Pg. 99: McGarity & Wagner's "Bending Science"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Bending Science: How Special Interests Corrupt Public Health Research by Thomas O. McGarity & Wendy E. Wagner.

About the book, from the publisher:

What do we know about the possible poisons that industrial technologies leave in our air and water? How reliable is the science that federal regulators and legislators use to protect the public from dangerous products? As this disturbing book shows, ideological or economic attacks on research are part of an extensive pattern of abuse.

Thomas O. McGarity and Wendy Wagner reveal the range of sophisticated legal and financial tactics political and corporate advocates use to discredit or suppress research on potential human health hazards. Scientists can find their research blocked, or find themselves threatened with financial ruin. Corporations, plaintiff attorneys, think tanks, even government agencies have been caught suppressing or distorting research on the safety of chemical products.

With alarming stories drawn from the public record, McGarity and Wagner describe how advocates attempt to bend science or “spin” findings. They reveal an immense range of tools available to shrewd partisans determined to manipulate research.

Bending Science exposes an astonishing pattern of corruption and makes a compelling case for reforms to safeguard both the integrity of science and the public health.

Among the early praise for Bending Science:

"Drawing together a host of little-known but dramatic cases, this landmark book documents more comprehensively than any previous study, what has been suspected for years: how extensively scientific data are misused and abused in regulatory and tort law. Society depends on science to guide public policy on health and safety, but as McGarity and Wagner show, many interest groups do all they can to influence --and undermine-- independent and honest research. Bending Science shows just how far science has been corrupted, and offers a road to reform."
--Carl F. Cranor, author of Toxic Torts: Science, Law, and the Possibility of Justice

"Thanks to extraordinary detective work into both law and science, Bending Science makes a compelling case that the system of policy-relevant science has gone badly off the tracks, and that law is both part of the problem and the solution. Powerful but not polemical, McGarity and Wagner show groups of all political stripes, and the government itself, have misrepresented and manipulated science."
--Lisa Heinzerling, co-author of Priceless: On Knowing the Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing

Read an excerpt from Bending Science, and learn more about the book and its authors at the Harvard University Press website and the University of Texas School of Law website.

Thomas O. McGarity & Wendy E. Wagner are professors at The University of Texas School of Law.

The Page 99 Test: Bending Science.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Karen Abbott's "Sin in the Second City"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Karen Abbott's Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul.

About the book, from the publisher:

Step into the perfumed parlors of the Everleigh Club, the most famous brothel in American history – and the catalyst for a culture war that rocked the nation. Operating in Chicago’s notorious Levee district at the dawn of the last century, the Club’s proprietors, two aristocratic sisters named Minna and Ada Everleigh, welcomed moguls and actors, senators and athletes, foreign dignitaries and literary icons, into their stately double mansion, where thirty stunning Everleigh “butterflies” awaited their arrival. Courtesans named Doll, Suzy Poon Tang, and Brick Top devoured raw meat to the delight of Prince Henry of Prussia and recited poetry for Theodore Dreiser. Whereas lesser madams pocketed most of a harlot’s earnings and kept a “whipper” on staff to mete out discipline, the Everleighs made sure their girls dined on gourmet food, were examined by an honest physician, and even tutored in the literature of Balzac.

Not everyone appreciated the sisters’ attempts to elevate the industry. Rival Levee madams hatched numerous schemes to ruin the Everleighs, including an attempt to frame them for the death of department store heir Marshall Field, Jr. But the sisters’ most daunting foes were the Progressive Era reformers, who sent the entire country into a frenzy with lurid tales of “white slavery”— the allegedly rampant practice of kidnapping young girls and forcing them into brothels. This furor shaped America’s sexual culture and had repercussions all the way to the White House, including the formation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

With a cast of characters that includes Jack Johnson, John Barrymore, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., William Howard Taft, “Hinky Dink” Kenna, and Al Capone, Sin in the Second City is Karen Abbott’s colorful, nuanced portrait of the iconic Everleigh sisters, their world-famous Club, and the perennial clash between our nation’s hedonistic impulses and Puritanical roots. Culminating in a dramatic last stand between brothel keepers and crusading reformers, Sin in the Second City offers a vivid snapshot of America’s journey from Victorian-era propriety to twentieth-century modernity.

Among the praise for Sin in the Second City:

“Delicious… Abbott describes the Levee’s characters in such detail that it’s easy to mistake this meticulously researched history for literary fiction.”
—New York Times Book Review

“ Described with scrupulous concern for historical accuracy…an immensely readable book.”
— Joseph Epstein, Wall Street Journal

“Assiduously researched… even this book’s minutiae makes for good storytelling.”
—Janet Maslin, New York Times

“Karen Abbott has pioneered sizzle history in this satisfyingly lurid tale. Change the hemlines, add 100 years, and the book could be filed under current affairs.”
—USA Today

“A rousingly racy yarn.”
—Chicago Tribune

“A colorful history of old Chicago that reads like a novel… a compelling and eloquent story.”
—Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Read an excerpt from Sin in the Second City, and learn more about the book and author at Karen Abbott's website and her MySpace page.

Karen Abbott has worked as a journalist on the staffs of Philadelphia magazine and Philadelphia Weekly, and has written for Salon.com and other publications.

The Page 69 Test: Sin in the Second City.

--Marshal Zeringue

Critic's chart: top six books on nuclear war

Michael Evans, the Defence Editor of the Times (London), named his "top six books on nuclear war" for his newspaper.

One book on the list:

The Making of the Atomic Bomb Richard Rhodes

From the splitting of the atom to Hiroshima - a history of the atomic bomb and its principal players.

Read about the novel that topped Evans' list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Brendan Borrell reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Brendan Borrell, a correspondent for The Scientist whose work has appeared in many other publications, including Audubon, Natural History, Scientific American, Slate, and the Los Angeles Times.

His entry begins:

I just finished reading three books over the last week. The first was The Underdog: How I Survived the World's Most Outlandish Competitions, in which the 129-pound author, Joshua Davis, competes in everything from an extreme sauna championship in Finland to a "retrorunning" race in Italy. Needless to say, it was not heavy reading, but Davis is one of the most talented narrative journalists working today so I've consumed just about everything he's written. The book is apparently being turned into a film starring Jon Heder of Napoleon Dynamite fame -- if that gives you any indication of the reading level. [read on]

Visit Brendan Borrell's website.

Writers Read: Brendan Borrell.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Sam Gosling's "Snoop"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Sam Gosling's Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You.

About the book, from the publisher:

Does what’s on your desk reveal what’s on your mind? Do those pictures on your walls tell true tales about you? And is your favorite outfit about to give you away? For the last ten years psychologist Sam Gosling has been studying how people project (and protect) their inner selves. By exploring our private worlds (desks, bedrooms, even our clothes and our cars), he shows not only how we showcase our personalities in unexpected-and unplanned-ways, but also how we create personality in the first place, communicate it others, and interpret the world around us. Gosling, one of the field’s most innovative researchers, dispatches teams of scientific snoops to poke around dorm rooms and offices, to see what can be learned about people simply from looking at their stuff. What he has discovered is astonishing: when it comes to the most essential components of our personalities-from friendliness to flexibility-the things we own and the way we arrange them often say more about us than even our most intimate conversations. If you know what to look for, you can figure out how reliable a new boyfriend is by peeking into his medicine cabinet or whether an employee is committed to her job by analyzing her cubicle. Bottom line: The insights we gain can boost our understanding of ourselves and sharpen our perceptions of others. Packed with original research and fascinating stories, Snoop is a captivating guidebook to our not-so-secret lives.

Among the early praise for Snoop:

“Sam Gosling is an engaging writer, a brilliant psychologist, and a charming individual—and he must never, ever be allowed inside my office!”
–Mary Roach, author of Stiff and Bonk

“If you are looking for a lover, a job, a new house, or a serial killer, Snoop is for you. It’s great science and a fun read by a world-renowned personality researcher.”
–James W. Pennebaker, author of Opening Up and Writing to Heal

“I love this book. The content is fascinating, and Gosling presents it with great style and clarity. He teaches you to find clues about people in the most unlikely places—from the clutter in their closets to the smiles on their faces. If you want to know what your stuff really says about you, read Snoop.”
–Jonathan Haidt, author of The Happiness Hypothesis

“Hugely enjoyable and insightful... Gosling has produced the perfect combination of rigorous research and lightness of prose to create a book that will transform every reader into a super snooper.”
–Richard Wiseman, author of Quirkology

“Gosling is the rarest of authors—a superb behavioral scientist who is as funny as he is smart. One of his great contributions is giving us fresh insight into what makes each of us who we are.”
–Dan P. McAdams, author of The Redemptive Self

“Snoop is a tour de force! It’s one of the smartest and most original books I’ve come across in a long time. I devoured it and then rushed over to clean up my desk and change my iPod playlist.”
–Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class and Who’s Your City?

Read an excerpt from Snoop, and learn more about the book and author at Sam Gosling's website.

Gosling is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin.

The Page 99 Test: Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Timothy Hallinan's "The Fourth Watcher"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Timothy Hallinan's The Fourth Watcher.

About the book, from the publisher:

Travel writer Poke Rafferty is ready to let go of his Looking for Trouble series of travel books and the dangerous lifestyle that goes with it, and settle down in Bangkok with his fiancée, Rose, and his newly adopted daughter, Miaow. But trouble isn't ready to let go of Poke. Enter the one person Poke least wants to see in the entire world—a person whose emotional hold on Poke is absolute. With him come a box of rubies, a wad of fraudulent identity papers, and—in pursuit of those things—one of the most dangerous gangsters in China.

Add to that Rose's innocent involvement in a North Korean counterfeiting operation and an off-the-tracks agent of the American Secret Service who's dying to put Poke behind bars, and Poke and his family find themselves in a complicated and potentially deadly situation. Getting them all out alive will take every skill Poke has.

Once again, Hallinan has created a complex, emotionally satisfying thriller with edge-of-your-seat suspense and a cast of characters so real you'll feel you know them. Sharp as a razor and full of heart-pounding surprises, The Fourth Watcher firmly establishes Hallinan as a brilliant new voice in the world of suspense.

Among the early praise for the novel:

"In Hallinan’s stellar sequel to A Nail Through the Heart, travel writer and sometime detective Poke Rafferty is researching the dangerous side of Bangkok for a book when he, his ex-prostitute girlfriend, Rose, and their adopted daughter, Miaow, run afoul of a U.S. Secret Service agent who accuses Rose of passing counterfeit money.

Poke learns that the North Koreans have been flooding the world with billions of dollars of fake currency. Poke is then abducted by the beautiful Ming Li, who takes him to his despised father, Frank, who abandoned Poke and his mother many years before. When Frank’s mortal enemy, Colonel Chu, turns up, it’s clear that things are going to hell very quickly, and Poke and his beloved family are not going to escape unscathed. Smooth prose, appealing characters and a twisting action-filled plot make this thriller a standout."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Hallinan offers a taut story line enhanced by an insider’s look at Thai culture. This book features an unlikely but likeable hero and provides readers with an informed glimpse into a world they are not likely to experience otherwise."
—Kirkus

Read an excerpt from The Fourth Watcher, and learn more about the author and his work at Timothy Hallinan's website and his blog.

The Fourth Watcher is the second book in the Bangkok series. Last year, Hallinan's A Nail Through the Heart introduced Bangkok-based rough-travel writer Poke Rafferty.

The Page 69 Test: A Nail Through the Heart.

The Page 69 Test: The Fourth Watcher.

--Marshal Zeringue

Clive Barker's most important books

Clive Barker is an author, film director and visual artist. His latest book is Mister B. Gone.

He recently talked to Newsweek about his five most important books. And addressed two related questions:

A lauded book you've resisted:

Michael Cunningham's "The Hours." I saw the movie first, which was dumb. I've got the Nicole Kidman version of Virginia Woolf stuck in my head.

A classic that you've never read:

Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace." Those bloody Russian names! I tried so hard, but eventually I'm flipping to that family tree and it's, like, ugh.

Read more about Clive Barker's most important books.

Visit Clive Barker's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sandra McDonald's "The Outback Stars," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Sandra McDonald's The Outback Stars.

McDonald's post opens:

My science fiction novels are about a beautiful military lieutenant and her handsome sergeant. Though, truth be told, I'm not that keen on external appearances. The values I appreciate most -- honesty, humor, courage -- are not unique to those of us with perfect hair and perfect faces. (And by "us" I don't mean me!) I never really describe my characters beyond a cursory "brown hair" or "blue eyes" and prefer to let readers build their own ideas of how a character looks.

That said, as a former Hollywood wannabe (I worked for CBS, Dreamworks and Dustin Hoffman during my brief career), when The Outback Stars and its sequels get made into movies I'd love to sit in on the casting calls. For Lieutenant Jodenny Scott, we'd need an actress with the expressiveness and forthrightness of.... [read on]

Read the first chapter of The Outback Stars, and learn more about the book and its author at The Outback Stars website, Sandra McDonald's website, and her LiveJournal.

The sequel to The Outback Stars is The Stars Down Under.

My Book, The Movie: The Outback Stars.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Ellen Wittlinger reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Ellen Wittlinger, author of many young adult novels including Sandpiper, Parrotfish, Hard Love, and the forthcoming Love & Lies: Marisol's Story.

Her entry begins:

At the moment I'm reading The Liar's Club by Mary Karr and Thinking About Memoir by Abigail Thomas. I'm not too far into either of them, but enjoying them both a great deal. [read on]

Learn more about Ellen Wittlinger and her books at her official website.

Writers Read: Ellen Wittlinger.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Timothy Lytton's "Holding Bishops Accountable"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Timothy D. Lytton's Holding Bishops Accountable: How Lawsuits Helped the Catholic Church Confront Clergy Sexual Abuse.

About the book, from the publisher:

The sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy is arguably the most acute crisis Catholicism has faced since the Reformation. The prevalence of clergy sexual abuse and its shocking cover-up by church officials have obscured the largely untold story of the tort system’s remarkable success in bringing the scandal to light, focusing attention on the need for institutional reform, and spurring church leaders and public officials into action.

Stories of the tort system as an engine of social justice are rare. Holding Bishops Accountable tells one such story by revealing how pleadings, discovery documents, and depositions fueled media coverage of the scandal. Timothy Lytton shows how the litigation strategy of plaintiffs’ lawyers gave rise to a widespread belief that the real problem was not the actions of individual priests but rather the church’s massive institutional failure. The book documents how church and government policymakers responded to the problem of clergy sexual abuse only under the pressure of private lawsuits.

As Lytton deftly demonstrates, the lessons of clergy sexual abuse litigation give us reason to reconsider the case for tort reform and to look more closely at how tort litigation can enhance the performance of public and private policymaking institutions.

Among the early acclaim for the book:

"Finally there's a fair-minded and thorough look at the impact--positive and negative--of the legal arena in the Catholic Church's on-going sex abuse and cover up scandal. For those who want to better understand this crisis, and help prevent the next one, this book is essential."
--David Clohessy, National Director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)

"Timothy Lytton makes a persuasive, even compelling, argument that tort litigation set the agenda for policymakers dealing with sexual abuse of minors in the American Catholic Church. His learned interdisciplinary approach blends institutional analysis with acute observation of how the victims' counsel used the media to make the issue salient to the public and the discovery process to keep the issue interesting to the media. His book should be read, indeed studied carefully, by anyone who wants to understand the crisis as a whole."
--Michael R. Merz, Chair, National Review Board of the Catholic Bishops Conference

"Timothy Lytton hits the nail on the head with this provocative book about the institutional failure of the Roman Catholic Church that led to the sexual abuse of tens of thousands of innocent children. Never before has the American tort system played such an influential role in educating the public and encouraging massive change in the way children are protected."
--Jeff Anderson,Trial Attorney, Jeff Anderson & Associates, P.A.

"Holding Bishops Accountable is a systematic and convincing examination of the conditions under which tort litigation can work to produce socially desirable consequences. Lytton demonstrates that litigation led to certain kinds of media coverage that framed the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church in terms of 'institutional failure,' helped place child sexual abuse on public and institutional agendas, and resulted in the disclosure of crucial information that might not otherwise have been revealed."
--Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College

Read an excerpt from Holding Bishops Accountable, and learn more about the book at the official website.

Timothy D. Lytton is the Albert and Angela Farone Distinguished Professor of Law at Albany Law School. His previous books include Suing the Gun Industry: A Battle at the Crossroads of Gun Control and Mass Torts.

The Page 99 Test: Holding Bishops Accountable.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Steven Pressfield's "Killing Rommel"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Steven Pressfield's Killing Rommel.

About the book, from the publisher:

Steven Pressfield’s quintet of acclaimed, bestselling novels of ancient warfare— Gates of Fire, Tides of War, Last of the Amazons, The Virtues of War and The Afghan Campaign— have earned him a reputation as a master chronicler of military history, a supremely literate and engaging storyteller, and an author with acute insight into the minds of men in battle. In Killing Rommel Pressfield extends his talents to the modern world with a WWII tale based on the real-life exploits of the Long Range Desert Group, an elite British special forces unit that took on the German Afrika Korps and its legendary commander, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, "the Desert Fox."

Autumn 1942. Hitler’s legions have swept across Europe; France has fallen; Churchill and the English are isolated on their island. In North Africa, Rommel and his Panzers have routed the British Eighth Army and stand poised to overrun Egypt, Suez, and the oilfields of the Middle East. With the outcome of the war hanging in the balance, the British hatch a desperate plan—send a small, highly mobile, and heavily armed force behind German lines to strike the blow that will stop the Afrika Korps in its tracks. Narrated from the point of view of a young lieutenant, Killing Rommel brings to life the flair, agility, and daring of this extraordinary secret unit, the Long Range Desert Group. Stealthy and lethal as the scorpion that serves as their insignia, they live by their motto: Non Vi Sed Arte—Not by Strength, by Guile as they gather intelligence, set up ambushes, and execute raids. Killing Rommel chronicles the tactics, weaponry, and specialized skills needed for combat, under extreme desert conditions. And it captures the camaraderie of this “band of brothers” as they perform the acts of courage and cunning crucial to the Allies’ victory in North Africa.

As in all of his previous novels, Pressfield powerfully renders the drama and intensity of warfare, the bonds of men in close combat, and the surprising human emotions and frailties that come into play on the battlefield. A vivid and authoritative depiction of the desert war, Killing Rommel brilliantly dramatizes an aspect of World War II that hasn’t been in the limelight since Patton. Combining scrupulous historical detail and accuracy with remarkable narrative momentum, this galvanizing novel heralds Pressfield’s gift for bringing more recent history to life.

Among the praise for Killing Rommel:

"After five novels about conflict in ancient times (Gates of War, etc.), Pressfield effortlessly gives fresh life to wartime romance and the rigors of combat in a superior WWII thriller. Framed as the memoir of a British officer, the book is based on an actual British plot to assassinate the "Desert Fox," German field marshal Erwin Rommel, during late 1942 and early 1943 in North Africa. The author painstakingly sets the stage for later fireworks by charting the prewar career of R. Lawrence "Chap" Chapman, especially his relationship with the brilliant but doomed Zachary Stein, Chap's tutor and mentor at Oxford. Chap also falls in love with sexy Rose McCall, whose brains and brass later get her posted to naval intelligence in Egypt. As a young lieutenant, Chap joins the team assembled to go after Rommel. Pressfield expertly juxtaposes the personal with the historical, with authentic battle descriptions. Crisp writing carries readers through success, failure and a final face-to-face encounter with Rommel that's no less exciting for knowing the outcome."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Pressfield’s book is like [Patrick] O’Brian’s, in that he gives the reader an excellent idea of the real lives of these men–their exertions, their privations, their disappointments, their victories. And like O’Brian, Pressfield knows how to write action–the battle scenes here are very well done. But perhaps the most apt part of the comparison is that Pressfield, like O’Brian, tells the story he wants to tell. He doesn’t chain himself to some thriller format that requires that all cliches be invoked. Characters pop up and disappear, conflict is sometimes sidestepped, expectations are ignored. The result is a book with its own rhythm, its own texture, its own veracity, its own place in your memory."
--Jamie Malanowski

"The brutality of modern warfare and the bravery of troops on both sides of the conflict seep through every page. Killing Rommel is both a captivating history lesson and a rousing guts-'n'-glory saga."
--Paul Katz, Entertainment Weekly

"Pressfield has produced a splendid tour de force, one that brings to life the heroism, sacrifice, tragedy, frustration, fear and -- yes -- thrill of war. It should not be missed by military-history buffs or by anyone who wants a moving reminder of the bravery, ingenuity and sacrifice that ordinary men are capable of when given a cause they believe in."
--Washington Post

"If you're ancient enough to have watched The Rat Patrol, the TV series from the 60s (guilty as charged), you know about the Long Range Desert Group. These brave lads were charged with getting behind enemy lines in North Africa to track down Germany's Field Rommel. Despite the titillating title, killing the elusive Desert Fox wasn't so easy. Steven Pressfield's well-written fiction memoir (by a literate British lieutenant named Chapman) is surprisingly comtemplative, more a coming-of-age tale than a thriller. But gearheads will love every vehicular snafu, and the one pulse-racing battle sequence – when Chapman's patrol is shot up during a surprise encounter with the enemy – is worth the wait."
--USA Today

Read an excerpt from Killing Rommel, and learn more about the book and author at Steven Pressfield's website.

Steven Pressfield is the author of Gates of Fire, The Virtues of War, Tides of War, Last of the Amazons, The Legend of Bagger Vance, and The Afghan Campaign.

The Page 69 Test: Killing Rommel.

--Marshal Zeringue

George Will: five best books on opinion journalism

George F. Will is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary and the Bradley Prize for Outstanding Intellectual Achievement. His new book is One Man's America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation.

For the Wall Street Journal, he named a five best list of books about opinion journalism.

One title on his list:

Between Meals
by A.J. Liebling
Simon & Schuster, 1962

"In bed," wrote A.J. Liebling about one of his Parisian mistresses, "she was a kind of utility infielder." High praise, and enough said. Liebling, who wrote for the New Yorker, is remembered primarily for his collections of writings from the European theater of World War II ("Mollie and Other War Pieces"), his reporting about boxing ("The Sweet Science") and his musings on journalism ("The Wayward Pressman"). "Between Meals" is a neglected feast. Its subjects are food, drink and even better pleasures of the flesh, for which Liebling had a robust appetite and concerning which he wrote with wonderful verve. Some will say that these essays of appreciation and gratitude do not count as journalism, which is about wars and budgets, not mistresses and meals, but why should not journalism also be about the important stuff?

Read about the book that topped Will's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Joshua Clark reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Joshua Clark, author of Heart Like Water: Surviving Katrina and Life in its Disaster Zone, a 2007 finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award. He has edited such books as French Quarter Fiction, Southern Fried Divorce, and others, including most recently Louisiana: In Words. A past editor for SCAT Magazine, he contributes to many publications including The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Lonely Planet anthologies, Consumer Affairs, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald, Poets & Writers, Louisiana Literature, Time Out: New York, and he will represent Louisiana in the forthcoming anthology State by State.

Clark is the founder of Light of New Orleans Publishing.

He also runs the KARES writers relief fund and covered New Orleans in the hurricane's aftermath for Salon.com and National Public Radio.

One paragraph from his Writers Read entry:

I feel so guilty because I get asked by the National Book Critics Circle to contribute to their blog about my favorite new books and here I am re-reading the Odyssey. Just finished The Wonderful Wizard of Oz too. What a nearly perfect book! Incredible. And of course it's the Odyssey for children. I also recently read, for the first time, Life of Pi. Someone needs to write a fabulous long essay about the trinity that these three books form. The search for home in a strange land (or ocean) is only the tip of the iceberg. [read on]

The Page 99 Test: Heart Like Water.

Writers Read: Joshua Clark.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Elvin T. Lim's "The Anti-intellectual Presidency"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Elvin T. Lim's The Anti-Intellectual Presidency: The Decline of Presidential Rhetoric from George Washington to George W. Bush.

About the book, from the publisher:

Why has it been so long since an American president has effectively and consistently presented well-crafted, intellectually substantive arguments to the American public? Why have presidential utterances fallen from the rousing speeches of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Wilson, and FDR to a series of robotic repetitions of talking points and sixty-second soundbites, largely designed to obfuscate rather than illuminate?

In The Anti-Intellectual Presidency, Elvin Lim draws on interviews with more than 40 presidential speechwriters to investigate this relentless qualitative decline, over the course of 200 years, in our presidents' ability to communicate with the public. Lim argues that the ever-increasing pressure for presidents to manage public opinion and perception has created a "pathology of vacuous rhetoric and imagery" where gesture and appearance matter more than accomplishment and fact. Lim tracks the campaign to simplify presidential discourse through presidential and speechwriting decisions made from the Truman to the present administration, explaining how and why presidents have embraced anti-intellectualism and vague platitudes as a public relations strategy. Lim sees this anti-intellectual stance as a deliberate choice rather than a reflection of presidents' intellectual limitations. Only the smart, he suggests, know how to dumb down. The result, he shows, is a dangerous debasement of our political discourse and a quality of rhetoric which has been described, charitably, as "a linguistic struggle" and, perhaps more accurately, as "dogs barking idiotically through endless nights."

Sharply written and incisively argued, The Anti-Intellectual Presidency sheds new light on the murky depths of presidential oratory, illuminating both the causes and consequences of this substantive impoverishment.

Among the praise for the book:

"Elvin Lim documents a disturbing trend. Presidents are talking more, but their speech is getting less substantive and less informative. Simple declarations have come to substitute for reasoned arguments. Lim's findings ring true, all the more so for their careful empirical grounding and elegant presentation. I know of no book on presidential rhetoric that cuts more directly and effectively to the point."
--Stephen Skowronek, Pelatiah Perit Professor of Political and Social Science, Yale University

"Elvin Lim argues convincingly that politics has been dumbed-down but that enlightened civic conversation is possible if politicians will only try. Lim also believes that the American people want to be stretched intellectually and emotionally. The dark trail he traces therefore ends in a sunburst of hope that I find heartening."
--Roderick P. Hart, Dean Shivers/Cronkite Chair in Communication, College of Communication, University of Texas at Austin

"Lim's presentation of the consequences of the manipulation of language in the political arena is clear and compelling, and will delight grammarians and political aficionados alike."
--Publishers Weekly

"Recent American presidents have dumbed down democratic discourse, Elvin Lim shows in his disturbing new study of presidential leadership. The chief culprits are presidential speechwriters, who prize style over substance and subvert the reasoned articulation of policy. Timely, well written, and highly recommended."
--Jeffrey K. Tulis, author of The Rhetorical Presidency

"That 'Presidents and speechwriters have killed oratory and gone anti-intellectual' will come as no surprise. But why? No scholar has thought more carefully and analyzed more rigorously this historic change in presidential communication with the public. This book will spawn important debates about the meaning and consequences of the 'dumbing down' of presidential rhetoric. It is a tour de force."
--Elizabeth Sanders, Department of Government, Cornell University

Read an excerpt from The Anti-intellectual Presidency, and learn more about the book and author at Elvin Lim's website and his blog.

Elvin T. Lim is Assistant Professor of Government at Wesleyan University.

In addition to The Anti-intellectual Presidency, he is the author of peer-reviewed articles in Political Psychology and Presidential Studies Quarterly. He is a two-time winner of the Sara Norton thesis prize at the University of Oxford, where he took a BA (First Class) in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, and a Doctor of Philosophy (Phd) in Politics. He is a winner of the the Presidency Research Fellowship and the Founder's Award of the Presidency Research Group of the American Political Science Association. He was previously a Visiting Scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, a Research Fellow at Yale University and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Tulsa.

The Page 99 Test: The Anti-Intellectual Presidency.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jonathan Fenby's top books on modern China

Author-journalist-editor Jonathan Fenby named his "top books on modern China" for the Times (London).

One item on the list:

The Inspector Chen Series by Qiu Xiaolong

Well-crafted crime stories that say much about modern China and, in particular, Shanghai.

Read about another book on Fenby's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jim Krusoe's "Girl Factory"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Jim Krusoe's Girl Factory.

About the book, from the publisher:

A yogurt parlor in a corner mall somewhere in the city of St. Nils contains a dark secret in its basement, and Jonathan, the mostly clueless clerk who works there, just wants to fix things once and for all. But, beginning with an early encounter in an animal shelter that leaves three dead, things don’t always work out the way they ought to. Or do they? Filled with memorable characters, including two dogs (one too smart for his own good) and a retired sea captain, this unsettling darkly comic novel is an exploration of memory, desire, and the nature of storytelling. More disturbingly, Girl Factory raises questions about the ubiquitous objectification of women, the possibility for change, and the nature of freedom.

Among the early praise for Girl Factory:

"Only Jim Krusoe would find true pathos in yogurt. This book is not just funny-- it's eerie, and vivid, and strangely sad, too. His work is full of the most curious urgency: I love to keep reading, and I don't know what I'm waiting for, exactly, but I know whatever I find will hover in my peripheral vision for awhile after I'm done, and that's exactly what happened here."
—Aimee Bender, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt"

In the basement of a Southern California yogurt shop one hot summer night, Jonathan, a down-on-his-luck-fro-yo-slinger, discovers several young, beautiful naked women encased in glass and suspended lifelessly in a milky mixture. Jonathan's boss, Spinner, catches him nosing around and reveals his experiment: acidophilus, yogurt's active culture, has the uncanny ability to preserve and nourish life, he explains, and the women bobbing before Jonathan's wide eyes are making 'an investment in their future.' When foul play suddenly makes the women Jonathan's wards, he has to see if he has the right stuff to care for them—and perhaps free them. Poet Krusoe's fiction debut is as whimsical as multicolored sprinkles and as sweet as dollop of Pinkberry."
—Publishers Weekly

"He is never heavy-handed—his writing is too unpretentious, his characters too wonderfully peculiar... And this makes Girl Factory the best kind of novel—a wildly imagined tale with its own rules."
—Lauren Sanders, Bookforum

"Girl Factory is a humorous, genre-jumping, carnival-ride of a novel. It's smart, weird, unsettling, and downright fun to read. It's no wonder Jim Krusoe is one of Southern California's most notoriously daring literary icons."
—Mark Jude Poirier

"Jim Krusoe is one of America's most sincere satirists, a treasured literary oddball. No one interweaves the comic, the absurd, the outrageous, and the mundane or plays them off each other the way he does. It's been said that a truly unique literary production proposes its own genre. Surely that's true of Girl Factory, which twists tropes from Frankenstein, Bluebeard, contemporary headlines, old movies, the biology of extinction, the self-help movement, conspiracy theory, and more into a highly readable, unpredictable postmodern novella that always privileges unadulterated imagination.
—Amy Gerstler, author of Ghost Girl

Read an excerpt from Girl Factory, and learn more about the book and author at the publisher's website.

Jim Krusoe has written five books of poems, a book of stories, Blood Lake, and a novel, Iceland, which was selected by the Los Angeles Times and the Austin Chronicle as one of the ten best fiction books of 2002, and was on the Washington Post list of notable fiction the same year. His stories and poems have appeared in the Antioch Review, Bomb, Denver Quarterly, the Iowa Review, Field, North American Review, American Poetry Review, and the Santa Monica Review, which he began in 1988.

See January Magazine's Author Snapshot: Jim Krusoe.

The Page 69 Test: Girl Factory.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Warren Hammond reading?

The latest featured contributor to Writers Read: Warren Hammond, author of the KOP series.

Two of the books he mentions:

Joe R. Lansdale - Sunset and Sawdust - "This Lansdale fella's got a way with words and such," I say with a Texas drawl. Seriously, if you've never read Lansdale, you need to start.

Mario Acevedo - The Nymphos of Rocky Flats - Vampires. Aliens. Nymphomaniacs. What's not to love? [read on]

Hammond's first novel, KOP, was published in 2007 and is now available in paperback. Its sequel, Ex-KOP, is due to hit shelves in October of 2008. Currently, he is writing KOP Killer, the third book in the KOP series.

Publishers Weekly on KOP:

"A corrupt policeman, an overgrown jungle city that gets only five hours of sun between 17-hour nights, and battling crime gangs set the extremely noir scene for Hammond's solidly constructed, fast-paced SF debut. Offer[s] rewards to fans of both crime novels and science fiction."

Visit Warren Hammond's website.

The Page 99 Test: KOP.

Writers Read: Warren Hammond.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Martin Edwards' "Waterloo Sunset"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Martin Edwards' Waterloo Sunset.

About the book, from the publisher:

A notice announcing that Harry Devlin died suddenly on Midsummer’s Eve arrives at the office of his law firm one June day. Harry isn’t happy to read it – especially as Midsummer’s Eve is less than a week away. His partner Jim Crusoe treats the message as a joke, but Harry isn’t so sure. From that moment on, his world starts to fall apart. Who is his unknown enemy? The list of people who might want rid of him lengthens, and soon someone close to him is savagely attacked and left for dead. Meanwhile, young women are being murdered in Harry’s home city of Liverpool. When a friend who has asked to meet him becomes the latest victim, Harry is dragged into the investigation and becomes a suspect. He finds himself fighting for survival on two fronts. But even as he unravels the shocking secret behind the murders, the clock keeps ticking. Harry must discover and confront the enemy who wants him dead - if he is to live to see Midsummer’s Day. An atmospheric, fast-moving and intricate thriller, Waterloo Sunset features in Harry Devlin one of modern crime fiction’s most memorable amateur detectives in the deadliest case of his life.

Among the praise for Waterloo Sunset:

"At the start of the impressive eighth entry in Edwards's Harry Devlin series (All the Lonely People, etc.), the Liverpool attorney receives a fake newspaper notice announcing his death on Midsummer's Eve. Subsequent threatening messages lead him to take the less-than-a-week deadline seriously. Given Devlin's penchant for sticking his nose where it doesn't belong, many people bear him murderous grudges. Devlin focuses on two suspects—Tom Gunter, a violent thug and a former client, and Aled Borth, a loner angered that the lawyer's best efforts didn't result in a charge of murder being brought against the nursing home where Borth's mother died. The addition of a serial killer who severs his victim's tongues might have proven too much for the plot to bear in a lesser writer's hands, but Edwards skillfully weaves the strands together. While some readers will guess the truth before Devlin does, all will enjoy this twisty whodunit."
--Publishers Weekly

"Edwards never writes the same book twice; both his plottings and his settings are original."
--Library Journal

"The series is known for its wit, solid plotting and likeable lead."
--Booklist

"Edwards handles a complex plot and a vivid cast of characters with a sure hand...[and] mixes humour and suspense to good efffect...an entertaining series."
--Mystery Scene

"Beautifully crafted."
--Crime Time

"I recommend Waterloo Sunset for those who like mysteries with character and well drawn plots."
--I Love a Mystery

Learn more about the author and his books at Martin Edwards' website and his blog, 'Do You Write Under Your Own Name?'.

The first of Edwards' eight Liverpool novels, All the Lonely People, introduced lawyer Harry Devlin. It went on to be nominated for the CWA's John Creasey Memorial Dagger.

The Page 99 Test: The Arsenic Labyrinth.

The Page 99 Test: Waterloo Sunset.

--Marshal Zeringue

Michael Cunningham's most important books

Michael Cunningham's books include A Home at the End of the World, Flesh and Blood, The Hours, and Specimen Days.

He recently talked to Newsweek about his five most important books, and addressed a couple of related issues:

A major book you haven't read:

I haven't read any Stendhal—not "The Red and the Black," not "The Charterhouse of Parma." It's shameful.

A major work you revisited with disappointment:

The books by C. S. Lewis. I loved them as a kid. But the writing doesn't stand up. The Catholicism feels really oppressive.

Read more about Cunningham's most important books.

Related: Michael Cunningham on John Updike.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Dorothy Hearst's "Promise of the Wolves"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Dorothy Hearst's Promise of the Wolves.

About the book, from the author's website.

Never consort with humans. Never kill a human unprovoked. Never allow a mixed-blood wolf to live.

At least that’s what the wolves of the Wide Valley believe. Until a young wolf dares to break the rules—and forever alters the relationship between wolves and the humans who share their world.

Born of a forbidden mixed-blood litter and an outcast after her mother is banished, Kaala is determined to earn a place in the Swift River pack. But her world is turned upside down when she saves a human girl from drowning. Risking expulsion from their pack and banishment from the Wide Valley, Kaala and her young packmates begin to hunt with the humans and thus discover the long-hidden bond between the two clans. But when war between wolves and humans threatens, Kaala learns the lies behind the wolf’s promise. Lies that force her to choose between safety for herself and her friends and the survival of her pack—and perhaps of all wolf- and humankind.

«««»»»

Set 14,000 years ago, Promise of the Wolves takes you to a land where time is counted in phases of the moon, distance is measured in wolflengths, and direction by the scent of the nearest trail. Join Kaala and her pack in a spellbinding adventure set in a fantastical world filled with lore.

Among the early praise for Promise of the Wolves:

"...a vivid, enchanting tale of friendship, trust and adventure, good Tolkien-esque ingredients..."
--Kirkus

"If you liked Watership Down, you should not miss Promise of the Wolves."
--Jean Auel, author of Clan of the Cave Bear

"The story of Kaala and her pack takes readers on a journey into a rich and fascinating world. A remarkable look into the mind of another kind of being."
--Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation

"For anyone who ever wanted to run with the wolves, this debut novel...opens a window into life in the pack."
--Library Journal

"Hearst's knowledge of wolf lore and behavior is evident...fascinating... A vividly conceived creation myth."
--Booklist

Read an excerpt from Promise of the Wolves, and learn more about the book and author at Dorothy Hearst's website and her blog.

The Page 69 Test: Promise of the Wolves.

--Marshal Zeringue

Brandon Sanderson's "Mistborn trilogy," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Brandon Sanderson's "Mistborn trilogy."

The entry begins:

I know a lot of authors "cast" certain actors in their books as the characters, but I've never done this. In my mind, they're who they are--and that's not a given actor. It's someone else, as unique as any of us are. That isn't to say I wouldn't like to see a director adapt my books to film! It just means that it is very hard for me to pick actors for my books.

Now, directors are a different story. I've often thought about who I would like to make the Mistborn trilogy into a movie. The obvious choice would be.... [read on]

Learn more about the Mistborn books--Mistborn: The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages (October 2008)-- and Brandon Sanderson and his work at his website and his blog.

My Book, The Movie: the Mistborn trilogy.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Nan Mooney's "(Not) Keeping Up With Our Parents"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Nan Mooney's (Not) Keeping Up With Our Parents: The Decline of the Professional Middle Class.

About the book, from the publisher:

How stagnant wages, debt, and escalating costs for tuition, health care, and home ownership are jeopardizing today's educated middle class

Drawing on more than a hundred interviews with diverse families across America, Nan Mooney explores the financial struggles of today's professional middle class, delving into their sense of economic security and their plans for and fears about the future.

Mooney shows how profoundly middle class expectations and realities have shifted: college tuition has increased 35 percent in the past five years; only 18 percent of middle class families have three months' income saved, and 90 percent of those filing for bankruptcy are middle class. Additionally, the share of family income devoted to "fixed costs"—housing, childcare, health insurance, and taxes—has climbed from 53 percent to 75 percent in the past two decades, and raising one child through age eighteen costs $237,000 for a middle-income family.

Despite this sobering reality, Mooney offers proactive and concrete ideas on how individuals and society can stop this downward spiral. She advocates improving government-backed education, healthcare, and childcare programs as well as drawing on successful models from individual states and other countries.

Facts from (Not) Keeping Up with Our Parents

Ninety percent of those filing for bankruptcy today are middle class.

Average college loan debt is nearly $20,000; average graduate school loan debt is $46,000.

Credit card debt has risen 31 percent in the past five years; middle- and low-income households owe an average of $8,650; a third owe over $10,000.

Health care premiums have increased at five times the rate of inflation since 2000.

Mortgages have now reached 96 percent of disposable income.

The median wealth of white households is $86,100, as opposed to $19,010 for black households and $11,450 for Latino households.

Between 1979 and 2003, income for the middle fifth of the population grew just 9 percent, while the income for the top 1 percent jumped by 111 percent.

Twenty-three percent of public college graduates and 38 percent of private college graduates would have an unmanageable level of debt if they were to live on a teacher's starting salary.

Among the early praise for (Not) Keeping Up With Our Parents:

"What happens when the center cannot hold? With great empathy and infectious alarm, Nan Mooney charts the travails of America's middle class in this important book."
—Anya Kamenetz, author of Generation Debt

"If you’re wondering why, in our age of plenty, the financial treadmill keeps moving faster and faster for America’s increasingly educated—and increasingly insecure—middle class, you owe it to yourself to read this book. It’s all here: the big trends, the compelling portraits, the ideas for personal and political change, and the call to arms we so desperately need."
—Jacob S. Hacker, author of The Great Risk Shift: The Assault on American Jobs, Families, Health Care and Retirement and How You Can Fight Back

“A book for the distressed and confused because their life plan has gone to pieces. Mooney illuminates what has happened to them—and why.”
—Nicholas Von Hoffman, columnist for NY Observer and regular contributor to The Nation

“This is the kind of book that you wish was fiction. But, as Nan Mooney's incisive new book shows, the fact is that this generation has inherited an economy with too many low-paying, no benefit jobs and an eroding middle class. Millions of young families wonder where they went wrong when, in fact, their economic problems are largely the result of policies that generated higher incomes for a select few and rising economic insecurity for the rest of us. In this timely book, Ms. Mooney pushes us to demand an economy that works for all of us, not just the very wealthy.”
—Heather Boushey, Senior Economist, Center for Economic and Policy Research

"We hear a lot about the runaway wealth of American professionals. In this important book, Nan Mooney reminds us that most have no such luck. Working in jobs they love provides a sense of moral worth, but doesn't cover the bills for teachers, legal aid lawyers, practicing artists, and others. Something has gone wrong in America and this book gives us a grip on the crisis."
—Katherine Newman, coauthor of The Missing Class: Portraits of the Near Poor in America and the Forbes Class of 1941 Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton

Learn more about the book and author at Nan Mooney's website.

Mooney is also the author of I Can’t Believe She Did That: Why Women Betray Other Women at Work and My Racing Heart: The Passionate World of Thoroughbreds and the Track. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Slate, The Daily News, Utne Reader, and other publications.

Read Katharine Mieszkowski's interview with Nan Mooney at Salon.

The Page 99 Test: (Not) Keeping Up With Our Parents.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Pam Lewis reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Pam Lewis, author of Speak Softly, She Can Hear and the recently released Perfect Family.

One book she mentions:

I've just finished Haruki Murakami's After Dark. Normally I avoid anything that smacks of fantasy. I like stories solidly grounded in reality. But Murakami writes in a way that must mirror the concrete and abstract parts of our own minds because the fantasy in his stories is totally credible and satisfying. [read on]

About Perfect Family, from Publishers Weekly:

Long-festering secrets erupt with devastating consequences to Connecticut's moneyed Carteret clan in Lewis's second novel (after Speak Softly, She Can Hear), a literate page-turner. When 24-year-old Pony, the family's daredevil golden girl, drowns while skinny-dipping at their Vermont lake house, her death leaves her year-old son, Andrew, an orphan-as well as a hornet's nest of troubling questions. Why had Pony begged big brother William to meet her in Vermont that day? Did someone else show up after they quarreled and William stormed off? Who is Andrew's father? And was Pony's death really an accident? Widowed patriarch Jasper Carteret III and bossy eldest daughter Tinker seem less interested in answers than damage control. But William, heartsick at whatever role his departure might have played in the tragedy, starts digging. Before long, some of his startling discoveries challenge his core beliefs about the people he thought he knew well. Lewis skillfully lures the reader through her narrative maze with plenty of plot twists ... without compromising a masterful portrait of a quirky New England family in crisis.

Read an excerpt from Perfect Family, and learn more about the author and her work at Pam Lewis' website.

Writers Read: Pam Lewis.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Shannon Burke's "Black Flies"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Shannon Burke's Black Flies.

About the book, from the publisher:

Novelist Shannon Burke earned stunning reviews for his debut book, Safelight, and now he returns with the same minimalist intensity in this arresting follow-up. Black Flies is the story of paramedic Ollie Cross and his first year on the job in mid-90s New York. It is a ground's eye view of life on the streets: the shoot-outs, the bad cops, unhinged medics, and hopeless patients, the dark humor in bizarre circumstances, and one medic's struggle to balance his desire to help against his own growing callousness. It is the story of lives that hang in the balance, and of a single job with a misdiagnosed newborn that sends Cross and his partner into a life-changing struggle between good and evil.

Among the praise for the novel:

"Gunshot wounds, crack pipes and rotting corpses abound in this raw and fascinating novel about Harlem paramedics in the mid-1990s, the second novel from former EMT Burke. Oliver Cross graduated from Northwestern as a middle-class do-gooder. But he and his partner, Rutkovsky, a jaded Vietnam veteran and one of the city's best medics, see enough massive trauma to put Cross on the fast track to deep disillusionment. Of the bizarre, tragic and often shocking emergencies encountered during Cross's rookie tenure, the crisis comes when he and Rutkovsky respond to a call from an abandoned building where a crack-addicted, HIV-positive mother has just given birth to a premature baby, and their handling of the mother and child-believed to be stillborn-will alter the course of both men's lives. Burke is a poet of trauma, and his expert, macabre portrayal takes its toll on the reader just as the job takes its toll on Cross. "
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"In the five years [Burke] served on city ambulances, first as an E.M.T., later as a paramedic at Station 18, on 136th Street across from Harlem Hospital, he saw unspeakable horrors. Unspeakable, but not inexpressible. In two searing and morally resonant novels—Safelight, published in 2004, and now Black Flies—Burke has wrestled with the meaning, and meaninglessness, of the suffering and human failings he witnessed during those disturbing years…Although Black Flies is a novel, it contains more reflections of lived experience than some memoirs (particularly recent memoirs). Reading this arresting, confrontational book is like reading Dispatches, Michael Herr's indelible account of his years as a reporter in Vietnam.
—Liesl Schillinger, New York Times

Read an excerpt from Black Flies, and learn more about the author and his work at Shannon Burke's website.

Shannon Burke is the author of Safelight and has been involved in various films, including work on the screenplays for the films Syriana and the upcoming film Blink. He has also worked as a paramedic in Harlem.

The Page 69 Test: Black Flies.

--Marshal Zeringue