Pg. 99: David Hendy's "Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening by David Hendy.

About the book, from the publisher:

What if history had a sound track? What would it tell us about ourselves? Based on a thirty-part BBC Radio series and podcast, Noise explores the human dramas that have revolved around sound at various points in the last 100,000 years, allowing us to think in fresh ways about the meaning of our collective past.

Though we might see ourselves inhabiting a visual world, our lives have always been hugely influenced by our need to hear and be heard. To tell the story of sound—music and speech, but also echoes, chanting, drumbeats, bells, thunder, gunfire, the noise of crowds, the rumbles of the human body, laughter, silence, conversations, mechanical sounds, noisy neighbors, musical recordings, and radio—is to explain how we learned to overcome our fears about the natural world, perhaps even to control it; how we learned to communicate with, understand, and live alongside our fellow beings; how we've fought with one another for dominance; how we've sought to find privacy in an increasingly noisy world; and how we've struggled with our emotions and our sanity.

Oratory in ancient Rome was important not just for the words spoken but for the sounds made—the tone, the cadence, the pitch of the voice—how that voice might have been transformed by the environment in which it was heard and how the audience might have responded to it. For the Native American tribes first encountering the European colonists, to lose one's voice was to lose oneself. In order to dominate the Native Americans, European colonists went to great effort to silence them, to replace their "demonic" "roars" with the more familiar "bugles, speaking trumpets, and gongs."

Breaking up the history of sound into prehistoric noise, the age of oratory, the sounds of religion, the sounds of power and revolt, the rise of machines, and what he calls our "amplified age," Hendy teases out continuities and breaches in our long relationship with sound in order to bring new meaning to the human story.

Learn more about Noise at the publisher's website, and follow David Hendy on Twitter.

The Page 99 Test: Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top books on 18th-century London's perils

Maria McCann's first novel, As Meat Loves Salt, was published in 2000 to huge acclaim. Her new novel, Ace, King, Knave, is set in Georgian London.

For the Guardian, McCann came up with a top ten list of books on 18th-century London's perils, including:

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe (1722)

Despite her repentance in old age, the magnificent Moll is nobody's idea of a virtuous heroine as she rattles through her tale of life on the edge. Defoe was a champion of female education; Moll's story illustrates how a woman unable to earn her living must seek male protection, first in marriage, then in prostitution. Finally, when she is too faded to find customers, Moll has no resort but crime. The emphasis on hard cash rather than sexual pleasure makes Moll Flanders possibly the most unerotic novel ever written about a prostitute, but it's engaging for all that. Defoe, himself a tradesman, gives his heroine a distinctive voice – and the shrewdness and energy of the born chancer, an energy that remains with the reader when the book is finished.

Read about another book on the list. 

Moll Flanders also appears on John Mullan's lists of ten of the best highwaymen in literature and ten of the best seductions in literature, and Freya North's top ten list of romantic fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Lisa Black's "The Price of Innocence"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: The Price of Innocence by Lisa Black.

About the book, from the publisher:

The key to Teresa MacLean's latest case lies in a 25-year-old unsolved murder

Called out to investigate a suspected suicide in a luxury high-rise apartment, forensic scientist Theresa MacLean only just escapes with her life when the building is blown to smithereens. An accident - or something more sinister? A mostly empty block of trendy apartments in downtown Cleveland seems an unlikely terrorist target.

The following day, Theresa is examining another suspected suicide in a wealthy neighbourhood when the cop accompanying her is shot dead by an unseen assailant. Could the two events be connected? As Theresa painstakingly pieces the clues she uncovers evidence of a dark secret in the murdered cop's past.

Learn more about the book and author at Lisa Black's website.

My Book, The Movie: Trail of Blood.

The Page 69 Test: Trail of Blood.

Writers Read: Lisa Black (September 2010).

My Book, The Movie: Defensive Wounds.

The Page 69 Test: Defensive Wounds.

Writers Read: Lisa Black (October 2011).

Writers Read: Lisa Black (March 2013).

My Book, The Movie: Blunt Impact.

The Page 69 Test: Blunt Impact.

The Page 69 Test: The Price of Innocence.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Molly Worthen reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Molly Worthen, author of Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism.

Her entry begins:

I’ve just finished two marvelous and very different books. A few weeks ago, one of the many essays eulogizing the late philosopher Marshall Berman called his 1982 masterpiece, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity, a “prose poem.” This description, even more than the rapturous reviews of Berman’s erudition and insight, prompted me to finally pick up this book. Berman’s thesis is that “ we have missed or broken the connection between our culture and our lives,” and “the modernisms of the past can give us back a sense of our own modern roots, roots that go back two hundred years.” The only way to escape from political and cultural despotism that leaves humans “pulverized by the dead hand of the future” is to recover the wisdom of the philosophers, novelists, and artists who first understood the perils that modern freedom and power entail. All That Is Solid had the same impact on me that I know it has had on...[read on]

About Apostles of Reason, from the publisher:

Evangelical Christianity is a paradox. Evangelicals are radically individualist, but devoted to community and family. They believe in the transformative power of a personal relationship with God, but are wary of religious enthusiasm. They are deeply skeptical of secular reason, but eager to find scientific proof that the Bible is true.

In this groundbreaking history of modern American evangelicalism, Molly Worthen argues that these contradictions are the products of a crisis of authority that lies at the heart of the faith. Evangelicals have never had a single authority to guide them through these dilemmas or settle the troublesome question of what the Bible actually means. Worthen chronicles the ideological warfare, institutional conflict, and clashes between modern gurus and maverick disciples that lurk behind the more familiar narrative of the rise of the Christian Right. The result is an ambitious intellectual history that weaves together stories from all corners of the evangelical world to explain the ideas and personalities-the scholarly ambitions and anti-intellectual impulses-that have made evangelicalism a cultural and political force.

In Apostles of Reason, Worthen recasts American evangelicalism as a movement defined not by shared doctrines or politics, but by the problem of reconciling head knowledge and heart religion in an increasingly secular America. She shows that understanding the rise of the Christian Right in purely political terms, as most scholars have done, misses the heart of the story. The culture wars of the late twentieth century emerged not only from the struggle between religious conservatives and secular liberals, but also from the civil war within evangelicalism itself-a battle over how to uphold the commands of both faith and reason, and how ultimately to lead the nation back onto the path of righteousness.

Learn more about Apostles of Reason at the Oxford University Press website.

Worthen is Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author of The Man on Whom Nothing Was Lost: The Grand Strategy of Charles Hill.

Writers Read: Molly Worthen.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Michael North's "Novelty: A History of the New"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Novelty: A History of the New by Michael North.

About the book, from the publisher:

If art and science have one thing in common, it’s a hunger for the new—new ideas and innovations, new ways of seeing and depicting the world. But that desire for novelty carries with it a fundamental philosophical problem: If everything has to come from something, how can anything truly new emerge? Is novelty even possible?

In Novelty, Michael North takes us on a dazzling tour of more than two millennia of thinking about the problem of the new, from the puzzles of the pre-Socratics all the way up to the art world of the 1960s and ’70s. The terms of the debate, North shows, were established before Plato, and have changed very little since: novelty, philosophers argued, could only arise from either recurrence or recombination. The former, found in nature’s cycles of renewal, and the latter, seen most clearly in the workings of language, between them have accounted for nearly all the ways in which novelty has been conceived in Western history, taking in reformation, renaissance, invention, revolution, and even evolution. As he pursues this idea through centuries and across disciplines, North exhibits astonishing range, drawing on figures as diverse as Charles Darwin and Robert Smithson, Thomas Kuhn and Ezra Pound, Norbert Wiener and Andy Warhol, all of whom offer different ways of grappling with the idea of originality.

Novelty, North demonstrates, remains a central problem of contemporary science and literature—an ever-receding target that, in its complexity and evasiveness, continues to inspire and propel the modern. A heady, ambitious intellectual feast, Novelty is rich with insight, a masterpiece of perceptive synthesis.

Learn more about Novelty: A History of the New at the University of Chicago Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Novelty: A History of the New.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top ghost stories

Sandra Greaves was born in Edinburgh and now lives in Devon with a husband and several badly-behaved chickens, midway between the moor and the sea. She won the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Undiscovered Voices competition in 2012 for her first novel, The Skull in the Wood.

One of her top ten ghost stories, as shared with the Guardian:

Pet Sematary by Stephen King

Only for the strong of stomach, this one – and may well put you off cats for ever. Not aimed at children, but a favourite of older teenagers with a taste for the seriously gruesome. A resting place for beloved pets, an Indian burial ground, and an assortment of creatures that just won't lie down. Nasty. And compelling.

Read about another entry on the list.

Also see: Rebecca Armstrong's ten best ghost stories, the Barnes & Noble Review's list of five top books of ghost stories, Kate Mosse's top 10 ghost stories, Peter Washington's top ten ghost stories, and Brad Leithauser's five best ghost stories.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Binnie Klein & Griffin

The current featured duo at Coffee with a Canine: Binnie Klein and Griffin.

The author, on how she was united with Griffin:

We met Griffin through the breeder of his half-sister (same mother) Sabine. After a year of happiness with Sabine, we contacted the breeder and asked if she had any puppies. It was October 2001. Due to the events of September 11, one male puppy was unexpectedly still available (his prospective adoptive parents lived in New York City, and decided they couldn’t handle a puppy at that time). He was 10 weeks old. We drove to the Roscoe Motel to make the pick-up (breeder lived in Horsehead, NY), Sabine in tow. They met in the motel room and didn’t kill each other, so...[read on]

About Klein's book, Blows to the Head: How Boxing Changed My Mind, from the publisher:

A provocative tale of an unlikely contender and her midlife transformation through boxing.

“I peered through the Venetian blinds in our den, with its view of the playground next door, and watched mournfully as the popular girls played softball. I wanted to run fast, hit hard, and wear a cute uniform. These girls seemed to know something about life that I didn’t.”

When Binnie Klein took up boxing in her midfifties, the reaction from friends and acquaintances was always the same: “You?” Why, after all, would a middle-aged Jewish psychotherapist with no previous history of athletics take up boxing? In Blows to the Head, Klein offers a provocative tale of an unlikely contender whose unexpected fascination with boxing takes her beyond the ring and leads her back to her roots and to a surprising chapter of the Jewish immigrant experience. With candor and wit, she reveals a series of memories and insights that would never have been possible if she hadn’t been drawn toward a pair of boxing gloves during a physical therapy session. In a story that will captivate and inspire women and men, athletes and nonathletes, Klein shows us that if we turn over the “weird stones” on our path, the ones we usually ignore, we may find ourselves on an unexpected journey that will summon vitality back into our lives.

Visit Binnie Klein's WPKN webpage, and learn more about her book, Blows to the Head: How Boxing Changed My Mind.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Binnie Klein and Griffin.

--Marshal Zeringue

Max Gladstone's "Two Serpents Rise," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Two Serpents Rise by Max Gladstone.

The entry begins:

The question of who would play whom in movies of my books is tough, since many of my central characters aren't white. Due to a combination of the relative pastiness of many Hollywood headliners and my own failure to dig beyond headline movies as often as I should (I read more than I watch), I don't know as many actors who'd fit for these parts, which is both an institutional problem and a personal one.

Most characters in Two Serpents Rise would read as various extractions of Central American Indian to a modern observer. There's no shortage of actors of that extraction, but not a ton of top-billing names. I could see Q'orianka Kilcher in one of the central female roles, maybe as Mal—she was great in The New World, and by the time this movie gets made she'll be almost old enough for the character. My first step in casting this project would be to secure a casting director who has a good relationship with Native American actors and a history of respectful casting—someone like Rene Haynes, who worked on The New World, Into the West, Dances with Wolves, and the Twilight movies. And then to...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Max Gladstone's website and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: Two Serpents Rise.

My Book, The Movie: Two Serpents Rise.

--Marshal Zeringue

Free book: "The Death of Bees"

Harper Perennial and the Campaign for the American Reader are giving away a paperback copy of The Death of Bees by Lisa O'Donnell.

HOW TO ENTER: (1) send an email to this address:

(2) In the subject line, type The Death of Bees.

(3) Include your name (or alias or whatever you wish to be called if I email you to tell you you've won the book) in the body of the email.

[I will not sell or share your email address; nor will I be in touch with you unless it is to tell you you have won the book.  I promise.]

Contest closes on Monday, November 11th.

Only one entry per person, please.

Winner must have a US mailing address.

Learn more about the book and author at Lisa O'Donnell's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Death of Bees.

Writers Read: Lisa O'Donnell.

My Book, The Movie: The Death of Bees.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books featuring Death as a character

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Nicole Hill tagged seven books with Death as a character, including:

The Book Thief, by Marcus Zusak

The story of Liesl Meminger in WWII Germany is a heart-breaking read, and Death—not just dying, but the entity itself—is in no small part responsible for the pain. As a narrator, Death is observant, compassionate, and empathetic. As he speaks, so tenderly, of events not even he understands, he renews your own sense of horror. In the end, Death’s final word is as good a summation as any book-jacket blurb: “I am haunted by humans.”

Read about another entry on the list.

The Book Thief also appears among Lenore Appelhans's top ten teen books featuring flashbacks and Kathryn Erskine's top 10 first person narratives.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Jason Vanhee reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Jason Vanhee, author of Engines of the Broken World.

His entry begins:

I have eclectic tastes in books. That’s probably what everyone says. Recently I’ve been spending time re-reading the fantasy and science fiction I read when I was a younger person: Dune by Frank Herbert (still holds up pretty well, though I get it all confused with David Lynch’s movie now); Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings (would that I could be thirteen again and really love this; alas I’m not); Elric of Melnibone by Michael Moorcock (cool and strange even now.) I tried but couldn’t manage to finish The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. Perhaps it’s that I’ve lost entirely the ability to absorb epic fantasy into my system, but the book was just too long, too tangled, too many...[read on]

About Engines of the Broken World, from the publisher:

Merciful Truth and her brother, Gospel, have just pulled their dead mother into the kitchen and stowed her under the table. It was a long illness, and they wanted to bury her—they did—but it’s far too cold outside, and they know they won’t be able to dig into the frozen ground. The Minister who lives with them, who preaches through his animal form, doesn’t make them feel any better about what they’ve done. Merciful calms her guilty feelings but only until, from the other room, she hears a voice she thought she’d never hear again. It’s her mother’s voice, and it’s singing a lullaby....

Engines of the Broken World is a chilling young adult novel from Jason Vanhee.

Learn more about the book and author at Jason Vanhee's blog, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: Engines of the Broken World.

My Book, The Movie: Engines of the Broken World.

Writers Read: Jason Vanhee.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Hooman Majd's "The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay: An American Family in Iran by Hooman Majd.

About the book, from the publisher:

With U.S.–Iran relations at a thirty-year low, Iranian-American writer Hooman Majd dared to take his young family on a year-long sojourn in Tehran. The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay traces their domestic adventures and closely tracks the political drama of a terrible year for Iran's government.

It was an annus horribilis for Iran's Supreme Leader. The Green Movement had been crushed, but the regime was on edge, anxious lest democratic protests resurge. International sanctions were dragging down the economy while talk of war with the West grew. Hooman Majd was there for all of it. A new father at age fifty, he decided to take his blonde, blue-eyed Midwestern yoga instructor wife Karri and his adorable, only-eats-organic infant son Khash from their hip Brooklyn neighborhood to spend a year in the land of his birth. It was to be a year of discovery for Majd, too, who had only lived in Iran as a child.

The book opens ominously as Majd is stopped at the airport by intelligence officers who show him a four-inch thick security file about his books and journalism and warn him not to write about Iran during his stay. Majd brushes it off—but doesn't tell Karri—and the family soon settles in to the rituals of middle class life in Tehran: finding an apartment (which requires many thousands of dollars, all of which, bafflingly, is returned to you when you leave), a secure internet connection (one that persuades the local censors you are in New York) and a bootlegger (self-explanatory). Karri masters the head scarf, but not before being stopped for mal-veiling, twice. They endure fasting at Ramadan and keep up with Khash in a country weirdly obsessed with children.

All the while, Majd fields calls from security officers and he and Karri eye the headlines—the arrest of an American "spy," the British embassy riots, the Arab Spring—and wonder if they are pushing their luck. The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay is a sparkling account of life under a quixotic authoritarian regime that offers rare and intimate insight into a country and its people, as well as a personal story of exile and a search for the meaning of home.

Learn more about the book and author at Hooman Majd's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Ayatollah Begs to Differ.

Writers Read: Hooman Majd (October 2010).

The Page 99 Test: The Ayatollahs' Democracy.

The Page 99 Test: The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Maria T. Lennon's "Confessions of a So-called Middle Child"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Confessions of a So-called Middle Child by Maria T. Lennon.

About the book, from the publisher:

People, what you're holding in your greasy little hands is my manifesto, my confessions, written for all you misunderstood middle kids out there who have no room to shine. Yep, when you're sandwiched between an overachieving, superhairy older sister and a too-cute-for-his-own-good younger brother, how can you ever win, right?

I never really thought of myself as a "middle child." Gifted computer hacker? Check. Fashion trailblazer? Double check. Finest prankster in my sixth-grade class? Triple check.

But then something happened. Things got messy. I did something bad. And I mean really, really bad. Bad enough to get expelled for. Bad enough to have to move for, and even bad enough to be sent to a shrink for.

At first, I thought Dr. Scales was just a sad old man with a hazardous dandruff problem, but you know what? By the end of the summer, I was a changed woman. In our last session, the day before my brand-new middle-school life was to start, he gave me a mission:

I had to find the most bullied, friendless, hopeless, laughed-at, lonely girl in the entire school and be her friend. In public.

Just kill me now, please.

Learn more about the book and author at the Confessions of a So-called Middle Child website, and follow Maria T. Lennon on Facebook and Twitter.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Maria T. Lennon and Frida.

My Book, The Movie: Confessions of a So-Called Middle Child.

The Page 69 Test: Confessions of a So-called Middle Child.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jo Nesbø's 7 favorite books

Norwegian crime novelist Jo Nesbø is the author of the best-selling Harry Hole series.

One of his seven favorite books, as shared with The Week magazine:

Watchmen by Alan Moore, with illustrations by Dave Gibbons

Not your average graphic novel, this work about a group of flawed, over-the-hill crime fighters who are roused from retirement by the murder of a former associate is instead an ambitious literary project that takes the superhero genre seriously.

Read about another entry on Nesbo's list.

Watchmen also appears among Ian Rankin's six best books and Lev Grossman's top ten graphic novels list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Diane Hammond reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Diane Hammond, author of Friday's Harbor.

Her entry begins:

Right now I’m reading Delia Ephron’s recently released book of autobiographical essays, Sister Mother Husband Dog: Etc. As an essayist she’s new to me, though I recognize her screenplays. Maybe I should say I’m sipping the book instead of reading, because I love it—not only the topics, but the words she chooses, and how she puts them together—so much that I’m double-reading sentences and doling out just one or two essays a day, so the book doesn’t end too quickly.

Six months or so ago, I found myself abandoning book after book within several pages. What the hell? I’ve always been a respectful reader, giving almost anyone at least 50 pages of my time; but now...[read on]

About Friday's Harbor, from the publisher:

Hannah the elephant is thriving in her new home, peacemaker Truman Levy is the new director of the Max L. Biedelman Zoo, and life in Bladenham, Washington, has finally settled down ... or has it? From his eccentric aunt Ivy, Truman learns of the plight of a desperately sick, captive killer whale named Friday.

Reluctantly Truman agrees to give the orca a new home—and a new lease on life—at the zoo. But not everybody believes in his captivity. Soon the Max L. Biedelman Zoo is embroiled in a whale-size controversy and Friday's fate is up for grabs.

Like The Art of Racing in the Rain and Water for Elephants, Friday's Harbor beautifully illuminates the special bond between animals and humans.

Learn more about the book and author at Diane Hammond's website and follow her on Facebook.

The Page 69 Test:  Hannah’s Dream.

The Page 69 Test: Seeing Stars.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Diane Hammond & Petey and Haagen.

The Page 69 Test: Friday's Harbor.

My Book, The Movie: Friday's Harbor.

Writers Read: Diane Hammond.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five of the best historical novels about the oldest profession

Emma Donoghue is an award-winning writer, living in Canada with her family. Her novels are Room, The Sealed Letter, Landing, Life Mask, Slammerkin, Hood and Stir-fry; short-story collections Astray, Three and a Half Deaths (UK ebook), Touchy Subjects, The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits, and Kissing the Witch; and literary history including Inseparable, We Are Michael Field, and Passions Between Women as well as two anthologies that span the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. Frog Music, her new novel, comes out in Spring 2014.

At The Daily Beast Donoghue tagged five of the best historical fictions about the oldest profession, including:

Roxana by Daniel Defoe

This unsettling last novel by the early master of English fiction focuses on a highborn woman—one of whose pseudonyms is Roxana—forced to resort to prostitution. Its subtitle, The Fortunate Mistress, is ironic, because our first-person heroine’s moves up and down the social ladder may earn her a fortune, but also entangle her in complicated miseries, including twelve children and an obsessively devoted maid.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Free book: "Death of a Nightingale"

Soho Crime and the Campaign for the American Reader are giving away a copy of Death of a Nightingale (Nina Borg #3) by Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis.

HOW TO ENTER: (1) send an email to this address:

(2) In the subject line, type Death of a Nightingale.

(3) Include your name (or alias or whatever you wish to be called if I email you to tell you you've won the book) in the body of the email.

[I will not sell or share your email address; nor will I be in touch with you unless it is to tell you you have won the book.  I promise.]

Contest closes on Monday, November 4th.

Only one entry per person, please.

Winner must have a US mailing address.

Read more about Death of a Nightingale at the Soho Crime website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Robert Klara's "The Hidden White House"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: The Hidden White House: Harry Truman and the Reconstruction of America's Most Famous Residence by Robert Klara.

About the book, from the publisher:

Critically acclaimed author Robert Klara leads readers through an unmatched tale of political ambition and technical skill: the Truman administration’s controversial rebuilding of the White House.

In 1948, President Harry Truman, enjoying a bath on the White House’s second floor, almost plunged through the ceiling of the Blue Room into a tea party for the Daughters of the American Revolution. A handpicked team of the country’s top architects conducted a secret inspection of the troubled mansion and, after discovering it was in imminent danger of collapse, insisted that the First Family be evicted immediately. What followed would be the most historically significant and politically complex home-improvement job in American history. While the Trumans camped across the street at Blair House, Congress debated whether to bulldoze the White House completely, and the Soviets exploded their first atomic bomb, starting the Cold War.

Indefatigable researcher Robert Klara reveals what has, until now, been little understood about this episode: America’s most famous historic home was basically demolished, giving birth to today’s White House. Leaving only the mansion’s facade untouched, workmen gutted everything within, replacing it with a steel frame and a complex labyrinth deep below ground that soon came to include a top-secret nuclear fallout shelter.

The story of Truman’s rebuilding of the White House is a snapshot of postwar America and its first Cold War leader, undertaking a job that changed the centerpiece of the country’s national heritage. The job was by no means perfect, but it was remarkable—and, until now, all but forgotten.

Learn more about the book and author at Robert Klara's website and Twitter perch.

My Book, The Movie: The Hidden White House.

Writers Read: Robert Klara.

The Page 99 Test: The Hidden White House.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jason Vanhee's "Engines of the Broken World," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Engines of the Broken World by Jason Vanhee.

The entry begins:

This is probably a topic I’ve spent too much time thinking about: not in the particulars really, just in the imagining what it would look like. Engines of the Broken World has a very small scope. There’s just a few locations, just a few characters, a very short time span, and a reasonably well defined sense of place. So I can picture the book as a movie in my head already, and I do. But who’s in that movie? Well, that’s one of the odd things, mostly the characters when I picture them are just blanks, snatches of clothes, and hints of faces. That may have something to do with my tendency to be light on description, or it may just be that I don’t want to fit anyone into my characters.

But if we’re talking casting, I do have one notion that I adore. The two main characters are Merciful, who’s 12, and her brother Gospel, who’s not quite 15. And at least at this moment, there’s a pair of acting siblings who match up with those ages and that gap very well. I’m thinking of...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Jason Vanhee's blog, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: Engines of the Broken World.

My Book, The Movie: Engines of the Broken World.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books for "Eat, Pray, Love" fans

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Dell Villa tagged seven books for people who love Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love, including:

The Death of Santini, by Pat Conroy

For over four decades, Conroy has earned a prominent place in the Southern literary tradition, and The Death of Santini, a follow-up to his novel The Great Santini (1976), will do his reputation—and his many avid fans—justice. If The Great Santini, inspired by Conroy’s tumultuous relationship with his emotionally abusive, ex-Marine father, Donald Conroy, put a gulf between father and son, then The Death of Santini is proof that wounds can heal. This heartbreaking and ultimately redemptive memoir is hauntingly beautiful, and a complex tribute to family.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is J.J. Carney reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: J.J. Carney, author of Rwanda Before the Genocide: Catholic Politics and Ethnic Discourse in the Late Colonial Era.

His entry begins:

Although my specialization lies in modern African Christianity, I like to read broadly within the fields of history, philosophy and theology. Recently I've been tackling Charles Taylor's massive 800-page tome A Secular Age (Cambridge: Harvard Belknap, 2007). The book grew out of the prestigious "Gifford Lectures" that Taylor delivered at the University of Edinburgh. What intrigues me about Taylor's argument is that he shifts the conversation away from the culture war argument over whether or not Western secularism is a good thing. Rather, he examines how we ended up in a world in which a broadly secular outlook is the social and cultural norm. The historical, religious and philosophical breadth of Taylor's work is truly magisterial; one can see why...[read on]

About Rwanda Before the Genocide, from the publisher:

Between 1920 and 1994, the Catholic Church was Rwanda's most dominant social and religious institution. In recent years, the church has been critiqued for its perceived complicity in the ethnic discourse and political corruption that culminated with the 1994 genocide. In analyzing the contested legacy of Catholicism in Rwanda, Rwanda Before the Genocide focuses on a critical decade, from 1952 to 1962, when Hutu and Tutsi identities became politicized, essentialized, and associated with political violence.

This study--the first English-language church history on Rwanda in over 30 years--examines the reactions of Catholic leaders such as the Swiss White Father André Perraudin and Aloys Bigirumwami, Rwanda's first indigenous bishop. It evaluates Catholic leaders' controversial responses to ethnic violence during the revolutionary changes of 1959-62 and after Rwanda's ethnic massacres in 1963-64, 1973, and the early 1990s. In seeking to provide deeper insight into the many-threaded roots of the Rwandan genocide, Rwanda Before the Genocide offers constructive lessons for Christian ecclesiology and social ethics in Africa and beyond.

Read more about Rwanda Before the Genocide at the Oxford University Press website.

Writers Read: J.J. Carney.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top crime writers turned detective

At the Guardian John Dugdale came up with a top ten list of crime writers turned detective, including:

James Ellroy, The Black Dahlia (1987)

Ellroy's novel follows LAPD cops investigating the grotesque and still-unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short (nicknamed the Black Dahlia by the press, largely because she wore a black suit), one of whom eventually links the crime, in classic Chandler-esque fashion, to a wealthy local family. Nine years later, Ellroy investigated his mother Geneva's murder in 1958 (when he was 10) in the non-fiction book My Dark Places.

Read about another entry on the list.

My Dark Places is among Errol Morris's five top tales of true crime and Peter Collier's five best books about writers' lives.

Ellroy's novel The Black Dahlia appears among Lynda La Plante's six best books and Jonathan Kellerman's six favorite books, and on David Bowman's list of five great noir novels from the post-Chandler generations.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Max Gladstone's "Two Serpents Rise"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Two Serpents Rise by Max Gladstone.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Two Serpents Rise by Max Gladstone, shadow demons plague the city reservoir, and Red King Consolidated has sent in Caleb Altemoc—casual gambler and professional risk manager—to cleanse the water for the sixteen million people of Dresediel Lex. At the scene of the crime, Caleb finds an alluring and clever cliff runner, Crazy Mal, who easily outpaces him.

But Caleb has more than the demon infestation, Mal, or job security to worry about when he discovers that his father—the last priest of the old gods and leader of the True Quechal terrorists—has broken into his home and is wanted in connection to the attacks on the water supply.

From the beginning, Caleb and Mal are bound by lust, Craft, and chance, as both play a dangerous game where gods and people are pawns. They sleep on water, they dance in fire...and all the while the Twin Serpents slumbering beneath the earth are stirring, and they are hungry.

Learn more about the book and author at Max Gladstone's website and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: Two Serpents Rise.

--Marshal Zeringue

Free book: "Rwanda Before the Genocide"

Oxford University Press and the Campaign for the American Reader are giving away a copy of Rwanda Before the Genocide: Catholic Politics and Ethnic Discourse in the Late Colonial Era by J.J. Carney.

HOW TO ENTER: (1) send an email to this address:

(2) In the subject line, type Rwanda.

(3) Include your name (or alias or whatever you wish to be called if I email you to tell you you've won the book) in the body of the email.

[I will not sell or share your email address; nor will I be in touch with you unless it is to tell you you have won the book.  I promise.]

Contest closes on Monday, November 11th.

Only one entry per person, please.

Winner must have a US mailing address.

J.J. Carney is Assistant Professor of Theology at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska. In addition to Rwandan Catholic history, Carney's research interests include the theology of reconciliation, political theology, mission history, and African ecclesiology. He has previously taught at the Catholic University of America and the University of Arkansas where he also served as a Catholic campus minister.

Read more about Rwanda Before the Genocide at the Oxford University Press website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nick Offerman’s 12 favorite books

Nick Offerman is a stage and screen actor (Parks and Recreation) and woodworker.

His new book is Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Fundamentals for Delicious Living.

One of Offerman’s twelve favorite books, as shared with The Barnes & Noble Book Blog:

A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson

A favorite purveyor of smarty-pants nonfiction subject matter due to his friendly and humorous tone. Incredibly universal in his appeal, this journal of his time on the Appalachian Trail is like taking a stroll down to the creek with an uncle who is great at telling stories.

Read about another book on the list.

A Walk in the Woods is among Will Howarth's best books for lovers of Henry Thoreau's "Walden" and Eric Blehm's ten favorite books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Adam Shprintzen's "The Vegetarian Crusade"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: The Vegetarian Crusade: The Rise of an American Reform Movement, 1817-1921 by Adam D. Shprintzen.

About the book, from the publisher:

Vegetarianism has been practiced in the United States since the country's founding, yet the early years of the movement have been woefully misunderstood and understudied. Through the Civil War, the vegetarian movement focused on social and political reform, but by the late nineteenth century, the movement became a path for personal strength and success in a newly individualistic, consumption-driven economy. This development led to greater expansion and acceptance of vegetarianism in mainstream society. So argues Adam D. Shprintzen in his lively history of early American vegetarianism and social reform. From Bible Christians to Grahamites, the American Vegetarian Society to the Battle Creek Sanitarium, Shprintzen explores the diverse proponents of reform-motivated vegetarianism and explains how each of these groups used diet as a response to changing social and political conditions.

By examining the advocates of vegetarianism, including institutions, organizations, activists, and publications, Shprintzen explores how an idea grew into a nationwide community united not only by diet but also by broader goals of social reform.

Learn more about the book and author at Adam D. Shprintzen's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Vegetarian Crusade.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Ronald H. Balson reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Ronald H. Balson, author of  Once We Were Brothers.

His entry begins:

I just finished an extraordinary non-fiction account of the history of Jerusalem. Simon Sebag Montefiore’s national bestseller, Jerusalem, the Biography, has everything you’d ever want to know about Jerusalem, its people, its religions, its culture and its influence upon the rest of the world. Beautifully written, not the least bit dry, Jerusalem is chock full of interesting anecdotes about the region’s founders, builders, movers and shakers.

Jerusalem is 650 annotated pages, so it might take you a while. But it’s well worth it, even if you can’t remember one Caliph from another. Montefiore conveys a three thousand year timeline in such a captivating fashion that you come away with an appreciation for the land, the competing philosophies and the people who...[read on]

About Once We Were Brothers, from the publisher:

The gripping tale about two boys, once as close as brothers, who find themselves on opposite sides of the Holocaust.

Elliot Rosenzweig, a respected civic leader and wealthy philanthropist, is attending a fundraiser when he is suddenly accosted and accused of being a former Nazi SS officer named Otto Piatek, the Butcher of Zamosc. Although the charges are denounced as preposterous, his accuser is convinced he is right and engages attorney Catherine Lockhart to bring Rosenzweig to justice. Solomon persuades attorney Catherine Lockhart to take his case, revealing that the true Piatek was abandoned as a child and raised by Solomon's own family only to betray them during the Nazi occupation. But has Solomon accused the right man?

Once We Were Brothers is Ronald H. Balson's compelling tale of two boys and a family who struggle to survive in war-torn Poland, and a young love that struggles to endure the unspeakable cruelty of the Holocaust. Two lives, two worlds, and sixty years converge in an explosive race to redemption that makes for a moving and powerful tale of love, survival, and ultimately the triumph of the human spirit.

Learn more about the book and author at the official Once We Were Brothers website and Ronald H. Balson's Facebook page. 

My Book, The Movie: Once We Were Brothers.

The Page 69 Test: Once We Were Brothers.

Writers Read: Ronald H. Balson.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top books for Harry Potter fans

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog, Amy Wilkinson tagged six books for people who love Harry Potter, including:

House of Secrets, by Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini

When the elusive Rowling blurbs a novel, it’s worth noting—especially when she characterizes the work as a “breakneck roller coaster of an adventure.” And she should know, seeing as she advised two-time Harry Potter director Chris Columbus on his debut novel, House of Secrets, which he cowrote with It’s Kind of a Funny Story author Ned Vizzini. The first installment in a planned tween fantasy series, House of Secrets centers around Walker siblings Brendan, Eleanor, and Cordelia, who when their dad loses his job must move into a creepy Victorian house formerly owned by an occult writer. But before they can even lay down the welcome mat, they’re transported to a primeval forest, where they must contend with a slew of fantastical creatures to guarantee not only their survival—but the world’s.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Diane Hammond's "Friday's Harbor," the movie

This weekend's feature at My Book, The Movie: Friday's Harbor by Diane Hammond.

The entry begins:

I love playing this game! Truman Levy, the business manager-turned-director of the Max L. Biedelman Zoo, was Jason Bateman from the time moment he appeared in my imagination. The actor has that sweet, boyish, clear-eyed face that, for me, characterizes Truman—not a showy look, but one you could look at fondly for a lifetime. My agents are sick of hearing about what a great Truman he’d make. They put it down to a crush. So be it.

Ivy Levy would definitely be played Kathy...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Diane Hammond's website and follow her on Facebook.

The Page 69 Test:  Hannah’s Dream.

The Page 69 Test: Seeing Stars.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Diane Hammond & Petey and Haagen.

The Page 69 Test: Friday's Harbor.

My Book, The Movie: Friday's Harbor.

--Marshal Zeringue

Free book: "The Cartographer of No Man's Land"

Liveright Publishing and the Campaign for the American Reader are giving away a copy of The Cartographer of No Man's Land by P.S. Duffy.

HOW TO ENTER: (1) send an email to this address:

(2) In the subject line, type Cartographer.

(3) Include your name (or alias or whatever you wish to be called if I email you to tell you you've won the book) in the body of the email.

[I will not sell or share your email address; nor will I be in touch with you unless it is to tell you you have won the book.  I promise.]

Contest closes on Monday, November 25th.

Only one entry per person, please.

Winner must have a US mailing address.

Visit P. S. Duffy's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Richard S. Grossman's "Wrong"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Wrong: Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn from Them by Richard S. Grossman.

About the book, from the publisher:

In recent years, the world has been rocked by major economic crises, most notably the devastating collapse of Lehman Brothers, the largest bankruptcy in American history, which triggered the breathtakingly destructive sub-prime disaster. What sparks these vast economic calamities? Why do our economic policy makers fail to protect us from such upheavals?

In Wrong, economist Richard Grossman addresses such questions, shining a light on the poor thinking behind nine of the worst economic policy mistakes of the past 200 years, missteps whose outcomes ranged from appalling to tragic. Grossman tells the story behind each misconceived economic move, explaining why the policy was adopted, how it was implemented, and its short- and long-term consequences. In each case, he shows that the main culprits were policy makers who were guided by ideology rather than economics. For instance, Wrong looks at how America's unfounded fear of a centralized monetary authority caused them to reject two central banks, condemning the nation to wave after wave of financial panics. He describes how Britain's blind commitment to free markets, rather than to assisting the starving in Ireland, led to one of the nineteenth century's worst humanitarian tragedies- the Irish famine. And he shows how Britain's reestablishment of the gold standard after World War I, fuelled largely by a desire to recapture its pre-war dominance, helped to turn what would otherwise have been a normal recession into the Great Depression. Grossman also explores the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930, Japan's lost decade of the 1990s, the American subprime crisis, and the present European sovereign debt crisis.

Economic policy should be based on cold, hard economic analysis, Grossman concludes, not on an unquestioning commitment to a particular ideology. Wrong shows what happens when this sensible advice is ignored.

Learn more about Wrong at the Oxford University Press website.

Grossman is Professor of Economics at Wesleyan University and a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University. He is the author of Unsettled Account: The Evolution of Banking in the Industrialized World since 1800.

The Page 99 Test: Unsettled Account.

The Page 99 Test: Wrong.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Mike Maden reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Mike Maden, author of Drone.

His entry begins:

I write in the techno-thriller genre and I enjoy it immensely because that is the world we live in but I enjoy reading outside of my genre. I recently finished Alan Furst’s Mission to Paris. Anyone familiar with Mr. Furst’s writing know that he comfortably inhabits the world of espionage immediately proceeding and during the years of World War II. I read Furst because he writes about the occasionally violent “cloak-and-dagger” universe with an effortless, literary grace seldom found in this kind of writing. Of course, I’m swept up in the intrigues and dangers of his plot, but he also transports me to a bygone world I can never visit and yet which now, thanks to him, seems hauntingly familiar. No doubt, that’s partly due to his brilliant choice of subject matter. We all think we know something about World War II and when we hear the word “Nazi” we know immediately who the bad guys are so all of his material is, in fact, vaguely familiar. But Mr. Furst brings an imaginary specificity to that world that is endlessly satisfying.

What I particularly enjoyed about Mission to Paris is that the protagonist is...[read on]

About Drone, from the publisher:

Troy Pearce is the CEO of Pearce Systems, a private security firm that is the best in the world at drone technologies. A former CIA SOG operative, Pearce used his intelligence and combat skills to hunt down America’s sworn enemies in the War on Terror. But after a decade of clandestine special ops, Pearce opted out. Too many of his friends had been sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. Now Pearce and his team chose which battles he will take on by deploying his land, sea, and air drones with surgical precision.

Pearce thinks he’s done with the U.S. government for good, until a pair of drug cartel hit men assault a group of American students on American soil. New U.S. president Margaret Meyers then secretly authorizes Pearce Systems to locate and destroy the killers sheltered in Mexico. Pearce and his team go to work, and they are soon thrust into a showdown with the hidden powers behind the El Paso attack—unleashing a host of unexpected repercussions.

A Ph.D., lecturer, and consultant on political science and international conflict, Mike Maden has crafted an intense, page-turning novel that is action-packed and frighteningly real—blurring the lines between fiction and the reality of a new stage in warfare.

Follow Mike Maden on Facebook and Twitter.

My Book, The Movie: Drone by Mike Maden.

The Page 69 Test: Drone.

Writers Read: Mike Maden.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books that predicted the world wide web

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Joel Cunningham tagged five books that predicted the internet, including:

The Naked Sun, by Isaac Asimov (1957): As one of the most influential science-fiction writers of all time—and one of the most prolific—it’s no wonder that Asimov managed to stumble across the idea of the internet. In The Naked Sun, a detective and his robot sidekick visit Solaria, a planet where the strictly controlled human population shuns personal contact, preferring instead to interact through the use of machines. As someone who has spent an entire weekend alone on the computer, I can identify with the citizens of this world and would love to meet them. Just not face-to-face. Maybe via Skype.

Read about another novel on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jason Vanhee's "Engines of the Broken World"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Engines of the Broken World by Jason Vanhee.

About the book, from the publisher:

Merciful Truth and her brother, Gospel, have just pulled their dead mother into the kitchen and stowed her under the table. It was a long illness, and they wanted to bury her—they did—but it’s far too cold outside, and they know they won’t be able to dig into the frozen ground. The Minister who lives with them, who preaches through his animal form, doesn’t make them feel any better about what they’ve done. Merciful calms her guilty feelings but only until, from the other room, she hears a voice she thought she’d never hear again. It’s her mother’s voice, and it’s singing a lullaby....

Engines of the Broken World is a chilling young adult novel from Jason Vanhee.

Visit Jason Vanhee's blog, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: Engines of the Broken World.

--Marshal Zeringue