Seven titles in which obsession is the plot

Emily Haworth-Booth teaches at the Royal Drawing School and is an illustrator, graphic novelist, and the author of three children's books: The King Who Banned the Dark (short-listed for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the Carnegie Medal for Illustration, and the Klaus Flugge Prize), The Last Tree, and Protest.

Mare is her debut adult novel. She lives in Devon with her husband, dog, and several horses.

At Electric Lit Haworth-Booth tagged seven books, written by women, in which obsession is the plot. One title on the list:

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori

When Keiko begins her job at the convenience store she becomes what she most wants to be: “a normal cog in society.” Not only has the store supplied her with a personality, a purpose, and a behavioural code in the form of the store manual, it is literally the stuff she is made of: “When I think that my whole body is made up of food from this store, I feel like I’m as much a part of the store as the magazine racks or the coffee machine.” She thinks of the store on her days off; she even dreams of it at night. When the novel begins, Keiko has been working at the convenience store for 18 years. What follows, as the events of the novel threaten to dismantle her obsession, is not the whimsical comedy we might expect from a story set in a supermarket, but a provocative investigation into societal pressure.

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

Convenience Store Woman is among Sarah Maria Griffin's seven titles that turn the workplace into a nightmare, Eliza Browning's ten novels about resisting productivity culture and Anne Heltzel's seven books about women who refuse to fit in.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six horror titles where the setting itself is evil

Mary Berman is a Philadelphia-based writer. She earned her MFA in creative writing from the University of Mississippi, where she was a Graduate Excellence Fellow, and she also holds a BA in writing seminars from Johns Hopkins University.

Her short works have been published in Cicada, PseudoPod, Fireside Magazine, and elsewhere.

Until Death is Berman's debut novel.

At CrimeReads the author tagged "six horror novels where the place is the problem." One title on the list:

Giorgio de Maria, The Twenty Days of Turin

This 1977 Italian novel, detailing a “phenomenon of collective psychosis” in the gothic city of Turin, is packed to the gills with ambitious, weird, bizarre imagery that chills the bones. A mysterious Library that eerily foreshadows social media; mass insomnia; people killed by someone picking them up by the ankles and smashing them into trees; anonymous letters from a man whose stairwell is filling with human excrement and trash; a man with a dried-up lake inside of him, and he can see bas-reliefs on the bottom, and they fills him with terror and dread.

De Maria’s Turin is the truest kind of horror setting there is, both haunted and doing the haunting. And the mass psychosis of the citizenry underscores a fact that we—thanks, Internet—now know only too well. De Maria knew it too. “What is shared can never be unshared.” In fact, it can haunt you.

Read about the other entries on Berman's list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top novels of sisterhood

Rachel Mills is Director and literary agent at Rachel Mills Literary.

She is a regular contributor across UK media, including The Telegraph, Front Row, The Times and as a columnist for the Bookseller.

Her new novel is The Players Club.

At Lit Hub Mills tagged seven novels featuring some of her favorite fictional sisters. One title on the list:

White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht

This is the most powerful story about two Korean sisters separated during Japanese occupation in WW2—Hana is taken to Japan and forced to become a comfort woman, meanwhile Emi left behind grows up and spends her life searching for her lost sister. The sisters are bonded not only by blood—they are haenyeo, the remarkable free diving women who can hold their breath and reach incredible depths in the ocean to catch fish. Alongside the heartbreaking testament to what many Korean women faced in the war, I read it as a story of how sisters need each other to keep their family’s sacred wisdom alive—the skill of diving, like so many skills, is passed down only through the female line.

Read about the other novels on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven novels about dysfunctional (but charming) families

Jessika Bouvier is a queer Cajun writer. Her work appears in The Rumpus, Waxwing, HAD, Split Lip, and elsewhere. She is currently writing a novel about a friendship that falls apart in the Alaskan wilderness. She is also a founding editor of Chatterbox!, a journal dedicated to longform fiction.

At Electric Lit Bouvier tagged seven "family portraits [that] are full of chaos and sometimes sadness, but also deep love." One title on the list:

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

For some friends, I am the only writer they know, which generally means I am also the only reader they know. That means I’m called upon as Book Recommender often, and Girl, Woman, Other is one of my staple suggestions. It’s an immersive book with equal parts seriousness and levity. There is something for everyone here. A novel-in-stories, it offers a window into the lives of 12 Black British women, ages spanning from their teens to well into their nineties. Though not all of the main cast meet on the page, they are almost all interconnected in some way—as mothers, daughters, aunts, mentors, friends, lovers. (For the curious, search engine results will reveal maps hand-drawn by readers who’ve gone through the trouble of sorting all the links.) The novel tackles several thorny topics through an intersectional lens: feminism, immigration, racism, sexuality, class, and gender identity, though these hardly scratch the surface. But the characters are not always victims. In an interview about the novel, Evaristo explained that the inclusion of “Other” in the title refers, yes, to how they’re othered by society, but also sometimes by one another. For me, this book encapsulates the full meaning of family, because it includes community as part of its working definition.

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

Girl, Woman, Other is among Erin O. White's five novels that showcase queer domesticity, Emma Specter's thirteen notable feminist books, Sarah Davis-Goff's six top books about women working together, Ore Agbaje-Williams's seven books featuring very, very complicated friendships, Cecile Pin's seven novels featuring displacement in multicultural London, and Kasim Ali's nine top books about interracial relationships.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven bad mom books

Tracy Lynne Oliver is a writer based in Los Angeles. She has been published online at a variety of places such as Medium, Fanzine, and Occulum. She co-authored the graphic novel, The Sacrifice of Darkness, with Roxane Gay. Her story, “This Weekend” was included in Best Microfiction 2019.

Her new book, Magician, is "dark magic debut novel featuring the Boy who becomes the Magician and the villainous Mother whose sadism might end it all."

At The Nerd Daily Oliver tagged seven notable bad mom books, including:

Carrie by Stephen King

I would like to think (or hope) that most everyone has seen the 1976 movie, “Carrie” based on the debut novel by Stephen King. (Or perhaps it’s just my SK fanaticism that leads me to assume this.) Even though I was only eight years old when the movie was released, I know I must have watched it as–having no knowledge of menstruation–I’ll never forget being thoroughly confused by the shower scene. With the blood, flying tampons and pads along with the teenage girl chants of “Plug it up! Plug it up!” it all felt very puzzling and a bit scary.

The movie’s impact on my juvenile self, eventually led me to pick up the novel hoping to get some insight into why Margaret White, Carrie White’s mother, was so cruel to her. Her abuse going as far as wanting to (spoiler alert!) murder her. The novel drops plenty of traumatic tidbits about Margaret’s childhood that sow the seeds of how she grew into the religious fanatic that would come to regularly lock Carrie in the “prayer closet” to atone for whatever manufactured “sin” she assumed her daughter had made. The disturbing depiction of a mother laying her own issues on the mind and body of her daughter obviously made an impact on my young psyche.

Read about the other books on the list.

Carrie is on Amy Engel's list of five top titles in the complicated literature of daughters & mothers, Lizzy Barber's list of five of the most chilling extreme religion believers in fiction, Katie Lowe's top ten list of books about angry women, Jo Jakeman's list of the ten best revenge novels, Ania Ahlborn's list of ten of the scariest books of all time, Jeff Somers's list of the five worst mothers in literary history, Becky Ferreira's list of six of the most memorable bullies in literature, Julie Buntin's list of favorite literary kids with deadbeat and/or absent dads, Gregg Olsen's top ten list of deadly YA books, and James Dawson's top ten list of books to get you through high school.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight top dystopian and post-apocalyptic novels

Matt Harry's novels include Sorcery for Beginners, which was optioned for television by Boatrocker Media (Palm Royale). He has edited over 25 novels, created two immersive plays, and taught hundreds of students in creative fields. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two sons, all of whom (thankfully) like to read.

Harry's new novel is Ash Land.

At CrimeReads the author tagged his eight favorite end-of-the-world stories. One title on the list:

Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven

This is the loveliest, most hopeful novel on the list. Like The Stand, most of humanity dies from a virus. Unlike The Stand, the survivors don’t form marauding gangs or murder each other. They put on plays. The main characters travel the Michigan countryside, performing Shakespeare for small farming villages. Their motto is “Survival Is Insufficient,” which should be a clarion call for all of humanity.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

Station Eleven is among Alice Martin's six thrillers that feature contagions & pandemics, Rebecca Fallon's five top Shakespeare-inspired novels, Lauren Wilson's eight top books featuring cults, Barnaby Martin's seven titles featuring parents & children at the end of the world, Brittany K. Allen's ten books that get the theatre world right, Jeanette Horn's nine twisted novels about theatrical performers, Isabelle McConville's fifteen books for fans of the post-apocalyptic TV-drama Fallout, Joanna Quinn's six best books set in & around the theatrical world, Carolyn Quimby's 38 best dystopian novels, Tara Sonin's seven books for fans of Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, Maggie Stiefvater's five fantasy books about artists & the magic of creativity, Mark Skinner's five top literary dystopias, Claudia Gray's five essential books about plagues and pandemics, K Chess's five top fictional books inside of real books, Rebecca Kauffman's ten top musical novels, Nathan Englander’s ten favorite books, M.L. Rio’s five top novels inspired by Shakespeare, Anne Corlett's five top books with different takes on the apocalypse, Christopher Priest’s five top sci-fi books that make use of music, and Anne Charnock's five favorite books with fictitious works of art.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five great family-centered crime titles

Jamie Canaves is a contributing editor at Book Riot. She tagged five great family-centered crime books, including:

Salt Bones by Jennifer Givhan

The mystery: Mal’s sister disappeared years ago in high school, which remains an unsolved case. Now Mal’s coworker has disappeared, and she won’t be the last…

The family: Mal is one of four siblings. Her sister Elena disappeared in high school. Her older brother Esteban is now going by “Steve” as he throws himself into political life, and her younger brother is a police officer. Her family has never recovered from what happened to her sister, and her relationship with her mother is especially strained. Add to that Mal’s two daughters, who have never learned who their real father is.

Read about the other titles on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five titles featuring strangers crossing paths in unexpected ways

Ilona Bannister is the author of three novels, When I Ran Away, Little Prisons, and the newly released Five.

[Q&A with Ilona Bannister; The Page 69 Test: When I Ran Away]

At Lit Hub the author tagged five novels that

involve strangers crossing paths in unexpected ways. They are about what happens when people who don’t know each other are suddenly entangled in one another’s lives. But they are also about the chance experiences that connect us to each other and change us, sometimes for a moment. Sometimes forever.

One title on the list:

Strangers on a Train, Patricia Highsmith

The master of stories about chance encounters between strangers was undoubtedly Patricia Highsmith. Her unnerving 1950 classic, which became a Hitchcock film, is about two strangers who meet on a train and decide to exchange murders. Bruno will kill Guy’s wife, if Guy will kill Bruno’s father. It’s the perfect crime, because neither man will have a connection to the other, so the police won’t suspect them.

This dark psychological thriller about guilt, obsession, truth and morality arises out of just a single conversation between strangers who happen to sit next to one another. It will make you think, and look at your next subway ride a little differently.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Strangers on a Train is on Jamie Kornegay's five notable novels with criminals covering their tracks, Jeff Somers's top five list of timeless old-school thrillers, Stella Gonet's six best best books, Lars Iyer's top ten list of literary frenemies, and John Mullan's list of ten of the best railway journeys in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight titles that break the silence around suicide

Rocky Callen is a critically acclaimed author and passionate mental health advocate. Her novel, A Breath Too Late, was born out of her own experiences with depression, domestic violence, and suicidal ideation. She was a co-contributing editor to the Ab(solutely) Normal: Sixteen Stories that Smash Mental Health Stereotypes. She’s a frequent speaker and panelist about art and mental health. She founded The HoldOn2Hope Project, an initiative that unites creatives in suicide prevention.

At People magazine Callen tagged eight "books [that] grapple with mental health, grief, and suicide with honesty." One title on the list:

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

This novel imagines a library between life and death where alternate lives unfold. It gently challenges the allure of “what if,” revealing beauty within limitation and offering hope through the radical idea that an ordinary life can still be meaningful. A philosophical, accessible meditation on regret and possibility.

Read about the other titles on the list.

The Midnight Library is among Tobias Madden's seven books that take you places, Mark Skinner's twenty-five best time travel books and twelve great novels set in a bookshop or library, and Clare Mackintosh's top ten books with “What if?” moments.

--Marshal Zeringue

Twelve titles about losing perspective in Los Angeles

Luke Goebel is an American novelist, screenwriter, producer, and publisher.

He is the author of Fourteen Stories, None of Them Are Yours, winner of the Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize, and the novel Kill Dick.

He co-wrote the films Causeway and Eileen, starring Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway; for Causeway, Brian Tyree Henry received an Academy Award nomination.

At Electric Lit Goebel tagged twelve books about losing perspective in Los Angeles. One title on the list:

Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha

Real violence, the kind that Your House WIll Pay is concerned with-–specifically the shooting of a Black teenager in the early 1990s (echoing the real-world killing of Latasha Harlins)—is different from the fictive unrest and ultraviolence essential to the LA novel. Different from the fun and games of Pynchon or the riot-as-trope of LA literature that stretches back even before the riots we all know off the top of our heads. YHWP is about how the past resurfaces as fever pitch. Underneath are years of violence that never leave, never go anywhere. This LA doesn’t disappear, it gets glossed over by soundbytes. Steph Cha understands the way people look at each other beyond what they say. There’s less performance here, and no escape hatch. This novel isn’t about LA erasing you through illusion or ambition, it’s about how LA uses sleight of hand in POV when it comes to race and inequality.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Your House Will Pay is among Addison Rizer's eight top revenge thrillers, the thirteen most essential Los Angeles books of mystery or crime, Jordan Harper's three top novels in the new L.A. crime canon, Erin E. Adams's seven titles that use mystery to examine race, María Amparo Escandón's eight books about living in Los Angeles, Alyssa Cole's five top crime novels that explore social issues, Sara Sligar's seven California crime novels with a nuanced take on race, class, gender & community, and Karen Dietrich's eight top red herrings in contemporary crime fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five historical romance books set in France

At Book Riot Julia Rittenberg tagged five historical romance titles set in France, including:

A Caribbean Heiress in Paris by Adriana Herrera

Luz Alana is the heiress of a rum business from the Dominican Republic, looking to expand into France. She arrives in Paris in 1889 during the Exposition Universelle (famously when the Eiffel Tower went up). She meets and quickly begins verbally sparring with James Evanston Sinclair, a Scottish whiskey brand owner. They’re both looking to start over, and are somehow stuck together.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six thrillers that sit with discomfort and ethical ambiguities

A confirmed Francophile, Michael Cowan taught writing at UCLA School of Law, sang professionally, argued and won a case before the California Supreme Court, had two songs published, co-owned a dairy manufacturing business, and became the general counsel of two major corporations. Born and raised in Buffalo, NY, Cowan attended Amherst High School, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Michigan Law School. Father of three and grandfather of four, he lives in Los Angeles with his wife and their eccentric rescue dog Percie.

Cowan's new novel is John B. Peoples.

At CrimeReads he tagged six favorite thrillers that sit with discomfort and ethical ambiguities. One title on the list:

John Grisham, A Time To Kill

This novel is next on my list because, as in [Robert Traver's] Anatomy Of A Murder, it includes a temporary insanity defense. To be clear, I am not saying that John Grisham was thinking about or even borrowing from Anatomy of a Murder when he wrote A Time To Kill. Even if he was, there is no copyright on a novel including a temporary insanity defense. A Time To Kill might even be in part an homage to the earlier novel. After all, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

A Time To Kill has a “happy ending” in the sense that the black man who killed the two white men who had raped his ten-year-old daughter is eventually exonerated by the white jury. However, after reading the book, one is left horrified by the level of racial hate and violence that is portrayed in the book and that persists to this day.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue