Sam Wiebe's "Ocean Drive," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Ocean Drive: A Novel by Sam Wiebe.

The entry begins:

Meghan Quick is the senior officer at a small police department in White Rock, BC, up against a large-scale criminal conspiracy. I’ve referred to Ocean Drive as a Pacific Northwest Fargo, and of course Frances McDormand would be a great choice to play Meghan. But Thandiwe Newton would be a great choice, too—she really stood out in God’s Country.

Cameron Shaw is fresh out of prison and trying to go straight, but...[read on]

Visit Sam Wiebe's website.

My Book, The Movie: Invisible Dead.

The Page 69 Test: Invisible Dead.

The Page 69 Test: Cut You Down.

Q&A with Sam Wiebe.

The Page 69 Test: Hell and Gone.

Writers Read: Sam Wiebe (March 2022).

My Book, The Movie: Hell and Gone.

My Book, The Movie: Sunset and Jericho.

Writers Read: Sam Wiebe (April 2023).

The Page 69 Test: Sunset and Jericho.

The Page 69 Test: Ocean Drive.

My Book, The Movie: Ocean Drive.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Michael McKenna's "Responsibility and Desert"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Responsibility and Desert by Michael McKenna.

About the book, from the publisher:

Responsibility & Desert advances a conversational theory of moral responsibility that relies upon desert as the normative basis for blame and punishment. A conversational theory understands the relationship between a blameworthy person and one who blames her to be similar to the relationship between competent speakers engaged in a conversational exchange. Blame can therefore be appraised for being meaningful as a reply to a culpable party's conduct. But meaningfulness alone is inadequate to justify blame and punishment. Might one appeal to fairness, reasonableness, or just utility?

Desert is widely regarded as the proper basis for blame and punishment. But is this a philosophically defensible position? Philosopher Michael McKenna explores just what desert is within the domain of moral responsibility, when conceptualized within the framework of the conversational theory. He does not offer an unqualified defence, but he does offer a best case for treating desert as the proper basis for the communicative character of blame and punishment. To do so, he takes up familiar challenges to desert and retribution. Does deserved blame and punishment commit us to the non-instrumental goodness of harms to the blameworthy and criminally culpable? Is this mere vengeance? Does it also commit us to extremely harsh treatment in response to extremely egregious wrongdoing? McKenna does not shy away from accepting hard truths about appeal to desert, but he does show that many of the most damning indictments of it are misguided.

Visit Michael McKenna's website.

The Page 99 Test: Responsibility and Desert.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five thrilling books that will make you want to listen to a true crime podcast

Katherine Greene is the pen name of bestselling authors A. Meredith Walters and Claire C. Riley. They each cut their teeth on spine-tingling thrillers and true crime. It was their love of dark, twisted tales with a strong female voice led them to create stories that leave you guessing. Both currently live in the United Kingdom with their families.

The Lake of Lost Girls is their second novel.

At CrimeReads the authors tagged five "amazing stories that use [true crime podcasts] to deliver a fast-paced, and complicated narrative." One title on the list:

Are you Sleeping by Kathleen Barber: Part psychological thriller, part true crime podcast snippets. A woman’s past comes back to haunt her when a mega hit true crime podcast reopens her family’s murder case and threatens to unravel her carefully constructed life. Focusing on how trauma changes us and tears families apart, it highlights how social media can deeply influence people.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Meryl Gordon reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Meryl Gordon, author of The Woman Who Knew Everyone: The Power of Perle Mesta, Washington's Most Famous Hostess.

Her entry begins:

Since I am a biographer, people expect me to read a lot of biographies and sometimes I do, to see how other authors frame their subjects and deal with the ambiguities. But for pleasure, I’m much more likely to read novels, mysteries, fantasy and books recommended by friends.

A few high points of this year: Martin MacInnes’ stunning novel In Ascension. Riveting, beautifully-written futuristic book, kept me up late at night, made me think. Satisfying ending, which rarely seems to happen.

Ian Rankin’s latest in the Inspector Rebus series: Midnight and Blue. I am addicted to this series, and in this new book, the writer is...[read on]

About The Woman Who Knew Everyone, from the publisher:

A deeply researched biography of the socialite, political hostess, activist and United States envoy to Luxembourg, Perle Mesta, from New York Times bestselling author Meryl Gordon.

Perle Mesta was a force to be reckoned with. In her heyday, this wealthy globe-trotting Washington widow was one of the most famous women in vAmerica, garnering as much media attention as Eleanor Roosevelt. Renowned for her world-class parties featuring politicians and celebrities, she was very close to three presidents–Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson. Truman named her as the first female envoy to Luxembourg, which inspired the hit musical based on Perle’s life – “Call Me Madam” – which starred Ethel Merman, ran on Broadway for two years and later became a movie. A pioneering supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment, she was a prodigious Democratic fundraiser and rescued Harry Truman’s financially flailing 1948 campaign.

In this intensely researched biography, author Meryl Gordon chronicles Perle’s lavish life and society adventures in Newport, Manhattan and Washington, while highlighting her important, but nearly forgotten contribution to American politics and the feminist movement.

Visit Meryl Gordon's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Phantom of Fifth Avenue.

Writers Read: Meryl Gordon (October 2017).

The Page 99 Test: Bunny Mellon.

My Book, The Movie: Bunny Mellon.

My Book, The Movie: The Woman Who Knew Everyone.

Writers Read: Meryl Gordon.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Eric S. Haag's "The Other Big Bang"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Other Big Bang: The Story of Sex and Its Human Legacy by Eric S. Haag.

About the book, from the publisher:

Sex shapes who we are as individuals and as a species. Where in the mists of time did something so important―and eye-catching―originate, and what does this history tell us about ourselves? Why do we have sex, and sexes, at all?

In The Other Big Bang, the evolutionary and developmental biologist Eric S. Haag explores the two-billion-year history of sex, from the first organisms on Earth to contemporary humans. He delves into the deep history of sexual reproduction, from its origins as a fix for a mutational crisis to an essential feature of all complex life. Haag traces sexual differentiation from its earliest forms in microbes to its elaboration in animals, showing why sex differences in cells and organisms help species adapt, persist, and evolve. Humanity’s clear sexual kinship with yeast and clams exists even as we evolved differences that distinguish us from other mammals, and even other apes.

Bringing the story up to the present, Haag argues that the evolutionary history of human sexuality helps us better understand contemporary society. Our ancient male-female sexual system remains an important fact of life, even as we see increasingly diverse sexual orientations, gender expressions, and parenthood choices. Witty and inviting, The Other Big Bang offers a clear view of the evolutionary roots of human sexuality and their significance today.

Visit Eric S. Haag's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Other Big Bang.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top thrillers set in Russia

At the Waterstones blog Anna Orhanen tagged five "thrilling tales of crime, espionage and deception set in Russia and the USSR you might enjoy next," including:

The Russia House by John le Carré

Le Carre's first post-glasnost spy novel is a complex interrogation of ideals and the shifting geopolitical landscape, as a small-time publisher finds himself at the centre of dangerous negotiation.

Read about another thriller on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Sam Wiebe's "Ocean Drive"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Ocean Drive: A Novel by Sam Wiebe.

About the book, from the publisher:

A paroled killer and a small-town cop find themselves on a collision course when the murder-by-arson of a college student sparks off gang violence along the forty-ninth parallel.

His first day out of prison, paroled killer Cameron Shaw meets with a mysterious lawyer who offers him a small fortune to infiltrate the League of Nations crime syndicate. Shaw turns her down, intending to go straight. But with no job, no family and no prospects, he’s soon compelled to take her offer.

In the small Pacific Northwest town of White Rock, a body is pulled from a burning house. Staff Sgt. Meghan Quick identifies the victim as grad student Alexa Reed. Alexa’s behavior during her last few days strikes Quick as bizarre. Why did she remove the for-sale sign from her parents’ house, and why was she trying to meet with the League of Nations?

As Quick tries to solve Alexa’s homicide, Shaw moves deeper into the League’s cross-border drug trade.

With the threat of a gang war looming, and long-buried secrets coming to light, Quick must find Alexa’s killer, while rescuing Shaw from the brutal gang violence that threatens the future of White Rock.

Visit Sam Wiebe's website.

My Book, The Movie: Invisible Dead.

The Page 69 Test: Invisible Dead.

The Page 69 Test: Cut You Down.

Q&A with Sam Wiebe.

The Page 69 Test: Hell and Gone.

Writers Read: Sam Wiebe (March 2022).

My Book, The Movie: Hell and Gone.

My Book, The Movie: Sunset and Jericho.

Writers Read: Sam Wiebe (April 2023).

The Page 69 Test: Sunset and Jericho.

The Page 69 Test: Ocean Drive.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Ellen Hartigan-O'Connor's "America Under the Hammer"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: America Under the Hammer: Auctions and the Emergence of Market Values by Ellen Hartigan-O'Connor.

About the book, from the publisher:

Reveals how, through auctions, early Americans learned capitalism

As the first book-length study of auctions in early America, America Under the Hammer follows this ubiquitous but largely overlooked institution to reveal how, across the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, price became an accepted expression of value. From the earliest days of colonial conquest, auctions put Native land and human beings up for bidding alongside material goods, normalizing new economic practices that turned social relations into economic calculations and eventually became recognizable as nineteenth-century American capitalism.

Starting in the eighteenth century, neighbors collectively turned speculative value into economic “facts” in the form of concrete prices for specific items, thereby establishing ideas about fair exchange in their communities. This consensus soon fractured: during the Revolutionary War, state governments auctioned loyalist property, weaponizing local group participation in pricing and distribution to punish political enemies. By the early nineteenth century, suspicion that auction outcomes were determined by manipulative auctioneers prompted politicians and satirists to police the boundaries of what counted as economic exchange and for whose benefit the economy operated. Women at auctions—as commodities, bidders, or beneficiaries—became a focal point for gendering economic value itself. By the 1830s, as abolitionists attacked the public sale of enslaved men, women, and children, auctions had enshrined a set of economic ideas—that any entity could be coded as property and priced through competition—that have become commonsense understandings all too seldom challenged.

In contrast to histories focused on banks, currencies, or plantations, America Under the Hammer highlights an institution that integrated market, community, and household in ways that put gender, race, and social bonds at the center of ideas about economic worth. Women and men, enslaved and free, are active participants in this story rather than bystanders, and their labor, judgments, and bodies define the resulting contours of the American economy.

Visit Ellen Hartigan-O'Connor's website.

The Page 99 Test: America Under the Hammer.

--Marshal Zeringue

The best historical fiction of the 21st century

At BookRiot Courtney Rodgers tagged the best historical fiction of the 21st century so far. One title on the list:

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Teenage Sunja is abandoned by the wealthy businessman who promised her the world. Instead, Sunja marries a minister on his way to Japan. As Sunja’s sons grow up in WWII Japan, they face xenophobia and classism. Sunja’s choices ripple outwards, changing her family’s path forever.

Read about another title on the list.

Pachinko is among Bethanne Patrick's twenty-five best historical fiction books of all time, Asha Thanki seven books about families surviving political unrest, the Amazon Book Review editors' twelve favorite long books, Gina Chen's twelve books for fans of HBO’s Succession, Cindy Fazzi's eight books about the impact of Japanese imperialism during WWII, Eman Quotah's eight books about mothers separated from their daughters, Karolina Waclawiak's six favorite books on loss and longing, Allison Patkai's top six books with strong female voices, Tara Sonin's twenty-one books for fans of HBO’s Succession, and six books Jia Tolentino recommends.

--Marshal Zeringue