Ian Worthington's "Demosthenes of Athens and the Fall of Classical Greece," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Demosthenes of Athens and the Fall of Classical Greece by Ian Worthington.

The entry begins:

Demosthenes was the most powerful politician of ancient Athens and Greece's greatest orator. The movie should not portray his entire life (as my book does), from the boy who was poked fun at for his stammer and sickly disposition to the most powerful man in Athens, but focus on one aspect of his career, a defining moment against all odds, which I'd suggest was the lead up to the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC. Here, Philip II of Macedonia (Alexander the Great's father) defeated a coalition of Greek states to end the centuries-long autonomy of Greece and plunge the country under the rule of foreign powers – from Macedonia, to Rome, to the Turks – until 1832, when Greece was proclaimed an independent and free country.

Chaeronea is one of history's most significant battles. It took place because of Demosthenes' anti-Macedonian policy, which saw him publicly ridiculed and attacked, but which he steadfastly maintained as he strove to unite his countrymen against Philip's imperialism and tyranny. The movie would focus on Demosthenes' policy at this time and his great speeches to rouse the people to war – and of course re-enact the battle with all its blood and guts. Flashbacks would show Demosthenes' emergence into politics and his initial lack of success and despair. A flashforward to 330 BC, when he was brought to trial for failing Athens, but justified his cause so persuasively that his opponent (Aeschines) lost the case and quit Athens, could round off the film. How did Demosthenes defend his unsuccessful policy? By...[read on]

Learn more about Demosthenes of Athens and the Fall of Classical Greece at the Oxford University Press website.

Ian Worthington is Professor of History at the University of Missouri and author of Alexander the Great: Man and God and Philip II of Macedonia.

My Book, The Movie: Demosthenes of Athens and the Fall of Classical Greece.

--Marshal Zeringue

Free book: "The Cove" by Ron Rash

Ecco and the Campaign for the American Reader are giving away a paperback copy of The Cove by Ron Rash.

HOW TO ENTER: Visit the Campaign for the American Reader Facebook page, scroll down, and "like" the post for The Cove.

Contest closes on Monday, December 31st. Winner must have a US mailing address. Good luck!

Learn more about The Cove at the HarperCollins website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Louis Mendoza’s "A Journey Around Our America"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: A Journey Around Our America: A Memoir on Cycling, Immigration, and the Latinoization of the U. S. by Louis G. Mendoza.

About the book, from the publisher:

Immigration and the growing Latino population of the United States have become such contentious issues that it can be hard to have a civil conversation about how Latinoization is changing the face of America. So in the summer of 2007, Louis Mendoza set out to do just that. Starting from Santa Cruz, California, he bicycled 8,500 miles around the entire perimeter of the country, talking to people in large cities and small towns about their experiences either as immigrants or as residents who have welcomed—or not—Latino immigrants into their communities. He presented their enlightening, sometimes surprising, firsthand accounts in Conversations Across Our America: Talking About Immigration and the Latinoization of the United States.

Now, in A Journey Around Our America, Mendoza offers his own account of the visceral, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual dimensions of traveling the country in search of a deeper, broader understanding of what it means to be Latino in the United States in the twenty-first century. With a blend of first- and second-person narratives, blog entries, poetry, and excerpts from conversations he had along the way, Mendoza presents his own aspirations for and critique of social relations, political ruminations, personal experiences, and emotional vulnerability alongside the stories of people from all walks of life, including students, activists, manual laborers, and intellectuals. His conversations and his experiences as a Latino on the road reveal the multilayered complexity of Latino life today as no academic study or newspaper report ever could.

Learn more about A Journey Around Our America at the University of Texas Press website.

The Page 99 Test: A Journey Around Our America.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight notable books about parents and kids

Ken Jennings broke game show records in 2004 with his unprecedented seventy-four game, $2.52 million victory streak on Jeopardy!. Jennings’s book Brainiac, about his Jeopardy! adventures, was a critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller, as was his follow-up, Maphead. He is also the author of Ken Jennings’s Trivia Almanac.

Jennings’s new book is Because I Said So!: The Truth Behind the Myths, Tales, and Warnings Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids.

One of Jennings’s favorite books about parents and children, as told to Publishers Weekly:

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

I just realized this list doesn’t have enough moms on it, probably because I don’t read enough of those books with teacups and gabled windows on the covers. I think they usually have ladies who team up to form some kind of club or sisterhood? Anyway, my favorite literary mom is either Sophie Portnoy or Ignatius J. Reilly’s mother in A Confederacy of Dunces. Give him hell, Irene.

Read about another novel on the list.

A Confederacy of Dunces is among Sarah Stodol's top ten lost-then-found novels, Hallie Ephron's top ten books for a good laugh, Stephen Kelman's top 10 outsiders' stories, John Mullan's ten best moustaches in literature, Michael Lewis's five favorite books, and Cracked magazine's classic funny novels.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Ed Kovacs reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Ed Kovacs, author of Good Junk.

His entry begins:

I just found a dog-eared copy of Tom Clancy’s eleven-hundred-page thrill ride, The Bear and the Dragon. I’m currently working on a security contract at a remote location in a former Soviet Republic, so Clancy’s Russian settings and characters, and insights into Russian thinking are all very germane, since I liaise with many Russian military, security and intelligence types on a daily basis.

Clancy is simply a Grand Master of commercial thriller fiction that rises above the genre. When I deployed here I had already started writing my 5th novel, an espionage/conspiracy thriller set in Central Asia with a security contractor hero. I can’t do much...[read on]

About Good Junk, from the publisher:

Cliff St. James returns to a Post-Katrina New Orleans to take on another case in Ed Kovac's Good Junk, this wonderful action-packed follow-up to Storm Damage

While wrestling with guilt over having accidentally killed a mixed martial arts opponent in a sparring session, private detective Cliff St. James returns to New Orleans and finds himself assisting the police in an investigation of the murder of a U.S. government “black projects” engineer. St. James quickly uncovers “The Buyers Club,” a murky network of seedy arms dealers and foreign intelligence agents purchasing state-of-the-art weaponry and high technology, perhaps abetted by elements of the U.S. government. As members of the Buyers Club start turning up dead, St. James fights for his life and sanity as he struggles to solve the murders and undermine a treacherous espionage conspiracy.

Learn more about the book and author at Ed Kovacs's website.

Kovacs has worked for many years as a private security contractor deploying to challenging locations worldwide. He is a member of AFIO, Association for Intelligence Officers, the International Thriller Writers organization, and the Mystery Writers of America. Storm Damage is his first Cliff St. James detective thriller.

My Book, The Movie: Storm Damage.

The Page 69 Test: Storm Damage.

Writers Read: Ed Kovacs (December 2011).

Writers Read: Ed Kovacs.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Ceiridwen Terrill & Argos

Today's featured duo at Coffee with a Canine: Ceiridwen Terrill and Argos.

The author, on the wildest encounter Argos has had with the wildlife that live near her home:

The day of my wedding, Argos disappeared into Forest Park, the 5,000-acre urban wilderness surrounding my home. With the wedding cake safely stowed in the fridge, our deck scrubbed and chairs set out, the ceremony was just hours away. I’d led Argos outside to pee when he suddenly picked up a scent and dashed into the trees. Nothing like that had ever happened before—or since. I called and called, bushwhacking a four-mile loop through tangles of sword fern and vine maple--no sign of him. At dusk, sobbing and hardly able to put two words together, I was ready to call off the wedding. Then Argos...[read on]

About Terrill's new book, Part Wild: One Woman's Journey with a Creature Caught Between the Worlds of Wolves and Dogs, from the publisher:

Part Wild is the story of a woman and her wolf, or more specifically, a canine estimated to be 12.5% Siberian husky and 87.5% gray wolf: a high purity and bona fide wolfdog named Inyo. In and out of abusive relationships with damaged men, Ceiridwen Terrill is drawn to Inyo as a source of protection, a beacon of strength, and as a fellow traveler—a partner. But this is not a sentimental account of spiritual healing; Part Wild is a memoir of the beauty and tragedy that comes from living with a measure of wildness.

Over the course of three years, Ceiridwen and Inyo's adventures veer between hilarious and heartbreaking. When Ryan (a rock-climbing line cook with a love of literature) enters the picture, the three of them find peace by escaping suburban Reno for weekends and hiking in the snowy foothills. But back home, Inyo's wild nature and Ryan's insouciance clash with the fences and financial requirements of civilization. Ceiridwen and Ryan's relationship (along with carpets, leashes, and dashboards) frays under the stress of caring for Inyo, insatiable without the stimulation of a life lived outdoors. Forced to move again and again to accommodate the complaints of fearful neighbors and the desires of the space-craving wolfdog, Ceiridwen is finally confronted with the reality of what she has done by trying to tame a part-wild animal. "For some wolfdogs," she ultimately understands, "not even the world is big enough."

Driven to understand the differences between dogs and wolves, Ceiridwen spent five years tracking down and interviewing scientists, wolf biologists, and dog trainers in the United States, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, and Russia, and visited wolf shelters across the United States. The fascinating results of her investigation are interspersed throughout the narrative, elucidating the behaviors she encountered while living with Inyo.

This is a rare story about the alluring call of the wild, the danger and responsibility of heeding that call, and extraordinary animal love. Ceiridwen Terrill is a gifted writer able to capture the beauty and power of the natural world, the complexity of scientific ideas, and the pulse of the human experience.

Visit Ceiridwen Terrill's website and read more about Part Wild: One Woman's Journey with a Creature Caught Between the Worlds of Wolves and Dogs.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Ceiridwen Terrill and Argos.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Philip Sington's "The Valley of Unknowing"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: The Valley of Unknowing by Philip Sington.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the twilight years of Communist East Germany, Bruno Krug, author of a single world-famous novel written twenty years earlier, falls for Theresa Aden, a music student from the West. But Theresa has also caught the eye of a cocky young scriptwriter who delights in satirizing Krug’s work.

Asked to appraise a mysterious manuscript, Bruno is disturbed to find that the author is none other than his rival. Disconcertingly, the book is good—very good. But there is hope for the older man: the unwelcome masterpiece is dangerously political. Krug decides that if his affair with Theresa is to prove more than a fling, he must employ a small deception. But in the Workers’ and Peasants’ State, knowing the deceiver from the deceived, the betrayer from the betrayed, isn’t just difficult: it is a matter of life and death. Now the celebrated author and secret Stasi informer is ready to confess…

The Valley of Unknowing is both a moving and entertaining love story and a seductive thriller, one that pits the past against the future, commerce against creativity, and art against life.

Learn more about the book and author at Philip Sington's website.

Writers Read: Philip Sington.

The Page 69 Test: The Valley of Unknowing.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jennifer Jensen Wallach's "Well Met"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: How America Eats: A Social History of U.S. Food and Culture by Jennifer Jensen Wallach.

About the book, from the publisher:

How America Eats: A Social History of US Food and Culture, by food and social historian Jennifer Wallach, sheds a new and interesting light on American history by way of the dinner table. It is, at once, a study of America’s diverse culinary history and a look at the country’s unique and unprecedented journey to the present day. While undeniably a “melting pot” of different cultures and cuisines, America’s food habits have been shaped as much by technological innovations and industrial progress as by the intermingling and mixture of ethnic cultures. By studying what Americans have been eating since the colonial era, we are further enlightened to the conflicting ways in which Americans have chosen to define themselves, their culture, their beliefs, and the changes those definitions have undergone over time. Understanding the American diet is the first step toward grasping the larger truths, the complex American narratives that have long been swept under the table, and the evolving answers to the question: What does it mean to be American?

Learn more about How America Eats at the Rowman & Littlefield website.

The Page 99 Test: How America Eats.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven notable funny books

Jamie Thomson is a British writer, editor and game developer, and winner of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize 2012.

He named his seven favorite funny books for the Guardian. One title on the list:

Mort by Terry Pratchett

Strictly speaking, not really a kids' book, well, not for younger kids anyway, but still. It's an hilarious tale about a young man who takes up a new Discworld apprenticeship - with Death himself. He starts taking over more and more of Death's tasks, as Death is rather bored of it all, and is more interested in finding out what it's actually like to be a human. Oh, and eating curry. Mort is full of great little amusing moments and appeals to my sense of turning things on their head and seeing where it leads you. Lots of great Pratchetty comic dialogue and whimsy.

"Pardon me for living, I'm sure."
"NO ONE GETS PARDONED FOR LIVING."

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

William C. Dietz's "Andromeda's Fall," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Andromeda's Fall by William C. Dietz.

The entry begins:

Although Andromeda starts out as a party girl (think Paris Hilton with brains) she's forced to deal with robotic assassins, survive boot camp on a dangerous planet, and learn to kill. So the actress who plays the main character has to be tough and capable of being a bad ass. Oh, and she's blond... So I'm thinking Uma Thurman. Anyone who can make me want to watch Kill Bill three times has got the right stuff. Yes, I know she isn't 25 anymore, but in case attitude trumps age. I think she can pull it off.

And for Desmond Larkin, Andromeda's muscular sidekick, the beefed up version of Chris...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at William C. Dietz's website.

The Page 69 Test: Andromeda's Fall.

My Book, The Movie: Andromeda's Fall.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Howard Andrew Jones reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Howard Andrew Jones, author of The Bones of the Old Ones.

His entry begins:

Because I’m writing in a version of the 8th century, albeit one where magic and dark horrors actually exist, I always have at least one book underway for research purposes. Right now I’m (re) reading the Shahnamah, or Persian Book of Kings, the epic poem written by Abolqasem Ferdowsi in the early 9th century. The recent prose translation by Dick Davis is pretty captivating, and I just finished a section about the adventures of Sekander, or, as we know him, Alexander the Great. It was fascinating to see the Macedonian conqueror depicted as a mythological figure torn between his drive for adventure and his duties as a monarch. Soon I’m going to be re-visiting a long section about the hero Rustam, who is a little like Herakles, complete with a series of labors.

I began the Shahnamah some years ago so that I’d know some of the fables and legends my characters might have heard, but it wasn’t too long before the sheer imaginative scope and...[read on]

About The Bones of the Old Ones, from the publisher:

As a snowfall blankets 8th century Mosul, a Persian noblewoman arrives at the home of the scholar Dabir and his friend the swordsman Captain Asim. Najya has escaped from a dangerous cabal that has ensorcelled her to track down ancient magical tools of tremendous power, the bones of the old ones.

To stop the cabal and save Najya, Dabir and Asim venture into the worst winter in human memory, hunted by a shape-changing assassin. The stalwart Asim is drawn irresistibly toward the beautiful Persian even as Dabir realizes she may be far more dangerous a threat than anyone who pursues them, for her enchantment worsens with the winter. As their opposition grows, Dabir and Asim have no choice but to ally with their deadliest enemy, the treacherous Greek necromancer, Lydia. But even if they can trust one another long enough to escape their foes, it may be too late for Najya, whose soul is bound up with a vengeful spirit intent on sheathing the world in ice for a thousand years...

Learn more about the book and author at Howard Andrew Jones's website.

Writers Read: Howard Andrew Jones.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Harold James's "Making the European Monetary Union"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Making the European Monetary Union by Harold James.

About the book, from the publisher:

Europe’s financial crisis cannot be blamed on the Euro, Harold James contends in this probing exploration of the whys, whens, whos, and what-ifs of European monetary union. The current crisis goes deeper, to a series of problems that were debated but not resolved at the time of the Euro’s invention.

Since the 1960s, Europeans had been looking for a way to address two conundrums simultaneously: the dollar’s privileged position in the international monetary system, and Germany’s persistent current account surpluses in Europe. The Euro was created under a politically independent central bank to meet the primary goal of price stability. But while the monetary side of union was clearly conceived, other prerequisites of stability were beyond the reach of technocratic central bankers. Issues such as fiscal rules and Europe-wide banking supervision and regulation were thoroughly discussed during planning in the late 1980s and 1990s, but remained in the hands of member states. That omission proved to be a cause of crisis decades later.

Here is an account that helps readers understand the European monetary crisis in depth, by tracing behind-the-scenes negotiations using an array of sources unavailable until now, notably from the European Community’s Committee of Central Bank Governors and the Delors Committee of 1988–89, which set out the plan for how Europe could reach its goal of monetary union. As this foundational study makes clear, it was the constant friction between politicians and technocrats that shaped the Euro. And, Euro or no Euro, this clash will continue into the future.

Learn more about Making the European Monetary Union at the Harvard University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Making the European Monetary Union.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five notable toy stories

One title on the Barnes & Noble Review's list of five top books featuring toys:

The Mouse and His Child
by Russel Hoban, illustrated by David Small

The mice of the title are toys: "a large one and a small one, who stood upright with outstretched arms and joined hands. They wore blue velveteen trousers and patent leather shoes, and they had glass-bead eyes, white thread whiskers, and black rubber tails." Together they dance when wound by a key, and together they pass through griefs, joys, and adventures that make this novel one of the most memorable books you are ever likely to read. The most recent edition boasts illustrations by Caldecott medalist David Small. Age 9 and up.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Monica Trasandes's "Broken Like This"

This weekend's feature at the Page 69 Test: Broken Like This by Monica Trasandes.

About the book, from the publisher:

An unforgettably haunting novel—intertwining stories reveal how a man and a woman fall in love with the same extraordinary person

Broken Like This by Monica Trasandes is the saga of Kate Harrington—who for the past fifteen years has been the muse, provocateur and lodestone in the lives of Louis Ross and Angela Agnelli. After a car accident in Ibiza, Kate lies comatose and is, unbeknownst to anyone, two months pregnant. Angela and Louis both fly to her side, as does Kate’s step-father, who’s been a dark presence in all of their lives for many years. Told in present day and breathtaking flashbacks, by turns bittersweet and brutally honest—this is a remarkable debut.

What begins as an evocative story of love and identity evolves, faster and faster, into a high-scale drama—with a conclusion that is truly heartrending. From sunny, Southern California to the sweaty, musical streets of Brazil; from a garden in Boston to a rooftop in Brooklyn—Broken Like This is a rare novel that captures the utter joy felt when meeting that person whose energy and passion will shape your life forever.

Learn more about the book and author at Monica Trasandes's website.

The Page 69 Test: Broken Like This.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jessica Pierce's "The Last Walk"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: The Last Walk: Reflections on Our Pets at the End of Their Lives by Jessica Pierce.

About The Last Walk, from the publisher:

From the moment when we first open our homes—and our hearts—to a new pet, we know that one day we will have to watch this beloved animal age and die. The pain of that eventual separation is the cruel corollary to the love we share with them, and most of us deal with it by simply ignoring its inevitability.

With The Last Walk, Jessica Pierce makes a forceful case that our pets, and the love we bear them, deserve better. Drawing on the moving story of the last year of the life of her own treasured dog, Ody, she presents an in-depth exploration of the practical, medical, and moral issues that trouble pet owners confronted with the decline and death of their companion animals. Pierce combines heart-wrenching personal stories, interviews, and scientific research to consider a wide range of questions about animal aging, end-of-life care, and death. She tackles such vexing questions as whether animals are aware of death, whether they're feeling pain, and if and when euthanasia is appropriate. Given what we know and can learn, how should we best honor the lives of our pets, both while they live and after they have left us?

The product of a lifetime of loving pets, studying philosophy, and collaborating with scientists at the forefront of the study of animal behavior and cognition, The Last Walk asks—and answers—the toughest questions pet owners face. The result is informative, moving, and consoling in equal parts; no pet lover should miss it.

Learn more about The Last Walk: Reflections on Our Pets at the Ends of Their Lives at Jessica Pierce's website and blog.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Jessica Pierce and Maya.

Writers Read: Jessica Pierce.

The Page 99 Test: The Last Walk.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five notable books about family love

Andrew Solomon is the author of The Irony Tower: Soviet Artists in a Time of Glasnost, A Stone Boat, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, winner of fourteen national awards, including the 2001 National Book Award, and Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity.

He named his five favorite books about family love for The Daily Beast. One title on the list:

Jacob’s Room
by Virginia Woolf

No book better describes how a mother loves her child; none better sums up the pain that relinquishing him into the world entails. Woolf ponders Betty Flanders writing to Jacob and comments on “how mothers … scribble over the fire … and can never, never say, whatever it might be—probably this—Don’t go with bad women, do be a good boy, wear your thick shirts; and come back, come back, come back to me.” Elsewhere in the book, Woolf writes, “These changes of mood wear us out.” That sums it up.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Gregory D. Johnsen reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Gregory D. Johnsen, author of The Last Refuge: Yemen, al-Qaeda, and America's War in Arabia.

His entry begins:

For most of the past four years, as I have been writing The Last Refuge, I’ve read primarily fiction. I’m not really sure why this is, but I’m a big believer in reading what you like and so I just went where my tastes led.

Now that I’m finished with the book I’ve found my tastes running more toward non-fiction, particularly biographies. That change is represented in the books that are currently next to my bed, which are:

The Back Chamber (Donald Hall): Donald Hall is my favorite poet, and fall always puts me in the mood to read him. He reminds me of cold mornings, spiced apple cider, and New England – all things I associate with fall and the creep of winter’s beginnings.

A few weeks ago The New Yorker published an essay that mentioned that The Back Chamber was...[read on]

About The Last Refuge, from the publisher:

A gripping account of how al-Qaeda in Yemen rebounded from an initial defeat to once again threaten the United States.

Far from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States and al-Qaeda are fighting a clandestine war of drones and suicide bombers in an unforgiving corner of Arabia.

The Last Refuge charts the rise, fall, and resurrection of al-Qaeda in Yemen over the last thirty years, detailing how a group that the United States once defeated has now become one of the world’s most dangerous threats. An expert on Yemen who has spent years on the ground there, Gregory D. Johnsen uses al-Qaeda’s Arabic battle notes to reconstruct their world as they take aim at the United States and its allies. Johnsen brings readers in-side al-Qaeda’s training camps and safe houses as the terrorists plot poison attacks and debate how to bring down an airliner on Christmas Day. The Last Refuge is an eye-opening look at the successes and failures of fighting a new type of war in one of the most turbulent countries in the world.

Read more about The Last Refuge at the W.W. Norton website.

Writers Read: Gregory D. Johnsen.

--Marshal Zeringue

Joy Fielding's "Shadow Creek," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Shadow Creek by Joy Fielding.

Her entry begins:

Some books are very easy to cast in my head. For example, I always pictured Michelle Pfeiffer as Marcy in Now You See Her, and James Gandolfini seemed a natural for the Sheriff in Heartstopper. Shadow Creek is harder to cast, as it's more of an ensemble piece. There are so many interesting parts for actresses and actors in this book, that it's hard to narrow it down. I try to create characters of all ages and types, so that the book will appeal to readers at different stages of their lives. Hollywood has its own ideas anyway. (Just look at the casting of...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Joy Fielding's website.

The Page 69 Test: Shadow Creek.

Writers Read: Joy Fielding.

My Book, The Movie: Shadow Creek.

--Marshal Zeringue

Free book: "Well Met: Renaissance Faires and the American Counterculture"

New York University Press and the Campaign for the American Reader are giving away a copy of Well Met: Renaissance Faires and the American Counterculture by Rachel Lee Rubin.

HOW TO ENTER: Visit the Campaign for the American Reader Facebook page, scroll down, and "like" the post for Well Met.

Contest closes on Friday, December 14th. Winner must have a US mailing address. Good luck!

Learn more about Well Met at the New York University Press website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Justin G. Wilford's "Sacred Subdivisions"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: Sacred Subdivisions: The Postsuburban Transformation of American Evangelicalism by Justin G. Wilford.

About the book, from the publisher:

In an era where church attendance has reached an all-time low, recent polling has shown that Americans are becoming less formally religious and more promiscuous in their religious commitments. Within both mainline and evangelical Christianity in America, it is common to hear of secularizing pressures and increasing competition from nonreligious sources. Yet there is a kind of religious institution that has enjoyed great popularity over the past thirty years: the evangelical megachurch. Evangelical megachurches not only continue to grow in number, but also in cultural, political, and economic influence. To appreciate their appeal is to understand not only how they are innovating, but more crucially, where their innovation is taking place.

In this groundbreaking and interdisciplinary study, Justin G. Wilford argues that the success of the megachurch is hinged upon its use of space: its location on the postsuburban fringe of large cities, its fragmented, dispersed structure, and its focus on individualized spaces of intimacy such as small group meetings in homes, which help to interpret suburban life as religiously meaningful and create a sense of belonging. Based on original fieldwork at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, one of the largest and most influential megachurches in America, Sacred Subdivisions explains how evangelical megachurches thrive by transforming mundane secular spaces into arenas of religious significance.

Learn more about the book and author at Justin G. Wilford's website.

Justin G. Wilford has a PhD in cultural geography and an MA in political theory.

The Page 99 Test: Sacred Subdivisions.

--Marshal Zeringue