Five top titles about chess players

Allison Saft is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wings of Starlight, A Dark and Drowning Tide, A Far Wilder Magic, and other romantic fantasy novels. Her work has won a Scribe Award and has been translated into over ten languages. She holds an MA in English Literature from Tulane University and teaches creative writing at Wilkes University. In her free time, she practices aerial circus arts. She lives in West Virginia with her partner and an Italian greyhound named Marzipan.

Saft's new novel is Immortal Game.

At The Nerd Daily the author tagged five of her "favorite books about chess players." One title on the list:

Bobby Fischer Goes to War: How A Lone American Star Defeated the Soviet Chess Machine by David Edmonds and John Eidinow

Bobby Fischer Goes to War was hands-down my favorite book I read while researching Immortal Game. It’s breezily written and a lot of fun, even if you don’t play chess. It tells the bizarre, engrossing, and incredibly dramatic story of the 1972 World Chess Championship. It also paints sympathetic, nuanced portraits of the two competitors, Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, both of whom were complicated men and both of whom faced enormous pressure going into the match. The book captures something meaningful about the Cold War era, chess history, and the price of brilliance.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Also see K.W. Colyard's list "books like The Queen's Gambit that prove chess is far from boring" and Aisling Twomey's list of seven books for fans of The Queen’s Gambit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six humorous mystery novels

Gloria Chao is a USA Today bestselling author and a screenwriter. Her novels include The Mortal Enemy Murder Club, The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club, Ex Marks the Spot, When You Wish Upon a Lantern, Rent a Boyfriend, Our Wayward Fate, and American Panda. She graduated from MIT and became a dentist before realizing she’d rather spend her days in fictional characters’ heads instead of real people’s mouths. When she’s not writing, you can find her on the curling ice, where she and her husband are world-ranked in mixed doubles.

[The Page 69 Test: American Panda; The Page 69 Test: When You Wish Upon a Lantern]

At CrimeReads Chao tagged six "humorous mysteries that I have loved, ranging from laugh-out-loud funny to more subtle humor." One title on the list:

Emma Mills, Rachel West and the Fallen Starlet

When Rachel’s celebrity friend Molly is found dead, she’s the only one who knows she didn’t die of an overdose like everyone claims, and she’s going to have to prove it. This book was filled with humor and banter, all while feeling like you’re living inside a magazine getting the celebrity gossip first. You’ll be sucked into this fun ride immediately and kept guessing until the end!

Read about the other mysteries on Chao's list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven memoirs about discovering close relatives late in life

BK (Kate) Jackson is an author, developmental editor, book coach, and a journalist with bylines in HuffPost, The Los Angeles Times, The Sun, Whale Road Review, Hippocampus Magazine, WIRED, and more. She earned a BA and an MA from UCLA. Jackson is the editor of the anthology Relative Strangers: Inheritance, Identity, and the Meaning of Family and the founder and editor of Severance, a magazine and community for adoptees and individuals who’ve discovered misattributed parentage. She also has a Substack about writing with ADHD.

At Electric Lit Jackson tagged seven memoirs that take "readers deep into the mind-bending and sometimes shattering experience of discovering close family late in life." One title on the list:

Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T Kira Madden

T Kira Madden’s memoir is a funny, fierce, and heartbreaking story of coming of age as a queer, biracial, glorious misfit in a complex family in Boca Raton, Florida. It’s impossible to pin down a theme because the book is—in the best of all possible ways—all over the place. It’s about addiction, acceptance, rejection, desire, privilege, trauma, violence, identity, and the families we’re born into and the families we choose. Her voice as a memoirist renders the narrator as indelible as the most memorable of fictional characters, and while her girlhood may not be remotely typical, it is universal in ways that will resonate with all readers. Like the narrators of each of these seven memoirs, Madden finds unexpected close family, in her case when a DNA test unspools her mother’s secrets. The revelation is the coda to her memoir, suggesting that families are like glaciers, with much remaining invisible and inaccessible deep below the surface.

Read about the other entries on Jackson's list at Electric Lit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top SFF books about gods and demons

Lyndsie Manusos’s fiction has appeared in PANK, SmokeLong Quarterly, and other publications. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has worked in web production and content management. When she’s not nesting among her books and rough drafts, she’s chasing the baby while the dog watches in confused amusement. She lives with her family in a suburb of Indianapolis.

At Book Riot she tagged six of the best science fiction and fantasy books about gods and demons, including:

The Sea Hides Its Dead by Megan Bontrager

Let’s get a little cultish. Orbit’s imprint Run For It, which focuses more on horror and dark SFF, has been one of my favorite imprints to dive into as of late. The Sea Hides Its Dead really encompasses both gods and demons.

