What is Carol Berkin reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Carol Berkin, author of The Bill of Rights: The Fight to Secure America's Liberties.

Her entry begins:

After a long day reading Congressional debates from the 1790s for my next book, I like to turn to a good mystery novel or some science fiction. Having just finished all of Louise Penny’s beautiful, lyrical Inspector Gamache mysteries, I have now turned to an eerie tale, The Devil’s Detective, about murder in the bowels of Hell. I have to confess, however, that I am eagerly awaiting the next and final episode in...[read on]

About The Bill of Rights, from the publisher:

The real story of how the Bill of Rights came to be: a concise, vivid history of political strategy, big egos, and partisan interest that set the terms of the ongoing contest between the federal government and the states.

Revered today for articulating America’s founding principles, the first ten amendments—the Bill of Rights—was in fact a political stratagem executed by James Madison to preserve the Constitution, the Federal government, and the latter’s authority over the states. In the skilled hands of award-winning historian Carol Berkin, the story of the Founders’ fight over the Bill of Rights comes alive in a gripping drama of partisan politics, acrimonious debate, and manipulated procedure. From this familiar story of a Congress at loggerheads, an important truth emerges.

In 1789, the young nation faced a great ideological divide around a question still unanswered today: should broad power and authority reside in the federal government or should it reside in state governments? The Bill of Rights, from protecting religious freedom and the people’s right to bear arms to reserving unenumerated rights to the states, was a political ploy first, and matter of principle second. How and why Madison came to devise this plan, the divisive debates it fostered in the Congress, and its ultimate success in defeating antifederalist counterplans to severely restrict the powers of the federal government is more engrossing than any of the myths that shroud our national beginnings.

The debate over the founding fathers’ original intent still continues through myriad Supreme Court decisions. By pulling back the curtain on the political, short-sighted, and self-interested intentions of the founding fathers in passing the Bill of Rights, Berkin reveals the inherent weakness in these arguments and what it means for our country today.

Learn more about The Bill of Rights: The Fight to Secure America's Liberties.

Carol Berkin, Presidential Professor of History, Emerita at Baruch College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, is the author of A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution, First Generations, Jonathan Sewall, and Wondrous Beauty: The Life and Adventures of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte.

My Book, The Movie: Wondrous Beauty.

My Book, The Movie: The Bill of Rights.

Writers Read: Carol Berkin.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Elizabeth Wein's "Black Dove, White Raven"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Black Dove, White Raven by Elizabeth Wein.

About the book, from the publisher:

Emilia and Teo’s lives changed in a fiery, terrifying instant when a bird strike brought down the plane their stunt pilot mothers were flying. Teo’s mother died immediately, but Em’s survived, determined to raise Teo according to his late mother’s wishes-in a place where he won’t be discriminated against because of the color of his skin. But in 1930s America, a white woman raising a black adoptive son alongside a white daughter is too often seen as a threat. Seeking a home where her children won’t be held back by ethnicity or gender, Rhoda brings Em and Teo to Ethiopia, and all three fall in love with the beautiful, peaceful country. But that peace is shattered by the threat of war with Italy, and teenage Em and Teo are drawn into the conflict. Will their devotion to their country, its culture and people, and each other be their downfall…or their salvation? In the tradition of her award-winning and bestselling Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein brings us another thrilling and deeply affecting novel that explores the bonds of friendship, the resilience of young pilots, and the strength of the human spirit.

Visit Elizabeth Wein's website and blog.

Writers Read: Elizabeth Wein (January 2008).

Writers Read: Elizabeth Wein (July 2012).

The Page 69 Test: Black Dove, White Raven.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top books about working life

Joanna Biggs is a writer and editor at the London Review of Books. Her new book is All Day Long: A Portrait of Britain At Work.

One of her top ten books about working life, as shared at the Guardian:

Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Hardy pays attention to the details of agricultural work as we follow Tess from Alec D’Urberville’s estate to the dairy farm where she falls in love with Angel Clare, the parson’s son, and the frozen fields she ends up working in when her past is revealed. Here’s Tess at work in the milking parlour: “There was for a time no talk in the barton, and not a sound interfered with the purr of the milk-jets into the numerous pails, except a momentary exclamation to one of the beasts requesting her to turn around or stand still.”

Read about another entry on the list.

Also see Aman Sethi's five best books on work and working.

--Marshal Zeringue

Meredith Zeitlin's "Sophomore Year is Greek to Me," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Sophomore Year is Greek to Me by Meredith Zeitlin.

The entry begins:

This is a tricky one, because most of the characters in my book are 15 years old, and I'm not that familiar with young actors and actresses! When I was writing, the person I pictured as Zona (the main character) was Jane Levy, who stars in Suburgatory. She's a cute and sassy redhead who's also very smart, goal-oriented, and a bit neurotic; coincidentally, the character Jane plays has an absent mother and a very close relationship with her dad. I think Jane is...[read on]

Visit Meredith Zeitlin's website.

The Page 69 Test: Sophomore Year Is Greek to Me.

My Book, The Movie: Sophomore Year is Greek to Me.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jeffrey Kirchmeier's "Imprisoned by the Past"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Imprisoned by the Past: Warren McCleskey and the American Death Penalty by Jeffrey L. Kirchmeier.

About the book, from the publisher:

Imprisoned by the Past: Warren McCleskey and the American Death Penalty connects the history of the American death penalty to the case of Warren McCleskey. By highlighting the relation between American history and an individual case, Imprisoned by the Past provides a unique understanding of the big picture of capital punishment in the context of a compelling human story.

McCleskey's criminal law case resulted in one of the most important Supreme Court cases in U.S. legal history, where the Court confronted evidence of racial discrimination in the administration of capital punishment. The case marks the last that the Supreme Court realistically might have held that capital punishment violates the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. As such, the constitutional law case also created a turning point in the death penalty debate in the country. The book connects McCleskey's case -- as well as his life and crime -- to the issues that have haunted the American death penalty debate since the first executions by early settlers and that still affect the legal system today.

Imprisoned by the Past ties together three unique American stories in U.S history. First, the book considers the changing American death penalty across centuries where drastic changes have occurred in the last fifty years. Second, the book discusses the role that race played in that history. And third, the book tells the story of Warren McCleskey and how his life and legal case brought together the other two narratives.

Learn more about Imprisoned by the Past: Warren McCleskey and the American Death Penalty at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Imprisoned by the Past.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Jan Elizabeth Watson reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Jan Elizabeth Watson, author of What Has Become of You.

Her entry begins:

I never read fewer than three books at a time because I like having different kinds of irons in any given fire. Currently on my nightstand is Outline, by Rachel Cusk. With this novel I believe Cusk is putting herself in the company of such writers as Calvino and Nabokov and Kundera, whom I envy and...[read on]

About What Has Become of You, from the publisher:

What Has Become of You asks: What if a teacher’s most promising pupil is also her most dangerous?

Aspiring writer Vera Lundy hasn’t entirely overcome her own adolescence when she agrees to teach at a tiny private school. A recent murder has already put their small New England town on edge when Vera bonds with a student who’s eerily reminiscent of her younger self. Amid a growing sense of menace, Vera finds herself in the vortex of danger—and suspicion.

Learn more about the book and author at Jan Elizabeth Watson's website.

The Page 69 Test: What Has Become of You.

Writers Read: Jan Elizabeth Watson.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Laura Bickle's "Dark Alchemy"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Dark Alchemy by Laura Bickle.

About the book, from the publisher:

Stephen King's The Gunslinger meets Breaking Bad in Laura Bickle's novel Dark Alchemy.

Some secrets are better left buried…

Geologist Petra Dee arrives in Wyoming seeking clues to her father's disappearance years ago. What she finds instead is Temperance, a dying western town with a gold rush past and a meth-infested present. But under the dust and quiet, an old power is shifting. When bodies start turning up—desiccated and twisted skeletons that Petra can't scientifically explain—her investigations land her in the middle of a covert war between the town's most powerful interests. Petra's father wasn't the only one searching for the alchemical secrets of Temperance, and those still looking are now ready to kill. Armed with nothing but shaky alliances, a pair of antique guns, and a relic she doesn't understand, the only thing Petra knows for sure is that she and her coyote sidekick are going to have to move fast—or die next.

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

The Page 69 Test: The Outside.

The Page 69 Test: Dark Alchemy.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top climate change fiction books for young readers

At the Guardian, Sarah Holding, author of the SeaBEAN eco-thriller trilogy, tagged her top ten "cli-fi novels that make you think deeply about the human consequences of climate change," including:

Floodland by Marcus Sedgwick

Trying to survive in a devastated world, Zoë needs to get to Eels Island - one of the few remaining places left now that most of England has flooded - by digging a boat out of the mud and dodging the marauding gangs and a strange boy called Dooby. She hopes one day to be reunited with her parents again.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Carol Berkin's "The Bill of Rights," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Bill of Rights: The Fight to Secure America's Liberties by Carol Berkin.

The entry begins:

Benedict Cumberbatch as the book's hero James Madison; Robert Downey Jr as the irascible...[read on]

Learn more about The Bill of Rights: The Fight to Secure America's Liberties.

Carol Berkin, Presidential Professor of History, Emerita at Baruch College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, is the author of A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution, First Generations, Jonathan Sewall, and Wondrous Beauty: The Life and Adventures of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte.

My Book, The Movie: Wondrous Beauty.

Writers Read: Carol Berkin (February 2014).

My Book, The Movie: The Bill of Rights.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Jan-Philipp Sendker reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Jan-Philipp Sendker, author of Whispering Shadows.

His entry begins:

I am currently reading, actually just finished two books, a novel and a non fiction book.

Ghana Must Go is a novel set in the USA and Africa. It was recommended to me by a friend whose taste in books I actually respect a lot. However, I was reluctant to pick up the book first and I don’t know why. The title? The cover? The story line? When I started I fell in love with it right away. The writing is simply fantastic, the rhythm, the style, the...[read on]

About Whispering Shadows, from the publisher:

The first in a suspenseful new trilogy by the internationally bestselling author of The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, this gripping story follows a retired expat journalist in contemporary China who tries to crack a murder case as he battles his own personal demons.

American expat Paul Leibovitz was once an ambitious advisor, dedicated father, and loving husband. But after living for nearly thirty years in Hong Kong, personal tragedy strikes and Paul’s marriage unravels in the fallout.

Now Paul is living as a recluse on an outlying island of Hong Kong. When he makes a fleeting connection with Elizabeth, a distressed American woman on the verge of collapse, his life is thrown into turmoil. Less than twenty-four hours later, Elizabeth’s son is found dead in Shenzhen, and Paul, invigorated by a newfound purpose, sets out to investigate the murder on his own.

As Paul, Elizabeth, and a detective friend descend deeper into the Shenzhen underworld—against the wishes of a woman with whom Paul has had a flirtation—they discover dark secrets hidden beneath China’s booming new wealth. In a country where rich businessmen with expensive degrees can corrupt the judicial system, the potential for evil abounds.

Part love story, part crime thriller, Whispering Shadows is the captivating tale of one man’s desperate search for redemption within the vice of a world superpower, a place where secrets from the past threaten to upend the country’s unchecked drive towards modernization.

Visit Jan-Philipp Sendker's website.

The Page 69 Test: Whispering Shadows.

My Book, The Movie: Whispering Shadows.

Writers Read: Jan-Philipp Sendker.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jan Elizabeth Watson's "What Has Become of You"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: What Has Become of You by Jan Elizabeth Watson.

About the novel, from the publisher:

What Has Become of You asks: What if a teacher’s most promising pupil is also her most dangerous?

Aspiring writer Vera Lundy hasn’t entirely overcome her own adolescence when she agrees to teach at a tiny private school. A recent murder has already put their small New England town on edge when Vera bonds with a student who’s eerily reminiscent of her younger self. Amid a growing sense of menace, Vera finds herself in the vortex of danger—and suspicion.

Learn more about the book and author at Jan Elizabeth Watson's website.

The Page 69 Test: What Has Become of You.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Brian Fagan's "The Intimate Bond"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Intimate Bond: How Animals Shaped Human History by Brian Fagan.

About the book, from the publisher:

Animals, and our ever-changing relationship with them, have left an indelible mark on human history. From the dawn of our existence, animals and humans have been constantly redefining their relationship with one another, and entire civilizations have risen and fallen upon this curious bond we share with our fellow fauna. Brian Fagan unfolds this fascinating story from the first wolf who wandered into our prehistoric ancestors' camp and found companionship, to empires built on the backs of horses, donkeys, and camels, to the industrial age when some animals became commodities, often brutally exploited, and others became pets, nurtured and pampered, sometimes to absurd extremes.

Through an in-depth analysis of six truly transformative human-animal relationships, Fagan shows how our habits and our very way of life were considerably and irreversibly altered by our intimate bond with animals. Among other stories, Fagan explores how herding changed human behavior; how the humble donkey helped launch the process of globalization; and how the horse carried a hearty band of nomads across the world and toppled the emperor of China.

With characteristic care and penetrating insight, Fagan reveals the profound influence that animals have exercised on human history and how, in fact, they often drove it.

Learn more about the book and author at Brian Fagan's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Great Warming.

The Page 99 Test: The Attacking Ocean.

Writers Read: Brian Fagan.

The Page 99 Test: The Intimate Bond.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the best fictional elections

At the Guardian, John Dugdale tagged ten of the best fictional elections (UK edition), including:

The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling (2012)

About a parish council election, but it may be British fiction’s first social media-shaped poll (an online forum plays an important role) and at issue is whether the councillors believe “we’re all in this together”, as symbolised by the key issue of whether a council estate should be part of Pagford or not: hence Tory MPs’ objections, knowing Rowling supports Labour, to the timing of the recent BBC1 adaptation.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ed Kovacs's "The Russian Bride," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Russian Bride by Ed Kovacs.

The entry begins:

The hero of The Russian Bride is Kit Bennings, an American military intelligence officer in the army's most secret unit. I envisioned a man who could not only blend in amongst various cultures, but who could alternately appear harmless or extremely menacing.

I settled on Karl Urban, who played a deadly assassin in The Bourne Supremacy—he was the guy who killed Bourne's girlfriend. Urban is handsome, rugged, and can deliver a...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Ed Kovacs's website.

My Book, The Movie: Storm Damage.

The Page 69 Test: Storm Damage.

The Page 69 Test: Good Junk.

The Page 69 Test: Burnt Black.

The Page 69 Test: The Russian Bride.

Writers Read: Ed Kovacs.

My Book, The Movie: The Russian Bride.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Shelley Stamp reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Shelley Stamp, author of Lois Weber in Early Hollywood.

Her entry begins:

I’ve just started reading two books that I’ve been excited about for a long time: Tami Williams’ study of early French filmmaker Germaine Dulac, Germaine Dulac: A Cinema of Sensations, and Mary R. Desjardins’ book Recycled Stars: Female Stardom in the Age of Television and Video. Dulac is an incredibly interesting figure, a pioneering surrealist, film theorist, and feminist activist, whose legacy has been unjustly neglected in histories of French filmmaking. Williams spent years combing French archives for lost film prints and details about Dulac’s life and career and she provides a stunning re-reading of Dulac’s...[read on]

About Lois Weber in Early Hollywood, from the publisher:

Among early Hollywood’s most renowned filmmakers, Lois Weber was considered one of the era’s “three great minds” alongside D. W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille. Despite her accomplishments, Weber has been marginalized in relation to her contemporaries, who have long been recognized as fathers of American cinema. Drawing on a range of materials untapped by previous historians, Shelley Stamp offers the first comprehensive study of Weber’s remarkable career as director, screenwriter, and actress. Lois Weber in Early Hollywood provides compelling evidence of the extraordinary role that women played in shaping American movie culture.

Weber made films on capital punishment, contraception, poverty, and addiction, establishing cinema’s power to engage topical issues for popular audiences. Her work grappled with the profound changes in women’s lives that unsettled Americans at the beginning of the twentieth century, and her later films include sharp critiques of heterosexual marriage and consumer capitalism. Mentor to many women in the industry, Weber demanded a place at the table in early professional guilds, decrying the limited roles available for women on-screen and in the 1920s protesting the growing climate of hostility toward female directors. Stamp demonstrates how female filmmakers who had played a part in early Hollywood’s bid for respectability were in the end written out of that industry’s history. Lois Weber in Early Hollywood is an essential addition to histories of silent cinema, early filmmaking in Los Angeles, and women’s contributions to American culture.

Learn more about Lois Weber in Early Hollywood at Shelley Stamp's webpage and the University of California Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Lois Weber in Early Hollywood.

Writers Read: Shelley Stamp.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Martha Brockenbrough's "The Game of Love and Death"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough.

About the book, from the publisher:

Not since THE BOOK THIEF has the character of Death played such an original and affecting part in a book for young people.

Flora and Henry were born a few blocks from each other, innocent of the forces that might keep a white boy and an African American girl apart; years later they meet again and their mutual love of music sparks an even more powerful connection. But what Flora and Henry don't know is that they are pawns in a game played by the eternal adversaries Love and Death, here brilliantly reimagined as two extremely sympathetic and fascinating characters. Can their hearts and their wills overcome not only their earthly circumstances, but forces that have battled throughout history? In the rainy Seattle of the 1920's, romance blooms among the jazz clubs, the mansions of the wealthy, and the shanty towns of the poor. But what is more powerful: love? Or death?

Visit Martha Brockenbrough's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Game of Love and Death.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six of the best books about weddings and marriage

Ellen McCarthy is an award-winning feature writer for the Style section of The Washington Post. She joined the Post in 2000 and wrote about business, technology, arts, and entertainment before launching the paper’s On Love section in 2009. She has interviewed hundreds of couples and written extensively about weddings and relationships. Her first book, The Real Thing: Lessons on Love and Life from a Wedding Reporter’s Notebook, is the culmination of that work.

One of McCarthy's six favorite books about weddings and marriage, as shared at The Week magazine:

Atonement by Ian McEwan

So many of the couples I've met have taught me that love almost never follows a straight line. Save perhaps for Romeo and Juliet, I can't think of another book that so wrenchingly illuminates the obstacles some lovers face as McEwan's novel does.

Read about another book on the list.

Atonement also appears on David Treuer's six favorite books list, Kirkus Reviews's list of eleven books whose final pages will shock you, Nicole Hill's list of eleven books in which the main character dies, Isla Blair's six best books list, Jessica Soffer's top ten list of book endings, Jane Ciabattari's list of five masterpieces of fiction that also worked as films, and on John Mullan's lists of ten of the best birthday parties in literature, ten of the best misdirected messages in literature, ten of the best scenes on London Underground, ten of the best breakages in literature, ten of the best weddings in literature, and ten of the best identical twins in fiction. It is one of Stephanie Beacham's six best books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Margaret Moore's "A Political Theory of Territory"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: A Political Theory of Territory by Margaret Moore.

About the book, from the publisher:

Our world is currently divided into territorial states that resist all attempts to change their borders. But what entitles a state, or the people it represents, to assume monopoly control over a particular piece of the Earth's surface? Why are they allowed to prevent others from entering? What if two or more states, or two or more groups of people, claim the same piece of land?

Political philosophy, which has had a great deal to say about the relationship between state and citizen, has largely ignored these questions about territory. This book provides answers. It justifies the idea of territory itself in terms of the moral value of political self-determination; it also justifies, within limits, those elements that we normally associate with territorial rights: rights of jurisdiction, rights over resources, right to control borders and so on. The book offers normative guidance over a number of important issues facing us today, all of which involve territory and territorial rights, but which are currently dealt with by ad hoc reasoning: disputes over resources; disputes over boundaries, oceans, unoccupied islands, and the frozen Arctic; disputes rooted in historical injustices with regard to land; secessionist conflicts; and irredentist conflicts. In a world in which there is continued pressure on borders and control over resources, from prospective migrants and from the desperate poor, and no coherent theory of territory to think through these problems, this book offers an original, systematic, and sophisticated theory of why territory matters, who has rights over territory, and the scope and limits of these rights.

Learn more about A Political Theory of Territory at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: A Political Theory of Territory.

--Marshal Zeringue

Michael Gregorio's "Cry Wolf," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Cry Wolf by Michael Gregorio.

The entry begins:

Cry Wolf is a rogues’ gallery, more or less. There’s only one good guy, Sebastiano Cangio, and he’s a park ranger, so we need a weathered, ornery-lookin’ guy to play the part. He needs to combine old-fashioned charm with a wry sense of humour, so I reckon I could play him perfectly with a lot of help from the make-up girls. Seb’s attractive girlfriend, Loredana, was invented by my co-author and wife, so Daniela would be the best person to take on that role. Once again, the skills of the professional make-up department will be in great demand, as Loredana and Seb are decades younger than us. We’ll need to infuse our relationship with a pinch of playful spice, which may be kinda tough after thirty-six years of marriage, so we will definitely need a director with the wit of Billy Wilder, the grit of Billy Wilder, the sh... Okay, okay. Billy gets to write the screenplay and direct the film.

This rogues’ gallery is going to be a hard nut to crack, though...[read on]

Visit Michael Gregorio's website and blog.

Michael Gregorio is the pen name of Michael G. Jacob and Daniela De Gregorio. They live in Spoleto, Italy. Michael Gregorio was awarded the Umbria del Cuore prize in 2007.

The Page 69 Test: A Visible Darkness.

The Page 69 Test: Unholy Awakening.

My Book, The Movie: Michael Gregorio's Hanno Stiffeniis novels.

The Page 69 Test: Cry Wolf.

My Book, The Movie: Cry Wolf.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Cynthia Riggs reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Cynthia Riggs, author of Poison Ivy: A Martha's Vineyard Mystery.

Her entry begins:

At the moment, I, Cynthia Riggs, am re-reading Donald Westlake’s What's So Funny? featuring John Dortmunder, a burglar who manages to bungle most of his jobs in highly creative ways. I’ve read most of the Dortmunder books, and catch myself laughing out loud at times at the complicated capers that Dortmunder undertakes. In this book, an ex-cop blackmails Dortmunder with a photo of Dortmunder heisting a computer. The ex-cop wants Dortmunder to steal a valuable chess set stored in an underground bank vault several floors beneath a...[read on]

About Poison Ivy, from the publisher:

On her first day as adjunct professor at Ivy Green College, Victoria Trumbull recognizes the stench emanating from her classroom as more than just dead mice. Brownie, the groundskeeper's mangy mutt, soon discovers a second body hiding beneath a cluster of poison ivy.

The stakes have never been higher for Ivy Green, which is on the brink of losing already-lukewarm support from its accredited partner, Cape Cod University. Thackery Wilson, the founder of Ivy Green, worries that the bad publicity from the murders will obliterate the financial and academic support the tiny college and its dependent students desperately need. As the bodies continue to pile up, all tenure committee members, Victoria and Brownie find themselves hunting a serial killer and trying to save the college.

This charming 11th entry in Cynthia Rigg's Martha's Vineyard mystery series brings the island to life with a cast of eccentric characters led by a unique and endearing sleuth.

Visit Cynthia Riggs's website.

Writers Read: Cynthia Riggs.

--Marshal Zeringue

Four books that changed Kelly Link

Kelly Link is the author of the story collections Stranger Things Happen, Magic for Beginners, The Wrong Grave, Pretty Monsters and most recently Get In Trouble.

One of four books that changed her, as shared at the Sydney Morning Herald:

Beloved
Toni Morrison

Look, this is the great American novel. Sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, the most beautiful and terrible book (and ghost story) I've ever read.

Read about another book on the list.

Beloved also appears on a list of four books that changed Libby Gleeson, The Telegraph's list of the 15 most depressing books, Elif Shafak's top five list of fictional mothers, Charlie Jane Anders's list of ten great books you didn't know were science fiction or fantasy, Peter Dimock's top ten list of books that challenge what we think we know as "history", Stuart Evers's top ten list of homes in literature, David W. Blight's list of five outstanding novels on the Civil War era, John Mullan's list of ten of the best births in literature, Kit Whitfield's top ten list of genre-defying novels, and at the top of one list of contenders for the title of the single best work of American fiction published in the last twenty-five years.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Brian DeLeeuw's "The Dismantling"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Dismantling: A Novel by Brian DeLeeuw.

About the book, from the publisher:

How much of yourself are you willing to sell?

Brian DeLeeuw hits that sweet spot between literary and commercial suspense with his brilliantly adept, ingeniously plotted novel—a chilling, fast-paced drama that urges readers to question the meaning of atonement and whether revenge might sometimes be the only way we can liberate ourselves from our past.

Twenty-five-year-old med school dropout Simon Worth is an organ broker, buying kidneys and livers from cash-strapped donors and selling them to recipients whose time on the waitlist is running out. When a seemingly straightforward liver transplant has an unexpectedly dangerous outcome, Simon finds himself on the run. In order to survive, he must put aside his better moral judgment and place his trust in a stranger who has a shocking secret.

Visit Brian DeLeeuw's website.

The Page 69 Test: In This Way I Was Saved.

The Page 69 Test: The Dismantling.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Shelley Stamp's "Lois Weber in Early Hollywood"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Lois Weber in Early Hollywood by Shelley Stamp.

About the book, from the publisher:

Among early Hollywood’s most renowned filmmakers, Lois Weber was considered one of the era’s “three great minds” alongside D. W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille. Despite her accomplishments, Weber has been marginalized in relation to her contemporaries, who have long been recognized as fathers of American cinema. Drawing on a range of materials untapped by previous historians, Shelley Stamp offers the first comprehensive study of Weber’s remarkable career as director, screenwriter, and actress. Lois Weber in Early Hollywood provides compelling evidence of the extraordinary role that women played in shaping American movie culture.

Weber made films on capital punishment, contraception, poverty, and addiction, establishing cinema’s power to engage topical issues for popular audiences. Her work grappled with the profound changes in women’s lives that unsettled Americans at the beginning of the twentieth century, and her later films include sharp critiques of heterosexual marriage and consumer capitalism. Mentor to many women in the industry, Weber demanded a place at the table in early professional guilds, decrying the limited roles available for women on-screen and in the 1920s protesting the growing climate of hostility toward female directors. Stamp demonstrates how female filmmakers who had played a part in early Hollywood’s bid for respectability were in the end written out of that industry’s history. Lois Weber in Early Hollywood is an essential addition to histories of silent cinema, early filmmaking in Los Angeles, and women’s contributions to American culture.

Learn more about Lois Weber in Early Hollywood at Shelley Stamp's webpage and the University of California Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Lois Weber in Early Hollywood.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Ed Kovacs reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Ed Kovacs, author of The Russian Bride.

His entry begins:

I just finished reading Michael Gruber's Tropic of Night. A private editor I sometimes use, Ed Stackler, recommended it to me as one of his favorites. I wasn't familiar with Gruber, either as a ghostwriter or on his own, but he's a hulluva writer.

He painted the story like some kind of impressionist, deftly weaving elements of sorcery, privilege, and alternative explanations of...[read on]

About The Russian Bride, from the publisher:

Major Kit Bennings is an elite military intelligence agent working undercover in Moscow. When he is blackmailed and compromised by a brutal mafia don and former KGB general, he knows that his military career, if not his life, will soon be over. With little to lose, he goes rogue in the hope of saving his kidnapped sister and stopping a deadly scheme directed against America.

Yulana Petkova is a gorgeous woman, devoted mother, and Russian weapons engineer. And maybe more. Spy? Mob assassin? The shotgun marriage to stranger Kit Bennings takes her on a life-or-death hopscotch from Moscow to Los Angeles, from secret US military bases to Las Vegas, where she uses her wiles at every turn to carry out her own hidden agenda.

Hunted by killers from both Russia and the United States, Bennings struggles to stop the mobster's brilliant deception--a theft designed to go unnoticed--that will make the mafia kingpin the richest man in the world, while decimating the very heart of America's economic and intelligence institutions.

Learn more about the book and author at Ed Kovacs's website.

My Book, The Movie: Storm Damage.

The Page 69 Test: Storm Damage.

The Page 69 Test: Good Junk.

The Page 69 Test: Burnt Black.

The Page 69 Test: The Russian Bride.

Writers Read: Ed Kovacs.

--Marshal Zeringue

The twelve greatest children's books of all time

At the Daily Express Robert Gore-Langton tagged 12 of the greatest children's books of all time, including:

WINNIE-THE-POOH (1924)

The sheer joy of A A Milne’s book with illustrations by Ernest Shepard cannot be overstated.

Christopher Robin inhabits an idyllic world with Eeyore, Kanga, Tigger, Piglet and others.

At the book’s comic heart is Pooh, a bear of very little brain who is very fond of “hunny” and makes it a habit to have “a little something” around eleven o’clock in the morning.

Pooh spoke for millions of children when he says of the art conversation: “It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like 'What about lunch?'"

Read about another entry on the list.

Winnie-the-Pooh is among Chrissie Gruebel's top ten actually insane children’s book characters, Katherine Rundell's top ten descriptions of food in fiction, Clara Vulliamy's five best children's book protagonists, the Barnes & Noble Review's top five books featuring toys, and is a book Walter Mosley hopes parents would read to their children. AA Milne and EH Shepard made Chris Riddell's top ten list of author/illustrator double acts. When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne is on Glen Roven's list of seven poetry books to ignite your imagination. Milne's The House at Pooh Corner is a book to which Jonathan Kozol will always return.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jan-Philipp Sendker's "Whispering Shadows," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Whispering Shadows by Jan-Philipp Sendker.

The entry begins:

Many readers around the world have asked me if I was Paul Leibovitz, the main character in Whispering Shadows.

Of course I am not but there are some similarities and he would be the role (and it happened to be the lead role) I would play.

He is in his early fifties (like me), he used to be a journalist (like me), lives in Hong Kong (like I used to) and is fascinated by China (like me).

He does not have much of sense of belonging, born in Germany, growing up in New York, having lived in Asia for 30 years.

He had lost his child to leukemia and lives as...[read on]

Visit Jan-Philipp Sendker's website.

The Page 69 Test: Whispering Shadows.

My Book, The Movie: Whispering Shadows.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five of the best books about false identities

Arwen Elys Dayton's new novel is Seeker.

For Tor.com she tagged five top books about false identities, including:

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

When a spy—a young woman—ends up captured and tortured by the enemy in WWII France, the reader must grapple with the hero’s (or should I say anti-hero’s?) identity. Does she remain true to who she was, or has she sacrificed all of her ideals in order to survive?

Read about another book on the list.

Code Name Verity also appears on Melissa Albert's top five list of YA books that might make one cry, Sara Brady's list of six of the best spies in romance, Lenore Appelhans's top ten list of teen books featuring flashbacks and Lydia Syson's list of ten of the best historical novels for young readers.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Brian Fagan reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Brian Fagan, author of The Intimate Bond: How Animals Shaped Human History.

His entry begins:

I’m flitting from book to book at the moment, partly because I’ve been traveling a great deal. There are now so many interesting books to read that it’s getting harder and harder to choose from the shelves of new releases—and old ones.

I don’t normally read books on archaeology for pleasure, since that’s my daily diet, but Jason Thompson’s Wonderful Things: A History of Egyptology, Volume 1: From Antiquity to 1881 (Oxford University Press, 2015) is a captivating account of treasure hunters, antiquarians, and archaeologists along the Nile that is both definitive and a nice read. Thompson, the author of a biography of the Victorian Egyptologist John Gardner Wilkinson, brings to life both major and especially lesser known figures in the occasionally flamboyant beginnings of Egyptology. This is a book to...[read on]

About The Intimate Bond, from the publisher:

Animals, and our ever-changing relationship with them, have left an indelible mark on human history. From the dawn of our existence, animals and humans have been constantly redefining their relationship with one another, and entire civilizations have risen and fallen upon this curious bond we share with our fellow fauna. Brian Fagan unfolds this fascinating story from the first wolf who wandered into our prehistoric ancestors' camp and found companionship, to empires built on the backs of horses, donkeys, and camels, to the industrial age when some animals became commodities, often brutally exploited, and others became pets, nurtured and pampered, sometimes to absurd extremes.

Through an in-depth analysis of six truly transformative human-animal relationships, Fagan shows how our habits and our very way of life were considerably and irreversibly altered by our intimate bond with animals. Among other stories, Fagan explores how herding changed human behavior; how the humble donkey helped launch the process of globalization; and how the horse carried a hearty band of nomads across the world and toppled the emperor of China.

With characteristic care and penetrating insight, Fagan reveals the profound influence that animals have exercised on human history and how, in fact, they often drove it.

Learn more about the book and author at Brian Fagan's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Great Warming.

The Page 99 Test: The Attacking Ocean.

Writers Read: Brian Fagan.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Meredith Zeitlin's "Sophomore Year is Greek to Me"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Sophomore Year Is Greek to Me by Meredith Zeitlin.

About the book, from the publisher:

A laugh-out-loud high school adventure set in Greece, perfect for fans of Meg Cabot

High school sophomore Zona Lowell has lived in New York City her whole life, and plans to follow in the footsteps of her renowned-journalist father. But when he announces they’re moving to Athens for six months so he can work on an important new story, she’s devastated— he must have an ulterior motive. See, when Zona’s mother married an American, her huge Greek family cut off contact. But Zona never knew her mom, and now she’s supposed to uproot her entire life and meet possibly hostile relatives on their turf? Thanks… but no thanks.

In the vein of Anna and the French Kiss, Zona navigates a series of hilarious escapades, eye-opening revelations, and unexpected reunions in a foreign country—all while documenting the trip through one-of-a-kind commentary.

Visit Meredith Zeitlin's website.

The Page 69 Test: Sophomore Year Is Greek to Me.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jeffrey Gurock's "The Holocaust Averted"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Holocaust Averted: An Alternate History of American Jewry, 1938-1967 by Jeffrey S. Gurock.

About the book, from the publisher:

The increasingly popular genre of “alternative histories” has captivated audiences by asking questions like “what if the South had won the Civil War?” Such speculation can be instructive, heighten our interest in a topic, and shed light on accepted history. In The Holocaust Averted, Jeffrey Gurock imagines what might have happened to the Jewish community in the United States if the Holocaust had never occurred and forces readers to contemplate how the road to acceptance and empowerment for today’s American Jews could have been harder than it actually was.

Based on reasonable alternatives grounded in what is known of the time, places, and participants, Gurock presents a concise narrative of his imagined war-time saga and the events that followed Hitler’s military failures. While German Jews did suffer under Nazism, the millions of Jews in Eastern Europe survived and were able to maintain their communities. Since few people were concerned with the safety of European Jews, Zionism never became popular in the United States and social antisemitism kept Jews on the margins of society. By the late 1960s, American Jewish communities were far from vibrant.

This alternate history—where, among many scenarios, Hitler is assassinated, Japan does not bomb Pearl Harbor, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt is succeeded after two terms by Robert A. Taft—does cause us to review and better appreciate history. As Gurock tells his tale, he concludes every chapter with a short section that describes what actually happened and, thus, further educates the reader.

Visit Jeffrey S. Gurock's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Holocaust Averted.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Brendan Duffy reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Brendan Duffy, author of House of Echoes.

His entry begins:

I’m currently three-fourths of the way through Joe Hill’s short story collection, 20th Century Ghosts, and find myself rationing the remaining pages to make them last. I’ve enthusiastically devoured Hill’s novels—Heart-Shaped Box, Horns, and NOS4A2—but this collection reveals a whole new side to him. Anyone familiar with his work knows he has a top-rate imagination, but I was unprepared for how sensitive and sweet a writer he can be. To reveal such depth in as tight a format as a short story wildly impresses...[read on]

About House of Echoes, from the publisher:

In this enthralling and atmospheric thriller, one young family’s dream of a better life is about to become a nightmare.

Ben and Caroline Tierney and their two young boys are hoping to start over. Ben has hit a dead end with his new novel, Caroline has lost her banking job, and eight-year-old Charlie is being bullied at his Manhattan school.

When Ben inherits land in the village of Swannhaven, in a remote corner of upstate New York, the Tierneys believe it’s just the break they need, and they leave behind all they know to restore a sprawling estate. But as Ben uncovers Swannhaven’s chilling secrets and Charlie ventures deeper into the surrounding forest, strange things begin to happen. The Tierneys realize that their new home isn’t the fresh start they needed . . . and that the village’s haunting saga is far from over.

House of Echoes is a novel that shows how sometimes the ties that bind us are the only things that can keep us whole.

Visit Brendan Duffy's website.

Writers Read: Brendan Duffy.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Rachel Basch's "The Listener"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Listener by Rachel Basch.

About the book, from the publisher:

A wise and witty novel about the challenges to identity that arise in both adolescence and middle age—and the student and therapist who just may have the power to save each other.

Malcolm Dowd is almost positive he recognizes the freshman who shows up for a session at his office in Baxter College’s Center for Behavioral Health—he just can’t place her. When suddenly she stands, takes off her wig, and reveals herself as Noah, the young man Malcolm had been treating months earlier, it marks the start of a relationship that will change them both. After losing his wife at a young age, Malcolm dedicated himself to giving his two daughters the stable, predictable childhood he never had. But now nothing is predictable—not his young adult daughters, not himself, and certainly not Noah. Whether he’s attending class or rehearsing for the campus musical, Noah finds he’s often challenging everyone’s definition of gender. During the course of one semester, Noah’s and Malcolm’s lives become entwined in ways neither could ever have imagined. Told alternately from Malcolm’s and Noah’s perspectives The Listener explores the ways in which we conceal and reveal our identities. As truth after truth is exposed, characters are forced to reconsider themselves and reorder their lives, with few easy answers to be found for anyone. The Listener is, ultimately, about the power of human connection and the many shapes that love can take.

Visit Rachel Basch's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Listener.

--Marshal Zeringue

Martin Goldsmith's "Alex's Wake," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Alex's Wake: The Tragic Voyage of the St. Louis to Flee Nazi Germany--and a Grandson's Journey of Love and Remembrance by Martin Goldsmith.

The entry begins:

I cannot imagine an author alive today who has not dreamed, either by day or by night, of his/her words being made flesh and flickering on a screen, either large or small. More than a few of those kind readers who have contacted me after undertaking the journey that is Alex's Wake have declared it to be movie-worthy, to which I often respond with the time-honored, "From your lips to God's ears!" Just in case that Almighty Casting Director is paying attention, here are some hopeful suggestions:

I first encountered Kenneth Branagh in London in the late '80s, where he was appearing nightly in repertory in Shakespeare's As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, and Hamlet. I couldn't take my eyes off him when he was on stage and have loved his work ever since, convinced that he can bring any character to vivid life. Since part of the irrational impetus for my writing Alex's Wake was to save the lives of my relatives who were murdered ten years before I was born, the idea of Mr. Branagh bringing Grandfather Alex back to life is immensely appealing. For the role of Alex's son, my Uncle Helmut, a generous, inquisitive, good-humored young man, I would love to cast the sweet yet whip-smart Eddie...[read on]

Visit the Alex's Wake website.

The Page 99 Test: Alex's Wake.

My Book, The Movie: Alex's Wake.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top books about betrayal

Karin Altenberg was born in Sweden and moved to Britain to study in 1996. Her first novel, Island of Wings, was shortlisted for the Scottish book of the year award and longlisted for the Orange prize for fiction. Her latest novel is Breaking Light.

One of Altenberg's top ten books about betrayal, as shared at the Guardian:

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

I could have picked any of Greene’s novels: if there was ever a master of betrayal fiction, it was Greene. The End of the Affair, published in 1951, is a sad and beautiful story of love racked by jealousy and Catholic guilt. Written during the postwar austerity era, but set in wartime London, the narrative is loosely based on Greene’s affair with Lady Catherine Walston. When jealous ex-lover Maurice Bendrix realises that his major rival for the love of Sarah Miles is God, The End of the Affair is cast in new light.

Read about another book on the list.

The End of the Affair also appears on Howard Norman's six favorite books list, Newsweek's list of love-charmed novels from bomb-blitzed London, Alex Preston's top 10 list of fictional characters struggling with faith, John Mullan's lists of ten of the best explosions in literature, ten of the best umbrellas in literature, ten of the best novels about novelists, and ten of the best priests in literature, and Douglas Kennedy's top ten list of books about grief. It is one of Pico Iyer's four essential Graham Greene novels.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Santa Montefiore reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Santa Montefiore, author of The Beekeeper's Daughter.

Her entry begins:

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

I bought it because I read her brilliant and moving The Invention of Wings over Christmas and I loved it so much – really, it’s one of the most touching, beautifully-written and fascinating novels I have ever read – that I wanted to read more of her! My mother read The Secret Life of Bees and raved about it (and she’s very hard to please) so it’s on my bedside table, waiting to be started. It’s set in South Carolina in the sixties and rather like The Invention of Wings, is about two young women: a white woman and a black slave. Reading the short blurb about the story on the back of the book I know that I am going to love it. These two courageous young women flee together when...[read on]

About The Beekeeper's Daughter, from the publisher:

From the #1 internationally bestselling author, her first book set in America, the story of a mother and daughter searching for love and happiness, unaware of the secrets that bind them. To find what they are longing for they must confront the past, and unravel the lies told long ago.

England, 1932: Grace Hamblin is growing up on the beautiful estate of the Marquess and Marchioness of Penselwood. The beekeeper’s daughter, she knows her place and what the future holds—that is until her father dies. Her childhood friend Freddie has recently become her lover, and she is thankful when they are able to marry and take over her father’s duties. But there is another man who she just can’t shake from her thoughts…

Massachusetts, 1973: Grace’s daughter Trixie Valentine is in love with an unsuitable young man. Jasper Duncliffe is wild and romantic, and in a band that might hit it big. But when his brother dies and he is called home to England, Jasper promises to come back for Trixie one day, if only she will wait for him. Grace thinks that Trixie is surely abandoned and tries to support her daughter, but Trixie brushes off her mother’s advice and comfort. She is confident that Jasper’s love for her was real…

Set on a fictional island off the coast of Massachusetts with charming architecture, beautiful landscape, and quirky islanders, The Beekeeper’s Daughter is “a multigenerational banquet of love…one of the most engrossing reads of my year” (Elin Hilderbrand).

Visit Santa Montefiore's website.

Writers Read: Santa Montefiore.

--Marshal Zeringue