What is Brenda Shaughnessy reading?

This weekend's featured contributor to Writers Read: Brenda Shaughnessy, a Lecturer in Creative Writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University and the Poetry Editor of Tin House magazine and Tin House Books.

One paragraph from her entry:

Books of prose I recently finished that I keep thinking about are Ed Park's hilariously-and-sadly-perfect-for-our-times Personal Days. I also loved Kelly Link's Magic For Beginners. And on the serious side, Simone Weil's essays Waiting for God.[read on]

Brenda Shaughnessy is the author of Interior with Sudden Joy and Human Dark with Sugar, and co-editor of Satellite Convulsions: Poems from Tin House. Her poems have been published in Bomb, Boston Review, Colorado Review, Conjunctions, McSweeney’s, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Yale Review and elsewhere. She is the recent recipient of the prestigious James Laughlin award.

Read some of Brenda Shaughnessy's poems online at Boston Review and listen to others at Salon.com.

Writers Read: Brenda Shaughnessy.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Serena Mackesy's "Hold My Hand"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Hold My Hand by Serena Mackesy.

About the book, from the author's website:

Bridget Sweeny and her daughter, Yasmin, need to get out of London, fast. They’re drowning in debt and living in hell – and Kieran, Yasmin’s violent father, won’t take no for an answer, even if it’s the courts that are saying it. So when Bridget is offered a cash-in-hand job caretaking Rospetroc House, a granite-built Elizabethan mansion on the edge of Cornwall’s Bodmin Moor, it seems like the answer to their prayers. They can disappear. Their problems, if not over, can at least go on hold.

But Rospetroc has a reputation in the village and a history of high staff turnover. The house’s former owners didn't die happily. Her predecessor has left without even finishing her meal. Strange things start happening, and Yasmin develops an imaginary friend. And Kieran, back in London, is still not taking no for an answer. Slowly, as events in the house escalate, Bridget begins to suspect that they are not alone after all...

Hold My Hand is a supernatural thriller on two timelines. It tells the intertwined stories of Bridget, Yasmin and Lily, an unwanted child from the Portsmouth docks, evacuated to escape the Luftwaffe into the unwelcoming arms of the dysfunctional Blakemore family. Lily’s and Yasmin’s situations are tied together over the decades — but who is Lily: avenging angel or angry demon?

Read an excerpt from Hold My Hand, and learn more about the book and author at Serena Mackesy's website.

Serena Mackesy is a journalist and novelist. Her journalism includes features and travel writing, mostly for The Times; her Independent column was published as a novel, The Temp, which soared into the Sunday Times Top 10, and was followed by the critically acclaimed Virtue and Simply Heaven.

The Page 69 Test: Hold My Hand.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Alex Beam's "A Great Idea at the Time"

This weekend's feature at the Page 99 Test: A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books by Alex Beam.

About the book, from the publisher:

By the author of the Boston Globe #1 bestseller Gracefully Insane: A wry, witty history of an unlikely literary fad, and of American pop culture in the 1950s and early 1960s

Today the classics of the western canon, written by the proverbial "dead white men," are cannon fodder in the culture wars. But in the 1950s and 1960s, they were a pop culture phenomenon. The Great Books of Western Civilization, fifty-four volumes chosen by intellectuals at the University of Chicago, began as an educational movement, and evolved into a successful marketing idea. Why did a million American households buy books by Hippocrates and Nicomachus from door-to-door salesmen? And how and why did the great books fall out of fashion?

In A Great Idea at the Time Alex Beam explores the Great Books mania, in an entertaining and strangely poignant portrait of American popular culture on the threshold of the television age. Populated with memorable characters, A Great Idea at the Time will leave readers asking themselves: Have I read Lucretius's De Rerum Natura lately? If not, why not?

Read an excerpt from A Great Idea at the Time, and learn more about the book at the publisher's website.

Alex Beam is an award-winning columnist for the Boston Globe. His writing has also appeared in the Atlantic, Slate, the New York Times and many other magazines. He is the author of Gracefully Insane: Life and Death Inside America's Premier Mental Hospital and of two novels.

Visit Alex Beam's column archive at the Boston Globe.

My Book, The Movie: Alex Beam's Gracefully Insane.

The Page 69 Test: Gracefully Insane.

The Page 99 Test: Great Idea at the Time.

--Marshal Zeringue

Charles Cumming's "The Spanish Game," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: The Spanish Game by Charles Cumming.

The entry begins:

A recent review of my novel, The Spanish Game, described the central character, Alec Milius, as “excessively paranoid, a womanizer, an alcoholic, and generally of questionable morality”.

It’s a fairly accurate description. Milius is an ex-MI5 agent who was drummed out of the Service following a botched industrial espionage operation, described in my first novel, A Spy By Nature. At the start of The Spanish Game, we find Alec living in Madrid, sleeping with his boss’s wife, drinking heavily and wondering when his old enemies are going to catch up with him.

Milius has no recognisably heroic attributes, beyond a basic desire to make the best of himself. He is essentially self-serving, untrustworthy and paranoid. Which begs the question – what actor would want to play a character with those attributes? For a long time, I thought...[read on]

Learn more about the author and his work at Charles Cumming's website.

Charles Cumming is a British spy novelist who has been hailed as the heir apparent to John le Carré. His most recent novel, Typhoon, was published in the UK to huge critical acclaim. Cumming’s first novel, A Spy By Nature, has just been released in the US in paperback. The sequel, The Spanish Game, is available in hardcover from St. Martin’s Press.

The Page 69 Test: A Spy By Nature.

My Book, The Movie: The Spanish Game.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sports books: 5 that need to be on your shelf

Powells.com invited David Zirin to "[r]ecommend five or more books on a single subject of personal interest or expertise."

One title on Zirin's list of Five Sports Books That Need to Be on Your Shelf:

Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete by William C. Rhoden

Read the complete list.

David Zirin is the author of three books, including What's My Name, Fool? and Welcome to the Terrordome. He writes the popular weekly online sports column, "The Edge of Sports," and is a regular contributor to the Nation, SLAM, and the Los Angeles Times.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Scott Pratt's "An Innocent Client"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: An Innocent Client by Scott Pratt.

About the book, from the publisher:

This is the kind of crime the tabloids love... This is the kind of case most lawyers dream of... This is the kind of trial that destroys more lives than it saves... This is the kind of “terrific debut novel”( Sheldon Siegel, New York Times BestSelling Author of Judgment Day) that reinvents the legal thriller.

A preacher is stabbed to death in a Tennessee motel. The suspect is a waitress at a strip club. Defense attorney Joe Dillard’s too burnt out to defend anyone he knows in his heart is guilty. Then he meets the vulnerable Angel—the accused, incriminated by circumstantial evidence. Dillard’s sure she’s not capable of killing anyone. What Dillard doesn’t count on are the others drawn into the storm of the stunning crime—from the vindictive detective to the victim’s avenging son to Dillard’s own deeply troubled sister—all of whom will help to erase the line between guilt and innocence, and between an unthinkable lie and the unbelievable truth.

Read an excerpt from An Innocent Client, and learn more about the book and author at Scott Pratt's website.

The Page 69 Test: An Innocent Client.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Steven Nadler's "The Best of All Possible Worlds"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: The Best of All Possible Worlds: A Story of Philosophers, God, and Evil by Steven Nadler.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the spring of 1672, the German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz arrived in Paris on a furtive diplomatic mission. That project was abandoned quickly, but Leibniz remained in Paris with a singular goal: to get the most out of the city’s intellectual and cultural riches. He benefited, above all, from his friendships with France’s two greatest philosopher-theologians of the period, Antoine Arnauld and Nicolas de Malebranche. The interactions of these three men would prove of great consequence not only for Leibniz’s own philosophy but for the development of modern philosophical and religious thought.

Despite their wildly different views and personalities, the three philosophers shared a single, passionate concern: resolving the problem of evil. Why is it that, in a world created by an allpowerful, all-wise, and infinitely just God, there is sin and suffering? Why do bad things happen to good people, and good things to bad people?

This is the story of a clash between radically divergent worldviews. But it is also a very personal story. At its heart are the dramatic—and often turbulent—relationships between three brilliant and resolute individuals. In this lively and engaging book, Steven Nadler brings to life a debate that obsessed its participants, captivated European intellectuals, and continues to inform our ways of thinking about God, morality, and the world.

Read more about The Best of All Possible Worlds at the publisher's website.

Learn more about Steven Nadler's teaching, research and publications at his faculty webpage.

Steven Nadler is the William H. Hay II Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he has been teaching since 1988. His books include Spinoza: A Life, winner of the Koret Jewish Book Award in 2000, and Rembrandt’s Jews, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2004.

The Page 99 Test: The Best of All Possible Worlds.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Porter Shreve reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Porter Shreve, author of the recently released When the White House Was Ours.

One book mentioned in his entry:

Hunger by Lan Samantha Chang, who ... visited Purdue a couple weeks ago and gave a wonderful reading from a novella in progress. I'm amazed by the title novella in Hunger, told from the point of view of a mother looking back over the course of her whole life, from her mother's warnings about yuanfen, "that apportionment of love which is destined for you in this world," to her arrival in New York and mostly loveless marriage, to her raising of two very different daughters to her death and return at the end as a hungry ghost, still haunting the New York apartment where one of her daughters still lives. It's a moving, beautifully written story that uses the supernatural in surprising yet inevitable ways.[read on]

Porter Shreve's first novel, The Obituary Writer, was a 2000 New York Times Notable Book, a Book Sense pick, and a Borders Original Voices selection. His second novel, Drives Like a Dream, was a 2005 Chicago Tribune Book of the Year, a People "Great Reads" selection, and a Britannica Book of the Year. His third novel, When the White House Was Ours, was published by Mariner Houghton Mifflin in September.

Shreve currently directs the Creative Writing Program at Purdue University.

Learn more about Porter Shreve and his work at his website.

Writers Read: Porter Shreve.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Tony Richards' "Dark Rain"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Dark Rain by Tony Richards.

About the book, from the publisher:

Raine's Landing, Massachusetts, can't be located on any map. On the surface it appears an ordinary New England small town, but anyone who stumbles in wants to leave immediately . . . and once gone, they forget they were ever there. Real magic pervades this village of shadows, practiced by powerful adepts descended from the original Salem witches. But a curse has made it impossible for any resident to step beyond the town line. Those born here must die here as well.

Ross Devries and Cassandra Mallory saw their worlds destroyed by magic run amok, and dedicated their lives to keeping supernatural catastrophe at bay. But now a being more terrible than anything they've ever encountered has just crossed over the border—a powerful entity no known magic can defeat; a fierce, ancient god who feeds on terror . . . and blood. A new nightmare is descending upon Raine's Landing—and for Ross, Cass, and the entire trapped population there can be no escape ... not even in death.

Browse inside Dark Rain, and learn more about the book and author at Tony Richards' website and blog.

Tony Richards is the author of five novels—the first was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award—plus many short stories and articles. His work has appeared in numerous venues, including The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Cemetery Dance, Asimov's, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and Weird Tales.

The Page 69 Test: Dark Rain.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten snow books

At the Guardian, author and deputy editor of the Saturday Guardian Charlie English named his top ten "books that include snow, or are about snow."

One title on the list:

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

The title alone reminds me of the Pacific Northwest, where some of the world's tallest and oldest trees grow in the humid air driven in from the ocean. The snow thrives here too: this is a part of the world that claims the highest snowfall on the planet. Guterson's drama starts with the wonderful description of a snowstorm in which the flakes blow into an island community and stick to the windows of the courthouse where the story is to unfold.

Read about Number One on English's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Thomas M. Truxes' "Defying Empire"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Defying Empire: Trading with the Enemy in Colonial New York by Thomas M. Truxes.

About the book, from the publisher:

This enthralling book is the first to uncover the story of New York City merchants who engaged in forbidden trade with the enemy before and during the Seven Years’ War (also known as the French and Indian War). Ignoring British prohibitions designed to end North America’s wartime trade with the French, New York’s merchant elite conducted a thriving business in the French West Indies, insisting that their behavior was protected by long practice and British commercial law. But the government in London viewed it as treachery, and its subsequent efforts to discipline North American commerce inflamed the colonists.

Through fast-moving events and unforgettable characters, historian Thomas M. Truxes brings eighteenth-century New York and the Atlantic world to life. There are spies, street riots, exotic settings, informers, courtroom dramas, interdictions on the high seas, ruthless businessmen, political intrigues, and more. The author traces each phase of the city’s trade with the enemy and details the frustrations that affected both British officials and independent-minded New Yorkers. The first book to focus on New York City during the Seven Years’ War, Defying Empire reveals the important role the city played in hastening the colonies’ march toward revolution.

Read an excerpt from Defying Empire, and learn more about the book at the Yale University Press website.

Thomas M. Truxes is a senior lecturer in the history department at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and a member of the Irish Studies faculty at New York University. His previous books include Irish American Trade, 1660-1783.

The Page 99 Test: Defying Empire.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Elaine Viets' "Murder with All the Trimmings"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Murder with All the Trimmings by Elaine Viets.

About the book, from the publisher:

A humbug of a Shopping mystery... From The Anthony and Agatha Award-Winning Author of Accessory to Murder

Includes insider shopping tips!

Mystery shopper Josie Marcus doesn't get the appeal of the year-round Christmas shop. But when three such holiday houses pop up within two blocks, she's assigned to rate them anonymously.

Easy enough, Josie thinks, until she realizes that shoppers at one store are finding a strange—even deadly—secret ingredient in their holiday cake. And Josie must get to the bottom of it all before someone else becomes a Christmas spirit.

Read an excerpt from Murder with All the Trimmings, and learn more about the book and author at Elaine Viets' website.

Elaine Viets is the author of the bestselling Dead-End Job series and the Josie Marcus Mystery Shopper series.

The Page 69 Test: Murder with All the Trimmings.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is John McNeill reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: John R. McNeill, a faculty member of the School of Foreign Service and History Department at Georgetown University. From 2003 until 2006 he held the Cinco Hermanos Chair in Environmental and International Affairs, until his appointment as University Professor. He teaches world history, environmental history, and international history at Georgetown.

His books include Epidemics and Geopolitics in the American Tropics, 1640-1920 (2008) and Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the 20th-Century World (2000).

One book from his entry:

Elizabeth Fenn's Pox Americana, about the smallpox epidemic in North America in the 1770s, a fabulous piece of history writing. I had read it a few years ago, but wanted to remind myself of how a good book is put together.[read on]

Learn more about John McNeill's research and teaching at his faculty webpage.

Writers Read: John R. McNeill.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Warren Hammond's "Ex-KOP"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Ex-KOP by Warren Hammond.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this hardboiled science fiction thriller, Juno, having been booted off the police force, is barely getting by as a low-level bagman and photographer for the scandal rags. But it gets worse: his wife is in critical condition at the hospital and Juno doesn’t have the money to pay her bills. Desperate for cash, Juno agrees to help his ex-partner, Maggie Orzo, solve a difficult case. A young girl sits on death row, accused of brutally murdering her own parents. She’s confessed to the murders, but Maggie isn’t buying it, so she sends Juno out to get some answers.

Working with Maggie, Juno comes into contact with her new partner, Ian. As dirty as they come, Ian is eager to rise in the police force no matter what the cost. Somehow Ian, a vicious serial killer, and the girl on death row are all connected. It is up to Juno and Maggie to find out how before more people die.

Read an excerpt from Ex-KOP, and learn more about the author and his work at Warren Hammond's website.

Warren Hammond's first novel, KOP, was published in 2007 and is now available in paperback.

The Page 99 Test: KOP.

The Page 99 Test: Ex-KOP.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Ruth Brandon's "Caravaggio's Angel"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Caravaggio's Angel by Ruth Brandon.

About Caravaggio's Angel, from the publisher:

Dr Reggie Lee, new at London’s National Gallery, is planning a small exhibition of three almost identical Caravaggio paintings when she discovers a fourth. One must be a forgery. That discovery detonates multiple murders.

Caravaggio's Angel is the first of a series featuring the canny and ambitious heroine, Reggie Lee.

Ruth Brandon is a historian, biographer and novelist. Her other book released this year is Other People's Daughters (in America, Governess, the Lives and Times of the Real Jane Eyres), which is about governesses, a social history told through seven short lives.

Read more about the book and author at Ruth Brandon's website.

The Page 69 Test: Caravaggio's Angel.

--Marshal Zeringue

Critic's Chart: six linguistic experiments

Chris Power, who reviews fiction for the Times (London), picked a "critic's chart" of six linguistic experiments.

One title on his list:

Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar

155 chapters through which the author encourages you to choose your own path.

Read about another title on Power's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Andrea Weiss reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Andrea Weiss, a documentary filmmaker and nonfiction author.

She is also Professor and Chair of the Department of Media and Communication Arts at The City College of New York, CUNY.

Her most recent book is In the Shadow of the Magic Mountain: The Erika and Klaus Mann Story.

Her entry begins:

Last week I finished reading The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester. You've already heard, unless you've been hiding under a rock, that the story is fascinating and Winchester tells it amazingly well. Hard to believe that what is essentially a history of the dictionary can make for such a compelling read. All those accolades he received for it are well deserved.[read on]

Read more about Andrea Weiss' films and books, and read an excerpt from and learn more about In the Shadow of the Magic Mountain at the University of Chicago Press website.

Writers Read: Andrea Weiss.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jeff Carlson's "Plague Year," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Jeff Carlson's Plague Year.

The entry opens:

Will Smith. Doesn’t everyone say Will Smith? Give me Will Smith and my head will explode with excitement. Sure, the lead character in Plague Year is a 25-year-old Hispanic, but that’s easily changed. For example, in Catherine Ryan Hyde’s novel Pay It Forward, the male lead was an African-American who’d lost one arm and a lot of his face in a grenade explosion. What you got on the big screen was Kevin Spacey with minor, elegant scars. Movie magic!

This sort of daydreaming is extra fun for me because....[read on]

Check out the video “book trailer” at http://www.jverse.com/trailer.html: maybe the actor/writer has an acting career ahead of him.

Jeff Carlson's short fiction has appeared in venues such as Asimov's, Strange Horizons, Fantastic Stories, and Writers of the Future XXIII. His first novel, Plague Year, was published last year. His new novel, Plague War, was published this summer.

Visit Jeff Carlson's website and his blog.

The Page 69 Test: Plague Year.

The Page 99 Test: Plague War.

My Book, The Movie: Plague Year.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Andrew Rimas & Evan Fraser's "Beef"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Beef: The Untold Story of How Milk, Meat, and Muscle Shaped the World, by Andrew Rimas and Evan D. G. Fraser.

About the book, from the publisher:

The cow. The most industrious animal in the world. A beast central to human existence since time began, it has played a vital role in our history not only as a source of food, but also as a means of labor, an economic resource, an inspiration for art, and even as a religious icon. Prehistoric people painted it on cave walls; explorers, merchants, and landowners traded it as currency; many cultures worshipped it as a god. So how did it come to occupy the sorry state it does today—more factory product than animal?

In Beef, Andrew Rimas and Evan D. G. Fraser answer that question, telling the story of cattle in its entirety. From the powerful auroch, a now extinct beast once revered as a mystical totem, to the dairy cows of seventeenth-century Holland to the frozen meat patties and growth hormones of today, the authors deliver an engaging panoramic view of the cow's long and colorful history.

Peppered with lively anecdotes, recipes, and culinary tidbits, Beef tells a story that spans the globe, from ancient Mediterranean bullfighting rings to the rugged grazing grounds of eighteenth-century England, from the quiet farms of Japan's Kobe beef cows to crowded American stockyards to remote villages in East Africa, home of the Masai, a society to which cattle mean everything. Leaving no stone unturned in its exploration of the cow's legacy, the narrative serves not only as a compelling story but as a call to arms, offering practical solutions for confronting the current condition of the wasteful beef and dairy industries.

Beef is a captivating history of an animal whose relationship with humanity has shaped the world as we know it, and readers will never look at steak the same way again.

Browse inside Beef, and learn more about the book at the publisher's website.

Visit Andrew Rimas's website and Dr. Evan Fraser's website.

The Page 99 Test: Beef.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Chris Ewan's "The Good Thief's Guide to Paris"

This weekend's feature at the Page 69 Test: The Good Thief's Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan.

About the book, from the publisher:

The moment I’d scanned the outside of the building, I turned to Bruno and said, “First impressions, it looks straightforward.” Looking back, I can’t help but wonder what I was thinking. I mean, put that line at the opening of a crime novel and it’s practically a guarantee that everything is about to get complicated.

Charlie Howard—globe-trotting mystery writer, professional thief, and poor decision maker—is in Paris. Flush with the success of his latest book reading, not to mention a few too many glasses of wine, Charlie agrees to show a complete novice how to break into an apartment in the Marais. Fast-forward twenty-four hours and Charlie’s hired to steal an ordinary-looking oil painting—from the exact same address.

Mere coincidence? Charlie figures there’s no harm in finding out—until a dead body turns up in his living room and he finds himself evading the law while becoming caught up in a quite outrageous heist. And that’s before Charlie’s literary agent, Victoria (who’s naive enough to assume that he looks like his author photo), finally decides they should meet face-to-face.

Nobody ever said a life of suspense was easy, but Charlie, the most disarmingly charming burglar since Cary Grant, soon finds things are getting way out of control.

Chris Ewan’s debut novel, The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam, won the Long Barn Books First Novel Competition and was shortlisted for the CrimeFest Last Laugh Award for the best humorous crime novel published in the British Isles in 2007.

Learn more about the author and his work at Chris Ewan's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Good Thief's Guide to Paris.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five best: milestones among poetry anthologies

John Hollander's books include A Draft of Light: Poems (2008) and Rhyme's Reason: A Guide to English Verse (2001).

At the Wall Street Journal he named a five best list of "Milestones Among Poetry Anthologies."

One title on the list:

The Golden Treasury
Edited by Sir Francis Turner Palgrave
1861

With his four-volume, chronological anthology of "the best songs and lyrical poems in the English language," Sir Francis Turner Palgrave (1824-97) said that he wanted to show "the natural growth and evolution of our poetry," from Shakespeare and Dryden to Shelley and Wordsworth. No poets alive at the collection's publication in 1861 made it into the book, a prohibition that caused some dissension, as did Sir Francis's chronological approach, which he defended on aesthetic grounds. "A rapid passage between Old and New," he claimed, would be "wearisome and hurtful to the sense of Beauty." He added notes and commentary of a sort we have become accustomed to in college literature textbooks, but the importance of "The Golden Treasury" lay in its wide and continued circulation and in the selective judgment of its editor.

Read about another title on Hollander's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Scott Sigler's "Infected"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Infected by Scott Sigler.

About the book, from the publisher:

Across America a mysterious disease is turning ordinary people into raving, paranoid murderers who inflict brutal horrors on strangers, themselves, and even their own families.

Working under the government’s shroud of secrecy, CIA operative Dew Phillips crisscrosses the country trying in vain to capture a live victim. With only decomposing corpses for clues, CDC epidemiologist Margaret Montoya races to analyze the science behind this deadly contagion. She discovers that these killers all have one thing in common – they’ve been contaminated by a bioengineered parasite, shaped by a complexity far beyond the limits of known science.

Meanwhile Perry Dawsey – a hulking former football star now resigned to life as a cubicle-bound desk jockey – awakens one morning to find several mysterious welts growing on his body. Soon Perry finds himself acting and thinking strangely, hearing voices ... he is infected.

The fate of the human race may well depend on the bloody war Perry must wage with his own body, because the parasites want something from him, something that goes beyond mere murder.

Infected is the first major print release from Internet phenom Scott Sigler, whose podcast-only audiobooks have drawn an immense cult following, with more than three million individual episodes downloaded. Now Sigler storms the bookstore shelves with this cinematic, relentlessly paced novel that mixes and matches genres, combining horror, technothriller, and suspense in a heady mix that is equal parts Chuck Palahniuk, Michael Crichton, and Stephen King.

Infected will crawl beneath your skin and leave fresh blood on every page.

Watch the video trailer for Infected, and learn more about the author and his work at Scott Sigler's website.

Scott Sigler's fiction podcasts have drawn a huge and devoted following. His serialized stories have held the number one position in all the podcast indexes, including iTunes. Infected was translated into a dozen languages and is being adapted for film by Random House Films/Rogue Pictures.

Sigler's new book, Contagious, is due in bookstores in December.

The Page 99 Test: Infected.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five American books for Arabs

At Paper Cuts, the New York Times' blog for books, Barry Gewen named five works of nonfiction for the Kalima project, an initiative backed by the UAE to translate from English to Arabic "literature [which] best captures American dreams, opportunities and challenges" and "books [that] could help build mutual understanding between the United States and the Arab World."

One title on Gewen's list:

“How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture Then and Now,” by James L. Kugel. If you want to know what modern anthropology, archeology and textual criticism can teach us about the truth or untruth of the Old Testament, this is the book for you. When Kugel gets done, there isn’t much left of the biblical stories we all grew up with, and fundamentalists of every stripe (Jewish, Christian, Muslim) may find him malevolently subversive. But Kugel is himself religious, and one of the things he demonstrates is that it’s possible to wholly accept the findings of science and still retain belief in the teachings of the Bible.

Read about another book on Gewen's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Edward M. Lerner's "Fools’ Experiments"

Currently featured at the Page 69 Test: Fools’ Experiments by Edward M. Lerner.

About the book, from the publisher:

We are not alone, and it’s our own damn fault ...

Something demonic is stalking the brightest men and women in the computer industry. It attacks without warning or mercy, leaving its prey insane, comatose--or dead.

Something far nastier than any virus, worm, or Trojan horse program is being evolved in laboratory confinement by well-intentioned but misguided researchers. When their artificial life-form escapes onto the Internet, no conventional defense against malicious software can begin to compete. As disasters multiply, computer scientist Doug Carey knows that unconventional measures may be civilization’s last hope.

And that any artificial life-form learns very fast ….

Edward M. Lerner is a writer of SF and technothrillers. Learn more about the author and his work (including his collaborations with SF master Larry Niven) at the Edward M. Lerner, Perpetrator of Science Fiction and Technothrillers website and at his blog, SF and Nonsense.

The Page 69 Test: Fools’ Experiments.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten dystopian novels

Back in 2005 Robert Collins, author of Soul Corporation, named a top ten list of dystopian novels for the Guardian.

One title on the list:

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K Dick

Dick definitely belonged to the grimy school of apocalyptic dystopias. His noirish detective thriller shares many themes with the other less typically sci-fi books here: the fusion of the human with the technological and, as suggested by the title, the nature of consciousness in an artificial world.

Read about Number One on Collins' list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Norman Housley's "Fighting for the Cross"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Fighting for the Cross: Crusading to the Holy Land by Norman Housley.

About the book, from the publisher:

In a series of massive military undertakings that stretched from 1095 to 1291, Christendom’s armies won, defended, and lost the sacred sites of the Holy Land. Many books have been written about the Crusades, but until now none has described in detail what is was like to take part in medieval Europe’s most ambitious wars. This vividly written book draws on extensive research and on a wealth of surviving contemporary accounts to recreate the full experience of crusading, from the elation of taking up the cross to the difficult adjustments at home when the war was over.

Distinguished historian Norman Housley explores the staggering logistical challenges of raising, equipping, and transporting thousands of Christian combatants from Europe to the East as well as the complications that non-combatant pilgrims presented. He describes the ordinary crusader’s prolonged years of difficult military tasks, risk of starvation and disease, trial of religious faith, death of friends, and the specter of heavy debt or stolen homelands upon arriving home. Creating an unprecedented sense of immediacy, Housley brings to light the extent of crusaders’ sacrifices and the religious commitment that enabled them to endure.

Read an excerpt from Fighting for the Cross, and learn more about the book at the Yale University Press website.

Norman Housley is professor of history and Head of the School of Historical Studies, University of Leicester. He is a world authority on the Middle Ages and on the Crusades in particular.

The Page 99 Test: Fighting for the Cross.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Katherine Neville's "The Fire"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: The Fire by Katherine Neville.

About the book, from the publisher:

Katherine Neville’s groundbreaking novel, The Eight, dazzled audiences more than twenty years ago and set the literary stage for the epic thriller. A quest for a mystical chess service that once belonged to Charlemagne, it spans two centuries and three continents, and intertwines historic and modern plots, archaeological treasure hunts, esoteric riddles, and puzzles encrypted with clues from the ancient past. Now the electrifying global adventure continues, in Neville’s long anticipated sequel: THE FIRE.

2003, Colorado: Alexandra Solarin is summoned home to her family’s ancestral Rocky Mountain hideaway for her mother’s birthday. Thirty years ago, her parents, Cat Velis and Alexander Solarin, believed that they had scattered the pieces of the Montglane Service around the world, burying with them the secrets of the power that comes with possessing it. But Alexandra arrives to find that her mother is missing and that a series of strategically placed clues, followed swiftly by the unexpected arrival of a mysterious assortment of houseguests, indicates that something sinister is afoot.

When she inadvertently discovers from her aunt, the chess grandmaster Lily Rad, that the most powerful piece of Charlemagne’s service has suddenly resurfaced and the Game has begun again, Alexandra is swept into a journey that takes her from Colorado to the Russian wilderness and at last into the heart of her own hometown: Washington D.C.

1822, Albania: Thirty years after the French Revolution, when the chess service was unearthed, all of Europe hovers on the brink of the War of Greek Independence. Ali Pasha, the most powerful ruler in the Ottoman Empire, has angered the sultan and is about to be attacked by Turkish forces. Now he sends the only person he can rely upon–his young daughter, Haidee–on a dangerous mission to smuggle a valuable relic out of Albania, through the mountains and over the sea, to the hands of the one man who might be able to save it.

Haidee’s journey from Albania to Morocco to Rome to Greece, and into the very heart of the Game, will result in revelations about the powerful chess set and its history that will lead at last to the spot where the service was first created more than one thousand years before: Baghdad.

Blending exquisite prose and captivating history with nonstop suspense, Neville again weaves an unforgettable story of peril, action, and intrigue.

Read an excerpt from The Fire, and learn more about the author and her work at Katherine Neville's website. View the video trailer for The Fire.

Katherine Neville is the author of The Eight, The Magic Circle (a USA Today bestseller), and A Calculated Risk (a New York Times Notable Book). The Eight has been translated into more than thirty languages. In a national poll in Spain by the noted journal El País, The Eight was voted one of the top ten books of all time.

The Page 69 Test: The Fire.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Karen Chance reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Karen Chance, author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling Cassandra Palmer Series and other books and stories, including the recently released Midnight's Daughter.

One paragraph from her entry:

...I write urban fantasy, but I probably read more outside the genre than in it. My most recent obsession is Lindsey Davis’s charming Falco books. They are a great series for anyone interested in ancient Rome, but who prefers to learn about it the easy way—through a fictional narrative—rather than through a more traditional text book. Likewise, the Cadfael mysteries by Edith Pargeter [aka Ellis Peters] offer a wonderful glimpse into medieval England and Wales.[read on]

The fourth volume of Chance's Cassandra Palmer Series, Curse the Dawn, is due out in April 2009.

About Embrace the Night, the most recent book in the series:

Recently named the world’s chief clairvoyant, Cassandra Palmer still has a thorn in her side. As long as Cassie and a certain master vampire—the sizzling-hot Mircea—are magically bound to each other, her life will never be her own …

The spell that binds them can only be broken with an incantation found in the Codex Merlini, an ancient grimoire. The Codex’s location has been lost in the present day, so Cassie will have to seek it out in the only place it can still be found—the past.

But Cassie soon realizes the Codex has been lost for a reason. The book is rumored to contain some seriously dangerous spells, and retrieving it may help Cassie to deal with Mircea, but it could also endanger the world…

Visit Karen Chance's website.

Writers Read: Karen Chance.

--Marshal Zeringue

James Scott Bell's "Try Dying," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: James Scott Bell's Try Dying.

The entry begins:

My series featuring L.A. lawyer Ty Buchanan and the basketball playing nun, Sister Mary, has been described as "L.A. noir meets Nick and Nora at the intersection of Ellroy and Chandler." And that's fine with me, because I wanted to do contemporary suspense in a style that could have been published in 1947 (I think much of the genre these days pushes the darkness beyond "too far").

So it's no surprise that my favorite movie genre is film noir of the 40's and 50's. Especially when it takes place in Los Angeles.

In keeping with that, I'll tell you who I wish could have directed the movies made from my series--Billy Wilder. Think of the two quintessential L.A. noirs...[read on]

James Scott Bell is the author of Try Dying, Try Darkness, and the forthcoming Try Fear.

Learn more about the books and author at James Scott Bell's website.

The Page 69 Test: Try Dying.

The Page 69 Test: Try Darkness.

My Book, The Movie: Try Dying.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five best books on advertising

A few years ago at the Wall Street Journal, advertising executive Jerry Della Femina named a five best list of books on advertising.

One title on the list:

Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy (Atheneum, 1963).

First and foremost, David Ogilvy was a great advertising copywriter. "At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock" is considered by many to be the best automobile ad ever written. It's to David's credit as a salesman and master seducer that he used the word "Confessions" in his title, hinting that the book was going to be sexy or reveal some deep dark secret in his past. Not a chance. What you do get is the definitive "how to" book about advertising from the ultimate man in the gray flannel suit, who reigned supreme in the advertising business from the late 1940s until well into the 1970s.

Read about another book on Della Famina's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jena Pincott's "Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes?"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes?: Bodies, Behavior, and Brains--The Science Behind Sex, Love, and Attraction by Jena Pincott.

About the book, from the publisher:

How long does it take to decide if a person is hot? Is your lover more likely to get you pregnant than your husband? Can men tell when a woman is fertile?

If you’ve ever wondered how scientists measure love—or whether men really prefer blondes over brunettes—this smart, sexy book provides real answers to these and many other questions about our most baffling dating and mating behaviors. Based on the latest research in biology, evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science, Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes? dares to explain the science behind sex—and opens a fascinating window on the intriguing phenomenon of love and attraction.

Covering the areas of bodies, brains, and behavior, this eye-opening guide reveals the genetic, hormonal, and psychological secrets behind what makes us tick sexually. For example, do you know why a man’s body chemistry and behavior change when he’s in a committed relationship? And why, when he becomes a daddy, his testosterone level seems to plummet? And did you know…

• When a couple first fall in love, their brains are indistinguishable from those of the clinically insane
• You can tell a lot about a person’s sexual chemistry just by looking at his or her hands
• Your genes influence whose body odors you prefer
• Being around breast-feeding women may increase a woman's sex drive

Viewed through the lens of science and instinct, your love life might be seen in a completely different way. Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes? provides both an in-depth exploration into our sexual psyches—and fresh advice for men and women who want to discover the secrets of successful relationships.

For a sample of the text, a complete list of questions, and blog updates, please visit Jena Pincott's website and blog.

Jena Pincott has a background in biology and was a production assistant on science documentaries for PBS. She is a former senior editor at Random House, and is the author of Success: Advice for Achieving Your Goals from Remarkably Accomplished People and Healing: Advice for Recovering Your Strength and Spirit from the World's Most Famous Survivors.

The Page 99 Test: Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes?.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Tom Santopietro reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Tom Santopietro, author of Considering Doris Day, The Importance of Being Barbra, and the newly released Sinatra in Hollywood.

One book from Santopietro's entry:

The Lion of Hollywood by Scott Eyman. A terrific biography of Louis B. Mayer that rescues Mayer from the cliched portrait of Hollywood moguls, and delves into his extraordinary drive and Horatio Alger-like life. A terrifically entertaining examination of exactly how much the Hollywood dream factories influenced American culture in the twentieth century.[read on]

About Sinatra in Hollywood:

Sinatra in Hollywood details the brilliant, fascinating, and occasionally inexplicable film career that earned Frank Sinatra standing as one of the last legends from Hollywood's golden age, and grants Sinatra status as an actor equal to his fabled career as vocalist and recording artist. Laced throughout with Sinatra's own observations on his film work, the book deals head-on with the tumultuous marriages to Ava Gardner and Mia Farrow and directly addresses the rumors of Mob involvement in Sinatra's career. The complete arc of Sinatra's astonishing 60 year run as an actor is traced, from his rise in musicals like Anchors Aweigh and On the Town, through his fall from grace with legendary flops like The Kissing Bandit, to the near-mythic comeback with his Oscar winning performance in From Here to Eternity. In the process, Sinatra in Hollywood comes to examine just how Sinatra's iconic screen image did nothing less than embody America at the height of its standing in the second half of the twentieth century—the "American Century."

Visit Tom Santopietro's website.

Writers Read: Tom Santopietro.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Phil Zuckerman's "Society Without God"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Society Without God: What the Least Religious Societies Can Tell us About Contentment by Phil Zuckerman.

About the book, from the publisher:

Before he began his recent travels, it seemed to Phil Zuckerman as if humans all over the globe were getting religion — praising deities, performing holy rites, and soberly defending the world from sin. But most residents of Denmark and Sweden, he found, dont worship any god at all, dont pray, and dont give much credence to religious dogma of any kind. Instead of being bastions of sin and corruption, however, as the Christian Right has suggested a godless society would be, these countries are filled with residents who score at the very top of the happiness index and enjoy their healthy societies, which boast some of the lowest rates of violent crime in the world (along with some of the lowest levels of corruption), excellent educational systems, strong economies, well-supported arts, free health care, egalitarian social policies, outstanding bike paths, and great beer.

Zuckerman formally interviewed nearly 150 Danes and Swedes of all ages and educational backgrounds over the course of fourteen months, beginning in 2005. He was particularly interested in the worldviews of people who live their lives without religious orientation. How do they think about and cope with death? Are they worried about an afterlife? What he found is that nearly all of his interviewees live their lives without much fear of the Grim Reaper or worries about the hereafter. This led him to wonder how and why it is that certain societies are nonreligious in a world that seems to be marked by increasing religiosity. Drawing on prominent sociological theories and his own extensive research, Zuckerman ventures some interesting answers.

This fascinating approach directly counters the claims of outspoken, conservative American Christians who argue that a society without God would be hell on earth. It is crucial, Zuckerman believes, for Americans to know that society without God is not only possible, but it can be quite civil and pleasant.

Read the introduction to Society Without God, and learn more about the book at the publisher's website.

Phil Zuckerman is associate professor of sociology at Pitzer College. He is the author of Invitation to the Sociology of Religion and Strife in the Sanctuary: Religious Schism in a Jewish Community.

The Page 99 Test: Society Without God.

--Marshal Zeringue