Ten new and upcoming college-set YA novels

At the BN Teen Blog Dahlia Adler tagged "ten new and forthcoming [college kid] books that highlight independence, long-distance relationships, growing up, identity, sexuality, marginalization, assault, roommates, and much more," including:

American Panda, by Gloria Chao

Mei’s a seventeen-year-old freshman at MIT, where she’s supposed to major in biology, find a Taiwanese boy to marry, and devote all her free time to studying. But none of that is who she is or wants to be, no matter how hard she tries. And she does try: shadowing a doctor, keeping up with her studies, trying not to fall too hard for adorable but Japanese Darren. But the more she tries to be who her mother wants her to be, the more Mei realizes it’s just not in the cards. She’ll have to do the seeming impossible and find a way to be true to herself and the family she loves. From impossible expectations to sexually transmitted infections, this delightful debut definitely nails aspects of college living, including the challenge of developing relationships when you’re younger than your peers.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Page 69 Test: American Panda.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six big, challenging reads

Jeff VanderMeer recently served as the 2016-2017 Trias Writer-in-Residence for Hobart-William Smith College. His latest novel is Borne, which Colson Whitehead called “a thorough marvel.” He is also the author of the NYT-bestselling Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance), which won the Shirley Jackson Award and Nebula Award. One of VanderMeer's six favorite big, challenging reads, as shared at The Week magazine:

Big Questions by Anders Nilsen

This sprawling graphic novel starts, more or less, with a plane crash, then opens up to include the existential travails of snakes and birds drawn to the crash site. The initial disaster transitions into an unsettling yet mesmerizing examination of both nature and culture.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top boarding-school thrillers

At the BN Teen blog, Nita Tyndall tagged six favorite thrillers set at boarding school, including:

S.T.A.G.S., by M.A. Bennett

Greer MacDonald struggles to fit in at her elite boarding school, St. Aidan the Great, known to students simply as S.T.A.G.S. So when she receives an invitation from none other than Henry de Warlencourt, the most popular (and richest) boy at school, for a weekend of “huntin’, shootin’, fishin’,” she accepts it without question. After all, what better way to gain acceptance than through Henry? But when she and a few other students—outcasts like herself—arrive, something immediately feels off. Henry’s parents are nowhere to be found, and the only adults around are several too-compliant servants. Things take an even worse turn as Greer realizes who, exactly, it is that Henry will be hunting…

Read about the other entries on the list.

Also see Alyssa Sheinmel's five favorite books set at boarding school, Ruth Ware's six favorite books about boarding school, Sabrina Rojas Weiss's ten favorite boarding school novels, James Browning's ten best boarding school books, and Robin Stevens's top ten boarding school stories.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten essential Native American novels

Brandon Hobson is the author of Where the Dead Sit Talking and other books. He is a recipient of a Pushcart Prize, and his work has appeared in such magazines as The Believer, The Paris Review Daily, Conjunctions, NOON, Post Road, Narrative Magazine, and in many other places. Hobson holds a Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University and is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation Tribe of Oklahoma.

One of his ten essential Native American novels, as shared at Publishers Weekly:

House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday

Momaday's House Made of Dawn won the Pulitzer Prize in 1969, which alone should tell you how great it is. It's the story of a World War II veteran named Abel who returns home to try and adjust to living back in the world he once lived in, but he struggles, gets drunk a lot and fights and then commits a murder that lands him in jail for a while. Once he gets out of jail his struggles only continue. While all that may sound dark, this is ultimately a novel of hope as Abel learns to embrace his Native American heritage. Sad and beautiful, required reading.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Twelve top sci-fi & fantasy film novelizations

Jeff Somers is the author of Lifers, the Avery Cates series from Orbit Books, Chum from Tyrus Books, and the Ustari Cycle from Pocket/Gallery, including We Are Not Good People. At the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy blog he tagged twelve essential sci-fi & fantasy film novelizations, including:

Alien, by Alan Dean Foster

Foster is something of a Godfather in novelizations—a successful author in his own right, he also penned many of the best-regarded examples of the form. Included on that list is Foster’s take on Ridley Scott’s Alien—which is remarkable, since he wrote it in just a few weeks with only an unfinished screenplay to work with, and never even got to see the final effects for the Alien itself before finishing the book. Foster manages to shade in the characters with motivations and backstories not onscreen while maintaining the pacing and sense of dread that made the film an instant horror classic. The book is a master class in technically accomplished writing, as Foster uses the tools of his trade to translate the sparse details of a script into a lush, horrifyingly detailed haunted spaceship tale, populated by characters you’ll feel for.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jonathan Hyde's 6 best books

Jonathan Hyde is an Australian actor known for film roles Titanic, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, Anaconda, Jumanji, The Mummy, and as Eldritch Palmer in the FX TV series The Strain. One of his six best books, as shared at the Daily Express:

LIFE AND FATE by Vasily Grossman

War And Peace for the 20th century.

An amazing story and a real insight into the sheer chill of Stalin.

It’s got tremendous romance and pathos as well. I'm fascinated by how the Russian Revolution was perverted and destroyed by Stalinism.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten books celebrating influential women in history

At B&N Reads Jen Harper tagged ten top "historical fiction books about some awesome women through the ages," including:

Vanessa and Her Sister, by Priya Parmar

History remembers writer Virginia Woolf much more so than her sister, painter Vanessa Bell. But Priya Parmar’s elegant and dazzling novel, set in early 20th-century London, brings Vanessa out of her sister’s shadow to show just how truly gifted and multidimensional Vanessa was as well as the profound influence she had on Virginia. The story is told through Vanessa’s invented journal entries and correspondence and follows the siblings as they buck convention and forge their own path toward artistic success. But when Vanessa unexpectedly falls in love, Virginia careens into madness, having been ever-dependent on her sister as a steadying force in her life.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top books about cheating

Jamie Quatro's debut novel is Fire Sermon. One of the author's top ten books about cheating, as shared with the Guardian:

We Don’t Live Here Anymore by André Dubus (1984)

This triptych of novellas centres on two married couples, Hank and Edith Allison, and Jack and Terry Linhart. In the title novella, each of them cheats with the other’s partner. In the middle story, Adultery, Edith falls in love with a dying priest. In the final piece, Hank is divorced and trapped in his alternately self-aggrandising and self-pitying habits, unable to find happiness or peace. As a whole, the book asks, as Dubus’s son André III noted: “How can a man and woman ever be truly married to one another without losing their very souls?”

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten Vancouver crime novels

Sam Wiebe's novel Last of the Independents won the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize and an Arthur Ellis Award, and was nominated for a Shamus award. His second novel, Invisible Dead, was published by Random House Canada and Quercus USA. His short stories have appeared in Thuglit, Spinetingler, and subTerrain, and he was the 2016 Vancouver Public Library Writer in Residence. He lives in Vancouver.

At The Strand Magazine he tagged ten "books that reflect some essential aspects of both Vancouver and crime fiction," including:

The Nicole Charles series by Linda Richards includes two books so far: If It Bleeds and When Blood Lies. Amateur sleuth Nicole Charles is an ambitious rookie reporter stuck on the gossip column for a Vancouver newspaper. Covering high society inadvertently throws her into the midst of the biggest story of her career, testing her mettle as both a journalist and a detective. Richards is a master of voice and style, and the Charles books are breathlessly paced, packed with thrills and puzzles.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven YA novels on the journey from high school to college

At the BN Teen blog, Madeline Moore tagged seven YA novels that take on the journey from high school to college, including:

Nice Try, Jane Sinner, by Lianne Oelke

Jane Sinner needs a change. After a personal crisis leads to her replacing days at high school with binge-watches of America’s Next Top Model, she decides to head to community college early—but under one condition: she gets to move out of her parents’ house. She moves, not into a dorm, but into the House of Orange, the set of a fledgling reality TV show offering its cast free rent. Though Jane’s experience involves more on-camera challenges than classes, Oelke has gifted us with something I’ve been searching for for so long: a YA novel set at a community college. Jumping head-first into a four-year academic career right out of high school isn’t the best choice for everyone, so it was refreshing to finally have some divergent representation. Jane’s path to contentedness and confidence offers an accessible story for so many college-bound seniors (again, aside from the whole living-in-an-reality-TV-house thing).

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Melba Pattillo Beals's six favorite books

Melba Pattillo Beals was one of nine African-American high school students to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Under protection of the 101st Airborne Division of the Army, dispatched by President Eisenhower, she and eight other African-American youths integrated the previously all-white Central High School. She has written two new books about the experience, I Will Not Fear and March Forward, Girl.

One of Beals's six favorite books, as shared at The Week magazine:

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Coelho's allegorical tale teaches you to stick to what your gut and soul tell you is your specific pathway. When The Alchemist was first published in Brazil, Coelho was advised it would never be a best-seller, but he went door-to-door selling it. Today, the book is a world classic, translated into 70 languages.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven YA novels with undercover spies

At the BN Teen blog, Jenny Kawecki tagged seven YA titles with undercover spies, including:

Orphan Monster Spy, by Matt Killeen

When Sarah’s mother is shot at a Nazi checkpoint as they attempt to escape Germany, Sarah is rescued by British spy Jeremy Floyd. Realizing petite blonde Sarah looks more Aryan than Jewish, Floyd takes her under his wing and gives her the opportunity to infiltrate a Nazi boarding school. Her mission seems simple: befriend the daughter of an important German scientist and steal his secrets. If only it were that easy. Haunting and dark, Orphan Monster Spy is a must-read hitting shelves next month.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue