Pg. 69: Jeremy Robinson's "Instinct"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Instinct by Jeremy Robinson.

About the book, from the publisher:

The high adventure of James Rollins combines with the gripping suspense of Scott Sigler in this second installment in the Chess Team Series

A genetic disease known as Brugada Syndrome kills its victims without warning, without symptom. When the President of the United States falls victim to a weaponized and contagious strain of the disease, the Chess Team—King, Queen, Rook, Knight and Bishop—are assigned to protect Sara Fogg, a CDC detective, as she journeys to the source of the new strain: the Annamite Mountains in Vietnam. Surrounded by Vietnam War era landmines, harsh terrain and more than one military force not happy about the return of American boots to the Ho Chi Minh trail, the fight for survival becomes a grueling battle in the humid jungle.

Pursued by VPLA Death Volunteers, Vietnam’s Special Forces unit, the team’s flight through a maze of archaic ruins reveals an ancient secret...a primal secret that may stop the disease from sweeping the globe—even as it threatens both the mission and their lives.

Watch the Instinct trailer, and learn more about the book and author at Jeremy Robinson's website.

My Book, the Movie: Instinct.

The Page 69 Test: Instinct.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Beth Greenfield's "Ten Minutes from Home"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Ten Minutes from Home: A Memoir by Beth Greenfield.

About the book, from the publisher:

Ten Minutes from Home is the poignant account of how a suburban New Jersey family struggles to come together after being shattered by tragedy.

In this searing, sparely written, and surprisingly wry memoir, Beth Greenfield shares what happens in 1982 when, as a twelve-year-old, she survives a drunk-driving accident that kills her younger brother Adam and best friend Kristin. As the benign concerns of adolescence are re­placed by crushing guilt and grief, Beth searches for hope and support in some likely and not-so-likely places (General Hospital, a kindly rabbi, the bottom of a keg), eventually discovering that while life is fragile, love doesn’t have to be.

Ten Minutes from Home exquisitely captures both the heartache of lost innocence and the solace of strength and survival.

Read an excerpt from Ten Minutes from Home, and learn more about the book and author at Beth Greenfield's website.

The Page 99 Test: Ten Minutes from Home.

--Marshal Zeringue

John Waters' six favorite books

John Waters is the writer/director of the films Hairspray, Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, and Cecil B. Demented.

His new book is Role Models.

Waters told The Week magazine about his six favorite books. One title on the list:

The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell

This harrowing, repulsive, and witty thousand-page, gay–Nazi–Final Solution novel may have won the two top French literary prizes, but here in America it was panned by the critics. Of course, the French were right. Not since the Marquis de Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom has there been such an explosive literary shocker. And there’s a 39-hour audiobook version available, too. Just imagine that recording session!

Read about another book on Waters' list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Robert Pippin's "Hollywood Westerns and American Myth"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: Hollywood Westerns and American Myth: The Importance of Howard Hawks and John Ford for Political Philosophy by Robert B. Pippin.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this pathbreaking book one of America’s most distinguished philosophers brilliantly explores the status and authority of law and the nature of political allegiance through close readings of three classic Hollywood Westerns: Howard Hawks’ Red River and John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Searchers.

Robert Pippin treats these films as sophisticated mythic accounts of a key moment in American history: its “second founding,” or the western expansion. His central question concerns how these films explore classical problems in political psychology, especially how the virtues of a commercial republic gained some hold on individuals at a time when the heroic and martial virtues were so important. Westerns, Pippin shows, raise central questions about the difference between private violence and revenge and the state’s claim to a legitimate monopoly on violence, and they show how these claims come to be experienced and accepted or rejected.

Pippin’s account of the best Hollywood Westerns brings this genre into the center of the tradition of political thought, and his readings raise questions about political psychology and the political passions that have been neglected in contemporary political thought in favor of a limited concern with the question of legitimacy.

The Page 99 Test: Hollywood Westerns and American Myth.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Emily St. John Mandel reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Emily St. John Mandel, author of Last Night in Montreal and The Singer's Gun.

