Coffee with a Canine: Megan Bannen & Brontë

Featured at Coffee with a Canine: Megan Bannen & Brontë.

The author, on how she and Brontë were united:

Last spring, we lost our beloved Zora Neale Hurston, a shih tzu-poodle-maltese-ish mutt whom we adopted shortly after we were married. I was heartbroken and didn’t think I’d want another dog so soon thereafter, but 1.) a house without a dog is basically a house without a soul, and 2.) my sons get food everywhere, so I was in need of a doggy vacuum...[read on]

About Bannen's new novel The Bird and the Blade, from the publisher:

A sweeping and tragic debut novel perfect for fans of The Wrath and the Dawn and Megan Whalen Turner.

The Bird and the Blade is a lush, powerful story of life and death, battles and riddles, lies and secrets from author Megan Bannen.

Enslaved in Kipchak Khanate, Jinghua has lost everything: her home, her family, her freedom ... until the kingdom is conquered by enemy forces and she finds herself an unlikely conspirator in the escape of Prince Khalaf and his irascible father across the vast Mongol Empire.

On the run, with adversaries on all sides and an endless journey ahead, Jinghua hatches a scheme to use the Kipchaks’ exile to return home, a plan that becomes increasingly fraught as her feelings for Khalaf evolve into an impossible love.

Jinghua’s already dicey prospects take a downward turn when Khalaf seeks to restore his kingdom by forging a marriage alliance with Turandokht, the daughter of the Great Khan. As beautiful as she is cunning, Turandokht requires all potential suitors to solve three impossible riddles to win her hand—and if they fail, they die.

Jinghua has kept her own counsel well, but with Khalaf’s kingdom—and his very life—on the line, she must reconcile the hard truth of her past with her love for a boy who has no idea what she’s capable of ... even if it means losing him to the girl who’d sooner take his life than his heart.

Visit Megan Bannen's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Megan Bannen & Brontë.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Emily Devenport's "Medusa Uploaded"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Medusa Uploaded: A Novel by Emily Devenport.

About the book, from the publisher:

My name is Oichi Angelis, and I am a worm.

They see me every day. They consider me harmless. And that's the trick, isn't it?

A generation starship can hide many secrets. When an Executive clan suspects Oichi of insurgency and discreetly shoves her out an airlock, one of those secrets finds and rescues her.

Officially dead, Oichi begins to rebalance power one assassination at a time and uncovers the shocking truth behind the generation starship and the Executive clans.

Visit Emily Devenport's blog.

The Page 69 Test: Medusa Uploaded.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Lucinda Riley reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Lucinda Riley, author of The Pearl Sister (Book #4 of The Seven Sisters).

Her entry begins:

As a writer, after a long day of working on my novels or researching historical periods, I love to immerse myself in a different world before going to bed, so I read every single day. I’m the type of reader who gets obsessed with one author and one series of books, and my current obsession are the Ruth Galloway novels by the fantastic writer Elly Griffiths.

The novels are all set in Norfolk, a part of England where I have lived for many years, so it is wonderful to read about places that I know so intimately. Her main character is Dr Ruth Galloway, a forensic archaeologist who lives with...[read on]

About The Pearl Sister, from the publisher:

From the breathtaking beaches of Thailand to the barely tamed wilds of colonial Australia, The Pearl Sister is the next captivating story in New York Times bestselling author Lucinda Riley’s epic series about two women searching for a place to call home.

CeCe D’Aplièse has always felt like an outcast. But following the death of her father—the reclusive billionaire affectionately called Pa Salt by the six daughters he adopted from around the globe—she finds herself more alone than ever. With nothing left to lose, CeCe delves into the mystery of her familial origins. The only clues she holds are a black and white photograph and the name of a female pioneer who once traversed the globe from Scotland to Australia.

One hundred years earlier, Kitty McBride, a clergyman's daughter, abandoned her conservative upbringing to serve as the companion to a wealthy woman traveling from Edinburgh to Adelaide. Her ticket to a new land brings the adventure she dreamed of…and a love that she had never imagined.

When CeCe reaches the searing heat and dusty plains of the Red Centre of Australia, something deep within her responds to the energy of the area and the ancient culture of the Aboriginal people, and her soul reawakens. As she comes closer to finding the truth of her ancestry, CeCe begins to believe that this untamed, vast continent could offer her what she’s always yearned for: a sense of belonging.

Visit Lucinda Riley's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Storm Sister.

My Book, The Movie: The Storm Sister.

My Book, The Movie: The Shadow Sister.

The Page 69 Test: The Shadow Sister.

Writers Read: Lucinda Riley.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top books to help you survive the digital age

Julian Gough is the author of several novels, a children's book (which Neil Gaiman has called "a breath of fresh air in children's fiction"), some BBC radio plays, and the narrative at the end of the wonderful computer game, Minecraft (TIME magazine's computer game of the year). His latest novel is Connect.

One of the author's top ten books to help you survive the digital age, as shared at the Guardian:

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (2011)

This intricately structured, incredibly clever novel moves from the 60s right through to a future maybe 15 years from now. It steps so lightly into that future you hardly notice the transition. It has sex and drugs and rock’n’roll, solar farms, social media scams and a stunningly moving chapter written as a PowerPoint presentation. It’s a masterpiece. Life will be like this.

Read about another entry on the list.

A Visit From the Goon Squad is among Marina Benjamin's ten top books about middle age, four books that changed Alison Lester, Jeff Somers's five top books that blur the line between the novel and short story, Gillian Anderson's six favorite books, and Julie Christie's seven favorite books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Bill Niven's "Hitler and Film"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Hitler and Film: The Führer's Hidden Passion by Bill Niven.

About the book, from the publisher:

An exposé of Hitler’s relationship with film and his influence on the film industry

A presence in Third Reich cinema, Adolf Hitler also personally financed, ordered, and censored films and newsreels and engaged in complex relationships with their stars and directors. Here, Bill Niven offers a powerful argument for reconsidering Hitler’s fascination with film as a means to further the Nazi agenda.

In this first English-language work to fully explore Hitler’s influence on and relationship with film in Nazi Germany, the author calls on a broad array of archival sources. Arguing that Hitler was as central to the Nazi film industry as Goebbels, Niven also explores Hitler’s representation in Third Reich cinema, personally and through films focusing on historical figures with whom he was associated, and how Hitler’s vision for the medium went far beyond “straight propaganda.” He aimed to raise documentary film to a powerful art form rivaling architecture in its ability to reach the masses.

Learn more about Hitler and Film at the Yale University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Hitler and Film.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Danielle Teller's "All the Ever Afters"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: All the Ever Afters: The Untold Story of Cinderella’s Stepmother by Danielle Teller.

About the book, from the publisher:

We all know the story of Cinderella. Or do we?

As rumors about the cruel upbringing of beautiful newlywed Princess Cinderella roil the kingdom, her stepmother, Agnes, who knows all too well about hardship, privately records the true story....

A peasant born into serfdom, Agnes is separated from her family and forced into servitude as a laundress’s apprentice when she is only ten years old. Using her wits and ingenuity, she escapes her tyrannical matron and makes her way toward a hopeful future. When teenaged Agnes is seduced by an older man and becomes pregnant, she is transformed by love for her child. Once again left penniless, Agnes has no choice but to return to servitude at the manor she thought she had left behind. Her new position is nursemaid to Ella, an otherworldly infant. She struggles to love the child who in time becomes her stepdaughter and, eventually, the celebrated princess who embodies everyone’s unattainable fantasies. The story of their relationship reveals that nothing is what it seems, that beauty is not always desirable, and that love can take on many guises.

Lyrically told, emotionally evocative, and brilliantly perceptive, All the Ever Afters explores the hidden complexities that lie beneath classic tales of good and evil, all the while showing us that how we confront adversity reveals a more profound, and ultimately more important, truth than the ideal of "happily ever after."

Visit Danielle Teller's website.

Writers Read: Danielle Teller.

The Page 69 Test: All the Ever Afters.

--Marshal Zeringue

Mary Stockwell's "Unlikely General," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Unlikely General: "Mad" Anthony Wayne and the Battle for America by Mary Stockwell.

The entry begins:

Every writer who tackles the story of Anthony Wayne faces the problem of bringing to life a man known primarily as “Mad Anthony.” When I was researching Wayne, leading up to the publication of my book Unlikely General: “Mad” Anthony Wayne and the Battle for America, I noticed that most people – from professors and librarians to amateur historians and history buffs – dismissed Wayne as a reckless fool who fought like a madman in every battle.

The Wayne I had discovered bore no resemblance to this fiend. He was instead a brilliant writer who thought deeply about the politics of his age. At the start of the Revolution, he was on fire for war and its glory, seeing every battle from Brandywine to Yorktown as his hero Julius Caesar might have fought it. But by its end, he came to view war as a “horrid trade of blood.” After peace was declared, he could hardly put his life back together again. His marriage had fallen apart through his countless affairs. He had nearly bankrupted his family with bad loans. He won a seat in Congress only to be removed for voter fraud. On many mornings, he was so swollen that he had to wrap his arms and legs in flannel. He battled a crippling depression eased only by brandy and Madeira. A desperate President George Washington, who had already seen two armies massacred by Indians, had to overlook all of this in 1792 when he appointed Wayne as the commander of a third American army that must wrest the Ohio Country from the tribes.

How was I to tell the story of a once valiant hero who had fallen from grace only to be called into one last battle to rescue his nation? I decided the only way to bring Wayne to life was to construct his biography like a modern novel where the narrative moves back and forth between the present and past. One timeline would follow Wayne from his appointment as the army’s commander to his victory at Fallen Timbers and finally to his death. The other would flash back to his past, showing how he had come to this present moment, while at the same time telling the story of the many people Wayne had encountered along the way.

As I wrote Wayne’s story, I often found myself saying, “This would make a great movie.” I could see only one person playing the role of this unlikely general. It had to be...[read on]

Visit Mary Stockwell's website.

My Book, The Movie: Unlikely General.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top dark thrillers

Jessica Knoll's new novel is The Favorite Sister. At Publishers Weekly she tagged ten favorite "dark books to read in the summer sunshine," including:

What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman

In 1976, two sisters went missing from a Baltimore mall. Their bodies were never recovered, and the case went cold. Now, in the aftermath of an automobile accident, a woman claims she is the younger sister of the missing pair, though police cannot seem to find a shred of evidence to support her story. It takes a lot for me to say I never saw that twist coming—but I never saw that coming.

The Page 69 Test: What the Dead Know.

The Wife by Alafair Burke

Angela Powell is living a charmed life as the wife to a successful author in Manhattan, when a woman comes forward to make a serious accusation against the man she thought she knew and loved. No sooner has her husband insisted on his innocence—and has Angela chosen to believe him—when his accuser goes missing. Remember to reapply the sunscreen as you’re reading this one—the hours just seem to evaporate into thin air.

The Page 69 Test: The Wife.

Read about two more entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Susan Kietzman reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Susan Kietzman, author of It Started in June.

Her entry begins:

I read Stewart O’Nan’s Last Night at the Lobster several years ago, and I have no idea why it has taken me so long to circle back to the work of such an insightful and witty author. The Odds (A Love Story) is about Marion and Art Fowler, who find themselves in a desperate financial situation and on the brink of divorce after thirty years of marriage. Against their better judgment, they drain their bank account and take a bus to Niagara Falls – in a last ditch effort at rekindling their love (well, for Art anyway) and winning enough money at the casino to move them out of the red and into the black.

The Odds, like The Lobster, is a look at how regular people...[read on]

About It Started in June, from the publisher:

Susan Kietzman’s engrossing and thought-provoking novel explores the choices and revelations that come with life’s most unexpected events.

Grace Trumbull’s after work drink with Bradley Hanover, a handsome younger colleague, on a warm summer night turns into an impulsive, intimate encounter. After a few weeks of exhilarating secret dates, Grace—forty-two and divorced—realizes she’s pregnant.

For Grace, whose estranged mother refers to her own teenage pregnancy as her biggest mistake, the prospect of parenthood is daunting. She’s just been made vice president of a media relations company and is childfree by choice. Still, something deeper than her fear makes her want to keep the baby. She knows she can be a better, more capable parent than her mother was to her.

As months pass and seasons change, Grace questions her decision to include Bradley in her plans. But they continue to navigate their complicated relationship, each struggling with what it means to make a commitment to someone. Most importantly, Grace begins trusting her instincts—maternal and otherwise—finding courage that will guide her through an uncertain future ripe with new possibilities...

Visit Susan Kietzman's website.

The Page 69 Test: Every Other Wednesday.

The Page 69 Test: It Started in June.

Writers Read: Susan Kietzman.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six YA books for 2018 graduates

At the BN Teen blog Natasha Ochshorn rounded up six YA books with which to honor the graduation season, including:

The Serpent King, by Jeff Zentner

“Lydia leaned back into the hollow of Dill’s body, warm and snug against his chest. Dill leaned down and kissed her on the spot between her ear and her jaw.

‘We made it, Dill.’

‘Yeah,’ Dill said softly. ‘We made it.’ If only we were making it in the same direction and the same place.”

Read about another book on the list.

My Book, The Movie: The Serpent King.

The Page 69 Test: The Serpent King.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Thomas Doherty's "Show Trial"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Show Trial: Hollywood, HUAC, and the Birth of the Blacklist by Thomas Doherty.

About the book, from the publisher:

In 1947, the Cold War came to Hollywood. Over nine tumultuous days in October, the House Un-American Activities Committee held a notorious round of hearings into alleged Communist subversion in the movie industry. The blowback was profound: the major studios pledged to never again employ a known Communist or unrepentant fellow traveler. The declaration marked the onset of the blacklist era, a time when political allegiances, real or suspected, determined employment opportunities in the entertainment industry. Hundreds of artists were shown the door—or had it shut in their faces.

In Show Trial, Thomas Doherty takes us behind the scenes at the first full-on media-political spectacle of the postwar era, a courtroom drama starring glamorous actors, colorful moguls, on-the-make congressmen, high-priced lawyers, single-minded investigators, and recalcitrant screenwriters, all recorded by newsreel cameras and broadcast over radio. Doherty explores the deep background to the hearings and details the theatrical elements of a proceeding that bridged the realms of entertainment and politics. He tells the story of the Hollywood Ten and the other witnesses, friendly and unfriendly, who testified; tracks the flight path of the Committee for the First Amendment, the delegation from Hollywood that descended on Washington to protest the hearings; and chronicles the implementation of the postwar blacklist. Show Trial is a rich, character-driven inquiry into how the HUAC hearings ignited the anti-Communist crackdown in Hollywood, providing a gripping new cultural history of one of the most influential events of the postwar era.

Learn more about Show Trial at the Columbia University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939.

The Page 99 Test: Show Trial.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books that provide insights into pregnancy, menopause & gender

Gavin Francis is a doctor and writer. His books include Shapeshifters: On Medicine & Human Change. At the Guardian he tagged five favorite books that provide personal and profound insights into pregnancy, the menopause and gender, including:

[T]ransformation is one of the most ancient and resonant themes in literature and art: two thousand years ago in Metamorphoses, the Latin poet Ovid painted nature and mankind as a seething maelstrom of flux. Marina Warner’s Fantastic Metamorphoses, Other Worlds maps this cultural topography since Ovid, showing how stories of change can guide us through the perils of life. “It would be stupid to suggest stories invariably enlighten,” Warner says, “but stories do offer a way of imagining alternatives, mapping possibilities, exciting hope, warding off danger by forestalling it, casting spells of order on the unknown ahead.” At its best, the same could be said of medicine.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Humphrey Hawksley's "Man on Ice"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Man on Ice by Humphrey Hawksley.

About Man on Ice, from the publisher:

When Rake Ozenna of the elite Eskimo Scouts brings his fiancée, trauma surgeon Carrie Walker, to his remote home island in the Bering Strait, they are faced immediately with a medical crisis. Then Russian helicopters swarm in.

America is on the eve of an acrimonious presidential transition. As news breaks of a possible Russian invasion, Stephanie Lucas, British ambassador to Washington DC, is hosting a dinner for the presidentelect.

Ozenna’s small Alaskan island community is suddenly caught in the crosshairs of sabre-rattling big powers. The only way to save his people is to undertake a perilous mission across the ice. Can he survive long enough to prevent a new world war breaking out?

Visit Humphrey Hawksley's website.

The Page 69 Test: The History Book.

My Book, The Movie: Security Breach.

My Book, The Movie: Man on Ice.

Writers Read: Humphrey Hawksley.

The Page 69 Test: Man on Ice.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top East Asian SFF novels by East Asian authors

Rebecca F. Kuang studies modern Chinese history. She has a BA from Georgetown University and is currently a graduate student in the United Kingdom on a Marshall Scholarship.

Kuang's new book, her debut novel, is The Poppy War.

At Tor.com she tagged five notable East Asian SFF novels by East Asian authors, including:

Jade City by Fonda Lee

This book was just nominated for a Nebula Award so Fonda doesn’t even need my hype, but I’m going to rant about how much I loved Jade City anyways. It’s a secondary world fantasy based on Hong Kong circa the mid-20th century where jade grants superhuman martial ability. Those without jade crave it; Western powers demand it. Green Bone warriors from the rival Mountain Clan and No Peak Clan embark on adventures of gangster warfare, treachery, family drama, and all the good stuff that made up the Hong Kong action films of my childhood. For many Chinese diaspora readers, Jade City is nostalgia. Reading Jade City felt just like stepping foot in the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. I resonated so hard with the scene when prodigal daughter Kaul Shae returns to Kekon via the Janloon International Airport after years spent in the West. There’s something in the air—as Shae puts it, “Kekon had a special smell, a certain indescribable, spicy, sweaty fragrance.” It smells like coming home.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: Jade City.

The Page 69 Test: The Poppy War.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Danielle Teller reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Danielle Teller, author of All the Ever Afters: The Untold Story of Cinderella’s Stepmother.

Her entry begins:

As a child, I was a bookworm. Then I grew up, got a job, had kids, and only had time and energy to read on airplanes or the rare beach vacation. Now that I’m a writer, I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do! My reading diet is eclectic; besides books I choose for pleasure, I also read for research, book club, because-someone-told-me-to, and I listen to audiobooks while I cook or run errands.

I’m currently reading Circe by Madeline Miller. It’s the story of the goddess Circe, most famous for bewitching Odysseus’s men in Homer's Odyssey. I’m a fan of Greek mythology, and it’s refreshing to see all of the gods and heroes through the eyes of a female character for a change! The language is beautiful and the magic thrilling. It’s rare for me not to...[read on]

About All the Ever Afters, from the publisher:

We all know the story of Cinderella. Or do we?

As rumors about the cruel upbringing of beautiful newlywed Princess Cinderella roil the kingdom, her stepmother, Agnes, who knows all too well about hardship, privately records the true story....

A peasant born into serfdom, Agnes is separated from her family and forced into servitude as a laundress’s apprentice when she is only ten years old. Using her wits and ingenuity, she escapes her tyrannical matron and makes her way toward a hopeful future. When teenaged Agnes is seduced by an older man and becomes pregnant, she is transformed by love for her child. Once again left penniless, Agnes has no choice but to return to servitude at the manor she thought she had left behind. Her new position is nursemaid to Ella, an otherworldly infant. She struggles to love the child who in time becomes her stepdaughter and, eventually, the celebrated princess who embodies everyone’s unattainable fantasies. The story of their relationship reveals that nothing is what it seems, that beauty is not always desirable, and that love can take on many guises.

Lyrically told, emotionally evocative, and brilliantly perceptive, All the Ever Afters explores the hidden complexities that lie beneath classic tales of good and evil, all the while showing us that how we confront adversity reveals a more profound, and ultimately more important, truth than the ideal of "happily ever after."

Visit Danielle Teller's website.

Writers Read: Danielle Teller.

--Marshal Zeringue

Lexie Elliott's "The French Girl," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The French Girl by Lexie Elliott.

The entry begins:

As The French Girl was actually optioned by a production company which has the intention of adapting it into a TV series, you might think I’ve spent many happy hours day-dreaming about who might play the pivotal roles. That’s not the case at all. For one thing, the optioning of a book is no guarantee that there will ever be a finished product on screen. For another, I don’t have a lot of time in which to day-dream! But the last, and most important reason, is that I know who my characters are: they’re exactly the people living in my head. It’s astonishingly difficult for me to imagine real actors playing them. But for you, dear readers, I will try…

For a tale about discovering what caused the demise of Severine (the French girl of the title) a decade previously, it’s unexpectedly important to cast the corpse correctly — because Severine refuses to be reduced to a heap of bones. Given the restrictions that Severine is operating under (namely, being dead) the role requires a professional who can emote wordlessly. A dear friend suggested Marine Vacth would be a good candidate and I…[read on]

Visit Lexie Elliott's website.

