What is Elizabeth J. Duncan reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Elizabeth J. Duncan, author of Murder on the Hour.

Her entry begins:

The untimely death of songwriter and musician Glenn Frey prompted me to read To the Limit: the Untold Story of the Eagles by Marc Eliot.

He sets the Los Angeles music scene and cultural climate of the 1970s that enabled a new generation of rock stars to emerge and flourish: Crosby, Stills, Nash and (sometimes) Young, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell and the group that would go on to sell the most albums of all time – the Eagles. After describing the clubs, drugs, booze, groupies, and the obscene amounts of money at stake, Eliot explores the personalities, soaring talents, ego clashes and creative jealousies that generated unforgettable songs like Take it Easy, Desperado, and Hotel California.

Glenn Frey always introduced the band on stage as, “the Eagles from Los Angeles.” I’d argue they emerge from this book as not just a great California band, but possibly the greatest ever American band.

Favourite anecdote: Glenn Frey and his musician pals were hanging out at a popular Los Angeles restaurant observing a wealthy-looking older man at the bar with a beautiful young woman. “Man,” said Frey, “look at those lyin’ eyes.” And everybody...[read on]

About Murder on the Hour, from the publisher:

The residents of Llanelen are brimming with excitement. Antiques Cymru, a regional take on the popular national TV show, is coming to the Welsh town and people are flocking from miles around, hoping their attic treasures turn out to be worth a fortune. On the day of filming, quiet local sheep farmer Haydn Williams brings a generations-old long-case clock for evaluation, while the woman he's always admired from afar, Catrin Bellis, turns up with a cherished handmade quilt. Will either hear surprising good news about the value of their family heirlooms? By the end of the day, Catrin turns up dead, her quilt missing.

Who could have wanted this shy, quiet woman - who had been overshadowed by her parents for her whole life - dead? Delving into Catrin's past, spa owner and amateur sleuth Penny Brannigan is surprised to discover that Catrin had at least one enemy. And as Penny's romantic life heats up with a new love interest, she realizes that a mysterious document hidden in Haydn's clock could hold the key to a long-forgotten secret and a present-day murder.

Murder on the Hour is a light-hearted traditional mystery featuring a charming heroine set in an enchanting Welsh town.

Visit Elizabeth J. Duncan's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Elizabeth J. Duncan and Dolly.

The Page 69 Test: The Cold Light of Mourning.

The Page 69 Test: A Brush with Death.

The Page 69 Test: Never Laugh As a Hearse Goes By.

The Page 69 Test: Slated for Death.

Writers Read: Elizabeth J. Duncan.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top 10 landmarks in gay and lesbian literature

Gregory Woods is the author of Homintern: How Gay Culture Liberated the Modern World. One of his ten top landmarks in gay and lesbian literature, as shared at the Guardian:

Orlando by Virginia Woolf (1928)

One of the most beautiful love letters ever written. Addressed to Vita Sackville-West, it originally included photographs of her in both feminine and masculine clothes. Vita is Orlando, a dashing young man in Tudor times, who buckles a few swashes at home and abroad before changing sex and living on to the 1920s. As a man, Orlando courts women, as a woman men – so far so conventional – but as a wo/man, s/he is swaggeringly queer. The book is a jeu d’esprit that Woolf clearly wrote when intoxicated with love. While waiting for the trial of The Well of Loneliness, Una Troubridge helped her lover Radclyffe Hall endure the stress by reading Orlando to her.

Read about another entry on the list.

Orlando is among Jonathan Gibbs's top ten fictitious biographies and Sam Mills's top ten fictional sex changes.

--Marshal Zeringue

Emily Edwards's "Bars, Blues, and Booze," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Bars, Blues, and Booze: Stories from the Drink House by Emily D. Edwards.

The entry begins:

The movie question is interesting because I am a filmmaker and initially considered making this as a documentary. I chose to write a book instead because 306 pages can tell more stories than two hours of edited video tape and some subjects didn't like the idea of being on camera. If this book was reimagined as a feature film, a fair number of stories would have to be cut, and it would need an ensemble cast and alternate, multiple story structure, imagine movies like Dreamgirls (2007), Crossroads (1986), Get on Up (2014) and...[read on]

Visit the official Bars, Blues & Booze website.

Writers Read: Emily D. Edwards.

The Page 99 Test: Bars, Blues, and Booze.

My Book, The Movie: Bars, Blues, and Booze.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top mother/child relationships in literature

One of seven unforgettable mother/child relationships in literature, as shared at the Vintage Books & Anchor Books Reading Group Center:

Love and Other Impossible Pursuits by Ayelet Waldman

Emilia Greenleaf believed that she had found her soulmate, the man she was meant to spend her life with. But life seems a lot less rosy when Emilia has to deal with the most neurotic and sheltered five-year-old in New York City: her new stepson William. Now Emilia finds herself trying to flag down taxis with a giant, industrial-strength car seat, looking for perfect, strawberry-flavored, lactose-free cupcakes, receiving corrections on her French pronunciation from her supercilious stepson—and attempting to find balance in a new family that’s both larger, and smaller, than she bargained for. Love and Other Impossible Pursuits is a a can’t put-it-down novel about motherhood, paralyzing guilt, and the sisterhood that mothers can feel for one another even when they’re at odds.

Read about another book on the list.

The Page 69 Test: Love and Other Impossible Pursuits.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Melanie Conklin reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Melanie Conklin, author of Counting Thyme.

Her entry begins:

I had to check my reading log to keep myself honest about what I’ve been reading! I read all over the spectrum: picture books, middle grade, YA, adult fiction, nonfiction. I like contemporary stories like the ones I write, but I’m also a huge fan of fantasy and science fiction.

I just finished reading The Square Root of Summer by Harriet Reuter Hapgood. It’s a YA with time travel and romance, and I loved it. This book was smarter than me, and it didn’t connect the dots perfectly. Some readers might find that unsettling, but I like being a little bewildered when I read. I like it when an author challenges me. It makes me sit up a little...[read on]

About Counting Thyme, from the publisher:

Newbery-winning Rules meets Counting by 7s in this affecting story of a girl’s devotion to her brother and what it means to be home

When eleven-year-old Thyme Owens’ little brother, Val, is accepted into a new cancer drug trial, it’s just the second chance that he needs. But it also means the Owens family has to move to New York, thousands of miles away from Thyme’s best friend and everything she knows and loves. The island of Manhattan doesn’t exactly inspire new beginnings, but Thyme tries to embrace the change for what it is: temporary.

After Val’s treatment shows real promise and Mr. Owens accepts a full-time position in the city, Thyme has to face the frightening possibility that the move to New York is permanent. Thyme loves her brother, and knows the trial could save his life—she’d give anything for him to be well—but she still wants to go home, although the guilt of not wanting to stay is agonizing. She finds herself even more mixed up when her heart feels the tug of new friends, a first crush, and even a crotchety neighbor and his sweet whistling bird. All Thyme can do is count the minutes, the hours, and days, and hope time can bring both a miracle for Val and a way back home.

With equal parts heart and humor, Melanie Conklin’s debut is a courageous and charming story of love and family—and what it means to be counted.

Visit Melanie Conklin's website, Twitter perch, and watch the Counting Thyme book trailer.

The Page 69 Test: Counting Thyme.

Writers Read: Melanie Conklin.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Radha Vatsal's "A Front Page Affair"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: A Front Page Affair by Radha Vatsal.

About the book, from the publisher:

New York City, 1915

The Lusitania has just been sunk, and headlines about a shooting at J.P. Morgan’s mansion and the Great War are splashed across the front page of every newspaper. Capability “Kitty” Weeks would love nothing more than to report on the news of the day, but she’s stuck writing about fashion and society gossip over on the Ladies’ Page—until a man is murdered at a high society picnic on her beat.

Determined to prove her worth as a journalist, Kitty finds herself plunged into the midst of a wartime conspiracy that threatens to derail the United States’ attempt to remain neutral—and to disrupt the privileged life she has always known.

Radha Vatsal’s A Front Page Affair is the first book in highly anticipated series featuring rising journalism star Kitty Weeks.

Visit Radha Vatsal's website and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: A Front Page Affair.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Daniel Capper's "Learning Love from a Tiger"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Learning Love from a Tiger: Religious Experiences with Nature by Daniel Capper.

About the book, from the publisher:

Learning Love from a Tiger explores the vibrancy and variety of humans’ sacred encounters with the natural world, gathering a range of stories culled from Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Mayan, Himalayan, Buddhist, and Chinese shamanic traditions. Readers will delight in tales of house cats who teach monks how to meditate, shamans who shape-shift into jaguars, crickets who perform Catholic mass, rivers that grant salvation, and many others. In addition to being a collection of wonderful stories, this book introduces important concepts and approaches that underlie much recent work in environmental ethics, religion, and ecology. Daniel Capper’s light touch prompts readers to engage their own views of humanity’s place in the natural world and question longstanding assumptions of human superiority.

Learn more about Learning Love from a Tiger at the University of California Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Learning Love from a Tiger.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top fictional mothers

In 2011 the Observer came up with a list of the ten best fictional mothers, including:

Sophie Zawistowski

Sophie’s Choice

The unhappy life of Sophie Zawistowski is uncovered in flashback in William Styron’s bestselling 1979 novel. The story emerges piecemeal from Sophie, an alcoholic Polish immigrant who gradually tells the novel’s narrator about her horrific wartime experiences in Warsaw after her father and husband are murdered and she is incarcerated in Auschwitz. There she is forced by a doctor to choose which of her two children will be gassed. Sophie (played by Oscar-winning Meryl Streep in the 1982 movie) has never forgiven herself for leaving her seven-year-old daughter behind - a guilt that will destroy her.

Read about another mother on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Siobhan Vivian reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Siobhan Vivian, author of The Last Boy and Girl in the World.

Her entry begins:

Between You & Me by Mary Norris

Oh gosh, how I adore this book. And though this is primarily a book about grammar, it is anything but dry. I fell in love with Mary’s voice from the very first page, as she traces her path as a girl in Cleveland, OH to the offices of The New Yorker, where she has worked as a copyeditor for over 30 years. She is laugh out loud funny, not to mention...[read on]

About The Last Boy and Girl in the World, from the publisher:

From the critically acclaimed author of The List comes a stunning new novel about a girl who must say goodbye to everything she knows after a storm wreaks havoc on her hometown.

What if your town was sliding underwater and everyone was ordered to pack up and leave? How would you and your friends spend your last days together?

While the adults plan for the future, box up their possessions, and find new places to live, Keeley Hewitt and her friends decide to go out with a bang. There are parties in abandoned houses. Canoe races down Main Street. The goal is to make the most of every minute they still have together.

And for Keeley, that means taking one last shot at the boy she’s loved forever.

There’s a weird sort of bravery that comes from knowing there’s nothing left to lose. You might do things you normally wouldn’t. Or say things you shouldn’t. The reward almost always outweighs the risk.

Almost.

It’s the end of Aberdeen, but the beginning of Keeley’s first love story. It just might not turn out the way she thought. Because it’s not always clear what’s worth fighting for and what you should let become a memory.

Visit Siobhan Vivian's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Last Boy and Girl in the World.

Writers Read: Siobhan Vivian.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five of the worst mothers in literary history

Jeff Somers is the author of Lifers, the Avery Cates series from Orbit Books, Chum from Tyrus Books, and We Are Not Good People from Pocket/Gallery. He has published over thirty short stories as well. One of Somers's five worst mothers in literary history, as shared at B & N Reads:

Margaret White (Carrie, by Stephen King)

Most people concentrate on the monstrous teens in King’s iconic novel, the cool kids who torment Carrie until she has history’s worst psychotic break. But the kids aren’t the villains of this story, and neither is Carrie: it’s her awful, awful mother. How awful? Not only is everything—including the conception and birth of her own daughter—a sin to Margaret, she also seems to believe disciplining a child should involve locking her in a closet. Constantly. Margaret White is one of the few mothers who completely and richly deserves her terrible fate.

Read about another entry on the list.

Carrie is on Becky Ferreira's list of six of the most memorable bullies in literature, Julie Buntin's list of favorite literary kids with deadbeat and/or absent dads, Gregg Olsen's top ten list of deadly YA books, and James Dawson's top ten list of books to get you through high school.

Monique Alice writes: "Famously, while writing the manuscript for his first novel, Carrie, King became discouraged and chucked the pages into the trash. It was Tabitha [King, Stephen's wife] who fished the beginnings of the now iconic novel out and helped polish it into the gem we know and love."

--Marshal Zeringue

William Carlsen's "Jungle of Stone," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Jungle of Stone: The True Story of Two Men, Their Extraordinary Journey, and the Discovery of the Lost Civilization of the Maya by William Carlsen.

The entry begins:

I always had two actors in mind as I wrote my book, in part because it lends itself so much to a film, but also to help visualize my two protagonists as I wrote. The first, John L. Stephens, was a lawyer from New York before he set off on adventures in Greece, Turkey, Russia, Egypt and the Holy Land and returned to write bestsellers about his travels. Then he went off in 1839 with Frederick Catherwood, a British architect/artist, to discover the Maya civilization in Central America, Mexico and Yucatan. Stephens was described by a contemporary, Herman Melville, as a man with dark eyes and an intense blazing gaze, and by another as highly nervous and full of energy. So I thought of James...[read on]

Visit William Carlsen's website.

Writers Read: William Carlsen.

My Book, The Movie: Jungle of Stone.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Lauren Belfer's "And After the Fire"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: And After the Fire: A Novel by Lauren Belfer.

About the book, from the publisher:

The New York Times-bestselling author of A Fierce Radiance and City of Light returns with a new powerful and passionate novel—inspired by historical events—about two women, one European and one American, and the mysterious choral masterpiece by Johann Sebastian Bach that changes both their lives.

In the ruins of Germany in 1945, at the end of World War II, American soldier Henry Sachs takes a souvenir, an old music manuscript, from a seemingly deserted mansion and mistakenly kills the girl who tries to stop him.

In America in 2010, Henry’s niece, Susanna Kessler, struggles to rebuild her life after she experiences a devastating act of violence on the streets of New York City. When Henry dies soon after, she uncovers the long-hidden music manuscript. She becomes determined to discover what it is and to return it to its rightful owner, a journey that will challenge her preconceptions about herself and her family’s history—and also offer her an opportunity to finally make peace with the past.

In Berlin, Germany, in 1783, amid the city’s glittering salons where aristocrats and commoners, Christians and Jews, mingle freely despite simmering anti-Semitism, Sara Itzig Levy, a renowned musician, conceals the manuscript of an anti-Jewish cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, an unsettling gift to her from Bach’s son, her teacher. This work and its disturbing message will haunt Sara and her family for generations to come.

Interweaving the stories of Susanna and Sara, and their families, And After the Fire traverses over two hundred years of history, from the eighteenth century through the Holocaust and into today, seamlessly melding past and present, real and imagined. Lauren Belfer’s deeply researched, evocative, and compelling narrative resonates with emotion and immediacy.

Learn more about the book and author at Lauren Belfer's website.

The Page 69 Test: A Fierce Radiance.

My Book, The Movie: A Fierce Radiance.

The Page 69 Test: And After the Fire.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Steve Toutonghi reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Steve Toutonghi, author of Join.

His entry begins:

I'm in the very last few pages of Kaitlyn Greenidge's debut novel, We Love You Charlie Freeman. It's the story of an African American family who agree to participate in a study in which they'll be observed raising a chimpanzee as a member of the family. Greenidge's exploration of the dynamics within the family, between the family and the staff of the institute sponsoring the study, and between the family and town they move to is deft and often understated, but there are also loud blasts when she decides to set off some of the landmines in the terrain she's mapping. It's a fascinating book, filled with well rendered, complex interactions that expose both necessary and dangerous currents flowing between family and culture. My favorite passages so far have been...[read on]

About Join, from the publisher:

What if you could live multiple lives simultaneously, have constant, perfect companionship, and never die? That’s the promise of Join, a revolutionary technology that allows small groups of minds to unite, forming a single consciousness that experiences the world through multiple bodies. But as two best friends discover, the light of that miracle may be blinding the world to its horrors.

Chance and Leap are jolted out of their professional routines by a terrifying stranger—a remorseless killer who freely manipulates the networks that regulate life in the post-Join world. Their quest for answers—and survival—brings them from the networks and spire communities they’ve known to the scarred heart of an environmentally ravaged North American continent and an underground community of the “ferals” left behind by the rush of technology.

In the storytelling tradition of classic speculative fiction from writers like David Mitchell and Michael Chabon, Join offers a pulse-pounding story that poses the largest possible questions: How long can human life be sustained on our planet in the face of environmental catastrophe? What does it mean to be human, and what happens when humanity takes the next step in its evolution? If the individual mind becomes obsolete, what have we lost and gained, and what is still worth fighting for?

Visit Steve Toutonghi's website.

Learn about Steve Toutonghi's six top books that expand our mental horizons.

Writers Read: Steve Toutonghi.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine great unconventional true crime books

Laura Tillman is an award-winning writer and freelance journalist. Her first book is The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts: Murder and Memory in an American City. One of the author's nine great unconventional true crime books, as shared at Publishers Weekly:

Homicide by David Simon

In what would become the basis of a TV show and eventually his revered career in television, Simon's first book is immersion journalism at its best. A writer of great skill and verve, Simon captures the voices of the detectives of Baltimore's homicide unit with specificity and humor, and reveals the city through its daily tragedies.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: James W. Cortada's "All the Facts"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: All the Facts: A History of Information in the United States since 1870 by James W. Cortada.

About the book, from the publisher:

All the Facts presents a history of the role of information in the United States since 1870, when the nation began a nearly 150-year period of economic prosperity and technological and scientific transformations. James Cortada argues that citizens and their institutions used information extensively as tools to augment their work and private lives and that they used facts to help shape how the nation evolved during these fourteen decades. He argues that information's role has long been a critical component of the work, play, culture, and values of this nation, and no more so than during the twentieth century when its function in society expanded dramatically. While elements of this story have been examined by thousands of scholars---such as the role of radio, newspapers, books, computers, and the Internet, about such institutions as education, big business, expanded roles of governments from town administration to the state house, from agriculture to the services and information industries---All the Facts looks at all of these elements holistically, providing a deeper insight into the way the United States evolved over time.

An introduction and 11 chapters describe what this information ecosystem looked like, how it evolved, and how it was used. For another vast layer of information about this subject the reader is directed to the detailed bibliographic essay in the back of this book. It includes a narrative history, case studies in the form of sidebars, and stories illustrating key points. Readers will find, for example, the story of how the US postal system helped create today's information society, along with everything from books and newspapers to TV, computers, and the Internet.

The build-up to what many today call the Information Age took a long time to achieve and continues to build momentum. The implications for the world, and not just for the United States, are as profound as any mega-trend one could identify in the history of humankind. All the Facts presents this development thoroughly in an easy-to-digest format that any lover of history, technology, or the history of information and business will enjoy.

Learn more about All the Facts at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: All the Facts.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Karen Halvorsen Schreck's "Broken Ground"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Broken Ground by Karen Halvorsen Schreck.

About the book, from the publisher:

When a young oil rig widow escapes her grief and the Texas Dust Bowl, she discovers a surprising future—and new passion—awaiting her in California in this lyrically written romance by the author of Sing for Me.

Newly married to her childhood sweetheart, twenty-one-year-old Ruth Warren is settling into life in a Depression-era, East Texas oil town. She’s making a home when she learns that her young husband, Charlie, has been killed in an oil rig accident. Ruth is devastated, but then gets a chance for a fresh start: a scholarship from a college in Pasadena, CA. Ruth decides to take a risk and travel west, to pursue her one remaining dream to become a teacher.

At college Ruth tries to fit into campus life, but her grief holds her back. When she spends Christmas with some old family friends, she meets the striking and compelling Thomas Everly, whose own losses and struggles have instilled in him a commitment to social justice, and led him to work with Mexican migrant farmworkers in a camp just east of Los Angeles. With Thomas, Ruth sees another side of town, and another side of current events: the numerous forced deportations without due process of Mexicans, along with United States citizens of Mexican descent.

After Ruth is forced to leave school, she goes to visit Thomas and sees that he has cobbled together a night school for the farmworkers’ children. Ruth begins to work with the children, and establishes deep friendships with people in the camp. When the camp is raided and the workers and their families are rounded up and shipped back to Mexico, Ruth and Thomas decide to take a stand for the workers’ rights—all while promising to love and cherish one another.

Visit Karen Halvorsen Schreck's website.

My Book, The Movie: Broken Ground.

Writers Read: Karen Halvorsen Schreck.

The Page 69 Test: Broken Ground.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Annie Donwerth-Chikamatsu reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Annie Donwerth-Chikamatsu, author of Somewhere Among.

Her entry begins:

I haven’t been reading much lately but when I do it’s usually picture books, middle grade novels, short stories and poetry.

I love the poetry of Naomi Shihab Nye and listen to her readings online. I find her voice, especially, comforting. She was here in Japan visiting international schools a couple of months ago and our SCBWI chapter advisor invited us to a reading and dinner afterwards. I rushed to get her 2014 middle grade novel, The Turtle of Oman, sent to my house to have for her to sign but it didn’t make it in time. I read it later and loved the details, the story, and the voice, especially. I am hoping...[read on]

About Somewhere Among, from the publisher:

A beautiful and haunting debut novel in verse about an American-Japanese girl struggling with the loneliness of being caught between two worlds when the tragedy of 9/11 strikes an ocean away.

Eleven-year-old Ema has always been of two worlds—her father’s Japanese heritage and her mother’s life in America. She’s spent summers in California for as long as she can remember, but this year she and her mother are staying with her grandparents in Japan as they await the arrival of Ema’s baby sibling. Her mother’s pregnancy has been tricky, putting everyone on edge, but Ema’s heart is singing—finally, there will be someone else who will understand what it’s like to belong and not belong at the same time.

But Ema’s good spirits are muffled by her grandmother who is cold, tightfisted, and quick to reprimand her for the slightest infraction. Then, when their stay is extended and Ema must go to a new school, her worries of not belonging grow. And when the tragedy of 9/11 strikes, Ema, her parents, and the world watch as the twin towers fall…

As Ema watches her mother grieve for her country across the ocean—threatening the safety of her pregnancy—and her beloved grandfather falls ill, she feels more helpless and hopeless than ever. And yet, surrounded by tragedy, Ema sees for the first time the tender side of her grandmother, and the reason for the penny-pinching and sternness make sense—her grandmother has been preparing so they could all survive the worst.

Dipping and soaring, Somewhere Among is the story of one girl’s search for identity, inner peace, and how she discovers that hope can indeed rise from the ashes of disaster.

Visit Annie Donwerth-Chikamatsu's website.

Writers Read: Annie Donwerth-Chikamatsu.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top five books written in crazy places

Jeff Somers is the author of Lifers, the Avery Cates series from Orbit Books, Chum from Tyrus Books, and We Are Not Good People from Pocket/Gallery. He has published over thirty short stories as well. At the B&N Reads blog Somers tagged five books written in very unlikely places, including:

As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner

Written in: A power plant

Faulkner was your classic author in many ways, largely incompetent off of the written page, overfond of whiskey, and seemingly incapable of holding a straight job. After being forced to resign from a gig as postmaster at his alma mater, the University of Mississippi, he worked the night shift at a power plant in order to make ends meet—and largely ignored the workings of the plant, instead spending his time much more profitably writing his classic novel As I Lay Dying. Since the power plant didn’t burn down, we can assume Faulkner at least pursued the minimum effort in his job, but next time you’re reading this novel, imagine its author toiling at 3 a.m. while the sparks literally flew.

Read about another book on the list.

As I Lay Dying is on Shaun Byron Fitzpatrick's list of eight of the most badass ladies in all of banned literature, Nicole Hill's lists of nine of the biggest martyrs in fiction and five books that, like country and western songs, tell "stories of agony and ecstasy, soaring highs and mighty powerful lows, heartache and hard living," Laura Frost's list of the ten best modernist books (in English), Helen Humphreys's top ten list of books on grieving, John Mullan's list of ten of the best teeth in literature, Jon McGregor's list of the top ten dead bodies in literature, Roy Blount Jr.'s list of five favorite books of Southern humor, and James Franco's six best books list.

The “My mother is a fish.” chapter in As I Lay Dying is among the ten most notorious parts of famous books according to Gabe Habash.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tom Fox's "Dominus," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Dominus by Tom Fox.

The entry begins:

Ever since the first scenes of Dominus began to appear in my head, I’ve always thought it the kind of story that would lend itself well to film (though, perhaps, what author doesn’t!) — and perhaps because I’m a visual thinker, often ‘seeing’ the scenes I’m writing as if they’re being played out in my mind, I feel in some sense as if I’ve already seen the film. But until you asked the question, I can honestly say I never went as far as casting, and it’s been a pleasant experiment to visualize which actors I’d seek out, if I could have my fancy.

Dominus includes a large cast of characters, so there’s an ensemble for the making that I can imagine would be a casting director’s dream (and a financier’s nightmare). Everyone from the frail and ‘miraculously’ healed pope (for which I would go and grovel at the feet of Giancarlo Giannini, who played a pope so masterfully in Joshua (2012) before going on to James Bond franchise fame, and who is the perfect match of gentility and humility, with a strain of ferocity behind him; or Benicio del Toro, whom I’ve always thought blended power and peacefulness so well), to the aggressive, terrifying villain of Caterina Amato (a role that for some reason I think...[read on]

Learn more about Tom Fox's Dominus at the publisher's website, and visit Tom Fox's Twitter perch.

Writers Read: Tom Fox.

My Book, The Movie: Dominus.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Lisa Black's "That Darkness"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: That Darkness by Lisa Black.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this tour de force of psychological suspense, bestselling author Lisa Black draws from her experience as a forensic investigator to create two of the most fascinating characters in crime fiction: a killer with a unique sense of justice and a woman in a lifelong relationship with death…

That Darkness

As a forensic investigator for the Cleveland Police Department, Maggie Gardiner has seen her share of Jane Does. The latest is an unidentified female in her early teens, discovered in a local cemetery. More shocking than the girl's injuries--for Maggie at least--is the fact that no one has reported her missing. She and the detectives assigned to the case (including her cop ex-husband) are determined to follow every lead, run down every scrap of evidence. But the monster they seek is watching every move, closer to them than they could possibly imagine.

Jack Renner is a killer. He doesn't murder because he enjoys it, or because he believes himself omnipotent, or for any reason other than to make the world a safer place. When he follows the trail of this Jane Doe to a locked room in a small apartment where eighteen teenaged girls are anything but safe, he knows something must be done. But his pursuit of their captor takes an unexpected turn.

Maggie Gardiner finds another body waiting for her in the autopsy room--and a host of questions that will challenge everything she believes about justice, morality, and the true nature of evil…

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

Writers Read: Lisa Black.

The Page 69 Test: That Darkness.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Karen Halvorsen Schreck?

Featured at Writers Read: Karen Halvorsen Schreck, author of Broken Ground.

Her entry begins:

I just finished reading Big Little Lies, by Liane Moriarty. I initially picked it up because soon after the New Year, a long-time friend of mine, the actor Jeffrey Nordling, shared that he’d landed a role in the upcoming HBO production of the novel, optioned by, and starring, Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon. “Happy 2016!” I wrote to Jeff when I heard the news. “Right?” he wrote back. He also mentioned that he liked the novel a lot. I trust Jeff’s judgment. Also, I was curious in a rather puerile way. (Will he fit the part?) Plus, I’d just finished reading everything I could get my hands on by the English author, Jojo Moyes. Lots of reasons to dig in. So I did.

I soon traded my curiosity for total absorption. Jeff’s a great actor—of course he’ll fit the part! But Big Little Lies! What a great read! Liane Moriarty! Who knew? A lot of...[read on]

About Broken Ground, from the publisher:

When a young oil rig widow escapes her grief and the Texas Dust Bowl, she discovers a surprising future—and new passion—awaiting her in California in this lyrically written romance by the author of Sing for Me.

Newly married to her childhood sweetheart, twenty-one-year-old Ruth Warren is settling into life in a Depression-era, East Texas oil town. She’s making a home when she learns that her young husband, Charlie, has been killed in an oil rig accident. Ruth is devastated, but then gets a chance for a fresh start: a scholarship from a college in Pasadena, CA. Ruth decides to take a risk and travel west, to pursue her one remaining dream to become a teacher.

At college Ruth tries to fit into campus life, but her grief holds her back. When she spends Christmas with some old family friends, she meets the striking and compelling Thomas Everly, whose own losses and struggles have instilled in him a commitment to social justice, and led him to work with Mexican migrant farmworkers in a camp just east of Los Angeles. With Thomas, Ruth sees another side of town, and another side of current events: the numerous forced deportations without due process of Mexicans, along with United States citizens of Mexican descent.

After Ruth is forced to leave school, she goes to visit Thomas and sees that he has cobbled together a night school for the farmworkers’ children. Ruth begins to work with the children, and establishes deep friendships with people in the camp. When the camp is raided and the workers and their families are rounded up and shipped back to Mexico, Ruth and Thomas decide to take a stand for the workers’ rights—all while promising to love and cherish one another.

Visit Karen Halvorsen Schreck's website.

My Book, The Movie: Broken Ground.

Writers Read: Karen Halvorsen Schreck.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books that re-tell old legends with a new spin

Sam Reader is a writer and conventions editor for The Geek Initiative. He also writes literary criticism and reviews at strangelibrary.com. One of his top five stories that take their inspiration from myth and legend, as shared at the B & N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog:

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, by Salman Rushdie

Much of Rushdie’s work is anchored in myth, but his most recent novel pulls from it directly, the title even riffing on The Thousand and One Nights. Drawing from the middle eastern stories of the jinn, a race of powerful spirits with godlike powers, Rushdie weaves a series of interlocking tales involving a jinn princess named Dunia, her romance with a disgraced human philosopher, and their children, whose powers awaken thousands of years later after a mysterious storm hits present-day New York. This sparks off a war between jinn and Dunia’s ancestors that will last a thousand-and-one nights, or two years, eight months, and twenty-eight nights. While there are modern touches, Rushdie’s prose keeps close to its inspirational texts as it moves from its ancient beginnings to post-storm New York, and even further in the future.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Steve Viscelli's "The Big Rig"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Big Rig: Trucking and the Decline of the American Dream by Steve Viscelli.

About the book, from the publisher:

Long-haul trucks have been described as sweatshops on wheels. The typical long-haul trucker works the equivalent of two full-time jobs, often for little more than minimum wage. But it wasn’t always this way. Trucking used to be one of the best working-class jobs in the United States.

The Big Rig explains how this massive degradation in the quality of work has occurred, and how companies achieve a compliant and dedicated workforce despite it. Drawing on more than 100 in-depth interviews and years of extensive observation, including six months training and working as a long-haul trucker, Viscelli explains in detail how labor is recruited, trained, and used in the industry. He then shows how inexperienced workers are convinced to lease a truck and to work as independent contractors. He explains how deregulation and collective action by employers transformed trucking’s labor markets--once dominated by the largest and most powerful union in US history--into an important example of the costs of contemporary labor markets for workers and the general public.

Visit Steve Viscelli's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Big Rig.

--Marshal Zeringue

Simon Callow's 6 best books

Simon Callow is an actor, director, and writer. He has appeared in many films, including the hugely popular Four Weddings and a Funeral (he played Gareth). One of his six best books, as shared at the Daily Express:

THE BURIED GIANT by Kazuo Ishiguro

A book about cultural forgetfulness, about what history means, which is written as a parable. It takes you on a journey and I found it impossible to put down.

Read about another book on the list.

The Buried Giant is one of Alastair Bruce's top ten books about forgetting.

See a different list of Simon Callow's six best books (from 2012).

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Sarah Alexander's "The Art of Not Breathing"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Art of Not Breathing by Sarah Alexander.

About the book, from the publisher:

Since her twin brother, Eddie, drowned five years ago, sixteen-year-old Elsie Main has tried to remember what really happened that fateful day on the beach. One minute Eddie was there, and the next he was gone. Seventeen-year-old Tay McKenzie is a cute and mysterious boy that Elsie meets in her favorite boathouse hangout. When Tay introduces Elsie to the world of freediving, she vows to find the answers she seeks at the bottom of the sea.

Visit Sarah Alexander's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Art of Not Breathing.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Tom Fox reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Tom Fox, author of Dominus.

His entry begins:

I generally like to read several things at a time. It’s one of the ways I compensate for a few long periods during the year when I’m so consumed in my own writing that I read far less (though I’m not one to totally cut myself off from others’ work when I’m writing my own). Currently I’ve got my fingers in a few literary pies that I’m thoroughly enjoying.

Karin Slaughter’s Pretty Girls has entirely taken me by surprise. What a story! It was a reader recommendation (I routinely ask readers what I should pick up next, often via Goodreads, and have really enjoyed where they’ve pointed me), and I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into — though I knew, being a fan of Slaughter’s writing, it would be something fun. ‘Fun’, it turns out, is a rather odd word for how this book has captured me: it’s...[read on]

About Dominus, from the publisher:

The Vatican Cathedral is packed to the rafters as Pope Gregory XVII leads the congregation in mass. A cloaked stranger steps suddenly and fearlessly towards the altar and commands the wheelchair-bound Pope to stand. He does. The miracle, if that's what it is, stops the world in its tracks. Who is this stranger?

More inexplicable events follow: blind children see for the first time, cancers are cured, and a popular young starlet killed in a surfing accident inexplicably regains consciousness. There is widespread awe at each new demonstration of healing, but the Vatican retreats from the public eye, closing its doors to the world. What the public doesn't see is that someone is threatening various Church officials-as well as the stranger the world is branding a miracle-worker.

Skeptical investigative journalist Alexander Trecchio, seeking a source who could discredit the growing religious mania, instead discovers a gruesome killing. Soon Alexander and police officer Gabriella Fierro are working together to find the killer and get to the bottom of the mysterious events that have sent the world into a frenzy and the Catholic Church into retreat.

The question on everyone's lips is, what is the true nature of the mysterious events unfolding in Rome? Amid talk of miracles and even the Second Coming, Alexander and Fierro uncover evidence of powerful earthly forces at play. Can those forces be stopped before more lives are lost-and one of the most ancient institutions in the world is destroyed?

Learn more about Tom Fox's Dominus at the publisher's website, and visit Tom Fox's Twitter perch. 

Writers Read: Tom Fox.

--Marshal Zeringue

Karen Halvorsen Schreck's "Broken Ground," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Broken Ground: A Novel by Karen Halvorsen Schreck.

The entry begins:

I did have specific people in mind as I developed Ruth Warren and Thomas Everly, the main characters of Broken Ground. As never before in my writing, in fact, I turned to particular photographs of these people for inspiration.

Set in the 1930s, Broken Ground is the story of a young oilrig widow who tries to escape her grief and the Texas Dust Bowl by heading west to attend college. There she becomes immersed in the lives of Mexican migrant workers in a camp near Los Angeles, and learns of the long-term repatriation program of that era—the massive, forced deportation without due process of people of Mexican heritage, many of them U.S. citizens. Ultimately, Ruth and her friend, WPA worker Thomas Everly, must decide what stand they will take in the face of this injustice.

My inspiration for Ruth...[read on]

Visit Karen Halvorsen Schreck's website.

My Book, The Movie: Broken Ground.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Colleen Shogan & Conan

Featured at Coffee with a Canine: Colleen Shogan & Conan.

The author, on Conan the Inspiration:

Conan is the inspiration for the dog in my “Washington Whodunit” mystery series. His character’s name is Clarence. In the first book, Stabbing in the Senate, he played a small role. However, Clarence plays a much bigger and pivotal part in the sequel, Homicide in the House....[read on]

About Stabbing in the Senate, from the publisher:

Life is good for Kit Marshall. She's a staffer in D.C. for a popular senator, and she lives with an adoring beagle and a brainy boyfriend with a trust fund. Then, one morning, Kit arrives at the office early and finds her boss, Senator Langsford, impaled by a stainless steel replica of an Army attack helicopter. Panicked, she pulls the weapon out of his chest and instantly becomes the prime suspect in his murder. Circumstances back Kit's claim of innocence, but her photograph has gone viral, and the heat won't be off until the killer is found. Well-loved though the senator was, suspects abound. Langsford had begun to vote with his conscience, which meant he was often at odds with his party. Not only had the senator decided to quash the ambitions of a major military contractor, but his likely successor is a congressman he trounced in the last election. Then there's the suspiciously dry-eyed Widow Langsford. Kit's tabloid infamy horrifies her boyfriend's upper-crust family, and it could destroy her career. However, she and her free-spirited friend Meg have a more pressing reason to play sleuth. The police are clueless in more ways than one, and Kit worries that the next task on the killer's agenda will be to end her life. Book 1 in the Washington Whodunit series.

Visit Colleen Shogan's website and watch the Stabbing in the Senate promo video featuring Clarence the Dog.

Coffee with a Canine: Colleen Shogan & Conan.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ciarán Hinds' 6 favorite books

Actor Ciarán Hinds is Mance Rayder in HBO's Game of Thrones and has played many other film roles.

One of his six favorite books, as shared at The Week magazine:

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

A World War II–era family drama turns into a story within a story, within a story — as well as a mystery, a thriller, and a tract on the politics of love, passion, and betrayal. It's brilliantly written, sharp as a blade, and completely engrossing.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Blind Assassin is among Lee Kelly's five favorite books with unforgettable sisters.

See a different list of Ciarán Hinds' six best books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Camille Griep's "New Charity Blues"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: New Charity Blues by Camille Griep.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the wake of a devastating plague, two communities emerge as bastions of survival. One is called the City, and its people scrabble for scraps in the wasteland. The other, New Charity, enjoys the bounty of its hydroelectric dam and refuses City denizens so much as a drop of precious water. When City-dweller Cressyda inherits her father’s ranch within New Charity, she becomes intent on opening the dam to all—no matter the cost.

But when Syd reunites with her old best friend, Casandra, a born seer and religious acolyte, she realizes that her plans could destroy the fragile lives they’ve built in order to survive. What’s more, the strange magic securing the dam’s operations could prove deadly if disturbed. Yet when Syd discovers evidence that her father might have been murdered, she is more determined than ever to exact revenge on New Charity’s corrupt.

Pitted against Cas, as well as her own family, Syd must decide how to secure the survival of both settlements without tipping them over the brink to utter annihilation. In this intense and emotional reimagining of the Trojan War epic, two women clash when loyalty, identity, community, and family are all put to the ultimate test.

Visit Camille Griep's website.

The Page 69 Test: Letters to Zell.

Coffee with a Canine: Camille Griep and Dutchess Marie Siefker-Griep.

The Page 69 Test: New Charity Blues.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Sharon Potts reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Sharon Potts, author of The Other Traitor.

Her entry begins:

I occasionally joke that there’s more truth in fiction than in newspapers and history books. Which is why I love reading novels, particularly historical fiction that presents an unconventional view of people we’ve been raised to see only in black-and-white. But are they really simply villains or heroes as we’ve been taught to believe?

Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel, All the Light We Cannot See is set in France during World War II, and much of it takes place in the walled port city of Saint-Malo. Doerr does a remarkable job of portraying a young German soldier in a nuanced and sympathetic manner. Werner is caught in the midst of a devastating war machine. He is part of a small group of German soldiers whose job is to...[read on]

About The Other Traitor, from the publisher:

It’s been over sixty years, but three people remain haunted by what he did.

Was it treason…or something far worse?

Raised with shame and silence, Annette Revoir refuses to confront her terrible legacy—her grandfather’s execution as an atomic bomb spy in the 1950s. But when she finds an old family photo album that reveals a very different portrait of her grandfather, her instincts as a journalist take over. Her inquiries put her on a collision course with a young man and his grandmother, but Annette is prepared to go to any lengths to prove her disgraced grandfather’s innocence.

Everything in Julian Sandman’s life is wrong—his unrewarding career at a big drug company, his expensive Manhattan apartment, and his self-indulgent girlfriend. The worst part of living a lie is the one he’s been telling himself. Julian is ready to defy the demons of his family’s past… Perhaps he should have first considered the cost.

Mariasha Lowe’s childhood growing up in Brooklyn during the Great Depression is safely preserved in her strange metal sculptures. Today, people might say she was ‘a red-diaper baby’ but they’d be mistaken about her brushes with communism. And with Yitzy. Mariasha is ninety-five, but she’s never forgotten him. Is it finally time to face her past so she can make a future for Annette and Julian? Or will she take her secrets to the grave?

Learn more about the book and author at Sharon Potts' website.

My Book, The Movie: In Their Blood.

My Book, The Movie: Someone’s Watching.

The Page 69 Test: The Devil's Madonna.

Writers Read: Sharon Potts.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five of the best SF books about war and military culture

Sean Danker is currently serving in the military on a base in North Dakota. His new book, Admiral, is the first book in a new military SF series. At Tor.com Danker tagged five of his favorite SF books about war and military culture, including:

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

A classic Vietnam allegory that’s influenced many writers. The Forever War isn’t just an intelligent and dignified political commentary; it’s an engaging and personal science fiction novel that’s well done on every level. Haldeman breaks down the philosophy underlying modern militaries and the wars they fight, giving elegant and balanced acknowledgement to war’s necessity, and its absurdity. It’s a bit like Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, but with slightly more gravitas, and infinitely more soul.

Read about another book on the list.

The Forever War made Becky Ferreira's top ten list of best books for fans of The Twilight Zone, Emily Stamm and Charlie Jane Anders's list of the ten best science fiction stories where humans are the villains and Charlie Jane Anders's list of the 12 greatest science fiction war stories.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Emily Edwards's "Bars, Blues, and Booze"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Bars, Blues, and Booze: Stories from the Drink House by Emily D. Edwards.

About the book, from the publisher:

True accounts from musicians, bar owners, and regulars at the crossroads of good times and despair

Bars, Blues, and Booze collects lively bar tales from the intersection of black and white musical cultures in the South. Many of these stories do not seem dignified, decent, or filled with uplifting euphoria, but they are real narratives of people who worked hard with their hands during the week to celebrate the weekend with music and mind-altering substances. These are stories of musicians who may not be famous celebrities but are men and women deeply occupied with their craft--professional musicians stuck with a day job.

The collection also includes stories from fans and bar owners, people vital to shaping a local music scene. The stories explore the "crossroads," that intoxicated intersection of spirituality, race, and music that forms a rich, southern vernacular. In personal narratives, musicians and partygoers relate tales of narrow escape (almost getting busted by the law while transporting moonshine), of desperate poverty (rat-infested kitchens and repossessed cars), of magic (hiring a root doctor to make a charm), and loss (death or incarceration). Here are stories of defiant miscegenation, of forgetting race and going out to eat together after a jam, and then not being served. Assorted boasts of improbable hijinks give the "blue collar" musician a wild, gritty glamour and emphasize the riotous freedom of their fans, who sometimes risk the strong arm of southern liquor laws in order to chase the good times.

Visit the official Bars, Blues & Booze website.

Writers Read: Emily D. Edwards.

The Page 99 Test: Bars, Blues, and Booze.

--Marshal Zeringue