Pg. 69: Bryan Gruley's "Starvation Lake"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Starvation Lake by Bryan Gruley.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the dead of a Michigan winter, pieces of a snowmobile wash up near the crumbling, small town of Starvation Lake -- the same snowmobile that went down with Starvation's legendary hockey coach years earlier. But everybody knows Coach Blackburn's accident happened five miles away on a different lake. As rumors buzz about mysterious underground tunnels, the evidence from the snowmobile says one thing: murder.

Gus Carpenter, editor of the local newspaper, has recently returned to Starvation after a failed attempt to make it big at the Detroit Times. In his youth, Gus was the goalie who let a state championship get away, crushing Coach's dreams and earning the town's enmity. Now he's investigating the murder of his former coach. But even more unsettling to Gus are the holes in the town's past and the gnawing suspicion that those holes may conceal some dark and disturbing secrets secrets that some of the people closest to him may have killed to keep.

Read an excerpt from Starvation Lake, and learn more about the book and author at Bryan Gruley's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: Starvation Lake.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the best volcanoes in fiction

At the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best volcanoes in literature.

One title on the list:

The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

The destination of Frodo and Sam in Tolkien's fantasy classic is, naturally, Mount Doom, the belching volcano in Mordor where the Ring was originally forged. Near its summit, as the lava glows from the Cracks of Doom, the story will have its climax. The defeat of Sauron triggers a massive eruption.

Read about another novel on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Marcus Sakey's "The Amateurs"

This weekend's feature at the Page 99 Test: The Amateurs by Marcus Sakey.

About the book, from the publisher:

New from the “reigning prince of crime fiction”*: For four friends, there’s only one thing more dangerous than the men chasing them. Each other.

In just three novels, Marcus Sakey has staked a claim as “an astoundingly good writer,”* one whose believable characters—always ordinary people—face excruciating situations with life- or-death consequences. The Amateurs asks a chilling question: Do you get what you deserve, or what you take?

Alex is failing as a father. Ian keeps dangerous secrets. Jenn is pining for adventure; Mitch is pining for Jenn. Four friends just getting by. Every Thursday night they’ve found solace in a couple of beers and a couple of laughs. But months turn to years, and suddenly a decade is gone. None of them are where—or who—they hoped to be.

And they’ve decided to do something about it. To stop waiting, and start taking.

But what was supposed to be a victimless crime has become a bloody nightmare. People have been killed. A child is in danger. Ruthless men pursue them with relentless fury. And tensions they thought were long-buried threaten to destroy them. As their whole world begins to unravel, each will have to choose between their own life and the lives of others—including their best friends.

Read an excerpt from The Amateurs, and learn more about the author and his work at Marcus Sakey's website.

Marcus Sakey is the author of The Blade Itself, At the City's Edge, and Good People.

The Page 69 Test: The Blade Itself.

The Page 69 Test: At the City's Edge.

The Page 69 Test: Good People.

The Page 99 Test: The Amateurs.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Amy Cohen reading?

This weekend's featured contributor at Writers Read: Amy Cohen, author of The Late Bloomer's Revolution.

One paragraph from her entry:

I'm a big audio book person (I had the best time recording my own audio book), which I realize is sacrilege to some, but I'm thinking those "some" don't ride the NYC subways. I love me a good audio book. Rarely a week goes by when I don't listen to David Sedaris (I have Me Talk Pretty One Day and Naked on my i-pod). Recently I listened to two memoirs: J.R. Moehringer's The Tender Bar (about a boy in search of a father figure who finds several in his local bar) and Ruth Reichl's Garlic And Sapphires (the one where she's a critic in disguise -- just don't listen to it hungry, because her descriptions of thai noodles will leave you salivating.) I enjoyed both books a lot. I'm also a huge fan of Dylan Baker reading Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections. Lorrie Moore reading "You're Ugly Too" from her terrific collection of stories, Like Life. I love Lorrie Moore. She's so funny but also manages to punch you in the stomach on occasion. I always love listening to Meryl Streep, Blythe Danner and John Cheever reading The Collected Stories of John Cheever (his reading of "The Swimmer" is worth it alone -- he's got this great voice that evokes suburban scotch and cigarettes). But the greatest audio book has to be Jeremy Irons reading Lolita. I'd read it twice, but hearing him read it? The...[read on]

Amy Cohen was a writer/producer on the sitcoms Caroline in the City and Spin City, a dating columnist for the New York Observer, and the dating correspondent for cable TV's New York Central.

Among the praise for The Late Bloomer's Revolution:

"Late Bloomer's Revolution is a wry look at love and life. Amy's storytelling is irresistible throughout her foibles and her bittersweet triumph."
--Jeanette Walls, author of The Glass Castle

"Refreshing is too tame a word. In this world of contemporary literature, with its embarrassment of pink books featuring disembodied high heels on the cover (if only there were a name for this genre) The Late Bloomer's Revolution is a genuinely subversive work. It's also delightful. Amy Cohen is as funny and observant a writer as one could wish for, but it is her book's measured and elegant delineation of the very real difference between solitude and loneliness that will bring you up short."
--David Rakoff, author of Don't Get Too Comfortable and Fraud

Learn more about Amy Cohen and her book at her website and her MySpace page.

The Page 99 Test: The Late Bloomer's Revolution.

Writers Read: Amy Cohen.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Kwei Quartey's "Wife of the Gods"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey.

About the book, from the publisher:

Lyrical and captivating, Kwei Quartey’s debut novel brings to life the majesty and charm of Ghana–from the capital city of Accra to a small community where long-buried secrets are about to rise to the surface.

In a shady grove outside the small town of Ketanu, a young woman–a promising med student–has been found dead under suspicious circumstances. Eager to close the case, the local police have arrested a poor, enamored teenage boy and charged him with murder. Needless to say, they are less than thrilled when an outside force arrives from the big city to lead an inquiry into the baffling case.

Detective Inspector Darko Dawson, fluent in Ketanu’s indigenous language, is the right man for the job, but he hates the idea of leaving his loving wife and young son, a plucky kid with a defective heart. Pressured by his cantankerous boss, Dawson agrees to travel to Ketanu, sort through the evidence, and tie up the loose ends as quickly and as efficiently as possible. But for Dawson, this sleepy corner of Ghana is rife with emotional land mines: an estranged relationship with the family he left behind twenty-five years earlier and the painful memory of his own mother’s sudden, inexplicable disappearance. Dawson is armed with remarkable insight and a healthy dose of skepticism, but these gifts, sometimes overshadowed by his mercurial temper, may not be enough to solve this haunting mystery. In Ketanu, he finds that his cosmopolitan sensibilities clash with age-old customs, including a disturbing practice in which teenage girls are offered by their families to fetish priests as trokosi, or Wives of the Gods.

This is a compelling and unique mystery, enriched by an exotic setting and a vivid cast. And Inspector Darko Dawson–dedicated family man, rebel in the office, and ace in the field–is one of the most appealing sleuths to come along in years.

Read an excerpt from Wife of the Gods, and learn more about the book and author at Kwei Quartey's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: Wife of the Gods.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Elizabeth Spann Craig & Chloe

The current feature at Coffee with a Canine: Elizabeth Spann Craig & Chloe.

Elizabeth Spann Craig is the cozy mystery author of A Dyeing Shame, Death at the Beauty Box, and Pretty is as Pretty Dies, published by Midnight Ink.

She is also writing, under the pseudonym Riley Adams, the Memphis Barbeque mystery series for Penguin/Berkley (with the first book to debut Memorial Day weekend of 2010.)

The occasion for Coffee with a Canine?

Chloe and I were celebrating the August 1 release of my cozy mystery, "Pretty is as Pretty Dies." She’s been sooo excited about my book.

Among the praise for Pretty is as Pretty Dies:

"The amusing first in a new cozy series from Craig... Myrtle's wacky personality is a delight."
--Publishers Weekly

"Craig’s skill at evoking a small town and its idiosyncratic inhabitants renders this mystery a pleasure to read. I’m looking forward to the further exploits of Myrtle Clover.”
--Mystery Scene

Visit Elizabeth Spann Craig's website and her Mystery Writing is Murder blog.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Elizabeth Spann Craig & Chloe.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten musical novels

Joyce Hackett's fiction and non-fiction have appeared in publications including Harpers, The Paris Review, London Magazine, Boston Review, Prospect (UK), The Independent, Salon, and the Berlin Daily Der Tagespiegel.

Her first novel, Disturbance of the Inner Ear, won the 2003 the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Fiction by an American Woman.

In 2003 she named a top 10 list of musical novels for the Guardian. One novel on the list:

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Occasionally, after a few books, a writer gathers her bearings and hits pure, unalloyed ore. In this operatic novel, a group of international glitterati are taken hostage in a South American embassy by hapless terrorists. Trapped for weeks among them is a mega-soprano and her accompanist. As she practises day after day, her gorgeous singing shakes up everyone's assumptions about the identities they have formulated, and each person, hostage or captor, begins to find his or her best self. Under the spell of beautiful music, everyone becomes equal. Patchett's writing is spare, her spirit profoundly generous.

Read about another novel on the list.

Bel Canto also appears among Jessica Duchen's favorite works that express the power of music in words,

Visit Joyce Hackett's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Stephen H. Norwood's "The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower: Complicity and Conflict on American Campuses by Stephen H. Norwood.

About the book, from the publisher:

This is the first systematic exploration of the nature and extent of sympathy for Nazi Germany at American universities during the 1930s. Universities were highly influential in shaping public opinion and many of the nation’s most prominent university administrators refused to take a principled stand against the Hitler regime. Universities welcomed Nazi officials to campus and participated enthusiastically in student exchange programs with Nazified universities in Germany. American educators helped Nazi Germany improve its image in the West as it intensified its persecution of the Jews and strengthened its armed forces. The study contrasts the significant American grass-roots protest against Nazism that emerged as soon as Hitler assumed power with campus quiescence, and administrators’ frequently harsh treatment of those students and professors who challenged their determination to maintain friendly relations with Nazi Germany.

Read an excerpt from The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower, and learn more about the book at the Cambridge University Press website and from "Higher Ed and the Third Reich."

Learn more about the author's scholarship at Stephen H. Norwood's faculty webpage.

The Page 99 Test: The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower.

--Marshal Zeringue

Mahbod Seraji's "Rooftops of Tehran," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji.

The entry begins:

Marshal’s question of who should play my main characters in Rooftops of Tehran, if the book was ever turned into a movie was intriguing to me for a good reason. When an Advance Reader Copy of Rooftops was sent to me to proofread, I took it along on a trip to Iran, aiming to use the painfully protracted time on the plane to complete my assignment from my editor. Of course I have to admit that I loved holding my new book in my hands, feeling it, smelling it, looking at the title on the cover, at my name. My book was published, a childhood dream had come true – I couldn’t possibly part with it so soon after receiving it in the mail.

On the morning of my return from Iran, I was in the first class lounge of the Airport in Tehran, when I heard a loud group enter the room led, much to my surprise, by Annette Bening, dressed in a long overcoat, a pair of black jeans and a black scarf covering her blond hair. She was smiling, and looked confident with the commanding presence of an Oscar winning actor. She was walking toward the coffee counter accompanied by Alfre Woodard and Sid Ganis, all of them in Iran on a cultural exchange program according to the papers. It’s funny how a person like me pretends to be unaffected when in the presence of such big name celebrities.

A few minutes later we all boarded the plane. Annette and Sid sat two rows in front of me. Breakfast was served after takeoff, and...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Mahbod Seraji's website.

My Book, The Movie: Rooftops of Tehran.

--Marshal Zeringue

Best books: Leslie Cockburn

Leslie Cockburn is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and the director of American Casino, a documentary about the current economic crisis.

In May she named a best books list for The Week. One book on the list:

Infinity in the Palm of Her Hand by Gioconda Belli (Harper, $24).

With her latest novel, Belli rewrites the creation myth to give us Eve’s point of view. Her writing is deliciously sensual, like jumping into a vat of whipped cream.

Read about another book on Cockburn's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jeff Abbott's "Trust Me"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Trust Me by Jeff Abbott.

About the book, from the publisher:

On the new digital battlefront in the war on terror, one man will learn to negotiate the extremely thin line between unconditional trust and unspeakable betrayal.

Luke Dantry tells people he has a job on the cutting edge of the war on terror—only he knows it’s nowhere near as adrenaline-filled as he makes it sound. Luke’s nightly task working for his stepfather’s Washington think tank: Go undercover from the anonymous safety of his computer and infiltrate Web-based, home-grown terrorist networks, cataloging the screen names and details of a motley collection of rage-filled, mentally suspect, and mostly impotent loners he comes to call the Black Road. Now and then he encounters someone who may have the capability to make good on his threats, but Luke figures that the vast majority of his targets are simply frustrated malcontents using the Internet as an empty soapbox.

When Luke is kidnapped at gunpoint, without warning, and left for dead in an isolated cabin deep in the woods, he realizes it must be related to his work, and that the Black Road is far more organized than he thought—and much closer to home than he could have ever imagined. After a daring escape, with both the terrorist group and their enemies on his heels, he must quickly assemble a complex puzzle of convoluted histories and motives, where the final pieces extend deep into his own past—and where Luke himself may hold the key to stopping the Black Road before their spectacular plans come to horrible fruition.

Read an excerpt from Trust Me and watch the video trailer.

Learn more about the book and author at Jeff Abbott's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: Trust Me.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Tamora Pierce reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Tamora Pierce, bestselling author of fantasy books for teenagers including Bloodhound, the second book in the Beka Cooper series, which was released in April 2009.

Her entry begins:

Trigger by Susan Vaught

This is a fascinating book about Jersey, who’s home a year after he tried to kill himself with his dad’s gun. His brain and physical damage pose interesting challenges: a tendency to speak whatever words pop into his mouth, difficulty interpreting what people mean, the loss of the year before his attempt as well as parts of his year in the hospital after it. His parents’ marriage is in danger as they try to cope with him at home; his former best friend is furious with him for reasons he will not explain, while his friend’s younger sister has grown up into a beauty who’s willing to give Jersey a chance, and their grandmother is the only person who will speak to him honestly. It’s plain Jersey wasn’t...[read on]

Read more about about Tamora Pierce and her work at her website, LiveJournal, and Facebook page.

Learn more about the world of Beka Cooper. Terrier, the first volume in the series, earned a starred review from School Library Journal and the praise: "With its rollicking adventures [and] appealing characters ... Terrier will be in strong demand by Pierce's fans. It will keep readers on the edge of their seats."

Bloodhound is a New York Times bestseller and made the Kid's Indie Next List "Inspired Recommendations for Kids from Indie Booksellers."

Writers Read: Tamora Pierce.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: J. L. Schellenberg's "The Will to Imagine"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: The Will to Imagine: A Justification of Skeptical Religionby J. L. Schellenberg.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Will to Imagine completes J. L. Schellenberg's trilogy in the philosophy of religion, following his acclaimed Prolegomena to a Philosophy of Religion and The Wisdom to Doubt. This book marks a striking reversal in our understanding of the possibility of religious faith. Where other works treat religious skepticism as a dead end, The Will to Imagine argues that skepticism is the only point from which a proper beginning in religious inquiry-and in religion itself-can be made. For Schellenberg, our immaturity as a species not only makes justified religious belief impossible but also provides the appropriate context for a type of faith response grounded in imagination rather than belief, directed not to theism but to ultimism, the heart of religion. This new and nonbelieving form of faith, he demonstrates, is quite capable of nourishing an authentic religious life while allowing for inquiry into ways of refining the generic idea that shapes its commitments.

A singular feature of Schellenberg's book is his claim, developed in detail, that unsuccessful believers' arguments can successfully be recast as arguments for imaginative faith. Out of the rational failure of traditional forms of religious belief, The Will to Imagine fashions an unconventional form of religion better fitted, Schellenberg argues, to the human species as it exists today and as we may hope it will evolve.

Learn more about The Will to Imagine at the Cornell University Press website.

J. L. Schellenberg is Professor of Philosophy at Mount Saint Vincent University and Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at Dalhousie University. He is the author of Prolegomena to a Philosophy of Religion, The Wisdom to Doubt: A Justification of Religious Skepticism, and Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason.

The Page 99 Test: The Will to Imagine.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten time-travelling stories

Linda Buckley-Archer's time-travelling trilogy concludes with Time Quake, available in the U.S. in October.

For the Guardian, she named her top ten time-travelling stories. One title on the list:

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams

I was a student when I first heard Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on Radio 4 and recall rushing round to a friend's flat exclaiming "switch the radio on!" Douglas Adams is sorely missed and I often wonder what he would have been writing now. In this comic-sci-fi-fantasy-detective novel, Adams's wild plotting draws on quantum physics, Coleridge, not to mention a time machine that stops working when the telephone is mended, in order to prove the fundamental interconnectedness of all things.

Read about another book on Buckley-Archer's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Ray Taras & Zin and Zephyr

The current feature at Coffee with a Canine: Ray Taras & Zin and Zephyr.

Ray Taras is a visiting scholar at Stanford University. His many books include the recently released Europe Old and New: Transnationalism, Belonging, Xenophobia and Understanding Ethnic Conflict, 4th edition.

At the Campaign for the American Reader, he covers the Sundance Film Festival and reviews world literature, including:
Bernardo Atxaga's The Accordionist’s Son
Elina Hirvonen's When I Forgot
Joseph Boyden's Through Black Spruce
Per Petterson's To Siberia
Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger
Per Petterson's Out Stealing Horses
M.G. Vassanji's The Assassin's Song
3 Works by Dorota Masłowska
Andreï Makine's L’amour humain
Michel Houellebecq's The Possibility of an Island
Emmanuel Dongala's Johnny Mad Dog
Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide

About his border collies:

Border collies—lots of them—have entered our lives these last five years. I live in Salt Lake with wife Margie and twelve-year old daughter Gabby. Moving to the Intermountain West as a hurricane Katrina displaced person made this possible. The BCs that we have owned—they sometimes behave as if they own us—and the ones we have fostered—who arguably have fostered us—have come from Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah. Their names have been Zia, Zephyr, Zin, Zandy, Zorro, along with a Tux and a Meg.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Ray Taras & Zin and Zephyr.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69 & Pg. 99: Laura Moriarty's "While I'm Falling"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: While I'm Falling by Laura Moriarty.

About the book, from the publisher:

In While I’m Falling, Laura Moriarty presents a compelling depiction of how one young woman’s life changes when her family breaks up for good.

Ever since her parents announced that they’re getting divorced, Veronica has been falling. Hard. A junior in college, she has fallen in love. She has fallen behind in her difficult coursework. She hates her job as counselor at the dorm, and she longs for the home that no longer exists. When an attempt to escape the pressure, combined with bad luck, lands her in a terrifying situation, a shaken Veronica calls her mother for help—only to find her former foundation too preoccupied to offer any assistance at all.

But Veronica only gets to feel hurt for so long. Her mother shows up at the dorm with a surprising request—and with the elderly family dog in tow. Boyfriend complications ensue, along with her father’s sudden interest in dating. Veronica soon finds herself with a new set of problems, and new questions about love and independence.

Darkly humorous, beautifully written, and filled with crystalline observations about how families fall apart, While I’m Falling takes a deep look at the relationship between a daughter and a mother when one is trying to grow up and the other is trying to stay afloat.

Laura Moriarty received her master’s degree from the University of Kansas and was awarded the George Bennett Fellowship for Creative Writing at Phillips Exeter Academy. She is the author of The Center of Everything and The Rest of Her Life.

The Page 99 Test: The Rest of Her Life.

Writers Read: Laura Moriarty.

The Page 69 Test and Page 99 Test: While I'm Falling.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Vanessa Farquharson reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Vanessa Farquharson, author of Sleeping Naked is Green: How an Eco-Cynic Unplugged Her Fridge, Sold Her Car, and Found Love in 366 Days.

Her entry begins:

Being an arts journalist, an English Lit major, and the author of a book about the environment means that I always have multiple books on the go and they tend to be either a new bestseller, an old classic, or a green-themed book.

Right now, I don't have any contemporary stuff in my hands, but I very recently finished a book called The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson -- it came out last year and there was a lot of hype surrounding it because the author is this Canadian, a first-time novelist, who spent almost 10 years writing the manuscript before securing a hefty $1.25-million advance. The diction can be a bit over the top at times, and there was something about the main female character that drove me nuts, but it raises interesting questions about pain, atonement and...[read on]

Read more about Sleeping Naked is Green at the publisher's website.

Among the praise for Sleeping Naked is Green:

One step a day doesn't seem like much, but over the course of a whole year it adds up to a world of difference. This isn't just a well-written and fun book about going green, it is about watching a personal transformation. Being inspired was never so entertaining.
--Lloyd Alter, Treehugger.com

Lively and specific, Farquharson’s forthright chronicle of the ups and downs of green awareness is the perfect book for eco-skeptics.
--Donna Seaman, Booklist

Farquharson's appealing candor and nonsanctimonious attitude make other ecowarriors seem dour by comparison.
--Publishers Weekly

Learn more about Vanessa Farquharson at the Green as a Thistle blog.

View the sexy Portuguese cover of Sleeping Naked is Green.

Writers Read: Vanessa Farquharson.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Gerry Kearns' "Geopolitics and Empire"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Geopolitics and Empire: The Legacy of Halford Mackinder by Gerry Kearns.

About the book, from the publisher:

Geopolitics and Empire examines the relations between two phenomena that are central to modern conceptions of international relations. Geopolitics is the understanding of the inter-relations between empires, states, individuals, private companies, NGOs and multilateral agencies as these are expressed and shaped spatially. This view of the world achieved notoriety as the scientific basis claimed by Nazi ideologists of global conquest. However, under this or another name, similar sets of ideas were important on both sides of the Cold War and now have a renewed resonance in debates over the New World Order of the so-called Global War on Terror. Geopolitics is a way of describing the conflicts between states as constrained by both physical and economic space. It makes such conflicts seem inevitable.

The argument of the book is that this view of the world continues to appear salient because it serves to make the projection of force overseas seem an inevitable aspect of the foreign policy of states. This quasi-Darwinian view of international relations makes the pursuit of Empire appear a responsibility of larger and more powerful states. Powerful states must become Empires or submit to others seeking something similar. In its associations with Empire, the study of Geopolitics returns continually to the ideas of a British geographer who never himself used the term. Halford Mackinder is the source of many of the ideas of Geopolitics and by examining his ideas both in their original context and as they have been repeatedly rediscovered and reinvented this book contributes to current discussions of the ideology and practices of the US Empire today.

Learn more about Gerry Kearns' scholarship at his faculty webpage, and read more about Geopolitics and Empire at the Oxford University Press website. Listen to Kearns' interview with the BBC.

The Page 99 Test: Geopolitics and Empire.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five best books about baseball as a business

Richard J. Tofel, author of A Legend in the Making: The New York Yankees in 1939, named a list of the five best books on baseball as a business for the Wall Street Journal.

One title on the list:

As They See ’Em
by Bruce Weber
Scribner, 2009

Though not about home-run- ­hitting batters, fast-balling ­pitchers or pennant-winning managers, this is the best baseball book of any type in years. New York Times reporter Bruce Weber provides a fascinating tour of the subculture of Major League umpires—how they are trained, how they live and how they think. They are a tribal group, Weber says, with carefully crafted rituals and an intense focus on how to maintain respect. Weber recounts the confrontation ­between the umpires and MLB in 1999—the reverberations from which are still being felt in the tense relations between umpires and management. When it comes to automated systems that are ­designed to detect balls and strikes—a potential source for “reviewing” umpire calls—Weber acknowledges their accuracy but worries about their effect on the game. Overall, he provides a vivid portrait of what it feels like to have a job in which 50,000 people can happily and lawfully scream that you ought to be “killed.”

Read about another book on the list.

Also see Tom Werner's six favorite baseball books, Fay Vincent's five best list of baseball books, Tim McCarver's five best list of baseball books, and Nicholas Dawidoff's five best list of baseball novels.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Teri Coyne's "The Last Bridge"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: The Last Bridge by Teri Coyne.

About the book, from the publisher:

For ten years, Alexandra “Cat” Rucker has been on the run from her past. With an endless supply of bourbon and a series of meaningless jobs, Cat is struggling to forget her Ohio hometown and the rural farmhouse she once called home. But a sudden call from an old neighbor forces Cat to return to the home and family she never intended to see again. It seems that Cat’s mother is dead.

What Cat finds at the old farmhouse is disturbing and confusing: a suicide note, written on lilac stationery and neatly sealed in a ziplock bag, that reads: Cat, He isn’t who you think he is. Mom xxxooo

One note, ten words–one for every year she has been gone–completely turns Cat’s world upside down. Seeking to unravel the mystery of her mother’s death, Cat must confront her past to discover who “he” might be: her tyrannical, abusive father, now in a coma after suffering a stroke? Her brother, Jared, named after her mother’s true love (who is also her father’s best friend)? The town coroner, Andrew Reilly, who seems to have known Cat’s mother long before she landed on a slab in his morgue? Or Addison Watkins, Cat’s first and only love?

The closer Cat gets to the truth, the harder it is for her to repress the memory and the impact of the events that sent her away so many years ago.

Taut, gripping, and edgy, The Last Bridge is an intense novel of family secrets, darkest impulses, and deep-seated love. Teri Coyne has created a stunning tapestry of pain and passion where past and present are seamlessly interwoven to tell a story that sears and warms in equal measure.

Read an excerpt from The Last Bridge, and learn more about the book and author at Teri Coyne's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Last Bridge.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Christopher Davidson's "Abu Dhabi: Oil and Beyond"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Abu Dhabi: Oil and Beyond by Christopher M. Davidson.

About the book, from the publisher:

A rising economic power, Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates, is poised to become a major player in the fortunes of both Third and First World countries. Abu Dhabi owns more than 8 percent of the world's oil reserves, has close to one trillion dollars to invest in sovereign wealth funds, and is about to implement a masterful set of economic initiatives that will yield even greater returns.

Abu Dhabi has begun to eclipse its partner city, Dubai, in terms of sheer wealth and cultural and infrastructural development, opening the world's first Ferrari theme park and erecting satellite branches of the Guggenheim and the Louvre. Author of the best-selling Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success and an expert on Gulf politics, Christopher M. Davidson tracks Abu Dhabi's remarkable growth from a modest, eighteenth-century sheikhdom to its present opulent state. He recounts the dramatic efforts made by the emirate's dynastic family to retain their power, detailing the system of "tribal capitalism" they created in order to reconcile old political allegiances with modern engines of growth. Davidson concludes with potential challenges to Abu Dhabi's political and economic success, including a weakening of civil society, invasive media censorship, an ongoing labor crisis, increasing federal unrest, and persistent underperformance in the education sector.

Read more about Abu Dhabi: Oil and Beyond at the Columbia University press website.

Visit Christopher M. Davidson's website.

The Page 99 Test: Abu Dhabi: Oil and Beyond.

--Marshal Zeringue

Malcolm Jones' ten favorite crime novels

Newsweek's Malcolm Jones named his ten favorite crime novels.

One book on the list:

Double Indemnity, James M. Cain:

You'll never look at insurance salesmen quite the same. Pull down the shades, pull up the covers and don't plan on getting any sleep.

Read about another book on the list.

(H/t to Sarah Weinman, who writes that the "dude needs to read more women.")

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a Canine: Lois Lowry & Alfie

The current feature at Coffee with a Canine: Lois Lowry & Alfie.

Lois Lowry has published over 30 books for children, including the Newbery Award-winning Number the Stars (1990) and The Giver (1994).

On how Alfie got his name:

We went around and around about names. But then we looked at his papers more carefully and discovered that his mother was named Georgy Girl. Martin and I are old enough to remember those two British movies—"Georgy Girl" and "Alfie"—and the distinctive songs from them. The name fell right into place. And it’s a good name; it suits him, I think. He’s wry and clever and vulnerable, as Michael Caine was, playing Alfie in the film. And...[read on]

Sometimes, though, we say that we should have named him Elmer. He does stick to me like glue. If I’m in the shower, he’s on the floor beside the shower. If I’m asleep, he’s asleep at my feet. When I’m at my desk writing—he’s on the floor beside my desk, snoozing.

Visit Lois Lowry's website and blog. Also see: Writers Read: Lois Lowry.

Lowry's new book, Crow Call, is due out in October.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Lois Lowry & Alfie.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Mary Jane Clark's "Dying for Mercy"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Dying for Mercy by Mary Jane Clark.

About the book, from the publisher:

When death shatters the serenity of the exclusive moneyed enclave of Tuxedo Park, New York, Eliza Blake, cohost of the country's premier morning television show KEY to America, is on the scene. While attending a lavish gala at her friends' newly renovated estate, Pentimento, Eliza's host is found dead—a grotesque suicide that is the first act in a macabre and intricately conceived plan to expose the sins of the past involving some of the town's most revered citizens.

Determined to find out the truth, Eliza and her KEY News colleagues—producer Annabelle Murphy, cameraman B.J. D'Elia, and psychiatrist Margo Gonzalez—discover that Pentimento holds the key. Nestled in the park's sprawling architectural masterpieces, picturesque gardeners' cottages, and lush, rolling landscape, the glorious mansion is actually a giant "puzzle house," filled with ingenious clues hidden in its fireplaces, fountains, and frescoes that lead them from one suspicious locale to another—and, one by one, to the victims of a fiendish killer.

As Pentimento gives up its secrets, it becomes clear that no amount of wealth or privilege will keep the residents of Tuxedo Park safe. But just when Eliza unearths one final surprise, she comes face-to-face with a murderer who believes that some puzzles should never be solved.

Browse inside Dying for Mercy, and learn more about the book and author at Mary Jane Clark's website.

The Page 69 Test: Dying for Mercy.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Brian Schofield reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Brian Schofield, author of Selling Your Father's Bones.

One book from his entry:

The State of Africa (US title: The Fate of Africa) by Martin Meredith. It's an epic survey of a continent gone wrong, starting from colonial independence after World War 2, to the present day. I cannot recommend it too highly - to be part of humanity in 2009, you have to try to understand Africa, and this book offers a tremendous guide to the whole tragic saga....[read on]

Brian Schofield has been a journalist since 1998, and has worked as executive editor on GQ Active magazine, and as editor of the Sunday Times Travel Magazine. His writing has appeared in the New Statesman, The Sunday Times, the Independent on Sunday, The Daily Telegraph, Conde Nast Traveller, GQ and FHM.

His first book, Selling Your Father's Bones, a work of literary non-fiction on the history and ecology of the American North-West, was published by Simon & Schuster in the US.

Read about Schofield's top ten list of "furious books that scream at the system."

Visit Brian Schofield's website and blog.

Writers Read: Brian Schofield.

--Marshal Zeringue

Wendy Lee's "Happy Family," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Happy Family by Wendy Lee.

The entry begins:

If my book was made into a movie, the two most important roles to cast would be Jane, an art curator who lives with her theater-critic husband in New York; and Hua, the young Chinese immigrant who is hired as the nanny to Jane’s adopted daughter from China. Jane is intelligent and generous, but she is also almost willfully naïve in believing the best about other people. Hua’s heart has been toughened by the many losses in her life, but she responds eagerly to any glimmer of human warmth that comes her way.

I picture Julianne Moore as Jane, not only because both of them have red hair, but because Moore always seemed to me like the quintessential West Village mother. Years ago, before I moved to New York, I read in a magazine about Moore walking around the Village with her director husband and their baby—it just sounded so lovely and wholesome. It also made me want to move to New York so that I might run into Julianne Moore on the street.

Choosing an actress for Hua is harder, because...[read on]

Read an excerpt from Happy Family, and learn more about the book and author at Wendy Lee's website.

The Page 69 Test: Happy Family.

My Book, The Movie: Happy Family.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the best swimming scenes in fiction

At the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best swimming scenes in literature.

One title on the list:

The Beach by Alex Garland

Never in literature or life has so much time and energy been dedicated to finding a nice spot for a swim. Garland's novel about cool but doomed backpackers in Thailand is memorable for the exit from the perfect beach they have discovered – an underwater swim that makes all sensitive readers think they are about to drown.

Read about another swimming scene on Mullan's list.

The Beach also appears on the Guardian editors' list of the 50 best summer reads ever.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Elijah Wald's "How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music by Elijah Wald.

About the book, from the publisher:

"There are no definitive histories," writes Elijah Wald, in this provocative reassessment of American popular music, "because the past keeps looking different as the present changes." Earlier musical styles sound different to us today because we hear them through the musical filter of other styles that came after them, all the way through funk and hiphop.

As its blasphemous title suggests, How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll rejects the conventional pieties of mainstream jazz and rock history. Rather than concentrating on those traditionally favored styles, the book traces the evolution of popular music through developing tastes, trends and technologies--including the role of records, radio, jukeboxes and television --to give a fuller, more balanced account of the broad variety of music that captivated listeners over the course of the twentieth century. Wald revisits original sources--recordings, period articles, memoirs, and interviews--to highlight how music was actually heard and experienced over the years. And in a refreshing departure from more typical histories, he focuses on the world of working musicians and ordinary listeners rather than stars and specialists. He looks for example at the evolution of jazz as dance music, and rock 'n' roll through the eyes of the screaming, twisting teenage girls who made up the bulk of its early audience. Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and the Beatles are all here, but Wald also discusses less familiar names like Paul Whiteman, Guy Lombardo, Mitch Miller, Jo Stafford, Frankie Avalon, and the Shirelles, who in some cases were far more popular than those bright stars we all know today, and who more accurately represent the mainstream of their times.

Written with verve and style, How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll shakes up our staid notions of music history and helps us hear American popular music with new ears.

Read more about How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll at Elijah Wald's website.

The Page 99 Test: How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Brett Battles' "Shadow of Betrayal"

This weekend's feature at the Page 69 Test: Shadow of Betrayal by Brett Battles.

About the book, from the publisher:

The meeting place was carefully chosen: an abandoned church in rural Ireland just after dark. For Jonathan Quinn—a freelance operative and professional “cleaner”—the job was only to observe. If his cleanup skills were needed, it would mean things had gone horribly wrong. But an assassin hidden in a tree assured just that. And suddenly Quinn had four dead bodies to dispose of and one astounding clue—to a mystery that is about to spin wildly out of control.

Three jobs, no questions. That was the deal Quinn had struck with his client at the Office. Unfortunately for him, Ireland was just the first. Now Quinn, along with his colleague and girlfriend—the lethal Orlando—has a new assignment touched off by the killings in Ireland. Their quarry is a U.N. aide worker named Marion Dupuis who has suddenly disappeared from her assignment in war-torn Africa. When Quinn finally catches a glimpse of her, she quickly flees, frantic and scared. And not alone.

For Quinn the assignment has now changed. Find Marion Dupuis, and the child she is protecting, and keep them from harm. If it were only that easy.

Soon Quinn and Orlando find themselves in a bunker in the California hills, where Quinn will unearth a horrifying plot that is about to reach stage critical for a gathering of world leaders—and an act of terror more cunning, and more insidious, than anyone can guess.

Fast, smart, sleek, and stunning, Shadow of Betrayal is vintage Brett Battles: a gritty, gripping masterpiece of suspense, a thriller that makes the pulse pound—and stirs the heart as well.

Read an excerpt from Shadow of Betrayal, and learn more about the book and author at Brett Battles' website and blog. Shadow of Betrayal is the third book in the Jonathan Quinn series; it follows The Cleaner and The Deceived.

Read: Tim Hallinan interviews Brett Battles.

The Page 69 Test: The Cleaner.

The Page 69 Test: The Deceived.

The Page 69 Test: Shadow of Betrayal.

--Marshal Zeringue

Best books: Jason Kottke

Jason Kottke builds web sites and edits the famous kottke.org blog.

He named a best books list for The Week. One title on the list:

Beautiful Evidence by Edward R. Tufte (Graphics Press, $52).

Tufte is the world’s foremost authority on the presentation of data, and Beautiful Evidence is also his most accessible book. You don’t even need to read the words; the marvelous tables, charts, and photos tell you most of what you need to know. A strong argument for continuing to publish books on paper.

Read about another book on Kottke's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Carol Anne Davis reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Carol Anne Davis, author of true crime books and realistic crime novels. Her new book is Parents Who Kill: Murderers of Newborn, Pre-Teen And Teenage Children.

Her entry begins:

I’ve just finished Flat Earth News by Nick Davies (published by Vintage), a brilliant expose of modern journalism. He courageously examines our increasingly-corrupt global media and what he calls `the mass production of ignorance.’Having personally been misquoted by journalists - and had comments taken out of context - many times, I was already aware that what an interviewee says and what the public gets to read can vary wildly. I also knew that papers invented stories: one Sunday tabloid produced a feature about a celebrity prisoner being beaten up, but, at the time, I was doing research in that prison and know for a fact that the celebrity was unscathed.

I was also aware of how difficult it is to get...[read on]

Carol Anne Davis was born in Scotland but currently lives in England.

In 2007 she applied the Page 99 Test to her novel, Sob Story.

Ian Rankin has said of her work: "Carol Anne Davis writes with dangerous authority about the deadly everyday. Her work is dark in ways that Ruth Rendell and Minette Walters can only dream of. This is our world, skewed and skewered, revealed in its true sanguinary colours. You've got to read her."

The Page 99 Test: Sob Story.

Writers Read: Carol Anne Davis.

--Marshal Zeringue