Five novels featuring decaying settings

C.J. Dotson is a Northeast Ohio native who now lives with her family upstate New York. She studied English with a creative writing focus at Cleveland State University and now daydreams about having the time and resources to go back to school to study history and mythology instead. She lives in a house that has more shadows than working lights. She loves reading sci fi, fantasy, and horror, but will read really anything that catches her eye (her favorite book is none of those genres — it’s The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien).

Dotson is primarily a writer of novels and short stories, and occasionally flash fiction. Her new supernatural horror novel is The Cut.

At CrimeReads Dotson tagged five books featuring decaying settings, including:

Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno Garcia

When wealthy socialite Noemí Taboada receives an alarming letter from her recently-married cousin, she travels to the cousin’s English husband’s family estate, High Place, in the Mexican countryside to check on her and make sure all is well. Upon her arrival she finds High Place inhospitable and the family strange, her cousin is unwell and behaving oddly, and an aura of uncanny danger hangs over the house and its environs. Can Noemí discover the estate’s secrets in time to rescue her cousin—and to save herself, now that she’s entangled in High Place’s mysteries?

High Place was such a moody and atmospheric setting, when reading this book I felt like I could all but smell the mildew and feel the damp and the pervasive sense of dread. If you love historical horror with modern sensibilities set in a decaying, once-grand old house, then … well you’ve probably already read Mexican Gothic, but if you love all those things and you haven’t yet read this one, definitely give it a shot.

Read about another entry on the list.

Mexican Gothic is among Samsun Knight's seven horror novels about mysticism.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Rav Grewal-Kök

From my Q&A with Rav Grewal-Kök, author of The Snares: A Novel:

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

My title comes from Arvind Krishna Mehrotra’s translation of a poem by Kabir, the 15th Century north Indian mystic. Kabir tells us that men trap animals by offering them what they most desire (for a bull elephant, a mate; for a monkey, a pot of rice; for a parrot, a bamboo perch). “Beware the snares, says Kabir. / If the ship of Rama comes calling, / Board it at once.”

I’m not religious. But when I read Kabir’s lines for the first time, fourteen years ago, I sensed that they contained a profound truth. Our lusts, hungers, desires entrap us. If we don’t escape our endless wanting through love or art (or the divine)—if we don’t board “the ship of Rama”—we are doomed.

My novel’s protagonist doesn’t heed Kabir’s warning. At the outset he’s a mid-level government lawyer, happily married, with two young daughters. A mysterious CIA bureaucrat takes an interest in him, appeals to his ambition, and offers him something more...[read on]

Visit Rav Grewal-Kök's website.

Q&A with Rav Grewal-Kök.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jeffrey Siger's "Not Dead Yet"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Not Dead Yet (A Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis Mystery, 14) by Jeffrey Siger.

About the book, from the publisher:

A corrupt millionaire. A suspicious plane crash. A sole survivor. Chief Inspector Kaldis is on the case in the latest installment of the internationally bestselling, critically acclaimed mystery series set in Greece

Wealthy Greek businessman Dimitris Onofrio is known to be corrupt to the core, but the police have never been able to make his crimes stick. Powerful, influential and extremely dangerous, Onofrio is not a man to cross, and every witness prepared to come forward against him has died before they could testify.

So when Onofrio’s private jet crashes, seemingly with no survivors, the police breathe a sigh of relief – quickly replaced by horror when Onofrio is found alive but catatonic on a remote Ionian beach, beside the body of his beloved wife.

Was the crash an accident . . . or sabotage? Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis, head of Athens’ Special Crimes Unit, knows that unless he can discover the truth before Onofrio recovers, the tycoon will be out for bloody revenge on all involved. Including Kaldis’ own beloved wife, who is more mixed up in the accident than anyone would ever have suspected . . .

With its gorgeous Greek locations, engaging characters and fast-paced plotting, this international crime series is a perfect pick for fans of Donna Leon, Louise Penny, Martin Walker and David Hewson.

Visit Jeffrey Siger's website.

The Page 69 Test: Murder in Mykonos.

The Page 69 Test: Prey on Patmos.

The Page 69 Test: Target Tinos.

The Page 69 Test: Mykonos After Midnight.

The Page 69 Test: A Deadly Twist.

Q&A with Jeffrey Siger.

The Page 69 Test: At Any Cost.

The Page 69 Test: Not Dead Yet.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Leslie Karst reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Leslie Karst, author of Waters of Destruction (An Orchid Isle Mystery, 2).

Her entry begins:

My wife and I are in Fairbanks, Alaska for a 10-day vacation, taking in the magnificence of the aurora borealis, the marvel of the international ice carving competition, and the excitement of dog mushing. In anticipation of this trip, I’ve been saving to read City Under One Roof, Iris Yamashita’s gripping debut thriller that takes place in a tiny Alaskan hamlet where everyone lives in the same large building. Add to that the fact that it’s winter and the one road in and out of the village is closed by a storm, and what you get is a marvelous new take on the “locked room” mystery.

Sitting up late at night (waiting for the aurora to start its show) and reading this novel while myself in a home surrounded by pristine, white snow and dense birch forest, I’ve been riveted by the gripping story of Cara Kennedy, a detective from Anchorage who’s sent to...[read on]

About Waters of Destruction, from the publisher:

Retired caterer Valerie Corbin investigates a suspicious drowning in this Orchid Isle cozy culinary mystery, featuring a feisty queer couple who swap surfing lessons for sleuthing sessions in tropical Hilo, Hawai‘i

After a vacation of a lifetime in Hilo, Hawai‘i, retired caterer Valerie Corbin and her wife Kristen have decided to move permanently to the beautiful – if storm-prone – Big Island. The couple are having fun furnishing their new house, exploring their new neighborhood and playing with their new little dog, Pua. But while they’ve made good friends with local restaurant manager Sachiko and her partner Isaac, they can’t help but feel a little lonely.

So when Sachiko begs Val to fill in for a member of her bar team who’s gone AWOL, Val dusts off her cocktail shaker and happily agrees. It’s a great chance to meet more people – and learn the local gossip.

Such as about Hank, the missing bartender, who vanished after a team-building retreat at a local beauty spot a week ago, and hasn’t been seen since. Until, that is, his body turns up at the bottom of the waterfall, and the police seem very interested in where Sachiko was at the time of his death.

Sachiko couldn’t have killed him . . . could she? Val dives into the murky waters of the case, determined to find out.

This mouth-watering cozy mystery is perfect for fans of Ellen Byron, Jennifer J Chow, Lucy Burdette and Raquel V Reyes, and includes a selection of delicious Hawaiian recipes to cook at home.

Visit Leslie Karst’s website.

Coffee with a Canine: Leslie Karst & Ziggy.

My Book, The Movie: The Fragrance of Death.

Q&A with Leslie Karst.

The Page 69 Test: Waters of Destruction.

My Book, The Movie: Waters of Destruction.

Writers Read: Leslie Karst.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven of the greatest cooks in literature

Samuel Ashworth has been a bartender, a dancer, and a reporter. He has gutted seafood in the back of Michelin-starred restaurants and assisted with autopsies in a Pittsburgh hospital. His fiction and nonfiction appear in the Atlantic, the Washington Post, Longreads, Eater, Hazlitt, Gawker, The Rumpus, and so on. He is a professor of creative writing at George Washington University, and assistant fiction editor at Barrelhouse Magazine. A native New Yorker, he now lives with his wife and two sons in Washington, DC.

At Electric Lit Ashworth tagged seven great cooks in literature, including:

Hannibal Lecter from Red Dragon by Thomas Harris (followed by multiple sequels and TV/film adaptations)

Let’s pretend we can get Donald Trump’s sneering pronunciation of the name out of our head for a while, and focus instead on the actual character, for whom good manners are as important as they are to Paddington Bear. Of course, while Paddington handles people who forget their manners by giving them a Hard Stare, Lecter kills and eats them. But if that were all he did, he wouldn’t have spawned four decades of multimedia franchising. We keep coming back to Hannibal not because he turns people into food, but into cuisine. He gave us the most famous wine pairing in American culture, liver and Chianti. The most recent portrayal of Harris’s character, by Mads Mikkelsen, is food porn at its most exquisite. The show’s food stylist, Janice Poon, released a full cookbook of Hannibal’s recipes. Small wonder that our response to Hannibal’s killing sprees is usually: “let him cook.”

Read about another entry on the list.

Red Dragon appears on Jen Williams's list of four unforgettable fictional serial killers, Caroline Louise Walker's list of six terrifying villain-doctors in fiction, Peter Swanson's list of ten thrillers that explore mental health, John Verdon's list of the ten best whodunits, Laura McHugh's list of ten favorite books about serial killers, Kimberly Turner's list of the ten most disturbing sociopaths in literature, John Mullan's lists of ten of the best dragons in literature and ten of the best tattoos in literature, and the (U.K.) Telegraph 110 best books; Andre Gross says "it should be taught as [a text] in Thriller 101."

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Zev Handel's "Chinese Characters across Asia"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Chinese Characters across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese by Zev Handel.

About the book, from the publisher:

A fascinating story of writing across cultures and time

While other ancient nonalphabetic scripts―Sumerian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Mayan hieroglyphs―are long extinct, Chinese characters, invented over three thousand years ago, are today used by well over a billion people to write Chinese and Japanese. In medieval East Asia, the written Classical Chinese language knit the region together in a common intellectual enterprise that encompassed religion, philosophy, historiography, political theory, art, and literature. Literacy in Classical Chinese set the stage for the adaptation of Chinese characters into ways of writing non-Chinese languages like Vietnamese and Korean, which differ dramatically from Chinese in vocabularies and grammatical structures.

Because of its unique status in the modern world, myths and misunderstandings about Chinese characters abound. Where does this writing system, so different in form and function from alphabetic writing, come from? How does it really work? How did it come to be used to write non-Chinese languages? And why has it proven so resilient? By exploring the spread and adaptation of the script across two millennia and thousands of miles, Chinese Characters across Asia addresses these questions and provides insights into human cognition and culture. Written in an approachable style and meant for readers with no prior knowledge of Chinese script or Asian languages, it presents a fascinating story that challenges assumptions about speech and writing.

Learn more about Chinese Characters across Asia at the University of Washington Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Chinese Characters across Asia.

--Marshal Zeringue

Robert Inman's "Villages," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Villages by Robert Inman.

The entry begins:

Would my new novel Villages make a good movie? You bet. I’ve worked for years as a screenwriter, and I believe this story has all the ingredients for film – authentic characters, a compelling plotline, conflict, love, courage and hope. Am I being immodest? Why not.

Now, who to play the lead – a young war veteran, wounded in body in spirit, trying to come to grips with the traumatic experience that has turned his life upside down. My vote is for Timothée Chalamet. I’ve been following his career since the beginning, and I admire his innate ability to inhabit complex characters and bring them relatably to life. I point especially to his role in Beautiful Boy as a youth struggling with addiction, and his most recent turn as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. He’s the real deal.

The other key character in Villages is a small-town doctor who has been my veteran’s friend and mentor for all of his young life. Here, I give the nod to...[read on]

Visit Robert Inman's website.

The Page 69 Test: Villages.

My Book, The Movie: Villages.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Van Hoang's "Silver and Smoke"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Silver and Smoke by Van Hoang.

About the book, from the publisher:

It’s the golden age of Hollywood. For two Vietnamese dreamers, success means conjuring a magical break in a spellbinding novel about the frightening price of fame by the author of The Monstrous Misses Mai.

More like sisters than best friends, Issa Bui and Olivia Nong grew up dreaming of becoming movie stars. But for young Vietnamese women in 1930s Hollywood, the MGM back lot seems unreachable. Undeterred, Issa knows she’s meant for great things. The blood of shamans runs through her veins. To find fame in this town, for herself and for Olivia, Issa needs to make connections. For starters, with her dead grandmother Bà Ngoại.

Frightening enough in life―Issa’s own mother forbade any contact―Bà Ngoại is even more intimidating in death. A formidable presence of smoke, promises, and pacts, Bà Ngoại introduces Issa and Olivia to her friend on the other side: the late Ava Lin Rang, a singularly magnetic Asian star of the silent screen. Ava coaches, encourages, and utilizes her own unique influence to open doors for her determined protégés.

As Issa begins drawing on her own untapped powers, every dream is coming true. But in a city of illusions, at what cost?

Visit Van Hoang's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Monstrous Misses Mai.

The Page 69 Test: Silver and Smoke.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten books that get the theatre world right

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

At Lit Hub she tagged ten books "that nail theatre. (And theatre people.)" One title on the list:

Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven

I’ve been meaning to reread this elegant spec-fic, but it’s taken a few years to sidle back up to the inciting incident (in which a pandemic decimates the world population). Much of the novel’s action unfolds around a traveling Shakespeare company, plying their stories a generation after the end of the old world. What St. John Mandel beautifully nails about theatre people is their delusional commitment, and the mad love that guides the enterprise. The first time I read it this book restored my faith in the power of communal storytelling.

Read about another title on the list.

Station Eleven is among Jeanette Horn's nine twisted novels about theatrical performers, Isabelle McConville's fifteen books for fans of the post-apocalyptic TV-drama Fallout, Joanna Quinn's six best books set in & around the theatrical world, Carolyn Quimby's 38 best dystopian novels, Tara Sonin's seven books for fans of Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, Maggie Stiefvater's five fantasy books about artists & the magic of creativity, Mark Skinner's five top literary dystopias, Claudia Gray's five essential books about plagues and pandemics, K Chess's five top fictional books inside of real books, Rebecca Kauffman's ten top musical novels, Nathan Englander’s ten favorite books, M.L. Rio’s five top novels inspired by Shakespeare, Anne Corlett's five top books with different takes on the apocalypse, Christopher Priest’s five top sci-fi books that make use of music, and Anne Charnock's five favorite books with fictitious works of art.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Charles B. Fancher

From my Q&A with Charles B. Fancher, author of Red Clay:

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

My initial title for what would become Red Clay was Felix, a holdover from my original intent to write a narrative nonfiction book about my great-grandfather, a young boy when he and his enslaved family were emancipated at the end of the Civil War and how he overcame great odds to mature, achieve a measure of success, and provide a strong foundation for future generations.

When I decided to write a historical novel instead, it became clear that the story was about a lot more than just one man; it was about a place and time, a culture, and the people who lived through one of the most tumultuous periods in American history: the last months of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the dawning of the Jim Crow era.

Regardless of race, religion, or social status, one thing bound all of the region’s inhabitants together—the land—especially the red clay soil, which was also symbolic of the blood spilled on battlefields, blood oozed from wounds inflicted by the overseers’ whips, and blood running through the veins of families across generations. The character Felix remained at the center of the story, but...[read on]

Visit Charles B. Fancher's website.

The Page 69 Test: Red Clay.

Q&A with Charles B. Fancher.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Brendan A. Shanahan's "Disparate Regimes"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Disparate Regimes: Nativist Politics, Alienage Law, and Citizenship Rights in the United States, 1865–1965 by Brendan A. Shanahan.

About the book, from the publisher:

Historians have well described how US immigration policy increasingly fell under the purview of federal law and national politics in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. It is far less understood that the rights of noncitizen immigrants in the country remained primarily contested in the realms of state politics and law until the mid-to-late twentieth century. Such state-level political debates often centered on whether noncitizen immigrants should vote, count as part of the polity for the purposes of state legislative representation, work in public and publicly funded employment, or obtain professional licensure.

Enacted state alienage laws were rarely self-executing, and immigrants and their allies regularly challenged nativist restrictions in court, on the job, by appealing to lawmakers and the public, and even via diplomacy. Battles over the passage, implementation, and constitutionality of such policies at times aligned with and sometimes clashed against contemporaneous efforts to expand rights to marginalized Americans, particularly US-born women. Often considered separately or treated as topics of marginal importance, Disparate Regimes underscores the centrality of nativist state politics and alienage policies to the history of American immigration and citizenship from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. It argues that the proliferation of these debates and laws produced veritable disparate regimes of citizenship rights in the American political economy on a state-by-state basis. It further illustrates how nativist state politics and alienage policies helped to invent and concretize the idea that citizenship rights meant citizen-only rights in law, practice, and popular perception in the United States.

Learn more about Disparate Regimes at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Disparate Regimes.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five of the best books about the fabulous—and painful—parts of fame

Pamela Spradlin Mahajan is the author of Skye, Revised, a women’s fiction novel with a delicious dash of magical realism and romance. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and creative writing from Missouri State University and a Masters from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Her recent short stories have appeared in the online literary journal "They Call Us" and she has been honored in the WOW! Women on Writing Flash Fiction Contest.

At Shepherd Spradlin Mahajan tagged five of "the best books about the fabulous—and painful—parts of fame." One title on the list:

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This unique book is a faux journalistic piece that was a fun read. It was interesting to imagine the drama that might go on behind the scenes of an iconic rock band, as Taylor Jenkins Reid does. The author used Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham as the inspiration for her novel, which has since been turned into a series on Amazon Prime.

It was intriguing to watch how the bandmates found fame and how it changed their relationships and lives. This book was written from the perspective of a journalist instead of from one of the band members, which was an interesting touch.

Read about another novel on the list.

Daisy Jones and the Six is among Isabelle McConville's ten Taylor Swift song-to-book recommendations, Julia Fine's seven novels inspired by other art forms, Elvin James Mensah's seven top novels that celebrate pop music, Glenn Dixon's ten best novels about fictional bands, and Benjamin Myers's top ten mentors in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Chris Nickson's "No Precious Truth"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: No Precious Truth by Chris Nickson.

About the book, from the publisher:

The first in a brand-new WWII historical thriller series introduces Sergeant Cathy Marsden – a female police officer working for the Special Investigation Branch – who risks her life to protect the city of Leeds from an escaped German spy!

Leeds, 1941. As the war rages across Europe, Police Sergeant Cathy Marsden’s life since she was seconded to the Special Investigation Branch has remained focused on deserters and home-front crimes. Until now.

Things take a chilling turn when Cathy’s civil servant brother, Dan, arrives from London with a dark secret: he is working for the XX Committee – a special MI5 unit set up to turn German spies into double agents. But one of these agents has escaped and is heading for Leeds, sent to destroy targets key to the war effort. Suddenly Cathy and the squad are plunged into an unfamiliar world of espionage and subterfuge.

With the fate of the country and the war in the balance, failure is not an option, and Cathy must risk everything, including her own life, to stop a spy.

This fast-paced World War II thriller is perfect for fans of Kate Quinn, Rhys Bowen and Kelly Rimmer!

Visit Chris Nickson's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Constant Lovers.

The Page 69 Test: The Constant Lovers.

The Page 69 Test: The Iron Water.

The Page 69 Test: The Hanging Psalm.

Q&A with Chris Nickson.

The Page 69 Test: The Molten City.

My Book, The Movie: Molten City.

Writers Read: Chris Nickson (August 2021).

The Page 69 Test: Brass Lives.

The Page 69 Test: The Blood Covenant.

The Page 69 Test: The Dead Will Rise.

Writers Read: Chris Nickson (March 2023).

The Page 69 Test: Rusted Souls.

Writers Read: Chris Nickson (September 2023).

The Page 69 Test: The Scream of Sins.

Writers Read: Chris Nickson (March 2024).

The Page 69 Test: Them Without Pain.

Writers Read: Chris Nickson (September 2024).

Writers Read: Chris Nickson.

The Page 69 Test: No Precious Truth.

--Marshal Zeringue

Lincoln Mitchell's "Three Years Our Mayor," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Lincoln A. Mitchell's Three Years Our Mayor: George Moscone and the Making of Modern San Francisco.

His entry begins:

I do not have a deep knowledge of film or of actors, so rather than try to cast my whole book, Three Years Our Mayor: George Moscone and the Making of Modern San Francisco, I will focus simply on who would play the lead role, that of George Moscone. When thinking about who might play Moscone in a film version of my biography of him two things come to mind.

First, Moscone has been played on film before. In the 2008 biopic of Harvey Milk titled simply Milk, Moscone was paid played by Victor Garber. Garber is a fine actor, but in that film Moscone was peripheral to the story, so could be played by a character actor. Howeer, for a movie about Moscone, Garber is not the right guy.

Second, the question of who might play George Moscone is fun to answer because he could, and should, be played by a real movie star. Moscone had a career, and life, that calls for star treatment. He was a young man from modest background who was became All-City basketball player in high school and went on to a successful career in politics, was a bit of womanizer and, according to many who knew him, had movie star looks and charisma. Additionally, his life ended in horrific but nonetheless cinematic circumstances.

Moscone died when I was a child and although I remember the day he died and how upset many, but not everybody, I knew was, I never met the man, so it is tough for me to have a real sense of what movie star should portray him on film. However, it happened that while I was mulling over this question, I had the opportunity to have breakfast with a friend who is a bit older than me and knew Moscone quite well, having worked with him for many years. We talked about it and he agreed that a real movie star should play Moscone.

Based on our conversation and my own limited knowledge of film, for the movie of George Moscone's life, I would cast Brad Pitt in the leading role. Pitt is a good-looking leading man type and can pull off the kind of grace, athleticism, charisma and complexity that Moscone had. I had briefly entertained the idea of...[read on]

Visit Lincoln Mitchell's website.

The Page 99 Test: San Francisco Year Zero.

The Page 99 Test: The Giants and Their City.

The Page 99 Test: Three Years Our Mayor.

Writers Read: Lincoln A. Mitchell.

My Book, The Movie: Three Years Our Mayor.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Rosanne Limoncelli

From my Q&A with Rosanne Limoncelli, author of The Four Queens of Crime:

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

My book The Four Queens of Crime takes the reader straight into the premise of Golden Age Mysteries. Fans of that era know Agatha Christie was called the Queen of Crime, and if they haven’t yet read Dorothy L Sayers, Ngaio Marsh or Margery Allingham, the novel is a good introduction to those authors. They were dubbed the Four Queens of Crime since they were to top selling authors of the 1930’s and all four authors are characters in the book. The year is 1938 and the Four Queens of Crime are called upon to host a fundraiser gala ball for the Women’s Voluntary Service, to help prepare for the event of war. They host the ball on a Friday evening and will stay the whole weekend at Sir Henry Heathcote’s country estate. The gala goes well, but the four writers witness quite a bit of dramatic family dynamics and political intrigue that pervade the event. The next morning Sir Henry is...[read on]

Visit Rosanne Limoncelli's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Four Queens of Crime.

The Page 69 Test: The Four Queens of Crime.

Q&A with Rosanne Limoncelli.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Michael Messner's "The High School"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The High School: Sports, Spirit, and Citizens, 1903-2024 Michael A. Messner.

About the book, from the publisher:

High school yearbooks provide both a vivid snapshot of student life and a reflection of what the adults in the community valued the most. For instance, athletics are often covered more than academics, and boys’ sports routinely receive more attention than girls’ sports. But how have those values changed over time?

In The High School, acclaimed sociologist Michael A. Messner reads through 120 years of El Gabilan, the yearbook from his own alma mater, Salinas High School in California, where his father taught and coached. Treating the yearbooks as a historical archive, Messner makes surprising discoveries about the school he thought he knew so well. For example, over fifty years before Title IX, the earliest yearbooks gave equal spotlights to boys’ and girls’ athletics, while the cheerleaders were all boys.

Tracing American life and culture from 1903 to 2024, Messner illuminates shifts in social practices at his high school that reflect broader changes in American culture across the twentieth century. The High School spotlights how the meanings and iconography of certain activities have changed radically over the decades, even as the “sports spirit complex”—involving athletes, cheerleaders, band members, and community boosters—has remained a central part of the high school experience. By exploring evolving sports cultures, socioeconomic conditions, racial demographics, and gender norms, Messner offers a fresh perspective on a defining feature of American teenage life.

Visit Michael Messner's website.

The Page 99 Test: Guys Like Me.

The Page 99 Test: The High School.

--Marshal Zeringue

The best retellings of "The Great Gatsby"

Camille Aubray is the author of Cooking for Picasso and The Godmothers. Both novels were a People Magazine’s Pick for the Best New Books. The Godmothers was also chosen for the Best Books Lists by Newsweek, Buzzfeed, Parade, and Veranda. Cooking for Picasso is an Indiebound bestseller and made the Indie Next Reading Groups List. Aubray is an Edward Albee Foundation Fellowship winner and was a writer-in-residence at the Karolyi Foundation in the South of France. She studied writing with her mentor Margaret Atwood, and was a finalist for the Pushcart Press Editors’ Book Award and the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference.

At Lit Hub Aubray tagged some of the best remixes of The Great Gatsby. One title on the list:

Michael Farris Smith, Nick

The narrator of The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway, is imagined as a World War I veteran in the tumultuous years before he meets Jay Gatsby. Attempting to forget the horror and destruction that he witnessed firsthand, Nick sets off on a whirlwind journey from Paris to New Orleans seeking love and redemption.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Lincoln Mitchell reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Lincoln A. Mitchell, author of Three Years Our Mayor: George Moscone and the Making of Modern San Francisco.

His entry begins:

I like to read both fiction and nonfiction, and usually switch back and forth between the two with each book I read. I have read a few novels recently, but my favorite was Rachel Kushner's Creation Lake. Some might say it comports with my background and personality that I'm a big Rachel Kushner fan. We are both Jewish, both grew up in San Francisco and both seem to have a particular love for the western part of the city. As a young person Kushner spent a lot of time in the Sunset District, which is just south of Golden Gate Park whereas I identify more with the Richmond District, just north of the park. While we didn't go to the same high school-Kushner went to Lowell and I went to University High School-I have a lot of friends who went to Lowell with her.

In Creation Lake, Kushner tells a story of aging lefty radicals in rural France and evinces a vague contempt, respect, admiration and sense of absurdity towards the group to which I could relate. The novel is...[read on]

About Three Years Our Mayor, from the publisher:

Those who recognize Mayor George Moscone’s name may think of him as the career politician who was assassinated along with Harvey Milk, but there was much more to this influential and fascinating man’s story. He was a trailblazing progressive and powerful state legislator who was instrumental in passing legislation on issues ranging from LGBT rights to funding for school lunches. Moscone’s 1975 campaign for mayor was historically significant because it was the first time a major race was won by a candidate who campaigned aggressively for expanding civil rights for both African Americans and LGBT people. He won his campaign for mayor chiefly because of huge support from those two constituencies.

Moscone was also a very colorful character who, in addition to being a successful politician, was a charming and charismatic bon vivant who was deeply embedded in the fabric and culture of San Francisco. He grew up the only son of a single mother in Cow Hollow when it was a working class, largely Italian American neighborhood, and he became the kind of politician who knew bartenders, playground attendants, small business owners, and neighborhood activists in every corner of the city. Moscone’s life and the history of San Francisco during the middle half of the twentieth century are deeply intertwined.

Through illustrating the life of Moscone, author Lincoln A. Mitchell explores how today’s San Francisco came into being. Moscone—through his work in the State Senate, victory in the very divisive 1975 mayor’s race, and brief tenure as mayor—was a key figure in the city’s evolution. The politics surrounding Moscone’s election as mayor, governance of the city, and tragic death are still relevant issues. Moscone was a groundbreaking politician whose life was cut short, but his influence on San Francisco can still be felt today.

Visit Lincoln Mitchell's website.

The Page 99 Test: San Francisco Year Zero.

The Page 99 Test: The Giants and Their City.

The Page 99 Test: Three Years Our Mayor.

Writers Read: Lincoln A. Mitchell.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg 69: Amy Mason Doan's "The California Dreamers"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The California Dreamers: A Novel by Amy Mason Doan.

About the book, from the publisher:

A group of siblings captured in an iconic beach photo reunite on a sunny California island, where they're forced to face the fallout of their unconventional upbringing—and the golden secret that has been simmering ever since...

It’s 1980s California, and everyone’s dreaming of the endless summer: sun-drenched beaches, infinite waves, and most of all, beautiful, beautiful freedom. For the Merrick siblings, this idyllic vision is their reality, as they travel up and down the coast with their parents in a van year-round, surfing and swimming their days away. But when a photographer secretly snaps a stunning photo of the family with their boards in the sand, and the image ripples across the country, the only life they’ve ever known is put at risk.

Decades after, the now-distant siblings gather on a gorgeous, wild island to honor their late father. But their reunion is complicated when a journalist, eager for the truth behind the famous photo, discovers their identity and tracks them down. As the siblings reckon with the possibility that more of their lives could be shared, a revelation about their past forces them to confront long-held heartaches. Together, they’ll have to decide whether to let the same tensions rip them apart again—or if telling their story on their own terms might just be the way to recapture the family magic.

Visit Amy Mason Doan's website.

The Page 69 Test: Summer Hours.

My Book, The Movie: Lady Sunshine.

The Page 69 Test: The California Dreamers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Christopher J. Insole's "Negative Natural Theology"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Negative Natural Theology: God and the Limits of Reason by Christopher J. Insole.

About the book, from the publisher:

How can we live in harmony with the universe, and not just in it? What is it to feel at home in the world?

Some thinkers who feel the force of these questions reach for the concept of God. Others do not. This book asks what might be at stake in the choice of whether or not to speak about God: not just in terms of abstract reasoning or arguments about God, but in relation to deeper undercurrents of motivation and yearning.

The book is interested in sites in contemporary thinking, where the concept of the divine beckons, or looms, but also, perhaps, repels, or hides. It asks 'what is at stake' in the decision (if it is that) to talk about God and the divine, or not to do so, with a wide and deep curiosity about what this might include: reasons and arguments, certainly, but also more biographical, intuitive, and affective dimensions, including imagination, and feelings about what is valuable. Also relevant are unconscious drives and factors. Concepts can convince, or fail to convince, but, also, they can attract and repel.

The book draws on both analytical and continental post-Kantian sources, treating individual thinkers such as Immanuel Kant, William James, Carl Jung, Karl Rahner, Albert Camus, Saul Kripke, Thomas Nagel, Derek Parfit, Karen Kilby, and Janet Soskice, as well as cultural movements such as modern paganism, new atheism, and humanism.

'Natural theology' involves speaking about God without reference to revelation, tradition, or sources of authority, using the resources of 'reason alone'. 'Negative theology' is concerned with the way in which a type of abstract reasoning and rational argument run out, without this necessarily being an ending: other types of speech and communication may become possible and essential. Speaking into this space, the book draws on philosophy, theology, anthropology, literature, and psychology.

Learn more about Negative Natural Theology at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Negative Natural Theology.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight books featuring cats as characters

Tanya Guerrero is Filipino and Spanish by birth, and has been fortunate enough to call three countries home—the Philippines, Spain, and the United States. Currently, she lives in a shipping container home in the suburbs of Manila with her husband, their daughter, and a menagerie of rescued cats and dogs. She has volunteered for animal welfare organizations since 2008, with a focus on Trap/Neuter/Return and Rescue/Foster/Adopt groups. In her free time, she grows her own food, bakes, and reads.

Guerrero's new novel is Cat's People.

At Electric Lit she tagged eight books featuring memorable felines as characters. One title on the list:

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Many of you have likely read this extremely popular novel by Backman, but for those who haven’t, it combines two of my favorite tropes: grumpy old man with a heart of gold, and cat hater who begrudgingly transforms into cat lover. The cover is also pitch-perfect, allowing you a glimpse into the story about an old man with his back to the world and a scruffy-looking cat in need of a home Velcro-ed to his legs. As the central character Ove reluctantly allows the world back into his cold, deadened heart, his disdain for the stray creature he fondly calls Cat Annoyance is eventually replaced with care and affection, allowing Ove to fully evolve into the feline servant he was meant to be. Make sure to keep a box of tissues nearby, because I guarantee you will need them.

Read about another entry on the list.

Also see thirteen top books featuring cats, Jessie Burton's eleven best books about/with cats, and Lynne Truss's top ten cats in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

Leslie Karst’s "Waters of Destruction," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Waters of Destruction (An Orchid Isle Mystery, 2) by Leslie Karst.

The entry begins:

Valerie Corbin and her wife Kristen are a longtime couple in their early sixties who’ve recently retired to the Big Island of Hawai‘i from Los Angeles, where Valerie worked as a caterer for the film and TV industry and Kristen as a union carpenter.

Val and Kristen bicker some—as old married couples will do—but they have a loving and comfortable relationship. Until, that is, Valerie becomes obsessed with solving the murder of the bartender she’s recently replaced at the Speckled Gecko in Hilo, whose body has just been pulled from the treacherous Wailuku River (which translates as “waters of destruction”). Although Kristen is initially supportive of her wife’s efforts, she soon tires of her singular focus—and eventually begins to worry for Valerie’s safety as she digs deeper into the case.

My pick for who would play Valerie were Waters of Destruction to be made into a movie would be Annette Bening. In particular, the Annette Bening as she appeared in the marvelous film The American President (also starring her husband, Warren Beatty). She’s feisty and has a wry sense of humor, but also shows a vulnerability that’s necessary for Valerie’s character. Although at 5’ 7” Bening is a bit too tall for the shorter Valerie, her looks otherwise match those of my character, who has dark, now- graying hair and an olive complexion she’s inherited from her grandparents in Marseilles, France.

As for Kristen, I’d be thrilled to see...[read on]

Visit Leslie Karst’s website.

Coffee with a Canine: Leslie Karst & Ziggy.

My Book, The Movie: The Fragrance of Death.

Q&A with Leslie Karst.

The Page 69 Test: Waters of Destruction.

My Book, The Movie: Waters of Destruction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Charles B. Fancher's "Red Clay"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Red Clay by Charles B. Fancher.

About the book, from the publisher:

An astounding multigenerational saga, Red Clay chronicles the interwoven lives of an enslaved Black family and their white owners as the Civil War ends and Reconstruction begins.

In 1943, when a frail old white woman shows up in Red Clay, Alabama, at the home of a Black former slave--on the morning following his funeral--his family hardly knows what to expect after she utters the words "... a lifetime ago, my family owned yours." Adelaide Parker has a story to tell--one of ambition, betrayal, violence, and redemption--that shaped both the fate of her family and that of the late Felix H. Parker.

But there are gaps in her knowledge, and she's come to Red Clay seeking answers from a family with whom she shares a name and a history that neither knows in full. In an epic saga that takes us from Red Clay to Paris, to the Côte d'Azur and New Orleans, human frailties are pushed to their limits as secrets are exposed and the line between good and evil becomes ever more difficult to discern. Red Clay is a tale that deftly lays bare the ugliness of slavery, the uncertainty of the final months of the Civil War, the optimism of Reconstruction, and the pain and frustration of Jim Crow.

With a vivid sense of place and a cast of memorable characters, Charles B. Fancher draws upon his own family history to weave a riveting tale of triumph over adversity, set against a backdrop of societal change and racial animus that reverberates in contemporary America. Through seasons of joy and unspeakable pain, Fancher delivers rich moments as allies become enemies, and enemies--to their great surprise--find new respect for each other.

Visit Charles B. Fancher's website.

The Page 69 Test: Red Clay.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Lincoln Mitchell's "Three Years Our Mayor"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Three Years Our Mayor: George Moscone and the Making of Modern San Francisco by Lincoln A. Mitchell.

About the book, from the publisher:

Those who recognize Mayor George Moscone’s name may think of him as the career politician who was assassinated along with Harvey Milk, but there was much more to this influential and fascinating man’s story. He was a trailblazing progressive and powerful state legislator who was instrumental in passing legislation on issues ranging from LGBT rights to funding for school lunches. Moscone’s 1975 campaign for mayor was historically significant because it was the first time a major race was won by a candidate who campaigned aggressively for expanding civil rights for both African Americans and LGBT people. He won his campaign for mayor chiefly because of huge support from those two constituencies.

Moscone was also a very colorful character who, in addition to being a successful politician, was a charming and charismatic bon vivant who was deeply embedded in the fabric and culture of San Francisco. He grew up the only son of a single mother in Cow Hollow when it was a working class, largely Italian American neighborhood, and he became the kind of politician who knew bartenders, playground attendants, small business owners, and neighborhood activists in every corner of the city. Moscone’s life and the history of San Francisco during the middle half of the twentieth century are deeply intertwined.

Through illustrating the life of Moscone, author Lincoln A. Mitchell explores how today’s San Francisco came into being. Moscone—through his work in the State Senate, victory in the very divisive 1975 mayor’s race, and brief tenure as mayor—was a key figure in the city’s evolution. The politics surrounding Moscone’s election as mayor, governance of the city, and tragic death are still relevant issues. Moscone was a groundbreaking politician whose life was cut short, but his influence on San Francisco can still be felt today.

Visit Lincoln Mitchell's website.

The Page 99 Test: San Francisco Year Zero.

The Page 99 Test: The Giants and Their City.

The Page 99 Test: Three Years Our Mayor.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten noir novels for beginners

At The Strand Magazine Bob Rivers tagged ten "top picks for anyone looking to dip their toe into the dark, smoke-filled world of noir." One title on the list:

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

Yes, the plot is famously convoluted, and no, I’m not about to explain it in detail. Doing so would turn this list into the noir version of a physics lecture on Einstein’s theory of relativity. Here’s what you need to know: Marlowe is hired to investigate a blackmailer who has the goods on a rich old man’s unpredictable daughter. From there, the whole thing spirals into seedy photographs, corruption, missing people, and a body count that feels suspiciously like Tuesday in L.A.

Chandler was ahead of his time. Marlowe doesn’t solve the case so much as endure it—plunging into a world where money, lust, and vengeance motivate nearly everyone, and moral disintegration is just the price of doing business. Read the book before watching the film, but expect a brilliant performance from Bogart—that 20th-century noir icon born in the 19th.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Big Sleep also appears on John Banville's list of his six favorite books about cities, a list of four books that changed David Free, Jeff Somers's lists of fifty novels that changed novels and five famous books that contain huge mistakes, John Sweeney's top ten list of books on corruption, the Telegraph's top 23 list of amazing--and short--classic books, Lucy Worsley's ten best list of fictional detectives, Becky Ferreira's list of seven of the best books set in Los Angeles, Ian Rankin's list of five perfect mysteries, Kathryn Williams's reading list on greed, Gigi Levangie Grazer's list of six favorite books that became movies, Megan Wasson's list of five top books on Los Angeles, Greil Marcus's six recommended books list, Barry Forshaw's critic's chart of six American noir masters, David Nicholls' list of favorite film adaptations, and the Guardian's list of ten of the best smokes in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue