Nine notable nature memoirs

Since traveling the South West Coastal Path, Raynor Winn has become a regular long-distance walker and writes about nature, homelessness and wild camping. Her first book, The Salt Path, was a Sunday Times bestseller and shortlisted for the 2018 Costa Biography Award. In The Wild Silence, Winn explores readjusting to life after homelessness. She lives in Cornwall with her husband Moth.

At Lit Hub Winn tagged nine books that reignited her connection to the wild, including:

Robert Macfarlane, The Wild Places

Even from a young age, I’ve carried a strong sense of being fundamentally connected to the natural world. Strangely though, for many years I didn’t find that feeling echoed in nature writing but encountered mainly abstracted observations of nature, viewed through the lens of academic research, or heavily clichéd prose. Consequently, I stopped reading nature writing. Until a friend gave me a copy of The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane. At last, I’d found a writer who felt a strong, almost rapturous response to nature, a writer who remembered “what the world feels like.”

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tim Harford's 6 best books

Tim Harford, “the Undercover Economist,” is a Financial Times columnist, BBC broadcaster, and the author of nine books (most recently How To Make The World Add Up / The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics) and the podcast “Cautionary Tales.”

[Tim Harford: top 10 undercover economics books; The Page 69 Test: The Undercover Economist; The Page 69 Test:The Logic of Life; The Page 99 Test: Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure; The Page 99 Test: The Undercover Economist Strikes Back; The Page 99 Test: The Data Detective]

At The Week magazine Harford tagged his six best books. One title on the list:

Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez.

Used wisely, statistics can show us truths about the world that we can’t see in any other way. But the statistics have to be collected and analysed with everyone in mind, not just a default white male. This is a powerful, insightful book.

Read about the other books on the list at Tim Harford's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten romance novels that tug at the heartstrings

Libby Hubscher is an author and scientist. She studied biology at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine and holds a doctor of philosophy in molecular toxicology from North Carolina State University. Her work has appeared online and in textbooks, scientific journals, and literary journals. Her short story “The Unwelcome Guest” was long-listed for the Wigleaf Top 50 in 2018. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, two young children, and a menagerie of pets.

Hubscher's debut novel is Meet Me in Paradise.

At Publishers Weekly she tagged ten favorite romance novels that tug at the heartstrings, including:

The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

Hoang’s heartaching and beautiful novel is the exquisite story of Esme, who leaves her home and young daughter in Vietnam for the promise of love and the American dream, only to be met with the brilliant, but tortured Khai, whose past traumas have instilled in him the misbelief that he is incapable of love. As Esme wrestles with her feelings of unworthiness and her affection and admiration for Khai, the book becomes an intricately layered portrait of two people who could be perfect each other, if they’d only overcome the seemingly insurmountable emotional obstacles keeping them apart. Fortunately the torment of deep hurt and heartbreaking things left unsaid is offset by the care these characters show each other as well as their growth as they each realize their own truths and go after what they want.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books featuring fictional women who are, unashamedly, wicked

Heather Walter has been telling stories for as long as she can remember. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with both English and Information Science degrees, books are–and always will be–a definitive part of her life. Her new novel is Malice.

As an author, Walter loves writing about what-ifs, flawed protagonists, and re-imagined history. Her favorite characters are usually villains.

When not writing, you can find her reading (duh), knitting, binging TV, and planning her next travel adventure.

At Tor.com Walter tagged five favorite books featuring fictional women who are, unashamedly, wicked. One title on the list:

The Wolf of Oren-Yaro by K.S. Villoso

A wicked woman doesn’t have to be a heartless one. Villoso’s epic fantasy features one of the most complex female protagonists I’ve encountered. Talyien is queen of Oren-Yaro. But the bitter warlords heading the clans of her realm hate her. Talyien is supposed to be a mere consort to her husband, but he abandons her in favor of exile, and Talyien insists that she be crowned alone. Her reign may be holding the nation together (by a thread), and protecting the rights of her son and heir, but civil war looms. With scant allies and the constant threat of assassination, Talyien must prove herself far more often than any man would have to do. When her husband sends Talyien a secret letter asking to meet, she agrees. But the journey proves rife with betrayals, political intrigue, and forbidden arts. Talyien’s husband expects a wife ready to cede to his whims. He gets a sword-wielding badass, bent on protecting her son and securing her rule—no matter the cost. And things get pricey.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top 10 homecomings in fiction

Catherine Menon is Australian-British, has Malaysian heritage and lives in London. She is a University lecturer in robotics and has both a PhD in pure mathematics and an MA in Creative Writing.

Her short story collection, Subjunctive Moods, was published in 2018. Her short stories have won or been placed in a number of competitions. Her work has been broadcast on radio, and she’s been a judge for several international short fiction competitions.

Fragile Monsters is Menon's debut novel.

At the Guardian she tagged ten "books [that] offer intimate, startling perspectives on homecomings: some that celebrate it, some that examine the challenges and others that question the nature of what it means to return." One title on the list:

Friend of My Youth by Amit Chaudhuri

This novel is a love letter to Bombay (now Mumbai), but a specific, very personal Bombay constructed from the narrator’s memories. Amit, a character created simultaneously from the writing and the life of Amit Chaudhuri, makes several returns to Bombay. The city changes each time and Chaudhuri gives us the sense that Bombay itself is constantly experiencing a homecoming of its own. The protagonist’s one constant, Ramu – the titular friend – is absent for the first half of the book and this absence lends a depth and poignancy to this elegiac novel.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Thirteen titles that explore codependent relationships

Sam Cohen was born and raised in suburban Detroit. Her fiction is published in Fence, Bomb, Diagram, and Gulf Coast, among others. The recipient of a MacDowell fellowship and a PhD fellow at the University of Southern California, Cohen lives in Los Angeles.

Her new story collection is Sarahland.

At Electric Lit Cohen tagged thirteen "books that explore the earth-shattering capacity of the power of two," including:

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

Midcentury American David moves to Paris at least unconsciously so that he can explore his homosexual desire. He drifts his way into a bar of swishy men with their own language of she pronouns and witty repartee and falls for Giovanni. The eponymous room is dark and at the edge of town, and in it, away from the rules and the gaze of the world, David and Giovanni are liquefied by desire. Only, David remains a little solid, eventually leaves the nest of mutual queer reconstitution for a life of bourgeois respectability. Giovanni says he will die without David, and, via a series of devastating events, does.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the best novels about fictional bands

Glenn Dixon is the #1 bestselling author of the memoir Juliet’s Answer. He has played in bands all his life, traveled through more than seventy-five countries, and written for National Geographic, the New York Post, The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, and Psychology Today. Before becoming a full-time writer, he taught high school English for twenty years. He lives in Calgary with his girlfriend.

Dixon's new novel is Bootleg Stardust.

At Lit Hub he tagged his top ten novels about fictional bands. One entry on the list:

Daisy Jones and the Six
Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones and the Six

Taylor Jenkins Reid tells the story of this Fleetwood Mac-like band (disastrous relationships galore) in an enticingly original documentary style. Snippets of interviews from the band’s five members propel the plot forward to a final reveal about the mysterious event that caused the band’s sudden end. And we’ll soon hear the music of Daisy Jones as the book has been optioned for a limited series on Amazon Prime (produced by no less than Reese Witherspoon).

Read about the other entries on the list.

Daisy Jones and the Six is among Benjamin Myers's top ten mentors in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight novels featuring twisted medicine

Shelley Nolden's debut novel is The Vines. Her obsession with forbidden North Brother Island in New York City's East River, as well as her personal health history and passion for equality, heavily influenced the creation of this historical fiction thriller.

At CrimeReads Nolden tagged eight favorite novels that break the “do no harm” medical oath, including:

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

The wrenching classic novel, which sits atop numerous best fiction lists, transports and profoundly haunts. When Randall McMurphy, a free-spirited, wildly rebellious con man, fakes insanity to beat a prison sentence of hard labor, he believes he’s pulling the ultimate hustle and that his time behind psychiatric facility bars will be a breeze. Housed with a cast of heartbreakingly damaged and traumatized men, whose minds and hearts have been left to slowly decompose at the hands of a cruel and sadistic nurse, McMurphy tries, and temporarily succeeds, to breathe life and spirit into their dark lives. In an unforgettably dehumanizing twist that shocks and tortures, McMurphy pays for his “sins” with the sickening, twisted, and perverse use of a legal medical treatment.

Read about the other entries on the list.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is on Richard Zimler's list of ten top novels about pariahs, Kim Hood's top ten list of interesting characters who just happen to have a disability, Rebecca Jane Stokes's list of seven books for fans of Orange Is The New Black, Gavin Extence's list of ten of the best underdogs in literature, Melvin Burgess's list of five notable books on drugs, and Darren Shan's top ten list of books about outsiders for teenagers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top books about movies

Andrew Pulver, film editor at the Guardian, tagged ten of the best books about movies, including:

What Makes Sammy Run?
Budd Schulberg

Novels can offer an interesting angle on the film world. Martin Amis’s Money, for example, was inspired by working on the flop sci-fi yarn Saturn 5, while Christopher Isherwood’s Prater Violet is an account of prewar British cinema. The real prince of industry fiction, though, has to be this 1941 account of the insanely ambitious wannabe Sammy Glick.

Read about the other entries on the list.

What Makes Sammy Run? is among Richard Schickel's five favorite books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven autobiographies & memoirs that remind us of the messiness of memory

Whitney Otto's novels include the New York Times bestseller How to Make an American Quilt, which was later made into a movie of the same name, and Eight Girls Taking Pictures. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and in several anthologies.

Otto's new book is Art for the Ladylike: An Autobiography through Other Lives.

At Lit Hub she tagged seven autobiographies and memoirs in which "love, experience, ideas, and observations ignore the limitations of the linear story, building a more far more complex, complete narrative." One title on the list:

Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House

Can a concept be a literary structure? Can a haunted house illustrate an abusive relationship? Can queer theory and various academic ideas be a place where someone can live? Can anyone actually live in a dream house? Doesn’t the fact of it being a dream make it ultimately uninhabitable, no matter how great the longing? And is there a fine line between dream and nightmare and how is it crossed it without even realizing it? You and I are points of view used by the narrator as much as pleasure and betrayal find themselves bound together in the dream house. Every chapter begins with “Dream House.” “Dream House as Epiphany.” “Dream House as Erotica.” “Dream House as Shipwreck.” “Dream House as I Love Lucy.” “Dream House as Choose Your Own Adventure” records a moment between the narrator and her girlfriend, then offers the reader a series of page numbers that add to and drive the entire incident. I love this brilliant memoir. I love it. I love that it is as much about this one terrible love affair gone wrong as it is about the narrator. I love the repetition and prismatic quality of the dream house, invoked over and over, each meaning fresh and dazzling.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five SFF character pairs with ever-changing relationships

Catriona Silvey was born in Glasgow and grew up in Scotland and England. After collecting an unreasonable number of degrees from the universities of Cambridge, Chicago, and Edinburgh, she moved back to Cambridge where she lives with her husband and son. Her short stories have been performed at the Edinburgh International Book Festival and shortlisted for the Bridport Prize.

Silvey's new novel is Meet Me in Another Life.

At Tor.com she tagged five science-fiction and fantasy character pairs with ever-changing relationships, including:

Anyanwu and Doro—Wild Seed by Octavia Butler

The most literally Protean duo on this list, Butler’s warring immortals are shapeshifters of very different kinds. Anyanwu, a healer by nature, can alter her body to take on the shapes of people or animals. Doro, controlling and ruthless, survives by killing others and possessing their bodies, wearing out their flesh until he is forced to move on. Doro is obsessed with breeding a lineage of humans with special abilities; Anyanwu wants only to nurture and protect her descendants. The story of their slow-burn conflict spans centuries and continents, from their first meeting in West Africa to the novel’s resolution in Louisiana, as the two go from lovers to enemies to something else, long-fought-for and indefinable.

The tension of the story comes from the fact that Anyanwu and Doro’s obvious differences are balanced by irresistible similarity. Long-lived and powerful as they are, they are the only people who can surprise each other; they also know each other too well to be able to lie or pretend. Shapeshifters though they are, their weakness is their intransigence: Doro’s inability to imagine how Anyanwu’s motives differ from his own, and Anyanwu’s habit of submitting to Doro instead of imagining another way forward. But they remain, both of them, capable of change, at least with respect to each other. Only when Anyanwu grasps the true power she has over Doro, and Doro learns to ask rather than command, can they fulfill the half-promise, half-threat that runs through the novel: ‘Because of me, you will never be alone.’

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top 10 books about New York

Craig Taylor is the author, most recently, of New Yorkers: A City and Its People in Our Time.

His other books include Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now—As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It, and Long for It, Return to Akenfield, and One Million Tiny Plays About Britain, which began life as a column in the Guardian newspaper.

At the Guardian Taylor tagged ten of his favorite books about New York. One title on the list:

The Odd Woman and the City by Vivian Gornick

In her memoir, Gornick describes New York as a “fabled context for the creation myth of the young man of genius arriving in the world capital … where he will at last be recognised for the heroic figure he knows himself to be”. Unsurprisingly, these men are still here, often transplants, braying about their authentic New York experience. Gornick wants none of it: “Not my city at all.” Her New York is populated by “the eternal groundlings who wander these mean and marvellous streets in search of a self reflected back in the eye of a stranger.” Although Gornick grew up in the Bronx, she considers herself a pilgrim to the city. When she finally moved to Manhattan she experienced what most of us yearn for on arrival. “I could taste in my mouth world, sheer world.”

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue