Pg. 69: Elizabeth Becka's "Unknown Means"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Elizabeth Becka's Unknown Means.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Elizabeth Becka’s latest highly suspenseful novel, forensic scientist Evelyn James returns to investigate a harrowing series of crimes—only to find that no one is safe.

Evelyn James is a forensic specialist in the Cleveland Medical Examiner’s office who’s juggling a demanding workload, a teenage daughter from a failed marriage, and a homicide detective boyfriend. And somehow she always happens to be involved in some of the twistiest, most challenging crime scenes imaginable.

This time around she’s called in to investigate what appears to be a locked-room mystery: A wealthy woman is murdered in the penthouse suite of a luxurious, high-security building. The building’s intricate surveillance system didn’t pick up anything, the entrance wasn’t forced, and the victim’s husband has an airtight alibi. Cases like this, Evelyn knows, can turn on the most microscopic piece of evidence—if she can find any. Things look even trickier when another victim turns up in another penthouse suite. Then Evelyn’s best friend is attacked—and things get personal. And when a third person is found dead, Evelyn realizes that the killer’s choice of victim is anything but random...

Among the early praise for the novel:

"Forensic scientist Evelyn James of the Cleveland Medical Examiner's office returns for this welcome second novel, following Becka's debut, Trace Evidence.... Becka, a Cape Coral, Fla., forensic scientist formerly with the Cleveland coroner's office, keeps the details of this gripping procedural vivid all the way up to the harrowing finale. Fans of Patricia Cornwell's prickly Kay Scarpetta will find Evelyn a complementary contrast."
--Publishers Weekly

"This is grab-you-by-the-throat suspense, written by someone who has actually walked the disturbing walk of an investigator."
--Tess Gerritsen, author of Body Double

"Elizabeth Becka isn't just an expert in her field of forensic science, she's a fine storyteller. Characters you'll care about, edge-of-your-seat suspense, and fascinating details that never slow the action--just a few of the reasons you're going to love the Evelyn James series."
--Jan Burke, author of Bloodlines

"The combination of a credible, likable hero and a bizarre, chilling story is rare in crime fiction, but Elizabeth Becka makes the tumblers click perfectly. Evelyn James wins over the reader from the opening page."
--Jeremiah Healy, author of Invasion of Privacy and The Only Good Lawyer

Learn more about Unknown Means and its author at Elizabeth Becka's website.

Becka's novel, Trace Evidence, the first in a series featuring Forensic Scientist Evelyn James, deals with a set of bizarre deaths in the Cuyahoga River, a rookie homicide detective, the mayor of Cleveland, a local mobster, and her own teenage daughter.

The Page 69 Test: Unknown Means.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Robert Bryce reading?

The latest featured contributor to Writers Read: Robert Bryce, author of Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of “Energy Independence.”

One paragraph from his entry:

Books that I’ve just begun include Rashid Khalidi’s Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America’s Perilous Path in the Middle East, and Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky. Khalidi’s book is important because it’s really about oil politics. I bought Kurlansky’s book because salt is the mineral commodity which, for millennia, was the modern-day equivalent of oil. America’s laws governing mineral rights were shaped, in large part, by laws governing salt deposits. [read on]

Robert Bryce has written for dozens of publications including Atlantic Monthly, Slate, New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, The Nation and The American Conservative.

In a recent review of Gusher of Lies, William Grimes of the New York Times calls Bryce “hard-nosed” and “an equal-opportunity smiter” of energy myths. Grimes goes on to say that Bryce “reveals himself in the end as something of a visionary and perhaps even a revolutionary.”

Bryce's first book, Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron, was named one of the best non-fiction books of 2002 by Publishers Weekly. His second book, Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America's Superstate, was published 2004. Bryce spent 12 years writing for the Austin Chronicle and now works as the managing editor of Energy Tribune, a Houston-based newsletter.

Writers Read: Robert Bryce.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top 10: books about boredom

Lee Rourke, the editor of the literary magazine Scarecrow and co-editor at 3AM Magazine, is the author of a debut collection of short stories, Everyday, published by Social Disease Publishing.

He named his top 10 books about boredom for the Guardian.

One book to make the list:

Whatever by Michel Houellebecq

Michel Houellebecq's debut - originally published as Extension du domaine de la lutte in 1994 - is a bitterly sarcastic tale of boredom in the technological and information generation. Houellebecq's thirty-year-old narrator is content in his boredom, allowing the quagmire of everyday working life to wash over him, writing strange tales about cows in his spare time. His life changes when he joins a colleague to train provincial civil servants to use a new computer program. Drifting from day to day, from encounter to encounter he slowly drowns in the meaninglessness of the information that surrounds him.

Read more about Rourke's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Marcia Preston's "Trudy's Promise"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Marcia Preston's Trudy's Promise.

About the book, from the publisher:

An act of desperation divides a mother and her child. Only an act of faith can reunite them.

Trudy Hulst has no idea if her husband survived his attempted escape past the newly constructed Berlin Wall. But she knows too well the consequences of his actions. Now branded the wife of a defector, she faces a life in prison. With no real choice, she is forced to follow, praying she can find a way to claim their child once she's in West Berlin.

Trudy survives a harrowing break for freedom...only to learn her husband was shot during his escape. Terribly alone, she wanders the wall like a ghost, living for brief glimpses of her son, now out of reach behind barbed wire and armed soldiers. Desperate to regain her child, Trudy begins a journey that leads her to America, where she continues an odyssey of hope to find her son.

Read an excerpt from Trudy's Promise, and watch a brief video about the background of the novel.

Learn more about the novel and author at Marcia Preston's website.

Marcia Preston's novels include The Butterfly House and The Piano Man. Writing as M.K. Preston, she is also the author of a mystery series featuring Chantalene Morrell, daughter of a Gypsy mother and a redneck father. Song of the Bones won the 2004 Mary Higgins Clark Award for suspense fiction and the 2004 Oklahoma Book Award in fiction. The first book in the series, Perhaps She'll Die, was nominated for the 2002 Mary Higgins Clark Award, and for Macavity and Barry awards in the Best First Mystery division.

The Page 99 Test: Trudy's Promise.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Matt Haig's "The Labrador Pact"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Matt Haig's The Labrador Pact.

About the book, from the author's website:

The Last Family in England is published in the UK by Vintage. It is called The Labrador Pact in America and is published by Viking/Penguin....

Here's the original blurb:

Meet Prince, the canine narrator of this tragi-comic tale of family life. As with all Labradors, he has devoted his entire existence to preserving the happiness and security of his human masters. Not that his human masters realise this, of course.

After all, when the Hunter family rescued him, they had no idea that they were the ones who were really being saved. But as events unfold Prince realises he’s got his work cut out. The trouble is that while he has no problem in remembering his duty, the Hunters themselves seem to have greater difficulty remembering theirs.

Of particular concern is Adam Hunter, who forgets his responsibilities as a father and husband when he becomes sexually attracted to a young and flirtatious aromatherapist.

Then there’s Kate, Adam’s wife. As Prince watches her increasingly neurotic behaviour he detects something is wrong and decides to sniff out the source of the trouble. What he eventually discovers is a treacherous secret which could tear Adam, Kate and their two children apart.

The Last Family in England explores the hidden dangers of family life from the perspective of the only family member who gets to see everything – the knee-high, four-legged observer in the corner of the room. Through Prince’s eyes (and nose) we come to realise the secrets which hold families together and which, once dug up, can lead to their destruction.

Among the praise for the novel:

"Normally, if a book makes me sad, I chuck it immediately. But this book is so brilliant, I broke my own rule."
--Julie Burchill

"I love this book. It's fabulous and moving and funny and strange. It will go
down among the great animal books."
--Jeanette Winterson

"This debut novel is a winner from page one . . . A subtle, dog's-eye view of the frailty of human relationships, it is perceptive, enchanting and destined to be this summer's must-read."
--Mail on Sunday

"Hard on the heels of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, this clever, funny and oddly dark novel is clearly destined to become a cult hit. I only wish my dog had thought of it first."
--Carla McKay, Daily Mail

"[A] wry, serio-comic family tail, er, tale, for our serio-comic times."
--Washington Post

Read an excerpt from The Labrador Pact, and learn more about the book and author at The Labrador Pact website.

Matt Haig’s writing has appeared in the Guardian, the Sunday Times, the Independent, and the Sydney Morning Herald. Last year he contributed Page 69 Test and My Book, The Movie entries for The Dead Fathers Club, his American debut novel. Visit Matt Haig at MySpace or his official website.

The Page 69 Test: The Dead Fathers Club.

My Book, The Movie: The Dead Fathers Club.

The Page 69 Test: The Labrador Pact.

--Marshal Zeringue

Critic's Chart: ship books

Naval historian David Cordingly, author of Cochrane the Dauntless: The Life and Adventures of Thomas Cochrane and other books, named a "critic's chart" of ship books for the London Times.

One book to make the list:

The Warship Mary Rose by David Childs

The construction, life and times, and the excavation of Henry VIII's flagship.

Read about another book on Cordingly's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

January Magazine's "Author Snapshot"

When Linda L. Richards is not writing highly acclaimed novels and contributing to crime fiction's estimable The Rap Sheet, she edits January Magazine, now home to a regular feature called "Author Snapshots."

The snapshots tell us a little about the author and his or her work, and the writer responds to a set of questions and commands, including: What inspires you? What are you working on now? Tell us about your process....

Cornelia Read, Edward Hardy, and others have already appeared for snapshots. Check out all the entries at January Magazine's "Author Snapshots."

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Brian Fagan's "The Great Warming"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Brian Fagan's The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations.

About the book, from the publisher:

How the earth’s previous global warming phase, from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries, reshaped human societies from the Arctic to the Sahara — a wide-ranging history with sobering lessons for our own time.

From the tenth to the fifteenth centuries the earth experienced a rise in surface temperature that changed climate worldwide — a preview of today’s global warming. In some areas, including Western Europe, longer summers brought bountiful harvests and population growth that led to cultural flowering. In the Arctic, Inuit and Norse sailors made cultural connections across thousands of miles as they traded precious iron goods. Polynesian sailors, riding new wind patterns, were able to settle the remotest islands on earth. But in many parts of the world, the warm centuries brought drought and famine. Elaborate societies in western and central America collapsed, and the vast building complexes of Chaco Canyon and the Mayan Yucatan were left empty.

As he did in his bestselling The Little Ice Age, anthropologist and historian Brian Fagan reveals how subtle changes in the environment had far-reaching effects on human life, in a narrative that sweeps from the Arctic ice cap to the Sahara to the Indian Ocean. The history of the Great Warming of a half millennium ago suggests that we may yet be underestimating the power of climate change to disrupt our lives today — and our vulnerability to drought, writes Fagan, is the “silent elephant in the room.”

Among the early acclaim for The Great Warming:

“This is not only World History at its best, sweeping across all of humankind with a coherent vision, but also a feat of imagination and massive research. If Fagan has given the medieval period throughout the globe a new dimension, he has at the same time issued an irrefutable warning about climate change that is deeply troubling.”
—Professor Theodore Raab, Princeton University

"Global warming is hardly new; in fact, the very long-term trend began about 12,000 years ago with the end of the Ice Age. Anthropologist Fagan (The Little Ice Age) focuses on the medieval warming period (ca. 800-1300), which helped Europe produce larger harvests; the surpluses helped fund the great cathedrals. But in many other parts of the world, says Fagan, changing water and air currents led to drought and malnutrition, for instance among the Native Americans of Northern California, whose key acorn harvests largely failed. Long-term drought contributed to the collapse of the Mayan civilization, and fluctuations in temperature contributed to, and inhibited, Mongol incursions into Europe. Fagan reveals how new research methods like ice borings, satellite observations and computer modeling have sharpened our understanding of meteorological trends in prehistorical times and preliterate cultures. Finally, he notes how times of intense, sustained global warming can have particularly dire consequences; for example, “by 2025, an estimated 2.8 billion of us will live in areas with increasingly scarce water resources.” Looking backward, Fagan presents a well-documented warning to those who choose to look forward."
—Publishers Weekly

"A prequel to the author's fascinating The Little Ice Age (2001), a history of climate's influence on civilization from 1300 to 1850, Fagan's work queries the response of societies to the warm period of 800 to 1300. Encompassing the inhabited globe, Fagan's breadth balances with his power to synthesize a range of scientific and archaeological evidence with historical imagination, achieving a global perspective on the medieval warm period, as scholars title the time. Each chapter about a geographical area evocatively depicts its farmers or hunters in the backbreaking task of wresting food from their environment before presenting locally specific weather events of these centuries. (Sidebars explain how scientists determine ancient weather.) Stressing climatic volatility even within a planet-wide warm-up, Fagan delineates the precarious relationship between societies outgrowing their resources. Bountiful to Europe, the warm period was a disastrous drought to more southerly civilizations in Asia, Central America, and southwest North America. Superbly integrating the human and climatological past, Fagan's expertise wears easily in a fine popular treatment relevant to contemporary debate about climate."
—Gilbert Taylor, Booklist

"An alarm bell ringing out from a distant time."
—Kirkus

“Climate has been making history for a very long time, though historians have rarely paid much attention to it. But as it turns out, a few less inches of rain, a change in temperature of just a degree or two can make all the difference in how human events unfold. The Great Warming demonstrates that although human beings make history, they very definitely do not make it under circumstances of their own choosing.”
—Ted Steinberg, author of Down to Earth: Nature’s Role in American History and American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn

Read excerpts from The Great Warming and learn more about the author and his work at Brian Fagan's website and his blog.

Brian Fagan was born in England and trained in archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge University. After seven years carrying out fieldwork in Central and East Africa, he went to the United States in 1966. He was a Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, for 36 years. He retired in 2003 and is now a full-time writer and lecturer on archaeology, climate change, history, and other subjects.

The Page 99 Test: The Great Warming.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Ben Smith reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Ben Smith, who writes a blog about the candidates for the 2008 Democratic nomination for Politico.

One paragraph from his entry:

I have had a lot of fun lately reading Charles McCarry, the American cold war spy novelist (and spy) who's having a bit of a revival at the moment. The Tears of Autumn, his classic conspiracy-theory version of the Kennedy assassination, is weirdly compelling -- it involves, basically, retribution for American meddling in Vietnam. Until recently, his books were very hard to find -- a 25-cent paperback would be up to a few hundred dollars on Alibris. But Overlook Press, which must have noticed the demand, is bringing them all out again, along with some new ones, which is great. [read on]

Ben Smith grew up on New York's Upper West Side when President Reagan was regularly depicted as Satan in that section of the city, and now lives with his wife and two children in Brooklyn. He followed a straight line from childhood to Politico, charting a course that included a summa cum laude degree in linguistics from Yale College; a summer covering cops at the Indianapolis Star; and two years living in Riga, Latvia as a correspondent for the European edition of the Wall Street Journal.

More recently, he covered New York's City Hall for the New York Sun and politics for the New York Observer. In 2006, he was a political columnist for the New York Daily News and in 2005 and 2006 started three of New York City's leading political blogs, The Politicker, The Daily Politics, and Room Eight, for which he still writes occasionally about the New York scene.

Read Ben Smith's blog at Politico.

Writers Read: Ben Smith.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Stephanie Grant's "Map of Ireland"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Stephanie Grant's Map of Ireland.

About the novel, from the publisher:

In 1974, when Ann Ahern begins her junior year of high school, South Boston is in crisis -- Catholic mothers are blockading buses to keep Black children from the public schools, and teenagers are raising havoc in the streets. Ann, an outsider in her own Irish-American community, is infatuated with her beautiful French teacher, Mademoiselle Eugénie, who hails from Paris but is of African descent. Spurred by her adoration for Eugénie, Ann embarks on a journey that leads her beyond South Boston, through the fringes of the Black Power movement, toward love, and ultimately to the truth about herself.

In this ambitious and arresting novel, Stephanie Grant's searing prose, powerful storytelling, and richly drawn characters bring tumultuous moment in American history into perfect focus.

Among the early acclaim for the novel:

"Stephanie Grant's fast-paced but beautifully turned new novel brings to troubled life once more the South Boston of the 1970s. It also brings to life Ann Ahern, a bright, wisecracking teenager who is part Huck Finn and part Holden Caulfield -- as well as a maturing young woman with sexual longings for certain people who are both the 'wrong' race and the 'wrong' gender. Ann's freckled face, she's told, is a map of Ireland -- but it's also a mask that Stephanie Grant strips to reveal a funny, sad, deeply sympathetic character."
--Mary Jo Salter, author of Open Shutters and Sunday Skaters

"Winged words, new words: arrondissement. Nostalgie. Pyromaniac. Penance and confession. Language is Ann Ahern's and Map of Ireland's magic charm. Making all new vocabulary that comes her way her own, including Irish-rooted hyperbole, this remarkable heroine defines herself through the words she acquires and 'becomes.' Drawing on foundational American myths about race and identity, Grant has written an unusual hybrid: a coming-of-age novel of ideas. This is smart work."
--Pearl Abraham, author of The Seventh Beggar

"In Map of Ireland, Stephanie Grant has written a novel of hard times that is a jagged jewel of perfection. With Ann Ahern, she has created a protagonist of fierce individuality, daunting irony, and always surprising courage -- it is as if Charles Dickens had written a tomboy."
--Honor Moore, author of The Bishop's Daughter

"Stephanie Grant's Map of Ireland is an openhearted, funny, and brave novel about the complexities of growing up in working-class Boston in the seventies. In Ann Ahern, she may have created the best tough-girl character since Scout Finch."
--Dana Spiotta, author of Eat the Document

"Map of Ireland is one of those novels that unexpectedly fell into my lap and I was immediately hooked. I could not put this book down. Riveting, clear-eyed, brutally honest, Grant's story draws us into the Boston racial crisis brought to a head during the busing campaigns in the seventies. In the midst of this struggle, out steps Ann Ahern -- one of the most disarming, haunted, and gorgeously conflicted narrators to come along in years. You will love this girl. Ann Ahern will charm you; disarm you. She will enrage you, but she will never let you go."
-- Alison Smith, author of Name All the Animals

Read an excerpt from Map of Ireland, and learn more about the novel at the publisher's website.

Stephanie Grant is an award-winning writer whose first novel, The Passion of Alice, was longlisted for Britain's Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Fiction. She has taught creative writing at Ohio State University and Mount Holyoke College and is currently Visiting Writer at the Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University.

The Page 69 Test: Map of Ireland.

--Marshal Zeringue

Alice Waters' most important books

Alice Waters is the founder of Chez Panisse and author or co-author of several books, including Chez Panisse Vegetables, Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook, Fanny at Chez Panisse, a storybook and cookbook for children, and most recently, The Art of Simple Food.

She told Newsweek about her five most important books. And answered a couple of related questions:

A much-recommended book you haven't read:

Jonathan Kozol's The Shame of the Nation, a book about the disgraceful inequalities in our public-education system. I have yet to steel myself.

A book you hope parents will read to their children:

Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson's Chew on This, an accessible and engaging book that will make kids understand why not to reach for the Happy Meal.

Read more about Alice Waters' most important books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Corey Redekop's "Shelf Monkey," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Shelf Monkey by Corey Redekop.

In October 2007, Corey Redekop applied the Page 99 Test to his novel, Shelf Monkey.

Now he's shared some thoughts on a film adaptation of the novel. His entry opens:

Shelf Monkey is about obsession and the perils inherent in becoming too emotionally attached to any one point of view. Any cast member would have to have that certain mania which accompanies that extreme viewpoint of everything I believe in is right, and everything you believe in is wrong.

The lead character Thomas at one point opines on who should portray him in the eventual movie, laying out Jake Gyllenhaal and Ewan McGregor as his favored candidates. Nice try, but Thomas as a personality does not have that kind of Hollywood heft, and should not get played by a personality that would overwhelm the character (although Ewan would be a good choice in any event). He’s kind of a sarcastic milquetoast, and Paul Rudd would be a fine choice, if possibly a little too old (sorry Paul). In a few years, Michael Cera would be absolutely perfect. And seriously, how good is Cera anyway? I can’t get enough of the guy. Also, he’s Canadian, and as Shelf Monkey is a shaggy little Canadian novel, it would be nice to get an actor with that je ne c’est quoi sensibility. Or Topher Grace. [read on]

Read more about the novel and author at the Shelf Monkey blog and listen to podcasts of two excerpts.

The Page 99 Test: Shelf Monkey.

My Book, The Movie: Shelf Monkey.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Seth Harwood's "Jack Wakes Up"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Seth Harwood's Jack Wakes Up.

About the book, from the publisher:

Four years ago, when his first action movie, Shake ‘Em Down, came out, Jack Palms had everything he could want. But after his wife brought him up on false charges of assault, then filed for a divorce, he bottomed out on drugs and his sequel got scrapped. No one in Hollywood would return Jack’s calls.

Since then, in the three years since Jack went clean—no drugs, no drinking, no life—he’s added seventeen pounds of muscle, read 83 books, and played it straight down the line. Now he’s bored, has gone through most of his money and doesn’t know what comes next, but wants to leave his self-imposed exile.

When an old friend offers him a chance to work one big score, a single drug trade that’s going to set them up for life, he finds himself introduced to a trio of Eastern Europeans looking to score enough coke to settle down and start their own business. All Jack has to do is keep them entertained and get them through their purchase. But when people start turning up dead, and an old nemesis on the police starts calling, Jack finds himself in danger. With the cop giving him just 24 hours to find San Francisco’s biggest drug supplier or face charges that will put him behind bars, Jack has to find out quickly which side of acting and action he’s really on.

Ad libbing his way through a minefield of Colombian drug men, San Francisco gangsters and ex-KGB agents, Jack comes to see that the only way to know exactly what’s real—who’s doing the killing, what’s actually going on, and where he’s headed with the beautiful bartender who brought him home—is to see this thing through to its end, no matter what. He’s waking up to a whole new version of his life… however long it’s going to last.

Among the early praise for Jack Wakes Up:

"Seth Harwood has created a thrilling noir story that pulls the listener into the dark world of Jack Palms."
--Spinetingler Magazine

“Harwood sucker-punches crime fiction. It’s not a fair fight…”
--Scott Sigler, bestselling author of Ancestor and Infected

“A supercool cocktail of chicks, Czechs, cars and coke, Jack Wakes Up is an immaculately paced thrill-ride by a writer to watch.”
--Allan Guthrie, author of Savage Night

"Thumbs up. It's a firecracker of a novel, powered by jet fuel. Never lets up. And this Palms fellow, he's an interesting guy--hang around him for five minutes, and trouble will find you both, no doubt. Makes for a fun vacation."
--Anthony Neil Smith

Read an excerpt from Jack Wakes Up at Spinetingler Magazine, and learn more about the book and its author at Seth Harwood's website, his blog, and his MySpace page.

Seth Harwood teaches writing and literature at the City College of San Francisco and Chabot College. In July 2006, he began the Jack Palms Crime Podcast Series.

Read more the Palm/Palms Sunday Jack Wakes Up sales chart offensive at The Rap Sheet or at Harwood's blog.

The Page 99 Test: Jack Wakes Up.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Will Lavender's "Obedience"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Will Lavender's Obedience.

About the book, from the author's website:

When the students in Winchester University’s Logic and Reasoning 204 arrive for their first day of class, they are greeted not with a syllabus or texts, but with a startling assignment from Professor Williams: Find a hypothetical missing girl named Polly. If after being given a series of clues and details the class has not found her before the end of the term in six weeks, she will be murdered.

At first the students are as intrigued by the premise of their puzzle as they are wary of the strange and slightly creepy Professor Williams. But as they delve deeper into the mystery, they begin to wonder: Is the Polly story simply a logic exercise, designed to teach them rational thinking skills, or could it be something more sinister and dangerous? The mystery soon takes over the lives of three students as they find disturbing connections between Polly and themselves. Characters that were supposedly fictitious begin to emerge in reality. Soon, the boundary between the classroom assignment and the real world becomes blurred — and the students wonder if it is their own lives they are being asked to save.

Among the praise for Obedience:

“[Lavender] gets his hooks in deep with this arresting debut… An inspired thriller about cognitive dissonance, conjectural misdirection and the conspicuous dichotomy between academia and the real world.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“A devilishly inventive debut that reads like a house of mirrors. Nothing is what it seems, right up to the devastating finale.”
—Brian Freeman, author of Stripped and Immoral

“It’s a genuine, if slightly perverse, kick to follow every byzantine clue in this bizarre game. If you solve this one without peeking at the last chapter, it’s an automatic A.”
—New York Times Book Review

“Obedience draws you in and never lets go—-and what a ride!”
—David Baldacci

“In his dream-like and labyrinthine debut, Will Lavender delivers a clever, intricate page-turner... A gripping exploration of human nature and all its foibles told in Lavender's fresh and original voice...”
—Lisa Unger

“Obedience is a very scary story set on the border where good meets evil, located in this case in that scariest of places, academia. Taut, twisty, and highly original: the pages turned themselves.”
—Peter Abrahams

“A taut and timely thriller that explores the dark side of academia, where classrooms are dangerous and paranoia abounds...”
—Karin Slaughter

“[E]vidence that crime fiction is hardly a played-out genre…A mystery as ambitious as one could imagine.”
—Wall Street Journal

Read an excerpt from Obedience, and learn more about the author and his work at Will Lavender's website.

The Page 69 Test: Obedience.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five best: books about ambition

Novelist, short story writer and playwright Warren Adler tagged five "favorite works about ambition, political and otherwise" for the Wall Street Journal.

One book on the list:

Dutch
by Edmund Morris
Random House, 1999

Edmund Morris, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1980 for his life of Theodore Roosevelt, was for his next book given unusual access to Ronald Reagan. Morris later admitted that he was baffled by the president, and the result was this somewhat bizarre "biography." Reagan, I believe, was far more nuanced and subtle than the media ever grasped. Although Morris might have glimpsed the power and ambition behind the mask, I suspect that he knew he couldn't quite harvest the man's essence. Thus he attempted to get at the Reagan story in an unusual way, creating a kind of Greek chorus and introducing himself as a fictional character in the narrative. He was naturally excoriated by critics and the Reagan family, but even though "Dutch" may be dubious as a nonfiction work, it is insightful and deeply compelling.

Read about the oldest title on Adler's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Pamela Erens reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Pamela Erens, author of the novel, The Understory, which won the Ironweed Press Fiction Prize and is a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction.

Erens's short fiction has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes and has appeared or is forthcoming in Chicago Review, Boston Review, The Literary Review, Bellingham Review, Upstreet, Skidrow Penthouse and Redivider. She will be featured in the short-story anthology Visiting Hours (Press 53, 2008).

One book mentioned in her entry:

Evan Connell’s Mrs. Bridge, written in 1959. I’d already read the sequel to this book, the longer Mr. Bridge, and I think Mrs. B is even better. The novel is constructed as a series of very short chapters about an upper-middle-class, Midwestern family between the 1920s and the early 1940s. The effect is that of a mosaic, although the progression is linear, beginning with Mrs. Bridge’s marriage, moving through the childhood and adolescence of her three children, and ending when everyone has flown the coop. What’s astonishing about the Bridge books is that the Bridges and their neighbors live such ordinary, even stultifying, lives, and yet reading about them is completely absorbing. Connell’s success here is partly due to his gift for compression, but it also has to do with his compassion for his characters, his sly humor, and his ability to plug into deep and universal currents of feeling that his characters can hardly name, much less freely acknowledge. The bewilderment and loneliness that Mrs. Bridge so often experiences in the midst of her very proper life is somehow also mine, living though I do decades later and within a completely different set of circumstances. I read this short book quickly and with delight but when I was done I felt a terrible grief. [read on]

Visit Pamela Erens's website to read more about The Understory and her short stories, essays, and journalism.

Writers Read: Pamela Erens.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: "Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women’s Rights Movement"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women’s Rights Movement by Sally McMillen.

About the book, from the publisher:

In a quiet town of Seneca Falls, New York, over the course of two days in July, 1848, a small group of women and men, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, held a convention that would launch the woman's rights movement and change the course of history. The implications of that remarkable convention would be felt around the world and indeed are still being felt today.

In Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Woman's Rights Movement, the latest contribution to Oxford's acclaimed Pivotal Moments in American History series, Sally McMillen unpacks, for the first time, the full significance of that revolutionary convention and the enormous changes it produced. The book covers 50 years of women's activism, from 1840-1890, focusing on four extraordinary figures--Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Susan B. Anthony. McMillen tells the stories of their lives, how they came to take up the cause of women's rights, the astonishing advances they made during their lifetimes, and the lasting and transformative effects of the work they did. At the convention they asserted full equality with men, argued for greater legal rights, greater professional and education opportunities, and the right to vote--ideas considered wildly radical at the time. Indeed, looking back at the convention two years later, Anthony called it "the grandest and greatest reform of all time--and destined to be thus regarded by the future historian." In this lively and warmly written study, Sally McMillen may well be the future historian Anthony was hoping to find.

A vibrant portrait of a major turning point in American women's history, and in human history, this book is essential reading for anyone wishing to fully understand the origins of the woman's rights movement.

Among the early acclaim for the book:

"Sally McMillen offers the most complete discussion yet of the origins and the impact of this event that started the American women's movement and would change the world."
--Marjorie Julian Spruill, The University of South Carolina

"McMillen deftly demonstrates how ordinary women transformed their lives and America's future by rejecting the pedestal to join the rough and tumble of nineteenth century reform politics. Her achievement is to make this transformation accessible yet complex, commonplace yet extraordinary."
--Catherine Clinton, Queen's University-Belfast

"McMillen...presents a fine history of the 1848 Seneca Falls convention ... a well-written and cogent synthesis accessible to the general reader while remaining firmly grounded in primary sources."
--Publishers Weekly

"Sally McMillen weaves together compelling biographies of colorful leaders with an engaging analysis of the broader reform movements that transformed the texture and trajectory of American society. It is an extraordinary story of ideals and energies that continue to shape American life. In short, McMillen offers a learned and lucid overview of a movement that still moves us."
--David Emory Shi, President of Furman University; author of Facing Facts: Realism in American Thought and Culture, 1850-1900

"Tracing the developments that led up to and away from the Woman's Rights Convention of 1848, the volume makes a major contribution to women's history and to American history."
--Nancy A. Hewitt, Rutgers University

"This book provides a compulsively readable history of nineteenth-century American feminism--its origins, struggles, achievements, and legacies. I know of no more insightful account of the birth and evolution of the movement to overcome gender inequality."
--Steven Mintz, John and Rebecca Moores Professor of History, University of Houston

Read more about Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women’s Rights Movement at the Oxford University Press website.

Sally McMillen is the Mary Reynolds Babcock Professor of History and Department Chair at Davidson College. She specializes in Southern and women's history, with an emphasis on the nineteenth century. Among her publications are Motherhood in the Old South: Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Infant Rearing, Southern Women: Black and White in the Old South, and To Raise Up the South: Sunday Schools in Black and White Churches, 1865-1915.

The Page 99 Test: Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women’s Rights Movement.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top 10: books about civil war

Michael Symmons Roberts has published four highly acclaimed volumes of poetry to date. He won the 2004 Whitbread poetry prize for his collection Corpus. He is currently working on a project for Welsh National Opera with composer James Macmillan, and his second novel, Breath.

For the Guardian, he compiled a top 10 list of books about civil war, with particular attention to "books that explored the particular challenge of peace in the aftermath."

One novel on his list:

Disgrace by JM Coetzee

A remarkable novel set in post-apartheid South Africa. Not directly addressing civil war, but it is a vivid exploration of the aftermath of civil conflict, the sheer difficulty of reconciliation and healing.

Read about the book that topped Michael Symmons Roberts's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jefferson Bass' "The Devil's Bones"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: The Devil's Bones by Jefferson Bass.

About the book, from the publisher:

In two previous New York Times bestselling novels, Jefferson Bass enthralled readers with ripped-from-the-headlines forensic cases, memorable characters, and plots that "rival Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell" (Seattle Post-Intelligencer). Drawing on research at the Body Farm—three acres of land in the backwoods of Tennessee, where bodies are left to the elements to illuminate human decomposition—Bass has moved fiction to a fascinating new realm, with forensics expertise drawn from his five decades of work as the world's leading forensic anthropologist. But this latest novel cements Jefferson Bass as one of the finest writers of suspense working today, and in a work of drama, cunning, and heartbreak, thrills the reader with fiction that feels all too real.

A woman's charred body has been found inside a burned car perched atop a hill in Knoxville. Is it accidental death, or murder followed by arson? Forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton's quest for answers prompts an experiment straight from Dante's Inferno: In the dark of night, he puts bodies to the torch, researching how fire consumes flesh and bone.

In the meantime, Brockton is sent a mysterious package—a set of cremated remains that looks entirely unreal. With the help of a local crematorium, he investigates and discovers a truth too horrifying to believe: A facility in another state has not been disposing of bodies properly, instead scattering them all around the grounds.

Little does Brockton know that his research is about to collide with reality—with the force of a lit match meeting spilled gasoline. En route to trial, his nemesis, medical examiner Garland Hamilton, has escaped from custody. What follows is a deadly game of cat and mouse, played for the ultimate stakes: Brockton's own life. With help from his loyal graduate assistant, Miranda, and ace criminalist Art Bohanan, Brockton eventually tracks Hamilton, but when the police arrive, they find only a smoldering ruin. Sifting through the ashes, Brockton finds the incinerated remains of Hamilton ... or does he? The answer—along with Brockton's ultimate test—comes in a searing moment of truth.

Among the novel's early reviews:

"As this third thriller (after Carved in Bone and Flesh and Bone) by the pseudonymous Bass (the writing team of Dr. Bill Bass, forensic anthropologist and founder of University of Tennessee's Body Farm, and science writer Jon Jefferson) opens, Bill Brockton is back at work on the Body Farm after the recent murder of his lover and an attempt on his own life. The killer, Garland Hamilton, nurses a fanatical grudge against Brockton. Before his trial begins, Hamilton escapes and is presumed to have died in a mountain cabin fire. In the meantime, Brockton uses his skills and those of his graduate student Miranda in various unrelated cases, including that of a Georgia crematorium stacking bodies in the woods and providing fake ashes to the families. The authors juggle several quickly moving narratives until the final confrontation between Brockton and his nemesis. Buy wherever forensic fiction is popular, and be aware of several graphic scenes and descriptions."
—A.J. Wright, School Library Journal

A "page-turning, nail-biting thriller ... you'll want to burn the midnight oil reading it!"
—Douglas R. Cobb, BestsellersWorld.com

Read an excerpt from The Devil's Bones.

Jefferson Bass is the writing team of Dr. Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson. Dr. Bass, a world-renowned forensic anthropologist, founded the University of Tennessee's Anthropology Research Facility -- the Body Farm -- a quarter-century ago. Jon Jefferson is a veteran journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker.

For more about the authors and their work, including video footage of the real-life Body Farm, visit JeffersonBass.com.

The Page 69 Test: The Devil's Bones.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Ann Wilson reading?

Ann Wilson, the lead singer of Heart, talked to the Christian Science Monitor about the movies she's been watching, the reunion concert she saw before Christmas, and what's on her iPod.

And what she's been reading:

The last book I read was called Sway [a novel by Zachary Lazar]. It was a very dark, very interesting, intense book. I just started reading The Dangerous Book for Dogs. It's a take-off on The Dangerous Book for Boys. So far I think it's hilarious. It's just really lighthearted. My dogs lie there on the bed and I laugh about it.

Read more about what Ann Wilson has been watching and listening to.

Check out the Page 69 Test: Zachary Lazar's Sway.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Kim Harrison's "The Outlaw Demon Wails"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Kim Harrison's The Outlaw Demon Wails.

About the book, from the publisher:

To save the lives of her friends, Rachel did the unthinkable: she willingly trafficked in forbidden demon magic. And now her sins are coming home to haunt her.

As Rachel searches for the truth behind a terrifying murder, an even greater menace threatens, for the demon Algaliarept will stop at nothing to claim her, and the discovery of a shocking family secret throws Rachel's entire life into question. If she is ever to live free, Rachel must first walk willingly into the demonic ever-after in search of long-lost ancient knowledge.

But when you dance with demons, you lay your soul on the line ... and there are some lines that should never be crossed.

Among the early praise for The Outlaw Demon Wails:

"Red-headed witch Rachel Morgan has a demon after her, but that's just one of her many troubles in this action-packed sixth installment of Harrison's Hollows series (after 2007's For a Few Demons More). A nice guy might be moving into Rachel's town and life, but she's still getting over her last boyfriend, whose murder she has yet to solve. Elf politician Trent Kalamack wants her to go to the ever-after on a dangerous mission. Rynn Cormel, Cincinnati's new master vampire and ex-leader of the free world, is interfering in her life. Her friend, former demon familiar Ceri, is unexpectedly pregnant, by an unexpected partner. On top of all this, Rachel worries she may have had a too close encounter with a vampire and soon becomes concerned about her own abilities with demon magic. With the help of her feisty mother, Alice, and her pixy partner, Jenks, Rachel boldly tackles every challenge amid a cascade of plot twists that will delight Harrison's fans."
--Publishers Weekly

"Her work can read like a smoldering combination of Alice Waters and Ozzy Osbourne."
--New York Times Book Review

"Harrison makes Rachel’s conflicts real and poignant without turning them into melodramatic slush. .. Harrison devotees should find ample emotional revelations and plot resolution, with enough loose ends to have them eagerly awaiting the next installment."
--Kirkus

"The Outlaw Demon Wails is the sixth book in the Rachel Morgan series. Rachel’s talents have continued to grow and with it the danger she attracts has grown as well.... While the ending in the previous installment was shocking, readers will be surprised to find that the climax in The Outlaw Demon Wails will take the heroine’s future in a whole new direction that will have fans counting down to the next release."
--Darque Reviews

Browse inside The Outlaw Demon Wails, and learn more about the author and her work at Kim Harrison's website.

Harrison's other works include the New York Times bestselling For a Few Demons More.

The Page 99 Test: The Outlaw Demon Wails.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Marcus du Sautoy's "Symmetry"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Marcus du Sautoy's Symmetry: A Journey Into the Patterns of Nature (Finding Moonshine, UK title).

About the book, from the publisher:

Symmetry is all around us. Our eyes and minds are drawn to symmetrical objects, from the pyramid to the pentagon. Of fundamental significance to the way we interpret the world, this unique, pervasive phenomenon indicates a dynamic relationship between objects. In chemistry and physics, the concept of symmetry explains the structure of crystals or the theory of fundamental particles; in evolutionary biology, the natural world exploits symmetry in the fight for survival; and symmetry—and the breaking of it—is central to ideas in art, architecture, and music.

Combining a rich historical narrative with his own personal journey as a mathematician, Marcus du Sautoy takes a unique look into the mathematical mind as he explores deep conjectures about symmetry and brings us face-to-face with the oddball mathematicians, both past and present, who have battled to understand symmetry's elusive qualities. He explores what is perhaps the most exciting discovery to date—the summit of mathematicians' mastery in the field—the Monster, a huge snowflake that exists in 196,883-dimensional space with more symmetries than there are atoms in the sun.

What is it like to solve an ancient mathematical problem in a flash of inspiration? What is it like to be shown, ten minutes later, that you've made a mistake? What is it like to see the world in mathematical terms, and what can that tell us about life itself? In Symmetry, Marcus du Sautoy investigates these questions and shows mathematical novices what it feels like to grapple with some of the most complex ideas the human mind can comprehend.

Among the praise for Symmetry:

"Du Sautoy… is not your typical nerdy mathematician. If you have seen him lecture in the flesh, or perhaps watched his fabulous 2006 Royal Institution Christmas lectures on Channel 5, you will know that he looks a bit like the lead singer from Radiohead, plays the trumpet (and footy in a Sunday league) and that he is articulate, fluent, funny and personable. He is also absolutely passionate about mathematics, with a burning desire to make the rest of us as excited as he is about its problems, its patterns and its beauty... He captures for us with brilliant vividness the excitement of the pursuit of a solution to a difficult problem, the extraordinary optimism and patience that modern mathematics requires, when such solutions often involve years of painstaking compilation of partial solutions that might eventually contribute to a successful final outcome. We experience the thrill of a step made towards uncovering ultimate mathematical beauty and share his sense of wonder at the intricacies and patterns that the search reveals. We are drawn into the curious lives of virtuosi from the past, whose brilliant discoveries continue to underpin modern mathematics.”
--Sunday Times

“A fascinating account of the long quest to unearth the mathematics of symmetry… an illuminating account of the life of a mathematician… FINDING MOONSHINE is full of insight into the nature of symmetry and the people who study it. It makes for a fascinating and absorbing read.”
--The Economist

“Idiosyncratic but illuminating…Even if you understand little of the mathematics involved, it’s a fascinating tale… Non-mathematicians will be awestruck by this account of the kind of minds capable of conceiving the Monster and all its symmetries.”
--Financial Times

"Even if the thought of sitting down to a quintic equation makes you want to cry, it would still be hard to resist Moonshine's cocktail of anecdote, swashbuckling potted history and haphazard self-revelation... However, it's the moments of autobiographical intimacy that bring the book to life. Ever wondered what mathematicians do all day? Du Sautoy potters about listening to Strauss and knocks off in time to pick the kids up from school; his colleagues play a lot of backgammon. It sounds like a racket. But perhaps you were curious to learn how du Sautoy and his wife came to adopt those kids? Or which of those colleagues most probably has Asperger's? Or how the author, somnambulant, once tried to strangle his PhD supervisor? These indiscretions transform the book. Without them, it would be a superlatively interesting lecture. With them, it's a joy.”
-- Sunday Telegraph

"A monster hit for the maths world… At the book's core is the mathematical story, which du Sautoy tells with the narrative flair and storyteller's sense of detail, development and suspense also exhibited in his first book, THE MUSIC OF THE PRIMES… FINDING MOONSHINE is one of the few popular first-person accounts - I'd be hard-pressed to name a single other - from the frontiers of modern mathematics. Moving from the highs of illumination leading to new discoveries, to the lows of professional rivalries and peregrinations in intellectual labyrinths, it gives an inspiring testimony of what it is like to be a research mathematician."
--The Independent

"A marvellous account of a 4,000-year obsession with symmetry and the secret language of nature."

--The Guardian

“FINDING MOONSHINE is a superlative mathematical entertainment; not pretty to the purist eye, but oh, so effective”
--The Independent on Sunday

Read more about the book and its author at Marcus Du Sautoy's website and the Finding Moonshine blog.

Marcus du Sautoy is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Wadham College. He is also The Music of the Primes. He is Senior Media Fellow at the EPSRC. He has been named by the Independent on Sunday as one of the UK's leading scientists. In 2001 he won the prestigious Berwick Prize of the London Mathematical Society awarded every two years to reward the best mathematical research made by a mathematician under 40. In 2004 Esquire Magazine chose him as one of the 100 most influential people under 40 in Britain and in 2008 he was included in the prestigious directory Who’s Who. He is author of numerous academic articles and books on mathematics.

The Page 69 Test: Symmetry.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Mark Harris reading?

The latest featured contributor to Writers Read: Mark Harris, a writer and editor covering movies, television and books for Entertainment Weekly, and the author of Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood.

His entry begins:

How do you write about a relationship you never witnessed between two people you never met when those two people seem to have left almost no written trace of their history together? Judith Freeman sets that steep challenge for herself in The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved, in which she tries to explain -- to herself as much as to us -- the thirty-year marriage of the alcoholic, philandering, possibly bisexual Chandler to a woman eighteen years his senior. It's an act of biographical speculation in some ways, but it's speculation of a very thoughtful and responsible order, and Freeman goes about her task in a completely original way: The Chandlers, for reasons that remain as elusive as their relationship, never stopped moving, and Freeman retraces their path to and from the nearly three dozen houses and apartments in and around Los Angeles where they lived. [read on]

Read more about Mark Harris and his work at the Pictures at a Revolution website.

Among the praise for Pictures at a Revolution:

"An exhilarating read for anyone who cares about the myriad ways movies can shape popular and political culture. I loved it."
—Christine Vachon, producer, author of Shooting to Kill

"While one might think that the films discussed in this book have been thoroughly plumbed (The Graduate; Bonnie and Clyde; In the Heat of the Night; Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?), Entertainment Weekly writer Harris offers his take in this thorough and engaging narrative. Instead of simply retelling old war stories about the production of these five Best Picture nominees at the 1968 Oscars, Harris tells a much wider story. Hollywood was on the brink of obsolescence throughout the 1960s as it faced artistic competition from European art films and financial implosion due to an outdated production system and rising budgets. Harris doesn't shy away from complexity in favor of easy answers, and the personalities that he profiles — among them Sidney Poitier, Mike Nichols, Warren Beatty and Richard Zanuck — are certainly worthy of the three dimensional approach. Harris also peppers his narrative with moments that capture the rising cultural tide that broke in the late '60s: chipping away at the moralistic Production Code, and Hollywood's inconsistent engagement with the Civil Rights movement are continuous sources of interest throughout this fascinating book."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Pictures at a Revolution is exactly what its title promises: an in-depth, up-close view of the films and filmmakers that transformed American cinema during an extraordinary period of innovation and insurrection. What we have here is a clash of the titans — Old Hollywood versus the New — with the entire enterprise of American filmmaking hanging in the balance. Like a skilled novelist, Mark Harris keeps us turning the pages, with heroes to root for, villains to hiss, and plenty of intrigue along the way — all set against the psychedelic backdrop of the turbulent 1960s. A remarkable reconstruction of perhaps the most significant artistic moment in the history of American film."
—William J. Mann, author of Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn and Edge of Midnight: The Life of John Schlesinger

Writers Read: Mark Harris.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: David Perlmutter's "Blogwars"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: David Perlmutter's Blogwars: The New Political Battleground.

About the book, from the publisher:

Political blogs have grown astronomically in the last half-decade. In just one month in 2005, for example, popular blog DailyKos received more unique visitors than the population of Iowa and New Hampshire combined. But how much political impact do bloggers really have?

In Blogwars, David D. Perlmutter examines this rapidly burgeoning phenomenon, exploring the degree to which blogs influence -- or fail to influence -- American political life. Challenging the hype, Perlmutter points out that blogs are not that powerful by traditional political measures: while bloggers can offer cogent and convincing arguments and bring before their readers information not readily available elsewhere, they have no financial, moral, social, or cultural leverage to compel readers to engage in any particular political behavior. Indeed, blogs have scored mixed results in their past political crusades. But in the end, Perlmutter argues that blogs, in their wide dissemination of information and opinions, actually serve to improve democracy and enrich political culture. He highlights a number of the particularly noteworthy blogs from the specialty to the superblog-including popular sites such as Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, Powerlineblog, Instapundit, and Talking Points Memo -- and shows how blogs are becoming part of the tool kit of political professionals, from presidential candidates to advertising consultants. While the political future may be uncertain, it will not be unblogged.

For many Internet users, blogs are the news and editorial sites of record, replacing traditional newspapers, magazines, and television news programs. Blogwars offers the first full examination of this new and controversial force on America's political landscape.

Among the praise for Blogwars:

"David Perlmutter brings the analytical bent of a scholar on the phenomenon of blogging. As a lover of news as well as the new, he also brings a fan's passion to the subject. I am most grateful for both the scholarly perspective and the fan's passion."
--Scott. W. Johnson, powerlineblog.com

"Would blogs really matter that much, and if so would they alter the American political system for the better or worse? David Perlmutter, a professor of journalism at the University of Kansas, has plunged into cyberspace as both a researcher and blogger to look for answers...For readers unfamiliar with the political-blogging terrain, his book serves as a worthy introduction."
--Boston Globe

"David Perlmutter 'gets' the blogosphere in a way that few outside observers do, going beyond the tired arguments about whether bloggers are damaging the civil debate by their partisanship and volume, about whether nonprofessional journalists and pundits should have a say in that debate, and about whether the phenomenon is just a flash in the pan. Perlmutter recognizes what these new media-blogs, YouTube, social networking sites-bring to the table: a reinvigoration of the public side of the public debate, a real and profound demonstration of the political process."
--Joan McCarter (mcjoan), Contributing Editor, DailyKos

"Perlmutter's Blogwars is an impressive primer on the politics and political implications of the blogs and the blogosphere."
--Kathleen Jamieson, University of Pennsylvania

"Books on blogs by bloggers vastly overstate their case and overpromote their cause. David Perlmutter, however, puts blogs in the proper perspective, giving an insightful and highly useful account of how blogs actually are changing American politics as a new tool in a growing arsenal of weapons for political operatives and pundits."
--Erick-Woods Erickson, Editor, RedState.com

Read more about Blogwars at the Oxford University Press website.

David D. Perlmutter is professor and associate dean for graduate studies and research at the William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications, University of Kansas.

Learn more about David Perlmutter and his work at his faculty webpage, at PolicyByBlog, and at the blog of the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas, which he edits.

The Page 99 Test: Blogwars.

--Marshal Zeringue

Mark Hodkinson's favorite rock music in fiction

Mark Hodkinson, author of The Last Mad Surge of Youth, a forthcoming book about the music industry, named a critic's chart of rock music in fiction for the (London) Times.

One title on the list:

The Harder They Come by Michael Thelwell

Local (Jamaican) boy from woodsmoke-logged village makes good.

Read about Number One on Hodkinson's list.

--Marshal Zeringue