Eight memoirs exploring the damage of purity culture

K. W. Colyard grew up weird in a one-caution-light town in the Appalachian foothills. She now lives in an old textile city with her husband and their clowder of cats.

At Book Riot Colyard tagged "eight memoirs exploring the damage of purity culture." One title on the list:

Wayward: A Memoir of Spiritual Warfare and Sexual Purity by Alice Greczyn

This memoir describes a childhood of homelessness, followed by her parents’ decision to pull up stakes and trust in the Lord to provide for them and their five children. Here, Sex Drive actress Alice Greczyn recounts the damage her Evangelical upbringing caused, beginning with her suicidal ideations at age 13.

Read about the other memoirs on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top 10 legal thrillers

One title on Tertulia's top ten list of legal thrillers:

Rogue Justice: A Thriller
Stacey Abrams

The Georgia political powerhouse returns to pull back the curtain on the machinations of power in Washington. This time, a federal judge is dead and Supreme Court clerk Avery Keene must crack a conspiracy involving murder, blackmailed judges and the nation's top secret court.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Also see Sally Smith's five top legal thrillers, Brittany Bunzey's eight best legal thrillers, Chad Zunker's six legal thrillers with powerful social messages, and Jillian Medoff's eight top legal thrillers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eleven titles about disability as an ethics of care

Jodi-Ann Burey (she/her) is a writer and critic who works at the intersections of race, culture, and health equity. She is the author of Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work.

At Electric Lit Burey tagged eleven books "that in one way or another touch on disability identity." One entry on the list:

Easy Beauty by Chloé Cooper Jones

This gripping memoir from philosopher and two-time Pulitzer finalist Chloé Cooper Jones is part travelogue, part philosophical text, and part search for beauty anywhere and everywhere: a Beyonce concert in Milan; a tennis tournament in Palm Springs; a bar in Brooklyn. Cooper Jones reckons with chronic physical pain, as well as the pain of navigating a society that dismisses visible illness, disability and difference as “less than”—less capable, less worthy, and less beautiful. Not one page in my copy of Easy Beauty is without marginal notes or lines and lines of yellow highlight. In one well-marked section, Cooper Jones discusses the beauty and value we are told broken Greek statues possess, despite disfigurement. She contrasts that to the ire hurled at Marc Quinn’s Alison Lapper Pregnant, a 12 foot marble, naked and pregnant figure of Alison Lapper, an artist who was born without arms and shortened legs. Cooper Jones reminds us: “... Quinn’s sculptures are not of broken forms, but of whole forms, whole people, complete bodies.”

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Christoffer Carlsson's four top crime novels

Christoffer Carlsson was born in 1986 in Marbäck, Sweden. He holds a PhD in criminology from Stockholm University and is one of Sweden's leading crime experts. He is the youngest winner of the Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year, which he has won twice. The New York Times named his debut, Blaze Me a Sun, one of the best crime novels of the year. He lives in Stockholm.

Carlsson's new novel is The Living and the Dead.

At CrimeReads the author tagged four favorite crime novels that he finds himself "returning to again and again, usually late at night," including:

Kerstin Ekman, Blackwater

On Midsummer’s Eve, a woman stumbles upon two dead bodies in a tent. Eighteen years later, the killer is found.

Eighteen years. Makes you think about time and memory. That’s part of Blackwater’s immense power, for me—the way the novel understands time and people, how crime ripples through years and changes.

Maybe a memory is a sort of story that takes place inside, over and over again, and just like a story does, it evolves and changes with time. Memory is far too fickle a thing to capture the past; in Blackwater, memory is the opposite of what it claims to be. Memory succeeds at what nothing else can: memory makes it possible to be reconciled with one’s history. What was once unbearable is no longer so. It is only a memory.

As I’ve heard it, the story goes: entering the kitchen where her husband sat having coffee one morning, Ekman said, “You know what? I think I’m writing a crime novel.”

As if the novel had surprised her.

“The novel showed me a double murder,” she said later. “If a novel does that, as a writer you need to try and figure them out, because the reader will. You have to respect your reader.”

Ekman had to go deeper, to find her way out. It was the only way; the novel challenged her to. So she did and wrote what is, for me, my favorite crime novel ever to come out of Sweden. Perhaps it is the Great Swedish Novel; it’s certainly a contender.

What is the Swedish experience, exactly? I’m not sure. I’m trying to figure that out.

In Blackwater, no one’s a villain, no one’s a hero. Everyone you meet is so incredibly ordinary and still mysterious. Everyone is searching for meaning wherever they can find it: in nature, community, in the idea of home, in silence, in their own history, in their sins. And possibly, eventually, only find it in the rare moment of truly touching, reaching another human being.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Blackwater is one of Elizabeth Hand's six favorite books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six titles that celebrate Indigenous resistance

Brittany Penner is an author, practicing family physician and a lecturer with the University of Manitoba Max Rady College of Medicine, and has been a keynote speaker at the University of Manitoba.

Her new books is Children Like Us: A Métis Woman's Memoir of Family, Identity and Walking Herself Home.

At Oprah Daily Penner shared "her essential reading list for Native American Heritage Month, including three seminal memoirs, a YA murder mystery, and a picture book packed with wisdom." One title on the list:

The Knowing, by Tanya Talaga

In this urgent book—and its accompanying docuseries adaptation—the acclaimed, bestselling Anishinaabe author investigates a family mystery with national implications: the disappearance of her great-great-grandmother.

Little about this woman was passed down through the family and, despite several members searching for years, little information could be found in the official record. It was believed she’d been taken to Toronto, but as to where she ended up, what her life entailed, and how long she lived, no one knew. It ultimately took Talaga and a team of researchers scouring through historical documents to learn what had happened to her. Weaving skillful reporting with rich personal narrative, Talaga connects the broader history of the cultural disconnection that many Indigenous people experience to her own history as an Indigenous woman with European settler heritage who was raised apart from her culture. There’s hope that by discovering the story of her lost relative, she may better understand herself and help her family members do the same.

What begins as an intimate story of a single ancestor broadens to encompass the disturbing and often overlooked history of government- and church-ordained disappearances and genocide in both the United States and Canada. Talaga dives headfirst into painful subjects, but she leaves enough room to pause and reflect before diving even deeper. Storytelling is a foundational component of most Indigenous cultures, and even when we are raised cut off from our culture, many of us still find that we carry this part of ourselves with us. Talaga is a gifted storyteller, which is undoubtedly connected to her identity as an Anishinaabe woman, as she focuses on themes of resiliency and cultural reclamation for both her family and Indigenous peoples across North America.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight sensational Christmas thrillers & crime novels

Carolina Ciucci is a teacher, writer and reviewer based in the south of Argentina. She hoards books like they’re going out of style. In case of emergency, you can summon her by talking about Ireland, fictional witches, and the Brontë family. At Book Riot she tagged "eight wonderful Christmas thrillers and crime novels (yes, cozy mysteries included) to add a bit of Sherlockian flair to [her] festivities." One title on the list:

The Glass Thief (Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery #6) by Gigi Pandian

It’s one thing to solve a murder. It’s another entirely to solve three murders commited in a 70 year span, and blamed on the family ghost. Jaya ends up traveling to France and Cambodia to solve this case. Or should I say fleeing to France and Cambodia? After all, it’s a case that hits very close to home.

Read about the other titles on the list.

The Glass Thief is among Mia P. Manansala's five top Christmas-themed mysteries.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten brilliant titles you can read in a weekend

One title from Tertulia's list of ten critically acclaimed books you can read in a weekend:

Eternal Summer by Franziska Gänsler

As forest fires rage and guests disappear, two women form a tense, unexpected bond in a family-owned hotel on the brink of climate disaster. Publishers Weekly called this haunting story of trust, danger, and resilience “a work of psychological suspense” that imagines “a world that no longer offers respite.”

Read about the other titles on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six thrillers featuring toxic friendships in academic settings

Kit Frick is a MacDowell fellow and ITW Thriller Award finalist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She studied creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College and received her MFA from Syracuse University. She is the author of the adult suspense novels The Split and Friends and Liars, the young adult thrillers Before We Were Sorry (originally published as See All the Stars), All Eyes on Us, I Killed Zoe Spanos, Very Bad People, and The Reunion, and the poetry collection A Small Rising Up in the Lungs.

[The Page 69 Test: See All the Stars; Writers Read: Kit Frick (August 2018)]

At CrimeReads Frick tagged "six thrillers set on college campuses, or reuniting a group of college friends." One title on the list:

Ruth Ware, The It Girl

Ruth Ware’s collegiate thriller is both a page-turner and a searing examination of a group of college friends with years of lies between them. The story unfolds in dual timelines. “Before” takes place during Hannah’s first year at Oxford University, leading up the murder of her suitemate April, the quintessential “It Girl.” We then catch up with Hannah “After,” ten years later, as she’s expecting her first child, working at a bookstore in Edinburgh—and is inevitably drawn back into the past.

The Oxford porter who was convicted of the murder has died suddenly in prison, and soon new information comes to light suggesting he may, in fact, have been innocent. So who killed April?

The jarring news leads Hannah back to her old college friends with whom she’s fallen out of touch, and she soon begins to suspect that she may not have as solid a grasp on the web of relationships as she once thought she did. One of them has been keeping secrets from her. One of them may have been responsible for April’s murder.

Read about the other novels on the list.

The It Girl is among Gillian McAllister's five best maternal thrillers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight wickedly monstrous titles like "The Witcher"

The son of a librarian, Chris M. Arnone's love of books was as inevitable as gravity. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Missouri - Kansas City. His cyberpunk series, The Jayu City Chronicles, is available everywhere books are sold.

His work can also be found in Adelaide Literary Magazine and FEED Lit Mag. You can find him writing more books, poetry, and acting in Kansas City.

