The 25 best boarding school books

At the London Times, Sarah Ebner named her top 25 boarding school books.

A couple of titles from her list:

2) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

This is a very different book to many of the others on the list, and the school is not its main focus, Mr Rochester takes care of that. But whatever the other many attractions of this book, Jane's time at Lowood Academy will stay in a reader's mind for a long, long time.

* * *

4) The Harry Potter series by J K Rowling

These modern books have put boarding schools finally back on the map - albeit by inventing one which is full of mortal danger, magic and adventure. The films may be good, but the books are so much better.

Read about two American novels that made Ebner's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Stephanie Hale's "Revenge of the Homecoming Queen," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Stephanie Hale's Revenge of the Homecoming Queen.

The entry opens:

First off, I'd like to thank the academy for this award. Oops, I guess I'm getting a little ahead of myself! Okay, so if my fabulous teen novel, Revenge of the Homecoming Queen, were made into a book these would be the actors and actresses I had in mind to play the parts perfectly.

Aspen Brooks~ My heroine is sassy, sophisticated, and smart as a whip. She is also occasionally so full of herself that you want to smack her upside the head with her favorite Dooney & Bourke purse, but in the end that's why you'll love her. The only person I can ever see doing Aspen's character justice is Hayden Panettiere. I first saw her in Racing Stripes and knew that she would be perfect. Of course, she's exploded due to...[read on]

Read more about Revenge of the Homecoming Queen at Stephanie Hale's website, and check out Hale's MySpace page and the Books, Boys, Buzz blog.

Stephanie Hale is the author of Revenge of the Homecoming Queen and Twisted Sisters.

The Page 69 Test: Revenge of the Homecoming Queen.

My Book, The Movie: Revenge of the Homecoming Queen.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Declan Burke's "The Big O"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Declan Burke's The Big O.

About the book, from the publisher:

Karen's easy life as a receptionist and armed robber is about to change. Rossi, her ex, is getting out of prison any day now. He'll be looking for his motorcycle, his gun, revenge, and the sixty grand he says is his. But he won't be expecting Ray, the new guy Karen's just met, to be in his way. No stranger to the underworld himself, Ray wants out of the kidnapping game now that some dangerous new bosses are moving in.

Meanwhile Frank, a disgraced plastic surgeon, hires Ray to kidnap his ex-wife for the insurance money. But the ex-wife also happens to be Karen's best friend. Can Karen and Ray trust each other enough to work together on one last job? Or will love, as always, ruin everything?

From a writer hailed as "Elmore Leonard with a hard Irish edge" (Irish Mail on Sunday), Declan Burke's The Big O is crime fiction at its darkest and funniest.

Among the praise for The Big O:

“THE BIG O is a big ol’ success, a tale fuelled by the mischievous spirits of Donald E. Westlake, Elmore Leonard and even Carl Hiassen … THE BIG O kept me reading at speed – and laughing the whole damn time.”
--J. Kingston Pierce, January Magazine, “Best Books 2007 - Crime Fiction”

“Declan Burke’s THE BIG O is one of the sharpest, wittiest and most unusual Irish crime novels of recent years … in a similar tradition to, say, Carl Hiaasen, in that there’s a satirical edge to his work that gives it a real bite.”
--John Connolly, author of The Unquiet

“Burke shows remarkable skill at weaving a complex story from multiple points of view and pulling the strands together in an engaging fashion, and he clearly has the genius required to pull off a large-scale story.”
--Spinetingler Magazine

“It’s hard to praise THE BIG O highly enough. Excellent writing, great characters, superb storytelling – all played out at a ferocious tempo. By turns it’s dark, funny, moving, brutal, tender and twisted. A book that makes one hell of an impact. More Declan Burke please.”
--Allan Guthrie, award-winning author of Two-Way Split

“Burke has [George V.] Higgins’ gift for dialogue, [Barry] Gifford’s concision and the effortless cool of Elmore Leonard at his peak. In short, THE BIG O is an essential crime novel of 2007, and one of the best of any year.”
--Ray Banks, author of Donkey Punch

“With a deft touch, Burke pulls together a cross-genre plot that’s part hard-boiled caper, part thriller, part classic noir, and flat out fun. From first page to last, THE BIG O grabs hold and won’t let go.”
--Reed Farrel Coleman: Shamus, Barry, and Anthony Award-winning Author of the James Deans

Read an excerpt from The Big O and learn more about the book and author at the publisher's website and Declan Burke's Crime Always Pays blog.