The Page 69 Test: The French Girl.

My Book, The Movie: The French Girl.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eleven worthy reads that help share the meaning of Memorial Day

The editors of the BN Kids blog tagged eleven books that help share the meaning of Memorial Day, including:

The Wall, by Eve Bunting and Ronald Himler

In another beautifully drawn picture book, this gentle story follows a young boy and his father as they search for his grandfather’s name on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. Using soft illustrations and a calm narrative voice, Bunting and Himler have created a loving book about a difficult topic. Sometimes the best way to tell a story is the simple way, as this book shows. During Memorial Day, or before any trip to visit The Wall in Washington DC, this book should be on everyone’s must read list. (Ages 4-7)

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Susan Kietzman's "It Started in June"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: It Started in June by Susan Kietzman.

About the book, from the publisher:

Susan Kietzman’s engrossing and thought-provoking novel explores the choices and revelations that come with life’s most unexpected events.

Grace Trumbull’s after work drink with Bradley Hanover, a handsome younger colleague, on a warm summer night turns into an impulsive, intimate encounter. After a few weeks of exhilarating secret dates, Grace—forty-two and divorced—realizes she’s pregnant.

For Grace, whose estranged mother refers to her own teenage pregnancy as her biggest mistake, the prospect of parenthood is daunting. She’s just been made vice president of a media relations company and is childfree by choice. Still, something deeper than her fear makes her want to keep the baby. She knows she can be a better, more capable parent than her mother was to her.

As months pass and seasons change, Grace questions her decision to include Bradley in her plans. But they continue to navigate their complicated relationship, each struggling with what it means to make a commitment to someone. Most importantly, Grace begins trusting her instincts—maternal and otherwise—finding courage that will guide her through an uncertain future ripe with new possibilities...

Visit Susan Kietzman's website.

The Page 69 Test: Every Other Wednesday.

The Page 69 Test: It Started in June.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Peter J. Woodford's "The Moral Meaning of Nature"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Moral Meaning of Nature: Nietzsche’s Darwinian Religion and Its Critics by Peter J. Woodford.

About the book, from the publisher:

What, if anything, does biological evolution tell us about the nature of religion, ethical values, or even the meaning and purpose of life? The Moral Meaning of Nature sheds new light on these enduring questions by examining the significance of an earlier—and unjustly neglected—discussion of Darwin in late nineteenth-century Germany.

We start with Friedrich Nietzsche, whose writings staged one of the first confrontations with the Christian tradition using the resources of Darwinian thought. The lebensphilosophie, or “life-philosophy,” that arose from his engagement with evolutionary ideas drew responses from other influential thinkers, including Franz Overbeck, Georg Simmel, and Heinrich Rickert. These critics all offered cogent challenges to Nietzsche’s appropriation of the newly transforming biological sciences, his negotiation between science and religion, and his interpretation of the implications of Darwinian thought. They also each proposed alternative ways of making sense of Nietzsche’s unique question concerning the meaning of biological evolution “for life.” At the heart of the discussion were debates about the relation of facts and values, the place of divine purpose in the understanding of nonhuman and human agency, the concept of life, and the question of whether the sciences could offer resources to satisfy the human urge to discover sources of value in biological processes. The Moral Meaning of Nature focuses on the historical background of these questions, exposing the complex ways in which they recur in contemporary philosophical debate.

Learn more about The Moral Meaning of Nature at the University of Chicago Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Moral Meaning of Nature.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jason Flemyng's six best books

Jason Flemyng is an English actor, known for Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003). One of his six best books, as shared at the Daily Express:

ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE by Anthony Doerr

About a blind girl and her dad who escape Paris during the German occupation.

It’s about vulnerability and the power of positive thought, which I find very inspiring.

I’ve always had a glass-half-full view of the world.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Humphrey Hawksley reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Humphrey Hawksley, author of Man on Ice.

His entry begins:

I have several paper and e-books going at once, some for ideas, some for research and some for a hinterland to take me away from work which whether fiction or non-fiction focuses on global politics and shifting balances of power.

Top of the pile of my research is Super Highway: Sea Power in the 21st Century by Admiral Chris Parry (Rtd) which is a brilliant layman’s read of how we are going to use the seas for war, trade and pleasure in the coming years. I am working on a sequel to Man on Ice set in the North Atlantic because this is becoming a new Cold War battleground between Russia and Europe. The international thriller often carries a Dystopian backdrop so I have with me...[read on]

About Man on Ice, from the publisher:

When Rake Ozenna of the elite Eskimo Scouts brings his fiancée, trauma surgeon Carrie Walker, to his remote home island in the Bering Strait, they are faced immediately with a medical crisis. Then Russian helicopters swarm in.

America is on the eve of an acrimonious presidential transition. As news breaks of a possible Russian invasion, Stephanie Lucas, British ambassador to Washington DC, is hosting a dinner for the presidentelect.

Ozenna’s small Alaskan island community is suddenly caught in the crosshairs of sabre-rattling big powers. The only way to save his people is to undertake a perilous mission across the ice. Can he survive long enough to prevent a new world war breaking out?

Visit Humphrey Hawksley's website.

The Page 69 Test: The History Book.

My Book, The Movie: Security Breach.

My Book, The Movie: Man on Ice.

Writers Read: Humphrey Hawksley.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Will Walton's "I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain by Will Walton.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the author of the poignant and provocative debut Anything Could Happen comes another hard-hitting exploration of love and friendship.

How do you deal with a hole in your life? Do you grieve? Do you drink? Do you make out with your best friend? Do you turn to poets and pop songs? Do you question everything? Do you lash out? Do you turn the lashing inward? If you're Avery, you do all of these things. And you write it all down in an attempt to understand what's happened — and is happening — to you. I Felt a Funeral, In My Brain is an astonishing novel about navigating death and navigating life, at a time when the only map you have is the one you can draw for yourself.

Follow Will Walton on Facebook.

The Page 69 Test: Anything Could Happen.

My Book, The Movie: Anything Could Happen.

Writers Read: Will Walton.

The Page 69 Test: I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kathleen George's "The Blues Walked In," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Blues Walked In by Kathleen George.

The entry begins:

Lena Horne was not only gorgeous but spirited and positive and smart. One thing that got her ahead was that her skin was light. At first people weren’t sure she was African American or “Negro.” Her looks got her ahead. They also acted as a barrier, too. Hollywood, for instance, didn’t know what to do with her. She could sing. They let her sing in a few movies. The first person I thought of to play her was Hallie Berry. And she’s still on my list. But there are so many gorgeous black women out there, I’m sure there are others. Singing would have to be a big part of the casting process, of course. Of course all of us writers think of big names because big names sell scripts, so for I while I wondered if Meghan Markle might be...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Kathleen George's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Blues Walked In.

Writers Read: Kathleen George.

My Book, The Movie: The Blues Walked In.

--Marshal Zeringue

The ideal starter novel for 10 “must read” authors

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 Reads blog he tagged ten "ideal 'starter novels' for authors guaranteed to be on many, if not most, lists of can’t miss writers," including:

Toni Morrison. Start Here: The Bluest Eye

Morrison is one of the most important writers of the 20th century; her work is consistently beautiful and poetic. But you shouldn’t just dive into Beloved—as incredible as that book is, it is one of the densest popular literary novels ever written, a book in which Morrison’s prose resonates, where an unexpected structure and layered allusions to myth and history form something greater than the sum of its parts. Instead, dip your toe in with The Bluest Eye, Morrison’s first novel, and which shows the beginnings of her style while keeping the number of characters and the branches of the plot more limited than her later work, which will allow you to pay closer attention to the smart things Morrison is doing on the edges (and to listen to that prose sing).

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Will Walton reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Will Walton, author of I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain.

His entry begins:

Kheryn Callender's Hurricane Child is the best book I've read in recent history. It's poetic and also unpretentious. It's an incredibly moving exploration of a young person's inner life, and it's set on St. Thomas Island. I can't wait to read Callender's upcoming This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story.

I think Becky Albertalli's Leah on the Offbeat is pitch perfect, and I have a soft spot for it because...[read on]

About I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain, from the publisher:

From the author of the poignant and provocative debut Anything Could Happen comes another hard-hitting exploration of love and friendship.

How do you deal with a hole in your life? Do you grieve? Do you drink? Do you make out with your best friend? Do you turn to poets and pop songs? Do you question everything? Do you lash out? Do you turn the lashing inward? If you're Avery, you do all of these things. And you write it all down in an attempt to understand what's happened — and is happening — to you. I Felt a Funeral, In My Brain is an astonishing novel about navigating death and navigating life, at a time when the only map you have is the one you can draw for yourself.

Follow Will Walton on Facebook.

The Page 69 Test: Anything Could Happen.

My Book, The Movie: Anything Could Happen.

Writers Read: Will Walton.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Julie Clark & Teddy

Featured at Coffee with a Canine: Julie Clark & Teddy.

The author, on how she and Teddy were united:

Teddy was a rescue dog that we got through an organization called Dogs Without Borders. They found him wandering the streets when he was about six months old. He was malnourished and suffering from pneumonia. He spent a few weeks in the dog hospital before we were able to bring him home. But now, he lives...[read on]

About The Ones We Choose by Julie Clark, from the publisher:

Lisa Genova meets 23andMe in this exploration of the genetic and emotional ties that bind, as debut author Julie Clark delivers a compelling read about a young boy desperate to find his place in this world, a mother coming to terms with her own past, and the healing power of forgiveness.

The powerful forces of science and family collide when geneticist Paige Robson finds her world in upheaval: Her eight-year-old son Miles is struggling to fit in at his new school and begins asking questions about his biological father that Paige can’t answer—until fate thrusts the anonymous donor she used into their lives.

Paige’s carefully constructed life begins to unravel as the truth of Miles’s paternity threatens to destroy everything she has grown to cherish. As Paige slowly opens herself up—by befriending an eccentric mother, confronting her own deeply buried vulnerabilities, and trying to make sense of her absent father’s unexpected return—she realizes breakthroughs aren’t only for the lab. But when tragedy strikes, Paige must face the consequences of sharing a secret only she knows.

With grace and humor, Julie Clark shows that while the science is fascinating, solving these intimate mysteries of who we are and where we come from unleashes emotions more complex than the strands of DNA that shape us.

Visit Julie Clark's website.

Writers Read: Julie Clark.

Coffee with a Canine: Julie Clark & Teddy.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Serhii Plokhy's "Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe by Serhii Plokhy.

About the book, from the publisher:

From a preeminent historian of Eastern Europe, the definitive history of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster

On the morning of April 26, 1986, Europe witnessed the worst nuclear disaster in history: the explosion of a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Soviet Ukraine. Dozens died of radiation poisoning, fallout contaminated half the continent, and thousands fell ill.

In Chernobyl, Serhii Plokhy draws on new sources to tell the dramatic stories of the firefighters, scientists, and soldiers who heroically extinguished the nuclear inferno. He lays bare the flaws of the Soviet nuclear industry, tracing the disaster to the authoritarian character of Communist party rule, the regime’s control of scientific information, and its emphasis on economic development over all else.

Today, the risk of another Chernobyl looms in the mismanagement of nuclear power in the developing world. A moving and definitive account, Chernobyl is also an urgent call to action.

Learn more about Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe at the Basic Books website.

My Book, The Movie: The Last Empire.

The Page 99 Test: The Gates of Europe. 

The Page 99 Test: Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five unforgettable prisons in science fiction & fantasy

Corey J. White is a writer of science-fiction, horror, and other, harder to define stories. He is the author of The VoidWitch Saga, containing Killing Gravity and Void Black Shadow. One of five unforgettable prisons in science fiction and fantasy that he tagged at Tor.com:

The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajaniemi

Trapped by Archons in the Dilemma Prison, Jean le Flambeur—the famous thief and raconteur—is faced again and again with variations of the prisoner’s dilemma, pitted against other criminals and other versions of himself in an endlessly iterative attempt at rehabilitation through game theory.

The original prisoner’s dilemma involves interrogating two prisoners, where if both prisoners stay quiet, they will both get a one year sentence, if one prisoner betrays the other (who remains quiet) they would go free at the expense of a worse sentence for the other prisoner, or where both prisoners betraying the other winds them both with a two year sentence. But when you run an infinitely iterative prison, things do tend to get boring, so simple interrogations are replaced by pistol-packing duels, games of chicken on an endless highway, or trench warfare. No matter the scenario there are always two choices: self-interest and betrayal, or cooperation.

When we first meet Flambeur, he’s not feeling too cooperative—and for his attempted betrayal of a fellow prisoner he’s treated to a bullet through the skull, rendered painfully, utterly real…until the whole dilemma is reset once again.

If all this sounds weird and deep and interesting (and the above is just the beginning—only the first few pages of the novel) then I’ve done a decent job of explaining it—if not, all blame should lie with the author of this article, and not with Hannu Rajaniemi, whose debut novel The Quantum Thief is an utterly unique slab of post-cyberpunk intrigue.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Christina June reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Christina June, author of Everywhere You Want to Be.

Her entry begins:

I just finished the wonderful A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole. It's a contemporary romance with a royalty bent. A woman who grew up in the foster care system, and is on her way to becoming a successful scientist, turns out to be the long-lost betrothed to a handsome prince from the fictional African country, Thesolo. It's Coming to America meets The Princess Diaries plus a woman in STEM. I loved it. Naledi is a fantastic heroine--she is smart, funny, and never once...[read on]

About Everywhere You Want to Be, from the publisher:

From author Christina June comes Everywhere You Want to Be, a modern tale inspired by the classic Red Riding Hood story.

Matilda Castillo has always followed the rules, but when she gets injured senior year, she’s sure her dreams of becoming a contemporary dancer have slipped away. So when Tilly gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend the summer with a New York dance troupe, nothing can stop her from saying yes–not her mother, not her fears of the big city, and not the commitment she made to Georgetown. Tilly’s mother allows her to go on two conditions: one, Tilly will regularly visit her abuela in New Jersey, and two, after the summer, she’ll give up dancing and go off to college.

Armed with her red vintage sunglasses and her pros and cons lists, Tilly strikes out, determined to turn a summer job into a career. Along the way she meets new friends … and new enemies. Tilly isn’t the only one desperate to dance, and fellow troupe member Sabrina Wolfrik intends to succeed at any cost. But despite dodging sabotage and blackmail attempts from Sabrina, Tilly can’t help but fall in love with the city, especially since Paolo, a handsome musician from her past, is also calling New York home for the summer.

As the weeks wind down and the competition with Sabrina heats up, Tilly’s future is on the line. She must decide whether to follow her mother’s path to Georgetown or leap into the unknown to pursue her own dreams.

Visit Christina June's website.

Writers Read: Christina June.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Sarah Haywood's "The Cactus"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Cactus by Sarah Haywood.

About the book, from the publisher:

Even the prickliest cactus has its flower…

For Susan Green, messy emotions don’t fit into the equation of her perfectly ordered life. She has a flat that is ideal for one, a job that suits her passion for logic and an “interpersonal arrangement” that provides cultural and other, more intimate, benefits. But suddenly confronted with the loss of her mother and the news that she is about to become a mother herself, Susan’s greatest fear is realized. She is losing control.

When she learns that her mother’s will inexplicably favors her indolent brother, Edward, Susan’s already dismantled world is sent flying into a tailspin. As Susan’s due date draws near and her family problems become increasingly difficult to ignore, Susan finds help and self-discovery in the most unlikely of places.

Featuring an endearing cast of characters and tremendous heart, The Cactus is a poignant debut and a delightful reminder that some things can’t be explained by logic alone.

Visit Sarah Haywood's website.

Writers Read: Sarah Haywood.

My Book, The Movie: The Cactus.

The Page 69 Test: The Cactus.

--Marshal Zeringue

Glenn Cooper's "Sign of the Cross," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Sign of the Cross by Glenn Cooper.

The entry begins:

Actually I’ve been thinking about this topic lately, not for Sign of the Cross, but for my earlier Library of the Dead trilogy, which is in development as a TV series. Without getting into the thinking on that project, I’ve come to the same conclusion as many, many casting directors of late, that British and Commonwealth actors are lights-out great playing Americans. Think Damien Lewis in Homeland and Billions, Dominic West and Ruth Wilson in The Affair, Ben Mendelsohn in Bloodline, Daniel Day Lewis in Lincoln and There Will Be Blood, Andrew Lincoln and Lennie James in Walking Dead, Idris Elba in The Wire, and Matthew Rhys, ironically enough, in The Americans. The hero of my new book, the first in a new series, is Cal Donovan, a professor of history of religion and biblical archaeology at the Harvard Divinity School. He’s late forties, wicked smart (of course), handsome (of course), and athletic enough to get himself out of a scrape or two. So, going with my American conversion proposition, I’d pick...[read on]

Glenn Cooper graduated with a degree in archaeology from Harvard and was formerly the Chairman and CEO of a biotechnology company in Massachusetts. His previous thrillers, including the bestselling Library of the Dead trilogy, have sold six million copies in more than thirty languages worldwide.

Visit Glenn Cooper's website.

The Page 69 Test: Sign of the Cross.

Writers Read: Glenn Cooper.

My Book, The Movie: Sign of the Cross.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top books that reveal secret histories

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 Reads blog he tagged ten books that "offer perspectives on history that remained hidden for a long time," including:

High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic, by Glenn Frankel

We all know about the McCarthy Era and the blacklisting of Hollywood figures who had ties to the Communist Party—even ancient, dubious ties. Few of us know how this shameful aspect of America’s past directly affected the films made during this period. Frankel studies one of the most famous movies of all time, the 1952 Western High Noon, which tells the story of a marshal who is abandoned by his friends and neighbors when a gang of criminal specifically targets him, and shows how the story purposefully parallels what was happening in America at the time. The film’s screenwriter, Carl Foreman, was hauled in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee—and when he refused to name other possible communists, he was blacklisted and it took him more than a decade to make his way back. His incredible script for High Noon will never be seen in the same light after reading this book.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Susan Thomson's "Rwanda: From Genocide to Precarious Peace"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Rwanda: From Genocide to Precarious Peace by Susan Thomson.

About the book, from the publisher:

A sobering study of the troubled African nation, both pre- and post-genocide, and its uncertain future

The brutal civil war between Hutu and Tutsi factions in Rwanda ended in 1994 when the Rwandan Patriotic Front came to power and embarked on an ambitious social, political, and economic project to remake the devastated central-east African nation. Susan Thomson, who witnessed the hostilities firsthand, has written a provocative modern history of the country, its rulers, and its people, covering the years prior to, during, and following the genocidal conflict. Thomson’s hard-hitting analysis explores the key political events that led to the ascendance of the Rwandan Patriotic Front and its leader, President Paul Kagame. This important and controversial study examines the country’s transition from war to reconciliation from the perspective of ordinary Rwandan citizens, Tutsi and Hutu alike, and raises serious questions about the stability of the current peace, the methods and motivations of the ruling regime and its troubling ties to the past, and the likelihood of a genocide-free future.

Learn more about Rwanda: From Genocide to Precarious Peace at the Yale University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Rwanda: From Genocide to Precarious Peace.

 --Marshal Zeringue

What is Kathleen George reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Kathleen George, author of The Blues Walked In.

Her entry begins:

I had surgery on January 16 and it was a big one that involved my spine top to bottom, so ... I read. I read a lot. I read at least 30 novels since then and have slowed down a little since I am now out and about. I read a good number of the much talked about current books like An American Marriage and Tangerine and I was appreciative of almost everything, but I will talk about the ones that still haunt me.

The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende caught me up in a redefinition of passionate love. The characters were interesting, ragged, unconventional and so was the secret love affair that lasted a lifetime. I was touched to think of such...[read on]

About The Blues Walked In, from the publisher:

Nineteen year-old Lena Horne is walking the last few blocks to her father’s hotel in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. Her chanced meeting with a Lebanese American girl, Marie David, sparks a relationship that will intertwine their lives forever. Lena will also meet Josiah Conner, a charismatic teenager who helps out at her father's hotel. Although the three are linked by a determination to be somebody, issues of race, class, family, and education threaten to disrupt their lives and the bonds between them. Years later, Josiah is arrested for the murder of a white man. Marie and Lena decide they must get Josiah out of prison—whatever the personal cost.

Learn more about the book and author at Kathleen George's website.

The Page 99 Test: Afterimage.

The Page 99 Test: The Odds.

The Page 69 Test: Hideout.

My Book, The Movie: Hideout.

The Page 69 Test: Simple.

The Page 69 Test: A Measure of Blood.

Writers Read: Kathleen George.

--Marshal Zeringue