Pg. 69: Katherine Harbour's "Thorn Jack"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Thorn Jack: A Night and Nothing Novel by Katherine Harbour.

About the book, from the publisher:

A spectacular, modern retelling of the ancient Scottish ballad of Tam Lin—a beguiling fusion of love, fantasy, and myth vividly imagined and steeped in gothic atmosphere

Their creed is "Mischief, Malevolence, and Mayhem."

Serafina Sullivan, named for angels and a brave Irish prince, is haunted by dreams of her older sister, Lily Rose, a sprite, ethereal beauty who unexpectedly took her own life. A year has passed since Lily's death, and now eighteen-year-old Finn and her college-professor father have moved back to Fair Hollow, her father's pretty little hometown alongside the Hudson River. Populated with socialites, hippies, and famous dramatic artists, every corner of this quaint, bohemian community holds bright possibilities—and dark enigmas, including the alluring Jack Fata, scion of the town's most powerful family.

Jack's smoldering looks and air of secrecy draw Finn into a dangerous romance . . . and plunge her into an eerie world of shadow and light ruled by the beautiful and fearsome Reiko Fata. Exciting and monstrous, the Fata family and its circle of strange, aristocratic denizens wield irresistible charm and glamorous power— a tempting and terrifying blend of good and evil, magic and mystery, that holds perilous consequences for a curious girl like Finn.

As she becomes more deeply entwined with Jack, Finn discovers that their lives and those of the ones she loves, including her best friends Christie Hart and Sylvie Whitethorn, are in peril. But an unexpected ally may help her protect them: her beloved sister, Lily Rose. Within the pages of the journal that Lily left behind are clues Finn must decipher to unlock the secret of the Fatas.

Yet the wrathful and deadly Reiko has diabolical plans of her own for Finn, as well as powerful allies. To save herself and to free her beloved Jack from the Fatas, Finn must stand up against the head of the family and her clever minions, including the vicious, frightening Caliban—a battle that will reveal shocking secrets about Lily Rose's death and about Finn herself...

Evocative and spellbinding, rich with legend, myth, and folklore, filled with heroes and villains, ghosts and selkies, changelings and fairies, witches and demons, Thorn Jack is a modern fairy tale and a story of true love, set in a familiar world, where nothing is as it seems.

Visit Katherine Harbour's website.

Writers Read: Katherine Harbour.

The Page 69 Test: Thorn Jack.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Taylor Jenkins Reid reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of After I Do.

Her entry begins:

The book that I have been raving to everyone about lately is Maggie Shipstead's Astonish Me. I always find that if you can't quite explain why you loved a book so much, it's a sign that it broke through your brain and got down into your heart -- which this book did for me. Shipstead is so young with two great books under her belt -- I'm hugely excited to see where...[read on]

About After I Do, from the publisher:

From the author of Forever, Interrupted—hailed by Sarah Jio as “moving, gorgeous, and at times heart-wrenching”—comes a breathtaking new novel about modern marriage, the depth of family ties, and the year that one remarkable heroine spends exploring both.

When Lauren and Ryan’s marriage reaches the breaking point, they come up with an unconventional plan. They decide to take a year off in the hopes of finding a way to fall in love again. One year apart, and only one rule: they cannot contact each other. Aside from that, anything goes.

Lauren embarks on a journey of self-discovery, quickly finding that her friends and family have their own ideas about the meaning of marriage. These influences, as well as her own healing process and the challenges of living apart from Ryan, begin to change Lauren’s ideas about monogamy and marriage. She starts to question: When you can have romance without loyalty and commitment without marriage, when love and lust are no longer tied together, what do you value? What are you willing to fight for?

This is a love story about what happens when the love fades. It’s about staying in love, seizing love, forsaking love, and committing to love with everything you’ve got. And above all, After I Do is the story of a couple caught up in an old game—and searching for a new road to happily ever after.

Learn more about the book and author at Taylor Jenkins Reid's website.

The Page 69 Test: Forever, Interrupted.

Writers Read: Taylor Jenkins Reid.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the best boarding school books

James Browning is a spokesman and chief strategist for Common Cause, a government watchdog group. He attended Brown University and has an M.A from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins. His new novel is The Fracking King.

One of the author's ten best boarding school books, as shared at Publishers Weekly:

Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

Lee “Flea” Fiora is an outsider at Ault Academy—a Hoosier who knows that leaving her old school where classes were like a private conversation between her and the teacher may have been an “enormous error.” Yet for all Ault’s snobbery and slights from teachers, upperclassmen, and people who are supposed to be her friends, the person at Ault who is hardest on Lee is Lee herself, and her self-knowledge leads to the great insight that the real pain of high school comes from trying to get people to love you before you feel loveable.

Read about another entry on the list.

Also see Robin Stevens's top ten boarding school stories.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Nick Jans's "A Wolf Called Romeo"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: A Wolf Called Romeo by Nick Jans.

About the book, from the publisher:

No stranger to wildlife, Nick Jans had lived in Alaska for nearly thirty years. But when one evening at twilight a lone black wolf ambled into view not far from his doorstep, Nick would finally come to know this mystical species—up close as never before.

A Wolf Called Romeo is the remarkable story of a wolf who returned again and again to interact with the people and dogs of Juneau, living on the edges of their community, engaging in an improbable, awe-inspiring interspecies dance and bringing the wild into sharp focus. At first the people of Juneau were guarded, torn between shoot first, ask questions later instincts and curiosity. But as Romeo began to tag along with cross-country skiers on their daily jaunts, play fetch with local dogs, or simply lie near Nick and nap under the sun, they came to accept Romeo, and he them. For Nick it was about trying to understand Romeo, then it was about winning his trust, and ultimately it was about watching over him, for as long as he or anyone could.

Written with a deft hand and a searching heart, A Wolf Called Romeo is an unforgettable tale of a creature who defied nature and thus gave humans a chance to understand it a little more.

Visit Nick Jans's website.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Nick Jans & Chase, Brisa, Loki and Sal.

The Page 99 Test: A Wolf Called Romeo.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Karen Keskinen's "Black Current"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Black Current: A Mystery by Karen Keskinen.

About the book, from the publisher:

How far would you go to avenge someone you love?

It’s August, and Santa Barbara, California hasn’t tasted a drop of rain for months when P.I. Jaymie Zarlin learns a popular high school athlete has drowned in a tank at the city aquarium. The police are calling Skye Rasmussen’s death an accident, but his distraught parents, unconvinced, hire Jaymie to find out the truth.

Eager to prove she’s up to the challenge of solving the case, Jaymie investigates and uncovers an array of suspects. But when information begins to surface about her own brother, who died three years ago in the downtown jail, Jaymie is torn between doing right by her clients and exposing the truth about a mystery that lies much closer to home.

Set in a seaside city splashed in sunshine and laced with poisonous secrets, Karen Keskinen's Black Current is a riveting story about the treacherous secrets we keep and the costly sacrifices we make - all to hold on to the people we love.

Visit Karen Keskinen's website.

The Page 69 Test: Black Current.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eleven top books about soccer

At The Daily Beast Robert Birnbaum tagged 11 great books about soccer, including:

How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization
by Franklin Foer

Given its broad international popularity, soccer is a natural prism with which to view and theorize about contemporary social and political developments. Foer expiates: “Compare European soccer with American sporting teams. Our teams represent such broad geographic areas, and don't really represent anything local. What truly differentiates a Yankees from a Mets fan? I'm not sure. But in Buenos Aires, everyone knows what separates a Boca Juniors fan from a River Plate fan—there's a stark difference in class. Buenos Aires has something like eight different teams, so each team represents a distinct neighborhood, and when you represent something that local, you're representing very particular identities—class, ethnicity.”

Read about another entry on the list.

How Soccer Explains the World is among Joshua Robinson's five must-read books on soccer.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Katherine Harbour reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Katherine Harbour, author of Thorn Jack.

Her entry begins:

I'm currently reading three books.

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor. This is the sequel to Daughter of Smoke and Bone, which was fantastic. The story concerns a girl named Karou, who lives in Prague and her family are monsters called chimaera. She falls in love with a warrior angel named Akiva, who shares a mysterious past with her. The tension caused by the two warring races, the imaginative characters, and the world-building are all intriguing. The angels are a tyrannical, winged race, while the chimaera—half beast, half-human—are practiced in the magical arts. Karous is trying to save her people—the chimaera—and it’s...[read on]

About Thorn Jack, from the publisher:

A spectacular, modern retelling of the ancient Scottish ballad of Tam Lin—a beguiling fusion of love, fantasy, and myth vividly imagined and steeped in gothic atmosphere

Their creed is "Mischief, Malevolence, and Mayhem."

Serafina Sullivan, named for angels and a brave Irish prince, is haunted by dreams of her older sister, Lily Rose, a sprite, ethereal beauty who unexpectedly took her own life. A year has passed since Lily's death, and now eighteen-year-old Finn and her college-professor father have moved back to Fair Hollow, her father's pretty little hometown alongside the Hudson River. Populated with socialites, hippies, and famous dramatic artists, every corner of this quaint, bohemian community holds bright possibilities—and dark enigmas, including the alluring Jack Fata, scion of the town's most powerful family.

Jack's smoldering looks and air of secrecy draw Finn into a dangerous romance . . . and plunge her into an eerie world of shadow and light ruled by the beautiful and fearsome Reiko Fata. Exciting and monstrous, the Fata family and its circle of strange, aristocratic denizens wield irresistible charm and glamorous power— a tempting and terrifying blend of good and evil, magic and mystery, that holds perilous consequences for a curious girl like Finn.

As she becomes more deeply entwined with Jack, Finn discovers that their lives and those of the ones she loves, including her best friends Christie Hart and Sylvie Whitethorn, are in peril. But an unexpected ally may help her protect them: her beloved sister, Lily Rose. Within the pages of the journal that Lily left behind are clues Finn must decipher to unlock the secret of the Fatas.

Yet the wrathful and deadly Reiko has diabolical plans of her own for Finn, as well as powerful allies. To save herself and to free her beloved Jack from the Fatas, Finn must stand up against the head of the family and her clever minions, including the vicious, frightening Caliban—a battle that will reveal shocking secrets about Lily Rose's death and about Finn herself...

Evocative and spellbinding, rich with legend, myth, and folklore, filled with heroes and villains, ghosts and selkies, changelings and fairies, witches and demons, Thorn Jack is a modern fairy tale and a story of true love, set in a familiar world, where nothing is as it seems.

Visit Katherine Harbour's website.

Writers Read: Katherine Harbour.

--Marshal Zeringue

Barbara J. Taylor's "Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night by Barbara J. Taylor.

The entry begins:

Interestingly enough, when I think about a movie version of Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night, it’s always to cast the character of Grief, Grace’s alter ego who has haunted her since childhood. While writing the book, I pictured John Malkovich, but not because I was thinking about my novel as a film. Back in the late 80s, I saw Malkovich in a play in London called Burn This, written by Lanford Wilson. Malkovich played Pale, the foul-mouthed, coke-snorting brother of Robbie, a gay dancer who had recently been killed in a boating accident. At first glance, there was nothing appealing about Malkovich’s character with his angry disposition, long greasy hair, and lumbering movements. He’d been dropped into a...[read on]

Learn more about Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night, and follow Barbara J. Taylor on Twitter.

Writers Read: Barbara J. Taylor.

My Book, The Movie: Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine notable unsung literary heroines

Fanny Price, the heroine of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, has been unfairly dismissed by readers and critics, says the Guardian. So to mark the novel's 200th anniversary, the paper collected nine writers' celebrations of "literary leading ladies who have been overshadowed by their showier sisters," including:

Lucy Mangan on Meg March
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Poor Meg. Poor who, you say? Well, yes, exactly. Jo was the tomboy, the embryonic feminist, the author's avatar and the bookworm's bookworm, written and received with endless affection. Beth was the one who died, with full tubercular honours, reducing generations of susceptible readers to unforgettably enjoyable tears. Amy was the vivacious glamour girl. She had the lines, the looks (despite the nose) and eventually the Laurie, even though she threw Jo's manuscript in the fire and should have been cast into the outer darkness forever.

But what were Meg's defining features? A cloud of soft hair and a pair of soft hands. She was a sensible older sister and any attempts to break out of her role saw her clobbered. As a sensible older sister myself, my heart always went out to those whom the fates, via the irrevocable instrument of birth order, so thoroughly frustrated. So what if she wanted to tie on some ear-bobs and go dancing? Why shouldn't she have one night free of darning and full of daring – silk-heeled boots, coralline salve, plumy fan and all? But no sooner has she downed her first glass of champagne than Laurie turns up to put her back in her box ("I don't like fuss and feathers"), and she makes plans to 'fess up to Marmee on the morrow.

It's not much of a life or a literary footprint. Although she marries lovely John Brooke – a far better catch than the flash, ball-ruining git next door, by the way – and acquires a beautifully stocked linen cupboard that frankly beats Amy's shimmery silk dresses into a cocked hat, she also ends up saddled with twins (one of whom, Demi(john) is easily the most sickening child in all of literature) and is berated by her mother for neglecting her husband after their arrival. All this while her sisters get to marry money and travel the world, fulfil their writerly ambitions or die acknowledged saints.

Never mind, Meg. Grab another glass of champagne and head upstairs. In the linen cupboard, no one can hear you scream.

Read about another entry on the list.

Little Women also appears among Sophie McKenzie's top ten mothers in children's books, John Dugdale's ten notable fictional works on winter sports, Melissa Albert's five favorite YA books that might make one cry, Anjelica Huston's seven favorite coming-of-age books, Bidisha's ten top books about women, Katherine Rundell's top ten descriptions of food in fiction, Gwyneth Rees's ten top books about siblings, Maya Angelou's 6 favorite books, Tim Lewis's ten best Christmas lunches in literature, and on the Observer's list of the ten best fictional mothers, Eleanor Birne's top ten list of books on motherhood, Erin Blakemore's list of five gutsy heroines to channel on an off day, Kate Saunders' critic's chart of mothers and daughters in literature, and Zoë Heller's list of five memorable portraits of sisters. It is a book that disappointed Geraldine Brooks on re-reading.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Charli Carpenter's "'Lost' Causes"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: "Lost" Causes: Agenda Vetting in Global Issue Networks and the Shaping of Human Security by Charli Carpenter.

About the book, from the publisher:

Why do some issues and threats—diseases, weapons, human rights abuses, vulnerable populations—get more global policy attention than others? How do global activist networks decide the particular causes for which they advocate among the many problems in need of solutions? According to Charli Carpenter, the answer lies in the politics of global issue networks themselves. Building on surveys, focus groups, and analyses of issue network websites, Carpenter concludes that network access has a direct relation to influence over how issues are ranked. Advocacy elites in nongovernmental and transnational organizations judge candidate issues not just on their merit but on how the issues connect to specific organizations, individuals, and even other issues.

In “Lost” Causes, Carpenter uses three case studies of emerging campaigns to show these dynamics at work: banning infant male circumcision; compensating the wartime killing and maiming of civilians; and prohibiting the deployment of fully autonomous weapons (so-called killer robots). The fate of each of these campaigns was determined not just by the persistence and hard work of entrepreneurs but by advocacy elites’ perception of the issues’ network ties. Combining sweeping analytical argument with compelling narrative, Carpenter reveals how the global human security agenda is determined.

Visit Charli Carpenter's website.

The Page 99 Test: Forgetting Children Born of War.

The Page 99 Test: "Lost" Causes.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Kim Church's "Byrd"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Byrd by Kim Church.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this debut novel, 33-year-old Addie Lockwood bears and surrenders for adoption a son, her only child, without telling his father, little imagining how the secret will shape their lives. Through letters and spare, precisely observed vignettes, Byrd explores a birth mother’s coming to make and live with the most difficult, intimate, and far-reaching of choices.

Visit Kim Church's website.

Writers Read: Kim Church.

The Page 69 Test: Byrd.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top novels that show the real lives of lawyers

Alafair Burke's novels include the thriller Long Gone and the Ellie Hatcher series: 212, Angel's Tip, Dead Connection, Never Tell, and the newly released All Day and a Night. A former prosecutor, she now teaches criminal law and lives in Manhattan.

For Omnivoracious, Burke tagged her favorite "Lawyers are People Too" books. One title on the list:

Presumed Innocent, by Scott Turow

Turning the genre on its head, Turow tells the story of a career prosecutor charged with murder. He also masters the use of a (possibly?) unreliable narrator. If you’re a fan of crime fiction, read this back-to-back with Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and draw the parallels.

Read about another entry on the list.

Sandy Stern in Presumed Innocent is one of Simon Lelic's top ten lawyers in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Barbara J. Taylor reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Barbara J. Taylor, author of Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night.