Her entry begins:

I'm presently reading Something Red, by Jennifer Gilmore. I picked it up partly because it looked really interesting, and partly because Jennifer and I follow one another on Twitter and Facebook. There's a certain obligation when someone you know writes a book—I know a lot of authors at this point, which is frankly kind of an expensive proposition—but as it happens, I love this book so far and I'm glad that I bought it. I'm not very far in, because I got through the first couple of chapters and then I forgot it when I went on tour, but I'm looking...[read on]

Among the early praise for The Singer's Gun:

"A gripping, thoughtful meditation on work, family, and the consequences of major life choices."
--Booklist

"In this intricate novel, her second after Last Night in Montreal, Mandel underscores the notion that everything in life comes with a price tag, and sometimes that cost is remarkably high. ... An intriguing and suspenseful read that will appeal to those who like mysteries."
--Library Journal

"The Singer's Gun is a nail-biting thriller overflowing with high-stakes issues such as blackmail, theft, fraud and human trafficking. In Mandel's hands, these acts are transmuted into a morally nebulous gray zone, in which the complexities of life fail to be easily captured in terms of black and white, right and wrong. ... This is a turbulent and diverting read that manages to both entertain and prompt valuable contemplation of its stickier issues."
--BookPage

... [T]he characters desperately seek and reach for that one true nugget that will transform them from mere husks in the grip of a larger fate into free-standing human beings. Some will, some will not, and whatever answers they wish for will be couched in permanent suspension, never definitive one way or another. The beauty of the novel is that its key truths are those the reader arrives at on his or her own, without the help of a straight-line narrative or a dominating perspective. Instead, Mandel feeds off of our need to make connections, even when the pattern they form doesn't really exist. We start with anxiety and end with it, thrumming in the background for us to listen in -- or ignore, at both cost and reward."
--Sarah Weinman, Los Angeles Times

Emily St. John Mandel was born on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. She studied dance at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre and lived briefly in Montreal before relocating to New York.

Last Night in Montreal was recently released in paperback. Last Night in Montreal was a June 2009 Indie Next pick and is a finalist for ForeWord Magazine's 2009 Book of the Year. The Singer's Gun, is #1 on the Indie Next List for May 2010.

Learn more about the author and her work at Emily St. John Mandel's website.

The Page 69 Test: Last Night in Montreal.

Writers Read: Emily St. John Mandel.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five best books on US business moguls

T.J. Stiles is the author of The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, winner of the 2009 National Book Award and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize.

For the Wall Street Journal he named a five best list of books on American moguls. One title on the list:

Fallen Founder
by Nancy Isenberg
Viking, 2007

It is not easy to get a fair hearing when you have killed the man on the $10 bill. But Aaron Burr is treated with scholarly care and writerly sympathy by Nancy Isenberg in "Fallen Founder." A hero in the American Revolution and the country's third vice president, Burr founded the forerunner of J.P. Morgan Chase: the Manhattan Co., a water company and bank. He pioneered modern political methods by systematically identifying and organizing voters, contributors and activists. Isenberg offers evidence that Burr was no villain in the 1804 duel that killed Alexander Hamilton. Three years later, Burr was arrested for what his enemies called a conspiracy to set up an independent state in the west; he was tried for treason and exonerated, then went on to become an influential New York lawyer. An astonishing life.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Ilie Ruby's "The Language of Trees"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: The Language of Trees by Ilie Ruby.

About the book, from the publisher:

Echo O'Connell knows that the summer holds its secrets. They are whispered in the rustling trees, in the lush scent of the lilacs, in the flurry of the mayflies batting against the screen door, and in the restless spirits that seem to clamor in the scant breezes on hot evenings. It is in summer that she returns home to Canandaigua, to confront these spirits, both living and not, and to share a secret with her first love, Grant Shongo—a secret that will forever change the lives of many people in the town and put to rest the mysterious disappearance of a little boy more than a decade earlier.

Grant, a descendant of the Seneca Indians who call this place "The Chosen Spot," has also come back to face his past. After a broken marriage, he has moved into his childhood home, a lake house that has withstood happiness and tragedy. He knows the spirits of the past must be dealt with—that of the little boy who disappeared all those years ago; the boy's sister, who never overcame the loss; and the love Grant still has for Echo. But before the healing must come the forgiveness....

Visit Ilie Ruby's website, blog, and Facebook page.

Writers Read: Ilie Ruby.

The Page 69 Test: The Language of Trees.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Cristina Mazzoni's "She-Wolf"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: She-Wolf: The Story of a Roman Icon by Cristina Mazzoni.

About the book, from the publisher:

Since antiquity, the she-wolf has served as the potent symbol of Rome. For more than two thousand years, the legendary animal that rescued Romulus and Remus has been the subject of historical and political accounts, literary treatments in poetry and prose, and visual representations in every medium. In She-Wolf: The Story of a Roman Icon, Cristina Mazzoni examines the evolution of the she-wolf as a symbol in western history, art, and literature, from antiquity to contemporary times. Used, for example, as an icon of Roman imperial power, papal authority, and the distance between the present and the past, the she-wolf has also served as an allegory for greed, good politics, excessive female sexuality, and, most recently, modern, multi-cultural Rome. Mazzoni engagingly analyzes the various role guises of the she-wolf over time in the first comprehensive study in any language on this subject.

Read an excerpt from She-Wolf, and learn more about the book and author at the Cambridge University Press website and Cristina Mazzoni's faculty webpage.

Mazzoni is a Professor in the Department of Romance Languages at the University of Vermont.

The Page 99 Test: She-Wolf.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top 10 Welsh underground novels

Welsh author Rachel Trezise won the inaugural Dylan Thomas prize, a £60,000 literary award for work by writers under 30, for her short story collection Fresh Apples. Her new novel is Sixteen Shades of Crazy.

For the Guardian, she named a top ten list of Welsh underground novels. One title on the list:

Gold by Dan Rhodes

Nobody treads the tragic-comic tightrope like Dan Rhodes. He's not Welsh, sadly, but this novel is set in Pembrokeshire, where Miyuki has retreated for a break from her girlfriend. This would be the annual break with which she reminds herself not to take her girlfriend for granted. Her evenings are spent in the pub with a cast of amusing characters: tall Mr Hughes, short Mr Hughes and Septic Barry and his Children from Previous Relationships. Elegant, delicate and intricate all in one bundle.

Read about another book on the list.

Visit Rachel Trezise's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Laura Weldon & Jedi, Cocoa Bean and Winston

This weekend's guests at Coffee with a Canine: Laura Grace Weldon & Jedi, Cocoa Bean and Winston.

Weldon, on the occasion for Coffee with a Canine:

The hounds are gentlemen of habit. They expect a daily walk down the street plus a stroll around the farm. They associate the smells of coffee with a newspaper-enhanced snuggle in the morning and relaxation time outdoors in the afternoon. If I attempt to alter any of these routines they go into Trinity of Despondency mode.

Today we’re having coffee out back here at Bit of Earth Farm. For the dogs that means visiting livestock, sitting by the pond (or in the pond) and rolling in...[read on]

Laura Grace Weldon is the author of Free Range Learning: How Homeschooling Changes Everything. Her book advocates for the child’s right to learn naturally and demonstrates how to enfold this approach into daily life. It incorporates ancient wisdom, current research and the educational insights shared by over 100 homeschooling families from around the world.

Among early praise for Free Range Learning:

“If we want to live in a more peaceful, democratic and humane world we need to re-think our child rearing practices–this book provides the groundwork and inspiration for this type of revolution. If you love children and humanity this book is a must read.”
--Carlo Ricci, Ph.D editor, The Journal of Unschooling and Alternative Learning

“This book should be read by every parent, teacher, and school administrator as the beginning of education reform that includes respect for the learning process of every child. It incorporates beautiful philosophies such as slowing down, kindness, empathy, cooperation, the dangers of materialism, creating a heart-centered lifestyle, and much more. It is a beautiful read.”
--Jane Nelsen author of Raising Self-Reliant Children in a Self-Indulgent World

Learn more about Free Range Learning, check out Laura Weldon’s blog, and find out what’s up on the farm.

Writers Read: Laura Grace Weldon.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Laura Grace Weldon & Jedi, Cocoa Bean and Winston.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jeremy Robinson's "Instinct," the movie

Now showing at My Book, the Movie: Instinct by Jeremy Robinson.

The entry begins:

Pulse and Instinct are both part of the Chess Team series which would make a blockbuster movie franchise similar to G.I. Joe meets Clash of the Titans — lots of action, guns, cool tech and mythical monsters. Here’s who I would cast to play the six man Chess Team:

King: Hugh Jackman —I’ve always had Jackman in mind for King. He’s got the right build, the right hair and can pull off the personality without any trouble.

Queen:...[read on]

Watch the Instinct trailer, and learn more about the book and author at Jeremy Robinson's website.

My Book, the Movie: Instinct.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Scott Pratt's "Injustice For All"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Injustice For All by Scott Pratt.

About the book, from the publisher:

A powerful legal thriller featuring the hero of An Innocent Client, Joe Dillard

Prosecutor Joe Dillard watched in shock as friend and fellow lawyer Ray Miller was pushed to the brink of suicide in the court of Judge Leonard Green. So when Joe arrives at a crime scene to see Green swinging from a tree, it is duty rather than remorse that drives him to catch the killer. But soon the investigation takes Joe away from the halls of justice into his own home. And he’s not sure he can face the answer he’ll find...

Learn more about the book and author at Scott Pratt's website.

The Page 69 Test: An Innocent Client.

The Page 69 Test: Injustice For All.

--Marshal Zeringue

Yann Martel's 5 favorite books

Yann Martel is the author of the novel Life of Pi, winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. Beatrice and Virgil, his new novel, is now out by Spiegel & Grau.

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

Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston

For the language of it. A novel published in 1937, Hurston wrote it in the African-American vernacular. Which doesn't make it quaint or paternalistic or any other nonsense. It takes a language already established and in reshaping it to tell the life of one Janie Crawford, Hurston tells her story powerfully and expressively, besides reinventing the English language.

Read about another book on the list.

Their Eyes Were Watching God also appears on Benjamin Obler's list of the top 10 fictional coffee scenes in literature.

Also see Yann Martel's recent and somewhat different 6 favorite books list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Paul Collier's "The Plundered Planet"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: The Plundered Planet: Why We Must--and How We Can--Manage Nature for Global Prosperity by Paul Collier.

About the book, from the publisher:

Paul Collier's The Bottom Billion was greeted as groundbreaking when it appeared in 2007, winning the Estoril Distinguished Book Prize, the Arthur Ross Book Award, and the Lionel Gelber Prize. The Economist wrote that it was "set to become a classic," the Financial Times praised it as "rich in both analysis and recommendations," while Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times called it the "best nonfiction book so far this year."

Now, in The Plundered Planet, Collier builds upon his renowned work on developing countries and the poorest populations to confront the global mismanagement of nature. Proper stewardship of natural assets and liabilities is a matter of planetary urgency: natural resources have the potential either to transform the poorest countries or to tear them apart, while the carbon emissions and agricultural follies of the rich world could further impoverish them. The Plundered Planet charts a course between unchecked profiteering on the one hand and environmental romanticism on the other to offer realistic and sustainable solutions to dauntingly complex issues.

Grounded in a belief in the power of informed citizens, Collier proposes a series of international standards that would help poor countries rich in natural assets better manage those resources, policy changes that would raise world food supply, and a clear-headed approach to climate change that acknowledges the benefits of industrialization while addressing the need for alternatives to carbon trading. Revealing how these are all interconnected, The Plundered Planet charts a way forward to avoid the mismanagement of the natural world that threatens our future.

Listen to The Plundered Planet podcasts, and learn more about the book and author at Paul Collier's website.

Read J. Tyler Dickovick's interview with Collier about his award-winning book, The Bottom Billion.

The Page 99 Test: The Bottom Billion.

Writers Read: Paul Collier.

The Page 99 Test: The Plundered Planet.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Ilie Ruby reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Ilie Ruby, author of The Language of Trees.

Her entry begins:

I’ve turned to an old classic, To Kill A Mockingbird, because it is the 50th anniversary of the publication of this extraordinary and compelling novel that long ago filled me with a love of reading and such a powerful sense of story and character; because the characters of Scout, Jem and Atticus have remained so vivid in my mind after all this time and have left such lasting impressions in such memorable ways; because issues of race in society are so very central to my life now; and because I like to believe—or rather assert—that despite...[read on]

Among the early praise for The Language of Trees:

“The Language of Trees, like Whitman's Leaves of Grass though in a magic realist vernacular, refreshingly asserts that deeply American conviction: the gravest natural instinct is to heal and be healed. A shimmeringly heart-felt story.”
–Gregory Maguire, author of the Wicked series

"Rarely do debut novels cover the complicated emotional terrain of The Language of Trees. This is no simple right-of-passage story but rather an eloquently written journey that explores our strengths and vulnerabilities, our love of those who most need us, and whom we need most. Ilie Ruby is a shining new voice, powerful and true, worthy of our closest attention."
–James Brown, author of The Los Angeles Diaries

"The Language of Trees is a haunting novel about the enduring power of love. Crafted with suspenseful pacing and delicate imagery, Ilie Ruby's book combines the qualities of an irresistible ghost story with a healing tale of redemption. It's a vivid and compelling read."
–Elizabeth Rosner, author of Blue Nude and The Speed of Light

Ilie Ruby won the Phi Kappa Phi Award for Fiction, the Eden L. Moses Award, a Kerr Foundation Fiction Scholarship, the Wesleyan Writer’s Conference Scholarship in NonFiction, and the Barbara Kemp Award for Outstanding Teaching and Scholarship. She has published poems and short stories in literary and online magazines, and is the former fiction editor of The Southern California Anthology. A graduate of the Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California, she has worked on PBS documentaries in Honduras, as well as taught elementary school in Los Angeles.

Visit Ilie Ruby's website and blog, and Facebook page.

Writers Read: Ilie Ruby.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Danielle Hermans' "The Tulip Virus"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: The Tulip Virus by Danielle Hermans.

About the book, from the publisher:

A gripping debut mystery set in contemporary London with roots in 17th century Holland and the mysterious tulip trade

In 1636 Alkmaar, Holland, Wouter Winckel’s brutally slaughtered body is found in the barroom of his inn, an antireligious pamphlet stuffed in his mouth. Winckel was a respected tulip-trader and owned the most beautiful collection of tulips in the United Republic of the Low Countries, including the most coveted and expensive bulb of them all, the Semper Augustus. But why did he have to die and who wanted him dead?

In 2007 London, history seems to be repeating itself. Dutchman Frank Schoeller is found in his home by his nephew, Alec. Severely wounded, he is holding a 17th-century book about tulips, seemingly a reference to the reason for his death moments later. With the help of his friend Damien Vanlint, an antique dealer from Amsterdam, Alec tries to solve the mystery, but soon comes to realize that he and his friend’s own lives are now in danger.

The Tulip Virus is a fast-paced, fascinating mystery based on the real-life events surrounding the collapse of the tulip bubble in 17th century Holland—the first such occurrence in history—a story that plunges readers deeply into questions of free will, science, and religion, while showing the dark fruits of greed, pride, and arrogance.

Learn more about The Tulip Virus at the publisher's website and visit Daniëlle Hermans' website.

Writers Read: Daniëlle Hermans.

The Page 69 Test: The Tulip Virus.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top 10 science fiction detective novels of all time

At io9, Charlie Jane Anders came up with a list of the ten greatest science fiction detective novels of all time.

One series on the list:

Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan

Another cyberpunk-esque noir future, in which people can be "shelved" and then later "resleeved" into new bodies. For the super-rich, known as Meths (or Methuselahs), it's possible to remain young and healthy for hundreds of years, just regrowing a new body whenever you want one. So when someone apparently murders wealthy asshole Laurens Bancroft, he just gets resleeved in a new body soon afterwards. But he still wants to know who killed him, so he hires/enslaves former soldier and current convict Takeshi Kovacs, giving Kovacs a new body, which happens to have a nicotine addicition and a few other annoying quirks. Possibly the greatest classic of the "future noir" genre. James McTeigue (Ninja Assassin, V For Vendetta) wants to make the movie version.

Read about another series on the list.

See Richard K. Morgan's list of essential reading for modern humans.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Elaine Tyler May's "America and the Pill"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation by Elaine Tyler May.

About the book, from the publisher:

In 1960, the FDA approved the contraceptive commonly known as the pill. Advocates, developers, and manufacturers believed that the convenient new drug would put an end to unwanted pregnancy, ensure happy marriages, and even eradicate poverty. But as renowned historian Elaine Tyler May reveals in America and the Pill, it was women who embraced it and created change. They used the pill to challenge the authority of doctors, pharmaceutical companies, and lawmakers. They demonstrated that the pill was about much more than family planning — it offered women control over their bodies and their lives. From little-known accounts of the early years to personal testimonies from young women today, May illuminates what the pill did and did not achieve during its half century on the market.

Learn more about the book and author, and read an excerpt, at the America and the Pill website.

Elaine Tyler May is Regents Professor in the Departments of American Studies and History at the University of Minnesota and the 2009–2010 President of the Organization of American Historians. She is the author of several books, including Homeward Bound and Barren in the Promised Land.

The Page 99 Test: America and the Pill.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Barbara Levenson & Mr. Magruder

Today's featured duo at Coffee with a Canine: Barbara Levenson & Mr. Magruder.

Mac, on his background:

I have had more than one owner. I lived with one family as a puppy. I can’t remember much about them except that the place was crowded with dogs. Then I was sold to a man with a big truck. I rode around on the truck all day with him and I learned to protect his tools. I never let anyone near that truck. At night we went to his house but I wasn’t allowed inside. His wife hated me. One day the man with the truck took me to a strange neighborhood and let me out of the truck and...[read on]

Barbara Levenson is the author of Fatal February, the first novel in the Mary Magruder Katz mystery series. Justice in June is her latest novel.

Learn more about the books and author at Barbara Levenson's website.

Levenson has served as a prosecutor and run her own law practice where she focused on criminal defense and civil rights litigation. She was elected to a judgeship in the circuit court of Miami-Dade County, where she still serves as a senior judge.

My Book, The Movie: Fatal February.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Barbara Levenson & Mr. Magruder.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Teddy Wayne's "Kapitoil"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Kapitoil by Teddy Wayne.

About the book, from the publisher:

"Sometimes you do not truly observe something until you study it in reverse," writes Karim Issar upon arrival to New York City from Qatar in 1999. Fluent in numbers, logic, and business jargon yet often baffled by human connection, the young financial wizard soon creates a computer program named Kapitoil that predicts oil futures and reaps record profits for his company.

At first an introspective loner adrift in New York's social scenes, he anchors himself to his legendary boss Derek Schrub and Rebecca, a sensitive, disillusioned colleague who may understand him better than he does himself. Her influence, and his father's disapproval of Karim's Americanization, cause him to question the moral implications of Kapitoil, moving him toward a decision that will determine his future, his firm's, and to whom—and where—his loyalties lie.

Read an excerpt from Kapitoil, and learn more about the book and author at Teddy Wayne's website.

The Page 69 Test: Kapitoil.

--Marshal Zeringue