Seven books for a new you in 2018

At BN Reads Ross Johnson tagged seven "books that will help you achieve a happier, healthier 2018," including:

Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics: A 10% Happier How-to Book, by Dan Harris, Carlye Adler, and Jeffrey Warren

Science has begun to back up the promise of meditation, with benefits that many of us could be enjoying. There are a lot of barriers, though, from misconceptions to confusion about where to begin. ABC News anchor Harris teams up here with meditation teacher Warren to take a cross-country journey exploring some of the myths that keep people from trying it out and interviewing people who’d like to try about why they haven’t. From it all emerges some simple, practical instructions about how to get started and why.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Molly Ladd-Taylor's "Fixing the Poor"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Fixing the Poor: Eugenic Sterilization and Child Welfare in the Twentieth Century by Molly Ladd-Taylor.

About the book, from the publisher:

Between 1907 and 1937, thirty-two states legalized the sterilization of more than 63,000 Americans. In Fixing the Poor, Molly Ladd-Taylor tells the story of these state-run eugenic sterilization programs. She focuses on one such program in Minnesota, where surgical sterilization was legally voluntary and administered within a progressive child welfare system.

Tracing Minnesota’s eugenics program from its conceptual origins in the 1880s to its official end in the 1970s, Ladd-Taylor argues that state sterilization policies reflected a wider variety of worldviews and political agendas than previously understood. She describes how, after 1920, people endorsed sterilization and its alternative, institutionalization, as the best way to aid dependent children without helping the "undeserving" poor. She also sheds new light on how the policy gained acceptance and why coerced sterilizations persisted long after eugenics lost its prestige. In Ladd-Taylor’s provocative study, eugenic sterilization appears less like a deliberate effort to improve the gene pool than a complicated but sadly familiar tale of troubled families, fiscal and administrative politics, and deep-felt cultural attitudes about disability, dependency, sexuality, and gender.

Drawing on institutional and medical records, court cases, newspapers, and professional journals, Ladd-Taylor reconstructs the tragic stories of the welfare-dependent, sexually delinquent, and disabled people who were labeled feebleminded and targeted for sterilization. She chronicles the routine operation of Minnesota’s three-step policy of eugenic commitment, institutionalization, and sterilization in the 1920s and 1930s and shows how surgery became the "price of freedom" from a state institution. Combining innovative political analysis with a compelling social history of those caught up in Minnesota’s welfare system, Fixing the Poor is a powerful reinterpretation of eugenic sterilization.

Learn more about Fixing the Poor at the Johns Hopkins University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Fixing the Poor.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books that changed Meg Gardiner's writing life

Edgar-winning novelist Meg Gardiner writes thrillers. Fast-paced and full of twists, her books have been called “Hitchcockian” (USA Today) and “nailbiting and moving” (Guardian). They have been bestsellers in the U.S. and internationally and have been translated into more than 20 languages.

Gardiner's latest novel is UNSUB, the first book in a series featuring homicide investigator Caitlin Hendrix.

One of five books that changed Gardiner's writing life, as shared with Crimespree Magazine:

A Is for Alibi, Sue Grafton

My sister gave me this book when my daughter was born. I would tell my family that I needed quiet time to put the baby to bed—then I’d close her bedroom door, wait two minutes for her to fall asleep, and secretly read for an hour. I couldn’t get enough of the book’s twisting mystery or its feisty protagonist. With every page, I wished: Kinsey Millhone, be my friend. Beyond that, this novel showed me how a female series heroine could work. When I finished it, I thought: Yes. Give me more. And let me learn to write fiction that aspires to be as good.

Read about another book on the list.

Kinsey Millhone made Jeff Somers's list of six top characters only getting better with age.

Visit Meg Gardiner's website, blog, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: UNSUB.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Casey Doran reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Casey Doran, author of The Art of Murder: Jericho Sands Book 2.

His entry begins:

I recently finished Chuck Palahniuk’s Choke. I’ve actually read this book three or four times, but one of the things that I love about it is with every new pass, I find another element or device that I missed on previous reads. Choke features Palahniuk’s trademark style. No word is wasted. The story is minimalist and to the point, but still multilayered and complex. It also has one of my favorite opening lines:

“If you’re going to read this...[read on]

About The Art of Murder, from the publisher:

Jericho Sands has spent the past nine months in Mexico getting in bar fights with shark poachers, drinking tequila and listening to wolves howl outside the walls of the beachfront shack he’s been calling home. He’s living completely ‘off the grid’; no power, no phone, nothing but nagging questions about who he is and how far he allowed himself to fall for a woman who proved to be a serial killer hell-bent on revenge. He’s struggled with his decision to let Alyssa Jagger live. Was it because he realized that revenge does not equal justice? Or did he spare her life because deep down, in a dark place he doesn’t want to explore, he allowed himself to fall for her and could not bring himself to be her executioner.

Jericho’s self-imposed exile is ended when he learns about the murder of his best friend and father figure, Gus Tanner. Gunshots fired in a dark alley force Jericho back to the city he left behind and he soon discovers that a new killer is making himself known, a daring young painter who uses the blood of his victims as the medium for his works of art. The butcher who the media dubs ‘The DaVinci of Death’, leaves his handiwork on the front door of a new art gallery and demands that it be displayed, or else more macabre works will follow. Katrina Masters, the owner of the gallery and Jericho’s old flame, refuses to be blackmailed, enraging the killer who is determined to make the town appreciate his talents. Even if it kills them all.

While facing the fallout from everything he left behind, Jericho must also deal with a new police chief with a personal vendetta, detectives who prove incapable of stopping the killer, his resurrected feelings for Katrina Masters and his conflicted feelings for Alyssa Jagger. To find the killer, Jericho must continue going down roads he does not want travel. He must commit to choices that will forever determine who he truly is. And this time, there will be going back.

Learn more about The Art of Murder, and follow Casey Doran on Twitter.

My Book, The Movie: The Art of Murder.

The Page 69 Test: The Art of Murder.

Writers Read: Casey Doran.

--Marshal Zeringue

Rula Lenska's 6 favorite books

Rula Lenska is an English actor who had roles in such iconic shows as Coronation Street, EastEnders, Doctor Who, One Foot In The Grave and Footballers' Wives. In the US she is better known for a hair products advertising campaign which spawned a running joke in Johnny Carson's monologue on The Tonight Show and a Saturday Night Live sketch where she was played by Jane Curtin. One of Lenska's six favorite books, as shared at the Daily Express:

MISERY by Stephen King

I have played in Misery on stage. It’s one of the most terrifying of all his amazing thrillers, where an unbalanced woman rescues a writer and makes him a prisoner.

Perversely I rather like being frightened. My sister and I love curling up in front of a horror film.

Read about another entry on the list.

Misery is among Jake Kerridge's top ten Stephen King books, John Niven's ten best writers in novels, Emerald Fennell's top ten villainesses in literature, and Lesley Glaister’s top ten books about incarceration.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: David Moody's "One of Us Will Be Dead by Morning"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: One of Us Will Be Dead by Morning: Hater series (Volume 4) by David Moody.

About the book, from the publisher:

Fifteen people are trapped on Skek, a barren island in the middle of the North Sea somewhere between the coasts of the UK and Denmark. Over the years this place has served many purposes—a fishing settlement, a military outpost, a scientific base—but one by one its inhabitants have abandoned its inhospitable shores. Today it’s home to Hazleton Adventure Experiences, an extreme sports company specializing in corporate team building events.

Life there is fragile and tough. One slip is all it takes. A momentary lapse leads to a tragic accident, but when the body count quickly starts to rise, questions are inevitably asked. Are the deaths coincidental, or something else entirely? Those people you thought you knew well, can you really trust them? Are you standing next to a killer, and will you be their next victim?

A horrific discovery changes everything for everyone. There’s no way home now, and a trickle of rumors becomes a tsunami of fear. Is this really the beginning of the end of everything, or a situation constructed by the mass hysteria of a handful of desperate and terrified people?

The lower the population, the higher the stakes.

Kill the rest of them, before one of them kills you.

Visit David Moody's website.

The Page 69 Test: Hater.

The Page 69 Test: Dog Blood.

My Book, The Movie: Dog Blood.

The Page 69 Test: Autumn: Disintegration.

My Book, The Movie: One of Us Will Be Dead by Morning.

Writers Read: David Moody.

The Page 69 Test: One of Us Will Be Dead by Morning.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top girl-power books for young readers

At the BN Kids Blog Maria Burel tagged seven books for young readers featuring strong females, including:

I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark, by Debbie Levy and Elizabeth Baddeley

This biography of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, also known as the Notorious RBG, teaches young readers that disagreement is not wrong. That it can, in fact, be the catalyst for big changes. But disagreeing doesn’t mean you have to be disagreeable. With age-appropriate text, the reader watches Ginsburg grow from childhood to adulthood, rejecting the roles society expects of her, as she overcame obstacles and pursues her own chosen path. Additional pages at the back include a more detailed description of Ginsburg’s life, career, and accomplishments.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Karen L. Cox's "Goat Castle," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Goat Castle: A True Story of Murder, Race, and the Gothic South by Karen L. Cox.

The entry begins:

There really haven’t been any dramatic interpretations of this story, but it begs for one. From the time I learned about Goat Castle and the real-life characters that inhabited it, I could see it as a film. Every person I’ve ever talked to about this book has said, without fail, “This needs to be a movie.” The principals make for very rich characters and the setting—Goat Castle—is both shocking and surreal. There’s also the terribly sad saga of Emily Burns, caught in an unfortunate situation, who is dealt a terrible injustice because of her race and sent to one of the South’s most notorious prisons—Parchman.

So who would I want to play the principals? Most of them are in their 60s, so it’s a great opportunity for older actors, although Emily Burns was just 37 when she was convicted. The sheriff is also just 41. So, here is my dream cast:

I’d choose Sally Field to play Jennie Merrill, the woman who was murdered. Jennie was petite, but feisty. Tommy...[read on]

Visit Karen L. Cox's website.

My Book, The Movie: Goat Castle.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Queeny Pradhan's "Empire in the Hills"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Empire in the Hills: Simla, Darjeeling, Ootacamund, and Mount Abu, 1820-1920 by Queeny Pradhan.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the early phase of imperial domination, hill stations such as Simla, Darjeeling, Ootacamund, and Mount Abu were developed by the British to reflect a quintessentially European culture and ethos. Serving as recuperation sites for the sick and wounded, these hill spaces provided respite from the harsh climate of the plains. Adorned with sprawling bungalows and lush gardens, imposing churches and stately public buildings, the topography of such spaces was refashioned to reflect the multiple visions of this burgeoning empire.

Moving away from the history of the plains, in Empire in the Hills Pradhan lays bare the yet untold narrative of resistance of the hills people against British domination. The book focuses on the three-point agenda of the colonizers: erasing indigenous histories, marginalizing hill inhabitants, and foisting a culture of leisure. In doing so, it also dwells on the ways in which an exercise of benevolent paternalism was carried out to recast the hill communities vis-a-vis their usefulness to the colonial capitalist enterprise. Drawn from a vast repertoire of oral and archival sources, this work probes the linkages between empire, space, and culture as it positions the poignant presence of the locals and puts forth a telling narrative of their world view.

Learn more about Empire in the Hills at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Empire in the Hills.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top wilderness books

At the Waterstones blog Martha Greengrass tagged ten top wilderness reads, including:

A Field Guide To Getting Lost
Rebecca Solnit

In this investigation into loss, losing and being lost, Rebecca Solnit explores the challenges of living with uncertainty.

A Field Guide to Getting Lost takes in subjects as eclectic as memory and mapmaking, Hitchcock movies and Renaissance painting.

Beautifully written, this book combines memoir, history and philosophy, shedding glittering new light on the way we live now.

With a bibliography including writing on ‘feminism, western and indigenous history, popular power, social change and insurrection, wandering and walking, hope and disaster', Rebecca Solnit is a significant and increasingly influential contemporary voice.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is C. Courtney Joyner reading?

Featured at Writers Read: C. Courtney Joyner, author of Nemo Rising.

His entry begins:

I am, forever and happily, a genre fiction addict and do support the habit of returning to older works, while exploring the new. At least, that’s the intention. I loved Phoef Sutton’s Colorado Boulevard. I think his humor and plotting, are just extraordinary, and throws light into dark places. Very impressive.

On the epic scale, I have to admit...[read on]

About Nemo Rising, from the publisher:

An exciting sequel to the Captain Nemo adventures enjoyed by millions in Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Sea monsters are sinking ships up and down the Atlantic Coast. Enraged that his navy is helpless against this onslaught and facing a possible World War as a result, President Ulysses S. Grant is forced to ask for assistance from the notorious Captain Nemo, in Federal prison for war crimes and scheduled for execution.

Grant returns Nemo’s submarine, the infamous Victorian Steampunk marvel Nautilus, and promises a full Presidential pardon if Nemo hunts down and destroys the source of the attacks. Accompanied by the beautiful niece of Grant’s chief advisor, Nemo sets off under the sea in search of answers. Unfortunately, the enemy may be closer than they realize...

Visit C. Courtney Joyner's website.

My Book, The Movie: Nemo Rising.

The Page 69 Test: Nemo Rising.

Writers Read: C. Courtney Joyner.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top fictional feasts for Christmas

Kate Young is the author of The Little Library Cookbook. At the Guardian she tagged ten fictional feasts for Christmas, including:

Mince pies
Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Kate Atkinson

Faced with an unexpected family tragedy, Ruby Lennox and her sister spend one memorable Christmas home alone, watching hours of TV, with tinned food and packets of mince pies to sustain them. It’s a much more sombre holiday than most of the others here, but one that has stayed with me long after I closed the book.

Read about another entry on the list.

Behind the Scenes at the Museum is among Miranda Doyle's ten top books about lies, Jenny Eclair's six best books, and Ester Bloom's top fifteen books everyone should read before having kids.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Helen Dickson's "Carrying the Gentleman's Secret"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Carrying the Gentleman's Secret by Helen Dickson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Unmarried and pregnant!

Alex Golding had a duty to stop his brother-in-law’s bigamous marriage. But when he saw the bride, he offered whatever comfort he could to sweet young seamstress Lydia Brook…

Lydia has spent weeks trying to forget her brief encounter with Mr. Golding—she knows the rich widower can never love her. But when it’s Alex who offers her the investment to open her own shop, she can’t say no. This time their passion is as unexpected as its dramatic consequences…she’s expecting his baby!

Visit Helen Dickson's website.

My Book, The Movie: Carrying the Gentleman's Secret.

The Page 69 Test: Carrying the Gentleman's Secret.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top experimental thrillers

Tony White is the author of the critically-acclaimed novel Foxy-T (2003) and a new novel The Fountain in the Forest. One of his top ten experimental thrillers, as shared at the Guardian:

Cast in Doubt by Lynne Tillman

Horace is a slightly washed-up gay American novelist – author of the “Stan Green” detective series – living the expat life in 70s Crete. As well as “tossing off” the Stan Greens, and planning a more ambitious historical novel, he is also keeping the rather bitchy journal that we find ourselves reading. When his young friend and neighbour Helen suddenly disappears, it is Horace’s cue to do some investigations of his own, but unfortunately he is no Stan Green.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Henry McGhie's "Henry Dresser and Victorian Ornithology"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Henry Dresser and Victorian Ornithology: Birds, books and business by Henry McGhie.

About the book, from the publisher:

This book explores the life of Henry Dresser (1838-1915), one of the most productive British ornithologists of the mid-late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and is largely based on unpublished correspondence and diaries. Dresser travelled widely and spent time in Texas during the American Civil War. He built enormous collections of skins and eggs of birds from Europe, North America and Asia, which formed the basis of over 100 publications, including some of the finest bird books of the late nineteenth century. Dresser was a leading figure in scientific society and in the early bird conservation movement; his correspondence and diaries reveal the inner workings, motivations, personal relationships and rivalries that existed among the leading ornithologists.

This book is aimed at anyone interested in birds, history and natural history.

Learn more about Henry Dresser and Victorian Ornithology at the publisher's website.

The Page 99 Test: Henry Dresser and Victorian Ornithology.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eleven of horror fiction's vilest villains

J.R.R.R. (Jim) Hardison is the author of the humorous fantasy adventure Fish Wielder and, more recently, Demon Freaks. One of his eleven top vile villains in fiction, as shared at the the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy blog:

Hyde from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stephenson

As long as we’re on the topic of unwholesome desires, I’d best mention Mr. Hyde, the evil alter ego of Dr. Henry Jekyll. While Dr. Jekyll seems to be a kind, friendly, jovial guy, he’s actually spent most of his life trying to repress vile urges and evil impulses.

Being a smart scientist type, he eventually hits on a plan that will allow him to indulge his dark desires without getting caught. He creates a serum that transforms him from mild mannered Dr. Jekyll into the brutish, hideous Mr. Hyde. Edward Hyde is the embodiment of everything bad about the good doctor. He has no compassion or remorse and feels no guilt about pursuing his unwholesome, lustful instincts—even when they drive him to violence and murder. Of course, the fly in the ointment is that once Hyde gets a taste of freedom, he doesn’t want to be repressed again.

It’s not long before Hyde starts becoming stronger and the good Dr. can’t help transforming even without taking his potion. A definite cautionary tale about the monster lurking inside every civilized person and a timely message for the holiday season.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde also appears on Chris Howard's top five list of addictive books featuring sci-fi drugs, Steve Toutonghi's list of six top books that expand our mental horizons, Irvine Welsh's list of six favorite books that explore human duality, the Huffington Post's list of classic works that are all under 200 pages, Koren Zailckas's top 11 list of favorite evil characters, Stuart Evers's list of the top ten homes in literature, H.M. Castor's top ten list of dark and haunted heroes and heroines and John Mullan's list of ten of the best butlers in literature, and among Yann Martel's six favorite books. It is one of Ali Shaw's top ten transformation stories and Nicholas Frankel's five best pieces of decadent writing from the nineteenth century.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Casey Doran's "The Art of Murder"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Art of Murder: Jericho Sands Book 2 by Casey Doran.

About the book, from the publisher:

Jericho Sands has spent the past nine months in Mexico getting in bar fights with shark poachers, drinking tequila and listening to wolves howl outside the walls of the beachfront shack he’s been calling home. He’s living completely ‘off the grid’; no power, no phone, nothing but nagging questions about who he is and how far he allowed himself to fall for a woman who proved to be a serial killer hell-bent on revenge. He’s struggled with his decision to let Alyssa Jagger live. Was it because he realized that revenge does not equal justice? Or did he spare her life because deep down, in a dark place he doesn’t want to explore, he allowed himself to fall for her and could not bring himself to be her executioner.

Jericho’s self-imposed exile is ended when he learns about the murder of his best friend and father figure, Gus Tanner. Gunshots fired in a dark alley force Jericho back to the city he left behind and he soon discovers that a new killer is making himself known, a daring young painter who uses the blood of his victims as the medium for his works of art. The butcher who the media dubs ‘The DaVinci of Death’, leaves his handiwork on the front door of a new art gallery and demands that it be displayed, or else more macabre works will follow. Katrina Masters, the owner of the gallery and Jericho’s old flame, refuses to be blackmailed, enraging the killer who is determined to make the town appreciate his talents. Even if it kills them all.

While facing the fallout from everything he left behind, Jericho must also deal with a new police chief with a personal vendetta, detectives who prove incapable of stopping the killer, his resurrected feelings for Katrina Masters and his conflicted feelings for Alyssa Jagger. To find the killer, Jericho must continue going down roads he does not want travel. He must commit to choices that will forever determine who he truly is. And this time, there will be going back.

Learn more about The Art of Murder, and follow Casey Doran on Twitter.

My Book, The Movie: The Art of Murder.

The Page 69 Test: The Art of Murder.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top books to take to space

Tim Peake is a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut of British nationality. He finished his 186-day Principia mission working on the International Space Station for Expedition 46/47 when he landed back on Earth 18 June 2016. Peake has a background as a test pilot and a British Army Air Corps officer.

One of the author-astronaut's five favorite "books to pass the time amidst the stars and the vacuum of space," as shared at Waterstone's blog:

Chickenhawk by Robert Mason

I read this as a young pilot about to embark on a career flying military helicopters. It should have put me off for life. Robert Mason tells a gripping account of the relentless courage and heroism amidst the insanity of the Vietnam war. The final few pages are the most shocking I have read in any book.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Helen Dickson's "Carrying the Gentleman's Secret," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Carrying the Gentleman's Secret by Helen Dickson.

The entry begins:

Carrying the Gentleman’s Secret is about a working woman in early Victorian London, who takes control of her own life before the emancipation of women – although calls for change were gathering pace in the last decade of the nineteenth century.

Whenever anyone asks me if I would like any of my books made into a movie, I always say what a wonderful idea. And of course it is, but one has to carry on writing and see what happens. I have a terrible memory for names and found it difficult casting the perfect actors for my characters.

The characters I have created out of my imagination have faces that I am familiar with, so who on earth could take on those roles? Who would I cast to play my heroes and heroines – if it happened and I had any say in the matter, which I doubt for I imagine that would be left to the casting directors and I would have to hope they would get it right. Actors have the ability to take on the characters, but to take on a physical resemblance is not so easy because I cannot say I’ve seen any actors who look like them. But I will have a go.

For Alex Golding I would choose Rufus Sewell or Colin...[read on]

Visit Helen Dickson's website.

My Book, The Movie: Carrying the Gentleman's Secret.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Barbara Sjoholm's "Black Fox"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Black Fox: A Life of Emilie Demant Hatt, Artist and Ethnographer by Barbara Sjoholm.

About the book, from the publisher:

In 1904 a young Danish woman met a Sami wolf hunter on a train in Sweden. This chance encounter transformed the lives of artist Emilie Demant and the hunter, Johan Turi. In 1907–8 Demant went to live with Sami families in their tents and on migrations, later writing a lively account of her experiences. She collaborated with Turi on his book about his people. On her own and later with her husband Gudmund Hatt, she roamed on foot through Sami regions as an ethnographer and folklorist. As an artist, she created many striking paintings with Sami motifs. Her exceptional life and relationships come alive in this first English-language biography.

In recounting Demant Hatt's fascinating life, Barbara Sjoholm investigates the boundaries and influences between ethnographers and sources, the nature of authorship and visual representation, and the state of anthropology, racial biology, and politics in Scandinavia during the first half of the twentieth century.

Learn more about Black Fox at the Emilie Demant Hatt website.

The Page 99 Test: Black Fox.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven middle grade reads for fans of magical realism

At the BN Kids Blog Maria Burel tagged seven favorite middle grade reads for fans of magical realism, including:

Hour of the Bees, by Lindsay Eagar

Carolina—Carol—is not looking forward to spending her summer in the middle of the remote New Mexico desert, where her family is moving her estranged Grandpa Serge into a home for individuals with dementia. At first, Carolina finds her grandfather to be a cranky old man, with emphasis on the cranky. But as the summer progresses, he draws her in with his stories of a magical tree, a long-forgotten lake, and the return of the bees. When the lines between fantasy and reality begin to blur, Carolina finds herself wondering whether her grandfather’s mind is as muddled as everyone seems to think it is.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is David Moody reading?

Featured at Writers Read: David Moody, author of One of Us Will Be Dead by Morning.

His entry begins:

I’ve just finished Josh Malerman’s excellent and thought-provoking Bird Box. I’m a sucker for all things apocalyptic. There’s such a glut of end of the world stories about right now (no coincidence, I believe, considering we’re living through such bizarre and unpredictable times), but it’s hard to find stories that bring something new to the genre. Bird Box is such a book. Malerman takes a relatively simple premise and gives it a whole new and completely unnerving spin: people are committing suicide as a result of seeing undefined creatures. The only way you can be sure of surviving this apocalyptic event is to...[read on]

About One of Us Will Be Dead by Morning, from the publisher:

Fifteen people are trapped on Skek, a barren island in the middle of the North Sea somewhere between the coasts of the UK and Denmark. Over the years this place has served many purposes—a fishing settlement, a military outpost, a scientific base—but one by one its inhabitants have abandoned its inhospitable shores. Today it’s home to Hazleton Adventure Experiences, an extreme sports company specializing in corporate team building events.

Life there is fragile and tough. One slip is all it takes. A momentary lapse leads to a tragic accident, but when the body count quickly starts to rise, questions are inevitably asked. Are the deaths coincidental, or something else entirely? Those people you thought you knew well, can you really trust them? Are you standing next to a killer, and will you be their next victim?

A horrific discovery changes everything for everyone. There’s no way home now, and a trickle of rumors becomes a tsunami of fear. Is this really the beginning of the end of everything, or a situation constructed by the mass hysteria of a handful of desperate and terrified people?

The lower the population, the higher the stakes.

Kill the rest of them, before one of them kills you.

Visit David Moody's website.

The Page 69 Test: Hater.

The Page 69 Test: Dog Blood.

My Book, The Movie: Dog Blood.

The Page 69 Test: Autumn: Disintegration.

My Book, The Movie: One of Us Will Be Dead by Morning.

Writers Read: David Moody.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Katie A. Nelson & Wookie

Featured at Coffee with a Canine: Katie A. Nelson & Wookie.

The author, on how she and Wookie were united:

We got Wookie as a puppy. We hadn't planned on getting a dog yet, and had just been looking around to see what was out there. When we found out he was available, we drove over to meet him and fell in love! It wasn't great timing, as...[read on]

About Nelson's novel The Duke of Bannerman Prep, from the publisher:

Words are weapons. Facts can be manipulated. And nothing is absolute—especially right and wrong.

Tanner McKay is at Bannerman Prep for one reason: to win. The elite school recruited him after he argued his public school’s debate team to victory last year, and now Bannerman wants that championship trophy. Debate is Tanner’s life—his ticket out of scrimping and saving and family drama, straight to a scholarship to Stanford and a new, better future. When he’s paired with the prep school playboy everyone calls the Duke, Tanner’s straightforward plans seem as if they’re going off the rails. The Duke is Bannerman royalty, beloved for his laissez-faire attitude, crazy parties, and the strings he so easily pulls. And a total no-show when it comes to putting in the work to win.

As Tanner gets sucked into the Duke’s flashy world, the thrill of the high life and the adrenaline of the edge become addictive. A small favor here and there seems like nothing in exchange for getting everything he ever dreamed of.

But the Duke’s castle is built on shady, shaky secrets, and the walls are about to topple.

A contemporary retelling of The Great Gatsby, Katie A. Nelson’s taut debut is perfect for anyone who’s struggled to survive the cut-throat world of competitive high school.

Visit Katie A. Nelson's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Katie A. Nelson & Wookie.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight top books to move disability from the margins to the center

Kenny Fries received the prestigious Creative Capital literature grant for In the Province of the Gods. He is the author of Body, Remember: A Memoir and The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin’s Theory, winner of the Outstanding Book Award from the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights. He is the editor of Staring Back: The Disability Experience from the Inside Out and the author of the libretto for The Memory Stone, an opera commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera. His books of poems include Anesthesia, Desert Walking, and In the Gardens of Japan. At LitHub he tagged eight books that "move disability from the margins to the center, where they provide a critical lens to look at how we—disabled and nondisabled alike—live, or might live, our lives," including:

Good Kings Bad Kings, Susan R. Nussbaum (2013)

Playwright Nussbaum’s fiction debut, recipient of the Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, is told in the voices of seven diverse characters, patients or employees of an institution for adolescents with disabilities. 15-year-old Yessenia describes the situation succinctly: “I do not know why they send us all to the same place but that’s the way it’s always been and that’s the way it looks like it will always be because I am in tenth grade and I been in cripple this or cripple that my whole sweet, succulent Puerto Rican life.” Nussbaum gives voice to every character with an unsentimental vitality rarely matched in fiction.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: C. Courtney Joyner's "Nemo Rising"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Nemo Rising by C. Courtney Joyner.

About the book, from the publisher:

An exciting sequel to the Captain Nemo adventures enjoyed by millions in Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Sea monsters are sinking ships up and down the Atlantic Coast. Enraged that his navy is helpless against this onslaught and facing a possible World War as a result, President Ulysses S. Grant is forced to ask for assistance from the notorious Captain Nemo, in Federal prison for war crimes and scheduled for execution.

Grant returns Nemo’s submarine, the infamous Victorian Steampunk marvel Nautilus, and promises a full Presidential pardon if Nemo hunts down and destroys the source of the attacks. Accompanied by the beautiful niece of Grant’s chief advisor, Nemo sets off under the sea in search of answers. Unfortunately, the enemy may be closer than they realize...

Visit C. Courtney Joyner's website.

My Book, The Movie: Nemo Rising.

The Page 69 Test: Nemo Rising.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Edwin Moïse's "The Myths of Tet"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Myths of Tet: The Most Misunderstood Event of the Vietnam War by Edwin Moïse.

About the book, from the publisher:

Late in 1967, American officials and military officers pushed an optimistic view of the Vietnam War. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) said that the war was being won, and that Communist strength in South Vietnam was declining. Then came the Tet Offensive of 1968. In its broadest and simplest outline, the conventional wisdom about the offensive—that it was a military defeat for the Communists but a political victory for them, because it undermined support for the war in the United States—is correct. But much that has been written about the Tet Offensive has been misleading. Edwin Moïse shows that the Communist campaign shocked the American public not because the American media exaggerated its success, but because it was a bigger campaign—larger in scale, much longer in duration, and resulting in more American casualties—than most authors have acknowledged.

MACV, led by General William Westmoreland, issued regular estimates of enemy strength in South Vietnam. During 1967, intelligence officers at MACV were increasingly required to issue low estimates to show that the war was being won. Their underestimation of enemy strength was most extreme in January 1968, just before the Tet Offensive. The weak Communist force depicted in MACV estimates would not have been capable of sustaining heavy combat month after month like they did in 1968.

Moïse also explores the errors of the Communists, using Vietnamese sources. The first wave of Communist attacks, at the end of January 1968, showed gross failures of coordination. Communist policy throughout 1968 and into 1969 was wildly overoptimistic, setting impossible goals for their forces.

While acknowledging the journalists and historians who have correctly reported various parts of the story, Moïse points out widespread misunderstandings in regard to the strength of Communist forces in Vietnam, the disputes among American intelligence agencies over estimates of enemy strength, the actual pattern of combat in 1968, the effects of Tet on American policy, and the American media’s coverage of all these issues.

See online a detailed description of the book.

The Page 99 Test: The Myths of Tet.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six of the best holiday romances

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and semi-professional nerd. At the B&N Reads blog she tagged six favorite holiday romances, including:

Christmas in London, by Anita Hughes

When show producers get a taste of Louisa’s cinnamon rolls late one night, they’re a huge hit, earning her a spot on the network’s annual Christmas Eve Dinner TV special. With just a week before Christmas, Louisa leaves NY for London, hoping to get exposure and meet her baking idol Digby Bunting in the process. Then there’s Kate, the show’s producer, who gets a second chance at love with an old flame. With decadent food descriptions, some of the most famous London sights, and two happy endings, it’s hard to find a book that more perfectly encapsulates what we love about Christmas.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Nicholas Montemarano reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Nicholas Montemarano, author of The Senator’s Children.

His entry begins:

Here’s what I’ve been reading lately: plays, plays, plays, and more plays.

Several times a year I visit one of my favorite bookstores, The Drama Book Shop in New York City, and load up with plays. I see plays too—a recent favorite was Constellations by Nick Payne—but the truth is, I enjoy reading plays even more.

Novelists have much to learn from playwrights about creating and building scenes, showing rather than telling, and writing sharp, surprising dialogue. Some of the most innovative writers working today, in my opinion, are playwrights.

I’ve read many excellent plays recently, but let me mention one.

The play I just finished, which I loved, is This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan (who also wrote and directed the film Manchester by the Sea). Set in...[read on]

About The Senator’s Children, from the publisher:

In a country that loves second chances, are some transgressions simply unforgivable?

Sisters Betsy and Avery have never met, but they have both spent their lives under the scrutiny of prying cameras and tabloid journalists. Their father, David Christie, was a charismatic senator and promising presidential candidate until infidelity destroyed his campaign and his family’s life. In the aftermath, Betsy grieves her broken family, while Avery struggles with growing up estranged from her infamous father yet still exposed by the national spotlight. Years later, as David’s health declines, Betsy and Avery are forced to face their complicated feelings about him―and about each other. With delicacy and empathy, Nicholas Montemarano brings these sisters together in a parallel of grief and grace. The Senator’s Children brilliantly distills the American family under pressure.

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

The Page 69 Test: The Book of Why.

Writers Read: Nicholas Montemarano.

--Marshal Zeringue

David McKee's 6 best books

David McKee grew up in Devon, England. Later, while a student at Plymouth Art College, he began selling his cartoon drawings to newspapers. Since 1964 he has published a number of successful books for children, including the King Rollo stories, which he helped animate for British television. His first book for Lothrop was Snow Woman, of which Publishers Weekly said, "It is McKee's superb humor--conveyed almost solely in the illustrations...that wins the day." Of his second Lothrop book, Who's a Clever Baby, Publishers Weekly had this to say: "Grandma's alliterative frenzies are fascinating and readers will find Baby's manipulative stubbornness vastly amusing."

In th eUK he may be best known as the author and illustrator who created the Mr Benn TV series and wrote the Elmer The Elephant books. One of his six best books, as shared at the Daily Express:

TREASURE ISLAND by Robert Louis Stevenson

A fantastic story, especially the bit where Blind Pew arrives with the tap-tap-tap of his stick. It's sinister stuff, one to read in winter around a fire.

Read about another entry on the list.

Treasure Island also appears on Kate Hamer's list of six notable novels with a strong evocation of atmosphere, David Robb's six best books list, Gillian Philip’s top ten list of islands in children's fiction, Robert Gore-Langton's top twelve list of the greatest children's books of all time, Emily St. John Mandel's list of the six books that influenced her most as a writer, David McCallum's six best books list, Bear Grylls's top ten list of adventure stories, Eoin Colfer's top 10 list of villains in fiction, Charlie Fletcher's top ten list of swashbuckling tales of derring-do, Robert McCrum's list of the ten best first lines in fiction, John Mullan's list of ten of the best pirates in fiction, and among Mal Peet's top ten books to read aloud, Philip Pullman's six best books, and Eoin Colfer's six favorite books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Casey Doran's "The Art of Murder," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Art of Murder: Jericho Sands Book 2 by Casey Doran.

The entry begins:

When I first conceptualized the character of Jericho Sands, I didn’t begin with any set image in mind as a model. I knew some of his basic traits and background but he mostly developed through dialogue. I quickly realized that Jericho’s defining characteristic is that he’s an unapologetic smartass who tends to let his mouth get him in trouble. This meant removing a lot of filters that I usually set up for myself while I write. Which was a lot of fun. I was on my latest round of trying to quit smoking at the time, so naturally I made Jericho a dedicated chain smoker. Having my antagonist constantly lighting up turned out to be a great way to vicariously enjoy the habit I was trying to kick. When I write, I still don’t see any one particular person. Since it would have to be someone capable of delivering a sarcastic quip every thirty seconds, the obvious choice would be someone like Ryan...[read on]

Learn more about The Art of Murder, and follow Casey Doran on Twitter.

My Book, The Movie: The Art of Murder.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Ken Scholes's "Hymn"

Featured at The Page 69 Test: Hymn: The Final Volume of the Psalms of Isaak by Ken Scholes.

About the book, from the publisher:

Ken Scholes completes his five-book epic that began with his acclaimed first novel Lamentation. The battle for control of The Named Lands has captivated readers as they have learned, alongside the characters, the true nature of world called Lasthome.

Now the struggle between the Andro-Francine Order of the Named Lands and the Y’Zirite Empire has reached a terrible turning point. Believing that his son is dead, Rudolfo has pretended to join with the triumphant Y’zirite forces—but his plan is to destroy them all with a poison that is targeted only to the enemy.

In Y’Zir, Rudolfo’s wife Jin Li Tam is fighting a war with her own father which will bring that Empire to ruin.

And on the Moon, Neb, revealed as one of the Younger Gods, takes the power of the Last Home Temple for his own.

Learn more about the author and his work at Ken Scholes's website.

The Page 69 Test: Lamentation.

The Page 69 Test: Antiphon.

The Page 69 Test: Requiem.

The Page 69 Test: Hymn.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top books for animal lovers of all ages

At the BN Kids blog Charlotte Taylor tagged seven charming books for animal lovers of all ages, including:

The Nutcracker Mice, by Kristin Kladstrup

Here’s a truly delightful reimagining of the Nutcracker Ballet, performed by mice who have their own ballet company in St. Petersburg. On the stage above their home, the original ballet is about to have its first performance and the Russian Mouse Ballet will be staging their own version at the same time. The mouse ballet must succeed, or else the mouse company might have to close their curtains. Esmeralda is a rising mouse star…but can she successfully lead her company to a reworking of the Nutcracker that is both more mouse-friendly in its plot, and that celebrates all that is graceful about mice? With the help of a human girl, a friend to the mice who’s willing to help make mouse costumes, the answer is a resounding Yes! It’s a charming book I highly recommend to fans of people-like animals, ballet, and doll dresses!

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jenna Vinson's "Embodying the Problem"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Embodying the Problem: The Persuasive Power of the Teen Mother by Jenna Vinson.

About the book, from the publisher:

The dominant narrative of teen pregnancy persuades many people to believe that a teenage pregnancy always leads to devastating consequences for a young woman, her child, and the nation in which they reside. Jenna Vinson draws on feminist and rhetorical theory to explore how pregnant and mothering teens are represented as problems in U.S. newspapers, political discourses, and teenage pregnancy prevention campaigns since the 1970s.

Vinson shows that these representations prevent a focus on the underlying structures of inequality and poverty, perpetuate harmful discourses about women, and sustain racialized gender ideologies that construct women’s bodies as sites of national intervention and control.

Embodying the Problem also explores how young mothers resist this narrative. Analyzing fifty narratives written by young mothers, the recent #NoTeenShame social media campaign, and her interviews with thirty-three young women, Vinson argues that while the stigmatization of teenage pregnancy and motherhood does dehumanize young pregnant and mothering women, it is at the same time a means for these women to secure an audience for their own messages.

Visit Jenna Vinson's website.

The Page 99 Test: Embodying the Problem.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six books that influenced sci-fi author Robert J. Sawyer

Robert J. Sawyer is one of only eight writers in history — and the only Canadian — to win all three of the world's top Science Fiction awards for best novel of the year: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.

One of six books that have influenced him over the course of his career, as shared with the CBC:

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

My own science fiction explores inner space far more often than outer space; I'm interested in the science of consciousness more than I am in astrophysics. That shouldn't be surprising: we writers invented the concept of stream-of-consciousness narrative, after all, and the reason prose fiction endures in a world of $100-million films, binge-watched television, and, soon, immersive virtual reality is that it's the only art form that puts you inside another person's head, letting you hear the viewpoint character's thoughts — the inner monologue or dialogue that's held private from everyone else in real life.

Still, in my latest novel, Quantum Night, I toy with the notion that some people might not have any inner life — that they might be what cognitive scientists call 'philosopher's zombies.' And my novel prior to that, Red Planet Blues, was a hard-boiled detective novel set on Mars. One of the great classics of crime fiction deeply influenced both those books: Dashiell Hammett's masterful The Maltese Falcon. Not only is it the best noir novel ever written, but Hammett pulls off a tour de force: none of his characters have inner lives; we never once are made privy to the thoughts of Sam Spade or Brigid O'Shaughnessy. Instead, Hammett describes every facial tic and hand gesture with cinematic precision; you've probably never read another book story told in this way, and you certainly will never forget this one after you do.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Maltese Falcon appears on Mark Billingham's six best books list, Kathryn Williams's reading list on greed, Sara Brady's top five list of books with plots propelled by the search for an object, J. Kingston Pierce's top ten list of introductions to crime fiction and John Mullan's lists of ten of the best fat men in literature and ten of the best femmes fatales in literature, and among Armistead Maupin's five best San Francisco novels and Janet Rudolph's ten favorite San Francisco-backdropped crime novels.

Visit Robert J. Sawyer's website.

The Page 69 Test: WWW: Wake.

The Page 69 Test: WWW: Watch.

The Page 69 Test:: WWW: Wonder.

The Page 69 Test: Triggers.

The Page 69 Test: Red Planet Blues.

The Page 69 Test: Quantum Night.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Kathryn Erskine reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Kathryn Erskine, author of The Incredible Magic of Being.

Her entry begins:

Salt to the Sea, Ruta Sepetys

This is a masterpiece of a book about a little-known event near the end of World War Two. Refugees fleeing Soviet troops head to the sea, overcrowding the ships supposedly carrying them to safety. Apart from the incredibly well-researched history and storytelling, it’s worth reading simply to examine how Sepetys generates such strong characters and empathy for them (or perhaps, in the case of the Nazi youth, loathing) with such sparse language. It’s an...[read on]

About The Incredible Magic of Being, from the publisher:

A contemporary story about Julian's "uni-sense," his love of science and comets, and his mystical ways of seeing the world as he faces questions about what makes him special. Some might say Julian is sheltered. His sister Pookie certainly would. But he lives large, and his eternal optimism allows him to see infinite possibilities wherever he looks. He has to think positively since he believes he might only be on this earth for a few more years. As his family moves from Washington, DC to Maine, Julian feels the weight of the transition. His once strong "uni-sense" with his sister isn't working anymore, but if he can do something truly incredible, like discover a comet that he can name for himself, he'll be able to unite his family even after he's gone. As Julian searches the night sky, he discovers his neighbor, Mr. X, who on one hand can put an end to his parents' dream of opening their B&B by opposing the addition their house required, and on the other hand needs healing of his own. As an avid student of science, Julian understands that there is so much about the universe that we don't yet know. Who is to say what's possible and what's not?

Learn more about the book and author at Kathryn Erskine's website.

Check out Erskine's top 10 first person narratives.

Coffee with a Canine: Kathryn Erskine & Fletcher.

The Page 69 Test: The Badger Knight.

My Book, The Movie: The Badger Knight.

The Page 69 Test: The Incredible Magic of Being.

Writers Read: Kathryn Erskine.

--Marshal Zeringue