Coffee with a canine: Susan Coll & Zoe

The current featured duo at Coffee with a Canine: Susan Coll & Zoe.

Coll, on how she was united with Zoe:

There’s no great romantic story behind Zoe’s arrival in my life, apart from having three young kids at the time who were taping pictures of puppies to the mirrors and windows and doors of the house in a not very subtle ploy to wear down their parents. We finally drove out to the Maryland countryside and found Zoe on a farm. She was the only puppy left from a recent litter, and neither her mother nor father was around. She seemed a bit forlorn, and was also a complete mess, really mangy and smelly. We...[read on]

Susan Coll is the author of the novels Acceptance, karlmarx.com, Rockville Pike, and the newly released Beach Week. A film adaptation of Acceptance, starring Joan Cusack, aired on Lifetime Television in 2009.

Among the early praise for Beach Week:

“A taut, terrifying thriller that will greatly amuse anyone who doesn’t have children. Beach Week is a must-read for any parent whose teenager wants to go on a senior trip, or even out of the house.”
—Larry Doyle, author of I Love You, Beth Cooper

“Like a rogue ocean wave or a deer through your windshield on a lonely shore road, Beach Week packs a punch. There’s hilarious hypocrisy and satire as sharp as a glass shard on the boardwalk—Susan Coll is very funny as she lightly barbeques a suburban summer tradition. Yes, that’s vodka in the water bottles, and yes, that’s an Ivy League–bound teen in a steamy bathroom clinch: it’s time to swap the rose-colored glasses for sunglasses and a pitcher of blue Kool-Aid margaritas.”
—Helen Simonson, author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand

“Hysterically funny.”
—Kirkus Reviews

Visit Susan Coll's website and blog.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Susan Coll & Zoe.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jack Rakove's "Revolutionaries"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America by Jack Rakove.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the early 1770s, the men who invented America were living quiet, provincial lives in the rustic backwaters of the New World, devoted primarily to family, craft, and the private pursuit of wealth and happiness. None set out to become "revolutionary" by ambition, but when events in Boston escalated, they found themselves thrust into a crisis that moved, in a matter of months, from protest to war.

In this remarkable book, the historian Jack Rakove shows how the private lives of these men were suddenly transformed into public careers--how Washington became a strategist, Franklin a pioneering cultural diplomat, Madison a sophisticated constitutional thinker, and Hamilton a brilliant policymaker. Rakove shakes off accepted notions of these men as godlike visionaries, focusing instead on the evolution of their ideas and the crystallizing of their purpose. In Revolutionaries, we see the founders before they were fully formed leaders, as individuals whose lives were radically altered by the explosive events of the mid-1770s. They were ordinary men who became extraordinary--a transformation that finally has the literary treatment it deserves.

Spanning the two crucial decades of the country's birth, from 1773 to 1792, Revolutionaries uses little-known stories of these famous (and not so famous) men to capture--in a way no single biography ever could--the intensely creative period of the republic's founding. From the Boston Tea Party to the First Continental Congress, from Trenton to Valley Forge, from the ratification of the Constitution to the disputes that led to our two-party system, Rakove explores the competing views of politics, war, diplomacy, and society that shaped our nation.

Thoughtful, clear-minded, and persuasive, Revolutionaries is a majestic blend of narrative and intellectual history, one of those rare books that makes us think afresh about how the country came to be, and why the idea of America endures.

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

Jack Rakove is the William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies and a professor of political science at Stanford University. He is the author of, among other books, Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1997.

The Page 99 Test: Revolutionaries.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five positive science fiction novels

At H+ Magazine, Jason Stoddard came up with five positive science fiction novels, i.e. works about the transformative powers of science.

One title on his list:

THE DIAMOND AGE - NEAL STEPHENSON

How does a book that starts with a thug getting a skull gun qualify as positive? Because it portrays a society in the middle of a convincing transition to post-scarcity; realistically depicts an alternative to the nation-state; and shows the power of education and story in transforming our fate.

Read about another novel on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Michael Koryta's "So Cold the River"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: So Cold the River by Michael Koryta.

About the book, from the publisher:

It started with a beautiful woman and a challenge. As a gift for her husband, Alyssa Bradford approaches Eric Shaw to make a documentary about her father-in-law, Campbell Bradford, a 95-year-old billionaire whose past is wrapped in mystery. Eric grabs the job even though there are few clues to the man's past--just the name of his hometown and an antique water bottle he's kept his entire life.

In Bradford's hometown, Eric discovers an extraordinary history--a glorious domed hotel where movie stars, presidents, athletes, and mobsters once mingled, and hot springs whose miraculous mineral water cured everything from insomnia to malaria. Neglected for years, the resort has been restored to its former grandeur just in time for Eric's stay.

Just hours after his arrival, Eric experiences a frighteningly vivid vision. As the days pass, the frequency and intensity of his hallucinations increase and draw Eric deeper into the town's dark history. He discovers that something besides the hotel has been restored--a long-forgotten evil that will stop at nothing to regain its lost glory. Brilliantly imagined and terrifyingly real, So Cold the River is a tale of irresistible suspense with a racing, unstoppable current.

Learn more about the author and his work at Michael Koryta's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: Envy the Night.

The Page 69 Test: So Cold the River.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Natalie Standiford reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Natalie Standiford, author of the young adult novels How to Say Goodbye in Robot, which "has all the makings of a cult hit" (Kirkus Reviews), and Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters, due out in September.

Her entry begins:

I just finished Daniel Ehrenhaft's YA novel Friend Is Not a Verb, about a Brooklyn boy named Hen whose older sister has suddenly returned from a mysterious disappearance that no one will explain to him. It's charming and funny with an undercurrent of loneliness, a combination of moods I happen to love. Hen's heart is repeatedly broken by everyone around him--the girlfriend who dumps him and kicks him out of her band, his sister who pretends nothing's wrong, his parents who neglect him in favor of his possibly criminal sister, his best friend Emma--until he finally learns how to take charge of his own life. It's hip and witty and full of things I feel personally connected to, like crazy families, New York City, and playing bass in a band...[read on]

Among the praise for How to Say Goodbye in Robot:

"Standiford has crafted a darkly whimsical tale filled with details that will be recognizable to teens truly existing on the fringe, complete with references to John Waters films and outsider musician Daniel Johnston. Bea’s original first-person voice will draw readers in, and the unexpected plot will keep them engaged. A decidedly purposeful not-love story, this has all the makings of a cult hit with a flavor similar to Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999)."
--Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"This is an honest and complex depiction of a meaningful platonic friendship and doesn’t gloss over troubling issues. The minor characters, particularly the talk-show regulars, are quirky and depicted with sly humor. Teens will identify with the intense emotions of Beatrice and Jonah, the reasons they are drawn to each other, and the ups and downs of their relationship. An outstanding choice for a book discussion group."
--School Library Journal, starred review

Learn more about the book and author at Natalie Standiford's website.

Writers Read: Natalie Standiford.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the best examples of rowing in literature

For the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best examples of rowing in literature.

One book on the list:

The Odyssey, by Homer

Odysseus and his crew have sails on their boat, but the heroes also need to man their oars. In many of their most testing ordeals they are rowing. Thus Circe's advice about how to deal with the Sirens: "Plug your comrades' ears with softened beeswax lest they listen, and row swiftly past."

Read about a novel on the list.

The Odyssey also made Mullan's lists ten of the best shipwrecks in literature and ten of the best monsters in literature, and Carsten Jensen's list of the top ten seafaring tales.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Andrew Zimmerman's "Alabama in Africa"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: Alabama in Africa: Booker T. Washington, the German Empire, and the Globalization of the New South by Andrew Zimmerman.

About the book, from the publisher:

In 1901, the Tuskegee Institute, founded by Booker T. Washington, sent an expedition to the German colony of Togo in West Africa, with the purpose of transforming the region into a cotton economy similar to that of the post-Reconstruction American South. Alabama in Africa explores the politics of labor, sexuality, and race behind this endeavor, and the economic, political, and intellectual links connecting Germany, Africa, and the southern United States. The cross-fertilization of histories and practices led to the emergence of a global South, reproduced social inequities on both sides of the Atlantic, and pushed the American South and the German Empire to the forefront of modern colonialism.

Zimmerman shows how the people of Togo, rather than serving as a blank slate for American and German ideologies, helped shape their region's place in the global South. He looks at the forms of resistance pioneered by African American freedpeople, Polish migrant laborers, African cotton cultivators, and other groups exploited by, but never passive victims of, the growing colonial political economy. Zimmerman reconstructs the social science of the global South formulated by such thinkers as Max Weber and W.E.B. Du Bois, and reveals how their theories continue to define contemporary race, class, and culture.

Tracking the intertwined histories of Europe, Africa, and the Americas at the turn of the century, Alabama in Africa shows how the politics and economics of the segregated American South significantly reshaped other areas of the world.

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

Andrew Zimmerman is associate professor of history at George Washington University. He is the author of Anthropology and Antihumanism in Imperial Germany.

The Page 99 Test: Alabama in Africa.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jassy Mackenzie's "Random Violence"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Random Violence by Jassy Mackenzie.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Johannesburg prosperous whites live in gated communities; when they exit their cars to open the gates, car-jackings are common. But seldom is the victim killed, much less shot twice, like Annette Botha. Piet Botha, the husband of the wealthy woman, is the primary suspect in his wife's murder. P.I. Jade de Jong fled South Africa ten years ago after her father was killed. Now, back in town, she offers to help her father's former assistant, Superintendent David Patel, with his investigation of this case. Under apartheid, Patel, of Indian descent, could never have attained his present position. But he is feeling pressure from his 'old line' boss with respect to this investigation and fears lingering prejudice is at work. As Jade probes into this and other recent car-jacking cases, a pattern begins to emerge, a pattern that goes back to her father's murder and that involves a vast and intricate series of crimes for profit.

Read an excerpt from Random Violence, and learn more about the book and author at Jassy Mackenzie's website.

The Page 69 Test: Random Violence.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Vivian Swift reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Vivian Swift, author of When Wanderers Cease to Roam (Bloomsbury, 2008).

Her entry begins:

I recently read Travels with Charley (In Search of America) for the first time, to learn how to write a real travel narrative. I’m at work on my second book, a real, honest-to-goodness travel book about a road trip in France, and I thought I’d better find out how the “Masters” do it, but this book really annoyed me. I don’t know if it was the lack of humor in Steinbeck’s moralistic narrative (grandiose generalities are a traveler’s prerogative, but most travel writers have the good sense to temper them with a little self-deprecation) or if it was that passage about the niftiness of trailer parks (So spontaneous! So unfettered!) or the over-all skimpiness of his material (208 pages for a 10,000-mile journey??) but I read it as a cautionary tale. I recommend the book only as an excellent example of...[read on]

Among the praise for When Wanderers Cease to Roam:

With its lacy, square cover, When Wanderers Cease to Roam: A Traveler’s Journal of Staying Put (Bloomsbury 2008) is not a memoir I would have picked up if I hadn’t heard about it first. I’m so glad to be reading it. Each night I get lost in Vivian Swift’s reminiscence of her years traveling the globe, alongside her meticulous and thought-provoking observations (and tender drawings and paintings) of the backyard world she discovered when she decided to hang up her luggage. Through her beautiful memoirs “in miniscule chapters” and her close readings of raindrops and mud, her journey speaks to me.
--Bonnie J. Rough, author of Carrier: Untangling the Danger in My DNA

Visit Vivian Swift's website and blog.

Writers Read: Vivian Swift.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books that made a difference to Ethan Hawke

The actor and author Ethan Hawke told O, The Oprah Magazine about a few books that made a difference to him. One book on the list:

Cruising Paradise
by Sam Shepard

Background:
Shepard gets a lot of credit for being one of the greatest playwrights of his generation, but, like Chekhov's, his short stories are just as vibrant and illuminating as his plays—sometimes more so. He writes about a part of America that lives in all our heads. It's an America you see in an old Coke bottle.

Why he chose it:
Like all great short-story writers, he cuts to the essence of the thing. Some of his stories are ten pages long, and some are two pages. They all penetrate. There's a great line in "Gary Cooper, or The Landscape": A woman asks the narrator whether he avoids highways to take the more authentic roads. And he says, "They're all authentic." That line really struck a chord with me.

Read about another book that made a difference to Hawke.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: James R. Fichter's "So Great a Proffit"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: So Great a Proffit: How the East Indies Trade Transformed Anglo-American Capitalism by James R. Fichter.

About the book, from the publisher:

In a work of sweep and ambition, James Fichter explores how American trade proved pivotal to the evolution of capitalism in the United States and helped to shape the course of the British Empire.

Before the American Revolution, colonial merchants were part of a trading network that spanned the globe. After 1783, U.S. merchants began trading in the East Indies independently, creating a new class of investor-capitalists and the first generation of American millionaires. Such wealth was startling in a country where, a generation earlier, the most prosperous Americans had been Southern planters. This mercantile elite brought its experience and affluence to other sectors of the economy, helping to concentrate capital and create wealth, and paving the way for the modern business corporation.

Conducted on free trade principles, American trade in Asia was so extensive that it undermined the monopoly of the British East India Company and forced Britain to open its own free trade to Asia. The United States and the British Empire thus converged around shared, Anglo-American free-trade ideals and financial capitalism in Asia. American traders also provided a vital link to the Atlantic world for Dutch Java and French Mauritius, and were at the vanguard of Western contact with Polynesia and the Pacific Northwest.

Based on an impressive array of sources from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the United States, this pathbreaking book revolutionizes our understanding of the early American economy in a global context and the relationship between the young nation and its former colonial master.

Learn more about So Great a Proffit at the Harvard University Press website.

James R. Fichter is Assistant Professor of History, Lingnan University, Hong Kong.

The Page 99 Test: So Great a Proffit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Lori Handeland & Elwood

Today's featured couple at Coffee with a Canine: Lori Handeland and Elwood.

Handeland, on how Elwood joined her household:

Elwood is the nephew of our first lab, Jake. When Jake went to the big dog bed in the sky, we wanted another lab since Jake had been so good with our two boys. We returned to the place we'd bought him and low and behold, Jake's sister had just had puppies. It was...[read on]

Lori Handeland has written nearly fifty novels, novellas and short stories in several genres--historical, contemporary, series and paranormal romance, as well as urban fantasy.

Among the early praise for her new novel, Shakespeare Undead:

" ... laugh out loud moments! ... the book is shameless fun, with a decent grounding in the Bard's work."
--Kirkus Reviews

"The legend of Shakespeare will never be the same. It's a fun read set against the streets of Elizabethan London."
--Romantic Times-4 stars

"Handeland blends Elizabethan and contemporary language skillfully ... the romance sizzles between the intriguing leads."
--Publishers Weekly

Learn more about the author and her work at Lori Handeland's website.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Lori Handeland and Elwood.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Barbara Levenson's "Justice in June"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Justice in June by Barbara Levenson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Mary Magruder Katz is about to find herself in the eye of storm.

Miami in June: it’s raining, it’s pouring, but the life of criminal defense attorney Mary Magruder Katz is anything but boring—especially when she gets caught up in a whirlwind of three different cases.

Judge Liz Maxwell’s job, sanity, and reputation are at stake, and she needs Mary to ferret out wrongdoing in Miami’s courts. Solving this case won’t just mean going out on a limb; it will mean risking life and limb.

Luis Corona, a family friend of Mary’s boyfriend, Carlos, needs help with a legal matter that, to Mary’s horror, turns out to be a terrorism charge. And this case will leave some catastrophic damage—and unwelcome notoriety—in its wake.

Just when Mary thought things couldn’t get worse, Carlos gets in his own nasty legal quandary—one that could cost him everything.

Three cases. One Mary. One torrential downpour of turmoil.

Can she weather the storm? Ride out the cold front that settles over her once-hot romance? Salvage what remains of her—and her clients’—reputations?

For Mary Magruder Katz, this month’s forecast calls for trouble.

Barbara Levenson is the author of Fatal February, the first novel in the Mary Magruder Katz mystery series.

Learn more about the books and author at Barbara Levenson's website.

My Book, The Movie: Fatal February.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Barbara Levenson & Mr. Magruder.

The Page 69 Test: Justice in June.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tara Hyland's "Daughters of Fortune," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Daughters of Fortune by Tara Hyland.

The entry begins:

There's quite a big cast of characters in my book, so I'll just go with the three daughters of the title:

Elizabeth - I always imagine Katherine Heigl's body, as Elizabeth is meant to be statuesque, with Sarah Michelle Gellar's head (the way she is in Cruel Intentions, quite bitchy and sharp!)

Caitlin - A shorter...[read on]

Tara Hyland was born in Surrey in 1976. She studied History at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, and then worked in the City for several years before leaving to write full time. She currently lives in London with her husband.

My Book, The Movie: Daughters of Fortune.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five best: books about financial dynasties

Fouad Ajami, a professor at Johns Hopkins, named his five favorite books about financial dynasties for the Wall Street Journal.

One title on the list:

Gold and Iron
by Fritz Stern

In perhaps the single best book on financial history, Fritz Stern tells of the tangled relationship between Otto von Bismarck and Gerson von Bleichröder. Statesman and banker, Junker and Jew, the two men rose together against the background of a new German empire. The great themes of 19th-century German and European history—capitalism, high finance, Jewish emancipation and its nemesis—intersect in this pair. Bismarck needed money to finance the wars of German unification. That need gave Bleichröder his sway, but he was never allowed to forget his Jewish origins; the ambiguity of Jewish success ran through Bleichröder's life. His death came in 1893, Bismarck's five years later. Kristallnacht and the destruction of German Jews were still decades away, but a reader can sense the terrible storm over the German horizon.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Daniel Okrent's "Last Call"

This weekend's feature at the Page 99 Test: Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent.

About the book, from the publisher:

A brilliant, authoritative, and fascinating history of America’s most puzzling era, the years 1920 to 1933, when the U.S. Constitution was amended to restrict one of America’s favorite pastimes: drinking alcoholic beverages.

From its start, America has been awash in drink. The sailing vessel that brought John Winthrop to the shores of the New World in 1630 carried more beer than water. By the 1820s, liquor flowed so plentifully it was cheaper than tea. That Americans would ever agree to relinquish their booze was as improbable as it was astonishing.

Yet we did, and Last Call is Daniel Okrent’s dazzling explanation of why we did it, what life under Prohibition was like, and how such an unprecedented degree of government interference in the private lives of Americans changed the country forever.

Writing with both wit and historical acuity, Okrent reveals how Prohibition marked a confluence of diverse forces: the growing political power of the women’s suffrage movement, which allied itself with the antiliquor campaign; the fear of small-town, native-stock Protestants that they were losing control of their country to the immigrants of the large cities; the anti-German sentiment stoked by World War I; and a variety of other unlikely factors, ranging from the rise of the automobile to the advent of the income tax.

Through it all, Americans kept drinking, going to remarkably creative lengths to smuggle, sell, conceal, and convivially (and sometimes fatally) imbibe their favorite intoxicants. Last Call is peopled with vivid characters of an astonishing variety: Susan B. Anthony and Billy Sunday, William Jennings Bryan and bootlegger Sam Bronfman, Pierre S. du Pont and H. L. Mencken, Meyer Lansky and the incredible—if long-forgotten—federal official Mabel Walker Willebrandt, who throughout the twenties was the most powerful woman in the country. (Perhaps most surprising of all is Okrent’s account of Joseph P. Kennedy’s legendary, and long-misunderstood, role in the liquor business.)

It’s a book rich with stories from nearly all parts of the country. Okrent’s narrative runs through smoky Manhattan speakeasies, where relations between the sexes were changed forever; California vineyards busily producing “sacramental” wine; New England fishing communities that gave up fishing for the more lucrative rum-running business; and in Washington, the halls of Congress itself, where politicians who had voted for Prohibition drank openly and without apology.

Last Call is capacious, meticulous, and thrillingly told. It stands as the most complete history of Prohibition ever written and confirms Daniel Okrent’s rank as a major American writer.

See a graphic excerpt from Last Call, and view a video of Okrent discussing the book.

Learn more about the book and author at Daniel Okrent's website.

The Page 99 Test: Last Call.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Doug Magee reading?

This weekend's feature contributor at Writers Read: Doug Magee, author of the debut novel Never Wave Goodbye, out this month from Touchstone.

His entry begins:

I just finished the first draft of my second novel. I can't read much more than the newspaper (which in my case is the NY Times and quite a bit of reading) when I'm writing so I'm now starting to go through some books I've had stacked up.

I was introduced to Robert B. Parker very recently and am working through his long list of books. His passing is mourned by many, many readers and it's easy to see why. He's such a comfortable narrator, engaging and not the least bit of a show-off. I always have the feeling that he must have been much like Spenser in person. The current book of his I'm reading is Back Story.

I'm also reading...[read on]

Among the early praise for Never Wave Goodbye:

"Never Wave Goodbye opens with one of the strongest dramatic twists I've read in a long time, but Doug Magee is truly just getting started. In this suburban nightmare scenario that brings to mind the best of Harlan Coben and Linwood Barclay, Magee proves himself to be a powerful new voice who separates from the pack by paying as much attention to human relationships as he does plot twists."
--Michael Koryta, author of So Cold the River

"Never Wave Goodbye blasts right out of the chute with a terrifying premise and doesn't ease up until the final pages. It's a wrenching first novel that grips the reader personally and emotionally and makes one ask, 'What would I do in similar circumstances?'"
--C.J. Box, Edgar-winning author of Nowhere to Run

“Never Wave Goodbye is a moving love story, a searing family drama, a stomach-churning thriller and one hell of a tale well-told. Go ahead and try to put it down.”
--Bryan Gruley, Edgar nominated author of Starvation Lake

Read an excerpt from Never Wave Goodbye, and learn more about the book and author at Doug Magee's website.

Writers Read: Doug Magee.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ann Brashares' six favorite books

Ann Brashares is the author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. For The Week magazine she named her six favorite books.

One title on the list:

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

For the most part I don’t believe a literal word of it, but it is so voluptuous and blithe in its beauty I can’t get over it. It’s truer than true.

Read about another book on the list.

Love in the Time of Cholera also made Marie Arana's list of the best books about love and is one of Hugh Thomson’s top ten books on South American journeys.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Deborah Schupack's "Sylvan Street"

This weekend's feature at the Page 69 Test: Sylvan Street by Deborah Schupack.

About the book, from the author:

Nine neighbors; two ominous outsiders; one suitcase containing a million dollars

Deborah Schupack tells a provocative and suspenseful tale about what happens when cold, hard cash moves in next door. With page-turning storytelling, graceful prose and deep, true emotion, Sylvan Street explores the ultimate power-and limitations-of money. What these friendly suburban residents do with their newfound money, and what the money does with them, builds toward a revelatory conclusion: how the tensions between benevolence and greed, duty and desire, inform our every action and interaction. Readers of thrillers and character- driven dramas alike will find a sweet payoff in these pages.s

Read an excerpt from Sylvan Street, and learn more about the book and author at Deborah Schupack's website.

Deborah Schupack is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, as well as numerous short stories and newspaper and magazine articles. She runs a copywriting firm, King Street Creative, and lives in the Lower Hudson Valley.

The Page 69 Test: Sylvan Street.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Thad Williamson's "Sprawl, Justice, and Citizenship"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Sprawl, Justice, and Citizenship: The Civic Costs of the American Way of Life by Thad Williamson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Must the strip mall and the eight-lane highway define 21st century American life? That is a central question posed by critics of suburban and exurban living in America. Yet despite the ubiquity of the critique, it never sticks--Americans by the scores of millions have willingly moved into sprawling developments over the past few decades. Americans find many of the more substantial criticisms of sprawl easy to ignore because they often come across as snobbish in tone. Yet as Thad Williamson explains, sprawl does create real, measurable social problems. Williamson's work is unique in two important ways. First, while he highlights the deleterious effects of sprawl on civic life in America, he is also evenhanded. He does not dismiss the pastoral, homeowning ideal that is at the root of sprawl, and is sympathetic to the vast numbers of Americans who very clearly prefer it. Secondly, his critique is neither aesthetic nor moralistic in tone, but based on social science. Utilizing a landmark 30,000-person survey, he shows that sprawl fosters civic disengagement, accentuates inequality, and negatively impacts the environment. Sprawl, Justice, and Citizenship will not only be the most comprehensive work in print on the subject, it will be the first to offer a empirically rigorous critique of the most popular form of living in America today.

Learn more about Sprawl, Justice, and Citizenship at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Sprawl, Justice, and Citizenship.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Christie Ridgway & Hank

This weekend's featured duo at Coffee with a Canine: Christie Ridgway & Hank.

Ridgway, on how they were united:

We lost our beloved 13 year old yellow lab summer before last. After a year of mourning, we were ready for another dog. My husband found him listed on the internet one Saturday--and we were the first family to call. He was four months old and the people who had him since 8 weeks discovered their young Rottweiler didn't appreciate a frolicsome pup. We drove an hour to see him, worried he might be sort of cowed by his experience with the older dog, but he came rushing up to us, clearly saying, "There you guys are! I've been waiting! Let's go be together!" It was love...[read on]

Christie Ridgway is a USA Today bestselling author and five-time RITA finalist. Her new book, from Berkley Books, is Crush on You (read an excerpt).

Among the early praise for Crush on You:

“Christie Ridgway captures the true magic of falling in love. You’ll never want this enchanting series to end!”
--Robyn Carr, New York Times bestselling author

"[W]itty, fun and romantic to the core. I absolutely love it!"
--Mandy Burns, Fresh Fiction

Visit Christie Ridgway's website, blog, and Facebook page.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Christie Ridgway & Hank.

--Marshal Zeringue

Otto Penzler's best thrillers

New York Magazine tasked Otto Penzler, owner of the Mysterious Bookshop and editor of the Agents of Treachery, a collection of previously unpublished spy fiction, to name some thrillers under the theme "If You Liked My Book, You’ll Love These."

One title on his list:

A Coffin for Dimitrios (1939)
by Eric Ambler

Ambler practically invented the modern spy novel by turning the protagonist from a fearless James Bond superhero into a victim of circumstance out of his depth, who performs courageous acts primarily to survive.

Read about another book on the list.

A Coffin for Dimitrios is one of Charles Cumming's favorite thrillers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Christopher Farnsworth's "Blood Oath"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth.

About the book, from the publisher:

The ultimate secret. The ultimate agent. The President’s vampire.

Zach Barrows is an ambitious young White House staffer whose career takes an unexpected turn when he’s partnered with Nathaniel Cade, a secret agent sworn to protect the president. But Cade is no ordinary civil servant. Bound by a special blood oath, Cade has spent more than 140 years in service to the president, battling nightmares before they can break into the daylight world of the American dream.

Immediately Zach and Cade receive their first joint assignment: one that uncovers a shadowy government conspiracy and a plot to attack the Unites States with a gruesome new biological weapon. Zach soon learns that the world is far stranger, and far more dangerous, than he ever imagined ... and that his partner is the least of his problems.

Read an excerpt from Blood Oath, and learn more about the book and author at the Blood Oath website, and Christopher Farnsworth's website and blog.

View the Blood Oath trailer.

The Page 69 Test: Blood Oath.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Justine van der Leun reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Justine van der Leun, author of Marcus of Umbria: What an Italian Dog Taught an American Girl about Love.

Her entry begins:

I usually read women writers—my favorites include MFK Fisher, Lorrie Moore, Shirley Hazzard, and Edwidge Danticat. But I looked over at my bedside table, and I saw that at the moment I’m only reading books by men. It must be a phase!

Dalva by Jim Harrison

I feel about Jim Harrison the way preteen girls feel about Justin Bieber. In other words: I’m obsessed. I think if I met him, I’d either be struck mute or begin to sob. I’ve read nearly everything of Harrison’s, but Dalva proved to me that he knows women better than any male writer alive today. The title character, Dalva Northridge, is a brilliant, authentic, rebellious woman searching for the son she gave up for adoption when she was only 15. The novel follows several love stories in the past and the present, and it’s set against the stunning Nebraska frontier. Did I mention...[read on]

Among the early praise for Marcus of Umbria:

“A sweet, disarming story finds a young New York editor venturing to Italy to pursue romance with a sexy gardener and ending up falling for a neglected dog instead. In her straightforward, unembellished prose…the author manages to capture the lovely, vanishing Old World ways of these tightly knit people, while also interweaving a heart-melting tale.”
--Publishers Weekly

“Van der Leun’s memoir is a funny and surprisingly tender story about culture shock, and the unwavering love of a dog.”
--Booklist

“Justine van der Leun is blessed with the elusive gift of storytelling. In prose both lyrical and spare, she captures the beauty of a foreign land, the comedy of cultural clashes, the mystery of love lost and found, and, without ever dipping into sugary sentimentality, the unique bond between human and dog. The effect is utterly charming. I was engaged from start to finish.”
--John Grogan, author of Marley & Me and The Longest Trip Home

“Marcus of Umbria combines the personal journey of Eat, Pray, Love with the madcap adventures of Bridget Jones’s Diary, all on a farm with a dog. Justine van der Leun’s tales about love, adjusting to life in a faraway land, and losing her heart to the abandoned English pointer she rescues are warm, comic, and beautifully descriptive. I devoured this compassionate and sharply funny book in one sitting.”
--Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants

Learn more about the book and author at Justine van der Leun's website.

Writers Read: Justine van der Leun.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tamzin Outhwaite's six best books

The award-winning English actor Tamzin Outhwaite told the Daily Express about her six best books.

One title on the list:

The Lovely Bones
by Alice Sebold

I’d seen the film so decided to read the book. They are very different and to be honest I initially found the book rather disturbing and wasn’t sure if I’d carry on reading it. But it turned into a really insightful story in the end.

Read about another book on Outhwaite's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Gary Alan Fine & Bill Ellis' "The Global Grapevine"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: The Global Grapevine: Why Rumors of Terrorism, Immigration, and Trade Matter by Gary Alan Fine and Bill Ellis.

About the book, from the publisher:

Far from mere idle tales, rumors are a valuable window into our anxieties and fears. Rumors let us talk as a community about some very inflammatory issues--issues that may be embarrassing or disturbing to discuss-allowing us to act as if we are talking about real events, not personal beliefs. We can air our hidden fears and desires without claiming these attitudes as our own.

In The Global Grapevine, two leading authorities on rumor, folklore, and urban legend--Gary Alan Fine and Bill Ellis--shed light on what contemporary rumors can tell us about the fears and pressures of globalization. In particular, they examine four major themes that emerge over and over again: rumors about terrorism, about immigration, about international trade, and about tourism. The authors analyze how various rumors underscore American reactions to perceived global threats, show how we interpret our changing world, and highlight fears, fantasies, and cherished beliefs about our place in the world. Along the way the book examines a wide variety of rumors-that the Israelis were behind 9-11, the President knew of the attack in advance, tourists wake up in foreign countries with their kidneys stolen, foreign workers urinate in vats of beer destined to be shipped to America. These rumors, the authors argue, reflect our anxieties and fears about contact with foreign cultures-whether we believe foreign competition to be poisoning the domestic economy or that foreign immigration to be eroding American values.

Rumors are the visible tip of a vast iceberg of hidden anxieties. Illuminating the most widely circulated rumors in America in recent years, The Global Grapevine offers an invaluable portrait of what these tales reveal about contemporary society.

Read more about The Global Grapevine at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Global Grapevine.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Robert Dugoni's "Bodily Harm"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Bodily Harm by Robert Dugoni.

About the book, from the publisher:

Bodily Harm opens with a big win for David Sloane and his new partner, Tom Pendergrass, in a malpractice case centered on the death of a young child. But on the heels of this seeming victory, an unlikely character—toy designer Kyle Horgan— comes forward to tell Sloane that he’s gotten it all wrong: Horgan’s the one who’s truly responsible for the little boy’s death and possibly others—not the pediatrician Sloane has just proven guilty.

Ordinarily, Sloane might have dismissed such a person as a crackpot, but something about this case has always troubled him—something that he couldn’t quite pinpoint. When Sloane tries to follow up with Horgan, he finds the man’s apartment a shambles— ransacked by unknown perpetrators. Horgan has vanished without a trace. Together with his longtime investigative partner Charles Jenkins, Sloane reexamines his clients’ son’s death and digs deeper into Horgan’s claims, forcing him to enter the billion-dollar, cutthroat toy industry. As Sloane gets closer to the truth, he trips a wire that leads to a shocking chain of events that nearly destroys him.

To get to the bottom of it all and find justice for the families harmed, Sloane must keep in check his overwhelming desire for revenge. Full of nail-bitingly tense action scenes as well as edge-of-your-seat courtroom drama, Bodily Harm finds Robert Dugoni at the very top of his game.

Learn more about the book and author at Robert Dugoni's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: Wrongful Death.

Writers Read: Robert Dugoni.

The Page 69 Test: Bodily Harm.

--Marshal Zeringue

Dani & Eytan Kollin's "The Unincorporated War," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: The Unincorporated War by Dani and Eytan Kollin.

The entry begins:

The protagonist of The Unincorporated Man and The Unincorporated War, Justin Cord, must be the living embodiment of a value (freedom) and as such is not granted a wide birth for real pathos (the bad guy on the other hand is wonderfully evil). Who could pull that off and still be captivating? A few actors come to mind:...[read on]

Learn more about the book and authors at Dani Kollin's blog and The Unincorporated Man website.

Writer's Read: Dani Kollin.

The Page 69 Test: The Unincorporated War.

My Book, The Movie: The Unincorporated War.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top 10 20th-century gothic novels

Carlos Ruiz Zafón is the author of The Shadow of the Wind, the most successful novel in Spanish publishing history after Don Quixote.

He named a top ten list of 20th-century gothic novels for the Guardian. One title on the list:

Double Indemnity by James M Cain

Lean, mean and dazzling. This is one of the great LA gothics, with all the best echoes of classic noir and a femme fatale to end all femme fatales. Most people have seen the great Billy Wilder adaptation of this novel and therefore bypass the book. Big mistake. As glorious as Wilder's film is, this novel has a rare, dark beauty that deserves to be savoured on its own terms.

Read about another book on the list.

Double Indemnity is one of Malcolm Jones' ten favorite crime novels.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Melvin Konner's "The Evolution of Childhood"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: The Evolution of Childhood: Relationships, Emotion, Mind by Melvin Konner.

About the book, from the publisher:

This book is an intellectual tour de force: a comprehensive Darwinian interpretation of human development. Looking at the entire range of human evolutionary history, Melvin Konner tells the compelling and complex story of how cross-cultural and universal characteristics of our growth from infancy to adolescence became rooted in genetically inherited characteristics of the human brain.

All study of our evolution starts with one simple truth: human beings take an extraordinarily long time to grow up. What does this extended period of dependency have to do with human brain growth and social interactions? And why is play a sign of cognitive complexity, and a spur for cultural evolution? As Konner explores these questions, and topics ranging from bipedal walking to incest taboos, he firmly lays the foundations of psychology in biology.

As his book eloquently explains, human learning and the greatest human intellectual accomplishments are rooted in our inherited capacity for attachments to each other. In our love of those we learn from, we find our way as individuals and as a species. Never before has this intersection of the biology and psychology of childhood been so brilliantly described.

“Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution,” wrote Dobzhansky. In this remarkable book, Melvin Konner shows that nothing in childhood makes sense except in the light of evolution.

Learn more about The Evolution of Childhood at the Harvard University Press website and Melvin Konner's blog.

The Page 99 Test: The Evolution of Childhood.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jane Lindskold's "Five Odd Honors"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Five Odd Honors by Jane Lindskold.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Thirteen Orphans and their allies have opened the ninth gate into the Lands Born from Smoke and Sacrifice ... and discover that the Lands have been altered almost beyond recognition, transformed by magic into an apparently uninhabited world where land shifts beneath one’s feet and fire burns blue. Investigating, the Orphans learn that the Center of the world is sealed behind nearly-impassable barriers composed of each of the five elements of Chinese myth. Combining ancient and modern magics, a scouting party penetrates the barriers, only to be captured and given over to tortures designed to separate the Orphans from their magical abilities.

On Earth, Pearl Bright, the Tiger, is attacked—is this treachery by our world’s magical traditions or has one of the Orphans betrayed her? Brenda Morris learns of the Orphans’ dangers when it is nearly too late—but along with the sidhe, who are drawn to her Irish heritage, Brenda risks her life to help rescue those trapped in the Lands.

A story of betrayal and redemption, of bravery in the face of terror, and of loyalty and hatred that reach beyond the grave, Five Odd Honors continues Jane Lindskold’s stunning Breaking the Wall series.

Read an excerpt from Five Odd Honors, and learn more about the book and author at Jane Lindskold's website.

Writers Read: Jane Lindskold.

The Page 69 Test: Thirteen Orphans.

The Page 69 Test: Five Odd Honors.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five best books on secret meetings of World War II

Laurence Rees is the author of World War II Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, the Nazis and the West.

For the Wall Street Journal, he named a five best list of books on fateful secret meetings of World War II.

One book on the list:

The Wannsee Conference and the 'Final Solution'
by Mark Roseman

The Wannsee Conference, held near Berlin in January 1942 and chaired by Reinhard Heydrich of the SS, is probably the most notorious "secret" meeting of World War II. The trouble is that many people have got the wrong impression about it. As Mark Roseman's standard work on the conference demonstrates, this was not the meeting at which the Nazis decided on the policy of exterminating the Jews. Crucial aspects of that policy pre-date the conference. By the time of Wannsee, for example, the first Nazi killing center in Poland, at Chelmno, was already gassing Jews. The meeting at Wannsee was held not so much to devise policy as to implement it. As important as Wannsee was, it is vital that it be seen as part of a process rather than as a single, pivotal moment.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Dennis Tafoya reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Dennis Tafoya, author of Dope Thief and The Wolves of Fairmount Park.

His entry begins:

I'm currently in the middle of Don DeLillo's Point Omega, which is hypnotic and strange, with little bits of beauty and lots of epistemology, the way I think of all the DeLillo I've read. I love his book Libra - it's one of the books I re-read every year. I use it to remember how to write when I'm blocked, and every time I read a few pages, it teaches me how the job of fiction writing is done, the way I want to do it.

Point Omega is about a kind of month-long lost weekend, in which a documentary filmmaker visits the desert home of a reclusive academic and risk analyst named Elster, who has been involved in Iraq war planning, and the young man is there to convince the older man to be in a documentary film project (every time the film project is discussed it's impossible not to think of Errol Morris's amazing Fog of War featuring the elder, fading Robert McNamara finally coming to terms with his own role in history).

Elster talks in strange ellipses and, preoccupied with time and perception, and he seems like a ghost of one of the dark plotters of Libra, so consumed with...[read on]

Among the advance praise for The Wolves of Fairmount Park, which releases this month:

“Dennis Tafoya returns with The Wolves of Fairmount Park, a dark and lyrical novel filled with passion, heartbreak, gorgeous imagery, and devious twists. Brilliant and beautiful.”
--Jonathan Maberry, internationally bestselling author of The Dragon Factory

Dennis Tafoya was born in Philadelphia and attended Oberlin College. He dropped out and worked a series of jobs, including housepainter, hospital orderly and EMT before starting a career in industrial sales. He began writing poetry, publishing stories in journals, and then started work on Dope Thief, his acclaimed debut novel.

Learn more about the author and his work at Dennis Tafoya's website.

The Page 69 Test: Dope Thief.

Writers Read: Dennis Tafoya.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jane Isay's "Mom Still Likes You Best"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: Mom Still Likes You Best: The Unfinished Business Between Siblings by Jane Isay.

About the book, from the publisher:

The author of Walking on Eggshells turns her wisdom to the sometimes heartbreaking but always meaningful bond between brothers and sisters—a must-read for anyone blessed with the gift (or burden) of a sibling.

There’s a myth out there that good relations between brothers and sisters do not include conflict, annoyance, disagreement, or mixed feelings. Isay believes this is a destructive myth, one that makes people doubt the strength of the connection with their siblings. Brothers and sisters may love and hate, fight and forgive, but they never forget their early bonds.

Based on scores of interviews with brothers and sisters young and old, Mom Still Likes You Best features real-life stories that show how differences caused by family feuds, marriages, distance, or ancient history can be overcome. The result is a vivid portrait of siblings, in love and war.

Read the back story to Mom Still Likes You Best, and learn more about the book and author at Jane Isay's website and blog.

The Page 99 Test: Mom Still Likes You Best.

--Marshal Zeringue