Pg. 99: Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece's "The Optical Vacuum"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Optical Vacuum: Spectatorship and Modernized American Theater Architecture by Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece.

About the book, from the publisher:

Between the 1920s and the 1960s, American mainstream cinematic architecture underwent a seismic shift. From the massive movie palace to the intimate streamlined theater, movie theaters became neutralized spaces for calibrated, immersive watching. Leading this charge was New York architect Benjamin Schlanger, a fiery polemicist whose designs and essays reshaped how movies were watched. In its close examination of Schlanger's work and of changing patterns of spectatorship, this book reveals that the essence of film viewing lies not only in the text, but in the spaces where movies are shown. The Optical Vacuum demonstrates that our changing models of cinephilia are always determined by physical structure: from the decorations of the palace to the black box of the contemporary auditorium, variations in movie theater design are icons for how viewing has similarly transformed.

Learn more about The Optical Vacuum at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Optical Vacuum.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top books about deforestation

John Vidal was the Guardian's environment editor. He is the author of McLibel: Burger Culture on Trial. One of five of the best books about deforestation he tagged at the Guardian:

Veteran US entomologist EO Wilson, a world authority on biodiversity, offers the planetary view. Destroying rainforest for economic gain, he says, is like “burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal”. In his 2002 book The Future of Life, he asserts that the loss of forest over the last 50 years has been one of the most profound environmental changes in the history of Earth: “The forests are the abattoirs of extinction, shattered into fragments that are then being severed, adulterated or erased one by one. The last frontiers of the world are effectively gone, an Armageddon is approaching.”

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: James Alan Gardner's "They Promised Me The Gun Wasn't Loaded"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: They Promised Me The Gun Wasn't Loaded by James Alan Gardner.

About the book, from the publisher:

Only days have passed since a freak accident granted four college students superhuman powers. Now Jools and her friends (who haven’t even picked out a name for their superhero team yet) get caught up in the hunt for a Mad Genius’s misplaced super-weapon.

But when Jools falls in with a modern-day Robin Hood and his band of super-powered Merry Men, she finds it hard to sort out the Good Guys from the Bad Guys—and to figure out which side she truly belongs on.

Especially since nobody knows exactly what the Gun does....

Visit James Alan Gardner's website.

The Page 69 Test: They Promised Me The Gun Wasn't Loaded.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Rysa Walker reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Rysa Walker, author of The Delphi Revolution.

Her entry begins:

I’m almost always in the middle of three books at once--one audiobook, one fiction, and one non-fiction. I tend to listen while in the car or cleaning house, and I switch back and forth between the non-fiction and fiction on the Kindle depending on my mood.

On audio, I’m currently enjoying Storm Glass, the first book of the Harbinger series by Jeff Wheeler. I loved Wheeler’s Kingfountain series, and have now passed it along to my oldest son, and this new tale is shaping up to be equally good. World-building is always strong in Wheeler’s books, and this new series is as richly detailed as Kingfountain, with characters that quickly became real to me. As an added bonus...[read on]

About The Delphi Revolution, from the publisher:

A psychotic killer hijacked her mind and her body. She’s taking them back.

Eighteen-year-old Anna Morgan is on the run from the very government project that created her abilities. Now they seek to weaponize the gift she doesn’t want and can’t control: the invasion of her mind and her body by spirits, some of whom have their own unusual powers. Her latest “hitcher” is a former top Delphi executive. Unlike Anna’s previous guests, this one has taken over, and he’s on a personal mission of revenge.

The target is Senator Ronald Cregg, a corrupt, power-hungry presidential candidate. One of Delphi’s creators, he’s now manipulating the public into believing “psychic terrorists” are a scourge to be eliminated. There’s only one way to stop him, but Anna draws the line at murder.

Pulled into a dark conspiracy, Anna struggles to reclaim her body, mind, and soul as she and the other Delphi psychics join together to fight for their right to exist.

Visit Rysa Walker's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Delphi Revolution.

Writers Read: Rysa Walker.

--Marshal Zeringue

Elliott J. Gorn's "Mother Jones," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous Woman in America by Elliott J. Gorn.

His entry begins:

I just finished a book about the 1955 murder of Emmett Till in Mississippi. Let the People See tells the story of the racist lynching of the fourteen-year-old who whistled at a white woman, the trial of his killers, and how the memory of those events changed over the years. I won’t ever make a movie about Emmett Till because good documentaries have already appeared, and now Hollywood is producing a feature film.

But I would love to help make a movie about a book I wrote a few years ago, Mother Jones, The Most Dangerous Woman in America.

Who? Mother Jones was one of the most famous Americans back in 1910 or 1920. She was an old woman, an Irish famine immigrant, widowed, poor. Yet she knew presidents and captains of industry. She was the Johnny Appleseed of activists, especially organizing workers, especially coal miners. Her friend the author Upton Sinclair, described her at the podium: “she had force, she had wit, she had the fire of determination; she was the walking wrath of God.”

She regaled her audiences with stories. She’d describe the prisoner who told her that he’d stolen a pair of shoes; you should have stolen a railroad, Mother Jones said, then you’d be a United States Senator. She told how, when asked her address by a Congressional Committee, she replied my address is like my shoes, it follows me wherever I go. She’d admonish women audiences not to be...[read on]

Learn more about Mother Jones.

The Page 99 Test: Let the People See.

My Book, The Movie: Mother Jones.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top seaside tales

Lynne Truss is a celebrated author, screenwriter, columnist, and broadcaster. Truss is the writer of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including the bestselling book on punctuation Eats, Shoots and Leaves.

Her new novel is A Shot in the Dark.

One of the author's six favorite seaside tales, as shared at The Week magazine:

The Crime Writer by Jill Dawson (2016).

This fantastic novel, imagining the period when crime writer Patricia Highsmith lived in a small English cottage, sweeps you up — just as Highsmith did herself — on a high tide of guilt and fear, and includes a nighttime scene of our heroine immersed in the North Sea, clumsily committing a dead body to the black waves. Have I mentioned that I am terrified to go into the sea myself? Again, a masterly description explains why.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: David Heidler & Jeanne Heidler's "The Rise of Andrew Jackson"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Rise of Andrew Jackson: Myth, Manipulation, and the Making of Modern Politics by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler.

About the book, from the publisher:

The story of Andrew Jackson’s improbable ascent to the White House, centered on the handlers and propagandists who made it possible

Andrew Jackson was volatile and prone to violence, and well into his forties his sole claim on the public’s affections derived from his victory in a thirty-minute battle at New Orleans in early 1815. Yet those in his immediate circle believed he was a great man who should be president of the United States.

Jackson’s election in 1828 is usually viewed as a result of the expansion of democracy. Historians David and Jeanne Heidler argue that he actually owed his victory to his closest supporters, who wrote hagiographies of him, founded newspapers to savage his enemies, and built a political network that was always on message. In transforming a difficult man into a paragon of republican virtue, the Jacksonites exploded the old order and created a mode of electioneering that has been mimicked ever since.

Learn more about the book and authors at David S. and Jeanne T. Heidler's website.

My Book, The Movie: Washington’s Circle.

The Page 99 Test: Washington’s Circle.

My Book, The Movie: The Rise of Andrew Jackson.

The Page 99 Test: The Rise of Andrew Jackson.

--Marshal Zeringue

Greta Gerwig's ten favorite books

Greta Gerwig is an American actress, playwright, screenwriter, and director (Lady Bird). One of her ten favorite books, as shared at Vulture.com:

Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

In this book, Ms. Adichie has constructed a full-on romance that has the addictive power of a Jane Austen novel but with the specifics of life in Nigeria, as well as life in the United States as an immigrant. I fell in love with Ifemelu and Obinze in a way that I haven’t felt since I was a child reading novels for the first time.

Read about another entry on the list.

Americanah is among Nada Awar Jarrar's ten favorite books about exile.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Vicki Delany reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Vicki Delany, author of A Scandal in Scarlet: A Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery.

Her entry begins:

I am almost finished Hunters in the Dark by Lawrence Osborne. Osborne is a new writer to me, and I picked up this book after listing to him being interviewed on CBC radio. He is English, and lives in Thailand and brings the perspective of an ex-pat to his writing about South East Asia.

I don’t have a lot of experience with South East Asia but I have been lucky enough to visit twice, once to Vietnam and once to Malaysia. I loved it, and am very much looking forward to going back. My experience has been nothing but a tourist on an organized tour, so an insight into the deeper society sounded like a good read to me. Hunters in the Dark is set in Cambodia, and it is absolutely drenched in atmosphere and setting. I’m about...[read on]

About A Scandal in Scarlet, from the publisher:

Gemma and Jayne donate their time to raise money for the rebuilding of a burned out museum—but a killer wants a piece of the auction.

Walking her dog Violet late one night, Gemma Doyle, owner of the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop, acts quickly when she smells smoke outside the West London Museum. Fortunately no one is inside, but it’s too late to save the museum’s priceless collection of furniture, and damage to the historic house is extensive. Baker Street’s shop owners come together to hold an afternoon auction tea to raise funds to rebuild, and Great Uncle Arthur Doyle offers a signed first edition of The Valley of Fear.

Cape Cod’s cognoscenti files into Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room, owned by Gemma’s best friend, Jayne Wilson. Excitement fills the air (along with the aromas of Jayne’s delightful scones, of course). But the auction never happens. Before the gavel can fall, museum board chair Kathy Lamb is found dead in the back room. Wrapped tightly around her neck is a long rope of decorative knotted tea cups—a gift item that Jayne sells at Mrs. Hudson’s. Gemma’s boyfriend in blue, Ryan Ashburton, arrives on the scene with Detective Louise Estrada. But the suspect list is long, and the case far from elementary. Does Kathy’s killing have any relation to a mysterious death of seven years ago?

Gemma has no intention of getting involved in the investigation, but when fellow shopkeeper Maureen finds herself the prime suspect she begs Gemma for her help. Ryan knows Gemma’s methods and he isn’t happy when she gets entangled in another mystery. But with so many suspects and so few clues, her deductive prowess will prove invaluable in A Scandal in Scarlet, Vicki Delany’s shrewdly plotted fourth Sherlock Holmes Bookshop mystery.

Visit Vicki Delany's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen.

The Page 69 Test: A Scandal in Scarlet.

Writers Read: Vicki Delany.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top boozy cozy mysteries

Ellie Alexander is a Pacific Northwest native who spends ample time testing pastry recipes in her home kitchen or at one of the many famed coffeehouses nearby. When she’s not coated in flour, you’ll find her outside exploring hiking trails and trying to burn off calories consumed in the name of research.

The Pint of No Return is Alexander's latest novel in the Sloan Krause brewing series.

One of the author's five favorite boozy cozy mysteries, as shared at CrimeReads:

The Champagne Conspiracy by Ellen Crosby

Next, we’re off to Virginia to pop open a bottle of bubbly with Lucie Montgomery. Winter is settling in on the family estate where Lucie and wine maker extraordinaire Quinn Santori are trying their hand at champagne. Love is in the air with Valentine’s Day, but Lucie finds herself immersed in history as she traces a murder from the past that leads to danger in the present. This sparkling vintage will take you back to the Prohibition Era complete with speakeasies and nefarious bootleggers. Lucie will help prove that murder is best served chilled on ice.

Learn about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Thelma Adams's "Bittersweet Brooklyn"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Bittersweet Brooklyn: A Novel by Thelma Adams.

About the book, from the publisher:

In turn-of-the century New York, a mobster rises—and his favorite sister struggles between loyalty and life itself. How far will she go when he commits murder?

After midnight, Thelma Lorber enters her brother Abie’s hangout under the Williamsburg Bridge, finding Jewish mobster Louis “Pretty” Amberg in a puddle of blood on the kitchen floor. She could flee. Instead, in the dark hours of that October 1935 night before the dawn of Murder, Inc., she remains beside the fierce, funny brother who has nurtured and protected her since childhood. There are many kinds of love a woman can feel for a man, but few compare to that of the baby sister for her older brother. For Thelma, a wild widow tethered to a young son, Abie is the center of her world. But that love is about to undo everything she holds dear…

Flipping the familiar script of The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, and The Godfather, Bittersweet Brooklyn explores the shattering impact of mob violence on the women expected to mop up the mess. Winding its way over decades, this haunting family saga plunges readers into a dangerous past—revealed through the perspective of a forgotten yet vibrant woman.

Learn more about the book and author at Thelma Adams' website.

The Page 69 Test: Playdate.

My Book, The Movie: Playdate.

The Page 69 Test: Bittersweet Brooklyn.

--Marshal Zeringue

Rosemary Simpson's "Let the Dead Keep Their Secrets," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Let the Dead Keep Their Secrets: A Gilded Age Mystery #3 by Rosemary Simpson.

The entry begins:

I have to admit that I rarely picture an actor playing any of the characters I develop in the Gilded Age Mystery series. I think that's because I know them so well and have such a clear picture of them in my head that they don't closely resemble any real individuals. I've also seen enough film adaptations of novels I've enjoyed, and some I haven't, to realize that no matter how good the actor's portrayal, it can never match the scene I imagined as I read the book. That's the beauty of...[read on]

Visit Rosemary Simpson's website.

My Book, The Movie: Let the Dead Keep Their Secrets.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ellie Kemper's ten favorite books

Ellie Kemper is the Emmy-nominated star of the Netflix original series, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. She portrayed Erin Hannon on NBC’s The Office; costarred in Bridesmaids; and has also appeared in 21 Jump Street, Identity Thief, and Somewhere. Kemper voiced Katie in The Secret Life of Pets and is the voice of Crackle on Disney’s Sofia the First. Her writing has appeared in GQ, Esquire, The New York Times, McSweeney’s, and The Onion. Kemper currently lives in Manhattan with her husband and son, but is constantly trying to find a way to get back to St. Louis. My Squirrel Days is her first book.

One of Kemper's ten favorite books, as shared at Vulture.com:

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

This restless, vibrant, indelibly funny novel tackles migration, cultural identity, and the family saga with energetic good cheer. You can tell how much Smith loves her characters, and she makes me love them, too.

Read about the other entries on the list.

White Teeth is on Jeff Somers's list of five notable books set on New Year’s Eve (and Day), Michael Gibney's top ten list of restaurants and bars in modern literature, Mary Beard's six best books list, John Mullan's list of the ten most notable New Years in literature, Melissa Albert's list of five notable--and ambitious--debut novels and Nigel Williams's list of ten of the best books about suburbia.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Zachary J. Lechner's "The South of the Mind"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The South of the Mind: American Imaginings of White Southernness, 1960–1980 by Zachary J. Lechner.

About the book, from the publisher:

With the nation reeling from the cultural and political upheavals of the 1960s era, imaginings of the white South as a place of stability represented a bulwark against unsettling problems, from suburban blandness and empty consumerism to race riots and governmental deceit. A variety of individuals during and after the civil rights era, including writers, journalists, filmmakers, musicians, and politicians, envisioned white southernness as a manly, tradition-loving, communal, authentic—and often rural or small-town—notion that both symbolized a refuge from modern ills and contained the tools for combating them. The South of the Mind tells this story of how many Americans looked to the country’s most maligned region to save them during the 1960s and 1970s.

In this interdisciplinary work, Zachary J. Lechner bridges the fields of southern studies, southern history, and post–World War II American cultural and popular culture history in an effort to discern how conceptions of a tradition-bound, “timeless” South shaped Americans’ views of themselves and their society’s political and cultural fragmentations. Wide-ranging chapters detail the iconography of the white South during the civil rights movement; hippies’ fascination with white southern life; the Masculine South of George Wallace, Walking Tall, and Deliverance; the differing southern rock stylings of the Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd; and the healing southernness of Jimmy Carter. The South of the Mind demonstrates that we cannot hope to understand recent U.S. history without exploring how people have conceived the South, as well as what those conceptualizations have omitted.

Learn more about The South of the Mind at the University of Georgia Press website.

Writers Read: Zachary J. Lechner.

The Page 99 Test: The South of the Mind.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Scott J. Holliday reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Scott J. Holliday, author of Machine City.

His reply begins:

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

I tend to return to the stories I love so well. Shutter Island is one of those. Lehane's writing has a beautiful, lyrical quality that I enjoy and the story is such a twisted little gem that it's hard for someone like me to resist. I would recommend the book for anyone who's interested in...[read on]

About Machine City, from the publisher:

In this unputdownable thriller set in the new future, a detective enters the mind of a killer to find a missing child.

To ex-detective John Barnes, the machine is a dangerous and abhorrent addiction. The criminal thoughts it embedded in his brain helped him stop a serial killer, but they left him dazed—with pounding, murderous impulses. Having turned in his badge to salvage what’s left of his psyche, Barnes must return to the darkness at the request of his former partner. A little girl has gone missing. So has Adrian Flaherty, the detective in the kidnapper’s shadow.

And only Barnes can hear the clues.

But the trail is more dizzying and more personal than he feared. The voices are revealing a secret only Flaherty could have known. They’re also telling Barnes that he doesn’t have long to live. To find the girl, he must listen closely. Because the clock is ticking…and Barnes’s mind is going fast.

Visit Scott J. Holliday's website.

My Book, The Movie: Machine City.

The Page 69 Test: Machine City.

Writers Read: Scott J. Holliday.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Rysa Walker's "The Delphi Revolution"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Delphi Revolution by Rysa Walker.

About the book, from the publisher:

A psychotic killer hijacked her mind and her body. She’s taking them back.

Eighteen-year-old Anna Morgan is on the run from the very government project that created her abilities. Now they seek to weaponize the gift she doesn’t want and can’t control: the invasion of her mind and her body by spirits, some of whom have their own unusual powers. Her latest “hitcher” is a former top Delphi executive. Unlike Anna’s previous guests, this one has taken over, and he’s on a personal mission of revenge.

The target is Senator Ronald Cregg, a corrupt, power-hungry presidential candidate. One of Delphi’s creators, he’s now manipulating the public into believing “psychic terrorists” are a scourge to be eliminated. There’s only one way to stop him, but Anna draws the line at murder.

Pulled into a dark conspiracy, Anna struggles to reclaim her body, mind, and soul as she and the other Delphi psychics join together to fight for their right to exist.

Visit Rysa Walker's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Delphi Revolution.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine mysteries with unexpected investigators

Erica Wright's latest crime novel The Blue Kingfisher is filled with "substance, entertainment, and chills-a-plenty" according to The Seattle Review of Books. Her debut, The Red Chameleon, was one of O, The Oprah Magazine's Best Books of Summer 2014. She is also the author of the poetry collections Instructions for Killing the Jackal and All the Bayou Stories End with Drowned. She is the poetry editor and a senior editor at Guernica Magazine as well as a former editorial board member for Alice James Books.

At CrimeReads Wright tagged nine mysteries that challenge our expectations for crime fighters, including:

Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia

While this novel certainly echoes a classic Agatha Christie-style whodunnit, it is also distinctive in how it balances personal dramas with the central mystery. The perspective shifts between characters, and teenage singer Alice Hatmaker accepts the challenge of figuring out if her prodigy roommate ran away or was murdered. The events take place as a once impressive now dilapidated hotel in upstate New York. Hundreds of high school-aged musicians swarm the place for a statewide festival. Racculia takes this fun premise and exceeds expectations, telling multiple satisfying stories at once.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: Bellweather Rhapsody.

My Book, The Movie: Bellweather Rhapsody.

--Marshal Zeringue

Catherine Reef's "Mary Shelley," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Mary Shelley: The Strange True Tale of Frankenstein's Creator by Catherine Reef.

The entry begins:

My Dinner with Frankenstein

On an unspecified date in the eighteenth century, on an Alpine summit overlooking a sea of ice, Victor Frankenstein encountered the intelligent creature he had built and endowed with life. This is a pivotal scene in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, as the creature informs his creator (and the reader) about all that has happened to him since he ventured alone into the world.

Imagine a film built around this section of the novel but set more than two hundred years later, in 2018. A luxury resort has been built at that mountain site, complete with a four-star restaurant and vast windows that offer a stunning view of sunset on the glacier. Victor and the creature meet there for dinner.

For Victor, the encounter is a surprise. He has climbed to this mountain retreat to be alone with his feelings after the murder of his young brother William. Having anticipated his arrival, the creature has reserved a table and is waiting for Victor at the bar. Fearful of...[read on]

Visit Catherine Reef's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Catherine Reef & Nandi.

The Page 69 Test: Frida & Diego.

My Book, The Movie: Noah Webster.

The Page 99 Test: Florence Nightingale.

My Book, The Movie: Victoria: Portrait of a Queen.

The Page 99 Test: Victoria: Portrait of a Queen.

The Page 99 Test: Mary Shelley.

Writers Read: Catherine Reef.

My Book, The Movie: Mary Shelley.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Catriona McPherson reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Catriona McPherson, author of Go to My Grave: A Novel.