At Book Riot Arnone tagged eight "books to bring The Witcher vibes into your reading life." One title on the list:

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

This epic fantasy is dark, twisted, and full of horrible characters. So, pretty much just like The Witcher. This novel shifts between several fascinating points of view. Glokta is an inquisitor and torturer. Bayaz is an old wizard with a pathetic assistant. Captain Luthar is more selfish than brave. Logen Ninefingers is a barbarian of unparalleled infamy, though right now, he’s just trying to survive. These four are on a collision course that is certain to be bloody and treacherous.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Twenty-three enemies-to-lovers titles that turn rivalry to romance

Amanda Prahl is a freelance writer, playwright/lyricist, dramaturg, teacher, and copywriter/editor. At PopSugar she tagged twenty-three favorite enemies-to-lovers titles that turn rivalry to romance, including:

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

"ACOTAR" has built such a massive fan base in part because it scratches so many genre itches: romance, fantasy, and yes, of course, enemies-to-lovers. Loosely inspired by the classic enemies-to-lovers tale of "Beauty and the Beast," Sarah J. Maas's illustrious modern series is sure to keep you turning the pages.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five titles featuring monstrous men

Heather Parry is a Glasgow-based writer and editor, originally from South Yorkshire. Her debut novel, Orpheus Builds a Girl, was shortlisted for the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award and longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. She is also the author of a short story collection, This Is My Body, Given For You, and the non-fiction book, Electric Dreams: On Sex Robots and the Failed Promises of Capitalism. Parry lives in Glasgow with her partner and their cats, Ernesto and Fidel. Her second novel, Carrion Crow, will be published in 2026.

At CrimeReads the author tagged five "books that continue to inspire me for their bold, unflinching ways of looking at the monstrous man, both the real and fictionalized versions of him." One title on the list:

Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

It is quite an achievement to write a book that gets so perfectly into the mind of a monster that it remains widely misunderstood even seventy years after its initial publication—and an even bigger achievement to write that novel in your third language.

A story purporting to be a tale of love and romance, written from the perspective of a child abuser about the child he abused, Lolita struggled to find a publisher and, when it was released, in France, it was called “sheer unrestrained pornography” by the editor of a British newspaper. The British Home Office was told to seize all imported copies; it was banned in several countries. By the time it was published in the US, in 1958, it’s notoriety was firmly cemented. It has sold fifty million copies since then.

Lolita is a book despised and adored in equal measure, and for the same thing: for its ability to channel the mind of a terrible man. The novel is relentless in its perspective, offering nowhere for the reader to run. They are Humbert Humbert, for three hundred and thirty six pages; they are forced to look at Delores through the eyes of a man who has the most inexcusable, abominable desires.

And by reading the book they are forced to confront the existence of such men, as well as the harm they do. Few books change culture, and even fewer manage to do so while being beautifully written; it is to Nabokov’s immense credit that the opening lines of a book about a paedophile are some of the most widely quoted, even today.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

Lolita appears on Catherine Steadman's list of six top books with unreliable narrators, Leo Benedictus's top ten list of evil narrators, Juno Dawson's best banned books list, Jo Nesbø's six favorite books list, Emily Temple's list of ten essential road trip books that aren’t On the Road, Olivia Sudjic's list of eight favorite books about love and obsession, Jeff Somers's list of five best worst couples in literature, Brian Boyd's ten best list of Vladimir Nabokov books, Billy Collins' six favorite books list, Charlotte Runcie's list of the ten best bad mothers in literature, Kathryn Williams's list of fifteen notable works on lust, Boris Kachka's six favorite books list, Fiona Maazel's list of the ten worst fathers in books, Jennifer Gilmore's list of the ten worst mothers in books, Steven Amsterdam's list of five top books that have anxiety at their heart, John Banville's five best list of books on early love and infatuation, Kathryn Harrison's list of favorite books with parentless protagonists, Emily Temple's list of ten of the greatest kisses in literature, John Mullan's list of ten of the best lakes in literature, Dan Vyleta's top ten list of books in second languages, Rowan Somerville's top ten list of books of good sex in fiction, Henry Sutton's top ten list of unreliable narrators, Adam Leith Gollner's top ten list of fruit scenes in literature, Laura Hird's literary top ten list, Monica Ali's ten favorite books list, Laura Lippman's 5 most important books list, Mohsin Hamid's 10 favorite books list, and Dani Shapiro's 10 favorite books list. It is Lena Dunham's favorite book.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eleven festive mystery titles for the holidays

Sabienna Bowman is a Digital News Editor at People magazine, where she has been working since 2023. She previously worked at PopSugar, Bustle and Scarymommy.

She tagged eleven festive mystery books that are to die for this holiday season, including:

The Mistletoe Murder Club by Katie Marsh

Clio, an actress-turned-struggling-PI, is elated when she's cast in her local Christmas pantomime, but when the director is murdered on opening night, she'll have to focus not only on her performance, but on solving a murder as well. Her solution? Bring in her two best friends to assist her on the case — while also playing a cow in the show. The Mistletoe Murder Club is a perfect cozy mystery, especially if you're on the hunt for a book that's as funny as it is clever.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue