Top ten books about working life

Joanna Biggs is a writer and editor at the London Review of Books. Her new book is All Day Long: A Portrait of Britain At Work.

One of her top ten books about working life, as shared at the Guardian:

A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark

Nancy Hawkins is the editor-in-chief at Ullswater Press in 1954. The office clock is “unreliable”, the authors ring to complain about not being paid, sandwiches are sent out for and eaten with office-made coffee when it rains, Ivy the typist never lets up, a raincoated man from the (unpaid) printer stares up from the street all week, manuscripts pile up on Mrs Hawkins’s desk and sherry is poured out at 5.30pm. I, needless to say, long to walk into the office of Ullswater Press.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Also see Aman Sethi's five best books on work and working.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten climate change fiction books for young readers

At the Guardian, Sarah Holding, author of the SeaBEAN eco-thriller trilogy, tagged her top ten "cli-fi novels that make you think deeply about the human consequences of climate change," including:

Blood Red Road by Moira Young

Also a debut novel, I loved the bleak, troubled voice of Saba in this story, as she chases across a desolate landscape after the people who took her twin brother Lugh. Buckle up for an epic dystopian road novel with strong characters, spiced with romance and a convincing sense of danger throughout.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the best fictional elections

At the Guardian, John Dugdale tagged ten of the best fictional elections (UK edition), including:

To Play the King by Michael Dobbs (1992)

Dobbs’s better-known House of Cards is about what happens after an election, as is Chris Mullins’s A Very British Coup; whereas here Francis Urquhart, as Tory PM, campaigns in an election where his real opponent is King Charles III, who sees Urquhart’s policies as divisive and lacking in compassion and aligns himself with the opposition.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top books about weddings and marriage

Ellen McCarthy is an award-winning feature writer for the Style section of The Washington Post. She joined the Post in 2000 and wrote about business, technology, arts, and entertainment before launching the paper’s On Love section in 2009. She has interviewed hundreds of couples and written extensively about weddings and relationships. Her first book, The Real Thing: Lessons on Love and Life from a Wedding Reporter’s Notebook, is the culmination of that work.

One of McCarthy's six favorite books about weddings and marriage, as shared at The Week magazine:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The book that taught me that wit and intellect are every bit as attractive as physical beauty. We spend most of Jane Austen's classic watching Elizabeth Bennet spar with Mr. Darcy, even as she unwillingly falls in love with him.

Read about the other books on the list.

Pride and Prejudice also appears on the Telegraph's list of the ten greatest put-downs in literature, Rebecca Jane Stokes' list of ten fictional families you might enjoy more than the one you'll actually spend the holidays with, Melissa Albert's lists of five fictional characters who deserved better, [fifteen of the] romantic leads (and wannabes) of Austen’s brilliant books and recommended reading for eight villains, Molly Schoemann-McCann's list of ten fictional men who have ruined real live romance, Emma Donoghue's list of five favorite unconventional fictional families, Amelia Schonbek's list of five approachable must-read classics, Jane Stokes's top ten list of the hottest men in required reading, Gwyneth Rees's top ten list of books about siblings, the Observer's list of the ten best fictional mothers, Paula Byrne's list of the ten best Jane Austen characters, Robert McCrum's list of the top ten opening lines of novels in the English language, a top ten list of literary lessons in love, Simon Mason's top ten list of fictional families, Cathy Cassidy's top ten list of stories about sisters, Paul Murray's top ten list of wicked clerics, John Mullan's lists of ten of the best housekeepers in fiction, ten great novels with terrible original titles, and ten of the best visits to Brighton in literature, Luke Leitch's top ten list of the most successful literary sequels ever, and is one of the top ten works of literature according to Norman Mailer. Richard Price has never read it, but it is the book Mary Gordon cares most about sharing with her children.

The Page 99 Test: Pride and Prejudice.

--Marshal Zeringue

Four notable books that changed Kelly Link

Kelly Link is the author of the story collections Stranger Things Happen, Magic for Beginners, The Wrong Grave, Pretty Monsters and most recently Get In Trouble.

One of four books that changed her, as shared at the Sydney Morning Herald:

Carmen Dog
Carol Emshwiller

A battle of the sexes novel in which animals begin to turn into women, and women turn into animals. A wife becomes a wolverine. A dog yearns to sing opera at the Metropolitan. Mad scientists! A book I was so crazy about that I eventually republished it through the small press that I run with my husband.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Twelve of the greatest children's books of all time

At the Daily Express Robert Gore-Langton tagged twelve of the greatest children's books of all time, including:

TREASURE ISLAND (1883)

Buried treasure, a map marked with a cross, and pirates led by the clunking amputee Long John Silver plus parrot.

Not to mention the terrifying Blind Pew and a fine young hero in Jim Hawkins.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s salty tale is a chance for any reader — young or old — to stow away on a ship full of thrills and the adventure of a life at sea.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Treasure Island also appears on Emily St. John Mandel's list of the six books that influenced her most as a writer, David McCallum's six best books list, Bear Grylls's top ten list of adventure stories, Eoin Colfer's top 10 list of villains in fiction, Charlie Fletcher's top ten list of swashbuckling tales of derring-do, Robert McCrum's list of the ten best first lines in fiction, John Mullan's list of ten of the best pirates in fiction, and among Mal Peet's top ten books to read aloud, Philip Pullman's six best books, and Eoin Colfer's six favorite books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top books about false identities

Arwen Elys Dayton's new novel is Seeker.

For Tor.com she tagged five top books about false identities, including:

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

It might be a stretch to include this book on this particular list, but I was especially affected by the time the hero, Kvothe, spent alone in the woods and then his years as a street urchin. With the traumatic death of his parents, Kvothe loses his place in the world, and with it his identity. He essentially becomes someone else for a very long time, until he recovers enough of who he is to move forward with his life.

Read about the other books on the list.

My Book, The Movie: The Name of the Wind.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten books about betrayal

Karin Altenberg was born in Sweden and moved to Britain to study in 1996. Her first novel, Island of Wings, was shortlisted for the Scottish book of the year award and longlisted for the Orange prize for fiction. Her latest novel is Breaking Light.

One of Altenberg's top ten books about betrayal, as shared at the Guardian:

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

Muriel Spark’s Calvinist influence is evident in the story of Miss Jean Brodie, a captivating Edinburgh schoolteacher with an almost godlike authority and fascist leanings. Spark’s superb wry humour and elegant phrasing carry this otherwise rather sinister tale of Brodie’s manipulation of her special girls - her créme de la crème – and her pupil Sandy’s betrayal.

Read about the other books on the list.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is among Megan Abbott's five most dangerous mentors in fiction, the Barnes & Noble Review's list of five top books on teaching and learning and Ian Rankin's six best books. Miss Jean Brodie is one of John Mullan's ten best teachers in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven great YA novels about best friendship

One title on Dahlia Adler's list of seven great YA novels about best friendship, as shared on the B & N Teen Blog:

Under a Painted Sky, by Stacey Lee

Lee’s racially diverse YA western is about many things, but at the heart of it is the relationship between newfound best friends Sammy and Annamae. Sammy is a newly orphaned Chinese American girl on the run from the law; Annamae is the slave who joins her in the hopes of a better life. The year is 1849 and together the girls head west, disguising themselves as cowboys for the journey. What could be a terrifying and isolating trip turns into an excitement-laden adventure as the two work together, protect each other, make new friends, and become each other’s family in this unique and lovely historical.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Writers Read: Stacey Lee.

My Book, The Movie: Under a Painted Sky.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top books for newlyweds

At B & N Reads, Kelly Anderson tagged five books to help you celebrate the power of love, including:

The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss

I read this book once, just before I started dating the man who is now my husband, but the delicate, surreal feel of it has stayed with me ever since. Krauss’s tale of love focuses on an old man and a book he wrote a lifetime ago. It showcases a love that lasts decades and spans countries and multiple versions of the past, with gorgeously realized prose in perfect accordance with that feeling of all-encompassing, overwhelming love we envy in newlyweds.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top books with sympathetic characters in dangerous settings

Alan Gurganus's books include White People, Oldest Confederate Widow Tells All, and the novella Decoy.

At The Week magazine he tagged his six favorite books with sympathetic characters in dangerous settings, including:

Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn by Evan S. Connell

This chronicle proves how a superb American novelist — in this case the author of Mrs. Bridge and Mr. Bridge — can write a great work of American history. Connell made sense of the insanity of the Battle of Little Big Horn and anatomized the psychopathology of Gen. George Armstrong Custer. Son of the Morning Star shows how the military mind and the criminal mind too often too perfectly intersect.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Son of the Morning Star is among Mark J. Miller's five top books on the wild west.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten books about the British in India

Ferdinand Mount is the author of The Tears of the Rajas: Mutiny, Money and Marriage in India 1805-1905.

One of his top ten books about the British in India, as shared at the Guardian:

The Great Mutiny by Christopher Hibbert (1978)

For the British, there was no more traumatic event in the entire 19th century than the Great Mutiny. The European officers were cut down by their own men whose loyalty they had trusted, and their women and children were butchered in what looks like a variety of ethnic cleansing. This savage ingratitude for the supposed blessings of British rule provoked a retaliation on a far greater scale, which shocked public opinion “at home” as much as the mutiny itself. Hibbert’s book is the best short account of those terrible months.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue