Q&A with Christina Lynch

From my Q&A with Christina Lynch, author of Pony Confidential:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

Quite a bit, and I can’t take any credit except recognizing a great title when I heard it. The project was originally called Christmas Pony and it was only after it had floated around for a while without any nibbles that my agent asked if I would retitle it. I happened to be in a house full of writers on a freezing island when her email arrived. I read it aloud and my pal Anna Kovel looked at me and said “Pony Confidential.” Boom! It was a genius title that sold the book and shaped its future. Christmas Pony was the story of a pony looking for the one little girl he really loved, twenty-five years after he last saw her. Pony Confidential suggested a mysterious crime as well as a tell-all about pony life. It became not just three-foot-tall Pony’s hilarious critique of everything wrong about humans, but also the story of Penny, his long-lost human, who stands accused of a murder only...[read on]

Visit Christina Lynch's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Italian Party.

The Page 69 Test: The Italian Party.

Writers Read: Christina Lynch (April 2018).

My Book, The Movie: Sally Brady's Italian Adventure.

Writers Read: Christina Lynch (June 2023).

The Page 69 Test: Sally Brady's Italian Adventure.

The Page 69 Test: Pony Confidential.

Q&A with Christina Lynch.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Carlie Sorosiak's "Shadow Fox"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Shadow Fox by Carlie Sorosiak.

About the book, from the publisher:

Shadow the plucky fox and a girl named Bee might be the only ones who can save a secret magical island in the Great Lakes.

Shadow the fox does not trust humans. Well, except for Nan, who feeds her chunks of fish behind a lakeside motel every night. When Nan goes missing, a man from the mysterious Whistlenorth Island comes ashore to seek the aid of Nan’s granddaughter, Bee, whom he thinks is destined not only to help Nan, but also to save Whistlenorth from the greedy and destructive Night Islanders. The plans go topsy-turvy when it becomes obvious that Bee does not have the magic powers of a chosen one—but Shadow does! Can a fox really rescue an island of people? As Shadow grudgingly comes to trust her new human companions, she and Bee develop a mystical bond, a special connection between human and animal that might be the key to driving the Night Islanders from Whistlenorth for good. This enchanting adventure is narrated by Shadow herself, whose mind is unflinchingly “fox” and whose spirit is charming and bold.

Visit Carlie Sorosiak's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Carlie Sorosiak & Dany.

The Page 69 Test: Shadow Fox.

--Marshal Zeringue

Twelve top books on history’s most fearsome diseases

At Mental Floss Marla Mackoul tagged twelve books that dive "into an infamous disease and the people battling it in various capacities, showcasing the unwavering courage and resilience of individuals in the face of indescribable tragedy." One title on the list:

Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail by Stephen Bown

Stephen Bown’s Scurvy offers a vivid exploration of how scurvy, the devastating “plague of the sea,” was finally conquered. With engaging storytelling, Bown brings the harsh realities of 18th-century naval life into striking color while also showcasing the perseverance of three individuals who solved one of the greatest medical mysteries of the era, thereby revolutionizing military capabilities. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in maritime history.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Susan A. Brewer's "The Best Land"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Best Land: Four Hundred Years of Love and Betrayal on Oneida Territory by Susan A. Brewer.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Susan A. Brewer's fascinating The Best Land, she recounts the story of the parcel of central New York land on which she grew up. Brewer and her family had worked and lived on this land for generations when the Oneida Indians claimed that it rightfully belonged to them. Why, she wondered, did she not know what had happened to this place her grandfather called the best land. Here, she tells its story, tracing over the past four hundred years the two families―her own European settler family and the Oneida/Mohawk family of Polly Denny―who called the best land home.

Situated on the passageway to the west, the ancestral land of the Oneidas was coveted by European colonizers and the founders of the Empire State. The Brewer and Denny families took part in imperial wars, the American Revolution, broken treaties, the building of the Erie Canal, Native removal, the rise and decline of family farms, bitter land claims controversies, and the revival of the Oneida Indian Nation. As Brewer makes clear in The Best Land, through centuries of violence, bravery, greed, generosity, racism, and love, the lives of the Brewer and Denny families were profoundly intertwined. The story of this homeland, she discovers, unsettles the history she thought she knew.

With clear determination to tell history as it was, without sugarcoating or ignoring the pain and suffering of both families, Brewer navigates the interconnected stories with grace, humility, and a deep love for the land. The Best Land is a beautiful homage to the people, the place, and the environment itself.

Learn more about The Best Land at the Cornell University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Why America Fights.

The Page 99 Test: The Best Land.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nikki May's "This Motherless Land," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: This Motherless Land by Nikki May.

Her entry begins:

I always cast my books before I write them – it’s one of the most fun bits. I print out pictures of my leads (and locations) and pin them to the board over my writing desk. When I can’t work out what a character would do – I look up and talk to them. It works!

For This Motherless Land, Funke was Thandie Newton and Kate was Rachel Weisz. I cast the supporting actors too, so Dominic West, Damien Lewis, Dame Maggie Smith and Dame Helen Mirren (I know – I dream big!) were on the board too.

The only thing is, Funke is...[read on]

Visit Nikki May's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Nikki May & Fela and Lola.

The Page 69 Test: This Motherless Land.

Writers Read: Nikki May.

My Book, The Movie: This Motherless Land.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine books featuring grief navigated through found family

Laura Buchwald is a writer and editor based in New York City. Her strong belief in the afterlife has led her to consult with multiple spiritual mediums, to convincing results. She has spent significant time in New Orleans researching ghosts and restaurant culture—two of her favorite things. She is co-host of the podcast People Who Do Things, a series of conversations about the creative process. Buchwald lives in Manhattan with her husband and dog.

Her new novel is The Coat Check Girl.

At Electric Lit Buchwald tagged nine "books that address the theme of navigating grief through found family." One title on the list:

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

This beautiful novel chronicles the AIDS epidemic on alternating timelines—the 1980s, when it began in the United States, and a more contemporary era in which the protagonists reflect on it. Because of the nature of the epidemic, some of the characters both afflicted by AIDS and impacted by grief over their fallen friends and lovers are alone in their struggles, having been disowned by their families of origin. The Great Believers is a testament to the enduring power of friendship.

Read about another title on the list.

The Great Believers is among Emma Specter's best books for a good cry, Edward McClelland's ten favorite modern fiction titles set in Chicago, Joel Fishbane's five best books with multiple timelines, The Center for Fiction's 200 books that shaped 200 years of literature, seven top books for World AIDS Day, and Joanna Hershon's seven darkly fascinating books about cults.

My Book, The Movie: The Great Believers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Brycchan Carey's "The Unnatural Trade"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Unnatural Trade: Slavery, Abolition, and Environmental Writing, 1650-1807 by Brycchan Carey.

About the book, from the publisher:

A look at the origins of British abolitionism as a problem of eighteenth-century science, as well as one of economics and humanitarian sensibilities

How did late eighteenth-century British abolitionists come to view the slave trade and British colonial slavery as unnatural, a “dread perversion” of nature? Focusing on slavery in the Americas, and the Caribbean in particular, alongside travelers’ accounts of West Africa, Brycchan Carey shows that before the mid-eighteenth century, natural histories were a primary source of information about slavery for British and colonial readers. These natural histories were often ambivalent toward slavery, but they increasingly adopted a proslavery stance to accommodate the needs of planters by representing slavery as a “natural” phenomenon. From the mid-eighteenth century, abolitionists adapted the natural history form to their own writings, and many naturalists became associated with the antislavery movement.

Carey draws on descriptions of slavery and the slave trade created by naturalists and other travelers with an interest in natural history, including Richard Ligon, Hans Sloane, Griffith Hughes, Samuel Martin, and James Grainger. These environmental writings were used by abolitionists such as Anthony Benezet, James Ramsay, Thomas Clarkson, and Olaudah Equiano to build a compelling case that slavery was unnatural, a case that was popularized by abolitionist poets such as Thomas Day, Edward Rushton, Hannah More, and William Cowper.

Learn more about the book and author at Brycchan Carey's website.

The Page 99 Test: From Peace to Freedom.

The Page 99 Test: The Unnatural Trade.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Sariah Wilson's "A Tribute of Fire"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: A Tribute of Fire by Sariah Wilson.

About the book, from the publisher:

The fate of a cursed nation depends on a princess who must outwit a mortal enemy and outlast the trials of a death-defying ritual in a thrilling adventure by USA Today bestselling author Sariah Wilson.

Lia is the princess of Locris, a dying desert nation cursed centuries ago by an earth goddess—one still worshipped by the thriving and adversarial nation of Ilion. Every year, Ilion offers the goddess a sacrifice: two Locrian maidens forced to compete in a life-and-death race to reach her temple. In a millennium, no maiden has made it out of Ilion alive. This year, Lia is one of the hunted.

An education in battle gives her a fighting chance, but the challenges are greater than she feared: Lia’s beloved but untrained sister Quynh has been put in the path of danger. The winding streets of Ilion itself have been transformed into a labyrinthine maze of countless choices and dead ends. And if the risks weren’t significant enough, Lia is reluctantly drawn to the commandingly attractive Jason, an Ilionian sailor she loathes to trust and desires like no man before.

The tribute game is on. It’s up to Lia to lift the goddess’s curse, restore Locris to its former glory, and change the fate of every young woman destined to follow in her path.

Visit Sariah Wilson's website.

The Page 69 Test: A Tribute of Fire.

--Marshal Zeringue

Four horror books featuring creatives

Delilah S. Dawson is the author of the New York Times bestseller Star Wars: Phasma, as well as Star Wars Galaxy's Edge: Black Spire, Mine, the Hit series, the Blud series, the creator-owned comics Ladycastle, Sparrowhawk, and Star Pig, and the Shadow series (written as Lila Bowen). With Kevin Hearne, she co-writes The Tales of Pell. She lives in Georgia with her family.

Dawson's new thriller is The Violence.

At CrimeReads the author tagged four horror books featuring artists. One title on the list:

[S]ome artists are not so self-aware. In Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester, an artist mother and her teen daughter are both caught up in the cycle of the same serial killer, known only as the Cur because his victims are found with bite-riddled thighs. While the daughter struggles with the opposing urges to fit in and act out, her mother creates beautiful but eerie sculptures while in a trancelike state—artworks somehow related to the tragedies in her past that she can’t quite remember. Personally, as someone who has painted with my own blood, I’m always here for the admixture of female rage and art.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Christopher R. Pearl's "Declarations of Independence"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Declarations of Independence: Indigenous Resilience, Colonial Rivalries, and the Cost of Revolution by Christopher R. Pearl.

About the book, from the publisher:

How Indigenous Americans and colonial settlers negotiated the meaning of independence in the Revolutionary era

On July 4, 1776, two hundred miles northwest of Philadelphia, on Indigenous land along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, a group of colonial squatters declared their independence. They were not alone in their efforts. This bold symbolic gesture was just a small part of a much broader and longer struggle in the Northern Susquehanna River Valley, where diverse peoples, especially Indigenous nations, fought tenaciously to safeguard their lands, sovereignty, and survival.

This book immerses readers in that intense, decades-long struggle. By intertwining the experiences of Indigenous Americans, rebellious colonial squatters, opportunistic land speculators, and imperial government agents, Christopher Pearl reveals how conflicts within and between them all set the terms and ultimately shaped the meaning of the American Revolution. In the crucible of this conflict, memories, histories, and animosities collided and converged with tremendous consequences. Declarations of Independence delves into the racial violence over land and sovereignty that suffused the Revolutionary Age and helps restore Indigenous peoples to their central position at the founding of the United States.

Learn more about Declarations of Independence at the University of Virginia Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Declarations of Independence.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Andrew Welsh-Huggins reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Andrew Welsh-Huggins, author of Sick to Death.

His entry begins:

I read widely, from narrative nonfiction to celebrity memoirs, but most regularly crime fiction from a continuing ed standpoint.

My first selection is This is Why We Lied by Karin Slaughter, one of my favorite writers. Slaughter rotates between stand-alone novels and her series books about Georgia medical examiner Dr. Sara Linton and her now-husband, Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Will Trent. Slaughter’s books are often dark, often with themes involving violence against women and children, to the point I’ve likened her style to Stephen King without the supernatural element. She also writes the most honest portrayals of policing, good, bad, and ugly, that I’ve encountered outside of Michael Connelly. Finally, she can be laugh-out-loud funny. All those traits are present in this new book, her version of a locked-room mystery as Linton and Trent interrupt their honeymoon at an isolated luxury tourist camp to...[read on]

About Sick to Death, from the publisher:

After years of personal and professional turmoil, things are finally looking up for Columbus, Ohio, private eye Andy Hayes. As Sick to Death opens, Andy is relishing his new gig: a drama-free, family-friendly stint as a guard at the Columbus Museum of Art. What could be better than regular hours, a steady paycheck, and an attractive coworker who may be just as interested in him as he is in her? Right on schedule, Andy’s newfound equilibrium comes crashing down when he interrupts the theft of a painting by famed Ashcan school realist George Bellows—and is promptly fired for breaking museum protocols. Helping him thwart the robbers is a young woman whom Andy has caught staring at him several times at the museum. To his shock, she reveals she’s an adult daughter he never knew he had, the result of a one-night stand during his misspent youth a quarter century earlier. But Alex Rutledge, about to enter the Columbus Police Academy, isn’t looking for family time. She wants to hire her newly discovered father to find the driver who killed her mother, Kate, five months earlier in a still unsolved hit-skip accident. Even as Andy reels from this personal development, he uncovers troubling details about Kate’s death that increasingly point toward murder and an angry anti-vax sentiment roiling below the surface at the hospital where she worked. Complicating Andy’s case, he finds himself in the crosshairs of an FBI investigation into the attempted art theft. With time running out and his and Alex’s lives on the line, Andy rushes to defend his reputation as a private eye and find Kate’s killer.

Visit Andrew Welsh-Huggins's website.

My Book, The Movie: An Empty Grave.

Q&A with Andrew Welsh-Huggins.

The Page 69 Test: An Empty Grave.

Writers Read: Andrew Welsh-Huggins (April 2023).

My Book, The Movie: The End of the Road.

The Page 69 Test: The End of the Road.

Writers Read: Andrew Welsh-Huggins.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven dark novels haunted by music

Kate van der Borgh's new novel is And He Shall Appear. By day, the author is a freelance copywriter, and by night, she’s usually composing or playing music. She grew up in Lancashire and went on to study music at Cambridge, so there’s a reasonable amount of her in her narrator—including the fact that she was a pianist and reluctant bassoonist. She has, however, never had reason to suspect that her best friend has occult powers.

At Electric Lit van der Borgh tagged seven "novels in which music is used to communicate indescribable emotions and inexplicable experiences." One title on the list:

A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand

In this, the first ever estate-approved follow-up, we revisit Shirley Jackson’s iconic Hill House. (Difficult, then, to imagine this was anything other than the world’s most intimidating book to write.)

Struggling playwright Holly Sherwin is looking for a hideaway where she can develop her new work when she happens upon a crumbling mansion on the edge of town. She’s accompanied by her team: lead actress Amanda, sound engineer Stevie, and Holly’s girlfriend Nisa, who is composing and performing music for the play.

As in the original, there’s an emphasis on dark psychology—on paranoia and distrust, feelings of loneliness. For Holly, this manifests as jealousy of Nisa, whose beautiful voice and songs might well overshadow the play itself. Exploring ideas of creativity, adaptation, influence and ownership, the story invites us to wonder who exactly owns the art we produce and the tales we tell.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Timothy Messer-Kruse's "Slavery's Fugitives and the Making of the United States Constitution"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Slavery's Fugitives and the Making of the United States Constitution by Timothy Messer-Kruse.

About the book, from the publisher:

Slavery’s Fugitives and the Making of the United States Constitution unearths a long-hidden factor that led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. While historians have generally acknowledged that patriot leaders assembled in response to postwar economic chaos, the threat of popular insurgencies, and the inability of the states to agree on how to fund the national government, Timothy Messer-Kruse suggests that scholars have discounted Americans’ desire to compel Britain to return fugitives from slavery as a driving force behind the convention.

During the Revolutionary War, British governors offered freedom to enslaved Americans who joined the king’s army. Thousands responded by fleeing to English camps. After the British defeat at Yorktown, American diplomats demanded the surrender of fugitive slaves. When British generals refused, several states confiscated Loyalist estates and blocked payment of English creditors, hoping to apply enough pressure on the Crown to hand over the runaways. State laws conflicting with the 1783 Treaty of Paris violated the Articles of Confederation—the young nation’s first constitution—but Congress, lacking an executive branch or a federal judiciary, had no means to obligate states to comply.

The standoff over the escaped slaves quickly escalated following the Revolution as Britain failed to abandon the western forts it occupied and took steps to curtail American commerce. More than any other single matter, the impasse over the return of enslaved Americans threatened to hamper the nation’s ability to expand westward, develop its commercial economy, and establish itself as a power among the courts of Europe. Messer-Kruse argues that the issue encouraged the founders to consider the prospect of scrapping the Articles of Confederation and drafting a superseding document that would dramatically increase federal authority—the Constitution.

Learn more about Slavery's Fugitives and the Making of the United States Constitution by LSU Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Slavery's Fugitives and the Making of the United States Constitution.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Christina Lynch's "Pony Confidential"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Pony Confidential by Christina Lynch.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this one-of-a-kind mystery with heart and humor, a hilariously grumpy pony must save the only human he’s ever loved after discovering she stands accused of a murder he knows she didn’t commit.

Pony has been passed from owner to owner for longer than he can remember. Fed up, he busts out and goes on a cross-country mission to reunite with Penny, the little girl who he was separated from and hasn’t seen in years.

Penny, now an adult, is living an ordinary life when she gets a knock on her door and finds herself in handcuffs, accused of murder and whisked back to the place she grew up. Her only comfort when the past comes back to haunt her is the memory of her precious, rebellious pony.

Hearing of Penny’s fate, Pony knows that Penny is no murderer. So, as smart and devious as he is cute, the pony must use his hard-won knowledge of human weakness and cruelty to try to clear Penny’s name and find the real killer.

This acutely observant, feel-good mystery reveals the humanity of animals and beastliness of humans in a rollicking escapade of epic proportions.

Visit Christina Lynch's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Italian Party.

The Page 69 Test: The Italian Party.

Writers Read: Christina Lynch (April 2018).

My Book, The Movie: Sally Brady's Italian Adventure.

Writers Read: Christina Lynch (June 2023).

The Page 69 Test: Sally Brady's Italian Adventure.

The Page 69 Test: Pony Confidential.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten great mysteries set in the great outdoors

Margaret Mizushima writes the internationally published Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries. She serves as past president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America and was elected Writer of the Year by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. She is the recipient of a Colorado Authors League Award, a Benjamin Franklin Book Award, a CIBA CLUE Award, and two Willa Literary Awards by Women Writing the West. Her books have been finalists for a SPUR Award by Western Writers of America, a Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award, and the Colorado Book Award. She and her husband recently moved from Colorado, where they raised two daughters and a multitude of animals, to a home in the Pacific Northwest.

Mizushima's new Timber Creek K-9 mystery is Gathering Mist.

[Coffee with a Canine: Margaret Mizushima & Hannah, Bertie, Lily and Tess; Coffee with a Canine: Margaret Mizushima & Hannah; My Book, The Movie: Burning Ridge; The Page 69 Test: Burning Ridge; The Page 69 Test: Tracking Game; My Book, The Movie: Hanging Falls; The Page 69 Test: Hanging Falls; Q&A with Margaret Mizushima; The Page 69 Test: Striking Range; The Page 69 Test: Standing Dead; The Page 69 Test: Gathering Mist; Writers Read: Margaret Mizushima (October 2024)]

At CrimeReads Mizushima tagged ten favorite mysteries set in the great outdoors. One title on the list:

The Night Woods by Paula Munier

Munier’s Mercy Carr Mysteries are set in the beautiful woods of Vermont. The latest is The Night Woods, book #6, in which the very pregnant Mercy and her Belgian Malinois Elvis discover a body in a missing friend’s cabin. She and Elvis battle a storm to search for her friend, who is the number one suspect in the murder investigation, and they uncover evidence that the real killer is out there ready to strike again. Munier delivers an immersive outdoor setting as a backdrop for a twisty whodunit.

Read about another mystery on the list.

My Book, The Movie: The Night Woods.

The Page 69 Test: The Night Woods.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Joseph A. Seeley's "Border of Water and Ice"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Border of Water and Ice: The Yalu River and Japan's Empire in Korea and Manchuria by Joseph A. Seeley.

About the book, from the publisher:

Border of Water and Ice explores the significance of the Yalu River as a strategic border between Korea and Manchuria (Northeast China) during a period of Japanese imperial expansion into the region. The Yalu's seasonal patterns of freezing, thawing, and flooding shaped colonial efforts to control who and what could cross the border. Joseph A. Seeley shows how the unpredictable movements of water, ice, timber-cutters, anti-Japanese guerrillas, smugglers, and other borderland actors also spilled outside the bounds set by Japanese colonizers, even as imperial border-making reinforced Japan's wider political and economic power.

Drawing on archival sources in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and English, Seeley tells the story of the river and the imperial border haphazardly imposed on its surface from 1905 to 1945 to show how rivers and other nonhuman actors play an active role in border creation and maintenance. Emphasizing the tenuous, environmentally contingent nature of imperial border governance, Border of Water and Ice argues for the importance of understanding history across the different seasons.

Learn more about Border of Water and Ice at the Cornell University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Border of Water and Ice.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with G. M. Malliet

From my Q&A with G. M. Malliet, author of Death and the Old Master:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

Titles are nearly as important as covers. It is one of the pleasures of browsing a bookstore that you can be drawn to a book you never knew you wanted by its title alone.

I’ve been lucky with being able to keep my original ideas for book titles. I believe I’ve never had an editor request an alternative title except in the case of the St. Just books. “Marketing,” a term for a generally anonymous, behind-the-curtain group in publishing, wanted every title in the series to begin with “Death.” (The series began with Death of a Cozy Writer.) After six books, all this “Death” is getting a bit morbid, but I’m stuck with it now, and I do see the wisdom of making it easier for readers to find me.

I have a title I really love for Book #7. I won’t say what it is, lest I break my lucky streak.

Choosing titles is the fun part, however, even given that constraint. Death and the Old Master, a title with layers of meaning, suggested itself to me in a chicken/egg fashion, and became integral to the plot. DCI St. Just is based in Cambridge, and the story concerns an aging master of a fictional Cambridge college called Hardwick. The master is an art expert who acquires a painting that may or may not be...[read on]

Visit G. M. Malliet's website, Facebook page, and Instagram home.

The Page 69 Test: A Fatal Winter.

The Page 69 Test: The Haunted Season.

Writers Read: G.M. Malliet (April 2017).

Q&A with G. M. Malliet.

--Marshal Zeringue

Michael Wendroff's "What Goes Around," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: What Goes Around by Michael Wendroff.

The entry begins:

I've been told my book, What Goes Around, would make a great Netflix Original (I was kind of thinking of the Silver Screen, but hey, I'll take it).

A key protagonist in my film shares some similarities with Jack Reacher, but I sure as hell don't want Tom Cruise playing him! I could see John Cena playing him. Given his impressive stature, and background in action films, he could easily portray his stoic and physical presence. Another good choice would be Chris Hemsworth, best known for playing Thor in the Marvel films. He has the size, strength, and charisma to play such a commanding character.

The other protagonist in the novel, his foil, is a female detective, Jill. She gets partnered up with Jack, and together they must solve a string of killings in a small town. They had been enemies ever since their days together in the police academy, and now must see if they can find the killer before they kill each other. Jill is smart, intuitive and beautiful. I think...[read on]

Visit Michael Wendroff's website.

The Page 69 Test: What Goes Around.

Q&A with Michael Wendroff.

