Pg. 99: Jonathan Harris' "The End of Byzantium"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: The End of Byzantium by Jonathan Harris.

About the book, from the publisher:

By 1400, the once-mighty Byzantine Empire stood on the verge of destruction. Most of its territories had been lost to the Ottoman Turks, and Constantinople was under close blockade. Against all odds, Byzantium lingered on for another fifty years until 1453, when the Ottomans dramatically toppled the capital’s walls. During this bleak and uncertain time, ordinary Byzantines faced difficult decisions to protect their livelihoods and families against the death throes of their homeland. In this evocative and moving book, Jonathan Harris explores individual stories of diplomatic maneuverings, covert defiance, and sheer luck against a backdrop of major historical currents and offers a new perspective on the real reasons behind the fall of this extraordinarily fascinating empire.

Learn more about The End of Byzantium at the Yale University Press website.

Jonathan Harris is Reader in Byzantine History at Royal Holloway, University of London.

The Page 99 Test: The End of Byzantium.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Juliet Marillier's "Seer of Sevenwaters"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Seer of Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier.

About the book, from the publisher:

Get swept away in the romantic fantasy of this national bestselling author's world of Sevenwaters

The young seer Sibeal is visiting an island of elite warriors, prior to making her final pledge as a druid. It's there she finds Felix, a survivor of a Viking shipwreck, who's lost his memory. The scholarly Felix and Sibeal form a natural bond. He could even be her soul mate, but Sibeal's vocation is her true calling, and her heart must answer.

As Felix fully regains his memory, Sibeal has a runic divination showing her that Felix must go on a perilous mission-and that she will join him. The rough waters and the sea creatures they will face are no match for Sibeal's own inner turmoil. She must choose between the two things that tug at her soul-her spirituality and a chance at love...

Read an excerpt from Seer of Sevenwaters, and visit Juliet Marillier's website to learn more about her books and works in progress.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Juliet Marillier & Pippa, Gretel, and Sara.

The Page 69 Test: Seer of Sevenwaters.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tim Vine's 6 best books

Tim Vine is an actor, writer and comedian who won the prize for the funniest joke at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

He named his six best books for the Daily Express. One title on the list:

Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick

I’m a huge Elvis fan and this looks at the second half of his life and the way it tragically ended in his self-destruction. I’m the sort of person who devours books about their heroes and, while you know the ending to this story, it is still packed with fascinating detail.

Read about another book on the list and see the joke that won Vine the funniest joke prize at the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe.

Careless Love is number one on Bob Stanley's critic's chart: top books about Elvis.

--Marshal Zeringue

Libby Hellmann's "Set the Night on Fire," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Set the Night on Fire by Libby Fischer Hellmann.

The entry begins:

As some of you may know, I studied film in graduate school, worked on a couple of features, and settled into the life of an industrial film/video producer before I started writing novels. So I’ve always approached novel writing like a film-maker. I can’t write a scene without imagining it edited and printed, complete with pans, dolly shots, close-ups, and dressed sets.

Set the Night on Fire was (and is) a film-maker’s dream: a wealth of colorful characters, locations, and, in the portion that goes back to the late Sixties, opportunities to recreate what came before. Frankly, while writing the book, I was more concerned with getting the Chicago settings right than the characters. I obsessed over the apartment/commune the characters inhabited in Old Town, the way Marshall Field’s would have looked, a community hospital on the North Side, Maxwell Street. I hope I’ve done them all justice.

But now comes the fun part. There are more characters in this novel than in some of my others, and some of them are portrayed both as young idealists in the Sixties, as well as more mature adults in the present. I haven’t chosen them all, but here’s what I have so far.

Lila Hilliard: My protagonist. A ‘30s professional financial manager.
In the present: definitely Natalie Portman

Casey Hilliard: Her father.
In the present: Robin Williams

Dar Gantner:
In the present: George Clooney (of course)
In the past:...[read on]

Libby Fischer Hellmann's crime fiction thrillers include An Eye For Murder, A Picture Of Guilt, An Image Of Death, A Shot To Die For, Easy Innocence, and Doubleback.

My Book, The Movie: A Shot To Die For.

The Page 69 Test: Easy Innocence.

My Book, The Movie: Easy Innocence.

The Page 69 Test and the Page 99 Test: Doubleback.

Watch the video trailer for Set the Night on Fire, and visit Libby Fischer Hellmann's website and group blog, The Outfit.

My Book, The Movie: Set the Night on Fire.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Gerry Bartlett reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Gerry Bartlett, author of Real Vampires Have More to Love.

Her entry begins:

My tastes in reading are very eclectic. Of course, since I write paranormal romance, I read a lot of what’s out there in that genre. Most of it is very dark and my stuff is comedy, but I do enjoy reading a well written dark paranormal. I’ve just discovered a series by Adrian Phoenix. The first book is A Rush of Wings. Phoenix creates an interesting world and a very complex, tortured hero. I think that’s what really draws me to a book, fascinating characters. Be prepared for some violence, but that’s a real trend in urban fantasy which is where this book is shelved. The action is fast paced and there is a conspiracy and mystery that kept me turning the pages and running out to buy book two. I really enjoy books in series and following a group of characters. Another series I love is J.R. Ward’s Brotherhood. It’s urban fantasy too, but with more...[read on]

Among the praise for Glory St. Clair Real Vampires series:

“Hot and hilarious. Glory is everywoman with fangs.”
--Nina Bangs, New York Times bestselling author of A Taste of Darkness

"Full-figured vampire Glory bursts from the page in this lively, fun and engaging spin on the vampire mythology."
--Julie Kenner, USA Today bestselling author of Carpe Demon

"...a sizzling new series."
—Kimberly Raye, USA Today bestselling author of Dead End Dating

"Real vampires, real fun, real sexy!"
--Kerrelyn Sparks, New York Times author of the Love At Stake series

Read an excerpt from Real Vampires Have More to Love and visit Gerry Bartlet's website and blog.

See--Coffee with a Canine: Gerry Bartlett & Jet.

The Page 69 Test: Real Vampires Have More to Love.

Writers Read: Gerry Bartlett.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the best depictions of the Alps in literature

For the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best depictions of the Alps in literature.

One novel on the list:

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The heavenly and the hellish aspects of the Alps both feature. First of all the poor, lonely monster learns to be human from observing a family living a simple and virtuous life in the mountains. Then, rejected by mankind, he becomes a predatory killer, haunting the slopes of Mont Blanc.

Read about another novel on the list.

Frankenstein also appears on Andrew Crumey's top ten list of novels that predicted the future.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Liza Bakewell's "Madre: Perilous Journeys with a Spanish Noun"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Madre: Perilous Journeys with a Spanish Noun by Liza Bakewell.

About the book, from the publisher:

Why is the word madre, "mother," so complicated in Spanish—especially in Mexico?

Leaping off the page with energy, insight, and attitude, Liza Bakewell's exploration of language is anything but "just semantics." Why does me vale madre mean worthless, while ¡qué padre! means fabulous, she asks? And why do one hundred madres disappear when one padre enters the room, converting the group from madres to padres? Thus begins a journey through Mexican culture in all its color: weddings, dinner parties, an artist's studio, heart-stopping taxi rides, angry journalists, corrupt politicians, Blessed Virgins, and mothers both sacred and profane.

Along the way, a reader discovers not only an invaluable lexicon of Mexican slang (to be used with caution or not at all) but also thought-provoking reflections on the evolution of language; its winding path through culture, religion, and politics; and, not least, what it means—and what it threatens—to be a creative female, a madre.

Learn more about the book and author at Liza Bakewell's website.

Liza Bakewell is a linguistic anthropologist at Brown University.

The Page 99 Test: Madre.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Michelle Gagnon's "Kidnap & Ransom"

This weekend's feature at the Page 69 Test: Kidnap & Ransom by Michelle Gagnon.

About the book:

When the world's foremost kidnap and ransom negotiator is snatched by a ruthless drug cartel, Jake Riley becomes ensnared in the effort to save him. But he's up against Los Zetas, an elite paramilitary organization renowned for its ferocity and skill. Now he and his colleagues must navigate the dark underbelly of Mexico, from raging street wars to perilous jungles, in an effort to rescue him before time runs out.

After nearly losing her life on her last case, FBI Agent Kelly Jones may never do fieldwork again. Determined to regain her confidence, she joins Jake on his mission—and quickly realizes she's in over her head. Then in the slums of Mexico City, she encounters a former nemesis who's enacting a nightmarish ritual on the weak and vulnerable. Now she has one last, desperate shot to prove herself—by taking down a killer.

Read an excerpt from Kidnap & Ransom, and learn more about the book and author at Michelle Gagnon's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Tunnels..

The Page 69 Test: Boneyard.

The Page 69 Test: Kidnap & Ransom.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pat Conroy's six favorite books

Pat Conroy's books include The Prince of Tides, The Great Santini, South of Broad, and the recently released memoir My Reading Life.

He named his six favorite books for The Week magazine, including:

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

A masterpiece of the first order. The book is a long epic poem, a glittering tour de force, an extinct volcano that comes roaring back to explosive life, a code of conduct into the mind’s interior realms, a delight and a paradox.

Read about another book on the list.

Also see: Pat Conroy's favorite contemporary Southern novelists.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Ann Littlewood & Murphy

The current featured duo at Coffee with a Canine: Ann Littlewood and Murphy.

Littlewood, on how she and Murphy were united:

My cousin went to a lot of trouble and expense to adopt him from a rescue center. For some reason, her three older cats did not take well to a bouncy puppy who wanted to play all day. The cats were really, really upset and my cousin was at her wits end. So we said we’d foster him until she found a new home. That was over a year ago… He...[read on]

Among the praise for Did Not Survive:

"Zookeeper Iris Oakley, who lost her husband in her first outing (2008's Night Kill), returns to Finley Memorial Zoo near Vancouver, Wash., for a second harrowing adventure that meshes the complexities of animal care and human failings. ... Fascinating details of zoo life--the impending birth of clouded leopards, collecting urine samples from elephants--lend color. Man again proves to be the most dangerous animal, and Iris needs all her cunning to discover the rogue behind the violence in a follow-up that should win Littlewood more fans."
--Publishers Weekly

"There's a lot to like about Did Not Survive, from the characters and their interpersonal relationships to the setting, a small zoo in southern Washington, where most of the action takes place. The background information on the animal handling techniques, and what seems to be a balanced debate on the purpose and value of zoos and captive breeding programs adds depth."
--Mystery Book Reviews (Mysterious Reviews)

Read an excerpt from Did Not Survive and watch the video trailer.

Learn more about the book and author at Ann Littlewood's website and blog.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Ann Littlewood and Murphy.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books for Christmas

One of five books for Christmas selected by the Barnes & Noble Review:

Rock Crystal
by Adalbert Stifter

Among the most unusual, moving, and memorable of Christmas stories, this unforgettable parable, written in 1853, transports the reader to the heart of the Alps to share the mystical journey of two children who lose their way in a snowstorm on Christmas Eve. Deceptively simple, yet grand as the landscape it describes.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Alice Eve Cohen's "What I Thought I Knew"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: What I Thought I Knew by Alice Eve Cohen.

About the book, from the publisher:

Alice Cohen was happy for the first time in years. After a difficult divorce, she had a new love in her life, she was rais­ing a beloved adopted daughter, and her career was blossoming. Then she started experiencing mysterious symptoms. After months of tests, x-rays, and inconclusive diagnoses, Alice underwent a CAT scan that revealed the truth: she was six months pregnant.

At age forty-four, with no prenatal care and no insurance coverage for a high-risk pregnancy, Alice was besieged by opinions from doctors and friends about what was ethical, what was loving, what was right. With the intimacy of a diary and the suspense of a thriller, What I Thought I Knew is a ruefully funny, wickedly candid tale; a story of hope and renewal that turns all of the "knowns" upside down.

Read an excerpt from What I Thought I Knew, and learn more about the book and author at Alice Eve Cohen's website and Facebook page.

Alice Eve Cohen is a solo theatre artist, playwright, and memoirist. What I Thought I Knew won Elle's Lettres 2009 Grand Prix for Nonfiction, it was selected as one of Oprah Magazine’s 25 Best Books of Summer, and has been optioned for a television movie by Lifetime.

The Page 99 Test: What I Thought I Knew.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Larry Bennett reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Larry Bennett, author of The Third City: Chicago and American Urbanism.

His entry begins:

I’ve been an avid reader since youth, for instance, reading and rereading Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and A Connecticut Yankee several times. These days I read books for a variety of reasons: to keep up with research on urban studies topics, “trying out” books that I may decide to assign in the DePaul University classes that I teach, and pleasure. Some of this reading overlaps. This past summer I very pleasurably read the late Gerald Boyd’s memoir, My Times in Black and White. Boyd was one of the Times editors bounced in the wake of the Jayson Blair plagiarism scandal in the early 2000s. Boyd’s book is a candid exploration of the particular challenges that will be encountered by a black man moving into the upper reaches of American institutional (in this case, media) culture. The book’s excavation of the inner workings of the Times newsroom is fascinating. And—the...[read on]

Among the early praise for The Third City:

“The Third City provides a first-rate account of the ways that the second Mayor Daley has transformed the image of Chicago. Both succinct and wide-ranging, the book strikes an exemplary balance between nuanced observation of the city’s political history and deft evaluation of diverse urban development theories that attempt to explain Chicago’s trajectory. The result is an engagingly written, ceaselessly questioning, fair-minded tale of urban reinvention. For those wondering how and why Chicago has been able to move past the 'second city’ Rust Belt decline that has paralyzed so many other former industrial powerhouses, this book is a great place to seek answers.”
—Lawrence J. Vale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Learn more about The Third City at the publisher's website, and read an excerpt.

Larry Bennett is professor of political science at DePaul University. He is the author and coauthor of numerous books, including Fragments of Cities: The New American Downtowns and Neighborhoods, Neighborhood Politics: Chicago and Sheffield, and It’s Hardly Sportin’: Stadiums, Neighborhoods, and the New Chicago.

The Page 99 Test: The Third City.

Writers Read: Larry Bennett.

--Marshal Zeringue

Freda Warrington's "Midsummer Night," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Midsummer Night by Freda Warrington.

The entry begins:

I suppose most authors indulge this fantasy – actually, I’ve shared moments of great hilarity with friends as we suggested the most inappropriate actors imaginable to take the parts in our own novels and those of other writers. Usually my characters jump into my head from nowhere, but sometimes they are inspired by real-life actors or even a face in a magazine. Would it be possible to cast Midsummer Night?

The sculptor, Dame Juliana Flagg, came out of my head, but I think there’s probably only one choice for her – Dame Helen Mirren. Dame Judi Dench has the charisma – all these dames, there ain’t nothin’ like a dame! – but I see Juliana as tallish, willowy, very attractive for her sixty-something years. Her husband Charles would have to be played by...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Freda Warrington's website, blog, and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: Elfland.

The Page 69 Test: Midsummer Night.

My Book, The Movie: Midsummer Night.

--Marshal Zeringue

P. J. O’Rourke's five best political satires

P. J. O’Rourke's books include Parliament of Whores, Give War a Chance, Eat the Rich, The CEO of the Sofa, Peace Kills , and On the Wealth of Nations. His latest book is Don’t Vote – It Just Encourages the Bastards.

With Anna Blundy at FiveBooks, he discussed five of the best political satires, including:

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

Well, in the first place it is very funny. We read it first as kids as an adventure story, without understanding the political context in Europe or the philosophical context. Then when we read it again as adults we realise that Swift is having a good deal of fun here. Just the religious allegory with the Big-enders and the Little-enders and the idea of people who live for ever. And don’t they just turn out to be the kind of people who live for ever today? They show every sign of Alzheimer’s.

When did you first read it?

I was about 14, I think. It was a little bit of a slog, but such a good story that I pushed forward with it. Swift’s take on human nature is evergreen. Whether people would use horses any more [as the perfection of nature], I don’t know. I don’t suppose we’re as familiar with them as Swift was; we’d use dogs or cats. No, not cats. There’s something a little wicked about cats.

Read about another novel on the list.

Gulliver's Travels is one of Neil deGrasse Tyson's five most important books, and appears on John Mullan's list of ten of the best vegetables in literature and John Derbyshire's list of the five best books about curmudgeons.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Gerry Bartlett's "Real Vampires Have More to Love"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Real Vampires Have More to Love by Gerry Bartlett.

About the book, from the publisher:

Glory St. Clair is a vampire with man trouble. Between her on-again, off-again lover Jeremy Blade, smoking hot rock star Ray Caine, and former bodyguard turned apartment mate Valdez, there's enough man-candy around to make even a gal with a liquid diet feel a sugar rush.

Glory's got no time to enjoy it, though, considering that she's in the middle of planning her best friend's wedding. And let's not forget that there happens to be a hit on her head, thanks to when she took out a techno-freak billionaire. Now, between planning a bachelorette party and dodging stakes, Glory has to decide which man she really wants, before her love life meets an early grave...

Read an excerpt from Real Vampires Have More to Love and visit Gerry Bartlet's website and blog.

Writers Read: Gerry Bartlett.

See--Coffee with a Canine: Gerry Bartlett & Jet.

The Page 69 Test: Real Vampires Have More to Love.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Latha Varadarajan's "The Domestic Abroad"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: The Domestic Abroad: Diasporas in International Relations by Latha Varadarajan.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the past few decades, and across disparate geographical contexts, states have adopted policies and initiatives aimed at institutionalizing relationships with "their" diasporas. These practices, which range from creating new ministries to granting dual citizenship, are aimed at integrating diasporas as part of a larger "global" nation that is connected to, and has claims on the institutional structures of the home state. Although links, both formal and informal, between diasporas and their presumptive homelands have existed in the past, the recent developments constitute a far more widespread and qualitatively different phenomenon.

In this book, Latha Varadarajan theorizes this novel and largely overlooked trend by introducing the concept of the "domestic abroad." Varadarajan demonstrates that the remapping of the imagined boundaries of the nation, the visible surface of the phenomenon, is intrinsically connected to the political-economic transformation of the state that is typically characterized as "neoliberalism." The domestic abroad must therefore be understood as the product of two simultaneous, on-going processes: the diasporic re-imagining of the nation and the neoliberal restructuring of the state.

The argument unfolds through a historically nuanced study of the production of the domestic abroad in India. The book traces the complex history and explains the political logic of the remarkable transition from the Indian state's guarded indifference toward its diaspora in the period after independence, to its current celebrations of the "global Indian nation." In doing so, The Domestic Abroad reveals the manner in which the boundaries of the nation and the extent of the authority of the state, in India and elsewhere, are dynamically shaped by the development of capitalist social relations on both global and national scales.

Learn more about The Domestic Abroad at the Oxford University Press website.

Latha Varadarajan is an Associate Professor of Political Science at San Diego State University.

The Page 99 Test: The Domestic Abroad.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten books: good sex in fiction

Rowan Somerville is the author of two novels, The End of Sleep and this year's The Shape of Her.

For the Guardian, he named a top ten list of the best fiction about sex.

One novel on the list:

Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897)

This Victorian classic has never been out of print, spawning dozens of books, films and more recently all those camp US teen dramas where sexual passion is faintly camouflaged as bloodlust. The original is a superb gothic tale of repressed sexuality and the savagery of its release. Strange today, that a society can gaze calmly at surgically enhanced teenagers ripping out each others throats and gorging on blood but one naked breast in the American Superbowl and moral panic erupts.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Dracula is one of Arthur Phillips' six favorite books set in places that their authors never visited and one of Anthony Browne's six best books. It is one of the books on John Mullan's lists of ten of the best wolves in literature and ten of the best mirrors in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Richard Harvell reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Richard Harvell, author of The Bells, a novel about a castrato in the eighteenth century.

His entry begins:

I’m currently reading Michael Newton’s Savage Girls and Wild Boys. I actually found it by entering “Wild Boys” into the local university library catalogue, and it’s just what I hoped it would be—a history of feral children, from wolf-children to the tragically neglected.

I find my way into the novels I write through other people’s carefully researched studies of out of the ordinary themes—for The Bells it was Patrick Babier’s The World of the Castrati (as well as the somewhat less scholarly Castration: The Advantages and Disadvantages, by Victor T. Cheney).

Newton’s Savage Girls and Wild Boys is just the kind of book that sets me tingling as I stroll the library stacks. The book satisfies my thirst for...[read on]

Among the praise for The Bells:

"Harvell has written an entertaining and eye-opening aria of a book."
—Washington Post

"The Bells does for the ears what Perfume did for the nose. A novel to engage the senses as well as tickle the mind."
—Sarah Dunant, international bestselling author of Sacred Hearts

"Wrenching and painfully triumphant.... A poignant and acutely told story of the human spirit; highly recommended."
—Library Journal

"Astonishing in its originality, epic in its scope, luminous in its richness, The Bells is a novel to be savored page by glorious page."
—Cathy Marie Buchanan, New York Times bestselling author of The Day the Falls Stood Still

Visit Richard Harvell's website.

Writers Read: Richard Harvell.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Craig A. Monson's "Nuns Behaving Badly"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: Nuns Behaving Badly: Tales of Music, Magic, Art, and Arson in the Convents of Italy by Craig A. Monson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Witchcraft. Arson. Going AWOL. Some nuns in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy strayed far from the paradigms of monastic life. Cloistered in convents, subjected to stifling hierarchy, repressed, and occasionally persecuted by their male superiors, these women circumvented authority in sometimes extraordinary ways. But tales of their transgressions have long been buried in the Vatican Secret Archive. That is, until now.

In Nuns Behaving Badly, Craig A. Monson resurrects forgotten tales and restores to life the long-silent voices of these cloistered heroines. Here we meet nuns who dared speak out about physical assault and sexual impropriety (some real, some imagined). Others were only guilty of misjudgment or defacing valuable artwork that offended their sensibilities. But what unites the women and their stories is the challenges they faced: these were women trying to find their way within the Catholicism of their day and through the strict limits it imposed on them. Monson introduces us to women who were occasionally desperate to flee cloistered life, as when an entire community conspired to torch their convent and be set free. But more often, he shows us nuns just trying to live their lives. When they were crossed—by powerful priests who claimed to know what was best for them—bad behavior could escalate from mere troublemaking to open confrontation.

In resurrecting these long-forgotten tales and trials, Monson also draws attention to the predicament of modern religious women, whose “misbehavior”—seeking ordination as priests or refusing to give up their endowments to pay for priestly wrongdoing in their own archdioceses—continues even today. The nuns of early modern Italy, Monson shows, set the standard for religious transgression in their own age—and beyond.

Learn more about the book and author at the University of Chicago Press website and Craig A. Monson's homepage.

Craig A. Monson is professor of music at Washington University in St. Louis and the author of Disembodied Voices: Music and Culture in an Early Modern Italian Convent.

The Page 99 Test: Nuns Behaving Badly.

--Marshal Zeringue