What is Laura Jensen Walker reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Laura Jensen Walker, author of The Pilgrimage of Primrose Honeychurch: A Novel.

From her entry:

I recently finished An Artful Dodge, by the brilliant Karen Odden. If you’re looking for impeccably researched historical fiction, mesmerizing characters you’ll fall in love with, and a compelling story you can’t put down, look no further. This was a fascinating dive into Victorian London and a ring of women thieves, Kit Jimeson is my favorite new heroine. Fingers crossed her...[read on]

About The Pilgrimage of Primrose Honeychurch, from the publisher:

From the author of Death of a Flying Nightingale comes the moving story of a solitary seventy-year-old curmudgeon embracing the connection of family and daring to follow her dreams.

Primrose Honeychurch doesn’t really “get” people. Books, though, make perfect sense.

At seventy, the sharp-tongued recluse prefers to keep company with her own routines. But when a life-altering diagnosis leaves her worried she’ll never be missed, she decides it’s finally time to do something to leave her mark: something no one will ever forget.

Clutching her mother’s ashes and the book of her heart, Primrose hops on a plane, bound for Hay-on-Wye, the legendary Welsh “Town of Books.” Unfortunately, her literary pilgrimage just won’t follow the plot. After an accident derails her trip, she finds herself staying awhile with estranged family. But she senses a kindred spirit in the niece she’s getting to know, who uncannily understands the world much the same as Primrose herself does.

As rolling green hills and book-lined streets frame an unexpected season of discovery, what began as an unwelcome detour becomes something more profound. For the first time in her life, Primrose begins to glimpse the beauty―and courage―of true human connection.

Visit Laura Jensen Walker's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Alphabet Sleuths.

Q&A with Laura Jensen Walker.

The Page 69 Test: The Alphabet Sleuths.

Writers Read: Laura Jensen Walker (February 2026).

My Book, The Movie: The Postmistress of Puddlington.

The Page 69 Test: The Postmistress of Puddlington.

My Book, The Movie: The Pilgrimage of Primrose Honeychurch.

Writers Read: Laura Jensen Walker.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top revenge and eat-the-rich thrillers

L.M. Chilton is a journalist with fifteen years of experience working on TV shows for the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 in the UK, as well as writing columns for magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Glamour, and reporting for national newspapers across the world, everywhere from Doncaster to Delhi. He lives in London, procrastinating.

Chliton's new novel is I Think We Should Kill Other People.

At CrimeReads he tagged five revenge and eat-the-rich thrillers about the 1 Percent, including:

Liv Constantine, The Last Mrs. Parrish

Marrying rich seems like a fast track to wealth, but what if the guy you have your eye on is already taken?

In this fast-paced beach-read, Amber Patterson is tired of being poor. She wants everything Daphne Parrish has, the money, the handsome property-mogul husband and the golden-couple status in exclusive Bishops Harbor, Connecticut. After worming her way into Daphne’s life, she becomes her BFF, and gets closer and closer to her man. But Amber is hiding secrets of her own, and nothing in Daphne’s marriage is quite what it seems.

This one is twisty, wicked and very hard to put down.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Last Mrs. Parrish is among Nicole Blades's six thrillers set in the suburbs, Susan Moore's seven top domestic psychological thrillers, Trisha Sakhlecha's eleven thrillers that feature the mega-rich, Jaime Lynn Hendricks's seven best unlikeable characters in thrillers, Eliza Jane Brazier's nine books that pit the Have against the Have-Nots, Seraphina Nova Glass's seven top obsession thrillers, Allison Dickson's top ten thrillers featuring a dance of girlfriends and deception, Kristyn Kusek Lewis's eight shocking thrillers featuring scandals, Margot Hunt's top nine thrillers featuring duplicitous spouses, and Jennifer Hillier's eight crime novels of women starting over.

The Page 69 Test: The Last Mrs. Parrish.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Kevin Waite's "The Boundless Biddy Mason"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Boundless Biddy Mason: An Odyssey from Slavery to Freedom Across the American West by Kevin Waite.

About the book, from the publisher:

How Biddy Mason crossed the continent, broke free from slavery, and built Black Los Angeles.

Born in bondage, Biddy Mason endured one of the longest forced migrations in American history—three thousand miles on foot from Georgia to California. She and her daughters labored in slavery in the “free” state of California for five years before launching a landmark emancipation suit in 1856. Free at last, she defied barriers of race and gender, rising to prominence as a healer, philanthropist, church builder, and real estate entrepreneur whose commercial properties stood at what became known as the “Wall Street of the West.” By the time of her death in 1891, she had laid the foundations of Black Los Angeles and ranked among the richest women of color in the United States.

In this first book-length biography of Mason, prizewinning historian Kevin Waite uncovers an extraordinary story of survival that carries readers from the cotton South to metropolitan California, and through the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the dawn of Jim Crow. By retracing Mason’s odyssey, he illuminates both the continental sweep of American slavery and the fragile, hard-won possibilities of freedom in the West.

Learn more about The Boundless Biddy Mason at the University of California Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Boundless Biddy Mason.

--Marshal Zeringue

Monona Wali's “Sutra Americana,” the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Sutra Americana by Monona Wali.

The entry begins:

If Sutra Americana were to be made into a movie, or preferably a television series, I would love to have the very talented Shuchi Talati write and direct it. She directed Girls Will Be Girls (2023) a moving film about a mother-daughter relationship set in modern-day India. She is able to capture intimate relationships between characters with real subtlety and power. Because my novel is so much about the dynamics of family members, moments of conflict as well as of love, I think Talati would be the perfect director for this material. The novel also has the social backdrop of America as it goes through the upheavals of the civil rights movement, the Vietnam war, and...[read on]

Visit Monona Wali's website.

Q&A with Monona Wali.

The Page 69 Test: Sutra Americana.

Writers Read: Monona Wali.

My Book, The Movie: Sutra Americana.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Elizabeth Noel's "Beneath the Edelweiss"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Beneath the Edelweiss by Elizabeth Noel.

About Beneath the Edelweiss, from the publisher:

From a poetic new voice in historical fiction comes a story of resistance, community, and survival set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Austrian Alps and the heartbreaking onset of World War II.

Growing up on a farm, high among the flowering slopes of Carinthia, Mitzi Hausler has never fit in―not even with her own family. At thirteen, she’s no taller than a six-year-old, and her peers’ taunts of “Witchy Mitzi” follow her everywhere. Thankfully, she has her loyal pup for comfort. And Oma, the grandmother who raised her.

But Oma, a gifted herbalist, won’t be around forever. She vows to pass on her knowledge before it’s too late, sharing her mysterious alpine remedies with Mitzi. With no marriage prospects, herbs may be Mitzi's only path forward. Indeed, when resources grow tight, her resentful older sister sends Mitzi away to Talend to care for a grieving widower and his sickly young child.

In the town, against all odds, Mitzi’s life gradually blooms into something unexpected and she discovers she belongs. But when political violence and Nazi eugenic policies come to town, she’s forced to make a life-altering choice.

Visit Elizabeth Noel's website.

Q&A with Elizabeth Noel.

Writers Read: Elizabeth Noel.

The Page 69 Test: Beneath the Edelweiss.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight top literary science fiction books

Susie Dumond is a queer writer originally from Little Rock, Arkansas. She is the author of Queerly Beloved, Looking for a Sign, and Bed and Breakup, and she also talks about books as a senior contributor at Book Riot and a bookseller at her local indie bookstore. Dumond lives in Washington, D.C., with her spouse, Mickey, and her cat, Maple. When she’s not writing or reading, you can find her baking cupcakes or belting karaoke at the nearest gay bar.

At Book Riot Dumond tagged eight "literary science fiction books [that] tell engaging stories set in futuristic worlds, but they’ll also make you think about humanity and your own life from new perspectives." One title on the list:

The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton

Lily Brooks-Dalton’s The Light Pirate dabbles in sci-fi, cli-fi, dystopia, and fantasy. But no matter what you call it, it’s an undeniably brilliant book that will spin you up in a web of gorgeous prose and have you obsessed by the end of the first chapter. In a near-future Florida eroded by climate change, a baby is born in the middle of a hurricane and given the storm’s name: Wanda. Wanda witnesses horrific natural disasters due to climate change, but the circumstances of her birth also left her with an inexplicable gift for survival. Brooks-Dalton is an enormously gifted writer, and her characters from this book have continued to stick with me for years since reading it.

Read about another title on the list.

The Light Pirate is among Scott Guild's eight dystopian novels that explore hope in the climate crisis.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Monona Wali reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Monona Wali, author of Sutra Americana.

From her entry:

One book I recently finished reading is The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai (2025) At 670 pages this novel is a major undertaking but thankfully is mostly a pleasure to read. Will Sonia and Sunny ever find each other, and then, will they ever find each other again after they stupidly part ways — this is the burning plotline of the novel. But the plot is hardly important – what is important is the web of their respective families and how they have a hold on their two children who, having left India to lead searingly lonely lives in America, seem unable to settle into any comfortable notions of identity. There are many passages in which Desai captures beautifully the dilemma of...[read on]

About Sutra Americana, from the publisher:

In 1960 S. K. Sharma, a brilliant young astrophysicist at the beginning of his academic career, has finally succeeded in bringing his wife, Sushila, from India to America. Intensely drawn to one another as star university students, the couple pursue an unlikely affair and marriage that crosses caste lines. Their sweeping, decades-long story of love, forgiveness, and coming of age takes place in a country that is both fascinated by and shuns them. The United States, with its exaltation of individualism, offers immense opportunities, but its looser sexual mores threaten to undermine the family’s happiness and devotion to one another.

As their three daughters become young women, they must navigate the tumultuous decades of the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, and the women’s liberation movement. In their journeys of self-discovery, they upend their parents’ hold on them to craft radically new identities for themselves. As they discover their parents’ faults they grow increasingly puzzled by their devotion to one another, eventually learning how love and forgiveness have the power to overcome the most uncomfortable truths.

Visit Monona Wali's website.

Q&A with Monona Wali.

The Page 69 Test: Sutra Americana.

Writers Read: Monona Wali.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Anna Maloney

From my Q&A with Anna Maloney, author of The 10:12:

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

The 10:12 suggests a train and I wanted people to know the story would involve something that happens on a train. I was influenced by the writers who have set stories on trains such as Agatha Christie and Patricia Highsmith. It is a very specific location. People effectively trapped in a moving tube. And I wanted that to be the invitation to the story. Titles can be difficult, though. For my first teleplay I produced 22 alternatives after a new producer rejected the original. (And yes, I was beginning to get facetious.)

What’s in a name?

I’m not fond of awkward character names that sound implausible – unless...[read on]

Learn more about The 10:12, and follow Anna Maloney on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

Q&A with Anna Maloney.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Scot McFarlane's "The River That Made Texas"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The River That Made Texas: A Forgotten History of the Trinity by Scot McFarlane.

About the book, from the publisher:

Today, half of Texas’s expanding population, including the cities of Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston, depends on the Trinity River, a river that has shaped the state’s politics, economy, and environment for centuries. From the prairies of North Texas to the Gulf of Mexico, the Trinity established Native nations, foiled Spanish and French imperialism, stood at the center of the Texas plantation system, and fueled the growth of the state’s largest cities.

In the first history of this vital river, historian Scot McFarlane illuminates how the Trinity has defined Texas history. Its floods enriched the soil and destroyed crops, its channel served as both a route and barrier to freedom, and its once-polluted waters now sustain a significant portion of the state. McFarlane’s captivating narrative brims with stories of the people who called the Trinity home over the centuries: the Comanche, steamboat pilots, enslaved and freed people, sharecroppers, inmates, and millions of urban residents. The result is a fresh perspective on economic development, slavery, and the environment—revealing the Trinity not as a backdrop to Texas history but as a force that shaped it.

Visit Scot McFarlane's website.

The Page 99 Test: The River That Made Texas.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eighteen top romantasy books

Sofia Lodato is a staff writer at Oprah Daily. Aside from reading, writing, and wellness, she is a lover of all things media-related, and can usually be found overanalyzing her latest favorite show, album, or video game.

One title on Lodato's list of the eighteen best romantasy books:

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy, by Megan Bannen

Hart is a demigod marshal in a frontier town, fighting the reanimated dead who cross the magical border. Mercy works day and night propping up her family’s failing funeral business and defending it from a corporate takeover. Of course, Hart and Mercy “loathe” each other, and every encounter is loaded with belligerent sexual tension. But when a lonely Hart writes an anonymous letter expressing his yearning for a friend and sends it off via the magical postal service, an equally lonely Mercy is somehow the missive’s recipient. It's You’ve Got Mail meets Six Feet Under but as a magical Western; the result is an absolutely adorable fantasy romance with some lovely beta couple pairings, warm family scenes, humorously awkward moments, and even some cool gun-slinging action.

Read about another title on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Laura Jensen Walker's "The Pilgrimage of Primrose Honeychurch," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Pilgrimage of Primrose Honeychurch: A Novel by Laura Jensen Walker.

The entry begins:

If I were to cast my book as a movie, who would I like to see play the lead roles? First, let me tell you a bit about the main characters.

Primrose Honeychurch is a solitary, sharp-tongued recluse with sensory issues who prefers books to people. Accustomed to maintaining a set routine in her cookie-cutter Las Vegas suburb, when the seventy-year-old receives life-altering news, she sets off on an unexpected, life-altering pilgrimage to the UK.

During her journey, Primrose meets a tattooed, blue-haired American singer and lesbian named Riley, and gets to know her twenty-year-old Cornish great-niece, the neurodivergent Clover, who becomes a kindred spirit. Primrose also reconnects with her sixty-something cousin Daisy, Clover’s grandmother.

While writing the curmudgeonly, set-in-her-ways Primrose, I found myself thinking of Frances McDormand, who did such a wonderful job playing the strict, outspoken Olive in the TV miniseries Olive Kitteridge. Frances McDormand would make a great Primrose. At least, that’s what I thought until I saw...[read on]

Visit Laura Jensen Walker's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Alphabet Sleuths.

Q&A with Laura Jensen Walker.

The Page 69 Test: The Alphabet Sleuths.

Writers Read: Laura Jensen Walker (February 2026).

My Book, The Movie: The Postmistress of Puddlington.

The Page 69 Test: The Postmistress of Puddlington.

My Book, The Movie: The Pilgrimage of Primrose Honeychurch.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Melissa Payne's "In This Life or Another"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: In This Life or Another: A Novel by Melissa Payne.

About the novel, from the publisher:

On the brink of death, a man comes to terms with the life he lived versus the one he never pursued in an emotionally rich novel of parallel lives, redemption, and finding purpose.

On the eve of his sixtieth birthday, mechanic Rusty Wilson takes a bullet to save the patrons of a small-town Colorado diner―and awakens to a strange realm between life and death.

However, he finds that this limbo is not the end. There are still choices to be made and a lifetime to review. Paths open for a man who believes the life he did live was one of disappointments, grief, and devastating family estrangements. Given a chance to experience an alternate reality, Rusty is visited by figures from his past and present, sees what could have been if he had pursued a woman he loved from afar, and confronts a family secret that shaped everything. Now it’s Rusty’s choice: accept the imperfect existence he knew, or the what-if that could still be his.

At the heart of this poignant exploration of mortality, memory, and second chances is the profoundly simple question: What makes a life truly meaningful?

Visit Melissa Payne's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Melissa Payne & Max.

My Book, The Movie: The Secrets of Lost Stones.

The Page 69 Test: The Secrets of Lost Stones.

Q&A with Melissa Payne.

The Page 69 Test: The Night of Many Endings.

My Book, The Movie: The Night of Many Endings.

The Page 69 Test: In This Life or Another.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top titles featuring bogs

Anna North is the author of the instant New York Times bestseller and Reese's Book Club pick Outlawed, America Pacifica, and Lambda Literary Award winner The Life and Death of Sophie Stark. She is a senior correspondent at Vox. She lives in Brooklyn.

North's latest novel is Bog Queen.

[The Page 69 Test: The Life and Death of Sophie Stark; The Page 69 Test: Outlawed; Q&A with Anna North]

At Lit Hub the author tagged seven "books [that] will satisfy your bog witch cravings, while also reminding you of the real-world importance of bogs as bulwarks against climate change, cradles of biodiversity, and keepers of ancestral memory." One title on the list:

Fen, Bog, and Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis by Annie Proulx

Do you want to learn the difference between a fen, a bog, and a swamp? Do you want to learn it from Pulitzer Prize-winner Annie Proulx, the expert in evoking landscapes from Newfoundland to Wyoming? If so, prepare yourself: Proulx, as she enters her ninth decade, is none too pleased with the way humans have stewarded the world’s wetlands. May her rage and disappointment inspire you.

Read about another entry on North's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Elizabeth Noel reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Elizabeth Noel, author of Beneath the Edelweiss.

Her entry begins:

I am reading Gravity and Grace published posthumously by Simone Weil which I find both challenging and illuminating. I discovered the French philosopher, social activist and mystic while researching Beneath the Edelweiss and I could not look away from her.

I can relate to Weil’s discomfort with religious institutions and the pull she felt toward a Christian spirituality. Weil would be horrified by an age that fills every waking second with distraction via back pocket screens. Publishing a book has drawn me deeper into the pool of grace through the joy of creation and the act of self-emptying it requires, but...[read on]

About Beneath the Edelweiss, from the publisher:

From a poetic new voice in historical fiction comes a story of resistance, community, and survival set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Austrian Alps and the heartbreaking onset of World War II.

Growing up on a farm, high among the flowering slopes of Carinthia, Mitzi Hausler has never fit in―not even with her own family. At thirteen, she’s no taller than a six-year-old, and her peers’ taunts of “Witchy Mitzi” follow her everywhere. Thankfully, she has her loyal pup for comfort. And Oma, the grandmother who raised her.

But Oma, a gifted herbalist, won’t be around forever. She vows to pass on her knowledge before it’s too late, sharing her mysterious alpine remedies with Mitzi. With no marriage prospects, herbs may be Mitzi's only path forward. Indeed, when resources grow tight, her resentful older sister sends Mitzi away to Talend to care for a grieving widower and his sickly young child.

In the town, against all odds, Mitzi’s life gradually blooms into something unexpected and she discovers she belongs. But when political violence and Nazi eugenic policies come to town, she’s forced to make a life-altering choice.

Visit Elizabeth Noel's website.

Q&A with Elizabeth Noel.

Writers Read: Elizabeth Noel.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top campus mystery novels

At Book Riot Julia Rittenberg tagged five titles that "provide the perfect backdrop for diving headfirst into research in musty libraries and sorting through the clues," including:

The Examiner by Janice Hallett

This on-campus mystery has a great method of storytelling: clues, alibis, and motivations reveal themselves through homework. As the head of a Multimedia Art course at Royal Hastings University, Gela Nathaniel is responsible for both teaching and ensuring the success of the program. The rag-tag group of six students all cause aggravation and vexation for Gela, but when someone turns up dead, she has to look at their coursework with fresh eyes.

Read about another title on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Samantha Barbas's "Hate Speech"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Hate Speech: The Legal and Cultural History of an American Dilemma by Samantha Barbas.

About the book, from the publisher:

A history of the battles over regulation of hate speech in the United States.

The United States has no hate speech laws; hate speech is generally considered to be free speech under the First Amendment. In this crisp guided history, acclaimed legal historian Samantha Barbas chronicles the country’s legal and cultural battles over the regulation of hate speech in the last hundred years. Charting the historical context for current debates, she ultimately argues that, however emotionally appealing they may seem, hate speech laws undermine civil rights and democracy.

The American policy on hate speech evolved from influences such as the civil rights movement, which contended that the most effective way to combat hate speech wasn’t through proposed laws. Rather than imposing restrictions, the US has developed an array of mechanisms other than law, including counterspeech and public education, that have been relatively effective at dealing with hate speakers and hate groups. Though not perfect, our method of addressing hate is less dangerous than government censorship and less likely to be weaponized against the powerless.

Visit Samantha Barbas's website.

The Page 99 Test: Laws of Image.

The Page 99 Test: Newsworthy.

The Page 99 Test: The Rise and Fall of Morris Ernst, Free Speech Renegade.

The Page 99 Test: Actual Malice.

The Page 99 Test: Hate Speech.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Monona Wali's "Sutra Americana"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Sutra Americana by Monona Wali.

About the novel, from the publisher:

In 1960 S. K. Sharma, a brilliant young astrophysicist at the beginning of his academic career, has finally succeeded in bringing his wife, Sushila, from India to America. Intensely drawn to one another as star university students, the couple pursue an unlikely affair and marriage that crosses caste lines. Their sweeping, decades-long story of love, forgiveness, and coming of age takes place in a country that is both fascinated by and shuns them. The United States, with its exaltation of individualism, offers immense opportunities, but its looser sexual mores threaten to undermine the family’s happiness and devotion to one another.

As their three daughters become young women, they must navigate the tumultuous decades of the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, and the women’s liberation movement. In their journeys of self-discovery, they upend their parents’ hold on them to craft radically new identities for themselves. As they discover their parents’ faults they grow increasingly puzzled by their devotion to one another, eventually learning how love and forgiveness have the power to overcome the most uncomfortable truths.

Visit Monona Wali's website.

Q&A with Monona Wali.

The Page 69 Test: Sutra Americana.

--Marshal Zeringue

KC Jones's "House Haunters," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: House Haunters by KC Jones.

The entry begins:

House Haunters centers on the relationship between Grace Wonderly, a very talented but very burnt-out reality TV producer who needs a hit concept to revive not just her career, but the joy she once found in it, and Frank Pendleton, a gruff and misanthropic home inspector who moonlights as a paranormal investigator and generally prefers the company of the dead to that of the living.

Joel Edgerton and Pedro Pascal were in my head a lot while writing Frank, particularly their turns in Dark Matter and The Last of Us respectively. I think either would bring the perfect blend of vulnerability and deadpan honesty to Frank.

Grace has always been a bit more elusive in my mind...[read on]

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.

My Book, The Movie: House Haunters.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top horror novels set in the art world

Faith Gladwin grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada, and studied Political Science at Dalhousie University in Halifax. She now works at a museum, and in between research work and writing, she tries to keep her houseplants alive and safe from her cat, Cleo. She is the author of The Finalist.

At CrimeReads Gladwin tagged "five chilling novels set in the world of the arts, from theatre to isolated artistic retreats." One title on the list:

De Elizabeth, She Haunts Me Still

Mallory Webb is at Shore College, her deceased mother’s alma mater, for a fresh start with the lead role in their production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet—but she ends up digging into the sanitarium-turned-liberal arts university’s bloody history when the demon that haunted her past and caused her mother’s death returns. Ezra, the director of the play, and Saskia, Mallory’s understudy, are drawn into her investigation—and a tragic love triangle—as Mallory races to find out what really happened to her mother, before the same fate befalls her.

Set in 1999 New England, She Haunts Me Still draws on the real-life horror of the vampire panic in this dark academia horror, and the cursed production of Romeo and Juliet unfolds with homages to The Phantom of The Opera, creating an eerie, gothic atmosphere rife with tension

Read about another title on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Lee Alan Dugatkin's "Nary a Horse Left Standing"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Nary a Horse Left Standing: How a Nineteenth-Century Epidemic Transformed Medicine, Animal Welfare, and the Modern City by Lee Alan Dugatkin.

About the book, from the publisher:

How a devastating outbreak of horse flu in the 1870s ground city life to a halt—but ultimately revolutionized animal rights, medicine, and transportation.

From a veteran science writer, evolutionary biologist, historian of science, and the coauthor of the acclaimed How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog).

In the 1870s, horses were the lifeblood of North American cities. New York, Boston, Chicago, and Toronto relied on tens of thousands of workhorses to power daily life. Then, in late 1872 and into 1873, a devastating outbreak of horse flu—known as The Great Epizootic—swept across the continent.

In Nary a Horse Left Standing, Lee Dugatkin chronicles this little-known crisis, revealing how the epidemic disrupted nearly every aspect of urban life. From coast to coast, livelihoods collapsed as horses lay sick, or worse dying, on stable floors, fires raged unchecked without horse-drawn wagons, and city development stalled for lack of horsepower. Just as the Gilded Age was dawning and industrialists were poised to amass fortunes, the flu slowed progress to a crawl.

Yet the tragedy also catalyzed revolutions in medicine, animal rights, and transportation. Veterinary science in the U.S. was still emerging, but detailed medical reports from the epidemic helped validate germ theory and discredit outdated beliefs. The crisis also spotlighted early animal welfare efforts, with fledgling groups like the ASPCA advocating for sick horses forced to work. Finally, the sheer vulnerability of relying on animals for transport spurred a shift toward mechanized systems.

As illuminating as it is humbling, the book brings to life a critical account of a crisis that still speaks to the complex public health and transportation challenges we face today.

Visit Lee Alan Dugatkin's website.

The Page 99 Test: Power in the Wild.

The Page 99 Test: Dr. Calhoun's Mousery.

The Page 99 Test: Nary a Horse Left Standing.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Elizabeth Noel

From my Q&A with Elizabeth Noel, author of Beneath the Edelweiss:

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

The edelweiss is the quintessential symbol of the Austrian Alps. The flower has been protected under environmental laws since 1886 and features on the nation’s 2-Euro-Cent coin. It might bring forth images of Christopher Plummer as Captain von Trapp singing a love letter to his homeland in the classic 1965 adaption of The Sound of Music. Edelweiss, Edelweiss, every morning you greet me…

Austria’s Alps live and breathe in Beneath the Edelweiss so pointing to place in the title felt intuitive. However, the edelweiss denotes more than Austria alone. The flower is an illusion, appearing as a star against craggy limestone cliffs, you must look closely to see the tiny yellow flowers nestled inside what are fuzzy white leaves. Able to withstand freezing alpine winters, gale-force winds and thin soil, the edelweiss is a symbol for not only weathering the storm but knowing how to thrive once the clouds have passed. With its rugged alpine beauty, it clings to life against all odds.

The novel’s exact setting is Carinthia, Austria’s southern border province where history is as rich as it is heartbreaking. Beauty in Carinthia is omnipresent, and the dead are thought to mourn the landscape from heaven. Beneath the Edelweiss details Carinthia’s centuries old alpine herbalism tradition alongside it’s cradling of Nazism for it was in the region’s fertile soils that Austrian Nazism permeated.

Other strong...[read on]

Visit Elizabeth Noel's website.

Q&A with Elizabeth Noel.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six must-read speculative thrillers

At Book Riot Rey Rowland tagged six top speculative thrillers, including:

River Woman, River Demon by Jennifer Givhan

If you enjoy witchier psychological thrillers that have a tiny bit of a horror tinge then River Woman, River Demon is for you. This novel follows a Chicana artist named Eva Santos Moon, who practices brujería and curanderismo. She’s going through a tough time, especially since her husband was arrested for a murder that was eerily similar to one from her childhood. Soon enough, Eva herself becomes a suspect— and the only way to find out the truth is if she comes face to face with her own past.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: River Woman, River Demon.

--Marshal Zeringue