The Page 99 Test:: The Big O (Irish edition).

The Page 99 Test: The Big O.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Margaret Luongo reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Margaret Luongo, author of the new short story collection, If the Heart Is Lean.

Part of her entry:

When I was preparing to teach an intro to Creative Writing class last year, I went to the library to check out Amy Bloom’s Come to Me, which I love. I ended up also getting Dagoberto Gilb’s Woodcuts of Women, a collection of 10 stories and woodcuts. I’m just getting around to reading it now. His characters love women and they love love. If menace can be delicate, it is here; linked to desire and vanity, it’s all the more unsettling. I’m only two stories in, but already I know I’ll want to re-read these stories.[read on]

Margaret Luongo teaches creative writing at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She is the recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Creativity Grant and the Walter E. Dakin Fellowship at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference.

Her stories have appeared in Tin House, Jane magazine, Fence, The Cincinnati Review, the 2004 Pushcart Prize anthology, and other journals.

She is currently working on a new collection of stories, tentatively titled Fine Arts.

Writers Read: Margaret Luongo.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nuala Ní Chonchúir's literary top ten

Nuala Ní Chonchúir, author of two collections of short fiction and two poetry collections, is the latest writer to offer up a literary top ten at Pulp Net.

Two entries from her list:

My favourite opening line of a novel:

‘It was not a street anymore but a world, a time and space of falling ash and near night.’ from Falling Man – Don DeLillo

* * *

Author I’d like to nominate for the Nobel Prize for literature:

Manuel Muñoz – for his sincere, humane and stunningly well-written stories of the Latino community in California.

Read about Nuala Ní Chonchúir's "favourite novel that no-one else seems to have heard of."

--Marshal Zeringue

Declan Burke at "The Rap Sheet"

The Rap Sheet is currently featuring its eighth in a series of occasional guest bloggers, the Irish author Declan Burke.

Burke is the author of Eight-ball Boogie, "a more-or-less private eye novel from 2003, and The Big O, a humorous crime caper that was released in Ireland last year and numbered among January Magazine’s favorite crime novels of 2007."

Burke also runs the always entertaining blog, Crime Always Pays.

His first post at The Rap Sheet, "1996: Year Zero," is a must-read account of the relatively recent rise and growth of Irish crime fiction.

Yesterday's offering, "Prose by Any Other Name," delves into the question of what separates "novels that are dedicated crime fiction from those that employ crime and/or criminality as a narrative device." Quality stuff--check it out.

The Page 99 Test: The Big O.

New this month from Harcourt: the U.S. edition of Declan Burke's The Big O.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Mary Daheim's "Vi Agra Falls"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Vi Agra Falls by Mary Daheim.

About the book, from the publisher:

Tucked away in a cozy cul-de-sac on Heraldsgate Hill, Judith McMonigle Flynn hopes for smooth sailing in her longtime role as an innkeeper. But Judith's skill in dealing with guests is matched only by her knack for coming across corpses.

Mystery lovers who enjoy madcap mayhem will have no reservations about returning to Hillside Manor in the twenty-fourth Bed-and-Breakfast book from USA Today bestselling author Mary Daheim.

Judith's worst nightmare comes true when Vivian Flynn—husband Joe's first wife—moves back into the neighborhood, bringing along her newest spouse, Billy "Blunder" Buss, a former minor-league baseball player who is many years younger than his shop-worn bride. Still, the B&B business is going well and the newlyweds don't seem to be causing problems for the Flynns. That seemingly calm summer idyll is broken when Vivian, who has become mysteriously wealthy, announces plans to tear down her own house and the recently vacated bungalow next door so she can build a big, bad condo. Judith, along with the rest of the neighbors in the cul-de-sac, is up in arms, vowing to fight the project to the death.

Vivian's past catches up with her when Frankie Buss comes to town. Billy and Frankie's late father, elderly Oklahoma rancher Potsy Buss, was married to Vivian for nine months before dying and bequeathing her his vast wealth. Frankie Buss intends to stir the pot of gold that Potsy left his widow, and he's trying to cut a deal with Vivian and her most recent mate, Billy. Naturally, where else would Frankie and his wife, Marva Lou, stay but at Hillside Manor?

And naturally, somebody checks out ... permanently. The "somebody" isn't a Buss family member, and turns out to be a "nobody" because the body can't be identified. To save the B&B as well as her sanity, Judith must figure out not only who did it, but who it was who was found dead in Vivian's backyard.

Among the early praise for the novel:

"Cozy buffs who've yet to encounter Daheim's popular Pacific Northwest series will find this entertaining 24th installment (after 2007's Scots on the Rocks) an easy entry point. Judith McMonigle Flynn, who operates a bed-and-breakfast in the Seattle neighborhood of Heraldsgate Hill, has recently remarried her ex-husband, Joe Flynn. Her complicated personal life becomes even more so after the arrival of Joe's ex-wife, Vivian, with her trophy husband in tow. Vivian soon sends ripples through Heraldsgate Hill when she announces plans to build a huge condominium in the community. When the body of an unidentified man is found hanging from a tree behind Vivian's house, Judith reluctantly resumes her familiar role as amateur sleuth. Longtime fans will smile at cousin Renie's exasperation with the prevaricating Judith ("These lengthy preludes to your adventures drive me nuts"). Endearingly eccentric characters are a plus."
--Publishers Weekly

"Mary Daheim ... adds to her very funny "Bed-and-breakfast" series of cozy mysteries with "Vi Agra Falls" .... B&B owner Judith McMonagle Flynn has to deal with a number of issues: unwelcome family, threats of condominiums wrecking her neighborhood's charm, and, oh yeah, dead bodies."
--Adam Woog, Seattle Times

Browse inside Vi Agra Falls, and learn more about the book and author at Mary Daheim's website. Daheim has been an Agatha Award nominee, winner of the 2000 Pacific Northwest Writers Association Achievement Award, and her mysteries regularly make the USA Today bestseller list and the New York Times top thirty.

Mary Daheim's many books include twenty novels in her Emma Lord series and twenty-four titles in her Bed-and-Breakfast series.

The Page 69 Test: Vi Agra Falls.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Regina Kunzel's "Criminal Intimacy"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Criminal Intimacy: Prison and the Uneven History of Modern American Sexuality by Regina Kunzel.

About the book, from the publisher:

Sex is usually assumed to be a closely guarded secret of prison life. But it has long been the subject of intense scrutiny by both prison administrators and reformers—as well as a source of fascination and anxiety for the American public. Historically, sex behind bars has evoked radically different responses from professionals and the public alike. In Criminal Intimacy, Regina Kunzel tracks these varying interpretations and reveals their foundational influence on modern thinking about sexuality and identity.

Historians have held the fusion of sexual desire and identity to be the defining marker of sexual modernity, but sex behind bars, often involving otherwise heterosexual prisoners, calls those assumptions into question. By exploring the sexual lives of prisoners and the sexual culture of prisons over the past two centuries—along with the impact of a range of issues, including race, class, and gender; sexual violence; prisoners’ rights activism; and the HIV epidemic—Kunzel discovers a world whose surprising plurality and mutability reveals the fissures and fault lines beneath modern sexuality itself.

Drawing on a wide range of sources, including physicians, psychiatrists, sociologists, correctional administrators, journalists, and prisoners themselves—as well as depictions of prison life in popular culture—Kunzel argues for the importance of the prison to the history of sexuality and for the centrality of ideas about sex and sexuality to the modern prison. In the process, she deepens and complicates our understanding of sexuality in America.

Among the early praise for the book:

"Criminal Intimacy is simply the best book on the history of sexuality that I've read in some time. Kunzel has tackled a conceptually and historically elusive topic and treated it with a sure critical sense, a broad chronological sweep, a delicate and subtle tact, and an enviable common sense. She has synthesized a mass of material to produce a coherent narrative, foregrounding issues of class, race, and gender in her analysis without sacrificing complexity or detail. It is beautifully and economically written and a pleasure to read-this is not just a good book, but a major one."
--David Halperin, author of How to Do the History of Homosexuality

"Criminal Intimacy shows how the inside world of prison culture both reflects and shapes the outside world's understanding of sexuality. In prose that is lucid, economical, and often elegant, Kunzel offers a sophisticated and persuasive argument that complicates the dominant historical narrative about the emergence of modern homosexuality. The research is prodigious and the primary materials are deftly incorporated throughout this impressive book."
--Estelle B. Freedman, author of No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women

"Regina Kunzel has written a pathbreaking study of prison sexual culture from the origins of the penitentiary to the AIDS crisis. She reveals the complex history of inmates' same-sex encounters and traces the shifting explanations for prison homosexuality advanced by officials, reformers, and activists. Criminal Intimacy revises our understanding of modern sexual identity, showing how much homosexuality and heterosexuality have been unstable and unconsolidated categories. This is one of the most significant books on the history of American sexuality in recent years. "
--Kathy Peiss, author of Hope in a Jar: The Making of America's Beauty Culture

"Written with elegance and argued with verve. In this brilliant analysis, Kunzel uses sex in prison to rewrite the history of modern sexual identity. Through meticulous research, she shows us how concerns about sex refracted shifting anxieties about class, race, gender, family, and violence. A sleek, smart, and important book."
--Joanne Meyerowitz, author of How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States

"Criminal Intimacy successfully conveys the continued sidelining of the complexities of sex in prisons. For even in the face of the constant fear of violence in so many American prisons, Kunzel depicts a world in which sexual love between men, or between women, once it is given the attention it deserves, can still threaten to unsettle dominant conceptions of stable sexual identities. It is this that makes Kunzel's book essential reading for anyone interested in learning more about the multifarious exchanges between sexuality and identity, in any context."
--Lynne Segal, Times Higher Education

Preview the Table of Contents of Criminal Intimacy, and learn more about the book at the University of Chicago Press website.

Regina Kunzel is Professor in the departments of History, and Gender, Women, Sexuality Studies at the University of Minnesota. Her other publications include Fallen Women, Problem Girls: Unmarried Mothers and the Professionalization of Social Work, 1890–1945. Learn more about her work at her faculty webpage.

The Page 99 Test: Criminal Intimacy.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is James K. Galbraith reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: James K. Galbraith, author of the recently released The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too.

Part of his entry:

Earlier this summer I read the Inferno, in the Ciardi translation, amazingly for the first time. It was good to learn what will happen, in due course, to the present architects of the McCain campaign.[read on]

James K. Galbraith holds the Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr., Chair in Government / Business Relations at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.

Among the praise for The Predator State:

"James Galbraith elegantly and effectively counters the economic fundamentalism that has captured public discourse in recent years, and offers a cogent guide to the real political economy. Myth-busting, far-ranging, and eye-opening."
--Robert B. Reich, Professor of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley

"With a combination of erudition, insight, and wit worthy of John Kenneth Galbraith, Thorstein Veblen, and John Maynard Keynes, James K. Galbraith offers a critique of the conventional unwisdom about the economy that is as compelling as it is provocative."
--Michael Lind, Whitehead Senior Fellow at The New America Foundation and author of The American Way of Strategy

Read an excerpt from The Predator State, and learn more about the book at the publisher's website.

Learn more about James K. Galbraith's work at his faculty webpage.

Writers Read: James K. Galbraith.

--Marshal Zeringue

Critic's chart: religious poets

Angus Clarke, deputy editor of The Register and Letters at the Times (London), named a critic's chart of his favorite religious poets.

One poet on the list:

Dante

The Divine Comedy is an epic of horror, lyric beauty and grim theology ascending from Hell to the eternal light.

Read about another poet on Clarke's chart.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Alafair Burke's "Angel’s Tip"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Angel’s Tip by Alafair Burke.

About the book, from the publisher:

In a city full of victims ... it's hard to choose just one.

Fresh-faced Indiana college student Chelsea Hart is so excited to spend the final hours of her spring break in the VIP room of an elite New York City club that she remains behind when her girlfriends call it a night. The next morning, as her concerned friends anxiously pace their hotel lobby, joggers find Chelsea's body in East River Park, her wavy blond hair brutally hacked off.

NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher catches the case and homes in on the group of privileged men who were last seen plying Chelsea with free-flowing alcohol. But before she can even gather the preliminary evidence, the gruesome murder is grabbing headlines and drawing unwanted media attention to the department. So when Ellie builds a tight case against Jake Myers, a young hedge fund manager, the department brass and the district attorney's office are elated: the case will soon be cleared, the media will tout the department's quick work, and Ellie will be a dream witness at the trial against Myers.

But Ellie has her doubts. Chelsea's murder is eerily similar to three other deaths that occurred nearly a decade ago: the victims were young, female, and in each case, the killer had taken her hair as a souvenir.

Ellie's investigation pulls her into a late-night world of exclusive clubs, conspicuous wealth, and hedonistic consumption. And her search for the truth not only pits her against her fellow cops but also places her under the watchful eye of a psychopath eager to add the prideful young female detective to his list.

Wrenching and suspenseful, Angel's Tip is an electric thriller that offers a voyeuristic glimpse into the glamorous but dangerous world of New York nightlife. This stunning whodunit proves yet again that Alafair Burke "knows when and how to drop clues to keep readers at her mercy" (Entertainment Weekly).

Among the early praise for Angel's Tip:

"Burke ... scores on all counts in this thriller ..."
—Kirkus (starred review)

"Gripping...Burke leaves her principal characters little time to sleep. Readers will relate."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Angel's Tip is a riveting read that snaps with the beat of New York. Be prepared for a knuckle-biting journey that'll keep you turning pages until the very end."
—Faye Kellerman

"Alafair Burke has created a winning heroine in Ellie Hatcher, someone to root for not only in this book, but I hope in many more tales as yet untold."
—Tami Hoag

"Alafair Burke is one of those rare writers whose books are both scary and cerebral. Complex plotting, multi-layered characters, a creepy serial killer - in Angel's Tip, Burke has once again proven herself a terrific storyteller."
—Sandra Brown

Read an excerpt from Angel’s Tip, and learn more about the book and author at Alafair Burke's website, Facebook page, MySpace page, and blog.

A former deputy district attorney in Portland, Oregon, Alafair Burke now teaches criminal law at Hofstra Law School and lives in New York City. She is the author of the Samantha Kincaid series—which includes the novels Judgment Calls, Missing Justice, and Close Case—and Dead Connection, her first thriller featuring Ellie Hatcher.

The Page 69 Test: Dead Connection.

The Page 69 Test: Angel’s Tip.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: I. McNeely & L. Wolverton's "Reinventing Knowledge"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Ian F. McNeely and Lisa Wolverton's Reinventing Knowledge: From Alexandria to the Internet.

About the book, from the publisher:

A dazzling intellectual history of the West served up with verve and insight by two brilliant young historians.

Here is an intellectual entertainment, a sweeping history of the key institutions that have organized knowledge in the West from the classical period onward. With elegance and wit, this exhilarating history alights at the pivotal points of cultural transformation. The motivating question throughout: How does history help us understand the vast changes we are now experiencing in the landscape of knowledge?

Beginning in Alexandria and its great center of Hellenistic learning and imperial power, we then see the monastery in the wilderness of a collapsed civilization, the rambunctious universities of the late medieval cities, and the thick social networks of the Enlightenment republic of letters. The development of science and the laboratory as a dominant knowledge institution brings us to the present, seeking patterns in the new digital networks of knowledge.

Among the acclaim for Reinventing Knowledge:

"[Reinventing Knowledge] has the power to wrench familiar aspects of history into new and surprising shapes. "
--Laura Miller, Salon.com

"An intelligent, provocative history of institutions that preserve and disseminate information.... Stimulating and witty--intellectual entertainment at its best."
--Kirkus

"Reinventing Knowledge tells an impressively cohesive story that really is full of delightful characters and fascinating details."
--Tim Warden, Austin Chronicle

Learn more about Reinventing Knowledge at the publisher's website.

Ian McNeely and Lisa Wolverton are Associate Professors in the Department of History at the University of Oregon.

The Page 99 Test: Reinventing Knowledge.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Thomas Fleming reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Thomas Fleming, author of more than forty novels and nonfiction books, including bestsellers such as The Officers' Wives, Time and Tide, and Liberty! The American Revolution. His recent books include The Perils of Peace: America's Struggle for Survival After Yorktown, and the memoir, Mysteries of My Father.

He is a frequent guest and contributor to NPR, PBS, A&E, and the History Channel. He was the principal commentator on the award-winning PBS documentary The Irish in America: Long Journey Home. A Fellow of the Society of American Historians, Fleming has served as chairman of the American Revolution Round Table and president of the American Center of P.E.N., the international writer's organization.

His entry begins:

One writer I've recently gotten interested in is James L. Nelson. He's written a series of novels about the American Revolution at sea, good stories told with great authenticity. He really knows18th Century ships and seamen. He's also written several novels about the Civil War navy. As an ex-Navy guy, I'm partial to salt water sagas. Nelson made me nostalgic for the years in the 1980s when I was writing my tribute to my fellow WWII swabbies, Time and Tide.[read on]

Visit Thomas Fleming's website.

Writers Read: Thomas Fleming.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sheila Lowe’s “Written in Blood,” the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Sheila Lowe’s Written in Blood and Poison Pen.

Lowe's entry starts:

If I had a buck for everyone who’s said to me, “this series would make a great movie!” I could buy a Mont Blanc pen to write my next book. My character, Claudia Rose, is a forensic handwriting expert who uses her special knowledge to understand the people she gets involved with—especially the ones who create problems. She’s an independent 40 year-old, facing all the challenges of any modern woman, and has an LAPD detective partner, Joel Jovanic. Claudia also has a couple of sidekicks: Kelly Brennan, a man-eating family law attorney, and Dr. Zebediah Gold, a semi-retired criminal psychologist.

I thought about some of my all-time favorite movies and discovered that Jeannot Szwarc had directed Somewhere in Time, and also currently directs numerous forensic-type shows, so he’s the perfect fit for my forensic handwriting mysteries.

For the series characters, my number one pick for Claudia is...[read on]

Read an excerpt from Written in Blood, and learn more about the author and her work at Sheila Lowe’s website.

Sheila Lowe is the author of Poison Pen, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Handwriting Analysis, Handwriting of the Famous & Infamous, Sheila Lowe’s Handwriting Analyzer, software and Written in Blood.

My Book, The Movie: Written in Blood and Poison Pen.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Andrew Warnes' "Savage Barbecue"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Andrew Warnes' Savage Barbecue: Race, Culture, and the Invention of America's First Food.

About the book, from the publisher:

America's first food as an invented tradition

Barbecue is a word that means different things to different people. It can be a verb or a noun. It can be pulled pork or beef ribs. And, especially in the American South, it can cause intense debate and stir regional pride. Perhaps then, it is no surprise that the roots of this food tradition are often misunderstood.

In Savage Barbecue, Andrew Warnes traces what he calls America's first food through early transatlantic literature and culture. Building on the work of scholar Eric Hobsbawm, Warnes argues that barbecue is an invented tradition, much like Thanksgiving-one long associated with frontier mythologies of ruggedness and relaxation.

Starting with Columbus's journals in 1492, Warnes shows how the perception of barbecue evolved from Spanish colonists' first fateful encounter with natives roasting iguanas and fish over fires on the beaches of Cuba. European colonists linked the new food to a savagery they perceived in American Indians, ensnaring barbecue in a growing web of racist attitudes about the New World. Warnes also unearths the etymological origins of the word barbecue, including the early form barbacoa; its coincidental similarity to barbaric reinforced emerging stereotypes.

Barbecue, as it arose in early transatlantic culture, had less to do with actual native practices than with a European desire to define those practices as barbaric. Warnes argues that the word barbecue retains an element of violence that can be seen in our culture to this day. Savage Barbecue offers an original and highly rigorous perspective on one of America's most popular food traditions.

Among the acclaim for Savage Barbeque:

"Warnes has written a well-researched book in Savage Barbecue. The historical and contemporary ideas he shares makes this a fine contribution to the ever-expanding discussions of food and foodways. We will, from now on, look at Barbecue as more than a way of preparing food on a grill."
—Psyche Williams-Forson, author of Building Houses out of Chicken Legs: Black Women, Food, and Power

"This is a rigorously researched and argued cultural, literary, and etymological study. While most useful to those interested in how language creates reality, serious barbecue enthusiasts might also appreciate its uncommon angle.... [I]t is ... fascinating to learn how the bite in ’cue comes not just from its sauce but from a creation basted in oppression, fear, and myth."
—Naomi Millán, ForeWard Magazine

"Meticulously researched and filled with copious notes and a small number of illustrations, this is an enlightening look into one of America’s most popular foods. An enjoyable read for historians."
—Nicole Mitchell, Library Journal

Read more about Savage Barbecue at the publisher's website.

Learn more about Andrew Warnes' research and publications at his faculty webpage.

Andrew Warnes is Senior Lecturer in American Literature and Culture at the University of Leeds. He is the author of Hunger Overcome? and Richard Wright's Native Son.

The Page 99 Test: Savage Barbecue.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five best: reference books for a home library

Donald Altschiller, a librarian at Boston University, named a five best list of "reference books [which] are essential for a home library" for the Wall Street Journal.

One title on the list:

Oxford Atlas of the World
Oxford, 2007

Compiled by cartographers and geographers, this beautifully illustrated atlas features the expected physical world maps, which include major cities, towns and roads. But that's just the start. We also learn about the world's geology, atmosphere, water, vegetation and countless other topics. "Oxford Atlas of the World" is an exhaustive, oversize volume, but it is quicker and easier to browse than Google Earth -- and more fun: You're not likely to search online for a satellite view of the purplish Fraser River emptying into inky British Columbia coastal waters, but it's an entrancing view when you stumble across it here.

Read about another title on Altschiller's list.

Related: Rebecca Armstrong: ten best atlases.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Amanda Petrusich reading?

The latest featured contributor to Writers Read: Amanda Petrusich, author of It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the Next American Music.

From her entry:

two books that were written by good friends: Horses that Buck by Margot Kahn and Welcome to Shirley by Kelly McMasters. Each offers its readers a different portrait of a different America; both are lovingly rendered and tremendously written, as complicated (and compelling) as the country they portray. Horses That Buck is the story of Bill Smith, the three-time world champion saddle bronc rider; Welcome to Shirley is the author's memoir of her childhood in Shirley, Long Island, the site of the contentious and potentially lethal Brookhaven National Laboratory.[read on]

Amanda Petrusich is a staff writer at Pitchforkmedia.com and a senior contributing editor at Paste, Amanda Petrusich is the author of Pink Moon, a short book about Nick Drake's 1972 album for Continuum's 33 1/3 series.

Among the praise for Petrusich's It Still Moves:

"Obsessed with roots but founded on uprooting, America has always been characterized by restless internal migration: people are always leaving home to find a better, truer home. In It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the American Music, Amanda Petrusich hits the road too, looking to crack the conundrum of the culture that produced Robert Johnson, Lead Belly and Hank Williams but also Cracker Barrel, Graceland, and Clear Channel. Talking and listening and eating her way across an American landscape as earthy as grits 'n' gravy yet as ethereal as the wraith-like plaint of pedal steel, she finds that the mystery doesn't so much resolve as grow more vivid. In this sharply observed, intensely felt audio-travelogue, "Americana" emerges as not so much a sound or musical genre as an imaginary country, a dream land superimposed over the real U.S.A. Above all it's a fantasy of the South spun by people mostly not from there, a salve for that feeling of hollowness that haunts modern urban existence, a remedy for our aching sense that real life is elsewhere."
—Simon Reynolds, author of Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-84.

Learn more about It Still Moves and the author from Petrusich's interview with Salon.com.

Writers Read: Amanda Petrusich.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69 & 99: Tobias Buckell's "Sly Mongoose"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Tobias Buckell's Sly Mongoose.

About the book, from the publisher:

Welcome to Chilo, a planet with corrosive rain, crushing pressure, and deadly heat. Fortunately, fourteen-year-old Timas lives in one of the domed cities that float 100,000 feet above the surface, circling near the edge of a monstrous perpetual storm. Above the acidic clouds the temperature and pressure are normal. But to make a living, Timas like many other young men, is lowered to the surface in an armored suit to scavenge what he can.

Timas’s life is turned upside down when a strange man crash lands on the city. The newcomer is fleeing an alien intelligence intent on invading the planet and discovering the secret hidden deep inside the perpetual storm—a secret that could lead to interplanetary war.

As the invaded cities fall silent one by one, Chilo’s citizens must race against time to stop the enemy. And Timas will find out what kind of man he has become in the harsh conditions of Chilo’s surface.

Among the praise for the novel:

"Tobias S. Buckell’s rip-roaring Caribbean-infused novels have been delicious treats so far, but after the Aztec-alien dirigible battles of CRYSTAL RAIN and the grand-scope space rebellion of RAGAMUFFIN, I initially was skeptical of SLY MONGOOSE. Could Buckell keep cranking out good books on a yearly basis? The answer is “Holy crap, yes!”"
--Bookgasm

"Anyone hankering for a book that is pure front-to-back action is likely to peg this as the space opera of 2008.”
--SF Reviews

“Sly Mongoose combines weird and wonderful tech and human cultures of fantastic diversity with some of the coolest planet-building this side of Hal Clement.”
--Elizabeth Bear

"SLY MONGOOSE is, more than anything, a fast-moving action novel with lots of battles and airships and stuff like that. On the thought-provoking side, it’s got a lot to say about politics (not much of it positive) and responsibility. Perhaps even more so, and I’m starting to see this is a theme in Toby’s works, there is a lot to be noted here about poverty in a rich world and that technology can fail, particularly for poor people."
--Mark Terry

"Speaking of action Sly Mongoose has plenty of it. Buckell seems to have taken some lessons from Ragamuffin, a certain scene involving no gravity and a minigun, and pulls together some compelling set pieces starting with Pepper’s introduction, continuing through Timas’s travel on the surface of Chilo, and ending right at the titanic conflict at the novel’s climax. The three novels Buckell has written so far certainly show a strong progression of a writer with a clear eye for action (especially those “oh shit” moments) that has only grown with each book he has written. Pepper is a fun character, though a familiar archetype, and Buckell’s deft manipulation of his circumstances here add a bit of depth to his personality that is great to see and damned fun to read."
--King of the Nerds

Watch the video trailer for Sly Mongoose.

Learn more about the book and author at Tobias Buckell's website and his blog.

Tobias Buckell is a Caribbean born SF/F writer. His short fiction has appeared in magazines (such as Nature) and various anthologies. His books include Ragamuffin and Crystal Rain.

My Book, The Movie: Ragamuffin.

The Page 99 Test: Sly Mongoose.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: JT Ellison's "14"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: JT Ellison's 14.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Ten victims, each with pale skin and long dark hair. All have been slashed across the throat, the same red lipstick smeared across their lips.

In the mid-1980s the Snow White Killer terrorized the streets of Nashville, Tennessee. Then suddenly the murders stopped. A letter from the killer to the police stated that his work was done.

Now four more bodies are found, marked with his fatal signature. The residents of Nashville fear a madman has returned, decades later, to finish his sick fairy tale.

Homicide Lieutenant Taylor Jackson believes the killings are the work of a copycat killer who's even more terrifying. For this monster is meticulously honing his craft as he mimics famous serial murders…proving that the past is not to be forgotten.

Among the early praise for 14:

“14 is a twisty creepy and wonderful book... Ellison is relentless and grabs the reader from the first page and refuses to let go until the soul tearing climax.”
--Crimespree

"Ellison's second Taylor Jackson story is precisely plotted and crisply written, and there are several effective twists. It's guaranteed to elicit shivers with its cold-blooded, sociopathic villain--and to keep readers on edge until the last page."
--Romantic Times - 4 1/2 Stars!

“14, is right on par with her spectacular debut, ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS. With bold characters, a breathtaking pace and a gob of clever twists, 14 is unbelievably brilliant. The characters, the plotting and the relentless action are meticulously drawn. The terrifying surprises just keep on coming ... Ms. Ellison is on her way to becoming a major new talent.”
--Romance Reader at Heart (RRAH) Top Pick

Read an excerpt from 14, and learn more about the book and author at J.T. Ellison's website and MySpace page.

JT Ellison is Murderati's Friday columnist, a short story writer, and a novelist.

Watch the video trailer for 14.

The Page 69 Test: All the Pretty Girls.

The Page 99 Test: 14.

The Page 69 Test: 14.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Evan Kilgore's "The Children of Black Valley"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Evan Kilgore's The Children of Black Valley.

About the book, from the publisher:

There is an abandoned nuclear silo in the jungles of Africa. Sam Mackie isn’t sure what it has to do with him, with his life. He’s a mid-level pharmaceutical executive. He’s divorced. He’s lonely.

But then someone kidnaps his son, Daniel. Daniel, the quiet kid who other boys picked on in school. Daniel, who understood how much his father had to work, and ate pizza alone for dinner most nights. Daniel, the only good part of Sam’s life.

Sam will do anything to get him back, including traveling halfway around the world to discover the link between his son, the dark nuclear silo, and his own mysterious past.

Among the early praise for the novel:

"...picks up speed and chaos with the smash-mouth ferocity of a Bruce Willis epic..."—Kirkus Reviews

Read an excerpt from The Children of Black Valley, and learn more about the book and author at Evan Kilgore's website.

Watch the trailer for The Children of Black Valley.

Evan Kilgore's debut novel is Who is Shayla Hacker.

The Page 99 Test: The Children of Black Valley.

--Marshal Zeringue