Pg. 69: Kristy Kiernan's "Matters of Faith"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Kristy Kiernan's Matters of Faith.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the author of Catching Genius, a novel of a young man’s search for faith—and its unintended consequences.

At age twelve, Marshall Tobias saw his best friend killed by a train. It was then that he began his search for faith—delving into one tradition, then discarding it for another. His parents, however, have little time for spiritual contemplation. Their focus has been on his little sister Megan, who suffers from severe food allergies. Now Marshall is home from college with his first real girlfriend, but there is more to Ada than meets the eye—including her beliefs about the evils of medical intervention. What follows is a crisis that tests not only faith, but the limits of family, forgiveness, and our need to believe.

Among the early praise for Matters of Faith:

"Kristy Kiernan's "Matters of Faith" was so good and true and real that I forgot I was reading a book. I felt as though I was standing helplessly beside good people whose ordinary family life is slowly, inexorably tumbling into the darkness of the unknown."
—Jacquelyn Mitchard, New York Times bestselling author of The Deep End of the Ocean and All We Know of Heaven

"Kiernan's stunning second novel explores how one family reacts to a devastating tragedy. Cal and Chloe Tobias have two children: 18-year-old Marshall, who witnessed the death of his best friend in childhood and has been exploring religion ever since, and his younger sister, Meghan, who suffers from severe food allergies. Marshall comes home from college for spring break with his girlfriend, Ada, a religious zealot who doesn't believe in medical treatment, in tow. Ada immediately expresses doubts about Meghan's allergies, and when she and Marshall try to "cure" Meghan by exposing her to the very thing she's most allergic to, the results are disastrous. As Meghan lies in a coma in the hospital, Cal's rage at his son boils over, and the district attorney decides to charge both Marshall and Ada with child abuse. Marshall and Ada choose to flee to Cal's estranged mother, leaving Cal and Chloe to face the rift growing between them over Marshall's actions. Unforgettable and moving, Kiernan's novel is an achingly real portrait of a family in crisis, one readers will react to passionately."
—Kristine Huntley, Booklist

"In this tense, well-paced novel about belief, Kiernan explores what happens when faith and love test the limits of family fealty. In southwest Florida, college student Marshall Tobias is in search of something to believe in. He thinks he’s found God and the woman he’s always dreamed of when he falls in love with fundamentalist believer Ada Sparks. But Ada’s against medical intervention for illness, and tragedy results when she sets out to “help” Marshall’s 12-year-old sister, Meghan, overcome her life-threatening allergies. Switching points-of-view between Marshall and his mother, Chloe, Kiernan (Catching Genius) movingly portrays a 20-year-old marriage gone flat and torn apart by crisis, a troubled son, a daughter hovering between life and death, and the hard-to-discern boundaries between true faith and unhealthy fanaticism. She handles her difficult material respectfully. Most interesting is her portrayal of the well-meaning traps parents fall into when encouraging open-ended exploration of faith without context, or choosing to remain silent. The thoughtful themes, interesting characters and page-turning drama of this novel will likely make it a book club favorite."
—Publishers Weekly

Read an excerpt from Matters of Faith, and learn more about the author and her work at Kristy Kiernan's website and her blog.

Kristy Kiernan's first novel, Catching Genius, was published in March of 2007 and has become a book club favorite.

The Page 69 Test: Catching Genius.

My Book, The Movie: Catching Genius.

The Page 69 Test: Matters of Faith.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jeremy Schaap's 5 best books on the Olympics

For the Wall Street Journal, ESPN's Jeremy Schaap named a five best list of books on the Olympics.

One title on the list:

The Amateurs
by David Halberstam
Morrow, 1985

In "The Amateurs," David Halberstam makes rowers as interesting as he had previously made cabinet secretaries and point guards. His account of the competition to represent the U.S. in rowing at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics is brilliantly realized; he ponders why anyone would punish himself the way rowers do. That they often come from comfortable Ivy League backgrounds yet choose an uncelebrated sport defined by suffering fascinates Halberstam. "One could understand the son of a ghetto family playing in the schoolyard for six hours a day hoping that basketball was a ticket out of the slum," he writes. "It was hard to understand the son of Beacon Hill spending so much time and subjecting himself to so much pain to attain an honor that no one even understood. Perhaps in our society the true madness in the search for excellence is left for the amateur." If you read the book, you will probably learn to appreciate rowing -- or at least respect those who suffer for it. You might even find yourself watching the Olympic rowing competition. From there, it's just a hop, step and jump -- now called the triple jump -- to official Olympic junkiedom.

Read about another title to make Schaap's list.

Related:

• Top Olympics books

• The Page 99 Test: David Maraniss' Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World.

• Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom's books for the 2008 Olympic Games.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Danit Brown reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Danit Brown, author of Ask for a Convertible.

Her entry begins:

This summer I am very pregnant and living in an apartment with inadequate and very noisy air conditioning, which means that my powers of concentration are nearly nonexistent, as are my ankles. In terms of reading, all I want are light-hearted books with happy endings. At the same time, I’m trying to read with an eye for structure in preparation for writing a novel of my own.

Joshua Henkin’s Matrimony is another interesting book in terms of structure: it’s comprised of a series of episodes from Mia and Julian’s relationship with friends, with each other, and with their families. Part of the pleasure of reading this novel is seeing Henkin slide all the pieces into place so that when we leave Mia and Julian, we know they’re going to be just fine on their own. [read on]

Read selections from Ask for a Convertible, and learn more about the author and her work at Danit Brown's website.

Among the praise for Ask for a Convertible:

“Brown is a writer to savor.”
—Library Journal

“An uncomfortably funny but never boring debut.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Both funny and poignant, these stories communicate a subtle wisdom about what is important in life.”
—School Library Journal

“At once openhearted and close-minded, Brown's characters often offend one another when they collide, and their stories capture the awkwardness of both coming to America and coming-of-age.”
—Publishers Weekly

Writers Read: Danit Brown.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Cordelia Frances Biddle's "Deception's Daughter"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Cordelia Frances Biddle's Deception's Daughter.

About the book, from the publisher:

Critics raved about The Conjurer, the first in Cordelia Frances Biddle’s superb historical mystery series. Now Philadelphian heiress Martha Beale is back in a second thrilling installment laced with fast-paced intrigue and exquisite period detail.

When the daughter of one of Philadelphia’s finest families disappears, Martha Beale becomes the unwilling liaison between the girl’s aloof and aristocratic parents and Thomas Kelman, Martha’s secret beau, who is overseeing the investigation.

What appears to be a kidnapping, however, takes a darker turn, and complex clues implicate rich and poor alike. It is up to Martha and Kelman to unravel the diabolical plot--and the painful disparity of their social classes--as they struggle to unmask the killer.

As in The Conjurer, Cordelia Frances Biddle’s elegant and evocative prose brings to vibrant life mid-nineteenth-century Philadelphia. Deception’s Daughter is a stunning sequel from a multitalented crime writer.

Among the early praise for the novel:

“Biddle has done more than devise an engaging story populated by memorable characters. She has managed to restore to us an earlier Philadelphia, [which is] intact and alive.”
--Jon Clinch, author of Finn

“Offers fully human characters and a credible plot. Exceptional attention to period detail helps transport the reader to a past very unlike our own and yet so similar.”
--Publishers Weekly

“A Philadelphia socialite and her hesitant suitor team up to solve a crime in the latest from Biddle (The Conjurer, 2007, etc.). Wealthy heiress Martha Beale met mayor's assistant Thomas Kelman when they investigated her father's murder. Soon they're using their talents to delve into robbery and kidnapping among the cream of Philadelphia society, like Harrison and Georgine Crowther, whose daughter Dora is soon to be married to Percy VanLennep. When they both disappear, the outcry is prodigious, and Thomas, who specializes in handling high-profile crimes, is called in to inquire into the circumstances. The parents' insistence that the couple hasn't eloped is supported by the arrival of a ransom note. Martha visits the Crowther home both with Thomas and on her own to support the spirits of the devastated parents and bring her own special talents to the hunt. Crowther goes to deliver the ransom money to the doorstep of a house of prostitution. But the private agent he's hired scares away the street urchin who tries to pick up the payoff money, and soon thereafter Dora's body is found buried in a coal heap. Although the urchin's father is a prime suspect, the secrets the Crowther and VanLennep families are hiding may provide other motives. Martha's second case develops her love life and offers more mystery than her debut, along with a wealth of period details.”
--Kirkus

Read the first chapter from Deception's Daughter, and learn more about the book and author at Cordelia Frances Biddle's website.

Cordelia Frances Biddle co-wrote Murder at San Simeon with Patricia Hearst and writes the popular Nero Blanc crossword puzzle mysteries with her husband, Steve Zettler. The Conjurer is the first novel in the Martha Beale mystery series.

The Page 69 Test: The Conjurer.

The Page 99 Test: Deception's Daughter.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Life & Times of Jimmy Sears"

No, there's no book titled The Life & Times of Jimmy Sears...yet. But that is in fact the working title of a book that John Tesar, the executive chef at Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas, is working on.

Chef Tesar is the subject of my latest interview at "Dining with Bacchus." He's a very generous host, a superb chef, and a fount of expert information and insights about food, running restaurants, sustainable flora and fauna, and much more. Only a portion of what I learned from him made it into the published interview.

Readers of foodie books may be as interested as I was to learn that Tesar is "Jimmy Sears" in Anthony Bourdain's landmark Kitchen Confidential. Those familiar with the book--subtitiled "Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly"--know that it's a warts-and-all account of restaurant life and that the chef-author shines a harsh light on others as well as on himself.

Nevertheless, Tesar/Sears comes off very well when he's introduced:

Jimmy was a brilliant cook. He'd come up with Brendan Walsh at Arizona 206, and the food he turned out in his brief time working [in a pseudonymous restaurant] was so good, I'd stay after my shift was over, sit at the bar and order dinner and pay for it. Seeing what Jimmy could do in the kitchen really inspired me; I'd been slinging hash for way too long, and tasting a real demiglace again, eating new, exciting food, seeing new presentations, made me remember what I'd enjoyed about food in the first place.

Having now eaten Tesar's food at Rosewood Mansion--the delicious King Crab in Two Butter Sauces--I don't think Bourdain was overstating the chef's talent.

Among other things, The Life & Times of Jimmy Sears will look back on the episodes and events first chronicled in Kitchen Confidential. I'll be first in line for a copy.

Read my interview with Chef John Tesar.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Chris Grabenstein's "Hell Hole"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Hell Hole by Chris Grabenstein.

About the book, from the publisher:

Hell Hole is the fourth book in the mystery series featuring former hardened military PD and current Sea Haven, NJ police officer John Ceepak and his partner, wise-cracking Danny Boyle. In Hell Hole, Ceepak is confronted with his most personal case yet when he must investigate the alleged suicide of a military corporal who recently returned from Iraq. When it turns out that this "locked stall" rest stop suicide is anything but an open-and-shut case, Ceepak and Boyle realize that the corporal might have been privy to information that opens up a much larger conspiracy that strikes at the heart of our involvement in the Middle East, and puts them on the wrong side of some very unpleasant people...

Among the praise for Hell Hole:

"Chris Grabenstein has raised the stakes in Hell Hole, the latest offering in the Ceepak mystery series. All the reasons I fell in love with the series are still there: Danny is still the Candide-like character through whom we see the honorable, lie-hating John Ceepak, the writing is still as smooth as glass and as honest as a boy scout, the dialogue still rings as true as a dinner bell. But in Hell Hole, Grabenstein has taken it to a whole new level. Like the boardwalk ride he describes, he drops the bottom out of what we think we know, and gives us a story that's as dark and mesmerizing as the Hell Hole itself. Don't let the sunny weather of Sea Haven fool you, Hell Hole is one spectacular, gripping ride."
—Louise Ure, Shamus Award-winning author of The Fault Tree

"Like its three predecessors, this one is narrated breezily by the cynical Boyle, and Grabenstein again shows his intimate knowledge of Jersey shore towns... But this series offers far more than a beach-book romp; Hell Hole is taut and satisfying crime fiction."
—Booklist

"[E]ntertaining... As ever, the fun derives chiefly from the comic byplay between Danny, who's young, inexperienced and interested in girls and beer, and Ceepak, a straight-shooter who speaks like a robot and adheres to a strict moral code...even the grumpiest won't be able to resist the occasional smile."
—Publishers Weekly

"A solid entry in the Ceepak series. Grabenstein... has a great ear for dialogue..."
—Kirkus Reviews

"Required Reading... perhaps the perfect nexus of war, politics and beachside bravado..."
—New York Post

"Hell Hole... is every bit as wonderful as the previous books.... Grabenstein once again kept me up late with a thrilling novel full of twists and turns. The pacing in these books is perfect and Grabenstein really knows how to grab the reader's attention and run with it. It this book was music I would have the volume all the way up."
—Jon Jordan, Crimespree Magazine

Watch the Hell Hole trailer and read the first chapter.

Learn more about the author and his work at Chris Grabenstein's website.

Chris Grabenstein won the Anthony Award for "Best First Mystery" (given at Bouchercon 2006) for his debut novel Tilt A Whirl—the first in a series of John Ceepak stories to be set "Down The Shore" in a New Jersey tourist town called Sea Haven. The second book, Mad Mouse, arrived in June 2006 and the third, Whack A Mole, in June 2007.

The Page 69 Test: Slay Ride.

My Book, The Movie: Slay Ride.

The Page 69 Test: Hell Hole.

--Marshal Zeringue

Elizabeth McKenzie's "MacGregor Tells the World," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Elizabeth McKenzie's MacGregor Tells the World.

The author's adaptation note opens:

It begins with Ang Lee (The Ice Storm, Brokeback Mountain, Sense and Sensibility), who will direct. He has great feeling for the world of the outsider, while allowing a character plenty of dignity. He's great with social comedy too. I think Jemaine Clement would be a perfect Mac, but my distant cousin Bret McKenzie would do just as well. Someone scruffy and funny and poetic. For Carolyn Ware, we need beauty and intelligence and reserve masking fury and shame. Maybe....[read on]

MacGregor Tells the World is McKenzie's debut novel.

Her earlier book Stop That Girl is "a series of chronological stories that, taken together, uncover the life story of Ann Ransom, a native Californian who moves from childhood to adulthood with poise, intelligence, and humor."

Elizabeth McKenzie's writing has appeared in the New York Times, Best American Nonrequired Reading, Pushcart Prize XXV, Other Voices, Threepenny Review, TriQuarterly, and ZYZZYVA. Her stories have been performed at Symphony Space in New York and Stories on Stage in Chicago, and recorded for NPR's "Selected Shorts."

Read an excerpt from MacGregor Tells the World, and learn more about the author and her work at Elizabeth McKenzie's website and MySpace page.

The Page 69 Test: MacGregor Tells the World.

My Book, The Movie: MacGregor Tells the World.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top 10: westerns

Clive Sinclair is the author of several novels and short stories, including True Tales of the Wild West.

For the Guardian, he selected his top ten westerns. One title on the list:

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

McCarthy's prose in Blood Meridian comes blazing from the Book of Revelation. Told through the eyes of a young runaway this blood-soaked and blood-crazed novel details the death, destruction and disease doled out by four dozen horsemen of the apocalypse as they traverse America's southern borderline. Their leader, the Judge. is Manifest Destiny personified, in all its compulsive and repulsive glory. An altogether cooler and less febrile version of America's Westward expansion may be found in Blood and Thunder, a popular history by Hampton Sides.

Read about Number One on Sinclair's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Noelle Oxenhandler's "The Wishing Year"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: The Wishing Year: A House, a Man, My Soul - A Memoir of Fulfilled Desire by Noelle Oxenhandler.

About the book, from the publisher:

One New Year’s Day, Noelle Oxenhandler took stock of her life and found that she was alone after a long marriage, seemingly doomed to perpetual house rental and separated from the spiritual community that once had sustained her. With little left to lose, she launched a year’s experiment in desire, forcing herself to take the plunge and try the path of Putting It Out There. It wasn’t easy. A skeptic at heart, and a practicing Buddhist as well, Oxenhandler had grown up with a strong aversion to mixing spiritual and earthly matters. Still, she suspended her doubts and went for it all: a new love, a healed soul, and the 2RBD/1.5 BA of her dreams. Thus began her initiation into the art of wishing brazenly.

In this charming, compelling, and ultimately joyful book, Oxenhandler records a journey that is at once comic and poignant, light and dark, earthy and spiritual. Along the way she wonders: Does wishing have power? Is there danger in wishing? Are some wishes more worthy than others? And what about the ancient link between suffering and desire? To answer her questions, she delves into the history of wishing, from the rain dance and deer song of primeval magic to modern beliefs about mind over matter, prosperity consciousness, and the law of attraction.

As the months go by, Oxenhandler is humbled to discover the courage it takes to make a wish and thus open oneself to the unknown. She is surprised when her experiment expands to include other people and other places in ways she never imagined. But most of all, she is amazed to find that there is, indeed, both power and danger in the act of wishing. For soon her wishes begin to come true–in ways that meet, subvert, and overflow her expectations. And what started as a year’s dare turns into a way of life.

A delightfully candid memoir, unfettered, poetic, and ripe with discovery, Oxenhandler’s journey into the art and soul of wishing will inspire even the most skeptical reader to search the skies for the next shooting star.

Among the early acclaim for The Wishing Year:

"This is a wonderful book, full of wisdom gleaned from a year of Noelle Oxenhandler's daring to embrace what she had previously denied herself--her own personal wishes. I highly recommend The Wishing Year for anyone wanting to learn more about what life has to offer when we pay attention to our heart's desires."
–Sarah Susanka, author of The Not So Big Life

"Do you want to know how wishes come true? Then read The Wishing Year. It's a book that beautifully illuminates the art and mystery of wishing--and it does so in a way that is inspiring, funny, serious, honest, heartfelt, and irresistibly readable."
–Jack Kornfield, author of After the Ecstasy, the Laundry

"The Wishing Year is an elegant exploration of the way thought shapes reality. Writing with great personal honesty and candor, Noelle Oxenhandler's exhilarating prose takes us deep into the pain and glory of being human."
–Mark Epstein, M.D., author of Open to Desire

“Oxenhandler's new book makes it okay to be a smart, sophisticated grow-up who also believes in magic. She dives beneath the new age veneer and deconstructs how wishes really come true.”
–Susan Piver, author of How Not to Be Afraid of Your Own Life

Read an excerpt from The Wishing Year, and learn more about Noelle Oxenhandler and The Wishing Year at the Random House website.

The Page 99 Test: The Wishing Year.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: John McFetridge's "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: John McFetridge's Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.

About the book, from the publisher:

Sharon MacDonald has a problem. It’s not being under house arrest. It’s not the Iranian guy who just fell from the twenty-fifth floor of her apartment building. It’s not even the police surveillance that’s preventing her from getting to her marijuana grow rooms. Sharon’s problem is a stranger named Ray: He’s too good looking, and his business proposal sounds too good to be true.

Detective Gord Bergeron has problems, too. There’s his new, hard-to-read partner, Detective Armstrong; a missing ten-year-old girl; an unidentified torso dumped in an alley; and what looks like corruption deep within the police force.

In a city where the drug, immigration, and sex industries are all inextricably intertwined, it’s only a matter of time until Sharon’s and Gord’s paths cross and all hell breaks loose in this pitch-perfect second installment of John McFetridge’s rollicking noir series.

Among the praise for the novel:

"It’s refreshingly hard to tell the good from the no-good in this helping of cops and robbers, Canadian style...Bristling action, a vivid sense of place and nary a plot twist telegraphed. Exceptional work from McFetridge."
--Kirkus (starred review)

"Complex...a clear disciple of Elmore Leonard...a fun read."
--Publishers Weekly

"...Canada’s answer to Elmore Leonard, in some ways that doesn’t even begin to cover it. If anything, McFetridge’s voice is colder, starker than Leonard’s, something likely due the fact that this Made-in-Canada author wears his nationality like a Hudson's Bay blanket."
--Linda L. Richards, January Magazine

"This is the good stuff. Too much and you’ll be reeling around the room, blissed on the possibility of how good John McFetridge might get.... John McFetridge is a brilliant writer."
--Declan Burke

"Canada's answer to Elmore Leonard is going places...The title of Canadian author John McFetridge's second crime novel is as packed with rascally attitude as the book itself."
--Toronto Star

"[A]n absorbingly complex tale... There are wheels within wheels, plots within plots, betrayals within betrayals — along with confusions and hopes."
--Toronto Sun

Read an excerpt from Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, and learn more about the author and his work at John McFetridge's website and his blog.

See McFetridge's Author Snapshot at January Magazine.

The Page 69 Test: Dirty Sweet.

The Page 69 Test: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Brendan Halpin reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Brendan Halpin, author of How Ya Like Me Now and Forever Changes, both novels for young adults; the novels Dear Catastrophe Waitress, Long Way Back and Donorboy; and the memoirs Losing My Faculties and It Takes a Worried Man.

One book tagged in Halpin's entry:

The Mammoth Book of Best Horror Comics, which is packed full of twisted tales of terror and is a ton of fun. Horror comics are comfort food for my brain; I suppose it's best we don't look too deeply into that.[read on]

About Halpin's Forever Changes, from the publisher:

5:30 a.m., Brianna Pelletier gets ready for her daily pounding. As she lies on the couch, her dad beats her chest, then her back, coaxing the mucus out of her lungs. The pounding doesn’t take care of everything. Brianna’s held out for a long time, but a body with cystic fibrosis doesn’t last forever. It doesn’t matter that Brianna has a brilliant mathematical mind or that she’s a shoo-in for MIT. Or even that her two best friends are beautiful, popular, and loyal. In the grand scheme of things, none of that stuff matters at all. The standard life, lasting maybe seventy-five years, is no more than a speck in the sum total of the universe. At eighteen, and doubting she’ll make nineteen, Brianna is practically a nonentity. Of course she’s done the math. But in her senior year of high school, Brianna learns of another kind of math, in which an infinitely small, near-zero quantity can have profound effects on an entire system. If these tiny quantities didn’t exist, things wouldn’t make the same sense.

Funny, tear-jerking, and memorable, the author’s second novel for teens introduces readers to an extraordinary girl who learns that the meaning of forever can change, and that life – and death – is filled with infinite possibilities.

Visit Brendan Halpin's website.

Writers Read: Brendan Halpin.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Nancy Kress's "Dogs"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Dogs by Nancy Kress.

About the book, from the publisher:

The treat of terrorism and biological warfare becomes all too real when the danger comes from a family's most cherished pets. Tessa Sanderson, ex-FBI agent, has moved to a sleepy Maryland town in order to escape her tragic past. When the town's beloved dogs begin viciously attacking pet owners and their children, federal CDC agents determine that the dogs are carrying a mutated flu affecting the aggression center of their brains, for which there is no known cure. Tessa offers her unofficial assistance to Animal Control Officer Jess Langstrom, who has been ordered to round up all of the dogs and quarantine them. Meanwhile some of the locals, unconvinced of the threat, are preparing to protect their pets by any means necessary. But Tessa, the widow of an Arab who roused the suspicions of her FBI colleagues, has another secret: someone is sending her threatening emails in Arabic claiming responsibility for the virus, and she resolves to go deep undercover in order to expose a deadly conspiracy.

Dogs is a topical, fast-paced, biological thriller that will scare you while it makes you think.

Among the praise for Dogs:

"A spine-chilling, suspense-laden story of pets turned unwitting killers. Kress brings her thorough knowledge of genetics and biology to bear in this nicely creepy thriller."
—Publishers Weekly

"The suspense ratchets up in this perfect vacation read."
—Booklist

"A page turner ... unusual and refreshing. Highly recommended."
—Monster Librarian

"[A] fast-moving thriller (think Stephen King's Cujo) that capitalizes on Americans' love for their dogs."
—Library Journal

"Kress ratchets the tension up and up in a grand display of writerly talent. If you like suspense, you're gonna love this one!"
—Tom Easton

Read excerpts from Dogs, and learn more about the author and her work at Nancy Kress' website and her blog.

Nancy Kress is the author of twenty-three books, including the critically acclaimed Beggars in Spain, Probability Moon, and more recent, Nothing Human, which addresses the outcome of climate change.

The Page 69 Test: Dogs by Nancy Kress.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Michelle Gagnon's "Boneyard"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Michelle Gagnon's Boneyard.

About the book, from the publisher:

On the trail of a serial killer, the path splits in two…

FBI special agent Kelly Jones has worked on many disturbing cases in her career, but nothing like this. A mass grave site unearthed on the Appalachian Trail puts Kelly at the head of an investigation that crosses the line—from Massachusetts to Vermont, from wealthy vacationers to poor transients, from a serial killer to a copycat nemesis.

Assisted by law enforcement from both states and a forensic anthropologist, Kelly searches for the killers. But as darkness falls, another victim is taken. Kelly must race to save him before he joins the rest…in the boneyard.

Among the early praise for Boneyard:

"I defy anyone to read the first chapter of Boneyard and put the book down. Pure reading pleasure—creepy, terrifying, and utterly believable. I recommend it with great enthusiasm."
—New York Times bestselling author Douglas Preston

"Boneyard is a winner! A compelling page-turner that pays due attention to the human heart. It'll keep you up all night."
—New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver

"...Gagnon will be as hot someday as the authors who give her cover blurbs...once I got about three chapters into the book, I wasn't putting it down for much of anything. There's no doubt that Gagnon is getting into her stride, spinning a smooth, plot-driven police procedural with the lab and psych details neatly stitched in place..."
—Kingdom Books, Vermont

Read an excerpt from the novel, and learn more about the author and her work at Michelle Gagnon's website.

View the video trail for Boneyard and listen to an excerpt.

Gagnon is running a series of contests through her website right now: sign up for her newsletter at www.michellegagnon.com and she’ll toss your name in the hat for an Amazon Kindle, iPod Shuffle, Starbucks gift certificates, and other fabulous prizes.

The Page 69 Test: Boneyard.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Ed Lynskey reading?

The latest contributor to Writers Read: Ed Lynskey, whose new P.I. Frank Johnson title, Pelham Fell Here, is available from Mundania Press.

His write-up opens:

Fools Rush In by Ed Gorman. Pegasus, 2007.

I’m a true sucker for the novels set in small towns, prairies, or agrarian societies. I grew up on a rural route and that’s programmed in me. I wouldn’t change it if I could even today when I live outside Washington, D.C.

Ed Gorman’s detective/lawyer Sam McCain is from Black River Falls, Iowa (Iowa City, Des Moines, and Cedar Rapids are the population centers), hooked me from the get-go. Fools Rush In is the second title I’ve enjoyed in the Sam McCain series. The time-frame here is June 1963, so throw in some nostalgia as well.

This engaging story, however, is nothing like taking an leisurely Sunday drive in the country.... [read on]

Read an excerpt from Pelham Fell Here, and learn more about the book and author at the publisher's website.

Ed Lynskey's other books include The Dirt-Brown Derby, The Dirt-Brown Derby, Out of Town a Few Days, and A Clear Path To Cross (all detective mysteries). His work has also appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Washington Post, and New York Times.

Ed Lynskey's The Blue Cheer, the movie.

The Page 69 Test: The Dirt-Brown Derby.

The Page 99 Test: Pelham Fell Here.

Writers Read: Ed Lynskey.

--Marshal Zeringue

Paul Collins: 10 oddest travel guides

For Slate, Paul Collins named the "10 [travel guidebooks] that are so transfixingly odd that they've remained readable long beyond their original itineraries."

One title on the list:

Travel Guide of Negro Hotels and Guest Houses, by Afro-American Newspapers (1942)

Like The Negro Motorist Green-Book, the Travel Guide captures an era when African-Americans had to be mindful of where they vacationed. Alongside bucolic listings for shoreline getaways, the Manhattan listings are an urban time capsule: Small's Paradise ("presenting Chock Full o' Rhythm Revue, starring Tondelayo and Lopez"), the Savoy Ballroom, $1 rooms at the Hotel Crescent, and Bowman's Most Ultra Bar and Cocktail Lounge over on 135th Street. The 1942 edition includes an exhortation to wartime travel—"Vacations for Victory. You can do your job better after recreation"—and to modern eyes is striking for what hotels emphasized in the early 1940s. There's no TV, of course, and rarely any AC. So what's the most common amenity promised in the hotel ads? "Hot and Cold Running Water."

Read about Number One on Collins' list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: David Hewson's "The Garden of Evil"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: David Hewson's The Garden of Evil.

About the book, from the publisher:

In a deserted artist’s studio in the heart of Rome, detectives stumble upon a scene of shocking brutality: two bodies, freshly killed. Looming over them is a painting that bears all the hallmarks of a Caravaggio: a brilliantly colored canvas depicting a violent tableau of beauty and depravity.... In David Hewson’s bold new novel of suspense, this grisly discovery sends Detective Nic Costa on a desperate chase through the streets of his city. The consequences are devastating. And for Nic, the case has only just begun.

At the crime scene, detectives find a treasure trove of evidence—from fresh blood to lurid photos of dead prostitutes. For Costa, finding the killer who escaped him is intensely personal. But his prime suspect arrogantly hides in plain sight behind a fortress of money, power, and the law.

Teaming with an art expert, Costa follows clues hidden in the mysterious Caravaggio canvas. As he moves through a maze of history, he begins to make stunning connections to the present case. And each discovery brings him closer and closer to a secret buried in a priceless work of art, a conspiracy dating back four hundred years—and men who will stop at nothing to protect their own private garden of evil.

From modern forensics to the realm of the Medicis, from the force of faith to the corruption of power, The Garden of Evil is a novel steeped in Roman history—and an unforgettable experience in richly atmospheric, modern-day suspense.

Among the praise for The Garden of Evil:

“A thought-provoking blend of art history and mystery, The Garden of Evil is … a treat for readers who like their entertainment literate.”
—Richmond Times-Dispatch

“At the outset of this dark jewel of a thriller, Hewson’s sixth to feature Roman detective Nic Costa (after The Seventh Sacrament), Costa and his team are just starting to process a crime scene in an artist’s shabby studio, where two corpses lie sprawled before a painting of a rapturous female nude redolent of Caravaggio, when they flush out a hooded gunman. The gunman escapes in the ensuing chase… While Costa is taken off the case, his rule-bending boss finds a way for him to help on the sly, assisting the unusual art expert—young Sister Agata Graziano—called in to investigate whether the canvas could really be a Caravaggio and what light it might shed on the murders. You don’t have to be much of a sleuth to foresee danger for Sister Agata, but that’s about the only predictable element in a plot otherwise as serpentine—and suspense filled—as the ancient Roman byways through which Costa stalks his prey.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Hewson’s latest Nic Costa thriller opens with a shocker that will have series fans reeling, just as it does the principal players: Rome police detectives Costa and Gianni Peroni and their boss, the brooding Leo Falcone. What follows is another gritty, compelling mix of mean streets and ancient history, as the detectives attempt to unravel an appalling series of murders that seems to connect to an unknown Caravaggio painting depicting a tableau of startling depravity.

With the help of lay sister and Caravaggio expert Agata Graziano, the detectives quickly determine that a group of wealthy Roman aristocrats, impervious to the law, are re-creating the violent, orgiastic lifestyle enjoyed centuries earlier by Caravaggio and his circle, who called themselves the “Ekstasists”—and if a few prostitutes die in support of the hedonists’ revels, what of it? As usual, Hewson mixes art history and contemporary crime perfectly, but this time he digs deeper, finding connections between art and life that go to the very heart of humanity’s conflicted cravings for the sensual and the spiritual. And emerging from the complex, masterful plot, its sinews intertwined between past and present, is the towering, tragic figure of Caravaggio, whose still-unsolved murder in Rome in 1606 holds the key to bringing the modern-day Ekstasists to justice.

Arturo Pérez-Reverte has long set the gold standard for mixing history, mystery, and modern life into literary stews of mouthwatering flavor and incredible subtlety, but it’s time to agree that Hewson now shares that position—and is on the verge of claiming it outright.”
—Booklist (starred review)

Read an excerpt from The Garden of Evil, and learn more about the author and his work at David Hewson's website.

See the Page 69 Test for the previous Nic Costa novel, The Seventh Sacrament.

The Page 99 Test: The Garden of Evil.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Kevin J. Anderson's "The Ashes of Worlds"

The current feature of the Page 69 Test: Kevin J. Anderson's The Ashes of Worlds.

About the book, from the publisher:

The culminating volume in Kevin J. Anderson's Saga of Seven Suns weaves together the myriad storylines into a spectacular grand finale.

Galactic empires clash, elemental beings devastate whole planetary systems, and the factions of humanity are pitted against each other. Heroes rise and enemies make their last stands in the climax of an epic tale seven years in the making. The Saga of Seven Suns is one of the most colorful and spectacular science fiction epics of the last decade.

Check out: "Kevin J. Anderson on The Saga of Seven Suns."

Read an excerpt from The Saga of Seven Suns: The Ashes of Worlds, and learn more about the author and his work at Kevin J. Anderson's website, WordFire.

Kevin J. Anderson is the author of more than ninety novels, 43 of which have appeared on national or international bestseller lists. He has over 20 million books in print in thirty languages. He has won or been nominated for numerous prestigious awards, including the Nebula Award, Bram Stoker Award, the SFX Reader’s Choice Award, the American Physics Society’s Forum Award, and New York Times Notable Book.

The Page 69 Test: The Ashes of Worlds.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top Olympics books

For the Times (London), Calvin Shulman named a critic's chart of six top Olympic books.

One book on his list:

The Complete Book of the Olympics by David Wallechinsky and Jaime Louchy

Every event in detail plus anecdotes, folklore and scandal.

Read about another title from Shulman's list.

Related:

• The Page 99 Test: David Maraniss' Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World.

• Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom's books for the 2008 Olympic Games.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Kevin J. Hayes' "The Road to Monticello"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: The Road to Monticello: The Life and Mind of Thomas Jefferson by Kevin J. Hayes.

About the book, from the publisher:

Thomas Jefferson was an avid book-collector, a voracious reader, and a gifted writer--a man who prided himself on his knowledge of classical and modern languages and whose marginal annotations include quotations from Euripides, Herodotus, and Milton. And yet there has never been a literary life of our most literary president.

In The Road to Monticello, Kevin J. Hayes fills this important gap by offering a lively account of Jefferson's spiritual and intellectual development, focusing on the books and ideas that exerted the most profound influence on him. Moving chronologically through Jefferson's life, Hayes reveals the full range and depth of Jefferson's literary passions, from the popular "small books" sold by traveling chapmen, such as The History of Tom Thumb, which enthralled him as a child; to his lifelong love of Aesop's Fables and Robinson Crusoe; his engagement with Horace, Ovid, Virgil and other writers of classical antiquity; and his deep affinity with the melancholy verse of Ossian, the legendary third-century Gaelic warrior-poet. Drawing on Jefferson's letters, journals, and commonplace books, Hayes offers a wealth of new scholarship on the print culture of colonial America, reveals an intimate portrait of Jefferson's activities beyond the political chamber, and reconstructs the president's investigations in such different fields of knowledge as law, history, philosophy and natural science. Most importantly, Hayes uncovers the ideas and exchanges which informed the thinking of America's first great intellectual and shows how his lifelong pursuit of knowledge culminated in the formation of a public offering, the "academic village" which became UVA, and his more private retreat at Monticello.

Gracefully written and painstakingly researched, The Road to Monticello provides an invaluable look at Jefferson's intellectual and literary life, uncovering the roots of some of the most important--and influential--ideas that have informed American history.

Among the early acclaim for The Road to Monticello:

"The book's freshness and immediacy lie in the author's emphasis on the libraries Jefferson accumulated and the marginal notes he left in the books he read. Hayes takes us through Jefferson's hugely wide and eclectic reading with an ease and lightness often missing.... The Road to Monticello will enlighten and delight all those drawn to Jefferson and the early years of so many classic American ideas."
--Publishers Weekly

"Kevin J. Hayes adroitly accomplishes the formidable task of providing an intellectual biography of Jefferson without ever sounding dry or bookish and without losing sight of his day-to-day life. Grounded in extensive original research, The Road to Monticello is a lively, engaging life of the mind of America's most important founding father."
--David S. Reynolds, author of Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson

"In what will surely be the definitive work on the subject, Hayes presents a scrupulously researched examination of the reading habits and thinking of our third President, effectively a biography of Thomas Jefferson's intellect over the course of his life. Although Jefferson's public career has always been granted close examination, Hayes demonstrates that Jefferson's life of the mind also merits the close study provided here."
--Thomas J. Schaeper, Library Journal

"Kevin Hayes's Road to Monticello is a stunning contribution to Jefferson studies. Focusing on Jefferson's reading and writing, Hayes illuminates his subject's life and times. Taking Jefferson on his own terms and resisting the modern temptation to psychologize and moralize, Hayes nonetheless gives us a Jefferson of surprising depth and complexity. This is the kind of "life" Jefferson himself would have wanted to memorialize. The Road to Monticello is a magnificent achievement."
--Peter Onuf, Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor, University of Virginia

Learn more about The Road to Monticello at the Oxford University Press website.

Kevin J. Hayes is Professor of English at the University of Central Oklahoma and the author of A Colonial Woman's Bookshelf, An American Cycling Odyssey, Melville's Folk Roots, and Poe and the Printed Word.

The Page 99 Test: The Road to Monticello.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Timothy Ryback reading?

The latest featured contributor to Writers Read: Timothy Ryback, author of the forthcoming Hitler's Private Library: The Books That Shaped His Life.

His entry begins:

I recently put the finishing touches on my book on Hitler's private library and have been in literary detox since. I reread Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's and Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, both books which I return to occasionally and come away from each time with renewed awe at the characters, plot, style, not to mention cover design. [read on]

Among the advance praise for Hitler's Private Library:

“In Hitler's Private Library Timothy Ryback turns Hitler's reading into a way of reading Hitler–his mind, his obsessions, his evolution. It's an original and provocative work that adds valuable context to the skeletal and mystifying historical record.”
--Ron Rosenbaum, author of Explaining Hitler

Learn more about Hitler's Private Library at the Knopf website.

Timothy W. Ryback is the author of The Last Survivor: Legacies of Dachau, a New York Times Notable Book for 1999. He has written for The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. He is Deputy Secretary General and Director of Programs at the Académie Diplomatique Internationale and cofounder and codirector of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation.

Writers Read: Timothy Ryback.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Tayari Jones' "The Untelling"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: The Untelling by Tayari Jones.

About the book, from the author's website:

When Aria Jackson was nine, a car accident killed her father and baby sister, forever destroying her family’s secure middle-class life. The tragedy left her elegant mother, her rebellious sister, and Aria herself wounded by grief, rage, and guilt. Caught between her mother’s bitter dissatisfaction and her sister’s efforts to distance herself from the family altogether, Aria grew up alone, despite sharing a crowded home with her mother and sister.

At age twenty-five, Aria has created a meaningful life for herself, living in a not-quite gentrified inner-city neighborhood, teaching literacy to teenaged girls. For the first time in her life, she has both a best girlfriend in whom she can confide and a boyfriend who offers her love and respect.

When Aria discovers she may be pregnant, she is seduced by the promise of family, the lure of a normal life, and the dream of a fresh start. Then everything changes in ways she never anticipated. As she mediates between her past and her altered reality, she unearths secrets about family and friends and searches for the courage to divulge one heartbreaking revelation about herself.

Poignant, evocative, and luminously insightful, The Untelling speaks of the truths we hide even from ourselves, the circumstances that can either undermine or restore us, and the transformative power of examining all that we keep untold.

Among the praise for The Untelling:

"Jones went to the wilderness and mounted a wild and bucking story. The Untelling is a mustang. Free. Bold. Classy. No sophomore jitters here. No timidity. Just a strong wind swirling the truth, hoping for love, daring the reader to inhale the forgiveness.”
—Nikki Giovanni, author of Spin a Soft Black Song

"A story of deep hurt and slow realization, injury and recovery, and the way people genuinely change their lives. I love it."
—Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina

"Sometimes wry, sometimes poignant, always honest…Jones is a keen guide…her descriptions have an almost tender quality. In the end, Aria has managed to acquire both dignity and sympathy, and The Untelling has worked a most…welcome charm."
—Washington Post Book World

"Succeeds mightily...truly a wonderful story. Jones is a talent to be reckoned with."
—Boston Globe

"Convincing and genuine."
—Publishers Weekly

"Jones is a remarkable novelist, able to face down the tragedies of life with the clarity and beauty and even the dark humor of a true artist…A flat-out brilliant writer."—Robert Olen Butler, author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

Read an excerpt from The Untelling, and learn more about the book and author at Tayari Jones' website and her blog.

Tayari Jones' first novel, Leaving Atlanta, won the 2003 Hurston/Wright Award for debut fiction.

The Page 69 Test: The Untelling.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Harvey Graff's "The Dallas Myth"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Harvey Graff's The Dallas Myth.

About the book, from the publisher:

An unconventional-and critical-examination of “the city with no past”

The ninth largest city in the United States, Dallas is exceptional among American cities for the claims of its elites and boosters that it is a “city with no limits” and a “city with no history.” Home to the Dallas Cowboys, self-styled as “America’s Team,” setting for the television series that glamorized its values of self-invention and success, and site of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Dallas looms disproportionately large in the American imagination. Yet it lacks an identity of its own.

In The Dallas Myth, Harvey J. Graff presents a novel interpretation of a city that has proudly declared its freedom from the past. He scrutinizes the city’s origin myth and its governance ideology, known as the “Dallas Way,” looking at how these elements have shaped Dallas and served to limit democratic participation and exacerbate inequality. Advancing beyond a traditional historical perspective, Graff proposes an original, integrative understanding of the city’s urban fabric and offers an explicit critique of the reactionary political foundations of modern Dallas: its tolerance for right-wing political violence, the endemic racism and xenophobia, and a planning model that privileges growth and monumental architecture at the expense of the environment and social justice.

Revealing the power of myths that have defined the city for so long, Graff presents a new interpretation of Dallas that both deepens our understanding of America’s urban landscape and enables its residents to envision a more equitable, humane, and democratic future for all.

Among the praise for The Dallas Myth:

"[Graff is] spot-on. The heroic myth of Dallas is that the city is entirely a creation of willpower and salesmanship, the twin pillars of secular fundamentalism. We are the ultimate evolution and expression of wild-eyed, ascetic frontier shamanism—a city where the most real things are the things we dream up in our heads. That's what happens when you leave people out in the woods too long. They wind up with an origin myth that's spooky as hell and doesn't even make sense, but they find great comfort in it. Now, see, my argument is that these are exactly the kind of people you want to shoot off into outer space. I almost hate to talk about this in the same breath with Graff, because his book is serious and very important...."
--Dallas Observer

Learn more about The Dallas Myth at the University of Minnesota Press website.

Harvey J. Graff is Ohio Eminent Scholar in Literacy Studies and professor of English and history at The Ohio State University.

The Page 99 Test: The Dallas Myth.

--Marshal Zeringue

Misty Massey's "Mad Kestrel," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Mad Kestrel by Misty Massey.

From Massey's casting call:

My novel, Mad Kestrel, is about a young woman with magical ability, a woman who had taken her destiny into her own hands and gone to sea, but who has her own secrets that she'll die to protect. Who could be better than Claudia Black? Kestrel is similar to Black's character of Aeryn Sun in Farscape. Both Kestrel and Aeryn are strong warriors who trust nearly no one, but who want to find happiness and peace. Claudia is also attractive in a nontraditional way. I never wanted to write a story of the hottest chick on the sea, but I didn't want her to necessarily be ugly. Claudia radiates power and confidence, and that was more of the look I saw in Kestrel (even when she wasn't very confident in herself.)

Kestrel's foil and possible love interest, Philip McAvery, was a little tougher. He's secretive and smart, and you can't necessarily believe a word he says. Even when it's true. I wrote him as tall and handsome, with long, honey-colored hair. In the beginning of the book, I saw him as...[read on]

About the book, from the publisher:

A rip-roaring pirate romance and mystery

In a world where infants with magical powers are torn from their parents to be raised by the mysterious and powerful Danisoba, who have a monopoly on magic, Kestrel has managed to keep her abilities concealed—and herself free. First hiding in back alleys as a street urchin, she hid when they killed her parents, and then served as a young tavern maid before escaping to sea, where magic is cancelled by water.

Now an adult, as the quartermaster of a pirate ship, Kestrel loves the freedom of living on the seas. But her way of life could end if anyone on board learns her closely guarded secret—that she has magical control over the wind.

One day a black ship appears, and her life changes. Its captain is a handsome rogue of whom Kestrel is strangely, constantly aware.

When Kestrel’s captain is led into a trap and is arrested, she gathers her crew and sets sail in relentless pursuit....

Read an excerpt and watch the video book trailer for Mad Kestrel; learn more about the book and author at Misty Massey's website and journal.

My Book, The Movie: Mad Kestrel.

--Marshal Zeringue

Andrew Klavan's 5 best psychological crime novels

For the Wall Street Journal, novelist Andrew Klavan named a five best list of psychological crime novels.

One title on his list:

The Lodger
by Marie Belloc Lowndes
Scribner, 1913

This is a wonderful read and a forgotten genre classic. Robert and Ellen Bunting are retired servants on the brink of disaster: The respectable façade of their middle-class London life is about to collapse into poverty. Then, one night -- the same night that a serial killer called The Avenger strikes again -- the mysterious Mr. Sleuth arrives at their door and asks to rent a room. The Buntings are saved from ruin -- but is it possible that their new lodger and the murderous Avenger are one and the same? What's so mesmerizing here is not just the Bible-quoting, woman-hating, Ripper-like suspect, but the way that Mrs. Bunting's desperation to hold onto her middle-class respectability compels her to become his tacit accomplice.

Read about Number One on Klavan's list.

Klavan's latest novel, Empire of Lies (Harcourt), has just been published.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Jeroen van Bergeijk reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Jeroen van Bergeijk, author of My Mercedes Is Not for Sale: From Amsterdam to Ouagadougou...an Auto-Misadventure Across the Sahara.

One book he tagged:

A Place of My Own by Michael Pollan. I am reading it because this is a big dream of mine as well: to build my own home. Of course in Holland, a place that is so built up and urbanized, that is quite an impossible dream. [read on]

Jeroen van Bergeijk is a journalist based in Amsterdam and has written for the New York Times, Wired, and many other publications in Europe and the United States.

His documentary Ours is the labour debuted at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam in 2007.

Learn more about My Mercedes Is Not for Sale from the publisher.

Visit Jeroen van Bergeijk's website.

Writers Read: Jeroen van Bergeijk.

--Marshal Zeringue