What is Cathy Gere reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Cathy Gere, author of Pain, Pleasure, and the Greater Good: From the Panopticon to the Skinner Box and Beyond.

Her entry begins:

I just finished Collecting the World by historian of science James Delbourgo, about Hans Sloane, the eighteenth-century physician whose vast assembly of botanical and cultural wonders from all over the globe was the seed from which the British Museum sprouted. My father was keeper of one of the departments of the British Museum, and I grew up in Hans Sloane’s old neighborhood in London, so for me the book holds a double personal significance. I found it a fantastic read, full of hilarious insights into how bizarre and quirky much of the Enlightenment drive towards universal knowledge turned out to...[read on]

About Pain, Pleasure, and the Greater Good, from the publisher:

How should we weigh the costs and benefits of scientific research on humans? Is it right that a small group of people should suffer in order that a larger number can live better, healthier lives? Or is an individual truly sovereign, unable to be plotted as part of such a calculation?

These are questions that have bedeviled scientists, doctors, and ethicists for decades, and in Pain, Pleasure, and the Greater Good, Cathy Gere presents the gripping story of how we have addressed them over time. Today, we are horrified at the idea that a medical experiment could be performed on someone without consent. But, as Gere shows, that represents a relatively recent shift: for more than two centuries, from the birth of utilitarianism in the eighteenth century, the doctrine of the greater good held sway. If a researcher believed his work would benefit humanity, then inflicting pain, or even death, on unwitting or captive subjects was considered ethically acceptable. It was only in the wake of World War II, and the revelations of Nazi medical atrocities, that public and medical opinion began to change, culminating in the National Research Act of 1974, which mandated informed consent. Showing that utilitarianism is based in the idea that humans are motivated only by pain and pleasure, Gere cautions that that greater good thinking is on the upswing again today and that the lesson of history is in imminent danger of being lost.

Rooted in the experiences of real people, and with major consequences for how we think about ourselves and our rights, Pain, Pleasure, and the Greater Good is a dazzling, ambitious history.

Learn more about Pain, Pleasure, and the Greater Good at the University of Chicago Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Knossos and the Prophets of Modernism.

Writers Read: Cathy Gere.

--Marshal Zeringue

Johnny Ball's six favorite books

Johnny Ball is an English television personality and a popularizer of mathematics. His books include Wonders Beyond Numbers: A Brief History of All Things Mathematical.

One of Ball's six favorite books, as shared at the Daily Express:

THE INVENTION OF NATURE by Andrea Wulf

This won the Royal Society science book of the year award and it’s the story of Alexander von Humboldt.

Darwin did his voyage with The Beagle because Humboldt had done it.

It was Humboldt who discovered plants grow at different levels on mountains.

It’s the true story of how nature was opened up.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Stephen R. Bown's "Island of the Blue Foxes," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Island of the Blue Foxes: Disaster and Triumph on the World's Greatest Scientific Expedition by Stephen R. Bown.

The entry begins:

Island of the Blue Foxes has many different aspects but there are certain parts of it that would make it an ideal base for an adventure-survival epic. It would start with scenes of the shipwreck and the men crawling ashore and setting up camp on a deserted beach with snow falling. Then it would flashback to the palace of Peter the Great in St. Petersburg, and a discussion between aristocrats of the general plan and of Peter’s burning desire to show Europe the grandeur and sophistication of Russia, which had only recently been transformed, in the estimation of Europe, from a barbarous backwater into a somewhat civilized state. Peter the Great wanted to do away with the perceived insults to Russian pride by contributing to global science and geography by financing a grand expedition – across Siberia to the east Pacific coast, and then by sail across the Pacific Ocean to America – and claim it for the Russian Empire. This scene would also show his choice of Bering as commander. The next scene would return to the island and the attacks of the feral blue foxes, with...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Stephen R. Bown's website and Facebook page.

My Book, The Movie: The Last Viking.

The Page 99 Test: White Eskimo.

My Book, The Movie: Island of the Blue Foxes.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Valerie Constantine & Zorba

Featured at Coffee with a Canine: Valerie Constantine & Zorba.

The author, on how she and Zorba were united:

My husband spotted a Cavalier sitting in a car at a grocery store parking lot and waited for the owner to return. When she got to the car, he asked where she had gotten the dog. It turned out she was a breeder, so he gave her our information and asked her to call us when the next litter came along. We forgot about it, but a year and a half later, she called to tell us that she had a new litter of two. The girl was already taken, but the boy was available, and that’s...[read on]

About The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine, from the publisher:

The mesmerizing debut about a coolly manipulative woman and a wealthy "golden couple," from a stunning new voice in psychological suspense.

Some women get everything. Some women get everything they deserve.

Amber Patterson is fed up. She’s tired of being a nobody: a plain, invisible woman who blends into the background. She deserves more—a life of money and power like the one blond-haired, blue-eyed goddess Daphne Parrish takes for granted.

To everyone in the exclusive town of Bishops Harbor, Connecticut, Daphne—a socialite and philanthropist—and her real-estate mogul husband, Jackson, are a couple straight out of a fairy tale.

Amber’s envy could eat her alive ... if she didn't have a plan. Amber uses Daphne’s compassion and caring to insinuate herself into the family’s life—the first step in a meticulous scheme to undermine her. Before long, Amber is Daphne’s closest confidante, traveling to Europe with the Parrishes and their lovely young daughters, and growing closer to Jackson. But a skeleton from her past may undermine everything that Amber has worked towards, and if it is discovered, her well-laid plan may fall to pieces.

With shocking turns and dark secrets that will keep you guessing until the very end, The Last Mrs. Parrish is a fresh, juicy, and utterly addictive thriller from a diabolically imaginative talent.

Visit Valerie Constantine's website. Learn more about The Last Mrs. Parrish: A Novel by Liv Constantine (the pen name of sisters Lynne Constantine and Valerie Constantine).

Coffee with a Canine: Valerie Constantine & Zorba.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Randolph Lewis's "Under Surveillance"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Under Surveillance: Being Watched in Modern America by Randolph Lewis.

About Under Surveillance, from the publisher:

Never before has so much been known about so many. CCTV cameras, TSA scanners, NSA databases, big data marketers, predator drones, “stop and frisk” tactics, Facebook algorithms, hidden spyware, and even old-fashioned nosy neighbors—surveillance has become so ubiquitous that we take its presence for granted. While many types of surveillance are pitched as ways to make us safer, almost no one has examined the unintended consequences of living under constant scrutiny and how it changes the way we think and feel about the world. In Under Surveillance, Randolph Lewis offers a highly original look at the emotional, ethical, and aesthetic challenges of living with surveillance in America since 9/11.

Taking a broad and humanistic approach, Lewis explores the growth of surveillance in surprising places, such as childhood and nature. He traces the rise of businesses designed to provide surveillance and security, including those that cater to the Bible Belt’s houses of worship. And he peers into the dark side of playful surveillance, such as eBay’s online guide to “Fun with Surveillance Gadgets.” A worried but ultimately genial guide to this landscape, Lewis helps us see the hidden costs of living in a “control society” in which surveillance is deemed essential to governance and business alike. Written accessibly for a general audience, Under Surveillance prompts us to think deeply about what Lewis calls “the soft tissue damage” inflicted by the culture of surveillance.

Learn more about Under Surveillance at the University of Texas Press website.

Writers Read: Randolph Lewis.

The Page 99 Test: Under Surveillance.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Kate White's "Even If It Kills Her"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Even If It Kills Her: A Bailey Weggins Mystery by Kate White.

About the book, from the publisher:

Kate White returns to her New York Times bestselling Bailey Weggins’ Mystery series, with this favorite true-crime journalist turned sleuth’s most chilling case to date.

Bailey Weggins’ great new friend in college, Jillian Lowe, had everything going for her. Pretty, popular, and whip-smart, she lit up any room that she walked into. All of that dramatically changed during her sophomore year, when a neighbor became unhinged and murdered her family. Jillian immediately left school, and ever since, Bailey has felt guilty for not staying in closer contact and being a greater support to her friend.

Now, sixteen years later, Bailey is shocked to see Jillian at her book event, and even more stunned when her still-gorgeous friend approaches her with a case. The man accused of murdering her family is on the brink of being cleared of the crime through new DNA evidence. With the real killer walking free, Jillian is desperate for Bailey’s help to identify him and allow her the closure she yearns for.

As the two women return to Jillian’s childhood town to investigate, it doesn’t take long for their sleuthing to cause shock waves. Someone starts watching their every move. As they uncover deeply-guarded secrets, so shocking that they make Jillian rethink her entire relationship to her family, Bailey and Jillian find themselves in great peril. They must decide just how much they’re willing to risk to finally discover the truth about the Lowe family’s murder.

Visit Kate White's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: Even If It Kills Her.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight perfect books for "Poldark" fans

At B&N Reads Tara Sonin tagged eight perfect novels for fans of the historical drama, Poldark. One entry on the list:

The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett

In the fictional town of Kingsbridge during the English Middle Ages, a saga is born with the building of a cathedral. One might think construction might not cause the drama, suspense, romance and devastation that it does, but when the book begins with a woman cursing her beloved’s executioner, you know it’s going to be good. A heartbreaking epic of feudalism, ambition, and love.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Ivy Pochoda reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Ivy Pochoda, author of Wonder Valley: A Novel.

Her entry begins:

One of the best things about having a novel come out is that, for various professional reasons, you wind up reading books you might not have picked up—whether it's for a blurb or for an author interview. I'm lucky enough to be doing an event with Michael Connelly, so I'm brushing up on my Bosch. I'd read a few before, but this immersion is a blast. I just finished Angels Flight which I love, not least of all because it's set in my stomping grounds of downtown LA. I'm smack-dab in the middle of The Wrong Side of Goodbye which is another masterful look at Los Angeles. Between...[read on]

About Wonder Valley, from the publisher:

When a teen runs away from his father’s mysterious commune, he sets in motion a domino effect that will connect six characters desperate for hope and love, set across the sun-bleached canvas of Los Angeles.

From the acclaimed author of Visitation Street, a visionary portrait of contemporary Los Angeles in all its facets, from the Mojave Desert to the Pacific, from the 110 to Skid Row.

During a typically crowded morning commute, a naked runner is dodging between the stalled cars.  The strange sight makes the local news and captures the imaginations of a stunning cast of misfits and lost souls.

There's Ren, just out of juvie, who travels to LA in search of his mother. There's Owen and James, teenage twins who live in a desert commune, where their father, a self-proclaimed healer, holds a powerful sway over his disciples. There's Britt, who shows up at the commune harboring a dark secret. There's Tony, a bored and unhappy lawyer who is inspired by the runner. And there's Blake, a drifter hiding in the desert, doing his best to fight off his most violent instincts.  Their lives will all intertwine and come crashing together in a shocking way, one that could only happen in this enchanting, dangerous city.

Wonder Valley is a swirling mix of angst, violence, heartache, and yearning—a masterpiece by a writer on the rise.

Learn more about the book and author at Ivy Pochoda's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Art of Disappearing.

Writers Read: Ivy Pochoda.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top political founding works

At the Guardian Rohan McWilliam tagged ten of the greatest political founding works, including:

On Liberty by John Stuart Mill (1859)

Whenever we argue about the right to free speech, at some point Mill’s great essay will be quoted. On Liberty is one of the key texts of modern liberalism. Mill argued in favour of free speech, complaining about the “tyranny of the majority”. He thought stifling uncomfortable opinions may lead to repressing ideas that are, in fact, correct. However, he also believed it was right to repress words and actions if they harmed others. He did not believe everyone should do as they liked, as this would promote selfishness. Mill’s views were shaped by his relationship with his wife, the philosopher Harriet Taylor Mill, and he became a champion of votes for women.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Daniel Swift's "The Bughouse"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics, and Madness of Ezra Pound by Daniel Swift.

About the book, from the publisher:

A captivating biography of Ezra Pound told via the stories of his visitors at St. Elizabeths Hospital
In 1945, the great American poet Ezra Pound was deemed insane. He was due to stand trial for treason for his fascist broadcasts in Italy during the war. Instead, he escaped a possible death sentence and was held at St. Elizabeths Hospital for the insane for more than a decade. While there, his visitors included the stars of modern poetry: T. S. Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop, John Berryman, Robert Lowell, Charles Olson, and William Carlos Williams, among others. They would sit with Pound on the hospital grounds, bring him news of the outside world, and discuss everything from literary gossip to past escapades.

This was perhaps the world’s most unorthodox literary salon: convened by a fascist and held in a lunatic asylum. Those who came often recorded what they saw. Pound was at his most infamous, most hated, and most followed. At St. Elizabeths he was a genius and a madman, a contrarian and a poet, and impossible to ignore.

In The Bughouse, Daniel Swift traces Pound and his legacy, walking the halls of St. Elizabeths and meeting modern-day neofascists in Rome. Unlike a traditional biography, The Bughouse sees Pound through the eyes of others at a critical moment both in Pound’s own life and in twentieth-century art and politics. It portrays a fascinating, multifaceted artist, and illuminates the many great poets who gravitated toward this most difficult of men.

Learn more about The Bughouse at the publisher's website.

The Page 99 Test: Bomber County.

The Page 99 Test: Shakespeare's Common Prayers.

The Page 99 Test: The Bughouse.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kelley Fanto Deetz's "Bound to the Fire," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Bound to the Fire: How Virginia's Enslaved Cooks Helped Invent American Cuisine by Kelley Fanto Deetz.

The entry begins:

Bound to the Fire highlights several enslaved cooks, many of whom have little record of their lives aside from mentions in a will or probate. If this book could translate to a film it would be one of short cameos, small clips that highlight and intertwine with one another. Commonalities of resistance, poisoning, social positioning, and pure talent would make these historical figures fascinating on the big screen. The kitchen as the stage and the food as the evidence of their labor and lives.

I’d imagine silence before each cameo’s scene. The sound of the large open-hearth fire burning in the background, the distant noise of butchering, chopping wood, and foot traffic surrounding the kitchen cabin. The individual ...[read on]

Learn more about Bound to the Fire at Kelley Fanto Deetz's website.

My Book, The Movie: Bound to the Fire.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six of YAs most cutthroat heroines

At the BN Teen Blog Dahlia Adler tagged six of YAs most ruthless heroines, including:

Everyone in Tiny Pretty Things, by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton

American Ballet Conservatory! Come for the chance at a beautiful future on the stage; stay because to leave is to become a nobody. Of course, sticking it out at the ABC means sharpening all the tools in your mental arsenal, because those who aren’t the most talented dancers (and now that Gigi has arrived, that title is most taken) will do absolutely anything if it means living up to stellar older siblings (in the case of Bette) or getting to stay on stage to pursue the only passion you know (hey, June). Threatening messages and suspicious accidents are only part of what tuition pays for….

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Eryk Pruitt reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Eryk Pruitt, author of What We Reckon.

His entry begins:

I'm a big fan of Southern crime fiction. I've read every word published by Daniel Woodrell and William Gay and Tom Franklin…I love the grit in the words written by Jedidiah Ayres and Steve Weddle…I'm a big fan of the new guys coming up like Greg Barth, S.A. Cosby and Marietta Miles.

However, when someone asked if I was a fan of any African-American crime fiction from the South, I had to think long and hard about it. Most black Southern crime fiction writers like Chester Himes left the South to write about New York City. Walter Mosley took Easy Rawlins out of Texas and dropped him into LA. The only Richard Wright book which could count as crime (Native Son) takes place in Chicago, not his native Mississippi.

So I've been on a bit of a hunt to find crime fiction written by African-Americans from the South, which takes place in the South. That's why...[read on]

About What We Reckon, from the publisher:

He’s snuck into Lufkin, Texas, in the dead of night with little more than a beat-up Honda, a hollowed-out King James Bible full of cocaine, and enough emotional baggage to sink a steam ship. He’s charming, dedicated, and extremely paranoid.

Summer Ashton, his partner-in-crime. She’s stuck by him through thick and thin, but lately her mind has begun to slip. They’ve told their fair share of lies and she’s having a devil of a time remembering what’s the truth. And recently, she’s been hearing voices. Unfortunately for both of them, she’s the brains of the operation.

Furthermore, they have begun to tire of one another.

For these two career grifters, the sleepy East Texas countryside is but another pit stop on their rampage across the American South.

Will it be their last?

In WHAT WE RECKON, Eryk Pruitt explores themes of identity, loyalty, and purpose with psycho-delic, transgressive, chicken-fried twists that read like Trainspotting cut with a couple grams of Helter Skelter.

Visit Eryk Pruitt's website.

My Book, The Movie: What We Reckon.

The Page 69 Test: What We Reckon.

Writers Read: Eryk Pruitt.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Fonda Lee's "Jade City"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Jade City by Fonda Lee.

About the book, from the publisher:

FAMILY IS DUTY. MAGIC IS POWER. HONOR IS EVERYTHING.

Jade is the lifeblood of the island of Kekon. It has been mined, traded, stolen, and killed for — and for centuries, honorable Green Bone warriors like the Kaul family have used it to enhance their magical abilities and defend the island from foreign invasion.

Now, the war is over and a new generation of Kauls vies for control of Kekon's bustling capital city. They care about nothing but protecting their own, cornering the jade market, and defending the districts under their protection. Ancient tradition has little place in this rapidly changing nation.

When a powerful new drug emerges that lets anyone — even foreigners — wield jade, the simmering tension between the Kauls and the rival Ayt family erupts into open violence. The outcome of this clan war will determine the fate of all Green Bones — from their grandest patriarch to the lowliest motorcycle runner on the streets — and of Kekon itself.

Jade City begins an epic tale of family, honor, and those who live and die by the ancient laws of jade and blood.

Visit Fonda Lee's website.

The Page 69 Test: Jade City.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top music books

Hanif Abdurraqib’s essay collection is They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us. One of ten music books that shaped his knowledge of the songs he loves, as shared at Publishers Weekly:

Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs

I have more copies of this book of collected essays and columns than I do of any other book. Every page is bent, highlighted, or heavily annotated. Bangs did it best: making criticism a conversation and leaving the door open to his own flaws. Putting enough of himself into his criticism to make sure people knew he was touchable, flawed. A music fan above all else.

Read about another entry on the list.

Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung is among Jim DeRogatis's four greatest rock ’n’ roll books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Lynne Constantine & Greyson

Featured at Coffee with a Canine: Lynne Constantine & Greyson.

The author, on how she and Greyson were united:

We were actually on a list with two rescue sites for a golden retriever. My beloved golden, Tucker, was ill and our kids begged us to get a dog to keep him company and to help with the transition when he passed. I got an email that there was a three-month-old silver lab available asking if we were interested. My husband and I talked about it before telling the kids, and he went to meet him. He Facetimed me from the rescue and as soon as I saw him I knew he was for us. We picked him up a week later and he and Tucker, our golden got to play together...[read on]

About The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine, from the publisher:

The mesmerizing debut about a coolly manipulative woman and a wealthy "golden couple," from a stunning new voice in psychological suspense.

Some women get everything. Some women get everything they deserve.

Amber Patterson is fed up. She’s tired of being a nobody: a plain, invisible woman who blends into the background. She deserves more—a life of money and power like the one blond-haired, blue-eyed goddess Daphne Parrish takes for granted.

To everyone in the exclusive town of Bishops Harbor, Connecticut, Daphne—a socialite and philanthropist—and her real-estate mogul husband, Jackson, are a couple straight out of a fairy tale.

Amber’s envy could eat her alive ... if she didn't have a plan. Amber uses Daphne’s compassion and caring to insinuate herself into the family’s life—the first step in a meticulous scheme to undermine her. Before long, Amber is Daphne’s closest confidante, traveling to Europe with the Parrishes and their lovely young daughters, and growing closer to Jackson. But a skeleton from her past may undermine everything that Amber has worked towards, and if it is discovered, her well-laid plan may fall to pieces.

With shocking turns and dark secrets that will keep you guessing until the very end, The Last Mrs. Parrish is a fresh, juicy, and utterly addictive thriller from a diabolically imaginative talent.

Visit Lynne Constantine's website. Learn more about The Last Mrs. Parrish: A Novel by Liv Constantine (the pen name of sisters Lynne Constantine and Valerie Constantine).

Coffee with a Canine: Lynne Constantine & Greyson.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top books that offer a new take on pre-existing works

At the B&N Reads blog Brian Boone tagged five adaptations or re-imaginings of earlier works, including:

The Sixteenth of June by Maya Lang is a remake of James Joyce’s Ulysses

James Joyce’s crowning achievement is Ulysses, an astonishingly detailed, hyper-realistic look at a single day in Dublin, Ireland—June 16, 1904. Commemorations of that day are now known as Bloomsday, after one the book’s many, many characters, Leo Bloom. Almost as real as Joyce’s physical descriptions are the richly rendered characters. “A day in the life” is a repeatable formula, but difficult to do well. Author Maya Lang pulls it off with The Sixteenth of June. It’s a cutting, insightful, emotional look at the good people of Philadelphia on June 16, 2004. A couple of people even throw a Bloomsday party! (Of course, if you want to get technical, Ulysses itself is a remake of the ancient Greek epic The Odyssey.)

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: The Sixteenth of June.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: John Sharples's "A Cultural History of Chess-Players"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: A Cultural History of Chess-Players: Minds, Machines, and Monsters by John Sharples.

About the book, from the publisher:

This inquiry concerns the cultural history of the chess-player. It takes as its premise the idea that the chess-player has become a fragmented collection of images, underpinned by challenges to, and confirmations of, chess's status as an intellectually-superior and socially-useful game, particularly since the medieval period. Yet, the chess-player is an understudied figure. No previous work has shone a light on the chess-player itself. Increasingly, chess-histories have retreated into tidy consensus. This work aspires to a novel reading of the figure as both a flickering beacon of reason and a sign of monstrosity. To this end, this book, utilising a wide range of sources, including newspapers, periodicals, detective novels, science-fiction, and comic-books, is underpinned by the idea that the chess-player is a pluralistic subject used to articulate a number of anxieties pertaining to themes of mind, machine, and monster.

John Sharples is an independent historian.

Learn more about A Cultural History of Chess-Players at the publisher's website.

The Page 99 Test: A Cultural History of Chess-Players.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Randolph Lewis reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Randolph Lewis, author of Under Surveillance: Being Watched in Modern America.

His entry begins:

I’m reading a brand new book, The Heart of the Mission: Latino Art and Politics in San Francisco,  which was written by my colleague at UT-Austin, Cary Cordova. The topic is so appealing—incredible art, intense politics, urban space, gentrification, and...[read on]

About Under Surveillance, from the publisher:

Never before has so much been known about so many. CCTV cameras, TSA scanners, NSA databases, big data marketers, predator drones, “stop and frisk” tactics, Facebook algorithms, hidden spyware, and even old-fashioned nosy neighbors—surveillance has become so ubiquitous that we take its presence for granted. While many types of surveillance are pitched as ways to make us safer, almost no one has examined the unintended consequences of living under constant scrutiny and how it changes the way we think and feel about the world. In Under Surveillance, Randolph Lewis offers a highly original look at the emotional, ethical, and aesthetic challenges of living with surveillance in America since 9/11.

Taking a broad and humanistic approach, Lewis explores the growth of surveillance in surprising places, such as childhood and nature. He traces the rise of businesses designed to provide surveillance and security, including those that cater to the Bible Belt’s houses of worship. And he peers into the dark side of playful surveillance, such as eBay’s online guide to “Fun with Surveillance Gadgets.” A worried but ultimately genial guide to this landscape, Lewis helps us see the hidden costs of living in a “control society” in which surveillance is deemed essential to governance and business alike. Written accessibly for a general audience, Under Surveillance prompts us to think deeply about what Lewis calls “the soft tissue damage” inflicted by the culture of surveillance.

Learn more about Under Surveillance at the University of Texas Press website.

Writers Read: Randolph Lewis.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five novels about running away from one’s problems to join a space pirate crew

R.E. Stearns's new novel is Barbary Station. One of her five favorite books about running away from one’s problems to join a space pirate crew, as shared at Tor.com:

According to United States law, fan favorite and disabled hero Miles Vorkosigan gets his start at being a pirate in The Warrior’s Apprentice (Lois McMaster Bujold, 1986). Extend all of the “aircraft” terminology to “spacecraft,” here. The problem he was running from: flunking out of a military academy during wartime, because he wasn’t physically fit. In what is basically a military-based caste system, that’s a lot to escape from. What he ends up doing instead is creating his very own mercenary fleet, through wartime smuggling and other acts of necessary violence. This story may be chronologically first, but you can jump into the Vorkosigan Saga at any book. They’re all excellent.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Eryk Pruitt's "What We Reckon"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: What We Reckon by Eryk Pruitt.

About the book, from the publisher:

He’s snuck into Lufkin, Texas, in the dead of night with little more than a beat-up Honda, a hollowed-out King James Bible full of cocaine, and enough emotional baggage to sink a steam ship. He’s charming, dedicated, and extremely paranoid.

Summer Ashton, his partner-in-crime. She’s stuck by him through thick and thin, but lately her mind has begun to slip. They’ve told their fair share of lies and she’s having a devil of a time remembering what’s the truth. And recently, she’s been hearing voices. Unfortunately for both of them, she’s the brains of the operation.

Furthermore, they have begun to tire of one another.

For these two career grifters, the sleepy East Texas countryside is but another pit stop on their rampage across the American South.

Will it be their last?

In WHAT WE RECKON, Eryk Pruitt explores themes of identity, loyalty, and purpose with psycho-delic, transgressive, chicken-fried twists that read like Trainspotting cut with a couple grams of Helter Skelter.

Visit Eryk Pruitt's website.

My Book, The Movie: What We Reckon.

The Page 69 Test: What We Reckon.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven stories in which women fight, win, and survive in horror

At the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog Elsa Sjunneson-Henry tagged seven horror stories in which women are more than victims, including:

Four and Twenty Blackbirds, by Cherie Priest

Eden Moore is the kind of Southern Gothic woman you shouldn’t mess with. She’s never alone, and the three ghosts who watch and warn her of trouble have always been there. Eden’s stories are creepy as hell, and the character never lets up—not when the Civil War comes to her door, nor when her aunt’s life is threatened, nor when the creek rises and her city is under threat. The ghosts of this series are vicious and violent, and have kept me awake at night.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Craig Schaefer's "Cold Spectrum," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Cold Spectrum by Craig Schaefer.

The entry begins:

Casting my own books is a trickier question than it sounds. I rarely envision my characters in terms of specific actors – I see them in a fuzzier, more mutable space – but it’s a fun challenge to try. Of course, when it comes to the Harmony Black series, one character casts herself; specifically, Nadine, one of Harmony’s most dangerous foes. Given that she canonically remodeled her human form to resemble Taylor Swift, that’s one role taken care of (and with it, half the movie’s casting budget, but this is all hypothetical so let’s go big or go home.)

As for Harmony’s other nemesis, the lime-sneaker-clad technophile billionaire Bobby Diehl, one perfect prospect jumps to mind: Tom...[read on]

Visit Craig Schaefer's website.

The Page 69 Test: Cold Spectrum.

Writers Read: Craig Schaefer.

My Book, The Movie: Cold Spectrum.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Amy S. Foster reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Amy S. Foster, author of The Rift Frequency.

Her entry begins:

Okay, here’s the thing, I adore a cozy mystery. I am currently reading Lemon Pies and Little White Lies by Ellery Adams. It has everything I love in a cozy mystery. The protagonist is A) magic. The protagonists in these novels doesn’t always have to be magic but if she isn’t, she creates a homey space that feels magical. B) It takes place in a pie/tea shop. Most of these settings are businesses of this nature: yarn, book, fabric or vintage clothing stores, apothecaries, or they are self employed in some sort of supernatural job. Alternately, they do a lot of estate shopping for some reason? C) The victims are never anyone the protagonist knows very well. They are strangers or they were jerks who sort of deserved it. Either way...[read on]

About The Rift Frequency, from the publisher:

To save her love and unlock the mystery of who she is, a brave young woman must travel between alternate realities in The Rift Frequency, the exciting second book in Amy S. Foster's The Rift Uprising Trilogy.

She didn’t mean to, but...

Teenage super-solider Ryn Whittaker started an uprising.

For three years Ryn was stationed at The Battle Ground Rift site—one of the fourteen mysterious and unpredictable tears in the fabric of the universe that serve as doorways to alternate Earths—and then she met Ezra Massad.

Falling in love and becoming a rebel Citadel wasn’t part of Ryn’s life plan, but with Ezra there asking all the right questions, they began to decode what’s really going on with the Allied Rift Coalition, and what they discovered was enough to start a civil war.

When the base explodes with infighting and Ezra gets caught in the fray, he is accidentally pushed through the Rift, taking a stolen laptop—and the answers it could give Ryn—with him.

Now all Ryn wants is to locate Ezra and get back to her Earth. But that’s not easy when she’s traveling the multiverse with Levi, the painfully guarded Citadel who shoved Ezra through in the first place. And Ryn is quickly learning that inside the multiverse there is no normal—it’s adapt, or die—and the one weapon she really needs to win the war back home is the truth.

Visit Amy Foster's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Rift Frequency.

Writers Read: Amy S. Foster.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten Protestants in fiction

Peter Stanford is the author of Martin Luther: Catholic Dissident. At the Guardian he tagged the top ten Protestants in fiction, including:

Thomas Cromwell in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall (2009) and Bring Up the Bodies (2012)

Mantel has won much acclaim for her rehabilitation of Thomas Cromwell, the blacksmith’s son who rose to be Earl of Essex and, as Henry VIII’s right-hand man, gave the English version of the Reformation a much more Protestant shape than it might otherwise have taken. But her Cromwell, many historians insist, is a work of fiction, her emphasis on his humanity (his grief for his dead wife and daughters, even his loyalty to his one-time patron Cardinal Wolsey) distorting the reality of religious zeal and ruthless ambition that ultimately saw him meet the same fate on the scaffold as those he had mercilessly sacrificed in his climb to high office.

Read about another entry on the list.

Wolf Hall made Melissa Harrsion's ten top depictions of British rain, the Telegraph's list of the 21 greatest television adaptations of novels, BBC Culture's list of the 21st century’s twelve greatest novels, Ester Bloom's ten list of books for fans of the television series House of Cards, Rachel Cantor's list of the ten worst jobs in books, Kathryn Williams's reading list on pride, the Barnes & Noble Review's list of books on baby-watching in Great Britain, Julie Buntin's top ten list of literary kids with deadbeat and/or absent dads, Hermione Norris's 6 best books list, John Mullan's list of ten of the best cardinals in literature, the Barnes & Noble Review's list of five books on dangerous minds and Lev Grossman's list of the top ten fiction books of 2009, and is one of Geraldine Brooks's favorite works of historical fiction; Matt Beynon Rees called it "[s]imply the best historical novel for many, many years."

Bring Up the Bodies is among Terry Stiastny’s ten top books about Westminster politics and Fiona Barton's ten favorite books centering on marriages that hold dark secrets. The position of Queen, in Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies, is among Rachel Cantor's ten worst jobs in books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Carrie Jones's "Enhanced"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Enhanced: Flying Series (Volume 2) by Carrie Jones.

About the book, from the publisher:

The adventures of cheerleader-turned-alien-hunter Mana continue in this sequel to Flying by the New York Times bestselling author of Need, Carrie Jones.

Seventeen-year-old Mana has found and rescued her mother, but her work isn't done yet. Her mother may be out of alien hands, but she's in a coma, unable to tell anyone what she knows.

Mana is ready to take action. The only problem? Nobody will let her. Lyle, her best friend and almost-boyfriend (for a minute there, anyway), seems to want nothing to do with hunting aliens, despite his love of Doctor Who. Bestie Seppie is so desperate to stay out of it, she's actually leaving town. And her mom's hot but arrogant alien-hunting partner, China, is ignoring Mana's texts, cutting her out of the mission entirely.

They all know the alien threat won't stay quiet for long. It's up to Mana to fight her way back in.

Visit Carrie Jones's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Carrie Jones & Tala.

Writers Read: Carrie Jones.

My Book, The Movie: Enhanced.

The Page 69 Test: Enhanced.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Francesco Duina's "Broke and Patriotic"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Broke and Patriotic: Why Poor Americans Love Their Country by Francesco Duina.

About the book, from the publisher:

Why are poor Americans so patriotic? They have significantly worse social benefits compared to other Western nations, and studies show that the American Dream of upward mobility is, for them, largely a myth. So why do these people love their country? Why have they not risen up to demand more from a system that is failing them?

In Broke and Patriotic, Francesco Duina contends that the best way to answer these questions is to speak directly to America's most impoverished. Spending time in bus stations, laundromats, senior citizen centers, homeless shelters, public libraries, and fast food restaurants, Duina conducted over sixty revealing interviews in which his subjects explain how they view themselves and their country. He masterfully weaves their words into three narratives. First, America's poor still see their country as the "last hope" for themselves and the world: America offers its people a sense of dignity, closeness to God, and answers to most of humanity's problems. Second, America is still the "land of milk and honey:" a very rich and generous country where those who work hard can succeed. Third, America is the freest country on earth where self-determination is still possible.

This book offers a stirring portrait of the people left behind by their country and left out of the national conversation. By giving them a voice, Duina sheds new light on a sector of American society that we are only beginning to recognize as a powerful force in shaping the country's future.

Learn more about Broke and Patriotic at the Stanford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Winning.

The Page 99 Test: Broke and Patriotic.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books to make you less stupid about the Civil War

"For the past 50 years, some of this country’s most celebrated historians have taken up the task of making Americans less stupid about the Civil War," writes Ta-Nehisi Coates at The Atlantic. One title from that effort:

Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee: Elizabeth Pryor’s biography of Lee, through Lee’s own words, helps part with a lot of stupid out there about Lee—chiefly that he was, somehow, “anti-slavery.” It dispenses with the boatload of stupid out there which hails the military genius of Lee while ignoring the world that all of that genius was actually trying to build.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Craig Schaefer reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Craig Schaefer, author of Cold Spectrum.

His entry begins:

On the fiction front, I’ve been digging into Mo Hayder. She’s been writing for years but she’s a delightful new discovery for me, and as typically happens when I find a new author I love, I pretty much have to put everything on hold and devour their catalog from start to finish. Her suspense novels are bitterly dark, gruesome, and chilling to the bone, with zero punches pulled. Check out The Devil of Nanking or Birdman, and...[read on]

About Cold Spectrum, from the publisher:

Criminologist Harmony Black is a witch with a loaded Glock. Her partner, Jessie Temple, is packing fierce lupine heat. Together, they’re part of Vigilant Lock, an elite FBI black ops group dedicated to defeating criminals with supernatural connections. But when they uncover a demonic conspiracy in the highest ranks of the government, it appears that everything Harmony and her friends have worked for, fought for, and risked their lives for might be a lie.
Framed for a casino massacre, Harmony and Jessie are on the run—in the real world and in their own. From the seedy casinos of Atlantic City to the steamy bayous of Louisiana and the imposing facades of Washington, DC, there’s not a soul on earth they can trust.

The only way they can clear their names is to take down the conspiracy from within and uncover the truth behind a secret that both the government and the powers of hell want to keep buried.

Visit Craig Schaefer's website.

The Page 69 Test: Cold Spectrum.

Writers Read: Craig Schaefer.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eryk Pruitt's "What We Reckon," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: What We Reckon by Eryk Pruitt.

The entry begins:

Enter Jack Jordan. He’s snuck into Lufkin, Texas, in the dead of night with little more than a beat-up Honda, a hollowed-out King James Bible full of cocaine, and enough emotional baggage to sink a steam ship. He’s charming, dedicated, and extremely paranoid.

Summer Ashton, his partner-in-crime. She’s stuck by him through thick and thin, but lately her mind has begun to slip. They’ve told their fair share of lies and she’s having a devil of a time remembering what’s the truth. And recently, she’s been hearing voices. Unfortunately for both of them, she’s the brains of the operation.

Furthermore, they have begun to tire of one another.

For these two career grifters...[read on]

Visit Eryk Pruitt's website.

My Book, The Movie: What We Reckon.

--Marshal Zeringue

Twenty-five of the most terrifying horror books

At B&N Reads Jeff Somers tagged "twenty-five books that might not necessarily be the best horror novels, but are certainly the scariest," including:

Hell House, by Richard Matheson

What Matheson taps into in this classic haunted house story is the universal fear that we are already lost, already broken. Hired to investigate the existence of an afterlife by exploring the notoriously haunted Belasco House, a team moves in and slowly succumbs to the influence of the entity within—an entity that only uses their own weaknesses and secret shames against them. Their descent into the depths of horror is too close for comfort as a result—for everyone reading the book knows all too well that they have weaknesses, and secret shames, as well.

Read about another entry on the list.

Hell House is among Dell Villa's seven best haunted house books in literature and Ashley Brooke Roberts's seven best haunted house books.

--Marshal Zeringue