Seven terrifying tales examining the nature of fear itself

Nat Cassidy writes horror for the page, stage, and screen. His acclaimed novels, including Mary: An Awakening of Terror and Nestlings, have been featured in best-of lists from Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, NPR, the Chicago Review of Books, the NY Public Library, and more, and he was named one of the "writers shaping horror’s next golden age" by Esquire. His award-winning horror plays have been produced throughout New York City and across the United States. He won the NY Innovative Theatre Award for his one-man show about H. P. Lovecraft, another for his play about Caligula, and was commissioned by the Kennedy Center to write the libretto for a short opera (about the end of the world, of course). You've also likely seen Nat on your TV, playing various Bad Guys of the Week on shows such as Law & Order: SVU, Blue Bloods, Bull, Quantico, FBI, and many others ... but that's a topic for a different bio. He lives in New York City with his wife.

Cassidy's new novel is When the Wolf Comes Home.

At CrimeReads the author tagged seven "books with similar preoccupations as Wolf—not just books that induce fear, but books that specifically examine the phenomenon of Fear itself." One title on the list:

Bird Box, by Josh Malerman

“Just don’t look. Whatever you do. Don’t. Look.” The answer to most people’s fear response since we first grew eyelids. But sometimes, even when you know you mustn’t . . . you still have to look. Fear evolved with us as a survival tactic to keep us alive in the midst of threat. But a strange death drive evolved with us, too. A curiosity that fear can’t always override. And it’s that doomed tension which pulls the strings taut enough for Josh Malerman to play in his iconic hit. Sometimes, as that primal instinct is constantly trying to remind us, facing your fear in the wrong kind of way can also mean your doom.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Bird Box is among Elsa Sjunneson-Henry's seven horror stories in which women are more than victims and Sherman Alexie's six favorite books about identity.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight books that feature the ballet world

Nina Laurin studied Creative Writing at Concordia University in Montreal. She arrived there when she was just twelve years old, and she speaks and reads in Russian, French, and English but writes her novels in English.

Laurin's novel include A Woman Alone, The Last Beautiful Girl, What My Sister Knew, and The Last Thing She Saw.

At The Strand Magazine the author tagged eight "ballet reads that helped me pull back the curtain of that mythical world." One title on the list:

Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay

A retired Russian ballerina sells her jewels, each one unveiling the secrets of her defection from the USSR—and what led her to such a dramatic leap of faith. At the same time, a middle-aged man is looking for his birth parents, a piece of amber jewelry his only clue. Russian Winter is part ballet, part historical fiction, part glittering mystery, and while it searches for a bit to find its true focus, it all comes beautifully together in the final act.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight Irish novels about the rise and fall of Big Houses

Louise Hegarty’s work has appeared in Banshee, the Tangerine, the Stinging Fly, and the Dublin Review, and has been featured on BBC Radio 4’s Short Works. She was the inaugural winner of the Sunday Business Post/Penguin Ireland Short Story Prize. Her short story “Getting the Electric” has been optioned by Fíbín Media. She lives in Cork, Ireland.

Hegarty's debut novel is Fair Play.

[The Page 69 Test: Fair Play; Q&A with Louise Hegarty]

At Electric Lit Hegarty tagged eight Irish novels about the rise and fall of Big Houses—a specifically Irish term meaning a rural country mansion. One title on the list:

Snow by John Banville

Detective Inspector St John Strafford is called out to investigate a murder at Ballyglass House, County Wexford, where the local Catholic priest has been found brutally murdered. The crime causes, or exacerbates, a divide between the Protestant occupants of the Big House and the wider Catholic community. As St John Strafford, himself a Protestant, digs deeper into the case, he uncovers layers of family secrets, political intrigue, and religious tensions, all set against the backdrop of the divided local community.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Snow is among Denzil Meyrick's five top Christmas crime novels.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five titles to read when your spouse Is diagnosed with cancer

Ariel Gore makes books, zines, coloring books, and tarot cards. She is the founding editor and publisher of the Alternative Press Award-winning magazine Hip Mama and the author of 13 lucky books of fiction and nonfiction, including Rehearsals for Dying, Hexing the Patriarchy, and The End of Eve. Her shameless novel/memoir, We Were Witches, was published by the Feminist Press, and her anthology Portland Queer: Tales of the Rose City won the Lambda Literary Award for Best LGBT Anthology. She teaches writing online at Ariel Gore’s School for Wayward Writers at the Literary Kitchen.

At Lit Hub Gore tagged five books that helped her "navigate the emotional wilderness of loving someone with a terminal diagnosis." One title on the list:

Audre Lorde, The Cancer Journals

When Deena was diagnosed, this was the first book I reached for. Published in 1980, Lorde’s raw, unflinching account of her breast cancer diagnosis, mastectomy, and the emotional aftermath remains startlingly relevant.

As a Black lesbian feminist poet facing the medical establishment of the 1970s, Lorde brings a critical eye to the politics of cancer treatment, offers deep insight into the psychological experience of confronting mortality, and illuminates the way that queer and female friendship is as important—more important—than any chemical treatment.

“Your silence will not protect you,” Lorde wrote. It’s a famous line. I’d forgotten it came from The Cancer Journals. The book stands as a powerful antidote to the isolation that too often come with a cancer diagnosis, reminding us that our private suffering has political dimensions, and that community and connection remain vital—always.

Lorde shows us how to maintain our full humanity—our anger, our grief, our sexuality, our joy—even as the cancer industrial complex tries to reduce us to patient-hood.

Like Audre, Deena didn’t want to be “brave”—as Deena’s spouse, I didn’t want to be brave, either—but we had no choice. And that unchosen bravery, Lorde reminded us, could transform us: “What is there possibly left for us to be afraid of, after we have dealt face to face with death and not embraced it? Once I accept the existence of dying as a life process, who can ever have power over me again?”

Read about the other entries on Gore's list.

Also see five of the best books about living with cancer and ten top books about cancer.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten mysteries set in the bleak midwinter

Bailey Seybolt grew up in New York City. She studied literature at Brown University and creative writing at Concordia University. She’s worked as a travel writer in Hanoi, a tech writer in San Francisco, and many writerly jobs in between. She now lives with her family in Vermont, not far from Lake Champlain.

Coram House is her debut novel.

At CrimeReads Seybolt tagged "ten wintry mysteries that will have you reaching for a blanket." One title on the list:

Disappearing Earth (Julia Phillips)

This novel is set in the peninsular Russian province of Kamchatka, which is so remote—bordered by ocean and a frozen desert—that no major roads connect it to the rest of Russia. It begins on an August day (though this far north, the leaves are already turning) when two young sisters go missing. As the weather grows colder, so does fear about what happened to the missing girls. This is winter like only Kamchatka can produce with snow banks that “propped up the buildings” and cold so deep one character muses “her marrow must have frozen blue.”

Read about the other entries on the list.

Disappearing Earth is among Ayla Rose's six crime novels with a focus on nature and Scott Alexander Howard's eight novels from across the world about isolation.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten nonfiction women's history books

At People magazine senior books editor Lizz Schumer and author Olivia Campbell tagged ten great books on women doing amazing things for readers who loved Hidden Figures and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. One title on the list:

Daughters of The Flower Fragrant Garden: Two Sisters Separated By China's Civil War by Zhuqing Li

Sisters Jun and Hong were best friends growing up in 1930s China, but when political revolution fractured the nation, Jun found herself exiled in Taiwan, married to a Nationalist general. Hong, meanwhile, was an ocean away on the mainland, forced to publicly disavow her family and submit to “re-education.” Jun established a successful trading company, while Hong became a prominent physician. With riveting prose, Li — the sisters’ niece — brings their stories to life.

Read about the other titles on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven titles that turn the workplace into a nightmare

Sarah Maria Griffin is from Dublin, Ireland. She is the author of the novels Spare & Found Parts and Other Words For Smoke, which won an Irish Book Award in 2019. She writes about video games for The Guardian, and her nonfiction has appeared in The Irish Times, The Winter Papers, and The Stinging Fly, among other places.

Griffin's new novel is Eat the Ones You Love.

At Electric Lit she tagged seven "books about work that ... lean firmly to the side of the gothic." One title on the list:

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori

This, to me, is a tender and elegant novel about being at odds with the world, but also, with a tilt, the convenience store could read as a strange prison. These identical spaces, these machines for life, this realm where Keiko, our utterly singular protagonist, can function well—though the rest of the world is difficult. Without the convenience store, Keiko cannot cope. She returns, as though drawn by something unspeakable. Is this not a kind of a ghost story? A story of possession? There is no specter or ghoul at its heart, just the inescapable halogen glow of the conbini.

Read about the other entries on the list at Electric Lit.

Convenience Store Woman is among Eliza Browning's ten novels about resisting productivity culture and Anne Heltzel's seven books about women who refuse to fit in.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five novels about coming of age later in life

Emily Everett is an editor and writer from western Massachusetts.

Her debut novel All That Life Can Afford is the Reese’s Book Club pick for April 2025.

She is managing editor at The Common literary magazine, and a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow in Fiction.

At Lit Hub Everett tagged "five favorite novels exploring ... later-in-life coming of age," all books that "explore issues of money and class and economic stability." One title on the list:

Rowan Beaird, The Divorcées

After her nitpicky, nightmare husband throws out her diaphragm, twenty-something Lois leaves him, terrified she’ll be chained to him for life. But it’s the fifties—she can only run as far as her father’s house, and he might be worse. To win her freedom, Lois must go to a Reno divorce ranch, which is as fun a setting as it sounds. She stays for six weeks to establish residency in Nevada, and the other women she encounters there offer a privileged cross-section of unhappy marriages and big, perhaps foolish, hopes for the future. One in particular draws Lois out of her shell and into increasingly questionable territory, but you’re so glad she’s out you’re happy to go along. The ending reminds us that coming of age is often about learning what you can and can’t live with—and how you’ll make that space for yourself—since you probably won’t get to have it all.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top haunted house novels

Yiğit Turhan was born in Ankara, Turkey. A lifelong reader, he owes his love of horror to his grandmother and the films she shared with him. He has previously published a horror novel in Turkish. He lives in Milan, Italy, where he holds a C-suite role at a renowned fashion house.

Their Monstrous Hearts is his English-language debut.

At CrimeReads Turhan tagged ten great haunted house novels full of atmosphere and secrets. One title on the list:

Bag of Bones by Stephen King

Not my favorite Stephen King novel, but definitely a standout in the haunted house genre. It follows an author battling writer’s block and hallucinations in a secluded lake house after his wife’s death. My old paperback is covered in underlined passages because I read this with a book club while living in Istanbul, and we all debated which scene was the creepiest. A solid ghost story from the master of horror.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight titles on the evils of unchecked state power

Rav Grewal-Kök’s first novel, The Snares, is published by Random House.

[Q&A with Rav Grewal-Kök]

His stories have appeared in The Atlantic, Ploughshares, the New England Review, Missouri Review, Gulf Coast, The White Review, and elsewhere. He has won an NEA fellowship in prose and is a fiction editor at Fence.

Grewal-Kök grew up in Hong Kong and on Vancouver Island and now lives in Los Angeles.

At Electric Lit the author tagged eight books "that address the depredations of the state... [yet] offer consolation. They show that the bad times aren’t ours alone." One title on the list:

The Little Book of Terror by Daisy Rockwell

Rockwell’s brief and beautiful exploration of the limits of empathy juxtaposes her paintings of subjects from the first decade of the War on Terror with essays and personal reminiscences. Rockwell is a renowned translator from the Hindi (including of Gitanjali Shree’s International Booker Prize-winning novel Tomb of Sand), as well as an accomplished visual artist. Though she is Norman Rockwell’s granddaughter, she seems to paint, as Amitava Kumar notes in his introduction, more in the tradition of lurid, decades-old Bollywood film posters. Here she depicts a stylized, pink-skinned Osama bin Laden in his death mask, blood or flame obscuring his face; Saddam Hussein after his capture, enfeebled and wrapped in a shroud; and many lesser villains (and innocent victims) of that era. But she also paints the Abu Ghraib torturers Charles Granier and Lynndie England in a smiling, tender moment, as well as her own friends and colleagues, and images of the little green men her father became obsessed with in his old age. Throughout she challenges us to recognize the humanity of the other—including the most alien or despised among those Dick Cheney called “the worst of the worst.” She offers an alternative to the totalizing narrative of the state at war, and warns us to resist its colonization of the self. “Why do they hate us, indeed,” she writes. “And who are they? And who are we?”

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight top titles in climate fiction

At B&N Reads Cara Rafferty and Isabelle McConville tagged eight cli-fi "stories about our rapidly changing climate, from its global impact to impacts on day-to-day life." One title on the list:

American War by Omar El Akkad

A gripping and gritty look at a dystopian America, American War by Omar El Akkad (One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This) brings us into the middle of a country ravaged by floods and unchecked climate change. A story about division, resistance, warfare, and revenge, this is a powerful take on an all too possible reality.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Also see Siobhan Adcock's list of nine top books in the new vanguard of climate fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten inspiring van life books

Amy Mason Doan is the bestselling author of The Summer List, Summer Hours, Lady Sunshine, and The California Dreamers. She earned a BA in English from UC Berkeley and an MA in journalism from Stanford University, and has written for The Oregonian, San Francisco Chronicle, and Forbes, among other publications. She grew up in Danville, California, and now lives in Portland, Oregon, with her family.

[The Page 69 Test: Summer Hours; My Book, The Movie: Lady Sunshine; The Page 69 Test: The California Dreamers]

At The Nerd Daily Doan tagged "ten books that capture the gritty but exhilarating reality of van life before #vanlife." One title on the list:

Peeps, Erin Gordon, 2021

RV Life Magazine says Gordon’s novel “universally speaks to the adventurer in all of us…that yearning drive to reflect, refocus, and even replace our stagnant life with something new.”

Protagonist Meg, a 51-year-old podcaster who interviews “peeps” for her podcast of the same name, uses her solo motorhome odyssey to reflect on her mother’s death, her divorce, and her empty nest.

A touching novel with sharply observed moments of humor.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven campus novels that break the mold

Sanibel grew up in Princeton and studied Classics at the University of Pennsylvania before getting her MFA at The New School. Her work has appeared in NYmag, ELLE, Air Mail, Literary Hub, and more. She lives in Greenwich Village with her husband and is working on a satirical reimagining of the Odyssey from Athena's POV.

Sanibel's new novel is To Have and Have More.

At Electric Lit the author tagged seven "campus novels that diverge from the standard arc and provide more in the way of professors and politics of academia while remaining in that most beloved of settings: the private school campus." One title on the list:

Come and Get It by Kiley Reid

College campuses are ripe for discussions about class—where else do legacy nepo-babies and first-gen scholarship students cross paths constantly? It’s an extreme melting pot that forces awkward questions out into the open at every turn. Reid’s Such a Fun Age probed into class-race-power dynamics of a Black babysitter and white mom. And this follow-up similarly examines grey zones between an RA, a visiting professor/journalist, and a transfer student who fled her previous school. There’s nothing more entertaining than asking young adults what they think is “tacky” and “classy”—and that’s exactly how Come and Get It opens. When you grow up, you learn not to answer the tacky/classy question because it is only ever asked to cast you as a mouthpiece for a certain milieu.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five new thrillers for "White Lotus" fans

Molly Odintz is the managing editor for CrimeReads and the editor of Austin Noir. She grew up in Austin and worked as a bookseller before becoming a Very Professional Internet Person. She lives in central Texas with her cat, Fritz Lang.

At CrimeReads Odintz tagged five "new thrillers (and one classic Noir) to read when you're done with White Lotus," including:

Andrea Bartz, The Last Ferry Out

Andrea Bartz is at the top of her game in this moody thriller set on a remote Mexican island full of secretive vacationers. Bartz’s narrator isn’t on vacation, though—she’s there to find out more about her fiancee’s last days, and learn if there’s a wider story behind her partner’s shocking death from food allergens.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books that explore motherhood, intention, and desire

Uttama Kirit Patel is a writer and magazine founder and editor, and has lived in twelve cities across three continents. She holds an MPhil in Psychology from the University of Cambridge, has been a semi-finalist in the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest, and was nominated for the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers.

Patel's debut novel is Shape of an Apostrophe.

At Lit Hub the author tagged five "books which expose the complexity of choosing, upholding or opting out of motherhood." One title on the list:

Julie Phillips, The Baby on the Fire Escape: Creativity, Motherhood, and the Mind-Baby Problem

This book is an exploration of opposing forces: a child that needs commitment and a calling that requires freedom. Raising children in a polyamorous union, writing in a constant state of interruption, surrendering the identity of mother so as to rise to artistic greatness—these are some ways the “ostensibly liberated” creatives examined in this book (including Ursula K. Le Guin, Audre Lorde, and Susan Sontag) made space for the imagination and the domestic.

A battle of the spirit as much as of logistics, we are shown the depths of what creativity and motherhood simultaneously demanded of the women, a struggle intensified from feeling thwarted by both.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight titles about girls growing up on the internet

Andy Anderegg was born in Austin, Texas and lives in Los Angeles, California. She holds a BA from the University of Oklahoma and an MFA from the University of Kansas. Her fiction has been shortlisted for the Dzanc Books’ Prize for Fiction and named a finalist for The Clay Reynolds Novella Prize from Texas Review Press.

Her debut novel is Plum.

At Electric Lit Anderegg tagged "eight books about girls growing up on the internet — and the fallout of all that screen time." One title on the list:

Good Women by Halle Hill

Halle Hill’s collection of twelve Black women across the Appalachian South is perfectly observed, detailed, and sharp, the internet intruding into life and molding it, the way it does — an Apple Watch buzzing bills due mid-funeral, a girl knowing her dad’s health is in decline because her parents aren’t telling her to get off the computer, characters take it as a sign when “cache cookies tracking their 1 a.m. Googles: ‘how to start over’ or ‘how to go back to school with a 1.9 gpa’” turn them into leads for the admissions officer at a not accredited, for-profit, completely a scam college who they gratefully thank, “You’re a good woman.”

I think I’ll forever be able to transport myself to the bus in “Seeking Arrangements.” Krystall is on a 22-hour Greyhound bus trip with an older man (and his baggie of prescription medications she’s minding) who she met on an app, as she avoids texts from her sister (and voice of reason). The old dude’s made big claims that he “created MySpace before MySpace” even though a Google search comes up blank about that, and he likes to chat on Yahoo! email. At the rest stop, I want Krystall to run, but she eats with him in the restaurant, orders and drinks Long Island Ice Teas, and gets back on the bus. Reading, I can smell the bus, almost feel car sick, fantasizing along with Krystall about any and all escape routes.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten rural thrillers

Nina Laurin studied Creative Writing at Concordia University in Montreal. She arrived there when she was just twelve years old, and she speaks and reads in Russian, French, and English but writes her novels in English.

Laurin's novel include A Woman Alone, The Last Beautiful Girl, What My Sister Knew, and The Last Thing She Saw.

At The Strand Magazine the author tagged ten favorite novels set in rural places. One title on the list:

The Marsh King’s Daughter by Karen Dionne

This novel has an irresistible premise: Helena’s father kept her and her mother captive in the Michigan wilderness until they were rescued. But now that he’s escaped from prison, Helena must face her difficult past. The book is a fascinating deep dive into survivalism.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Marsh King’s Daughter is among Peggy Townsend's five top wilderness thrillers featuring fearless women, Luanne Rice's five best thrillers set in wild places, and Sally Hepworth's top eight dysfunctional fictional families.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five titles featuring decaying settings

C.J. Dotson is a Northeast Ohio native who now lives with her family upstate New York. She studied English with a creative writing focus at Cleveland State University and now daydreams about having the time and resources to go back to school to study history and mythology instead. She lives in a house that has more shadows than working lights. She loves reading sci fi, fantasy, and horror, but will read really anything that catches her eye (her favorite book is none of those genres — it’s The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien).

Dotson is primarily a writer of novels and short stories, and occasionally flash fiction. Her new supernatural horror novel is The Cut.

At CrimeReads Dotson tagged five books featuring decaying settings, including:

The Needfire by MK Hardy

Norah Mackenzie needs a fresh start, and thinks she’s found it (as well as the solution to certain financial problems) in her engagement to a wealthy man in another part of Scotland. The letters they’ve exchanged have left her hopeful that this new chapter in her life will be a good one, but when Norah arrives at her husband-to-be’s home, Corrain House, nothing is quite as she expected. The surrounding village strikes her as strange, with unfamiliar customs. Corrain House itself sits precariously on a cliff edge, and is in ill-repair. Her husband rushes their wedding and then withdraws, giving Norah no indication that their previous correspondences meant anything to him. And the housekeeper is at once forbidding and alluring.

This is a beautiful addition to classic gothic literature with a modern touch. Putting this one down felt like coming up for air and rediscovering the world I actually live in, as opposed to the dark and crumbling Scottish estate. MK Hardy, the pen name for the duo who wrote this novel together, created a deeply compelling, incredibly engaging world populated by people who feel real even in the increasingly unreal circumstances surrounding them. This book comes out on July 31st, 2025 and I cannot recommend it enough.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue

The seven greatest cooks in literature

Samuel Ashworth has been a bartender, a dancer, and a reporter. He has gutted seafood in the back of Michelin-starred restaurants and assisted with autopsies in a Pittsburgh hospital. His fiction and nonfiction appear in the Atlantic, the Washington Post, Longreads, Eater, Hazlitt, Gawker, The Rumpus, and so on. He is a professor of creative writing at George Washington University, and assistant fiction editor at Barrelhouse Magazine. A native New Yorker, he now lives with his wife and two sons in Washington, DC.

At Electric Lit Ashworth tagged seven great cooks in literature, including:

Aida from Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang

Aida is one of the few working chefs in contemporary fiction (credit also to Bryan Washington’s Lot and Lillian Li’s Number One Chinese Restaurant), but Zhang quickly removes her from the hustle of the restaurant industry. Agricultural experiments by a Monsanto-style company in middle America have choked Earth’s atmosphere with smog, annihilating crops worldwide and forcing humans to rely on mung bean flour. The book kicks off when she is invited to cook in an “elite research community” of plutocrats in the Italian Alps, in a tech billionaire’s secret redoubt untouched by the smog. Zhang’s food writing is exquisite, soaked in sex and pleasure (“larks’ bones crunching in the molars like the detonation of a small star”), and made all the more so by the sinisterness of Aida’s environment. The book asks a question: How far will we go to fulfill our desires?

Read about the other entries on the list at Electric Lit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten titles that get the theatre world right

Brittany K. Allen is a writer and actor living in Brooklyn.

At Lit Hub she tagged ten books "that nail theatre. (And theatre people.)" One title on the list:

Isabella Hammad, Enter Ghost

This second novel from one of our most confident contemporary authors follows a theater company on the occupied West Bank as they attempt to stage a production of Hamlet. Enter Ghost captures the feeling of play-making at its idealistic best, exploring how coalitions are built across difference. Hammad beautifully considers the stakes of making art around and through profound political violence.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

The best books about the fabulous—and painful—parts of fame

Pamela Spradlin Mahajan is the author of Skye, Revised, a women’s fiction novel with a delicious dash of magical realism and romance. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and creative writing from Missouri State University and a Masters from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Her recent short stories have appeared in the online literary journal "They Call Us" and she has been honored in the WOW! Women on Writing Flash Fiction Contest.

At Shepherd Spradlin Mahajan tagged five of "the best books about the fabulous—and painful—parts of fame." One title on the list:

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

My favorite thing about this book is its realness and authenticity. I have been a fan of Curtis Sittenfeld’s work since reading Prep, her first book. This particular story follows the romance between a comedy writer, Sally, who doesn’t consider herself conventionally attractive, and a famous male singer, Noah. Sittenfeld based the show where Sally works on Saturday Night Live, which was an interesting touch.

This doesn’t feel like a fantasy or as if it could never happen, thanks to Sittenfeld’s relatable characters and situations. Instead, it uncovers the fun, sexy parts of dating a famous celebrity as well as the less-than fun-parts—such as when photos of the couple are shared in the media and Sally’s appearance is dissected by the public. Overall, this was a playful, quick read!

Read about the other entries on the list.

Romantic Comedy is among Catriona Silvey's top six romances about creatives in love.

--Marshal Zeringue

The best remixes of "The Great Gatsby"

Camille Aubray is the author of Cooking for Picasso and The Godmothers. Both novels were a People Magazine’s Pick for the Best New Books. The Godmothers was also chosen for the Best Books Lists by Newsweek, Buzzfeed, Parade, and Veranda. Cooking for Picasso is an Indiebound bestseller and made the Indie Next Reading Groups List. Aubray is an Edward Albee Foundation Fellowship winner and was a writer-in-residence at the Karolyi Foundation in the South of France. She studied writing with her mentor Margaret Atwood, and was a finalist for the Pushcart Press Editors’ Book Award and the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference.

At Lit Hub Aubray tagged some of the best remixes of The Great Gatsby. One title on the list:

Libby Sternberg, Daisy: A Novel

Daisy Buchanan tells her side of the story and reveals what was in the letter that Jay Gatsby sent to her just before her wedding to Tom Buchanan. Gatsby’s return into her life forces Daisy to make hard choices for herself and her daughter.

Read about the other entries on the list at Lit Hub.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight titles featuring cats as characters

Tanya Guerrero is Filipino and Spanish by birth, and has been fortunate enough to call three countries home—the Philippines, Spain, and the United States. Currently, she lives in a shipping container home in the suburbs of Manila with her husband, their daughter, and a menagerie of rescued cats and dogs. She has volunteered for animal welfare organizations since 2008, with a focus on Trap/Neuter/Return and Rescue/Foster/Adopt groups. In her free time, she grows her own food, bakes, and reads.

Guerrero's new novel is Cat's People.

At Electric Lit she tagged eight books featuring memorable felines as characters. One title on the list:

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

Over the last decade or so, Japanese authors seem to have cornered the market on ultra-cozy books featuring cats. It’s not all that surprising since cats have long been revered in Japan due to the belief that cats bring good luck and fortune. Who am I to argue with that? In fact, there are so many translations of Japanese cat-centric novels that I could have probably written this entire article about them. For the sake of variety, though, I have chosen to feature my favorite of the bunch. To me, The Travelling Cat Chronicles has it all—a main character named Satoru who is kind, in touch with his emotions, and overall the kind of human being you would want to be lifelong friends with; a cat narrator named Nana, who is funny, full of snark, observant, curious and somewhat in denial of his attachment to his human; a scenic road trip across Japan in a silver van; and a bittersweet ending that will have you once again reaching for that box of tissues. I promise, not all of the books on this list will make you bawl your eyes out.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Also see thirteen top books featuring cats, Jessie Burton's eleven best books about/with cats, and Lynne Truss's top ten cats in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

The top ten noir novels for beginners

At The Strand Magazine Bob Rivers tagged ten "top picks for anyone looking to dip their toe into the dark, smoke-filled world of noir." One title on the list:

The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain

Here’s a story about a drifter who thinks flipping burgers in a roadside diner might be a good gig—until he meets the owner’s wife and ends up with a murder rap. Cain was a master of exposing how easily people slip into sin, no matter how clean their collars look. He understood that beneath the trench coats and hats, most of humanity is one bad idea away from getting kicked out of the zoo for moral hygiene violations.

Frank and Cora decide to kill her husband. Things go south fast. If you think murder is the end of your problems, Cain will teach you it’s usually just the beginning—and the end. Just ask Cora. Just ask Frank. Oh wait—you can’t.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Postman Always Rings Twice is among Emily Temple's fifty great classic novels under 200 pages, Douglas Kennedy's ten favorite "novels on the agonies and ecstasies of the extramarital adventure," Vincent Zandri's top ten doomed and deadly romances in noir fiction, and Benjamin Black/John Banville's five top works of noir.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top thrillers where mothers fight for their children

Sara Foster is an internationally published, bestselling psychological suspense author living in Western Australia. Her new novel is When She Was Gone.

Foster has previously published seven novels: the near-future acclaimed thriller The Hush, and suspense thrillers You Don’t Know Me, The Hidden Hours, All That is Lost Between Us, Shallow Breath, Beneath the Shadows, and Come Back to Me.

At CrimeReads Foster tagged six "outstanding thrillers where different kinds of mothers have needed to fight for their daughters in order to keep them safe or to discover what has happened to them." One title on the list:

Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

Right outside her front window, Jen witnesses her son Todd murder a total stranger on Halloween, but when she wakes the next day she has gone back in time and the murder has yet to happen. As she continues to wake up at different points in their past, she realizes that somewhere in these revisitings lies the trigger for Todd’s crime – and it becomes her mission to find it and stop these this terrible event from happening. I love this premise, and McAllister delivers a clever and unique read.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Wrong Place, Wrong Time is among Sarah Bonner's thirteen top psychological thrillers with gobsmacking twists.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven intense titles about messy relationships

Anu Kandikuppa has worked as an engineer, a software developer, and an economics consultant, most recently as Principal. The social structures of Indian families among which she grew up inform the stories in her first book, The Confines. Kandikuppa’s fiction and essays have appeared in Colorado Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, New England Review, The Cincinnati Review, Story, and other journals. In 2024, Kandikuppa received a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant for Creative Individuals. Her work has thrice received special mention in the Pushcart Prize anthologies and has also been recognized by fellowships and residencies by the Virginia Center for Creative Arts and The Ragdale Foundation. Kandikuppa holds a Ph.D. in Finance and an MFA in Writing from Warren Wilson College. She lives outside Boston.

At Electric Lit Kandikuppa tagged seven intense books featuring messy relationships. One entry on the list:

First Love by Gwendoline Riley

In Gwendoline Riley’s First Love, Neve is in a volatile, dysfunctional marriage with an older man, Edwyn. She has never lived with anyone before him and comes from an unstable family, particularly her mother. Edwyn, meanwhile, is needy, manipulative, and recovering from a serious illness. They stumble through their marriage, with Neve making excuses for him and wondering, whenever they find a pocket of calm, whether they are “coming to an accommodation, two people who’d always expected, planned, to live their lives alone.” Riley’s sparse, laser-sharp writing makes almost every line of this sad yet improbably funny novel feel underlineable.

Read about the other titles on the list at Electric Lit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top preppy reads

Alyson Gerber is the bestselling author of The Liars Society, a middle grade mystery set at a New England prep school. The Liars Society is a USA Today bestseller, Barnes & Noble Bookseller Favorite, B&N Most Anticipated Book of the Month, and B&N Best Book of the Year (So Far), as well as an American Booksellers Association’s Best Books for Young Readers, Roku's Best Book of the Month, Bookshop's Favorite New Books. It's also a nominee for the Texas Bluebonnet Award and Indiana's Young Hoosier Award. The Liars Society #2: A Risky Game was published in April 2025.

At The Nerd Daily Gerber tagged five iconic preppy reads, including:

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

A few years after The Westing Game made me a reader—I was an angsty prep school teenager assigned to read The Catcher in the Rye. At the very first mention of phonies by Holden Caulfield, I was hooked. So much so that my daughter’s middle name is an ode to this book. To soak in all aspects of the boarding school experience, this story is a must.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Catcher In The Rye appears on John Patrick McHugh's top ten list of stories about bored teenagers, A.F. Brady's list of seven literary anti-heroes who expose the dark side of NYC, Liz Phair's ten desert island books list, Brian Boone's list of five great novels that will probably never be made into movies, Natalie Zutter's list of nine classic YA books ripe for some creative genderbending of the main characters, Lance Rubin's top ten list of books with a funny first-person narrator, Andy Griffiths's list of five books that changed him, Chris Pavone's list of five books that changed him, Gabe Habash's list of the 10 most notorious parts of famous books, Robert McCrum's list of the 10 best books with teenage narrators, Antoine Wilson's list of the 10 best narrators in literature, A.E. Hotchner's list of five favorite coming-of-age tales, Jay McInerney's list of five essential New York novels, Woody Allen's top five books list, Patrick Ness's top 10 list of "unsuitable" books for teenagers, David Ulin's six favorite books list, Nicholas Royle's list of the top ten writers on the telephone, TIME magazine's list of the top ten books you were forced to read in school, Tony Parsons' list of the top ten troubled males in fiction, Dan Rhodes' top ten list of short books, and Sarah Ebner's top 25 list of boarding school books; it is one of Sophie Thompson's six best books. Upon rereading, the novel disappointed Khaled Hosseini, Mary Gordon, and Laura Lippman.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five titles featuring reporter sleuths who dig too deep

Olesya Lyuzna is a historical fiction writer with a passion for queer noir.

Her debut novel Glitter in the Dark was selected for a 2020 Pitch Wars mentorship by Layne Fargo and Halley Sutton.

She lives in Toronto and spends her free time hosting murder mystery parties and scouring the archives for unsolved crimes.

At CrimeReads Lyuzna tagged five works featuring favorite reporter sleuths, including:

The Jasmine Trade by Denise Hamilton

The murder of Marina Lu looks like a robbery gone bad. A teenage girl found dead in her car, her bridal gowns still in the backseat, her diamond ring catching the last of the LA sun. But Los Angeles Times reporter Eve Diamond knows better.

She follows the story into the world of “parachute kids”—wealthy Asian teenagers sent to America for education and opportunity, left behind in mansions while their parents run businesses overseas. Money doesn’t keep them safe. Neither does privilege. Marina had both, and she still wound up dead.

Eve has a knack for spotting the cracks beneath the city’s surface. The deeper she digs, the darker the picture gets. What was Marina doing with a much older fiancé? Why won’t her father answer any questions? And why does the trail keep leading Eve into a far uglier subculture—where young women like Marina aren’t debutantes, but property?

This is Los Angeles noir at its sharpest—a world of power and isolation, a neon-lit dream that rots from the inside out. Hamilton writes LA like she owns it, laying bare the places most people don’t want to see: the empty mansions, the late-night diners where secrets trade hands, and the rooms where silence is bought and paid for.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue