The Jane Austen reading list

One title from Tertulia's list of books that offer "multiple ways into Jane Austen’s enduring world:"

Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane
Devoney Looser

Incisive and funny, this new book reconsiders Jane Austen’s life, writing, and long afterlife. Revisiting the novels, juvenilia, suffrage, adaptation history, and pop-cultural mythmaking, Looser presents a writer deeply entangled with the controversies of her time—and ours.

Read about another entry on the list.

Also see Rebecca Romney's list of six books that owe a debt to Jane Austen’s work, Melissa Albert's list of the top fifteen male characters in Jane Austen's novels, and Paula Byrne's list of the ten best Jane Austen characters.

The Page 99 Test: Wild for Austen.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Jacquelyn Stolos reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Jacquelyn Stolos, author of Asterwood.

Her entry begins:

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin

No one needs me to say that LeGuin is a master of fantasy that deftly tackles social and existential questions. I returned to this classic to remind myself of everything that's possible in children's literature. The archipelago of Earthsea is the most vivid place I've ever been, the action gripping to the point of it being unfair. Prickly, arrogant Ged is a singular protagonist. The engineering of this world's magic, with its Taoist principles, is sublime. LeGuin's small, subtle moves--like...[read on]

About Asterwood, from the publisher:

Family secrets, friendship, and magic burst from the seams of this thrilling fantasy adventure that follows a ten-year-old girl as she discovers a new world behind her home in desperate need of her help and within it, her own troubling family legacy.

Madelyn has always been satisfied with her life of cozy meals, great books, and adventures with her father in the woods behind their farmhouse.

But when a mysterious child appears and invites her down a forbidden trail and into a new world, Madelyn realizes that there’s far more to life than she ever allowed herself to realize.

This new world, Asterwood, is wider, wilder, and more magical than she could ever imagine. And somehow, it’s people know who she is—and desperately need her help.

Accompanied by new friends—one ​who can speak the language of the trees and one with a mind as sharp as her daggers—and her calico cat, Dots, Madelyn embarks on an epic quest across a strange and sprawling forest world whose secrets just might help her save her own.​

Visit Jacquelyn Stolos's website.

Writers Read: Jacquelyn Stolos.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books that embody resilience

William Boyd was born in 1952 in Accra, Ghana, and grew up there and in Nigeria. He is the author of sixteen highly acclaimed, bestselling novels and five collections of stories. Any Human Heart was longlisted for the Booker Prize and adapted into a TV series. His books have won many literary awards, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction, and the Costa Book Award. He was named a Granta Best Young Novelist in 1983, and in 2005, he was awarded the CBE. Boyd's newest novel is The Predicament.

In 2020 at GQ (UK) he tagged "five books that, for him, embody and inspire resilience like no others," including:

Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov

This book is Vladimir Nabokov’s astonishing, exemplary autobiography. Nabokov (born in 1899) was the scion of a rich, enlightened, noble Russian family. He grew up in a world of unreflecting wealth and astonishing privilege. All of which was snatched away forever with the arrival of the Russian Revolution in 1917. Nabokov then became an impoverished exile – first in Berlin, then Paris and then, with the advent of the Second World War, the US. Fame and fortune eventually arrived, thanks to the global success of his novel Lolita, but what is remarkable about Nabokov’s telling of his life story is his composure. He lost everything, he never returned to his native land, his father was assassinated, family members perished in the Holocaust, but his view of life and his savouring of its particular pleasures never wavered. There was no bitterness, no regrets, no wailing at misfortune. The book is also beautifully written – in English. Miraculously, he became, after James Joyce, the language’s unrivalled stylist.

Read about another entry on the list.

Speak, Memory is on Eve Claxton's top ten list of memoirs and autobiographies, Anne Applebaum's top five list of memoirs of Communism and Eva Hoffman's list of five notable memoirs of identity, dislocation & belonging, and is one of Susan Cheever's favorite books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Katie Bernet's "Beth Is Dead"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Beth Is Dead by Katie Bernet.

About the book, from the publisher:

Beth March’s sisters will stop at nothing to track down her killer—until they begin to suspect each other—in this debut thriller that’s also a bold, contemporary reimagining of the beloved classic Little Women.

When Beth March is found dead in the woods on New Year’s Day, her sisters vow to uncover her murderer.

Suspects abound. There’s the neighbor who has feelings for not one but two of the girls. Meg’s manipulative best friend. Amy’s flirtatious mentor. And Beth’s lionhearted first love. But it doesn’t take the surviving sisters much digging to uncover motives each one of the March girls had for doing the unthinkable.

Jo, an aspiring author with a huge following on social media, would do anything to hook readers. Would she kill her sister for the story? Amy dreams of studying art in Europe, but she’ll need money from her aunt—money that’s always been earmarked for Beth. And Meg wouldn’t dream of hurting her sister…but her boyfriend might have, and she’ll protect him at all costs.

Despite the growing suspicion within the family, it’s hard to know for sure if the crime was committed by someone close to home. After all, the March sisters were dragged into the spotlight months ago when their father published a controversial bestseller about his own daughters. Beth could have been killed by anyone.

Beth’s perspective told in flashback unfolds next to Meg, Jo, and Amy’s increasingly fraught investigation as the tragedy threatens to rip the Marches apart.

Visit Katie Bernet's website.

The Page 69 Test: Beth Is Dead.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Patrick J. Doyle's "Carolinian Crucible"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Carolinian Crucible: Reforging Class, Family, and Nation in Confederate South Carolina by Patrick J. Doyle.

About the book, from the publisher:

Carolinian Crucible tells the story of South Carolina – particularly its upcountry region – at war. A state notorious for its political radicalism before the Civil War, this book avoids caricaturing the Palmetto State's inhabitants as unflinching Confederate zealots, and instead provides a more fine-grained appraisal of their relationship with the new nation that their state's political elite played a leading role in birthing. It does so by considering the outlook and actions of both civilians and soldiers, with special attention given to those who were lower-class 'common whites.' In this richly detailed account, Patrick J. Doyle reveals how a region that was insulated from Federal invasion was not insulated from the disruptions of war; how social class profoundly shaped the worldview of ordinary folk, yet did not lead to a rejection of the slaveholders' republic; and how people in the Civil War South forged meaningful bonds with the Confederate nation, but buckled at times under the demands of diehard nationalism.

Learn more about Carolinian Crucible at the Cambridge University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Carolinian Crucible.

--Marshal Zeringue

"CrimeReads" -- best speculative mysteries & thrillers of 2025

At CrimeReads Molly Odintz tagged fifteen of the best speculative mysteries and thrillers of 2025, including:

The Book of Guilt, Catherine Chidgey

Imagine if Never Let Me Go was written by Stanley Milgram. The Book of Guilt explores a fascinating alternative history conundrum: if Hitler’s Germany had been overthrown by its own bureaucrats, leading to a draw rather than clear winners and losers, how exactly would all that Nazi science have made its way into allied research? While Chidgey is clearly inspired by the real-life stories of rocket scientists taking their torture-based aeronatics lessons to the US, the scientists in The Book of Guilt go a step further, with German scientists given British government funding to continue their studies, with inevitably devastating results.

Read about another entry on the list.

Q&A with Catherine Chidgey.

The Page 69 Test: The Book of Guilt.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Christina Kovac

From my Q&A with Christina Kovac, author of Watch Us Fall:

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

I don’t like to share meaning of title—that’s for the reader to decide—but I will say I chose each word carefully, purposefully. Watch. Us. Fall. The opening line is: People still talk about what happened to Addie and Josh. Some of what they say is true, some of it not; you know how people are. Watch: this is about people in the spotlight. They’re watched and talked about. Some are famous and some will become infamous. (You know how people are.) Us: This is a book about holding onto cherished relationships in conflict with each other. Who is Us? Who will Addie choose, when the choice comes? Her best friends or Josh? And then of course there is a falling action to the plot. Thus, the Fall.

More than that, let the reader decide.

What's in a name?

As it turns out, an awful lot’s in a name. Lucy, the main narrator, a kind of witness to...[read on]

Visit Christina Kovac's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Cutaway.

The Page 69 Test: The Cutaway.

Writers Read: Christina Kovac (March 2017).

My Book, The Movie: Watch Us Fall.

The Page 69 Test: Watch Us Fall.

Writers Read: Christina Kovac.

Q&A with Christina Kovac.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Simon Pooley's "Discovering the Okapi"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Discovering the Okapi: Western Science, Indigenous Knowledge, and the Search for a Rainforest Enigma by Simon Pooley.

About the book, from the publisher:

The captivating history of the okapi and its symbolic role in science, culture, and conservation.

In Discovering the Okapi, Simon Pooley offers a fascinating portrait of the okapi―an elusive short-necked giraffid with zebra stripes, surviving in the rainforests of central Africa's Congo basin―and unpacks the complicated layers of Western science and Indigenous knowledge that shaped the world's understanding of this unique creature. Pooley tells the story of the okapi's "discovery" in 1900 by British naturalist Sir Harry Johnston, as well as the overlooked contributions of the Indigenous African people whose expertise made this sighting and subsequent hunt for specimens possible. The book traces how colonial politics and scientific racism shaped early accounts of the animal's study and examines the enduring biases that continue to influence conservation efforts today. The okapi became a symbol of scientific curiosity, colonial power, and conservation challenges, revealing complex intersections among biodiversity, cultural heritage, and environmental stewardship. Its precarious existence in captivity and the wild exposes how Western and Indigenous approaches to conservation can―and must―find common ground for its survival.

Learn more about Discovering the Okapi at the Johns Hopkins University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Discovering the Okapi.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top five novels of 2025 -- "Electric Lit"

One of Electric Lit's top five novels of the year:

Dominion by Addie E. Citchens

This extraordinary debut begins with the Reverend Sabre Winfrey Jr., his wife, Priscilla, and the youngest of their five sons, Emanuel, also known as Wonderboy. Wonderboy is beloved by everyone in Dominion, Mississippi—no one runs faster, or turns more heads. Caught off guard after an interaction with a stranger, Wonderboy is confronted with questions he’s never considered, and his response sends shock waves through the community. A soaring, yet intimate novel exploring how shame and secrets control and stifle our humanity, Dominion grapples with these forces, illuminating a different, freer path forward.

Read about another novel on the list.

Q&A with Addie E. Citchens.

--Marshal Zeringue

Farah Naz Rishi's "The Flightless Birds of New Hope," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Flightless Birds of New Hope: A Novel by Farah Naz Rishi.

The entry begins:

The Flightless Birds of New Hope follows three estranged siblings who reunite after their parents’ deaths and set out on a cross-country road trip to recover the family’s missing cockatoo. As they chase the bird who once commanded all their parents’ devotion, the trip becomes an unsteady reckoning with old resentments, unfinished grief, and the possibility—however tentative—of finding their way back to one another.

The siblings are shaped as much by what they’ve avoided as by what they’ve endured. Aden, the eldest, is a cynical lawyer who ran away from home and rarely looks back. Aliza, the middle child, stayed, her loyalty slowly turning into a kind of inertia. And Sammy, the youngest, remains gentle and observant, still willing to love everyone at once, even when it hurts.

///

When I write, I rarely have actors in mind. Part of that may be because I’m a Pakistani-American writing about Pakistani-American families, and the list of obvious references is short. Still, once the book was finished, I let myself imagine what an adaptation might look like.

For Aden, Haroon Khan feels like a natural fit. He has an ease with humor that doesn’t undercut emotional depth, and that balance matters for a character who often uses wit to keep people at a distance. Aden needs to be difficult without becoming unreadable, and I think...[read on]

Visit Farah Naz Rishi's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Flightless Birds of New Hope.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Timothy Larsen's "The Fires of Moloch"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Fires of Moloch: Anglican Clergymen in the Furnace of World War One by Timothy Larsen.

About the book, from the publisher:

The First World War is the bloodiest war in British history. As casualties mounted during one of its great, seemingly futile battles, the Passchendaele offensive of 1917, seventeen Anglican priests serving as temporary military chaplains wrote chapters for the book, The Church in the Furnace. In it, they urged the Church of England to make fundamental changes in the light of the war. They were impatient and hard-hitting. They gained a reputation as radicals.

The Furnace seventeen experienced more than enough of the war. Some were wounded, others gassed. One of them was recognized as a war hero but suffered from shell shock for the rest of his life. Some won the Military Cross, the Distinguished Service Order, or other honours. One of them was the most famous padre of them all, the war poet G. A. Studdert Kennedy, who was widely known by his nickname, Woodbine Willie. The others included the Irish novelist, James O. Hannay (who wrote under the penname, George A. Birmingham), the Oxford theologian, Kenneth E. Kirk, and Eric Milner-White, whose response to the war included creating the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols for Christmas Eve, King's College, Cambridge. Though they had been scathing about the Church hierarchy during the war, most of them lived to be consecrated a bishop. They strove to make sense of the turbulent events through which they lived, a span of years that included two world wars. Some of their brothers died in the First World War, and some of their sons in the Second World War. They spoke out on issues such as birth control, the League of Nations, Prayer Book revision, church reunion, and pacifism. They sought to do something with their lives after the war that would make retrospectively meaningful all the meaningless losses that had occurred during the war.

The Fires of Moloch is a group biography of a generation which went through the fire--a generation which went from the Victorian age to the atomic age, but which was forever haunted by the trenches and battlefields of France and Flanders, 1914-18.

Learn more about The Fires of Moloch at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: John Stuart Mill: A Secular Life.

The Page 99 Test: The Fires of Moloch.

--Marshal Zeringue

The best horror fiction of 2025: "CrimeReads"

One novel on the CrimeReads list of the best horror fiction released in 2025:

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, Clay McLeod Chapman

Clay McLeod Chapman’s horror novel is the perfect post-Election read: namely, in that it features demonic forces taking possession of their viewers through the TV network Fax News (Just the Fax!) The ways in which the story evolves take the plot in directions that make all of us understand our complicity in the toxicity of today.

Read about another entry on the list.

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is among Emily Martin's four top horror books about America.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Gabriella Saab's "The Star Society"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Star Society: A Historical Novel by Gabriella Saab.

About the book, from the publisher:

Inspired by the indomitable spirit of Audrey Hepburn, this gripping story follows two extraordinary sisters as they reunite after World War II, embarking on a journey of justice, survival, and secrets amid the backdrop of the Red Scare in Hollywood.

A new name, a new country, and a coveted title as Hollywood's newest rising star: by 1946, actress Ada Worthington-Fox has discarded the life she left in war-torn Arnhem, where she worked for the Dutch resistance before Gestapo imprisonment prompted her to flee after release. But that life is thrust back into the spotlight when Ingrid--the sister she believed dead--shows up on her doorstep.

Politically-minded Ingrid escaped the Nazi invasion of Arnhem and fled to Washington, DC, where she became a private investigator. Now, she has been sent to root out Communist influences in Hollywood. Her target: Ada Worthington-Fox, the sister she long thought lost to her. Ingrid must hide her true purpose as she shields Ada from sneaky reporters, damaging rumors, and increasing threats, all while fighting to uncover which side her sister is truly on before Ingrid's efforts to help her are too late.

Yet, Ada has her own mission: locating the Gestapo agent who terrorized her hometown and bringing him to justice. But delving into her past would risk alerting the press to a life too personal to expose. As the rising fear of Communism threatens everyone, she turns to her sister, believing Ingrid's ties to Washington may be her only hope for success.

But the connections between Ada's elusive Nazi and Ingrid's Communist witch hunt might be stronger than they realize. Both sisters share the darkest secret of all, one that risks their very lives if ever exposed. As they come closer to identifying Ada's target and as Ingrid's investigation intensifies, they will need to decide what is more important: justice or safety, keeping silent or taking a stand, and, above all, if their loyalty to one another is worth risking the post-war lives they've fought to build.

A thrilling historical novel that transports readers from the shadows of the Dutch resistance to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood.

Visit Gabriella Saab's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Star Society.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Amanda Shubert's "Seeing Things"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Seeing Things: Virtual Aesthetics in Victorian Culture by Amanda Shubert.

About the book, from the publisher:

A cultural history of nineteenth-century media imaginaries, Seeing Things tells the story of how Victorians experienced the virtual images created by modern optical technologies―magic lanterns, stereoscopes, phenakistoscopes, museum displays, and illusionistic stage magic. Amanda Shubert argues that interactions with these devices gave rise to a new virtual aesthetics―an understanding of visual and perceptual encounters with things that are not really there.

The popularization of Victorian optical media redefined visuality as a rational mode of spectatorship that taught audiences to distinguish illusion from reality. As an aesthetic expression of a civilizational ideal that defined the capacity to see but not believe, to be entertained without being deceived, it became a sign of western supremacy. By tracing the development of virtual aesthetics through nineteenth-century writings, from the novels of George Eliot and Charles Dickens to popular science writing and imperial travelogues, Seeing Things recovers a formative period of technological and literary innovation to explain how optical media not only anticipated cinema but became a paradigmatic media aesthetic of western modernity.

Visit Amanda Shubert's website.

The Page 99 Test: Seeing Things.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sixteen of the best books about music from the last decade

Emma Glassman-Hughes (she/her) is the associate editor at PS Balance. At PopSugar she tagged the sixteen best books about music from the last decade. One title on the list:

Bridge and Tunnel Boys: Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, and the Metropolitan Sound of the American Century by Jim Cullen

This book by cultural historian Jim Cullen draws parallels between two of the most iconic American voices of the 1970s and beyond: Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel. It also connects other fascinating sociopolitical dots about the period in which they rose to fame, and the influence of the not-quite-New York City region that they both call home.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 99 Test: Bridge and Tunnel Boys.

Also see Bob Stanley's top ten music histories, Holly George-Warren's ten essential music biographies, and Jarvis Cocker's top ten music books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Cara Black

From my Q&A with Cara Black, author of Huguette:

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

The title, Huguette, to me, encapsulates the book. This is Huguette's story all the way. We're with her on her journey as a young woman after Liberation in Paris, 1944 through the post war era in France to the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival in 1958.

What's in a name?

Huguette is an old fashioned French name. So many people have told me 'that's my grandmother's name' or 'my great-aunt was called Huguette'. So it's quite time specific to the post WW1 era and the 1920's, 30's when it was a popular name. We know names go in and out of fashion but so far, Huguette's name hasn't come back in style.

I discovered this name from...[read on]

Visit Cara Black's website and follow her on Instagram and Threads.

The Page 69 Test: Murder at the Lanterne Rouge.

My Book, the Movie: Murder at the Lanterne Rouge.

The Page 69 Test: Murder below Montparnasse.

The Page 69 Test: Murder in Pigalle.

My Book, The Movie: Murder in Pigalle.

My Book, The Movie: Murder on the Champ de Mars.

The Page 69 Test: Three Hours in Paris.

The Page 69 Test: Night Flight to Paris.

Writers Read: Cara Black (March 2023).

Writers Read: Cara Black (March 2024).

The Page 69 Test: Murder at la Villette.

My Book, The Movie: Huguette.

The Page 69 Test: Huguette.

Writers Read: Cara Black.

Q&A with Cara Black.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Matthias Egeler's "Elves and Fairies"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Elves and Fairies: A Short History of the Otherworld by Matthias Egeler.

About the book, from the publisher:

An enchanting history of the otherworld of elves and fairies, from the nature spirits of Iceland and Ireland to Avalon and Middle Earth

Originating in Norse and Celtic mythologies, elves and fairies are a firmly established part of Western popular culture. Since the days of the Vikings and Arthurian legend, these sprites have undergone huge transformations. From J. R. R. Tolkien’s warlike elves, based on medieval legend, to little flower fairies whose charms even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle succumbed to, they permeate European art and culture.

In this engaging cultural history, Matthias Egeler explores these mythical creatures of Iceland, Ireland, Scotland, and England, and their continental European cousins. Egeler goes on a journey through enchanted landscapes and literary worlds. He describes both their friendly and their dangerous, even deadly, sides. We encounter them in the legends of King Arthur’s round table and in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in the terrible era of the witch trials, in magic’s peaceful conquest of Victorian bourgeois salons, in the child-friendly form of Peter Pan, and even as helpers in the contemporary fight against environmental destruction.

Learn more about Elves and Fairies at the Yale University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Elves and Fairies.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eleven books for "Stranger Things" fans

At the Waterstones blog, Mark Skinner tagged eleven top books for Stranger Things fans, including:

The Saturday Night Ghost Club
Craig Davidson

Bathed in a nostalgic 1980s glow and perfect reading for all Stranger Things fans, Davidson's quietly powerful coming-of-age tale finds a group of children uncovering unexpected mysteries in the slightly haunted Niagara Falls.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Christina Kovac reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Christina Kovac, author of Watch Us Fall.

Her entry begins:

I am re-reading Crooks by Lou Berney. I read an advanced copy last summer before the crime novel published in September. I’m a huge Lou Berney fan since his November Road blew me away in 2018. Then I went back and read The Long and Faraway Gone, which was so beautiful to me, all his books are. I tend to reread loved books when I’m really stressed—and it’s my pub week, so I’m really, really stressed! It’s relaxing to hear the music of his prose and feel the way he eases you into his character’s psyche. It’s my therapy.

The reason I picked up this particular Lou Berney book again: it’s a really insightful look at families and crime, and...[read on]

About Watch Us Fall, from the publisher:

“A stunning work of suspense that’s impossible to put down. Christina Kovac masterfully combines a twisty missing person mystery, a heartbreaking love story, and an insightful exploration of the nature of obsession and trauma. I loved this novel.” —Angie Kim, New York Times bestselling author of Happiness Falls and Miracle Creek

Lucy and her three best friends share a glamorous but decaying house in the heart of Georgetown. They call themselves “the Sweeties” and live an idyllic post-grad lifestyle complete with exciting jobs, dramatic love lives, and, most importantly, each other.

But when Addie, the group’s queen bee, discovers that her ex-boyfriend Josh has gone missing, the Sweeties’ worlds are turned upside down. In the days leading up to his disappearance, Josh, a star investigative journalist from a prominent political family, was behaving erratically—and Lucy is determined to find out why. All four friends upend their lives to search for him, but detectives begin to suspect that the Sweeties might know more than they’re letting on.

As the investigation unfolds, Lucy’s obsession with the case reaches a boiling point, and with it, her own troubling secrets begin bubbling to the surface of her carefully curated life. A thrilling account of the lies and delusions that lurk beneath cloistered groups of female friends and the sinister realities of celebrity, Watch Us Fall is a gripping mystery and an examination of the things we tell ourselves when we can’t face the truth.

Visit Christina Kovac's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Cutaway.

The Page 69 Test: The Cutaway.

Writers Read: Christina Kovac (March 2017).

My Book, The Movie: Watch Us Fall.

The Page 69 Test: Watch Us Fall.

Writers Read: Christina Kovac.

--Marshal Zeringue

The five best legal thrillers of 2025: "CrimeReads"

One novel on the CrimeReads list of the best legal thrillers released in 2025:

The Note, Alafair Burke

Burke’s new novel is something of a legal thriller in disguise. Yes, it’s also a masterful psychological thriller, but not only is the main character a former prosecutor turned law professor, but the dilemma the characters find themselves in (leaving a threatening note on the windshield of a now missing man) plays out like a brilliantly complex law school hypothetical, probing theories of causation, culpability, and intent. The old friendships torn apart by circumstance are the stars of this novel, but the legal and ethical concerns are just as compelling, and they serve as powerful plot engines. This is the rare book that will keep readers debating exactly what they’ve read and what they believe for a long time to come.

Read about another thriller on the list.

The Page 69 Test: The Note.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Indira Ghose's "A Defence of Pretence"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: A Defence of Pretence: Civility and the Theatre in Early Modern England by Indira Ghose.

About the book, from the publisher:

How the drama of Shakespeare’s time demonstrates the tensions within civility

Is civility merely a matter of reinforcing status and excluding others? Or is it a lubricant in a polarised world, enabling us to overcome tribal loyalties and cooperate for the common good? In A Defence of Pretence, Indira Ghose argues that it is both. Ghose turns to the drama of Shakespeare’s time to explore the notion of civility. The theatre, she suggests, was a laboratory where many of the era’s conflicts played out. The plays test the precepts found in treatises on civility and show that, in the complexity and confusion of human life, moral purity is an illusion. We are always playing roles. In these plays, as in social life, pretence is inescapable. Could it be a virtue?

Civility, Ghose finds, is radically ambiguous. The plays of Shakespeare, Jonson and Middleton, grappling with dissimulation, lies and social performance, question the idea of a clear—cut boundary between sincerity and dissembling, between truth and lies. What is decisive is the use to which our play—acting is put. A pretence of mutual respect might serve an ethical end: to foster a sense of common purpose. In life, as in drama, the concept of the common good might be a fiction, but one that is crucial for human society.

Learn more about A Defence of Pretence at the Princeton University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: A Defence of Pretence.

--Marshal Zeringue