Her entry begins:

I'm reading an ARC of Cathy Ace's The Wrong Boy, with a view to blurbing it on the jacket when it comes out. Getting advance copies of books from fellow writers is, on the one hand, one of the best perks of the writing life and, on the other hand, one of the most excruciating and nail-biting chances we take. What if you don't like it? Accepting a book you loathe from a person you love would put you into a horrible predicament. Thankfully, it hasn't happened to me yet. Certainly not this time: Cathy's delve into a tight-knit Welsh village, in the aftermath of a brutal crime, is a treat indeed. The village is by turns charming and claustrophobic, the secrets are...[read on]

About Go to My Grave, from the publisher:

Donna Weaver has put everything she has into restoring The Breakers, an old bed and breakfast on a remote stretch of beach in Galloway. Now it sits waiting—freshly painted, richly furnished, filled with flowers—for the first guests to arrive.

But Donna's guests, a contentious group of estranged cousins, soon realize that they’ve been here before, years ago. Decades have passed, but that night still haunts them: a sixteenth birthday party that started with peach schnapps and ended with a girl walking into the sea.

Each of them had made a vow of silence: “lock it in a box, stitch my lips, and go to my grave.”

But now someone has broken the pact. Amid the home-baked scones and lavish rooms, someone is playing games, locking boxes, stitching lips. And before the weekend is over, at least one of them will go to their grave.

Visit Catriona McPherson's website.

The Page 69 Test: Go to My Grave.

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top novels about the First World War

Daniel Mason is a physician and author of The Piano Tuner (2002), A Far Country (2007), and The Winter Soldier ​(2018). His work has been translated into 28 languages and adapted for opera and theater. A Far Country was shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Northern California Book Award. His short stories and essays have appeared in Harper’s, Zoetrope: All Story and Lapham’s Quarterly; in 2014 he was a recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. A Clinical Assistant Professor in the Stanford University Department of Psychiatry, his research and teaching interests include the subjective experience of mental illness and the influence of literature, history, and culture on the practice of medicine.

One of the author's top ten novels about the First World War, as shared at the Guardian:

Regeneration by Pat Barker

The most subtle depiction of the emotional trauma of war that I have read. Far from the front, we follow the impact of the fighting, not only on the men who served, but also on the doctors who care for them. Barker’s portrayal of psychiatrist WHR Rivers shows how compassion and humanity can thrive in the complex and conflicted mind of a doctor struggling to understand his patients, as well as his own motivations and desires.

Read about another entry on the list.

Regeneration is among Elizabeth Lowry's top ten books about psychiatry, Phil Klay's top ten books about returning from war, Sarah Moss's top ten hospital novels, and Hermione Norris's six best books. The Regeneration Trilogy is on William Skidelsky's list of the 10 best historical novels.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Timothy Beal's "The Book of Revelation"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Book of Revelation: A Biography by Timothy Beal.

About the book, from the publisher:

The life and times of the New Testament’s most mystifying and incendiary book

Few biblical books have been as revered and reviled as Revelation. Many hail it as the pinnacle of prophetic vision, the cornerstone of the biblical canon, and, for those with eyes to see, the key to understanding the past, present, and future. Others denounce it as the work of a disturbed individual whose horrific dreams of inhumane violence should never have been allowed into the Bible. Timothy Beal provides a concise cultural history of Revelation and the apocalyptic imaginations it has fueled.

Taking readers from the book’s composition amid the Christian persecutions of first-century Rome to its enduring influence today in popular culture, media, and visual art, Beal explores the often wildly contradictory lives of this sometimes horrifying, sometimes inspiring biblical vision. He shows how such figures as Augustine and Hildegard of Bingen made Revelation central to their own mystical worldviews, and how, thanks to the vivid works of art it inspired, the book remained popular even as it was denounced by later church leaders such as Martin Luther. Attributed to a mysterious prophet identified only as John, Revelation speaks with a voice unlike any other in the Bible. Beal demonstrates how the book is a multimedia constellation of stories and images that mutate and evolve as they take hold in new contexts, and how Revelation is reinvented in the hearts and minds of each new generation.

This succinct book traces how Revelation continues to inspire new diagrams of history, new fantasies of rapture, and new nightmares of being left behind.

Visit Timothy Beal's website.

Learn more about The Book of Revelation at the Princeton University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Book of Revelation.

--Marshal Zeringue