Seven books for a new you in the new year

At BN Reads Ross Johnson tagged seven "books that will help you achieve a happier, healthier 2018," including:

The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People, by Meik Wiking

Inspired by the happiness habits of his homeland of Denmark, Wiking set out to discover not just what makes Danes so generally happy, but what secrets could be found in other parts of the world. Focusing on six factors—togetherness, money, health, freedom, trust, and kindness—Wiking looks at what makes people content and satisfied all over the world, whether it’s by savoring a meal or dancing a tango. It’s full of tips based on Wiking’s journeys and research into what makes people happy, and how we can apply those lessons to our own lives.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books that changed Meg Gardiner's writing life

Edgar-winning novelist Meg Gardiner writes thrillers. Fast-paced and full of twists, her books have been called “Hitchcockian” (USA Today) and “nailbiting and moving” (Guardian). They have been bestsellers in the U.S. and internationally and have been translated into more than 20 languages.

Gardiner's latest novel is UNSUB, the first book in a series featuring homicide investigator Caitlin Hendrix.

One of five books that changed Gardiner's writing life, as shared with Crimespree Magazine:

Glitz, Elmore Leonard.

This was the first crime novel that truly gripped me. Until then I’d only read puzzle-piece mysteries. Compared to those, Glitz seemed electrically charged—it was tense, it was right to the gut, and oh, boy, was it cool. After reading this book I never picked up another Agatha Christie. And I was freed from the idea that mystery novelists had to write straight whodunits.

Read about the other books on the list.

Visit Meg Gardiner's website, blog, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: UNSUB.

--Marshal Zeringue

Rula Lenska's six favorite books

Rula Lenska is an English actor who had roles in such iconic shows as Coronation Street, EastEnders, Doctor Who, One Foot In The Grave and Footballers' Wives. In the US she is better known for a hair products advertising campaign which spawned a running joke in Johnny Carson's monologue on The Tonight Show and a Saturday Night Live sketch where she was played by Jane Curtin. One of Lenska's six favorite books, as shared at the Daily Express:

WOLF HALL by Hilary Mantel

I’ve always loved “faction” stories about history.

She is an extraordinary writer who makes you feel in the moment: she describes the light, the dark, the dirt, the romance, the threats.

Coming to the end, I allowed myself 10 pages a day because I didn’t want it to finish.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Wolf Hall made Deborah Cadbury's top ten list of books about royal families, Peter Stanford's top ten list of Protestants in fiction, Melissa Harrsion's ten top depictions of British rain, the Telegraph's list of the 21 greatest television adaptations of novels, BBC Culture's list of the 21st century’s twelve greatest novels, Ester Bloom's ten list of books for fans of the television series House of Cards, Rachel Cantor's list of the ten worst jobs in books, Kathryn Williams's reading list on pride, the Barnes & Noble Review's list of books on baby-watching in Great Britain, Julie Buntin's top ten list of literary kids with deadbeat and/or absent dads, Hermione Norris's 6 best books list, John Mullan's list of ten of the best cardinals in literature, the Barnes & Noble Review's list of five books on dangerous minds and Lev Grossman's list of the top ten fiction books of 2009, and is one of Geraldine Brooks's favorite works of historical fiction; Matt Beynon Rees called it "[s]imply the best historical novel for many, many years."

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven girl-power books for young readers

At the BN Kids Blog Maria Burel tagged seven books for young readers featuring strong females, including:

Frida Kahlo, by Isabel Sanchez Vegara and Gee Fan Eng

While she may have grown into an influential and world-renowned artist, that wasn’t Frida Kahlo’s original plan. As a child, she wanted to practice medicine, but a childhood accident destroyed that dream. Despite being just one of many obstacles placed in her path, Kahlo refuses to accept the curveballs thrown her way as defeat. Instead, from her bedside, she paints, and paints, and paints, ultimately producing over 140 works and making a name for herself all over the world.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top wilderness reads

At the Waterstones blog Martha Greengrass tagged ten top wilderness books, including:

The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees
Robert Penn

An exuberant tale of craftsmanship for nature lovers and rugged outdoor types everywhere.

Robert Penn cut down an ash tree to see how many things could be made from it. After all, ash is the tree we have made the greatest and most varied use of over the course of human history.

Journeying from Wales across Europe and Ireland to the USA, Robert finds that the ancient skills and knowledge of the properties of ash, developed over millennia making wheels and arrows, furniture and baseball bats, are far from dead. The book chronicles how the urge to understand and appreciate trees still runs through us all like grain through wood.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten fictional feasts for Christmas

Kate Young is the author of The Little Library Cookbook. At the Guardian she tagged ten fictional feasts for Christmas, including:

Buckwheats
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

The Christmas scenes in Little Women are some of my favourite parts of the book. The Christmas dinner (turkey, plum puddings and jellies) that takes place when Mr March surprises everyone by arriving home from hospital is beautiful. I particularly love the moment when the March sisters, after taking their glorious breakfast buckwheats to the Hummels, arrive home to French bonbons and pink and white ice-cream, a gift from Mr Lawrence next door.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Little Women also appears among Mary Sebag-Montefiore's ten classics every child should read before they are 10, Jeff Somers's five books that are arguably the first in their respective genres, Kate Kellaway's ten best Christmases in literature, Bea Davenport's top ten books about hair, nine notable unsung literary heroines, Sophie McKenzie's top ten mothers in children's books, John Dugdale's ten notable fictional works on winter sports, Melissa Albert's five favorite YA books that might make one cry, Anjelica Huston's seven favorite coming-of-age books, Bidisha's ten top books about women, Katherine Rundell's top ten descriptions of food in fiction, Gwyneth Rees's ten top books about siblings, Maya Angelou's 6 favorite books, Tim Lewis's ten best Christmas lunches in literature, and on the Observer's list of the ten best fictional mothers, Eleanor Birne's top ten list of books on motherhood, Erin Blakemore's list of five gutsy heroines to channel on an off day, Kate Saunders' critic's chart of mothers and daughters in literature, and Zoë Heller's list of five memorable portraits of sisters. It is a book that disappointed Geraldine Brooks on re-reading.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten experimental thrillers

Tony White is the author of the critically-acclaimed novel Foxy-T (2003) and a new novel The Fountain in the Forest. One of his ten top experimental thrillers, as shared at the Guardian:

The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster

In City of Glass, part one of Auster’s trilogy, detective novelist Daniel Quinn receives several late-night phone calls, wrong numbers, from somebody seeking a private investigator named Paul Auster. He decides to play along and soon finds that he has been hired to protect a Kaspar Hauser-like child abuse survivor from his criminally insane father. For all of Auster’s games, this remains a glorious detective thriller with all the feints, reversals and sheer page-turning velocity that you’d find in a classic Ellery Queen mystery.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eleven of the vilest villains in horror fiction

J.R.R.R. (Jim) Hardison is the author of the humorous fantasy adventure Fish Wielder and, more recently, Demon Freaks. One of his eleven top vile villains in fiction, as shared at the the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy blog:

Dark from Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury

While we’re on the subject of seductive, evil tempters, I should probably mention the mysterious Mr. Dark. Who he is exactly is never explained, but his job is clear. He is the ringmaster of the Pandemonium Shadow Show, a travelling carnival that arrives in the dead of night to entice the unhappy and dissatisfied with the promise of their hearts’ desires.

Part of his power is that the hypnotically animating tattoos on his body seem to show the stories of those he encounters, enabling him to understand and exploit their weaknesses and dreams. He offers to fulfill their dearest wishes, but his true goal is to steal the life force of his victims, feed the furnace that powers his carnival with their souls, and enslave their bodies forever as freaks in his travelling show.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Something Wicked This Way Comes is among Sam Reader's eight top books about the horrors of adolescence.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tim Peake's five top books to take to space

Tim Peake is a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut of British nationality. He finished his 186-day Principia mission working on the International Space Station for Expedition 46/47 when he landed back on Earth 18 June 2016. Peake has a background as a test pilot and a British Army Air Corps officer.

One of the author-astronaut's five favorite "books to pass the time amidst the stars and the vacuum of space," as shared at Waterstone's blog:

The Martian by Andy Weir

Brilliantly funny and at the same time one of the most scientifically plausible fiction books I have read about space exploration. I see a lot of Mark Watney's character in the astronauts and cosmonauts of today - Andy Weir hit the nail on the head in capturing the essence of what will be the 'right stuff' needed on a mission to Mars.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Martian is among Jeffrey Kluger's five favorite books that make epic drama out of space-faring history, Elisabeth Delp's seven classic science fiction space odysseys, Alexandra Oliva's five novels that get important aspects of survival right, Jeff Somers's seven works of speculative fiction that don’t feel all that speculative and  five top sci-fi novels with plausible futuristic technology, Ernest Cline’s ten favorite SF novels, and James Mustich's five top books on visiting Mars.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven middle grade books for fans of magical realism

At the BN Kids Blog Maria Burel tagged seven favorite middle grade reads for fans of magical realism, including:

Echo, by Pam Muñoz Ryan

Echo is part fairytale, part historical fiction, sprinkled with magic, and cleverly woven into a powerful tale. In its pages, we meet Friedrich, a young German boy desperate to save his father after the Nazi party moves in. From there, we travel to Pennsylvania and meet Mike, an orphan determined to provide the best life possible for his brother, even at the cost of his own happiness. And then there’s Ivy, whose California family finally has a chance to build their own life, on their own land. But fear and prejudice may destroy that dream. Three lives, three paths, three stories, all joined together by one harmonica.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight books that move disability from the margins to the center

Kenny Fries received the prestigious Creative Capital literature grant for In the Province of the Gods. He is the author of Body, Remember: A Memoir and The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin’s Theory, winner of the Outstanding Book Award from the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights. He is the editor of Staring Back: The Disability Experience from the Inside Out and the author of the libretto for The Memory Stone, an opera commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera. His books of poems include Anesthesia, Desert Walking, and In the Gardens of Japan. At LitHub he tagged eight books that "move disability from the margins to the center, where they provide a critical lens to look at how we—disabled and nondisabled alike—live, or might live, our lives," including:

The Still Point of the Turning World, Emily Rapp (2013)

In her best-selling memoir, Rapp turns the story of losing a son to Tay-Sachs disease into a thoughtful and philosophical look at parenting. The no-holds barred depiction of what it is like to have a child with a disability is distinguished not only by Rapp’s literary intelligence but also by her own disability experience, which she previously wrote about in Poster Child (2007). By employing the writings of C. S. Lewis, Sylvia Plath, and Hegel and drawing on works such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Rapp opens up what otherwise could be a claustrophobic and deservedly myopic story of her son Ronan’s life.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top holiday romances

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and semi-professional nerd. At the B&N Reads blog she tagged six favorite holiday romances, including:

Lighting the Flames, by Sarah Wendell

If you’re looking for more than just Christmas stories this holiday season, check out Lighting the Flames, which takes place at a Jewish summer (or in this case, Winter) camp. Gen and Jeremy have been going to Camp Meira since they were seven, first as campers, then as staff. But their friendship turned frosty when Jeremy left camp early with no explanation, and now they’re back for a special Winter Camp during Hanukkah. This is a sweet story, with plenty of love and light.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue