Pg. 99: Aaron Skabelund's "Empire of Dogs"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Empire of Dogs: Canines, Japan, and the Making of the Modern Imperial World by Aaron Herald Skabelund.

About the book, from the publisher:

In 1924, Professor Ueno Eizaburo of Tokyo Imperial University adopted an Akita puppy he named Hachiko. Each evening Hachiko greeted Ueno on his return to Shibuya Station. In May 1925 Ueno died while giving a lecture. Every day for over nine years the Akita waited at Shibuya Station, eventually becoming nationally and even internationally famous for his purported loyalty. A year before his death in 1935, the city of Tokyo erected a statue of Hachiko outside the station. The story of Hachiko reveals much about the place of dogs in Japan's cultural imagination.

In the groundbreaking Empire of Dogs, Aaron Herald Skabelund examines the history and cultural significance of dogs in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Japan, beginning with the arrival of Western dog breeds and new modes of dog keeping, which spread throughout the world with Western imperialism. He highlights how dogs joined with humans to create the modern imperial world and how, in turn, imperialism shaped dogs' bodies and their relationship with humans through its impact on dog-breeding and dog-keeping practices that pervade much of the world today.

In a book that is both enlightening and entertaining, Skabelund focuses on actual and metaphorical dogs in a variety of contexts: the rhetorical pairing of the Western "colonial dog" with native canines; subsequent campaigns against indigenous canines in the imperial realm; the creation, maintenance, and in some cases restoration of Japanese dog breeds, including the Shiba Inu; the mobilization of military dogs, both real and fictional; and the emergence of Japan as a "pet superpower" in the second half of the twentieth century. Through this provocative account, Skabelund demonstrates how animals generally and canines specifically have contributed to the creation of our shared history, and how certain dogs have subtly influenced how that history is told. Generously illustrated with both color and black-and-white images, Empire of Dogs shows that human-canine relations often expose how people—especially those with power and wealth—use animals to define, regulate, and enforce political and social boundaries between themselves and other humans, especially in imperial contexts.

Learn more about Empire of Dogs at the Cornell University Press website.

Aaron Herald Skabelund is Assistant Professor of History at Brigham Young University.

The Page 99 Test: Empire of Dogs.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top 10 lawyers in fiction

Simon Lelic is a novelist. His books are Rupture [US title, A Thousand Cuts], The Facility and, out now in the U.K. and coming soon to the U.S., The Child Who. He lives in Brighton with his wife and two young boys.

Megan Abbott, author of The End of Everything, on The Child Who:

By page three, Simon Lelic’s harrowing and haunting novel The Child Who has you utterly in its snares. A daring writer but also a deeply open-hearted one, he renders his flawed but sympathetic characters with the most tender of hands, heightening the tale’s suspense and drawing us even closer."

One of Lelic's top ten fictional lawyers, as told to the Guardian:

George Edalji in Arthur & George by Julian Barnes

A lawyer accused, this time, and championed by a writer: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, no less. George is a Birmingham solicitor, content in hardworking obscurity until he is swept to national prominence – and infamy – by The Great Wyrley Outrages. His story reads like a thriller, all the more gripping because it is based on real events.

Read about another lawyer on the list.

Also see John Mullan's lists of ten of the best bad lawyers in literature and ten of the best lawyers in literature, John Quinn's five best list of books about trial lawyers at work, and Scott Turow's five favorite legal novels.

Learn more about the book and author at Simon Lelic's website.

The Page 69 Test: Simon Lelic’s A Thousand Cuts.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sabrina Benulis's "Archon," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Archon by Sabrina Benulis.

The entry begins:

Archon and its sequels in "The Books of Raziel" trilogy would make unbelievable movies. This is a pipe-dream for me, of course. Really, the odds of any novelist's books becoming a movie are quite slim, even if they're optioned, and then by gosh you'd better hope the adaptation is at least a little faithful to your book.

But if all of those magic dominoes happened to fall just right, it would be awesome.

Really, Archon requires a cast mostly of unknowns. Angela Mathers, my protagonist, is tall with a model's striking face, so an edgy actress in her late teens with some sharp acting skills would do well. Kim, my main male character, looks a lot like the magician Criss...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Sabrina Benulis's website, blog, and Facebook page.

My Book, The Movie: Archon.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jonathan Ladd's "Why Americans Hate the Media and How It Matters"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Why Americans Hate the Media and How It Matters by Jonathan M. Ladd.

About the book, from the publisher:

As recently as the early 1970s, the news media was one of the most respected institutions in the United States. Yet by the 1990s, this trust had all but evaporated. Why has confidence in the press declined so dramatically over the past 40 years? And has this change shaped the public's political behavior? This book examines waning public trust in the institutional news media within the context of the American political system and looks at how this lack of confidence has altered the ways people acquire political information and form electoral preferences.

Jonathan Ladd argues that in the 1950s, '60s, and early '70s, competition in American party politics and the media industry reached historic lows. When competition later intensified in both of these realms, the public's distrust of the institutional media grew, leading the public to resist the mainstream press's information about policy outcomes and turn toward alternative partisan media outlets. As a result, public beliefs and voting behavior are now increasingly shaped by partisan predispositions. Ladd contends that it is not realistic or desirable to suppress party and media competition to the levels of the mid-twentieth century; rather, in the contemporary media environment, new ways to augment the public's knowledgeability and responsiveness must be explored.

Drawing on historical evidence, experiments, and public opinion surveys, this book shows that in a world of endless news sources, citizens' trust in institutional media is more important than ever before.

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

The Page 99 Test: Why Americans Hate the Media and How It Matters.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Patrick Lee reading?

Today's featured contributor at Writers Read: Patrick Lee, author of Deep Sky.

The entry begins:

I recently finished Persuader, by Lee Child. Some of my favorite books and films have centered on the idea of a protagonist forced to live out a lie under dangerous circumstances. In Persuader, Child's Jack Reacher takes part in an elaborate, off-the-radar ruse by a group of DEA agents, resulting in his being accepted into the household of a violent criminal mastermind. The bad guys think Reacher is hired muscle they can use for a while; his true goal is to find and rescue a missing woman, and to take revenge against an enemy he'd long believed to be dead.

A false pretense is like an engine that continuously generates conflict and jeopardy. At every turn the lie must be shored up like a failing dam, and every attempt to do so is itself another lie, adding to the pressure. Persuader wrings every bit of danger out of a brilliantly framed situation, forcing Reacher to make increasingly smart--and desperate--moves.

A few months ago I re-read what must be one of the most impactful books I've ever opened:...[read on]

About Deep Sky, from the publisher:

The anomaly called the Breach is the government’s most carefully guarded secret.

But there is another secret even less known ... and far more terrifying.

As the U.S. President addresses the nation from the Oval Office, a missile screams toward the White House. In a lightning flash, the Chief Executive is dead, his mansion in ruins, and two cryptic words are the only clue to the assassins’ motives: “See Scalar.”

Now Travis Chase of the covert agency Tangent—caretakers of the Breach and all its grim wonders—along with partner and lover Paige Campbell and technology expert Bethany Stewart, have only twenty-four hours to unearth a decades-old mystery once spoken of in terrified whispers by the long since silenced. But their breakneck race cross-country—and back through time and malleable memory—is calling the total destructive might of a shadow government down upon them. For Travis Chase has a dark destiny he cannot be allowed to fulfill...

Learn more about the book and author at Patrick Lee's website and blog.

Patrick Lee's first novel, The Breach, hit the world at the beginning of 2010. It was followed by a sequel, Ghost Country, and the final volume of the trilogy, Deep Sky, was released in December 2011.

My Book, The Movie: Deep Sky.

The Page 99 Test: Deep Sky.

Writers Read: Patrick Lee.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five outstanding novels on the Civil War era

David W. Blight is Class of 1954 Professor of American History at Yale University. His books include American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era.

For the Wall Street Journal, he named a five best list of novels about the Civil War era. One title on the list:

Beloved
by Toni Morrison (1987)

With slavery and its legacy the focus of Toni Morrison's "Beloved," the book is a Civil War novel of the first order even though it is set in 1873. The tale focuses on a former slave named Sethe, who escaped to Ohio before the war from a Kentucky farm called Sweet Home. When it seemed that she was about to be recaptured, Sethe committed a horrifying act of infanticide to save her baby from enslavement. The baby haunts this masterly work, a "ghost story" that probes to the darkest heart of dehumanization, as well as the human will to survive the worst of human oppression. Morrison's great theme—the nature of memory—leaves us with a sense that historical and personal memory are matters of overwhelming burden but also of human choice. The book ultimately is a challenge to the nation itself to consider its burden and its choices as the maker and destroyer of slavery.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Beloved also appears on John Mullan's list of ten of the best births in literature and Kit Whitfield's top ten list of genre-defying novels, and at the top of one list of contenders for the title of the single best work of American fiction published in the last twenty-five years.

Also see: Ten best novels about the American Civil War.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Elizabeth Eslami's "Bone Worship"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Bone Worship by Elizabeth Eslami.

About the book, from the publisher:

Jasmine Fahroodhi has always been fascinated by her enigmatic Iranian father. With his strange habits and shrouded past, she can't fathom how he ended up marrying her prim American mother.

But lately love in general feels just as incomprehensible. After a disastrous romance sends her into a tailspin, causing her to fail out of college just shy of graduation, a conflicted Jasmine returns home without any idea where her life is headed.

Her father has at least one idea—he has big plans for a hastegar, an arranged marriage. Confused, furious, but intrigued, Jasmine searches for her match, meeting suitor after suitor with increasingly disastrous (and humorous) results. As she begins to open herself up to the mysteries of familial and romantic love, Jasmine discovers the truth about her father, and an even more evasive figure—herself—in this highly original and striking debut novel.

Learn more about the book and author at Elizabeth Eslami's website.

The Page 69 Test: Bone Worship.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Daniel Berkowitz & Karen Clay's "The Evolution of a Nation"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: The Evolution of a Nation: How Geography and Law Shaped the American States by Daniel Berkowitz and Karen B. Clay.

About the book, from the publisher:

Although political and legal institutions are essential to any nation's economic development, the forces that have shaped these institutions are poorly understood. Drawing on rich evidence about the development of the American states from the mid-nineteenth to the late twentieth century, this book documents the mechanisms through which geographical and historical conditions--such as climate, access to water transportation, and early legal systems--impacted political and judicial institutions and economic growth.

The book shows how a state's geography and climate influenced whether elites based their wealth in agriculture or trade. States with more occupationally diverse elites in 1860 had greater levels of political competition in their legislature from 1866 to 2000. The book also examines the effects of early legal systems. Because of their colonial history, thirteen states had an operational civil-law legal system prior to statehood. All of these states except Louisiana would later adopt common law. By the late eighteenth century, the two legal systems differed in their balances of power. In civil-law systems, judiciaries were subordinate to legislatures, whereas in common-law systems, the two were more equal. Former civil-law states and common-law states exhibit persistent differences in the structure of their courts, the retention of judges, and judicial budgets. Moreover, changes in court structures, retention procedures, and budgets occur under very different conditions in civil-law and common-law states.

The Evolution of a Nation illustrates how initial geographical and historical conditions can determine the evolution of political and legal institutions and long-run growth.

Learn more about The Evolution of a Nation at the Princeton University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Evolution of a Nation.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books to keep kids happy on a trip

For the Christian Science Monitor, Molly Driscoll named five books that are sure to keep children occupied during a journey.

One title on the list:

Tuesdays at the Castle, by Jessica Day George

George's story follows Princess Celie, who lives in a magical castle that adds everything from a tower to a whole new section every Tuesday. Celie loves discovering the new additions and making maps of the building, and it's her expertise that may save the day when the king and queen are attacked and the kingdom is in danger. Age range: 8 to 12 years old.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jennifer Frost's "Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood: Celebrity Gossip and American Conservatism by Jennifer Frost.

The entry begins:

Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper was a powerhouse of Hollywood’s golden age, and people either loved the “duchess of dish” or hated this “gargoyle of gossip.” For 27 years and 32 million readers over the mid-20th century, Hopper wrote her movie gossip column about the big stars, their movies and marriages, their secrets and scandals. What made her most stand out from the crowd of celebrity journalists of her day—apart from her famous, flamboyant hats—were her political coverage and her political conservatism. The intertwining of popular and political culture was exceptional in Hopper’s column but is commonplace in today’s mass media.

Whether reporting on entertainment or politics, Hopper wrote in a witty, catty style, wielding her gossip as a weapon. In return, she earned a reputation for herself in Hollywood as “unpredictable and ruthless,” “cold-blooded,” and “a vicious witch.” But she also was smart, blond, and attractive, always well groomed and dressed, and had many close friends and committed fans. Her great rival Louella Parsons, who preceded and competed with her in the Hollywood gossip business, was not one of them however. The Hopper-Parsons feud shaped both their careers, and should be a key plot line in the movie.

Hopper: Jane Alexander played a young Hopper in a 1985 television movie, Malice in Wonderland, but that movie only took Hopper to the start of her career and Alexander played her sweetly. To portray Hopper throughout her powerful career, Glenn...[read on]

Learn more about Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood at the publisher's website.

Jennifer Frost is senior lecturer in history at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

At the Wall Street Journal, film historian Steven J. Ross named Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood on his list of the five best books about politics and the movie industry.

My Book, The Movie: Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Randy Roberts's "A Team for America"

Today's feature at the Page 99 Test: A Team for America: The Army-Navy Game That Rallied a Nation by Randy Roberts.

About the book, from the publisher:

There never has been a sports event, perhaps never an event of any kind, that received the attention of so many Americans in so many places around the world.” So wrote a reporter on December 2, 1944, about the greatest Army- Navy football game in the long history of that storied rivalry. World War II raged in Europe, Africa, and the Pacific; President Roosevelt was seriously ill, and just a few short months from his death; Americans on the home front suffered through shortages, including a Thanksgiving without turkey or pie just days earlier. But for one day, all that was forgotten.

Army’s team was ranked number 1; Navy, number 2. Army’s years of football misery had been lifted by a wartime team and a brilliant coach that made them a contender, and if they beat Navy on that day, they would be national champions. Around the world, the war stopped as soldiers listened to a broadcast of the game. Everyone everywhere forgot everything for a few short hours.

Randy Roberts has interviewed surviving players and coaches for nearly a decade to bring to life one of the most memorable stories in all of American sports. For three years, Army football upperclassmen graduated and joined the fight, from Normandy beaches to Pacific atolls. For three hours, their alma mater gave them back one unforgettable performance.

Visit the A Team for America Facebook page.

The Page 99 Test: Randy Roberts's Joe Louis: Hard Times Man.

The Page 99 Test: A Team for America.

--Marshal Zeringue

Max Hastings's 10 best books on war

Max Hastings's latest book is Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945.

One of his ten best books on war, as told to the Observer in 2010:

A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo, 1977

Caputo was a US marine officer in Vietnam during some of the bloodiest fighting of the mid-1960s. He describes the misery and institutionalised brutality of the conflict in a fashion that goes far to explain why America lost that war. Many Americans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have suggested that his tale foretold the manner of some tragic military follies repeated in the 21st century. Even if only a small minority of soldiers commit atrocities, many young Americans at war find it hard to treat perceived primitive peoples with respect or even humanity.

Read about another book on the list.

Also see Max Hastings's five best eyewitness battlefield accounts.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Gina Robinson reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Gina Robinson, author of The Spy Who Left Me.

Her entry begins:

When I'm in the middle of a project, as I am now, I like to read out of the genre I write in. Getting lost in very different voices and stories seems to refresh and renew my creativity. Lately I've been on a young adult binge. And as I have a teenage daughter who's also an avid reader, from time to time we like to read the same books and discuss them when we're both finished. Right now we're reading the latest books in two different YA series and a Christmas book, which is not YA.

First, I'm reading The Iron Knight, the final book in Julie Kagawa's excellent Iron Fey series. I received the first book, The Iron King, in my goodie bag at the Romance Writers of America conference in New York this past summer. It won Romance Writers of America's RITA award for best YA novel. I'm not much of a fantasy reader, so I was surprised by how much I love this series. The general premise of the books is that the faerie world is being overrun and overtaken by a new breed of faerie, the Iron Fey, who feed off of...[read on]

About The Spy Who Left Me, from the publisher:

If there’s one thing that can ruin a vacation, it’s running into your ex. Just ask Treflee Miller. If she’d only known that her husband Ty would be here in Hawaii—muscular, sun-bronzed, and infuriatingly gorgeous—she would have brought the divorce papers for him to sign. But life is full of surprises when you’re married to a world-class spy…

Ty Miller can understand why his wife is tired of playing Mrs. James Bond. He’s never home, he’s always on a mission, and he’s usually surrounded by exotic informants. He has to admit that the perfect spy makes a pretty lousy husband. But for the sake of Ty’s security and Treflee’s safety, they can’t blow his cover. Not here. Not now. Not when his longing is so strong, her lips so tempting—and his enemies so close…

Learn more about the book and author at Gina Robinson's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Spy Who Left Me.

Writers Read: Gina Robinson.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Benjamin Buchholz's "One Hundred and One Nights"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: One Hundred and One Nights by Benjamin Buchholz.

About the book, from the publisher:

After 13 years in America, Abu Saheeh has returned to his native Iraq, a nation transformed by the American military presence. Alone in a new city, he has exactly what he wants: freedom from his past. Then he meets Layla, a whimsical fourteen-year-old girl who enchants him with her love of American pop culture. Enchanted by Layla's stories and her company, Abu Saheeh settles into the city's rhythm and begins rebuilding his life. But two sudden developments--his alliance with a powerful merchant and his employment of a hot-headed young assistant--reawaken painful memories, and not even Layla may be able to save Abu Saheeh from careening out of control and endangering all around them.

A breathtaking tale of friendship, love, and betrayal, One Hundred and One Nights is an unforgettable novel about the struggle for salvation and the power of family.

Learn more about the book and author at Benjamin Buchholz's website.

The Page 69 Test: One Hundred and One Nights.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the most notable New Years in literature

At the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the most notable New Years in literature.

One novel on the list:

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Smith's novel begins on New Year's Day 1975, with Archie Jones trying to kill himself. He fails and ends up at a New Year's Eve party that is still going from the night before. There he meets Clara, a vision of eccentric perfection, and before long he has another wife.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ali Brandon's "Double Booked for Death," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Double Booked for Death by Ali Brandon.

The entry begins:

Ah, yes, every writer’s secret dream…to have his or her book turned into a movie. And, in that most perfect world, we writers get to cast our own stories. (Of course, we’ve already written the award-winning screenplay with no pesky directorial interference.) But choosing is harder than it looks, and so I gave much thought to whom I envision bringing to life my new Black Cat Bookshop Mystery, Double Booked for Death.

My red-haired protagonist, Darla Pettistone, was actually based on one of my nieces; however, Lauren Ambrose of Six Feet Under fame would be great in the role. She’s just about the right age and has that same wide-eyed look as Darla…all she needs to do is darken her hair to true auburn.

In my story, I’ve already described Darla’s bookstore manager, retired professor James T. James, as having a voice reminiscent of James...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at the official Ali Brandon--AKA Diane A.S. Stuckart--website.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Diane Stuckart & Ranger, Delta, Oliver and Paprika.

My Book, The Movie: Double Booked for Death.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Patrick Lee's "Deep Sky"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Deep Sky by Patrick Lee.

About the book, from the publisher:

The anomaly called the Breach is the government’s most carefully guarded secret.

But there is another secret even less known ... and far more terrifying.

As the U.S. President addresses the nation from the Oval Office, a missile screams toward the White House. In a lightning flash, the Chief Executive is dead, his mansion in ruins, and two cryptic words are the only clue to the assassins’ motives: “See Scalar.”

Now Travis Chase of the covert agency Tangent—caretakers of the Breach and all its grim wonders—along with partner and lover Paige Campbell and technology expert Bethany Stewart, have only twenty-four hours to unearth a decades-old mystery once spoken of in terrified whispers by the long since silenced. But their breakneck race cross-country—and back through time and malleable memory—is calling the total destructive might of a shadow government down upon them. For Travis Chase has a dark destiny he cannot be allowed to fulfill...

Learn more about the book and author at Patrick Lee's website and blog.

Patrick Lee's first novel, The Breach, hit the world at the beginning of 2010. It was followed by a sequel, Ghost Country, and the final volume of the trilogy, Deep Sky, is out this week. The series tells the story of Travis Chase, a man who finds himself caught up in the chain of events surrounding the world's most violently kept secret.

My Book, The Movie: Deep Sky.

The Page 99 Test: Deep Sky.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top books about financial speculation

John Gapper is chief business commentator of the Financial Times, where he writes a weekly column. He co-authored All That Glitters, an account of the collapse of Barings bank in 1995.

One of his five top books on financial speculation, as told to Robert Cottrell at The Browser:

The Great Crash 1929
by John Kenneth Galbraith

Greed, vanity and weakness are also, to some extent, the themes of John Kenneth Galbraith’s The Great Crash 1929. Do you admire Galbraith as an economist?

The book shows his talent as a popular economist. It’s not chiefly a work of economics, though it does analyse the causes of the Great Depression. It’s more a work of history, almost of journalism. For an academic, Galbraith writes unusually well.

Does the book have predictive value? Could you have read it in 2005 and said “it looks like we’ve got another crash approaching”?

When you open this book, it starts with real estate speculation in Florida. Everybody is rushing down there because they believe Florida real estate is going to have an enormous boom. They are speculating in derivatives on it. The parallels could hardly be more precise.

Galbraith also draws out well the way in which one of the top bankers of the day, Charles Mitchell of National City Bank, together with Richard Whitney, head of the New York Stock Exchange, contrived to prolong the period of financial speculation. After the crash, these two became the symbols of the financial class’s malfeasance. They were prosecuted and reputationally ruined. Whitney was sent to Sing Sing [prison]. There, the parallel breaks down. No senior banker has faced such harsh justice this time.

Did the crash of 1929 fundamentally change American markets?

Galbraith didn’t go so far as to say that it could never happen again. But he did conclude that Wall Street would never be trusted in the same way. Instead, America would trust new institutions and regulations – first http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifand foremost the Securities and Exchange Commission. But if you fast-forward to the past decade, you find that the SEC had become ineffectual. And the Federal Reserve, at least under Alan Greenspan, was treating derivatives as though they were reducing and distributing risk, rather than creating it. So with benefit of hindsight, you have to say that Wall Street came through the Great Crash without being fundamentally changed.

Read about another book Gapper tagged for The Browser.

The Great Crash, 1929 also appears on Samuel Muston's list of ten of "the finest - and most readable - books about Big Money" and David Charters's top ten list of books about bankers.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Nick Drake reading?

This weekend's featured contributor at Writers Read: Nick Drake, author of Egypt: The Book of Chaos.

Part of his entry:

Climate Change holds a mirror up to us all, to how we live, and to our values; The New North by Laurence Smith and The Great Disruption by Paul Gilding are two impressive books that dare to look into the mirror of the future, and say honestly, cogently and thoughtfully what they see. The Arctic may seem remote, but what happens there because of what we do, or take from it, will always come back to haunt us. The Inuit say of us (that's to say, the industrial world) that we are the people who change nature; she is changing fast now; these two highly-informed books have the courage to think about what that's going to...[read on]

About Egypt: The Book of Chaos, from the publisher:

The future of Egypt lies in the hands of chief detective Rahotep in this final installment of Nick Drake’s acclaimed ancient Egyptian trilogy.

King Tutankhamun has died without an heir, and his young widow, Queen Ankhesenamun, last of her dynasty, struggles to maintain power and order. To defeat her enemies, she has but one hope: to forge an alliance with the Hittites, a powerful, militant new empire that threatens Egypt’s supremacy.

The loyal Rahotep, chief detective of the Thebes Medjay—the ancient capital’s elite police force—and his friend, the royal envoy Nakht, are sent on a clandestine mission to the Hittite homeland, to persuade the king to agree to a marriage between one of his sons and Ankhesenamun—a union that would bring peace to the region and consolidate the queen’s power.

Back in Egypt, the nefarious General Horemheb is poised to use his army to impose martial law and destroy the dynasty. But he is not the only enemy vying for control. A mysterious and brutal new opium cartel has emerged within the criminal underworld of Thebes, ready to take over the lucrative black market—and, ultimately, the very heart of the government.

In this epic quest to the dark heart of the ancient world, Rahotep must also confront his own demons if he is to prevent the gathering forces of chaos from destroying Egypt’s greatest dynasty, and to return home in time to save his own family from the terror that threatens them all.

Based on a true story and meticulously researched, Egypt: The Book of Chaos brings to life the ancient world and the cradle of civilization in a riveting, suspenseful finale to Nick Drake’s acclaimed trilogy.

Learn more about the book and author at Nick Drake's website.

The Page 69 Test: Egypt: The Book of Chaos.

My Book, The Movie: Egypt.

Writers Read: Nick Drake.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Patrice Sarath's "The Unexpected Miss Bennet"

This weekend's feature at the Page 69 Test: The Unexpected Miss Bennet by Patrice Sarath.

About the book, from the publisher:

Pride and Prejudice's Mary Bennet gets her own story...

The third of five daughters, Miss Mary Bennet is a rather unremarkable girl. With her countenance being somewhere between plain and pretty and in possession of no great accomplishments, few expect the third Bennet daughter to attract a respectable man. But although she is shy and would much prefer to keep her nose stuck in a book, Mary is uncertain she wants to meekly follow the path to spinsterhood set before her.

Determined that Mary should have a chance at happiness, the elder Bennet sisters concoct a plan. Lizzy invites Mary to visit at Pemberley, hoping to give her sister a place to grow and make new acquaintances. But it is only when Mary strikes out independently that she can attempt to become accomplished in her own right. And in a family renowned for its remarkable Misses, Mary Bennet may turn out to be the most wholly unexpected of them all...

Learn more about the book and author at Patrice Sarath's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Unexpected Miss Bennet.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top books on Americans in Paris

One title on the Barnes & Noble Review's list of five books on Americans in Paris:

Le Divorce
by Diane Johnson

Alive with echoes of Henry James, this modern comedy of manners revolves around Isabel Walker, a film-school dropout newly arrived in Paris from California, there to help her pregnant step-sister Roxy cope with family matters after the infidelity and departure of her French husband. She experiences the gossipy currents of the American expatriate community, the charm -- but fundamental difference -- of her French semi-relations, and the beguiling reality of the city itself. As the families square off (with a valuable painting at the center), Isabel crosses a threshold into emotional maturity: an old story, but one that becomes completely fresh through Johnson's scintillating prose and keen eye for absurdity.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Patrick Lee's "Deep Sky," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Deep Sky by Patrick Lee.

The entry begins:

Strangely enough, the character I never have a visual sense of is my protagonist, Travis Chase. That's probably because I'm usually writing from his point of view, the story focusing on what he sees and, more importantly, what he thinks.

Other characters I do get a sense of, visually, but not specifically enough that any certain actor or actress comes to mind.

In the past, I've hinted that a great lead actor would be a CGI mix of Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Patrick Lee's website and blog.

Patrick Lee's first novel, The Breach, hit the world at the beginning of 2010. It was followed by a sequel, Ghost Country, and the final volume of the trilogy, Deep Sky, is out this week. The series tells the story of Travis Chase, a man who finds himself caught up in the chain of events surrounding the world's most violently kept secret.

My Book, The Movie: Deep Sky.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka's "Zoopolis"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rights by Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka.

About the book, from the publisher:

Zoopolis offers a new agenda for the theory and practice of animal rights. Most animal rights theory focuses on the intrinsic capacities or interests of animals, and the moral status and moral rights that these intrinsic characteristics give rise to. This book shifts the debate from the realm of moral theory and applied ethics to the realm of political theory, focusing on the relational obligations that arise from the varied ways that animals relate to human societies and institutions. Building on recent developments in the political theory of group-differentiated citizenship, Zoopolis introduces us to the genuine "political animal". It argues that different types of animals stand in different relationships to human political communities. Domesticated animals should be seen as full members of human-animal mixed communities, participating in the cooperative project of shared citizenship. Wilderness animals, by contrast, form their own sovereign communities entitled to protection against colonization, invasion, domination and other threats to self-determination. `Liminal' animals who are wild but live in the midst of human settlement (such as crows or raccoons) should be seen as "denizens", resident of our societies, but not fully included in rights and responsibilities of citizenship. To all of these animals we owe respect for their basic inviolable rights. But we inevitably and appropriately have very different relations with them, with different types of obligations. Humans and animals are inextricably bound in a complex web of relationships, and Zoopolis offers an original and profoundly affirmative vision of how to ground this complex web of relations on principles of justice and compassion.

Learn more about Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rights at the Oxford University Press and Will Kymlicka's website.

The Page 99 Test: Zoopolis.

--Marshal Zeringue