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