What is Monica Holloway reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Monica Holloway, author of the newly released Cowboy & Wills.

Her entry begins:

The book I just finished is The Possibility of Everything by Hope Edelman. It’s brand new (came out in September), and I devoured it. I’ve been a fan of Hope Edelman’s since reading her book, Motherless Daughters, and waited with great anticipation for her first memoir. It was well worth the wait.

In the book, Hope details her journey to Belize where she travels with her husband and three-year-old daughter, Maya. Maya has developed a very difficult, almost unmanageable, imaginary friend and Hope takes her to a Mayan healer in hopes that they might banish this imaginary friend. Along the way, she discovers a completely new side of herself, one that truly believes in miracles, not just what can be explained scientifically.

The writing is...[read on]

Monica Holloway is the critically acclaimed author of the memoir Driving With Dead People, which Newsweek called “unforgettable,” Glamour christened “a classic,” and the Washington Post deemed “irresistible.” She contributed to the anthology Mommy Wars, from which her essay “Red Boots and Cole Haans” was described by Newsday as “brilliant, grimly hilarious.”

Among the early praise for Cowboy & Wills:

"A boy and his dog -- that is sacred stuff. Layer onto that autism and the singular love of a mother and you've got the makings for deeply worthwhile reading. Monica Holloway is any one of us, doubled over with hope and pain and wishing."
--Kelly Corrigan, New York Times bestselling author of The Middle Place

"A young boy with autism is able to make friends with the aid of his pet dog named Cowboy. Pets can help open up social doors."
--Temple Grandin, New York Times bestselling author of Animals in Translation and Animals Make Us Human

Writers Read: Monica Holloway.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Martin Kitchen's "Rommel's Desert War"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Rommel's Desert War: Waging World War II in North Africa, 1941-1943 by Martin Kitchen.

About the book, from the publisher:

At the height of his power in January 1941 Hitler made the fateful decision to send troops to North Africa to save the beleaguered Italian army from defeat. Martin Kitchen's masterful new history of the Axis campaign provides a fundamental reassessment of the key battles of 1941–3, Rommel's generalship and the campaign's place within the broader strategic context of the war. He shows that the British were initially helpless against the operational brilliance of Rommel's Panzer divisions. However, Rommel's initial successes and refusal to follow orders committed the Axis to a campaign well beyond their means. Without the reinforcements or supplies he needed to deliver a knockout blow, Rommel was forced onto the defensive and Hitler's Mediterranean strategy began to unravel. The result was the loss of an entire army which, together with defeat at Stalingrad, signalled a decisive shift in the course of the war.

Read an excerpt from Rommel's Desert War, and learn more about the book at the Cambridge University Press website.

Martin Kitchen is Professor Emeritus in the Department of History, Simon Fraser University. His publications include The Third Reich: Charisma and Community (2007), A History of Modern Germany, 1800–2000 (2006) and Europe Between the Wars (second edition, 2006).

The Page 99 Test: Rommel's Desert War.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten antiheroes

Francesca Simon is one of the UK’s best-selling children’s writers. She has published over 50 books, including the immensely popular "Horrid Henry" series, which has now sold over twelve million copies.

For the Guardian, she named a top ten list of fictional antiheroes. One title on her list:

The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

I discovered this book by accident while on holiday in France and staying with friends of my parents. I remember lying out in the Provence sun quite unable to believe what I was reading, as I'd never encountered an amoral psychopath as a novel's "hero". Utterly gripping and creepy, one of the books that you never forget. I also got sun stroke from lying outside reading for too long, but that's another story.

Read about another book on Simon's list.

The Talented Mr Ripley is on Tana French's top 10 maverick mysteries list, the Guardian's list of the 50 best summer reads ever, and the Telegraph's ultimate reading list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Sophie Hannah's "The Wrong Mother"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: The Wrong Mother by Sophie Hannah.

About the book, from the publisher:

A chilling exploration of a mother’s unspeakable betrayal from the author of Little Face

Sally Thorning is watching the news with her husband when she hears an unexpected name—Mark Bretherick. It’s a name she shouldn’t know, but last year Sally treated herself to a secret vacation—away from her hectic family life—and met a man. After their brief affair, the two planned to never meet again. But now, Mark’s wife and daughter are dead—and the safety of Sally’s own family is in doubt. Sophie Hannah established herself as a new master of psychological suspense with her previous novel, Little Face. Now with accomplished prose and a plot guaranteed to keep readers guessing, The Wrong Mother is Hannah’s most captivating work yet.

Learn more about the book and author at Sophie Hannah's website.

The Page 69 Test: Hurting Distance.

The Page 69 Test: Little Face.

My Book, The Movie: Little Face and Hurting Distance.

The Page 69 Test: The Wrong Mother.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Thad Carhart's "Across the Endless River"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: Across the Endless River by Thad Carhart.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the acclaimed bestselling author of The Piano Shop on the Left Bank, a historical novel about Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, the son of Sacagawea, and his intriguing sojourn as a young man in 1820s Paris.

Born in 1805 on the Lewis and Clark expedition, Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau was the son of the expedition's translators, Sacagawea and Toussaint Charbonneau. Across the Endless River compellingly portrays this mixed-blood child's mysterious boyhood along the Missouri among the Mandan tribe and his youth as William Clark's ward in St. Louis. The novel becomes a haunting exploration of identity and passion as eighteen-year-old Baptiste is invited to cross the Atlantic in 1823 with young Duke Paul of Württemberg.

During their travels throughout Europe, Paul introduces Baptiste to a world he never imagined. Gradually, Baptiste senses the limitations of life as an outsider. His passionate affair with Paul's older cousin helps him understand the richness of his heritage and the need to fashion his own future. But it is Maura, the beautiful and independent daughter of a French-Irish wine merchant Baptiste meets in Paris, who most influences his ultimate decision to return to the frontier.

Rich in the details of life in both frontier America and the European court, Across the Endless River is a captivating novel about a man at the intersection of cultures, languages, and customs.

Read an excerpt from Across the Endless River, and learn more about the book and author at Thad Carhart's website.

A dual citizen of Ireland and the United States, Thad Carhart is the author of the international bestseller, The Piano Shop on the Left Bank. He lives in Paris with his wife, the photographer Simo Neri, and their two children.

The Page 99 Test: Across the Endless River.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top 10 books of Russia

James Meek worked in Moscow as a foreign correspondent for the Guardian from 1991 to 1999, and has won several awards (including Foreign Correspondent of the Year) for his reporting from Iraq and Guantanamo.

His books include the novels We Are Now Beginning Our Descent and the Booker-longlisted The People's Act of Love, which is set in Siberia in 1919 and tells the story of an obscure Christian sect and a stranded regiment of Czech soldiers.

In 2005 he named his top ten books of Russia for the Guardian. One title on the list:

The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodr Dostoyevsky, 1879

A pious brother, a wild-living brother, a political brother and their wretched father.

"'So you married a lame woman?' cried Kalganov.
'Yes. They both deceived me a little bit at the time, and concealed it. I thought she was hopping; she kept hopping ... I thought it was for fun.'"

Read about another title on Meek's list.

The Brothers Karamazov also appears among James Runcie's top ten books about brothers and Norman Mailer's top 10 works of literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Matthew Dicks reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Matthew Dicks, author of the novels Something Missing and the forthcoming Unexpectedly, Milo.

His entry begins:

My admittedly poor attention span demands that I read more than one book at a time, so right now I’m rotating through three different books.

I’m close to finishing Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. When I’m working on a book, as I am now, I often find myself unable to read fiction, as the voice of the narrator threatens to blend in with my own, especially when the narrative voice is especially strong. But I’ve read Pride and Prejudice before, and this book honors the original text to such a degree that it’s been more of an amusement and a novelty than a genuine dip into a new story. The concept is ingenious, the interweaving of zombies into the original story is brilliant, and it’s simply a lot of fun to read. I’m left wondering if high school English teachers might benefit from replacing the original text with this one when faced with a class full of reluctant readers. The story exists enough in its original form to credit Austen as an author, but it may have just enough “zombie mayhem” to keep...[read on]

Among the praise for Something Missing:

"Who wants to catch a thief when he's as endearing as Martin Railsback, the oddball hero of Matthew Dicks's first novel, SOMETHING MISSING? Martin is, after all, prone to rob people of items they'll never miss (a bar of soap, a few sticks of butter, the odd diamond) as a way of getting to know them. Despite his obsessive-compulsive work ethic, Martin manages to get himself in trouble over a toothbrush--but not before we've decided to let him in next time he calls."
—New York Times Book Review

“A quirky and endearing first novel that makes you wonder if that misplaced stick of butter or can of soup means there’s a burglar prowling your pantry. If that thief is Martin Railsback, you might be glad. He’s the kind of burglar you could conceivably want in your house.”
—M. Ann Jacoby, author of Life After Genius

“A funny, suspenseful and thoroughly original debut that will keep you up to the wee hours flipping pages.”
—David Rosen, author of I Just Want My Pants Back

Visit Matthew Dicks' website and Facebook page.

Writers Read: Matthew Dicks.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Carla Nappi's "The Monkey and the Inkpot"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: The Monkey and the Inkpot: Natural History and Its Transformations in Early Modern China by Carla Nappi.

About the book, from the publisher:

This is the story of a Chinese doctor, his book, and the creatures that danced within its pages. The Monkey and the Inkpot introduces natural history in sixteenth-century China through the iconic Bencao gangmu (Systematic materia medica) of Li Shizhen (1518–1593).

The encyclopedic Bencao gangmu is widely lauded as a classic embodiment of pre-modern Chinese medical thought. In the first book-length study in English of Li’s text, Carla Nappi reveals a “cabinet of curiosities” of gems, beasts, and oddities whose author was devoted to using natural history to guide the application of natural and artificial objects as medical drugs. Nappi examines the making of facts and weighing of evidence in a massive collection where tales of wildmen and dragons were recorded alongside recipes for ginseng and peonies.

Nappi challenges the idea of a monolithic tradition of Chinese herbal medicine by showing the importance of debate and disagreement in early modern scholarly and medical culture. The Monkey and the Inkpot also illuminates the modern fate of a book that continues to shape alternative healing practices, global pharmaceutical markets, and Chinese culture.

Read an excerpt from The Monkey and the Inkpot, and learn more about the book at the Harvard University Press website.

Carla Nappi is Assistant Professor of History at the University of British Columbia.

The Page 99 Test: The Monkey and the Inkpot.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sarah Bryant's "The Other Eden," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: The Other Eden by Sarah Bryant.

The entry begins:

I'm a very image-driven writer. I have a lot of visual art in my background and present-ground, and I love films, but oddly, the only book I've written where I pictured specific actors in my lead roles is The Other Eden. And even that is problematic, as you'll see! But taking a stab at it, In Order of Appearance:

The first characters we meet are Eve and Elizabeth, a very young pair of identical twins. They are meant to be dark-haired, large-eyed ingenues. Although she didn't 'exist' in the public realm when I wrote the first draft of this book (it was 1990, I was 16!) I think now that Norah Jones would be perfect for them. Plus, she plays the piano, and they're meant to be piano virtuosi...

Next is the narrator and main character, Eleanor Rose. She is actually my hardest character to 'cast'. She's meant to be blond, dark-eyed, fragile, and very young. I always imagined...[read on]

Sarah Bryant was born in Brunswick, Maine, USA and attended Brown University in Rhode Island, USA. In 1996 she moved to Scotland to do an MLitt in creative writing at University of St. Andrews, and ended up marrying a Scot and settling in the UK. She now lives with her husband and daughter in the Scottish Borders, where along with writing she doubles as a teacher of Celtic harp, and occasionally triples as a printmaker.

Learn more about the book and author at Sarah Bryant's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Other Eden.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the best fictional journeys to the Moon

At the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best journeys to the Moon.

One novel on his list:

The First Men in the Moon, by HG Wells

An industrialist, Bedford, and an eccentric scientist, Cavor, travel to the Moon together. The trip is made possible by Cavor's discovery of Cavorite, a substance that negates the effects of gravity. They discover that the Moon has a breathable atmosphere and is inhabited by the Selenites, insect-like aliens living in cities beneath the moon's surface. They turn out not to be friendly...

Read about another Moon journey on Mullan's list.

The First Men in the Moon also appears on Ted Gioia's list of six great moon novels.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Yona Zeldis McDonough & Queenie and Tallulah

Today's featured trio at Coffee with a Canine: Yona Zeldis McDonough & Queenie and Tallulah.

Queenie and Tallulah's best qualities--

Queenie is adorable, frisky, affectionate. Tallulah has a kind patience and acceptance that are very touching.

--and proudest moments:

Tallulah has learned to push her food dish into the center of the room with her snout to indicate that it is chow time; I think she is very pleased with herself for having figured this out. Queenie is most proud, I think of her athletic prowess: she can leap, prance and run like the wind, despite her very short legs.[read on]

Yona Zeldis McDonough is the author of the novels The Four Temperaments, In Dahlia's Wake, and Breaking the Bank.

She is also the editor of the essay collections The Barbie Chronicles: A Living Doll Turns Forty and All the Available Light: A Marilyn Monroe Reader. Her short fiction, articles, and essays have been published in anthologies as well as in numerous national magazines, and newspapers.

Among the praise for Breaking the Bank:

Yona Zeldis McDonough scores in Breaking the Bank.
—Vanity Fair

Yona Zeldis McDonough's star-bright new novel, "Breaking The Bank," is not really a fable of our times—it accurately portrays our times, where the improbable is sometimes made real. By showing the way we live now, Ms. McDonough illustrates, in language and situations no one else could have created, just how strange and fascinating and true urban life is for the witty hopeful pragmatists that populate this lovely and fully realized work.
—Hilton Als, staff writer, The New Yorker

Visit Yona Zeldis McDonough's website and blog.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Yona Zeldis McDonough & Queenie and Tallulah.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Laura Anne Gilman's "Flesh and Fire"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman.

About the book, from the publisher:

Once, all power in the Vin Lands was held by the prince-mages, who alone could craft spellwines, and selfishly used them to increase their own wealth and influence. But their abuse of power caused a demigod to break the Vine, shattering the power of the mages. Now, fourteen centuries later, it is the humble Vinearts who hold the secret of crafting spells from wines, the source of magic, and they are prohibited from holding power.

But now rumors come of a new darkness rising in the vineyards. Strange, terrifying creatures, sudden plagues, and mysterious disappearances threaten the land. Only one Vineart senses the danger, and he has only one weapon to use against it: a young slave. His name is Jerzy, and his origins are unknown, even to him. Yet his uncanny sense of the Vinearts' craft offers a hint of greater magics within -- magics that his Master, the Vineart Malech, must cultivate and grow. But time is running out. If Malech cannot teach his new apprentice the secrets of the spellwines, and if Jerzy cannot master his own untapped powers, the Vin Lands shall surely be destroyed.

In Flesh and Fire, first in a spellbinding new trilogy, Laura Anne Gilman conjures a story as powerful as magic itself, as intoxicating as the finest of wines, and as timeless as the greatest legends ever told.

Read an excerpt from Flesh and Fire, and learn more about the book and author at Laura Anne Gilman's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: Flesh and Fire.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jake Adelstein's "Tokyo Vice"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan by Jake Adelstein.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the only American journalist ever to have been admitted to the insular Tokyo Metropolitan Police press club: a unique, firsthand, revelatory look at Japanese culture from the underbelly up.

At nineteen, Jake Adelstein went to Japan in search of peace and tranquility. What he got was a life of crime ... crime reporting, that is, at the prestigious Yomiuri Shinbun. For twelve years of eighty-hour workweeks, he covered the seedy side of Japan, where extortion, murder, human trafficking, and corruption are as familiar as ramen noodles and sake. But when his final scoop brought him face to face with Japan’s most infamous yakuza boss—and the threat of death for him and his family—Adelstein decided to step down ... momentarily. Then, he fought back.

In Tokyo Vice, Adelstein tells the riveting, often humorous tale of his journey from an inexperienced cub reporter—who made rookie mistakes like getting into a martial-arts battle with a senior editor—to a daring, investigative journalist with a price on his head. With its vivid, visceral descriptions of crime in Japan and an exploration of the world of modern-day yakuza that even few Japanese ever see, Tokyo Vice is a fascination, and an education, from first to last.

Read an excerpt from Tokyo Vice, and learn more about the book at the Pantheon website.

The Page 99 Test: Tokyo Vice.

--Marshal Zeringue

Stella Rimington's six best books

Stella Rimington was the Director-General of MI5 from 1992 to 1996 and the first woman to hold the post. Her spy novels feature the ambitious MI5 officer, Liz Carlyle.

She named her six best books for the Daily Express. One novel on the list:

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
by John le Carré

Many of the characters are reminiscent of people I met when I joined the security services in the Seventies. However, the plotting is just brilliant and, while a lot of it is made up, it’s a fantastic read. A classic Cold War novel.

Read about another book on Rimington's list.

Also see Rimington's five best list of books about spies in Britain.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Tania Hershman reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Tania Hershman, author of the short story collection, The White Road and Other Stories.

Her entry begins:

I've just finished reading Sean Lovelace's How Some People Like Their Eggs, a slim chapbook of flash fiction published by the excellent Rose Metal Press. I love flash fiction, short short stories of only a few pages which, when done well - and here they really are done well - make you wonder why anyone ever needs to take 250 pages to tell a story. Lovelace's imagination knows no bounds, his stories are tragi-comic and they leave an impression that does not fade. I read this collection for review for The Short Review, the journal I edit, I find many new favourite writers this way!

The next book I am reading for review is Freedom, an anthology of short stories published by Amnesty International to...[read on]

Tania Hershman is a former science journalist. Commended by the judges of the 2009 Orange Award for New Writers, her short story collection, The White Road and Other Stories, is published by Salt. She is the founder and editor of The Short Review, and incoming fiction editor of Southword.

Among the praise for The White Road:

"THE title story in this book is everything fiction should be: inspiring, moving, comical, provocative and heartbreaking - and all that in just seven and a half pages. The rest of the stories in this collection are similarly remarkable. Some are also remarkably short: Go Away is, essentially, a well-told joke (and laugh-out-loud funny). Hershman's economy with words cloaks her subtlety and power, though: a second reading uncovers hidden moments in each story. Inspired by scientific progress and science journalism, including articles in New Scientist, and driven by an author dripping with talent, this is as good as modern reading gets."
--Michael Brooks

"It shattered my pre-conception that 'I can't get into short stories.' Some of it is flash fiction, which is quite new to me, and I'm loving it. And flash fiction really suits the modern need for short and snappy reading experiences. If you only want to read one, read the first story, the eponymous one. It will sear your mind and you won't forget it."
--Nicola Morgan

The publisher has made The White Road and Other Stories available at a special 30% discount from their online shop at www.saltpublishing.com. Visit the book's page on the site, then enter the code GM18py7n when checking out.

Visit Tania Hershman's website and blog.

Writers Read: Tania Hershman.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Rhoda Janzen's "Mennonite in a Little Black Dress"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhoda Janzen.

About the book, from the publisher:

A hilarious and moving memoir—in the spirit of Anne Lamott and Nora Ephron—about a woman who returns home to her close-knit Mennonite family after a personal crisis

Not long after Rhoda Janzen turned forty, her world turned upside down. It was bad enough that her brilliant husband of fifteen years left her for Bob, a guy he met on Gay.com, but that same week a car accident left her with serious injuries. What was a gal to do? Rhoda packed her bags and went home. This wasn’t just any home, though. This was a Mennonite home. While Rhoda had long ventured out on her own spiritual path, the conservative community welcomed her back with open arms and offbeat advice. (Rhoda’s good-natured mother suggested she date her first cousin—he owned a tractor, see.) It is in this safe place that Rhoda can come to terms with her failed marriage; her desire, as a young woman, to leave her sheltered world behind; and the choices that both freed and entrapped her.

Written with wry humor and huge personality—and tackling faith, love, family, and aging—Mennonite in a Little Black Dress is an immensely moving memoir of healing, certain to touch anyone who has ever had to look homeward in order to move ahead.

Read "The Tractor Driver or the Pothead?" in the New York Times Magazine, an essay adapted from the book.

Learn more about Mennonite in a Little Black Dress at the publisher's website.

The Page 99 Test: Mennonite in a Little Black Dress.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five best academic studies of fairy tales

Holly Tucker, the author of Pregnant Fictions: Childbirth and the Fairy Tale in Early-Modern France, teaches at Vanderbilt University.

For the Wall Street Journal, she named a five best list of academic studies of fairy tales.

One book on the list:

Off With Their Heads!
by Maria Tatar
Princeton University, 1992

Moving deftly from 16th- century Italian tales to the work of Maurice Sendak, Maria Tatar asserts that fairy tales are an elaborate form of indoctrination. She argues that the fairy-tale fear factor is less about cautioning children and more about the need to control the young adults that they become. Women in particular are meant to take notice. Gluttony, infidelity and arrogance are, she charges, all part of a "pantheon of female sins" that must be reined in at all costs. Fairy tales, according to Tatar, teach girls to accept their miserable fate so that they will become docile wives and mothers. So much for "and they lived happily ever after."

Read about another book on Tucker's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Mary Guterson's "Gone to the Dogs"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Gone to the Dogs by Mary Guterson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Rena never meant to steal her ex-boyfriend's dog. She was just casually driving by his new house, taking stock of his new life, when the dog invited himself into her car...Okay, so she stole the dog. But how could Brian, her boyfriend of seven years (not to mention “unofficial” fiancé), have done this to her? Fallen off the face of the earth, only to resurface with a gorgeous, live-in girlfriend and live-in dog? Honestly, a girl can only take so much. Besides, how could a yellow lab as great as this one be happy living with those two very bad people?

Unfortunately, being a dog-napper is the least of Rena's problems. Her mother’s dating a “potential” serial killer, her sister’s having an identity crisis and she’s the target of one hopeless fix-up after another—most recently, the highly moral Chuck, who just happens to know all about Rena's dog-napping escapades. If Rena wants to straighten things out, she'll have to face up to the choices she's made, the dreams she's put on hold, and the man who broke her heart.

Learn more about the book and author at Mary Guterson's website.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Mary Guterson & Sparky.

The Page 69 Test: Gone to the Dogs.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Richard Alba's "Blurring the Color Line"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: Blurring the Color Line: The New Chance for a More Integrated America by Richard Alba.

About the book, from the publisher:

Richard Alba argues that the social cleavages that separate Americans into distinct, unequal ethno-racial groups could narrow dramatically in the coming decades. During the mid-twentieth century, the dominant position of the United States in the postwar world economy led to a rapid expansion of education and labor opportunities. As a result of their newfound access to training and jobs, many ethnic and religious outsiders, among them Jews and Italians, finally gained full acceptance as members of the mainstream. Alba proposes that this large-scale assimilation of white ethnics was a result of “non-zero-sum mobility,” which he defines as the social ascent of members of disadvantaged groups that can take place without affecting the life chances of those who are already members of the established majority.

Alba shows that non-zero-sum mobility could play out positively in the future as the baby-boom generation retires, opening up the higher rungs of the labor market. Because of the changing demography of the country, many fewer whites will be coming of age than will be retiring. Hence, the opportunity exists for members of other groups to move up. However, Alba cautions, this demographic shift will only benefit disadvantaged American minorities if they are provided with access to education and training. In Blurring the Color Line, Alba explores a future in which socially mobile minorities could blur stark boundaries and gain much more control over the social expression of racial differences.

Read an excerpt from Blurring the Color Line, and learn more about the book at the Harvard University Press website.

Richard D. Alba is Distinguished Professor of Sociology, the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

The Page 99 Test: Blurring the Color Line.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Amy Reed reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Amy Reed, author of the YA novel Beautiful.

Her entry begins:

I usually try to alternate between reading Young Adult and Adult novels, though distinguishing between the genres seems a little silly to me at times. The only consistent difference seems to be that YA is always about teens, while adult literature is only sometimes always about adults. There’s a perception that YA is somehow less serious or “literary,” while in truth the variation in style, subject and quality is infinite.

I just finished the YA novel The Chosen One, by Carol Lynch Williams. It’s the story of Kyra, a 13-year old girl growing up in an isolated polygamist cult and doomed to become the 7th wife of her 60-year-old uncle. It’s a complex and heart-wrenching look into one girl’s struggle for truth and freedom—not usually what you think of as “kids’ stuff.” I could...[read on]

Amy Reed's short work has been published in journals such as Kitchen Sink, Contrary, and Fiction.

Beautiful was released October 6, 2009. Among the early praise for the novel:

"BEAUTIFUL is stark, disquieting and, quite simply, riveting. Amy Reed is an author to keep on your radar."
--Ellen Hopkins, best-selling author of Crank, Burned, Glass, and Impulse

"A latter-day Go Ask Alice, BEAUTIFUL is raw, gritty, and powerful, an intense ice-pick jab to the heart. I was terrified for Cassie and captivated at the same time by Amy Reed's luminous prose. A stunning debut and a must-read. A writer to be watched!"
--R.A. Nelson, author of Teach Me

Visit Amy Reed's website and blog.

Writers Read: Amy Reed.

--Marshal Zeringue