My Book, The Movie: What Goes Around.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight top books for adults about horses

Christina Lynch is at the beck and call of two dogs, three horses, and a hilarious pony who carts her up and down mountains while demanding (and receiving) many carrots. Besides Pony Confidential, her new novel, she is also the author of two historical novels set in Italy and the coauthor of two comic thrillers set in Prague and Vienna. She teaches at College of the Sequoias and lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

[My Book, The Movie: The Italian Party; The Page 69 Test: The Italian Party; Writers Read: Christina Lynch (April 2018); My Book, The Movie: Sally Brady's Italian Adventure;Writers Read: Christina Lynch (June 2023); The Page 69 Test: Sally Brady's Italian Adventure]

At Electric Lit Lynch tagged eight top horse books for adults, including:

Horse Heaven by Jane Smiley

Jane Smiley is one of those rare writers who can make you laugh out loud on one page and weep on the next. A sprawling novel set in the world of Thoroughbred racing and told from many different points of view, including a Jack Russell terrier named Eileen and several racehorses, Horse Heaven chronicles lives that are familiar but utterly poignant—down on their luck gamblers, too-tall jockeys, insatiable rich people, all desperate for a win. My favorite character is Justa Bob, a downwardly mobile Thoroughbred who passes from owner to owner without losing his optimism (a certain pony would have bitten all of the humans who let Bob down). Smiley’s prose is eagle-eyed but also laced with kindness, making Horse Heaven a world that keeps pulling you back in even as it breaks your heart.

Read about another book on the list.

Horse Heaven is among Karen Joy Fowler's ten top books about intelligent animals and Megan Wasson's eight great books about horses.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Andrea Wright's "Unruly Labor"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Unruly Labor: A History of Oil in the Arabian Sea by Andrea Wright.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the mid-twentieth century, the Arabian Peninsula emerged as a key site of oil production. International companies recruited workers from across the Middle East and Asia to staff their expanding oil projects. Unruly Labor considers the working conditions, hiring practices, and, most important, worker actions and strikes at these oil projects. It illuminates the multiple ways workers built transnational solidarities to agitate for better working conditions, and how worker actions informed shifting understandings of rights, citizenship, and national security. Andrea Wright highlights the increasing associations between oil, governance, and racialized management practices to map how labor was increasingly depoliticized. From the 1940s to 1971, a period that includes the end of formal British imperialism in the Arabian Sea and the development of new state governments, citizenship became both an avenue for workers to advocate for their rights and, simultaneously, a way to limit other solidarities. Examining the interests of workers, government officials, and oil company managers alike, Wright offers a new history of Middle Eastern oil and twentieth-century capitalism—a history that illuminates how labor management and national security concerns have shaped state governance and economic policy priorities.

Learn more aboutUnruly Labor at the Stanford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Unruly Labor.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Stephanie Booth's "Libby Lost and Found"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Libby Lost and Found: A Novel by Stephanie Booth.

About the book, from the publisher:

Libby Lost and Found is a book for people who don't know who they are without the books they love. It's about the stories we tell ourselves and the chapters of our lives we regret. Most importantly, it's about the endings we write for ourselves.

Meet Libby Weeks, author of the mega-best-selling fantasy series, The Falling Children—written as "F.T. Goldhero" to maintain her privacy. When the last manuscript is already months overdue to her publisher and rabid fans around the world are growing impatient, Libby is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. Already suffering from crippling anxiety, Libby's symptoms quickly accelerate. After she forgets her dog at the park one day—then almost discloses her identity to the journalist who finds him—Libby has to admit it: she needs help finishing the last book.

Desperately, she turns to eleven-year-old superfan Peanut Bixton, who knows the books even better than she does but harbors her own dark secrets. Tensions mount as Libby's dementia deepens—until both Peanut and Libby swirl into an inevitable but bone-shocking conclusion.

Visit Stephanie Booth's website.

Q&A with Stephanie Booth.

My Book, The Movie: Libby Lost and Found.

The Page 69 Test: Libby Lost and Found.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten novels featuring women finding their power

J.T. Ellison is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than thirty novels and the Emmy Award–winning cohost of the literary TV show A Word on Words. She also writes urban fantasy under the pen name Joss Walker.

With millions of books in print, her work has won critical acclaim and prestigious awards. Her titles have been optioned for television and published in twenty-eight countries.

[The Page 69 Test: Edge of Black; The Page 69 Test: When Shadows Fall; My Book, The Movie: When Shadows Fall; My Book, The Movie: What Lies Behind; The Page 69 Test: What Lies Behind; The Page 69 Test: No One Knows; My Book, The Movie: No One Knows; The Page 69 Test: Lie to Me; My Book, The Movie: Good Girls Lie; The Page 69 Test: Good Girls Lie; Writers Read: J. T. Ellison (January 2020); Q&A with J.T. Ellison; The Page 69 Test: A Very Bad Thing]

Ellison's new novel is A Very Bad Thing.

At CrimeReads the author tagged ten novels that "celebrate women embracing their inner fires, mastering mystical abilities, and claiming power through acts of heroic leadership against daunting odds." One title on the list:

What Fire Brings by Rachel Howzell Hall

When Bailey Meadows goes undercover at a writing retreat to find a woman who’s gone missing from her own private investigation firm, it initially looks like she’s completely in control of the situation. Quickly, the tables are turned. When she is chosen to co-write with the legendary Jack Beckam, Jr, Bailey is thrust into a multi-layered mystery and must find herself to stay alive. Set against the backdrop of Topanga Canyon and the very real threat of an unseasonable wildfire, Bailey must journey deep into the past—and her own psyche—to survive.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: What Fire Brings.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jean-Philippe Belleau's "Killing the Elites"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Killing the Elites: Haiti, 1964 by Jean-Philippe Belleau.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the summer and fall of 1964, a massacre took place in the small town of Jérémie, Haiti. After an ill-fated uprising, the brutal regime of François “Papa Doc” Duvalier ordered reprisals against the town that some of the insurgents were allegedly from. Entire families—all from the town’s upper class—were slaughtered. Through a rich historical ethnography of the massacre, Jean-Philippe Belleau offers a new account of the workings of the Duvalier regime and an innovative analysis of anti-elite violence.

Killing the Elites meticulously reconstructs the various phases of the massacre, identifying the victims and perpetrators, tracing the social ties that linked them, and examining the varying degrees of culpability from the state to bystanders. Although Duvalier and the military were responsible, the killings were attributed to popular social grievances. Examining how the Haitian state has brutalized the upper classes, Belleau develops a new theory of anti-elite violence. He challenges views that ideology or social difference can readily drive people to kill their neighbors and that the upper classes fall victim to popular rough justice, showing that social bonds within the town prevented organized violence from spreading. The state, Belleau underscores, is the primary perpetrator of violence against elites. Drawing on interviews with eyewitnesses and former regime members as well as a wide range of unexplored primary sources, this book provides a new lens on Haiti under Duvalier and reveals why the victimization of the elite is essential to mass violence.

Learn more about Killing the Elites at the Columbia University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Killing the Elites.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Nikki May reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Nikki May, author of This Motherless Land: A Novel.

Her entry begins:

I’ve just finished Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson. One of the best things about being a published author is you get to read books before they come out. So you’ll have to wait until January 2025 to enjoy this multi-generational epic tale that examines how the past informs our present. Charmaine is a master at the stories we inherit and in this one, she explores grief and...[read on]

About This Motherless Land, from the publisher:

From the acclaimed author of Wahala, a “vibrant” (Charmaine Wilkerson) decolonial retelling of Mansfield Park, exploring identity, culture, race, and love.

Quiet Funke is happy in Nigeria. She loves her art teacher mother, her professor father, and even her annoying little brother (most of the time). But when tragedy strikes, she’s sent to England, a place she knows only from her mother’s stories. To her dismay, she finds the much-lauded estate dilapidated, the food tasteless, the weather grey. Worse still, her mother’s family are cold and distant. With one exception: her cousin Liv.

Free-spirited Liv has always wanted to break free of her joyless family. She becomes fiercely protective of her little cousin, and her warmth and kindness give Funke a place to heal. The two girls grow into adulthood the closest of friends.

But the choices their mothers made haunt Funke and Liv and when a second tragedy occurs their friendship is torn apart. Against the long shadow of their shared family history, each woman will struggle to chart a path forward, separated by country, misunderstanding, and ambition.

Moving between Somerset and Lagos over the course of two decades, This Motherless Land is a sweeping examination of identity, culture, race, and love that asks how we find belonging and whether a family’s generational wrongs can be righted.

Visit Nikki May's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Nikki May & Fela and Lola.

The Page 69 Test: This Motherless Land.

Writers Read: Nikki May.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten titles on maritime disasters and ecological collapse

Eiren Caffall is a writer and musician based in Chicago. Her writing on loss and nature, oceans and extinction has appeared in Guernica, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Literary Hub, Al Jazeera, The Rumpus, and the anthology Elementals: Volume IV. Fire forthcoming in 2024 from The Center for Humans and Nature. She received a 2023 Whiting Award in Creative Nonfiction, a Social Justice News Nexus fellowship, and residencies at the Banff Centre, Millay Colony, MacDowell Colony (waitlisted), Hedgebrook, and Ragdale. Her memoir The Mourner’s Bestiary is out now from Row House Publishing in 2024 and her novel All the Water in the World is forthcoming from St. Martin’s Press in early 2025.

At Lit Hub Caffall tagged ten books on maritime disasters and ecocollapse, including:

Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; Or, The Whale

This book found me, child of a hydrogeologist and a fisherman, a willing reader. I grew up in view of Monument Mountain, where Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne hiked to the top and perhaps fell in love and for sure came up with the shape of this book. It picked up where my childhood obsessions with Greenpeace, animals, the ocean, and whales specifically, left off.

Making fictional the actual events of the whaleship Essex, it is about what leads nature to enact understandable vengeance on human overreach. Full of commentary on environmental, racial, and class issues in America, it feels prescient and modern at the same moment. It is one giant shipwreck story, even if the actual shipwreck holds off until the very last moments.

And for more eloquence about why this is essential reading, pick up Nathaniel Philbrick’s book Why Read Moby-Dick? Because he says everything that I believe about why you must read this book right now.

Read about another entry on the list.

Moby-Dick appears among Emily Temple's ten notorious literary slogs that are worth the effort, Aidan Cottrell-Boyce's top ten novels & stories about prophets, James Stavridis's five best books to know the sea, Robert McCrum's top ten Shakespearean books, Bridget Collins's top ten Quakers in fiction, John Boyne's six best books, Kate Christensen's best food scenes in fiction, Emily Temple's ten literary classics we're supposed to like...but don't, Sara Flannery Murphy ten top stories of obsession, Harold Bloom's six favorite books that helped shape "the American Sublime,"  Charlotte Seager's five well-known literary monomaniacs who take things too far, Ann Leary's top ten books set in New England, Martin Seay's ten best long books, Ian McGuire's ten best adventure novels, Jeff Somers's five top books that will expand your vocabulary and entertain, Four books that changed Mary Norris, Tim Dee's ten best nature books, the Telegraph's fifteen best North American novels of all time, Nicole Hill's top ten best names in literature to give your dog, Horatio Clare's five favorite maritime novels, the Telegraph's ten great meals in literature, Brenda Wineapple's six favorite books, Scott Greenstone's top seven allegorical novels, Paul Wilson's top ten books about disability, Lynn Shepherd's ten top fictional drownings, Peter Murphy's top ten literary preachers, Penn Jillette's six favorite books, Peter F. Stevens's top ten nautical books, Katharine Quarmby's top ten disability stories, Jonathan Evison's six favorite books, Bella Bathurst's top 10 books on the sea, John Mullan's lists of ten of the best nightmares in literature and ten of the best tattoos in literature, Susan Cheever's five best books about obsession, Christopher Buckley's best books, Jane Yolen's five most important books, Chris Dodd's best books, Augusten Burroughs' five most important books, Norman Mailer's top ten works of literature, David Wroblewski's five most important books, Russell Banks' five most important books, and Philip Hoare's top ten books about whales.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Elia Powers's "Performing the News"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Performing the News: Identity, Authority, and the Myth of Neutrality by Elia Powers.

About the book, from the publisher:

Performing the News: Identity, Authority, and the Myth of Neutrality explores how journalists from historically marginalized groups have long felt pressure to conform when performing for audiences. Many speak with a flat, “neutral” accent, modify their delivery to hide distinctive vocal attributes, dress conventionally to appeal to the “average” viewer, and maintain a consistent appearance to avoid unwanted attention. Their aim is what author Elia Powers refers to as performance neutrality—presentation that is deemed unobjectionable, reveals little about journalists’ social identity, and supposedly does not detract from their message. Increasingly, journalists are challenging restrictive, purportedly neutral forms of self-presentation. This book argues that performance neutrality is a myth that reinforces the status quo, limits on-air diversity, and hinders efforts to make newsrooms more inclusive. Through in-depth interviews with journalists in broadcasting and podcasting, and those who shape their performance, the author suggests ways to make journalism more inclusive and representative of diverse audiences.

Visit Elia Powers's website.

The Page 99 Test: Performing the News.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books about the history of voting in America

Tommy Jenkins is the humanities division chair at Louisburg College in Louisburg, North Carolina, and an associate professor of English. He received his BA from the University of North Carolina, studied film at Columbia University, and received an MFA in fiction writing from North Carolina State University.

Jenkins is thea author of Drawing the Vote: A Graphic Novel History for Future Voters, illustrated by Kati Lacker.

At Electric Lit Jenkins tagged "a list of books that cover various significant aspects of the history of voting in the United States." One title on the list:

Vanguard by Martha Jones

Too often the history of women’s suffrage in the United State is a history of white women’s suffrage. The great historian Martha Jones rectifies this injustice in Vanguard. African American women not only had to overcome sexism, they also dealt bravely with racism, often relying on only themselves to claw for their rights. This is an important and much-needed work that greatly expands our understanding of American history. Jones is a skilled and moving writer.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Nikki May's "This Motherless Land"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: This Motherless Land: A Novel by Nikki May.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the acclaimed author of Wahala, a “vibrant” (Charmaine Wilkerson) decolonial retelling of Mansfield Park, exploring identity, culture, race, and love.

Quiet Funke is happy in Nigeria. She loves her art teacher mother, her professor father, and even her annoying little brother (most of the time). But when tragedy strikes, she’s sent to England, a place she knows only from her mother’s stories. To her dismay, she finds the much-lauded estate dilapidated, the food tasteless, the weather grey. Worse still, her mother’s family are cold and distant. With one exception: her cousin Liv.

Free-spirited Liv has always wanted to break free of her joyless family. She becomes fiercely protective of her little cousin, and her warmth and kindness give Funke a place to heal. The two girls grow into adulthood the closest of friends.

But the choices their mothers made haunt Funke and Liv and when a second tragedy occurs their friendship is torn apart. Against the long shadow of their shared family history, each woman will struggle to chart a path forward, separated by country, misunderstanding, and ambition.

Moving between Somerset and Lagos over the course of two decades, This Motherless Land is a sweeping examination of identity, culture, race, and love that asks how we find belonging and whether a family’s generational wrongs can be righted.

Visit Nikki May's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Nikki May & Fela and Lola.

The Page 69 Test: This Motherless Land.

--Marshal Zeringue