David Grossman

David Grossman was born in Jerusalem. He is the author of numerous works of fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature. His work has appeared in The New Yorker and has been translated into thirty-six languages around the world. He is the recipient of many prizes, including the French Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the Buxtehuder Bulle in Germany, Rome’s Premio per la Pace e l’Azione Umitaria, the Premio Ischia—International Award for Journalism, Israel’s Emet Prize, and the Albatross Prize given by the Günter Grass Foundation.

From Grossman's Q & A with the Christian Science Monitor's Marjorie Kehe about his novel, To the End of the Land:

Q. You chose a female protagonist for your novel – a soldier's mother – even though you are a soldier's father and it might have seemed more natural for you to write from a man's point of view. Why did you create Ora?

A. I intuitively chose a woman because I think the relations between a mother and a child are more primal. And I say this as a very “motherly” kind of father. I’ve been involved very much in the life of my children from the very beginning. From the moment our oldest son Jonathan was born I felt it was a privilege to touch life through him and through my parenthood, my fatherhood.

Nevertheless, I know myself that the compact between my wife and him is more primal.This book deals so much with the everyday act of creating a human being in this life, in this world. It felt more natural to me to tell the story from Ora’s point of view.

And another thing: I thought that the woman will be less collaborative with the big system of the government, the army, the war. These are systems that were created by men and they reward men more. Those systems in a way are more boys’ games. It’s more likely that a woman will escape. A woman will not feel obliged to honor this awful deal that we make with the system when we send our son to the army and then wait for them to tell us what happens to him. I just knew this is how it would be.

Q. One of the most poignant things about "To the End of the Land" is the way that you interweave lovely scenes of family life with terrible moments of conflict. It raises the question: Can normal family life continue in a country torn by this kind of struggle? Or perhaps a better question is, does normal family life really exist under such circumstances – or is it always in some way tainted by them?

A. Both questions are right. The answer to both is...[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue

Martin Lindstrom

Advertising veteran Martin Lindstrom is the author of Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy.

From his Q & A with Emma Mustich at Salon:

What's your goal with this book? Is it to change people's habits? Or simply to inform them about marketing tactics they might not otherwise have noticed? Because, while I was certainly surprised by some of the things I read, I have to say that I'll probably continue to buy all the products I bought before.

Well, let me put it this way. Of course I can't change people's entire behavior with one book. But if I can just change you 1 percent -- and if I can make companies change 1 percent -- I think it's worth it. Just 1 percent is fine with me. Perhaps when you buy a product [from the supermarket] next time, rather than being fooled by the fact that it looks fresh, you'll be very skeptical about its presentation -- the ice, the dripping water -- and actually, you'll make a more clever decision. Then I'm happy. I'm happy if, next time you surf on the Net, you actually know how your information will be used, and you're just a little bit more careful. If I change your behavior 1 percent, and I do that with many people in the population, haven't I succeeded? I think I have.

Now that you mention it, I'm sure there's at least one detail I won't forget: You say that the average supermarket apple is more than a year old. Please tell me that's not possible!

It is possible. A lot of apples are stored in huge warehouse where there's a special type of air that can make them last for a very, very long period of time. Remember also that lots of apples have preservatives on them -- they have preservatives in the whole way they've been maintained and grown, so at the end of the day you have apples that are...[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue

Anna Funder

Born in 1966, Anna Funder is an Australian writer who grew up in Melbourne. She worked as an international lawyer and in public relations for a German overseas television service in Berlin. Her first book, Stasiland, won the prestigious Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction in the United Kingdom.

From her Q & A with Anna Metcalfe at the Financial Times:

What book changed your life?

The Emigrants by WG Sebald. The things he does with language and memory are fascinating.
* * *

What book do you wish you’d written?

Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections. I think it’s magnificent, kaleidoscopic.
* * *

Who would you most like to sit next to at a dinner party?

Barack Obama. I think he’s charismatic and inspiring, and we would have a lot to talk about.
* * *

What novel would you give to a child to introduce them to literature?

King Solomon’s Mines by H Rider Haggard.

Read the complete Q & A.

Anna Funder's Stasiland appears on Steve Kettmann's list of ten of the best books on Germans and Germany.

--Marshal Zeringue

Priya Parmar

Priya Parmar, a former freelance editor and dramaturg holds degrees in English Literature and theatre. She attended Mount Holyoke College, Oxford University and is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Edinburgh. She divides her time between Hawaii and London.

Exit the Actress is her debut novel.

From a Q & A at her publisher's website:

Q. Who is your favorite fictional hero?

A. Mr. George Emerson, Room with a View

Q. Who is your favorite fictional villain?

A. Daisy Buchanan

Q. If you could meet any historical character, who would it be and what would you say to him or her?

A. Mrs. de Winter from Rebecca. I would ask her first name.

Q. Who are your favorite authors?

A. Evelyn Waugh, Jean Rhys, E.M. Forster, W.H. Auden, Tom Stoppard, Constantine Cavafy, Vikram Seth, Jane Austen

Q. What are your 5 favorite books of all time?

A. Brideshead Revisited, Room with a View, The Runaway Bunny, Wings of the Dove, Madeline and the Bad Hat

Q. Is there a book you love to reread?

A. Wuthering Heights

Read the complete Q & A.

Writers Read: Priya Parmar.

My Book, The Movie: Exit the Actress.

--Marshal Zeringue

William Boyd

William Boyd's books include A Good Man in Africa, winner of the Whitbread Award and the Somerset Maugham Award; An Ice-Cream War, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Brazzaville Beach, winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize; Any Human Heart, winner of the Prix Jean Monnet; Restless, winner of the Costa Novel of the Year; and Ordinary Thunderstorms.

From the author's 2007 Q & A with Rosanna Greenstreet in the Guardian:

What is your favourite book?

The collected stories of Anton Chekhov.
* * *

What is your favourite word?

It changes all the time. At the moment 'luminosity'. Last week 'riverine'.
* * *

Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?

William Shakespeare, Percy Shelley, Anton Chekhov, Elizabeth Bishop, Louise Brooks, Barbara Skelton.
* * *

What keeps you awake at night?

The human condition.

Read the complete Q & A.

Learn about the importance of his characters' names to Boyd.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ellen Hart

Ellen Hart's latest Jane Lawless mystery (Volume 19) is The Lost Women of Lost Lake.

From a Q & A at her publisher's website:

If you won the lottery, what would you do with your newfound wealth?

Well, let’s say it’s a lot. Say, twenty million. That’s a nice round number. I suppose, first, I’d make sure my kids were comfortable. I’d also invest a significant portion for each of them. With the rest, I’d set up trusts for my five grandkids, buy a summer home up on the north shore of Lake Superior that we could all enjoy -- including my friends. My partner could quit her job, if she wanted to, and continue with her fine art career. I’d invest some of the money for a rainy day, but I’d also try to do some good in the world. I’d give money to humane societies, and maybe establish some kind of grant for young writers. But I’d continue writing. That’s the one thing I know for sure.

Who's your favorite fictional character?

Oh, wow. I don’t think I can pick just one. Here are two, but from the same book. First, Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited. The novel is perhaps one of the most beautifully written in the English language. I was drawn in by Sebastian’s struggle with religion -- in his case, Catholicism. The character resonated so deeply with me. I was also taken by one of the other characters, Charles Ryder. We see the book through his eyes. He doesn’t entirely understand the hold the church has over the entire Flyte family because he grew up within a secular family, but he is compassionate, even as Sebastian’s guilt ultimately leads to...[read on]

Learn more about The Lost Women of Lost Lake.

--Marshal Zeringue

E. Paul Zehr

E. Paul Zehr is a professor of neuroscience and kinesiology at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, and the author of Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero and the newly released Inventing Iron Man: The Possibility of a Human Machine.

From a Q & A at io9:

What is the most scientifically plausible superpower?

My own penchant is for the human basis for superpowers — hence Becoming Batman and Inventing Iron Man. If we consider Iron Man, we are getting close to being able to "fly" without being "inside" an aircraft, as in Yves Rossy. With some major advances in power source, that kind of technologically enhanced powered flight is close. Maybe also a bit like Angel in the X-Men?

What I can also see is a kind of technological telekinesis. That is, manipulating objects at a distance. Or, rather, manipulating humans (and other mammals) from a distance by controlling their nervous systems. I can see the outcomes of advances in brain machine interface (and which is central to my Iron Man book) as a way to lead to increased knowledge of how to "hack" the human nervous system.

What I am thinking of is some kind of projectile neural interface that would connect to the head of someone (let's say a bad guy) when shot out from someone (let's say the good guy). Now the interface activates and controls the body of the "hacked" bad guy. He becomes compliant and is basically "remote controlled" by the hero.

This is essentially the reverse of brain machine interface where the brain of the user is supposed to control the machine (like the Iron Man suit). Now, that interface is used in reverse-to control the user from an external person. Please note that this isn't...[read on]

Writer's Read: E. Paul Zehr.

--Marshal Zeringue

Rita Dove

Rita Dove is the editor of The Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry.

From her Q & A with Craig Morgan Teicher at Publishers Weekly:

You were tasked with offering your own version of the 20th Century canon—how did you go about it?

By the time I began working on the anthology, the 20th century was done. It was a closed chapter, and that meant I could go back and see how things really begin to shake out. I was going back to look at all the ways people viewed the 20th century at various points—in 1960 the view was completely different from how we view it now. So, of course, emphasis began to shift. I kept asking myself, How much space do I give to this person, who used to get 25 pages?

Those must have been hard choices...

I loved it! But there were moments when I banged my head against the wall. I didn’t want to fall into the trap of relying on the first half of the century, to have the book be early-heavy. And I wanted to give a sense of what was going to happen, but I had this very firm rule that nothing in it could be published after the year 2000, and that meant cutting out a lot of really interesting stuff that’s been going on in the last decade.

Was it hard to pick poems and poets of your own and younger generations?

That was...[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue

Kelli Stanley

The first book in Kelli Stanley's Miranda Corbie series, City of Dragons, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. It was also named one of the 2010 Top Ten Mystery Thrillers by Oline Cogdill and one of the Top Ten Best Fiction by Bay Area Authors by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Her new novel City of Secrets.

J. Kingston Pierce interviewed Stanley at Kirkus, and included some bonus material from their Q & A at The Rap Sheet:

J. Kingston Pierce: From reading your novels, as well as the Web-posted yarn, “Memory Book,” we know that Miranda Corbie was born in San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire and that she’s now a chain-smoking private eye, with an office in the Monadnock Building, on Market Street. But give us some more details of her past, including things you haven’t yet incorporated into the novels.

Kelli Stanley: After college (at Mills College in Oakland) she undertook a number of jobs. One of them was teaching farm workers displaced by the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Later, in the mid-’30s, she traveled to New York and met Johnny, a reporter for The New York Times.

He became the love of her life, someone that she could finally trust and give herself to. They traveled to Spain during the Civil War--Miranda trained as a nurse briefly and talked her way in as a volunteer so she could be with John. He was killed in ’37, and she returned to the city of her birth, and drifted into working for Dianne’s Escort Service and Tea Room (an actual business, as most of the businesses are in the series).

Eventually she met Charlie Burnett, a P.I. on the shady side of the street, and worked for him as divorce-case bait. After solving his murder, she was hired by the [San Francisco] world’s fair administration, and secured her own P.I. license. Her second big case (at the world’s fair) involved the Incubator Babies. When she’s not working for herself, she acts as a security guard for Sally Rand’s girls at the infamous Nude Ranch on Treasure Island’s Gayway.

That’s the skeleton of Miranda’s story ... and you’ll notice a lot of gaps. I delve into her history little by little, mostly as it’s revealed to me. The reason for this is simple: when...[read on]

Visit Kelli Stanley's website and blog.

My Book, The Movie: Nox Dormienda.

The Page 69 Test: City of Dragons.

My Book, The Movie: City of Dragons.

Coffee with a Canine: Kelli Stanley & Bertie.

The Page 69 Test: The Curse-Maker.

My Book, The Movie: The Curse-Maker.

My Book, the Movie: City of Secrets.

The Page 69 Test: City of Secrets.

Writers Read: Kelli Stanley.

--Marshal Zeringue

Gary Scott Smith

Gary Scott Smith chairs the History Department at Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania.

His latest book is Heaven in the American Imagination.

From his Q & A with Paul Kengor at Catholic Lane:

Kengor: Do most Americans today retain a traditional Christian understanding of heaven?

Smith: As I have explained, my book details how images of heaven have changed over time in response to different social, political, intellectual, and economic conditions and challenges. Not surprisingly, the conceptions that many contemporary Christians (and others) have of the afterlife have been significantly shaped by recent cultural trends, most notably: increased anxiety (caused by devastating terrorist attacks, severe economic recession, and global social problems), the impact of the therapeutic worldview (which exalts self-fulfillment and personal happiness), the emergence of an entertainment culture (which stresses pleasure and amusement), concerns about the breakdown of the family and the impoverishment of personal relationships, and the growing acceptance of a postmodern, relativistic perspective on life.

Influenced by these trends, many Americans have portrayed paradise as a place of comfort, self-actualization, bliss, enriching entertainment, and robust fellowship. These views are portrayed in a variety of best-selling books and in numerous pop, rock, country, and religious songs. Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones is the tale of a murdered 14-year-old girl who watches events on earth while exploring heaven, while Mitch Albom’s The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a story about an octogenarian amusement park worker’s life review while in heaven. Both have been made into movies. Anthony DeStefano’s A Travel Guide to Heaven is a highly speculative tour of the wonders and joys of paradise, which topped Amazon.com’s best-seller list several times. These portraits clash with earlier ones that view heaven primarily as place of worshipping God and serving Him and others.

Kengor: How has the New Age movement affected our views of Heaven?

Smith: Since 1980, Americans have...[read on]

The Page 99 Test: Heaven in the American Imagination.

--Marshal Zeringue