Pg. 69: Laurel Saville's "North of Here"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: North of Here by Laurel Saville.

About the book, from the publisher:

The sounds of unexpected tragedies-a roll of thunder, the crash of metal on metal-leave Miranda in shock amid the ruins of her broken family.

As she searches for new meaning in her life, Miranda finds quiet refuge with her family’s handyman, Dix, in his cabin in the dark forests of the Adirondack Mountains. Dix is kind, dependable, and good with an ax-the right man to help the sheltered Miranda heal-but ultimately, her sadness creates a void even Dix can’t fill.

When a man from her distant past turns up, the handsome idealist now known as Darius, he offers Miranda a chance to do meaningful work at The Source, a secluded property filled with his nature worshipers. Miranda feels this charismatic guru is the key to remaking her life, but her grief and desire for love also create an opportunity for his deception. And in her desperate quest to find herself after losing almost everything, Miranda and Dix could pay a higher price than they ever imagined.

Visit Laurel Saville's website.

Writers Read: Laurel Saville.

The Page 69 Test: North of Here.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Peter Frankopan's "The Silk Roads"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan.

About the book, from the publisher:

The epic history of the crossroads of the world—the meeting place of East and West and the birthplace of civilization

It was on the Silk Roads that East and West first encountered each other through trade and conquest, leading to the spread of ideas, cultures and religions. From the rise and fall of empires to the spread of Buddhism and the advent of Christianity and Islam, right up to the great wars of the twentieth century—this book shows how the fate of the West has always been inextricably linked to the East.

Peter Frankopan realigns our understanding of the world, pointing us eastward. He vividly re-creates the emergence of the first cities in Mesopotamia and the birth of empires in Persia, Rome and Constantinople, as well as the depredations by the Mongols, the transmission of the Black Death and the violent struggles over Western imperialism. Throughout the millennia, it was the appetite for foreign goods that brought East and West together, driving economies and the growth of nations.

From the Middle East and its political instability to China and its economic rise, the vast region stretching eastward from the Balkans across the steppe and South Asia has been thrust into the global spotlight in recent years. Frankopan teaches us that to understand what is at stake for the cities and nations built on these intricate trade routes, we must first understand their astounding pasts. Far more than a history of the Silk Roads, this book is truly a revelatory new history of the world, promising to destabilize notions of where we come from and where we are headed next.

Visit Peter Frankopan's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Silk Roads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top invented worlds in teen fiction

Alwyn Hamilton is the author of Rebel of the Sands. One of her top ten invented worlds in teen fiction, as shared at the Guardian:

Crown & Court Series by Sherwood Smith

I have recently been led to understand that the world in Sherwood Smith’s brilliant duology is supposed to be ours, set far in the future on a distant planet, where the magic is alien science. This would certainly explain why they share many touchstones with our world, while also having two moons for the characters to gaze up at and trees willing to exact revenge. But the true magic in these books for me is in the complexities of the ballroom. Smith has created a complete court to rival Versailles in intrigue, with fan language, complicated symbolism woven covertly into jewelry, long lineage that gives you the feeling every character does have a twisting family tree, and old traditions so tangible you’re sure they must have been in fashion once in our world too.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Michelle Gable reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Michelle Gable, author of I'll See You in Paris.

Her entry begins:

Blurbing other books can be a tricky endeavor. I’m flattered anyone would consider my comments a worthy endorsement, and I love helping fellow authors, but it can sometimes feel like “work.” Plus there’s the nagging fear…what if I hate the book? Luckily that hasn’t happened yet (knock on wood)!

About a week ago, my agent asked me to blurb another client of hers. Despite a harried tour schedule, I agreed. First of all, my agent believed in me when no one else did, so she can ask me to do anything and I’ll say yes. Second, I’d read and loved Ashley Ream’s first novel, and so I agreed to blurb her second, The 100 Year Miracle. As it turns out, I...[read on]

About I'll See You in Paris, from the publisher:

Three women, born generations apart.
One mysterious book that threads their lives together.
A journey of love, discovery, and truth…

I’ll See You in Paris is based on the real life of Gladys Spencer-Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough, a woman whose life was so rich and storied it could fill several books. Nearly a century after Gladys’s heyday, a young woman’s quest to understand the legendary Duchess takes her from a charming hamlet in the English countryside, to a dilapidated manse kept behind barbed wire, and ultimately to Paris, where answers will be found at last. In the end, she not only solves the riddle of the Duchess, but uncovers the missing pieces in her own life.

At once a great love story and literary mystery, I’ll See You in Paris will entertain and delight, with an unexpected ending that will leave readers satisfied and eager for Gable’s next novel.

Visit Michelle Gable's website.

The Page 69 Test: A Paris Apartment.

My Book, The Movie: A Paris Apartment.

The Page 69 Test: I'll See You in Paris.

Writers Read: Michelle Gable.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top linked story collections

Amy Parker was born in Okinawa, Japan, and spent most of her childhood on diplomatic and military compounds overseas. She returned to the United States after her high school graduation and attended Indiana University, where she studied comparative literature. She won a Michener fellowship in fiction from the University of Texas, Austin. Afterward, she spent four years doing intensive monastic practice at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the oldest Soto Zen monastery in the United States, and at Green Gulch Farm and Zen Center in Mill Valley, California. She received lay ordination in the Soto Zen lineage in 2007. She left the monastery for the Iowa Writers Workshop, where she graduated in 2012. She currently lives in Wichita with her son.

Parker's debut story collection is Beasts and Children.

One of the author's ten favorite linked story collections, as shared at Publishers Weekly:

Jesus' Son
by Denis Johnson

This book was everywhere in the late '90s, and for good reason. Johnson’s images are indelible. A naked woman flown like a kite; a Mennonite couple making love in Iowa; a pour of whiskey trembling at the rim of a shot glass; a man with a knife in his eye. The writing is spare, smart, and beautiful. The stories hurt to read—as we follow FH (Fuckhead) through his mess of a life, seeking connection, seeking redemption, and finding it in stolen moments and unexpected places.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: Beasts and Children.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Chris Pavone's "The Travelers"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Travelers: A Novel by Chris Pavone.

About the book, from the publisher:

A pulse-racing international thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Expats and The Accident

It’s 3:00am. Do you know where your husband is?

Meet Will Rhodes: travel writer, recently married, barely solvent, his idealism rapidly giving way to disillusionment and the worry that he’s living the wrong life. Then one night, on assignment for the award-winning Travelers magazine in the wine region of Argentina, a beautiful woman makes him an offer he can’t refuse. Soon Will’s bad choices—and dark secrets—take him across Europe, from a chateau in Bordeaux to a midnight raid on a Paris mansion, from a dive bar in Dublin to a mega-yacht in the Mediterranean and an isolated cabin perched on the rugged cliffs of Iceland. As he’s drawn further into a tangled web of international intrigue, it becomes clear that nothing about Will Rhodes was ever ordinary, that the network of deception ensnaring him is part of an immense and deadly conspiracy with terrifying global implications—and that the people closest to him may pose the greatest threat of all.

It’s 3:00am. Your husband has just become a spy.

Visit Chris Pavone's website.

See: Chris Pavone: five books that changed me.

Coffee with a Canine: Chris Pavone & Charlie Brown.

The Page 69 Test: The Expats.

The Page 69 Test: The Accident.

The Page 69 Test: The Travelers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Lynda Cohen Loigman's "The Two-Family House," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Two-Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman.

The entry begins:

I’m pretty sure this is every author’s favorite way to procrastinate. After all, what could be more fun than dream-casting actors to play your characters on screen? Just the thought of it makes me giddy.

The Two-Family House is a character-driven story, written from the alternating viewpoints of four adults. Later on, the voices of two children are added as well. Writing this way allowed me to fully inhabit each character, and to dig deeply with respect to their motivations and thoughts. You might say I’m a little overly attached to my characters at this point – which only makes imagining real people to play them more exciting!

When I was halfway done writing The Two-Family House, I began to imagine Natalie Portman as Rose. Rose changes so much throughout the book – she goes from desperate and timid to assertive and bitter. If you’ve ever seen the movie The Black Swan, you’ll know why I have such an appreciation for Natalie Portman’s talent to transform herself. Natalie is the perfect age to play Rose, and since she’s also a young mother, I feel like she would be able to bring that maternal experience to the role.

Helen is the tougher female character for me to cast. She is what my grandmother would have called a baleboste – the Yiddish word for a traditional wife, mother, homemaker type. The actor who plays Helen must be oozing warmth and love, but still be tough as nails. She has to...[read on]

Visit Lynda Cohen Loigman's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Two-Family House.

My Book, The Movie: The Two-Family House.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Omar G. Encarnación's "Out in the Periphery"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Out in the Periphery: Latin America's Gay Rights Revolution by Omar G. Encarnación.

About the book, from the publisher:

Known around the world as a bastion of Catholicism and machismo, Latin America has emerged in recent years as the undisputed gay rights leader of the Global South. Even more surprising is that several Latin American nations have surpassed many developed nations, including the United States, in legislating equality for the LGBT community. So how did this dramatic and unexpected expansion of gay rights come about? And why are Latin American nations diverging in their embrace of gay rights, a point highlighted by the paradoxical experiences of Argentina and Brazil? Argentina, a country with a dark history of repression of homosexuality, legalized same-sex marriage in 2010, a first for a Latin American nation; and since then it has enacted laws to ensure transgender equality, to abolish "ex-gay reparative therapy," and to provide reproductive assistance to same-sex couples. By contrast, Brazil, a country famous for celebrating sexual diversity, proved incapable of legalizing same-sex marriage via the legislature, leaving the job to the courts; and Brazilian anti-gay discrimination laws are among the weakest in Latin America.

In Out in the Periphery, Omar G. Encarnación breaks away from the conventional narrative of Latin America's embrace of gay rights as a by-product of the global spread of gay rights from the developed West. Instead, Encarnación aims to "decenter" gay rights politics. His intention is not to demonstrate how the "local" has trumped the "global" in Latin America but rather to suggest how domestic and international politics interacted to make Latin America one of the world's most receptive environments for gay rights. Economic and political modernization, constitutional and judicial reforms, and the rise of socially liberal governments have all contributed to this receptivity. But the most decisive factor was the skill of local activists in crafting highly effective gay rights campaigns. Inspired by external events and trends, but firmly grounded in local politics and realities, these campaigns succeeded in bringing radical change to the law with respect to homosexuality and, in some cases, as in Argentina, in transforming society and the culture at large.

Learn more about Out in the Periphery at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Out in the Periphery.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Jeff Zentner reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Jeff Zentner, author of The Serpent King.

His entry begins:

I’m currently writing my third book, the main character is a young women from the Soviet Union who finds herself in New Mexico in the late 1940s. So much of my reading time lately has gone to research for that book. Three of those books I’m currently reading:

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.

I’m reading this to see how a European teenager from the 1940s would have talked, joked around, and thought. I somehow graduated from a public American high school without ever having been assigned this book. And I’ve gone all this time without reading it on my own because the recalcitrant former high schooler in me has screamed “No! If they make kids read it in high school it must be boring!” Well, that was silly of me to think that because the other high school classics I only read in adulthood--To Kill a Mockingbird and Catcher in the Rye--are now among my favorite books. And The Diary of a Young Girl will join them. It’s harrowing, beautiful, heartbreaking, and even hilarious at times. It’s unquestionably the most important YA book that has ever existed and it is everything a coming-of-age book should be. I read it with a sickness in the pit of my stomach, knowing how this story ends. But I keep pressing forward, grateful for...[read on]

About The Serpent King, from the publisher:

Dill has had to wrestle with vipers his whole life—at home, as the only son of a Pentecostal minister who urges him to handle poisonous rattlesnakes, and at school, where he faces down bullies who target him for his father’s extreme faith and very public fall from grace.

He and his fellow outcast friends must try to make it through their senior year of high school without letting the small-town culture destroy their creative spirits and sense of self. Graduation will lead to new beginnings for Lydia, whose edgy fashion blog is her ticket out of their rural Tennessee town. And Travis is content where he is thanks to his obsession with an epic book series and the fangirl turning his reality into real-life fantasy.

Their diverging paths could mean the end of their friendship. But not before Dill confronts his dark legacy to attempt to find a way into the light of a future worth living.

Visit Jeff Zentner's website.

Writers Read: Jeff Zentner.

--Marshal Zeringue

Peter Straub's 6 favorite books

Peter Straub is an award-winning writer of horror fiction. His new book, Interior Darkness, is a story collection drawn from his 45-year career. One of Straub's six favorite books, as shared at The Week magazine:

The Drowning Girl by Caitlín R. Kiernan

A schizophrenic girl becomes fascinated by a painting in a museum. A few years later, she meets a homeless young woman and invites her to share her apartment. After that, most of this beautiful novel is up for grabs, including whether or not this new roommate is "the drowning girl" in the painting.

Read about another entry on the list.

My Book, The Movie: The Drowning Girl.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Susan Meissner & Bella

Featured at Coffee with a Canine: Susan Meissner & Bella.

The author, on Bella's role as writer's aide:

Bella thinks she’s my muse. She is always as close as she can be to me when I’m writing. If I’m in my writing cave, she’s at the threshold of the room. If I’m writing in the living room, she’s lying on the rug at my feet. Whatever room in the house I decide to plop down in to work, she’s right there. I think she’s under the impression that if she’s not beside me, I am unable...[read on]

About Stars Over Sunset Boulevard, from the publisher:

In this new novel from the acclaimed author of Secrets of a Charmed Life, two women working in Hollywood during its Golden Age discover the joy and heartbreak of true friendship.

Los Angeles, Present Day. When an iconic hat worn by Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind ends up in Christine McAllister’s vintage clothing boutique by mistake, her efforts to return it to its owner take her on a journey more enchanting than any classic movie…

Los Angeles, 1938. Violet Mayfield sets out to reinvent herself in Hollywood after her dream of becoming a wife and mother falls apart, and lands a job on the film-set of Gone With the Wind. There, she meets enigmatic Audrey Duvall, a once-rising film star who is now a fellow secretary. Audrey’s zest for life and their adventures together among Hollywood’s glitterati enthrall Violet…until each woman’s deepest desires collide. What Audrey and Violet are willing to risk, for themselves and for each other, to ensure their own happy endings will shape their friendship, and their lives, far into the future.

Visit Susan Meissner's website.

Writers Read: Susan Meissner.

My Book, The Movie: Stars Over Sunset Boulevard.

Coffee with a Canine: Susan Meissner & Bella.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Lynda Cohen Loigman's "The Two-Family House"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Two-Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman.

About the book, from the publisher:

Brooklyn, 1947: in the midst of a blizzard, in a two-family brownstone, two babies are born minutes apart to two women. They are sisters by marriage with an impenetrable bond forged before and during that dramatic night; but as the years progress, small cracks start to appear and their once deep friendship begins to unravel. No one knows why, and no one can stop it. One misguided choice; one moment of tragedy. Heartbreak wars with happiness and almost but not quite wins.

From debut novelist Lynda Cohen Loigman comes The Two-Family House, a moving family saga filled with heart, emotion, longing, love, and mystery.

Visit Lynda Cohen Loigman's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Two-Family House.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Brad Smith reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Brad Smith, author of Rough Justice.

His entry begins:

I am reading three things, two of which I just finished.

Did you ever have a title in your head that you kept telling yourself you really needed to read and then never got around to it? Well, A Confederacy Of Dunces was such a book for me. It took me years to finally read, and then I went through it like greased lightning. One of the great comic novels of the 20th century, with a protagonist so preposterous, nasty, shallow, mean-spirited, oblivious and utterly vain that you can’t help but love him. (Yes, I realize I just described Donald Trump but...[read on]

About Rough Justice, from the publisher:

Carl Burns returns to his hometown to uncover a viper's nest of corruption and dark secrets in this tense and twisting novel of suspense: first in a brand-new series.

After ten years' absence, Carl Burns has returned to his hometown to support his estranged daughter Kate, who is currently testifying in a rape case. Carl is determined to get justice for Kate, whatever it takes. But with few allies, he finds himself incurring the wrath of powerful enemies as he attempts to uncover the truth.

Learn more about the book and author at Brad Smith's website and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: Shoot the Dog.

My Book, The Movie: Shoot the Dog.

The Page 69 Test: Rough Justice.

My Book, The Movie: Rough Justice.

Writers Read: Brad Smith.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the best novels by poets

Poet and novelist Naja Marie Aidt's books include the novel Rock, Paper, Scissors. One of her ten favorite novels by poets, as shared at Publishers Weekly:

The Making of Americans by Gertrude Stein

Although best known as a writer of poems, Gertrude Stein wrote several novels, and The Making of Americans is probably the most celebrated. Tracing the lives of an American dynasty – the Hersland-Dehnings family – in painstaking detail that stretches over more than a thousand pages, Stein circles in her sentences, stammers and repeats, slowly giving rise to one of the most nuanced and unique portraits of American life ever written.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jennifer Scanlon's "Until There Is Justice," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Until There Is Justice: The Life of Anna Arnold Hedgeman by Jennifer Scanlon.

The entry begins:

In the biopic, I envision Melissa Harris-Perry playing Anna Arnold Hedgeman. An enormously accomplished academic, public intellectual, television host, and scholar-activist, Harris-Perry has yet to take on a film role. I believe that given her enormous versatility and brilliance, that’s the next step! Her deep understanding of the ways in which black women refuse and refute stereotypes, and craft full and complicated lives, makes her the perfect person to portray someone like Hedgeman, who has historical import but who also has...[read on]

Learn more about Until There Is Justice at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Until There Is Justice.

My Book, The Movie: Until There Is Justice.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Emily McKee's "Dwelling in Conflict"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Dwelling in Conflict: Negev Landscapes and the Boundaries of Belonging by Emily McKee.

About the book, from the publisher:

Land disputes in Israel are most commonly described as stand-offs between distinct groups of Arabs and Jews. In Israel's southern region, the Negev, Jewish and Bedouin Arab citizens and governmental bodies contest access to land for farming, homes, and industry and struggle over the status of unrecognized Bedouin villages. "Natural," immutable divisions, both in space and between people, are too frequently assumed within these struggles.

Dwelling in Conflict offers the first study of land conflict and environment based on extensive fieldwork within both Arab and Jewish settings. It explores planned towns for Jews and for Bedouin Arabs, unrecognized villages, and single-family farmsteads, as well as Knesset hearings, media coverage, and activist projects. Emily McKee sensitively portrays the impact that dividing lines—both physical and social—have on residents. She investigates the political charge of people's everyday interactions with their environments and the ways in which basic understandings of people and "their" landscapes drive political developments. While recognizing deep divisions, McKee also takes seriously the social projects that residents engage in to soften and challenge socio-environmental boundaries. Ultimately, Dwelling in Conflict highlights opportunities for boundary crossings, revealing both contemporary segregation and the possible mutability of these dividing lines in the future.

Learn more about Dwelling in Conflict at the Stanford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Dwelling in Conflict.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Michelle Gable's "I'll See You in Paris"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: I'll See You in Paris: A Novel by Michelle Gable.

About the book, from the publisher:

Three women, born generations apart.
One mysterious book that threads their lives together.
A journey of love, discovery, and truth…

I’ll See You in Paris is based on the real life of Gladys Spencer-Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough, a woman whose life was so rich and storied it could fill several books. Nearly a century after Gladys’s heyday, a young woman’s quest to understand the legendary Duchess takes her from a charming hamlet in the English countryside, to a dilapidated manse kept behind barbed wire, and ultimately to Paris, where answers will be found at last. In the end, she not only solves the riddle of the Duchess, but uncovers the missing pieces in her own life.

At once a great love story and literary mystery, I’ll See You in Paris will entertain and delight, with an unexpected ending that will leave readers satisfied and eager for Gable’s next novel.

Visit Michelle Gable's website.

The Page 69 Test: A Paris Apartment.

My Book, The Movie: A Paris Apartment.

The Page 69 Test: I'll See You in Paris.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Laurel Saville reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Laurel Saville, author of North of Here.

Her entry begins:

I’m reading a textbook called Perspectives on Animal Behavior. I’m getting a certificate in Applied Animal Behavior, and it is the required text. I’ve always been deeply interested in animals, the human animal connection, and how our innate egoism and culture have created severe limitations in our understanding of the complexity, depth and nuance of other animals’ social structures, emotions and communication. I also work with two shelter/rescue organizations as a volunteer. My primary interest is dogs and how to train and rehab them – and often, more importantly, their guardians – so everyone has a happier, more fun relationship.

The book and course focuses on “animals”, which we usually think of as “other” than us, but of course we’re...[read on]

About North of Here, from the publisher:

The sounds of unexpected tragedies-a roll of thunder, the crash of metal on metal-leave Miranda in shock amid the ruins of her broken family.

As she searches for new meaning in her life, Miranda finds quiet refuge with her family’s handyman, Dix, in his cabin in the dark forests of the Adirondack Mountains. Dix is kind, dependable, and good with an ax-the right man to help the sheltered Miranda heal-but ultimately, her sadness creates a void even Dix can’t fill.

When a man from her distant past turns up, the handsome idealist now known as Darius, he offers Miranda a chance to do meaningful work at The Source, a secluded property filled with his nature worshipers. Miranda feels this charismatic guru is the key to remaking her life, but her grief and desire for love also create an opportunity for his deception. And in her desperate quest to find herself after losing almost everything, Miranda and Dix could pay a higher price than they ever imagined.

Visit Laurel Saville's website.

Writers Read: Laurel Saville.

--Marshal Zeringue

TIME's ten top YA & children’s books of 2015

One of Time magazine's top ten YA and children’s books of 2015:

All the Bright Places, Jennifer Niven

Niven brings all the feels with a pair of quirky teenagers who meet by happenstance and are dealing with death and grief in different ways. The story follows Violet and Finch as they go from strangers to friends to each other’s saviors. Their relationship draws first-love nostalgia, but it’s the raw and alarmingly relevant depiction of depression that makes it a favorite for more than just teens.

Read about another entry on the list.

All The Bright Places is among Shaun Byron Fitzpatrick's seven new YA novels that deal with death.

Writers Read: Jennifer Niven (January 2015).

--Marshal Zeringue

Brad Smith's "Rough Justice," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Rough Justice by Brad Smith.

The entry begins:

I am of the opinion that Christopher Walken, Steve Buscemi and Amy Sedaris should be in every movie, so I would cast them first and then...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Brad Smith's website and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: Shoot the Dog.

My Book, The Movie: Shoot the Dog.

The Page 69 Test: Rough Justice.

My Book, The Movie: Rough Justice.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Helen Lowe's "Daughter of Blood"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Daughter of Blood by Helen Lowe.

About the book, from the publisher:

Malian of Night and Kalan, her trusted ally, are returning to the Wall of Night—but already it may be too late. The Wall is dangerously weakened, the Nine Houses of the Derai fractured by rivalry and hate. And now, the Darkswarm is rising...

Among Grayharbor backstreets, an orphan boy falls foul of dark forces. On the Wall, a Daughter of Blood must be married off to the Earl of Night, a pawn in the web of her family's ambition. On the Field of Blood, Kalan fights for a place in the bride's honor guard, while Malian dodges deadly pursuers in a hunt against time for the fabled Shield of Heaven. But the Darkswarm is gaining strength, and time is running out—for Malian, for Kalan, and for all of Haarth...

Visit Helen Lowe's website and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: Daughter of Blood.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the best books about loneliness

Olivia Laing's latest book is The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone.

One of her top ten books about loneliness, as shared at Publishers Weekly:

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Books about loneliness often involve monsters, the only one of their kind, hideous and unlovable (The Tempest's Caliban is another example). Who is sadder or more alone than Frankenstein's Creature, unloved even by the man who made him? The Creature only turns to violence when he realises he is absolutely despised by those he encounters – worse, that he is sexually undesirable, romantically beyond the pale. It's hard to think of a more powerful invocation of loneliness than the final pages, as he leaps from the window of the boat and is "borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance."

Read about another entry on the list.

Frankenstein is among Helen Humphreys's top ten books on grieving, John Mullan's ten best honeymoons in literature, Adam Roberts's five top science fiction classics and Andrew Crumey's top ten novels that predicted the future.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Dexter Palmer reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Dexter Palmer, author of Version Control: A Novel.

His entry begins:

One of the most interesting things I read last year was The Library of America's four-volume set The Civil War Told by Those Who Lived It. It's a recounting of Civil War history assembled from contemporary documents, each one introduced with a paragraph or two of neutral commentary, enough to provide the necessary context for the reader who's not a Civil War historian.

There is a singular pleasure in reading a history comprised of mostly unmediated primary sources (even if you can sense the editors' presence in the selection of the pieces and the order in which they are placed). History seems different when recorded from the point of view of someone who didn't know how things would turn out--encountering the Civil War from the perspective of someone in the midst of the events in 1863 is oddly suspenseful, even if...[read on]

About Version Control, from the publisher:

The acclaimed author of The Dream of Perpetual Motion returns with a compelling novel about the effects of science and technology on our friendships, our love lives, and our sense of self.

Rebecca Wright has reclaimed her life, finding her way out of her grief and depression following a personal tragedy years ago. She spends her days working in customer support for the internet dating site where she first met her husband. But she has a strange, persistent sense that everything around her is somewhat off-kilter: she constantly feels as if she has walked into a room and forgotten what she intended to do there; on TV, the President seems to be the wrong person in the wrong place; her dreams are full of disquiet. Meanwhile, her husband's decade-long dedication to his invention, the causality violation device (which he would greatly prefer you not call a “time machine”) has effectively stalled his career and made him a laughingstock in the physics community. But he may be closer to success than either of them knows or can possibly imagine.

Version Control is about a possible near future, but it’s also about the way we live now. It’s about smart phones and self-driving cars and what we believe about the people we meet on the Internet. It’s about a couple, Rebecca and Philip, who have experienced a tragedy, and about how they help--and fail to help--each other through it. Emotionally powerful and stunningly visionary, Version Control will alter the way you see your future and your present.

Visit Dexter Palmer's website.

Writers Read: Dexter Palmer (March 2010).

Writers Read: Dexter Palmer.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Rajan Menon's "The Conceit of Humanitarian Intervention"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Conceit of Humanitarian Intervention by Rajan Menon.

About the book, from the publisher:

With the end of the Cold War has come an upsurge in humanitarian interventions-military campaigns aimed at ending mass atrocities. These wars of rescue, waged in the name of ostensibly universal norms of human rights and legal principles, rest on the premise that a genuine "international community" has begun to emerge and has reached consensus on a procedure for eradicating mass killings. Rajan Menon argues that, in fact, humanitarian intervention remains deeply divisive as a concept and as a policy, and is flawed besides. The advocates of humanitarian intervention have produced a mountain of writings to support their claim that human rights precepts now exert an unprecedented influence on states' foreign policies and that we can therefore anticipate a comprehensive solution to mass atrocities.

In The Conceit of Humanitarian Intervention, Menon shows that this belief, while noble, is naïve. States continue to act principally based on what they regard at any given time as their national interests. Delivering strangers from oppression ranks low on their list of priorities. Indeed, even democratic states routinely embrace governments that trample the human rights values on which the humanitarian intervention enterprise rests.

States' ethical commitment to waging war to end atrocities remains episodic and erratic-more rhetorical than real. And when these missions are undertaken, the strategies and means used invariably produce perverse, even dangerous results. This, in no small measure, stems from the hubris of leaders-and the acolytes of humanitarian intervention-who have come to believe that they possesses the wisdom and wherewithal to bestow freedom and stability upon societies about which they know little.

Learn more about The Conceit of Humanitarian Intervention at the Oxford University Press.

The Page 99 Test: The Conceit of Humanitarian Intervention.

--Marshal Zeringue

J. Aaron Sanders's "Speakers of the Dead," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Speakers of the Dead by J. Aaron Sanders.

The entry begins:

I’ve been waiting for someone to ask! One thing I did early on in the writing process was collect images of actors I imagined playing my characters to help me imagine them as three-dimensional beings instead of illustrated two-dimensional people from the past. Here is that cast:

Walt Whitman: James Franco or Ryan Gosling

Henry Saunders: Henry Cavill

Elizabeth Blackwell: Anne...[read on]

Visit J. Aaron Sanders's website.

The Page 69 Test: Speakers of the Dead.

Writers Read: J. Aaron Sanders.

My Book, The Movie: Speakers of the Dead.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Brad Smith's "Rough Justice"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Rough Justice by Brad Smith.

About the book, from the publisher:

Carl Burns returns to his hometown to uncover a viper's nest of corruption and dark secrets in this tense and twisting novel of suspense: first in a brand-new series.

After ten years' absence, Carl Burns has returned to his hometown to support his estranged daughter Kate, who is currently testifying in a rape case. Carl is determined to get justice for Kate, whatever it takes. But with few allies, he finds himself incurring the wrath of powerful enemies as he attempts to uncover the truth.

Learn more about the book and author at Brad Smith's website and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: Shoot the Dog.

My Book, The Movie: Shoot the Dog.

The Page 69 Test: Rough Justice.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Stella Cameron & Millie

Featured at Coffee with a Canine: Stella Cameron & Millie.

The author, on her coffeedate with Millie:

This morning we walked in the park by the marina. Millie hates this but Doc. Mike says she has to lose weight. She thinks her lovely, delicate legs were never intended to actually walk but I’m not about to be seen carrying a little dog. When we left the marina I took Millie to Café Lladro where we sat outside while I drank my ‘tall, skinny, latte with only a single shot.” Millie turns up her nose at this which may mean she thinks I’m a wuss and not to handle double shots like most people. We do quite nicely at Lladro—usually—but this morning Millie fidgeted around on my lap, sending glares at sweet old Daisy, a black dog of questionable ancestry. Everyone loves Daisy who is so friendly and gets lots of pats and kind words. Attention to any other dog infuriates Millie who eventually growls so persistently that...[read on]

About Cameron's latest novel, Out Comes the Evil, from the publisher:

Second in the traditional British mystery series featuring rural inn owner and amateur sleuth Alex Duggins

An almost-fresh body is discovered in a disused well in the ruins of a 14th century manor house - and once again Folly-on-Weir's pub owner Alex Duggins and her friend Tony Harrison are thrown into a major murder investigation. The victim, a widow, had lived quietly in the town for the past ten years: who on earth could want her dead?

Visit Stella Cameron's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Stella Cameron & Millie.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top novels featuring hateful characters

Heinz Helle’s debut novel is Superabundance. One of his top ten novels featuring hateful characters, as shared at the Guardian:

Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

The Vicomte de Valmont, played by John Malkovich in the hit 1988 film version of this scandalous 18th-century novel, is an impressive example of elegance being the only acceptable excuse for complete lack of character. At the end of his ruthless game of seducing women in order to publicly shame them, he dies in a duel, hopelessly in love with one of the women he destroyed. And we forgive him.

Read about another entry on the list.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses also appears on Jonathan Grimwood's top ten list of French Revolution novels, Helena Frith Powell's top ten list of sexy French books, H.M. Castor's top ten list of dark and haunted heroes and heroines, and John Mullan's list of ten of the best lotharios in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Charles Gardner Geyh's "Courting Peril"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Courting Peril: The Political Transformation of the American Judiciary by Charles Gardner Geyh.

About the book, from the publisher:

The rule of law paradigm has long operated on the premise that independent judges disregard extralegal influences and impartially uphold the law. A political transformation several generations in the making, however, has imperiled this premise. Social science learning, the lessons of which have been widely internalized by court critics and the general public, has shown that judicial decision-making is subject to ideological and other extralegal influences. In recent decades, challenges to the assumptions underlying the rule of law paradigm have proliferated across a growing array of venues, as critics agitate for greater political control of judges and courts. With the future of the rule of law paradigm in jeopardy, this book proposes a new way of looking at how the role of the American judiciary should be conceptualized and regulated. This new, "legal culture paradigm" defends the need for an independent judiciary that is acculturated to take law seriously but is subject to political and other extralegal influences. The book argues that these extralegal influences cannot be eliminated but can be managed, by balancing the needs for judicial independence and accountability across competing perspectives, to the end of enabling judges to follow the "law" (less rigidly conceived), respect established legal process, and administer justice.

Learn more about Courting Peril at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Courting Peril.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is J. Aaron Sanders reading?

Featured at Writers Read: J. Aaron Sanders, author of Speakers of the Dead.

His entry begins:

The Open Curtain by Brian Evenson

The Open Curtain opens when Rudd Theurer discovers a box containing letters and books that belonged to his dead father. In the letters, Rudd learns of his father’s affair, and a possible child from that affair; and in the books he finds marginalia that highlight his father’s obsession with blood atonement, a 19th century Mormon ritual aimed at apostates, gentiles, and sinners. The letters and books also help Rudd understand the reasons his father committed suicide—his father slit his throat to atone for his infidelity—and inspires Rudd’s quest to find his half-brother. Soon after he meets Lael, things go odd and Rudd finds himself involved in the grisly campsite murders, struggling to negotiate the past and the present, and losing...[read on]

About Speakers of the Dead, from the publisher:

Speakers of the Dead is a mystery novel centering around the investigative exploits of a young Walt Whitman, in which the reporter-cum-poet navigates the seedy underbelly of New York City’s body-snatching industry in an attempt to exonerate his friend of a wrongful murder charge.

The year is 1843; the place: New York City. Aurora reporter Walt Whitman arrives at the Tombs prison yard where his friend Lena Stowe is scheduled to hang for the murder of her husband, Abraham. Walt intends to present evidence on Lena’s behalf, but Sheriff Harris turns him away. Lena drops to her death, and Walt vows to posthumously exonerate her.

Walt’s estranged boyfriend, Henry Saunders, returns to New York, and the two men uncover a link between body-snatching and Abraham’s murder: a man named Samuel Clement. To get to Clement, Walt and Henry descend into a dangerous underworld where resurrection men steal the bodies of the recently deceased and sell them to medical colleges. With no legal means to acquire cadavers, medical students rely on these criminals, and Abraham’s involvement with the Bone Bill—legislation that would put the resurrection men out of business—seems to have led to his and Lena’s deaths.

Fast-paced and gripping, Speakers of the Dead is a vibrant reimagining of one of America’s most beloved literary figures.

Visit J. Aaron Sanders's website.

The Page 69 Test: Speakers of the Dead.

Writers Read: J. Aaron Sanders.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top YA retellings of familiar stories

Sona Charaipotra is a New York City-based writer and editor with more than a decade’s worth of experience in print and online media. For the B & N Teen Blog she tagged six strange and stunning YA takes on familiar stories, including:

Ash, by Malinda Lo

A Cinderella update unlike any you’ve seen before, Lo’s Ash spins a dark, lovely take on the tale. Ash feels lost at the hands of her cruel stepmother, but perhaps a pact with the decidedly dangerous fairy Sidhean will help her overcome her circumstances. But it’s her bond with the Queen’s huntress, Kaisa, that is ultimately empowering and redeeming, and worth risking everything for. Lo’s enchanting, exquisite take on the old fairytale leaves you rethinking tropes and norms, all while reveling in breathless storytelling.

Read about another entry on the list.

Ash is among Rachel Paxton-Gillilan's seven best YA Cinderella retellings.

--Marshal Zeringue

Susan Meissner's "Stars Over Sunset Boulevard," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Stars Over Sunset Boulevard by Susan Meissner.

The entry begins:

It might surprise you to know that dream-casting my books with current-day movie stars is usually really hard for me. I think it’s because I spend a year with these people when I am writing their story, so they already seem fully fleshed in their own right. I think it’s much easier to dream-cast someone else’s novel rather than my own! I admire people who can ponder a book’s characters and then quickly come up with an ensemble of perfectly-suited actors.

But I persevered and have done the work to give you my dream cast for my newest book, Stars Over Sunset Boulevard. This novel is about two studio secretaries who become best friends while working on the 1939 movie set of Gone With the Wind. They are both on a desperate search for happiness, and their desires will sometimes collide despite the affection they have for each other. This story is framed with a contemporary thread about a young woman who owns a vintage clothing re-sale shop in Hollywood, who is stunned one afternoon when the iconic curtain-dress hat that Vivien Leigh wore as Scarlett O’Hara shows up in her boutique.

For Violet, studio secretary #1 who wants to be needed, I pick Anna...[read on]

Visit Susan Meissner's website.

Writers Read: Susan Meissner.

My Book, The Movie: Stars Over Sunset Boulevard.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Robert J. Sawyer's "Quantum Night"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Quantum Night by Robert J. Sawyer.

About the book, from the publisher:

With such compelling and provocative novels as Red Planet Blues, FlashForward and The WWW Trilogy, Robert J. Sawyer has proven himself to be “a writer of boundless confidence and bold scientific extrapolation” (New York Times). Now, the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author explores the thin line between good and evil that every human being is capable of crossing…

Experimental psychologist Jim Marchuk has developed a flawless technique for identifying the previously undetected psychopaths lurking everywhere in society. But while being cross-examined about his breakthrough in court, Jim is shocked to discover that he has lost his memories of six months of his life from twenty years previously—a dark time during which he himself committed heinous acts.

Jim is reunited with Kayla Huron, his forgotten girlfriend from his lost period and now a quantum physicist who has made a stunning discovery about the nature of human consciousness. As a rising tide of violence and hate sweeps across the globe, the psychologist and the physicist combine forces in a race against time to see if they can do the impossible—change human nature—before the entire world descends into darkness.

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

The Page 69 Test: WWW: Wake.

The Page 69 Test: WWW: Watch.

The Page 69 Test:: WWW: Wonder.

The Page 69 Test: Triggers.

The Page 69 Test: Red Planet Blues.

The Page 69 Test: Quantum Night.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Michael S.Evans's "Seeking Good Debate"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Seeking Good Debate: Religion, Science, and Conflict in American Public Life by Michael S. Evans.

About the book, from the publisher:

Why do religion and science often appear in conflict in America’s public sphere? In Seeking Good Debate, Michael S. Evans examines the results from the first-ever study to combine large-scale empirical analysis of some of our foremost religion and science debates with in-depth research into what Americans actually want in the public sphere. The surprising finding is that apparent conflicts involving religion and science reflect a more fundamental conflict between media elites and ordinary Americans over what is good debate. For elite representatives, good debate advances an agenda, but, as Evans shows, for many Americans it is defined by engagement and deliberation. This hidden conflict over what constitutes debate’s proper role diminishes the possibility for science and religion to be discussed meaningfully in public life. Challenging our understanding of science, religion, and conflict, Seeking Good Debate raises profound questions about the future of the public sphere and American democracy.

Michael S.Evans is a Neukom Fellow at the Neukom Institute for Computational Science, Dartmouth College.

Learn more about Seeking Good Debate at the University of California Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Seeking Good Debate.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six books that explore the SF/F side of Hollywood

At the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog Nicole Hill tagged six top novels that explore the stranger, more fantastical, science fictional side of Hollywood, including:

Made to Kill, by Adam Christopher

Raymond Chandler meets robots, because it’s 2016 and the world is full of wonders. Raymond Electromatic is the last robot on the planet. He’s also a hitman fronting as a detective, with a super-computer front office gal who feeds him jobs. Like I said, full of wonders. When his latest client waltzes through the door, he gets enveloped not only in actress-on-actor violence, but also some high-level Cold War chicanery. Unraveling these threads becomes all the more difficult given Ray’s 24-hour memory-tape limits.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: Made to Kill.

My Book, The Movie: Made to Kill.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is David Handler reading?

Featured at Writers Read: David Handler, author of The Lavender Lane Lothario: A Berger and Mitry Mystery.

The entry begins:

I’m currently reading What Makes Sammy Run? This is Budd Schulberg’s landmark 1941 Hollywood novel about the meteoric rise of a brash, ruthless and utterly fascinating young New York City street urchin named Sammy Glick. I’ve read What Makes Sammy Run? many times and yet I still find myself drawn to this wonderful book every few years for the brilliance of Schulberg’s insights and for the sheer delight of reading it.

Budd Schulberg was a child of the movie business. His father, B.P. Schulberg, was one of its pioneering moguls. Budd was only in his 20s when he wrote the novel, his first, yet he understood the sad, desperate hunger of the Sammy Glicks of the business better than any writer has before or since. He would go on to write another very fine Hollywood novel, The Disenchanted, based upon his ill-fated, real life screenwriting collaboration with F. Scott Fitzgerald. He also wrote the screenplays for such remarkable films as On The Waterfront and A Face in the Crowd.

Yet What Makes Sammy Run? remains Budd Schulberg’s masterpiece.

The novel is timeless. I started...[read on]

About The Lavender Lane Lothario, from the publisher:

Every year, the Gant family performs an annual ritual desecrating the tomb of Aurora Bing. The Gants have held a grudge against the legendary silent film star for almost eighty years, but for Sherm Gant and his son, things have become personal. Aurora's only grandchild, Hubie Swope, has shut down Sherm's notoriously rowdy beachfront bar, and refuses to allow The Pit to reopen until Shem undertakes expensive upgrades. This means war. And when The Pit catches fire and Hubie Swope's charred remains are found in the rubble, it also means murder.

Who killed Hubie Swope? Crime-fighting duo Mitch and Des have no idea. Not only are Sherm and his son prime suspects, but so are the women in Hubie's life. To their surprise, Mitch and Des discover that Dorset's building inspector, a quiet widower who repaired cuckoo clocks in his little house on Lavender Lane, was secretly juggling four girlfriends at once. And then there's Gaylord Holland, a builder who had a beef of his own with Hubie. Dorset is in turmoil, and only New York City film critic Mitch Berger and Connecticut State Police Resident Trooper Des Mitry can put it back together.

This is the eleventh in David Handler's original, hilarious and charming series featuring the engaging biracial couple that fans love.

Learn more about the book and author at David Handler's website.

Writers Read: David Handler (October 2011).

Writers Read: David Handler (October 2012).

Writers Read: David Handler (August 2013).

Writers Read: David Handler (March 2014).

Writers Read: David Handler (February 2015).

Writers Read: David Handler.

--Marshal Zeringue