Five of the best evil lieutenants in SF/F

Jeff Somers is the author of Lifers, the Avery Cates series from Orbit Books, Chum from Tyrus Books, and We Are Not Good People from Pocket/Gallery. He has published over thirty short stories as well. One of Somers's five best evil lieutenants (or "dragons") in SF/F, as shared at the B & N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog:

Best Backstory for an Evil Lieutenant: The Witch King of Angmar in The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings gets name-checked a lot when discussing just about anything in fantasy, so it’s no surprise it offers up one of the most coolest Dragons ever (one that is, yes, an actual dragon), the Witch King of Angmar, a.k.a. the Lord of the Nazgûl. Simply being the Black Captain of Mordor is cool enough, but the Witch King’s history—some of which is only detailed in Tolkien’s notes—makes him a tragic figure, too. Likely a Númenórean (and thus possibly Aragorn’s distant cousin), he was a powerful and noble man fooled into accepting one of Sauron’s Rings of power thousands of years before the events of the novels. Immortal, and with his already badass powers enhanced, the Witch King became the second-most feared entity in the world by the time a Hobbit and a young woman managed to kill him, fulfilling the prophecy that no man could harm him.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Lord of the Rings also made Jenny Kawecki's top eight list of fictional characters who would make the best travel companions, Kimberley Freeman's list of five books that changed her, SF Said's top ten list of unlikely heroes, Nicole Hill's top eight list of notable royal figures in fiction, Becky Ferreira's top seven list of bromances in literature, Nicole Hill's list of eleven of the most eccentric relatives in fiction, Nicole Hill's top seven list of literary wedding themes, Charlie Jane Anders's list of fifteen moments from science fiction and fantasy that will make absolutely anyone cry, Elizabeth Wein's top ten list of dynamic duos in fiction, Katharine Trendacosta and Charlie Jane Anders's list of the ten sources that inspired the dark storytelling of Game of Thrones, Rob Bricken's list of 11 preposterously manly fantasy series, Conrad Mason's top ten list of magical objects in fiction, Linus Roache's six best books list, Derek Landy's top ten list of villains in children's books, Charlie Jane Anders and Michael Ann Dobbs' list of ten classic SF books that were originally considered failures, Lev Grossman's list of the six greatest fantasy books of all time, and appears on John Mullan's lists of ten of the best women dressed as men, ten of the best bows and arrows in literature, ten of the best beards in literature, ten of the best towers in literature, ten of the best volcanoes in literature, ten of the best chases in literature, and ten of the best monsters in literature. It is one of Salman Rushdie's five best fantasy novels for all ages. It is a book that made a difference to Pat Conroy.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Nancy S. Steinhardt's "China's Early Mosques"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: China's Early Mosques by Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt.

About the book, from the publisher:

What happens when a monotheistic, foreign religion needs a space in which to worship in China, a civilisation with a building tradition that has been largely unchanged for several millennia? The story of this extraordinary convergence begins in the 7th century and continues under the Chinese rule of Song and Ming, and the non-Chinese rule of the Mongols and Manchus, each with a different political and religious agenda. The author shows that mosques, and ultimately Islam, have survived in China because the Chinese architectural system, though often unchanging, is adaptable: it can accommodate the religious requirements of Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, and Islam.

Learn more about China's Early Mosques at the Edinburgh University Press website.

Nancy S. Steinhardt is Professor of East Asian Art and Curator of Chinese Art at the University of Pennsylvania where she has taught since 1982. She received her PhD at Harvard in 1981 where she was a Junior Fellow from 1978-81. Steinhardt taught at Bryn Mawr from 1981-1982. She has broad research interests in the art and architecture of China and China's border regions, particularly problems that result from the interaction between Chinese art and that of peoples to the North, Northeast, and Northwest.

Steinhardt is author or co-author of Chinese Traditional Architecture (1984), Chinese Imperial City Planning (1990), Liao Architecture (1997), Chinese Architecture (2003), Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture (2005), Chinese Architecture and the Beaux-Arts (2011), Chinese Architecture in an Age of Turmoil, 200-600 (2014), and more than 70 scholarly articles.

The Page 99 Test: China's Early Mosques.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Tracy Weber's "Karma’s a Killer"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Karma's a Killer by Tracy Weber.

About the book, from the publisher:

When Seattle yoga teacher Kate Davidson agrees to teach doga (yoga for dogs) at a fundraiser for a local animal shelter, she believes the only damage will be to her reputation. But a few downward-facing dogs are the least of Kate’s problems when an animal rights protest at the event leads to a suspicious fire and a drowning.

The police arrest Dharma, a woman claiming to be Kate’s estranged mother, and charge her with murder. To prove Dharma’s innocence, Kate, her boyfriend Michael, and her German shepherd sidekick Bella dive deeply into the worlds of animal activism and organizational politics. As they investigate the dangerous obsessions that drive these groups, Kate and her sleuthing team discover that when it comes to murder, there’s no place like hOMe.

Visit Tracy Weber's website, blog, and Facebook page.

Coffee with a Canine: Tracy Weber and Tasha.

The Page 69 Test: Murder Strikes a Pose.

The Page 69 Test: A Killer Retreat.

The Page 69 Test: Karma's a Killer.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Nicole Trilivas reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Nicole Trilivas, author of Girls Who Travel.

Her entry begins:

To get me in the Christmas spirit, I’ve just downloaded My True Love Gave to Me, edited by Stephanie Perkins. After reading Perkin’s Anna And The French Kiss I feel in love with her more sweet-than-sexy stories and her fun plots that are not too challenging. I’m going away for Christmas, so I want something easy to read, lighthearted, and happy-spirited while...[read on]

About Girls Who Travel, from the publisher:

A hilarious, deftly written debut novel about a woman whose wanderlust is about to show her that sometimes you don’t have to travel very far to become the person you want to be…

There are many reasons women shouldn’t travel alone. But as foul-mouthed, sweet-toothed Kika Shores knows, there are many more reasons why they should. After all, most women want a lot more out of life than just having fun. Kika, for one, wants to experience the world.

But ever since she returned from her yearlong backpacking tour, she’s been steeped in misery, battling rush hour with all the other suits. Getting back on the road is all she wants. So when she’s offered a nanny job in London – the land of Cadbury Cream Eggs – she’s happy at the prospect of going back overseas and getting paid for it. But as she’s about to discover, the most exhilarating adventures can happen when you stay in one place…

Wise, witty, and hilarious, Girls Who Travel is an unforgettable novel about the highs and lows of getting what you want—and how it’s the things you least expect that can change your life.

Visit Nicole Trilivas's website.

Writers Read: Nicole Trilivas.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top modern medieval tales

Carolyne Larrington is Fellow and Tutor in Medieval English Literature at St John’s College, Oxford. Her books include Winter is Coming: The Medieval World of Game of Thrones. One of the author's top ten modern medieval tales, as shared at the Guardian:

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (1980)

This dazzling first novel has brilliant plotting and witty in-jokes (its hero – played by Sean Connery in the film version – is William of Baskerville in a nod to the great detective), combined with a profound understanding of medieval intellectual history. How might medieval – and, indeed, our own culture – have been different if Aristotle’s lost second book of the Poetics, exploring the importance of comedy, had survived? Vividly explaining the primary political and theological questions of the 13th century, the novel finds a kind of sequel in Baudolino (2000), but it’s this one that I regularly reread.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Name of the Rose is on Jeff Somers's list of ten books you should finally have read in 2015, S. J. Parris's list of five favorite historical murder mysteries, Ian Rankin's list of five perfect mysteries, John Mullan's top ten list of the most memorable libraries in literature, Andy McSmith's top 10 list books of the 1980s, and Vanora Bennett's list of five favorite historical novels.

--Marshal Zeringue

Lisa Goldstein's "Weighing Shadows," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Weighing Shadows by Lisa Goldstein.

The entry begins:

I don't usually think of real people when it comes to imagining my characters, but with Weighing Shadows my publisher asked me to come up with someone who looked like Ann Decker, the protagonist, so they could do a cover illustration. Which was a problem-- ­Ann in the novel is plain, nondescript, frequently overlooked. I'd made her that way on purpose because she becomes a double agent: she works for a corporation that sends her and other people back in time, but she grows suspicious of the corporation and finally tricks her way onto the fifth floor, the covert nerve­-center where all the decisions are made.

I did realize, of course, that nondescript people don't tend to sell books, but I still was having trouble coming up with something the publisher would like. Then my husband and I watched White Queen, a dramatization of the War of the Roses, and there she was, playing Anne Neville. The actor, Faye Marsay, could only be considered plain in Hollywood terms, meaning that she's merely very good­-looking instead of drop-­dead gorgeous, but something about her said Ann to me. And as an added bonus she...[read on]

Visit Lisa Goldstein's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Lisa Goldstein & Bonnie.

The Page 69 Test: Weighing Shadows.

My Book, The Movie: Weighing Shadows.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Stephen R. Bown's "White Eskimo"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: White Eskimo: Knud Rasmussen's Fearless Journey into the Heart of the Arctic by Stephen R. Bown.

About the book, from the publisher:

Among the explorers made famous for revealing hitherto impenetrable cultures—T. E. Lawrence and Wilfred Thesiger in the Middle East, Richard Burton in Africa—Knud Rasmussen stands out not only for his physical bravery but also for the beauty of his writing. Part Danish, part Inuit, Rasmussen made a courageous three-year journey by dog sled from Greenland to Alaska to reveal the common origins of all circumpolar peoples. Lovers of Arctic adventure, exotic cultures, and timeless legend will relish this gripping tale by Stephen R. Bown, known as "Canada’s Simon Winchester."

Learn more about the book and author at Stephen R. Bown's website and Facebook page.

My Book, The Movie: The Last Viking.

The Page 99 Test: White Eskimo.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is George Cotkin reading?

Featured at Writers Read: George Cotkin, author of Feast of Excess: A Cultural History of the New Sensibility.

His entry begins:

I really wasn’t prepared to make the commitment. The hoopla about the book had been substantial, but I felt immune to it. Then one day, while wandering a bookstore’s isles, I came upon it. Take a peek; no problem. Within a couple of pages, I was hooked. The 900 page plus book was now my constant companion. Even if it sagged a bit in the middle, Garth Risk Hallberg’s City on Fire was compelling in many ways, especially for a first novel. The characters were numerous and diverse, intersecting ingeniously, with personal and political themes interwoven. City on Fire was, in the end, about living in New York City at a particular historical moment, when punk rock was rocking and the investment sector was both reaping it in and being...[read on]

About Feast of Excess, from the publisher:

In 1952, John Cage shocked audiences with 4'33", his compositional ode to the ironic power of silence. From Cage's minimalism to Chris Burden's radical performance art two decades later (in one piece he had himself shot), the post-war American avant-garde shattered the divide between low and high art, between artist and audience. They changed the cultural landscape.

Feast of Excess is an engaging and accessible portrait of "The New Sensibility," as it was named by Susan Sontag in 1965. The New Sensibility sought to push culture in extreme directions: either towards stark minimalism or gaudy maximalism. Through vignette profiles of prominent figures-John Cage, Patricia Highsmith, Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol, Anne Sexton, John Coltrane, Bob Dylan, Erica Jong, and Thomas Pynchon, to name a few-George Cotkin presents their bold, headline-grabbing performances and places them within the historical moment.

This inventive and jaunty narrative captures the excitement of liberation in American culture. The roots of this release, as Cotkin demonstrates, began in the 1950s, boomed in the 1960s, and became the cultural norm by the 1970s.

More than a detailed immersion in the history of cultural extremism, Feast of Excess raises provocative questions for our present-day culture.

Learn more about Feast of Excess at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Dive Deeper.

The Page 99 Test: Feast of Excess.

Writers Read: George Cotkin.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Elizabeth Heiter's "Seized"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Seized by Elizabeth Heiter.

About the book, from the publisher:

Danger is all around her…

What should have been a routine investigation for FBI profiler Evelyn Baine turns ominous when she's kidnapped by a dangerous cult of survivalists. As her worst nightmares become a reality, she begins to question what she's seeing. Because the longer she's inside their compound, the more she realizes this group is not what it seems to be.

The next terrorist threat is right beside her…

As the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team closes in, Evelyn suspects she's stumbled onto an emerging terrorist threat—and a cult leader who has a score to settle with the FBI. If Hostage Rescue breaches the compound, Evelyn's dead for sure. If they don't, the cult may unleash a surprise attack that could leave the whole country shattered.

Visit Elizabeth Heiter's website.

My Book, The Movie: Vanished.

The Page 69 Test: Vanished.

The Page 69 Test: Seized.

--Marshal Zeringue

Twenty of the best books by women in 2015

One of the twenty best books by women in 2015, as shared at Good Housekeeping:

Early One Morning, by Virginia Baily

In the midst of WWII, Chiara Ravello is prepared to flee Rome. However, when she locks eyes with a woman and her son getting herded on a truck, Chiara makes the rash decision to save her son. Moments later panic ensues — she is only in her twenties, her sister requires constant care and she is about to embark on a dangerous journey. Several decades later she is haunted by how the boy wreaked havoc on her life, and when a girl calls her claiming to be his daughter she knows it's time to face the past.

Why we love it: It's an incredible story about one woman's decision to save a child. Utterly breathtaking.

Read about another book on the list.

My Book, The Movie: Early One Morning.

Writers Read: Virginia Baily.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Carolyn Brown reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Carolyn Brown, author of The Wedding Pearls.

Her entry begins:

I'm reading two different novellas right now. I went on a inspiration cruise back in April with two amazing authors, Barbara Longley and Heather Burch. We were given the royal
treatment on the Princess Cruise so we could go home and write a story about a couple who fell in love on the cruise.

Now I’m reading the other two author’s stories and enjoying them very much. Once Upon a Night at Sea by Longley is about a couple who definitely did not expect to see each other or to...[read on]

About The Wedding Pearls, from the publisher:

Tessa Wilson’s life is all over the map. She may be clumsy, but this time she’s stumbled into a pickle by choice, not by accident. She’s agreed to take a month-long trip around Texas jammed into a ’59 Cadillac with a drama-loving teenager, two elderly spitfires, and—oh, yes—her biological mama who gave her away at birth. And the ride gets even crazier when hot-as-sin cowboy Branch Thomas crosses into her lane. They don’t call him the sexiest man in the Lone Star State for nothin’.

As the miles pass and sparks fly between Tessa and Branch, her grandmother starts dropping hints about family wedding traditions. And as Tessa discovers the power of her budding friendships and the unbreakable strength of her newfound family of strong Texas women, she wonders if she’s also on the road to the biggest adventure of all: true love.

Visit Carolyn Brown's website and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: The Wedding Pearls.

Writers Read: Carolyn Brown.

--Marshal Zeringue

Theresa Kaminski's "Angels of the Underground," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Angels of the Underground: The American Women who Resisted the Japanese in the Philippines in World War II by Theresa Kaminski.

The entry begins:

I can’t decide if Angels of the Underground needs to be a movie or a miniseries--maybe a miniseries that becomes so popular its fans demand a feature movie.

Whether translated to big screen or small, Patricia Clarkson must play Margaret (Peggy) Utinsky. A nurse by profession, Peggy organized the Miss U underground network in Manila, masking her true nationality to avoid internment. She was clever, stubborn, and temperamental. Clarkson and Peggy are visually similar, both blonde and fair, petite but strong, with interesting, attractive faces. Clarkson, queen of indie movies (Pieces of April, The Station Agent, and Lars and the Real Girl), shimmers in any role she takes on, and she would be particularly good at capturing Peggy’s...[read on]

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

The Page 99 Test: Angels of the Underground.

Writers Read: Theresa Kaminski.

My Book, The Movie: Angels of the Underground.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top kitchens in literature

John O'Connell is a former Senior Editor at Time Out; he now writes for the Guardian and the Times. His new book is The Book of Spice.

One of O'Connell's top ten kitchens in literature, as shared at the Guardian:

American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis (1991)

Patrick Bateman’s description of his kitchen is probably the most exhaustingly and teemingly empty description of anything in the whole of postwar American literature. This is just a taste: “Next to the Panasonic bread baker and the Salton Pop-Up coffee maker is the Cremina sterling silver espresso maker (which is, oddly, still warm) that I got at Hammacher Schlemmer (the thermal-insulated stainless-steel espresso cup and the saucer and spoon are sitting by the sink, stained) and the Sharp Model R-1810A Carousel II microwave oven with revolving turntable which I use when I heat up the other half of the bran muffin.” And so on.

Read about another entry on the list.

American Psycho appears on Seth Grahame-Smith's list of six favorite books about literal and metaphorical monsters, Ginni Chen's list of the eight grinchiest characters in literature, Whitney Collins's top sixteen list of totally awesome books that every Gen Xer needs, Chrissie Gruebel's top six list of fictional fashion icons, Jonathan Lee's list of the ten best office dramas in print and on screen, John Mullan's lists of ten of the best bankers in literature and ten of the best zoos in literature, Richard Gwyn's list of ten books in which things end badly, Nick Brooks' top ten list of literary murderers and Chris Power's list of his six top books on the 1980s. It is a book that Nick Cross "Finished Reading but Wanted My Time Back Afterwards."

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Felipe Fernandez-Armesto's "A Foot in the River"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: A Foot in the River: Why Our Lives Change - and the Limits of Evolution by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto.

About the book, from the publisher:

We are a weird species. Like other species, we have a culture. But by comparison with other species, we are strangely unstable: human cultures self-transform, diverge, and multiply with bewildering speed. They vary, radically and rapidly, from time to time and place to place. And the way we live - our manners, morals, habits, experiences, relationships, technology, values - seems to be changing at an ever accelerating pace. The effects can be dislocating, baffling, sometimes terrifying. Why is this?

In A Foot in the River, best-selling historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto sifts through the evidence and offers some radical answers to these very big questions about the human species and its history - and speculates on what these answers might mean for our future. Combining insights from a huge range of disciplines, including history, biology, anthropology, archaeology, philosophy, sociology, ethology, zoology, primatology, psychology, linguistics, the cognitive sciences, and even business studies, he argues that culture is exempt from evolution. Ultimately, no environmental conditions, no genetic legacy, no predictable patterns, no scientific laws determine our behaviour. We can consequently make and remake our world in the freedom of unconstrained imaginations.

A revolutionary book which challenges scientistic assumptions about culture and how and why cultural change happens, A Foot in the River comes to conclusions which readers may well find by turns both daunting and also potentially hugely liberating.

Learn more about A Foot in the River at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: A Foot in the River.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six of YA lit's best Shakespeare retellings

At the B & N Teen Blog, Jenny Kawecki tagged six of Young Adult lit's best Shakespeare retellings, including:

Still Star-Crossed, by Melinda Taub

Okay, look, Romeo and Juliet has always seemed a little silly to me (I will argue forever that Shakespeare intended it to be a comedy). Lucky for me, this retelling focuses on the “what happens after” for two of my favorite characters: lovable Benvolio and heartless Rosaline. The powers that be declare the only way to end the feud between Capulets and Montagues forever is to have a marriage between them, which means that Romeo’s best friend, still mourning, finds himself engaged to the girl who rejected Romeo not that long ago. Rosaline, stubborn as ever, is having none of it—but she does have a plan.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jen Klein's "Jillian Cade: (Fake) Paranormal Investigator"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Jillian Cade: (Fake) Paranormal Investigator by Jen Klein.

About the book, from the publisher:

Jillian Cade doesn’t believe in the paranormal, unlike her famous father, a professor and expert on the occult. Ever since he abandoned her to travel the world for “research,” she’s milked his reputation — and all the suckers who believe in the stuff — by taking over his private investigation firm. After all, a high school junior has to take care of herself, especially when she’s on her own.

Ironically, it’s when she takes on a case that might involve a totally non-paranormal missing person that things get strange. Particularly when Sky Ramsey — a new boy at school who insists on becoming her partner — won’t shut up about succubi, of all things.

As they investigate, Jillian is surprised by her feelings for Sky, which threaten to derail the investigation. But that surprise is no match for the shock of learning that there may be something to Sky’s succubi obsession after all.

Visit Jen Klein's website.

The Page 69 Test: Jillian Cade: (Fake) Paranormal Investigator.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Kate Gavino reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Kate Gavino, author of Last Night's Reading: Illustrated Encounters with Extraordinary Authors.

Her entry begins:

I just finished The Odd Woman and the City by Vivian Gornick, which I picked up because, like her, I take incredibly long walks around New York. The book has great insights about friendship, especially the ways we distance even our closest friends. Also, there’s some juicy gossip about the author’s love life, which I am shameless enough to admit always interests me.

Right now I’m reading Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta. I picked it up after seeing the author read in Harlem, and I’m happy I did. I love books with tense mother-daughter relationships, and this one has that in spades. I’m already...[read on]

About Last Night's Reading, from the publisher:

Irresistible illustrations of authors and the charming, wise, and hilarious things they say at their readings

Why do we go to book readings? For a chance to see the authors we love come to life off the page, answering our questions and proving to be the brilliant, witty people we catch glimpses of through their work. Illustrator Kate Gavino captures the wonder of this experience firsthand. At every reading she attends, Kate hand-letters the event’s most memorable quote alongside a charming portrait of the author. In Last Night’s Reading, Kate takes us on her journey through the literary world, sharing illustrated insight from more than one hundred of today’s greatest writers—including Zadie Smith, Junot Diaz, Lev Grossman, Elizabeth Gilbert, and many more—on topics ranging from friendship and humor to creativity and identity. A celebration of authors, reading, and bookstores, this delightful collection is an advice book like no other and a love letter to the joy of seeing your favorite author up close and personal.

Visit Kate Gavino's website.

Writers Read: Kate Gavino.

--Marshal Zeringue

Bruce E. Baker & Barbara Hahn's "The Cotton Kings," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Cotton Kings: Capitalism and Corruption in Turn-of-the-Century New York and New Orleans by Bruce E. Baker and Barbara Hahn.

The entry begins:

While we were working on this book, or maybe in the early days when we still thought it would only be a journal article, Barbara described it to someone as a “zinger” of a story. And it is. The journalist Edwin Lefèvre wrote at the time our story was unfolding, “The history of the bull speculation in cotton of 1903 will never be fully written, because, though the men who influenced it are very interesting, their operations are interwoven with bloodless statistics and tiresome technicalities.” Bloodless statistics there are, but they are more than balanced by interesting characters, none more so that William P. Brown. Born along the Buttahatchie River in Mississippi at the beginning of the Civil War, Brown was an orphan by his teens and a small-town businessman by his mid-twenties. He was also known “through the Mississippi delta as one of the best poker players that ever handled a card" and “owned the finest lot of fighting chickens in the state.” By the time he was in his mid-thirties, Brown had become a cotton broker, mixing with the great and the good in New Orleans, and married into a prominent family. He...[read on]

Learn more about The Cotton Kings at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Cotton Kings.

My Book, The Movie: The Cotton Kings.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top six often misunderstood SF/F novels

Jeff Somers is the author of Lifers, the Avery Cates series from Orbit Books, Chum from Tyrus Books, and We Are Not Good People from Pocket/Gallery. He has published over thirty short stories as well. One of Somers's six often misunderstood SF/F novels, as shared at the B & N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog:

The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood

It’s not so much that this incredible novel is incorrectly interpreted—it’s feminist themes and exploration of a truly misogynistic society are crystal clear—so much as most readers don’t dig deep enough into it. The secret is that Atwood doesn’t paint a simplistic men-are-evil picture with her dystopian society, in which women are more or less breeding property; she explores how both sexes support and contribute to a horrifying vision of a future American society. Yes, it is clearly men who have reshaped the world in order to strip women of all political, economic, and legal power, but the women of the Republic of Gilead are often willing, cruel participants in the Handmaids’ oppression. This sort of shading is what makes this book orders of magnitude better than dystopian writing that relies on a simplistic “us vs. them” scenario.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Handmaid's Tale made Jason Sizemore's top five list of books that will entertain and drop you into the depths of despair, S.J. Watson's list of four books that changed him, Shaun Byron Fitzpatrick's list of eight of the most badass ladies in all of banned literature, Guy Lodge's list of ten of the best dystopias in fiction, art, film, and television, Bethan Roberts's top ten list of novels about childbirth, Rachel Cantor's list of the ten worst jobs in books, Charlie Jane Anders and Kelly Faircloth's list of the best and worst childbirth scenes in science fiction and fantasy, Lisa Tuttle's critic's chart of the top Arthur C. Clarke Award winners, and PopCrunch's list of the sixteen best dystopian books of all time.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: George Cotkin's "Feast of Excess"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Feast of Excess: A Cultural History of the New Sensibility by George Cotkin.

About the book, from the publisher:

In 1952, John Cage shocked audiences with 4'33", his compositional ode to the ironic power of silence. From Cage's minimalism to Chris Burden's radical performance art two decades later (in one piece he had himself shot), the post-war American avant-garde shattered the divide between low and high art, between artist and audience. They changed the cultural landscape.

Feast of Excess is an engaging and accessible portrait of "The New Sensibility," as it was named by Susan Sontag in 1965. The New Sensibility sought to push culture in extreme directions: either towards stark minimalism or gaudy maximalism. Through vignette profiles of prominent figures-John Cage, Patricia Highsmith, Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol, Anne Sexton, John Coltrane, Bob Dylan, Erica Jong, and Thomas Pynchon, to name a few-George Cotkin presents their bold, headline-grabbing performances and places them within the historical moment.

This inventive and jaunty narrative captures the excitement of liberation in American culture. The roots of this release, as Cotkin demonstrates, began in the 1950s, boomed in the 1960s, and became the cultural norm by the 1970s.

More than a detailed immersion in the history of cultural extremism, Feast of Excess raises provocative questions for our present-day culture.

Learn more about Feast of Excess at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Dive Deeper.

The Page 99 Test: Feast of Excess.

--Marshal Zeringue

The twelve best books of 2015 that didn't get enough attention

One title from Brooklyn Magazine's list of the twelve best under-appreciated books of 2015:

After Birth Elisa Albert

In reviewing After Birth for the New York Times, author Merritt Tierce predicted that the novel would “no doubt… be ­shunted into one of the lesser subcanons of ­contemporary literature, like ‘women’s fiction,'” though it ought, Tierce continued, be considered “as essential as The Red Badge of Courage.” Which is exactly right, of course: Albert’s novel is an unflinching look at the trials and tribulations of new motherhood, yes, but also the realities of being a woman and the attendant never-ending quest to find a place in a society that doesn’t want to make room for us on our own terms and it is as much a story of heroism and personal maturation as is Crane’s classic. It is easily one of the best books of this year, and, really, any other.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: After Birth.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Theresa Kaminski reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Theresa Kaminski, author of Angels of the Underground: The American Women who Resisted the Japanese in the Philippines in World War II.

Her entry begins:

I adore historical fiction, and I’m usually reading two novels at once (one upstairs, one down). I envy the license novelists have with characters and plot, and marvel at their inventiveness with time period and setting. Kate Atkinson’s A God in Ruins, the tender, melancholy story of World War II veteran Teddy Todd, is a sublime example. It’s a knockout follow-up to Life After Life, which, like A God in Ruins, makes such astonishing use of 20th century history. That book is...[read on]

About Angels of the Underground, from the publisher:

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

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

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

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

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

The Page 99 Test: Angels of the Underground.

Writers Read: Theresa Kaminski.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five sci-fi & fantasy books with fabulous first sentences

Erin Bow's latest novel is The Scorpion Rules. At Tor.com she shared five top YA science fiction and fantasy books with fabulous first sentences, including:

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

Day One: My lady and I are being shut up in a tower for seven years.

I once heard Joseph Boyden say one key to keeping readers is making them a promise on the first page. He spoke of his own book, in which one character has an addiction to morphine, a two-day supply, and a three-day journey home. Three-Day Road, it’s called. I dare you not to read it.

I also dare you not to read Hale’s Book of a Thousand Days, which is a Mongolian-flavored retelling of the fairy tale Maid Maleen: a princess defies her father, who seals into a tower for seven years. One faithful servant refuses to leave her lady’s side. But seven years is a long time, and the food is running low…

Call a book a Book of A Thousand Days, and open day one with the only window being bricked up slowly? Do you promise? Because I’m yours.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Christine Husom's Snow Globe Shop Mysteries & Winnebago County Mysteries, the movies

Featured at My Book, the Movie: Snow Globe Shop Mysteries & Winnebago County Mysteries by Christine Husom.

The entry begins:

I’m a bit stumped when asked who I’d like to play the characters in my mystery series if the books were made into movies. In the Winnebago County Mysteries, I had some help when one of my readers told me she imagines Anson Mount as Detective Elton “Smoke” Dawes. I agree Anson would be a great choice. I also see Smoke as a younger, thinner Tom Selleck.

As for an actor to play Sergeant Corinne “Corky” Aleckson—of the more famous actresses, Reese Witherspoon fits her physical description fairly well, and is possibly a good match. But I think I’d look for...[read on]

Visit Christine Husom's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Iced Princess.

The Page 69 Test: Secret in Whitetail Lake.

Writers Read: Christine Husom.

My Book, the Movie: Snow Globe Shop Mysteries & Winnebago County Mysteries.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: David Wellington's "Positive"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Positive: A Novel by David Wellington.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the bestselling vein of Guillermo Del Toro and Justin Cronin, the acclaimed author of Chimera and The Hydra Protocol delivers his spectacular breakout novel—an entertaining page-turning zombie epic that is sure to become a classic.

Anyone can be positive...

The tattooed plus sign on Finnegan's hand marks him as a Positive. At any time, the zombie virus could explode in his body, turning him from a rational human into a ravenous monster. His only chance of a normal life is to survive the last two years of the potential incubation period. If he reaches his twenty-first birthday without an incident, he'll be cleared.

Until then, Finn must go to a special facility for positives, segregated from society to keep the healthy population safe. But when the military caravan transporting him is attacked, Finn becomes separated. To make it to safety, he must embark on a perilous cross-country journey across an America transformed—a dark and dangerous land populated with heroes, villains, madmen, and hordes of zombies. And though the zombies are everywhere, Finn discovers that the real danger may be his fellow humans.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome meets World War Z and I Am Legend in this thrilling tale that has it all: a compelling story, great characters, and explosive action, making Positive the ultimate zombie novel of our time.

Learn more about the book and author at David Wellington's website.

The Page 69 Test: Chimera.

The Page 69 Test: The Hydra Protocol.

The Page 69 Test: Positive.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the best New Year’s Eves in culture

Michael Hogan writes about lifestyle and entertainment, specializing in pop culture and TV. For the Guardian he rounded up the ten best New Year’s Eves in culture--film, television, and fiction--including:

A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby

Not the happiest Hogmanay in culture, admittedly, but Nick Hornby’s 2005 novel opens with its four main characters accidentally choosing the same London roof to jump from on New Year’s Eve. Their plans for a solitary death ruined, TV host Martin (an Alan Partridge-meets-Richard Madeley figure), lonely single mother Maureen, rudely angsty teenager Jess and failed rock star JJ form a pact, agreeing to postpone their suicides. The story unfolds in unexpected directions from there, involving an angel (who looks like a naked Matt Damon), a long-lost sister and a group holiday to Tenerife. Read the blackly comic book rather than subjecting yourself to last year’s godawful film adaptation.

Read about another entry on the list.

A Long Way Down is among Jeff Somers's five memorable books set on New Year’s Eve (and Day).

Also see: John Mullan's ten most notable New Years in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Lisa Goldstein & Bonnie

Featured at Coffee with a Canine: Lisa Goldstein & Bonnie.

The author, on how Bonnie got her name:

Bonnie and her brother went through about four homes and foster homes together, and when they arrived at the Milo Foundation someone named them Bonnie and Clyde. I don't know if this was because of her anti-authoritarian streak, but in any case we didn't see it as a warning. Perhaps we should have…...[read on]

About Goldstein's Weighing Shadows, from the publisher:

Ann Decker fixes computers for a living, and in the evenings she passes the time sharpening her hacking skills. It’s not a very interesting life, but she gets by—until one day she’s contacted with a job offer for a company called Transformations Incorporated. None of her coworkers have ever heard of it before, and when Ann is finally told what the company does, she can hardly believe it: TI has invented technology to travel in time.

Soon Ann is visiting a matriarchy in ancient Crete, and then a woman mathematician at the Library of Alexandria. But Transformations Incorporated remains shrouded in mystery, and when Ann finally catches her breath, there are too many troubling questions still unanswered. Who are Transformations Incorporated, and what will they use this technology to gain? What ill effects might going back in time have on the present day? Is it really as harmless as TI says?

When a coworker turns up dead, Ann’s superiors warn her about a covert group called Core out to sabotage the company. Something just isn’t right, but before she has time to investigate, Ann is sent to a castle in the south of France, nearly a thousand years in the past. As the armies of the Crusade arrive to lay siege, and intrigue grows among the viscount’s family, Ann will discover the startling truth—not just about the company that sent her there, but also about her own past.

Visit Lisa Goldstein's website.

The Page 69 Test: Weighing Shadows.

Coffee with a Canine: Lisa Goldstein & Bonnie.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Roger Crowley's "Conquerors"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire by Roger Crowley.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Empires of the Sea and City of Fortune, New York Times bestselling author Roger Crowley established himself as our generation’s preeminent historian of the great European seafaring empires, and the go-to author for post-Crusade clashes of East and West. Now, in Conquerors, Crowley gives us the epic story of the emergence of Portugal, a small, poor nation that enjoyed a century of maritime supremacy thanks to the daring and navigational skill of its explorers—a tactical advantage no other country could match. Portugal’s discovery of a sea route to India, campaign of imperial conquest over Muslim rulers, and domination of the spice trade would forever disrupt the Mediterranean and build the first global economy.

Crowley relies on letters and eyewitness testimony to tell the story of tiny Portugal’s rapid and breathtaking rise to power. Conquerors reveals the Império Português in all of its splendor and ferocity, bringing to life the personalities of the enterprising and fanatical house of Aviz. Figures such as King Manuel “the Fortunate,” João II “the Perfect Prince,” marauding governor Afonso de Albuquerque, and explorer Vasco da Gama juggled their private ambitions and the public aims of the empire, often suffering astonishing losses in pursuit of a global fortune. Also central to the story of Portugal’s ascent was its drive to eradicate Islamic culture and establish a Christian empire in the Indian Ocean. Portuguese explorers pushed deep into the African continent in search of the mythical Christian king Prester John, and they ruthlessly besieged Indian port cities in their attempts to monopolize trade.

The discovery of a route to India around the horn of Africa was not only a brilliant breakthrough in navigation but heralded a complete upset of the world order. For the next century, no European empire was more ambitious, no rulers more rapacious than the kings of Portugal. In the process they created the first long-range maritime empire and set in motion the forces of globalization that now shape our world. At Crowley’s hand, the complete story of the Portuguese empire and the human cost of its ambition can finally be told.

Visit Roger Crowley's website.

Writers Read: Roger Crowley.

The Page 99 Test: Conquerors.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Christine Husom reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Christine Husom, author of The Iced Princess.

Her entry begins:

I finished Unidentified Woman #15 by Edgar Award Winning author David Housewright last night. I was happy to sit down with it a few late evenings this week, not just because David has become a friend of mine, but also because he’s a fine writer who knows how to weave together the elements that make a great mystery tale. Unidentified Woman #15 continues the bestselling Mac McKenzie Mystery series.

Rushmore McKenzie is driving on an Interstate in the Twin Cities during a snow storm when a young woman, who is bound, is dumped from a truck he’s behind. Mac avoids running over her, but...[read on]

About The Iced Princess, from the publisher:

The national bestselling author of Snow Way Out returns with more sparkling snow globes and cold-blooded murder…

It’s that time of the year again—the Christmas rush is about to begin, and curio shop owner Camryn Brooks and her BFF, coffee shop owner Alice “Pinky” Nelson, need to hire additional help. Their former high-school classmate, Molly Dalton, is not exactly who they had in mind. Has the rich socialite worked a day in her life? But Molly practically begs for the job.

On her first day, Molly seems to be in her own little world, and Cami worries that her new employee may flake out. The problem turns out to be far worse than that when Cami discovers Molly dead in the back of the shop, after drinking a poisoned cup of coffee. Soon there is an avalanche of suspects as Cami starts shoveling through the clues—including a shattered snow globe of Marilyn Monroe. Now Cami will have to venture out of her safety zone before the pathological poisoner stirs up more trouble…

Visit Christine Husom's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Iced Princess.

The Page 69 Test: Secret in Whitetail Lake.

Writers Read: Christine Husom.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top novels set in the past and the present

Rhian Ivory's latest novel is The Boy who Drew the Future. One of her ten favorite novels set in the past and the present, as shared at the Guardian:

Darkmere by Helen Maslin

My twitter feed has been buzzing with positivity about this book and now I’ve read it I can see why. Curses, tunnels, towers and castles all feature in this gothic dual narrative told in alternating chapters by Katy in the present day and Elinor in the past. Maslin leads the reader back and forth in time weaving a web of clues to follow, luring us into the history of the castle in the 19th century as the events of the past seep into the lives of Katy, Leo and the rest of the gang in the present. Reminiscent of the iconic Rebecca in places, fans of Du Maurier will enjoy Darkmere very much.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Ian Tregillis's "The Rising"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Rising by Ian Tregillis.

About the book, from the publisher:

The second book in the Alchemy Wars trilogy by Ian Tregillis, an epic tale of liberation and war.

Jax, a rogue Clakker, has wreaked havoc upon the Clockmakers' Guild by destroying the Grand Forge. Reborn in the flames, he must begin his life as a free Clakker, but liberation proves its own burden.

Berenice, formerly the legendary spymaster of New France, mastermind behind her nation's attempts to undermine the Dutch Hegemony -- has been banished from her homeland and captured by the Clockmakers Guild's draconian secret police force.

Meanwhile, Captain Hugo Longchamp is faced with rallying the beleaguered and untested defenders of Marseilles-in-the-West for the inevitable onslaught from the Brasswork Throne and its army of mechanical soldiers.

Learn more about the book and author at Ian Tregillis's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Rising.

--Marshal Zeringue

Mario Erasmo's "Strolling Through Rome," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Strolling Through Rome: The Definitive Walking Guide to the Eternal City by Mario Erasmo.

The entry begins:

Guide/Narrator: Colin Firth

Event: Sack of Rome in 1527 but there are many pivotal events and history makers in Rome's storied past worthy of more plays by Shakespeare or Racine or operas by Monteverdi or Purcell, including the martyrdom of St. Lawrence (258); the execution of Constantine's second wife Fausta and his son Crispus from his first marriage instigated by Constantine's mother Helena potentially for adultery (326); the meeting between St. Francis and St. Dominic in the church of Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill in 1215; and the political fortunes of the populist leader Cola di Rienzo (1313-1354) that pitted him against the papacy and the powerful Colonna and Orsini families until his short-lived return to papal favour for assistance in returning power to Rome from Avignon.

Scene: Vatican Corridor to Castel Sant' Angelo

Pope Clement VII de' Medici (Privileged; Detached; Wavering): Daniel...[read on]

The Page 99 Test: Death: Antiquity and Its Legacy.

Writers Read: Mario Erasmo.

The Page 99 Test: Strolling Through Rome.

My Book, The Movie: Strolling Through Rome.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Bruce E. Baker & Barbara Hahn's "The Cotton Kings"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Cotton Kings: Capitalism and Corruption in Turn-of-the-Century New York and New Orleans by Bruce E. Baker and Barbara Hahn.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Cotton Kings relates a rip-roaring drama of competition in the marketplace and reveals the damage markets can cause when they do not work properly. It also explains how they can be fixed through careful regulation. At the turn of the twentieth century, cotton was still the major agricultural product of the American South and an important commodity for world industry. Key to marketing cotton were futures contracts, traded at exchanges in New York and New Orleans. Futures contracts had the potential to hedge risk and reduce price volatility, but only if the markets in which they were traded worked properly. Increasing corruption on the powerful New York Cotton Exchange pushed prices steadily downwards in the 1890s, impoverishing millions of cotton farmers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture tried to solve the problem with better crop predictions and market information, shared equally and simultaneously with all participants, but these efforts failed.

To fight the cotton market's corruption, cotton brokers in New Orleans, led by William P. Brown and Frank Hayne, began quietly to assemble resources. They triumphed in the summer of 1903, when they cornered the world market in cotton and raised its price to reflect the reality of increasing demand and struggling supply. The brokers' success pushed up the price of cotton for the next ten years. However, the structural problems of self-regulation by market participants still threatened the cotton trade. More corruption at the New York Cotton Exchange appeared, until eventually political pressure inspired the Cotton Futures Act of 1914, the federal government's first successful regulation of a financial derivative.

Learn more about The Cotton Kings at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Cotton Kings.

--Marshal Zeringue

The very best science fiction & fantasy books of 2015: io9

Among io9's very best science fiction & fantasy books of 2015:

Lightless, C.A. Higgins

It’s nice to see hard science fiction written by someone who knows what she’s talking about. That’s the case with C.A. Higgins and her debut novel, Lightless. She holds a degree in physics, and it shows through in this story. In a dystopian future solar system, resistance is beginning to spread. When a pair of dissenters board a top secret spacecraft, the crew must contend with the consequences from both the System and their own ship. This book is a fascinating, deliberate read that keeps you on your toes right to the very end.

* * *

The Mechanical, Ian Tregillis

Ian Tregillis’ novels have always delighted us—but The Mechanical, the first of a trilogy, is his best book yet. Jax is a mechanical man, who’s powered by alchemy. He’s faithful to his masters, but he yearns for freedom. And meanwhile, a group of conspirators who are plotting against the Dutch empire discover the Dutch are way ahead of them. We already can’t wait for the next volume.

Read about another book on the list.

The Page 69 Test: Lightless.

--Marshal Zeringue