Her entry begins:

As a writer and an educator, I’m always juggling books. My current pleasure read is Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin, set around the turn of the last century. I read this novel twenty years ago and fell in love with bridges, New York City, and the protagonist, Peter Lake. I’m about a third of the way through, and so far, it’s as rich an experience as I remembered. In one particular passage, Helprin painstakingly describes the only photo ever taken of Lake’s nemesis, a man named Pearly Soames. It was a mug shot. Five police officers had to...[read on]

About Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night, from the publisher:

Almost everyone in town blames eight-year-old Violet Morgan for the death of her nine-year-old sister, Daisy. Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night opens on September 4, 1913, two months after the Fourth of July tragedy. Owen, the girls’ father, “turns to drink” and abandons his family. Their mother Grace falls victim to the seductive powers of Grief, an imagined figure who has seduced her off-and-on since childhood. Violet forms an unlikely friendship with Stanley Adamski, a motherless outcast who works in the mines as a breaker boy. During an unexpected blizzard, Grace goes into premature labor at home and is forced to rely on Violet, while Owen is “off being saved” at a Billy Sunday Revival. Inspired by a haunting family story, Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night blends real life incidents with fiction to show how grace can be found in the midst of tragedy.

Learn more about Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night, and follow Barbara J. Taylor on Twitter.

Writers Read: Barbara J. Taylor.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Nancy Sindelar's "Influencing Hemingway"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Influencing Hemingway: The People and Places That Shaped His Life and Work by Nancy W. Sindelar.

About the book, from the publisher:

Ernest Hemingway embraced adventure and courted glamorous friends while writing articles, novels, and short stories that captivated the world. Hemingway’s personal relationships and experiences influenced the content of his fiction, while the progression of places where the author chose to live and work shaped his style and rituals of writing. Whether revisiting the Italian front in A Farewell to Arms, recounting a Pamplona bull run in The Sun Also Rises, or depicting a Cuban fishing village in The Old Man and the Sea, setting played an important part in Hemingway’s fiction. The author also drew on real people—parents, friends, and fellow writers, among others—to create memorable characters in his short stories and novels.

In Influencing Hemingway: The People and Places That Shaped His Life and Work Nancy W. Sindelar introduces the reader to the individuals who played significant roles in Hemingway’s development as both a man and as an artist—as well as the environments that had a profound impact on the author’s life. In words and photos, readers will see images of Hemingway the child, the teenager, and the aspiring author—as well as the troubled legend dealing with paranoia and fear. The book begins with Hemingway’s birth and early influences in Oak Park, Illinois, followed by his first job as a reporter in Kansas City. Sindelar then recounts Hemingway’s experiences and adventures in Italy, France, Spain, Key West, Florida, and Cuba, all of which found their way into his writing. The book concludes with an analysis of the events that preceded the author’s suicide in Idaho and reflects on the influences critics had on his life and work.

Though much has been written about the life and work of the Nobel prize-winning author, Influencing Hemingway is the first publication to carefully document—in photographs and letters—the individuals and locales that inspired him. Featuring more than 60 photos, many of which will be new to the general and academic reader, and unguarded statements from personal letters to and from his parents, lovers, wives, children, and friends, this unique biography allows readers to see Hemingway from a new perspective.

Visit Nancy W. Sindelar's website.

See Sindelar's six best Hemingway novels, ranked.

The Page 99 Test: Influencing Hemingway.

--Marshal Zeringue

Marie Manilla's "The Patron Saint of Ugly," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Patron Saint of Ugly by Marie Manilla.

The entry begins:

Unabashed bribe: The first person to get The Patron Saint of Ugly into Tim Burton’s and Wes Anderson’s hands will get a dozen cannoli. Seriously. I love their movies. I love their humor and quirkiness, their tilted sadness. I particularly loved Burton’s treatment of one of my all-time favorite books: Big Fish. I love Anderson’s wonderfully weird exploration of family dynamics in The Royal Tenenbaums. The Patron Saint of Ugly is such a quirky, funny, sad, tragic, irreverent, holy book, that it’s begging for Burton’s or Anderson’s vision. Cannoli, everyone. A dozen of them delivered right to your door.

We’re also going to need a skilled...[read on]

Visit Marie Manilla's website.

Writers Read: Marie Manilla.

The Page 69 Test: The Patron Saint of Ugly.

My Book, The Movie: The Patron Saint of Ugly.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five of the best Gothic novels

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog, Lauren Passell tagged five top Gothic novels, including:

We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson

Creepy mansion? Check. Tea times? Check. Wheelchair? Check. Arsenic, mysterious relative, destructive fire? Check, check, check. And beneath it all: a heavy blanket of madness. We Have Always Lived In The Castle tells the story of the Blackwoods, a gang that will immediately put you at unease. In the beginning, we learn that several members of the Blackwood family died at the dinner table, but it still feels like everyone knows something you don’t. (And they do.) When a strange cousin shows up for a stay, your brain really starts struggling to put the pieces together. And then there’s the fire. And the twist. You’ll feel like you’re having a really odd dream you can’t wait to wake up and tell your friends about. Your friends will be like, “you dreamed what? That’s pretty messed up.” See also (obviously): Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House.

Breakdown:
Creepy houses: 1
Unpleasant attics: 1
Mysterious relatives: 5
Illness/physical impairments: 1
Deaths: Several
Poisons: Several
Orphans: 0
Falling down the stairs: 0
Destructive fires: 1
Twisty secrets: 1
Total: 10

Read about another entry on the list.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is among Will Eaves's top ten siblings' stories.

Also see: Patrick McGrath's best gothic novels.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Meg Gardiner's "Phantom Instinct"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Phantom Instinct by Meg Gardiner.

About Phantom Instinct, from the publisher:

In Edgar Award–winning author Meg Gardiner’s new stand-alone thriller, an injured cop and an ex-thief hunt down a killer nobody else believes exists.

When shots ring out in a crowded L.A. club, bartender Harper Flynn watches helplessly as her boyfriend, Drew, is gunned down in the cross fire. Then somebody throws a Molotov cocktail, and the club is quickly engulfed in flames. L.A. Sheriff Deputy Aiden Garrison sees a gunman in a hoodie and gas mask taking aim at Harper, but before he can help her a wall collapses, bringing the building down and badly injuring him.

A year later, Harper is trying to rebuild her life. She has quit her job and gone back to college. Meanwhile, the investigation into the shoot-out has been closed. The two gunmen were killed when the building collapsed.

Certain that a third gunman escaped and is targeting the survivors, Harper enlists the help of Aiden Garrison, the only person willing to listen. But the traumatic brain injury he suffered has cut his career short and left him with Fregoli syndrome, a rare type of face blindness that causes the delusion that random people are actually a single person changing disguises.

As Harper and Aiden delve into the case, Harper realizes that her presence during the attack was no coincidence—and that her only ally is unstable, mistrustful of her, and seeing the same enemy everywhere he looks.

Learn more about the book and author at Meg Gardiner's website, blog, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: The Dirty Secrets Club.

The Page 69 Test: The Memory Collector.

My Book, The Movie: Meg Gardiner's Evan Delaney series.

The Page 69 Test: The Liar's Lullaby.

My Book, The Movie: Meg Gardiner's Jo Beckett series.

The Page 69 Test: The Nightmare Thief.

The Page 69 Test: Ransom River.

The Page 69 Test: The Shadow Tracer.

Writers Read: Meg Gardiner.

The Page 69 Test: Phantom Instinct.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top stories about Indian families

Losing Touch, Sandra Hunter's first novel, originated from a short story that won the 2005 Glimmer Train Short Short Fiction Award.

At the Guardian, Hunter tagged a top ten list of stories about Indian families, including:

The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh

This was riveting from start to end. I'm always fascinated when the narrator is unnamed. This one's in love with his family's stories and grows up to be a professional story-seeker – a researcher. He sees the world, secondhand, through his family's memories of London, Calcutta, and Dhaka – memories that are more vivid to him than his own experiences. He is in Calcutta during the terrible riots of 1964, but the violence leaves him with vague impressions he can't describe. The story's tragedy is that without his family's narrative voices he is unable to take part in his own world.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Erin McCahan reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Erin McCahan, author of Love and Other Foreign Words.

Her entry begins:

I realize it is impossible to read more than one book at a time. It’s not like I’m sitting at my desk with two books open, reading one sentence in the one on the left followed by one sentence from the one on the right. So technically, I should say I always have several books around the house in various states of incompletion. But the simpler truth is I read more than one book at a time.

On my nightstand, I have at least one work of non-fiction – usually Victorian or Colonial era history – and one work of fiction. And I say nightstand because I read for pleasure at night. I write YA, so part of my workday includes reading YA novels. And it’s a great part of this job!

Lately at different times during the day – usually when I’m completely stuck on my own work-in-progress – I am reading E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars, because I didn’t think enough people...[read on]

About Love and Other Foreign Words, from the publisher:

Perfect for fans of John Green and Rainbow Rowell, Love and Other Foreign Words is equal parts comedy and coming of age--a whip-smart, big-hearted, laugh-out-loud love story about sisters, friends, and what it means to love at all.

Can anyone be truly herself--or truly in love--in a language that's not her own?

Sixteen-year-old Josie lives her life in translation. She speaks High School, College, Friends, Boyfriends, Break-ups, and even the language of Beautiful Girls. But none of these is her native tongue--the only people who speak that are her best friend Stu and her sister Kate. So when Kate gets engaged to an epically insufferable guy, how can Josie see it as anything but the mistake of a lifetime? Kate is determined to bend Josie to her will for the wedding; Josie is determined to break Kate and her fiancé up. As battles are waged over secrets and semantics, Josie is forced to examine her feelings for the boyfriend who says he loves her, the sister she loves but doesn't always like, and the best friend who hasn't said a word--at least not in a language Josie understands.

Visit Erin McCahan's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

Writers Read: Erin McCahan.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Nick Jans & Chase, Brisa, Loki and Sal

Featured at Coffee with a Canine: Nick Jans & Chase, Brisa, Loki and Sal.

The author, on his dogs' aliases:

All dog owners have aliases for their pooches, don't they? Chase also goes by Ticey (a derivative of her name) or Old Lady. Brisa (which means 'breeze' in Spanish) most commonly goes by Poke Chop--that on account of her thick muscled thighs. Loki (the Norse god of mischief and fire) is also the Loke-a-Lope, and my wife Sherrie calls him Buddy, because they're such good friends, enough to make me jealous sometimes, how many times he gets snuggled and smooched. Sal (a name we picked almost instantly after we found her, because...[read on]

About Jans's new book, A Wolf Called Romeo, from the publisher:

No stranger to wildlife, Nick Jans had lived in Alaska for nearly thirty years. But when one evening at twilight a lone black wolf ambled into view not far from his doorstep, Nick would finally come to know this mystical species—up close as never before.

A Wolf Called Romeo is the remarkable story of a wolf who returned again and again to interact with the people and dogs of Juneau, living on the edges of their community, engaging in an improbable, awe-inspiring interspecies dance and bringing the wild into sharp focus. At first the people of Juneau were guarded, torn between shoot first, ask questions later instincts and curiosity. But as Romeo began to tag along with cross-country skiers on their daily jaunts, play fetch with local dogs, or simply lie near Nick and nap under the sun, they came to accept Romeo, and he them. For Nick it was about trying to understand Romeo, then it was about winning his trust, and ultimately it was about watching over him, for as long as he or anyone could.

Written with a deft hand and a searching heart, A Wolf Called Romeo is an unforgettable tale of a creature who defied nature and thus gave humans a chance to understand it a little more.

Visit Nick Jans's website.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Nick Jans & Chase, Brisa, Loki and Sal.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Molly Tambor's "The Lost Wave"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Lost Wave: Women and Democracy in Postwar Italy by Molly Tambor.

About the book, from the publisher:

As Italy emerged from World War II, the first women entered the national government. The 45 women who became parliamentarians when Italian women were first entitled to vote in 1946 represented a "lost wave" of feminist action, argues Molly Tambor.

In this work, Tambor reconstructs the role that these female politicians played in Italy's new democratic Republic. They proved critical in ensuring that the new Constitution formally guaranteed the equality of all citizens regardless of sex, translating the general constitutional guarantees into direct legislative rights and protections. They used a specific electoral and legislative strategy, "constitutional rights feminism," to construct an image of the female citizen as a bulwark of democracy. Mining existing tropes of femininity such as the Resistance heroine, the working mother, the sacrificial Catholic, and the "mamma Italiana," they searched for social consensus for women's equality that could reach across religious, ideological, and gender divides. The political biographies of woman politicians are intertwined with the history of the laws they created and helped pass, including paid maternity leave, the closing of state-run brothels, and women's right to become judges.

Women politicians navigated gendered political identity as they picked and chose among competing models of femininity in Cold War Italy. In so doing, The Lost Wave shows, they forged a political legacy that affected the rights and opportunities of all Italian citizens.

Learn more about The Lost Wave at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Lost Wave.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jonathan Holt's "The Abduction," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Abduction by Jonathan Holt.

The entry begins:

I’d like to think that not only The Abduction, but the whole Carnivia trilogy, would be filmed. I’m a big admirer of the Stieg Larsson books – that combination of cracking conspiracy plots with great characters – so the pitch for my movie would be ‘Dragon Tattoo meets Da Vinci Code’.

David Fincher would direct, naturally – no one gives heart to a thriller like he does, or at least not since the demise of...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at the Carniva website.

The Page 69 Test: The Abduction.

Writers Read: Jonathan Holt.

My Book, The Movie: The Abduction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Marie Manilla's "The Patron Saint of Ugly"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Patron Saint of Ugly by Marie Manilla.

About the book, from the publisher:

Born in Sweetwater, West Virginia, with a mop of flaming red hair and a map of the world rendered in port-wine stains on every surface of her body, Garnet Ferrari is used to being an outcast. With her sharp tongue, she has always known how to defend herself against bullies and aggressors, but she finds she is less adept at fending off the pilgrims who have set up a veritable tent city outside her hilltop home, convinced that she is Saint Garnet, healer of skin ailments and maker of miracles.

Her grandmother, the indelible Nonna Diamante, believes that Garnet’s mystical gift can be traced back to the family’s origins in the Nebrodi Mountains of Sicily, and now the Vatican has sent an emissary to Sweetwater to investigate. Garnet, wanting nothing more than to debunk this “gift” and send these desperate souls packing, reaches back into her family’s tangled past and unspools for the Church a tale of love triangles on the shores of the Messina Strait; a sad, beautiful maiden’s gilded-cage childhood in blueblood Virginia; and the angelic, doomed boy Garnet could not protect.

Saint or not, Garnet learns that the line between reality and myth is always blurred, and that the aspects of ourselves we are most ashamed of can prove to be the source of our greatest strength, and even our salvation.

Visit Marie Manilla's website.

Writers Read: Marie Manilla.

The Page 69 Test: The Patron Saint of Ugly.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Meg Gardiner reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Meg Gardiner, author of Phantom Instinct.

Her entry begins:

I’m a judge for the 2015 Edgar Awards, so am reading a fantastic selection of mysteries… about which I am sworn to confidentiality. Let’s just say that I’m lucky, and readers who love suspense novels have a wonderful selection of books to choose from this year.

I’m also reading Eric Schlosser’s Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety. It’s a history of America’s nuclear weapons program, and it’s riveting. The Manhattan Project, the Cold War, the Strategic Air Command, the Cuban Missile Crisis—the book brings home how...[read on]

About Phantom Instinct, from the publisher:

In Edgar Award–winning author Meg Gardiner’s new stand-alone thriller, an injured cop and an ex-thief hunt down a killer nobody else believes exists.

When shots ring out in a crowded L.A. club, bartender Harper Flynn watches helplessly as her boyfriend, Drew, is gunned down in the cross fire. Then somebody throws a Molotov cocktail, and the club is quickly engulfed in flames. L.A. Sheriff Deputy Aiden Garrison sees a gunman in a hoodie and gas mask taking aim at Harper, but before he can help her a wall collapses, bringing the building down and badly injuring him.

A year later, Harper is trying to rebuild her life. She has quit her job and gone back to college. Meanwhile, the investigation into the shoot-out has been closed. The two gunmen were killed when the building collapsed.

Certain that a third gunman escaped and is targeting the survivors, Harper enlists the help of Aiden Garrison, the only person willing to listen. But the traumatic brain injury he suffered has cut his career short and left him with Fregoli syndrome, a rare type of face blindness that causes the delusion that random people are actually a single person changing disguises.

As Harper and Aiden delve into the case, Harper realizes that her presence during the attack was no coincidence—and that her only ally is unstable, mistrustful of her, and seeing the same enemy everywhere he looks.

Learn more about the book and author at Meg Gardiner's website, blog, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: The Dirty Secrets Club.

The Page 69 Test: The Memory Collector.

My Book, The Movie: Meg Gardiner's Evan Delaney series.

The Page 69 Test: The Liar's Lullaby.

My Book, The Movie: Meg Gardiner's Jo Beckett series.

The Page 69 Test: The Nightmare Thief.

The Page 69 Test: Ransom River.

The Page 69 Test: The Shadow Tracer.

Writers Read: Meg Gardiner.

--Marshal Zeringue

The 15 best North American novels of all time

One title on the Telegraph's list of the fifteen best North American novels of all time:

Moby-Dick
Herman Melville (1851)

“In landlessness alone resides highest truth, shoreless, indefinite as God,” says wandering sailor Ishmael, as he sets sail with vengeful Quaker Captain Ahab on the hunt for the monstrous white whale that maimed him. Fathoms deep in allusion and nautical nomenclature.

Read about another entry on the list.

Moby-Dick also appears among Nicole Hill's top ten best names in literature to give your dog, Horatio Clare's five favorite maritime novels, the Telegraph's ten great meals in literature, Brenda Wineapple's six favorite books, Scott Greenstone's top seven allegorical novels, Paul Wilson's top ten books about disability, Lynn Shepherd's ten top fictional drownings, Peter Murphy's top ten literary preachers, Penn Jillette's six favorite books, Peter F. Stevens's top ten nautical books, Katharine Quarmby's top ten disability stories, Jonathan Evison's six favorite books, Bella Bathurst's top 10 books on the sea, John Mullan's lists of ten of the best nightmares in literature and ten of the best tattoos in literature, Susan Cheever's five best books about obsession, Christopher Buckley's best books, Jane Yolen's five most important books, Chris Dodd's best books, Augusten Burroughs' five most important books, Norman Mailer's top ten works of literature, David Wroblewski's five most important books, Russell Banks' five most important books, and Philip Hoare's top ten books about whales.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Mike Stobbe's "Surgeon General’s Warning"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Surgeon General's Warning: How Politics Crippled the Nation’s Doctor by Mike Stobbe.

About the book, from the publisher:

What does it mean to be the nation's doctor? In this engaging narrative, journalist Mike Stobbe examines the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General, emphasizing that it has always been unique within the federal government in its ability to influence public health. But now, in their efforts to provide leadership in public health policy, surgeons general compete with other high-profile figures such as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Furthermore, in an era of declining budgets, when public health departments have eliminated tens of thousands of jobs, some argue that a lower-profile and ineffective surgeon general is a waste of money. By tracing stories of how surgeons general like Luther Terry, C. Everett Koop, and Joycelyn Elders created policies and confronted controversy in response to issues like smoking, AIDS, and masturbation, Stobbe highlights how this office is key to shaping the nation’s health and explains why its decline is harming our national well-being.

Learn more about Surgeon General's Warning at the University of California Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Surgeon General's Warning.

--Marshal Zeringue

Megan Abbott's "The Fever," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Fever by Megan Abbott.

The entry begins:

I never think of specific people while writing a book. It would feel too specific, maybe limiting. But, as a movielover since childhood, once the book is complete, I often imagine the possibilities. And so I find myself doing that with The Fever. It’s the story of the Nash family, father Tom, a high school science teacher, and his two teenage children, handsome hockey star Eli and earnest Deenie. Deenie’s friend is stricken by a violent seizure in class one day and, with terrifying rapidity, other girls at the school are similarly afflicted.

For Deenie, sixteen and serious, complicated and loyal, I imagine one actress. The same actress I had in mind after finishing my last novel, Dare Me, and the one before that, The End of Everything. And she is...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Megan Abbott's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Fever.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five of the best imaginary castles in fiction

At The Daily Beast, novelist Johanna Lane tagged "several favorite moated-and-turreted locations that only ever existed in the authors’ minds," including:

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen.

Jane Austen’s only Gothic novel, and allegedly the first novel she finished (1798-99), which means that, impressively, she wrote it in her early twenties. Northanger Abbey wasn’t to be published in her lifetime, but only after the success of her other books. It’s great fun because of the meta aspect: the main character reads The Mysteries of Udolpho and begins to see Gothic intrigue everywhere.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: A.M. Dellamonica's "Child of a Hidden Sea"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Child of a Hidden Sea by A.M. Dellamonica.

About the book, from the publisher:

One minute, twenty-four-year-old Sophie Hansa is in a San Francisco alley trying to save the life of the aunt she has never known. The next, she finds herself flung into the warm and salty waters of an unfamiliar world. Glowing moths fall to the waves around her, and the sleek bodies of unseen fish glide against her submerged ankles.

The world is Stormwrack, a series of island nations with a variety of cultures and economies—and a language different from any Sophie has heard.

Sophie doesn't know it yet, but she has just stepped into the middle of a political firestorm, and a conspiracy that could destroy a world she has just discovered...her world, where everyone seems to know who she is, and where she is forbidden to stay.

But Sophie is stubborn, and smart, and refuses to be cast adrift by people who don’t know her and yet wish her gone. With the help of a sister she has never known, and a ship captain who would rather she had never arrived, she must navigate the shoals of the highly charged politics of Stormwrack, and win the right to decide for herself whether she stays in this wondrous world...or is doomed to exile, in Child of a Hidden Sea by A.M. Dellamonica.

Visit A.M. Dellamonica's website.

The Page 69 Test: Child of a Hidden Sea.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Kim Church reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Kim Church, author of Byrd.

Her entry begins:

I’m anxious. And I like toy monkeys wearing striped pants and holding cymbals (“Musical Jolly Chimps,” they’re called), like the one on the cover of Daniel Smith’s Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety. Which is why I picked up the book. I’d never seen a memoir of anxiety. This one was supposed to be funny—“surprisingly hilarious,” according to People, though if a book’s cover announces it’s hilarious, isn’t the surprise over? Oliver Sacks “broke out into explosive laughter again and again.”

I didn’t, though I did chuckle a few times, like when Smith compared his anxious mother to a squirrel. Squirrels are...[read on]

About Byrd, from the publisher:

In this debut novel, 33-year-old Addie Lockwood bears and surrenders for adoption a son, her only child, without telling his father, little imagining how the secret will shape their lives. Through letters and spare, precisely observed vignettes, Byrd explores a birth mother’s coming to make and live with the most difficult, intimate, and far-reaching of choices.

Visit Kim Church's website.

Writers Read: Kim Church.

--Marshal Zeringue

The ten worst fathers in literature

One father in the Telegraph's collection of the ten worst dads in literature:

David Melrose in Never Mind by Edward St Aubyn

This aristocratic sadist was based on St Aubyn’s own father. He forces his wife to eat off the floor and inflicts harrowing abuse on his five-year-old son Patrick. One the most terrifying characters in modern literature.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Patrick Melrose series also appears among Melissa Albert's four top novels that may drive you to drink and Mickey Sumner's six best books.

Also see: the ten worst fathers in books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Toby Wilkinson's "The Nile"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Nile: A Journey Downriver Through Egypt's Past and Present by Toby Wilkinson.

About the book, from the publisher:

A hypnotic journey in the company of one of the world's most acclaimed Egyptologists over the fabled river telling how the Nile continually brought life to an ancient civilization now dead and how it sustained its successors, now in tumult.

Renowned Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson leads us through space as much as time: from the river's mystical sources (the Blue Nile which rises in Ethiopia, and the White Nile coursing from majestic Lake Victoria); to Thebes, with its Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, and Luxor Temple; the fertile Delta; Giza, home of the Great Pyramid, the sole surviving Wonder of the Ancient World; and finally, to the pulsating capital city of Cairo, where the Arab Spring erupted on the bridges over the Nile. Along the way, he introduces us to mysterious and fabled characters-the gods, godlike pharaohs, emperors and empresses, who joined their fate to the Nile and gained immortality; the adventurers, archaeologists, and historians who have all fallen under its spell. With matchless erudition and storytelling skill, through a lens equal to both panoramas and close-ups, Wilkinson brings millennia of history into view.

Visit Toby Wilkinson's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Nile.

--Marshal Zeringue

Thomas C. Field, Jr.'s "From Development to Dictatorship," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: From Development to Dictatorship: Bolivia and the Alliance for Progress in the Kennedy Era by Thomas C. Field, Jr.

The entry begins:

Like many tales from Bolivia, From Development to Dictatorship lends itself to the big screen. Recent cinematic renditions of Bolivian history include Steven Soderbergh’s epic Che: Part Two: Guerrilla, the Spanish drama Even the Rain, and Rachel Boyton’s brilliant documentary Our Brand Is Crisis, which is soon to be readapted by George Clooney. That the latter won the Independent Spirit “Truer Than Fiction” Award owes as much to Bolivia’s fairy-tale qualities as to Boyton’s exceptional artistic skill.

As an homage to Bolivia’s historical surrealism, my film opens with an appearance by the founder of gonzo journalism, Hunter S. Thompson, played by Johnny Depp. Swigging bourbon whiskey with US Embassy officers as armed militias roamed the streets, Thompson (Depp) characterizes Bolivia as “A Never-Never Land High Above the Sea…a land of excesses, exaggerations, quirks, contradictions, and every manner of oddity and abuse.”

In order to fully capture the “manic atmosphere” Thompson (Depp) found in revolutionary Bolivia, the film should be directed by Robert...[read on]

Learn more about From Development to Dictatorship at the Cornell University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: From Development to Dictatorship.

My Book, The Movie: From Development to Dictatorship.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Eleanor Kuhns & Shelby

Featured at Coffee with a Canine: Eleanor Kuhns & Shelby.

The author, on what she would ask Shelby if the dog could answer only one question in English:

I would ask her why she keeps trying to escape from the yard. Does she think there are more exciting things outside?...[read on]

About Eleanor Kuhns's new novel, Cradle to Grave, from the publisher:

Will Rees is adjusting to life on his Maine farm in 1797, but he’s already hungering for the freedom of the road, and his chance to travel comes sooner than he expects. Lydia has just received a letter from her old friend Mouse, a soft-spoken and gentle woman who now lives in the Shaker community in Mount Unity, New York. To Lydia and Rees’s astonishment, she’s in trouble with the law. She’s kidnapped five children, claiming that their mother, Maggie Whitney, is unfit to care for them.

Despite the wintry weather and icy roads, Rees and Lydia set out for New York, where they sadly conclude that Mouse is probably right and the children would be better off with her. There’s nothing they can do for Mouse legally, though, and they reluctantly set out for home. But before they’ve travelled very far, they receive more startling news: Maggie Whitney has been found murdered, and Mouse is the prime suspect.

In Cradle to Grave, Eleanor Kuhns returns with the clever plotting, atmospheric historical detail, and complexly drawn characters that have delighted fans and critics in her previous books.

Learn more about the book and author at Eleanor Kuhns's blog and Facebook page.

My Book, The Movie: Death of a Dyer.

The Page 69 Test: Death of a Dyer.

Writers Read: Eleanor Kuhns (July 2013).

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Eleanor Kuhns & Shelby.

--Marshal Zeringue