Top ten books set in New England

Ann Leary's new novel is The Children.

One of her ten favorite books set in New England, as shared at B&N Reads:

On Beauty, by Zadie Smith

Another great book with a college as its setting—this one loosely based on Harvard University. One could do a long list of great books set on New England campuses, there are many. On Beauty would be at the top of my list. I love this book.

Read about the other books on the list.

On Beauty is among Tolani Osan's ten top books that "illuminate how disparate cultures can reveal the mystery and beauty in each other and make us aware of the hardships, dreams, and hidden scars of those we share space with."

--Marshal Zeringue

Five YA books for readers burnt out on love

Sona Charaipotra is a New York City-based writer and editor with more than a decade’s worth of experience in print and online media. For the BN Teen Blog she tagged five YA books to read when you're burnt out on love, including:

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks, by E. Lockhart

Frankie could just play the girlfriend. After all, her boyfriend’s hot, and a senior. But when he joins a secret all-male society at their fancy boarding school, she refuses to take “no girls allowed” for an answer. And thus an all-out prank war ensues, instigated by budding criminal mastermind Frankie, who refuses to be mere arm candy even for big man on campus Matthew Livingston. In this book, the girl ditches the dude and demands to be noticed for her smarts and her heart.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is among Sabrina Rojas Weiss's ten favorite boarding school novels.

--Marshal Zeringue

Adam Phillips's six favorite books

Adam Phillips is a British psychotherapist and essayist. His latest book is Unforbidden Pleasures. One of the author's six favorite books, as shared at The Week magazine:

Purity and Danger by Mary Douglas

Here is a remarkable book from a time — the mid-1960s — when anthropologists had the most interesting ideas about how to live and how not to talk about other people. It may be impossible to recover from her claim that dirt is "matter out of order." She makes it abundantly clear how much terror is created by the will to purification.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Harlan Coben's six best books

Harlan Coben's latest novel is Fool Me Once.

One of his six best books, as shared at the Daily Express:

PORTNOY’S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth

Roth is my favourite writer. We are both Jewish New Jersey boys and no other writer has spoken to me quite as well about that background. This is basically a coming-of-age story and caused a storm when it was published. It’s wild, erotic, hysterical and life-affirming.

Read about the other books on the list.

Portnoy's Complaint is among Jeff Somers's five worst mothers in literary history, Jay Rayner's six best books, Oren Smilansky's very funny books, David Denby's six favorite books, and Matthew Pearl's top ten books inspired by Edgar Allan Poe.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six books that help share the meaning of Memorial Day

Lindsey Lewis Smithson has her MFA from UC Riverside’s Palm Desert Low Residency MFA. She has served as the Poetry Editor and the Managing Editor for The Coachella Review, in addition to having read for The Pacific Review and The Whistling Fire. At the BN Kids blog she tagged six kids' books that help share the meaning of Memorial Day, including:

The Civil War: An Interactive History Adventure, by Matt Doeden

Since the idea of Memorial Day began during the Civil War, it makes sense to pick up some books set during the same time period. A unique choose-your-own-adventure format puts middle grade readers right in the middle of the battles, from Gettysburg to Chancellorsville; few things bring home the reality of a situation like being asked to make tough choices yourself, plus there is a lot of room for rereading and new discoveries in Doeden’s book. Another great Civil War choice for middle grade readers is The Last Brother: A Civil War Tale, where readers follow 11 year old bugle player Gabe into the The Battle at Gettysburg as he tries to protect his older brother and make sense of the fighting. (Ages 8-12)

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top books that recycle historical legends

Kiersten White is the New York Times bestselling author of the Paranormalcy trilogy; the dark thrillers Mind Games and Perfect Lies; The Chaos of Stars; Illusions of Fate; and the forthcoming And I Darken. At Tor.com she tagged her "five favorite books that use European history or historical legends as a background for asking timeless questions about life, love, and the reality of magic," including:

The Once and Future King by T. H. White

As the basis for this brilliant novel, White uses the legends of King Arthur and Camelot. What could have been merely a retelling becomes something so much larger as he uses those tales to explore kingdoms, wars, politics, love, loyalty, and the transient, unobtainable notion of goodness. As we follow Arthur from child to man to king, we grow with him and carry the weight of all that knowledge and all those choices, too. Though not the original, White’s Camelot (not a silly place at all) feels far truer than any other version.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Sword in the Stone is on Andrew Norris's top ten list of favorite characters that offer a helping hand to their heroes, Jessamy Taylor's list of the ten top castles in fiction, John Dougherty's top ten list of fictional badgers, and Gill Lewis's top ten list of birds in books; it is the first part of The Once and Future King, which is among Philip Womack's best classic children's books and Lev Grossman's five top fantasy books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten chases in literature

Chris Ewan is the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of many mystery and thriller novels. His most recent thriller is Long Time Lost, now available in the UK and forthcoming in the USA.

One of Ewan's top ten books which demonstrate that "the relationship between the hunted and the hunter can be an intense and strangely intimate one, with each anticipating the moves of the other, and in the crucible of the chase, with the psychological strains going both ways, it is sometimes unclear who is stalking whom," as shared at the Guardian:

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

As with many of my choices, McCarthy’s novel opens with a crime that arises from a pre-existing offence – this time, a drug deal gone wrong. When Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon the bloody aftermath, he also finds a case filled with cash. His decision to take the money and run is one he makes with a clear-eyed estimate of the likely consequences. But the fallout from the lawless pursuit that follows is far more devastating and wide-ranging than he can begin to appreciate. McCarthy’s rethought western thriller has a timeless feel and, in Anton Chigurh, a truly unforgettable antagonist.

Read about the other books on the list.

No Country For Old Men is among Mark Watson's ten top hotel novels, Matt Kraus's top six famous books with extremely faithful film adaptations, Allegra Frazier's five favorite fictional gold diggers, Kimberly Turner's ten most disturbing sociopaths in literature, and Elmore Leonard's ten favorite books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top shapeshifters in fiction

Aimée Carter is the author of Simon Thorn and the Wolf's Den and other books. One of her top ten shapeshifters in fiction, as shared at the Guardian:

Remus Lupin, from the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling

Lupin, Harry’s favourite Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, is yet another character who isn’t defined by his ability - or, in this case, curse - to turn into a wolf. Though he faces the stigma of being a werewolf, struggling to find steady employment and acceptance from others, he is enormously kind, knowledgeable, and generous, despite having little in the way of material things to begin with. We only see him turn into a werewolf once in the series but even after that frightening encounter, Harry still sees him as the person he really is beneath the curse.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Harry Potter books made Anna Bradley's list of the ten best literary quotes in a crisis, Nicole Hill's list of seven of the best literary wedding themes, Tina Connolly's top five list of books where the girl saves the boy, Ginni Chen's list of the eight grinchiest characters in literature, Molly Schoemann-McCann's top five list of fictional workplaces more dysfunctional than yours, Sophie McKenzie's top ten list of mothers in children's books, Nicole Hill's list of five of the best fictional bookstores, Sara Jonsson's list of the six most memorable pets in fiction, Melissa Albert's list of more than eight top fictional misfits, Cressida Cowell's list of ten notable mythical creatures, and Alison Flood's list of the top 10 most frequently stolen books.

Professor Snape is among Sophie Cleverly's ten top terrifying teachers in children’s books.

Hermione Granger is among Brooke Johnson top five geeky heroes in literature, Nicole Hill's nine best witches in literature, and Melissa Albert's top six distractible book lovers in pop culture.

Neville Longbottom is one of Ellie Irving's top ten quiet heroes and heroines.

Mr. Weasley is one of Melissa Albert's five weirdest fictional crushes.

Hedwig (Harry's owl) is among Django Wexler's top ten animal companions in children's fiction.

Scabbers the rat is among Ross Welford's ten favorite rodents in children's fiction.

Butterbeer is among Leah Hyslop's six best fictional drinks.

Albus Dumbledore is one of Rachel Thompson's ten greatest deaths in fiction.

Lucius Malfoy is among Jeff Somers's five best evil lieutenants (or "dragons") in SF/F.

Dolores Umbridge is among Melissa Albert's six more notorious teachers in fiction, Emerald Fennell's top ten villainesses in literature, and Derek Landy's top 10 villains in children's books. The Burrow is one of Elizabeth Wilhide's nine most memorable manors in literature.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban appears on Amanda Yesilbas and Katharine Trendacosta's list ot twenty great insults from science fiction & fantasy and Charlie Jane Anders's list of the ten greatest prison breaks in science fiction and fantasy.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone also appears on Jeff Somers's top five list of books written in very unlikely places, Phoebe Walker's list of eight mouthwatering quotes from the greatest literary feasts, John Mullan's lists of ten of the best owls in literature, ten of the best scars in fiction and ten of the best motorbikes in literature, and Katharine Trendacosta and Charlie Jane Anders's list of the ten greatest personality tests in sci-fi & fantasy, Charlie Higson's top 10 list of fantasy books for children, Justin Scroggie's top ten list of books with secret signs as well as Charlie Jane Anders and Michael Ann Dobbs's list of well-known and beloved science fiction and fantasy novels that publishers didn't want to touch. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire made Chrissie Gruebel's list of six top fictional holiday parties and John Mullan's list of ten best graveyard scenes in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sixteen YA books that get mental health right

At the BN Teen Blog Dahlia Adler collected recommendations for her collection of sixteen YA books that get mental health right. One title that made the grade:

OCD Love Story, by Corey Ann Haydu

OCD Love Story by Corey Ann Haydu is the best representation of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder I’ve come across in YA lit. Haydu smashes OCD stereotypes and presents a real, raw look at the myriad of ways OCD actually manifests. She creates full, round characters who are so much more than the disorder that at times takes over their lives, and weaves an unconventional, yet believable, romance that will have readers rooting for a happily ever after.
–Rena Olsen, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and author of The Girl Before

Read about the other entries on the list.

OCD Love Story is among Jennifer Mathieu's six best books for introverts.

The Page 69 Test: OCD Love Story.

--Marshal Zeringue

The five best grandfathers in literature

Jeff Somers is the author of Lifers, the Avery Cates series from Orbit Books, Chum from Tyrus Books, and We Are Not Good People from Pocket/Gallery. He has published over thirty short stories as well. One of Somers's five best grandfathers in literary history, as shared at B & N Reads:

The Grandfather in The Princess Bride, by William Goldman

Okay, he’s not actually in the book. But William Goldman wrote the screenplay adaptation, so we’ll accept him as canon, and he’s wonderful. As portrayed by Peter Falk, the curmudgeonly grandfather knows how to handle his young grandson expertly at bedtime, and proceeds to reel off what is likely the greatest bedtime story ever told. Falk’s grandfather remains a bit of a mystery to us, as very little is revealed about him aside from his obvious affection for his grandson and his kind of prickly demeanor, but you still feel like you know him, and very likely fervently want to have lunch with him just to listen to him tell a great story from Back in the Day and then probably give you some hard candy he’s got in the pockets of his sweater.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Princess Bride is among Sebastien de Castell's five duelists you should never challenge, the Guardian's five worst book covers ever, Nicole Hill's eight notable royal figures in fiction, Rosie Perez's six favorite books, Stephanie Perkins' top ten most romantic books, Matthew Berry's six favorite books, and Jamie Thomson's top seven funny books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sherman Alexie's six favorite books about identity

Sherman Alexie is the award-winning author of The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian and other books. His first picture book, Thunder Boy Jr., has just been published by Little, Brown.

Among his six favorite reads "about exploring your origins and seeing yourself clearly," as shared at The Week magazine:

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

This is the scariest novel I have read in years and years. Its monsters can only see you if you open your eyes, so our heroes must keep theirs closed at all times. The book begins with an escape down a garden path that leads into a haunted house — and then our heroes continue their escape by taking a sightless journey down a river by raft. A highly original horror novel.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books for the psychonaut

Patrick Hemstreet is a novelist, neuro-engineer, entrepreneur, patent-pending inventor, special warfare-trained Navy medic, standup comic, and actor. He lives in Houston, Texas with his wife and sons. The God Wave is his first novel.

At Tor.com he named his five top books for the psychonaut--"psychonauts explore the vastness and depth of the mind"--including:

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Cloud Atlas serves as means to whet the appetite for the psychonaut. David Mitchell’s ideas on reincarnation make for a great read, but they also open up an intriguing possibility for the psychonautically inclined. Consider that the mind does have multiple strata and these inhabit multiple planes of existence as the mystics claim. Now further contemplate that one or more of those strata dwell outside of space-time, a notion also posited by gurus. This suggests the possibility that a portion or strata of our minds exists in many different beings simultaneously, our past and future lives linked at a higher level of consciousness.

If reincarnation is real, the only thing separating our multiple incarnations is time. The big question here is whether our supposed extra-temporal mental stratum can be accessed with enough practice? Imagine being able to tap the wealth of knowledge of multiple lifetimes within one’s own psyche. This could well be the mother of all goals in psychonautics. Throw in the possibility of multiverses and you’ve got one heck of a spider web.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Cloud Atlas is among the six books that changed Maile Meloy's idea of what’s possible in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten refugees' stories

Patrick Kingsley is the author of The New Odyssey: The Story of Europe’s Refugee Crisis. One of his top ten accounts of forced migration, as shared at the Guardian:

City of Thorns by Ben Rawlence

Deng [a Sudanese child refugee at the heart of What is the What by Dave Eggers] was one of the lucky ones. Most people stuck in the camps of east Africa don’t get resettled, and are instead left to rot without any hope of a future. Rawlence spent several years in Dadaab, Kenya, the world’s biggest refugee camp – and this is his account of the lives of several of its inhabitants. For all Europe’s panic about the recent wave of migrants, City of Thorns underlines how the vast majority of the world’s 60 million displaced never leave hellholes like Dadaab.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten fictional houses with personality

Tom Easton is an author of fiction for all ages who has published books under a number of different pseudonyms as well as his own name. One of his top ten fictional "houses which themselves seem to have a personality which affects the story," as shared at the Guardian:

Manderley. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

Manderley represents so much more than just a house in Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca. It represents wealth and success, a sense of seclusion and protection. And yet, the house has a dark side, harbouring terrible secrets, a violent history and an uncertain future.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Rebecca appears on Martine Bailey's list of six of the best marriage plots in novels, Stella Gonet's six best books list, John Mullan's list of ten of the best conflagrations in literature, Tess Gerritsen's list of five favorite thrillers, Mary Horlock's list of the five best psychos in literature, and Derwent May's critic's chart of top country house books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books set in company towns

Madeline Ashby is a science fiction writer, futurist, speaker, and immigrant living in Toronto. Her new novel is Company Town.

One of Ashby's five top books set in company towns, as shared at Tor.com:

Stardust

Similarly, I think you can also read Stardust by Joseph Kanon as a company town novel. It takes place in Hollywood after the Second World War. The main character is a war reporter looking to find a producer and director who will edit his footage of concentration camps being liberated into a film for mainstream audiences. (This was partially inspired by Hitchcock’s lost Holocaust documentary.) Then his brother dies, and he has to solve the murder. The book has everything: murder, fifth columnists, secrets, sex, lies. What makes it a company town novel is the insular quality of Hollywood at the time—it takes place only thirty years after Hollywood merged into L.A., and before L.A. had swallowed over eighty separate districts into in what is now the Greater Los Angeles Area.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five nonfiction books about America's craziest elections

At the B&N Reads blog Nicole Hill tagged five nonfiction books that’ll reassure you that this isn’t the craziest election on record, including:

1920: The Year of the Six Presidents, by David Pietrusza

You think you know drama? The 1920 campaign had the distinction of featuring the ripple effects from six—six!—former, sitting, or future presidents: Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and both Roosevelts. Those illustrious names, however, only scratch the surface of why 1920 was a remarkable election year. This was an America in transition, out of World War II and into an urbanized nation, facilitated by the spread of automobiles. Women had the vote, and Prohibition had begun. In many ways, this was the year the modern election was born, with outlandish party spending, nascent newsreel coverage, and a boom in campaign advertising. If you’re aching for November to get here already, you’ve got 1920 to thank.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top books for "American Crime Story" fans

Lindsey Lewis Smithson has her MFA from UC Riverside’s Palm Desert Low Residency MFA. She has served as the Poetry Editor and the Managing Editor for The Coachella Review, in addition to having read for The Pacific Review and The Whistling Fire. At B&N Reads she tagged five books for fans of TV's American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson, including:

Twentynine Palms: A True Story of Murder, Marines and the Mojave, by Deanne Stillman

In 1991 two girls were murdered outside Twentynine Palms Marine Corp Base. The Marine in question had recently returned from the Gulf War and found himself readjusting to life in another desert setting. But how did they all find themselves in the same apartment in the middle of the night in Twentynine Palms? Was there something in their pasts, their families, maybe even their cultures that brought this unlikely set together. And what ultimately sealed their fate? What is life really like for those who live outside military bases? What does this rootless culture do to towns, neighbors, even individual families? With so many questions, an amazingly vivid setting, and bigger—even national—implications, Stillman’s exploration is a must read.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eleven top sci-fi books for video gamers

At the B & N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog Andrew Liptak tagged eleven top sci-fi reads that might tempt video gamers to put down the controller and try reading, including:

Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card

When it comes to books about games, Orson Scott Card’s fantastic military science fiction novel is hard to beat. This isn’t your typical gaming book: the stakes are enormously high for Andrew Wiggin and the rest of humanity as they face extermination from the alien Formics. Ender is sent to the military’s Battle School in orbit, where he undergoes a rigorous training cycle on a war simulator, intended to prepare him to lead humanity’s fleet. Even as he’s an unwitting player a larger game, one that will test him to the limits, he must cope with another type of game: a virtual reality fairy tale exploration of his innermost psyche.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Ender's Game is among Chris Kluwe's six favorite books and Jennifer Griffith Delgado's 11 most mind-blowing surprise endings in science fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eric Ripert's six favorite books

Eric Ripert is the James Beard Award–winning chef at New York's Le Bernardin and the host of the PBS TV series Avec Eric. His new memoir is 32 Yolks.

One of his six favorite books, as shared at The Week magazine:

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain.

Kitchen Confidential was the first book I ever read in English. I love that Tony's world in the kitchen was filled with pirate-like renegades when mine was peopled with regimented professionals. How eye-opening and entertaining to read about the other side!

Read about the other entries on the list.

Kitchen Confidential is among Ryan Stradel's ten top books about food, the Telegraph's list of the ten best food and drink books of all time, Grub Street's top 25 food memoirs of all time, the Guardian's top ten food books of the last decade, David Kamp's six books notable for their food prose, Trevor White's ten notable books about dining, and Laura Lippman's top ten memorable memoirs.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five addictive books featuring sci-fi drugs

Chris Howard was born and raised in England, and it was there he first began writing stories and songs. He now lives in Denver, Colorado, where he and his wife enjoy mountains, music, and mugs of good coffee. He is the author of Night Speed, as well as the Rootless trilogy.

One of Howard's top five addictive books featuring sci-fi drugs, as shared at Tor.com:

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

In this classic mix of sci-fi and horror, Dr. Jekyll creates a serum that transforms him into the younger, crueler, and remorseless Hyde, an alter ego that allows Jekyll to express the nastier aspects of his personality and urges without guilt. After taking the potion repeatedly, Jekyll doesn’t need the serum at all to unleash his inner demons, but instead grows dependent on the serum to remain conscious. It’s a fascinating exploration of shame and repression, society and evil, and the danger of substance abuse threads through the tale like a dirty needle.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde also appears on Steve Toutonghi's list of six top books that expand our mental horizons, Irvine Welsh's list of six favorite books that explore human duality, the Huffington Post's list of classic works that are all under 200 pages, Koren Zailckas's top 11 list of favorite evil characters, Stuart Evers's list of the top ten homes in literature, H.M. Castor's top ten list of dark and haunted heroes and heroines and John Mullan's list of ten of the best butlers in literature, and among Yann Martel's six favorite books. It is one of Ali Shaw's top ten transformation stories and Nicholas Frankel's five best pieces of decadent writing from the nineteenth century.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten unconventional love stories

Laura Barnett is a writer, journalist, and theatre critic. She has been on staff at the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph, and is now a freelance arts journalist. The Versions of Us is her first novel.One of her ten top unconventional love stories, as shared at Publishers Weekly:

Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler

Tyler has been my number-one literary idol since my early teens. This novel is unconventional because we get the entire story of a marriage between one Baltimore couple, Maggie and Ira, told in a masterful slippage between the present--when they are travelling to a funeral--and the past. It’s about love as it is actually lived, day to day, year to year, rather than the clichéd, idealised forms of love we’re so often subjected to in fiction.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five fictional families who would make good neighbors

Stephen H Segal and Valya Dudycz Lupescu are the co-authors of Geek Parenting: What Joffrey, Jor-El, Maleficent, and the McFlys Teach Us about Raising a Family. One of five books with families they’d like to live alongside as neighbors, as shared at Tor.com:

The Celestial Family from Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson

Makeda and Abby are sisters, formerly-conjoined twin daughters of a demi-god dad and a human-turned-sea-creature mom. They experience a healthy dose of sibling rivalry, but are still loyal and loving as they try to track down one sister’s missing magical mojo. Life would never be dull on a block with its own resident pantheon, and Makeda’s bravery and ingenuity in facing down magical threats would be welcome in the face of any neighborhood busybody. And her sister’s supernatural musical ability also makes them the perfect ones to start up a garage band: the Abby Normals, maybe?

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten novels about women's political awakening

Sarai Walker received her M.F.A. in creative writing from Bennington College. As a magazine writer, her articles appeared in national publications, including Seventeen and Mademoiselle. She subsequently served as an editor and writer for Our Bodies, Ourselves, before moving to London and then Paris to complete a Ph.D. She currently lives in the New York City area. Dietland is her first novel.

One of Walker's ten top novels about women's political awakening, as shared at the Guardian:

Women Without Men: A Novel of Modern Iran by Shahrnush Parsipur (1990)

Parsipur was imprisoned in her native Iran for daring to write critically about virginity in this magical realist novella, published in 1990. With the 1953 Iranian coup d’etat in the background, the story follows five Tehran women who take refuge at a lush villa in the countryside. There a woman is planted as a tree, and another gives birth to a flower. The most compelling character, Munis, is stabbed to death by her brother for “dishonouring” the family, but she comes back to life, eventually escaping her housebound destiny to seek the worldly experience she craves.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten dragons in fiction

Julie Kagawa is the bestselling author of the Iron Fey series, the Blood of Eden series and the TALON series. One of her top ten dragons in fiction, as shared at the Guardian:

Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion from Game of Thrones series by George RR Martin

Daenery Targaryon is one of two of my favourite female leads in Game of Thrones (the other being Arya Stark), and not just because of her dragons. She is strong, determined and powerful woman in a world dominated by men. She has grown up through the books, and has had to make some truly heartbreaking decisions, but she stands tall and carries on. Her three dragons aren’t the only cool thing about her, but let’s face it, they are extremely badass.

Read about the other entries on the list.

A Game of Thrones is among Ryan Britt's six best Scout Finches from sci-fi & fantasy, Charlotte Seager's top five spoiled suppers in literature, Melissa Grey's five top female characters of under-appreciated strength, Non Pratt's top ten toxic friendships in literature, Becky Ferreira's eight best siblings in literature, and Nicole Hill's top six books on gluttony. A Song of Ice and Fire is among Ferreira's six favorite redheads in literature and six best books with dragons, Joel Cunningham's seven top books featuring long winters. The Red Wedding in A Storm of Swords is one of Ferreira's top six most momentous weddings in fiction. The Lannister family from A Game of Thrones is one of Jami Attenberg's top ten dysfunctional families in literature.

Also see Becky Ferreira's six best dragons in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the best long books

Martin Seay's debut novel is The Mirror Thief.

One of his ten best long books, as shared at Publishers Weekly:

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville (1851, 720 pages in Penguin Classics trade paperback edition)

Moby-Dick’s status as a “classic,” though certainly deserved, tends to obscure what a strange, profound, troublesome, and completely nutty book it is. By using one artificial, precariously-constructed reality (i.e. the form of the novel) to depict another one (i.e. life aboard a whaling ship), Melville sets out to explore fundamental questions about the nature of the world and our places in it, and to do so with humor, humility, and wonder that remain deeply affecting. By a substantial margin the best book of any kind ever written.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Moby-Dick appears among Ian McGuire's ten best adventure novels, Jeff Somers's five top books that will expand your vocabulary and entertain, Four books that changed Mary Norris, Tim Dee's ten best nature books, the Telegraph's fifteen best North American novels of all time, Nicole Hill's top ten best names in literature to give your dog, Horatio Clare's five favorite maritime novels, the Telegraph's ten great meals in literature, Brenda Wineapple's six favorite books, Scott Greenstone's top seven allegorical novels, Paul Wilson's top ten books about disability, Lynn Shepherd's ten top fictional drownings, Peter Murphy's top ten literary preachers, Penn Jillette's six favorite books, Peter F. Stevens's top ten nautical books, Katharine Quarmby's top ten disability stories, Jonathan Evison's six favorite books, Bella Bathurst's top 10 books on the sea, John Mullan's lists of ten of the best nightmares in literature and ten of the best tattoos in literature, Susan Cheever's five best books about obsession, Christopher Buckley's best books, Jane Yolen's five most important books, Chris Dodd's best books, Augusten Burroughs' five most important books, Norman Mailer's top ten works of literature, David Wroblewski's five most important books, Russell Banks' five most important books, and Philip Hoare's top ten books about whales.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top funny books about fatherhood

The editors of the B&N Reads blog tagged five hilarious books about fatherhood, including:

Rocking Fatherhood: The Dad-to-Be’s Guide to Staying Cool, by Chris Kornelis

Some dads seem to relish all those parents of parenthood that don’t directly involve keeping their kids from killing themselves; no sooner do they welcome their firstborn child than they begin stocking up on ugly buttondowns and mismatching their socks and sandals. Other dads hope to retain a little bit of street cred to go along with their increased anxiety about what college is going to cost in 2034. Enter music journalist Chris Kornelis, who didn’t have any idea how to be a father when his wife became pregnant, and decided to go to the experts for advice: rock star dads (in one case, literally so) like James Dyson (the vacuum guy), Julian Casablancas (The Strokes), and Aaron Franklin (the BBQ king). It’s a week-by-week guide to pregnancy and beyond, focusing on all the ways modern parenting is changing, and encouraging dads-to-be to keep their cool, in both senses of the word.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten landmarks in gay and lesbian literature

Gregory Woods is the author of Homintern: How Gay Culture Liberated the Modern World. One of his ten top landmarks in gay and lesbian literature, as shared at the Guardian:

The Pure and the Impure by Colette (1932)

Colette thought that this would eventually be recognised as her best book. It is a subtle and amiable ramble through the varied ecologies of desire. After an opening scene in an opium parlour, apparently full of same-sex couples of both sexes, its successive topics include: a modern Don Juan, masculine women and their liking for horses, the lesbian poet Renée Vivien, the domestic happiness of the Ladies of Llangollen, Proust’s dubious portrayals of lesbians, the social habits of man-loving men … Eccentric to the point of queerness, it is a book unlike any other, neither memoir nor fiction, neither dissertation nor tract. It deserves a helpful edition with footnotes to keep the reader abreast of the details of Colette’s life in Paris.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven unforgettable mother/child relationships in literature

One of seven top mother/child relationships in literature, as shared at the Vintage Books & Anchor Books Reading Group Center:

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

In the 1680s the slave trade in the Americas is still in its infancy. Jacob Vaark is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh North. Despite his distaste for dealing in “flesh,” he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland. This is Florens, who can read and write and might be useful on his farm. Rejected by her mother, Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master’s house, and later from the handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved, who comes riding into their lives.

A Mercy reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart, like Beloved, it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother and a daughter—a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten fictional mothers

In 2011 the Observer came up with a list of the ten best fictional mothers, including:

Marilla Cuthbert

Anne of Green Gables

When siblings Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert adopt a boy from an orphanage to help out on Green Gables farm, they are not expecting the arrival in Avonlea of red-headed Anne Shirley. At first, Marilla ... doesn’t take to Anne’s incessant chatter and fanciful notions, but she is soon charmed by the girl’s impetuous good nature. Marilla emerges from LM Montgomery’s wonderful books as a devoted adoptive mother, always ready to dispense homespun wisdom and recipes for the perfect plum puff.

Read about the other mothers on the list.

Anne of Green Gables is among BBC.com Culture's three of the best mothers in literature, Bea Davenport's top ten books about hair, and the Observer's ten best fictional mothers.

Marilla's raspberry cordial in Anne of Green Gables is one of Jane Brocket's top ten food scenes in children's literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

The five worst mothers in literary history

Jeff Somers is the author of Lifers, the Avery Cates series from Orbit Books, Chum from Tyrus Books, and We Are Not Good People from Pocket/Gallery. He has published over thirty short stories as well. One of Somers's five worst mothers in literary history, as shared at B & N Reads:

Corrine and Olivia (Flowers in the Attic, by V.C. Andrews)

The brilliant trick of V.C. Andrews’ novel about incest, greed, and spectacularly bad parenting is that it initially presents Olivia, the grandmother, as the true Monstrous Mother, and Corrine, the mother, as a goodhearted parent who is guilty of incredibly poor decision-making but not true evil…then it slowly turns the tables, not by making the grandmother a better person but by making Corrine the worst person. Poisoning your children slowly (while forcing them to hide in the attic) in order to assure your inheritance is actually more horrible than locking them in closets for days on end. At least Carrie got to attend gym class from time to time.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Flowers in the Attic is among Jeff Somers's top five books featuring runaway parents and Nicole Dieker's top nine books even non-readers will love.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine of the best unconventional true crime books

Laura Tillman is an award-winning writer and freelance journalist. Her first book is The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts: Murder and Memory in an American City. One of the author's nine great unconventional true crime books, as shared at Publishers Weekly:

The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean

This chronicle of obsession began with a New Yorker piece about orchid-poacher John Laroche. The book that followed is a meditation on passion, Florida, and man's relationship with nature. Moving far beyond the initial hook of orchid-theft, Orlean writes, "Sometimes this kind of story turns out to be something more, some glimpse of life that expands like those Japanese paper balls you drop in water and then after a moment they bloom into flowers, and the flower is so marvelous that you can't believe there was a time when all you saw in front of you was a paper ball and a glass of water." She delivers on that promise, bringing readers the treasures she found in Florida's swampland.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top books written in crazy places

Jeff Somers is the author of Lifers, the Avery Cates series from Orbit Books, Chum from Tyrus Books, and We Are Not Good People from Pocket/Gallery. He has published over thirty short stories as well. At the B&N Reads blog Somers tagged five books written in very unlikely places, including:

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling

Written in: A pub

Rowling didn’t write all of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in pubs, but she definitely wrote a significant portion of it in them, mainly The Elephant House and Nicolson’s Cafe in Edinburgh. As is well known, the first Potter novel was written at a low point of Rowling’s life; she was embroiled in a bitter divorce, raising her daughter alone, and living on government benefits. She found the best way to get her daughter to fall asleep was to take her for a walk, and so she would take the child to a café and sit and work on her novel for a time. The Elephant House’s back room, where Rowling would sit, looked out over Edinburgh Castle, which must have had quite an effect on the author—and the story she wrote.

Read about the other books on the list.

The Harry Potter books made Anna Bradley's list of the ten best literary quotes in a crisis, Nicole Hill's list of seven of the best literary wedding themes, Tina Connolly's top five list of books where the girl saves the boy, Ginni Chen's list of the eight grinchiest characters in literature, Molly Schoemann-McCann's top five list of fictional workplaces more dysfunctional than yours, Sophie McKenzie's top ten list of mothers in children's books, Nicole Hill's list of five of the best fictional bookstores, Sara Jonsson's list of the six most memorable pets in fiction, Melissa Albert's list of more than eight top fictional misfits, Cressida Cowell's list of ten notable mythical creatures, and Alison Flood's list of the top 10 most frequently stolen books.

Professor Snape is among Sophie Cleverly's ten top terrifying teachers in children’s books.

Hermione Granger is among Brooke Johnson top five geeky heroes in literature, Nicole Hill's nine best witches in literature, and Melissa Albert's top six distractible book lovers in pop culture.

Neville Longbottom is one of Ellie Irving's top ten quiet heroes and heroines.

Mr. Weasley is one of Melissa Albert's five weirdest fictional crushes.

Hedwig (Harry's owl) is among Django Wexler's top ten animal companions in children's fiction.

Scabbers the rat is among Ross Welford's ten favorite rodents in children's fiction.

Butterbeer is among Leah Hyslop's six best fictional drinks.

Albus Dumbledore is one of Rachel Thompson's ten greatest deaths in fiction.

Lucius Malfoy is among Jeff Somers's five best evil lieutenants (or "dragons") in SF/F.

Dolores Umbridge is among Melissa Albert's six more notorious teachers in fiction, Emerald Fennell's top ten villainesses in literature, and Derek Landy's top 10 villains in children's books. The Burrow is one of Elizabeth Wilhide's nine most memorable manors in literature.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban appears on Amanda Yesilbas and Katharine Trendacosta's list ot twenty great insults from science fiction & fantasy and Charlie Jane Anders's list of the ten greatest prison breaks in science fiction and fantasy.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone also appears on Phoebe Walker's list of eight mouthwatering quotes from the greatest literary feasts, John Mullan's lists of ten of the best owls in literature, ten of the best scars in fiction and ten of the best motorbikes in literature, and Katharine Trendacosta and Charlie Jane Anders's list of the ten greatest personality tests in sci-fi & fantasy, Charlie Higson's top 10 list of fantasy books for children, Justin Scroggie's top ten list of books with secret signs as well as Charlie Jane Anders and Michael Ann Dobbs's list of well-known and beloved science fiction and fantasy novels that publishers didn't want to touch. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire made Chrissie Gruebel's list of six top fictional holiday parties and John Mullan's list of ten best graveyard scenes in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books that give old legends a new spin

Sam Reader is a writer and conventions editor for The Geek Initiative. He also writes literary criticism and reviews at strangelibrary.com. One of his top five stories that take their inspiration from myth and legend, as shared at the B & N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog:

The Bloody Chamber, by Angela Carter

Noted feminist and fabulist Angela Carter decided to retell and recontextualize classic fairy tales in her own unique manner, and the result was The Bloody Chamber, a collection of sensual, sometimes violent tales, including a version of “Little Red Riding Hood” that involves werewolves, a modern update of “Beauty and the Beast,” and riffs on other classic legends. Carter’s mastery of the fantastic form is unmatched, and the way she plays with fairy tales (her take on “Puss in Boots” as “the ultimate cynical story about cat as con man” is inspired) creates stories that stand on their own, well beyond their fairy-tale trappings.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Bloody Chamber is among four books that changed Angelica Banks, four books that changed Justine Larbalestier, Stephanie Feldman's ten creepiest books, and Jonathan Stroud's favorite fantasy books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Simon Callow's six best books

Simon Callow is an actor, director, and writer. He has appeared in many films, including the hugely popular Four Weddings and a Funeral (he played Gareth). One of his six best books, as shared at the Daily Express:

AT FREDDIE’S by Penelope Fitzgerald

Years ago, I was going to make a film of this so I got to know Penelope. She was one of the great British writers of the second half of the 20th century. She wrote a series of books about her own experience and this one is about a wacky children’s drama school.

Read about the other books on his list.

See a different list of Simon Callow's six best books from 2012.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ciarán Hinds' six favorite books

Actor Ciarán Hinds is Mance Rayder in HBO's Game of Thrones and has played many other film roles.

One of his six favorite books, as shared at The Week magazine:

Redemption Falls by Joseph O'Connor

This 1998 novel is a wonderfully imagined story set in a violent post–Civil War America peopled with extraordinary characters. It's beautifully crafted, bleak, and operatic.

Read about the other entries on the list.

See a different list of Ciarán Hinds' six best books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top SF books about war and military culture

Sean Danker is currently serving in the military on a base in North Dakota. His new book, Admiral, is the first book in a new military SF series. At Tor.com Danker tagged five of his favorite SF books about war and military culture, including:

Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

Bujold’s take on martial culture can come off as overly romantic, even rose-tinted—but at the end of the day, her handling of conflict is grounded and uncompromising. In the early Vorkosigan books, she brings a level of attention to her characters as individuals that sets her work apart from the bulk of military SF. Her willingness to confront mental health as an important aspect of a soldier’s life is encouraging, because the psychological consequences of violence are so often slept on by writers who take the Hollywood approach to war.

Read about the other books on the list.

Cordelia's Honor (an omnibus of Shards of Honor and  Barrayar) is among Joel Cunningham's seven best sci-fi books featuring strong women and Thea James's eight best women in military science fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue