What is Joshua Davis reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Joshua Davis, author of The Underdog - a recounting of his armwrestling, bullfighting, sumo, sauna and backward running adventures.

His entry opens:

At the beginning of the summer, I started reading The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. It's slow but fascinating, largely because it reveals what a fundamentally creative pursuit science is. These guys would come up with an idea about what a molecule looks like and build a machine from scratch to test that idea. I just find that really exciting - it makes me want to come up with some ideas about how the universe works and build a giant machine in my backyard. I don't think I'd be able to get any uranium at this point but that's just the type of practical hurdles these guys jumped every day. Looking out my window now, I see piles of dog shit, a rake and a couple of rat traps. I'm sure that's the beginning of something.[read on]

Joshua Davis' writing has appeared in GQ, Wired, Outside, Mens Health and Food & Wine, and has been anthologized in the 2006 and 2007 editions of The Best Technology Writing as well as the 2007 edition of Best American Science Writing.

In April of 2003, he snuck into Iraq to cover the war for Wired and later that year became a contributing editor for the magazine.

The Underdog was published in 2005 and is being adapted for the movies.

Brendan Borrell called Davis "one of the most talented narrative journalists working today."

Writers Read: Joshua Davis.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Dick Meyer's "Why We Hate Us"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Dick Meyer's Why We Hate Us.

About the book, from the publisher:

Americans are as safe, well fed, securely sheltered, long-lived, free, and healthy as any human beings who have ever lived on the planet. But we are down on America. So why do we hate us? According to Dick Meyer, the following items on this (much abbreviated) list are some of the contributors to our deep disenchantment with our own culture:

Cell-phone talkers broadcasting the intimate details of their lives in public spaces
Worship of self-awareness, self-realization, and self-fulfillment
T-shirts that read, “Eat Me”
Facebook, MySpace, and kids being taught to market themselves
High-level cheating in business and sports
Reality television and the cosmetic surgery boom
Multinational corporations that claim, “We care about you.”
The decline of organic communities
A line of cosmetics called “S.L.U.T.”
The phony red state–blue state divide
The penetration of OmniMarketing into OmniMedia and the insinuation of both into every facet of our lives

You undoubtedly could add to the list with hardly a moment’s thought. In Why We Hate Us, Meyer absolutely nails America’s early-twenty-first-century mood disorder. He points out the most widespread carriers of the why-we-hate-us germs, including the belligerence of partisan politics that perverts our democracy, the decline of once common manners, the vulgarity of Hollywood entertainment, the superficiality and untrustworthiness of the news media, the cult of celebrity, and the disappearance of authentic neighborhoods and voluntary organizations (the kind that have actual meetings where one can hobnob instead of just clicking in an online contribution).

Meyer argues—with biting wit and observations that make you want to shout, “Yes! I hate that too!”—that when the social, spiritual, and political turmoil that followed the sixties collided with the technological and media revolution at the turn of the century, something inside us hit overload. American culture no longer reflects our own values. As a result, we are now morally and existentially tired, disoriented, anchorless, and defensive. We hate us and we wonder why.

Why We Hate Us reveals why we do and also offers a thoughtful and uplifting prescription for breaking out of our current morass and learning how to hate us less. It is a penetrating but always accessible Culture of Narcissism for a new generation, and it carries forward ideas that resounded with readers in bestsellers such as On Bullshit and Bowling Alone.

Among the praise for the book:

"In this study of American social self-loathing Meyer addresses why Americans have come to hate themselves (and each other) at a time of national prosperity and relative peace. In compelling, wonderfully cranky and comic prose, the author contends that the radical social changes of the 1960s and the recent technological revolution have drastically altered the pace of life, leaving Americans morally and existentially tired, disoriented, anchorless, and defensive. In arguments familiar to any sociology student, Meyer describes how the rise of freedom of choice in nearly every aspect of American life has been accompanied by the enervation of traditional social institutions (Our communities have been neutered, and our traditional, inherited moral, religious, and aesthetic sensibilities have been discredited). Pointed critiques of political theater, celebrity culture, the rise of marketing and media conglomerates and the decline of manners elaborate on the growing trends of bullshit, belligerence, and boorishness. Meyer is gleefully critical and very sincere in his concern for the state of American life; his practical suggestions urging readers to turn the tide of self-hate and phoniness are a must-read for anyone fed up with modern life."
—Publishers Weekly

"Dick Meyer has done the impossible -- he diagnoses the self-loathing, moral confusion and ennui that infect supersized America without hectoring us and badgering us, and without tiresome self-righteousness or smugness. Why We Hate Us takes us on a rollicking, laugh-out-loud ride across the brittle American landscape, and by 'us' I mean all of us -- liberal and conservative, black and white, city-dwellers, suburbanites and farmers. Dick Meyer understands that our national culture is on life-support, and he has thought long and hard about how to resuscitate it. Read this book, if not for you, than for your children, and for the America they will inherit."—Jeffrey Goldberg, Atlantic Monthly national correspondent and author of Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror

“A widely respected player in national politics, Dick Meyer has transcended the game most Americans hate to describe a larger context of relentless marketing, omnipresent pseudo-events and above all the enshrinement of phoniness that pollute the public square. Mixing original research, a keen, analytic mind and mordant, wicked wit, Why We Hate Us should be the bible for the vast majority of Americans who tell pollsters the country is on the wrong track but aren't clear why.”
—Thomas Oliphant, journalist and bestselling author of Praying for Gil Hodges: A Memoir of the 1955 World Series and One Family's Love of the Brooklyn Dodgers

“This is a serious, thought provoking discourse on America in the age of instant communication and a reminder that our new ability to know everything about everybody all the time may not be all good.”
—Bob Schieffer, Chief Washington Correspondent, CBS News

“Meyer has written a deeply informed critique of those ‘toxic and menacing’ aspects of American culture in which individuals, families, and communities have suffered as ‘self-awareness, self-realization and self-actualization became the measure of emotional and existential health.’ Meyer has put into words the tensions and anxieties that grip all Americans as they go about the difficult task of achieving happiness while struggling to ‘find a compass’ to give their lives moral legitimacy and purpose. If you are aiming for one guide to the well-lived life, buy this book.”—Thomas B. Edsall, Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer Moore Professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, Political Editor of the Huffington Post, and author of Building Red America: The New Conservative Coalition and the Drive for Permanent Power

Read an excerpt from Why We Hate Us, and learn more about the book at the publisher's website.

Dick Meyer was a reporter, producer, online editor, and columnist at CBS News in Washington for more than twenty-three years. He is now the editorial director of digital media at National Public Radio.

The Page 99 Test: Why We Hate Us.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: C. W. Gortner's "The Last Queen"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: C. W. Gortner's The Last Queen.

About the book, from the publisher:

Juana of Castile, the last queen of Spanish blood to inherit her country’s throne, has been for centuries an enigmatic figure shrouded in lurid myth. Was she the bereft widow of legend who was driven mad by her loss, or has history misjudged a woman who was ahead of her time? In his stunning new novel, C. W. Gortner challenges the myths about Queen Juana, unraveling the mystery surrounding her to reveal a brave, determined woman we can only now begin to fully understand.

The third child of Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand of Spain, Juana is born amid her parents’ ruthless struggle to unify their kingdom, bearing witness to the fall of Granada and Columbus’s discoveries. At the age of sixteen, she is sent to wed Philip, the archduke of Flanders, as part of her parents’ strategy to strengthen Spain, just as her youngest sister, Catherine of Aragon, is sent to England to become the first wife of Henry VIII.

Juana finds unexpected love and passion with her handsome young husband, the sole heir to the Habsburg Empire. At first she is content with her children and her life in Flanders. But when tragedy strikes and she inherits the Spanish throne, Juana finds herself plunged into a battle for power against her husband that grows to involve the major monarchs of Europe. Besieged by foes on all sides, her intelligence and pride used as weapons against her, Juana vows to secure her crown and save Spain from ruin, even if it could cost her everything.

With brilliant, lyrical prose, novelist and historian C. W. Gortner conjures Juana through her own words, taking the reader from the somber majesty of Spain to the glittering and lethal courts of Flanders, France, and Tudor England. The Last Queen brings to life all the grandeur and drama of an incomparable era, and the singular humanity of this courageous, passionate princess whose fight to claim her birthright captivated the world.

Among the early praise for The Last Queen:

"The 1492 conquest of Granada makes for high adventure and royal intrigue in this second sparkling historical from Gortner (The Secret Lion). Spanish Princess Juana, 13, watches as her parents, King Fernando and Queen Isabel, unite Spain, vanquish Moors and marry their children off to foreign kingdoms for favorable alliances: Princess Catalina becomes first wife to Henry VIII; Princess Juana, who narrates, is shipped off to marry Philip of Flanders, heir to the Hapsburg Empire. Although Juana balks at leaving Spain for the north and a husband she has never met, their instant chemistry soon turns to love. Years and children later, Juana unexpectedly becomes next in line to the Spanish crown and must carefully navigate every step of the journey from Flanders to Spain, fearful of alienating husband or parents or both. Emotional and political tensions soar as Juana’s loyalties are tested to their limits. Disturbing royal secrets and court manipulations wickedly twist this enthralling story, brilliantly told."
--Publishers Weekly

“This moving tale of Juana la Loca (the Mad) vividly re-creates the passion, politics, and betrayals that drove a smart and spirited queen to the brink of insanity ... or perhaps, as C. W. Gortner suggests, to the pretense of insanity–a pretense that baffled Juana’s enemies and led to triumph for her children and her country. The Last Queen is an absorbing account of one of history’s most fascinating women, from her never-before-told point of view.”
--Donna Woolfolk Cross, author of Pope Joan

“I ached for this intelligent, one-of-a-kind queen. Her struggle and passion kept me up until the early hours of the morning. A page-turner, a nail-biter, an eye-opener: I loved being possessed by The Last Queen!”
--Ki Longfellow, author of The Secret Magdalene

“A vibrant tapestry of love and hate ... brings to life an extraordinary queen at an unforgettable time in history.”
--Sandra Worth, author of Lady of the Roses

“An exquisite evocation of a dangerous era and of a forgotten queen.”
--Holly Payne, author of The Virgin’s Knot

“Gripping and unforgettable ... captures Juana of Castile’s electrifying drama.”
--Judith Merkle Riley, author of The Water Devil

Read an excerpt from The Last Queen, and learn more about the book and author at C. W. Gortner's website.

C. W. Gortner, half-Spanish by birth, holds an M.F.A. in writing, with an emphasis on historical studies, from the New College of California and has taught university courses on women of power in the Renaissance. He was raised in Málaga, Spain, and now lives in California.

The Page 69 Test: The Last Queen.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jeremy Mercer's "When the Guillotine Fell"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Jeremy Mercer's When the Guillotine Fell: The Bloody Beginning and Horrifying End to France's River of Blood, 1791-1977.

About the book, from the publisher:

How long did the guillotine’s blade hang over the heads of French criminals? Was it abandoned in the late 1800s? Did French citizens of the early days of the twentieth century decry its brutality? No. The blade was allowed to do its work well into our own time. In 1974, Hamida Djandoubi brutally tortured 22 year-old Elisabeth Bousquet in an apartment in Marseille, putting cigarettes out on her body and lighting her on fire, finally strangling her to death in the Provencal countryside where he left her body to rot. In 1977, he became the last person executed by guillotine in France in a multifaceted case as mesmerizing for its senseless violence as it is though-provoking for its depiction of a France both in love with and afraid of The Foreigner. In a thrilling and enlightening account of a horrendous murder paired with the history of the guillotine and the history of capital punishment, Jeremy Mercer, a writer well known for his view of the underbelly of French life, considers the case of Hamida Djandoubi in the vast flow of blood that France's guillotine has produced. In his hands, France never looked so bloody...

Learn more about the book and author at Jeremy Mercer's website.

Jeremy Mercer is a former writer for the Ottawa Citizen and the author of Time Was Soft There and two crime books.

The Page 99 Test: When the Guillotine Fell.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five best: books about presidential administrations

Fred Siegel, a contributing editor of The City Journal and professor at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, named a five best list of books about presidential administrations for the Wall Street Journal.

One title on the list:

Memories of the Ford Administration
by John Updike
Knopf, 1992

Never mind the title of this John Updike novel: The presidential administration that he is interested in is that of James Buchanan, from 1857 to 1861, not Gerald Ford's in the 1970s. Updike's protagonist, historian Alfred Clayton, is working on a Buchanan biography when he is asked by an organization of historians for his thoughts about the Ford years. Clayton begins musing on his crumbling personal life during that time -- and he considers the parallels between his failing marriage and Buchanan's inability, as a natural compromiser, to preserve the Union on the eve of civil war. Buchanan is perhaps best known as one of America's worst presidents, but Updike presents a sympathetic portrait of a middling man swallowed up by the passions that surround him.

Read about another title on Siegel's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: James Scott Bell's "Try Darkness"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: James Scott Bell's Try Darkness.

About the book, from the publisher:

Ty Buchanan is living on the peaceful grounds of St. Monica's, far away from the glamorous life he led as a rising trial lawyer for a big L.A. firm. Recovering from the death of his fiancée and a false accusation of murder, Buchanan has found his previous ambitions unrewarding. Now he prefers offering legal services to the poor and the under-represented, from his "office" at local coffee bar The Freudian Sip. A mysterious woman with a six year old daughter comes to him for help. She's being illegally evicted from a downtown transient hotel, an interest represented by his old law firm and former best friend, Al Bradshaw. Buchanan won't back down. He's going to fight for the woman's rights.

But then she ends up dead, and the case moves from the courtroom to the streets. Determined to find the killer and protect the little girl, who has no last name and no other family, Buchanan finds he must depend on skills he never needed in the employ of a civil law firm.

Among the acclaim for the Ty Buchanan series:

"Bell has created in Buchanan an appealing and series-worthy protagonist... Fans of thrillers with lawyers as their central characters—Lescroart and Margolin, especially—will welcome this new addition to their must-read lists."
--Booklist

"Readers will enjoy Bell's talent for description and character development."
--Publishers Weekly

Read an excerpt from Try Darkness, and learn more about the book and author at James Scott Bell's website.

The Page 69 Test: Try Dying.

The Page 69 Test: Try Darkness.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Rick Wartzman's "Obscene in the Extreme"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Rick Wartzman's Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

About the book, from the publisher:

Few books have caused as big a stir as John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, when it was published in April 1939. By May, it was the nation’s number one bestseller, but in Kern County, California-the Joads’ newfound home-the book was burned publicly and banned from library shelves. Obscene in the Extreme tells the remarkable story behind this fit of censorship. When W. B. “Bill” Camp, a giant cotton and potato grower, presided over its burning in downtown Bakersfield, he declared: “We are angry, not because we were attacked but because we were attacked by a book obscene in the extreme sense of the word.” But Gretchen Knief, the Kern County librarian, bravely fought back. “If that book is banned today, what book will be banned tomorrow?” Obscene in the Extreme serves as a window into an extraordinary time of upheaval in America-a time when, as Steinbeck put it, there seemed to be “a revolution ... going on.”

Among the early praise for the book:

"During May of 1939, as the Nazis were burning books throughout Germany, the people of Bakersfield Calif., did exactly the same thing with John Steinbeck's new bestseller, The Grapes of Wrath. As Wartzman (The King of California) shows in this intriguing account, the banning of Steinbeck's masterpiece throughout California's Kern County was orchestrated by rich local growers: men who were busy exploiting scores of Joad families, the very men Steinbeck exposed in his novel. As a pretext, the growers cited, among other things, Steinbeck's use of "foul" language ("bastard," "bitch") and vivid scenes such as Rose of Sharon, having lost her baby, offering her milk-filled breast to a starving man. One lone librarian, Gretchen Knief, led the charge against the censors, but the book-by then a Pulitzer Prize winner-remained banned a year later. While all this was happening, Steinbeck was suffering the strains of his collapsing first marriage. In telling this unique tale, Wartzman artfully weaves the personal and the political in a book that readers will find engaging on more than one level."
--Publishers Weekly

"Generously illustrated and briskly written-a valuable guide to an explosive aspect of the free-speech issue."
--Kirkus

"[A] skillfully drawn reminder of the human toll of deep poverty, intolerance and the unfettered whims of those who control the purse strings."
--Los Angeles Times

Read more about Obscene in the Extreme at the publisher's website.

Rick Wartzman is the Director of The Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University and an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation. He spent two decades as a reporter and editor at The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times. He is co-author, with Mark Arax, of the award-winning bestseller The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American Empire.

The Page 99 Test: Obscene in the Extreme.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Irina Reyn's "What Happened to Anna K."

Now featured at the Page 69 Test: Irina Reyn's What Happened to Anna K.

About the book, from the publisher:

A mesmerizing debut novel that reimagines Tolstoy's classic tragedy, Anna Karenina, for our time

Vivacious thirty-seven-year-old Anna K. is comfortably married to Alex, an older, prominent businessman from her tight-knit Russian-Jewish immigrant community in Queens. But a longing for freedom is reignited in this bookish, overly romantic, and imperious woman when she meets her cousin Katia Zavurov's boyfriend, an outsider and aspiring young writer on whom she pins her hopes for escape. As they begin a reckless affair, Anna enters into a tailspin that alienates her from her husband, family, and entire world.

In nearby Rego Park's Bukharian-Jewish community, twenty-seven-year-old pharmacist Lev Gavrilov harbors two secret passions: French movies and the lovely Katia. Lev's restless longing to test the boundaries of his sheltered life powerfully collides with Anna's. But will Lev's quest result in life's affirmation rather than its destruction?

Exploring struggles of identity, fidelity, and community, What Happened to Anna K. is a remarkable retelling of the Anna Karenina story brought vividly to life by an exciting young writer.

Among the early praise for the novel:

“Smarter by far than many potentially commercial novels and despite the gimmick at its core, a credible freestanding work on such Tolstoyan topics as love, society, shopping and immigration.”
--Sara Nelson, Publishers Weekly

“Set among early 21st-century Russian Jewish immigrants in New York City, Reyn's debut beautifully adapts Anna Karenina's social melodrama for a decidedly different set of Russians... [her] sparkling insight into the Russian and Bukharan Jewish communities, and the mesmerizing intensity of her prose, make this debut a worthy remake.”
--Publishers Weekly

“Offers wit and insight, and a pungent portrait of New York.”
--Kirkus Reviews

“This witty, psychologically astute and immensely pleasurable novel is something of a miracle. By dint of some divine stubbornness, the author has folded the Tolstoyan paradigm of grandeur and regret into our pettier, shallower age, and illuminated both in the process. I know of no recent first novel that has better captured the way we live now, with as assured a sense of comedy and compassion.”
--Phillip Lopate, author of Waterfront and Portrait of My Body

“Irina Reyn has done the impossible: she has re-imagined one of mankind's very best novels, and made it beautifully her own. That she has not diminished Tolstoy but updated him -- freshened him for the strange, sensuous time in which we live – is as wondrous a feat as I can recall in contemporary fiction.”
--Darin Strauss, author of Chang and Eng and More Than It Hurts You

Read an excerpt from What Happened to Anna K., and learn more about the book and author at Irina Reyn's website.

Irina Reyn is a fiction and nonfiction writer whose work has appeared in anthologies and publications such as The Forward, San Francisco Chronicle, The Moscow Times, Nextbook and Post Road. Born in Moscow, Irina was raised in Fair Lawn, New Jersey.

The Page 69 Test: What Happened to Anna K.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Ron Slate reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Ron Slate, author of the book of poems The Incentive of the Maggot and The Great Wave, forthcoming in April.

A few titles mentioned in his entry:

Frank Bidart's poems Watching the Spring Festival (Farrar Straus), Michael Kruger's novel The Executor (Harcourt) and Anthony Cave Brown's book on the Saudis and Aramco, Oil, God and Gold (Houghton 1999). [read on]

Ron Slate, the winner of the 2004 Bakeless Prize for Poetry, is a graduate of the Stanford University Writing Program. He was the editor of the Chowder Review from 1973 to 1988. Poems from The Incentive of the Maggot appeared in The New Yorker, TriQuarterly, The Threepenny Review, and Slate.com.

The Incentive of the Maggot was nominated for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle poetry prize and the Lenore Marshall Prize of the Academy of American Poets, and was awarded the Larry Levis Prize given by Virginia Commonwealth University.

Visit Ron Slate's website for a selection of his published poems and reviews and commentary.

Writers Read: Ron Slate.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Bill Loehfelm's "Fresh Kills"

Now featured at the Page 69 Test: Bill Loehfelm's Fresh Kills.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Fresh Kills, the murder of John Sanders, Sr. on a New York street corner reunites his estranged and abused children, John, Jr. and Julia. While Julia struggles to keep things together on the home front, Junior, unhinged by his father's death, searches for the killer across the bleak, haunted landscape of his Staten Island hometown. Complicating Junior's pursuit are two police detectives: one, a former childhood friend; the other, a veteran cop who might have his own reasons to wish John, Sr. dead. Junior's affair with his high school sweetheart doesn’t exactly simplify the situation either, and his emotional state crumbles under the pressure coming at him from every side. When the opportunity for revenge presents itself, Junior must decide whether he will continue the chain of violence that has nearly destroyed his life, or give in to the possibility of a new beginning.

Among the early praise for the novel:

“Fresh Kills is an interesting hybrid, a well-written, fine-quality literary novel wrapped in the thriller genre. The thriller drive--a noir tone, cheap apartments, leather jackets and pistols kept in handy places--pulls the reader through a search for a killer, and an examination of how an abusive father, even after death, can reach from the past and manipulate the life of a grown son.”
—John Sandford, author of the bestselling Prey series featuring Lucas Davenport.

“The problem with a lot of first novels is that they start off impressively (often with a terrific opening sentence or first page) and then kind of disintegrate after that. It's easy to write a flashy introduction; harder to keep that pace going for the entire scope of a novel. Fresh Kills is the opposite situation. This book didn't start well, as far as I was concerned. I could happily go my whole life without reading another hard-boiled novel that begins with a tough- guy hero waking up with a hangover, in bed with a mysterious naked broad (somebody else's woman, no less) only to discover that there's been a murder and he's gotta solve it. Sounds like every other mystery story ever told. But Fresh Kills quickly expands past itself, blows away its limiting genre boundaries, and becomes a story of real psychological complexity and emotional realism. Everything about this novel is written with accuracy and honesty. The blue- collar setting of suburban Staten Island--a neighborhood where nobody ever seems to leave, and where people are still fighting out their grammar school battles decades down the line-- could not have been drawn more clearly; you can practically smell the landfill down the road (though you wouldn't want to). Our tough-guy hero, John Sanders, isn't a cop or a PI or a gangster, as it turns out, but just a bartender with a string of bad relationships behind him, trying to work out his place in the world. And the murder victim isn't just any local thug; it's John's detested father. In the end, the mystery isn't really so much a whodunit, but more a "what happened?" What happened in the Sanders family over the past thirty years to have turned this whole clan into corpses (living and dead). This is not so much a pulp novel as a story about a life liquefied by grief and violence. I believed every wave of aggression that ran through this story, as well as every delicately unspoken broken-hearted relationship. My only complaint about this book is that it wrapped itself up too quickly and neatly, as though the author suddenly felt he had to put a roof on this thing, and fast. This was the only Amazon Breakthrough novel that I wished had actually been longer. A story of this depth needs and deserves a slow, complex, roiling end--not a tidy one. My advice to the author is to let his next book take its own sweet, sad time.”
—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

“This novel is a wonderful anomaly: a thriller with a sensitive heart. When he learns that his father has been shot, 30-something John Sanders ("Junior") is furious. Sanders senior was a drunk who beat and belittled his son. Now Junior knows he'll never get revenge on the man who blighted his life. Junior is a cynical failure, a man who never aspired for more than his bartender job, whose lover has left him, and who is now bedding his old high school sweetheart although he knows she's committed to another man. The third woman in his life is his younger sister, Julia, who comes home from Boston to help bury their father. For most of this gritty tale, Junior careens from one drunken confrontation to another, trying to find his father's killer. The action plays out on the mean streets of Staten Island and its famous garbage dump, Fresh Kills, and the author evokes the particulars of lower middle class life with great understanding. The portrait of Junior's damaged personality is so subtly developed that he becomes a sympathetic character despite his faults, and his eventual, hard-won epiphany brings a gust of pleasure. Could this author be the next Dennis Lehane?”
— Publishers Weekly

Read an excerpt from Fresh Kills, and learn more about the author and his work at Bill Loehfelm's website.

Bill Loehfelm is the Winner of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award; his work has also appeared in the anthologies Year Zero and Life in the Wake.

The Page 69 Test: Fresh Kills.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Farnaz Fassihi's "Waiting for An Ordinary Day"

Now featured at the Page 99 Test: Farnaz Fassihi's Waiting for An Ordinary Day: The Unraveling of Life in Iraq.

About the book, from the publisher:

A Wall Street Journal correspondent's wrenching portrait of ordinary Iraqis, their lives possessed by "the genie of terrorism chaos and mayhem" unleashed by the American invasion

Since 2003, Iraq's bloody legacy has been well-documented by journalists, historians, politicians, and others confounded by how Americans were seduced into the war. Yet almost no one has spoken at length to the constituency that represents Iraq's last best hope for a stable country: its ordinary working and middle class.

Farnaz Fassihi, The Wall Street Journal's intrepid senior Middle East correspondent, bridges this gap by unveiling an Iraq that has remained largely hidden since the United States declared their "Mission Accomplished." Fassihi chronicles the experience of the disenfranchised as they come to terms with the realities of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. In an unforgettable portrait of Iraqis whose voices have remained eerily silent—from art gallery owners to clairvoyants, taxi drivers to radicalized teenagers—Fassihi brings to life the very people whose goodwill the U.S. depended upon for a successful occupation. Haunting and lyrical, Waiting for An Ordinary Day tells the long-awaited story of post-occupation Iraq through native eyes.

Among the praise for the book:

"Of all the fine, brave books that have been written about the Iraq debacle, this is the indispensable one. The Wall Street Journal's outspoken Iraq correspondent, Farnaz Fassihi, has a reporter's eye, a humanist's heart, and a fierce identification with the people she was assigned to cover. This is not a book about military tactics or political blunders, but of the effects of these things on ordinary Iraqi lives. Heartbreaking and resonant, Fassihi's work makes her a worthy successor to the great war correspondent Martha Gellhorn in understanding that ‘War happens to people, one by one.'"
—Geraldine Books, author of Nine Parts of Desire, People of the Book and the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel March

"Farnaz Fassihi's book is an astonishing insight into ordinary life in modern Iraq. Very few foreign journalists can equal her contact with, knowledge of, and empathy for individual Iraqis and their families. She patiently describes private lives and local pain. Her descriptions expose much of what is glib and inadequate in our analysis and policy. Waiting for an Ordinary Day is a very important contribution to our understanding of the experience of occupation."
—Rory Stewart, author of The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq and The Places In Between

"[A] fascinating account of life in Iraq that helps us understand why stability there has been so elusive. In her richly textured, deftly written narrative, Fassihi chronicles the shattered dreams of the middle-class Iraqis who welcomed the Americans as liberators, using their stories to illustrate the country's unraveling. Waiting for an Ordinary Day is a must-read for anyone who cares about Iraq and its future."
—Rajiv Chandrasekaran, author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone

Read an excerpt from Waiting for An Ordinary Day, and learn more about the book at the PublicAffairs website.

Farnaz Fassihi is the deputy bureau chief for Middle East and Africa for The Wall Street Journal, now based in Beirut, Lebanon. She joined the Journal in January 2003 and was immediately sent to Iraq. Her family is Iranian-American; she has degrees in English from Tehran University and in journalism from Columbia University.

The Page 99 Test: Waiting for An Ordinary Day.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Joshua Henkin reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Joshua Henkin, author of the widely-acclaimed novel Matrimony.

His entry begins:

I spent the beginning of this summer moving my family back to Brooklyn, where we generally live, from Philadelphia, where we were living last year, so in June and July I was doing lots of little bursts of reading between unpacking boxes. Short stories ended up serving me well, particularly because this fall I’ll be teaching several collections I haven’t taught before. Charles D’Ambrosio is one of my favorite writers, and I was rereading The Dead Fish Museum, and also reading Colm Tóibín’s wonderful collection of stories Mothers and Sons, which my colleague Joan Silber, a terrific short story writer herself, recommended to me. [read on]

Read an excerpt from Matrimony, and learn more about the novel and its author at Joshua Henkin's website and his blog.

Henkin is also the author of the novel Swimming Across the Hudson, which was named a Los Angeles Times notable book of the year. His short stories have been published in Glimmer Train, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, The Yale Review, Triquarterly, DoubleTake, The North American Review, The New England Review, Boulevard, and elsewhere.

The Page 69 Test: Matrimony.

Writers Read: Joshua Henkin.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jonathan Miles' "Dear American Airlines"

Now featured at the Page 69 Test: Dear American Airlines by Jonathan Miles.

About the book, from the publisher:

Sometimes the planes don’t fly on time.

Bennie Ford, a fifty-three-year-old failed poet turned translator, is traveling to his estranged daughter’s wedding when his flight is canceled. Stuck with thousands of fuming passengers in the purgatory of O’Hare airport, he watches the clock tick and realizes that he will miss the ceremony. Frustrated, irate, and helpless, Bennie does the only thing he can: he starts to write a letter. But what begins as a hilariously excoriating demand for a refund soon becomes a lament for a life gone awry, for years misspent, talent wasted, and happiness lost. A man both sinned against and sinning, Bennie writes in a voice that is a marvel of lacerating wit, heart-on-sleeve emotion, and wide-ranging erudition, underlined by a consistent groundnote of regret for the actions of a lifetime -- and made all the more urgent by the fading hope that if he can just make it to the wedding, he might have a chance to do something right. A margarita blend of outrage, wicked humor, vulnerability, intelligence, and regret, Dear American Airlines gives new meaning to the term “airport novel” and announces the emergence of major new talent in American fiction.

Among the acclaim for the novel:

“Dear American Airlines is a flinty, funny, irreverent, and heartbreaking first novel. The writing reminded me of a brilliant, early-days Martin Amis novel -- except with redemption and hope. It’s not easy to write a book this good, but Jonathan Miles makes it seem effortless.”
—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

“[W]ildly entertaining...not just philosophically but emotionally rewarding.”
—Richard Russo, New York Times Book Review

“There are a few simple rules for writing an effective letter of complaint. Keep it simple and straightforward. Never apologize. Include a possum trapping scene. And always make it novel-length. Anyone can do this, but only Jonathan Miles can also make it boozy and profane, honest to the glorious wretched bone, and beautiful, just beautiful.”
—John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise

“[A] thoroughly amusing and ultimately poignant howl about life's injustices....”
—Scott Morris, Wall Street Journal

“Dear American Airlines is a fine novel, a rough and wild ride, at times so excoriating that you put it aside for a more pleasant experience like a trip to the dentist, and at other times so funny you laugh loudly--though the perfect fool of a hero has enough of Everyman to make your laughter a tad uncomfortable. I loved this novel, which is strong medicine indeed.”
—Jim Harrison, author of Returning to Earth

“A pitch-perfect portrait of a poet translating the narrative of his life from man to monster, scribbling in an eternal airport departure lounge toward an epitaph that reveals itself to be an epiphany. Wise and layered, with a keen understanding of what makes people continue to live and love against the grain of circumstances—haunted sex, ridiculous drinking, crystalline regret, and unjustifiable passions—all the necessities for a great read.”
—Mark Richard, author of Fishboy and Charity

“A powerful and hilarious fugue from whine to eloquent tragedy. It is an easy and happy read. Miles is a rare original who has pity and sympathy for almost everybody. Bravo.”
—Barry Hannah

Read an excerpt from the novel and learn more about the author and his work at the Dear American Airlines website.

Jonathan Miles is the cocktails columnist for the New York Times and a contributing editor and books columnist for Men’s Journal. His work has appeared, among other places, in GQ, the Oxford American, the New York Observer, and the New York Times Book Review.

The Page 69 Test: Dear American Airlines.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Cynthia Hudley's "You Did That on Purpose"

Now featured at the Page 99 Test: Cynthia Hudley's You Did That on Purpose: Understanding and Changing Children's Aggression.

About the book, from the publisher:

Some children are prone to a particular kind of aggression when they are with their peers. For these children, any harm done to them—even something as inconsequential as a jostle in the lunch line—is perceived as intentional. Their style of social information processing, termed “hostile attributional bias,” increases the likelihood of retaliating with excessive and inappropriate physical aggression. In this valuable book, parents and professionals who work with children will learn what can be done to better understand and control children’s aggression.

Beginning with a reader-friendly review of the literature, Cynthia Hudley underscores the substantial risks of long-term problems for elementary-school-age children who demonstrate aggressive behavior. Then, drawing on her work as founder of a successful school intervention program, the BrainPower Program, Hudley describes methods for reducing children’s peer-directed aggression. She concludes with a discussion of the importance of broad social contexts in supporting nonaggressive behavior.

Among the early praise for the book:

"Hudley's book is beautifully written and grounded in the empirical research literature. Its balance between research findings, practical implications, and case material will make it of interest to graduate students and school counselors alike."
—Dorothy Espelage, University of Illinois

“In a lively, highly readable volume, Dr. Hudley brings together theory and research on solutions to the problem of childhood aggression. She provides a clear and compelling explanation of the common errors in thinking that encourage aggression.”
—Karin Frey, University of Washington

Read more about You Did That on Purpose at the Yale University Press website, and learn more about Cynthia Hudley at her faculty webpage.

The Page 99 Test: You Did That on Purpose.

--Marshal Zeringue

JD Seamus' "Last Call," the movie

Now showing at My Book, the Movie: JD Seamus' Last Call.

The entry begins:

A good friend gave me a tip that I’ve continued to use throughout my writing. The tip was, as you suggest, to pick a star to use in character building.

My choice was easy in Last Call. A tough, sensitive, New Yorker who could do comedy. Fuhgetaboutit.[read on]

Learn more about Last Call and its author at JD Seamus' website.

My Book, the Movie: Last Call.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Laurie Viera Rigler reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Laurie Viera Rigler, author of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict.

Two paragraphs from her entry about what she's been reading:

The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality, by Brian Greene. As a novelist writing about parallel realities/time shifts, I am fascinated with the scientific foundation of my wild imaginings.

I am also re-reading Deirdre Le Faye's Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels, as research and for the pure pleasure of knowing the difference between a barouche and a curricle. It's an engaging and informative book about the world of my most beloved author. [read on]

Among the praise for Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict:

"…breezy debut novel.…Fans of the ever-expanding inspired-by-Austen-lit garden party will find a winner here..."
--Publishers Weekly

"...a page-turner of a novel composed with remarkable assurance by a promising new author."
--BookPage

"A devotee of all things Austen… discovers the reality of life in Regency England: rampant body odor, sexual and class repression and a style of medical care involving bloodletting.…Rigler does a perceptive job in contrasting the different eras. Despite the smells, little in Courtney's current lifestyle — including most of the men — can compete with the erotic charge of dancing in a candlelit ballroom."
--USA Today

Learn more about Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict and the Austen phenomenon at the Jane Austen Addict website.

Writers Read: Laurie Viera Rigler.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five most important books: Joshua Ferris

Joshua Ferris's first novel, Then We Came to the End, has sold in 20 countries and was shortlisted for the National Book Award and longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award.

He told Newsweek about his five most important books. And addressed two related issues:

A book to which you always return:

"The Good Soldier" by Ford Madox Ford. The narrator is out to lunch while his wife schemes.

A book you hope parents read to their children:

"On Death and Dying" by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. Start them young.

Read more about Ferris' most important books.

The Page 99 Test: Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Debra Ginsberg's "The Grift"

Now featured at the Page 69 Test: Debra Ginsberg's The Grift.

About the book, from the publisher:

What happens when a pseudo psychic suddenly gets the real gift?

Marina Marks has been on the grift as a psychic since she was a child, forced into the business by a junkie mother who was always desperate for her next fix—and willing to use her solemn dark-haired daughter to peddle an extra buck. As an adult, Marina has earned a handsome living preying on the dreams and fears of her clients. She doesn’t believe there is such a thing as psychic ability, but she does believe in intuition. Her gift is the ability to gain the trust of her clients and subtly raise her fees as they become more attached to her and her readings.

But when Marina moves her “intuitive counseling” business out of muggy, cloying Florida to the milder environs of southern California, her past follows her. As she takes on new clients—a trophy wife desperate to bear a child, a gay man involved with a closeted psychiatrist, and a philandering businessman who’s smitten with her—a former client resurfaces in an eerie way. Suddenly, Marina is in love for the first time, but it is a romance whose roots lie deep in her past and threaten her efforts to reinvent herself.

As Marina’s life gets more and more entangled with those of her clients, she makes a startling discovery: she suddenly has the actual ability to see the future. After predicting a murder exactly as it happens, she becomes the sole suspect. Now she’s the desperate one—desperate to clear her name and to discover the meaning behind her visions.

Among the praise for The Grift:

“The Grift is a gift with no strings attached…a satisfyingly voyeuristic vision of a mysterious stranger’s supernaturally charged fortunes.”
—New York Times

“Marina's second sight - and haunted loneliness - makes Debra Ginsberg's The Grift an unusually seductive thriller. Read it for the not-so-predictable deceptions and the ghostly elusiveness of love.”
—O The Oprah Magazine

“Ginsberg smoothly sketches captivatingly flawed characters.”
—Entertainment Weekly

“Debra Ginsberg's compelling second novel…isn't so much a mystery as a story about a woman forced to take a hard look at herself and find the courage to change.”
—Boston Globe

"The Grift mixes mystery and romance...[and] is embellished with a host of lively misfits, a serial philanderer, a spoiled rich woman hoping to get pregnant and a gay man in unrequited love.”
—Chicago Sun-Times

“Usually when Marina Marks, who’s made a career of faking psychic powers, looks into the future, all she can see is cash. But then she starts receiving eerily accurate visions in this rollicking novel of twists and turns. We predict you'll love it!”
—Redbook

“Memoirist and novelist Ginsberg mixes supernatural and film noir elements in this mystery about a woman whose living as a psychic falls apart when her psychic powers become too real .... Marina is a richly drawn, deeply involving heroine ....”
—Kirkus

“Ginsberg's second novel is an entertaining whodunit and an invigorating tale about a damaged young storefront psychic who learns how to live truthfully…. Ginsberg thoroughly exploits her clever premise, and Marina's handling of her troubles–romantic, professional, mystical–ring true through to the redemptive end.”
—Publishers Weekly

“The Grift is a gift—a fresh voice and story, with a winning heroine. Another triumph for Debra Ginsberg, who clearly has many gifts of her own.”
—Laura Lippman, author of What the Dead Know and Another Thing to Fall

“Debra Ginsberg has done it again in this compulsively readable, suspenseful, and very this-worldly tale of a psychic and her desperate clientele.”
—Janet Fitch, author of Paint it Black and White Oleander

Read an excerpt from The Grift, and learn more about the book and author at Debra Ginsberg's website.

Debra Ginsberg is the author of the novel Blind Submission, as well as three memoirs: Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress, Raising Blaze: Bringing Up an Extraordinary Son in an Ordinary World, and About My Sisters.

The Page 69 Test: Blind Submission.

The Page 69 Test: The Grift.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Shannon Lee Dawdy's "Building the Devil’s Empire"

Now featured at the Page 99 Test: Shannon Lee Dawdy's Building the Devil's Empire: French Colonial New Orleans.

About the book, from the publisher:

Two years ago, the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina inspired emotional elegies to the long and colorful history of New Orleans. But until now, the story of French New Orleans has remained largely untold. Building the Devil’s Empire is the first comprehensive history of the city’s early years, tracing the town’s development from its origins in 1718 as an imperial experiment in urban planning through its revolt against Spanish rule in 1768.

Shannon Lee Dawdy’s picaresque account of New Orleans’s wild youth features a cast of strong-willed captives, thin-skinned nobles, sharp-tongued women, and carousing travelers, as well as the sounds and smells that created the texture of everyday life there. During the French period, the city earned its reputation as the devil’s town, where laws were lax and pleasures abundant. Though New Orleans’s roguish character is sometimes exaggerated, Dawdy traces its early roots in the city’s political independence, active smuggling rings, and peculiar demographics—a diverse mix of Africans, Indians, Europeans, and Creoles all involved in the contentious process of building a new society. Dawdy also widens her lens to reveal the port city’s global significance, examining its role in the French Empire and the Caribbean, and she concludes that by exemplifying a kind of rogue colonialism—where governments, outlaws, and capitalism become entwined—New Orleans should prompt us to reconsider our notions of how colonialism works.

By the end of the French period, New Orleans was one of the most modern—and most American—towns in the New World. As the city enters a new phase in its history, Building the Devil’s Empire paints a rich and thoughtful portrait of its founding.

Read more about Building the Devil’s Empire at the University of Chicago Press website.

Learn more about Shannon Lee Dawdy's teaching and research at her faculty webpage.

The Page 99 Test: Building the Devil's Empire.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Doreen Orion reading?

Now featured contributor at Writers Read: Doreen Orion, author of Queen of the Road: The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus With a Will of Its Own.

Her entry begins:

I just finished Kristy Kiernan’s Matters of Faith. The entire time I was reading it, I kept wondering where this author has been all my life. This is only her second novel and I feel like I belong to an elite club: people who, years from now will say, “Oh, I read Kristy Kiernan before she was Kristy Kiernan.” Since I write memoir, I really admire novelists, since they imagine entire stories. [read on]

To learn more about Doreen Orion and her book, and to see humorous video reenactments of her many disasters on the road (including finding herself at a nudist RV park), visit the Queen of the Road website.

The Page 69 Test: Queen of the Road.

Writers Read: Doreen Orion.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Beth Fehlbaum's "Courage in Patience"

Now featured at the Page 69 Test: Beth Fehlbaum's Courage in Patience.

About the novel:

Ashley Nicole Asher’s life changes forever on the night her mother, Cheryl, meets Charlie Baker. Within a year of her mother’s marriage to Charlie, typical nine-year-old Ashley’s life becomes a nightmare of sexual abuse and emotional neglect. Bundling her body in blankets and sleeping in her closet to try to avoid Charlie's nighttime assaults, she is driven by rage at age 15 to tell her mother, in spite of the threats Charlie has used to keep Ashley silent. Believing that telling will make Charlie go away, instead it reveals to Ashley where she lies on her mother's list of priorities.

“We’re just going to move on now,” Cheryl tells Ashley. “Go to your room.” Ashley's psyche splinters into shards of glass, and she desperately tries to figure a way out, while at the same time battling numbness and an inability to remember what happened when she blacked out after Charlie tackled her. She knew that when she awoke her clothes were disheveled and the lower-half of her body was covered in bright red blood-- but she has only a blank spot in the "video" of her memory. When Ashley’s friend, Lisa, sees a note from Cheryl telling Ashley that Charlie would never “do those things to her,” and insisting that she apologize for accusing him of molesting her, Lisa forces dazed Ashley to make an outcry to her teacher, Mrs. Chapman.

By the end of the day, Ashley’s father, David, who has not seen Ashley since she was three months old, is standing in the offices of Child and Family Services. He brings her home to the small East Texas town of Patience, where he lives with his wife, Beverly, their son, Ben, and works with his brother, Frank. Its neighboring town, Six Shooter City, is so quirky, it's practically on the cusp of an alternate universe; a trip to the Wal-Mart reveals to visitors that "there's either something in the water..or family trees around here don't fork."

Through the summer school English class/ Quest for Truth taught by Beverly, an "outside-the-box" high school English teacher whose passion for teaching comes second only to her insistence upon authenticity, Ashley comes to know Roxanne Blake, a girl scarred outwardly by a horrific auto crash and inwardly by the belief that she is "Dr. Frankenstein's little experiment"; Wilbur "Dub" White, a fast-talking smart mouth whose stepfather is a white supremacist who nearly kills a man while Dub watches from the shadows, forcing Dub to realize that he cannot live with the person that he is, any longer; Zaquoiah “Z.Z.” Freeman, one of the few African-Americans in Patience, whose targeted-for-extinction family inherited the estate of one of Patience’s founding families and has been given the charge to "turn this godforsaken town on its head"; Hector "Junior" Alvarez, a father at sixteen whose own father was killed in prison, who works two jobs and is fueled by the determination to "do it right" for his son, "3", and his girlfriend, Moreyma; T.W. Griffin, whose football-coach father expects him to be Number One at everything, and whose mother naively believes that he is too young to think about sex; and Kevin Cooper, a not-so-bright football player with a heart of gold, whose mother, Trini, a reporter for the local paper, is instrumental in exposing the ugliness that is censorship.

Every person in the class is confronted with a challenge that they must face head-on. The choices they make will not be easy—but they will be life-altering. With the exception of her mother and step-father, Ashley is surrounded by people who overcome their fear to embrace authenticity and truth-- the only way to freedom. But will Ashley have the inner-fortitude to survive the journey to recovery and the effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder? Will Ashley find her voice, speak up for herself, and break the bondage of her abusive past?

Realizing "she's gonna need a lot more than we have," David and Bev enlist the help of Scott "Dr. Matt" Matthews, an experienced, slightly unconventional therapist who insists that Ashley can and must come out hiding in the closet in her mind.

The Chris Crutcher novel, Ironman, is taught by Beverly Asher in the summer school class. When T.W.’s overbearing parents read the book, they decide that the book should be censored, and they involve the pastor of Patience’s largest, most conservative church to lead the fight through the Purify Patience organization. Its mission is to cleanse Patience of Profanity, Promiscuity, and Parent-Bashing Pedagogy—all complaints the group has about the novel, Ironman. Its hidden agenda, however, is to return Patience to a time when "Patience was 100% white", "women knew their place","everyone had plenty of money", and "Christian values were taught in school."

The censoring, pseudo-Christian, white-supremacist, misogynist organization is exposed for what it is in a courageous move by one of its own (well..his mother threatens to twist his ear off if he doesn't speak up), isolating the pastor and causing most of his “flock” to deny they ever knew him. National and world press attention shine speculation on the dirty little secrets hidden in Patience, and its inhabitants are forced to examine their own values and beliefs.

Alone in the dark, Ashley must face her worst fears in a pivotal scene between her, Charlie, and her mother. Through this confrontation, Ashley at last finds the strength to advocate for her own right to exist in a world that is free of abuse. She, too, has found Courage in Patience.

Among the early praise for the novel:

"Fehlbaum manages to keep the tone surprisingly light and hopeful. This hard-hitting but readable story about an infinitely troubling subject will resonate with all readers."
--Booklist

"A genuine and empathic lead....Ashley's self-destructive tendencies, conflicted feelings and struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder read authentically..."
--Publishers Weekly

Read an excerpt from Courage in Patience, and learn more about the book and author at the Courage in Patience blog and Beth Fehlbaum's MySpace page.

Beth Fehlbaum is a teacher with a M.Ed. She drew on her experience working with abused children as an English teacher in writing Courage in Patience, a story of hope for those who have endured abuse.

The Page 69 Test: Courage in Patience.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top 10 books about children aimed at adults

Wesley Stace, a celebrated musician and songwriter who performs under the name John Wesley Harding, is the author of two novels, Misfortune and by George (which appeared at the Page 69 Test).

In 2005 he named a top 10 list of "books about children aimed at adults" for the Guardian.

Two titles on his list:

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Unknown novel by little read author. (This could also have been Great Expectations or Oliver Twist, but Copperfield is the one where, for me, the disparate elements that make up the wonder of Dickens come together.)

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

A chance hearing of The Beatles' song takes the narrator back to his early relationships, particularly with the troubled Naoko. A long, very moving, Proustian rush, in two volumes, quite different in tone from many of his other novels. Such a huge hit in Japan when it was published there in 1987 that Murakami had to move to America.

Read about the book that tops Stace's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Gustav

If you're reading this message it means I'm without power or away from a computer, courtesy of Hurricane Gustav. I plan on returning to this space soon.

Posts are scheduled to pop up all week at the other CftAR sites, so please click over and check them out:

• The Page 69 Test
• My Book, The Movie
• The Page 99 Test
• Author Interviews
• Writers Read
• Lit Lists
• New Books
• HEPPAS Books

--Marshal Zeringue

Philip Pullman: 40 favorite books

The bookstore Waterstone's invited His Dark Materials author Philip Pullman to select forty books for them to feature in-store.

(Read about his selection criteria.)

A couple of the titles to make the list:

THE WOMAN IN WHITE
by Wilkie Collins

For sheer plotting genius, Collins had no rival. If you've never read this, I can promise you one of the most gripping stories of all time.
* * *
ART AND ILLUSION
by E.H. Gombrich

This is all about the mysterious business of looking and seeing, and E.H. Gombrich looked deeper and saw more than almost any other writer on art.

Read more about Pullman's list.

--Marshal Zeringue