Ten top books on the legacy of abortion in America

One title on Electric Lit's "literary guide to reproductive rights: where we've been, where we are, and where we are likely headed:"

Bodies on the Line by Lauren Rankin

At the front lines of ensuring abortion access are the escorts who guide patients safely to the clinic, away from screaming protestors who are often belligerent and occasionally violent. In Bodies on the Line, Lauren Rankin delves into the fraught public space that surrounds the American abortion clinic and the “pro-life” disruptors who occupy that small stretch with signs and megaphones in order to manipulate, coerce, and shame women from even entering the clinic: “Their goal? To make it as difficult and traumatic as possible to access an abortion.” Rankin weaves personal testimonies from patients and volunteers with historical research, from the 1970s to the present day, about abortion providers and the violent, deadly attacks on these institutes. A must-read to understand the physical and emotional labor that comes with the fight to ensure that abortion is both accessible and a human right.

Read about the other entries on the list at Electric Lit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top literary antiheroes

Sascha Rothchild is an Emmy-nominated screenwriter, who has written and produced lauded shows such as GLOW, The Bold Type, The Babysitters Club, and The Carrie Diaries. In 2015, she was named one of Variety‘s “10 TV Writers to Watch.” Rothchild has written for LA Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, ELLE, and the Miami Herald, and adapted her article, “How To Get Divorced By 30” into both a memoir and a screenplay for Universal Studios. She graduated from the honors program of Boston College summa cum laude, with a major in theater.

Blood Sugar is her debut novel.

At Publishers Weekly Rothchild tagged ten favorite literary antiheroes, including:

Hannibal Lecter: The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

One marker of fantastic antiheroes is extreme intelligence. One can understand why a genius might easily get bored and behave badly, even eat a person every now and again. Hannibal is a supreme antihero because his admiration for Clarice Starling, our heroine, helps us give him a pass. Also, as evil as Hannibal is, there are other, worse monsters lurking, making him seem likable in comparison.

Read about the other entries on the list at Publishers Weekly.

The Silence of The Lambs is among Andrew Bourelle's four best ticking-clock thrillers, Ben McPherson’s ten thrillers based on real-life events, E.G. Scott's best frenemies in fiction, Caroline Louise Walker's six terrifying villain-doctors in fiction, Kathy Reichs's six best books, Matt Suddain's five great meals from literature, Elizabeth Heiter's ten favorite serial killer novels, Jill Boyd's five books with the worst fictional characters to invite to Thanksgiving, Monique Alice's six great fictional evil geniuses, sixteen book-to-movie adaptations that won Academy Awards.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine recent thrillers in which isolation is the enemy

Victoria Helen Stone, author of the runaway best seller Jane Doe, writes critically acclaimed novels of dark intrigue and emotional suspense. Aside from The Last One Home, Problem Child, Half Past, and the chart-topping False Step and Evelyn, After, she also published twenty-nine books as USA Today bestselling author Victoria Dahl and won the prestigious American Library Association Reading List award for best genre fiction.

Her new novel is At The Quiet Edge.

At CrimeReads Stone tagged nine recent thrillers that "make use of many kinds of solitude to amp up the tension," including:

Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir begins with the terror and dread of a man waking up on a spaceship alone with no memory of his life before. When he discovers two dead astronauts who were supposed to be his teammates, the weight of being completely cut off only increases. This book is the story of him solving the mystery of how he arrived on board, why he’s in space, and just how impossible his mission is. And then he discovers he’s not actually as alone in the darkness of the universe as he thought…

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top mother-daughter books

Jodi Picoult is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of over two dozen novels, including The Book of Two Ways, A Spark of Light, Small Great Things, Leaving Time, The Storyteller, Lone Wolf, Sing You Home, House Rules, Handle with Care, Change of Heart, and My Sister's Keeper, and, with daughter Samantha van Leer, two young adult novels, Between the Lines and Off the Page.

Picoult's latest novel is Wish You Were Here.

