Pg. 99: Joseph Kellner's "The Spirit of Socialism"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Spirit of Socialism: Culture and Belief at the Soviet Collapse by Joseph Kellner.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Spirit of Socialism is a cultural history of the Soviet collapse. It examines the millions of Soviet people who, during the cascading crises of the collapse and the post-Soviet transition, embarked on a spirited and highly visible search for new meaning. Amid profound disorientation, these seekers found direction in their horoscopes, or behind gurus in saffron robes or apocalyptic preachers, or by turning from the most basic premises of official science and history to orient themselves anew. The beliefs they seized on and, even more, the questions that guided their search reveal the essence of late-Soviet culture and its legacy in post-Soviet Russia.

To skeptical outsiders, the seekers appeared eccentric, deviant, and above all un-Soviet. Yet they came to their ideas by Soviet sources and Soviet premises. As Joseph Kellner demonstrates, their motley beliefs reflect modern values that formed the spiritual core of Soviet ideology, among them a high regard for science, an informed and generous internationalism, and a confidence in humanity to chart its own course. Soviet ideology failed, however, to unite these values in an overarching vision that could withstand historical change.

And so, as The Spirit of Socialism shows, the seekers asked questions raised but not resolved by the Russian Revolution and subsequent Soviet order―questions of epistemic authority, of cultural identity, and of history's ultimate meaning. Although the Soviet collapse was not the end of history, it was a rupture of epochal significance, whose fissures extend into our own uncertain era.

Learn more about The Spirit of Socialism at the Cornell University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Spirit of Socialism.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight books about the quiet power of libraries & museums

Marian Womack is a bilingual Hispano-British writer of Weird fiction, speculative and hybrid fiction, and fiction of the Anthropocene. Her novels include The Swimmers (one of the best ten SF books of 2021, The Sunday Times) and in the Walton & Waltraud uncanny mystery series The Golden Key (2020) and On the Nature of Magic (2023). Her short fiction has been collected in Lost Objects and Out of the Window, Into the Dark, nominated to two British Fantasy Awards and one British Science Fiction Association Award, and selected for Year’s Bests. She lives in Cambridge (UK).

At Electric Lit Womack tagged eight titles about the quiet power of libraries and museums, including:

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, translated by Lucia Graves

Twenty years after its publication in English in Lucia Graves’s delectable translation, The Shadow of the Wind hasn’t lost any of its charm, and remains a classic of the “secret library” sub-genre of books (such as Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s El Club Dumas and Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith) which imagine the library as the physical shape of occult or mystical desires. Its young protagonist, a bookseller’s son, becomes obsessed with Julian Carax, an obscure, cursed author, and starts investigating what could have happened to him along with his vanished bibliography. When the young bookseller’s life becomes intertwined with the truths he starts to discover about Carax, reality and fiction are shown to be different sides of the same coin. At its heart, this engrossing novel is an ode to the transformative power of books and storytelling, masterfully articulating that wondrous moment of discovery we’ve all experienced when finding the book that turned us into readers. But The Shadow of the Wind is not simply about books—the library at its centre, the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, serves as a heart-wrenching metaphor for all that was lost under the long shadow of Franco’s dictatorship in Spain, and in particular for the shameful “pact of forgetting” that the democratic transition imposed on Spanish citizens, removing the possibility of restorative justice around the horrors of Franco’s regime. This is a novel that became a modern classic for all the right reasons.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Shadow of the Wind is among Stuart Kells's top ten libraries in fiction and Bartholomew Bennett's top ten fictional booksellers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Shana Youngdahl

From my Q&A with Shana Youngdahl, author of A Catalog of Burnt Objects:

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

The title, A Catalog of Burnt Objects, comes from “objects,” scattered throughout the book. These short chapters tell the story of objects different community members lost in the catastrophic wildfire that hits Sierra in the middle of the book. The opening chapter is the protagonist, Caprice Alexander’s, object. It tells of the Talking Heads LP her grandfather gave her, and in doing so introduces us to the geography and culture of the town, as well as her gramps' important role in her life.

I had this title picked very early before the book was written because I knew the project would be about fire and what is lost and community. I know that the title doesn’t tell you that this is also a sibling story and a love story, but I hope that...[read on]

Visit Shana Youngdahl's website.

Q&A with Shana Youngdahl.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Eve Darian-Smith's "Policing Higher Education"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Policing Higher Education: The Antidemocratic Attack on Scholars and Why It Matters by Eve Darian-Smith.

About the book, from the publisher:

On the essential role of higher education and academic freedom in thriving democracies.

Higher education is facing an existential crisis. Students and staff are surveilled with cameras and facial recognition software. Police zip-tie and arrest students during protests. As universities across the United States become epicenters of ideological warfare, Policing Higher Education contextualizes these skirmishes within a broader global framework. From the contentious debates surrounding free speech and curriculum control to the denial of tenure for outspoken faculty, Eve Darian-Smith examines the myriad ways higher education has become a battleground.

Darian-Smith highlights the intersecting global trends of rising authoritarianism and declining academic freedom, revealing how the United States is part of a larger pattern seen in democracies worldwide, including in Brazil, Hungary, Germany, India, and the Philippines. This book challenges readers to view educational conflicts not merely as culture wars but as intense and connected struggles over economic, political, and social power. Drawing from extensive scholarship, Darian-Smith humanizes the impacts of these attacks on scholars and students, offering poignant stories of persecution and resilience.

With a critical eye on the historical and structural drivers of antidemocracy, this book pushes for new, meaningful conversations about academic freedom that transcend national borders. It emphasizes the vital role of universities in fostering social responsibility and combating the global drift toward authoritarianism.

Learn more about Policing Higher Education at the Johns Hopkins University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Global Burning.

The Page 99 Test: Policing Higher Education.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top fantasy novels

Kate Elliott has been publishing science fiction and fantasy for over thirty years with a particular focus in immersive world building and epic stories of adventure & transformative cultural change. She’s written fantasy, science fiction, space opera based on the life of Alexander the Great (Unconquerable Sun), Young Adult fantasy, the seven volume (complete!) Crown of Stars epic fantasy series set in a landscape reminiscent of early medieval Europe, and the Afro-Celtic post-Roman alternate-history fantasy with lawyer dinosaurs, Cold Magic, as well as two novellas set in the Magic: The Gathering multiverse. Her work has been nominated for the Nebula, World Fantasy, Norton, and Locus Awards.

Elliott's new novel is The Witch Roads.

At The Strand Magazine she tagged her top ten fantasy novels, including:

The Books of the Raksura by Martha Wells

Martha Wells is having a big moment with her Murderbot books (and Apple TV+ series, out now—it’s great!). She’s also written a number of fantasy novels, all of them good. I want to highlight The Cloud Roads and its sequels (five novels and two collections) which feature some of the most staggeringly original world building I have ever read: a world of many sapient species who live in various ecological niches. Come for the wonderful “who am I?” journey of our hero, Moon, and stay for the splendid ingenuity of Wells’ endlessly inventive imagination.

Read about another novel on Elliott's list.

The Cloud Roads is among Kameron Hurley's five novels to inspire you to imagine a better future.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top books exploring romantic obsession

Olivia Worley is an author born and raised in New Orleans. A graduate of Northwestern University, she now lives in New York City, where she spends her time writing thrillers, over-analyzing episodes of The Bachelor, and hoping someone will romanticize her for reading on the subway. She is the author of the young adult novels People to Follow and The Debutantes. Her newly released adult debut is So Happy Together.

At CrimeReads Worley tagged six "books about romantic obsession that either inspired So Happy Together or that I’d be honored to see it shelved beside. ... [T]hese books all have one thing in common: they’re sure to get your heart pounding." One title on the list:

A Novel Obsession by Caitlin Barasch

Another literary novel that feels like a thriller, this one follows aspiring writer Naomi as she becomes obsessed with her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend, Rosemary—who quickly becomes the inspiration for Naomi’s new novel. While A Novel Obsession doesn’t delve into murder territory, Naomi’s quickly-snowballing secrets are just as impossible to look away from.

Read about another entry on the list.

A Novel Obsession is among Hanna Halperin's nine novels about infatuations that are all consuming.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: David C. Hoffman's "American Freethought"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: American Freethought: The History of a Social Movement, 1794–1948 by David C. Hoffman.

About the book, from the publisher:

A history of how the freethought movement fought to maintain a secular United States.

Although today it has largely faded from public memory, the American freethought movement played an important role in shaping the religious landscape of the United States. Without its influence, state and local governments might still demand that public officeholders subscribe to specific religious doctrines and prosecute those who question the existence of God or the authority of the Bible for blasphemy.

In American Freethought, David C. Hoffman traces the history of the freethought movement to discover the strategies that allowed it to endure and succeed in a fervently religious nation. Hoffman argues that American freethought has proceeded through four waves: a period of deism inspired by Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason and allied with Jeffersonian republicanism in the 1790s; a revival in 1825 that centered on the celebration of Paine's birthday and drew in the followers of utopian socialist Robert Owen; a "golden age of freethought" in the late 1870s that saw an unprecedented explosion of freethought publications and organizations together with a demand for the separation of church and state; and a final resurgence in the 1920s that helped realize the remarkable series of twentieth-century Supreme Court decisions that created America's present conditions of secularism.

Hoffman argues that the freethought movement was successful because it united people with a wide variety of religious outlooks―including deists, pantheists, Unitarians, Universalists, spiritualists, transcendentalists, Humanists, agnostics, and atheists―behind the idea that religion is freer and the state is more just when the government refrains from religious involvement.

Learn more about American Freethought at the Johns Hopkins University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: American Freethought.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Laura Lippman's "Murder Takes a Vacation"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Murder Takes a Vacation: A Novel by Laura Lippman.

About the book, from the publisher:

Highly acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman returns with an irresistible mystery featuring Muriel Blossom, a former private investigator and middle-aged widow whose vacation on a Parisian river cruise turns into a deadly international mystery…that only she can solve.

Mrs. Blossom has a knack for blending into the background, which was an asset during her days assisting private investigator Tess Monaghan. But when she finds a winning lottery ticket in a parking lot, everything changes. She is determined to see the world that she sometimes feels is passing her by.

When Mrs. Blossom booked her cruise through France on the MS Solitaire, she did not expect to meet Allan on her transatlantic flight. He is the first man who’s sparked something inside her since her beloved husband passed.

She also didn’t expect Allan to be found, dead, twenty-four hours later in Paris, a city he wasn’t supposed to be in.

Now Mrs. Blossom doesn’t know who to trust on board the ship, especially when a mystifying man, Danny, keeps popping up around every corner, always present when things go awry. He is convinced that Allan was transporting a stolen piece of art, and Mrs. Blossom knows more than she lets on, regarding both the artifact and Allan’s death.

Mrs. Blossom’s questions only increase as the cruise sails down the Seine. Why does it feel like she is being followed? Who was Allan, and why was he killed? Most alarmingly, why do these mysterious men keep flirting with her?

Visit Laura Lippman's website.

The Page 69 Test: Another Thing to Fall.

The Page 69 Test: What the Dead Know.

The Page 69 Test/Page 99 Test: Life Sentences.

The Page 69 Test: I'd Know You Anywhere.

The Page 69 Test: The Most Dangerous Thing.

The Page 69 Test: Hush Hush.

The Page 69 Test: Wilde Lake.

My Book, the Movie: Wilde Lake.

The Page 69 Test: Sunburn.

The Page 69 Test: Lady in the Lake.

The Page 69 Test: Dream Girl.

The Page 69 Test: Prom Mom.

The Page 69 Test: Murder Takes a Vacation.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight top epic BIPOC crime novels

Elisa Shoenberger is a freelance writer and journalist. At Book Riot she tagged eight of "the best BIPOC crime novels you can read right now." One title on the list:

The Missing American by Kwei Quartey

The first in the four-book “Emma Djan Investigation” series, Emma Djan has resigned herself to a life as a private investigator. She’s lucky for it, since she was kicked off the police force, and she got the PI role from a former cop. Her first case involves a middle-aged widower from the US who has gone missing. He had been corresponding with a Ghanaian widow who asked for monetary help after an accident. Not only does he give her the money, but he also travels to Ghana to find his new love, and then goes missing. Can Emma find the lost American and potentially bring the scammers to justice?

Read about another entry on the list.

The Missing American is among Femi Kayode's four top crime novels set in Africa.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Robert N. Spengler III's "Nature's Greatest Success"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Nature's Greatest Success: How Plants Evolved to Exploit Humanity by Robert N. Spengler III.

About the book, from the publisher:

The 15,000-year story of how grass seduced humanity into being its unwitting labor force—and the science behind it.

Domesticated crops were not human creations, and agriculture was not simply invented. As Robert N. Spengler shows, domestication was the result of an evolutionary process in which people played a role only unwittingly and as actors in a numberless cast that spanned the plant and animal kingdoms. Nature's Greatest Success is the first book to bring together recent scientific discoveries and fascinating ongoing research to provide a systematic account of not only how agriculture really developed but why.

Through fifteen chapters, this book dives deep into the complex processes that drove domestication and the various roles that plants and animals, including humans, played in bringing about those changes. At the intersection of popular history, archaeology, and evolutionary biology, Nature's Greatest Success offers a revolutionary account of humanity not at the apex of nature but deeply embedded in the natural world and the evolutionary processes that continue to guide it even today.

Visit Robert N. Spengler III's website.

The Page 99 Test: Fruit from the Sands.

The Page 99 Test: Nature's Greatest Success.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top high school novels for adult readers

Miriam Gershow is the author of Closer, Survival Tips: Stories and The Local News. Her writing is featured in The Georgia Review, Gulf Coast, and Black Warrior Review, among other journals. She is the recipient of a Fiction Fellowship from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, an Oregon Literary Fellowship, and is a two-time finalist for the Oregon Book Award. She is the organizer of “100 Notable Small Press Books,” a curated list of the year’s recommended books from independent publishers.

[The Page 69 Test: The Local News]

At Lit Hub Gershow tagged "a half dozen books worth the trip back into the classrooms and corridors of high school." One title on the list:

Lisa Lutz, The Swallows

If you loved Rebecca Makkai’s boarding school mystery, I Have Some Questions For You, put The Swallows at the top of your list. This novel has it all: fish-out-of-water new teacher Alexandra Witt; Stonebridge Academy and its buildings named for writers (Wilde Bathhouse and Woolf Hall among the best); a story of escalating, vicious gender wars told in the voices of students, teachers, and administrators; campus maps, text messages, lesson plans, student notes; and dual unfolding mysteries. What is this mysterious organization, The Darkroom, that lurks unseen at Stonebridge? And who is the stalker who takes an interest in Witt? If this all sounds dark, in Lutz’s hands, it’s nearly gleeful. Best known for her Spellman File books, Lutz brings her signature wit and pace to The Swallows. It sweeps you up and gallops along.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: KD Adlyn's "Sister, Butcher, Sister"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Sister, Butcher, Sister: A Novel by KD Aldyn.

About the book, from the publisher:

The chilling prose of Karin Slaughter meets the high-stakes plotting of The Butcher and the Wren in a dark debut following three normal sisters, their own forgotten traumas, and the serial killer that lives within one, begging the question: can you ever truly recognize the evil around you?

Three sisters. One killer. Which one is SHE?

The Rowling sisters have always been people you can understand – with partners and children, homes and dreams. And secrets, the sisters have those too. But when Kate, the eldest, finally returns to buy her late grandfather's home, the dark things each sister has kept buried soon rise to the surface.

Is Kate having unexplained visions tied to a past she can hardly recall? Is Aurora, the married mother of two, finally acting out in the face of her sisters' indiscretions? Is Peggy, the youngest and a recovering addict, able to move on from the memories that haunt her?

And then there's SHE.

SHE is one of them, but SHE is not like them at all. SHE is defined only by the carnage she lets the world see, the murders that have swept through their coastal community. And as the police close in on their newest serial killer, scrutiny lands on the Rowlings, forcing them to face their demons and reveal all they have kept hidden.

Visit KD Adlyn's website.

Q&A with KD Aldyn.

The Page 69 Test: Sister, Butcher, Sister.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Steve L. Monroe's "Mirages of Reform"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Mirages of Reform: The Politics of Elite Protectionism in the Arab World by Steve L. Monroe.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Mirages of Reform, Steve L. Monroe argues that geopolitics and social connections between state and capital underpin the Arab world's uneven trade policies. Despite decades of international pressure, neoliberal trade policy reform in the Arab world has been varied, selective, and often ineffective. Neoliberal trade policies have not deepened international trade in many of the region's markets. This book explains why.

When the region's regimes have strong support from global powers and strong social connections to the industrial elite, they engage in extensive but deceptive trade policy reform. Behind an edifice of neoliberal trade policies, neopatrimonial forms of protectionism like tax evasion and noncompetitive procurement shield the socially connected from international competition and obstruct actual trade liberalization. Industrialists are less trustful of regime promises of neopatrimonial protectionism after reform when they have weak social connections to their regime and their regime has low support from global powers. They are more likely to defend existing protectionist policies under these conditions, resulting in less trade policy reform.

Drawing on interviews, firm- and industry-level data, and evidence from Jordan to Morocco, Mirages of Reform reveals how international and domestic factors interact to shape the Arab world's rugged trade policy terrain. Insightful and well researched, this book imparts important lessons and warnings about the repercussions of economic reform in the region.

Visit Steve L. Monroe's website.

The Page 99 Test: Mirages of Reform.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top books about marital murder

Peter Swanson's novels include The Kind Worth Killing, winner of the New England Society Book Award, and finalist for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger; Her Every Fear, an NPR book of the year; Before She Knew Him, and Eight Perfect Murders.

[My Book, The Movie: The Kind Worth Killing; The Page 69 Test: The Kind Worth Killing; Writers Read: Peter Swanson (February 2015)]

His new novel is Kill Your Darlings.

At CrimeReads Swanson tagged "seven books and one play on the theme of marital homicide," including:

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) by James M. Cain

Cain wrote two classics of this particular genre, the other being the equally brilliant Double Indemnity. What sets this novel apart is its depression-era setting, and the seediness of the affair between drifter Frank Chambers and Cora Papadakis, the wife of the owner of the diner that Frank finds work at. Cain was great at digging into the psychology that would lead a pair of lovers to murder together, and then showing how that same psychology would eventually destroy any love that had ever been there in the first place.

Read about another novel on the list.

The Postman Always Rings Twice is among Bob Rivers's top ten noir novels for beginners, Emily Temple's fifty great classic novels under 200 pages, Douglas Kennedy's ten favorite "novels on the agonies and ecstasies of the extramarital adventure," Vincent Zandri's top ten doomed and deadly romances in noir fiction, and Benjamin Black/John Banville's five top works of noir.

--Marshal Zeringue

Mark Stevens's "No Lie Lasts Forever," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: No Lie Lasts Forever: A Thriller by Mark Stevens.

The entry begins:

Dear Hollywood,

Please consider casting the following actors in the main roles for the film version of No Lie Lasts Forever.

By the way, please cast these individuals only in close collaboration with director Stephen Soderbergh. Yes, he’s the perfect person to direct this movie, which will require all the gravitas and tension of his films Traffic and Contagion and The Informant with his sleek, tight storytelling of his latest film, Black Bag. He would be perfect. His work with Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich would be a great stylistic approach for how to roll out the Flynn Martin character, too.

For Flynn Martin, it’s a tough choice but I’d go with Charlize Theron. Charlize is clear-eyed and…[read on]

Visit Mark Stevens's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Fireballer.

Q&A with Mark Stevens.

My Book, The Movie: The Fireballer.

Writers Read: Mark Stevens.

The Page 69 Test: No Lie Lasts Forever.

My Book, The Movie: No Lie Lasts Forever.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Marcus Alexander Gadson's "Sedition"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Sedition: How America's Constitutional Order Emerged from Violent Crisis by Marcus Alexander Gadson.

About the book, from the publisher:

How Americans have weathered constitutional crises throughout our history

Since protestors ripped through the Capitol Building in 2021, the threat of constitutional crisis has loomed over our nation. The foundational tenets of American democracy seem to be endangered, and many citizens believe this danger is unprecedented in our history. But Americans have weathered many constitutional crises, often accompanied by the same violence and chaos experienced on January 6. However, these crises occurred on the state level. In Sedition, Marcus Alexander Gadson uncovers these episodes of civil unrest and examines how state governments handled them.

Sedition takes readers through six instances of constitutional crisis: The Buckshot War, Dorr’s Rebellion, Bleeding Kansas, the Brooks-Baxter War, a successful terrorist campaign to overthrow South Carolina’s government during Reconstruction, and the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898. He chronicles these turbulent periods of violent anti-government conflict on the state level, explaining what it was like to experience coup d’états, rival governments fighting in the streets, and disputed elections that gave way to violence. As he addresses constitutional breakdown, Gadson urges Americans to pay increased attention to the risk of constitutional instability in their home states. His sweeping historical analysis provides new insights on the fight to protect democracy today.

As Americans mobilize to prevent future crises, Sedition reminds us that our constitutional order can fail, that democratic collapse is possible, and offers us advice on how to save our constitutional system.

Learn more about Sedition at the NYU Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Sedition.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top modern vampire novels

V. E. Schwab was born in California, raised in Tennessee, and currently splits her time between Denver, Colorado and Edinburgh, Scotland. She got her undergraduate degree in book design at Washington University in St. Louis, and her masters in depictions of monstrosity in medieval art at the University of Edinburgh.

Schwab's new novel is Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil.

At the Waterstones blog the author tagged "five modern vampire novels with real bite." One title on the list:

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

Stephen Graham Jones is known for folding his Native American heritage into his horror, carving narratives that blend the modern world with the layered history, trauma, and legends of his background. So it’s no surprise that his contribution to the vampire canon is both wildly original and deeply affecting, a gore-filled, multi-generational examination of monsters, both human and otherwise, and a fresh take on the idea that you are what you eat. I cannot stop thinking about this book.

Read about another novel on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Laney Katz Becker's "In the Family Way"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: In the Family Way: A Novel by Laney Katz Becker.

About the book, from the publisher:

Set in the 1960s before Roe, a poignant and powerful novel in the vein of Lessons in Chemistry and Big Little Lies, about the friendship between a group of suburban housewives who help one another navigate through their personal challenges, marriages, and their pregnancies—both wanted and unwanted.

In 1965 America, women can’t have their own bank accounts, credit cards, or sign their own leases; divorce is scandalous and difficult; and abortion is illegal.

Every week, a group of suburban housewives meet for their Tuesday canasta game. As cards are drawn and discarded, the women share advice and confidences. When prim and proper Lily Berg, a doctor’s wife, discovers she’s pregnant with their second child, she follows her friend Becca’s suggestion and takes in Betsy, a pregnant teen from the local home for unwed mothers. Betsy, who’s never met anyone Jewish before, is to live with the Bergs for six months, help with babysitting and housekeeping, have her own baby, and agree never to contact the family again.

But things quickly get complicated. Lily, who’s opened her home to the teenager, never planned on opening her heart, yet that’s exactly what happens. Meanwhile, Becca is pregnant with her fourth, and comes up with a scheme to get a legal, therapeutic abortion, and Lily’s sister, Rose, discovers the man she married isn’t who he purported to be, and turns to Lily and her husband for help.

Moving and atmospheric, full of history and heart, In the Family Way is a timely novel that captures the experiences of women on the cusp of liberation as they struggle with their own complex feelings about being wives, mothers, and women with their own dreams and ambitions.

Visit Laney Katz Becker's website.

The Page 69 Test: In the Family Way.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Adam S. Hayes's "Irrational Together"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Irrational Together: The Social Forces That Invisibly Shape Our Economic Behavior by Adam S. Hayes.

About the book, from the publisher:

A must-read that reshapes how we think about the social underpinnings of our financial choices.

In Irrational Together, economic sociologist Adam S. Hayes takes readers on a fascinating journey to uncover the often-unseen social forces that shape our financial behavior. Drawing on original research and engaging real-world examples, Hayes challenges not only the notion that economic decisions are purely rational but also the prevailing behavioral economics view that irrational choices stem primarily from individual beliefs. Instead, he argues that our economic choices and actions are deeply embedded in our social and cultural contexts and that understanding these influences is crucial to fully grasp the complexities of financial decision-making.

From the impact of social class and cultural capital on risk-taking and the role of social networks and group identities in shaping consumer choices to the gendered dimensions of financial advice and literacy, this book weaves together insights from sociology, behavioral economics, and cultural studies to paint a nuanced picture of how we navigate the economic landscape as inherently social beings. Why, for example, would someone choose to continue paying 20% interest on a large credit card debt rather than taking out a low-interest mortgage on their home to pay off the card? As Hayes makes clear through rigorous analysis, cultural values—like those related to home ownership—hold as much or more sway over us than financial best practices.

Bridging the gap between behavioral economics and sociology, this groundbreaking work paves the way for a more holistic understanding of the social and cultural influences on economic behavior. Hayes also looks to the future and argues that to correct major disparities in our social understanding of wealth and money, we need to construct financial systems that consider a diversity of social backgrounds.

With its accessible language and thought-provoking insights, Irrational Together is an essential guide for anyone seeking to understand the intersection of money, society, and human behavior.

Visit Adam S. Hayes's website.

The Page 99 Test: Irrational Together.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books featuring disastrous party scenes

Jonathan Parks-Ramage is a Los Angeles based novelist, playwright, screenwriter and journalist. His critically acclaimed debut novel Yes, Daddy was named one of the best queer books of 2021 by Entertainment Weekly, NBC News, The Advocate, Lambda Literary, Bustle, Goodreads and more. Yes, Daddy was also optioned for television by Amazon Studios.

Parks-Ramage's new novel is It's Not the End of the World.

At Lit Hub the author tagged five "novels which feature some of the worst (but most entertaining) parties-gone-wrong." One title on the list:

Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

If the horrific party scenes detailed in Bret Easton Ellis’s semi-auto fictional novel about his youth are even anywhere close to accurate, it will make you very glad you were not friends with him in the 1980’s. The Shards follows seventeen-year-old Bret in his senior year at Buckley, an elite Los Angeles prep school.

Over the course of the novel, Bret becomes increasingly obsessed with the Trawler, a serial killer stalking Los Angeles. Bret is convinced that this murderer is after him, taunting him, and torturing and killing people he knows.

The book takes place well before the term “nepo-baby” was ever conceived, but suffice to say that Bret’s social milieu is composed of some of the richest and most privileged kids in LA. The book is deeply evocative—Ellis transports us to the era of his youth with detailed descriptions of time and place and music and people.

There’s not just one party scene in this book—there are so many, and they each bring a greater sense of the wild world of privilege that Bret occupies. But these parties are not just the site of debauched fun—they are also settings where dark secrets are revealed, tensions boil over, and shocking violence occurs.

Read about another novel on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Allison King

From my Q&A with Allison King, author of The Phoenix Pencil Company: A Novel:

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

The Phoenix Pencil Company was pretty much always the title of the book. I think it does a good job of capturing the fantasy-aspect of the book, and of course the pencil part. It also gives a sense that this is going to follow a company, so potentially span a long period of time. Another idea I had was Pencil Hearts, which might've spoken to the emotional parts of the book more, though feels less distinctive.

What's in a name?

The name with the most significance in this book is that of Wong Yun, who is the grandmother and one of two main characters. Her name is my own grandmother's name, as a lot of the story is inspired by...[read on]

Visit Allison King's website.

Q&A with Allison King.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Neil Gregor's "The Symphony Concert in Nazi Germany"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Symphony Concert in Nazi Germany by Neil Gregor.

About the book, from the publisher:

A new history of how the musical worlds of German towns and cities were transformed during the Nazi era.

In the years after the Nazis came to power in January 1933 and through the war years all aspects of life in Germany changed. However, despite the social and political upheaval, gentile citizens were able to continue leisure activities such as attending concerts. In this book, historian Neil Gregor surveys the classical concert scene in Nazi Germany from the perspective of the audience, rather than institutions or performers. Gregor delves into the cultural lives of ordinary Germans under conditions of dictatorship. Did the ways in which Germans heard music in the period change? Did a Nazi way of listening emerge?

For audiences, Gregor shows, changes to the concert experience were small and often took place around the edges. This, combined with the preserved idea of the concert hall as a space of imagined civility and cultivation, led many concertgoers and music lovers to claim after the war that their field and their practice had been innocent—a place to retreat from the vicious violence and racism of the Nazi regime. Drawing on untapped archival sources, The Symphony Concert in Nazi Germany reveals that the true history was one of disruption but also of near effortless adaptation. Through countless small acts, the symphony concert was reframed within the languages of strident nationalism, racism, and militarism to ensure its place inside the cultural cosmos of National Socialist Germany.

Learn more about The Symphony Concert in Nazi Germany at the University of Chicago Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Symphony Concert in Nazi Germany.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five great sci-fi books about robots, AI, and cyborgs

At Book Riot Liberty Hardy tagged five great robot sci-fi books, including:

Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

And last but not least, a “humans learned nothing from Terminator” story. In this cautionary tale, in the future, the technology humans invented becomes self-aware and turns against them, nearly wiping out all of humanity. The survivors of the robot attacks tell the story of the robopocalypse, how the machines became the enemy, and how the humans fought back against the robots.

Read about another entry on the list.

Robopocalypse is among Emily Temple's fifty greatest apocalypse novels.

The Page 69 Test: Robopocalypse.

--Marshal Zeringue

Martine Bailey's "Isolation Ward," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Isolation Ward: The Nail-Biting Psychological Thriller by Martine Bailey.

Isolation Ward, is Bailey's second title about Lorraine Quick, a young psychological testing expert drawn into solving crimes. She pairs up with police Detective Diaz, whose obsession with FBI profiling sparks a fascination with Lorraine.

From Bailey's dreamcast for an adaptation of the novel:

Director – Sally Wainwright: I wrote the novel with Sally Wainwright in mind, the British writer and director of Happy Valley and Gentleman Jack. She is a brilliant explorer of working class life and tough, flawed and vulnerable women. Isolation Ward is set around Happy Valley’s location of Hebden Bridge, an alternative, edge-of-the-world town, where I also lived in the 1990s. I think Wainwright would appreciate that I drew my story from my own career in psychometrics, assessing staff in one of England’s top security hospitals. We have another connection: Wainwright learned her trade writing the British soap opera Coronation Street, a link to my composer dad, Derek Hilton, the pianist in the show’s nightclub.

Lorraine Quick – Florence Pugh: Pugh’s performances have a raw force on screen that keep viewers glued to her thoughts and moods. I’d love to see Lorraine played with...[read on]

Visit Martine Bailey's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

My Book, The Movie: An Appetite for Violets.

The Page 69 Test: An Appetite for Violets.

My Book, The Movie: A Taste for Nightshade.

My Book, The Movie: The Almanack.

My Book, The Movie: The Prophet.

Q&A with Martine Bailey.

The Page 69 Test: Isolation Ward.

My Book, The Movie: Isolation Ward.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Steph Post's "Terra Incognita"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Terra Incognita by Steph Post.

About the book, from the publisher:

Set in 1889, Terra Incognita is an historical fantasy adventure that follows famed explorer Sir Ashmore Bedivere and his assembled companions on an epic quest around the globe to discover Alatyra, the fabled last lost city—perfect for fans of Caleb Carr's The Alienist and Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

New York City, 1889. With her neighborhood engulfed in flames over a turf war, professional pickpocket Lily Vane has nowhere to hide. Out of luck, she steals the wrong piece of jewelry from the wrong man—an ancient ring, owned by gentleman explorer Sir Ashmore Bedivere. He recognizes instantly that Lily's wily criminal talents could prove useful to him and grants her clemency in return for service. Thus Lily's fate is sealed: she finds herself embarking on Ashmore's quest to find Alatyra, the last lost city.

Joining her are Ashmore's cunning wife, Cristabel, and their three business partners. As the six journey from New York City—first to Tangier, then across the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and into the dark forests and mountains of Romania—Lily learns to trust her new companions. But as they draw closer to Alatyra, Ashmore's past sins threaten to swallow the entire expedition whole.

Told in a constellation of voices and forms, Terra Incognita is more than a thrilling historical adventure full of daring heists, stunning reveals, and near-captures; it is an immersive experience.

Visit Steph Post's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Steph Post & Juno.

My Book, The Movie: Lightwood.

The Page 69 Test: Lightwood.

My Book, The Movie: Walk in the Fire.

The Page 69 Test: Terra Incognita.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Sarah Gabbott & Jan Zalasiewicz's "Discarded"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Discarded: How Technofossils Will be Our Ultimate Legacy by Sarah Gabbott and Jan Zalasiewicz.

About the book, from the publisher:

What will remain of our plastic, cans, and other junk long after humans have vanished?

What kind of fossils will we leave, as relics into the far future? A blizzard of new objects has suddenly appeared on Earth: plastic bottles, ballpoint pens, concrete flyways, outsize chicken bones, aluminium cans, teabags, mobile phones, T-shirts. They're produced for our comfort and pleasure--then quickly discarded. The number of our constructions has exploded, to outweigh the whole living world. This new-made treasure chest underpins our lives. But it is also giving a completely new style of fossilization to our planet, as hyper-diverse and hyper-rapidly-evolving technofossils spin out of our industrialized economy. Designed to resist sun, wind, rain, corrosion and decay, and buried in soils, seafloor muds and the gigantic middens of our landfill sites, many will remain, petrified, as future geology.

What will these technofossils look like, in future rock? How long will they last and how will they change, as they lie underground for decades, then millennia, then millions of years? Discarded describes how they transform as they are attacked by bacteria, baked by the Earth's inner heat, squashed by overlying rock, permeated by subterranean fluids, crumpled by mountain-building movements--and what will be left of them. These new fossils also have meaning for our lives today. For we live on a world increasingly buried under our growing waste. As our discarded artefacts begin to change into fossils, they may be swallowed by birds, entangle fish, alter microbial communities and release toxins. Even deeply buried in rock, technofossils may break down into new-formed oil and gas, change the composition of groundwater, and attract new mineral growths. They will have a lasting impact.

It is a new planetary phenomenon, now unfolding around us. Scientists are only just beginning to grasp its scale, and get to grips with how it functions. This book describes, for the general reader, the kind of science that is emerging to show the far-future human footprint on Earth. It offers a different perspective upon fossils and fossilization, one that expands the idea of what people think of as fossils, and what they can tell us.

Learn more about Discarded at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Jan Zalasiewicz's The Earth After Us.

The Page 99 Test: Discarded.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top novels about the end of democracy

Otho Eskin burst onto the thriller scene in 2020 with The Reflecting Pool, to great reviews and much book club interest. The novel introduces readers to Marko Zorn, a Washington, DC homicide detective with a strong moral compass who isn’t afraid to bend the rules to get results. The second thriller, Head Shot, was released in 2021 and the third book, Firetrap, was released in 2024. The Reflecting Pool, Head Shot, and Firetrap were all named Amazon Editors Picks for Best Mystery, Thriller or Suspense. The fourth book in the Marko Zorn series, Black Sun Rising, is now available, and has received enthusiastic advance praise: “Another Otho Eskin thriller that delivers double the trouble, twice the action, and quadruple the enjoyment.” —Steve Berry, New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author.

At CrimeReads Eskin tagged five "novels that depict the end (or near-end) of democracy." One title on the list:

Attica Locke’s Guide Me Home (2024)

The third book in Attica Locke’s beloved Highway 59 series, Guide Me Home tells of retired Texas Ranger Darren Mathews, as he grapples with past traumas and the socio-political upheavals of America, following the 2016 election. When Mathews’ mother re-emerges in his life, she shares news of a Black college student gone missing from her white sorority. Finding the investigation half-hearted and her sorority sisters eerily unfazed by her absence, Mathews sets out to solve the case and bring the young woman home. In the process, he’s forced to confront his own past and the ghosts of slavery and Jim Crow—long embedded in his native Texas but coming to surface in the era of Trump. Guide Me Home is reminiscent of what the scholar Jeff Sharlet calls the “slow civil war.” It tells not of a single democracy-shattering event, but of the steady unraveling of our society, as a result of white Americans’ failure to reckon with the sins of their forebears.

Read about another novel on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Sarah Landenwich's "The Fire Concerto"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Fire Concerto: A Novel by Sarah Landenwich.

About the book, from the publisher:

A beautifully written, evocative literary page-turner about a brilliant nineteenth-century female pianist from Poland lost to history and another woman’s quest to ensure she is not forgotten—with a shocking twist of a finale.

Clara Bishop hasn’t touched a piano since a concert hall fire nearly took her life a decade ago, ending her career as a rising star in the world of classical music. Significantly scarred and unable to play, she has turned away from everything and everyone associated with music, especially her ruthless mentor Madame, whom Clara blames for her injuries.

Her life is upended when Madame dies, leaving Clara an unexpected inheritance: an ornate nineteenth-century metronome with a cryptic message hidden inside. Convinced this is not a gift but a puzzle Madame wants her to solve, Clara comes to suspect that the unusual bequest is the long-lost metronome of the composer Aleksander Starza—a priceless object missing since 1885, when Starza was murdered by the brilliant female pianist Constantia Pleyel.

As Clara works to uncover the metronome’s haunted past and protect it—and herself—from those who wish to obtain it, she discovers that nothing about Starza and his murder are what they seem. History has remembered Constantia Pleyel as an unstable artist who killed Starza in a fit of madness. The truth could rewrite the history of music—and give Clara the second chance she has been longing for.

This moving tale is perfect for fans of Brendan Slocumb's The Violin Conspiracy.

Visit Sarah Landenwich's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Fire Concerto.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Ross Benes's "1999"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: 1999: The Year Low Culture Conquered America and Kickstarted Our Bizarre Times by Ross Benes.

About the book, from the publisher:

From pro wrestling and Pokémon to Insane Clown Posse and Jerry Springer, this look at the low culture of the late ’90s reveals its profound impact and how it continues to affect our culture and society today.

The year 1999 was a high-water mark for popular culture. According to one measure, it was the “best movie year ever.” But as journalist Ross Benes shows, the end of the ’90s was also a banner year for low culture. This was the heyday of Jerry Springer, Jenna Jameson, and Vince McMahon, among many others. Low culture had come into its own and was poised for world domination. The reverberations of this takeover continue to shape American society.

During its New Year’s Eve countdown, MTV entered 1999 with Limp Bizkit covering Prince’s famous anthem to the new year. The highlights of the lowlights continued when WCW and WWE drew 35 million American viewers each week with sex appeal and stories about insurrections. Insane Clown Posse emerged from the underground with a Woodstock set and platinum records about magic and murder. Later that year, Dance Dance Revolution debuted in North America and Grand Theft Auto emerged as a major video game franchise. Beanie Babies and Pokémon so thoroughly seized the wallets and imagination of collectors that they created speculative investment bubbles that anticipated the faddish obsession over nonfungible tokens (NFTs). The trashy talk show Jerry Springer became daytime TV’s most-watched program and grew so mainstream that Austin Powers, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, The Wayans Bros., The Simpsons, and The X-Files incorporated Springer into their own plots during the late ’90s. Donald Trump even explored a potential presidential nomination with the Reform Party in 1999 and wanted his running mate to be Oprah Winfrey, whose own talk show would make Dr. Oz a household name.

Benes shows us how so many of the strangest features of culture in 1999 predicted and influenced American life today. This wild ride through pop culture uncovers the connections between the kayfabe of WWE and the theatrics of politics, between the faddish obsession with Beanie Babies and with NFTs, between faithful fans and political loyalists, between violent video games and society’s scapegoats, and much more. 1999 is not just a nostalgic look at the past. It is also a window into our contentious present.

Visit Ross Benes's website.

The Page 99 Test: 1999.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven novels to scratch that "Pride and Prejudice" itch

Brittany K. Allen is a writer and actor living in Brooklyn.

At Lit Hub she tagged seven novels "if you’re craving an Austen-y fix." One title on the list:

Emily Adrian, Seduction Theory

This forthcoming-this-summer novel is a gleefully constructed diagram of several affairs. Written in the form of an MFA thesis, the book offers a postmodern dissection of the ways power affects coupling partnerships. There’s an entanglement involving professors, graduate students, and department leaders that ends in a true Edwardian muddle. Extremely fun and incredibly itchy.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Liz Alterman reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Liz Alterman, author of Claire Casey's Had Enough.

Her entry begins:

This past month I’ve been focusing on non-fiction. I was very fortunate to receive an advance reader copy of Rebecca Bloom’s insightful When Women Get Sick: An Empowering Approach for Getting the Support You Need, which is a fantastic resource for anyone navigating the complexities of our healthcare system. Filled with practical strategies, hard-won wisdom, and eye-opening anecdotes, this is a must-read for those with an illness and anyone who...[read on]

About Claire Casey's Had Enough, from the publisher:

Back in the day, Claire had dreams. She was going to be somebody! Now a forty-something mom of three (four if you count her husband!), drowning in laundry and PTA chores, with a job she can’t stand, she's finally had enough . . . A hilarious, heartwarming mom-com, perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella and Fiona Gibson.

Claire Casey has reached her breaking point. For years, she’s juggled it all: kids, husband, career, and a never-ending list of responsibilities. But when the man who’s supposed to be her partner – who promised he wouldn’t let his phone die and would pick her up from the airport – completely forgets about her, Claire snaps.

It’s the final straw. Claire is done. And so are they.

Sort of . . . maybe. (It’s not easy saying goodbye to sixteen years of marriage, ok!)

Still, Claire’s determined to reclaim her life. She’s tired of being the overworked, worn-out mom in her forties. She wants to be hopeful, vivacious Claire again.

Attending her college reunion reconnects her with former flame, Alex. And while flirting with him over email is innocent, his invitation to meet for drinks at a swanky hotel is not!

As Claire begins to rediscover the woman she was, she’s forced to confront the harsh reality that recapturing her sense of self could blow up her marriage . . . Now Claire must decide: risk the unknown or rebuild the life she has, flaws and all?

Told over the course of a day in the life of this relatable heroine, Claire Casey’s Had Enough is a laugh-out-loud mom-com that readers will adore!

Visit Liz Alterman's website.

Q&A with Liz Alterman.

My Book, The Movie: The Perfect Neighborhood.

The Page 69 Test: The Perfect Neighborhood.

The Page 69 Test: The House on Cold Creek Lane.

My Book, The Movie: The House on Cold Creek Lane.

Writers Read: Liz Alterman (August 2024).

My Book, The Movie: Claire Casey's Had Enough.

The Page 69 Test: Claire Casey's Had Enough.

Writers Read: Liz Alterman.

--Marshal Zeringue