What is Lee Horikoshi Roripaugh reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Lee Horikoshi Roripaugh, co-editor of The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing the Lyric Essay: Insights and Prompts from Contemporary Writers and Teachers.

Their entry begins:

I just finished reading Ruth Ozeki’s enchanting debut collection of short stories, The Typing Lady—a collection that is about, among other things, writers and readers, memory, and loss. In the closing lines of the eponymously titled opening story, “The Typing Lady,” Ozeki writes: “Stories are like that. They are collaborations between people who read and people who type. They are how we co-create each other and dream ourselves into being.” These are stories in which characters counter profound loss through intense curiosity and engagement—tracing the narrative threads of their lives backwards into past memories, as well as intrepidly turning the pages forward into surprisingly quirky, or unexpected moments. Ozeki seems to suggest that curiosity and attentiveness are how...[read on]

About The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing the Lyric Essay, from the publisher:

FEATURING ESSAYS FROM: Chelsea Biondolillo • KJ Cerankowski • Ching-In Chen • Oliver de la Paz • Danielle Cadena Deulen • Camille T. Dungy • Jeannine Hall Gailey • Rigoberto González • torrin a. greathouse • Kimiko Hahn • Lily Hoàng • Michael Kleber-Diggs • Rowan McCandless • Sarah Minor • Rajiv Mohabir • Vi Khi Nào • Aimee Nezhukumatathil • Natanya Ann Pulley • Diane Seuss • Sun Yung Shin • Brian Turner • Katrina Vandenberg • Julie Marie Wade • chaun webster • The Cyborg Jillian Weise • Marco Wilkinson

The fifth volume in the immensely popular Field Guide series, The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing the Lyric Essay gives readers an extraordinary window into the methods of 26 expert practitioners at the leading edge of this ever-evolving genre.

With original craft essays, exercises, and examples, each contributor offers reflection and instruction on how lyric essays can be constructed and what makes them unique. As experts in the field, they offer their various approaches to creative nonfiction that uses an essay form, but is lyric in function, meaning that it pays special attention to patterning in language and the resonances of sound and imagery. The anthology’s expertise spans possible forms (braid, fragment, hermit crab, zuihitsu), lyric techniques (anaphora, fractal repetition, word associations, use of white space), and lyric processes (incorporating research or visual elements, engineering leaps, sustaining a longform lyric essay). Editors Heidi Czerwiec and Lee Horikoshi Roripaugh further illuminate the genre in their introduction, exploring the history of the lyric essay and its vital place in contemporary literature. This field guide is an indispensable addition to the bookshelf of any reader, writer, or instructor intrigued by this inventive and expressive genre.

Visit Lee Horikoshi Roripaugh's website, and learn more about the book at the publisher's website.

Writers Read: Lee Horikoshi Roripaugh.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine suspense novels with unforgettable settings

Hallie Shepherd is a screenwriter, actor, and producer. She is a Pacific Northwest native who now lives in LA with her filmmaker husband.

Call Off the Dark is her debut novel.

At CrimeReads the author tagged "nine suspense novels with unforgettable settings." One title on the list:

Riley Sager, The Only One Left

When Kit moves into a cliffside mansion to care for elderly Lenora, it’s not a typical caregiving job. Lenora’s entire family was murdered there when she was only seventeen years old, and though she was never charged with the crime, most people assume she committed it.

The house at the center of this story is truly a character in its own right. There are bloodstains from the murders on the carpet of the grand staircase, and the entire house is perched on the edge of a cliff. Each morning, Kit awakes to discover her mattress has slid several inches from the house’s tilt. As the story progresses, parts of the house break off and crash into the ocean below. The gloomy mansion creates a gothic atmosphere that builds tension throughout the first half before the story accelerates into a twist-heavy thriller.

Read about another novel on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Leah C. Stokes's "The Carbon Wave"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Carbon Wave: A Story of Democracy, Parenthood, and the Race to Protect Our Planet by Leah C. Stokes.

About the book, from the publisher:

The true, inspiring story of the new parents who spearheaded an unlikely climate victory.

From the rising climate advocate named to the Time100 Next list, for political junkies and anyone who cares about the environment.

They were perhaps an unlikely trio: the professor Leah Stokes, the policy wonk Sonia Aggarwal in the White House, and the DC insider Adrian Deveny in the Senate, but together, they crafted the boldest climate legislation of our time. In The Carbon Wave, Stokes chronicles the turbulent path of their climate bill as it veered between breakthrough and collapse—from the hopeful beginnings of the Green New Deal in 2018, to the bill’s near-certain defeat by Senator Joe Manchin in the winter of 2021, to the surprise passage of the landmark legislation in August 2022. During this critical time, the author was pregnant or in the NICU with her premature twins, and Aggarwal and Deveny were new parents too.

Interlacing personal narratives with stories from Congress, the White House, and outside activists, Stokes shows how dogged perseverance and collective action can still bend the course of history. The book concludes with an update from the second Trump administration, explaining the parts of the bill that were—and were not—rolled back, and why we should remain hopeful that progress is still being made.

Everyone has been told to shrink their carbon footprint and lighten their load on our planet by changing their behavior. But what if instead of making ourselves smaller, we joined with others to maximize our impact? That’s the carbon wave. And this book shows us how to make it.

Visit Leah C. Stokes's website.

The Page 99 Test: Short Circuiting Policy.

The Page 99 Test: The Carbon Wave.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven novels that foresaw our digital lives

At Mental Floss Nicolle Sloan tagged seven novels that eerily predicted technological advancements of today. One title on the list:

Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984)

William Gibson unknowingly pioneered the vocabulary of the Internet age. In his novel Neuromancer, he laid the groundwork for modern hacker archetypes and crafted a gritty, neon-lit digital underworld where consciousness could exist outside the body.

The main character, Case, is a washed-up hacker hired for one last mission inside a sprawling network controlled by shadowy corporations and sentient code. Sounds a little like half of Netflix’s catalog now.

Gibson’s vision of a hyper-connected, hyper-commercialized world wasn’t just ahead of its time; it also helped create the cultural blueprint for how we think about the internet.

Read about another novel on the list.

Neuromancer made James Swallow's list of five of fiction’s greatest hacker-heroes, Emily Temple's list of ten books that defined the 1980s, Jeff Somers's top ten list of books for non-geek parents of geeks, Soman Chainani's top five list of SFF novels with perfect opening lines, Abhimanyu Das and Gordon Jackson's list of eleven science fiction books regularly taught in college classes, Steve Toutonghi's list of six top books that expand our mental horizons, Ann Leckie's top ten list of science fiction books, Madeleine Monson-Rosen's list of 15 books that take place in science fiction and fantasy versions of the most fascinating places on Earth, Becky Ferreira's list of the six most memorable robots in literature, Joel Cunningham's top five list of books that predicted the internet, Sean Beaudoin's list of ten books that changed his life before he could drive, Chris Kluwe's list of six favorite books, Inglis-Arkell's list of ten of the best bars in science fiction, PopCrunch's list of the sixteen best dystopian books of all time and Annalee Newitz's lists of ten great American dystopias and thirteen books that will change the way you look at robots.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: KC Jones's "House Haunters"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: House Haunters by KC Jones.

About the book, from the publisher:

From Bram Stoker Award finalist KC Jones comes House Haunters, a fast-paced thrill ride perfect for fans of How to Sell a Haunted House and Play Nice, in which a skeptical reality TV show producer and a misanthropic ghosthunter must team up to survive a shoot from hell.

Grace Wonderly needs a hit show, or her career is dead. But saving her job might just kill her.

With her studio relying on AI to greenlight new projects, finding the next breakout series is Grace's only shot to save her job. And her sanity.

Her solution may be Frank Pendleton: a brilliant but abrasive - and admittedly handsome - ghost hunter who claims he can’t feel fear, making him uniquely attuned to the paranormal.

Frank is either a fraud or the real deal. Skeptical, but hoping for TV gold, Grace assembles a crew to shoot a proof of concept.

But when the production descends into a nightmare, Grace is forced to face the impossible: ghosts are real, and though cold and distant, Frank may be their only chance of getting out alive.

Visit KC Jones's website.

The Page 69 Test: White Line Fever.

Q&A with KC Jones.

Writers Read: KC Jones.

The Page 69 Test: House Haunters.

--Marshal Zeringue

Three books celebrating complicated women

Natalie Baszile's novel Queen Sugar was adapted for seven television seasons by writer/director Ava DuVernay, and co-produced by Oprah Winfrey.

Her new novel is Friends and Family.

At Book Riot Baszile tagged three books that celebrate complicated women. One entry on the list:

Normal People Don’t Live Like This, Rainey Royal, and List of All Possible Desires by Dylan Landis

This trilogy of novels-in-stories is a masterclass in writing complicated women. Landis explores the lives of girls and young women in 1970’s lower west side, New York. This was the era before helicopter parents and mommy play groups, when adults checked out to pursue their own desires, leaving their girls to raise themselves. Landis’s characters are wild and defiant. They are lovers and thieves, artists and thrill seekers. But beneath their tough exteriors, each is desperate for love and connection and will do almost anything to get it. Their search often finds them along the razor’s edge—physically, sexually, emotionally. Over the course of three books, readers will find themselves holding their breath as they watch Landis’s characters grow from fragile, rebellious girls into clear-eyed, truth seeking women.

Read about another title on the list.

The Page 69 Test: Rainey Royal.

--Marshal Zeringue

Elizabeth Crane's "That May Not Mean What You Think," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: That May Not Mean What You Think: Stories by Elizabeth Crane.

The entry begins:

For the story "Nepo Babies, An Extinction Story," set in a bizarro apocalyptic future where there is no longer anyone alive who isn't a descendant of a nepo baby, I would cast only nepo baby actors. So I think Dakota Johnson would be great as the character of the white feminist's grandchild (the characters don't have actual proper names in the story), and Billie Lourd would be great as the shady tech heiress, Patrick Schwarzenegger as the grandson of the muckety-muck, and perhaps Kiefer Sutherland and Gwyneth Paltrow as Harvard Rubble Guy and Harvard Rubble Guy's Wife.

And for the story "Senior Living For the Unknowables," set in a retirement home for aging reality TV stars...[read on]

Visit Elizabeth Crane's website.

Writers Read: Elizabeth Crane (April 2008).

The Page 69 Test: We Only Know So Much.

My Book, The Movie: We Only Know So Much.

Coffee with a Canine: Elizabeth Crane & Percy.

Q&A with Elizabeth Crane.

Writers Read: Elizabeth Crane.

The Page 69 Test: That May Not Mean What You Think.

My Book, The Movie: That May Not Mean What You Think.

--Marshal Zeringue

Twelve creepy small town horror novels

Richard Chizmar is the author of New York Times bestselling novels Chasing the Boogeyman, Becoming the Boogeyman, Memorials, and Widow’s Point: The Complete Haunting (cowritten with son, W.H. Chizmar), and coauthor (with Stephen King) of the New York Times bestselling novella Gwendy’s Button Box, the novel Gwendy’s Final Task, and the solo novella Gwendy’s Magic Feather. His short fiction has appeared in dozens of publications, most recently, the bestselling anthology, The End of The World as We Know It: New Stories of Stephen King’s The Stand.

Chizmar's new novel is Killing the Boogeyman.

At People magazine the author tagged twelve top creepy small town horror novels, including:

The Haunting Of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste

The most recently published entry on my list, The Haunting of Velkwood is as fine of a modern ghost story as I’ve read. And with that lofty praise, the less I reveal about the storyline the better. Pick up a copy, avoid the jacket description, and dive right in.

Read about another title on the list.

The Page 69 Test: The Haunting of Velkwood.

Q&A with Gwendolyn Kiste.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jessica Hines's "Forms of Suffering"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Forms of Suffering: Ethics, Aesthetics, and Chaucerian Pity by Jessica Hines.

About the book, from the publisher:

Forms of Suffering demonstrates how Geoffrey Chaucer transformed pity into a central ethical and aesthetic concern in English literature by tracing his reformulations of trans-European pity discourses for an English audience. In these reformulations, Chaucer brought to the fore the modes and effects of pity's work in challenging, even overturning, traditional power structures such as social status, gender, and race. Critically, his consideration of pity also explores its precarity: the ways that pity could easily slide from transformative justice into a weapon of unjust oppression.

Jessica Hines describes how Chaucer's writing was formative in shaping an English pity discourse increasingly critical of the sociopolitical capacity of pity to act as a tool for challenging injustice and reforming oppressive social structures. Forms of Suffering makes clear the profound appeal of pity's ability to challenge structures of power in Chaucer's writing, as well as the ways that pity itself could be―and was being―manipulated by the powerful for their own ends.

Visit Jessica Hines's website.

The Page 99 Test: Forms of Suffering.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Monona Wali

From my Q&A with Monona Wali, author of Sutra Americana:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

The title Sutra Americana is meant to be intriguing and mysterious. Most western readers might not know the meaning of the word sutra (although they may have heard of the Kama Sutra, the famous manual on lovemaking from ancient India) but what the title does is signal that this is a story about two cultures coming together – in this case the Indian and the American. The book cover also reflects that with its bright blue background and Indian fabrics in the graphics, but also using the iconic red, white and blue of the American flag. Together, they invite the reader into a world they might not know but will find accessible and entertaining. Honestly, I was worried that the title would sound too foreign, but readers have responded very positively, and I never got any advice from editors or publicity people to change it. I’m so happy about...[read on]

Visit Monona Wali's website.

Q&A with Monona Wali.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is KC Jones reading?

Featured at Writers Read: KC Jones, author of House Haunters.

His entry begins:

After finishing The Keeper by Tana French, which is scary enough in its depiction of how rumor mills can cause a small community to destroy itself long before the encroaching outside world even gets a chance, I decided to kick October off with a good old ghost story. Diavola, by Jennifer Thorne, is about a dysfunctional family reluctantly gathering for a getaway in a probably-haunted Italian villa. The contrast between the creeping dread within the walls of the increasingly sinister house and the beautiful Tuscan countryside is skin-crawlingly effective...[read on]

About House Haunters, from the publisher:

From Bram Stoker Award finalist KC Jones comes House Haunters, a fast-paced thrill ride perfect for fans of How to Sell a Haunted House and Play Nice, in which a skeptical reality TV show producer and a misanthropic ghosthunter must team up to survive a shoot from hell.

Grace Wonderly needs a hit show, or her career is dead. But saving her job might just kill her.

With her studio relying on AI to greenlight new projects, finding the next breakout series is Grace's only shot to save her job. And her sanity.

Her solution may be Frank Pendleton: a brilliant but abrasive - and admittedly handsome - ghost hunter who claims he can’t feel fear, making him uniquely attuned to the paranormal.

Frank is either a fraud or the real deal. Skeptical, but hoping for TV gold, Grace assembles a crew to shoot a proof of concept.

But when the production descends into a nightmare, Grace is forced to face the impossible: ghosts are real, and though cold and distant, Frank may be their only chance of getting out alive.

Visit KC Jones's website.

The Page 69 Test: White Line Fever.

Q&A with KC Jones.

Writers Read: KC Jones.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six historical mysteries set in the early modern era

Jane Bitomsky is an award-winning author of historical fiction. Her debut historical mystery novel is Death by Misadventure.

Bitomsky has a PhD in early modern English history, a BA (Hons) and an LLB (Hons) from the University of Queensland. She’s published in academic journals, and volunteers as a baker (specialising in brownies and cheesecake) for New Zealand charity Good Bitches Baking.

At CrimeReads Bitomsky tagged six favorite historical mysteries set in the early modern era, including:

Katherine Howe, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

Who doesn’t love witches?

This is a time-split narrative, which jumps between the life of Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin in the 1990s, and Deliverance Dane, a woman accused of witchcraft in 1690s Salem. In her quest for a dissertation topic, Connie comes across a bible in her late grandmother’s derelict house, which bears Deliverance’s name, and reveals that her ancestor practised witchcraft during the Salem witch trials. On further research, Connie discovers that Deliverance had a spellbook (i.e. physick book), and she sets out to trace through time where the missing spellbook could be now. However, she is not the only one looking for the spellbook.

A seamless interplay of time periods, riveting portrayal of the female victims of the Salem witch trials, and it was fascinating to read about the author’s relation to two of the witches in this story.

Read about another title on the list.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane is among Alyssa Palombo's five spooky novels set in real places and Entertainment Weekly's ten wickedly great books about witches.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Elizabeth Crane's "That May Not Mean What You Think"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: That May Not Mean What You Think: Stories by Elizabeth Crane.

About the book, from the publisher:

A visionary and profound new collection from innovative author Elizabeth Crane

Throughout her body of work, Elizabeth Crane’s literary vision has always been singular and innovative, twisting form and bending reality into new universes. Her latest collection, That May Not Mean What You Think, explores themes of aging and youth, gender and discrimination, and sex and love. In “Training Module,” Crane takes the structure and protocol of workplace harassment prevention training and turns it on its head; “The Box” tells the story of a woman trying to recover from divorce with the help of a literal unicorn; and “The Youngs” follows a group of teenagers experiencing loss for the first time, clinging to the belief that they’ll live forever. Across these delightfully weird and disarmingly truthful stories, American culture is refracted through humor and heart, asking readers to consider their complicity and to imagine new possibilities of participating in a better future.

Visit Elizabeth Crane's website.

Writers Read: Elizabeth Crane (April 2008).

The Page 69 Test: We Only Know So Much.

My Book, The Movie: We Only Know So Much.

Coffee with a Canine: Elizabeth Crane & Percy.

Q&A with Elizabeth Crane.

Writers Read: Elizabeth Crane.

The Page 69 Test: That May Not Mean What You Think.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top horror books about feminine rage

Addison Ciuchta loves writing, reading, and writing about what she reads. She has an MA in Professional Writing, a BA in English, and a lifelong love of books. In addition to Book Riot, has written for Publishers Weekly and Independent Book Review.

At Book Riot Ciuchta tagged "six horror books about feminine rage [that will] leave readers saying, Good for her!" One title on the list:

Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by Brom

After the death of her husband, Abitha is an outcast in her colonial New England village. She fights to keep possession of her husband’s farm, despite Puritan societal expectations and her brother-in-law dictating she give it up unless she remarries. In the forest, she crosses paths with a powerful entity, one that offers to give her exactly what she wants.

Read about another novel on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Robert Thorson's "The Walden Experiments"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Walden Experiments: The Science of Henry David Thoreau by Robert Thorson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Reading Thoreau as a scientist for modern times

Henry David Thoreau’s Walden stands as the foundational text for the environmental movement and as a model for the practice of nature writing. In The Walden Experiments, Robert Thorson tells the story of how, after several discarded drafts of social critique, Thoreau resuscitated Walden with a sharp swerve toward science. Thorson invites us to read—or reread—Walden to discover the observations, empirical thinking, and scientific explanations supporting this canonical work of literature. Chapter by chapter, he guides us through Walden’s relevance for such contemporary scientific concerns as climate change, ecological collapse, water supply, agriculture, artificial intelligence, and technology.

Thoreau's first “experiment” of living deliberately took place in a one-room house at Walden Pond from 1845 to 1847. This was followed from 1851 to 1852 by a little-known second experiment of trying to live deliberately in the midst of society as a sojourning scientist. Thorson’s account of a science-revitalized version of Walden helps us appreciate Thoreau's masterpiece not only for its prophetic, lyrical, uplifting, witty, and timeless advice on living sustainably, but also as a historic benchmark for anchoring our modern solutions. Exploring the science that underlies Walden enhances our understanding of the deeper meanings Thoreau draws from nature.

Visit Robert Thorson's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Walden Experiments.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Elizabeth Crane reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Elizabeth Crane, author of That May Not Mean What You Think: Stories.

Her entry begins:

Currently reading and loving and almost finished with two books:

Nonfiction: Three Tenses by Ed Park. In this book, every sentence in the book begins with the word 'in'. See what I did there? This is the kind of book I read and wish that I could ever think of such a simple but brilliant idea, and then actually execute it with the lovely, thoughtful, and often humorous prose with which Park sets it down.

Fiction: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. I know. I was very...[read on]

About That May Not Mean What You Think, from the publisher:

A visionary and profound new collection from innovative author Elizabeth Crane

Throughout her body of work, Elizabeth Crane’s literary vision has always been singular and innovative, twisting form and bending reality into new universes. Her latest collection, That May Not Mean What You Think, explores themes of aging and youth, gender and discrimination, and sex and love. In “Training Module,” Crane takes the structure and protocol of workplace harassment prevention training and turns it on its head; “The Box” tells the story of a woman trying to recover from divorce with the help of a literal unicorn; and “The Youngs” follows a group of teenagers experiencing loss for the first time, clinging to the belief that they’ll live forever. Across these delightfully weird and disarmingly truthful stories, American culture is refracted through humor and heart, asking readers to consider their complicity and to imagine new possibilities of participating in a better future.

Visit Elizabeth Crane's website.

Writers Read: Elizabeth Crane (April 2008).

The Page 69 Test: We Only Know So Much.

My Book, The Movie: We Only Know So Much.

Coffee with a Canine: Elizabeth Crane & Percy.

Q&A with Elizabeth Crane.

Writers Read: Elizabeth Crane.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tessa Wegert’s “The River Runs Black,” the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The River Runs Black (A North Country Novel, 2) by Tessa Wegert.

The entry begins:

The River Runs Black is the second book in my North Country thriller series—following In the Bones—and it’s a spinoff of my previous Shana Merchant series. As such, I already had actors in mind for the key roles of Tim Wellington (Adam Driver), Shana Merchant (Emma Stone), Maureen “Mac” McIntyre (Jane Lynch). This book also introduces three new points of view, though, so I had some fun imagining who might be the best fit for those roles.

Bobby Ott: I’d love to see Catherine "Katie" Laga'aia take on the role of sixteen-year-old Bobby, daughter of French Polynesia-born New York State Police Investigator Valerie Ott (who’d ideally be portrayed by Courtney Eaton, in case you were wondering). Playing a small-town teenager abducted during a cross-border drug investigation would be a far cry from portraying Disney’s Moana, but while Bobby is pushing hard to grow up, she’s still a kid who watches Gilmore Girls and is excited about Halloween, and Laga'aia would capture that nuance beautifully.

Phoebe Reed: Since part of The River Runs Black takes place in...[read on]

Visit Tessa Wegert's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Dead Season.

The Page 69 Test: The Dead Season.

Q&A with Tessa Wegert.

The Page 69 Test: Dead Wind.

Writers Read: Tessa Wegert (April 2022).

Writers Read: Tessa Wegert (December 2022).

The Page 69 Test: Devils at the Door.

The Page 69 Test: The Coldest Case.

Writers Read: Tessa Wegert (November 2025).

My Book, The Movie: The River Runs Black.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight top utopian fiction titles

At Mental Floss Chris Wheatley tagged eight utopian fiction novels to get us through these dystopian times, including:

Too Like the Lightning (2016) by Ada Palmer

One of few modern exponents of utopian fiction, American writer Ada Palmer’s Too Like the Lightning is the first in a quartet of works collectively known as Terra Ignota. The setting for this novel is Earth in the year 2454, a world where advances in technology have led to a golden age of humanity. Geographic nations are no more. People instead have the option of joining one of seven Hives, each of which possesses its own language and government and all of which form part of the Universal Free Alliance Senate. The book is presented as a history written by the colorful Mycroft Canner, a brilliant criminal, now paroled. It contains within it a story of vying powers and a beguiling mystery.

Read about another novel on the list.

Too Like the Lightning is among Olivia Wolfgang-Smith’s eight top contemporary novels with omniscient narrators.

The Page 69 Test: Too Like the Lightning.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Elizabeth Crane

From my Q&A with Elizabeth Crane, author of That May Not Mean What You Think: Stories:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the stories?

I like a title that suggestive of what's inside the book, in this case, the idea I had about That May Not Mean What You Think was that even though it speaks to that particular story, it also speaks to the overall stories in the sense that it playfully invites the reader to question things they think they're sure about, via my stories or otherwise.

What's in a name?

I love to have fun with character names. In the story "Nepo Babies," they don't have actual names, they're just identified by who they were related to: The white feminist's grandchild, the grandson of the muckety-muck, the shady tech heiress. And in the story "Senior Living for the Unknowables," which is inspired by...[read on]

Visit Elizabeth Crane's website.

Writers Read: Elizabeth Crane (April 2008).

The Page 69 Test: We Only Know So Much.

My Book, The Movie: We Only Know So Much.

Coffee with a Canine: Elizabeth Crane & Percy.

Q&A with Elizabeth Crane.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine novels about being the poorest person in the room

Carla Vass holds a degree in English literature and economics from Barnard College, Columbia University. She began her career at Goldman Sachs before joining Uber in 2013. At Uber, she helped build the rideshare business in New York City and was part of the founding UberEATS team. In 2018, Vass was recruited by Waymo, Google's self-driving car division, to develop their delivery business, and then went on to found Civi in 2020, a tech startup focused on safety in Latin America. Born in New York City, Vass and her husband now live in Miami, Florida. When not writing or reading, she enjoys spending time with loved ones, traveling, cooking, and horseback riding.

Vass's new novel is The Rally.

At Lit Hub the author tagged nine novels featuring the poorest person among rich people behaving badly. One title on the list:

Rules of Civility, Amor Towles

A whip-smart Brooklyn girl from a working-class immigrant family, stationed in a Wall Street typing pool, meets a charming banker named Tinker Grey in a Greenwich Village jazz bar on the last night of 1937. The chance encounter tips her into the upper reaches of Manhattan society. What makes it more than a climbing story is that Tinker turns out to be a guest too—his old-money polish is being quietly financed by a wealthy patron. It’s all set against the most vivid Manhattan on this list: the city that has always been the great stage for the guest, where everyone is from somewhere else and busy becoming someone new.

Read about another book on the list.

Rules of Civility is among the Times of India's six remarkable books set on New Year's eve and day, Glamour magazine's list of the fifty-seven best books of the 2010s, and Michael Hogan's ten best New Year’s Eves in culture.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Mark B. Kelley's "Crimes Against Feeling"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Crimes Against Feeling: Piracy, Sympathy, and Ocean Politics in Antebellum American Legal Culture by Mark B. Kelley.

About the book, from the publisher:

Demonstrating how emotion became central to the legal and literary meanings of piracy in nineteenth-century America

Pirates have long occupied a central yet unstable place in American law and national identity. In the decades leading up to and including the U.S. Civil War, the charge of piracy was leveled against an unusually wide range of figures: foreign heads of state, imperial filibusters, transoceanic enslavers, enslaved mutineers, radical abolitionists, and others who challenged established forms of authority. Early American literature reflects this instability, portraying pirates who vary dramatically in politics, race, gender, and allegiance. As Mark B. Kelley shows, these characters are united less by ideology than by their challenge to landed social norms and fixed national belonging. The pirate, in both law and literature, emerges as an individual defined by multiplicity rather than political coherence.

Crimes Against Feeling examines how Americans made sense of this ambiguous figure by turning to emotion. Drawing on legal materials including treaties, trial transcripts, congressional debates, and U.S. Supreme Court decisions, as well as popular sentimental fiction (often written by women), Kelley argues that piracy was codified as an offense against moral feeling rather than being a singular political position. Legal thinkers and writers such as John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Maria S. Cummins relied on shared affective frameworks―sympathy, sentiment, and domestic vulnerability―to render piracy legible and punishable. American pirate law, Kelley demonstrates, was shaped by the same emotional logics that structured the era’s popular fiction.

By tracing piracy across debates over domestic sovereignty, global enslavement and abolition, imperial expansion, postbellum reparations, and international copyright, Crimes Against Feeling reveals the pirate as a key figure for understanding gender, home, family, and nation in early America. Reading law and literature together, the book shows how emotional judgment―not political consensus―became a foundational tool for managing oceanic violence and transnational disorder in the nineteenth-century United States.

Visit Mark B. Kelley's website.

The Page 99 Test: Crimes Against Feeling.

--Marshal Zeringue