Pg. 69: Renée Rosen's "The Social Graces"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Social Graces by Renée Rosen.

About the book, from the publisher:

The author of Park Avenue Summer throws back the curtain on one of the most remarkable feuds in history: Alva Vanderbilt and the Mrs. Astor’s notorious battle for control of New York society during the Gilded Age.

1876. In the glittering world of Manhattan’s upper crust, women are valued by their pedigree, dowry, and, most importantly, connections. They have few rights and even less independence—what they do have is society. The more celebrated the hostess, the more powerful the woman. And none is more powerful than Caroline Astor—the Mrs. Astor.

But times are changing.

Alva Vanderbilt has recently married into one of America’s richest families. But what good is dizzying wealth when society refuses to acknowledge you? Alva, who knows what it is to have nothing, will do whatever it takes to have everything.

Sweeping three decades and based on true events, this is the mesmerizing story of two fascinating, complicated women going head to head, behaving badly, and discovering what’s truly at stake.

Visit Renée Rosen's website, blog, and Facebook page.

The Page 99 Test: Every Crooked Pot.

My Book, The Movie: Dollface.

The Page 69 Test: Dollface.

The Page 69 Test: What the Lady Wants.

My Book, The Movie: What the Lady Wants.

Writers Read: Renée Rosen (February 2017).

My Book, The Movie: Windy City Blues.

The Page 69 Test: Windy City Blues.

The Page 69 Test: The Social Graces.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven suspenseful novels that examine immigrant identity

Zhanna Slor was born in the former Soviet Union and moved to the Midwest in the early 1990s. She has been published in many literary magazines, including Ninth Letter, Another Chicago Magazine, and Michigan Quarterly Review, and she is a frequent contributor to The Forward. She and her husband, saxophonist for Jazz-Rock fusion band Marbin, recently relocated to Milwaukee, where they live with their young daughter.

Slor's new novel is At the End of the World, Turn Left.

At CrimeReads she tagged seven suspenseful titles that examine immigrant identity, including:

The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai

Full disclosure, I know Rebecca Makkai—but we were still strangers when I first fell in love with her debut novel, The Borrower, about a young librarian named Lucy who “kidnaps” her favorite young patron after he runs away from his overbearing mother, who intends to send him to conversion therapy. This spawns an epic and entertaining road-trip across the Midwest, which is another plus, as I love to read books set in unusual places—i.e. not New York. Along the way, Lucy must use the connections of her shady Russian father to escape persecution; the conversations between Lucy and her immigrant father are some of my favorite parts of the book, and add a good amount of levity to the writing (Rebecca’s father was Hungarian, so I imagine she knows all about the intricacies of this type of relationship). A great read for fans of immigrant literature, as well as road-trip literature, or quirky atypical protagonists. One of my favorite, most-relatable lines, was this: “For one thing, he’d bought it from a man named Uncle Nicolai, who was not my actual uncle and who had no discernible job other than doing favors for other Russians.” Yes! So many “uncles.”

Read about another entry on the list.

My Book, The Movie: The Borrower.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Ioan Grillo's "Blood Gun Money"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Blood Gun Money: How America Arms Gangs and Cartels by Ioan Grillo.

About the book, from the publisher:

“An eye-opening and riveting account of how guns make it into the black market and into the hands of criminals and drug lords.” –Adam Winkler

The gun control debate is revived with every mass shooting. But far more people die from gun deaths on the street corners of inner city America and across the border as Mexico's powerful cartels battle to control the drug trade. Guns and drugs aren't often connected in our heated discussions of gun control-but they should be. In Ioan Grillo's groundbreaking new work of investigative journalism, he shows us this connection by following the market for guns in the Americas and how it has made the continent the most murderous on earth.

Grillo travels to gun manufacturers, strolls the aisles of gun shows and gun shops, talks to FBI agents who have infiltrated biker gangs, hangs out on Baltimore street corners, and visits the ATF gun tracing center in West Virginia. Along the way, he details the many ways that legal guns can cross over into the black market and into the hands of criminals, fueling violence here and south of the border. Simple legislative measures would help close these loopholes, but America's powerful gun lobby is uncompromising in its defense of the hallowed Second Amendment. Perhaps, however, if guns were seen not as symbols of freedom, but as key accessories in our epidemics of addiction, the conversation would shift. Blood Gun Money is that conversation shifter.

Visit Ioan Grillo's website.

The Page 99 Test: Blood Gun Money.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Laura Maylene Walter

From my Q&A with Laura Maylene Walter, author of Body of Stars:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

© Eric Mull Photography

A few years ago, I made lists of potential titles to find a replacement for the working title I’d long been using for my in-progress novel. I scrawled ideas in my writing notebook early in the morning, jotted down more possibilities on my lunch break at work, and emailed my writing friends long strings of (mostly terrible) titles for their feedback. Throughout this process, Body of Stars eventually found its way onto one of those lists, but it took a few days to sink in as the perfect choice.

Now, I can’t imagine any other title for this novel, which is set in a world where the freckles, birthmarks, and moles on the bodies of women and girls predict the future. These markings are arranged into patterns or “constellations,” so celestial bodies serve as a metaphor in the novel. The protagonist, Celeste, views her own markings as both a privilege and a burden. When she discovers a catastrophic prediction about her older brother, she wishes she could erase her markings and live without the weight of knowing what is to come.

The title therefore has a dual meaning: it can refer to literal bodies of stars, but mostly, it speaks to the overarching depiction of...[read on]

Visit Laura Maylene Walter's website.

Q&A with Laura Maylene Walter.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top Earth Day titles

Green That Life founder Sara Goddard came up with ten Earth Day books that inspire and inform, including:

What We Know about Climate Change, by Kerry Emanuel

If you’re looking for answers to the basics of climate science, then add this book to your pile of Earth Day books. This recently updated edition of What We Know about Climate Change by Kerry Emanuel is a straightforward, honest account of how human actions have contributed to global warming and greenhouse gas emissions.

Emmanuel sticks to the facts of our changing planet, focusing on the rapid transformations that have occurred since the 1970s due to human activity. The updated edition includes the latest climate data, a discussion of the earth’s carbon cycle, the warming hiatus of the first decade of this century, the 2017 hurricanes, advanced energy options, and more.

Emmanuel also addresses the impediments to climate action and progress, calling out climate deniers, politicians, corporations, and the media for trivializing the climate crisis. John Platt at The Revelator writes that What We Know about Climate Change “offers a concise explanation about what’s going on with global warming and how we can turn the tide.”

Read about another entry on Sara Goddard's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Séverine Autesserre's "The Frontlines of Peace"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Frontlines of Peace: An Insider's Guide to Changing the World by Séverine Autesserre.

About the book, from the publisher:

At turns surprising, funny, and gut-wrenching, this is the hopeful story of the ordinary yet extraordinary people who have figured out how to build lasting peace in their communities

The word "peacebuilding" evokes a story we've all heard over and over: violence breaks out, foreign nations are scandalized, peacekeepers and million-dollar donors come rushing in, warring parties sign a peace agreement and, sadly, within months the situation is back to where it started--sometimes worse. But what strategies have worked to build lasting peace in conflict zones, particularly for ordinary citizens on the ground? And why should other ordinary citizens, thousands of miles away, care?

In The Frontlines of Peace, Severine Autesserre, award-winning researcher and peacebuilder, examines the well-intentioned but inherently flawed peace industry. With examples drawn from across the globe, she reveals that peace can grow in the most unlikely circumstances. Contrary to what most politicians preach, building peace doesn't require billions in aid or massive international interventions. Real, lasting peace requires giving power to local citizens.

The Frontlines of Peace tells the stories of the ordinary yet extraordinary individuals and organizations that are confronting violence in their communities effectively. One thing is clear: successful examples of peacebuilding around the world, in countries at war or at peace, have involved innovative grassroots initiatives led by local people, at times supported by foreigners, often employing methods shunned by the international elite. By narrating success stories of this kind, Autesserre shows the radical changes we must take in our approach if we hope to build lasting peace around us--whether we live in Congo, the United States, or elsewhere.

Visit Séverine Autesserre's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Frontlines of Peace.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Ilona Bannister's "When I Ran Away"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: When I Ran Away: A Novel by Ilona Bannister.

About the book, from the publisher:

A rich, bighearted debut that takes us from working-class Staten Island in the wake of the September 11th attacks to moneyed London a decade later, revealing a story of loss, motherhood, and love.

As the Twin Towers collapse, Gigi Stanislawski flees her office building and escapes lower Manhattan on the Staten Island Ferry. Among the crying, ash-covered, and shoeless passengers, Gigi, unbelievably, finds someone she recognizes–Harry Harrison, a British man and a regular at her favorite coffee shop. Gigi brings Harry to her parents’ house, where they watch the television replay the planes crashing for hours, and she waits for the phone call that will never come: the call from Frankie, her younger brother.

Ten years later, Gigi, now a single mother consumed with bills and unfulfilled ambitions, meets Harry, again by chance, and they fall deeply, headlong in love. But their move to London and their new baby–which Gigi hoped would finally release her from the past–leave her feeling isolated, raw, and alone with her grief. As Gigi comes face-to-face with the anguish of her brother’s death and her rage at the unspoken pain of motherhood, she must somehow find the light amid all the darkness. Startlingly honest and shot through with unexpected humor, When I Ran Away is an unforgettable first novel about love–for our partners, our children, our mothers, and ourselves–pushed to its outer limits.

Follow Ilona Bannister on Twitter.

Q&A with Ilona Bannister.

The Page 69 Test: When I Ran Away.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine top books about the sea

Emma Stonex is a novelist and The Lamplighters is her debut under her own name; she is the author of several books written under a pseudonym. Before becoming a writer, she worked as an editor at a major publishing house. She lives in Bristol with her husband and two young daughters.

[Q&A with Emma Stonex]

At the Guardian Stonex tagged her nine of her favorite books about the sea, including:

For action on the waves, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, with its brigands and buccaneers, takes the pot of gold. Survival at sea is elegantly judged in Charlotte Rogan’s The Lifeboat, in which the indifferent ocean plays witness to humanity’s struggle to balance compassion with self-preservation. In the tradition of nautical lore and sailors’ yarns, Life of Pi by Yann Martel uses the sea as a mysterious stage to a modern fable, presenting it as a magical, illusory, all-seeing pool from which dreams and nightmares spawn miracles.

Read about another entry on the list.

Treasure Island also appears on David McKee's six best books list, Kate Hamer's list of six notable novels with a strong evocation of atmosphere, David Robb's six best books list, Gillian Philip’s top ten list of islands in children's fiction, Robert Gore-Langton's top twelve list of the greatest children's books of all time, Emily St. John Mandel's list of the six books that influenced her most as a writer, David McCallum's six best books list, Bear Grylls's top ten list of adventure stories, Eoin Colfer's top 10 list of villains in fiction, Charlie Fletcher's top ten list of swashbuckling tales of derring-do, Robert McCrum's list of the ten best first lines in fiction, John Mullan's list of ten of the best pirates in fiction, and among Mal Peet's top ten books to read aloud, Philip Pullman's six best books, and Eoin Colfer's six favorite books.

Life of Pi is on Stonex's list of seven of the best mystery novels set by the sea, Lucy Clarke's top ten list of books about castaways, Katy Yocom's list of the ten best tigers in fiction, Jodi Picoult's recommended list, Martyn Ford's top ten list of fantastical pets in children's literature, Off the Shelf's list of eight great books told by child narrators, Janis MacKay's top ten list of books set on the ocean, Kathryn Williams's list of six notable novels set in just one place, Scott Greenstone's list of seven top allegorical novels, Sara Gruen's six favorite books list, the Barnes & Noble Review's list of five top books on castaways, and John Mullan's list of ten of the best zoos in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: John Boyko's "The Devil's Trick"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Devil's Trick: How Canada Fought the Vietnam War by John Boyko.

About the book, from the publisher:

More than forty-five years after the fall of Saigon, John Boyko brings to light the little-known story of Canada’s involvement in the American War in Vietnam.

Through the lens of six remarkable people, some well-known, others obscure, bestselling historian John Boyko recounts Canada’s often-overlooked involvement in that conflict as peacemaker, combatant, and provider of weapons and sanctuary.

When Brigadier General Sherwood Lett arrived in Vietnam over a decade before American troops, he and the Canadians under his command risked their lives trying to enforce an unstable peace while questioning whether they were merely handmaidens to a new war. As American battleships steamed across the Pacific, Canadian diplomat Blair Seaborn was meeting secretly in Hanoi with North Vietnam’s prime minister; if American leaders accepted his roadmap to peace, those ships could be turned around before war began. Claire Culhane worked in a Canadian hospital in Vietnam and then returned home to implore Canadians to stop supporting what she deemed an immoral war. Joe Erickson was among 30,000 young Americans who changed Canada by evading the draft and heading north; Doug Carey was among 20,000 Canadians who enlisted with the American forces to serve in Vietnam. Rebecca Trinh and her family fled Saigon and joined the waves of desperate Indochinese refugees, thousands of whom forged new lives in Canada.

Through these wide-ranging and fascinating accounts, Boyko exposes what he calls the Devil’s wiliest trick: convincing leaders that war is desirable, the public that it’s acceptable and combatants that what they are doing and seeing is normal, or at least necessary. In uncovering Canada’s side of the story, he reveals the many secret and forgotten ways that Canada not only fought the war but was shaped by its lessons and lies.

Visit John Boyko's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Devil's Trick.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight top books about modern dating

Katherine Heiny is the author of Single, Carefree Mellow, a collection of short stories, and the novels Standard Deviation and Early Morning Riser.

At Lit Hub she tagged eight favorite books about modern dating, including:

Stephen McCauley, My Ex-Life

McCauley often writes about the complicated domestic (and emotional) arrangements of gay men and straight women, and his most recent book also includes college essay-writing, throw pillows, and a delightful amount of real estate. “It was one thing to hate someone for falling out of love with you, but another to attempt to turn it into an economic windfall,” thinks the main character. This novel is so charming and funny that it’s seriously addictive—I let out an animal howl of pain when it was over.

Read about another entry on the list.

My Ex-Life is among Andrea Peskind Katz's five fiction books that revolve around money.

The Page 69 Test: My Ex-Life.

My Book, The Movie: My Ex-Life.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Jennifer Adam

From my Q&A with Jennifer Adam, author of The Last Windwitch:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

Quite a bit, actually. The original title was Three Feathers to reflect the symbolic significance of feathers in the story, but when the book sold my agent remarked that they would likely want to change it. My editor pointed out that young readers like to know what to expect when choosing a book and the title is often the first key to unlocking their curiosity. She (and the marketing team) were afraid that my original title didn't give enough clues about what was inside. They sent me a list of suggestions, but while I agreed that a new title should hint at the magic and conflict within the book, none of the alternatives quite fit for me. We bounced ideas back and forth for a couple of months as we worked on edits, and then one morning The Last Windwitch just flew into my mind. Luckily everyone else loved it, too, and here we are!

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your novel?

Well, my teenage self...[read on]

Visit Jennifer Adam's website.

Q&A with Jennifer Adam.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top female friendships in books

Lucy Jago is an award-winning writer of fiction and non-fiction, and a former documentary producer for Channel 4 and the BBC. Her first book, The Northern Lights, won the National Biography prize and has been translated into eight languages; her YA novel, Montacute House, met with critical acclaim in the US and the UK.

Jago's new novel is A Net for Small Fishes.

At the Guardian she tagged some favorite "books in which to immerse yourself in complex, occasionally wounding, but always irreplaceable female friendships." One title on the list:

This witnessing and acknowledging, that women do so well for each other, is at the heart of Bernardine Evaristo’s delicious verse novel, The Emperor’s Babe. Zuleika, a third-century, first-generation immigrant to Londinium, is spotted aged 11 in the Cheapside baths by a Roman nobleman thrice her age and girth to whom she is quickly married. His absences and unwelcome presences are made bearable by Alba, who encourages Zuleika to fulfil her dream of becoming a poet and experiencing love. As is often the case, in life as in art, such daring must be paid for.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Emperor’s Babe is among J.R. Ramakrishnan's top seven novels that celebrates the 40% of Londoners who aren't white.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Karla FC Holloway's "Gone Missing in Harlem"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Gone Missing in Harlem: A Novel by Karla FC Holloway.

About the book, from the publisher:

In her anticipated second novel, Karla Holloway evokes the resilience of a family whose journey traces the river of America’s early twentieth century. The Mosby family, like other thousands, migrate from the loblolly-scented Carolinas north to the Harlem of their aspirations—with its promise of freedom and opportunities, sunlit boulevards, and elegant societies.

The family arrives as Harlem staggers under the flu pandemic that follows the First World War. DeLilah Mosby and her daughter, Selma, meet difficulties with backbone and resolve to make a home for themselves in the city, and Selma has a baby, Chloe. As the Great Depression creeps across the world at the close of the twenties, however, the farsighted see hard times coming.

The panic of the early thirties is embodied in the kidnapping and murder of the infant son of the nation’s dashing young aviator, Charles Lindbergh. A transfixed public follows the manhunt in the press and on the radio. Then Chloe goes missing—but her disappearance does not draw the same attention. Wry and perceptive Weldon Haynie Thomas, the city’s first “colored” policeman, takes the case.

The urgent investigation tests Thomas’s abilities to draw out the secrets Harlem harbors, untangling the color-coded connections and relationships that keep company with greed, ghosts, and grief. With nuanced characters, lush historical detail, and a lyrical voice, Gone Missing in Harlem affirms the restoring powers of home and family.

Visit Karla FC Holloway's website.

Q&A with Karla FC Holloway.

The Page 69 Test: Gone Missing in Harlem.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Kevin J. Weddle's "The Compleat Victory"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Compleat Victory: Saratoga and the American Revolution by Kevin J. Weddle.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the late summer and fall of 1777, after two years of indecisive fighting on both sides, the outcome of the American War of Independence hung in the balance. Having successfully expelled the Americans from Canada in 1776, the British were determined to end the rebellion the following year and devised what they believed a war-winning strategy, sending General John Burgoyne south to rout the Americans and take Albany. When British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga with unexpected ease in July of 1777, it looked as if it was a matter of time before they would break the rebellion in the North. Less than three and a half months later, however, a combination of the Continental Army and Militia forces, commanded by Major General Horatio Gates and inspired by the heroics of Benedict Arnold, forced Burgoyne to surrender his entire army. The American victory stunned the world and changed the course of the war.

Kevin J. Weddle offers the most authoritative history of the Battle of Saratoga to date, explaining with verve and clarity why events unfolded the way they did. In the end, British plans were undone by a combination of distance, geography, logistics, and an underestimation of American leadership and fighting ability. Taking Ticonderoga had misled Burgoyne and his army into thinking victory was assured. Saratoga, which began as a British foraging expedition, turned into a rout. The outcome forced the British to rethink their strategy, inflamed public opinion in England against the war, boosted Patriot morale, and, perhaps most critical of all, led directly to the Franco-American alliance. Weddle unravels the web of contingencies and the play of personalities that ultimately led to what one American general called "the Compleat Victory."

Learn more about The Compleat Victory at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Compleat Victory.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five psychological thrillers featuring twisted sisters

Sally Hepworth is the bestselling author of The Secrets of Midwives, The Things We Keep, The Mother's Promise, The Family Next Door, and The Mother-in-Law.

[The Page 69 Test: The Secrets of Midwives; My Book, The Movie: The Secrets of Midwives; The Page 69 Test: The Things We Keep; My Book, The Movie: The Things We Keep; Writers Read: Sally Hepworth (February 2016)]

Her new novel is The Good Sister.

At CrimeReads Hepworth tagged five of her favorite novels about twisted sisters, including:

The Inheritance of Secrets, by Sonya Bates

The estranged sisters in Sonya Bates’ debut novel, The Inheritance of Secrets, come together in a time of crisis. One is a successful writer, the other is a recovering addict. Their relationship is one of give and take but the murder of their World War 11 grandparents throws them into a situation where only trust in each other will get them through … the one thing they don’t have.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Trish Doller's "Float Plan," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Float Plan by Trish Doller.

The entry begins:

Float Plan is the story of Anna, a young woman grieving the loss of her fiancé, Ben. She takes their sailboat--one they were meant to sail together--and sets out alone for the Caribbean. Anna quickly learns she can't make the trip by herself, so she enlists the help of a former competitive sailor, Keane, who is struggling with a loss of his own.

Anna: If Float Plan, the movie, were cast today, I'd be crossing my fingers that Florence Pugh would play the role. Anna has a softness to her appearance that belies an inner strength, and I think that Florence has the same look.

Keane: So far I have been unable to find a handsome Irish actor who is also an below-the-knee amputee, but not for lack of searching. Until that day I find him, Mark...[read on]

Visit Trish Doller's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Trish Doller & Cobi.

My Book, The Movie: Float Plan.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Ilona Bannister

From my Q&A with Ilona Bannister, author of When I Ran Away:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

I think When I Ran Away lets the reader know exactly where they're headed when they pick it up and it brings the reader directly into Gigi's mindset at the verge of her breakdown. But hopefully they find that the twists and turns Gigi takes on her journey toward accepting her new self as a woman and mother surprising. I think they'll find her choice of destination interesting as well. I think many readers will relate to the things she's running away from and that many people fantasize about doing the same thing at one point or another, especially after...[read on]

Follow Ilona Bannister on Twitter.

Q&A with Ilona Bannister.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Eric Dregni's "For the Love of Cod"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: For the Love of Cod: A Father and Son's Search for Norwegian Happiness by Eric Dregni.

About the book, from the publisher:

A journey to find Norway’s supposed bliss makes for a comic travelogue that asks, seriously, what makes Norwegians so damn happy—and does it translate?

Norway is usually near or at the top of the World Happiness Report. But is it really one of the happiest countries on Earth? Eric Dregni had his doubts. Years ago he and his wife had lived in this country his great-great-grandfather once fled. When their son Eilif was born there, the Norwegian government paid for the birth, gave them $5,000, and deposited $500 into their bank account every month, but surely happiness was more than a generous health care system. What about all those grim months without sun? When Eilif turned fifteen, father and son decided to go back together and investigate. For the Love of Cod is their droll report on the state of purported Norwegian bliss.

Arriving in May, a month of festivals and eternal sun, the Dregnis are thrust into Norway at its merriest—and into the reality of the astronomical cost of living, which forces them to find lodging with friends and relatives. But this gives them an inside look at the secrets to a better life. It’s not the massive amounts of money flowing from the North Sea oil fields but how these funds are distributed that fuels the Norwegian version of democratic socialism—resulting in miniscule differences between rich and poor. Locals introduce them to the principles underlying their avowed contentment, from an active environmentalism that translates into flyskam (flight shame), which keeps Norwegians in the family cabin for the long vacations prescribed by law and charges a 150 percent tax on gas guzzlers (which, Eilif observes, means more Teslas seen in one hour than in a year in Minnesota!).

From a passion for dugnad or community volunteerism and sakte or “slow,” a rejection of the mad pace of modernity, to the commodification of Viking history and the dark side of Black Metal music that turns the idea of quaint, traditional Norway upside down, this idiosyncratic father and son tour lets readers, free of flyskam, see how, or whether, Norwegian happiness translates.

Learn more about For the Love of Cod at the University of Minnesota Press website.

The Page 99 Test: For the Love of Cod.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Dan Stout's "Titan Song"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Titan Song by Dan Stout.

About the book, from the publisher:

The third book in the acclaimed Carter Archives noir fantasy series returns to the gritty town of Titanshade, where danger lurks around every corner.

Forbidden magic, murder… and disco. Carter’s day keeps getting worse.

With the return of spring, new life floods into Titanshade. The sun climbs higher and stays longer, the economy is ascendant, and ever more newcomers arrive to be part of the city’s rebirth. Even pop culture has taken notice, with a high-profile concert only days away. When a band member’s murder threatens to delay the show, the diva star performer demands that the famous Detective Carter work the case. But Carter has secrets of his own, and his investigation unearths more victims and dark secrets, triggering a spiral of deceit, paranoia, and nightmarish magical transformations.

As conspiracies are exposed, Carter is sucked even deeper into the machinations of the rich, the powerful, and the venerated. Soon the very foundations of the city threaten to collapse and Carter’s own freedom is on the line as he navigates between old enemies and fragile new alliances while racing to learn the true cause of this horrific series of deaths.

Visit Dan Stout's website.

My Book, The Movie: Titanshade.

Writers Read: Dan Stout (April 2019).

The Page 69 Test: Titanshade.

The Page 69 Test: Titan's Day.

My Book, The Movie: Titan's Day.

Q&A with Dan Stout.

The Page 69 Test: Titan Song.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten books about revenge

Jonas Jonasson was a journalist for the Expressen newspaper for many years. He became a media consultant and later set up a company producing sports and events for Swedish television, before selling his company and moving abroad to work on his first novel. He is the author of The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden, Hitman Anders and the Meaning of It All, The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old Man, and most recently, Sweet, Sweet Revenge Ltd. He lives on the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.

At the Guardian Jonasson tagged ten books on "how to plot revenge in a good way," One title on the list:

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

A well-composed psychological thriller with a high revenge factor. Writers Nick and Amy are the perfect couple. Or are they? One day, Amy’s gone. The reader follows both Nick and Amy’s perspectives – the latter through her diary entries. Flynn’s success in getting under the skin of two such different characters – in a far from happy marriage – is impressive. But are the narrators to be trusted?

Read about another entry on the list.

Gone Girl made Suzanne Redfearn's list of six novels about women trying to outrun their past, Max Manning's top ten list of psychopathic crime & thriller characters, Steven L. Kent and Nicholas Kaufmann's list of six favorite literary human monsters, Elizabeth Macneal's list of five sympathetic fictional psychopaths, Jo Jakeman's top ten list of revenge novels, Amanda Craig's list of favorite books about modern married life, Sarah Pinborough's top ten list of unreliable narrators, C.A. Higgins's top five list of books with plot twists that flip your perception, Ruth Ware's top ten list of psychological thrillers, Jane Alexander's top ten list of treasure hunts in fiction, Fanny Blake's list of five top books about revenge, Monique Alice's list of six great fictional evil geniuses, Jeff Somers's lists of the top five best worst couples in literature, six books that’ll make you glad you’re single and five books with an outstanding standalone scene that can be read on its own, Lucie Whitehouse's ten top list of psychological suspense novels with marriages at their heart and Kathryn Williams's list of eight of fiction’s craziest unreliable narrators.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Karla FC Holloway

From my Q&A with Karla FC Holloway, author of Gone Missing in Harlem: A Novel:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

I’m a title person. I had a review once that was totally correct but that still embarrasses me. It was my first book and the reviewer wrote that my title was better than the book (The Character of the Word). Ouch! So I was quite conscious in coming to a space where the two at least matched in quality. For a while (for my non fiction writing) I was taken by alliteration (Moorings and Metaphors, Codes of Conduct) – possibly why some say (not incorrectly) that I write for sound before I invest in sense. I do pay close attention to the sounds, rhythms, and tones of language. But fiction was a decided shift for me, and these titles (A Death in Harlem and Gone Missing in Harlem) became about the place that sustains the story – thus, my “in Harlem” repetition. Knowing the place (and era) was a gift because the “who, what, when, and how” remain open to each novel and the story has to find its way to and then blossom in this space. I love that freedom, and it’s an assurance for the reader that ‘Yes, it is indeed one of those books,’ and, at the same time, it gives me permission to wander into the intricacies of wherever the place takes me. (Currently, I’m intrigued by a ‘what?’ – “A Haunting in Harlem”).

What's in a name?

I love choosing “old-school” names for my characters, and since I’m pretty old-school myself, many come from my own friends and family. However...[read on]

Visit Karla FC Holloway's website.

Q&A with Karla FC Holloway.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Philip Scepanski's "Tragedy Plus Time"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Tragedy Plus Time: National Trauma and Television Comedy by Philip Scepanski.

About the book, from the publisher:

Following the most solemn moments in recent American history, comedians have tested the limits of how soon is “too soon” to joke about tragedy. Comics confront the horrifying events and shocking moments that capture national attention and probe the acceptable, or “sayable,” boundaries of expression that shape our cultural memory. In Tragedy Plus Time, Philip Scepanski examines the role of humor, particularly televised comedy, in constructing and policing group identity and memory in the wake of large-scale events.

Tragedy Plus Time is the first comprehensive work to investigate tragedy-driven comedy in the aftermaths of such traumas as the JFK assassination and 9/11, as well as during the administration of Donald Trump. Focusing on the mass publicization of television comedy, Scepanski considers issues of censorship and memory construction in the ways comedians negotiate emotions, politics, war, race, and Islamophobia. Amid the media frenzy and conflicting expressions of grief following a public tragedy, comedians provoke or risk controversy to grapple publicly with national traumas that all Americans are trying to understand for themselves.

Learn more about Tragedy Plus Time at the University of Texas Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Tragedy Plus Time.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jamie Beck's "For All She Knows," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: For All She Knows by Jamie Beck.

The entry begins:

It’s funny to talk about this because For All She Knows was just featured in the “Rights Available” section of The Hollywood Reporter! It describes the story as thus: “Like Little Fires Everywhere and Big Little Lies, this novel tackles the complicated dynamic between mothers. The story follows Mimi and Grace, whose bond is tested after a party at Mimi’s house has a tragic outcome for Grace’s teenage son.” At its core, however, this is the story of friendship and family. The setup precipitating the injury is such that everyone has had some hand in it, yet no one person is fully to blame. Of course, as you might expect, everyone points the finger at someone nonetheless. Ultimately, the themes in this story are about fate, forgiveness, and redemption.

Because the visceral emotion level remains high throughout the story, it would be critical that the actors be capable of pulling off nuanced performances to keep it from veering toward melodrama. If they made my book into a film, I know exactly who I’d love to cast in the two leading roles.

Mimi is a warm yet spirited single mother and hairdresser who was orphaned at twelve, and whose son is a popular high school football star. Despite her hard-knock life, she’s basically a sunny person, which is why she doesn’t understand why so many women in town keep her at a distance. The fact that Grace welcomed her into a friendship is one reason Mimi is particularly devastated by what happens at her home. For this character, I think Reese Witherspoon would be the perfect fit. Throughout the writing of this story, I could hear her slightly Southern twang, and picture her bright smile as well as her more doleful glances. Reese has proven herself a star in both comedic and dramatic roles, as well as being able to hit all the notes of a layered character.

In contrast, Grace is rather tightly laced. She, too, has...[read on]

Visit Jamie Beck's website.

Q&A with Jamie Beck.

My Book, The Movie: For All She Knows.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five stories that build on the dramatic potential of nuclear blackmail

At Tor.com James Davis Nicoll tagged five stories built around the threat of nuclear blackmail, including:

Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach (1975)

Twenty years after the West Coast exited the United States of America to form a utopian ecotopian state, ace reporter Will Weston travels to Ecotopia. Officially, his purpose is report on conditions in the breakaway nation. Unofficially, the US President wants the reporter to feel out the possibility of Ecotopia being reabsorbed into the Union. Not only are true Ecotopians utterly disinterested in rejoining capitalist, ecologically deranged America, they waste little time assimilating the reporter into the Ecotopian way of life.

Ecotopia’s independence is based in part on the simple fact that a few highly motivated militias can easily handle the much larger, better funded, but inefficient American military-industrial complex. Elan trumps mere logistics, after all. Another, perhaps more important element in the Ecotopian defense strategy is that they may or may not have mined American cities with nuclear devices. Thus far, the US has not cared to test this.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Louise Guy's "A Winning Betrayal"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: A Winning Betrayal by Louise Guy.

About the book, from the publisher:

One lucky day will change two women’s lives―but for better or worse?

When an unexpected windfall brings together strangers Shauna and Frankie, one woman is popping champagne corks―but the other just wants to cry.

For her part, Shauna is pouring celebratory drinks. Since her heart was broken and her dreams shattered, she’s been ready for a fresh start. Surely she deserves some good luck at last?

But Frankie knows what can happen to families when money moves in and is allowed to take over. Fearing she’ll lose the contented―if cash-strapped―life she has built with her husband and their two daughters, she wants to be in control this time.

But as money rewrites their life stories and truths emerge among the treasure, both are forced to wonder if their good fortune is just bad luck in disguise…

Visit Louise Guy's website.

The Page 69 Test: A Life Worth Living.

My Book, The Movie: A Life Worth Living.

Q&A with Louise Guy (November 2020).

My Book, The Movie: A Winning Betrayal.

The Page 69 Test: A Winning Betrayal.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six books featuring adoptions gone awry

R.J. Hoffmann was born and raised in St. Louis and received an MFA in fiction from Columbia College Chicago. Hoffmann’s writing has appeared in Barely South Review, The Sun, Harpur Palate, The Roanoke Review, Booth, and Lunch Ticket. He is the winner of The Madison Review’s 2018 Chris O’Malley Prize for Fiction and a finalist for The Missouri Review’s 2019 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors Prize. He lives in Elmhurst, Illinois with his wife and two children.

At CrimeReads Hoffmann tagged six books featuring adoptions gone awry, including:

Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline

Molly is a rebellious seventeen-year-old foster child, struggling to stay at yet another humiliating placement. When she’s caught stealing a library book (Bronte, by the way) and finds herself sentenced to fifty hours of community service, she stumbles across Vivian, a ninety-one-year-old widow living in a stately mansion with an attic that needs organizing. We learn that Vivian is an orphan, too, sent west from New York City just before the Great Depression on an ‘orphan train’, the early twentieth century’s answer to foster care. Memories emerge from the boxes in the attic, and as Molly pries the past from Vivian, they learn how much they have in common. The crimes against them, even the many that didn’t break the letter of the law, help prepare both for what comes next.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Elissa Grossell Dickey

From my Q&A with Elissa Grossell Dickey, author of The Speed of Light: A Novel:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

The book’s title, The Speed of Light, is perfect for the story in numerous ways. It refers to the fact that my main character and her love interest are both Star Wars fans, and they watch the movies throughout their relationship. It also refers to the fact that snowflakes falling against a windshield can make it look like you’re flying at light speed. Most of all, it refers to the fact that life can—and does—change quickly, for better or worse, be it a getting devastating diagnosis, meeting a handsome stranger, or enduring a chilling act of violence at work. You never know what life will throw at you, and The Speed of Light shows how one woman navigates this.

What's in a name?

I chose my main character’s name, Simone...[read on]

Visit Elissa Grossell Dickey's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Speed of Light.

The Page 69 Test: The Speed of Light.

Q&A with Elissa Grossell Dickey.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Carol Dyhouse's "Love Lives"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Love Lives: From Cinderella to Frozen by Carol Dyhouse.

About the book, from the publisher:

The story of how women's lives, loves, and dreams have been re-shaped since 1950, the year of Walt Disney's Cinderella and a time when teenage girls dreamed of marriage, Mr Right, and happy endings...

Cinderella stories captured the imagination of girls in the 1950s, when dreams of meeting the right man could seem like a happy ending, a solution to life's problems. But over the next fifty years women's lives were transformed, not by the magic wand of a fairy godmother, nor by marrying princes, but by education, work, birth control--and feminism. However, while widening opportunities for women were seen as progress, feminists were regularly caricatured as man-haters, cast in the role of ugly sisters, witches or wicked fairies in the fairy-tale.

This book is about the reshaping of women's lives, loves and dreams since 1950, the year in which Walt Disney's film Cinderella gave expression to popular ideas of romance, and at a time when marriage was a major determinant of female life chances and teenage girls dreamed of Mr Right and happy endings. It ends with the runaway success of Disney's Frozen, in 2013--a film with relevance to very different times. Along the way, it illuminates how women's expectations and emotional landscapes have shifted, asking bold questions about how women's lives have been transformed since 1950. How have women's changing life experiences been mirrored in new expectations about marriage, intimacy, and family life? How have new forms of independence through education and work, and greater control over childbearing, altered women's life ambitions? And were feminists right to believe that sexual equality would improve relationships between men and women?

Learn more about Love Lives at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Heartthrobs: A History of Women and Desire.

The Page 99 Test: Love Lives.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine top nature memoirs

Since traveling the South West Coastal Path, Raynor Winn has become a regular long-distance walker and writes about nature, homelessness and wild camping. Her first book, The Salt Path, was a Sunday Times bestseller and shortlisted for the 2018 Costa Biography Award. In The Wild Silence, Winn explores readjusting to life after homelessness. She lives in Cornwall with her husband Moth.

At Lit Hub Winn tagged nine books that reignited her connection to the wild, including:

Helen Macdonald, H is for Hawk

Then I encountered one book that offered much more than just a response to the natural world. The narrative chronicles one woman’s experience of grief and how that led to her finding the wild place within herself. For me, this book moved nature memoir from simple recollections of time spent in the outdoors to memoirs of an emotional response to nature.

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald is on one level a record of how she trained a goshawk, a mythical, mysterious, violent, beautiful bird of prey. But it is also the story of a woman drowning beneath a sea of grief following the death of her father. Macdonald writes of days spent together in a darkened room to months on windswept hillsides and in dank woods, the two become enmeshed in a wild bond. What emerges is a portrait of a powerful bird that may comply but will never be tamed and a woman who has become part bird herself, stronger, more resilient, free.

Read about another entry on the list.

H Is for Hawk is among Lit Hub's ten best memoirs of the decade, Sigrid Nunez's six favorite books that feature animals, Sam Miller's top ten books about fathers, Barack Obama's summer 2016 reading list, Jeffrey Lent's top ten books about justice and redemption, and Alex Hourston’s ten top unlikely friendships in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

Louise Guy's "A Winning Betrayal," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: A Winning Betrayal by Louise Guy.

About the book, from the publisher:

While I love the idea of A Winning Betrayal being turned into a TV series or movie, I never picture actors in my characters' roles when writing a story. The physical details I provide are minimal as I know when I read myself, I will form an image of a character based on their personality and actions rather than how the author might describe them. There’s nothing worse than getting partway through a book where you’ve formed a picture of a character and then have the author remind you that they look like George Clooney (for example) when your vision is entirely different. After finishing a book, it is, however, a lot easier to dream cast.

While my stories are set in Australia, I immediately relocate them to America whenever I think of dream casting my books. The budgets are so much bigger, as is the audience. American films are accepted worldwide, whereas Australian films are often only successful within Australia.

Dream casting A Winning Betrayal would require a cast of contrasting characters.

Our female leads are opposites—quiet, introverted Frankie stars alongside opinionated, extroverted Shauna. Reese Witherspoon would make a great Shauna, and Keira Knightley (minus her British accent!) would be perfectly suited as Frankie. In the story, the two women are as…[read on]

Visit Louise Guy's website.

The Page 69 Test: A Life Worth Living.

My Book, The Movie: A Life Worth Living.

Q&A with Louise Guy (November 2020).

My Book, The Movie: A Winning Betrayal.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Wallace Stroby's "Heaven's a Lie"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Heaven's a Lie by Wallace Stroby.

About the book, from the publisher:

When a young widow witnesses a fatal car accident outside a Jersey Shore motel, she's suddenly thrust into a nightmare of gang violence, guns, and money that she can't outrun in this action-packed novel by "one of the best writers in crime fiction" (Alison Gaylin).

Joette Harper's life brings new meaning to the phrase "paycheck to paycheck." Struggling to afford her mother's sky-high medical bills and also keep the lights on in her trailer home, Joette needs a break.

So, when she spies a bag full of money amongst the wreckage of a fiery car accident, she knows she can't just let it be. Inside is a bounty better than she could have dreamed—just shy of $300,000 in neatly stacked hundreds and fifties. Enough to pay off her debts, give her mother the care she deserves, and maybe even help out a few of her friends.

But, of course, the missing briefcase didn't go unnoticed by its original owner, Travis Clay—a ruthless dealer who'll stop at nothing to get back what's his.

Joette is way out of her depth, but can't seem to stop herself from participating in this cat-and-mouse chase. But can she beat Travis at his own game?

Learn more about the author and his novels at the official Wallace Stroby website and The Heartbreak Blog.

The Page 69 Test: Gone 'til November.

The Page 69 Test: Cold Shot to the Heart.

The Page 69 Test: Kings of Midnight.

The Page 69 Test: The Devil's Share.

Writers Read: Wallace Stroby (August 2018).

The Page 69 Test: Heaven's a Lie.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Michelle Nijhuis's "Beloved Beasts"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction by Michelle Nijhuis.

About the book, from the publisher:

A vibrant history of the modern conservation movement—told through the lives and ideas of the people who built it.

In the late nineteenth century, as humans came to realize that our rapidly industrializing and globalizing societies were driving other animal species to extinction, a movement to protect and conserve them was born. In Beloved Beasts, acclaimed science journalist Michelle Nijhuis traces the movement’s history: from early battles to save charismatic species such as the American bison and bald eagle to today’s global effort to defend life on a larger scale.

She describes the vital role of scientists and activists such as Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson as well as lesser-known figures in conservation history; she reveals the origins of vital organizations like the Audubon Society and the World Wildlife Fund; she explores current efforts to protect species such as the whooping crane and the black rhinoceros; and she confronts the darker side of conservation, long shadowed by racism and colonialism.

As the destruction of other species continues and the effects of climate change escalate, Beloved Beasts charts the ways conservation is becoming a movement for the protection of all species—including our own.

Learn more about the book and author at Michelle Nijhuis's website and the W.W. Norton website.

The Page 99 Test: Beloved Beasts.

--Marshal Zeringue