In a post-apocalyptic world where the Northeast is suddenly doused with an immovable, unquenchable storm, Caro is asked by her professor and lover to accompany him to a stone monolith that suddenly appeared offshore. Suddenly, Caro, the professor, and other crew members become trapped in what is supposedly the dwelling place of the Cult of the Leviathan and its god. And soon, they find out they’re not alone. This story certainly leans more toward horror, but the dystopian near-future the author created is fascinating, as is the mysterious and horrific mythos of the Cult of the Leviathan.

Read about the other titles on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five seriously scary horror books

Hannah Whitten has been writing to amuse herself since she could hold a pen, and sometime in high school, figured out that what amused her might also amuse others. Her books have been international bestsellers and translated into multiple languages. When she’s not writing, she’s reading, watching horror movies, or chasing after her feral children. She lives in Tennessee with her family, two dogs who think they run the house, and a cat who actually does.

Whitten's new novel is Reliquary .

At People magazine the author tagged five "favorite horrors with autumnal vibes, so we can pretend the air doesn’t feel like walking through hot soup." One title on the list:

Other Words For Smoke by Sarah Maria Griffin

I absolutely love Griffin’s work, and this was the book that made me a fan. A house fire claims the lives of two people in Ireland, but the other members of the household know what actually happened, and it’s far more fantastical than a simple tragedy. This is a witch novel, but entirely unique in the way it’s presented, complete with alternate realities, buildings that don’t work quite right and mysterious animals doing the most. Autumn might not be explicitly invoked, but the vibes are baked into the gorgeous, layered prose.

Read about the other titles on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven titles that complicate the marriage plot

Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Bucknell University. Formerly the editor in chief of The Rumpus, she has received fellowships from The Kenyon Review and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Their first essay collection, A Fish Growing Lungs, was a finalist for The Believer Book Awards.

Sawchyn's new essay collection is I Have This Thing for Flowers.

At Lit Hub the author tagged seven "favorite titles, both fiction and non-fiction, that complicate and distract from and look askance at the traditional story of two people falling in love and getting married." One title on the list:

This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage, Ann Patchett

Surely you’ve seen the cover of Patchett latest novel, Whistler, all over this summer’s Best Of lists. Though she’s probably best known as a novelist, her nonfiction is—I think—equally wonderful. Despite the book’s title, this collection of essays is as much about Patchett’s life as an artist as it is about her romantic relationships.

In an early essay, “The Sacrament of Divorce,” we learn that the dissolution of Patchett’s first marriage “began less than a week before we were married.” For many years afterward, Patchett happily lives her life eschewing marital commitment, in several “wonderful, long relationships with people I deeply enjoyed but would not have wanted to marry for a minute.” This does not change when she meets the man who will eventually become her second husband. They live in separate houses for eleven years before her then-boyfriend’s health emergency and the benefits that legal marriage bestow tip the scales. It’s the story of a happy marriage, but a book about how to live happily without being married.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five creature feature horror novels

K. W. Colyard is the author of the BNW-nominated “Those Who Forget and Those Who Perish,” published by Seize the Press in 2022. Their fiction has also appeared in Clarkesworld and Diabolical Plots.

At Book Riot Colyard tagged five novels in which "the horrors are externalized, even personified, in the shape of the villains." One title on the list:

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus

An unlucky diver has one hour to escape the bowels of a sperm whale in this remarkable novel from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Daniel Kraus.

Jay’s father died by suicide in the waters near Monastery Beach. Months later, Jay is determined to bring his father’s remains home. It’s a nearly impossible task, made even more difficult when a sperm whale swallows Jay with its intended meal, a giant squid. With only an hour of oxygen left, Jay will have to muster all his courage and grit to survive.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five thrilling and chilling supernatural mysteries

Carinn Jade is a lawyer, writer, and cohost of the Pop Fiction Women podcast. Her debut novel, The Astrology House, was a 2025 International Thriller Writers’ Awards finalist in the category of Best First Novel.

The Dahlia Suite is her second novel.

At CrimeReads Jade tagged five "favorite books that refuse to stay grounded in the reality we can explain." One title on the list:

Sarah Pekkanen, The Women in White

I am on the edge of my seat waiting for the latest from bestselling author Sarah Pekkanen, not only because she’s a fantastic writer but because this one “goes there.” The Women In White combines a decades-old mystery with paranormal elements guaranteed to make the hair on your arms stand up.

The novel follows four remarkable young women at a prestigious university when they become the subjects of parapsychology experiments in 1964. Do they have extrasensory perception? A sixth sense? Or is it something else entirely? Told in dual timelines, the real story unfolds as old secrets rise to the surface when some would rather than stay down.

Read about the other novels on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

The ten greatest novellas of all time

Luc Haasbroek is a writer and videographer from Durban, South Africa.

At Collider he tagged the ten greatest novellas of all time...and ranked them. Number seven on the list:

The Third Man (1950)

"Death's at the bottom of everything." Once again, we have a novella that served as the basis for an acclaimed film. Set amid the ruins of postwar Vienna, The Third Man follows struggling writer Rollo Martins, who arrives to visit his old friend Harry Lime only to discover that Lime has supposedly died in a suspicious accident. Martins investigates, quickly uncovering a web of deception and black-market crime.

The story was written by English journalist and author Graham Greene, who also penned The End of the Affair and the Vietnam classic The Quiet American. As with those works, The Third Man is very much concerned with the lingering impact of war. Divided among the occupying Allied powers, Vienna reflects a Europe still struggling to emerge from the devastation of World War II. The city itself becomes a kind of character in its own right, something true of the movie as well.

Read about the other titles on the list.

The Third Man ia among Timothy Phillips's top ten books about the iron curtain.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top time loop mysteries and thrillers

Elisa Shoenberger is a freelance writer and journalist. At Book Riot she tagged "six time loop mysteries and thrillers for you to enjoy over and over again." One title on the list:

Who Killed One the Gun? by Gigi Little

This book is for the hard-boiled detective fans out there, even down to the overladen similes and metaphors. Detective One the Gun is on the case to find out who killed Five the No Longer Alive. He’s got a not-so-secret crush on his secretary, Two the True Blue. As he tracks down witnesses and suspects, he realizes something is off about the day. Soon, he realizes that the day is repeating, ending in his own murder. Can he figure out who killed Five the No Longer Alive and himself in time? On top of the time loop aspect, it’s also a satire of the genre.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five titles that inspired Emily Wilson’s translation of the "Odyssey"

Emily Wilson is Department Chair and Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, holding the College for Women Class of 1963 Term Professor in the Humanities. Wilson attended Oxford University (Balliol College B.A. in Classics and Corpus Christi College M.Phil. in Renaissance English Literature) and Yale University (Ph.D. in Classics and Comparative Literature). She has been named a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome in Renaissance & Early Modern scholarship, a MacArthur Fellow, and a Guggenheim Fellow. She has published four books on ancient literature, philosophy and translation, an edited volume on tragedy, and many essays and articles, as well as verse translations of Seneca, Sophocles, Euripides and Homer.

For Vogue Wilson tagged five books that aided her translation of the Odyssey. One title on her list:

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

I’ve loved this book since I was a child. I’ve reread it many times. It is, like the Odyssey, a book about travel, identity, and a clever man’s journey away from one community and back to another. But primarily, I thought of LeGuin’s style, especially in that book, as one of many guiding lights as I considered and experimented with how to convey the vividness (enargeia in Greek) of Homeric poetry. Of course, LeGuin is writing prose, not metrical poetry, but there’s something both very beautiful, very plain/noble/rapid, and very Homeric about her style in this book. The sentences actually often have a beautiful rhythmicality to them: “This is a tale of the time before his fame, before the songs were made.”

Read about the other books on Wilson's list.

A Wizard of Earthsea is among four books that changed Mardi McConnochie, Maria Turtschaninoff's ten favorite feminist heroes in fiction, BBC.com Culture’s best children’s books ever published in English, five books that changed Gary Corby, and Lev Grossman's top five fantasy novels.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven historical novels set on islands

Connie Pan is a writer from Maui, Hawai‘i. She holds an MFA in fiction from West Virginia University and a BA in creative writing from Grand Valley State University. Her words have appeared in Bamboo Ridge, The Billfold, Carve, HelloGiggles, and Salamander, among other places. An excerpt from her novel-in-progress was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

At Book Riot Pan tagged "seven historical novels unfolding, mostly, on islands around the world and covering almost two hundred years." One novel on the list:

The Bone People by Keri Hulme

Published in 1984 after taking over a decade to write, this Booker Prize-winning novel feels timeless. On Aotearoa’s South Island coast, Kerewin Holmes, an asexual painter sans family contact and distanced from her art, lives in a tower beside the sea, where she discovers a non-speaking six-year-old named Simon stealing from her. This brings him, as well as Joe Gillayley, his temperamental foster father, into her life. Hard on the heart and breathtaking, this doorstopper meditates on trauma, isolation, and Maori mythology. I found myself in awe of the language: “Sometimes, the waves grow hushed, but the sea is always there, touching, caressing, eating the earth….”

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top five missing-persons novels

Ellis Blake is the pseudonym of Ben Sanders, award-winning author of American Blood and other books in the Marshall Grade series. He lives in New Zealand.

His new novel is No Prisoners.

At CrimeReads the author tagged his top five "missing-persons novels that I’ve read in the past twenty years—thrillers and mysteries that in different ways were both a treat, and a lesson in how to write." One entry on the list:

I first discovered Adrian McKinty by way of his outstanding detective novels set during the 1980s in Northern Ireland (the fabulously titled POLICE AT THE STATION AND THEY DON’T LOOK FRIENDLY being a particular highlight). McKinty’s 2019 novel THE CHAIN is a bravura sidestep into contemporary US territory. The premise is darkly ingenious. Rachel Klein receives a phone call from a stranger, who says she has Rachel’s thirteen-year-old daughter captive. The only way to get her back is to pay a ransom, and then kidnap another child.

Thus is Rachel’s induction into the terrifying, self-sustaining crime enterprise known as The Chain. It’s a terrific, exhilarating read, cleverly leveraging a universal parental fear, and it carries thematic heft, too: most obviously in the pseudo-remedy facing victims of The Chain who must pay the suffering forward in order to alleviate their own. McKinty said that the story is “a thriller where economy of storytelling is everything” and that in each successive draft he “cut scenes, beats and ideas until a page turning core remained.” That core is a thing of thriller-writing beauty.

Read about the other novels on the list at CrimeReads.

The Chain is among Haylen Beck's eight thrillers focused on the bonds of parent and child.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five titles that get at the truth of true crime

Claire Fuller is the author most recently of the novel Hunger and Thirst. Her previous novels include Our Endless Numbered Days, which won the Desmond Elliott Prize; Swimming Lessons; Bitter Orange; Unsettled Ground, which won the Costa Novel Award and was a finalist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction; and The Memory of Animals.

[The Page 69 Test: Our Endless Numbered Days]

At Oprah Daily the author tagged five novels "that weave in real crimes and real questions about literature’s most controversial genre." One title on the list:

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

At 640 pages, this whopper of a novel documents a fictional investigation into the death of 24-year-old Ashley Cordova through invented photographs, newspaper articles, typed incident reports, and more. It’s a clever and disconcerting way to blend fiction with what feels like reality, allowing the reader to act like a detective trawling through an archive of old documents.

The story itself centers around disgraced investigative journalist Scott McGrath, who sets out to discover what happened to Ashley and restore his reputation in the process—which has been decimated by Ashley’s famous film director father. Night Film is perfect if you like a hard-boiled, seedy-underworld style.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Night Film is among Lindsay Kent's five great novels that read like bad trips, fever dreams, or reality warps, Jenny Elder Moke's five mystery novels with unique settings, Lauren Acampora's nine top novels of art and seduction, Kate Reed Petty's seven thrillers about filmmakers & subversive art, and Jeff Somers's ten creepy Halloween books and four huge books that will hurt your brain—but in a good way.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six of the most polarizing mystery and crime books ever written

Jeffrey Davies is a professional introvert and writer with imposter syndrome whose work spans the worlds of pop culture, books, music, feminism, and mental health. His work has appeared on HuffPost, CBC Arts, Collider, Slant Magazine, PopMatters, and other places.

At Book Riot Davis tagged six of the most polarizing mystery and crime books. One title on the list:

Child of God by Cormac McCarthy

As an author, Cormac McCarthy was known for his graphic descriptions of violence, and as far as crime fiction goes, this one is pretty twisted. Set in the Appalachian hills, Child of God follows Lester Ballard, a man falsely accused of rape, as he is released from jail. Ballard is, however, a serial killer and necrophiliac, and the reader is invited into his mind to understand how it works, as townspeople’s perspectives on how he grew up offer insight into how he might’ve ended up this way.

Child of God was polarizing, to say the least, immediately upon its original publication in 1973. Readers found it deeply troubling, yet it has continued to be the subject of both literary and academic analysis, with scholars describing it as an early entry into the late-20th century obsession with serial killers and how they operate. The most notable controversy associated with Child of God, however, came in 2007 when a ninth-grader in Texas chose the book for an assigned book report. The student’s mother objected to the material to the point where the teacher was under investigation for providing harmful material to a minor. So, just how twisted is Child of God? Once again, maybe you’ll have to read it for yourself to find out.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Child of God is among Kaytie Norman's seven top books about Appalachia, Laura Benedict's nine "unlikeable" protagonists in literature, and Glenn Skwerer's ten top real-life monsters in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five mysteries set at literary events, conferences, and retreats

Carol Goodman’s rich and prolific career includes novels such as The Widow’s House and The Night Visitor, winners of the 2018 and 2020 Mary Higgins Clark Award. Her books have been translated into sixteen languages. She lives in the Hudson Valley, NY.

Goodman’s new novel is Our Marriage Is Murder.

At CrimeReads the author tagged five "mysteries set in the cut-throat world of literary gatherings." One title on the list:

Julia Bartz, The Writing Retreat

For a more intimate setting, The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz offers up every writer’s dream of getting to go away to a secluded estate to focus on the work, all while being fed, cosseted, and mentored by a famous writer. That’s what blocked writer Alex hopes for when she gets an invitation from her favorite writer Roza Vallo to her upstate (did I mention secluded?), possibly haunted mansion.

The only hitch is that her frenemy, Wren, is also invited. Oh, and instead of getting time to bond with the other writers and work on their craft, the writers are pitted against one another when Roza announces a competition to complete an entire manuscript that will be instantly published with support from the superstar author. Things go spectacularly and gothically wrong, but at least it’s all grist for the mill—as long as you don’t end up ground in it.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Three must-read books about colonialism

Edna Bonhomme is a critic, journalist, and historian of science. She is the author of A History of the World in Six Plagues (shortlisted for Best Science Book in Austria) and co-editor of After Sex. Her latest book is Tending To Our Wounds: A Diasporic Memoir. Bonhomme is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, from the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Camargo Foundation, the Max Planck Institute, the Robert Silvers Foundation, and more. Most recently, she was a 2026 finalist for the 2026 Nona Balakian Award from the National Book Critics Circle. Her essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The Guardian, Le Monde Diplomatique, London Review of Books, The Nation, The New Republic, Scientific American, and elsewhere. She has been based in Berlin since 2017.

At Book Riot Bonhomme tagged three books on colonialism that "are not only case studies of the psychological cost of colonialism but also testaments that the colonized are not passive victims." One title on the list:

Insurgent Empire: Anticolonial Resistance and British Dissent by Priyamvada Gopal

In this vivid, committed, and empathetic historical analysis, Gopal illuminates how anti-colonial critique was born from critics’ direct or indirect witnessing of rebellions in the colonies, from the Caribbean to India. Gopal shows how intellectuals and elites from the British colonies used their language of freedom to advocate for their own self-determination. It is an essential read for those interested in the agency of the colonized and in how some tried to use the master’s tools against the empire.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Fifteen of the best books if you love "Black Mirror"

One title on Tertulia's list of fifteen books "for every Black Mirror fan to satisfy their techno-dystopian cravings:"

The Mad Scientist's Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke

In a crumbling future America, young Cat forms an unexpected bond with Finn, an experimental android dedicated to his duties. As their friendship morphs into love and society becomes more accepting of robots, Finn must grapple with his place in the world and in Cat's life.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Mad Scientist's Daughter is among Ceridwen Christensen's twelve stories of truly science fictional romance, Sarah Weldon's eleven beautifully strange romance books, and Jeff Somers's ten highly unlikely SFF love stories.

My Book, The Movie: The Mad Scientist's Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke.

Also see Addison Rizer's six top thrillers for fans of Black Mirror.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten books to read after seeing "The Odyssey"

At People magazine Janey Wetzel and Lizz Schumer tagged ten Greek mythology retellings and other books to read after seeing The Odyssey. One title on the list:

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood

Hathaway’s character in the film, the devoted wife of the glorious Odysseus, Penelope silently waits for her husband to return from his epic journey. In this adaptation by the author of The Handmaid’s Tale, Penelope wanders the underworld, spinning her own version of events — a chronicle filled with lust, greed and murder.

Read about the other books on the list.

The Penelopiad is among Irena Smith's nine books with short but rich interior journeys and Paula Munier's eight top works informed by The Odyssey.

Also see Tanaz Bhathena's nine feminist myth and fairytale retellings to read after watching Christopher Nolan’s big screen adaptation of The Odyssey, Paula Munier's eight top works informed by The Odyssey, and Andrew Welsh-Huggins's five novels drawing inspiration from the Odyssey.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five romantic mysteries with "Happily Ever After" endings

Cara Tanamachi is the USA Today bestselling author of the Emma-Award Winning, The Takeover, and the Diverse Writers and Readers International romance book literary award winner, The Second You’re Single. She also writes under the name Cara Lockwood, and has written 38 books and counting, including I Do (But I Don’t), which became an original Lifetime Movie. She wrote the novelization of The Dater’s Handbook, a Hallmark movie starring Meghan Markle. She lives near Chicago with her spouse and blended family. Her new book is a rom-com murder mystery called Kiss, Marry, Kill.

[Q&A with Cara Tanamachi]

At CrimeReads the author tagged five romantic mysteries with "Happily Ever After" endings. One entry on the list:

Kate Posey, Serial Killer Games

Do you want to be a fly on the wall as a possible serial killer falls for his true-crime obsessed co-worker? This whirlwind trainwreck of a romance is dark (how would you like to get severed Ken doll parts wrapped in little boxes as sweet tokens of affection?), all set against the backdrop of the Paper Pusher who likes to shoves executives off the tops of office high rises.

This book has it all: sizzling chemistry, a real whodunit, and dark humor that had me laughing out loud. It’s like if The Hating Game and Silence of the Lambs had a baby. Trust me when I tell you, this book grabs you and doesn’t let go.

Read about the other titles on the list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five marvelous SFF books with older characters

At Book Riot Liberty Hardy tagged five great SFF novels centering older characters. One entry on the list:

The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee

When fifty-year-old samurai Isako’s client suddenly retires, that means it’s time for Isako to hang up her swords, too. Normally, a samurai walks into the frozen abyss, with their family being provided for after their death. But then Isako is offered one last job that she can’t pass on, because it involves her worst apprentice and secrets of corporate espionage that could forever alter humanity.

Read about the other titles on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six thriller titles for "Reacher" fans

Dhruv Sharma is a Lead Writer in Screen Rant's New TV division.

He tagged six "standalone crime thriller novels and book series from the genre [that] are as good as Jack Reacher, if not better." One entry on the list:

Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz

The Orphan X book series focuses on a former black-ops assassin, Evan Smoak, who uses his military experience and lethal skills to protect desperate people. Similar to Jack Reacher, Smoak operates as a highly capable lone operator who steps into dangerous situations where conventional law enforcement can’t effectively intervene.

However, what makes his endeavors even more immersive is the realism with which Hurwitz captures his high-tech prep and tactical logic in each mission. Interestingly, a TV adaptation of the Orphan X book series is also currently in the works. If executed well, the upcoming show could be as good as Prime Video's Reacher.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Orphan X series is among Brittany Bunzey's top ten cat-and-mouse thrillers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine feminist myth and fairytale retellings

Tanaz Bhathena is an award-winning Zoroastrian author of contemporary and fantasy fiction. Her young adult books include Hunted by the Sky, which won the White Pine Award and the Bapsi Sidhwa Literary Prize, and The Beauty of the Moment, which won the Nautilus Gold Award for Young Adult Fiction. Her acclaimed debut, A Girl Like That, was named a Best Book of the Year by numerous outlets including The Globe and Mail, Seventeen, and The Times of India. Her debut adult fantasy, Witch Daughter, will be published in fall 2026 by Grand Central.

At Lit Hub Bhathena tagged nine feminist myth and fairytale retellings to read after watching Christopher Nolan’s big screen adaptation of The Odyssey. One title on the list:

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Palace of Illusions

When it comes to retellings of Indian mythology, nothing for me has quite compared to this novel by Divakaruni. Set during the time of the great epic, the Mahabharata, the book focuses on Panchali (or Draupadi), a princess who marries five brothers, each embodying one of the five qualities she was looking for in a husband. Panchali is not without her flaws and rejects a worthy suitor simply because of the caste he was born into. That Divakaruni is able to make her protagonist sympathetic and showcase all her shades of gray talks to her remarkable skill as a writer.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Palace of Illusions is among Zen Cho's six SFF books about gods and pantheons.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books that books center the intimacy of our platonic bonds

Rebecca Chace is the author of five books: Talking to the Wolf (novel), Leaving Rock Harbor (novel), Capture the Flag (novel), Chautauqua Summer (memoir), and June Sparrow and the Million Dollar Penny (children's book). Her third play, Obit, will premiere in September 2026 at Theater for the New City (NYC). A regular contributor to The New York Times, her nonfiction essays have appeared in The Yale Review, New England Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, and other publications. Her fellowships include Civitella Ranieri, MacDowell, Yaddo, Dora Maar House, American Academy of Rome (Visiting Artist), among others. She is a Faculty Associate at Bard College Institute for Writing and Thinking.

At Electric Lit Chace tagged seven books that "explore the complicated, private heartbreak of losing a friend." One title on the list:

Ponti by Sharlene Teo

This novel is haunted by a glamorous mother who became a B-movie horror film star. What a great premise! The story is told from three points of view: the mother, her insecure, adolescent daughter, Szu—a social outcast at her school in Singapore—and Circe, the classmate who appears to be a fellow outcast despite her wealth and beauty. Szu’s distant, cruel mother and her Auntie now scrape by as mediums (though their psychic gifts are questionable, according to Szu). Circe becomes Szu’s “best friend” for better and worse. The novel has a gothic horror sensibility that echoes the campy film that made Szu’s mother famous, but the teenage friendship, with its complex cocktail of loyalty and betrayal, is utterly real.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top literary titles by Southern writers

Suzanne Van Atten is a columnist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

She tagged five "summer novels more substantive than your typical beach read," including:

How to Date a Fanatic by Aruni Kashyap

Rohit is a professor at Delhi University in modern-day India who lives in a bubble of like-minded queer academics in this new novel by Aruni Kashyap, an associate professor at the University of Georgia and director of the creative writing program. Obsessed by an unrequited love, Rohit seeks solace in relationships with other men. Meanwhile, religious and ethnic unrest mounts, to which Rohit remains oblivious until the growing movement of conservative extremism threatens his insulated world.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

The best science fiction titles of the century

The experts at Book Riot tagged the best science fiction books of the century (so far). One title on the list:

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

This has been a comfort read since I first read it almost 20 years ago. A story of two childhood friends who eventually took different paths: one went to school for witchcraft while the other pursued science. They are forever bound together by fate and the mysterious man who has followed them for years. They grow up, they make mistakes, they gain knowledge, and once again cross paths as adults in warring factions who find themselves fighting to save the world from destruction. I’ve always loved tales of science vs. magic and this is my favorite. Full disclosure: I’m friends with the author but read this long before we became friends.
- Patricia Elzie-Tuttle

Read about the other books on the list.

All The Birds in The Sky is among Akemi C. Brodsky's top ten novels about mad scientists, Jeff Somers's fifty science fiction essentials written by women, Nancy Kress's five best books with ambitious birds, and Laura Lam's five top books about futuristic California.

My Book, The Movie: All the Birds in the Sky.

--Marshal Zeringue

Karin Slaughter’s favorite dark and twisty books

Karin Slaughter is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty-five novels, including the Edgar nominated Cop Town and standalone novels Pretty Girls and False Witness. An international bestseller, Slaughter is published in 120 countries with more than 40 million copies sold across the globe. Pieces of Her, based on her novel, debuted at #1 worldwide on Netflix as an original series in 2022. Her bestselling thriller series, Will Trent, is now a television and streaming sensation in its 4th season. The Good Daughter will soon be a limited series starring Rose Byrne and Meghann Fahy, and further projects are currently in development for film/TV.

Slaughter's newest novel is The Secrets We Hide.

At Oprah Daily she tagged the seven thrillers she considers essential reading. One title on the list:

King of Ashes, by S.A. Cosby

The latest book from the award-winning crime writer is a Southern Noir family saga—two genres I am pulled towards in my own writing—with The Godfather vibes. King of Ashes follows Roman Carruthers, a charming and complicated Atlanta businessman, who returns to his oppressively small hometown to care for his ailing father. From the moment Roman returns to Virginia, things begin to unravel. His siblings are both a mess. The family business is falling apart. And there is an outsized debt that must be paid. This book is high-stakes from the very first pages. It’s dark, gritty, emotionally charged, and has incredible twists that all hinge on what people will do, or won’t do, to protect their family secrets. If this one doesn’t keep your heart pounding, then you might want to make sure that you still have a pulse.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top messy love stories

Alicia Upano was born and raised in Hawai‘i. She is the recipient of the Poets & Writers Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award Hawai‘i, the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, and a Bread Loaf-Rona Jaffe Scholarship. Her short fiction has appeared in The Massachusetts Review, The Southern Review, The Best Peace Fiction: A Social Justice Anthology, and more. After living in Asia and both U.S. continental coasts, she now resides on O‘ahu with her family.

Upano's debut novel is Everything to the Sea.

At Lit Hub the author tagged seven books that are "interested in romantic love as a process of transformation, not a terminus." One title on the list:

Mohsin Hamid, Exit West

This slim book is magical. Love blooms between Saeed and Nadia as civil war breaks out in their unnamed city. The stakes could not be higher, as Hamid writes as the novel opens, “[O]ne moment we are pottering about our errands as usual and the next we are dying.” In such a landscape, what are young lovers to do?

Exit West explores the tension between duty and independence, desire and convention, and how to move forward when the present is untenable. Our young lovers must leave their families and country, fleeing through the first of many doors as refugees. This novel highlights the refugee crisis, with sharp interstitials of global violence, while also grappling with the questions of any relationship that is no longer new: How do we change through every door we pass through? Have we passed through so many doors that we are no longer the people we were? Can we continue this journey together? And will you remember me, no matter how this journey ends?

Read about the other entries on the list.

Exit West is among Andrew Forrester's ten love stories for the romance reluctant, Forbes's thirty greatest dystopian books of all time, Ore Agbaje-Williams's seven top books featuring very complicated friendships, Gian Sardar's eight of the best novels about war-torn love, C Pam Zhang's top ten novels about moving and Helen Phillips's six notable novels involving alternate realities.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine top Southern Gothic novels

Lo Patrick is a former lawyer and current novelist living in the suburbs of Atlanta.

Her debut, The Floating Girls, earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly, was a finalist for the Townsend Prize for Fiction, and was a Reader's Digest Editor's Pick.

Patrick's newest novel is The Sins of Summer Daughters.

At People magazine the author tagged nine must-read Southern Gothic novels. One title on the list:

Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell

Nobody writes the hard edge of the South better, or poverty and isolation. Winter’s Bone is also an excellent example of the often warped trajectory of adolescence in some rural communities. Kids are asked to take on adult responsibilities, leaning on years of dysfunction as their preparation.

Read about the other novels on the list.

Winter's Bone is among Louisa Luna's four difficult women characters worth celebrating, Carl Vonderau's nine greatest moral compromises in crime fiction, Adam Sternbergh's six top crime novels that double as great literature and Lauren Passell's ten must-read books that take place in the Midwest.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight fantastic short SFF books

At Book Riot Liberty Hardy tagged “eight slim science fiction and fantasy novels you can read in one sitting." One entry on the list:

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark

This is an exciting dark fantasy about assassins and honor. Eveen the Eviscerator is a professional killer who skillfully carries out every job she is assigned. But when one job turns out to hit a little too close to home, she fails to complete it. Now she’s running from the people she used to work with, while trying to make sense of everything. (FYI, there are no dead cats in this book. They just liked the name.)

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top mysteries set in lavish fictional manors

Louise Candlish is the internationally bestselling author of The Other Passenger and Our House, winner of the British Book Awards Crime & Thriller of the Year and adapted for TV as a limited series starring Martin Compston and Tuppence Middleton. She is the winner of a Ned Kelly Award for International Crime Fiction in Australia and is a three-time nominee for the prestigious Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award in the UK.

Candlish's new novel is A Neighbor's Guide to Murder.

At CrimeReads the author tagged five favorite mysteries set in grand, intricate residences. One title on the list:

Ira Levin, Rosemary’s Baby

‘Old, black and elephantine’, the Bramford is a Gothic building in New York City with a history of witchcraft and murder. Not much, then, to deter Rosemary and Guy from snapping up the lease for Apartment 7E when it becomes unexpectedly available. Soon Guy has fallen under the influence of elderly neighbors the Castevets, while a pregnant Rosemary finds herself increasingly isolated and menaced.

I think most of us know what it is that makes her baby so infamous, but what are the clues that the building itself harbours satanic vibes? Well, the elevator is oak-paneled, the hallways dimly lit, the previous occupant dead—to name but three.

The Bramford was famously modeled on the Dakota, the Upper West Side icon now best known for being the scene of John Lennon’s murder in 1980. In Polanski’s classic adaptation of the novel starring Mia Farrow, the Dakota provides the exterior shots, cementing forevermore the connection between the real and the imagined.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

Rosemary's Baby is among Anna Barrington's six top social thrillers that will make you wonder who you can trust, Chin-Sun Lee's five best gothic novels about distressed women, Lisa Unger's five top horror novels that explore the darkest corners of our minds, Alice Blanchard's ten chilling thrillers to get you through a winter storm, Ania Ahlborn's ten scariest books of all time, Jeff Somers's twenty-one books that will give you an idea of how the horror genre has evolved and "twenty-five books that might not necessarily be the best horror novels, but are certainly the scariest," Christopher Shultz's top ten literary chillers, and Kat Rosenfield's top seven scary autumnal stories.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine splashy sea creature titles

Tessa Yang is a reader, writer, and shark enthusiast from New York State. She received her MFA from Indiana University where she served as the Editor of Indiana Review.

Yang's story collection, The Runaway Restaurant, was published by 7.13 Books in 2022. Her stories have appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, The Cincinnati Review, Foglifter, and elsewhere, and her flash fiction has been featured in Best Small Fictions 2024, Flash Fiction America, and Wigleaf's Top 50 Very Short Fictions of 2018 and 2019.

Her debut novel is The Jellyfish Problem.

[Q&A with Tessa Yang]

At People magazine Yang tagged nine favorite sea creature books, including:

Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman

When he’s not making you laugh out loud, Beauman will disturb you with this novel’s near-future dystopia, in which mass species extinction has been fully monetized and an unlikely duo must search for the most intelligent fish on the planet: the Venomous Lumpsucker. Beauman’s world-building cleverly balances the probably hyperbolic and the eerily plausible. The result is an eco-thriller as unsettling as it is entertaining.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue