Books for the 2008 Olympic Games

Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine and author, most recently, of China's Brave New World — And Other Tales for Global Times, has an interesting article in Outlook India about preparing for the forthcoming Beijing Games:

For years now, intellectually curious people who are about to head off to China — and happen to know that I teach and write about that country for a living — have occasionally asked me a variation of the same question: "Can you point me toward a good book to read in advance or take along on the trip, which will offer a perspective different from both that offered by a standard guidebook and that given by reports in the mainstream media?" And with the Beijing Olympics drawing near and interest in China rising for other reasons, the frequency with which I get asked this sort of question has picked up. Sometimes now the people doing the asking aren’t even planning to go to the PRC, but just want to know more about the place.

One answer Wasserstrom could give:

"Why China’s Brave New World—And Other Tales for Global Times, of course." (That’s my latest book. It’s also my first that is playful and footnote free enough to have the potential to divert a China-bound traveler who isn’t an academic, and is short enough that someone going from Chicago to Shanghai or Bombay to Beijing could not just start but also finish it while en route.) But I don’t actually give that response, since it feels tacky to flog my own wares.

Instead, he's developed "a twelve-step reading program ... organizing [his] scheme around a dozen titles that will help anyone serious about preparing to watch the Games (up close or on television) get in shape mentally."

The first installment of the reading program:

[Jonathan] Spence’s Mao Zedong (Penguin, 1999) is doubly appropriate to read this month. It is natural to begin things with a book on the past (Mao lived from 1893 to 1976), and in China the first day in October is when ceremonies are held to commemorate the moment in 1949 when Mao proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic. Spence manages to give us a thoroughly human as opposed to demonic Mao (early chapters even quote from some of the love letters the future leader wrote in his youth) who accomplished important things. But he does not minimize the venality of Mao’s actions at certain moments (such as his ordering brutal purges of rivals). Nor does Spence gloss over the horrific consequences of some of the campaigns Mao launched late in life, such as the ill-conceived Great Leap Forward of the late 1950s (that was responsible for an astronomical number of famine deaths) and the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).

Read more about the crime novel in Wasserstrom's reading program.

The Page 69 Test: China's Brave New World.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Dorothy Crawford's "Deadly Companions"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Dorothy H. Crawford's Deadly Companions: How Microbes Shaped Our History.

About the book, from the publisher:

Ever since we started huddling together in caves, the story of human history has been inextricably wed to the story of microbes. Bacteria and viruses have evolved and spread among us, shaping our society even as our changing human culture has shaped their evolutionary path.

Combining tales of devastating epidemics with accessible science and fascinating history, Deadly Companions reveals how closely microbes have evolved with us over the millennia, shaping human civilization through infection, disease, and deadly pandemic. Beginning with a dramatic account of the SARS pandemic at the start of the 21st century, Dorothy Crawford takes us back in time to follow the interlinked history of microbes and humanity, offering an up-to-date look at ancient plagues and epidemics, and identifying key changes in the way humans have lived -- such as our move from hunter-gatherer to farmer to city-dweller -- which made us ever more vulnerable to microbe attack.

Showing that how we live our lives today -- with increased crowding and air travel -- puts us once again at risk, Crawford asks whether we might ever conquer microbes completely, and whether we need a more microbe-centric view of the world. Among the possible answers, one thing becomes clear: that for generations to come, our deadly companions will continue to influence our lives.

Learn more about Deadly Companions at the Oxford University Press website.

Dorothy H. Crawford is Robert Irvine Professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of Edinburgh. Her other publications include The Invisible Enemy: A Natural History of Viruses.

The Page 69 Test: Deadly Companions.

--Marshal Zeringue

Review: M.G. Vassanji's "The Assassin's Song"

Ray Taras, who covers contemporary world literature for the blog, reviews the latest novel by M.G. Vassanji, The Assassin's Song:

The teleological question at the heart of Toronto-based novelist M.G. Vassanji's latest novel is explicitly posed a few pages from its conclusion: "Do we always end up where we really belong?" (p. 311). In an age contriving to celebrate the Promethean dimension to each of us, when the ideas of roots, belonging, a station in life, and religious inheritance that shape an individual's future are discredited, this is no banal question.

The story takes the reader from a fictitious thirteenth-century village in what was to become the modern Indian state of Gujarat, to Harvard Yard of the late 1960s, then British Columbia in the 1980s, and back again to the shrine of Pirbaag in the Gujarati town of Haripir in 2002, when bloody communal riots put a brutal end to seven centuries of religious ecumenism. Karsan, next in line after his father to be Saheb of the shrine, is uneasy about becoming god to the worshipers -- Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, mystic -- who come here. As a child he admires his illiterate mother's secret visits, her identity hidden from view in a burqa, to the movie house. His greatest regret as a young boy is that his destiny as next Saheb will not allow his father to give him permission to take up a promising career in cricket. He tries to be his errant brother's keeper, though it is Mansoor that eventually answers the call to a religious vocation, becoming a Muslim who associates with Islamic "defense committees" in the region. One day Karsan sends off an application to Harvard, convinced nothing will come of it, and to his surprise he is accepted. He is able to make a natural break with Bapu-ji, his father who has been suffocating him with paternal love and ambition.

The relationship between father -- in fact god to many of his devotees, including Gujarati communities in North America that Karsan stumbles across -- and son is like an intensely-contested chess match, each moving a piece after calculating what the chessboard will look like three or four moves later. Each asserts a moral claim on the high ground. But it is clearly god's position that cannot be refuted. Personal tragedies befall both the protagonists, but they are not necessarily drawn closer by them. They are separated by a continent or two and Karsan refuses to visit home under any circumstances -- until the communal killings of 2002 force him back to the renamed Haripur (more Hindi-sounding than Haripir).

Vassanji's story is set in locations very different from several of his earlier novels, including the award-winning Gunny Sack (1989) and The In-Between World of Vikram Lall (2003). These vividly described East Africa during British colonial rule and after. After all, Vassanji was born in Kenya and educated in Tanzania and is usually regarded as an African writer. Vikram Lall lyrically evokes Dar es Salamm -- an authentic, rollicking multicultural mosaic -- like few novels before it. It is a testament to the author's literary versatility that he now just as effectively evokes village life in India, with its religious, caste, class, and ethnic complexity.

In Cambridge and Burnaby, Karsan occasionally engages in a self-parody of the Indian immigrant in a white man's world. It comes as no surprise that he is attracted to Marge, a stereotypical late Sixties' hippie but with a difference -- her father is from India. The love story that describes the circuitous route that brings the two together is poignant and filled with melancholy. It is a welcome relief from the hardnosed contest Karsan is locked in with his father.

Then comes fatherhood and another existential question: "Was I afraid my son would grow up to reject me and the world I had given him?" (p. 244). It is resolved in an unexpected way.

If these relationships are the crux of the novel, why the title The Assassin's Song? We need to wait to the last chapters to discover that the original founder of the peaceful shrine of Pirbaag was a Sufi mystic who probably had been a member of the medieval Muslim sect of the Assassins, fleeing from the murderous armies of the Mongol Khan. At Pirbaag around 1260 the mystic had forged mutual respect and understanding between Muslim mullahs and Hindu Brahmins, a pact that was shattered with finality only in our time, in 2002. The reference to the assassins' sect is tantalizing and could have led to another hundred pages of riveting reading if Vassanji had chosen to do so.

The Assassin's Song has been shortlisted this fall for one of Canada's top literary awards, the Giller Prize, which Vassanji has won twice before. Is it that he has few other serious Canadian competitors? Hardly, when we note that Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje, and Rohinton Mistry have been some of the other winners. If, on November 6, Vassanji were to be recognized a third time, it may confirm his status as one of the very best writers of fiction in a country that today represents the avant-garde of English-language literature.--Ray Taras

Read an excerpt from The Assassin's Song.

Ray Taras, professor of political science at Tulane University and director of its World Literature program for the past three years, is the author of a forthcoming book on xenophobias in old and new Europe. His most recently contribution to the blog is an interview with Matthew Brzezinski.

He has reviewed the following fiction for the blog:
3 Works by Dorota Masłowska
Andreï Makine's L’amour humain
Michel Houellebecq's The Possibility of an Island
Emmanuel Dongala's Johnny Mad Dog
Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide

Taras has also reviewed nonfiction on the blog:
Andreï Makine, Cette France qu’on oublie d’aimer
Andrei S. Markovits' Uncouth Nation: Why Europe Dislikes America

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Charles Perrow's "The Next Catastrophe"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Charles Perrow's The Next Catastrophe: Reducing Our Vulnerabilities to Natural, Industrial, and Terrorist Disasters.

About the book, from the publisher:

Charles Perrow is famous worldwide for his ideas about normal accidents, the notion that multiple and unexpected failures -- catastrophes waiting to happen -- are built into our society's complex systems. In The Next Catastrophe, he offers crucial insights into how to make us safer, proposing a bold new way of thinking about disaster preparedness.

Perrow argues that rather than laying exclusive emphasis on protecting targets, we should reduce their size to minimize damage and diminish their attractiveness to terrorists. He focuses on three causes of disaster -- natural, organizational, and deliberate -- and shows that our best hope lies in the deconcentration of high-risk populations, corporate power, and critical infrastructures such as electric energy, computer systems, and the chemical and food industries. Perrow reveals how the threat of catastrophe is on the rise, whether from terrorism, natural disasters, or industrial accidents. Along the way, he gives us the first comprehensive history of FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security and examines why these agencies are so ill equipped to protect us.

The Next Catastrophe is a penetrating reassessment of the very real dangers we face today and what we must do to confront them. Written in a highly accessible style by a renowned systems-behavior expert, this book is essential reading for the twenty-first century. The events of September 11 and Hurricane Katrina -- and the devastating human toll they wrought -- were only the beginning. When the next big disaster comes, will we be ready?

Among the praise for The Next Catastrophe:

"The Next Catastrophe is the work of the master at his formidable best -- a dazzling array of learning, perspective, good sense, and, above all, command."
--Kai Erikson, Yale University

"From the opening pages, The Next Catastrophe is riveting, eye-opening, and haunting. The causes of disasters go far beyond random acts of nature or terrorism; they reflect underlying systemic and managerial issues that we must confront in order to ensure our safety. Luckily, Charles Perrow digs deeply to find some difficult but promising solutions. Concerned citizens must join the experts in reading this brilliant book."
--Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School professor, best-selling author of Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End

"A profound and vital book, The Next Catastrophe provides a devastating indictment of the U.S. government's response to the deep organizational faults revealed by the September 11 attacks and Katrina. Perrow shows in fascinating detail how our politicians allow human disasters to be transformed into opportunities for profiteering and politicking, and routinely substitute wasteful bureaucracies for smart plans to reorganize fragile systems. The fundamental answer, Perrow writes, is to discard the profit- and power-driven ideologies in favor of our nation's traditional common-sense approach to the challenges of our all-too-real world."
--Barry C. Lynn, author of End of the Line: The Rise and Coming Fall of the Global Corporation

"A profound meditation on the paradox that modern technological and management orthodoxies have taken us down an increasingly perilous path. In the name of efficiency, sensitive industries are now so concentrated that they can be crippled at a single blow, from nature, accidents, or acts of terrorism. The mantra of asserting 'central control' in response to catastrophes only makes things worse, Perrow notes, as hierarchies strangle grassroots networks of local responders that might do some good. A trenchant, troubling study."
--John Arquilla, Naval Postgraduate School

"The Next Catastrophe is a fascinating, stimulating, and far-reaching work. Perrow's signature themes are here--the role of political and economic institutions, the reach of their power into organizations, and the inevitability of major organizational failures. The basic argument will stir discussion, and the feasibility of Perrow's proposed solutions is sure to provoke controversy."
--Lynn Eden, author of Whole World on Fire: Organizations, Knowledge, and Nuclear Weapons Devastation

Read an excerpt from The Next Catastrophe and learn more about the book at the Princeton University Press website.

Charles Perrow is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Yale University. His books include Organizing America: Wealth, Power, and the Origins of Corporate Capitalism and Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies. He has worked as a consultant for the U.S. military, the White House, and the nuclear-power industry.

The Page 99 Test: The Next Catastrophe.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Michael Largo reading?

The latest contributor to Writers Read: Michael Largo, the author of three novels, the Bram Stoker Award-winning Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die, and the recently-released The Portable Obituary: How the Famous, Rich, and Powerful Really Died.

His entry opens:

I think I read a fortune cookie once that said, "You are what you read." I don't know how true that is, since my lucky numbers on the flip-side proved losers to date. But the spirit of it is good, and I always have more books to get to than time.

The next book I am currently writing has to do with creative people who committed suicide, so I've been starting the morning reading poetry, some Anne Sexton, John Berryman, Paul Celan and a few others. [read on]

About The Portable Obituary, from the publisher:

Here at last is the definitive source book on the true causes of death of public figures –– providing the ultimate demise of heroes and icons, politicians and celebrities, inventors and explorers, business leaders and sports figures, as well as the unlikely endings of radicals, murderers, feminists, Nobel Prize winners, and others. Organized thematically, The Portable Obituary examines revealing details about how famous persons' deeds, intimate habits, and lifestyles –– good and bad –– ultimately influenced their mode of death and, in due course, determined their role in history and culture. Author Michael Largo makes clear that life, famous or not, can only be fully understood backwards. The true cause of death is often the one omitted detail of history, but in fact reveals the most poignant snapshot of an individual's life.

There is no other work that reviews the lives of the prominent, illustrious, and legendary from the cause of death vantage point, presenting unique, meaningful, and original thumbnail biographies. By using archeological records, published obituaries, techniques of forensic interpretation –– The Portable Obituary is a one–of–a–kind reference work.

About Final Exits, from the publisher:

To die, kick the bucket, to meet your Maker, dead as a doornail, get whacked, smoked, bite the dust, sleep with the fishes, go six feet under–whatever death is called, it's going to happen. In 1789 Ben Franklin wrote, "In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes." Death remains a certainty. But how do we die? It's the enormous variety of HOW that enlivens Final Exits.

According to death certificates, in 1700 there were less than 100 causes of death. Today there are 3,000. With each advance of technology, people find new ways to become deceased, often causing trends that peak in the first year. People are now killed by everything, from cell phones, washing machines, lawn mowers and toothpicks, to the boundless catalog of man–made medicines. In Final Exits the causes of death – bizarre or common – are alphabetically arranged and include actual accounts of people, both famous and ordinary, who unfortunately died that way. (Ants, bad words, Bingo, bean bag chairs, flying cows, frozen toilets, hiccups, lipstick, moray eels, road kill, starfish, and toupees are only some of the more unusual causes.)

Visit Michael Largo's website.

Writers Read: Michael Largo.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Erika Mailman's "The Witch's Trinity"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Erika Mailman's The Witch's Trinity.

About the book, from the author's website:

The year is 1507, and a friar has arrived in Tierkenddorff, a remote German village nestled deeply in the woods. The village has been suffering a famine, and the villagers are desperately hungry. The friar’s arrival is a miracle, and when he claims he can restore the town to prosperity, the men and women who have gathered to hear him rejoice. The friar has a book called the Malleus Maleficarum -- "The Witch’s Hammer." It is a guide to gaining confessions of witchcraft. The friar promises he will identify the guilty woman who has brought God’s anger upon the town, burn her, and bounty will be restored. Tierkenddorff is filled with hope; neighbors wonder aloud who has cursed them and how quickly can she be found? They begin sharing secrets with the friar.

Güde Müller, an elderly woman, has stark and frightening visions-recently she has seen things that defy explanation. None in the village know this, and Güde herself worries that perhaps her mind has begun to wander -- certainly she has outlived all but one of her peers in Tierkenddorff. Yet of one thing she is absolutely certain: she has become an object of scorn and a burden to her son’s wife. In these desperate times her daughter-in-law would prefer one less hungry mouth at the family table. As the friar turns his eye on each member of the tiny community, Güde dreads what her daughter-in-law might say to win his favor.

Then one terrible night Güde follows an unearthly voice and the scent of charred meat into the snow-filled woods. Come morning, she no longer knows if the horror she witnessed was real or imagined. She only knows that if the friar hears of it, she may be damned in this life as well as the next.

Among the early praise for the novel:

“A well-constructed novel and a gripping, well-told story of faith and truth.”
–Khaled Hosseini, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Kite Runner

“A linguistic enchantress has arrived among us, gifted in transmogrifying the mundanities of historical fiction into tableaux of indelible terror and abiding beauty.”
–James Morrow, author of The Last Witchfinder

“Beautifully written, nary a word out of place, and with a few moments that throw you beyond – the way good books do.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

"[A] well-written, gripping and chilling account of a witch scare in early modern Europe."
–Jeremy Dibbell

"No one escapes suspicion when a famine afflicts a medieval German village. Eager to identify a scapegoat, the starving residents of Tierkindorf fall under the spell of an itinerant friar claiming to be able to extract confessions of witchcraft from transgressors. When elderly Gude Muller begins to experience blackouts and confusing visions, her daughter-in-law Irmeltrude seizes the opportunity to rid herself of the burden of her husband's mother. In an ironic twist, the villagers turn not only on Gude but on Irmeltrude as well. In searingly simple prose, Mailman probes the human psyche, peeling back the layers of the basest human instincts to expose the dangerous frailties of the human soul."
–Booklist

“Evocative and engrossing … a frightening tale of both the weakness and strength of the human soul. I was gripped immediately by the story; it reminded me of Year of Wonders and I read it in nearly one sitting.”
—Robert Alexander, national bestselling author of The Kitchen Boy and Rasputin's Daughter

“Powerful and thought-provoking, The Witch’s Trinity questions the nature of truth while bringing to vivid life the power men’s fear has over women’s lives. Haunting and unforgettable.”
—India Edghill, author of Wisdom’s Daughter

“Surprising and engrossing, The Witch’s Trinity draws you in and then keeps you gripped till the very last page.
–Martin Davies, The Conjurer’s Bird

Read an excerpt from The Witch's Trinity and learn more about the book and author at Erika Mailman's website and her blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Witch's Trinity.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nick Hornby's most important books

Nick Hornby is the author of the novels How to Be Good, High Fidelity, About a Boy, and A Long Way Down, as well as the memoir Fever Pitch. He is also the author of Songbook, a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award, and the editor of the short story collection Speaking with the Angel.

His new book, Slam, is his first YA novel.

He recently told Newsweek about his five most important books.

And he addressed two other book-related issues:

A certifiable major book you haven't read:

The most egregious? Middlemarch by George Eliot. It constantly nags me. Someday. Maybe.

A classic that, upon rereading, disappointed:

I hate dissing books, but Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. It wasn't as funny as I remembered it. I read it at the right time, in the right place, and I should have left it at that. When I went back, I couldn't understand its old effect on me.

Read about Hornby's most important books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Whitney Gaskell's "Mommy Tracked," the movie

The current feature at My Book, The Movie: Whitney Gaskell's Mommy Tracked.

About the book, from the author's website:

For Anna, Grace, Juliet, and Chloe, the idyllic town of Orange Cove, Florida, is home. But even in paradise, balancing the challenges of motherhood and life is never easy.

With a son in the throes of the Terrible Twos, divorced restaurant critic Anna has too much on her plate to re-enter the frightening world of dating — no matter how expertly her new admirer wines and dines her.

Grace has three beautiful daughters and the perfect husband, yet she’s increasingly obsessed with one nagging flaw: her excess baby weight.

Ambitious Juliet is desperate to make partner at her law firm. Fortunately, her husband stays home with their twins. But at the office, Juliet is finding more than work to occupy her time.

When newest mom Chloe gives birth, her husband seems indifferent to parenting their son. Chloe is so overwhelmed that she finds herself slipping into a nasty habit she thought she’d overcome.

Filled with humor, charm, and richly developed characters, Mommy Tracked, illuminates four friends’ intertwining lives — and their joys and mistakes along the way.

Among the praise for Mommy Tracked:

"As comfortable as fuzzy slippers and still as sharp as stilettos, Gaskell's latest (after Testing Kate) celebrates motherhood, marriage and friendship with humor and vibrant insight. Four young Florida mothers help each other through trying times in this sparkling example of 'mom lit'."
–Publishers Weekly

"Poignant, funny, and peppered with snappy dialogue, Mommy Tracked is a great addition to the friendship book list, which includes Waiting to Exhale (1992), The Circle of Five (2003), and The Dirty Girls Social Club (2003)."
–Booklist

"Gaskell’s latest is a laugh-out-loud, witty view of motherhood from the perspectives of four different women. Readers will identify with the charismatic characters in their everyday struggles to balance marriage, motherhood and career."
–Romantic Times (Four Stars)

"There are few periods more challenging for women than the pre-school years, and this compassionate novel captures that time in all its endearing, slovenly, enchanting glory."
–BookPage

"Whether you are currently a mommy or never planning to have little ones of your own, you'll love being a part of this group of mothers as they share their triumphs and disappointments with the ever-changing expectations and demands of modern motherhood. Whitney Gaskell expands the challenges of motherhood beyond a laundry list of ideas by combining elements from the lives of four women, plus many of their mommy friends, into a funny, honest and thought-provoking examination of the ways having a child changes a woman's career, her marriage and her self- image. With four distinct storylines, this book has a plot to please every reader."
–Fresh Fiction

"I felt a kinship with this novel — it was outstanding. The characters are real, with real problems that women face today. But, the novel is still full of humor and charm that will keep the reader entertained."
–Romance Reader at Heart

Read an excerpt from Mommy Tracked and learn more about the book and author at Whitney Gaskell's website.

Gaskell is the author of five novels including Testing Kate, to which she applied the Page 69 Test earlier this year.

My Book, The Movie: Mommy Tracked.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Eric Nuzum's "The Dead Travel Fast"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Eric Nuzum's The Dead Travel Fast: Stalking Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Dead Travel Fast is about vampires, death, chickens, fear, things that smell bad, the love of a good woman, and germs … but mostly it’s about vampires.

The undead are everywhere. They’re not just in movies and books, but in commercials, fetish clubs, and even in your breakfast cereal. If you look, you’ll discover that bloodsuckers have gone from guest spots in rural folk tales to becoming some of the most recognizable bad guys in the modern world. Eric Nuzum wanted to find out why and how this happened. And he found the answer in Goth clubs, darkened parks, haunted houses, and … chain restaurants.

Nuzum was willing to do whatever it took to better understand the vampire phenomenon. He traveled across Transylvania on a tour hosted by Butch Patrick (a.k.a. Eddie Munster), sat through Las Vegas’ only topless vampire revue, hung out with assorted shady characters, and spent hours in a coffin. He even drank his own blood -- just one more step in his quest to understand the weird, offbeat world of vampires and the people who love them.

The Dead Travel Fast is the hilarious result of this bloody, gory, and often foolhardy journey. With his unmatched firsthand experience, Eric Nuzum delivers a far-reaching look at vampires in pop culture, from Bram to Bela to Buffy, and at what vampires and vampirism have come to mean to us today.

And the blood? Let’s just say it doesn’t go with eggs.

Among the early praise for the book:

"Oozing with blood, intellect and unexpected sincerity, The Dead Travel Fast is the definitive look at why society loves the man who's not in the mirror. This is the best book on vampirism I've ever read."
--Chuck Klosterman, author of Killing Yourself to Live

"Eric Nuzum has written a first-class, if respectful, evisceration of contemporary vampire culture. It's also the funniest vampire comedy since Love at First Bite."
--Neal Pollack, author of Alternadad

"Eric Nuzum walks where few writers dare to tread in his quest to ferret out vampires, traveling from Las Vegas to Transylvania, and even drinking his own blood -with predictably disastrous results. An entertaining history packed with colorful characters, arcane trivia, and keen insight into our enduring fascination with these mythical creatures."
--Jennifer Ouellette, author of The Physics of the Buffyverse

"Infused with both wit and sensitivity, Nuzum's storytelling shifts effortlessly between history and anecdote without losing sight of its subject."
--Entertainment Weekly

Read an excerpt from The Dead Travel Fast and learn more about the book and author at Eric Nuzum's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Dead Travel Fast.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Julian Baggini reading?

The latest contributor to Writers Read: Julian Baggini, editor and co-founder of The Philosophers' Magazine. He writes regularly for the Guardian, Independent and Independent on Sunday, Prospect and the TES, and has appeared on Nightwaves and In Our Time.

Baggini is the author of several books on philosophy, including Making Sense: Philosophy Behind the Headlines and Atheism: A Very Short Introduction. His most recent book is Welcome to Everytown: A Journey into the English Mind.

One book mentioned in his entry:

Culture of Complaint by Robert Hughes. I'm writing a book on complaint and this seems to be the biggest book on the subject of recent years. The great irony is that Hughes's book is itself an unrelenting complaint about how we complain about everything. I might complain about that in my book. [read on]

Visit Julian Baggini's website.

The Page 99 test: Welcome to Everytown.

Writers Read: Julian Baggini.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Oliver Sacks reading?

Oliver Sacks has written 10 books, including Awakenings and the recently-released Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. He is perhaps best known for his collections of case histories from the far borderlands of neurological experience, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars, in which he describes patients struggling to live with conditions ranging from Tourette's syndrome to autism, parkinsonism, musical hallucination, epilepsy, phantom limb syndrome, schizophrenia, retardation, and Alzheimer's disease.

He talked to the Christian Science Monitor about his recent viewing pleasures and what he's been listening to.

And what he's been reading:

Music, Language, and the Brain by a colleague of mine called [Aniruddh] Patel. He himself is a good musician as well as a neuroscientist and a nice writer [with] a good feeling for language. A book [that] absolutely staggered me ... is The Emerald Planet: How Plants Changed Earth's History. It's by a brilliant young man in England called David Beerling, and it's such an incredible history of the last half billion years. It's the sort of book [that] Darwin would have blurbed. I also read some fiction, and I've become very attached to J.M. Coetzee.

Check out Sacks's recent encounters with movies and music.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: E. Lockhart's "Dramarama"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: E. Lockhart's Dramarama.

About the book, from the publisher:

Two theater-mad, self-invented,
fabulositon Ohio teenagers.

One boy, one girl.
One gay, one straight.
One black, one white.

And SUMMER DRAMA CAMP.

It’s a season of
hormones,
gold lamé,
hissy fits,
jazz hands,
song and dance,
true love,
and unitards

that will determine their future
and test their friendship.

Among the praise for the novel:

"Very smart and very funny... theater lovers will swoon, and everyone else will appreciate the twists and the ending you don’t see coming."
--Booklist, starred review

"Jealousies swirl, talent shines and insecurities bloom amid the intense competition, reflected in Lockhart's zippy prose. The author deftly handles highly varied characterizations and vividly portrays the intense, sparkling and thorny aspects of the theater world. … Anyone with the acting bug will grab this and devour it in one bite. Exhilarating."
--Kirkus

"Dramarama far surpasses other books that I have read. Aside from the hilarious plot and narration, E. Lockhart adds in issues that anyone who reads this novel is able to connect with."
--TeensReadToo.com

"Teens will identify strongly with both the heartbreak and the humor in this authentic portrayal of friendships maturing and decaying.... An effervescent read, this is an excellent purchase."
--School Library Journal

"It is easy to get swept up with these enthusiastic students who hug and kiss "even when they're competing with each other," and who break out into an early-morning rendition of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" on a dare....this production has more than enough energy -- and honesty -- to captivate its audience."
--Publishers Weekly

"E. Lockhart mixes summer camp, friendship, glitter, romance, dancing, singing and theater to make this book a Show Stopper! Brava!"
--Cecil Castelluci, author of Boy Proof and Queen of Cool

Read an excerpt from Dramarama and learn more about E. Lockhart and her books at her website.

The Page 99 Test: Dramarama.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jeff Carlson's "Plague Year"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Jeff Carlson's Plague Year.

About the book, from the author's website:

The nanotechnology was designed to fight cancer. Instead, it evolved into the machine plague, killing nearly five billion people and changing life on Earth forever.

The nanotech has one weakness: it self-destructs at altitudes above ten thousand feet. Those few who've managed to escape the plague struggle to stay alive on the highest mountains, but time is running out. There is famine and war, and the environment is crashing worldwide. Humanity's last hope lies with a top nanotech researcher aboard the International Space Station — and with a small group of survivors in California who risk a daring journey below the death line...

Among the praise for Plague Year:

"One of the best debut novels in years."
—David Brin, New York Times bestselling author of Kiln People

"Part Michael Crichton, part George Romero... full of high-altitude chills."
—E.E. Knight, national bestselling author of Valentine's Exile

"A grim and fascinating new twist on the post-holocaust story."
—Kevin J. Anderson, New York Times bestselling co-author of Hunters of Dune

"Harrowing, heartfelt and rock-hard realistic. Not to be missed."
—James Rollins, New York Times bestselling author of The Judas Strain

Readers can find the first two chapters of Plague Year at Carlson’s web site, along with tour dates, a brain-busting trivia contest, an author biography, and advance information on the sequel War Day, forthcoming from Ace/Penguin in Summer 2008.

The Page 69 Test: Plague Year.

--Marshal Zeringue

Carnival of the Criminal Minds

Coming this week to The Rap Sheet: the second post in the developing “Carnival of the Criminal Minds” series.

What is the “Carnival of the Criminal Minds?”

The Rap Sheet's editor, J. Kingston Pierce explained earlier this month:

The idea for this rolling blog carnival came from author and academic librarian Barbara Fister, who in mid-September suggested that a gaggle of bloggers interested in crime and mystery fiction get together and regularly post links to Web-based stories about the genre that they’ve read and enjoyed recently. At least initially, the carnival’s hosts will alternate on a fortnightly basis. We started with Chisholm’s site. The Rap Sheet will follow up with a similar round-up posting in mid-October, and things are expected to go on from there. At last count, Fister had convinced four bloggers--including yours truly--to participate, with others still waiting to see how things go. She has also created an archive blog to keep track of where the carnival has been, and where it’s headed next.... When you get a chance, click over to the first crime carnival post.

Watch The Rap Sheet this week for the carnival's second stop.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Andrew Bacevich reading?

The latest contributor to Writers Read: Andrew Bacevich, professor of international relations at Boston University.

Check out the controversial book atop Bacevich's reading list.

A graduate of the U. S. Military Academy, Andrew Bacevich received his Ph. D. in American Diplomatic History from Princeton University. Before joining the faculty of Boston University in 1998, he taught at West Point and at Johns Hopkins University. He is the editor, most recently, of The Long War: A New History of US National Security Policy since World War II (2007), and the author of New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War (2005).

The Page 99 Test: The New American Militarism.

Writers Read: Andrew Bacevich.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five best books: the Anglo-American relationship

Michael Barone, a senior writer at U.S. News & World Report, named a five best list of books about "the shared heritage of America and Britain" for Opinion Journal.

One title on the list:

Freedom Just Around the Corner by Walter McDougall (HarperCollins, 2004).

This first volume of a history of America from its colonial beginnings skillfully interweaves developments in Britain with those in the North American colonies. Stressing the importance of religion in the formation of the nation's character, McDougall shows how the First Great Awakening of the 1740s was a transatlantic movement, with George Whitefield preaching in Georgia, Philadelphia (with Benjamin Franklin as his publicist) and New England, as well as in Scotland, Ireland and Whitefield's native England. Methodism and the Masonic Order were also imports from England, as McDougall examines in detail. He leaves off in 1828 with Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, breaking ground for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad--and with the reader eager for the next volume.

Read more about Barone's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Janet Fitch's "Paint It Black"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Janet Fitch's Paint It Black.

About the book, from the publisher:

Josie Tyrell, art model and denizen of LA's rock scene, finds a chance at real love with art student Michael Faraday. A Harvard dropout and son of a renowned pianist, Michael introduces Josie to his spiritual quest and a world of sophistication she had never dreamed existed. But when she is called to identify her lover's dead body, Josie's bright dreams all turn to black.

As Josie struggles to understand Michael's death and hold onto the true world he shared with her, she finds herself both repelled by and attracted to his pianist mother, Meredith, who holds Josie responsible for her son's torment. Soon, the two women find themselves drawn into a twisted relationship that reflects equal parts distrust and blind need.

Among the praise for the novel:

"With the luxurious prose and fever pitch intensity that are her hallmarks, Janet Fitch's spellbinding new novel is ultimately a "rewarding story of power and grace."
—People, four-star review

"A page-turning psychodrama.... Fitch's prose penetrates the inner lives of [her characters] with immediacy and bite."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Fitch wonderfully captures the abrasive appeal of punk music, the bohemian, sometimes squalid lifestyle, the performers, the drugs, the alienation. This is crackling fresh stuff you don't read every day."
—USA Today

"In dysfunctional family narratives, Fitch is to fiction what Eugene O'Neill is to drama."
—Chicago Sun-Times

"Riveting.... An uncommonly accomplished page-turner."
—Elle

"Though I loved White Oleander, author Fitch’s first and celebrated novel, nothing prepared my for the gritty yet delicate reality of Paint it Black. A period piece, Paint it Black takes place at the edges of the art and music world in Los Angeles in the early 1980s. Fitch has the details right: the clothing, the attitude, the buckets of carefully concealed angst. More than local detail, however, Fitch nails the humanity -- and sometimes the inhumanity -- of a carefully described and created cast of characters. Duplicitous Michael -- already dead as the book begins and who we meet in flashback -- his mother, the spider-like Meredith and our heroine, the teenage runaway Josie Tyrell, the girl Michael’s suicide left behind."
—Linda L. Richards, January Magazine

Read an excerpt from Paint It Black and learn more about the book and its author at the publisher's website and the Paint It Black MySpace page.

Janet Fitch is also the author of White Oleander.

The Page 99 Test: Paint It Black.

--Marshal Zeringue

Toronto Public Library's Book Buzz

Earlier this week I learned about Toronto Public Library's online book club. It's called Book Buzz, and its current guest host is the writer Claire Cameron.

Cameron is the author of The Line Painter, currently featured at My Book, The Movie.

Her book discussion is quite active, so please consider clicking over to see what they're talking about.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Denise Hamilton's "Prisoner of Memory"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Denise Hamilton's Prisoner of Memory.

About the book, from the author's website:

Denise Hamilton, hailed by the Chicago Sun Times as "one of the brightest new stars in the mystery world," delivers a riveting new novel in her critically acclaimed series featuring the uniquely appealing heroine, sassy, street-smart Los Angeles Times reporter Eve Diamond. Set in L.A.'s vibrant Russian immigrant community where new money and raw power collide with hidden agendas left over from the Cold War, Prisoner of Memory confirms Hamilton's reputation as one of the most astute writers of engrossing, atmospheric crime fiction that illuminates the social realities of contemporary Los Angeles.

While investigating the sighting of a mountain lion in L.A.'s Griffith Park, Eve comes across the body of a teenage boy who was shot to death execution style. The son of a Russian emigre scientist, the victim was an exemplary student with no ties to gangs or drugs. Was his murder a random act of violence, the result of a teenage love triangle or the work of the Russian Mafia? Eve, also the child of Russian immigrants, feels an instant rapport with the boy's grief-stricken father, Sasha Lukin, a cultured old-world gentleman who she senses is not telling her all he knows about his son's shocking murder

Forced to partner on the story with her newsroom rival police reporter Josh Brandywine whose interest in her turns disconcertingly personal, Eve uncovers connections between the victim's family and a fascinating, chameleon-like FBI agent whose career was derailed by his affair with a female KGB agent, and a brutal Russian mobster who warns Eve not to pry into the teenager's death. Complicating Eve's pursuit of the story is the arrival at her door of a young Russian man who claims to be her long-lost cousin. Is he truly a link to the family she thought she'd lost or an impostor sent by the Russian mob to spy on her?

As the violence surrounding the Lukin family escalates to encompass Eve as she moves closer to unraveling the motives of a brilliant, vengeful killer, Prisoner of Memory races to a thrilling resolution that holds surprising personal revelations about Eve herself.

Among the praise for the novel:

"Entertaining, well-researched... Hamilton richly evokes seething, polyglot LA."
—Publishers Weekly

"Hamilton's post-millenial LA is a defiantly polyglot megalopolis ... with many startling moments of clarity.... Hamilton, whose mystery novels, like Chandler's, capture the strange allure of a city in which everything is always in flux..." is "offering a real time feed from a place 'so new that we can't even imagine what it's becoming'... the author revels in the smells, sounds, tastes and texture of Southern California."
—Los Angeles Times

"The Eve Diamond series is the best thing to hit the L.A. crime novel scene since Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch."
—David Montgomery, Mystery Ink

"The most gripping and far-reaching of Denise Hamilton's celebrated Eve Diamond novels yet. Written with an impressive narrative flair for character, setting, and pace, the book is both a compelling page-turner and a deeply realized exploration of the shattering power of personal memory and public history."
—Michael Andre Bernstein, author of Conspirators

"In the best tradition of the genre (as practiced by Raymond Chandler on forward), Hamilton uses the mystery novel to explore important social issues and themes in society."
—The Boston Globe

Read an excerpt from Prisoner of Memory and learn more about Denise Hamilton and her books at her website.

All five of Hamilton's Eve Diamond novels were Los Angeles Times bestsellers: Prisoner of Memory, which was a summer reading recommendation on NPR.org's Day to Day and a finalist for Best Mystery by the Southern California Booksellers Association; Savage Garden, a 2005 finalist for Best Mystery by the Southern California Booksellers Association; Last Lullaby, a USA Today Summer Reading Pick and a Best Mystery nominee for the Southern California Booksellers Association; Sugar Skull; and The Jasmine Trade, a finalist for the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, and Willa awards. Her Eve Diamond novels have been optioned for film.

She is also the author of the short story "At the Drop of A Hat" in Thriller, an anthology edited by James Patterson, and a contributor to and the editor of Los Angeles Noir. Her journalism has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Wired, Cosmopolitan, Der Spiegel, and the New York Times.

The Page 69 Test: Prisoner of Memory.

--Marshal Zeringue

The best of Philip Roth

Coinciding with the release of Philip Roth's latest novel Exit Ghost, London Times literary editor Erica Wagner named "the best of Philip Roth" for her newspaper.

One title to make the list, albeit a little lower than I would have ranked it:

American Pastoral (1997)

Zuckerman recounts the seemingly idyllic life of Seymour “Swede” Levov; a shattering of complacency.

Read about another title that I would have ranked higher on Wagner's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Robin Wagner-Pacifici reading?

The latest contributor to Writers Read: Robin Wagner-Pacifici, Gil and Frank Mustin Professor of Sociology at Swarthmore College and author of The Art of Surrender: Decomposing Sovereignty at Conflict's End.

Her entry opens:

I'm always a little embarrassed when people ask me what I'm reading, because inevitably I'm reading books that are rather dark and, potentially, depressing. But partly out of occupational necessity and partly out of a best-left-unanalyzed personal predilection, I do tend to gravitate toward books about violent conflict. So these days, as I'm trying to understand changes in ideas about national defense, I'm reading several books that attempt to understand war and its consequences.

Read on to find out which books fit that bill, and to learn about the 20th century American literature classic Wagner-Pacifici read in a "state of exhausting energy."

Visit the University of Chicago Press website to learn more about The Art of Surrender.

The Page 99 Test: The Art of Surrender.

Writers Read: Robin Wagner-Pacifici.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Mary Beard's "The Roman Triumph"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Mary Beard's The Roman Triumph.

About the book, from the publisher:

It followed every major military victory in ancient Rome: the successful general drove through the streets to the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill; behind him streamed his raucous soldiers; in front were his most glamorous prisoners, as well as the booty he'd captured, from enemy ships and precious statues to plants and animals from the conquered territory. Occasionally there was so much on display that the show lasted two or three days.

A radical reexamination of this most extraordinary of ancient ceremonies, this book explores the magnificence of the Roman triumph--but also its darker side. What did it mean when the axle broke under Julius Caesar's chariot? Or when Pompey's elephants got stuck trying to squeeze through an arch? Or when exotic or pathetic prisoners stole the general's show? And what are the implications of the Roman triumph, as a celebration of imperialism and military might, for questions about military power and "victory" in our own day? The triumph, Mary Beard contends, prompted the Romans to question as well as celebrate military glory.

Her richly illustrated work is a testament to the profound importance of the triumph in Roman culture -- and for monarchs, dynasts and generals ever since. But how can we re-create the ceremony as it was celebrated in Rome? How can we piece together its elusive traces in art and literature? Beard addresses these questions, opening a window on the intriguing process of sifting through and making sense of what constitutes "history."

Among the advance praise for The Roman Triumph:

"In this highly individual book Mary Beard plays havoc with conventional ideas about the Roman triumph, while at the same time scrupulously presenting the evidence with which we can make up our own minds. It is the most important statement to date by a major historian of Roman culture."
--William V. Harris, Shepherd Professor of History, Columbia University

"Occasionally one comes across a work of history which lights up a whole era as if by a lightning flash. Mary Beard's new book falls into this rare category. By focusing on the specific ritual of the triumph, she brilliantly illuminates the Roman world in all its aspects - military and political, social and literary, religious and geographical - and also reminds us how much of our own language and culture of success is drawn from this gaudy and often bloody spectacle."
--Robert Harris, author of Imperium

Read an excerpt from The Roman Triumph and learn more about the book at the Harvard University Press website.

Mary Beard has a Chair of Classics at the University of Cambridge and is a Fellow of Newnham College. She is classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement and author of the highly enlightening and engaging blog "A Don's Life."

The Page 99 Test: The Roman Triumph.

--Marshal Zeringue

Claire Cameron's "The Line Painter," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Claire Cameron's The Line Painter.

The author writes:

It's not hard for me to think of The Line Painter as a movie, because it was a film before it became a book.

When I write, I play a movie in my head. I stare at the wall while my characters mark their spots and rehearse their lines. I watch each scene on small screens that I store on the inside of my eyelids.

Translating the film in my head into a novel involves selecting small details that will bring the story to life on the written page. Instead of watching a character smoke, I describe how his fingers grip a cigarette. Rather than pan across a magnificent sunset, I focus on the one moment when the rim of the sun dips down.

This to say, I've thought a lot about who might play my characters. [read on]

About the book, from the publisher:

It’s 1:08 a.m. when Carrie’s car breaks down on the highway somewhere north of Lake Superior. It’s dark, the road is quiet, her cell phone is down, and she is alone. She took off from Toronto that morning, running from grief over the death of her boyfriend, and unable to cope with the truth about the events that led to it. The relief Carrie feels as a truck pulls up soon turns to fear after its driver offers her a lift. Frank, her would-be rescuer, is a line painter, putting lines on the road “to stop people from being killed.” But after Carrie gets in the truck, she starts to realize that this will be the road trip of her life—a trip of terror, transformation and forgiveness.

Claire Cameron has created a unique portrait of Carrie, a young woman whose actions are driven by grief and shame, her personality a beguiling combination of naïveté and streetsmarts. Frank is equally sharply drawn, his flashes of humour and tenderness disguising the wreckage within. Written in spare, unvarnished prose that brims with menace against the forbidding backdrop of a northern landscape, The Line Painter takes us on a riveting trip down a twisted road of memory and redemption.

Among the praise for The Line Painter:

“Suspenseful, evocative and well-paced, this road trip story of guilt and love offers glimpses into tragically human characters who inhabit the margins of redemption.”

--Ibi Kaslik, author of Skinny

“An old B-movie premise — Car Breaks Down in the Middle of Nowhere — is given a fresh, distinctly Canadian twist in this wicked little first novel. The Line Painter fires along on its lean language and propulsive suspense, the kind of story you could swallow whole once you’re past the first page. I certainly did.”

--Andrew Pyper, author of Lost Girls and The Wildfire Season

"A masterful balancing act of suspense and relief.... [Claire Cameron] creates a tension that will have most readers squirming in their seats, eagerly leaping from short chapter to short chapter. It's a bravura performance."

--The Globe and Mail

Read an excerpt from The Line Painter and learn more about the novel.

Visit Claire Cameron's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Line Painter.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Kathy Reichs' "Bones to Ashes"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Kathy Reichs' Bones to Ashes.

About the book, from the author's website:

Temperance Brennan, like her creator Kathy Reichs, is a brilliant, sexy forensic anthropologist called on to solve the toughest cases. But for Tempe, the discovery of a young girl's skeleton in Acadia, Canada, is more than just another assignment. Évangéline, Tempe's childhood best friend, was also from Acadia. Named for the character in the Longfellow poem, Évangéline was the most exotic person in Tempe's eight-year-old world. When Évangéline disappeared, Tempe was warned not to search for her, that the girl was "dangerous."

Thirty years later, flooded with memories, Tempe cannot help wondering if this skeleton could be the friend she lost so many years ago. And what is the meaning of the strange skeletal lesions found on the bones of the young girl?

Meanwhile, Tempe's beau, Ryan, investigates a series of cold cases. Three girls dead. Four missing. Could the New Brunswick skeleton be part of the pattern? As Tempe draws on the latest advances in forensic anthropology to penetrate the past, Ryan hunts down a serial predator.

Among the early praise for the novel:

"Reichs keeps her superb suspense piece on track, leaving the reader totally wrung out by the time the ultimate villains are tracked down and confronted."
--Library Journal

"With crisp prose, well-drawn characters, unflagging attention to detail, and a resonant emotional angle, Reichs’s tenth Temperance Brennan mystery … finds the forensic anthropologist in top form…. Reichs deftly provides enough background to make this a successful stand-alone, at the same time advancing relationships between characters for her increasing legion of fans, who won’t want to miss this one."
--Booklist

"Tempe is both deeper and funnier than she’s ever been, making this her best outing to date."
--Kirkus Reviews

"In bestseller Reichs's entertaining 10th Temperance Brennan forensic thriller (after Break No Bones), Brennan, her relationship with Det. Andrew Ryan on the rocks, welcomes the distraction of an unidentified New Brunswick skeleton from Québec's cold case unit. But when the bones are determined to be that of an adolescent girl, Brennan is convinced they belong to her childhood friend, Évangéline Landry, who disappeared at age 15. Now Brennan must come to terms with Évangéline's possible death, while trying to ignore her feelings for Ryan as they investigate a series of teenage abduction murders that could be tied to the mysterious bones. With her usual blend of cutting-edge forensic science, nail-biting suspense and characters that pop off the page, Reichs, who's vice president of the American Academy of Forensic Scientists and the producer of Fox's Bones, has produced another winner in one of the genre's most satisfying series."
--Publishers Weekly

Read an excerpt from Bones to Ashes and learn more about the author and her books.

Bones to Ashes is the 10th book by Reichs in the best-selling series featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. The character is the inspiration for the TV show Bones on FOX.

The Page 69 Test: Bones to Ashes.

--Marshal Zeringue