Pg. 99: Christopher Stevens's "Written In Stone"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Written in Stone: A Journey Through the Stone Age and the Origins of Modern Language by Christopher Stevens.

About the book, from the publisher:

Witty and erudite, Written in Stone is the first etymology book to reveal how the English language is based on original Stone Age words.

Half the world’s population speaks a language that has evolved from a single, prehistoric mother tongue. A mother tongue first spoken in Stone Age times, on the steppes of central Eurasia 6,500 years ago. It was so effective that it flourished for two thousand years. It was a language that spread from the shores of the Black Sea across almost all of Europe and much of Asia. It is the genetic basis of everything we speak and write today—the DNA of language.

Written in Stone combines detective work, mythology, ancient history, archaeology, the roots of society, technology and warfare, and the sheer fascination of words to explore that original mother tongue, sketching the connections woven throughout the immense vocabulary of English—with some surprising results.

In snappy, lively and often very funny chapters, it uncovers the most influential and important words used by our Neolithic ancestors, and shows how they are still in constant use today—the building blocks of all our most common words and phrases.

Visit Christopher Stevens's website.

The Page 99 Test: Written in Stone.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Lea Wait's "Thread and Gone"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Thread and Gone (Mainely Needlepoint Mystery Series #3) by Lea Wait.

About the book, from the publisher:

When a priceless antique is stolen, murder unravels the peaceful seaside town of Haven Harbor, Maine…

Angie Curtis and her fellow Mainely Needlepointers know how to enjoy their holidays. But nothing grabs their attention like tying up loose threads. So when Mary Clough drops in on the group’s Fourth of July supper with a question about antique needlepoint she’s discovered in her family Colonial-era home, Angie and her ravelers are happy to look into the matter.

Their best guess is that the mystery piece may have been stitched by Mary, Queen of Scots, famous not just for losing her head, but also for her needlepointing. If they’re right, the piece would be extremely valuable. For safekeeping, Angie turns the piece over to her family lawyer, who places it in her office safe. But when the lawyer is found dead with the safe open and ransacked, the real mystery begins…

Visit Lea Wait's website.

The Page 69 Test: Thread and Gone.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Lawrence M. Schoen reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Lawrence M. Schoen, author of Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard.

His entry begins:

For the last several years, I’ve set myself a challenge over on my Goodreads page to read 50 books. I tend to focus on my favorite authors, writer friends, and highly recommended titles by readers whose tastes have been shown to parallel my own. But come November that sort of free will takes a backseat and I focus on reading for the year’s award nominations (specifically the Nebula first, and the Hugo after).

It’s an incredibly strong year and I think we’re going to see some fierce races. So what follows are some of the things that I’ve read in the last couple of weeks that really amazed and delighted me.

Laura Anne Gilman’s Silver on the Road is possibly the best thing she’s written to date. It features a strong female protagonist in a weird west setting, vivid imagery and compelling...[read on]

About Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard, from the publisher:

The Sixth Sense meets Planet of the Apes in a moving science fiction novel set so far in the future, humanity is gone and forgotten in Lawrence M. Schoen's Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard

An historian who speaks with the dead is ensnared by the past. A child who feels no pain and who should not exist sees the future. Between them are truths that will shake worlds.

In a distant future, no remnants of human beings remain, but their successors thrive throughout the galaxy. These are the offspring of humanity's genius-animals uplifted into walking, talking, sentient beings. The Fant are one such species: anthropomorphic elephants ostracized by other races, and long ago exiled to the rainy ghetto world of Barsk. There, they develop medicines upon which all species now depend. The most coveted of these drugs is koph, which allows a small number of users to interact with the recently deceased and learn their secrets.

To break the Fant's control of koph, an offworld shadow group attempts to force the Fant to surrender their knowledge. Jorl, a Fant Speaker with the dead, is compelled to question his deceased best friend, who years ago mysteriously committed suicide. In so doing, Jorl unearths a secret the powers that be would prefer to keep buried forever. Meanwhile, his dead friend's son, a physically challenged young Fant named Pizlo, is driven by disturbing visions to take his first unsteady steps toward an uncertain future.

Visit Lawrence M. Schoen's website and Twitter perch. 

Writers Read: Lawrence M. Schoen.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the funniest first-person narrators

Lance Rubin is the Brooklyn-based author of the YA novel, Denton Little’s Deathdate.

One of Rubin's top ten books with a funny first-person narrator, as shared at the Guardian:

The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

To say this book was ahead of its time is an understatement, as you can trace the current crop of voice-driven contemporary YA right back to it. I remember laughing out loud during study hall as Holden Caulfield describes his encounter with his teacher Mr. Spencer. (“Old guys’ legs, at beaches and places, always look so white and unhairy.”) Somehow, 64 years after the book was first published, Holden’s voice still feels relevant and cathartic. Seeing as there will always be plenty of phonies in the world, I’m sure it will continue to be.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Catcher In The Rye appears on Andy Griffiths's list of five books that changed him, Chris Pavone's list of five books that changed him, Gabe Habash's list of the 10 most notorious parts of famous books, Robert McCrum's list of the 10 best books with teenage narrators, Antoine Wilson's list of the 10 best narrators in literature, A.E. Hotchner's list of five favorite coming-of-age tales, Jay McInerney's list of five essential New York novels, Woody Allen's top five books list, Patrick Ness's top 10 list of "unsuitable" books for teenagers, David Ulin's six favorite books list, Nicholas Royle's list of the top ten writers on the telephone, TIME magazine's list of the top ten books you were forced to read in school, Tony Parsons' list of the top ten troubled males in fiction, Dan Rhodes' top ten list of short books, and Sarah Ebner's top 25 list of boarding school books; it is one of Sophie Thompson's six best books. Upon rereading, the novel disappointed Khaled Hosseini, Mary Gordon, and Laura Lippman.

--Marshal Zeringue

Rachael Ball's "The Inflatable Woman," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Inflatable Woman by Rachael Ball.

The entry begins:

Who would play the lead role?

That's a hard one since it's a cartoon book so I guess if I was lucky enough for it to be made into a film it would probably be animated. If it was live action the only person that springs to mind is Susan Calman (brilliant comedian). I'm not saying this because she's short! She's also a lot prettier than Iris in my book. But I've seen her perform a few times and...[read on]

Visit Rachael Ball's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Inflatable Woman.

Writers Read: Rachael Ball.

My Book, The Movie: The Inflatable Woman.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Leza Lowitz's "Up from the Sea"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Up From the Sea by Leza Lowitz.

About the book, from the publisher:

A powerful novel-in-verse about how one teen boy survives the March 2011 tsunami that devastates his coastal Japanese village.

On that fateful day, Kai loses nearly everyone and everything he cares about. When he’s offered a trip to New York to meet kids whose lives were changed by 9/11, Kai realizes he also has a chance to look for his estranged American father. Visiting Ground Zero on its tenth anniversary, Kai learns that the only way to make something good come out of the disaster back home is to return there and help rebuild his town.

Heartrending yet hopeful, Up from the Sea is a story about loss, survival, and starting anew.

Fans of Jame Richards’s Three Rivers Rising and teens who read Karen Hesse’s Out of the Dust as middle graders will embrace this moving story. An author’s note includes numerous sources detailing actual events portrayed in the story.

Visit Leza Lowitz's website.

The Page 69 Test: Up From the Sea.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Clay Griffith reading?

Featured at Writer's Read: Clay Griffith, co-author of The Geomancer: Vampire Empire: A Gareth and Adele Novel.

His entry begins:

Cairo and Its Environs by A.O. Lamplough and R. Francis -- I love travel journals and guides from the 19th century and early 20th century. As a reader, that world seems mysterious and romantic. And as a historian who studied colonialism, they also serve as documents detailing the colonial mindset. I find journals written after WWII are often more self-consciously about the writer than the locale, and the guidebooks are formulaic and less interesting. This particular book could well be research for a future book we’re writing, but even if it isn’t, it’s a...[read on]

About The Geomancer, from the publisher:

The first Gareth and Adele Novel, The Geomancer is the start of an ongoing, character-based, urban fantasy series set in the same Vampire Empire universe as the authors’ previous trilogy!

The uneasy stalemate between vampires and humans is over. Adele and Gareth are bringing order to a free Britain, but bloody murders in London raise the specter that Adele’s geomancy is failing and the vampires might return. A new power could tilt the balance back to the vampire clans. A deranged human called the Witchfinder has surfaced on the Continent, serving new vampire lords. This geomancer has found a way to make vampires immune to geomancy and intends to give his masters the ability to kill humans on a massive scale.

The apocalyptic event in Edinburgh weakened Adele’s geomantic abilities. If the Witchfinder can use geomancy against humanity, she may not have the power to stop him. If she can’t, there is nowhere beyond his reach and no one he cannot kill.

From a Britain struggling to rebuild to the vampire capital of Paris, from the heart of the Equatorian Empire to a vampire monastery in far-away Tibet, old friends and past enemies return. Unexpected allies and terrible new villains arise. Adele and Gareth fight side-by-side as always, but they can never be the same if they hope to survive.

Learn more about the book and authors at Clay Griffith and Susan Griffith's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Geomancer.

Writer's Read: Clay Griffith.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five novels based on incredible, unbelievable things that actually happened

Jeff Somers is the author of Lifers, the Avery Cates series from Orbit Books, Chum from Tyrus Books, and We Are Not Good People from Pocket/Gallery. He has published over thirty short stories as well. One of Somers's five top novels based on bonkers things that actually happened, as shared at B & N Reads:

The Revenant, by Michael Punke

In the early 19th century, a man named Hugh Glass is attacked by a grizzly bear while on a trapping mission with a handful of other men. Badly mauled and far away from even the primitive medical care available at the time, he’s left for dead with two men instructed to guard him from local (and antagonistic) American Indian tribes and bury him properly when he dies. When American Indians do arrive on the scene, however, the men steal Glass’s weapons and other gear and abandon him—but not only does he not die, he drags himself hundreds of miles to an outpost, heals, and then sets out to seek revenge. This story seems as impossible as 127 Hours, but it’s just as real; Punke’s exhaustive research proves it happened.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Revenant is on Melissa Albert's list of top adaptations.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Lori A. Flores's "Grounds for Dreaming"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the California Farmworker Movement by Lori A. Flores.

About the book, from the publisher:

Known as “The Salad Bowl of the World,” California’s Salinas Valley became an agricultural empire due to the toil of diverse farmworkers, including Latinos. A sweeping critical history of how Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants organized for their rights in the decades leading up to the seminal strikes led by Cesar Chavez, this important work also looks closely at how different groups of Mexicans—U.S. born, bracero, and undocumented—confronted and interacted with one another during this period.

An incisive study of labor, migration, race, gender, citizenship, and class, Lori Flores’s first book offers crucial insights for today’s ever-growing U.S. Latino demographic, the farmworker rights movement, and future immigration policy.

Learn more about the book and author at Lori A. Flores's website.

The Page 99 Test: Grounds for Dreaming.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jason Gurley's "Eleanor"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Eleanor: A Novel by Jason Gurley.

About the book, from the publisher:

Eleanor and Esmerelda are identical twins with a secret language all their own, inseparable until a terrible accident claims Esme’s life. Eleanor’s family is left in tatters: her mother retreats inward, seeking comfort in bottles; her father reluctantly abandons ship. Eleanor is forced to grow up more quickly than a child should, and becomes the target of her mother’s growing rage.

Years pass, and Eleanor’s painful reality begins to unravel in strange ways. The first time it happens, she walks through a school doorway, and finds herself in a cornfield, beneath wide blue skies. When she stumbles back into her own world, time has flown by without her. Again and again, against her will, she falls out of her world and into other, stranger ones, leaving behind empty rooms and worried loved ones.

One fateful day, Eleanor leaps from a cliff and is torn from her world altogether. She meets a mysterious stranger, Mea, who reveals to Eleanor the weight of her family’s loss. To save her broken parents, and rescue herself, Eleanor must learn how deep the well of her mother’s grief and her father’s heartbreak truly goes. Esmerelda’s death was not the only tragic loss in her family’s fragmented history, and unless Eleanor can master her strange new abilities, it may not be the last.

Visit Jason Gurley's website.

The Page 69 Test: Eleanor.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Alyssa Palombo reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Alyssa Palombo, author of The Violinist of Venice: A Story of Vivaldi.

One title she tagged:

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

I recently listened to the cast recording of the musical Hamilton for the first time and, like many others, fell completely in love with it. Of course the music is incredible, but the story and the history behind it – history that I was only somewhat familiar with – fascinated me as well. So I got myself a copy of the massive Chernow biography of Hamilton that inspired composer Lin-Manuel Miranda to write the musical. I am slowly making my way through it, though it is written in a wonderfully engaging and readable style. I’m very much enjoying it and, obviously, learning a lot. And, as luck would have it...[read on]

About The Violinist of Venice, from the publisher:

Like most 18th century Venetians, Adriana d'Amato adores music-except her strict merchant father has forbidden her to cultivate her gift for the violin. But she refuses to let that stop her from living her dreams and begins sneaking out of her family's palazzo under the cover of night to take violin lessons from virtuoso violinist and composer Antonio Vivaldi. However, what begins as secret lessons swiftly evolves into a passionate, consuming love affair.

Adriana's father is intent on seeing her married to a wealthy, prominent member of Venice's patrician class-and a handsome, charming suitor, whom she knows she could love, only complicates matters-but Vivaldi is a priest, making their relationship forbidden in the eyes of the Church and of society. They both know their affair will end upon Adriana's marriage, but she cannot anticipate the events that will force Vivaldi to choose between her and his music. The repercussions of his choice-and of Adriana's own choices-will haunt both of their lives in ways they never imagined.

Spanning more than 30 years of Adriana's life, Alyssa Palombo's The Violinist of Venice is a story of passion, music, ambition, and finding the strength to both fall in love and to carry on when it ends.

Visit Alyssa Palombo's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Violinist of Venice.

Writers Read: Alyssa Palombo.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top books about the Cold War

Francesca Kay is the author of three novels: An Equal Stillness (2009), The Translation of the Bones (2011), which was longlisted for the Orange Prize, and The Long Room (2016). One of her top ten books about the Cold War, as shared at the Guardian:

Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene

The cold war as comedy. Wormald, a vacuum cleaner salesman and inadvertent spy, sends British intelligence into a spin with his scale drawings of the parts of “the Atomic Pile Cleaner”. Greene called this novel an entertainment, but like all the best jokes it has a serious side, and is a reminder that the cold war was not only waged between superpowers but also sucked in a lot of smaller nations.

Read about another entry on the list.

Our Man in Havana also made Jesse Armstrong's top ten list of comic war novels, Allegra Frazier's top five list of books to remind you of warmer climes, Pico Iyer's list of four essential novels by Graham Greene and Alan Furst's five best list of spy books; it is one of Stella Rimington's six favorite secret agent novels.

--Marshal Zeringue

Robin Epstein's "HEAR," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: HEAR by Robin Epstein.

The entry begins:

Early in the writing of HEAR (when it was originally called E.S.P.U.), I saw a brilliant young actress in a film called Winter’s Bone, and I was certain this young woman would make the perfect Kass, my heroine. That turned out to be a 19-year-old Jennifer Lawrence, and apparently I wasn’t the only one who thought she had some acting chops!

Since JLaw might actually be too old for the role (unusual since I generally find her too young for the parts she now plays), I’d love to see Elle Fanning star as Kass. For the four other young leads, I’d suggest Utkarsh Ambudkar for the sly and sexy Pankaj, Selena Gomez or...[read on]

Visit Robin Epstein's website.

The Page 69 Test: HEAR.

My Book, The Movie: HEAR.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Romina Russell's "Wandering Star"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Wandering Star: A Zodiac Novel by Romina Russell.

About the book, from the publisher:

Orphaned, disgraced, and stripped of her title, Rho is ready to live life quietly, as an aid worker in the Cancrian refugee camp on House Capricorn.

But news has spread that the Marad–an unbalanced terrorist group determined to overturn harmony in the Galaxy–could strike any House at any moment.

Then, unwelcome nightmare that he is, Ochus appears to Rho, bearing a cryptic message that leaves her with no choice but to fight.

Now Rho must embark on a high-stakes journey through an all-new set of Houses, where she discovers that there’s much more to her Galaxy–and to herself–than she could have ever imagined.

Visit Romina Russell's website.

The Page 69 Test: Wandering Star.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Susan Griffith reading?

Featured at Writer's Read: Susan Griffith, co-author of The Geomancer: Vampire Empire: A Gareth and Adele Novel.

Her entry begins:

Dragonvein by Brian Anderson -- One of my favorite stories growing up was Brian Daley’s The Starfollowers of Cormorande. Dragonvein reminds me of that breathtaking, fun ride. It is a cross-world tale where a WWII soldier is plucked off the battlefield and transported to a magical realm. Like John Carter of Mars and Gil MacDonald of Cormorande, we traverse a new land along with the main character, Ethan Martin, learning its secrets and marveling at its wonders. Brian Anderson gives a reader plenty of amazing things to explore along the way. From lost friends, forbidden magic, ancient races, and uneasy alliances. Dragonvein brought back all those wonderful reasons that made me...[read on]

About The Geomancer, from the publisher:

The first Gareth and Adele Novel, The Geomancer is the start of an ongoing, character-based, urban fantasy series set in the same Vampire Empire universe as the authors’ previous trilogy!

The uneasy stalemate between vampires and humans is over. Adele and Gareth are bringing order to a free Britain, but bloody murders in London raise the specter that Adele’s geomancy is failing and the vampires might return. A new power could tilt the balance back to the vampire clans. A deranged human called the Witchfinder has surfaced on the Continent, serving new vampire lords. This geomancer has found a way to make vampires immune to geomancy and intends to give his masters the ability to kill humans on a massive scale.

The apocalyptic event in Edinburgh weakened Adele’s geomantic abilities. If the Witchfinder can use geomancy against humanity, she may not have the power to stop him. If she can’t, there is nowhere beyond his reach and no one he cannot kill.

From a Britain struggling to rebuild to the vampire capital of Paris, from the heart of the Equatorian Empire to a vampire monastery in far-away Tibet, old friends and past enemies return. Unexpected allies and terrible new villains arise. Adele and Gareth fight side-by-side as always, but they can never be the same if they hope to survive.

Learn more about the book and authors at Clay Griffith and Susan Griffith's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Geomancer.

Writer's Read: Susan Griffith.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top YA novels set in the American West

Rachel Paxton-Gillilan is a freelance writer and semi-professional nerd.

At the B & N Teen Blog she tagged seven young adult novels set in the American West, including:

New Mexico: Fated, by Alyson Noël

New Mexico is a particularly beautiful and haunting place, and this supernatural romance (set in a town called Enchantment, no less) lets the state shine with Native American mythology and history. Daire is plagued with visions and haunting dreams that culminate in a public meltdown. She’s sent to stay with her grandmother in Enchantment, where she learns she is a Soul Seeker, part of an ancestral line of shamans who can navigate the world between the living and the dead. Now Daire must learn to harness these mystical powers, while also trying to navigate high school. This action-packed series starter is full of compelling characters and fascinating magical elements.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Theresa Kaminski & Hugo

Featured at Coffee with a Canine: Theresa Kaminski & Hugo.

The author, on how she and Hugo were united:

Not long after our golden retriever died, we started thinking about a new dog. We wanted a very different breed so we wouldn’t feel tempted to make comparisons between old dog and new. I started looking at various animal rescue organizations and my first choice was a greyhound, which my son and husband nixed. Then I found a small animal rescue organization that was adopting out two adult bassets and their six offspring. (In the case of bassets, “small” is a bit of a misnomer. They are short, but long and hefty.) The bassets...[read on]

About Kaminski's new book, Angels of the Underground, from the publisher:

When the Japanese began their brutal occupation of the Philippines in January 1942, 76,000 ill and starving Filipino and American troops tried to hold out on Bataan and Corregidor. That spring, after having been forced to surrender, most of those men were thrown into Japanese POW camps while dozens of others slipped away to organize guerrilla forces. During the three violent years of occupation that followed, Allied sympathizers in Manila smuggled supplies and information to the guerrillas and the prisoners.

Theresa Kaminski's Angels of the Underground tells the story of four American women who were part of this little-known resistance movement: Gladys Savary, Claire Phillips, Yay Panlilio, and Peggy Utinsky - all incredibly adept at skirting occupation authorities to support the Allied war effort. The nature of their clandestine work meant that the truth behind their dangerous activities had to be obscured as long as the Japanese occupied the Philippines. If caught, they would be imprisoned, tortured, and executed. Throughout the Pacific War, these four women remained hidden behind a veil of deceit and subterfuge.

An impressive work of scholarship grounded in archival research, FBI documents, and memoirs, Angels of the Underground illuminates the complex political dimensions of the occupied Philippines and its importance to the war effort in the Pacific. Kaminski's narrative sheds light on the Japanese-occupied city of Manila; the Bataan Death March and subsequent incarceration of American military prisoners in camps O'Donnell and Cabanatuan; and the formation of guerrilla units in the mountains of Luzon.

Angels of the Underground offers the compelling tale of four ordinary American women propelled by extraordinary circumstances into acts of heroism, and makes a significant contribution to the work on women's wartime experiences. Through the lives of Gladys, Yay, Claire, and Peggy, who never wavered in their belief that it was their duty as patriotic American women to aid the Allied cause, Kaminski highlights how women have always been active participants in war, whether or not they wear a military uniform.

Learn more about Angels of the Underground at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Angels of the Underground.

Writers Read: Theresa Kaminski.

My Book, The Movie: Angels of the Underground.

Coffee with a Canine: Theresa Kaminski & Hugo.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Megan Pugh's "America Dancing"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: America Dancing: From the Cakewalk to the Moonwalk by Megan Pugh.

About the book, from the publisher:

The history of American dance reflects the nation’s tangled culture. Dancers from wildly different backgrounds learned, imitated, and stole from one another. Audiences everywhere embraced the result as deeply American.

Using the stories of tapper Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, ballet and Broadway choreographer Agnes de Mille, choreographer Paul Taylor, and Michael Jackson, Megan Pugh shows how freedom—that nebulous, contested American ideal—emerges as a genre-defining aesthetic. In Pugh’s account, ballerinas mingle with slumming thrill-seekers, and hoedowns show up on elite opera house stages. Steps invented by slaves on antebellum plantations captivate the British royalty and the Parisian avant-garde. Dances were better boundary crossers than their dancers, however, and the issues of race and class that haunt everyday life shadow American dance as well. Deftly narrated, America Dancing demonstrates the centrality of dance in American art, life, and identity, taking us to watershed moments when the nation worked out a sense of itself through public movement.

Learn more about the book and author at Megan Pugh's website.

The Page 99 Test: America Dancing.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Adrian Magson's "The Locker"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Locker: A Novel of Suspense by Adrian Magson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Hello, Nancy.

You’re at your usual locker at Fitness Plus. The time is 09:15.

Your cell phone is dead, your home phone won’t answer and your daughter, Beth, is home with the nanny.

It will take you 18 minutes to get home. If you drive fast.

Shame. You’re already 18 minutes late...

The kidnappers' only stipulation is that Nancy must tell her husband, Michael.

Her only problem is, she doesn’t know where he is. But she recalls him mentioning a number she should call if anything unusual happens. This triggers a Code Red at specialist security company Cruxys Solutions, who send investigators Ruth Gonzales and Andy Vaslik to track him down.

But they can't find a single trace of him.

What do you do when a child’s life depends on finding a man who doesn't seem to exist?

Learn more about the book and author at Adrian Magson's website.

The Page 69 Test: Tracers.

The Page 69 Test: Deception.

The Page 69 Test: The Locker.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Rachael Ball reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Rachael Ball, author of The Inflatable Woman.

Her entry begins:

OK terrible guilty secret here but my reading habits have completely altered since I was diagnosed with breast cancer, (inspiration for the book.) I went from being an avid but eclectic reader of books to a veeery occasional reader. I used to read all sorts--such as Scandinavian detective novels with a human touch like Karin Fossum's, anything by David Sedaris (wonderfully witty New York chronicler of human foibles and his family misfortunes), the fantastically imaginative Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell by Susannah Clark. I love the way she makes the fairy world so believable with the historical footnotes.

Then in a different mood I would read something sad and nostalgic like Alain Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes. Anyway I think a lot of my treatments (steroids and such), made it difficult to watch TV or concentrate on a book for any period of time. Then working on The Inflatable Woman was so demanding I became the occasional reader I am today.

Since the book has been completed my reading habits are still not terribly sustained. I'm also more likely now to read philosophical texts like Pema Chodron (an American Buddhist monk); she has...[read on]

About The Inflatable Woman, from the publisher:

A Guardian Best Graphic Book of 2015

Iris (or balletgirl-42 as she's known on the internet dating circuit) is a zookeeper looking for love when she is diagnosed with breast cancer. Overnight, her life becomes populated with a carnival of daunting hospital characters. Despite the attempts of her friends – Maud, Granma Suggs, Larry the Monkey and a group of singing penguins – to comfort her, Iris's fears begin to encircle her until all she has to cling to is the attention of a lighthouse keeper called sailor_buoy_39.

The Inflatable Woman combines magic realism with the grit of everyday life to create a poignant and surreal journey inside the human psyche.

Visit Rachael Ball's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Inflatable Woman.

Writers Read: Rachael Ball.

--Marshal Zeringue