Pg. 69: Scott Gould's "Strangers to Temptation"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Strangers to Temptation by Scott Gould.

About the book, from the publisher:

The debut collection from award-winning short story writer Scott Gould, Strangers to Temptation, takes us to the white sand banks of the Black River in lowcountry South Carolina during the early 1970s, a place in time where religion and race provide the backdrop for an often uneasy coming-of-age. Linked by a common voice, these thirteen stories introduce us to a cast of uniquely Southern characters: a Vietnam vet father with half a stomach who plays a skinny Jesus in the annual Easter play; a mother/nurse attempting to heal the world, all the while sneaking sips of Smirnoff and Tang; a best friend whose reckless dive off a bridge earns him a fake eyeball and a new girlfriend; and our narrator, a baseball-playing, paper-delivering boy just hoping to navigate the crooked path out of adolescence. With the narrator’s eventual baptism into adulthood beneath the dark surface of the Black River, Strangers to Temptation reminds all of us what it felt like to be young, confused, and ultimately redeemed.

Visit Scott Gould's website.

The Page 69 Test: Strangers to Temptation.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five hilarious, real MG books about going back to school

At the BN Kids Blog Rachel Sarah tagged "five realistic contemporary novels, both new and classic stories [that] will help both reluctant and ravenous readers face the unknown and also feel brave enough to take risks," including:

Counting Thyme, by Melanie Conklin

Here’s another poignant middle grade novel that came out recently, by debut novelist Melanie Conklin, and it’s also about new beginnings.

Eleven-year-old Thyme Owens has to move from San Diego to New York City so her little brother can start a new cancer drug trial. Although this novel deals with a heavy topic (cancer) Conklin doesn’t let this weigh the reader down. It’s a sweet story about fitting into a new school, feeling homesick, falling for a boy, and facing a crisis.

Having moved many times in my life, I really enjoyed this message about starting over and facing challenges. If your soon-to-be-middle-schooler is feeling uneasy this summer, Counting Thyme is a great choice.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: Counting Thyme.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Jessica Brody reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Jessica Brody, author of In Some Other Life.

Her entry begins:

The Wars of the Roses by Dan Jones

About: The author of the New York Times bestseller The Plantagenets and Magna Carta chronicles the next chapter in British history—the historical backdrop for Game of Thrones

Why I Love It: So, I just got back from London where I religiously visited every Plantagenet and Tudor landmark I could find in eight days. After reading The White Queen and The White Princess by Philippa Gregory, it's safe to say, I was a little obsessed. And after I learned that the War of the Roses was the real-life inspiration for...[read on]

About In Some Other Life, from the publisher:

Three years ago, Kennedy Rhodes secretly made the most important decision of her life. She declined her acceptance to the prestigious Windsor Academy to attend the local public school with her longtime crush, who had finally asked her out. It seems it was the right choice—she and Austin are still together, and Kennedy is now the editor in chief of the school's award-winning newspaper. But then Kennedy's world is shattered one evening when she walks in on Austin kissing her best friend, and she wonders if maybe her life would have been better if she'd made the other choice. As fate would have it, she's about to find out...

The very next day, Kennedy falls and hits her head and mysteriously awakes as a student at the Windsor Academy. And not just any student: Kennedy is at the top of her class, she's popular, she has the coolest best friend around, and she's practically a shoo-in for Columbia University. But as she navigates her new world, she starts to wonder whether this alternate version of herself really is as happy as everyone seems to believe. Is it possible this Kennedy is harboring secrets and regrets of her own? A fresh and funny story about how one different choice could change everything, Jessica Brody's In Some Other Life will keep readers guessing, and find them cheering for Kennedy until the final page.

Learn more about the book and author at Jessica Brody's website and blog.

My Book, The Movie: 52 Reasons to Hate My Father.

My Book, The Movie: Unremembered.

The Page 69 Test: Unchanged.

Writers Read: Jessica Brody.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books where the hero doesn’t save the day

Curtis Craddock lives in Aurora, Colorado, where he teaches Computer Information Systems classes to offenders at a correctional facility. The newly released An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors is his first book.

One of his five favorite books where the hero doesn’t save the day, as shared at Tor.com:

Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman

Dr. Impossible begins at a serious disadvantage when it comes to saving the day, considering he is the supervillain of the piece. Despite being the bad guy, he’s in many ways the most heroic character in the story, striving harder and suffering more to achieve his goals than anyone else. This one is worth a read for its off-beat, backward look at the clichés of superhero stories and for its character building. Just don’t expect Dr. Impossible to be to be getting the key to the city at the end. The keys to the handcuffs, on the other hand…

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Molly Patterson's "Rebellion"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Rebellion: A Novel by Molly Patterson.

About the book, from the publisher:

A sweeping debut that crosses continents and generations, Rebellion tells the story of Addie, Louisa, Hazel, and Juanlan: four women whose rebellions, big and small, are as unexpected as they are unforgettable.

At the heart of the novel lies a mystery: In 1900, Addie, an American missionary in China, goes missing during the Boxer Rebellion, leaving her family back home to wonder at her fate. Her sister Louisa—newly married and settled in rural Illinois—anticipates tragedy, certain that Addie’s fate is intertwined with her own legacy of loss.

In 1958, Louisa’s daughter Hazel has her world upended by the untimely death of her husband. It’s harvest time, and with two small children and a farm to tend, she is determined to keep her land and family intact. Yet even while she learns to enjoy her independence, Hazel realizes that the tradeoff for some freedoms is more precious than expected.

Nearly half a century later, Juanlan has returned to her parents’ home in Heng’an. With her father ill, her sister-in-law soon to give birth, and the construction of a new highway rapidly changing the town she once knew, she feels pressured on every side by powers outside her control. Frustrated by obligation and the smallness of her own dreams, Juanlan at last dares to follow desire, only to discover an anger that cannot be contained.

Moving from rural Illinois to the far reaches of China, Rebellion brilliantly links through action and consequence the story of four women, spanning more than a century. From the secrets they keep and the adventures they embark on, to the passions that ultimately drive them forward, the characters at the center of this electric debut dramatically fight against expectation in pursuit of their own thrilling fates.

Visit Molly Patterson's website.

The Page 69 Test: Rebellion.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top books on postwar France

Alex Christofi is a writer and editor living in London. His latest novel, Let Us Be True, is set in 60s Paris. One of his top ten books on postwar France, as shared at the Guardian:

A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter (1967)

This romance in the Burgundy town of Autun may be the only erotic novel ever to have been written where the prose is as good as the sex. (“They lie exhausted, side by side, as if just having beached a great boat.”) But it is overwhelmingly a melancholy novel, tinged with loss. “It is not the great squares of Europe that seem desolate to me,” the narrator writes, “but the myriad small towns closed tight against the traveller, towns as still as the countryside itself.”

Read about another entry on the list.

A Sport and a Pastime is among Chris Killen's top ten novels about lost friendships, Emma Straub's top ten holidays in fiction, Thomas H. Cook's five must reads on the writing life, Adam Ross's favorite books under 200 pages, Lorin Stein's six Paris Review book picks, and Jeff Gordinier's list of five books that will make you question the wisdom of ever falling in love.

--Marshal Zeringue

Allan Woodrow's "Unschooled," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Unschooled by Allan Woodrow.

The entry begins:

When thinking about creating a ‘dream cast’ I had a significant obstacle—all the main characters are in 5th grade. It’s no fun to limit your cast to 10-year olds—there just aren’t many famous ones to choose from. So I’m going to assume that my actors are so awesome, and our make-up specialist is going to be so talented, that I can pick any actor or actress, regardless of age, and the audience will completely buy they are in elementary school.

Sure, that’s a leap, but this is my imaginary casting list, so I can do whatever I want.

The two main characters are George and Lilly. George is buttoned-up, great at organizing and a little neurotic. I need a great comedic actor, who can play neurotic. I’m going with Steve Carell here, mostly because I’m a big fan, but also because he excels in that sort of nerdy-but-likeable role. Opposite him, is Lilly. She’s everything George is not – carefree, disorganized. I’m going with...[read on]

Visit Allan Woodrow's website.

The Page 69 Test: Class Dismissed.

My Book, The Movie: Unschooled.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Dennis Rasmussen's "The Infidel and the Professor"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship That Shaped Modern Thought by Dennis C. Rasmussen.

About the book, from the publisher:

The story of the greatest of all philosophical friendships—and how it influenced modern thought

David Hume is widely regarded as the most important philosopher ever to write in English, but during his lifetime he was attacked as “the Great Infidel” for his skeptical religious views and deemed unfit to teach the young. In contrast, Adam Smith was a revered professor of moral philosophy, and is now often hailed as the founding father of capitalism. Remarkably, the two were best friends for most of their adult lives, sharing what Dennis Rasmussen calls the greatest of all philosophical friendships. The Infidel and the Professor is the first book to tell the fascinating story of the friendship of these towering Enlightenment thinkers—and how it influenced their world-changing ideas.

The book follows Hume and Smith’s relationship from their first meeting in 1749 until Hume’s death in 1776. It describes how they commented on each other’s writings, supported each other’s careers and literary ambitions, and advised each other on personal matters, most notably after Hume’s quarrel with Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Members of a vibrant intellectual scene in Enlightenment Scotland, Hume and Smith made many of the same friends (and enemies), joined the same clubs, and were interested in many of the same subjects well beyond philosophy and economics—from psychology and history to politics and Britain’s conflict with the American colonies. The book reveals that Smith’s private religious views were considerably closer to Hume’s public ones than is usually believed. It also shows that Hume contributed more to economics—and Smith contributed more to philosophy—than is generally recognized.

Vividly written, The Infidel and the Professor is a compelling account of a great friendship that had great consequences for modern thought.

Learn more about The Infidel and the Professor at the Princeton University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Infidel and the Professor.

--Marshal Zeringue

Fifty essential high school stories

At the B&N Reads blog Brian Boone tagged fifty of the most essential high school stories. Two novels on the list:

Special Topics in Calamity Physics, by Marisha Pessl

Pessl’s debut is presented like a syllabus, each chapter title alluding to a classic work. The plot: deadpan genius Blue van Meer, the perennial new kid in town owing to her father’s peripatetic ways, has all the advanced knowledge and study skills necessary to succeed at a prestigious private school, but lacks the pro-level social skills necessary to launch herself socially. But when she catches the eye of a charismatic, beautiful teacher—one we learn, in the book’s earliest pages, will not survive—her life radically changes.

The Page 69 Test: Marisha Pessl's Special Topics in Calamity Physics.

Acceptance, by Susan Coll

High school isn’t all cliques, romantic drama, and finding one’s true identity—it’s also about the stress and anticipation of what comes next. Acceptance is an amusing look at those high school kids who are already overachieving and burning out before they’ve even left home. Focusing on three juniors and their college admissions counselor, the book follows their trudge through SAT prep courses, AP classes, AP exams, college essay writing…

The Page 69 Test: Susan Coll's Acceptance.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Colin Cotterill's "The Rat Catchers' Olympics"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Rat Catchers' Olympics by Colin Cotterill.

About the book, from the publisher:

The boycotting of the 1980 Olympic games in Moscow has given the Democratic People’s Republic of Laos the chance they needed to field their first-ever team. It’s also just the sort of opportunity the now retired, and therefore very bored, ex-National Coroner of Laos, the venerable Dr. Siri Paiboun, to visit a city he has long wanted to see. He just needs to get the band back together first.

1980: The People’s Democratic Republic of Laos is proud to be competing in its first-ever Olympics. Of course, half the world is boycotting the Moscow Summer Olympic Games to protest the Soviet Union’s recent invasion of Afghanistan, but that has made room for athletes from countries that are usually too small or underfunded to be competitive—like Laos.

Ex-national coroner of Laos Dr. Siri Paiboun may be retired, but he and his wife, Madame Daeng, would do just about anything to have a chance to visit Moscow, so Siri finagles them a trip by getting them hired as medical advisers to the Olympians. Most of the athletes are young and innocent village people who have never worn running shoes, much less imagined anything as marvelous as the Moscow Olympic Village. As the competition heats up, however, Siri begins to suspect that one of the athletes is not who he says he is. Fearing a conspiracy, Siri and his friends investigate, liaising in secret with Inspector Phosy back home in Laos to see if the man might be an assassin. Siri’s progress is derailed when a Lao Olympian is accused of murder. Now in the midst of a murky international incident, Dr. Siri must navigate not one but two paranoid government machines to make sure justice is done.

Learn more about the book and author at Colin Cotterill's website.

The Page 69 Test: Killed at the Whim of a Hat.

My Book, The Movie: Killed at the Whim of a Hat.

The Page 69 Test: The Axe Factor.

The Page 69 Test: I Shot the Buddha.

The Page 69 Test: The Rat Catchers' Olympics.

--Marshal Zeringue

Four books that changed Rachel Seiffert

Rachel Seiffert's most recent novel is A Boy in Winter.

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

VICTOR KLEMPERER'S DIARIES

Victor Klemperer was a Jewish academic at the university of Dresden, who lost his job under the Nazis' race laws. He survived the Third Reich in Germany, but only just, and principally because his "Aryan" wife refused to divorce him. Klemperer kept a diary in secret for more than a decade, the pages hidden by his wife and sister-in-law. It brings the times so close, I learned more about Nazi Germany reading his account than through any other single author.

Read about another book on the list.

I Will Bear Witness by Victor Klemperer is among Konrad Jarausch's five best books about German views of World War II.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Mary Miley reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Mary Miley, author of Murder in Disguise: A Roaring Twenties mystery.

Her entry begins:

I just returned from a long trip overseas, during which I polished off several good books. For me, one of the pleasures of travel is reading at night and I can only endure the long airplane rides if I can lose myself in a good story. Call me a Luddite—I prefer the word traditionalist—but I read only real books. I don’t own an e-reader. When traveling, I take along paperbacks, which I discard as I go. No, I don’t throw them out—that would be sacrilegious—I leave them wherever we are staying, on shipboard libraries or on the bookshelves in the castles or historic homes we rent.

On this most recent trip, we visited Ireland and Scotland for pleasure and a bit of business—research for my next novel. I read A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, which was...[read on]

About Murder in Disguise, from the publisher:

1920s script girl Jessie Beckett investigates the murder of a movie projectionist in this absorbing historical mystery.

A projectionist is shot dead and his grieving widow asks Jessie if she can find out who killed him, but who shot Joe Petrovitch? And how did the murderer leave the movie theatre without being seen? Jessie must go into the dead man's past and uncover dark secrets from another continent and another era...

Learn more about the book and author at Mary Miley's website, blog, and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: The Impersonator.

The Page 69 Test: Silent Murders.

My Book, The Movie: Silent Murders.

The Page 69 Test: Renting Silence.

My Book, The Movie: Murder in Disguise.

The Page 69 Test: Murder in Disguise.

Writers Read: Mary Miley.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top books to help middle schoolers make & find real friends

At the BN Kids Blog Rachel Sarah tagged five "witty, honest novels about friendship with lots of humor along the way," including:

My Seventh Grade Life in Tights, by Brooks Benjamin

Seventh-grader Dillon wants is to be a real dancer, but his dad wants him to play football. When Dillon enters a contest to win a Dance-Splosion scholarship, everything changes. Dillon’s freestyle crew, the Dizzee Freekz, want Dillon to kill the audition, and they even convince one of the snobbiest girls at school to help with him with his technique. But as Dillon’s dancing improves, he wonders if maybe his friends should reconsider their ideas about dance studios being sellouts. His friends want Dillon to tell the studio just how wrong their rules and creativity-strangling ways are, and it’s time for Dillon to think about what he wants.

A funny great read for Better Nate Than Ever fans, debut author Benjamin has written a great story about being who you are and doing what you love. It’s so full of spunk, ninja freestyle moves, and lots of heart.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: My Seventh-Grade Life in Tights.

Coffee with a Canine: Brooks Benjamin & LeeLoo.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ronlyn Domingue's "The Plague Diaries," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Plague Diaries--Keeper of Tales Trilogy: Book Three by Ronlyn Domingue.

The entry begins:

In The Plague Diaries, Secret Riven’s fate is to release a plague to end an ancient pestilence. Her mythic call involves an arcane manuscript, a strange symbol, and a 1,000-year-old family legacy. The trilogy’s last book is a whopper, and I can’t imagine anyone trying to adapt for a movie. For a series, oh most definitely.

Secret Riven—Our heroine with black hair, tawny skin, and eyes the colors of night and day. She’s smart, introverted, curious—and strong in ways she doesn’t realize. Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark on Game of Thrones, could handle Secret’s complexity.

Fewmany, the magnate—The villain you love to hate and hate to love. For me, only Alan Rickman possessed the gravitas, and the voice, to embody this character. Rest in peace, good sir. But a friend suggested Timothy...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Ronlyn Domingue's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: The Mapmaker's War.

My Book, The Movie: The Mapmaker's War.

The Page 69 Test: The Chronicle of Secret Riven.

My Book, The Movie: The Plague Diaries.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top books inspired by literary classics

Kamila Shamsie's new novel is Home Fire.

One of her six favorite books inspired by literary classics, as shared at The Week magazine:

Leaf Storm by Gabriel García Márquez

I became aware of this book of stories about the time I started thinking about writing my own adaptation of Antigone. When I started to read the title novella, I was gripped, but had to put it down because I didn't want to think about Márquez's adaptation while working on my own. Time to pick it up again.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Eva Dillon's "Spies in the Family"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Spies in the Family: An American Spymaster, His Russian Crown Jewel, and the Friendship That Helped End the Cold War by Eva Dillon.

About the book, from the publisher:

A riveting true-life thriller and revealing memoir from the daughter of an American intelligence officer—the astonishing true story of two spies and their families on opposite sides of the Cold War.

In the summer of 1975, seventeen-year-old Eva Dillon's family was living in New Delhi when her father was exposed as a CIA spy. Eva had long believed that her father was a U.S. State Department employee. She had no idea that he was handling the CIA’s highest-ranking double agent—Dmitri Fedorovich Polyakov—a Soviet general whose code name was TOPHAT. Dillon’s father and Polyakov had a close friendship that went back years, to their first meeting in Burma in the mid-1960s. At the height of the Cold War, the Russian offered the CIA an unfiltered view into the vault of Soviet intelligence. His collaboration helped ensure that tensions between the two nuclear superpowers did not escalate into a shooting war.

Spanning fifty years and three continents, Spies in the Family is a deeply researched account of two families on opposite sides of the lethal espionage campaigns of the Cold War, and two men whose devoted friendship lasted a lifetime, until the devastating final days of their lives. With impeccable insider access to both families as well as knowledgeable CIA and FBI officers, Dillon goes beyond the fog of secrecy to craft an unforgettable story of friendship and betrayal, double agents and clandestine lives, that challenges our notions of patriotism, exposing the commonality between peoples of opposing political economic systems.

Both a gripping tale of spy craft and a moving personal story, Spies in the Family is an invaluable and heart-rending work.

Learn more about Spies in the Family at the publisher's website.

The Page 99 Test: Spies in the Family.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five SFF stories in which translators save the day

Jeff Somers is the author of Lifers, the Avery Cates series from Orbit Books, Chum from Tyrus Books, and the Ustari Cycle from Pocket/Gallery, including We Are Not Good People. At the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy blog he tagged five sci-fi and fantasy stories "in which a translator gets to save the day—at least in part because they’re the only ones who can figure out what’s going on." One title on the list:

Louise Banks in “Story of Your Life”, by Ted Chiang

Dr. Louise Banks is called in to help translate an alien language when spaceships appear in twelve areas around the globe. Amidst a tense military presence and constrained by secretive CIA operatives and the mind-bending presence of the aliens themselves, she struggles with visions of her doomed daughter that aren’t exactly what they seem while working on a language that is like nothing humanity has ever encountered. It’s very safe to say that without spoiling anything Dr. Banks more or less single-handedly saves humanity from long-range doom by finally having the epiphany that allows us to communicate and understand the visitors—but don’t let the word “epiphany” fool you; it’s very clear that only through Banks’ experience, training, and exhaustive work on-site that the breakthrough comes to her. Chiang even surrounds her with more conventional “hero” types as contrast—hero types who almost ruin everything.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Mary Miley's "Murder in Disguise"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Murder in Disguise: A Roaring Twenties mystery by Mary Miley.

About the book, from the publisher:

1920s script girl Jessie Beckett investigates the murder of a movie projectionist in this absorbing historical mystery.

A projectionist is shot dead and his grieving widow asks Jessie if she can find out who killed him, but who shot Joe Petrovitch? And how did the murderer leave the movie theatre without being seen? Jessie must go into the dead man's past and uncover dark secrets from another continent and another era...

Learn more about the book and author at Mary Miley's website, blog, and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: The Impersonator.

The Page 69 Test: Silent Murders.

My Book, The Movie: Silent Murders.

The Page 69 Test: Renting Silence.

My Book, The Movie: Murder in Disguise.

The Page 69 Test: Murder in Disguise.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Zoë Sharp reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Zoë Sharp, author of Fox Hunter: A Charlie Fox Thriller.

Her entry begins:

I tend to read quite a bit of nonfiction for research, which I prefer to do in print format, as it’s easier to stick Post-It notes to the appropriate pages. Today’s mail brought a paperback edition of Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton, the story of a small band of Special Forces soldiers who rode to war against the Taliban in Afghanistan on horseback. The time and place of this story appealed to me, as well as the horse involvement. It promises to be a combination of cavalry tactics and modern technological warfare. Invaluable when....[read on]

About Fox Hunter, from the publisher:

In the latest novel in this energetic series, ex-special forces soldier Charlie Fox finds herself on a mission to the Iraqi countryside to track down a missing comrade-in-arms.

Special forces soldier-turned-bodyguard Charlotte “Charlie” Fox can never forget the men who put a brutal end to her military career, but a long time ago she vowed she would not go looking for them.

Now she doesn’t have a choice.

Her boss Sean Meyer is missing in Iraq, where one of those men was working as a private security contractor. When the man’s butchered body is discovered, Charlie fears that Sean may be pursuing a twisted vendetta on her behalf.

Charlie’s “close protection” agency in New York needs this dealt with—fast and quiet—before everything they’ve worked for goes to ruins. They send Charlie to the Middle East with very specific instructions: Find Sean Meyer and stop him—by whatever means necessary.

At one time Charlie thought she knew Sean better than she knew herself, but it seems he’s turned into a violent stranger. Always ruthless, is he really capable of such savage acts of slaughter?

As the trail grows ever more bloody, Charlie realizes that she is not the only one after Sean and, unless she can get to him first, the hunter may soon become the hunted.

Learn more about the author and her work at Zoë Sharp’s website, blog, or find her on Facebook or Twitter.

The Page 69 Test: Third Strike.

The Page 69 Test: Fifth Victim.

My Book, The Movie: Fifth Victim.

The Page 99 Test: Die Easy.

My Book, The Movie: Fox Hunter.

The Page 69 Test: Fox Hunter.

Writers Read: Zoë Sharp.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top novels with a strong evocation of atmosphere

Kate Hamer is the author of The Girl in the Red Coat and The Doll Funeral. "When settings are really successful in a novel," she argues, "they mean we can experience it as a complete world." One of her six favorite stories that pull it off, as shared at LitHub:

Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

No list about books with a spooky sense of place would be complete without Bronte’s windswept, haunting novel (Wuthering is a local word meaning wild, exposed, storm-blown). The Yorkshire moors have become so linked with the Brontes and in particular this strange, passionate and singular book that it’s hard to imagine a time pre-existing the novel when you visit the place. Charlotte Bronte interestingly used terms embedded in the landscape to describe her sister’s book: “Wuthering Heights stands colossal, dark and frowning, half statue, half-rock. Over much there broods “a horror of great darkness” in its storm-heated and electrical atmosphere we seem at times to breathe lightning.” The Gothic motifs of wildness, ghostly appearances and ramshackle dwellings are all in order but somehow the power of the novel and the incredible nature of those places and landscape mean that it never falls beyond anything that seems completely real.

Read about another entry on the list.

Wuthering Heights appears on Siri Hustvedt's six favorite books list, Tom Easton's top ten list of fictional "houses which themselves seem to have a personality which affects the story," Melissa Harrison's list of the ten top depictions of British rain, Meredith Borders's list of ten of the scariest gothic romances, Ed Sikov's list of eight top books that got slammed by critics, Amelia Schonbek's top five list of approachable must-read classics, Molly Schoemann-McCann's top five list of the lamest girlfriends in fiction, Becky Ferreira's list of seven of the worst wingmen in literature, Na'ima B. Robert's top ten list of Romeo and Juliet stories, Jimmy So's list of fifteen notable film adaptations of literary classics, John Mullan's lists of ten of the best thunderstorms in literature, ten of the worst nightmares in literature and ten of the best foundlings in literature, Valerie Martin's list of novels about doomed marriages, Susan Cheever's list of the five best books about obsession, and Melissa Katsoulis' top 25 list of book to film adaptations. It is one of John Inverdale's six best books and Sheila Hancock's six best books.

The Page 99 Test: Wuthering Heights.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Ethan Kleinberg's "Haunting History"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Haunting History: For a Deconstructive Approach to the Past by Ethan Kleinberg.

About the book, from the publisher:

This book argues for a deconstructive approach to the practice and writing of history at a moment when available forms for writing and publishing history are undergoing radical transformation. To do so, it explores the legacy and impact of deconstruction on American historical work; the current fetishization of lived experience, materialism, and the "real;" new trends in philosophy of history; and the persistence of ontological realism as the dominant mode of thought for conventional historians.

Arguing that this ontological realist mode of thinking is reinforced by current analog publishing practices, Ethan Kleinberg advocates for a hauntological approach to history that follows the work of Jacques Derrida and embraces a past that is at once present and absent, available and restricted, rather than a fixed and static snapshot of a moment in time. This polysemic understanding of the past as multiple and conflicting, he maintains, is what makes the deconstructive approach to the past particularly well suited to new digital forms of historical writing and presentation.

Learn more about Haunting History at the Stanford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Haunting History.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven YA novels to read after a breakup

Sona Charaipotra is a New York City-based writer and editor with more than a decade’s worth of experience in print and online media. At the BN Teen blog she tagged seven YA books to read after a breakup, including:

Audrey, Wait, by Robin Benway

Breakups are always hard. But what might make one a million times harder? Having to share your pain with the world. That’s what happens to everygirl Audrey when her split with her ex Evan inspires him to write a song—one that becomes a national hit. Now her angst has been chronicled for everyone to see. And how’s a girl supposed to move on with paparazzi stalking her every move?

Learn about another book on the list.

Audrey, Wait is among Cecil Castellucci's eight YA novels with characters whose lives are changed by music.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Beth Cato reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Beth Cato, author of Call of Fire (Blood of Earth).

Her entry begins:

I recently read a fun forthcoming debut novel by Joseph Brassey, entitled Skyfarer. I first saw it described as "Star Wars meets Final Fantasy," and that's pretty accurate. There are a lot of space opera-like elements, but it's entirely set on a fantasy world abounding with powerful magic. There are genre tropes aplenty, but they gave the book a cozy feel, and Brassey kept...[read on]

About Call of Fire, from the publisher:

A resourceful young heroine must protect the world from her enemies—and her own power—in this thrilling sequel to the acclaimed Breath of Earth, an imaginative blend of alternative history, fantasy, science, magic, and adventure.

When an earthquake devastates San Francisco in an alternate 1906, the influx of geomantic energy nearly consumes Ingrid Carmichael. Bruised but alive, the young geomancer flees the city with her friends, Cy, Lee, and Fenris. She is desperate to escape Ambassador Blum, the cunning and dangerous bureaucrat who wants to use Ingrid’s formidable powers to help the Unified Pacific—the confederation of the United States and Japan—achieve world domination. To stop them, Ingrid must learn more about the god-like magic she inherited from her estranged father—the man who set off the quake that obliterated San Francisco.

When Lee and Fenris are kidnapped in Portland, Ingrid and Cy are forced to ally themselves with another ambassador from the Unified Pacific: the powerful and mysterious Theodore Roosevelt. But even TR’s influence may not be enough to save them when they reach Seattle, where the magnificent peak of Mount Rainier looms. Discovering more about herself and her abilities, Ingrid is all too aware that she may prove to be the fuse to light the long-dormant volcano ... and a war that will sweep the world.

Visit Beth Cato's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Clockwork Dagger.

My Book, The Movie: The Clockwork Crown.

The Page 69 Test: Breath of Earth.

The Page 69 Test: Call of Fire.

Writers Read: Beth Cato.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Paula Stokes's "Ferocious"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Ferocious by Paula Stokes.

About the book, from the publisher:

Paula Stokes returns to the world of Vicarious in this sequel, a high-action psychological thriller with a protagonist out for vengeance.

When Winter Kim finds out that her sister is dead and that she has a brother she never knew about, only two things matter—finding what’s left of her family and killing the man who destroyed her life. Her mission leads her from St. Louis to Los Angeles back to South Korea, where she grew up.

Things get increasingly dangerous once Winter arrives in Seoul. Aided by her friends Jesse and Sebastian, Winter attempts to infiltrate an international corporation to get close to her target, a nefarious businessman named Kyung. But keeping her last remaining loved ones out of the line of fire proves difficult, and when all seems to be lost, Winter must face one last devastating decision: is revenge worth sacrificing everything for? Or can she find a spark of hope in the darkness that threatens to engulf her?

Learn more about the book and author at Paula Stokes's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: The Art of Lainey.

The Page 69 Test: Girl Against the Universe.

The Page 69 Test: Vicarious.

The Page 69 Test: Ferocious.

--Marshal Zeringue

Michael Poore's "Reincarnation Blues," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore.

The entry begins:

Reincarnation Blues is the story of Milo, a man (sometimes a woman, or cricket, or turtle, or…) who has lived almost 10,000 lives. This makes him the oldest soul in the galaxy, and the wisest. But now he has been given five more lives to achieve some kind of perfection, or face oblivion. The movie version of the book would take those lives in turn, with Will Smith as my ancient, soulful hero.

Milo has to be extraordinary…smart and groovy, full of snappy understandings and deep wisdom, but he also needs to be someone we like and identify with. That’s Will Smith! I’m thinking of Hancock, here, where he’s a superhero, but a cool, kinda scruffy superhero. That’s Milo, in many of his lives (including one where he’s an actual superhero, Captain Gworkon). Smith would need to be able to play Milo as everything from a highway sniper to a student of the Buddha.

In between lives, we’d accompany Milo into the afterlife, and meet Suzie, his girlfriend...[read on]

Visit Michael Poore's website.

My Book, The Movie: Reincarnation Blues.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top books about strange cities

Adam Christopher's newest novel is Killing Is My Business (Ray Electromatic Mysteries, Volume 2).

At Tor.com he tagged "five books where the setting—in this case, strange cities—is key," including:

Our Lady of the Ice by Cassandra Rose Clarke

Set in Hope City, the domed city deep in the heart of Argentine Antarctica, Our Lady of the Ice combines a steampunk sensibility with a classic crime mystery to produce a masterpiece of innovative world building. As the city begins to fall apart, private eye Eliana Gomez is charged with the recovery of some stolen documents, the fee from which will allow her to flee her increasingly fragile home. Highly original… even if you perhaps wouldn’t want to visit Hope City yourself!

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Whitney Strub reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Whitney Strub, editor (with Carolyn Bronstein) of Porno Chic and the Sex Wars: American Sexual Representation in the 1970s.

From his entry:

in a desperate attempt to understand what went so wrong, I recently read Wayne Barrett’s Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth, originally published in 1992 but reissued last year. It’s an astonishingly well-researched compendium of the narcissism, greed, racism, corruption, incompetence, and belligerence that define Donald Trump, a man with effectively zero redeeming qualities. Barrett is meticulous when it comes to detailing the repeated failures of Trump’s early career, from New York City development to football schemes to Atlantic City; over and over again, he was bailed out by his wealthy father or saved by his willingness to resort to sociopathic levels of aggression, rather than talent or...[read on]

About Porno Chic and the Sex Wars, from the publisher:

For many Americans, the emergence of a “porno chic” culture provided an opportunity to embrace the sexual revolution by attending a film like Deep Throat (1972) or leafing through an erotic magazine like Penthouse. By the 1980s, this pornographic moment was beaten back by the rise of Reagan-era political conservatism and feminist anti-pornography sentiment.

This volume places pornography at the heart of the 1970s American experience, exploring lesser-known forms of pornography from the decade, such as a new, vibrant gay porn genre; transsexual/female impersonator magazines; and pornography for new users, including women and conservative Christians. The collection also explores the rise of a culture of porn film auteurs and stars as well as the transition from film to video. As the corpus of adult ephemera of the 1970s disintegrates, much of it never to be professionally restored and archived, these essays seek to document what pornography meant to its producers and consumers at a pivotal moment.

In addition to the volume editors, contributors include Peter Alilunas, Gillian Frank, Elizabeth Fraterrigo, Lucas Hilderbrand, Nancy Semin Lingo, Laura Helen Marks, Nicholas Matte, Jennifer Christine Nash, Joe Rubin, Alex Warner, Leigh Ann Wheeler, and Greg Youmans.

Visit Whit Strub’s blog, and read more about Porno Chic and the Sex Wars at the University of Massachusetts Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Porno Chic and the Sex Wars.

Writers Read: Whitney Strub.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Rachel Kadish's "The Weight of Ink"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish.

About The Weight of Ink, from the publisher:

An intellectual and emotional jigsaw puzzle of a novel for readers of A. S. Byatt’s Possession and Geraldine Brooks’s People of the Book

Set in London of the 1660s and of the early twenty-first century, The Weight of Ink is the interwoven tale of two women of remarkable intellect: Ester Velasquez, an emigrant from Amsterdam who is permitted to scribe for a blind rabbi, just before the plague hits the city; and Helen Watt, an ailing historian with a love of Jewish history.

As the novel opens, Helen has been summoned by a former student to view a cache of seventeenth-century Jewish documents newly discovered in his home during a renovation. Enlisting the help of Aaron Levy, an American graduate student as impatient as he is charming, and in a race with another fast-moving team of historians, Helen embarks on one last project: to determine the identity of the documents’ scribe, the elusive “Aleph.”

Electrifying and ambitious, sweeping in scope and intimate in tone, The Weight of Ink is a sophisticated work of historical fiction about women separated by centuries, and the choices and sacrifices they must make in order to reconcile the life of the heart and mind.

Visit Rachel Kadish's official website.

The Page 69 Test: Tolstoy Lied.

My Book, The Movie: The Weight of Ink.

Writers Read: Rachel Kadish.

The Page 69 Test: The Weight of Ink.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top books that cast forests as dangerous, dark, and deep

Sam Reader is a writer and conventions editor for The Geek Initiative. He also writes literary criticism and reviews at strangelibrary.com. At the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog he tagged ten "books that cast forests in their proper light: dangerous, dark, and deep," including:

Meddling Kids, by Edgar Cantero

In the remote town of Blyton Hills, a group of preteen sleuths solve crimes involving pirates and sheep smugglers—until an investigation into a lake monster traps them in a haunted mansion out of a horror movie and puts them face-to-face with the Lovecraftian fishpeople of the Zoinx River Valley. Thirteen years later, the snarkier, more genre-savvy, still traumatized members of the Blyton Hills Summer Detective Club reunite to solve the case that haunts their every waking (and sleeping) moment, battling their way through the creepy forests, abandoned mines, and through the haunted DeBoën Manor to stop the cosmic horror at the center of Sleepy Lake. Cantero’s smart enough to know we’ve already seen snarky heroes fighting their way through cosmic horror, and uses the opportunity to explore the deeper themes of closure, trauma, and learning to move on from the past.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Chelsea Schelly's "Dwelling in Resistance"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Dwelling in Resistance: Living with Alternative Technologies in America by Chelsea Schelly.

About the book, from the publisher:

Most Americans take for granted much of what is materially involved in the daily rituals of dwelling. In Dwelling in Resistance, Chelsea Schelly examines four alternative U.S. communities—“The Farm,” “Twin Oaks,” “Dancing Rabbit,” and “Earthships”—where electricity, water, heat, waste, food, and transportation practices differ markedly from those of the vast majority of Americans.

Schelly portrays a wide range of residential living alternatives utilizing renewable, small-scale, de-centralized technologies. These technologies considerably change how individuals and communities interact with the material world, their natural environment, and one another. Using in depth interviews and compelling ethnographic observations, the book offers an insightful look at different communities’ practices and principles and their successful endeavors in sustainability and self-sufficiency.

Learn more about Dwelling in Resistance at the Rutgers University Press website.

Chelsea Schelly is an associate professor of sociology at Michigan Technological University in Houghton. She is the author of Crafting Collectivity: American Rainbow Gatherings and Alternative Forms of Community.

The Page 99 Test: Dwelling in Resistance.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top books about tyrants

Christopher Wilson is the author of several novels, including - Gallimauf's Gospel, Baa, Blueglass, Mischief, Fou, The Wurd, The Ballad of Lee Cotton, Nookie, and The Zoo. One of his top ten books about tyrants, as shared at the Guardian:

I, Claudius by Robert Graves

A writer, lame, with a stammer and deaf in one ear, Claudius is seen as an idiot by his Roman imperial family – too ineffectual to bother about, let alone kill. Claudius watches as his relatives jostle for power and dispose of each other. Augustus gives way to the paranoid Tiberius. Then there’s the crazy Caligula, who declares himself a god, makes his horse a senator, commits incest with his three sisters and has sections of the crowd at the games thrown to the lions. Imagined by Robert Graves, sourced from Suetonius and Tacitus accounts, the book is an encyclopaedia of tyrannical possibilities, and a cracking, engrossing, gossipy read.

Read about another entry on the list.

I, Claudius also appears on Sarah Dunant's six favorite books list, Daniel Godfrey's top five list of books about ancient Rome, Jeff Somers's list of six historical fiction novels that are almost fantasy, Tracy-Ann Oberman's six best books list, the Telegraph's lists of the 21 greatest television adaptations of novels and the twenty best British and Irish novels of all time, Daisy Goodwin's list of six favorite historical fiction books, a list of the eleven best political books of all time, David Chase's six favorite books list, Andrew Miller's top ten list of historical novels, Mark Malloch-Brown's list of his six favorite novels of empire, Annabel Lyon's top ten list of books on the ancient world, Lindsey Davis' top ten list of Roman books, and John Mullan's lists of ten of the best emperors in literature and ten of the best poisonings in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Lindsay Hunter reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Lindsay Hunter, author of Eat Only When You're Hungry.

Her entry begins:

Stephen Florida, Gabe Habash

Strange, funny, frightening, dark. Like a yawn that turns into a laugh, but there's the sting of tears in your eyes. It's one of those rare books whose construction embodies its soul and vice versa. Every sentence feels purposeful and fucked up and I was delighted and afraid. I recently read an interview with Habash where he said he seeks out writers "who...[read on]

About Eat Only When You're Hungry, from the publisher:

A father searches for his addict son while grappling with his own choices as a parent (and as a user of sorts)

Achingly funny and full of feeling, Eat Only When You’re Hungry follows fifty-eight-year-old Greg as he searches for his son, GJ, an addict who has been missing for three weeks. Greg is bored, demoralized, obese, and as dubious of GJ’s desire to be found as he is of his own motivation to go looking. Almost on a whim, Greg embarks on a road trip to central Florida—a noble search for his son, or so he tells himself.

Greg takes us on a tour of highway and roadside, of Taco Bell, KFC, gas-station Slurpees, sticky strip-club floors, pooling sweat, candy wrappers and crumpled panes of cellophane and wrinkled plastic bags tumbling along the interstate. This is the America Greg knows, one he feels closer to than to his youthful idealism, closer even than to his younger second wife. As his journey continues, through drive-thru windows and into the living rooms of his alluring ex-wife and his distant, curmudgeonly father, Greg’s urgent search for GJ slowly recedes into the background, replaced with a painstaking, illuminating, and unavoidable look at Greg’s own mistakes—as a father, as a husband, and as a man.

Brimming with the same visceral regret and joy that leak from the fast food Greg inhales, Eat Only When You’re Hungry is a wild and biting study of addiction, perseverance, and the insurmountable struggle to change. With America’s desolate underbelly serving as her guide, Lindsay Hunter elicits a singular type of sympathy for her characters, using them to challenge our preconceived notions about addiction and to explore the innumerable ways we fail ourselves.

Visit Lindsay Hunter's website.

The Page 69 Test: Ugly Girls.

Writers Read: Lindsay Hunter.

--Marshal Zeringue

Wendy L. Rouse's "Her Own Hero," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Her Own Hero: The Origins of the Women's Self-Defense Movement by Wendy L. Rouse.

From the entry:

[I]f we were to make the book into a movie I would want to convert it into some sort of action-hero movie. Then we would need a big name Hollywood star to draw attention to the film. I would have to figure out away to include Kate McKinnon as Holtzmann in Ghostbusters because...[read on]

Learn more about Her Own Hero at the New York University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Her Own Hero.

My Book, The Movie: Her Own Hero.

--Marshal Zeringue