What is Gregory Funaro reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Gregory Funaro, author of The Sculptor.

His entry begins:

At present, I am trying to catch up on my Peter Straub — picked up lost boy lost girl last week, but have only been able to get about halfway through it in between my own writing and my daughter’s late night feedings/dirty diaper changes (she was born on August 30). I hate having to put this book down. Told from the POV of a writer who is trying to solve a mystery surrounding the suicide of his sister-in-law, it’s part mystery, part serial-killer thriller, part ghost story so far — a real treat, and I look forward to seeing how all the threads will get woven together in the end. Peter Straub is one of the true masters of the genre — always manages to combine the horrific and twisted with the truly inspirational — and I encourage younger readers who may not be familiar with his work (and who appreciate dark fiction with a more intellectual bent) to begin with Ghost Story and just start knocking off the rest of his canon. In the Night Room is next for me, and I look forward to...[read on]

Gregory Funaro has worked professionally as an actor, and is currently an associate professor in the School of Theatre & Dance at East Carolina University, where he teaches, acts and directs.

The Sculptor, his first novel, is out this month. Among the early praise for the novel:

"A stone-cold thrill ride! Unique and unexpected twists make this one a keeper!"
—Lisa Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Malice and Left to Die

"It reminded me of why I loved The Silence of the Lambs so much."
—Gregg Olsen, New York Times bestselling author of Victim Six and A Cold Dark Place

"The Sculptor is a masterful mix of Michelangelo and murder by a gifted author. Funaro provides clever plotting and plenty of suspense. This one's a thinking reader's thriller that engages the mind yet punches hard to the gut. Michelangelo would be proud."
—John Lutz, New York Times bestselling author of Urge to Kill and In for the Kill

Visit Gregory Funaro's website to learn more about The Sculptor and to view the video trailer for the novel.

Writers Read: Gregory Funaro.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jennifer Burns' "Goddess of the Market"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right by Jennifer Burns.

About the book, from the publisher:

Worshipped by her fans, denounced by her enemies, and forever shadowed by controversy and scandal, the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand was a powerful thinker whose views on government and markets shaped the conservative movement from its earliest days. Drawing on unprecedented access to Rand's private papers and the original, unedited versions of Rand's journals, Jennifer Burns offers a groundbreaking reassessment of this key cultural figure, examining her life, her ideas, and her impact on conservative political thought.

Goddess of the Market follows Rand from her childhood in Russia through her meteoric rise from struggling Hollywood screenwriter to bestselling novelist, including the writing of her wildly successful The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Burns highlights the two facets of Rand's work that make her a perennial draw for those on the right: her promotion of capitalism, and her defense of limited government. Both sprang from her early, bitter experience of life under Communism, and became among the most deeply enduring of her messages, attracting a diverse audience of college students and intellectuals, business people and Republican Party activists, libertarians and conservatives. The book also traces the development of Rand's Objectivist philosophy and her relationship with Nathaniel Branden, her closest intellectual partner, with whom she had an explosive falling out in 1968.

This extraordinary book captures the life of the woman who was a tireless champion of capitalism and the freedom of the individual, and whose ideas are still devoured by eager students, debated on blogs, cited by political candidates, and promoted by corporate tycoons.

Read an excerpt from Goddess of the Market, and learn more about the book and author at the official Jennifer Burns website and blog.

The Page 99 Test: Goddess of the Market.

--Marshal Zeringue

The Economist: best books of 2009

The Economist named its best books of the year.

One title on the list:

American Rust. By Philipp Meyer.

Set in America’s crumbling industrial heartland, Mr Meyer’s first novel is a paean to the end of empire — a book that is as painful as it is enjoyable.

Read about a work of nonfiction on the list.

Read an excerpt from American Rust, and learn more about the book and author at Philipp Meyer's website.

The Page 69 Test: American Rust.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Lou Manfredo's "Rizzo's War"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Rizzo's War by Lou Manfredo.

About the book, from the publisher:

Rizzo’s War, Lou Manfredo’s stunningly authentic debut, partners a rookie detective with a seasoned veteran on his way to retirement in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.

“There’s no wrong, there’s no right, there just is.” This is the refrain of Joe Rizzo, a decades-long veteran of the NYPD, as he passes on the knowledge of his years of experience to his ambitious new partner, Mike McQueen, over a year of riding together as detectives in the Sixty-second Precinct in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. McQueen is fresh from the beat in Manhattan, and Bensonhurst might as well be China for how different it is. They work on several cases, some big, some small, but the lesson is always the same. Whether it’s a simple robbery or an attempted assault, Rizzo’s saying always seems to bear out.

When the two detectives are given the delicate task of finding and returning the runaway daughter of a city councilman, who may or may not be more interested in something his daughter has taken with her than in her safety, the situation is much more complex. By the end of Rizzo and McQueen’s year together, however, McQueen is not surprised to discover that even in those more complicated cases, Rizzo is still right—there’s no wrong, there’s no right, there just is.

Rizzo’s War is an introduction to a wonderful new voice in crime fiction in the Big Apple, ringing with authenticity, full of personality, and taut with the suspense of real, everyday life in the big city.

Read an excerpt from Rizzo's War, and learn more about the novel at the Minotaur Books website.

The Page 69 Test: Rizzo's War.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten science fiction & fantasy books

The editors at Amazon came up with their Best of 2009 top 10 list for Science Fiction & Fantasy.

One book on the list:

The Other Lands (Acacia, Book 2)
David Anthony Durham

About the book, from the author's website:

"Several years have passed since the demise of Hanish Mein. Corinn Akaran rules with an iron grip on the Known World's many races. She hones her skills in sorcery by studying The Book of Elenet, and she dotes on her young son, Aaden – Hanish's child – raising him to be her successor. Mena Akaran, still the warrior princess she became fighting the eagle god Maeben, has been battling the monsters released by the Santoth's corrupted magic. In her hunt she discovers a creature wholly unexpected, one that awakens emotions in her she has long suppressed. And Dariel Akaran, once a brigand of the Outer Isles, has devoted his labors to rebuilding the ravaged empire brick by brick. Each of the Akaran royals is finding their way in the post-war world. But the queen's peace is difficult to maintain, and things are about to change.

When the League brings news of upheavals in the Other Lands, Corinn sends Dariel across the Grey Slopes as her emissary. From the moment he sets foot on that distant continent, he finds a chaotic swirl of treachery, ancient grudges, intrigue and exoticism. He comes face to face with the slaves his empire has long sold into bondage. His arrival ignites a firestorm that once more puts the Known World in threat of invasion. A massive invasion. One that dwarfs anything the Akarans have yet faced..."

The Page 69 Test: Acacia (Acacia, Book 1).

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Alan E. Steinweis' "Kristallnacht 1938"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Kristallnacht 1938 by Alan E. Steinweis.

About the book, from the publisher:

On November 7, 1938, a Jewish teenager, Herschel Grynszpan, fatally shot a German diplomat in Paris. Within three days anti-Jewish violence erupted throughout Germany, initially incited by local Nazi officials, and ultimately sanctioned by the decisions of Hitler and Goebbels at the pinnacle of the Third Reich. As synagogues burned and Jews were beaten in the streets, police stood aside. Men, women, and children—many neighbors of the victims—participated enthusiastically in acts of violence, rituals of humiliation, and looting. By the night of November 10, a nationwide antisemitic pogrom had inflicted massive destruction on synagogues, Jewish schools, and Jewish-owned businesses. During and after this spasm of violence and plunder, 30,000 Jewish men were rounded up and sent to concentration camps, where hundreds would perish in the following months.

Kristallnacht revealed to the world the intent and extent of Nazi Judeophobia. However, it was seen essentially as the work of the Nazi leadership. Now, Alan Steinweis counters that view in his vision of Kristallnacht as a veritable pogrom—a popular cathartic convulsion of antisemitic violence that was manipulated from above but executed from below by large numbers of ordinary Germans rioting in the streets, heckling and taunting Jews, cheering Stormtroopers' hostility, and looting Jewish property on a massive scale.

Based on original research in the trials of the pogrom's perpetrators and the testimonies of its Jewish survivors, Steinweis brings to light the evidence of mob action by all sectors of the civilian population. Kristallnacht 1938 reveals the true depth and nature of popular antisemitism in Nazi Germany on the eve of the Holocaust.

Read an excerpt from Kristallnacht 1938, and learn more about the book at the Harvard University Press website.

Alan E. Steinweis is Professor of History and Director of the Center for Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont.

The Page 99 Test: Kristallnacht 1938.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Alina Adams reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Alina Adams, author of The Figure Skating Mystery series of books and tie-in books for As The World Turns and Guiding Light.

Her entry begins:

For the past few years, I have become a Born-Again-Freakonomist. Yes, it all started with Freakanomics, that was my gateway drug.

Since then, I've gorged on The Undercover Economist, MicroMotives and MacroBehavior, MicroTrends, Irrational Rationality, The Black Swan, Neuro-Marketing, and I can't wait to get my hands on SuperFreakonomics.

Though I write primarily fiction...[read on]

Prior to writing the Figure Skating Mystery series, Alina Adams was a television researcher for skating shows on ABC, ESPN, TNT, NBC and more.

The novels in the series are Skate Crime, Death Drop, Axel of Evil, On Thin Ice, and Murder on Ice.

Adams is also Creative Content Producer for As The World Turns and Guiding Light, and she writes a weekly, sanctioned continuation to "Another World" at www.AnotherWorldToday.com.

Visit Alina Adams' website and blog.

Writers Read: Alina Adams.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten best cookbooks of 2009

T. Susan Chang is a New England-based freelance writer and a Kellogg Food and Society Policy Fellow. She also is the Boston Globe's regular cookbook reviewer, and her articles on cooking, gardening and nutrition appear in a variety of national and regional publications. For NPR, she came up with a ten best list of 2009 cookbooks.

One title on the list:

Rose's Heavenly Cakes, by Rose Levy Beranbaum, hardcover, 512 pages, Wiley, list price: $39.95

Rose Beranbaum has more cake knowhow in her little finger than you will find in the entire Baking Needs aisle at your local supermarket, which is probably why you bought The Cake Bible 20 years ago and never felt the need for another cake book. Rose's new book is for the palate that wants to take a step beyond the pound cakes and yellow sponges and chocolate roulades of yesteryear. Graced with red currants, Seville oranges, pineapple caramel or blackberry mousse, these are cakes that trot down the runway with a sly, secret smile.

Chocolate Tweed Angel Food Cake is the sophisticated heir of angel food cake, its sweetness arrested and tamed by flecks of bitter chocolate. More exotic but just as grownup is the Sicilian Pistachio Cake, brilliant green blanched pistachios scattered over a golden buttercream. After a couple of years of less ambitious books devoted to cupcakes and quick breads for weekend bakers, it's nice to see that the Cake Queen's still willing to luxe it up.

Read about another cookbook on Chang's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Brad Parks' "Faces of the Gone"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Faces of the Gone by Brad Parks.

About the book, from the publisher:

Four bodies, each with a single bullet wound in the back of the head, stacked like cordwood in a weed-choked vacant lot: That’s the front-page news facing Carter Ross, investigative reporter with the Newark Eagle-Examiner. Immediately dispatched to the scene, Carter learns that the four victims—an exotic dancer, a drug dealer, a hustler, and a mama’s boy—came from different parts of the city and didn’t seem to know one another.

The police, eager to calm jittery residents, leak a theory that the murders are revenge for a bar stickup, and Carter’s paper, hungry for a scoop, hastily prints it. Carter doesn’t come from the streets, but he understands a thing or two about Newark’s neighborhoods. And he knows there are no quick answers when dealing with a crime like this.

Determined to uncover the true story, he enlists the aide of Tina Thompson, the paper’s smoking-hot city editor, to run interference at the office; Tommy Hernandez, the paper’s gay Cuban intern, to help him with legwork on the streets; and Tynesha Dales, a local stripper, to take him to Newark’s underside. It turns out that the four victims have one connection after all, and this knowledge will put Carter on the path of one very ambitious killer.

Treading the same literary turf as Harlan Coben, and writing with a fresh Jersey voice, Brad Parks makes an energetic, impressive debut.

Read an excerpt from Faces of the Gone, and learn more about the book and author at the official Brad Parks website and Facebook presence.

The Page 69 Test: Faces of the Gone.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Joel Waldfogel's "Scroogenomics"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn't Buy Presents for the Holidays by Joel Waldfogel.

About the book, from the publisher:

Christmas is a time of seasonal cheer, family get-togethers, holiday parties, and-gift giving. Lots and lots--and lots--of gift giving. It's hard to imagine any Christmas without this time-honored custom. But let's stop to consider the gifts we receive--the rooster sweater from Grandma or the singing fish from Uncle Mike. How many of us get gifts we like? How many of us give gifts not knowing what recipients want? Did your cousin really look excited about that jumping alarm clock? Lively and informed, Scroogenomics illustrates how our consumer spending generates vast amounts of economic waste--to the shocking tune of eighty-five billion dollars each winter. Economist Joel Waldfogel provides solid explanations to show us why it's time to stop the madness and think twice before buying gifts for the holidays.

When we buy for ourselves, every dollar we spend produces at least a dollar in satisfaction, because we shop carefully and purchase items that are worth more than they cost. Gift giving is different. We make less-informed choices, max out on credit to buy gifts worth less than the money spent, and leave recipients less than satisfied, creating what Waldfogel calls "deadweight loss." Waldfogel indicates that this waste isn't confined to Americans--most major economies share in this orgy of wealth destruction. While recognizing the difficulties of altering current trends, Waldfogel offers viable gift-giving alternatives.

By reprioritizing our gift-giving habits, Scroogenomics proves that we can still maintain the economy without gouging our wallets, and reclaim the true spirit of the holiday season.

Read an excerpt from Scroogenomics, and learn more about the book at the Princeton University Press website.

Visit Joel Waldfogel's personal website and his faculty webpage.

Joel Waldfogel is Chair and Ehrenkranz Family Professor of Business and Public Policy at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His publications include The Tyranny of the Market (Harvard University Press, 2007).

The Page 99 Test: The Tyranny of the Market.

The Page 99 Test: Scroogenomics.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ellen Byerrum's Crimes of Fashion mysteries, the movies

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Ellen Byerrum's Crimes of Fashion mysteries.

The entry begins:

It’s funny how many people ask me who would I cast in movies of my books. At least I don’t have to make up an answer on the fly because two of my books, Killer Hair and Hostile Makeover, have already been made into Lifetime Movie Network films. They aired this past summer in June and July. As it turned out, I was pretty lucky with the cast, and the movies were fun and they still resembled my books.

When I write I have a very clear picture of my characters; their age, height, hair and eye color, as well as their background and quirks and style of dress. But that’s only natural: I write Crimes of Fashion mysteries. The books feature Lacey Smithsonian, a reluctant (yet stylish) fashion reporter turned amateur sleuth who works in Washington, D.C., which she likes to call “The City Fashion Forgot.” In addition to Lacey, there are her friends, her love interest, her suspects, and her coworkers to complicate her life. But I don’t write with actors in mind. Not even now, after the movies. Of course if Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant were available…

As a playwright, I learned that unexpected casting choices often produce the best results. Your first-choice actor may not work the way you imagined or have the right chemistry with the rest of the cast. Counting on one actor to play a particular part can be shortsighted and limit the creative possibilities. So I was not thinking about who I would cast as Lacey Smithsonian when the movie deal came up.

I wanted an actress who would bring Lacey to life...[read on]

Visit Ellen Byerrum's website and blog.

My Book, The Movie: Ellen Byerrum's Crimes of Fashion mysteries.

--Marshal Zeringue

Telegraph: best crime books of the year

At the Telegraph (U.K.), Jake Kerridge pronounces on the best crime books of the year.

An excerpt:

One can only assume that Megan Abbott’s house is haunted by the ghost of Raymond Chandler, who is whispering the secrets of his prose style to her. The Song Is You (Pocket Books, £6.99), which has fictional characters caught up in the real-life disappearance of the Hollywood starlet Jean Spangler in 1949, goes beyond homage and pastiche to become an original work of art.

Read about another book to earn Kerridge's favor.

"Once I started writing The Song Is You, a fictional 'what if' based on the disappearance of actress Jean Spangler in 1949 Los Angeles, the narrative took on this momentum for me that led in a specific direction and...." So begins a 2007 post by Abbott at The Rap Sheet: [read on].

Learn more about the book and author at Megan Abbott's website. Her latest novel is Bury Me Deep.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Sumanth Prabhaker reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Sumanth Prabhaker, author of A Mere Pittance and the founding editor of Madras Press.

His entry begins:

I just finished Underground, Haruki Murakami’s exploration of the 1995 Tokyo gas attack. It was the only English-language book of his I hadn’t yet read, so I probably came to it with certain expectations; readers familiar with his work know enough to look out for cats and disappearing women and vertical movement and so many other things that seem to occupy his brain. And the event at the heart of the book does hold some things in common with his fiction — a world beneath the surface, the struggle to understand how to behave in the aftermath of a mysterious event. Even the images are comfortable within his library, especially that of the masked cult members releasing their zipper-lock packets of liquid sarin onto the floors of the subway cars, wrapped in newspapers, and poking at them repeatedly with the sharpened tips of umbrellas. But Underground ends up accomplishing something very different than any of Murakami’s other books, in part due to the inclusion of himself as a character in the story. I’m sure he’d hate to hear this, because the focus of the book is very clearly on the victims, survivors, and perpetrators of the attack; my attention, however, was on him, and on parsing his attempt to get to the bottom of why this event took place and what it means and how it has affected the surrounding culture. Possibly even more fascinating than the recollections of the relevant parties are Murakami’s mini-profiles of the interviewees, which he includes before each new section. About one person he says, ‘Just to look at him is to see the very model of a good citizen.’ He describes...[read on]

Sumanth Prabhaker’s A Mere Pittance transcribes a long telephone conversation between a young woman stranded in India and her older boss and partner across the world. As she relates to him the story of a metaphysical experience she endured, trapped beneath a fallen armoire in a strange hotel, their relationship becomes a creature all its own, beyond their control. And as it moves, they speak only to the traveling voice of each other, driven by the possibility of connecting wires, and the melancholy of inhabiting a body.

The Madras Press is a non-profit imprint that publishes individually bound short story- and novella-length booklets and distributes the proceeds to a network of charitable organizations selected by its authors.

Writers Read: Sumanth Prabhaker.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Jane Finnis & Copper and Rosie

The current featured trio at Coffee with a Canine: Jane Finnis & Copper and Rosie.

Finnis, on how she was united with the cocker spaniels:

We found Copper in a dog rescue kennel aged just over a year. He was beautiful, but two homes had already found him impossible to live with, hyperactive, destructive, and aggressive with small children. But Richard and I know and love cockers. They are happy, affectionate dogs, slightly crazy, full of fun, but if they've had a bad start in life you need time and patience to bring out the best in them. Puppies, like kids, need to be sure they are loved, but also to know where the boundaries are. Five years later Copper is a pleasure to have around: still excitable and slightly crazy, but much calmer, happy with children, and no longer intent on wrecking the house. Our second dog Rosie must take some of the credit for calming him down; she's from a working strain of cocker - they've been gun-dogs for many years - and they're bred for smartness and steadiness rather than looks. She's a laid-back, sweet-natured dog, playful and impossible to tire out for long. She came to us aged ten months from a couple in the village who were very fond of her, but were starting a new business which occupied them away from home 24/7, and they weren't prepared to leave Rosie on her own all day. She settled in here straight away, and she and Copper are good friends, and justify the traditional description, "the merry...[read on]

Jane Finnis' Aurelia Marcella novels tell of life and death in first-century Roman Britain, the turbulent province of Britannia, on the very edge of the Roman Empire. There are three books so far in the series: Get Out or Die, A Bitter Chill, and the latest, Buried Too Deep.

Among the praise for Buried Too Deep:

"Finnis's well-crafted prose subtly weaves authoritative detail into a believable portrait of everyday life near the turn of the millennium. More historical adventure than conventional mystery, but highly readable and endlessly absorbing."
--Kirkus

The Page 69 Test: Buried Too Deep.

Visit the official Jane Finnis website and The Lady Killers blog. Follow her on Twitter.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Jane Finnis & Copper and Rosie.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five best books on reporting

Harold Evans is The Week’s editor-at-large and author of The American Century. His autobiography, My Paper Chase, is new in bookstores. For the Wall Street Journal he named a five best list of books about reporting. One title on the list:

Homage to Catalonia
by George Orwell
Harcourt, Brace, 1952

Only 900 copies of "Homage to Catalonia" were sold on first publication in London in 1938. George Orwell's account of the reality of the Spanish Civil War was rejected by the left-wing book club run by Victor Gollancz, who'd been happy enough to publish Orwell on the miseries of working-class life in "The Road to Wigan Pier." Orwell's affront was to criticize the communists in Spain, the darlings of leftists around the world in the 1930s. He went to Spain to write about the conflict but got sucked into fighting. He writes of life in the trenches—where he is badly wounded by a bullet through his windpipe—but battlefield reporting is not the heart of the book. Instead, it lies in the candor and clarity of his writing as he examines his own biases and wrestles with the contradictions between the spirit of socialism that he admires and the brutalities of the communist purges all around him. Orwell ultimately retained his passion for an idealistic socialism, but his willingness to contest the convictions of the liberal intelligentsia was, as Lionel Trilling wrote, a genuine moral triumph.

Read about another book on Evans' list.

Homage to Catalonia also appears on Michael Symmons Roberts' ten best list of books on civil war.

Read about Harold Evans' six favorite­ bio­graphies and memoirs.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Michelle Wildgen's "But Not for Long"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: But Not for Long by Michelle Wildgen.

About the book, from the publisher:

Hard-shelled, career-minded Greta is the newest and least likely member of a sustainable foods cooperative house in Madison, Wisconsin. Shortly after she joins Karin and Hal in their stately residence near campus, the husband Greta left appears on their porch, drunk, and the reason for her sudden appearance becomes clear. Yet the house members already have plenty to occupy them: a series of summer blackouts has unearthed a disquietude lurking just under the surface for each of the three residents. Gas is dwindling, electricity is unreliable, and the natural world around them is in upheaval. The uneasiness of the environment mirrors that of Greta, Hal, and Karin as they each make efforts to resolve their own personal crises. With subtle attunement to the hovering uncertainty affecting each of her characters, Wildgen crafts a story both terrifying and beautiful.

Read an excerpt from But Not For Long, and learn more about the author and her work at Michelle Wildgen's website.

The Page 99 Test: Michelle Wildgen’s You’re Not You.

The Page 69 Test: But Not for Long.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: James I. Walsh's "The International Politics of Intelligence Sharing"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: The International Politics of Intelligence Sharing by James Igoe Walsh.

About the book, from the publisher:

The cross-border sharing of intelligence is fundamental to the establishment and preservation of security and stability. The American invasion of Iraq in 2003 was based in part on flawed intelligence, and current efforts to defeat al Qaeda would not be possible without an exchange of information among Britain, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the United States. While critical to national security and political campaigns, intelligence sharing can also be a minefield of manipulation and maneuvering, especially when secrecy makes independent verification of sources impossible.

In The International Politics of Intelligence Sharing, James Igoe Walsh advances novel strategies for securing more reliable intelligence. His approach puts states that seek information in control of other states' intelligence efforts. According to this hierarchical framework, states regularly draw agreements in which one power directly monitors and acts on another power's information-gathering activities-a more streamlined approach that prevents the dissemination of false "secrets." In developing this strategy, Walsh draws on recent theories of international cooperation and evaluates both historical and contemporary case studies of intelligence sharing. Readers with an interest in intelligence matters cannot ignore this urgent, timely, and evidence-based book.

Visit Jim Walsh's blog, and learn more about the book at the publisher's website.

The Page 99 Test: The International Politics of Intelligence Sharing.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the best deathbed scenes in literature

At the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best deathbed scenes in literature.

One book on the list:

Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne

Sterne stages the death of his alter ego, Parson Yorick, early in the novel. The jesting vicar utters his last endearments to his friend Eugenius "with something of a Cervantick tone" and, though laid low by carpers and maligners, with a flash of "lambent fire" in his eye. "Alas, poor YORICK!" exclaims the novel; the next two pages are entirely black.

Read about another book on Mullan's list.

Tristram Shandy also appears among the top ten works of literature according to Peter Carey and Thomas C. Schelling's influential books, and is one of Bamber Gascoigne's six best books.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Narrelle Harris reading?

The weekend's featured contributor at Writers Read: Narrelle Harris, author of The Opposite of Life, a Melbourne-based vampire novel.

One paragraph from her entry:

Australian author Justine Larbalestier came to my attention a few months ago with her blog. She was witty, insightful and very smart so I picked up her YA fantasy How to Ditch Your Fairy. It didn’t disappoint! It’s a terrific book full of vivid characters of all genders and ethnicities and a crisply defined fantasy world. The theme – be careful what you wish for – is perennial, but Larbalestier lifts it out of the ordinary with...[read on]

In addition to The Opposite of Life, Narrelle M. Harris is the author of three other novels, and wrote an essay for the recently released true crime book Outside the Law 3.

Among the praise for The Opposite of Life:

"It’s certainly a most unusual vampire novel. Lissa Wilson, librarian, geek, and young woman about town,... seems to be the magnet for trouble. ... She’s a wonderful character; not because she’s an heroic supergirl, but because she rings true. If you can get this book, do."
--Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse books

"...an absolute humdinger of a first novel."
--Prudence Russell, Aurealis

"There's plenty of blood and gore in Harris' book, plenty of violence as well, but you don't get dragged into the depths of despair for long. There's lots of humour in the mix as well for counterbalance. Lissa's humour is very dry and dead-pan (pardon the pun) while The Guy in the Hawaiian shirt is her perfect foil."
--Edwina Harvey

Visit Narrelle M. Harris' website.

Writers Read: Narrelle Harris.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Zachary Lazar's "Evening's Empire"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Evening's Empire: The Story of My Father's Murder by Zachary Lazar.

About the book, from the publisher:

When he was just six years old, Zachary Lazar's father, Edward, was shot dead by hit men in a Phoenix, Arizona parking garage. The year was 1975, a time when, according to the Arizona Republic, "land-fraud artists roamed the state in sharp suits, gouging money from buyers and investors." How did his father fit into this world and how could his son ever truly understand the man, his time and place, and his motivations? In Evening's Empire, Zachary Lazar, whose novel Sway was named one of the Best Books of 2008 by Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications, brilliantly attempts to reconstruct the sequence of events that led to his father's murder.

Watch the Evening’s Empire video, and learn more about the book and author at Zachary Lazar's website.

Zachary Lazar graduated from Brown University and received the Iowa Writer's Workshop's James Michener/Copernicus Society Award. He lives in Southampton, New York, and Princeton, New Jersey, where he holds a 2009-2010 Hodder Fellowship at Princeton. Evening's Empire is his third book. He received a 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Lazar's novel Sway is on the list of forty-six essential rock reads.

My Book, The Movie: Sway and the Page 69 Test: Sway.

The Page 69 Test: Evening's Empire.

--Marshal Zeringue

Best crime novels: Al Roker

Today show weatherman Al Roker's debut novel is The Morning Show Murders, a mystery co-authored by Dick Lochte.

For The Week magazine, he named six of his favorite works of crime fiction. One novel on the list:

Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley ­(Washington Square, $14).

Set in 1940s Los ­Angeles, this great noir thriller features an African-American protagonist who has an outlook not seen before in the genre. A smart, valiant war veteran who defended his country but now has trouble landing a job, Easy Rawlins can go places a white policeman or detective can’t go. For this first Rawlins mystery, Mosley created an unforgettable supporting cast, led by a psychotic killer named Mouse.

Read about another crime novel on Roker's list.

Raymond “Mouse” Alexander, from Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins series, made The A.V. Club's list of “13 sidekicks who are cooler than their heroes.”

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Adam McKeown's "English Mercuries"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: English Mercuries: Soldier Poets in the Age of Shakespeare by Adam N. McKeown.

About the book, from the publisher:

English Mercuries examines war and literature through the writings of veterans who came home from their deployments to pursue literary careers. From their often neglected writings emerges a new picture of the Elizabethan world at war. For centuries Elizabethan England has been characterized by booming patriotism and martial energy, and the literature of this period, epitomized in works like Shakespeare's Henry V, has been seen as celebrating a proud and defiant kingdom unified around its wars with Spain. Beneath this patriotic veneer, however, was a country withering under the costs of seemingly endless military commitments and ripped apart by doubts about the purpose of war and mistrust of state officials who advanced their own political interests through war at the expense of the people who had to fight and pay for it.

These misgivings are a powerful undercurrent in much of the literature of the period, even the most ostensibly patriotic works, but it is in the writings on war by soldier poets where they are most clearly pronounced. Fashioning themselves as servants of both Mars and Mercury (the god of war and the god of writing), Elizabethan soldier poets focused their war stories on the gritty realities of military campaigning, the price individuals paid for serving the state, and the difficulties of returning to civilian life. The book reconsiders some familiar writers like John Donne and Ben Jonson in the context of their military experiences and provides comprehensive studies of some important but underappreciated soldier poets like Thomas Churchyard, George Gascoigne, and John Harington.

Read more about English Mercuries at the publisher's website.

The Page 99 Test: English Mercuries.

--Marshal Zeringue

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Saint-Germain Chronicles, the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Saint-Germain Chronicles by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.

The entry begins:

When asked what actor I would like to play Saint-Germain, for the last quarter century, I've said James Mason in 1954. He was short, he was smart, he was a grown-up, he had incredible dark eyes, and a truly seductive voice; he rode well, he was a fine musician, and he seemed to lack that short man's chip on the shoulder -- I say seemed because I can only assess that from his acting; I didn't know the man himself. But no, I didn't and I don't imagine him as Saint-Germain while I write. Since the character is based on a real man, when I visualize him, that is who I see in my mind's eye. The historical man looked a lot like the late French film director François Truffaut, but with eyebrows angled in a more Slavic manner than and his nose more out of line than Truffaut's.

With a book series that has run longer than some actor's careers, settling on one for the role has seemed a bit ... unrealistic. There are actors who might do it very well, but as time goes by, who they are changes. Since Saint-Germain himself was about five-foot-six and stocky, he isn't the current "image" of a vampire, and that narrows the field right there. While I occasionally see an actor I think might be the right fit for the role, it doesn't happen very often, since the real man is so well-established in my imagination. But I have a great respect for the manner in which an actor can accommodate a role and give it authenticity through their art, and I sometimes can see possibilities in unlikely places.

Another factor in these stories -- and it would be a crucial one in...[read on]

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro is the first woman to be named a Living Legend by the International Horror Guild. She has been nominated for the Edgar, World Fantasy, and Bram Stoker Awards and was the first female president of the Horror Writers Association. She is best known as the creator of the heroic vampire, the Count Saint-Germain. The latest volume in the Saint-Germain Chronicles is Burning Shadows.

Visit Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's website.

My Book, The Movie: Saint-Germain Chronicles.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is John Lutz reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: John Lutz, author of Urge To Kill.

One book he mentions:

In the Woods, by Tana French. It won the Edgar for best first novel a few years ago, and I picked it up as a giveaway on the way out of the awards banquet. Finally I got around to reading it. Some book! Tana French is a brilliant natural writer. Her talent is almost magical. If she doesn't have an incandescent career it will be only because she chooses to do something else with...[read on]

John Lutz is the author of two private eye series, the Nudger series, set in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Carver series, set in Florida, as well as many non-series novels.

His SWF Seeks Same was made into the hit movie Single White Female, starring Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh, and his novel The Ex was made into the HBO original movie of the same title, for which he co-authored the screenplay.

Among the praise for John Lutz's books:

"Lutz always delivers the goods."
—Booklist

“Lutz knows how to make you shiver.”
—Harlan Coben

"Lutz is one of the masters."
—Ridley Pearson

Visit John Lutz's website.

Writers Read: John Lutz.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top Arabic authors: 39 under 39-years-old

For Beirut39, "39 authors under 39" were chosen by a jury of four well-known and respected Arab writers, academics and journalists: Abdo Wazen, Lebanese poet and cultural editor of the international daily Al-Hayat newspaper; Alawiya Sobh, Lebanese writer; Saif Al Rahbi, Omani poet and editor-in-chief of the cultural magazine Nazwa; and Dr. Gaber Asfour, Egyptian literary critic and Honorary President of the judging panel.

One author on the list:

Randa JARRAR (Palestine/Egypt/US)

Randa Jarrar is an award-winning short story writer, novelist, and translator born in 1978. Her first novel, A Map of Home, was released to critical acclaim in six languages, and won the Hopwood Award, the Gosling Prize and the Arab American Book Award. She is at work on a new novel and a collection of short stories. She was raised in Kuwait and Egypt, and moved to the US in 1991.

Read about another writer on the list.

Visit Randa Jarrar's website.

My Book, The Movie: A Map of Home.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Morgan Howell's "Candle in the Storm"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Candle in the Storm (The Shadowed Path Book 2) by Morgan Howell.

About the book, from the publisher:

The malign shadow of the Devourer has darkened the land, extinguishing life and hope. The followers of the benevolent goddess Karm are hunted mercilessly and cut down by an army of bewitched slayers led by Lord Bahl, the Devourer’s flesh-and-blood incarnation. Only two people stand in the way of an apocalyptic bloodbath that will literally bring hell to earth: a man and a woman linked by a love as strong as it is unlikely–Honus, a grim-faced warrior dedicated to Karm, and Yim, a beautiful former slave with the divine power to stop Lord Bahl.

But that power will prove a terrible curse as Yim is called upon to make a costly sacrifice–a sacrifice that will not only put her love for Honus to the test but call into question her very faith. As the evil storm descends, can the flame of hope endure?

Read chapter one of Candle in the Storm, and learn more about the book and author at Morgan Howell's website.

Howell is the author of A Woman Worth Ten Coppers, the first book in the Shadowed Path trilogy, as well as the Queen of the Orcs trilogy: King’s Property, Clan Daughter, and Royal Destiny.

The Page 69 Test: A Woman Worth Ten Coppers.

The Page 69 Test: Candle in the Storm.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Michael Oriard's "Bowled Over"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Bowled Over: Big-Time College Football from the Sixties to the BCS Era by Michael Oriard.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this compellingly argued and deeply personal book, respected sports historian Michael Oriard--who was himself a former second-team All-American at Notre Dame--explores a wide range of trends that have changed the face of big-time college football and transformed the role of the student-athlete.

Oriard considers such issues as the politicization of football in the 1960s and the implications of the integration of college football. The heart of the book examines a handful of decisions by the NCAA in the early seventies--to make freshmen eligible to play, to lower admission standards, and, most critically, to replace four-year athletic scholarships with one-year renewable scholarships--that helped transform student-athletes into athlete-students and turned the college game into a virtual farm league for professional football.

Oriard then traces the subsequent history of the sport as it has tried to grapple with the fundamental contradiction of college football as both extracurricular activity and multi-billion-dollar mass entertainment. The relentless necessity to pursue revenue, Oriard argues, undermines attempts to maintain academic standards, and it fosters a football culture in which athletes are both excessively entitled and exploited.

As a former college football player, Oriard brings a unique perspective to his topic, and his sympathies are always with the players and for the game. This original and compelling study will interest everyone concerned about the future of college football.

Michael Oriard is Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Culture and associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Oregon State University. He was offensive captain and a second-team All-American at the University of Notre Dame and played four years with the Kansas City Chiefs. His books include Brand NFL: Making and Selling America's Favorite Sport (2007), King Football: Sport & Spectacle in the Golden Age of Radio and Newsreels, Movies & Magazines, the Weekly & the Daily Press (2001), and Reading Football: How the Popular Press Created an American Spectacle (1993).

Writers Read: Michael Oriard.

The Page 99 Test: Bowled Over.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten US crime novelist tour guides

Edgar Award-winning author C. J. Box's novels include the Joe Pickett series. He’s also won the Anthony Award, Prix Calibre 38 (France), the Macavity Award, the Gumshoe Award, and the Barry Award. For the Guardian, he named a top ten list of US crime novelists who own their home turf.

One novelist on his list:

Baltimore / Laura Lippman

Lippman is a former journalist who grew up in Baltimore and returned to write about it from the inside out. Like a painter, she illustrates the mean and kind streets of this fascinatingly American city on a big canvas.

Suggested titles: Baltimore Blues, What the Dead Know, To the Power of Three.

Read about another novelist on Box's list.

The Page 69 Test: Another Thing to Fall.

The Page 69 Test: What the Dead Know.

The Page 69 Test/Page 99 Test: Life Sentences.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Starr Ambrose & Nikita

The current featured couple at Coffee with a Canine: Starr Ambrose & Nikita.

Ambrose, on how Nikita came to her household:

We adopted Nikita when she was one year old, rescuing her from death row at the pound. Her owners were tired of bailing out their little escape artist, and no one else was allowed to adopt her, as she had a felony conviction – a “livestock kill.” Fearing she’d done something horrible, like bring down a neighbor’s cow, I had to ask the reason for her death sentence; it turned out someone reported her for killing a wild rabbit while she was running free. The laws don’t distinguish between cows and rabbits. Her owners agreed to bail her out one last time if I would take her, so that’s how we came to own Nikita. We were her fourth home in her first year of life, but she won’t have to worry about...[read on]

In Starr Ambrose's debut novel, Lie to Me, "one flirtatious fib puts Eleanor Coggins in the hands of two dangerous men - one who wants her in his bed, and the other who wants her dead." Publishers Weekly says it "sizzles with delicious friction," and Romance Reviews Today noted that "Starr Ambrose is a name to watch for in the romantic suspense genre."

Her second book, Our Little Secret, "takes readers on fast-paced adventure through the dark side of politics and the steamy side of falling in love!" Roxanne St. Claire, national bestselling author, says it's "A light, fresh, sexy spin on love and danger!"

Read an excerpt from Our Little Secret.

To learn about Starr Ambrose's books, visit her website.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Starr Ambrose & Nikita.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Charles Cumming's "Typhoon"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Typhoon by Charles Cumming.

About the book, from the publisher:

Charles Cumming, lauded internationally as the successor to John le Carré, returns with his biggest, most ambitious thriller to date. Beginning in 1997, just as the British are about to re - turn Hong Kong to Chinese rule, Joe Lennox, a young operative for SIS (MI6), loses both his girlfriend and his first high profile asset—a prominent defector who disappears from a safe house. The girlfriend he lost to Miles Coolidge, a hard-bitten CIA agent; the asset to collusion between his bosses and the CIA. Over ten years later, during the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, Lennox is back in China, facing his old nemeses. With the CIA plotting to use an Islamic group to destabilize China, the SIS seeking to thwart them and his old asset the key to all of this, Joe Lennox, Miles Coolidge, and the girlfriend they shared are all hopelessly intertwined in a plot where trust is impossible and truth is unknowable.

Read an excerpt from Typhoon, and learn more about the book and author at Charles Cumming's website.

Charles Cumming is the author of the international bestselling thrillers A Spy By Nature and The Spanish Game.

The Page 69 Test: A Spy By Nature.

My Book, The Movie: The Spanish Game.

The Page 69 Test: Typhoon.

--Marshal Zeringue

Natalie Angier's six best books

New York Times science writer Natalie Angier won a Pulitzer prize in the category of beat reporting, for a series of 10 feature articles on a wide array of scientific topics. She is the author of Woman: An Intimate Geography and The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science.

She told The Week magazine about her six best books. One title on the list:

Mutants: On Genetic Variation and the Human Body by Armand Marie Leroi

In this astonishing book, Leroi elucidates the making of the human body by describing cases of the program gone off-kilter: Chang and Eng, the conjoined twins; human cyclops; and Harry Eastlake, whose muscles gradually turned to sheets of bone. Leroi writes with such clarity and nuance that his approach feels inclusive rather than voyeuristic and is, throughout, exhilarating.

Read about another book on Angier's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Katrina Kenison reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Katrina Kenison, author of The Gift of an Ordinary Day: A Mother's Memoir.

Part of her entry:

Having recently published a memoir of my own, I’m reading about other people’s lives these days with an even greater sense of urgency than usual. I’ve always been fascinated by the true stories of real people; now, I’m equally fascinated by the process by which a private life is experienced, edited, shaped, and offered up for public consumption. In order to finish writing my own book, I had to pretend that no one would ever actually read it. When it was finally published, the feeling was akin to running around in my pajamas--not totally naked, but weirdly exposed and vulnerable. So, I have even greater respect now for anyone willing to expose themselves to such judgment and scrutiny.

This week, I bought Andre Agassi’s autobiography, Open, for my 17-year-old son’s birthday, and got completely hooked myself. Ghosted by Pulitzer Prize-winner J.R. Moehringer (author of The Tender Bar), Agassi’s book grabs you on the first page -- “I play tennis for a living, even though I hate tennis, hate it with a dark and secret passion, and always have” -- and doesn’t let go. My husband and son are both tennis fanatics; I don’t even play the game and I never read sports books. Yet Agassi’s penchant for self-destruction, vying with his absolute perfectionism, makes for...[read on]

Katrina Kenison is the author of The Gift of an Ordinary Day: A Mother's Memoir, and Mitten Strings for God: Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry.

Among the praise for A Mother's Memoir:

"This eloquent book is subtitled “A Mother’s Memoir” but that’s not giving Kenison’s chronicle of her sons’ increasing independence its full due. It’s also about longing and fulfillment, taking stock of failures and achievements, a search for the elusive “something more” of one’s existence—and a reminder that life’s seemingly mundane moments are often where we find beauty, grace and transformation."
--Family Circle

"If you are lucky you'll read this lovely, wise book before your children go off to college. If you read it after they've flown the coop you will likely find much that is familiar in this warm, poignant, and gracious story."
-- Jane Hamilton, author of A Map of the World and Laura Rider's Masterpiece

From 1990 through 2006 Kenison was the annual editor of The Best American Short Stories series, and she co-edited, with John Updike, The Best American Short Stories of the Century. Her work has appeared in O: The Oprah Winfrey Magazine, Real Simple, Family Circle, and many other publications.

Visit Katrina Kenison's website and blog.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Katrina Kenison & Gracie.

Writers Read: Katrina Kenison.

--Marshal Zeringue