Seven books about the cost of burial

Becky Robison (she/her) is a writer living in Louisville, Kentucky. A graduate of UNLV's Creative Writing MFA program, her work has appeared in Salon, Slate, Business Insider, and elsewhere. She’s also the mind behind My Parents Are Dead: What Now?—a project that aims to help people navigate the dizzying labyrinth of post-death bureaucracy based on her own experience.

Robison's new book is My Parents Are Dead: What Now? A Panic-Free Guide to the Practicalities of Death.

At Electric Lit the author tagged seven "books that show how the invisible hand of the market reaches far beyond the grave." One title on the list:

The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels by Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans

While Too Poor to Die covers funeral poverty in the United States more broadly, Prickett and Timmermans focus on a specific case study in The Unclaimed: four Angelenos who join the ranks of the abandoned dead for dramatically different reasons. Their reporting reveals that the poor aren’t the only ones who end up in the care of the overworked and bureaucracy-burdened civil servants we meet in the book. Like many cities, Los Angeles prioritizes immediate family when it comes to claiming a body—and some families refuse to claim their dead. Even if friends or other communities wish to step in, they often aren’t legally allowed to do so. When I saw Pamela Prickett speak at last year’s Funeral Consumers Alliance conference, she emphasized another cause: fraying social ties. Our culture promotes self-reliance, which can easily turn into isolation. As communities dissolve, more people die alone.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven titles about work

Daniel Poppick is a poet and novelist. His debut novel is The Copywriter (2026).

He is also the author of the poetry collections Fear of Description (2019), selected for the National Poetry Series, and The Police (2017). His work appears in The New Yorker, The Paris Review Daily, The Drift, Harper's, BOMB, The New Republic, Chicago Review, and other journals.

At Lit Hub Poppick tagged seven books about work. One title on the author's list:

Kathryn Scanlan, Kick the Latch

In this novella about an Iowa woman’s lifelong career training horses, the most haunting characters are the horses themselves: an unpaid shadow workforce at the racetrack, the rodeo, and in stables, empathically and mysteriously buoying the human souls who love them. At times, Kick the Latch seems to suggest that injured racehorses and their exhausted caretakers might share a parallel fate. “Priests came on race days to bless the horses’ legs before they ran,” Scanlan’s shrewd narrator observes, “but there’d be plenty of times it didn’t work.” Everywhere you go, even and especially if they can’t speak, somebody is always working.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top contemporary nonfiction books for Black History Month

At People magazine senior books editor Lizz Schumer tagged ten inspiring and educational nonfiction books to read this Black History Month. One title on the list:

Until the Last Gun Is Silent: A Story of Patriotism, the Vietnam War, and the Fight to Save America's Soul by Matthew F. Delmont

Even as the Civil Rights movement was in full swing at home, more than 300,000 Black troops were drafted and sent to fight in the Vietnam War. These often impoverished soldiers left pervasive racism back home only to find themselves thrust onto the frontlines of a hotly contested war many saw as unjust. For Black Americans, the Vietnam War led a generation to question what justice really means. It's an indelible portrait of a fractured movement, a generation of veterans failed by the very country they fought for and the bravery of Black servicemen and advocates.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six historical fiction books based on true stories

Katie Moench is a librarian, runner, and lover of baked goods. A school librarian in the Upper Midwest, Moench lives with her husband and dog and spends her free time drinking coffee, trying new recipes, and adding to her TBR list.

At Book Riot she tagged six historical fiction titles based on real people and events, including:

How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee

Set in Singapore during World War II, How We Disappeared sheds light on a lesser-discussed aspect of the Japanese occupation and weaves together the past and present. In 1942, 17-year-old Wang Di is kidnapped and taken to a Japanese military brothel where she is forced to work in sexual slavery as a “comfort woman.” In 2000, her grandson Kevin hears a mumbled admission from his ailing grandmother, which drives him to begin searching for the story of her life. The novel flows between 1942 and 2000, showing how the tragedies Wang Di suffered during the war have affected her and her family’s lives. As she grows more ill, even more secrets are revealed. Praised for its skilled structure and evocative writing, the book was shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize and longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Read about the other novels on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top thrillers by Black writers

Leodora Darlington is a writer from London with Ghanaian heritage. She received a distinction for her Masters in Creative Writing from Brunel University, where she studied under authors like Benjamin Zepheniah and Will Self.

A Bookseller Rising Star in 2021, Darlington is also an editor and has published a range of bestselling fiction. The Exes is her debut novel.

At CrimeReads Darlington tagged "five thrillers by Black authors that I simply couldn’t put down." One title on the list:

S. A. Cosby, Razorblade Tears

This is a book that comes up time and time again on people’s “favorite thrillers” lists. S. A. Cosby has delivered a total masterpiece of Southern noir. The story centers on Ike Randolph and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons—one Black, one white—who team up to avenge their murdered sons. The catch? The sons were married to each other, and both fathers had rejected them because of it.

This book wrecked me in the best way possible. It is violent and visceral, yes, but underneath the action is a profound exploration of redemption, guilt, and the possibility of change. Watching these two hardened men confront their own prejudices while raining down vengeance is a cinematic experience I won’t soon forget.

Read about the other novels on Darlington's list at CrimeReads.

Razorblade Tears is among David Bell's five great thrillers about domineering parents, Robyn Harding's seven unlikely friendships in crime fiction, Lesley Kara's six crime novels about settling old scores, and Liz Nugent's top ten first lines in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten fantasy and romantasy books for embracing feminine rage

A self-proclaimed hopeless romantic, Braidee Otto combines her academic background in Literary Studies with a deep passion for storytelling to create heartfelt, immersive narratives. Songbird of the Sorrows is the first installment in her debut adult romantic fantasy series, Myths of the Empyrieos. She lives in Adelaide, South Australia, with her partner, two beloved dogs, and a cat that appeared in her backyard on the winter solstice.

About Songbird of the Sorrows: An outcast princess turned spy embarks on a mission to infiltrate a rival kingdom, but the secrets she uncovers force her to decide whether to follow orders or defy them.

At The Nerd Daily Otto tagged "ten fantasy and romantasy books with heroines who are gloriously, righteously angry." One title on the list:

The Curse of Ophelia by Nicole Platania

Two years after the war has ended and the man she loves vanished during a forbidden ritual, Ophelia’s search for answers has led only to heartbreak. When a fatal curse resurfaces, marking her for death, and a messenger reveals she may be the key to saving her clan and finding Malakai, Ophelia embarks on a desperate journey with her found family. Racing against time and betrayal, she must confront the lies of her leaders, the Angels, and her own belief in love before the curse claims her life.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top Shakespeare-inspired titles

Rebecca Fallon is a New England-born Londoner and a graduate of Williams College and the University of Oxford.

Family Drama is her debut novel.

At Lit Hub she tagged five titles that make for:

a masterclass in how to steal from Shakespeare, featuring some world-class thieves. Each story contains shades of its foundation. All deal in Shakespeare’s timeless themes of power and family, loss and love. All strike at the most profound elements of life. But each also departs in truly original ways, allowing the author to express something honest and new through the conversation with the source.

One novel on the list:

Sally Rooney, Intermezzo

Joyce may be the obvious influence on Rooney’s latest work, but as fans of Ulysses will know, a seam of Hamlet runs throughout that great Irish masterpiece. This literary gene certainly passed to Rooney’s modern-day Dubliners, and it’s no surprise that the author re-read Hamlet whilst writing Intermezzo.

Both books are about sons grieving their fathers and avoiding their doomed relationships. As a character, Rooney’s Peter Koubek is much like the Danish prince; as a human-rights lawyer, he similarly sees himself as a vehicle of justice whose actions are often misguided, resulting in more harm than good. Peter’s struggles with the nature of sanity and mortality echo some of the Dane’s more famous monologues. “Under what conditions is life endurable,” Peter wonders, to paraphrase the great question of the play. Hamlet, dense with soliloquies, translates well to the intense interiority of Intermezzo.

Even within her prose, Rooney occasionally slips into iambic pentameter. When Margaret, a local arts administrator, recalls her brief affair with Peter’s brother Ivan as “a dream, attached at the corners to no reality, shared with no one, vanishing into nothingness.” Even the most mundane moments are elevated with this language, as when Peter “made from unthinking habit too much coffee.” In three places—including the final page—direct quotes from Hamlet weave into Peter’s interior monologue. “Thou know’st, ’tis common; all that lives must die,” he muses, a nod to his consciousness of the play even as it influences him as a literary character.

Rooney avoids, however, the bloody tragedy—Peter, unlike Hamlet, is saved by having a brother. Ivan proves one reason for Peter “to be” in the end, along with his two non-drowned girlfriends, Sylvia and Naomi. Peter’s only vanquishing is an ego-death, as he’s forced to release his fixation with monogamy and acknowledge the complexities of relationships. Would such a revelation have been a better end for Hamlet? Perhaps. It certainly would have saved Gertrude a lot of grief.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

Five novels that celebrate Mesoamerican cultures and mythologies

Angela Montoya has been obsessed with the magic of storytelling since she was a little girl. She hasn’t seen a day without a book in her hand, a show tune in her mind, or a movie quote on her lips. She is the author of Sinner's Isle and A Cruel Thirst. When she isn’t lost in the world of words, Montoya can be found hiding away on her small farm in Northern California, where she’s busy bossing around her partner and their two children, as well as a host of animals.

Montoya's new novel is Carnival Fantástico.

At The Nerd Daily the author tagged five novels that explore "the dynamic, complex deities that can only be found in Mesoamerican legends." One title on the list:

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas

I will read anything Aiden Thomas writes, but The Sunbearer Trials is one of my absolute favorites. The story introduces us to Teo, the trans son of Quetzal, the goddess of birds. When Teo is chosen against all odds to compete in the Sun Bearer Trials, he must face opponents who are far more powerful and far better equipped to survive. During our hero’s journey, we meet a rich cast of deities that have been reimagined from Mesoamerican legend, making this story feel epic, daring, and truly unique. Celestial Monsters, the second book in this duology, is equally remarkable.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five spy thrillers that are good literature

Michael Idov is a novelist, director, and screenwriter. A Latvian-born American raised in Riga under Soviet occupation, he moved to New York after graduating from the University of Michigan.

Idov’s writing career began at New York Magazine, where his features won three National Magazine Awards. His first book, 2009’s satirical novel Ground Up, sold over 100,000 copies worldwide and was optioned for a series by HBO. From 2012 to 2014, he was the editor-in-chief of GQ Russia, an experience that became the basis for his 2018 memoir Dressed Up for a Riot.

In addition to spy novels The Collaborators (2024) and The Cormorant Hunt (2026), Idov has worked on numerous film and TV projects, including Londongrad, Deutschland 83, Cannes Main Competition title Leto, and his own 2019 directing debut The Humorist. He and his wife and screenwriting partner, Lily, divide their time between Los Angeles, Berlin, and Portugal.

[Writers Read: Michael Idov (October 2009); Q&A with Michael Idov]

At CrimeReads Idov tagged five favorite books "that work both as excellent spy thrillers and good literature, delivering all the clandestine kicks while treating the reader as an actual adult." One title on the list:

Jonathan Payne, Citizen Orlov

A fishmonger bumbles his way into a royal assassination plot in a silly yet hyperliterate sendup of both Kafka and Graham Greene. The setting—a made-up Eastern European backwater that feels about eighty percent Czech—is half the fun, but, amazingly, the madcap plot with its innumerable twists works on its own, too. The result is a hoot and a half that practically begs to be a Wes Anderson film.

Read about the other novels on the list at CrimeReads.

Q&A with Jonathan Payne.

--Marshal Zeringue

Twelve memoirs of widowhood

Marion Winik is the author of nine books, including The Big Book of the Dead (2019) and First Comes Love (1996; reissued with a new introduction in 2026). Her essays have been published in The New York Times Magazine, The Sun, and elsewhere; her column at BaltimoreFishbowl.com has been running since 2011.

[Coffee with a Canine: Marion Winik and Beau (December 2009); Coffee with a Canine: Marion Winik and Beau (June 2013); Writers Read: Marion Winik (June 2013)]

A professor at the University of Baltimore, she reviews books for The Washington Post, Oprah Daily, and People, among others, and hosts the NPR podcast The Weekly Reader. She was a commentator on All Things Considered for fifteen years. She is the recipient of the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Service Award.

At Publishers Weekly Winik tagged twelve top widow memoirs, including:

The Widow’s Guide to Dead Bastards: A Memoir
Jessica Waite

This title is hard to resist, but what about that “dead bastard”’s son, who was nine at the time of his beloved father’s death? I worried about that the whole time I was reading this book, having faced similar dilemmas in writing about my own late husband’s lapses. This woman faced an avalanche of nasty secrets about a husband she had mostly adored, though his undiagnosed bipolar disease had begun to cause trouble in their relationship toward the end of his life, before he died from heart attack at 47. Her appealing voice keeps the reader on board through the big messy reveal and the New Age/paranormal experimentation that follows.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

The most surprising thrillers ever written

Jamie Canavés is the Tailored Book Recommendations coordinator and Unusual Suspects mystery newsletter writer — in case you’re wondering what you do with a Liberal Arts degree.

At Book Riot she tagged the six most surprising thrillers ever written, including:

Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier

Jennifer Hillier made a name for herself writing dark, twisty thrillers. In Jar of Hearts, she not only delivers on the shocking twist department but also on the popular fictional serial killer trope.

As a wealthy 30-year-old executive, Geo Shaw should be living the high life. Instead, her high school best friend’s body has finally been found, so she’s going to prison. But with a string of new murders with messages left on their bodies, the question is, does Geo know more than she’s revealed?

Read about the other thrillers on the list.

Jar of Hearts is among Tessa Wegert's five crime novels about troubled teens, Emily Smith's five top thrillers featuring the dead/surviving girl trope, B. R. Myers's top ten quietly effective suspense novels, and Alice Blanchard's ten chilling thrillers to get you through the winter storms.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven titles that bear witness to Latin America’s Dirty Wars

Jahia de Rose is an antillana-deutsch artist, landworker, writer, and scholar. Her bylines appear in Electric Literature, midnight + indigo (forthcoming), PetitMort, Business Insider, and several indie publications. She is at work on a novel and her first memoir. She blogs on Substack as @autumnwildroses, and her Substack publication ‘Roadworthy’ chronicles her off-grid life on the road in Europe.

At Electric Lit the writer tagged seven "works of historical fiction about events in [Latin America and the Caribbean] which touch on the Dirty Wars." One title on the list:

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

After her father’s involvement in a failed plot to overthrow Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1960, Julia Alvarez and her family fled to New York. She memorialized the thirty-year dictatorship and Dominican resistance to tyranny through the real-life activist Mirabal sisters—Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa—who were known as Las Mariposas, The Butterflies. Cycling through the perspectives of all the sisters, the book begins and ends with Dede, who chose not to join her sisters’ guerrilla activities. Drawing on themes of class, gender, family dynamics, and survivor’s guilt, the book follows the Mirabals as they develop into revolutionaries. Ironically, though Dede did not want to be involved, she is the one who keeps the memory of their bravery in the face of tyranny and patriarchy alive. Perhaps that is Alvarez’s metaphor for how we cannot escape being a part of the revolution in the end, no matter how much we try.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

Six memoirs that make grief feel less lonely

Charley Burlock is the Books Editor at Oprah Daily where she writes, edits, and assigns stories on all things literary. She holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from NYU, where she also taught undergraduate creative writing. Her work has been featured in the Atlantic, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Hyperallergic, the Apple News Today podcast, and elsewhere.

At Oprah Daily Burlock tagged "six memoirs that make grief feel a tiny bit less lonely," including:

Things in Nature Merely Grow, by Yiyun Li

Mothers who outlive their children often inhabit a world of hushed silences and euphemisms. Written in the aftermath of losing both of her teenage children to suicide, Li’s memoir strides confidently through a territory we are told to tiptoe in and fills a void of language with booming insight. A few days after James, Li’s nineteen-year-old son, took his life using the same method that his brother had six years before, the acclaimed author told a friend, half-jokingly, that she would “write a self-help book about radical acceptance.” The book she ended up writing could hardly be classified as “self-help.” As Li warns the reader early on, it “will not provide the easy satisfaction of fulfillment, inspiration, and transformation.” But these pages—refreshingly absent of platitudes, false optimism, or an ounce of self-pity—provide something far more useful: a vision of maternal grief that is both unvarnished and, ultimately, survivable.

Read about the other memoirs on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six thrillers that reveal the dark sides of fame

Jessie Garcia is an award-winning sports journalist who has risen the ranks in television news, first as an anchor/reporter, then to newsroom management. She is the News Director at the CBS affiliate in Milwaukee. She also taught journalism at four universities. A native of Madison, WI, Garcia has two adult sons and resides in Milwaukee with her husband, dog and cat.

Garcia's new novel is The Fair Weather Friend.

At CrimeReads the author tagged six favorite thrillers that explore the dark sides of fame. One title on the list:

Catherine Steadman, The Disappearing Act

A British actress named Mia comes to Hollywood to try out for a variety of screen roles. She meets a fellow actress at an audition and agrees to plug the parking meter for her, but when that actress vanishes without a trace, Mia decides to investigate on her own. Little does she know how this will take her deep into a world of tinsel town secrets.

This was another audiobook I happily hopped into at every available chance. The premise was spooky and the twists unforeseen.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten perfect books to gift this Valentine’s Day

One title on Tertulia's list of books that make a perfect Valentine’s Day gift:

Felicity: Poems
Mary Oliver

This stunning collection of poems captures the delicate beauty of love, nature, and connection. Described by the New York Times Book Review as “genuine, moving, and implausible as the first caressing breeze of spring,” it's the perfect gift to warm your Valentine’s heart.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight historical mysteries with pirates & smugglers

Linda Wilgus grew up in the Netherlands and lived in Italy, Belgium, and the United States before settling in England. A graduate of the University of Amsterdam, she worked as a bookseller and a knitting pattern designer before becoming a full-time writer. Her short stories have been published in numerous literary magazines. Wilgus shares her home with her husband, three children, and their dog.

[The Page 69 Test: The Sea Child; Q&A with Linda Wilgus]

The Sea Child is Wilgus's debut novel.

At CrimeReads the author tagged "eight cracking reads about smugglers, pirates and mutineers." One title on the list:

Susanna Kearsley, The Rose Garden

After Eva loses her movie star sister, she returns to Cornwall where they spent their childhood summers, planning to/ in order to scatter her sister’s ashes. But the house Eva used to stay at as a child, Trelowarth, turns out to be a portal between our modern time and the eighteenth century, when smuggler brothers Jack and Daniel Butler lived there.

Soon, Eva is caught up in the brothers’ lives and finds herself falling for Daniel. As if their smuggling operation doesn’t put them enough at risk already, the brothers are also involved in the Jacobite cause, and danger eventually arrives at their (and Eva’s) door. Steeped in smuggling history, this deliciously romantic timeslip novel is a must-read for those who enjoy historical fiction set in Cornwall’s colorful past.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six thrillers about secrets and lies

Isabelle Popp's first attempt at writing a romance novel came in middle school, when she began a story about a weirdo girl who could photosynthesize. That project was abandoned, but she has plenty of other silly ideas in the hopper. When she isn't reading or writing, she's probably knitting, solving crossword puzzles, or scouring used book stores for vintage Gothic romance paperbacks. Originally from New York, she's as surprised as anyone that she lives in Indiana. Let's Give 'Em Pumpkin to Talk About is her first novel.

At Book Riot Popp tagged six "compelling thrillers about secrets and lies." One title on the list:

Who Knows You by Heart by C.J. Farley

Would you take a mysterious but lucrative job if it meant finally paying off some debts? That’s what Octavia Crenshaw did. Eustachian Inc. specializes in audio entertainment, and they pay much better than the nonprofit sector ever did. So what if they have an entire secret floor of their corporate headquarters? When Octavia is pulled into working on a secret project with another coder, she begins to learn things about her employer that she can no longer ignore. If you like thrillers with a touch of romance, this is the one to pick up.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten thrillers and suspense novels for fans of "His & Hers" and "Tell Me Lies"

At People magazine senior books editor Lizz Schumer tagged ten thrillers and suspense novels for fans of His & Hers and Tell Me Lies. One title on the list:

Both Can Be True by Jessica Guerrieri

The Gilmore sisters have drifted apart. Frankie is the funny one, full of restless energy and sharp edges. Now a bookstore owner who has been sober for years, she avoids her past as much as she does alcohol.

Mere is the steady one, the caretaker, a mother quietly unraveling from the loneliness of her marriage and the strain of raising a neurodivergent daughter. When a woman in Frankie’s social circle disappears, the sisters are unexpectedly forced to confront their past, and with it, the unspoken trauma of sexual violence and the vices they turned to in order to survive their fractured bond.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Q&A with Jessica Guerrieri.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top books about Ohio

Lauren Schott was born in Akron, Ohio, and is a graduate of Duke University. She has spent twenty-five years working in publishing. Very Slowly All at Once is her first novel for adults. She currently lives in Henley-on-Thames, UK, with her family.

At Lit Hub Schott tagged six books that "show, even the darker side of life in Ohio offers up rich lives worth examining." One title on the list:

Curtis Sittenfeld, Eligible

In Sittenfeld’s modern retelling of Pride & Prejudice, a sprawling Tudor in an upscale Cincinnati neighborhood stands in for Longbourne in Hertfordshire. Both places could seem a bit boring, until the Bennet sisters and their suitors show up. Like her Georgian counterpart, Liz Bennet in 2013 enjoys being out in the fresh air, and her long runs offer both an opportunity to encounter Mr Darcy (here a brain surgeon from San Francisco) and showcase the local sites, including the famed Skyline Chili. It’s not Georgian England and it’s not Manhattan, where Liz had been living until her father had a heart attack and she had to return to Cincy, but this country-club-centered version of Ohio still feels high society enough to carry the original novel’s preoccupations with class, marriage, and what everyone will think of you forward into our millennium.

Read about the other novels on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five historical fiction books about resistance

Rachel Brittain is a writer, Day Dreamer, and Amateur Aerialist. Her short fiction has appeared in Luna Station Quarterly, Andromeda Spaceways, and others. She is a contributing editor for Book Riot, where she screams into the void about her love of books. Brittain lives in Northwest Arkansas with a rambunctious rescue pup, a snake, and a houseful of plants (most of which aren’t carnivorous).

At Book Riot she tagged "five historical fiction books [which] depict resistance against violence and authoritarianism in many forms." One entry on the list:

The Woman With No Name by Audrey Blake

A middle-aged woman overlooked by everyone around her is recruited by British Intelligence to become their first female sabotage agent in France. Yvonne Rudellat thinks her life is over when her apartment is bombed, but somehow she survives. With her home in Britain destroyed and her childhood home of France under Nazi rule, Yvonne decides it’s time to fight back. But no one believes a middle-aged woman will do any good for the war effort, even on the home front. It’s exactly that attitude that will make her the perfect undercover agent. The book is based on the life of a real woman who fought in the French Resistance during WWII, a fact which her family only learned after her death.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven titles about women who lose the plot

Sara Levine is the author of the novels The Hitch and Treasure Island!!! and the short story collection Short Dark Oracles. She earned a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from Brown University and was awarded a Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities.

Levine teaches creative writing at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and on Substack at Delusions of Grammar.

At Electric Lit she tagged seven novels that "celebrate reckless speed, dizzying intensity, audacious rudeness, and the abandonment of social norms." One title on the list:

Revenge of the Scapegoat by Caren Beilin

One day Iris, a writing instructor, receives a package containing documents from her teenage years: a play she wrote and two letters from her father, blaming her for the family’s ruin. After complaining to her friend Ray, who is about to have top surgery, Iris swaps her mildewy house for Ray’s doddering Subaru and drives off to the countryside. Did I mention the trip is poorly planned? Iris suffers from an autoimmune disease, and the funniest parts of this funny American book are the dialogues between Iris’s aching feet, whom she has named Bouvard and Pécuchet (after two characters in an unfinished Flaubert novel). The Subaru dies, and Iris lands in a field where she is stepped on by a herd of cows, then winds up working as a cowherd for a sexy lady who probably murdered her own husband and now operates a museum that’s only open one month a year. Then the story really goes off the rails.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top Southern Gothic novels

Mark Murphy is a native of Savannah, Georgia. He's worked as a fast-food worker, marine biologist, orderly, ordained minister, and gastroenterologist, his current "day job." When he's not healing the sick, he writes anything he can-newspaper columns, short stories, magazine articles, and textbook chapters.

Rose Dhu is his third novel.

At The Nerd Daily Murphy tagged seven novels in the Southern Gothic tradition that inspired hi. One entry on the list:

Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner (1936)

Thomas Sutpen, a white man born into poverty in western Virginia, moves to Mississippi in the 1830s. Ruthlessly pragmatic, he wishes to rise above his nondescript beginnings through the product of his own formula, which he terms his “design.” He builds an ostentatious plantation (Sutpen’s Hundred), takes a wife and embarks on a quest for an heir. His obsessive search for power, status and immortality, driven by pride and scarred by past humiliation, is ultimately undermined by his lack of empathy and inherent blindness to the human costs of his own design. Presented in fragmented fashion, largely through other characters’ recollections and with conflicting, sometimes unreliable narratives, this is a challenging read, but Faulkner himself said it was “the greatest novel of the 20th Century.” Many critics agree.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Absalom, Absalom! also appears Nicola DeRobertis-Theye's list of five notable novels of biographical detection, Brenda Wineapple's six favorite books list, Jacket Copy's list of sixty-one essential postmodern reads, Sarah Churchwell's list of six books on the American Deep South, and Thomas Perry's favorite books list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five titles to read in the early days of parenting

Catherine Pierce served as the Poet Laureate of Mississippi from 2021-2025, and is the author of four books of poems: Danger Days (2020), The Tornado Is the World (2016), The Girls of Peculiar (2012), and Famous Last Words (2008), all from Saturnalia Books. Each of her most recent three books won the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Poetry Prize; Famous Last Words won the Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize. Two new books arrive in 2026: a memoir, Foxes for Everybody, from Northwestern University Press, and a poetry collection, Dear Beast, from Saturnalia.

At Lit Hub Pierce tagged "five books that I would have gratefully devoured as a new mother (and did gratefully devour as a not-quite-as-new one)." One title on the list:

Good Talk by Mira Jacob

Good Talk deftly navigates the complexities of race, family dynamics, politics, micro- and macroaggressions in the wake of the 2016 election, and the surprises that come along with a child’s inevitable questions. In addition to being thought-provoking and moving and cathartic, Good Talk is genuinely funny and utterly engrossing. There’s a reason why graphic novels have become such a successful “gateway” medium for parents trying to get their kids into reading—and it’s not because a graphic novel is watered-down version of a traditional novel. The conciseness, the visual satisfaction, and the crucial interplay between image and word makes reading a good graphic novel—or, in this case, graphic memoir—an electrifying, transporting experience. That was the experience I had when I read Jacob’s Good Talk when my own children were five and eight. This was one of the first books I was able to lose myself in even while my kids were running around the house being the opposite of quiet, and it’s one I haven’t stopped thinking about since.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Good Talk is among Amy Butcher's eight defiant books by women.

--Marshal Zeringue

The best mysteries and thrillers of 2025 -- "Elle"

One title on Elle magazine's 2025 list of the best mysteries and thrillers:

Fair Play by Louise Hegarty

Hegarty follows the conventions of all the great traditional mysteries...and then twists them. Fair Play is set in a rural Irish country home, an Airbnb rented by a group of friends to celebrate New Year’s Eve with a murder-mystery theme party. When a guest is found dead the next morning, the friends are thrown into an investigation that references all the classic detective plot devices in such a twisty way that you’ll discover there are many more questions (and, eventually, answers) than you first realized.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Fair Play is among CrimeReads' best traditional mysteries released in 2025.

The Page 69 Test: Fair Play.

Q&A with Louise Hegarty.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven titles that delve into the great mysteries of Oxford

A. D. Bell lives in Oxford, haunting the city’s bookshops of a weekend, writing in their cafes and walking the winding paths of her characters.

Their debut, The Bookbinder’s Secret, features Lilian ("Lily") Delaney, apprentice to a master bookbinder in Oxford in 1901, who chafes at the confines of her life.

At CrimeReads Bell tagged seven novels that delve into the great mysteries of Oxford. One title on the list:

Simon Mason, A Killing in November

Rounding out this list is a modern crime novel published in 2022, first in the DI Wilkins series. In Mason’s series, two detectives share a surname and little else. One is from the wrong side of the tracks and the other immaculately groomed and privileged Oxford graduate. When a woman is found strangled in St Barnabas Church in Jericho, the unlikely duo investigate.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine true crime memoirs that explore why we're so obsessed with darkness

Rebecca Hannigan has an MA in Creative Writing Crime Fiction from UEA, graduating in 2023. She won the UEA/Little Brown Crime Prize for her dissertation. She has also been shortlisted for Virago/The Pool’s Best New Crime Writer.

Her first novel, Darkrooms, is a fictional work in which she explores the "feeling of betrayal and injustice" stemming from "a murder in [her] mother’s small Irish hometown" for which "no one was ever sentenced."

For People magazine Hannigan tagged nine "gripping true crime memoirs that explore why we're all so obsessed with darkness." One title on the list:

We Keep the Dead Close by Becky Cooper

While at Harvard, Cooper learned about the decades-old unsolved murder of Jane Britton, a young archaeology student, and is haunted by it long after graduation. Cooper describes Britton as a big personality, a target for both envy and admiration, and finds a growing kinship that pushes her to investigate. Her obsession animates the exhaustive — and sometimes exhausting — investigation she undertakes, but ultimately leaves the reader wondering what Cooper’s life will look like when the case is finally solved.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six sad books by funny women

Sydney Rende is a writer and editor. You can read her work in The New York Times Style Magazine, Carve Magazine, Joyland, and elsewhere. She has an MFA in fiction from Syracuse University.

Rende's debut short story collection is I Could Be Famous.

At Lit Hub she tagged six sad books by funny women "who give grief and humor the equal respect they deserve." One title on the list:

Lorrie Moore, Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?

Nobody has as much fun with words as Lorrie Moore does. This little coming-of-age novel, published in 1994, follows Berie Carr and her best friend Sils as they navigate adolescence while working at Storyland, a fairytale-themed amusement park, for the summer. The book jumps between the past and present, where adult Berie is arguably depressed while visiting Paris with her husband, whom she probably doesn’t love anymore. Lorrie Moore’s comedy is always right on time. Her word play is unmatched. And this story of adolescent friendship, love, and loss is both relatable and original. We have Lorrie Moore’s language and humor to thank for that.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? is among Brittany Ackerman's seven books about teen friendships.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books that grapple with the gig economy

Anandi Mishra is a Sweden-based critic and communications professional. She has worked as a reporter for The Times of India and The Hindu. One of her essays has been translated to Italian and published in the Internazionale magazine. Her essays and reviews have appeared in the Public Books, The Atlantic, Los Angeles Review of Books, Virginia Quarterly Review, Popula, The Brooklyn Rail, Al Jazeera, among others.

At Electric Lit Mishra tagged seven books that "show us the varied relationships people have with money, who gets to make it, and at what cost to themselves." One title on the list:

Flesh by David Szalay (2025)

Istavan, Flesh’s shy, reticent protagonist, moves through life in search of nothing much. He’s introverted but never not working, often in conversations with others, but never speaks much himself. Instead of looking for his next assignment, work finds him and delivers him to the next stage in life. Through a series of jobs starting from a drug delivery agent to a war soldier to a pub bouncer to a driver to a business owner and back to being a pub bouncer again, Istavan’s life is shown through vignettes of various jobs he holds in different stages of life and how it impacts him. No matter what the life situation, he is forever that lonesome outsider trying to make ends meet. Szalay’s portrait of Istavan’s rags-to-riches life is singular in the way it is told. Szalay often skips the more intense parts of Istavan’s experiences, leaving them to the reader’s imagination. The resultant book is racy, remote, and roiling, capturing the way work dominates the lives of those of us who have nothing to lose because we come from nothing.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books & plays that take you deep inside the ivory tower

Screenwriter Nora Garrett’s debut film, After the Hunt -- directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg and Chloë Sevigny -- is set on the campus of Yale University.

At Bustle Garrett tagged "five college-set works that informed After the Hunt." One title on the list:

The Idiot by Elif Batuman

What this novel really captures is that awkward, early phase of college where you've gotten into an elite institution that you thought would give you the sense of identity you wanted — and you're still finding yourself awkward, bumbling, and estranged from the ability to feel yourself at the apex of your intelligence, even in these rarefied spaces. I think that the shame of that and the attempt to work through it is a reference for Maggie, but just generally a reference for that tender identity point.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Idiot is among Isabelle McConville's ten notable campus novels, Christine Ma-Kellams's seven books about unconventional situationships, Lauren Hutton's ten books about young women in (and out) of love, and Katherine Heiny's eight best books about modern dating.

Also see Elise Juska’s list of eight of the greatest campus novels ever written, Ali Lowe's list of six of the best campus crime novels, Kate McCusker's five top campus novels, Michael Woodson's ten top campus novels, and K.D. Walker's eight top campus novels set in grad school.

--Marshal Zeringue

"CrimeReads" -- best traditional mysteries of 2025

One novel on the CrimeReads list of the best traditional mysteries released in 2025:

Murder Takes a Vacation, Laura Lippman

Stalwart mystery author Lippman takes up the Agatha Christie mantle in her newest novel, Murder Takes a Vacation, in which Tess Monaghan’s longtime sidekick, Mrs. Blossom, gets her turn in the spotlight. The action sees Blossom head to France for a once-in-a-lifetime cruise; her interest is sparked by a man on board, but, naturally, the man soon turns up dead in Paris, and the ship begins looking more like a vipers’ nest, as Blossom unspools a mystery among the passengers. The new novel adds a welcome layer of depth to the character and constructs a worthy mystery for her to solve, all set against the splendors of a voyager’s France.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Murder Takes a Vacation is among CrimeReads's top twenty crime novels, mysteries, and thrillers of 2025 and Sue Hincenbergs's eight mysteries and thrillers featuring older sleuths and criminals.

The Page 69 Test: Murder Takes a Vacation.

--Marshal Zeringue

The 15 best locked room murder mysteries

Emily Burack is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site.

At Town & Country she tagged fifteen of the best locked room murder mysteries, including:

One By One by Ruth Ware

The cofounder of a trendy London-based tech start-up organizes a weeklong trip for the team in the French Alps, but soon they’re snowed in the rustic ski chalet—sans one coworker, who hadn’t returned from the slopes. One by one, the group dwindles further.

Read about the other entries on the list.

One by One is among Alexa Donne's six chilly And Then There Were None inspired thrillers, Carolyne Topdjian's five top hotel thrillers and mysteries, Bonnie Kistler's six best office thrillers, Sandie Jones's six mysteries with large casts of characters, Allie Reynolds's seven chilling winter thrillers, and Louise Candlish's ten hardest characters in literature to love.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eleven top titles about road trips

At PopSugar Helen Carefoot tagged eleven great books about road trips, including:

The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise by Colleen Oakley

For most books about road trips, you can almost always find a pair of unexpected characters setting off together. In "The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise," a 21-year-old works as a live-in caregiver for an elderly woman who insists she doesn't want help, but quickly reveals herself to be more than her young charge bargained for when she announces they're leaving town in the middle of the night. Promise, the unlikely duo have an easy chemistry that makes this buddy story a breezy read.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue