Best books: Quentin Blake

Quentin Blake, the artist and author best known for his illustrations of Roald Dahl’s children’s books, recently collaborated with author David Walliams on The Boy in the Dress, a children’s novel.

For The Week magazine, Blake named his six best books.

One title on the list:

Pictures From Italy by Charles Dickens

This is a slight book compared with such great works as Bleak House and Little Dorrit, but Dickens was a brilliant journalist and letter writer, and this is a fluent and engaging account of the year he and his family spent in Italy in 1844. He describes his mansion in Genoa as “like a pink jail.”

Read about another book on Blake's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Maggie Anton reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Maggie Anton, author of the Rashi's Daughters trilogy -- Book I: Joheved, Book II: Miriam, and Book III: Rachel -- and the YA novel, Rashi's Daughter, Secret Scholar.

Her entry begins:

I'm currently reading Julian by Gore Vidal, who is probably one of this country's best writers of historical fiction. I'm actually reading it as research for my next book, which takes place in Babylonia at about the time. But I can hardly put Julian down and I feel guilty for enjoying this book so much when I'm reading it for work. I envy Gore Vidal's ability to bring his character's personality to life so vividly and to perfectly capture the deadly political intrigues of 4th-century Rome. I know it was...[read on]

Among the praise for Book III: Rachel:

"Rashi’s Daughters: Rachel is an enlightened, empowering, and engaging journey of Rashi’s youngest daughter Rachel, who enacts the forbidden during the Middle Ages—studying and teaching Talmud as a female. Thought-provoking, research-rich, psychologically complex, Rachel is a mirror of our own hearts and minds, a tale of pathos that awakens the tenderest of emotions, even if time separates us by nine hundred years."
--Elissa Elliott, author of Eve: A Novel of the First Woman

"Imaginative and talented novelists have the ability to shed fresh light on corners of history otherwise inaccessible. Maggie Anton’s new book, Rashi’s Daughters: Rachel, takes us once again into the Medieval Jewish world of love and learning and the love of learning. One can only be grateful for such an intriguing and engaging work."
--Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, Professor of Bible, Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion; editor of The Torah: A Women’s Commentary (Winner of National Jewish Book Award).

Visit Maggie Anton's website and blog.

Writers Read: Maggie Anton.

--Marshal Zeringue

Claudia Dain's "Courtesan Chronicles," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: "The Courtesan Chronicles" by Claudia Dain.

The entry begins:

This is so easy, the actor part of the equation, anyway. I always work from a photo to create and cement a character. I like to be able to stare at an intriguing face, to see the subtle and not so subtle differences between one brown-eyed brunette and another. Plus, then I don't forget the details, like the scar is on the left cheek and not the right.

I didn't use to need physical props to remember my characters, but now I do. I'd like to blame it on age but since I'm not 92, is age really the factor here?

Don't answer that.

I'm writing a long-running series (the fifth book out in July 2010) and the central heroine must be played by...[read on]

Claudia Dain is a two-time Rita finalist and a USA Today bestselling author.

Learn more about the author and her novels at Claudia Dain's website.

My Book, The Movie: "The Courtesan Chronicles."

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: David Oppegaard's "Wormwood, Nevada"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Wormwood, Nevada by David Oppegaard.

About the book, from the publisher:

Tyler and Anna Mayfield have just relocated from Nebraska to the sun scorched desert town of Wormwood, Nevada. They find themselves in a strange new landscape populated with old school cowboys, alien cultists, meth dealers, and doomsday prophets. Loneliness and desperation pervade Wormwood, and when a meteorite lands in the center of town, its fragile existence begins to unravel as many believe the end of the world is near, while others simply seek a reason to believe in anything at all.

Visit David Oppegaard's website and blog.

David Oppegaard holds a B.A. in English Literature from St. Olaf College and an M.F.A. in Writing from Hamline University. The Suicide Collectors is his first published novel.

The Page 69 Test: The Suicide Collectors.

The Page 69 Test: Wormwood, Nevada.

--Marshal Zeringue

Salon: best nonfiction books of 2009

Salon.com's Laura Miller named her five best nonfiction books of 2009. One title on the list:

"Columbine" by Dave Cullen

The 1999 mass murder at Columbine High School in Colorado was an event at once freakish and quintessentially American. It was also a reporter's nightmare, with hundreds of eyewitnesses, conflicting accounts of what happened and why, law enforcement gaffes, groundless rumors and theories propagated by the media and, eventually, the dueling agendas of the survivors. Full disclosure: Dave Cullen did much of his initial reporting on Columbine for Salon, but this book, the definitive account of the shootings, takes the story much, much further. Meticulously reported, "Columbine" assembles all the substantiated facts, then forges them into a propulsive narrative, woven from nine strands corresponding to nine individuals, each of whom had his or her own distinct experience of that terrible day. Then Cullen delves beneath the events themselves (dispelling many myths in the process) to consider the killers' motives, carefully and persuasively arguing for his own conclusions. Thirteen people lost their lives before the two teenage murderers committed suicide, and Cullen's thoughtful account pays them the tribute of the truth.

Read about another book on Miller's list.

Also see Salon's best fiction books of 2009.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Daniel Headrick's "Power over Peoples"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Power over Peoples: Technology, Environments, and Western Imperialism, 1400 to the Present by Daniel R. Headrick.

About the book, from the publisher:

For six hundred years, the nations of Europe and North America have periodically attempted to coerce, invade, or conquer other societies. They have relied on their superior technology to do so, yet these technologies have not always guaranteed success. Power over Peoples examines Western imperialism's complex relationship with technology, from the first Portuguese ships that ventured down the coast of Africa in the 1430s to America's conflicts in the Middle East today.

Why did the sailing vessels that gave the Portuguese a century-long advantage in the Indian Ocean fail to overcome Muslim galleys in the Red Sea? Why were the same weapons and methods that the Spanish used to conquer Mexico and Peru ineffective in Chile and Africa? Why didn't America's overwhelming air power assure success in Iraq and Afghanistan? In Power over Peoples, Daniel Headrick traces the evolution of Western technologies--from muskets and galleons to jet planes and smart bombs--and sheds light on the environmental and social factors that have brought victory in some cases and unforeseen defeat in others. He shows how superior technology translates into greater power over nature and sometimes even other peoples, yet how technological superiority is no guarantee of success in imperialist ventures--because the technology only delivers results in a specific environment, or because the society being attacked responds in unexpected ways.

Breathtaking in scope, Power over Peoples is a revealing history of technological innovation, its promise and limitations, and its central role in the rise and fall of empire.

Read the introduction to Power over Peoples, and learn more about the book at the Princeton University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Power over Peoples.

--Marshal Zeringue

The 25 all-time greatest Gen X books

The editors at Details developed a list of the 25 greatest Gen X books of all time.

One novel on their list:

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz

Rumors and expectations abounded in the 11 nearly silent years between Díaz's legendary story collection Drown and Oscar Wao, but no one anticipated that a story about a virginal, obese Dominican nerd (and the generations-long family struggle that preceded him) could be written with such slangy exuberance, and explore so powerfully and originally the links between colonial politics, fantasy escapism, and the American immigrant experience.

Read about another book on the list.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao also appears on Paste magazine's list of the ten best debut novels of the decade (2000-2009) and among The Millions' best books of fiction of the millenium. The novel is one of Matthew Kaminski's five favorite novels about immigrants in America.

See Junot Díaz's most important books and the Page 99 Test: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Alisa Libby reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Alisa Libby, author of The Blood Confession and The King’s Rose.

Her entry begins:

I’m still in the midst of a post-National Novel Writing Month reading blitz, with books piled everywhere. Recently I read Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin: a graceful retelling of Virgil’s epic poem “The Aeneid” from the point of view of Lavinia, the final wife of Aeneas. The novel was a beautiful melding of history, fiction, and magical realism—the passages where Lavinia speaks to Virgil in a sacred forest were particularly effective for me. Le Guin is such a masterful writer that she manages to thread all of these elements together into a beautiful story.

Days ago I finished...[read on]

Among the praise for The King's Rose:

"Libby's lush historical novel chronicles the intense period during which 15-year-old Catherine Howard became Henry VIII's fifth wife. Starting when the king disposed of his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, by annulment, and taking readers through the moment of Catherine's death for treason against the king, the story captures her powerlessness, despite her title.... The gripping story crackles with the anxiety of the young queen-her lack of control over her own life and desires will resonate most with readers."
—Publishers Weekly

"More drama than history, this suspenseful, downright racy tale will send readers hurtling headlong toward the novel's bitter end."
—Kirkus

View the book trailer for The King's Rose.

Visit Alisa Libby's website and blog.

Writers Read: Alisa Libby.

--Marshal Zeringue

The decade's best unread books

"While people are busy ranking the hit books of the last 10 years," wrote someone at the Guardian, "many a publishing insider is quietly mourning a volume that unaccountably never made the 'best of' or bestseller lists, but should have." The paper invited "publishers, agents and translators [to] speak up for the ones that really shouldn't have got away."

One book that fit the bill:

The one book I would say I felt almost physically heartbroken about not succeeding with in the last decade was The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson. She's the most phenomenally talented (and bestselling) American author, whose unique voice just sings off the page, and this brilliant novel tells the tale of a woman who has to search through her own past to uncover what really happened to a little girl who has just been found dead in her swimming pool. It's as pacy as a thriller, but so rich that you feel you're reading something much deeper. There were a number of reasons it wasn't the success we hoped for – primarily I think that it trod the line between commercial and literary in a way that made the retailers struggle to understand it. But I'd urge anyone to read it – I feel absolutely sure they wouldn't be disappointed.--Isobel Akenhead, Hodder & Stoughton women's fiction editor

Read about the other books mentioned at the Guardian.

Read excerpts from The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, and learn more about the author and her books at Joshilyn Jackson's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Girl Who Stopped Swimming.

My Book, The Movie: The Girl Who Stopped Swimming.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Lilith Saintcrow's "Flesh Circus"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Flesh Circus by Lilith Saintcrow.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Cirque de Charnu has come.

They will clean out the demons and the suicides, and move on. As long as they stay within the rules, Jill Kismet can't deny them entry. But she can watch--and if they step out of line, she'll send them packing.

When Cirque performers start dying grotesquely, Kismet has to find out why, or the fragile truce won't hold and her entire city will become a carnival of horror. She also has to play the resident hellbreed power against the Cirque to keep them in line, and find out why ordinary people are needing exorcisms. And then there's the murdered voodoo practitioners, and the zombies.

An ancient vengeance is about to be enacted. The Cirque is about to explode. And Jill Kismet is about to find out some games are played for keeps...

Flesh Circus is the 4th book in the Jill Kismet series. Learn more about the author and her work at Lilith Saintcrow's website.

The Page 99 Test: Night Shift, #1 in the Jill Kismet series.

The Page 69 Test: Flesh Circus.

--Marshal Zeringue

TIME: top 10 fiction books of 2009

Lev Grossman is Time magazine's book critic as well as the author of the new novel, The Magicians.

He named Time's top ten fiction books of 2009. One title on his list:

Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell

It's been a long time since I read a debut writer with the pace, humor and hard-boiled, powder-burned worldview of an Elmore Leonard. Who knows where he got 'em, but Josh Bazell has 'em. His hero is Peter Brown, a former Mob hit man who has witness-protected himself into a medical residency at a New York hospital. Surprise, surprise, his old life comes around looking for him. The book takes us careering through a crime-thriller plot, but the story is salted with a lot of really fascinating insider medical know-how and peppered with all kinds of ballistics lore and martial artistry. This is a hit man who knows in anatomical detail exactly how he's damaging you ("the two bones of the forearm, the ulna and the radius, move independently of each other..."). I defy you to put it down.

Read about another book on Grossman's list.

Beat the Reaper also made the Telegraph's top ten list.

The Page 69 Test: Beat the Reaper.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Michael Fellman's "In the Name of God and Country"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: In the Name of God and Country: Reconsidering Terrorism in American History by Michael Fellman.

About the book, from the publisher:

With insight and originality, Michael Fellman argues that terrorism, in various forms, has been a constant and driving force in American history. In part, this is due to the nature of American republicanism and Protestant Christianity, which he believes contain a core of moral absolutism and self-righteousness that perpetrators of terrorism use to justify their actions. Fellman also argues that there is an intrinsic relationship between terrorist acts by non-state groups and responses on the part of the state; unlike many observers, he believes that both the action and the reaction constitute terrorism.

Fellman’s compelling narrative focuses on five key episodes: John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry; terrorism during the American Civil War, especially race warfare and guerrilla warfare; the organized “White Line” paramilitary destruction of Reconstruction in Mississippi; the Haymarket Affair and its aftermath; and the Philippine-American war of 1899–1902. In an epilogue, he applies this history to illuminate the Bush-Cheney administration’s use of terrorism in the so-called war on terror. In the Name of God and Country demonstrates the centrality of terrorism in shaping America even to this day.

Preview In the Name of God and Country, and learn more about the book at the Yale University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: In the Name of God and Country.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books we'll still be talking about in 2020

Sam Anderson of New York magazine picked the books "that we'll still be talking about in ten years."

One novel on the list:

The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay: Michael Chabon scrambled high-lit artistry and geek obsession long before it became trendy.

Read about another book on the list.

The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay also appears among Jim James' six best books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Joel Shepherd's "Sasha," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Sasha by Joel Shepherd.

The entry begins:

One giant plus for any movie made of Sasha, is that unlike my previous ‘Cassandra Kresnov Series’, Sasha would be relatively cheap to film. Yes there are some quite big battle scenes at the end, but most of the story is character driven rather than action driven, so aside from the costs of shooting in some very pretty, wild terrain (New Zealand? Canada?), I can’t see any prohibitive expenses. There’s also no magic or dragons or other giant, flame spewing monsters, so special effects would barely be needed (and wouldn’t that be just wonderful, to see some character based fantasy that didn’t just rely on eye candy?).

Since characters drive the plot, by far the most important part of the film would be casting. And for my main character Sasha, I have exactly the same problem I had with the Cassandra Kresnov Series -- there’s very few actresses in Hollywood who have established themselves playing tough female roles. There are probably quite a few who could do it, but haven’t been given the opportunity. But I don’t know who they are.

As a character, Sasha is something of a force of nature. She was born a Princess, daughter of the King of Lenayin, and was a very wild kid. In any other circumstance she might have had it beaten out of her, but Lenayin loves individualists and Sasha’s older brother, Prince Kristoff, was a little wild himself and encouraged her, perhaps unwisely. But Kristoff was killed when Sasha was eight, Sasha was heartbroken, and went to live with Kristoff’s old mentor Kessligh, greatest warrior in Lenayin , to take Kristoff’s place as his student.

Any actress playing Sasha would have to get into the shape of her life, think...[read on]

Read an excerpt from Sasha and learn more about the land of Lenayin. Visit Joel Shepherd's website and blog.

My Book, The Movie: Crossover.

The Page 69 Test: Sasha.

My Book, The Movie: Sasha.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Deborah Cooke reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Deborah Cooke, author of the fantasy romance Dragonfire series.

One paragraph from her entry:

I’m currently finishing a lovely book, which I started over a year ago and had to put aside to get back to my own writing. It’s been haunting me, though. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards is eloquent and touching. I’m really enjoying her dexterity with language. This book was recommended to me by a friend, and I’m glad she pointed me toward it....[read on]

In addition to the Dragonfire series, Cooke has also written over forty romance novels under the names Claire Cross and Claire Delacroix.

Claire Delacroix's current series from Tor features fallen angel heroes in a future-set society (post-nuclear but pre-Apocalyptic) -- Fallen and Guardian have been released and Rebel will be released in 2010.

The books of the Dragonfire series are Kiss of Fire, Kiss of Fury, Kiss of Fate, and Winter Kiss -- with additional installments forthcoming.

Visit Deborah Cooke's website and blog.

Writers Read: Deborah Cooke.

--Marshal Zeringue

Best books: Tracy Chevalier

Tracy Chevalier is the best-selling author of Girl With a Pearl Earring and other books.

For The Week magazine, she named her six best books. One title on the list.

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (Anchor, $16).

Atwood is the living writer I admire the most, for the breadth and depth of her work. I’ve picked Alias Grace because it’s her masterful take on the historical novel. An excellent story of a dubious teenage servant in 19th-century Canada, it has intriguing characters and wry writing. I was gripped.

Read about another book on Chevalier's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Russel D. McLean's "The Good Son"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: The Good Son by Russel D. McLean.

About the book, from the publisher:

Recipient of widespread praise for his award-winning crime short stories, Russel McLean’s full-length debut has been characterized by key crime authors and critics alike as the emergence of a major talent.

There is something rotten behind the apparent sucide of Daniel Robertson and it’s about to come bursting into the life of J. McNee, a Scottish private investigator with a near-crushing level of personal baggage. James Robertson, a local farmer, finds his estranged brother’s corpse hanging from a tree. The police claim suicide. But McNee is about to uncover the disturbing truth behind the death. With a pair of vicious London thugs on the move in the Scottish countryside, it’s only a matter of time before people start dying. As the body count rises, McNee finds himself on a collision course with his own demons and an increasing array of brutal killers in a violent, bloody showdown that threatens to leave none involved alive. Plumbing the depths of love, loss, betrayal, and one broken man’s attempt to come to terms with his past, The Good Son successfully blends the classic style of the gumshoe era with the outer edges of modern noir.

Visit Russel McLean's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Good Son.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: India Edghill & her Cavaliers

The current featured group at Coffee with a canine: India Edghill and her Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.

Edghill, on how she was united with Harry, Bella, Stephanie, Bevil and Amy:

Well, a while back -- about 12 years ago now -- I was working on a book and the heroine needed a dog. Since said heroine, like Little Moi is what Elizabeth Peters call a "historical necrophiliac" (see her novel The Murders of Richard III -- a lot of fun, and not what it sounds like from the title, so all you people in the Richard III Society can just not write me nasty e-mails, okay?) -- where was I? Oh, yes -- so the heroine got a Cavalier, because Charles II is my favorite English king, and he had dozens of the little spaniels. And I fell in love with the breed, and ... well, here I am with five of them. I always say it's a good thing I didn't give that character...[read on]

India Edghill lives in the Mid-Hudson Valley in New York.

She is the author of the novels Wisdom's Daughter, which was a Romantic Times Nominee for Best Historical Fiction, File M for Murder, Queenmaker, and the recently released Delilah.

Read an excerpt from Delilah, and learn more about the author and her books at India Edghill's website.

Watch the Delilah video trailer.

The Page 69 Test: Delilah.

Read--Coffee with a canine: India Edghill and her Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Marc Gallicchio's "The Scramble for Asia"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: The Scramble for Asia: U.S. Military Power in the Aftermath of the Pacific War by Marc Gallicchio.

About the book, from the publisher:

As American generals and diplomats accepted Japan's surrender on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri in September 1945, allied combatants wrestled for power in the new post-war world. The decisions made to effect Japan's surrender entangled U.S. forces on the mainland of Asia for the next two years, and helped shape the next several decades of international relations in the Far East.

Marc Gallicchio expertly examines the diplomatic, military, and economic struggles in which the United States, China, and the Soviet Union were pitted in the immediate aftermath of victory over Japan. The Allied victory was but a prelude to an American search for a lasting peace across Asia, stretching from Korea to Vietnam and out to the Pacific atolls.

In seeking to shape events on the mainland, the administration of Harry S. Truman confronted the anomalous nature of American power. The military operations undertaken by the United States in the early days of post-war peace affected developments in Asia in unexpected ways. As Gallicchio makes clear, Americans would soon find that the scramble for Asia from 1945 to 1947 had set the stage for future conflict in the region.

Read more about The Scramble for Asia at the publisher's website, and visit Marc Gallicchio's faculty webpage.

The Page 99 Test: The Scramble for Asia.

--Marshal Zeringue

Salon.com's best fiction books of 2009

Salon.com's Laura Miller named her five best fiction books of 2009. One title on the list:

"Love in Infant Monkeys: Stories" by Lydia Millet

This collection begins with a short story about Madonna going on a grouse hunt, which might sound like an inauspicious start for a book whose theme is loss on an epochal scale. Guess again: With immense confidence, Millet takes a motley assortment of famous or pseudo-famous figures -- Thomas Edison, David Hasselhoff, the zoologist from "Born Free," a Sharon Stone impersonator -- and gives each a transformative encounter with an (often imperiled) animal. The result, a cumulative effect formed by all the stories in the collection, draws illuminating connections and comparisons between the trivial and the eternal. Millet's vision is startling, as often tragic as it is hilarious (and she can be very, very funny), but always shot through with the mystery of existence, a gift we can barely manage to appreciate even as we carelessly steal it from the rest of the earth's denizens. "Love in Infant Monkeys" is a slyly and unsentimentally profound exploration of what human beings can (but very seldom do) learn from our fellow creatures.

Read about another book on the list.

Visit Lydia Millet's website and Facebook page.

Lydia Millet is also the author of Omnivores, George Bush, Dark Prince of Love, My Happy Life, a winner of the 2003 PEN-USA Award for Fiction, Everyone’s Pretty, and Oh Pure and Radiant Heart.

The Page 69 Test: How the Dead Dream and My Book, The Movie: How the Dead Dream.

--Marshal Zeringue