What is Stephanie Elizondo Griest reading?

The latest contributor to Writers Read: Stephanie Elizondo Griest, author of an award-winning memoir, Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana, the guidebook 100 Places Every Woman Should Go, and another memoir (forthcoming in August 2008), Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines.

One book tagged in her entry:

Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela. I'm heading to South Africa and Mozambique in January, so am using this as a primer. Mandela is a charming narrator, and his story is astounding. [read on]

Read an excerpt from Around the Bloc and visit Stephanie Elizondo Griest's website.

The Page 99 Test: Around the Bloc.

Writers Read: Stephanie Elizondo Griest.

--Marshal Zeringue

A.E. Hotchner's favorite coming-of-age tales

A.E. Hotchner, author of Papa Hemingway (1966), The Boyhood Memoirs of A.E. Hotchner (2007), and the forthcoming The Good Life According to Hemingway, named a five best list of books about "coming of age" for Opinion Journal.

One title from the list:

Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth (Random House, 1959).

This acidulous and funny novella begins with the 23-year-old narrator, Neil Klugman, holding Brenda Patimkin's glasses while she dives into a country-club swimming pool -- and then he watches, entranced, as she walks away: "She caught the bottom of her suit between thumb and index finger and flicked what flesh had been showing back where it belonged. My blood jumped." With that, Philip Roth is off, spinning an unsparing yet tender tale about a summer affair between poor-boy Neil, from Newark, N.J., and Brenda, a Radcliffe student who is staying with her upper-middle-class family in Short Hills. "Goodbye, Columbus" -- originally published with an additional five short stories -- is primarily concerned with Neil and Brenda's tense romance and the challenges of Jewish assimilation, but it is also a brilliant lampoon of the American way of life.

Read about the book that topped Hotchner's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: D. Critchlow's "The Conservative Ascendancy"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Donald Critchlow's The Conservative Ascendancy: How the GOP Right Made Political History.

About the book, from the publisher:

Despite significant losses in the 2006 midterm elections, the Republican Right remains a powerful and defining force in American politics. Donald Critchlow, a leading historian of American conservatism, shows that time and again the GOP Right appeared defeated, only to rebound with explosive force. The ascendancy of the GOP Right was not preordained, nor was its political triumph inevitable. Rather, the history of the postwar Right was one of fierce political warfare as moderate Republicans battled right-wing Republicans for control of their party, and conservatives battled liberals for control of government. In the struggle against the dominant New Deal state, conservatives gained control of the Republican party, but their advance against liberalism and the Democratic party proved less steady. At each point the accident of historical circumstance precluded a predictable outcome.

In this provocative history of the Right in modern America, Critchlow finds a deep dilemma inherent in how conservative Republicans expressed their anti-statist ideology in an age of mass democracy and Cold War hostilities. As the Right moved forward with its political program, partisanship intensified and ideological division widened -- both between the parties and across the electorate. This intensified partisanship reflects the vibrancy of a mature democracy, Critchlow argues, and a new level of political engagement despite its disquieting effect on American political debate.

The Conservative Ascendancy boldly captures the twists and turns of the GOP Right over the last sixty years, offering a story of how deeply held beliefs about the nature of the individual and the good society are translated into political power.

Among the praise for The Conservative Ascendancy:

"Critchlow skillfully shows the connection among ideas, institutions, and the conservative ascendancy ... Critchlow's study helps frame the past. The right revived the fortunes of the postwar Republican Party, offering ideas, institutions and grassroots organization to create an effective coalition, while the radical left, from the 1930s on, has been a burden to the Democratic Party. Coming after Reagan, Bill Clinton captured (and kept) the White House by banishing the far left and moving his party to the right. In this sense, the conservative ascendancy has made bipartisan history."
--Michael Kimmage, New York Times Book Review

"This uncommonly thoughtful history by a major scholar convincingly depicts how intellectuals, politicians, strategists, activist networks, grassroots mobilization, and ideological media combined to radically shift the center of gravity in American political life."
--Ira Katznelson, author of When Affirmative Action Was White

"A central question of postwar American politics is how one public philosophy, associated with New Deal liberalism, was displaced by another, the 'conservative ascendancy.' Don Critchlow searches for an answer on an extended tour of postwar political history, guided throughout by the roller-coaster fortunes of the conservative intellectuals and grassroots activists who made up the Republican Right."
--Byron E. Shafer, co-author of The End of Southern Exceptionalism

"Whatever the political future will hold, there can be no question that American politics has moved to the right over the past half-century. In The Conservative Ascendancy, Donald Critchlow tells how the Republican right moved from the political fringe to become, often, the dominant moving force in our politics."
--Michael Barone, Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute

"Once again Donald Critchlow has contributed an essential volume to the growing scholarship on conservatism in American politics. This is a judicious, discerning, and richly informative book."
--George H. Nash, author of The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945

"Critchlow's work is crucial to understanding the intellectual origins of modern conservatism, the fusion of the anti-communist and anti-government movements with the modern Republican party, and the impetus this fusion lent to the spectacular success of the American right during its 'ascendant' years–1966 to 2004. An indispensable history of the Republican Party and the new right."
--Thomas Byrne Edsall, author of Building Red America

Learn more about The Conservative Ascendancy at the Harvard University Press website and more about Donald Critchlow's scholarly output at his faculty webpage.

Donald T. Critchlow is Professor of History at Saint Louis University.

The Page 99 Test: The Conservative Ascendancy.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Michael Dobbs' "The Lords’ Day"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Michael Dobbs' The Lords’ Day.

About the book, from the author's website:

It was unthinkable, a nightmare to which no one would give a name. Until the day it happened...

The State Opening of Parliament. The most magnificent royal occasion of the year. The Queen, her Cabinet and all the most powerful people in the land are gathering in one room, the House of Lords. And none of them know they are about to endure the most terrifying day of their lives. Not all of them will survive.

And sitting amongst the hostages are two young men, the sons of the British Prime Minister and the US President. It creates the cruellest challenge any leader could face. As the world watches on live television and holds its breath, President and Prime Minister are torn in two between their duty as statesmen, and their love as parents.

Yet others have their agendas, too, not least of them Harry Jones, a man who is already undergoing the worst day of his life when he becomes swept up in the maelstrom. What can he do about this act of terrorism when the most powerful people are rendered helpless? He can ask one simple question - why?

In an innovative thriller that breaks all the rules, Michael Dobbs gives us the drama of the greatest siege since Troy. A tale of terror, sacrifice, and ultimately love.

Among the praise for The Lords’ Day:

"Fascinating and pretty frightening stuff."
--Frederick Forsyth

"Why did Michael Dobbs waste his time being deputy chairman of the Conservative Party and deputy chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi? Or spend valuable years as a journalist and TV presenter? He was clearly put on this earth to write thrillers of the most shamelessly page-turning quality - such as The Lords' Day. He screws the accelerating tension so tight that most readers will be consuming this in just two or three sittings... and all handled with the panache we expect from Dobbs."
--Daily Express

"The best kind of British thriller."
--The Guardian

"A brilliant drama... His reputation as Britain's foremost exponent of the pacy, shock-inducing thriller is more than maintained. Not a foot put wrong, not a hair out of place. One of the most daring scenarios ever attempted in a work of fiction."
--Press Association

"A gripping tale which leaves behind deeply uncomfortable thoughts, not only about the vulnerability of our institutions but also about guilt, responsibility and revenge."
--Literary Review.

"Exciting and unpredictable."
--Sunday Telegraph.

"The plot is riveting... The scenes in the Cabinet Office during the emergency discussions are gripping... A first rate tale - Dobbs's thrill chamber!"
--Sunday Express.

"The narrative is admirably handled and the book is gripping... the pace is unrelenting."
--The Scotsman

Learn more about The Lords’ Day and Michael Dobbs and his other books.

Michael Dobbs served as Chief of Staff to British Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major and was Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party in the mid-1990s. His many books include House of Cards, the first in what would become a trilogy of political thrillers based on the character Francis Urquhart.

The Page 69 Test: The Lords’ Day.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Chuck Thompson reading?

The latest contributor to Writers Read: Chuck Thompson, author of Smile When You're Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer.

One book mentioned in his entry:

Henderson the Rain King, by Saul Bellow. Having just returned from a month in Africa I remain immersed in all sorts of Africa reading. Before leaving on my trip, I'd plowed through four or five good but tragic histories of the continent (King Leopold's Ghost, African Madness, etc.). Upon my return home, I decided to pick up this terrific Saul Bellow novel which I read back in college. It's a much different "Africa" than you get in social history texts — extremely funny, warm, and engaging. I've only read two or three Bellow novels but re-reading this one confirms that it's my favorite. [read on]

The first editor in chief of Travelocity magazine, Chuck Thompson’s work has appeared in Maxim, The Atlantic, Esquire, National Geographic Adventure, and Escape, among many others. He has played in a variety of bands, and worked as an ESL instructor, DJ, and assistant sergeant of arms in the Alaska House of Representatives.

Visit Chuck Thompson's website and read an excerpt from Smile When You're Lying.

Writers Read: Chuck Thompson.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sandra Parshall's "Disturbing the Dead," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Disturbing the Dead by Sandra Parshall.

Her entry opens:

I’m probably a rarity in that I have difficulty picturing actors playing my characters – with one exception. Meryl Streep would be a natural to play Judith, Rachel’s mother in The Heat of the Moon.

I often clip photos of models from catalogs to inspire me when I begin writing new characters, but along the way my mental images diverge from those in the photos, and the pictures are discarded. “Casting” my second book, Disturbing the Dead, with models proved impossible because many of the characters are Melungeon – mixed race with dark skin and hair and, in a few cases, blue eyes.

Some of my friends have no trouble naming actors to play my characters, and their choices remind me that writing long, detailed descriptions of the people in a novel is a waste of time, because regardless of what I write, every reader will see the characters in his or her own way. [read on]

Sandra Parshall's The Heat of the Moon won the Agatha Award for Best First Novel of 2006.

Learn more about the author and her writing at Sandra Parshall's website and at Poe's Deadly Daughters where she blogs on Wednesdays.

The Page 69 Test: Disturbing the Dead.

My Book, The Movie: Disturbing the Dead.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Diana Abu-Jaber's "Origin"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Diana Abu-Jaber's Origin.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A fingerprint expert's investigation of a series of crib deaths leads her back to the mystery of her own childhood.

Lena is a fingerprint expert at a crime lab in the small city of Syracuse, New York, where winters are cold and deep. Suddenly, a series of crib deaths — indistinguishable from SIDS except for the fevered testimony of one distraught mother with connections in high places — draws the attention of the police and the national media and raises the possibility of the inconceivable: could there be a serial infant murderer on the loose?

Orphaned as a child, out of place as an adult, gifted with delicate and terrifying powers of intuition, Lena finds herself playing a critical role in the case. But then there is the mystery of her own childhood to solve.... Could the improbable deaths of a half-dozen babies be somehow connected to her own improbable survival?

The beauty and originality of Diana Abu-Jaber's writing are here accompanied by deft, page-turning narrative tension and atmosphere, tugging the reader to an unforgettable conclusion.

Among the praise for Origin:

"With prose as cool as a razor yet as wildly impressionistic as a fever dream, Diana Abu-Jaber takes us deeply into Lena Dawson and her search for a killer that must first begin in the lost forest of her own psyche. Origin is a gripping exploration of the elusive nature of identity and one's own remembered past, the innocent and guilty alike. This is a superbly written and utterly compelling novel!"
--Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog

“With the narrator, Lena Dawson, we get someone entirely new, a hybrid of forensic science and animal instinct. Here’s a brilliant protagonist who can trust her intuition when she reaches the limits of her professional training.”
--Chuck Palahniuk, author of Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey and Fight Club

“A dark, noirish literary mystery with an entirely unique detective-heroine. The characters stayed with me long after I had finished the book. I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything like it, which alone is reason to celebrate.”
--Anita Shreve, author of Body Surfing and A Wedding in December

"Abu-Jaber, who dealt with Arab-American themes in her earlier novels, Crescent and Arabian Jazz, shows her versatility in this gripping contemporary thriller. A spike in the number of local SIDS deaths piques the interest of Lena Dawson, a fingerprint specialist at a Syracuse, N.Y., forensics lab. Is it a statistical fluke or is there a killer at work? Determined to account for the dead infants, Lena joins the investigation, which stirs tantalizing memories from her dimly recollected early childhood. Despite her fragile mental state, Lena proves capable of surprising resolve. Her relationship with her protective ex-husband, her budding romance with a detective and her quest for her own lost past add psychological depth. Abu-Jaber's lovely nuanced prose conveys the chill of an upstate New York winter as well as it does Lena's drab existence before she was drawn into the mystery of the crib deaths. This enthralling puzzle will appeal to both crime fans and readers of literary fiction."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Read an excerpt from Origin, and learn more about the writer and her work at Diana Abu-Jaber's website.

Diana Abu-Jaber is the author of Crescent, which was awarded the 2004 PEN Center USA Award for Literary Fiction and the Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award and was named one of the twenty best novels of 2003 by The Christian Science Monitor, and Arabian Jazz, which won the 1994 Oregon Book Award and was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award. She also wrote the memoir, The Language of Baklava.

The Page 99 Test: Origin.

--Marshal Zeringue

Review: Per Petterson's "Out Stealing Horses"

Ray Taras, who covers contemporary world literature for the blog, reviews the latest novel by Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses:

Despite state-sponsored rhetoric in the Western world over the last several decades exhorting us to celebrate diversity, why is it we are still irresistibly attracted to narratives that essentialize national identity? Why is it that the African novels we prize are those that describe killing and corruption, the Romanian films we acclaim are those that deal with the oppression of the Ceauşescu years, the Quebec folk music we value is that which celebrates the traditional French-Canadian attachments to faith, land, and large families?

To be sure, today we do indulge multiculturalizing paeans, too. There may be no richer a set of examples than the subgenre made up of the cinematic and literary texts of Indian women living in the West: Gurinder Chadha's Mississippi Masala and Bend it like Beckham, Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies, Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss. As with l'Auberge espagnole, however, we often come away with a sense that the wholesomeness of multiple identities is too good to be true, that harmonious encounters between races and ethnicities are contrived.

In England, the battle for the minds of the reader, waged by the essentializers and the multiculturalists, seems evenly poised. On the one hand there are the values and feel-good sentiments advanced by Monica Ali. On the other, there are the core English values and churlish sentiments championed by Martin Amis. Each has a hard core constituency supporting it.

In Out Stealing Horses, Norwegian novelist Petterson has given us the quintessential Norwegian novel -- and we have awarded it lucrative international prizes. All of Norway's tropes are here: vast forest land, meandering swift-flowing rivers, wood-heated cabins, impassable snow-covered roads, Sweden just beyond the horizon. There is logging, lumberjacks, love affairs of the desultory kind found in Knut Hamsun. And could we have a postwar Norwegian novel without at least oblique references to wartime occupation and resistance? The taciturn Trond, the novel's protagonist, can easily be taken for the lead Norwegian character in Kitchen Stories.

Yet we love this Norwegian parable as we do Norwegian wood. It relates a Norway pur et dur, before the non-white man came. It indulges our fantasies about a long ago past where the ordeal of migration involved crossing a river and climbing a hill to get into a neighboring country where money was waiting for collection in a bank account. This mythic past does not know the phenomena of boat people, stowaways on jet planes or the Eurostar, migrant workers who lose all their identity papers the moment they have reached their preferred country of employment. In Out Stealing Horses, even Oslo is sanitized and consists of an orderly train station, as far removed from Howrah in Calcutta as it is possible to be.

This novel has allowed essentializers to come out of the closet where they have been taking refuge since the multicultural imperative was imposed somewhere in the Sixties or Seventies. Our guilty pleasures, including nostalgia for the past -- a past markedly different from the differences we are told to extol today -- need not mark us out as reactionaries but, instead perhaps, as unrealistic romantics. Petterson is the great enabler in this regard.

There is more to the success of his novel than the depiction of appealing stereotypes and autotypes. Its intricate structure skillfully blends stories of retirement in affluent Norway with stories of resistance in wartorn Norway. Its stark insidious minimalism takes a page straight out of Hamsun's works. Paradoxically, it lays the basis for establishing a universalist discursive practice that Zadie Smith's White Teeth, with its Tower of Babel polyphony, demonstrated is so elusive. We get to know Trond intimately as his character is developed at a measured pace and his narrative voice is quiet but revealing. In fact, the personality of the neighbor's dog becomes as vivid -- perhaps even more so -- as those of most other characters, and certainly of the few women in the book.

But that is the author's intent all along: to set out how a reclusive older man living in the bleak Nordic backwoods manages his day-to-day affairs and keeps the traumas of his past at bay.

Essentializers will hope that Petersson's next novel also exploits his comparative advantage and does not instead turn to a depiction of the mundane life of, say, a Portuguese village. --Ray Taras

Learn more about the novel and read an excerpt at the Graywolf Press website.

Ray Taras, professor of political science at Tulane University and director of its World Literature program for the past three years, is the author of a forthcoming book on xenophobias in old and new Europe.

He has reviewed the following fiction for the blog:
M.G. Vassanji's The Assassin's Song
3 Works by Dorota Masłowska
Andreï Makine's L’amour humain
Michel Houellebecq's The Possibility of an Island
Emmanuel Dongala's Johnny Mad Dog
Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide

Taras has also reviewed nonfiction on the blog:
Andreï Makine, Cette France qu’on oublie d’aimer
Andrei S. Markovits' Uncouth Nation: Why Europe Dislikes America

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: "Hotel: An American History"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Andrew K. Sandoval-Strausz's Hotel: An American History.

About the book, from the publisher:

When George Washington embarked on his presidential tours of 1789–91, the rudimentary inns and taverns of the day suddenly seemed dismally inadequate. But within a decade, Americans had built the first hotels — large and elegant structures that boasted private bedchambers and grand public ballrooms. This book recounts the enthralling history of the hotel in America — a saga in which politicians and prostitutes, tourists and tramps, conventioneers and confidence men, celebrities and salesmen all rub elbows. Hotel explores why the hotel was invented, how its architecture developed, and the many ways it influenced the course of United States history. The volume also presents a beautiful collection of more than 120 illustrations, many in full color, of hotel life in every era.

Hotel explores these topics and more:

· What it was like to sleep, eat, and socialize at a hotel in the mid-1800s

· How hotelkeepers dealt with the illicit activities of adulterers, thieves, and violent guests

· The stories behind America’s greatest hotels, including the Waldorf-Astoria, the Plaza, the Willard, the Blackstone, and the Fairmont

· Why Confederate spies plotted to burn down thirteen hotels in New York City during the Civil War

· How the development of steamboats and locomotives helped create a nationwide network of hotels

· How hotels became architectural models for apartment buildings

· The pivotal role of hotels in the civil rights movement

Among the praise for the book:

"A dense, ambitious, and valuable new work... 'Hotel' is filled with interesting information; Sandoval-Strausz... develops social, moral, economic, legal and political connections with originality and insight. His impassioned reading of our 'built environment' is fascinating, his research prodigious... I will never again check into a hotel without thinking of myself as an ambassador of peace; that alone, with its profound implications, makes this thoughtful book worthwhile."
—Dominique Browning, The New York Times Book Review

"In Hotel: An American History, A.K. Sandoval-Strausz presents a highly creative history of the nineteenth-century first-class hotel, and develops important and stimulating interpretations of what hotels have meant to American business, culture, and racial politics."
--Paul Groth, University of California, Berkeley

“This is an essential history of one of the nation’s most significant building types. A.K. Sandoval-Strausz deftly sets hotels at the center of the nation’s social history, urban development, and political consciousness.”
—Dell Upton, author of Architecture in the United States

“Professor Sandoval-Strausz’s cultural history of the hotel in America is like getting the best suite in the house: fabulous views, elegant details, and fine finishes. Writing as an historian, he integrates architecture, urban geography, and social history to illuminate the influence of hotel development and tourism on our country’s development.”
—Richard Penner, Cornell School of Hotel Administration

“Once upon a time, hotels were simply way-stations where weary travelers could stop to rest along a journey that could take many days. But over the centuries, hotels evolved into the symbols of American capitalism and of urban life. The biggest and best of them provided glamour, sophistication, elegance, and excitement, and A. K. Sandoval-Strausz has now given them the recognition they deserve. Beautifully illustrated and engagingly written, Hotel will reward both the specialist and the general reader.”
—Kenneth T. Jackson, Columbia University

"Hotel is a marvelous piece of work. It is lucid, original, beautifully written, wonderfully illustrated, and historiographically and theoretically sophisticated. It is brimming with fresh insights."
—Wendy Gamber, Indiana University

"Addressed to scholars in social sciences and humanities, this richly layered and lavishly illustrated investigation merits repeated readings. An essential resource on hostelry; highly recommended."
—Library Journal (Editor's pick for October 2007)

"In this lucid and creative work, Sandoval-Strausz situates the rise of hotels within the history of the triumph of capitalism and of an increasingly mobile society. Hotels, he says, facilitated mobility and the integration of frontier lands into larger networks of capital and commerce.... From start to finish, this is a fascinating study."
—Publishers Weekly

Read an excerpt and learn more about Hotel: An American History at the Yale University Press website.

Check out a slide-show essay about the history of the hotel at Slate.

Andrew K. Sandoval-Strausz is assistant professor of history at the University of New Mexico.

The Page 69 Test: Hotel: An American History.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Carolyn Hart reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Carolyn Hart, the multiple Agatha Award-winning mystery writer.

Her books include the popular "Death on Demand" mystery series, the "Henrie O" mystery series, and Letter from Home.

Her Writers Read entry includes current reading, books from Hart's "To Read" list, and:

Recently read:
Holidays and Homicide by Dorothy Howell, forthcoming in 2008 from Kensington. Clever, fun, and sure to succeed.
A Vicky Hill Exclusive! by Hannah Dennison, forthcoming in 2008 from Berkley. A riotous romp.
Mother Angelica's Little Book of Life Lessons and Everyday Spirituality, collected by Raymond Arroyo. A savvy nun with a gift of gab who knows life and shares her faith. [read on]

Read more about the author and her books at Carolyn Hart's website. Death Walked In, the 18th "Death on Demand" novel, is due out in Spring 2008.

Writers Read: Carolyn Hart.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Pat MacEnulty's "From May To December"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Pat MacEnulty's From May To December.

About the book, from the publisher:

Four women are on a collision course: Jen is a former porn actor trying to fit into the world of academia while her sister, Lolly has been diagnosed with cancer; Nicole is a budding writer in prison for loving the wrong guy and Sonya is an imprisoned member of a family of travelling criminals, desperately missing her young son.

Their lives converge in a Florida prison where Jen and Lolly have joined forces to put on a grant-funded drama production. As Jen works with these women, who are struggling to regain some sense of dignity in their lives, she begins to confront and accept her own past. Meanwhile, Lolly finds she is a hero to the prisoners, but that doesn’t make up for the way her sister resents her and the attention her illness brings.

Each must make decisions that dramatically affect the lives of others, and in the process find some kind of redemption. Written with empathy and insight, From May to December is a powerful follow-up to MacEnulty’s previous novel Time to Say Goodbye.

Among the praise for the novel and its predecessor, Time To Say Goodbye:

"MacEnulty has created a warm, believable cast of flawed, utterly human characters for this “feel good” tale that points out the consequences of drugs, misplaced love and bad choices while showing the power of love."
--Sandy Amazeen

"[T]he novel reveals the behaviour of people involved with crime, and the consequences of what they did. MacEnulty shows us the hardships of prison life, the ways of coping, and the compromises in a way no outsider could. We believe what she tells us, as she draws on what were her own experiences on both sides of the system. Switching between the inner vision of each of her characters with skill and ease, she develops the story in spare and immediate prose. Without descending to the maudlin, she deals with what could be sad and depressing lives in an inspirational way. So much so that even in death there is an upbeat message of hope."
--Tangled Web UK

"[A] book full of hope, of the strength and beginnings. There is strong emotion through out the book but it is not a sappy, mushy, 'poor pitiful us' emotion. Instead MacEnulty's strong writing ability brings it above the emotion to form a full bodied story that leaves a lasting impression. She is able to lead readers into the lives of her characters by slowing revealing their stories, unfolding the details one by one to open a panorama of survival and substance. She draws tears and cheers for her women through deft plotting and in depth character development, a triumph of heart blended with talent. A winning combination."
--Barb Radmore

"It's terrific…Time To Say Goodbye is perfectly paced … riveting."
--The Times

"[Time To Say Goodbye] is a cracking novel well worth seeking out … first class."
--Independent on Sunday

Read about From May to December and learn more about the author and her work at Pat MacEnulty's website and her blog.

MacEnulty is the author of four books as well as numerous short stories, essays, poems and plays. She is also a teacher, workshop leader, writing coach and freelance editor.

The Page 99 Test: From May To December.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Ian Patterson reading?

The latest contributor to Writers Read: Ian Patterson, professor of Modern English Literature at the University of Cambridge and author, most recently, of Guernica and Total War (Harvard University Press).

Part of his entry:

I read Clair Wills's wonderful history of Ireland during the Second World War, That Neutral Island: A Cultural History of Ireland During the Second World War (Harvard: Belknap Press), before it was published in the spring, and I'm already reading it again. It uses literature, popular culture and social history as well as high politics to provide a complex and comprehensible account of the difficult dynamics of the period, and (apart from being beautifully written) it really brings that culture to life and illuminates the writing that came out of it. As soon as I've finished it, which I don't want to do too quickly, I shall plunge into Volume 1 of David A. Moody's new biography of Ezra Pound (Oxford University Press). [read on]

The Page 99 Test: Guernica and Total War.

Visit the Harvard University Press website for more information about Guernica and Total War and read an excerpt.

Read Patterson's essay, "Why Guernica Speaks to Us Now More than Ever."

Writers Read: Ian Patterson.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: J.T. Ellison's "All the Pretty Girls"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: J.T. Ellison's All the Pretty Girls.

About the book, from the publisher:

When a local girl falls prey to a sadistic serial killer, Nashville Homicide Lieutenant Taylor Jackson and her lover, FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin, find themselves in a joint investigation pursuing a vicious murderer. The Southern Strangler is slaughtering his way through the Southeast, leaving a gruesome memento at each crime scene — the prior victim's severed hand.

Ambitious TV reporter Whitney Connolly is certain the Southern Strangler is her ticket out of Nashville; she's got a scoop that could break the case. She has no idea how close to this story she really is — or what it will cost her.As the killer spirals out of control, everyone involved must face a horrible truth — the purest evil is born of private lies.

Among the praise for All the Pretty Girls:

"With this debut thriller, Ellison puts her mentoring by Lee Child to good use. Ellison does a nice job of laying the groundwork and creating suspense. Equally well done are the refreshingly realistic procedural details."
--Library Journal

"Ellison does a skillful job of capturing the city and its flavors, while taking the police procedural out of its usual New York/Los Angeles/Chicago big-city milieu and placing it in a mid-sized, vibrant Southern city. She's populated her novel with believable players, on both sides of the law."
--BookPage

"Ellison’s debut novel is relentlessly paced and intricately plotted – and it features a villain who will have readers looking over the shoulders, even in the daylight." (4 Stars)
--Romantic Times

"Ellison paints a disturbing picture of a deranged serial killer, and the atmosphere of the book is taut, tense and suspenseful. The author's other forte is characterization ... TV reporter Whitney Connolly leaps off the page, as does her twin sister, Belle Meade socialite Quinn Buckley. Even the murdered girls are quite vivid in the short time the reader has with them. Realistic descriptions of Nashville landmarks ... add to the pleasure of reading this book. For the erudite, poetry snippets offer clues from the savage killer. The best part of All the Pretty Girls, though, is it's breathless pace."
--The Tennessean

"Although Nashville is the site where all the action occurs in J.T. Ellison's strong mystery novel ... the style, tone, careful thematic development and character interaction share many things with works set in other cities. [All the Pretty Girls] has the attention to detail, unexpected twists and puzzles that are vital to topflight crime fiction."
--Nashville City Paper

"A terrific lead character, terrific suspense, terrific twists ... a completely convincing debut."
--Lee Child, New York Times bestselling author of Bad Luck and Trouble

"A taut, striking debut. Mystery fiction has a new name to watch."
--John Connolly, New York Times bestselling author of The Unquiet and The Book of Lost Things

"J.T. Ellison's debut novel rocks. Darkly compelling and thoroughly chilling, with rich characterization and a well-layered plot, All the Pretty Girls is everything a great crime thriller should be."
--Allison Brennan, New York Times bestselling author of See No Evil

"An impressive debut that is rich not just in suspense but in the details. Fast-paced and creepily believable, Ellison's novel proves that there is still room in the genre for new authors and new cops. There's no novice showing in All the Pretty Girls. It's all gritty, grisly and a great read."
--M.J. Rose, international bestselling author of The Venus Fix

"ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS is a spellbinding suspense novel and Tennessee has a new dark poet. JT Ellison's fast-paced, clever plotting yields a page-turner par excellence. A turbo-charged thrill ride of a debut."
--Julia Spencer-Fleming, Edgar finalist and author of All Mortal Flesh

Read an excerpt from All the Pretty Girls and learn more about the author and her writing at J.T. Ellison's website and MySpace page.

Ellison is Murderati's Friday columnist, a short story writer, and a novelist.

The Page 69 Test: All the Pretty Girls.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Margaret McMullan's "When I Crossed No-Bob"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: When I Crossed No-Bob by Margaret McMullan.

About the book, from the author's website:

Life as an O'Donnell is all twelve-year-old Addy knows, and life as an O'Donnell means trouble. Tucked away in a gray patch of woods called No-Bob, the O'Donnell clan has nothing but a bad reputation. So when Addy's mama abandons her on the afternoon of Mr. Frank Russell's wedding celebration, nobody is very surprised.

A reluctant Mr. Frank and his new wife take Addy in, and Addy does everything she can to prove that at least one O'Donnell has promise. But one day, Addy witnesses a terrible event that brings her old world crashing into the new. As she finds herself being pulled back into No-Bob and the grips of her O'Donnell kin, Addy is faced with the biggest decision of her life. Can she somehow find the courage to do what's right, even if it means betraying one of her own?

Among the praise for When I Crossed No-Bob:

"It's 1875 and the wounds from the Civil War are still raw for the poor and struggling folks of Mississippi. The houses have been razed, the trees burned for fuel, and the men are injured, maimed and mired in sadness. Times are tough and life is full of danger from ruffians and vigilantes. The slaves have been freed, but they are just as tied to white landowners as they ever were. Across the swamp is a wooded no-man's- land called No-Bob, populated by the O'Donnells, a family known for their cruelty, bloodthirstiness and constant unpleasant presence, usually begging for money and food. They marry young, bear children and marry them off to each other. Addy's father is the meanest and fiercest of all the O'Donnells and when he leaves his wife and heads for Texas, his bereft wife abandons her daughter to follow him. This leaves Addy in the care of newlyweds Frank and Irene, the schoolmaster and his wife. Addy's extremely rough up-bringing has prepared her well -- she knows how to build a fire, keep a house, build a shed and keep herself alive on next to no food. When her father resurfaces, stealing eggs from Frank's chicken coop, Addy must return to No-Bob with him. "Pappy. He is bad and mean and dangerous, but he is still my Pappy," she says. When Addy discovers a devastating secret about her father and his connection to the violence that is running rampant in the area, she makes the hardest decision of her life. In this sequel to her Civil War novel, How I Found the Strong, Margaret McMullan has created a deeply philosophical, first-person account of life in the Reconstruction era that is heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time. Echoes of the present are impossible to miss -- life under occupation, the reaction of the insurgent Klan, and aching poverty. It's the kind of book I love, one that makes me want to read everything McMullan has written. Twice."
--Robin Smith, BookPage

"Twelve-year-old Addy O'Donnell is a survivor. Growing up in the wild, lawless land nicknamed No-Bob, abandoned first by her father and now by her mother, she is taken in by Frank and Irene Russell, raised and educated. This sequel to the Civil War novel How I Found the Strong (2004) takes the story to 1875 in Smith County, Miss. McMullan again proves herself to be a superb prose stylist, creating a haunting portrait of a place and people ravaged by war: the burned-out land, Confederate war veterans, former slaves facing the menace of the Ku Klux Klan and the forced removal of the Choctaw from their land. If there's any reconstruction going on here, it's in Addy's soul, as she, like many people, is learning to be free-of her abusive father, her impoverished past and her stunted expectations for her life. A good match with other recent Civil War-era novels. such as Rosemary Wells's Red Moon at Sharpsburg (2007) and Christopher Paul Curtis's Elijah of Buxton (2007). (Fiction. 10-14)"
--Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Set in Mississippi after the Civil War, this gripping historical novel tells of the bitter struggle among poor whites and the horrifying rise of the Ku Klux Klan. Twelve-year-old Addy O'Donnell, hungry, needy, and mischievous, relates the story in a spare present-tense narrative. Abandoned by her parents, she finds a home with her newly married teacher, Frank Russell, whose story was told in How I Found the Strong (2004). At times there is too much history and message woven into the story. The hate drama is compelling, though, and it becomes very personal when Addy witnesses a child murdered during the burning of a black school and discovers that her own father is the perpetrator. The simple prose can be pure poetry: "They are one of us. They are who we are... He is my poppy. He is who I am." Readers will be drawn by the history close-up and by the elemental moral choice: doing good is hard, "doing nothing is the easiest of all." Connect this with stories of Holocaust perpetrators."
--Rachel Rochman, Booklist

Read an excerpt from When I Crossed No-Bob, and learn more about the author and her books at Margaret McMullan's website.

Margaret McMullan's other novels include How I Found the Strong (2004), In My Mother's House (2003), and When Warhol Was Still Alive.

The Page 99 Test: When I Crossed No-Bob.

--Marshal Zeringue

Dennis Lehane's most important books

Dennis Lehane is the author of Mystic River and other fine novels.

He recently told Newsweek about his five most important books. And answered two related questions:

A classic you revisited with disappointment:

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. I know, I know — heresy! The Old Man just sounds like the Boy and the Boy just sounds like Hemingway and all three of them sound awfully he-man pretentious.

A much-recommended book that you haven't read:

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I just never got around to it.

Read about Lehane's most important books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kristy Kiernan's "Catching Genius," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Catching Genius by Kristy Kiernan.

The entry opens:

When I go to a baby shower I know that when they pass me a roll of toilet paper I'm supposed to tear off however many squares I think will go around the mommy-to-be's belly. It's an expected party-game, and I know how to play it.

In much the same way, when I attend a book club function, I know that as soon as someone says "movie" I'm going to be asked to cast Catching Genius. Though it's an expected game, I haven't gotten nearly as good at it as I have the whole toilet paper/pregnant belly game.

The truth is I didn't have actors in mind when I wrote the book. I envisioned sisters Connie and Estella, their mother June, the men in their lives, Luke, Tate, and Paul, and Connie's sons, Gib and Carson as wholly original beings. But after so many conversations about who readers thought should play my characters, I admit that I have finally given it some serious thought.

For Connie, a mix of resentment and love on the edge of a dangerous boiling point, I like the idea of Robin Wright Penn. There's a lot of depth there that could be easy to overlook because of her beauty, just like Connie. [read on]

Read an excerpt from Catching Genius.

Curious about the inspiration for Catching Genius? Read Kiernan's backstory.

Visit Kristy Kiernan's website. Catching Genius has been nominated for a Florida Book Award and Kiernan's new novel, Matters of Faith, comes out in August 2008.

The Page 69 Test: Catching Genius.

My Book, The Movie: Catching Genius.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Mindy Klasky reading?

The latest contributor to Writers Read: Mindy Klasky, author of eight novels in a range of genres from urban fantasy (with a healthy splash of chick-lit sensibility) to traditional fantasy as well as a number of short stories and essays.

Her entry opens:

While enjoying Thanksgiving vacation, I indulged in a fantasy read (one more indication that I wasn't writing!): Naomi Novik's Black Powder War. This novel is the third volume in Novik's acclaimed fantasy series, where she envisions the Napoleonic wars as if dragons were an active force on both sides. I am not a historian, and I know precious little about warfare; however, the brilliantly realized characters keep bringing me back to this series. I love the way that the main dragon, Temeraire, acquires and expresses a social conscience, and his conversations with his captain, Laurence, typically make me smile. I'd recommend these books for classic fantasy readers, history readers, and any readers who want to study the craft of character creation. [read on]

Mindy Klasky's books include Sorcery and the Single Girl and Girls Guide to Witchcraft in the Jane Madison Series -- which describe the trials and tribulations when a librarian-witch is invited to join her local exclusive Coven -- and The Glasswright Series, the story of Rani Trader, a merchant girl who witnesses an assassination and is accused of being the killer. Even after she brings the true killer to justice, she struggles to find her place in her highly caste-bound, religious society.

Visit Mindy Klasky's website and her blog.

Writers Read: Mindy Klasky.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: John MacLachlan Gray's "Not Quite Dead"

The latest feature at the Page 69 Test: John MacLachlan Gray's Not Quite Dead.

About the book, from the publisher:

On a rust-bucket cargo ship bound from Liverpool to the United States in 1848, an Irish stowaway named Devlin steals a suspicious package after witnessing it changing hands between two sea captains. All he finds is a seemingly worthless pile of papers marked “David Copperfield, Final Four Numbers, by Charles Dickens.” Devlin is determined to see if he can somehow turn events to his advantage by paying a call on Dickens’s American publisher.

A year later, a newly admitted patient to a Baltimore hospital, a disreputable writer who goes by the name of Edgar Allan Poe, is clearly raving mad, which makes it easy to dismiss his claims to have information about the murder of an innocent woman.

Meanwhile, the eminent English novelist Charles Dickens has embarked on a tour of America, where his views are not received as he would have wished. Dickens’s growing discomfort reaches new heights of intensity when he finds himself sharing disreputable lodgings -- and reluctantly collaborating with -- none other than Edgar Allan Poe, who has gone into hiding after faking his own death in a desperate attempt to escape the Irish mob.

Like White Stone Day, which The Washington Post hailed as “a Dickens of a thriller,” this is a brilliantly imaginative tale in which crime and literature intersect in surprising ways.

Among the early praise for the novel:

"This terrific book, Gray's best, is a witty tour de force of historical reconstruction."
--The Globe and Mail

"Achingly, and really very darkly, funny. Read Not Quite Dead immediately."
--William Gibson

"A deep streak of black humor and an imaginative plot make for another rich read from the talented Gray."
--Booklist

"Witty, stylish, literate fun."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Not quite Dead is not quite perfect, but it's damn close."
--Hamilton Spectator

John MacLachlan Gray is a writer-composer-performer for the stage, film, television, radio and print. He is known for his stage musicals, including the successful Billy Bishop Goes to War, and for his satirical videos on CBC-TV’s The Journal. Gray is the recipient of many awards — a Golden Globe, the Governor General’s Medal and the Order of Canada.

Read an excerpt from Not Quite Dead, and learn more about the author and his work at John MacLachlan Gray's website.

The Page 69 Test: Not Quite Dead.

--Marshal Zeringue

Stanley Coren's five best books about dogs

Stanley Coren, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia and the author of several books on dogs, including Why Does My Dog Act That Way?, named a five best list of books about "man's best friend" for Opinion Journal.

One title on the list:

If Only They Could Speak by Nicholas H. Dodman (Norton, 2002).

Nicholas Dodman has written several excellent books about pets with problems ("Dogs Behaving Badly," "The Cat Who Cried for Help"), but this may be the best of all. It is a collection of stories about dogs -- and some cats -- that were treated at the animal behavior clinic Dodman founded at Tufts University. He depicts familiar pet problems (dominance, separation anxiety, aggression) but also documents their effects on the human-canine bond. In the chapter "The Two Dogs of Mrs. Spinelli," a dog owner's favoritism toward her poodle has provoked her German shepherd to viciously attack the other dog. Dodman convinces Mrs. Spinelli that peace will not reign until the shepherd is acknowledged as top dog (a little Prozac -- for the shepherd -- helps, too). Although not every case ends happily, all are instructive.

Read about the book that tops Coren's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Michael Levi's "On Nuclear Terrorism"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Michael A. Levi's On Nuclear Terrorism.

About the book, from the publisher:

Nuclear terrorism is such a disturbing prospect that we shy away from its details. Yet as a consequence, we fail to understand how best to defeat it. Michael Levi takes us inside nuclear terrorism and behind the decisions a terrorist leader would be faced with in pursuing a nuclear plot. Along the way, Levi identifies the many obstacles, large and small, that such a terrorist scheme might encounter, allowing him to discover a host of ways that any plan might be foiled.

Surveying the broad universe of plots and defenses, this accessible account shows how a wide-ranging defense that integrates the tools of weapon and materials security, law enforcement, intelligence, border controls, diplomacy, and the military can multiply, intensify, and compound the possibility that nuclear terrorists will fail. Levi draws from our long experience with terrorism and cautions us not to focus solely on the most harrowing yet most improbable threats. Nuclear terrorism shares much in common with other terrorist threats -- and as a result, he argues, defeating it is impossible unless we put our entire counterterrorism and homeland security house in order.

As long as we live in a nuclear age, no defense can completely eliminate nuclear terrorism. But this book reminds us that the right strategy can minimize the risks and shows us how to do it.

Among the praise for On Nuclear Terrorism:

"This book offers the best insights for a coordinated defense system against nuclear terrorism I have seen, as well as a perceptive survey of the opportunities and difficulties nuclear terrorists would face. Well written and carefully researched, it is a must for every counterterrorism planner as well as for any interested citizen."
--Michael M. May, former Director, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Professor Emeritus, Stanford University

"Michael Levi shows that defending against nuclear terrorism requires confronting every aspect of a terrorist's plot. Thoroughly researched, thoughtfully argued, and well written, On Nuclear Terrorism examines the most important security problem the world faces today."
--William Perry, former Secretary of Defense and Professor, Stanford University

"This is serious stuff. If you want to know how a terrorist organization might manage to mount a nuclear attack -- or how to stop them -- you need to read this book."
--Thomas C. Schelling, 2005 Nobel Laureate in Economics

"Levi's is the most comprehensive, up-to-date, and technically informed treatment of nuclear terrorism. This important book makes a big contribution to public understanding and to public policy on nuclear terrorism, which might yet -- despite the daunting odds -- prevent it from ever happening."
--Ashton B. Carter, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy and Professor, Harvard University

"In this comprehensive and accessible book, Levi effectively challenges many popular assertions about how easy it would be for terrorists to fabricate and deliver a nuclear weapon. He then outlines an integrated defense strategy from prevention to detection to mitigation. This should become the basic reference for nuclear terrorism. Recommended for anyone interested in the topic. Mandatory for policymakers."
--Brian M. Jenkins, Senior Advisor, RAND Corporation

"Michael Levi presents a strong case for why we need to do everything we can to keep the world's most dangerous weapons and materials out of the hands of the world's most dangerous people. He focuses on the broad range of today's nuclear threats and provides unique insights into how terrorist groups work. He also makes important specific recommendations to address these dangers -- the most critical security issue facing our nation and the world."
--Sam Nunn, Former U.S. Senator and Co-Chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative

Learn more about On Nuclear Terrorism at the Harvard University Press website.

Michael A. Levi is a Fellow for Science and Technology and Director of the Program on Energy Security and Climate Change at the Council on Foreign Relations. His other publications include: Untapped Potential: U.S. Science and Technology Cooperation with the Islamic World (coauthor, Brookings Institution Press, 2005); The Future of Arms Control (coauthor, Brookings Institution Press, 2005); “Weapons of Mass Disruption,” Scientific American (2002); “Intelligence and WMD,” Washington Post (2003); “Bunker-Busting Nuclear Weapons,” Scientific American (2004).

The Page 99 Test: On Nuclear Terrorism.

--Marshal Zeringue