Chelsey Philpot

Chelsey Philpot grew up on a farm in New Hampshire and now works as an editor and a journalist. She's written for the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Slate, and numerous other publications. Like Charlotte, the main character in her new novel Even in Paradise, Philpot attended boarding school in New England and then earned a degree in English from Vassar College and a master's in journalism from Boston University.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Philpot's reply:

Holy Toledo! What I am reading now is wonderfully random…but then again, my “currently reading” stack is always an eclectic mix.

My background is in journalism, so I devour myriad newspapers (New York Times, Boston Globe, my local paper, etc.) and usually have a stack of New Yorkers (I’ve been a reader since high school) beside my desk.

I review books (mainly YA and middle grade novels) for a bunch of different places, so I am always reading a novel or two at a time. I recently finished Jandy Nelson’s I’ll Give You the Sun (gorgeous!) and am working through a couple of horror novels for my October column for the Boston Globe.

Since I’m in the midst of writing my second novel, I’m reading both for research and inspiration. Tonight, I’ll probably make my way through a chapter of Walter Lewin’s For the Love of Physics (a mind- blowing introduction to the science behind rainbows, black holes, and other such wonders), and tomorrow, I’ll read poems by Walt Whitman, Charles Wright, Nancy Willard, and/or Paul Kane before I start typing.

Visit Chelsey Philpot's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Lisa Black

Lisa Black spent the five happiest years of her life in a morgue. As a forensic scientist in the Cleveland coroner’s office she analyzed gunshot residue on hands and clothing, hairs, fibers, paint, glass, DNA, blood and many other forms of trace evidence, as well as crime scenes. Now she’s a certified latent print examiner and CSI for the Cape Coral Police Department in Florida. Her books have been translated into six languages and one reached the New York Times mass market bestseller’s list.

Black's new novel is Close to the Bone.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Her reply:

I recently read The Nanny Diaries. This is not my usual choice of reading material, due to its lack of murder victims and at least one car chase, but I did so in the name of Research. I intend to use a nanny as a character in an upcoming work, and, not having children, I needed some background. I found the book hugely entertaining and hilarious in her descriptions of the ultra rich, not to mention criminally entitled, echelon of New York.

The authors specify that this is a work of fiction, and I very much hope that is true, but it contained so much detail that it read like fact. It also seemed to lag a little bit whenever the story turned to her own life, though that may be just me. I felt the same way about The Devil Wears Prada, a greatly similar tale of just how politely evil very rich women can be.

Despite my childless status I could not help but grow to care about this bright, sweet four-year-old who has everything money can buy except the only thing he wants--a parent he might be permitted to encounter for more than five minutes per day. It’s as if certain women marry these fabulously wealthy men and from that moment on their entire existence is focused on keeping themselves, their homes and (at a distance) their children as completely perfect as humanly possible, and all in order to stay married to that fabulously wealthy man. Whether this works or not, the child-accessory is meant to be kept in a glass case along with the Ming vase. No wonder, my philistine mind thinks, rich men are such A-holes. Their parents give birth to them and immediately thereafter avoid them like ebola. They’re left with a succession of nannies and housekeepers who come and go. They aren’t allowed to get attached to anyone…ever.

I found myself lying in bed at night, worried about what would happen to this child when the inevitable separation from the nanny occurred. I despaired that filthy rich people aren’t reported to the local child welfare department (though it would be difficult to characterize someone in $200 size 3 sneakers as ‘neglected’) and that the nanny lacked the power to demand therapy now, before the kid becomes a complete sociopath.

The author impressively builds the character of the mother slowly over the course of the book. She starts out as a little prissy and a lot self-absorbed, but, the intro makes clear, that is hardly unusual in her circle. She becomes clueless and annoying, and yet the nanny and I actually feel sorry for her when it becomes clear that her husband, whom she is working so desperately to keep, is clearly having an affair. By the end of the book she has morphed into the worst villain I have ever known. I would gladly pay money to see this woman torn limb from limb in a public arena. I would have more empathy for Adolph Hitler.

Of course, the book illustrates with a few examples, there are rich parents who are also good parents, and there are nannies used as they should be--as a reliable, consistent fill-in for date nights and business dinners, or for the few hours per day between the time the kids get home from school and the parents get home from work. The only people I know who had a nanny didn’t know a Monet from a movie trailer and thought China and Japan were the same country (I swear I am not making that up) but they also had a stone business in their back yard which the wife had to run while the husband made deliveries, four small children and a lot of heavy vehicles going back and forth. Therefore they had a nanny, which was eminently sensible and a circumstance the kids will not need to relate to a therapist in future years.

At best a nanny makes the child’s world more consistent, nurturing and safe, and provides the parents some much-needed respite. At worst a nanny becomes a personal slave, bearing indignities no employee should have to withstand in a profession where one cannot afford a bad reference.

So I enjoyed the book very much. But one thing’s for sure--I’ll never scoff at the phrase “poor little rich boy” again.

Visit Lisa Black's website.

My Book, The Movie: Trail of Blood.

The Page 69 Test: Trail of Blood.

My Book, The Movie: Defensive Wounds.

The Page 69 Test: Defensive Wounds.

My Book, The Movie: Blunt Impact.

The Page 69 Test: Blunt Impact.

The Page 69 Test: The Price of Innocence.

The Page 69 Test: Close to the Bone.

--Marshal Zeringue

Catherine Gildiner

Catherine Gildiner’s childhood memoir Too Close to the Falls (1999) was a New York Times bestseller and on the Globe and Mail’s bestseller list for over a year. In 2010, she published a sequel, After the Falls, also a bestseller.

Her new book is Coming Ashore, the third title in her memoir series.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Gildiner's reply:

I recently read a number of English books about Oxford so I could bone up on my Anglicisms when writing my own English section of Coming Ashore.

A Dance to the Music of Time is a 12 volume set of novels by Anthony Powell. It is one of the longest collections in the English language. It was published between 1951 and 1975 and describes the life of Nick Jenkins. It also details upper class life from pre World War 1 to the hippie era in the late 60s. It is really about how wealth changed hands in England after the turn of the century and many aristocrats who were flush at the beginning of the book have thread bare grandchildren, clinging to their titles in the last volume. Hundreds of characters are introduced and nearly all of them reappear in a masterful way. It is a perfect study of manners and class.

Next I tackled The Patrick Melrose Novels. These are five novels by Edward St. Aubyn. They again explore upper class British life but have far more edge and pathology than The Anthony Powell series. Patrick's life is described in his highly disturbed upper class life where he is raped by his sadistic father and ignored by his ineffective mother. The books take you through his teenage and college years of heroin addiction, the death of his parents, and finally his foray into parenthood and semi-recovery. He has great powers of description and the wrenching part about him as a little boy at the hands of his psychopathic father are some of the best passages in literature on the child's point of view.

Although I've only made two entries, I'm discussing 17 books which I highly recommend.

Visit Catherine Gildiner's website and blog.

The Page 99 Test: After the Falls.

My Book, The Movie: Coming Ashore.

--Marshal Zeringue

Keith Donohue

Keith Donohue is the national bestselling author of the novels The Stolen Child, The Angels of Destruction, and Centuries of June.

His new novel is The Boy Who Drew Monsters.

Recently I asked Donohue what he was reading. His reply:

Two books are clamoring for my immediate attention: Haruki Murakami’s Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks. I turned to Mitchell first and am well entrapped in its narrative web.

These two writers are fascinating in so many ways. They are both excellent stylists with Mitchell often breathtakingly lyrical and Murakami packed with compression. They are both great storytellers, with vivid characters and settings and situations that pull you through twists and turns. And they are both great craftsmen, structuring their novels with intricate designs and detail that make me gasp and wish I had been so clever.

My bent is for literary fiction, but I don’t believe genre labels serve much purpose. There’s lots of good stuff that gets pigeonholed. The Bone Clocks could easily be shelved as science fiction, as could some of Murakami’s work. My own novels jump around all kinds of boundaries. As a reader, I’m interested in quality, attention to language, a sophisticated structure that offers challenges and allows for some openness and air in interpretation. The best books kick the readers’ hive, stir up the bees in the brain, and teach you how to read them as you buzz along.

Visit Keith Donohue's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Boy Who Drew Monsters.

--Marshal Zeringue

Amy Reed

Amy Reed is the author of the gritty Young Adult novels Beautiful, Clean, Crazy, and Over You. Her new novel is Damaged.

Not so long ago I asked the author about what she was reading. Reed's reply:

What I’m reading right now is George Saunders’ award-winning collection of short stories, Tenth of December. Actually, I should say it’s what I’m not reading right now. The book has been sitting on my bedside table for a couple of weeks, and I’ve only been picking it up once every few days. Part of this is because I have a toddler and my reading time is limited. When I read short stories, I prefer to read them in one sitting, and that is nearly impossible these days. However, much of my reluctance in picking up the book is because, frankly, I have a hard time with short stories, even when they’re as brilliant and perfect as George Saunders’.

I started out writing short stories like many novelists, but after completing my MFA program seven years ago, I have not written a single one. As both a writer and a reader, I find it difficult to commit to a whole new world and set of characters when I know I will only be with them for a short while. I want to be with them for the long haul. I want to spend a whole novel with them. And because short stories are so condensed, every single word must be infused with weight and meaning, which makes them that much more challenging to read. I enjoy the spaciousness of novels, the room to relax. Honestly, short stories make me anxious. I find their expectation of precision and perfection quite stressful.

Does this make me a lazy reader? Maybe. I find that as I get further away from being a student, the less I want to work when I read. Not that I want to read “bad” literature. Bad writing and cliché still make my stomach turn as much as they used to. But what I appreciate now is writing that appears effortless, writing that doesn’t need to be noticed, writing that is subtle and humble and at the service of story and characters.

Are short stories more about the writing itself than the story and characters? I don’t know. But for me personally, I have a harder time connecting to them. After I read a great short story, like those in Tenth of December, I often find myself blown away by the craft and style. But after a few days, I won’t remember much about what happened or who did it.

Visit Amy Reed's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

Writers Read: Amy Reed (October 2009).

Writers Read: Amy Reed (August 2011).

Writers Read: Amy Reed (July 2012).

--Marshal Zeringue

Dave Zeltserman

Dave Zeltserman's many novels include Monster: A novel of Frankenstein. His short mystery fiction has won the Shamus, Derringer and Ellery Queen's Readers Choice awards. His crime thrillers, Small Crimes and Pariah, both made the Washington Post's best books of the year list in 2008 and 2009, respectively, and Small Crimes was selected by NPR as one of the 5 best crime and mystery novels of 2008.

His horror novel, The Caretaker of Lorne Field, was shortlisted by the American Library Association for best horror novel of 2010 and was also a Black Quill nominee for best dark genre book of the year.

Zeltserman's latest novel is The Boy Who Killed Demons.

Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. Zeltserman's reply:

I just finished The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster, which is a collection of three literary mystery novels (or at least seemingly mystery novels): City of Glass, Ghosts, The Locked Room. All three involve a detective of sorts who risk losing their identities and their very selves in the cases they take on. All three also involve writers who are also in jeopardy of losing themselves in their work. A very interesting collection that takes the mystery novel to an existential level, and I liked it quite a bit—enough where I’ll be looking for more of Auster’s work.

Learn more about the book and author at Dave Zeltserman's website and blog.

--Marshal Zeringue

Yona Zeldis McDonough

Yona Zeldis McDonough is the author of the novels Two of a Kind, A Wedding in Great Neck, Breaking the Bank, In Dahlia's Wake, and The Four Temperaments, as well as many books for children.

Her new novel is You Were Meant For Me.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Her reply:

I just finished re-reading The Great Gatsby, which of course I read while I was in high school, when it flew right over my head. Not so this time around.

I found that I loved it right from the measured, ruminative start (In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. ‘When ever you feel like criticizing any one,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had) to the gorgeous futility of its lyrical end (So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past) and I loved pretty much everything in between too.

I was struck by how modern it all seemed: the passionate desire for reinvention of self, the thirst for money and power, the belief that with the acquisition of that money and power, all obstacles could be overcome. It’s a novel for our times, but for all times too.

Visit Yona Zeldis McDonough's website.

My Book, The Movie: Two of a Kind.

The Page 69 Test: Two of a Kind.

Coffee with a Canine: Yona Zeldis McDonough & Queenie, Willa and Holden (October 2012).

Coffee with a Canine: Yona Zeldis McDonough & Willa and Holden (September 2013).

The Page 69 Test: You Were Meant For Me.

--Marshal Zeringue

Matthew Thomas

Matthew Thomas was born in the Bronx and grew up in Queens. A graduate of the University of Chicago, he has an MA from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and an MFA from the University of California, Irvine, where he received the Graduate Essay Award. He lives with his wife and twin children in New Jersey.

We Are Not Ourselves is his first novel.

Recently I asked Thomas about what he was reading. His reply:

I just started reading Roxane Gay’s An Untamed State. I found the opening chapters extraordinarily gripping and deftly executed, with taut prose and terrific narrative control. My heart was in my throat. I can’t wait to read the rest of this book.

Recently I read an advance copy of Eddie Joyce’s upcoming novel, Small Mercies, which bowled me over. It isn’t just the best Staten Island novel ever written; it’s also the best novel yet at capturing the human suffering that resulted from the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Joyce tells the story of all New York during that heartbroken, haunted period. He understands the role one's hometown plays in the development of one's character, and he has a gift for choosing resonant details and peeling back the layers of emotion in ordinary moments. Small Mercies paints a portrait of loyal, tribal souls who manage to be high-spirited and life-affirming even in the middle of grief, and it totally captivated me.

Visit Matthew Thomas's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tina Connolly

Tina Connolly lives with her family in Portland, Oregon, in a house that came with a dragon in the basement and blackberry vines in the attic. Her stories have appeared all over, including in Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

Her new novel, Silverblind, is the latest book in the historical fantasy series that began with the Nebula finalist Ironskin.

Recently I asked Connolly about what she was reading. Her reply:

This month I’ve been working on edits for my next novel (Seriously Wicked from Tor Teen) so it's really a question of what's on my TBR pile that I'm dying to dive into! From friends, I've got an ARC of Our Lady of the Islands by Shannon Page & Jay Lake that I’m looking forward to, as well as Karen Berry's Love & Mayhem and Patrick Swenson's The Ultra Thin Man. I also have the very last Diana Wynne Jones book, The Islands of Chaldea (finished by her sister, Ursula Jones.) (I've been putting this off because it is the very last, and then it’s all over.)

Earlier this year I read a couple of ARCs that I thoroughly enjoyed—Beth Cato's really fun steampunky debut, The Clockwork Dagger, which recently came out from Harper Voyager, and A. M. Dellamonica’s Child of a Hidden Sea, which is a gorgeous portal fantasy.

And in non-SFF reading news (which I do also do!) my fave this year is a cheerful and offbeat musical memoir—Meredith Willson’s account of the long road to making The Music Man, appropriately named But He Doesn’t Know the Territory. Recommended to fans of theatre memoirs (you know who you are!)

Visit Tina Connolly's website, blog, and Twitter perch.

My Book, The Movie: Copperhead.

The Page 69 Test: Copperhead.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jana Bommersbach

Jana Bommersbach is an acclaimed and respected journalist whose work has encompassed every facet of the profession: she's been a reporter and editor for both weekly and daily newspapers; she's written books and is a major contributor to an anthology; she's written columns and investigative stories for magazines; she's appeared on television with both political commentaries and investigative stories.

Bommersbach's new novel is Cattle Kate.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Her reply:

This summer when I began a new fiction book set in North Dakota, I searched out books by and about the 39th state. That's how I found Louise Erdrich and her fabulous books set on and off the Dakota reservation. Love Medicine is an acclaimed look inside the Dakota culture through several generations; The Master Butcher's Singing Club, is about a German immigrant who settles in North Dakota.There's a good reason Louise has won tons of honors, including a big writing award from Minnesota this summer--her writing is strong and engaging and compelling. And she grew up 25 miles from where my mother lives in North Dakota!

Visit Jana Bommersbach's website.

--Marshal Zeringue