At Goodreads in 2014 she tagged "five of her favorite books that understand the loving and aggravating ties that bind mothers and daughters." One title on the list:

Then She Found Me by Elinor Lipman

Imagine being a quiet introvert who discovers that the mom who gave you up for adoption 30-plus years earlier is the world's most famous television talk show host. That's the tender, funny premise of this novel. As they begin to forge a relationship, a rocky gap is bridged as they find in each other a piece that was missing from their own personalities. I have long loved Elinor Lipman's books; this is one of my favorites.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five SFF books about technology & grief

Dante Medema is an author of books for young readers. Her debut The Truth Project was an Indies Introduce title and an Indies Next List Pick.

She lives in Anchorage, Alaska, with her husband, four daughters, and a room full of alien memorabilia—and books, of course.

Medema's new novel is Message Not Found.

At Tor.com the author tagged five "favorite books that explore the intersection of grief and technology," including:

No One Here Is Lonely by Sarah Everett

When Eden is going through a particularly hard time, she calls someone unexpected: the object of her unrequited love, Will. He’s kind, sweet, listens to her, and oh yeah: He’s dead. Thanks to In Good Company, a service that allows people to talk to those that have opted to become “Cognitive Donors” to provide companionship for the living after they’re gone. This book asks a lot of questions about what it means to love someone after they’re gone and a wonderful portrayal of nonlinear grief.

Read about the other entries on the list at Tor.com.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine titles about boundary-breaking women of the Gilded Age

Maya Rodale is the best-selling and award-winning author of funny, feminist fiction including historical romance, YA and historical fiction. A champion of the romance genre and its readers, she is also the author of Dangerous Books For Girls: The Bad Reputation of Romance Novels, Explained.

Rodale's new book is The Mad Girls of New York: A Nellie Bly Novel.

At Lit Hub the author tagged nine favorite books about boundary-breaking women of the Gilded Age, including:

Kim Todd, Sensational: The Hidden History of America’s Girl Stunt Reporters

This is a smart, effervescent book about Nellie Bly and the other stunt girl reporters who dominated the newspaper pages with all their daring undercover investigations to expose factory conditions, medical treatments, prisons and other aspects of working women’s lives. Todd examines the lives of these boundary-busting reporters and makes a compelling case for the significance of their work, which pioneered investigative reporting and put women on the front page of newspapers. This book, and these women, were indeed sensational.

Read about the other entries on the list at Lit Hub.

The Page 99 Test: Sensational.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven titles about the theater set in Victorian London

In 2018, Lianne Dillsworth graduated from Royal Holloway with a MA in Creative Writing with distinction, and in 2019, she won a place on the London Library Emerging Writers Programme. She was awarded a bursary place for underrepresented writers on the Jericho Writers Self-Editing course and short-listed for the SI Leeds Literary Prize. She also holds an MA in Victorian studies and currently lives in London, where she works in diversity and inclusion.

Dillsworth's debut novel is Theatre of Marvels.

At Electric Lit she tagged seven novels about the theater set in Victorian London, including:

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

Nan King is music hall star Kitty Butler’s number one fan. When they are introduced, she follows her to London and soon becomes part of Kitty’s daring act, as a male impersonator. Through her relationship with Kitty, Nan gets the chance to explore her sexuality. This novel, Sarah Waters’ debut, was also made into a BBC TV series. Both are unmissable.

Read about the other entries on the list at Electric Lit.

Tipping the Velvet is among Sam Cohen's thirteen books that explore codependent relationships and Kate Davies's ten top books about coming out.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top 10 books about performance – the lives of actors & musicians

Imogen Crimp studied English at Cambridge, followed by an MA in contemporary literature from University College London, where she specialized in female modernist writers. After university, she briefly studied singing at a London conservatory. She lives in London.

Crimp is the author of A Very Nice Girl.

At the Guardian she tagged ten "books that include scenes of musical or theatrical performance [and] often explore ideas of performance in a broader sense – the way we try on different identities or perform to conceal aspects of ourselves." One title on the list:

The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride

Eighteen-year-old Eily has moved from Ireland to go to drama school in London, where she meets Stephen, a 38-year-old established actor. Their relationship moves quickly from casual sex to intense love. McBride writes brilliantly about life as a performer, and the role of performance for both Eily and Stephen in processing trauma. Discussions about roles, scripts and the creation of characters suggest that growing into yourself is a creative process.

Read about the other entries on the list at the Guardian.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six thrillers with surprising twists

Jeneva Rose is the Amazon Charts, Apple Books, and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of The Perfect Marriage. It’s been translated into a dozen languages, and the film/tv rights were optioned by Picture Perfect Federation.

Her new suspense novel is One of Us Is Dead.

At CrimeReads Rose tagged "six thrillers that I believe will fool even the most seasoned readers." One title on the list:

The One by John Marrs

A simple DNA test will match you to your soulmate, the person you were genetically made for. Five couples have been “Matched” but in this compelling and addictive suspense thriller, romance takes a backseat… no, it actually doesn’t even have a seat. The One is full of gasp-worthy moments, more than I could count. At one point, I stopped guessing what was going to happen next, because I knew I couldn’t predict it, and I just wanted to be along for the crazy ride.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

My Book, The Movie: The One.

The Page 69 Test: The One.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books featuring uploaded minds & memories

At Tor.com James Davis Nicoll tagged five favorite books featuring uploaded minds and memories, including:

Vast by Linda Nagata (1998)

The alien Chenzeme littered swaths of the Milky Way with ancient but still functional war machines. Although the war that spawned them is long over, the machines are perfectly happy to target humans who encounter the homicidal relics. Some human ships escape; most of them are eradicated.

The starship Null Boundary was lucky enough to survive an encounter with Chenzeme relics. Now the craft flees towards what the crew hopes will be answers, pursued by a relentless relic. Stern chases are long chases, particularly where sublight interstellar vehicles are concerned. Mortal humans might well die of old age mid-voyage. Mind-recording is only one of the marvelous technologies humanity has mastered, but it is the one that proves most useful to the crew of the Null Boundary.

Read about the other entries on the list at Tor.com.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books centered on people of color and technology

Claire Stanford's fiction has appeared in Black Warrior Review, The Rumpus, Third Coast, Redivider, Paper Darts, and Tin House Flash Fridays, among other publications. Her work has received fellowships and grants from the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, and the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts & Sciences.

Stanford holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota and is currently a PhD candidate in English at UCLA, where she studies science fiction/speculative fiction, narrative theory, and novel theory. Born and raised in Berkeley, she lives in Los Angeles.

Her debut novel is Happy for You.

At Electric Lit Stanford tagged seven books centered on people of color and technology, including:

Soft Science by Franny Choi

This collection of poems expresses what it feels like to be an Asian American woman—to be objectified, to be fetishized—both in real life and in the virtual world. Choi writes about technology and incorporates technology itself into her poetry as a formal device; in “The Cyborg Wants to Make Sure She Heard You Right,” for example, she runs a series of tweets that were directed at her through Google Translate, showing the startling persistence of Orientalizing language even as it moves through multiple rounds of translation. Another poem inhabits the voiceless android Kyoko from Ex Machina, writing back to the film’s techno-Orientalized vision of the future and insisting on an Asian woman’s right to speak and to be heard.

Read about the other entries on the list at Electric Lit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten female sleuths in long-running historical mystery series

Anna Lee Huber is the USA Today bestselling and Daphne award-winning author of the Lady Darby Mysteries, the Verity Kent Mysteries, and the Gothic Myths series, as well as the anthology The Deadly Hours. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she majored in music and minored in psychology.

Huber's latest mystery is A Perilous Perspective.

At CrimeReads she tagged ten favorite female sleuths in long-running historical mystery series, including:

Susan Elia MacNeal – Maggie Hope

MacNeal first introduces her clever and courageous heroine, Maggie Hope, in Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, where she works for the prime minister in the War Rooms in 1940. But Maggie’s intellect and daring soon see her sent on increasingly varied missions on behalf of British Intelligence, enabling MacNeal to explore various intriguing settings and aspects of the Second World War. Maggie breaks codes, slips into enemy-occupied territory, diffuses bombs, and rides motorcycles. She is as active as she is smart. In the tenth book in the Maggie Hope Mysteries, The Hollywood Spy, which released last summer, we learn that America was not without its nests of Nazi spies and collaborators.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

My Book, The Movie: The Prisoner in the Castle.

Writers Read: Susan Elia MacNeal (August 2018).

Q&A with Susan Elia MacNeal.

--Marshal Zeringue