Kate Christensen's list

Last week at The Week magazine, Kate Christensen contributed "The List" -- six books that she rereads all the time.

One of her titles:

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

I know there’s no hope for Lily Bart, I know she’s doomed. But it’s only because she’s unable to sell herself to the highest bidder; she has no clue about the compromises of pragmatism. Every time I witness her downfall, I long to help her, but she’s that beloved and soon-to-be mourned friend who can’t be saved from herself.

Read more about Christensen's list.

Kate Christensen’s latest novel, The Great Man, will be published this month by Doubleday.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Sharon Waxman reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Sharon Waxman, author and journalist.

She is working on a book about the tug-of-war over antiquities pitting Western countries and their great museums against the developing countries seeking restitution of ancient artifacts. The book, tentatively titled, Stealing From the Pharaohs, will be published by Times Books. Her recent reading has been guided by this project; read on to see what books accompanied Waxman on her recent research trip.

Waxman has been a New York Times correspondent for Hollywood based in Los Angeles, a post she has held since the end of 2003. She is the author of Rebels on the Backlot: Six Maverick Directors And How They Conquered the Hollywood Studio System (2005), about the emergence of a new generation of writers and directors in the 1990s, making landmark films in a corporate-run Hollywood.

Writers Read: Sharon Waxman.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: S.J. Rozan's "In this Rain"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: S.J. Rozan's In this Rain.

About the book, from the publisher:

Three years ago, a child’s death blew open a vortex of corruption inside Manhattan’s lucrative construction industry. And it sent one innocent man to jail. Joe Cole is a former city investigator who now lives a broken life, cut off from his wife and daughter, and from the city he once knew so well. But for Joe, everything changes when a woman’s murder and a teenager’s rooftop freefall rip open old wounds — and reveal a shocking layer of rage and deception.

It is Joe’s former partner, beautiful, hard-charging investigator Ann Montgomery, who first sees the lies, forcing Joe out of his self-imposed isolation to help her unravel the cover-ups and secret relationships that allow the powerful to hide their crimes. Soon, the two are entering the darkest corners of their city, delving into the hidden desires of a borough president who wants to be mayor, the motivations of a charismatic community activist, and the machinations of a mayor whose ambitions know no bounds. As the secrets of each player are exposed, as the primal forces of greed, sex, and power come to the surface, Ann and Joe know they must press their search all the way to the end — because the most powerful revelations are yet to come.

From a brilliantly choreographed press conference to a scandalous love affair gone terribly wrong, In This Rain takes us into the heart of a sprawling, brawling city — in a masterpiece of suspense that proves once again the unique and daring genius of S. J. Rozan.

Among the praise for In this Rain:

“A murder mystery, make no mistake, but [In This Rain] also may be the most Manhattan-centric entertainment to come our way since Woody Allen switched his cameras to London.”
—Los Angeles Times

"... social fabric so dense and so convincing that everyone in the Big Apple, from power-hungry politicos to money-hungry developers to survival-hungry street kids, comes alive. An exuberant celebration of the rainbow city in all its crime-drenched glory."
—Kirkus

"This is a New York story, steeped in political intrigue, ripe with descriptions of the city and its history. The payoff will be particularly rewarding for readers interested in big machines, both the kind that move earth and those behind political parties."
—Publishers Weekly

"From the mean streets of Harlem to the chilly corridors of City Hall, Rozan vividly evokes New York City in all its sound and fury."
—Booklist

Visit Rozan's website and read an excerpt from In this Rain.

S.J. Rozan has won the the Edgar, Nero, Macavity, Shamus and Anthony awards for Best Novel and the Edgar award for Best Short Story.

The Page 69 Test: In this Rain.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: David Linden's "The Accidental Mind"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: David Linden's The Accidental Mind: How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and God.

About the book, from the publisher:

You've probably seen it before: a human brain dramatically lit from the side, the camera circling it like a helicopter shot of Stonehenge, and a modulated baritone voice exalting the brain's elegant design in reverent tones.

To which this book says: Pure nonsense. In a work at once deeply learned and wonderfully accessible, the neuroscientist David Linden counters the widespread assumption that the brain is a paragon of design -- and in its place gives us a compelling explanation of how the brain's serendipitous evolution has resulted in nothing short of our humanity. A guide to the strange and often illogical world of neural function, The Accidental Mind shows how the brain is not an optimized, general-purpose problem-solving machine, but rather a weird agglomeration of ad-hoc solutions that have been piled on through millions of years of evolutionary history. Moreover, Linden tells us how the constraints of evolved brain design have ultimately led to almost every transcendent human foible: our long childhoods, our extensive memory capacity, our search for love and long-term relationships, our need to create compelling narrative, and, ultimately, the universal cultural impulse to create both religious and scientific explanations. With forays into evolutionary biology, this analysis of mental function answers some of our most common questions about how we've come to be who we are.

Among the praise for The Accidental Mind:

"[A] lively mix of solid science and fascinating case histories... The book's greatest strength is Linden's knack for demystifying biology and neuroscience with vivid similes (he calls the brain, weighing two percent of total body weight and using 20 percent of its energy, the Hummer H2 of the body). Though packed with textbook-ready data, the book grips readers like a masterful teacher; those with little science experience may be surprised to find themselves interested in -- and even chuckling over -- the migration of neurons along radial glia, and anxious to find out what happens next."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"More than another salvo in the battle over whether biological structures are the products of supernatural design or biological evolution (though Linden has no doubt it's the latter), research on our brain's primitive foundation is cracking such puzzles as why we cannot tickle ourselves, why we are driven to spin narratives even in our dreams and why reptilian traits persist in our gray matter."
--Sharon Begley, Newsweek

"Linden tells his story well, in an engaging style, with plenty of erudition and a refreshing honesty about how much remains unknown. The book should easily hold the attention of readers with little background in biology and no prior knowledge of brains. It would make an excellent present for curious non-scientists and a good book for undergraduates who are just entering into the brain's magic menagerie. Even readers trained in neuroscience are likely to enjoy the many tidbits of rarely taught information -- on love, sex, gender, sleep and dreams -- that spice up Linden's main argument. The Accidental Mind stands out for being highly readable and clearly educational. No doubt, the human brain evolved along a constrained path and is, in some respects, designed imperfectly. Linden will send that message home... We still know too little about the brain's inner workings to judge how well it does its job. What we do know, and what The Accidental Mind helps us to realize, is that the human brain is not designed as many have imagined."
--Georg Striedter, Nature

"The majority of this book is an enjoyable neurosciences primer for the general reader. Evolutionary and psychological perspectives provide occasional insights about the mind, but mostly the subject here is the organ capable of conjuring it into existence. Linden makes clear that the physical substrate of our mental phenomena -- the squidgy and haphazard mass of our brain -- is a gloriously evolved muddle."
--Druin Burch, Times Literary Supplement

David J. Linden, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His laboratory has worked for many years on the cellular substrates of memory storage in the brain.

Visit The Accidental Mind website and read some free chapters from the book.

The Page 99 Test: The Accidental Mind.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: "The House the Rockefellers Built"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: The House the Rockefellers Built: A Tale of Money, Taste, and Power in Twentieth-Century America by Robert F. Dalzell and Lee Baldwin Dalzell.

About the book, from the publisher:

What it was like to be as rich as Rockefeller: How a house gave shape and meaning to three generations of an iconic American family

One hundred years ago America’s richest man established a dynastic seat, the granite-clad Kykuit, high above the Hudson River. Though George Vanderbilt’s 255-room Biltmore had recently put the American country house on the money map, John D. Rockefeller, who detested ostentation, had something simple in mind — at least until his son John Jr. and his charming wife, Abby, injected a spirit of noblesse oblige into the equation. Built to honor the senior Rockefeller, the house would also become the place above all others that anchored the family’s memories. There could never be a better picture of the Rockefellers and their ambitions for the enormous fortune Senior had settled upon them.

The authors take us inside the house and the family to observe a century of building and rebuilding — the ebb and flow of events and family feelings, the architecture and furnishings, the art and the gardens. A complex saga, The House the Rockefellers Built is alive with surprising twists and turns that reveal the tastes of a large family often sharply at odds with one another about the fortune the house symbolized.

Among the early praise for The House the Rockefellers Built:

“This is a book about a great house, to be sure, but more about the conversations taking place inside it, which the Dalzell’s have recovered with perfect pitch – conversations about what to do with the greatest fortune in American history.”
—Joseph J. Ellis, author of the upcoming American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic

“The creation of a house is not unlike the raising of a child. Lee and Robert Dalzell have brilliantly brought to life the complexities, constraints, and compromises that underlie the drama surrounding the building of Kykuit and have continued the story through the years that followed with equal finesse.”
—Pauline C. Metcalf, author of Ogden Codman and the Decoration of Houses

"The Dalzells ... do an astonishing job of placing Kykuit in historical context while weaving the larger-than-life Rockefeller personalities into its very walls and hallways."
—Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times

Robert F. Dalzell is Ephraim Williams Professor of American History at Williams College, and is the author of Enterprising Elite: The Boston Associates and the World They Made and Daniel Webster and the Trial of American Nationalism. Lee Baldwin Dalzell was for many years the head of the Reference Department at the Williams College Library. They previously collaborated on George Washington’s Mount Vernon: At Home in Revolutionary America.

Read an excerpt from The House the Rockefellers Built.

The Page 69 Test: The House the Rockefellers Built.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Catherine Allgor's "A Perfect Union"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: Catherine Allgor's A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation.

About the book, from the publisher:

When the roar of the Revolution had finally died down, a new generation of politicians was summoned to the Potomac to assemble the nation’s capital. Into that unsteady atmosphere -- which would soon enough erupt into another conflict with Britain -- Dolley Madison arrived, alongside her husband, James. Within a few years, she had mastered both the social and political intricacies of the city, and by her death in 1849 was the most celebrated person in Washington. And yet, to most Americans, she’s best known for saving a portrait from the burning White House.

Why did her contemporaries so admire a lady so little known today? In A Perfect Union, acclaimed historian Catherine Allgor reveals how Dolley manipulated the constraints of her gender to construct an American democratic ruling style and to achieve her husband’s political goals. By emphasizing cooperation over coercion -- building bridges instead of bunkers -- she left us with not only an important story about our past but a model for a modern form of politics.

Among the praise for A Perfect Union:

“Delightful and discerning.... In this evocative study a remarkable woman, creator of the ‘first lady’ role, comes vividly to life.”
--New York Times

"The erudition and charm of this biography are rivaled only by that of its subject...."
--Publishers Weekly

Allgor "captures Dolley's charisma and her essential role in the politics of her time."
--The New Yorker

“Allgor ... is a fine writer and a perceptive historian who easily captures the political landscape of early America. She provides helpful guides to various battles dividing the country: Federalists vs. Republicans, Anglophiles vs. Francophiles, and New England (the region voted most likely to secede) vs. everyone else.”
--Christian Science Monitor

“For some time Dolley Madison has been a beguiling ornament, flashing her femininity in the parlors of the early American republic. Here, at last, Catherine Allgor, with great style and wit, recovers a different Dolley, a full-fledged political partner with James Madison. Now, in addition to John and Abigail, we have James and Dolley.”
--Joseph J. Ellis, author of His Excellency: George Washington

“Where is Dolley Madison when we need her? Catherine Allgor makes clear that Mrs. Madison's skills as a hostess and politician held the country together when rabid partisanship threatened to tear it apart. This is a well-told biography of a true nineteenth-century celebrity, but a celebrity with substance, savvy and courage.”
--Cokie Roberts, author of Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation

Catherine Allgor is a professor of History at the University of California Riverside. Her previous book is Parlor Politics: In Which the Ladies of Washington Help Build a City and a Government (University of Virginia Press, 2000), which won the prize for the best first book by the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic. Pulitzer Prize Winner Joseph J. Ellis calls it, "An extraordinary piece of work, easily one of the most intellectually original and stylishly elegant first books I have ever read."

The Page 99 Test: A Perfect Union.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five best: biographies of American philanthropists

Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and author of the autobiography The Road to Home ( 2003) and Islam: A Mosaic, Not a Monolith (2004), selected a five best "biographies of American philanthropists" list for Opinion Journal.

One title on the list:

Mellon by David Cannadine

British historian David Cannadine admits that he embarked on the research for a biography of Andrew Mellon (1855-1937) with some ill feeling about his subject: He believed Mellon to be "an unsympathetic person with unappealing politics." But after being given unfettered access to the financier's papers by the Mellon family and foundation, Mr. Cannadine seems to have developed a rapt -- if not always admiring -- interest in what he terms the "big life" that Mellon led. A passionate love of art led Mellon to amass a magnificent collection, including 21 of the Hermitage's greatest paintings. (Apparently, Stalin needed the money to advance the Soviet economy.) In 1937, Mellon deeded the collection to the American people in what Mr. Cannadine calls a philanthropic gift without "precedent or parallel" in the country's history. Thus was born the National Gallery of Art. At the time, the gift was valued at $60 million -- priceless today in terms of both worth and significance.

Read about Number One on Gregorian's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Michael Simon's "The Last Jew Standing"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Michael Simon's The Last Jew Standing.

About the book, from the author's website:

Will detective Dan Reles arrest his own father . . . or will the Mob find him first?

Lieutenant Dan Reles has a new house, a wife, and a son, and a great career as head of Austin Homicide, but it’s funny how your past catches up with you. When Dan’s deadbeat father Ben Reles, a Mafia legbreaker who’s spent the last twenty years on the run, shows up on Dan’s doorstep with an escaped prostitute in tow, trouble is sure to follow.

That trouble is Sam Zelig, a sociopathic godfather with limitless resources and boundless rage. In several diabolical strokes, he now holds Austin hostage, forcing Dan to choose between the town he’s sworn to protect, his new family, and his father. In the process he faces trial by fire, bullet, bridge embankment, and one very angry woodchipper. Sure to satisfy Simon’s core devotees as well as fans of Dennis Lehane and James Ellroy, Last Jew Standing is fastpaced and suspenseful from start to finish.

Among the advance praise for the novel:

“The Last Jew Standing is a terrific detective story, smart, dark, and acidly funny. A wonderful read!”
—Kevin Baker, author of Dreamland and Striver's Row

“The Last Jew Standing is a great rollicking yarn about good guys and bad guys in many splendid shades of gray. It is also a brilliant exploration of the complex ties of family and the price we pay for love, and for loyalty. This is a crime story that transcends any bounds of genre. Michael Simon is a literary force to be reckoned with.”
—Thomas Kelly, author of Empire Rising

“The Last Jew Standing is one of the few crime novels of the past decade by a relatively new writer that I've felt is a must-read. Gritty, dirty and violent, The Last Jew Standing brings to life characters I don't think I will ever forget. Some are heartbreakingly sad. Some are shockingly selfish and violent and others wander through life improvising with the creativity of the desperate. Michael Simon is a masterful teller of tales that made me care. Don't miss this author who may remind you of James Ellroy or George V. Higgins or even Don Winslow, but is uniquely his very arrestable self.”
—Stuart M. Kaminsky

“In his trademark neat, almost noir prose, Simon perfectly conveys the dilemmas facing a perpetual outsider determined to do the right thing. His hero is subtly drawn, his problems plausible and his colleagues are smart renderings. A graceful thriller.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Fast, furious and anarchic!”
—Booklist

Michael Simon is a former actor, playwright, and Texas probation officer; his other thrillers include Dirty Sally, Body Scissors, and Little Faith.

Read an excerpt from The Last Jew Standing, and learn more about Michael Simon and his books at his website and his MySpace page.

The Page 69 Test: The Last Jew Standing.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69 & Pg. 99: "Winter of Different Directions"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test — where the author put the Page 69 Test to his story collection as well — is Steven McDermott's Winter of Different Directions.

Because Winter of Different Directions is a collection of twenty stories written in different styles, the double-barreled approach of using both tests works out well.

Steven J. McDermott — editor and publisher of the literary journal STORYGLOSSIA and its accompanying litblog — has had his stories published in numerous online and print journals, now you can hear him read the stories on his podcast.

Visit McDermott's website, his MySpace page, and the STORYGLOSSIA website.

The Page 69 & Page 99 Tests: Winter of Different Directions.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Joseph S. Nye reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Joseph S. Nye, Jr., the Harvard political scientist.

While I hope this blog encourages readers to pick up a book or two they might otherwise pass by, I more aggressively "promoted" hundreds of copies of Joseph Nye's Understanding International Conflicts (6th. ed.) -- easily the best introduction to understanding international politics available -- back when I taught international relations and compelled my students to read it.

For well over a decade Nye has advocated that America do a better job of using its "soft power" -- "the ability to get what you want by attracting and persuading others to adopt your goals."

Joseph S. Nye Jr., is University Distinguished Service Professor, is also the Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations and former Dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He received his bachelor's degree summa cum laude from Princeton University, did postgraduate work at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, and earned a PhD in political science from Harvard. He has served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Chair of the National Intelligence Council, and Deputy Under Secretary of State for Security Assistance, Science and Technology.

His books include Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics; Understanding International Conflicts (6th edition); The Paradox of American Power: Why the World's Only Superpower Can't Go It Alone; Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power; and The Power Game: A Washington Novel.

Writers Read: Joseph S. Nye.

--Marshal Zeringue

Christa Faust's "Hoodtown," the movie

The current feature at My Book, The Movie: Christa Faust's Hoodtown.

Faust explains that a film adaptation with major stars is highly unlikely:

Hoodtown is the story of a washed up female masked wrestler who dishes out vigilante justice. The novel is set in a tough urban ghetto of "hoods" who remain masked at all times. It's classic hardboiled pulp crossed with the vintage lucha heroes of 1960's Mexican cinema.

I've always considered Hoodtown to be essentially unfilmable by current Hollywood standards. It's very visual and would make a great independent film, but there are just too many deal breakers to attract any big name talent.

Read on to learn about why Hoodtown will not be coming soon to a multiplex near you -- but who would star, direct, and provide the soundtrack if it did and Faust had total creative control.

So much for hypothetical movies. Faust's new book, Money Shot (forthcoming in 2008 from Hard Case Crime), is now casting for the promotional video trailer she's shooting.

The story:

THEY THOUGHT SHE’D BE EASY. THEY THOUGHT WRONG.

It all began with the phone call asking former porn star Angel Dare to do one more movie. Before she knew it, she’d been shot and left for dead in the trunk of a car. But Angel is a survivor. And that means she’ll get to the bottom of what’s been done to her even if she has to leave a trail of bodies along the way...

Do you look like the model on the book cover? If so, contact Faust about your chance to play Angel Dare in the video trailer.

Visit Christa Faust's website and her blog to learn more about her work.

My Book, The Movie: Christa Faust's Hoodtown.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Lisa Jean Moore's "Sperm Counts"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Lisa Jean Moore's Sperm Counts: Overcome by Man's Most Precious Fluid.

About the book, from the New York University Press:

It has been called sperm, semen, seed, cum, jizz, spunk, gentlemen's relish, and splooge. But however the "tacky, opaque liquid that comes out of the penis" is described, the very act of defining "sperm" and "semen" depends on your point of view. For Lisa Jean Moore, how sperm comes to be known is based on who defines it (a scientist vs. a defense witness, for example), under what social circumstances it is found (a doctor's office vs. a crime scene), and for what purposes it will be used (in vitro fertilization vs. DNA analysis). Examining semen historically, medically, and culturally, Sperm Counts is a penetrating exploration of its meaning and power.

Using a "follow that sperm" approach, Moore shows how representations of sperm and semen are always in flux, tracing their twisting journeys from male reproductive glands to headline news stories and presidential impeachment trials. Much like the fluid of semen itself can leak onto fabrics and into bodies, its meanings seep into our consciousness over time. Moore's analytic lens yields intriguing observations of how sperm is "spent" and "reabsorbed" as it spurts, swims, and careens through penises, vaginas, test tubes, labs, families, cultures, and politics.

Drawn from fifteen years of research, Sperm Counts examines historical and scientific documents, children's "facts of life" books, pornography, the Internet, forensic transcripts and sex worker narratives to explain how semen got so complicated. Among other things, understanding how we produce, represent, deploy and institutionalize semen-biomedically, socially and culturally-provides valuable new perspectives on the changing social position of men and the evolving meanings of masculinity. Ultimately, as Moore reveals, sperm is intimately involved in not only the physical reproduction of males and females, but in how we come to understand ourselves as men and women.

Among the praise for Sperm Counts:

"In Sperm Counts, Moore's new book about the cultural meanings of sperm, she tells this story to illustrate her own childhood naiveté about a substance that, as she now sees it, is far from simple. These days, according to Moore, sperm has tremendous cultural meaning — and looking at it in its many contexts, from children's books to pornography, can tell us a great deal about the skittish state of American masculinity.... Sperm Counts is a serious book, and the first on its subject. But it also includes anecdotes from Moore's life, lending it a more conversational tone than most academic works. The book's margins are even squiggled with sketches of sperm — flip the pages and they swim around. (This is a subject matter, after all, that requires a certain degree of levity.) Moore happily lists spermatic nicknames ("baby gravy," "gentlemen's relish," "pimp juice") before skewering, in a later chapter, the burgeoning home sperm-test industry (sample ad slogan: "I don't know how that semen got in my underwear!")."
—Salon.com

Cartoon line-drawings of sperm wriggle over each page of text in this dissection of the ways societal views of sperm shape culture. A feminist account backed by sociological and scientific research, Moores academic tome is accessible to the masses.
—Bust

"A clever yet comprehensive look at the substance of manhood. Moore goes where few scholars dare to tread, and uses bodily fluids as a revealing window through which to observe the current nature of sexuality and gender relations."
—Michael S. Kimmel, author of Manhood in America: A Cultural Study

"In this intriguing feminist sociological account of sperm, Moore takes a subject we think we knew all about and proceeds to examine the multi-dimensional facets of its cultural subtexts. What is so unusual about this provocative book is the way Moore meshes history, technology, medicine, criminology, gender studies, children's books, and porn in her depiction of sperm as a manifestation of masculinity. Sperm Counts is witty, erudite, and informative — a gem of social constructionist scholarship."
—Judith Lorber, author of Paradoxes of Gender and Breaking the Bowls

Moore has crafted a smart and surprisingly funny book about semen. Original and refreshing, Sperm Counts follows the little guys through laboratories, childrens books, sex work, crime scenes, and bodies, illuminating varied meanings and representations of manhood and masculinity. This is engaged feminist scholarship at its best.
—Monica J. Casper, author of The Making of the Unborn Patient: A Social Anatomy of Fetal Surgery

Lisa Jean Moore is Associate Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies and Coordinator of the Gender Studies Program at Purchase College, State University of New York. Her most recent book, co-authored with Judith Lorber, is Gendered Bodies: Feminist Perspectives.

The Page 69 Test: Sperm Counts.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Paul Collier's "The Bottom Billion"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: Paul Collier's The Bottom Billion.

About the book, from the publisher:

Global poverty, Paul Collier points out, is actually falling quite rapidly for about eighty percent of the world. The real crisis lies in a group of about 50 failing states, the bottom billion, whose problems defy traditional approaches to alleviating poverty.

In The Bottom Billion, Collier contends that these fifty failed states pose the central challenge of the developing world in the twenty-first century. The book shines a much needed light on this group of small nations, largely unnoticed by the industrialized West, that are dropping further and further behind the majority of the world's people, often falling into an absolute decline in living standards. A struggle rages within each of these nation between reformers and corrupt leaders -- and the corrupt are winning. Collier analyzes the causes of failure, pointing to a set of traps that snare these countries, including civil war, a dependence on the extraction and export of natural resources, and bad governance. Standard solutions do not work against these traps, he writes; aid is often ineffective, and globalization can actually make matters worse, driving development to more stable nations. What the bottom billion need, Collier argues, is a bold new plan supported by the Group of Eight industrialized nations. If failed states are ever to be helped, the G8 will have to adopt preferential trade policies, new laws against corruption, and new international charters, and even conduct carefully calibrated military interventions.

As former director of research for the World Bank and current Director of the Center for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University, Paul Collier has spent a lifetime working to end global poverty. In The Bottom Billion, he offers real hope for solving one of the great humanitarian crises facing the world today.

Among the praise for The Bottom Billion:

"The best book on international affairs so far this year."
--Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times

"If Sachs seems too saintly and Easterly too cynical, then Collier is the authentic old Africa hand: he knows the terrain and has a keen ear. As Collier rightly says, it is time to dispense with the false dichotomies that bedevil the current debate on Africa. If you've ever found yourself on one side or the other of those arguments - and who hasn't? - then you simply must read this book."
--Niall Ferguson, New York Times Book Review

"Paul Collier's book is of great importance. He has shown clearly what is happening to the poorest billion in the world, why it is happening and what can be done to open up greater opportunities for them in a world of increasing wealth. His ideas should be at the centre of the policy debate."
--Sir Nicholas Stern, Professor at the London School of Economics, Former Chief Economist of the World Bank, and author of The Stern Report on Climate Change

"This is a path-breaking work providing penetrating insights into the largely unexplored borderland between economics and politics."
--George Soros

"Rich in both analysis and recommendations.... Read this book. You will learn much you do not know. It will also change the way you look at the tragedy of persistent poverty in a world of plenty."
--Financial Times

"A persuasive and important challenge to current thinking on development."
--Larry Summers

"Workable development ideas are hard to find, but Professor Collier may have identified the next frontier for positive change."
--Tyler Cowen, New York Times

"This is an arresting, provocative book, written by an expert in plain English. If you care about the fate of the poorest people in the world, and want to understand what can be done to help them, read it. If you don't care, read it anyway."
--Tim Harford, Financial Times columnist and author of The Undercover Economist

Paul Collier is Professor of Economics and Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University. Former director of Development Research at the World Bank and advisor to the British government's Commission on Africa, he is one of the world's leading experts on African economies, and is the author of Breaking the Conflict Trap, among other books.

Read Collier's brief accounts on "why guilt is no solution for poverty" and "How The G8 Got It Wrong: Or Why Aid Isn’t The Answer."

The Page 99 Test: The Bottom Billion.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Anthony Shadid reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Anthony Shadid, foreign correspondent covering the Middle East for the Washington Post and author of Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War.

He reports that he's "tailoring my reading list toward the next book I'm working on, a more personal narrative of rebuilding my family's house in southern Lebanon and their story of emigration to America." Read on to see the latest titles on that reading list.

Shadid has reported from throughout the Middle East for a decade, first as Cairo correspondent for the Associated Press and then for the Boston Globe, where he drew attention for his reports from the West Bank and other fronts. His first book, Legacy of the Prophet, drew praise from the late Edward Said. For his work in Baghdad he has received the Overseas Press Club Award (his second), the Michael Kelly Award, and was given the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting.

Writers Read: Anthony Shadid.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Peter Behrens' "The Law of Dreams"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Peter Behrens' The Law of Dreams.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Law of Dreams tells the story of a young man's epic passage from innocence to experience during The Great Famine in Ireland of 1847.

On his odyssey through Ireland and Britain, and across the Atlantic to “the Boston states,” Fergus is initiated to violence, sexual heat, and the glories and dangers of the industrial revolution. Along the way, he meets an unforgettable generation of boy soldiers, brigands, street toughs and charming, willful girls – all struggling for survival in the aftermath of natural catastrophe magnified by political callousness and brutal neglect.

Peter Behrens transports the reader to another time and place for a deeply-moving and resonant experience. The Law of Dreams is gorgeously written in incandescent language that unleashes the sexual and psychological energies of a lost world while plunging the reader directly into a vein of history that haunts the ancestral memory of millions in a new millennium.

Among the praise for the novel:

"Peter Behrens' superb The Law of Dreams is an emotional epic done in shadow-show, a lucid dream of the past, bearing echoes of Melville and Ondaatje, conveying scents and shimmers of a vanished world under the skin of our own."
— Jonathan Lethem

". . . absorbing, unsparing and beautifully written ... a masterly novel."
— Kevin Baker, New York Times Book Review

"Behrens’s impressive, swiftly paced saga tracks the life of an Irish boy after his family dies during the Great Potato Famine.... In scope and subject, Behrens’s work recalls Liam O’Flaherty’s epic novel “Famine”; both writers have a stark style admirably suited to conveying the horrors of starvation and despair. But Behrens’s language also has a visceral rhythm, and his similes meld the humble with the lyrical: whales rise “hissing” in a river, light “stutters” off an iron roof."
— The New Yorker

"A portrait of desire rendered in darkly lyric tones. Peter Behrens is a highly gifted conjurer; the past he evokes is as mythic as it is historic, as seductive as it is nightmarishly, gorgeously real."
— Heidi Julavits

"This book is a beautifully written, poetically inspired tale of heroism, love, yes and sex, and the triumph of the human spirit over murderous greed. It's a long road that Behrens makes shorter with many a surprising turn. The Law of Dreams is one great book. I stayed up into the wee hours to finish it. I envy you this journey."
— Malachy McCourt

Peter Behrens' collection of short stories, Night Driving, was published in 1987. His stories and essays have appeared in Tin House, Brick, Best Canadian Stories, Best Canadian Essays, the Atlantic Monthly, and many anthologies. After his first story published in the US appeared in the Atlantic Monthly and was optioned in Hollywood he began to work as a professional screenwriter. The Law of Dreams is his first novel.

Visit Peter Behrens' website and read an excerpt from The Law of Dreams.

The Page 69 Test: The Law of Dreams.

--Marshal Zeringue

Anthony Holden's list: poker books

Last week at The Week magazine, Anthony Holden, author of Bigger Deal: A Year Inside the Poker Boom, named "The List."

One of his titles:

The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King by Michael Craig

This page-turner by a lawyer turned poker nut chronicles the biggest game ever played, a 2001 showdown in which a Texas banker played a team of pros for tens of millions of dollars.

Read about another poker title that Holden calls "the finest poker novel since Richard Jessup’s The Cincinnati Kid."

James McManus, author of Positively Fifth Street, says Holden's "Bigger Deal will make nonprofessional poker addicts feel personally understood in ways no other book has ever managed to do. It has everything: wide cultural scope, poker table minutiae, success, failure, pain, Mozart operas sharing pages with telling analyses of flop texture, even more intercontinental action than its famous predecessor, and best of all, perspective on the Boom. No, best of all is the writing." And Martin Amis calls "Holden ... the top writer in pokerdom."

Read an excerpt from Bigger Deal.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Judith Cutler's "Cold Pursuit"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: Judith Cutler's Cold Pursuit.

About the book, from the publisher:

When a colleague becomes seriously ill, Chief Superintendent Frances Harman has to delay her impending retirement to oversee an investigation into a recent spate of ‘happy slappings’ and minor assaults in the Kent area. Initially, she begrudgingly takes a back seat in the case, but it is not long before she is once again perilously close to the action.

The wave of assaults has ignited a media furore and Fran is concerned that an unnecessary atmosphere of mass hysteria is being generated in the area. She soon finds herself having to spend as much time trying to control the media as trying to catch the criminals. However, the local reporter that initially broke the story, Dilly Pound, may have personal reasons for taking such an avid interest in the case.

As the crimes gradually escalate and the line between ‘happy slapping’ and serious sexual assault becomes blurred, all mention of retirement is postponed until Fran can resolve the nightmare that has enveloped around her.

Among the praise for Judith Cutler's novels:

"The fresh and lively style of Judith Cutler`s writing always appeals and I look forward to the next one."
--Bernard Knight

"In Cutler… we are undoubtedly dealing with the crème de la crème."
--The Times

"Judith Cutler writes so well that she could make the Telephone Book enthralling reading, as her wit and perspicacity make every page a delight."
--Tangled Web

Judith Cutler is a prolific U.K.-based crime novelist. Among her books are one series featuring amateur sleuth Sophie Rivers and another starring Detective Sergeant Kate Power.

Cold Pursuit is the second novel featuring Fran Harman, a Detective Chief Superintendent from Kent.

Cutler's short story “Shaping the Ends,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (May 2006), has been nominated for a 2007 Barry Award.

Read more about Cold Pursuit and Judith Cutler's other writing.

The Page 99 Test: Cold Pursuit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jacquelyn Mitchard's "Still Summer"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Jacquelyn Mitchard's Still Summer.

About the book, from the author's website:

When four friends who ruled the school twenty years ago gather for an idyllic sailing vacation – meant to comfort Olivia, who has returned home a widow after twenty years abroad – they expect two weeks of gossip, sunbathing and drinks with little umbrellas.

Instead, two days into their crossing, a single small mistake turns paradise a sun-baked hell.

The same elements that combined to make this trip an adventure in paradise combine in for survival. Surrounded by water, but with almost none to drink, with refrigerators filled with gourmet food rotting before they can used it, and a deluxe communication system ruined in an instant, the women must hide from the punishing sun and use all their strength and intelligence to try to outwit nature, their own demons and human predators.

What happens when friendship must face the ultimate test? Does the better nature prevail or is it everyone for herself?

Among the early praise for Still Summer:

"Still Summer is a finely written tale you will not be able to put down, but it is also an insightful and moving exploration of the nature of enduring friendship between women. What happens when these ties are put to the most severe test? What happens when fate sets us adrift in lethal waters under a merciless sun? With her characteristic generosity, intelligence, and warmth, Jacquelyn Mitchard illuminates this central question in an utterly compelling novel you will not soon forget!"
—Andre Dubus III

"Jacquelyn Mitchard is a master at laying bare the souls of her characters, and in Still Summer, she gives us four unforgettable women who must fight to survive. Slowly and expertly, Mitchard ratchets up the tension in this pulse-pounding tale of courage, betrayal, and high-seas terror."
—Tess Gerritsen, author of The Mephisto Club

Read an excerpt from Still Summer and visit Mitchard's website, her blog, and the Still Summer MySpace page.

Jacquelyn Mitchard's novels include The Most Wanted, A Theory of Relativity, Twelve Times Blessed, The Breakdown Lane, Cage of Stars, and The Deep End of the Ocean, the first novel selected for the book club made famous by the TV host Oprah Winfrey.

The Page 69 Test: Still Summer.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is George Packer reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: George Packer, a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of five books: two novels, The Half Man and Central Square, and three books of non-fiction, The Village of Waiting, Blood of the Liberals, and The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq. He is also the editor of The Fight Is for Democracy: Winning the War of Ideas in America and the World.

About The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq, from the publisher:

The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq recounts how the United States set about changing the history of the Middle East and became ensnared in a guerilla war in Iraq. It brings to life the people and ideas that created the Bush administration’s war policy and led America to the Assassins’ Gate — the main point of entry into the American zone in Baghdad. The consequences of that policy are shown in the author’s brilliant reporting on the ground in Iraq, where he made four tours on assignment for The New Yorker. We see up close the struggles of American soldiers and civilians and Iraqis from all backgrounds, thrown together by a war that followed none of the preconceived scripts.

The Assassins' Gate also describes the place of the war in American life: the ideological battles in Washington that led to chaos in Iraq, the ordeal of a fallen soldier’s family, and the political culture of a country too bitterly polarized to realize such a vast and morally complex undertaking. George Packer’s first-person narrative combines the scope of an epic history with the depth and intimacy of a novel, creating a masterful account of America’s most controversial foreign venture since Vietnam.

Read an excerpt from The Assassins' Gate.

Packer writes about foreign affairs, politics, and books for The New Yorker's Interesting Times blog.

See what Packer has been reading at Writers Read: George Packer.

--Marshal Zeringue

Most important books: Natasha Trethewey

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey recently told Newsweek about her five most important books.

And addressed two other book-related issues:

A Certified Important Book you still haven't read:

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.
It's ridiculous that I haven't read it, because it was the book my father was reading when he chose to name me Natasha.

A classic that, upon rereading, disappointed:

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.
Don't get me wrong, it's such an important book, and the last lines of it are so wonderful, but it's not exactly an enjoyable read.

Read about Trethewey's most important books.

--Marshal Zeringue