Pg. 99: Michael A. Ross's "The Great New Orleans Kidnapping Case"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Great New Orleans Kidnapping Case: Race, Law, and Justice in the Reconstruction Era by Michael A. Ross.

About the book, from the publisher:

In June 1870, the residents of the city of New Orleans were already on edge when two African American women kidnapped seventeen-month-old Mollie Digby from in front of her New Orleans home. It was the height of Radical Reconstruction, and the old racial order had been turned upside down: black men now voted, held office, sat on juries, and served as policemen. Nervous white residents, certain that the end of slavery and resulting "Africanization" of the city would bring chaos, pointed to the Digby abduction as proof that no white child was safe. Louisiana's twenty-eight-year old Reconstruction governor, Henry Clay Warmoth, hoping to use the investigation of the kidnapping to validate his newly integrated police force to the highly suspicious white population of New Orleans, saw to it that the city's best Afro-Creole detective, John Baptiste Jourdain, was put on the case, and offered a huge reward for the return of Mollie Digby and the capture of her kidnappers. When the Associated Press sent the story out on the wire, newspaper readers around the country began to follow the New Orleans mystery. Eventually, police and prosecutors put two strikingly beautiful Afro-Creole women on trial for the crime, and interest in the case exploded as a tense courtroom drama unfolded.

In The Great New Orleans Kidnapping Case, Michael Ross offers the first full account of this event that electrified the South at one of the most critical moments in the history of American race relations. Tracing the crime from the moment it was committed through the highly publicized investigation and sensationalized trial that followed, all the while chronicling the public outcry and escalating hysteria as news and rumors surrounding the crime spread, Ross paints a vivid picture of the Reconstruction-era South and the complexities and possibilities that faced the newly integrated society. Leading readers into smoke-filled concert saloons, Garden District drawing rooms, sweltering courthouses, and squalid prisons, Ross brings this fascinating era back to life.

A stunning work of historical recreation, The Great New Orleans Kidnapping Case is sure to captivate anyone interested in true crime, the Civil War and its aftermath, and the history of New Orleans and the American South.

Learn more about The Great New Orleans Kidnapping Case at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Great New Orleans Kidnapping Case.

--Marshal Zeringue

Fifteen of the best political biographies & diaries

At the Guardian, Steve Richards and Gaby Hinsliff tagged fifteen of the best political biographies and diaries, including:

Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro (1982-2001)

Never has a leader been more extensively chronicled. If Johnson has a cup of coffee while waiting for the outcome of a close vote in the senate, Caro can turn the scene into a nerve-shredding chapter. Caro is both a stylish writer and a master of detail, a fact borne out by his four-volume biography with another in the pipeline. In some respects, the contradictions that define Johnson deepen as Caro sheds unyielding light on the humane progressive, the amoral wheeler-dealer, the indefatigable campaigner who will pull any trick to win. The tireless wilfulness is the constant factor. Each volume is a political epic and there is more to come.

Read about another entry on the list.

Master of the Senate (vol. 3) is among Jonathan Alter's six favorite books. The Passage of Power (vol. 4) is among five top books about the civil rights movement.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Sarah Shoemaker's "Mr. Rochester"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Mr. Rochester: A Novel by Sarah Shoemaker.

About the book, from the publisher:

For 170 years, Edward Fairfax Rochester has stood as one of literature's most complex and captivating romantic heroes. Sometimes cruel, sometimes tender, Jane Eyre's mercurial master at Thornfield Hall has mesmerized, beguiled, and, yes, baffled fans of Charlotte Brontë's masterpiece for generations. But his own story has never been told.

We first meet this brilliant, tormented hero as a motherless boy roaming Thornfield's lonely corridors. On the morning of Edward's eighth birthday, his father issues a decree: He is to be sent away to get an education, exiled from all he ever loved. Young Edward's journey will take him across working-class England and the decadence of continental Europe before he lands on the warm, languid shores of faraway Jamaica, where his inheritance lies.

That island, however, holds secrets of its own, and Edward soon grows entangled in morally dubious business dealings and a passionate, whirlwind love affair with the town's ravishing heiress, Bertha Antoinetta Mason. Eventually, in the wake of a devastating betrayal, Edward must return to England with his increasingly unstable wife to take over as master of Thornfield. And it is there, on a twilight ride, that he meets the stubborn, plain young governess who will steal his heart and teach him how to love again.

MR. ROCHESTER is a sweeping coming-of-age story and a stirring tale of adventure, romance, and deceit. Faithful in every particular to Brontë's original yet full of unexpected twists and riveting behind-the-scenes drama, this novel will completely, deliciously, and forever change how we read and remember Jane Eyre.

Visit Sarah Shoemaker's website.

My Book, The Movie: Mr. Rochester.

The Page 69 Test: Mr. Rochester.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sarah Bailey's "The Dark Lake," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey.

The entry begins:

When I was writing The Dark Lake, I found it really helpful to develop a fantasy cast to ensure I had consistent descriptions of each character. I created a little mood board on my bedroom wall by cutting out pictures of actors that I felt would be able to bring each of my characters to life. Of course, I never imagined that it might one day be turned into a TV series or film, and the fact that this is now a possibility is truly mind-blowing!

As I embarked on my private casting adventure, finding an actor that could step into the role of DS Gemma Woodstock was critical. She is such a layered person, with a lot of light and shade. In my head Gemma is quite a slight person physically but very strong emotionally with the potential of being quite fierce and frustrating at times. Ellen Page was my top pick to play Gemma. I love her petite but tough vibe.

Felix is another important character as he needs to be charming but aloof and slightly mysterious. I had either a Christian Bale or...[read on]

Visit Sarah Bailey's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Dark Lake.

My Book, The Movie: The Dark Lake.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Cleo Hanaway-Oakley's "James Joyce and the Phenomenology of Film"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: James Joyce and the Phenomenology of Film by Cleo Hanaway-Oakley.

About the book, from the publisher:

James Joyce and the Phenomenology of Film reappraises the lines of influence said to exist between Joyce's writing and early cinema and provides an alternative to previous psychoanalytic readings of Joyce and film. Through a compelling combination of historical research and critical analysis, Cleo Hanaway-Oakley demonstrates that Joyce, early film-makers, and phenomenologists (Maurice Merleau-Ponty, in particular) share a common enterprise: all are concerned with showing, rather than explaining, the 'inherence of the self in the world'. Instead of portraying an objective, neutral world, bereft of human input, Joyce, the film-makers, and the phenomenologists present embodied, conscious engagement with the environment and others: they are interested in the world-as-it-is-lived and transcend the seemingly-rigid binaries of seer/seen, subject/object, absorptive/theatrical, and personal/impersonal. This book re-evaluates the history of body- and spectator-focused film theories, placing Merleau-Ponty at the centre of the discussion, and considers the ways in which Joyce may have encountered such theories. In a wealth of close analyses, Joyce's fiction is read alongside the work of early film-makers such as Charlie Chaplin, Georges Melies, and Mitchell and Kenyon, and in relation to the philosophical dimensions of early-cinematic devices such as the Mutoscope, the stereoscope, and the panorama. By putting Joyce's literary work--Ulysses above all--into dialogue with both early cinema and phenomenology, this book elucidates and enlivens literature, film, and philosophy.

Visit Cleo Hanaway-Oakley's website.

The Page 99 Test: James Joyce and the Phenomenology of Film.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six of YA fiction's scariest haunted houses

Sarah Skilton is the author of Bruised, a martial arts drama for young adults; and High and Dry, a hardboiled teen mystery. At the BN Teen blog she tagged six of the scariest haunted houses in YA fiction, including:

The Devils You Know, by M.C. Atwood

A field trip to the infamous Boulder House during senior year turns deadly when five students—each with a dark secret which would destroy them if revealed—are separated from the larger group. Soon they’re fighting for their lives, but escaping the house’s clutches won’t be as easy as banding together; if they want to survive they’ll need to look inward and face the parts of themselves they don’t like. Brace yourself for jump-scares in this noteworthy debut.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Wiley Cash reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Wiley Cash, author of The Last Ballad: A Novel.

His entry begins:

I just finished Scott McClanahan's gorgeous and dangerous new novel The Sarah Book. It's the first person account of a young father going through the breakdown of his marriage, a breakdown that is primarily fueled by his own uncontrollable urges and proclivity toward chaos. Much has been made of the hillbilly since JD Vance's elegy, but McClanahan's novel proves that Vance's book isn't...[read on]

About The Last Ballad, from the publisher:

The New York Times bestselling author of the celebrated A Land More Kind Than Home and This Dark Road to Mercy returns with this eagerly awaited new novel, set in the Appalachian foothills of North Carolina in 1929 and inspired by actual events. The chronicle of an ordinary woman’s struggle for dignity and her rights in a textile mill, The Last Ballad is a moving tale of courage in the face of oppression and injustice, with the emotional power of Ron Rash’s Serena, Dennis Lehane’s The Given Day, and the unforgettable films Norma Rae and Silkwood.

Twelve times a week, twenty-eight-year-old Ella May Wiggins makes the two-mile trek to and from her job on the night shift at American Mill No. 2 in Bessemer City, North Carolina. The insular community considers the mill’s owners—the newly arrived Goldberg brothers—white but not American and expects them to pay Ella May and other workers less because they toil alongside African Americans like Violet, Ella May’s best friend. While the dirty, hazardous job at the mill earns Ella May a paltry nine dollars for seventy-two hours of work each week, it’s the only opportunity she has. Her no-good husband, John, has run off again, and she must keep her four young children alive with whatever work she can find.

When the union leaflets begin circulating, Ella May has a taste of hope, a yearning for the better life the organizers promise. But the mill owners, backed by other nefarious forces, claim the union is nothing but a front for the Bolshevik menace sweeping across Europe. To maintain their control, the owners will use every means in their power, including bloodshed, to prevent workers from banding together. On the night of the county’s biggest rally, Ella May, weighing the costs of her choice, makes up her mind to join the movement—a decision that will have lasting consequences for her children, her friends, her town—indeed all that she loves.

Seventy-five years later, Ella May’s daughter Lilly, now an elderly woman, tells her nephew about his grandmother and the events that transformed their family. Illuminating the most painful corners of their history, she reveals, for the first time, the tragedy that befell Ella May after that fateful union meeting in 1929.

Intertwining myriad voices, Wiley Cash brings to life the heartbreak and bravery of the now forgotten struggle of the labor movement in early twentieth-century America—and pays tribute to the thousands of heroic women and men who risked their lives to win basic rights for all workers. Lyrical, heartbreaking, and haunting, this eloquent novel confirms Wiley Cash’s place among our nation’s finest writers.

Learn more about the book and author at Wiley Cash's website.

My Book, The Movie: A Land More Kind Than Home.

My Book, The Movie: This Dark Road to Mercy.

Writers Read: Wiley Cash.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Meryl Gordon's "Bunny Mellon"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Bunny Mellon: The Life of an American Style Legend by Meryl Gordon.

About Bunny Mellon, from the publisher:

A new biography of Bunny Mellon, the style icon and American aristocrat who designed the White House Rose Garden for her friend JFK and served as a living witness to 20th Century American history, operating in the high-level arenas of politics, diplomacy, art and fashion.

Bunny Mellon, who died in 2014 at age 103, was press-shy during her lifetime. With the co-operation of Bunny Mellon’s family, author Meryl Gordon received access to thousands of pages of her letters, diaries and appointment calendars and has interviewed more than 175 people to capture the spirit of this talented American original.

Visit Meryl Gordon's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Phantom of Fifth Avenue.

Writers Read: Meryl Gordon.

The Page 99 Test: Bunny Mellon.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top 21st-century Spanish-language books

Elvira Navarro was named by Granta magazine one of the “Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists” in 2010, and she was declared one of the major Spanish voices of the future by the magazine El Cultural in 2013. One of the author's ten favorite Spanish-language books published this century, as shared at Publishers Weekly:

Seeing Red by Lina Meruane, trans. Megan McDowell

Sangre en el ojo is a work of autofiction in which the Chilean author Lina Meruane imagines herself losing her sight and testing the love of her partner Ignacio, who has to act as her guide dog. The protagonist, whose progressive blindness threatens the very marrow of her being, demands of Ignacio the love that she is incapable of feeling for herself. Illness here becomes the motive for a brilliant exploration of commitment, identity and self-destruction.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Sarah Bailey's "The Dark Lake"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey.

About the book, from the publisher:

Rosalind’s secrets didn’t die with her.

The lead homicide investigator in a rural town, Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock is deeply unnerved when a high school classmate is found strangled, her body floating in a lake. And not just any classmate, but Rosalind Ryan, whose beauty and inscrutability exerted a magnetic pull on Smithson High School, first during Rosalind’s student years and then again when she returned to teach drama.

As much as Rosalind’s life was a mystery to Gemma when they were students together, her death presents even more of a puzzle. What made Rosalind quit her teaching job in Sydney and return to her hometown? Why did she live in a small, run-down apartment when her father was one of the town’s richest men? And despite her many admirers, did anyone in the town truly know her?

Rosalind’s enigmas frustrate and obsess Gemma, who has her own dangerous secrets–an affair with her colleague and past tragedies that may not stay in the past. Brilliantly rendered, THE DARK LAKE has characters as compelling and mysteries as layered as the best thrillers from Gillian Flynn and Sophie Hannah.

Visit Sarah Bailey's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Dark Lake.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Johann N. Neem's "Democracy's Schools"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Democracy's Schools: The Rise of Public Education in America by Johann N. Neem.

About the book, from the publisher:

At a time when Americans are debating the future of public education, Johann N. Neem tells the inspiring story of how and why Americans built a robust public school system in the decades between the Revolution and the Civil War. It’s a story in which ordinary people in towns across the country worked together to form districts and build schoolhouses and reformers sought to expand tax support and give every child a liberal education. By the time of the Civil War, most northern states had made common schools free, and many southern states were heading in the same direction. Americans made schooling a public good.

Yet back then, like today, Americans disagreed over the kind of education needed, who should pay for it, and how schools should be governed. Neem explores the history and meaning of these disagreements. As Americans debated, teachers and students went about the daily work of teaching and learning. Neem takes us into the classrooms of yore so that we may experience public schools from the perspective of the people whose daily lives were most affected by them.

Ultimately, Neem concludes, public schools encouraged a diverse people to see themselves as one nation. By studying the origins of America’s public schools, Neem urges us to focus on the defining features of democratic education: promoting equality, nurturing human beings, preparing citizens, and fostering civic solidarity.

Learn more about Democracy's Schools at the Johns Hopkins University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Democracy's Schools.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five of the best YA novels set in the 1920s

At the BN Teen Blog Elodie tagged five of the best YA novels set in the 1920s, including:

Speak Easy, Speak Love, by McKelle George

Do you like Shakespeare retellings? Do you like them even better when they’re set in the Jazz Age? I see we are of one mind. Basically, this book is Much Ado About Nothing, but on Long Island in the Roaring Twenties. Told from multiple uniquely compelling points-of-view, Speak Easy, Speak Love is the story of the whip-smart Beatrice, who’s just been kicked out of boarding school and shipped off to live on her uncle’s estate. It’s the story of her cousin, Hero, who’s struggling to run a floundering speakeasy out of a basement in Prohibition-era New York. It’s the story of Maggie, an aspiring jazz singer, and Benedict, a trust-fund kid who matches Bea wit for wit. It’s the story It’s the story of Prince, a poor boy with big plans, and his dark and dangerous half-brother, John. Mostly it’s the story of six teenagers during a summer full of love, high stakes, misadventures, lucky breaks, and more quick and hilarious banter than you’ll know what to do with.

Read about another novel on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Meryl Gordon reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Meryl Gordon, author of Bunny Mellon: The Life of an American Style Legend.

Her entry begins:

This happens to be a season when several friends have published books, all very different, and I have been enthusiastically devouring them. Julia Glass's new book, A House Among the Trees, is so beautifully written that I found myself stopping to re-read every sentence, about a famous but secretive children's book author and what happens to those near and dear when he...[read on]

About Bunny Mellon, from the publisher:

A new biography of Bunny Mellon, the style icon and American aristocrat who designed the White House Rose Garden for her friend JFK and served as a living witness to 20th Century American history, operating in the high-level arenas of politics, diplomacy, art and fashion.

Bunny Mellon, who died in 2014 at age 103, was press-shy during her lifetime. With the co-operation of Bunny Mellon’s family, author Meryl Gordon received access to thousands of pages of her letters, diaries and appointment calendars and has interviewed more than 175 people to capture the spirit of this talented American original.

Visit Meryl Gordon's website.

Meryl Gordon's five best chronicles of high society.

The Page 99 Test: The Phantom of Fifth Avenue.

Writers Read: Meryl Gordon.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sarah Shoemaker's "Mr. Rochester," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Mr. Rochester: A Novel by Sarah Shoemaker.

The entry begins:

As I was writing Mr. Rochester, although I tended to see it visually, I did not actually think much about it being made into a movie. But as people started reading it, they quite often asked me who I would like to see play the main parts (Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre). After some thought, I’ve settled on Aidan Turner, best known to me as Ross Poldark in the TV series Poldark, to play Edward Rochester because, just as Rochester does, he has black hair that seems to fall over his forehead all the time and dark eyes, and even...[read on]

Visit Sarah Shoemaker's website.

My Book, The Movie: Mr. Rochester.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Peter Zheutlin's "Rescued"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Rescued: What Second-Chance Dogs Teach Us About Living with Purpose, Loving with Abandon, and Finding Joy in the Little Things by Peter Zheutlin.

About the book, from the publisher:

Discover the astonishing lessons rescue dogs can teach us about life, love, and ourselves

In the follow-up to his New York Times bestseller Rescue Road, acclaimed journalist Peter Zheutlin offers a heartwarming and often humorous new look into the world of rescue dogs. Sharing lessons from his own experiences adopting Labs with large personalities as well as stories and advice from dozens of families and rescue advocates, Zheutlin reveals the surprising and inspiring life lessons rescue dogs can teach us, such as:

– How to “walk a mile in a dog’s paws” to get a brand-new perspective
– Living with a dog is not one continuous Hallmark moment—but it’s never dull!
– Why having a dog helps you see your faults and quirks in a new light, even if you can’t “shed” them completely
– How to set the world right, one dog at a time

For anyone who loves, lives with, or has ever wanted a dog, this charming book shows how the dogs whose lives we save can change ours for the better too.

Visit Peter Zheutlin's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

Coffee with a Canine: Peter Zheutlin & Albie.

Writers Read: Peter Zheutlin.

Coffee with a Canine: Peter Zheutlin & Jamba.

The Page 99 Test: Rescued.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten human-animal relationships in literature

Henrietta Rose-Innes is a South African author of four novels and a short-story collection, and a contributing editor at the Johannesburg Review of Books. Her novel Nineveh was published in the UK and US in 2016, and Green Lion will appear in the UK in 2017. Both books were shortlisted for the Sunday Times Fiction Prize, South Africa’s most prestigious literary award.

One of the author's ten top human-animal relationships in literature, as shared at the Guardian:

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

Two sisters raised together, one human, one not so much … Despite a wacky-sounding premise, this is a convincing, profound and heartbreaking tale that ranges widely over big themes: love, loyalty, betrayal, animal experimentation, the nature of family and of being human. Rosemary, the all-too-human narrator, is wisecracking and endearingly messed-up, plagued by guilt and complex sadness over losing her charismatic imp of a chimp sister.

Read about another entry on the list.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is among Frans de Waal's top ten books about intelligent animals.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Lydia Kang reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Lydia Kang, author of A Beautiful Poison.

Her entry begins:

I usually have a few things going at the same time. I used to be a serial reader and wouldn’t pick up a book until the last one was done, but due to a cramped schedule that’s out the window. I find that I DNF more often, and I’m usually reading for research as well as for pleasure, depending on the time of the day.

Right now for research, I’m reading Diary of a Little Girl in Old New York, by Catherine Elizabeth Havens, a ten year old girl who wrote between 1849-1850 in New York City. My current WIP in set there, and nothing beats a day-to-day account to...[read on]

About A Beautiful Poison, from the publisher:

Just beyond the Gilded Age, in the mist-covered streets of New York, the deadly Spanish influenza ripples through the city. But with so many victims in her close circle, young socialite Allene questions if the flu is really to blame. All appear to have been poisoned—and every death was accompanied by a mysterious note.

Desperate for answers and dreading her own engagement to a wealthy gentleman, Allene returns to her passion for scientific discovery and recruits her long-lost friends, Jasper and Birdie, for help. The investigation brings her closer to Jasper, an apprentice medical examiner at Bellevue Hospital who still holds her heart, and offers the delicate Birdie a last-ditch chance to find a safe haven before her fragile health fails.

As more of their friends and family die, alliances shift, lives become entangled, and the three begin to suspect everyone—even each other. As they race to find the culprit, Allene, Birdie, and Jasper must once again trust each other, before one of them becomes the next victim.

Learn more about the book and author at Lydia Kang's website, blog, Facebook page and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: Control.

The Page 69 Test: Catalyst.

The Page 69 Test: A Beautiful Poison.

Writers Read: Lydia Kang.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Meera Lester's "A Hive of Homicides"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: A Hive of Homicides by Meera Lester.

About the book, from the publisher:

A honey of a crime...

When Abigail Mackenzie left the police force to become a farmer and beekeeper in beautiful Las Flores, California, she thought her days of criminal investigation were behind her...

Her present life is mostly filled with hard work and happy occasions, including the upcoming event with her friend Paola, a truffle maker, who's renewing her vows with her husband Jake, owner of the Country Schoolhouse Winery. Abby is delighted to provide her trademark lavender honey for the occasion.

But after the ceremony, the guests of honor are nowhere to be found. When Abby goes looking for them, she hears a gunshot and discovers Jake dead in his car and Paola injured beside him.

Who was the intended target? Jake had a reputation as a busy bee with the ladies. Is it possible that one of his flings, stung by rejection, took revenge? Or could it be sour grapes with one of his colleagues at the winery? If Paola was meant to be the victim, Abby needs to protect her as she searches for the shooter.

When a second murder occurs, it's up to Abby to crush the clues—before the killer gets her over a barrel...

Visit Meera Lester's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Murder of a Queen Bee.

The Page 69 Test: The Murder of a Queen Bee.

The Page 69 Test: A Hive of Homicides.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Andrew Demshuk's "Demolition on Karl Marx Square"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Demolition on Karl Marx Square: Cultural Barbarism and the People's State in 1968 by Andrew Demshuk.

About the book, from the publisher:

Communist East Germany's demolition of Leipzig's perfectly intact medieval University Church in May 1968 was an act decried as "cultural barbarism" across the two Germanies and beyond. Although overshadowed by the crackdown on Prague Spring mere weeks later, the willful destruction of this historic landmark on a central site symbolically renamed Karl Marx Square represents an essential turning point in the relationship between the Communist authorities and the people they claimed to serve. As the largest case of public protest in East German history between the 1953 Uprising and 1989 Revolution, this intimate local trauma exhibits the inner workings of a "dictatorial" system and exposes the often gray and overlapping lines between state and citizenry, which included both quiet and open resistance, passive and active collaboration. Through deep analysis of untapped periodicals and archives (including once-classified State documents, Stasi, and police records, and extensive private protest letters), it introduces a broad cast of characters who helped make the inconceivable possible, and restores the voices of not a few ordinary citizens of all stripes who dared in the name of culture, humanism, and civic pride to protest what they saw as an inconceivable tragedy. In this city that later started the 1989 October Revolution which ultimately triggered the fall of the Berlin Wall, residents from every social background desperately hoped to convince their leaders to step back from the brink. But as the dust cleared in 1968, they saw with all finality that their voices meant nothing, that the DDR was a sham democracy awash with utopian rhetoric that had no connection with their everyday lives. If Communism died in Prague in 1968, it had already died in Leipzig just weeks before, with repercussions that still haunt today's politics of memory.

Learn more about Demolition on Karl Marx Square at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Lost German East.

The Page 99 Test: Demolition on Karl Marx Square.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jonathan Eig's "Ali: A Life," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Ali: A Life by Jonathan Eig.

The entry begins:

I never pictured anyone but Muhammad Ali as Muhammad Ali. He was bigger than any Hollywood actor…and he told us so. In fact, he portrayed himself in the first movie based on his life.

“Movie star!” he screamed on the set one day. “I’m a mooooooo-veeeeeee starrrr!”

Ali had big plans for his career in film.

“This face is worth billions,” he said. “My roles have always got to be Number One. I can’t be the boy in the kitchen. Some big football star plays the waiter in the movie while some homosexual gets the lead role. I got to be the hero. Like Charlton Heston, he’s got a serious image. Moses. In ‘Airport’ he was the captain, a real man. Always distinguished, always high class.” And there would be no sex scenes. “Kissinger wouldn’t do that,” he said, referring to...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Jonathan Eig's website.

The Page 99 Test: Get Capone.

The Page 99 Test: The Birth of the Pill.

My Book, The Movie: Ali: A Life.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven of the best books about pathogens

At Paste magazine B. David Zarley tagged seven viral books about pathogens, including:

Virus Hunter by C.J. Peters and Mark Olshaker

Peters has chased down, studied and stymied viruses in both military and civilian capacities as a member of the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease and the Center for Disease Control. Virus Hunter details his remarkable career, from his years as a student at Johns Hopkins University and his time handling deadly diseases in the Panama Canal Zone to dealing with a strain of Ebola in suburban Washington, DC and confronting a mystery outbreak in the American Southwest.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Zack McDermott reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Zack McDermott, author of Gorilla and the Bird: A Memoir of Madness and a Mother's Love.

His entry begins:

For the third time, Kent Russell’s I’m Sorry to Think I Have Raised a Timid Son. Kent is definitely in my top three favorite living writers. When I read him, I think, “I am sure I’ll never be that good.” The New York Times said he “has more than a little in common with the late David Foster Wallace.” Who can live up to that? Kent. His essays are weird, hilarious, kind of dark, with...[read on]

About Gorilla and the Bird, from the publisher:

The story of a young man fighting to recover from a devastating psychotic break and the mother who refuses to give up on him

Zack McDermott, a 26-year-old Brooklyn public defender, woke up one morning convinced he was being filmed, Truman Show-style, as part of an audition for a TV pilot. This was it – his big dreams were finally coming true. Every passerby was an actor; every car would magically stop for him; everything he saw was a cue from “The Producer” to help inspire the performance of a lifetime. After a manic spree around Manhattan, Zack, who is bipolar, was arrested on a subway platform and admitted to Bellevue Hospital.

So begins the story of Zack’s freefall into psychosis and his desperate, poignant, often darkly funny struggle to claw his way back to sanity, regain his identity, and rebuild some semblance of a stable life. It’s a journey that will take him from New York City back to his Kansas roots and to the one person who might be able to save him, his tough, big-hearted Midwestern mother, nicknamed the Bird, whose fierce and steadfast love is the light in Zack’s dark world.

Before his odyssey is over, Zack will be tackled by guards in mental wards, run naked through cornfields, receive secret messages from the TV, befriend a former Navy Seal and his talking stuffed monkey, and see the Virgin Mary in the whorls of his own back hair. But with the Bird’s help, he just might have a shot at pulling through, starting over, and maybe even meeting a woman who can love him back, bipolar and all.

Written with raw emotional power, humor, and tenderness, GORILLA AND THE BIRD is a bravely honest account of a young man’s unraveling and the relationship that saves him.

Visit Zack McDermott's website.

The Page 99 Test: Gorilla and the Bird.

My Book, The Movie: Gorilla and the Bird.

Writers Read: Zack McDermott.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Bronwen & Francis Percival's "Reinventing the Wheel"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Reinventing the Wheel: Milk, Microbes, and the Fight for Real Cheese by Bronwen Percival and Francis Percival.

About the book, from the publisher:

In little more than a century, industrial practices have altered every aspect of the cheesemaking process, from the bodies of the animals that provide the milk to the microbial strains that ferment it. Reinventing the Wheel explores what has been lost as raw-milk, single-farm cheeses have given way to the juggernaut of factory production. In the process, distinctiveness and healthy rural landscapes have been exchanged for higher yields and monoculture. However, Bronwen and Francis Percival find reason for optimism. Around the world—not just in France, but also in the United States, England, and Australia—enterprising cheesemakers are exploring the techniques of their great-grandparents. At the same time, using sophisticated molecular methods, scientists are upending conventional wisdom about the role of microbes in every part of the world. Their research reveals the resilience and complexity of the indigenous microbial communities that contribute to the flavor and safety of cheese. One experiment at a time, these dynamic scientists, cheesemakers, and dairy farmers are reinventing the wheel.

Learn more about the book and authors.

The Page 99 Test: Reinventing the Wheel.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Peter Zheutlin & Jamba

Featured at Coffee with a Canine: Peter Zheutlin & Jamba.

The author, on how he and Jamba were united:

Funny you should ask. We were actually helping our older son, who had recently graduated from business school, find a rescue dog. To his credit, he quickly realized that Jamba was too energetic to be home in his apartment while he worked so she moved in with us and our other two rescue dogs, Albie (an alumnus of Coffee with a Canine) and Salina. Our rescue contact in Louisiana for Jamba was...[read on]

About Peter Zheutlin's new book Rescued, from the publisher:

Discover the astonishing lessons rescue dogs can teach us about life, love, and ourselves

In the follow-up to his New York Times bestseller Rescue Road, acclaimed journalist Peter Zheutlin offers a heartwarming and often humorous new look into the world of rescue dogs. Sharing lessons from his own experiences adopting Labs with large personalities as well as stories and advice from dozens of families and rescue advocates, Zheutlin reveals the surprising and inspiring life lessons rescue dogs can teach us, such as:

– How to “walk a mile in a dog’s paws” to get a brand-new perspective
– Living with a dog is not one continuous Hallmark moment—but it’s never dull!
– Why having a dog helps you see your faults and quirks in a new light, even if you can’t “shed” them completely
– How to set the world right, one dog at a time

For anyone who loves, lives with, or has ever wanted a dog, this charming book shows how the dogs whose lives we save can change ours for the better too.

Visit Peter Zheutlin's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

Coffee with a Canine: Peter Zheutlin & Albie.

Writers Read: Peter Zheutlin.

Coffee with a Canine: Peter Zheutlin & Jamba.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five YA novels that will give you major wanderlust

At the B&N Teen blog Alyssa Sheinmel tagged five YA books that will give you major wanderlust, including:

Charlie, Presumed Dead, by Anne Heltzel

Some trips aren’t fun-filled vacations. As this novel opens, young, handsome, and charming Charlie Price is presumed dead after a tragic plane accident—all that’s left of him is his bloodied jacket. Friends and family are gathered in Paris to mourn him—including his two girlfriends, Audrey and Lena, each of whom had no idea that the other one existed. Turns out, each girl dated a different version of Charlie, and they’ve begun to suspect that Charlie had even more secrets up his sleeve. Audrey and Lena don’t exactly like each other at first, but their shared suspicions about the boy they thought they knew will lead to an unlikely friendship and a search for the truth that takes them to London, Mumbai, Kerala, and Bangkok. Did Charlie ever love them? Could he still be alive? And if he is, why does he want them to think he’s dead? As this thriller unfolds, readers will discover that Charlie isn’t the only one keeping secrets.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Lydia Kang's "A Beautiful Poison"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: A Beautiful Poison by Lydia Kang.

About the book, from the publisher:

Just beyond the Gilded Age, in the mist-covered streets of New York, the deadly Spanish influenza ripples through the city. But with so many victims in her close circle, young socialite Allene questions if the flu is really to blame. All appear to have been poisoned—and every death was accompanied by a mysterious note.

Desperate for answers and dreading her own engagement to a wealthy gentleman, Allene returns to her passion for scientific discovery and recruits her long-lost friends, Jasper and Birdie, for help. The investigation brings her closer to Jasper, an apprentice medical examiner at Bellevue Hospital who still holds her heart, and offers the delicate Birdie a last-ditch chance to find a safe haven before her fragile health fails.

As more of their friends and family die, alliances shift, lives become entangled, and the three begin to suspect everyone—even each other. As they race to find the culprit, Allene, Birdie, and Jasper must once again trust each other, before one of them becomes the next victim.

Learn more about the book and author at Lydia Kang's website, blog, Facebook page and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: Control.

The Page 69 Test: Catalyst.

The Page 69 Test: A Beautiful Poison.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Peter Zheutlin reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Peter Zheutlin, author of Rescued: What Second-Chance Dogs Teach Us About Living with Purpose, Loving with Abandon, and Finding Joy in the Little Things.

His entry begins:

Right now I am reading Elissa Altman’s food memoir, Poor Man’s Feast: A Love Story of Comfort, Desire and the Art of Simple Cooking, which is based on her James Beard-award winning blog of the same name. My wife, Judy Gelman, is a food writer and she suggested I contact Elissa because Elissa and her partner, Susan, share their lives with rescue dogs. I...[read on]

About Rescued, from the publisher:

Discover the astonishing lessons rescue dogs can teach us about life, love, and ourselves

In the follow-up to his New York Times bestseller Rescue Road, acclaimed journalist Peter Zheutlin offers a heartwarming and often humorous new look into the world of rescue dogs. Sharing lessons from his own experiences adopting Labs with large personalities as well as stories and advice from dozens of families and rescue advocates, Zheutlin reveals the surprising and inspiring life lessons rescue dogs can teach us, such as:

– How to “walk a mile in a dog’s paws” to get a brand-new perspective
– Living with a dog is not one continuous Hallmark moment—but it’s never dull!
– Why having a dog helps you see your faults and quirks in a new light, even if you can’t “shed” them completely
– How to set the world right, one dog at a time

For anyone who loves, lives with, or has ever wanted a dog, this charming book shows how the dogs whose lives we save can change ours for the better too.

Visit Peter Zheutlin's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

Coffee with a Canine: Peter Zheutlin & Albie.

Writers Read: Peter Zheutlin.

--Marshal Zeringue

Andrew O'Hagan's six favorite books

Novelist and journalist Andrew O'Hagan's new book is The Secret Life: Three True Stories of the Digital Age. One of his six favorite books, as shared at The Week magazine:

Underworld by Don DeLillo

Few writers have a genuine sense of social sweep — of how to manage a large vision of society sentence by sentence — but DeLillo's masterpiece makes you believe that a novelist can wield magical powers. All of his books depict the individual struggling with gigantic forces, and I return to him often. His talent is of the kind that drives other writers forward.

Read about another entry on the list.

Underworld is on Gabe Habash's list of nine of the best art-and-book-cover matches, Alex Clark's top ten list of long books, and Chad Harbach's top five list of notable novels with sporting themes.

--Marshal Zeringue

John O’Brien's "Keeping It Halal," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Keeping It Halal: The Everyday Lives of Muslim American Teenage Boys by John O’Brien.

The entry begins:

I love this question, because I have actually thought that my book would make for a great film. At the heart of the book are five young men – ranging in age from fourteen to nineteen – who are dynamic, funny, and very close friends. The book uses over three and half years of ethnographic observation with these kids – who I call the Legendz after the name of their hip hop group – to tell the story of their growing up together as young Muslim Americans in post-9/11 urban America.

Rather than being centered on politics, though, their everyday lives – and therefore the book, and therefore the movie (!) – is focused on the trials and tribulations of urban American teenage life, intertwined with concerns of Islamic propriety. While spending their teen years together, the Legendz were also working to manage complex cultural dilemmas in their daily lives: how to listen to profane hip hop music while being a good Muslim, how to date in a way that doesn’t clash with expectations of Islamic behavior, how to meet Islamic religious obligations while still feeling and seeming to others like independent American teenagers, and how to respond to frustrating anti-Muslim harassment while not playing into the very stereotypes they hoped to escape.

I think a coming-of-age movie about these young men would be great – think an early-oughts Stand By Me meets a Muslim Smoke Signals. And the boys’ interest in hip hop would provide an excuse for a great soundtrack. In terms of casting, I think a movie like this might work best with some fresh-faced, relatively unknown actors, for whom this could be their break out roles (assuming that the movie is a big hit, of course!), but I do have a few ideas of well-known actors who could play the Legendz.

I think the part of Muhammad, one of the older boys in the group, could be played well by Michael...[read on]

Learn more about Keeping It Halal at the Princeton University Press website.

My Book, The Movie: Keeping It Halal.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: María Cristina García's "The Refugee Challenge in Post-Cold War America"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Refugee Challenge in Post-Cold War America by María Cristina García.

About the book, from the publisher:

For over forty years, Cold War concerns about the threat of communism shaped the contours of refugee and asylum policy in the United States, and the majority of those admitted as refugees came from communist countries. In the post-Cold War period, a wider range of geopolitical and domestic interests influence which populations policymakers prioritize for admission.

The Refugee Challenge in Post-Cold War America examines the actors and interests that have shaped refugee and asylum policy since 1989. Policymakers are now considering a wider range of populations as potentially eligible for protection: victims of civil unrest, genocide, trafficking, environmental upheaval, and gender-based discrimination, among others. Many of those granted protected status since 1989 would never have been considered for admission during the Cold War.

Among the challenges of the post-Cold War era are the growing number of asylum seekers who have petitioned for protection at a port of entry and are backlogging the immigration courts. Concerns over national security have also resulted in deterrence policies that have raised important questions about the rights of refugees and the duties of nations. María Cristina García evaluates the challenges of reconciling international humanitarian obligations with domestic concerns for national security.

Learn more about The Refugee Challenge in Post-Cold War America at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Refugee Challenge in Post-Cold War America.

--Marshal Zeringue

Zack McDermott's "Gorilla and the Bird," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Gorilla and the Bird: A Memoir of Madness and a Mother's Love by Zack McDermott.

The entry begins:

To direct: I love Jean-Marc Vallée. I loved Big Little Lies and it excites me to imagine what he could do with Gorilla and the Bird. His projects are so beautiful and he’s great shooting jarring and surreal footage. It makes me salivate to imagine him directing the character Zack in the throes of...[read on]

Visit Zack McDermott's website.

The Page 99 Test: Gorilla and the Bird.

My Book, The Movie: Gorilla and the Bird.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Terrence McCauley reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Terrence McCauley, author of A Conspiracy of Ravens.

His entry begins:

I usually read two books at once. One fiction and one non-fiction. It helps diffuse my intake so I don't accidentally adopt the style of the fiction writer I'm reading. The non-fiction book I'm currently reading is The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking True Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow FDR by Jules Archer. It's a fascinating true story about a movement in the country to remove FDR after his election and replace him with U.S. Marine General Smedley Butler, a war hero. What's most interesting about the story is...[read on]

About A Conspiracy of Ravens, from the publisher:

Battle Lines Have Been Drawn. The War Has Begun.

James Hicks finally knows his true enemy: the criminal organization known as The Vanguard. They mysterious group has been known as an organization of weapons dealers, drug runners and money launderers for years, but has now decided to add regime change to the mix. But knowing the enemy is one thing. Being able to defeat it is another matter entirely. When Hicks uncovers a solid lead on his new adversaries, his world explodes. His home base is attacked, his operatives in the field are wiped out and, for the first time, The University finds itself in open combat against an unknown enemy. In a battle that rages from the streets of Manhattan to the halls of power in Washington to the dark alleys of Berlin, Hicks will have to use every resource at his disposal to defeat A CONSPIRACY OF RAVENS.

Visit Terrence McCauley's website.

My Book, The Movie: A Conspiracy of Ravens.

The Page 69 Test: A Conspiracy of Ravens.

Writers Read: Terrence McCauley.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six of the best scary YA novels

At the BN Teen Blog Elodie tagged six "YA novels ... sure to leave you feeling creeped out in the best possible way," including:

The Madman’s Daughter, by Megan Shepherd

Whenever I put down this book, I had to watch one or two episodes of something light-hearted and funny before I could relax enough to go sleep that night. If you’ve ever read The Island of Dr. Moreau, by H.G. Wells, you know what you’re in for. And if you haven’t? Well, even better. Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau is a London maid still reeling from the scandal of her long-lost father’s twisted experiments. But when a childhood friend appears and tells Juliet that her father is actually still alive, they set out to find him. What they end up finding is a mad scientist completely consumed by his obsession on an island populated exclusively by his own creations—human-like animal hybrids. For Juliet, what began as a quest to finally get some answers becomes a life-or-death struggle to escape the island, stop her father, and come to terms with the madness that lies within her, too.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Matthew Sullivan's "Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore: A Novel by Matthew Sullivan.

About the book, from the publisher:

When a bookshop patron commits suicide, his favorite store clerk must unravel the puzzle he left behind in this fiendishly clever debut novel from an award-winning short story writer.

Lydia Smith lives her life hiding in plain sight. A clerk at the Bright Ideas bookstore, she keeps a meticulously crafted existence among her beloved books, eccentric colleagues, and the BookFrogs—the lost and lonely regulars who spend every day marauding the store’s overwhelmed shelves.

But when Joey Molina, a young, beguiling BookFrog, kills himself in the bookstore’s upper room, Lydia’s life comes unglued. Always Joey’s favorite bookseller, Lydia has been bequeathed his meager worldly possessions. Trinkets and books; the detritus of a lonely, uncared for man. But when Lydia flips through his books she finds them defaced in ways both disturbing and inexplicable. They reveal the psyche of a young man on the verge of an emotional reckoning. And they seem to contain a hidden message. What did Joey know? And what does it have to do with Lydia?

As Lydia untangles the mystery of Joey’s suicide, she unearths a long buried memory from her own violent childhood. Details from that one bloody night begin to circle back. Her distant father returns to the fold, along with an obsessive local cop, and the Hammerman, a murderer who came into Lydia’s life long ago and, as she soon discovers, never completely left. Bedazzling, addictive, and wildly clever, Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore is a heart-pounding mystery that perfectly captures the intellect and eccentricity of the bookstore milieu and will keep you guessing until the very last page.​

Visit Matthew Sullivan's website.

The Page 69 Test: Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore.

--Marshal Zeringue