Ten top New York novels

Among Francis Spufford's top ten New York novels, as shared at the Guardian:

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon (2000)

Jewish New York in the 30s and 40s, at the moment when local-born geeks in glasses and escapees from Hitler’s Europe were inventing the superhero. It is chronicled by Chabon in exquisite prose attuned to both the art deco magic and the nightmarishness of a city where swastika-adorned zeppelins moored to the top of the Empire State Building.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is among Jenny Shank's top six works of literary fiction that take their mythical creatures seriously, Joel Cunningham's top twelve books with the most irresistible titles, and Sam Anderson's list of five books we'll still be talking about in 2020.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten grandmothers in fiction

At the Guardian, Jenny Downham tagged her ten top grandmothers in fiction, including:

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Funny, wise and complex, this novel tells the story of bright 14-year-old Junior, who lives on the Spokane Indian reservation with his alcoholic parents. He has water on the brain, ten teeth too many, a lisp and a stutter and is regularly beaten up by bullies. His family are so poor they often don’t eat. But, despite knowing he’ll become an outcast in his own community, Junior leaves to attend the rich white school miles away.

His grandma (nicknamed Grandmother Spirit) isn’t in the book that much, but she is Junior’s role model – extremely tolerant, loving and a source of advice and support. When she dies, Junior tells us, “My grandmother’s last act on earth was a call for forgiveness, love, and tolerance”. Grandmothers don’t come much wiser than that.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books about actual badass women who ruled the world

At the B&N Reads blog Nicole Hill tagged five top books about actual badass women who ruled kingdoms, including:

Cleopatra: A Life, by Stacy Schiff

Her skill with strategy and high-stakes diplomacy ensured Cleopatra would be written about and remembered far beyond her short time on earth. While we at Barnes & Noble can’t condone all of Cleopatra’s actions (there is the matter of her two dead brother-husbands), we have to admit she got things done, including the reshaping of an empire. Clever beyond measure and more than willing to do what she had to, she was a woman with no peers in her own time, and few since. Schiff’s historical fiction offering reconstructs Cleopatra’s life in a way that minimizes her notorious love affairs and shines a light on the bold personality that changed the world forever.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five YA historical novels about real-life disasters

Sarah Skilton is the author of Bruised, a martial arts drama for young adults; and High and Dry, a hardboiled teen mystery. At the BN Teen blog she tagged five notable YA historical novels about real-life disasters, including:

Hurricane Katrina
Beneath a Meth Moon, by Jacqueline Woodson

From the ages of 11 to 15, Laurel Daneau suffers losses most of us can’t fathom. Her beloved mother and grandmother are both killed in the storm, their home destroyed. Laurel, her father, and her baby brother are forced to leave Mississippi. Though heartsick and broken, Laurel manages to start over in Iowa by joining her new school’s cheer team and making some good friends. But when she meets T-Boom, who gets her hooked on meth, Laurel discovers that suppressing her misery through drug use is a welcome relief, and not one that’s easily given up, even as it destroys her life. The emotional devastation experienced by survivors of Hurricane Katrina is brought into stark clarity by award-winning Woodson. I read the last half of this book with blurred vision because I was crying so hard.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six inspiring books on independence

Cathleen Schine is the author of the internationally best-selling novels The Love Letter, which was made into a movie starring Kate Capshaw, and Rameau’s Niece, which was also made into a movie (The Misadventures of Margaret), starring Parker Posey. Schine’s other novels are Alice in Bed, To the Bird House, The Evolution of Jane, She is Me, The New Yorkers, The Three Weissmanns of Westport, and Fin & Lady.

Her new novel is They May Not Mean To, But They Do.

One of Schine's six favorite inspiring books on independence, as shared at The Week magazine:

The Old Filth Trilogy by Jane Gardam

Really, any novel or story by Gardam is worth reading repeatedly. Her characters are unpredictable and irresistible. In this trilogy of novels, they are also old. Old age is a kind of forced independence, as all the props of one's former life fall away, and Gardam's characters meet their new lot with sanguine curiosity. The trilogy is a masterpiece.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Visit Cathleen Schine's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Cathleen Schine & Hector.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six of the best read-aloud books for grown-ups

Christian McKay Heidicker's new book is Cure for the Common Universe.

For Tor.com he tagged six of the best read-aloud books for grown-ups, including:

Best Read-Aloud Children’s Book for Grown-Ups: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Why: Neil Gaiman was a struggling cobbler from Wales, whose literary career was cut short by an errant horseshoe kicked free by a duke’s thoroughbred. Gaiman’s grieving husband found the individual pages of this work tucked beneath the insoles of every shoe he failed to sell.

“Lying.”

Shut up, Lying Cat.

The Graveyard Book is, if you ask me, peak Gaiman. Each chapter is a unique short story that tells of a boy being raised by ghosts in a graveyard. The characters are as charming as they are unsettling and as trustworthy as they are transparent. Gaiman is able to pull off that rare magic trick of alluding to very adult things between the words, having grown-ups and children shiver alike at all the myths buried beneath us all.

Who will curl up in front of you: Your friends who say they’re “so weird” because Halloween is their favorite holiday (so a lot of them).

Tips: Make an effort to set a mood (candles, incense, smoke machine); better yet, find a graveyard and let it set a mood for you.

Runner-ups: The Canning Season by Polly Horvath, A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland series by Catherynne M. Valente, Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne, His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Graveyard Book is among Sophie Cleverly's ten top terrifying teachers in children’s books, Claire Barker's top ten haunted houses in fiction, Jon Walter's ten top first lines in children's and teen books, Helen Grant's ten "best books with settings that are strikingly brought to life" and Nevada Barr's 6 favorite books.

Cure for the Common Universe is among Shaun Byron Fitzpatrick's top seven geeky love stories that prove nerd love is the best love.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten books about The Beatles

Philip Norman is the author of Paul McCartney: The Life.

One of his ten top books about The Beatles, as shared at the Guardian:

Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles

An authorised biography. Formerly known simply as “Miles”, the author was a co-founder of Indica, the art gallery and bookshop that became the epicentre of London’s underground scene in the mid-60s (and where John famously met Yoko Ono). Initially, Paul intended the book to deal solely with his “London years”, proving how he, not John, was the first to explore the avant garde, but Miles convinced him to include his childhood as well. The result is part-biography, part-autobiography, with long, fascinating first-person reminiscences by its subject. But there’s little about his marriage to Linda and nothing about their much-criticised career in Wings.

Read about the other books on the list.

Also see: Five top books on The Beatles.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten books written while their authors were serving time

Jeff Somers is the author of Lifers, the Avery Cates series from Orbit Books, Chum from Tyrus Books, and We Are Not Good People from Pocket/Gallery. One of his top ten books that were at least partially composed while their authors were serving time, as shared at the B&N Reads blog:

Couldn’t Keep it To Myself, by Wally Lamb and inmates at York Correctional Institution in Connecticut

Wally Lamb is the famous author of She’s Come Undone and I Know This Much is True, and since 1999, he’s run a writing program at York Correctional Institution. Couldn’t Keep it To Myself is a collection of essays written by the prisoners, often detailing the brutal conditions of their early lives, their experiences in prison, and their hopes for the future. The result is 12 powerful and moving stories that capture life in a modern-day women’s prison that isn’t anything at all like the one on Orange is the New Black.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven sweet and swoony romances for wedding season

At B&N Reads Tara Sonin tagged seven top romances to read during wedding season, including:

Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen

...Did you fall in love with your intended the moment you set eyes on each other? Or, like Lizzie and Darcy, did you have some “prejudices” and “pride” (see what I did there?) to overcome before you could say “I do”? A classic historical romance that will remind you that people are always more than what they seem.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Pride and Prejudice also appears on Ross Johnson's list of seven of the greatest rivalries in fiction, Helen Dunmore's six best books list, Jenny Kawecki's list of eight fictional characters who would make the best travel companions, Peter James's top ten list of works of fiction set in or around Brighton, Ellen McCarthy's list of six favorite books about weddings and marriage, 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

Six excellent books on the debate over guns rights

Adam Winkler, a professor of constitutional law at the University of California, Los Angeles, has been featured on CNN and in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and The New Republic.

His many publications include the book, Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America.

One of six other books Winkler recommends you read if you want to understand the politics of guns in America, as shared at the Washington Post:

The Gun Debate: What Everyone Needs to Know by Philip J. Cook and Kristin A. Goss

Gun-control supporters are often disadvantaged in the debate because many don’t know very much about firearms or gun violence. Cook and Goss, public policy professors at Duke University, provide a fantastic overview of the major issues. Although they tend to favor stricter regulation, their book is balanced — and frank about what both sides get wrong.

Read about the other books on the list.

The Page 99 Test: Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America by Adam Winkler.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top geeky love stories in YA literature

At the BN Teen Blog, Shaun Byron Fitzpatrick tagged seven geeky love stories that prove nerd love is the best love, including:

The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You, by Lily Anderson

Excuse me while I fangirl over this geeky retelling of Much Ado About Nothing. All Trixie wants is a complete set of Doctor Who figurines and to finally displace the obnoxious Ben West as the third smartest person in her graduating class. Her not-so-friendly rivalry with Ben becomes even more heated when their two best friends begin dating, meaning the two start having to spend way too much time together. (In Trixie’s opinion, anyway. Ben doesn’t seem to mind too much. Hmmmm.) When Trixie’s best friend is accused of cheating and expelled, she has to put her animosity aside and team up with Ben to clear her friend’s name. But she’s DEFINITELY NOT GOING TO FALL FOR HIM, YOU GUYS.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top YA books that take place in pre-gentrified NYC

Sarah Skilton is the author of Bruised, a martial arts drama for young adults; and High and Dry, a hardboiled teen mystery. At the B&N Teen blog she tagged six YA books that take place when New York City was pretty gritty, including:

Brown Girl, Brownstones, by Paule Marshall

A coming-of-age roman à clef about Selina, a black girl whose parents and sister emigrated from Barbados in 1939 to live in Brooklyn. Selina’s mother works herself to the bone as a cleaning woman and fantasizes about affording a brownstone—to her, the ultimate symbol of wealth and achievement—while Selina’s father spends his time on selfish pursuits. As Selina grows up, her mother’s desperation for success serves only to push both her children away. A keen and quiet observer, Selina must decide which portions of the family’s culture and ideals she wishes to emulate in her adult life.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue