am dead and I would be most grateful if you could solve my murder…

Forensic pathologist Dr. Samantha Owens thought life was finally returning to normal after she suffered a terrible personal loss. Settling into her new job at Georgetown University, the illusion is shattered when she receives a disturbing letter from a dead man imploring her to solve his murder. There's only one catch. Timothy Savage's death was so obviously the suicide of a demented individual that the case has been closed.

When Sam learns Savage left a will requesting she autopsy his body, she feels compelled to look into the case. Sam's own postmortem discovers clear signs that Savage was indeed murdered. And she finds DNA from a child who went missing years earlier and has never been found.

The investigation takes Sam into the shadows of a twenty-year-old mystery that must be solved to determine what really happened to Timothy Savage. Nothing about the case makes sense, but it is clear someone is unwilling to let anyone, especially Samantha Owens, discover the truth.

Visit J.T. Ellison's website, or follow her on Twitter or Facebook.

The Page 69 Test: Edge of Black.

Writers Read: J. T. Ellison.

The Page 69 Test: When Shadows Fall.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine Hollywood novels to get you ready for Oscar night

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Joel Cunningham tagged nine Hollywood novels to get you in the mood for Oscar night, including:

The Day of the Locust, by Nathanael West

The original journey into Hollywood’s dark side, West’s novel chronicles the desperate scrambling of a bunch of hapless losers desperate to make a name for themselves in the movie business. Fascinating despite a host of deeply unlikable characters, it was named by Time magazine as one of the best books of the last century, and adapted into a movie in 1975 to comparable acclaim. If you need another reason to read it, one of its protagonists is also the namesake for one Homer Simpson (which is, admittedly, a little distracting on first read).

Read about another novel on the list.

The Day of the Locust is on Amy Sohn's six favorite books list, Megan Wasson's top 5 list of books about Los Angeles, Jerome Charyn's list of the five best tales of dislocation, Jane Ciabattari's list of the five best novels on Hollywood, Jonathan Kellerman's list of the top ten LA noir novels, and Peter Conn's list of the five best novels from the Great Depression; it also appears on Jonathan Evison's list of books about the Spirit of California and John Mullan's list of ten of the best riots in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Cara Black reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Cara Black, author of Murder in Pigalle.

Her entry begins:

Right now, I’m reading a non-fiction book Hitler’s Furies - German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields by Wendy Lower. So far this book brings to life, through recovered archives, recently released Stasi files, documentation of the German women’s role in World War II. It wasn’t all kinder, kuche and kirche with women on the home front — five hundred thousand women were needed and trained to work in the Nazi machinery especially concentrating on the conquered land in the East — a frontier reclaimed by the Germans as their legacy populating it with Germanic people. This book sticks with me in a haunting way because...[read on]

About Murder in Pigalle, from the publisher:

June, 1998: Paris’s sticky summer heat is even more oppressive than usual as rowdy French football fans riot in anticipation of the World Cup. Private Investigator Aimée Leduc has been trying to slow down her hectic lifestyle, take on only computer security assignments, and maybe try to learn how to cook (quelle catastrophe!). She’s vowed not to let herself get involved in any more dangerous shenanigans—she’s five months’ pregnant and has the baby’s wellbeing to think about now, too.

But all of her best intentions to live the quiet life fall away when disaster strikes close to home. A serial rapist has been terrorizing Paris’s Pigalle neighborhood, following teenage girls home from junior high school and attacking them in their own houses. It is sad and frightening but has nothing to do with Aimée—until Zazie, the 14-year-old daughter of the proprietor of Aimée’s favorite café, disappears. The police aren’t mobilizing quickly enough and when Zazie’s desperate parents approach Aimée for help, she knows she couldn’t say no even if she wanted to. In the frantic race against time that ensues, Aimée discovers a terrifying secret neighborhood history that will leave lives in the whole quartier upended.

Inspired by a true crime story of a serial killer who wreaked havoc on Paris in the summer of 1998, Cara Black’s fourteenth Aimée Leduc mystery is a thrilling follow-up to her 2013 New York Times bestseller, Murder Below Montparnasse.

Learn more about the book and author at Cara Black's website.

The Page 69 Test: Murder at the Lanterne Rouge.

My Book, the Movie: Murder at the Lanterne Rouge.

The Page 69 Test: Murder below Montparnasse.

Writers Read: Cara Black.

--Marshal Zeringue