Ten books to read after seeing "The Odyssey"

At People magazine Janey Wetzel and Lizz Schumer tagged ten Greek mythology retellings and other books to read after seeing The Odyssey. One title on the list:

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood

Hathaway’s character in the film, the devoted wife of the glorious Odysseus, Penelope silently waits for her husband to return from his epic journey. In this adaptation by the author of The Handmaid’s Tale, Penelope wanders the underworld, spinning her own version of events — a chronicle filled with lust, greed and murder.

Read about the other books on the list.

The Penelopiad is among Irena Smith's nine books with short but rich interior journeys and Paula Munier's eight top works informed by The Odyssey.

Also see Tanaz Bhathena's nine feminist myth and fairytale retellings to read after watching Christopher Nolan’s big screen adaptation of The Odyssey, Paula Munier's eight top works informed by The Odyssey, and Andrew Welsh-Huggins's five novels drawing inspiration from the Odyssey.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five romantic mysteries with "Happily Ever After" endings

Cara Tanamachi is the USA Today bestselling author of the Emma-Award Winning, The Takeover, and the Diverse Writers and Readers International romance book literary award winner, The Second You’re Single. She also writes under the name Cara Lockwood, and has written 38 books and counting, including I Do (But I Don’t), which became an original Lifetime Movie. She wrote the novelization of The Dater’s Handbook, a Hallmark movie starring Meghan Markle. She lives near Chicago with her spouse and blended family. Her new book is a rom-com murder mystery called Kiss, Marry, Kill.

[Q&A with Cara Tanamachi]

At CrimeReads the author tagged five romantic mysteries with "Happily Ever After" endings. One entry on the list:

Kate Posey, Serial Killer Games

Do you want to be a fly on the wall as a possible serial killer falls for his true-crime obsessed co-worker? This whirlwind trainwreck of a romance is dark (how would you like to get severed Ken doll parts wrapped in little boxes as sweet tokens of affection?), all set against the backdrop of the Paper Pusher who likes to shoves executives off the tops of office high rises.

This book has it all: sizzling chemistry, a real whodunit, and dark humor that had me laughing out loud. It’s like if The Hating Game and Silence of the Lambs had a baby. Trust me when I tell you, this book grabs you and doesn’t let go.

Read about the other titles on the list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five marvelous SFF books with older characters

At Book Riot Liberty Hardy tagged five great SFF novels centering older characters. One entry on the list:

The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee

When fifty-year-old samurai Isako’s client suddenly retires, that means it’s time for Isako to hang up her swords, too. Normally, a samurai walks into the frozen abyss, with their family being provided for after their death. But then Isako is offered one last job that she can’t pass on, because it involves her worst apprentice and secrets of corporate espionage that could forever alter humanity.

Read about the other titles on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six thriller titles for "Reacher" fans

Dhruv Sharma is a Lead Writer in Screen Rant's New TV division.

He tagged six "standalone crime thriller novels and book series from the genre [that] are as good as Jack Reacher, if not better." One entry on the list:

Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz

The Orphan X book series focuses on a former black-ops assassin, Evan Smoak, who uses his military experience and lethal skills to protect desperate people. Similar to Jack Reacher, Smoak operates as a highly capable lone operator who steps into dangerous situations where conventional law enforcement can’t effectively intervene.

However, what makes his endeavors even more immersive is the realism with which Hurwitz captures his high-tech prep and tactical logic in each mission. Interestingly, a TV adaptation of the Orphan X book series is also currently in the works. If executed well, the upcoming show could be as good as Prime Video's Reacher.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Orphan X series is among Brittany Bunzey's top ten cat-and-mouse thrillers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine feminist myth and fairytale retellings

Tanaz Bhathena is an award-winning Zoroastrian author of contemporary and fantasy fiction. Her young adult books include Hunted by the Sky, which won the White Pine Award and the Bapsi Sidhwa Literary Prize, and The Beauty of the Moment, which won the Nautilus Gold Award for Young Adult Fiction. Her acclaimed debut, A Girl Like That, was named a Best Book of the Year by numerous outlets including The Globe and Mail, Seventeen, and The Times of India. Her debut adult fantasy, Witch Daughter, will be published in fall 2026 by Grand Central.

At Lit Hub Bhathena tagged nine feminist myth and fairytale retellings to read after watching Christopher Nolan’s big screen adaptation of The Odyssey. One title on the list:

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Palace of Illusions

When it comes to retellings of Indian mythology, nothing for me has quite compared to this novel by Divakaruni. Set during the time of the great epic, the Mahabharata, the book focuses on Panchali (or Draupadi), a princess who marries five brothers, each embodying one of the five qualities she was looking for in a husband. Panchali is not without her flaws and rejects a worthy suitor simply because of the caste he was born into. That Divakaruni is able to make her protagonist sympathetic and showcase all her shades of gray talks to her remarkable skill as a writer.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Palace of Illusions is among Zen Cho's six SFF books about gods and pantheons.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books that books center the intimacy of our platonic bonds

Rebecca Chace is the author of five books: Talking to the Wolf (novel), Leaving Rock Harbor (novel), Capture the Flag (novel), Chautauqua Summer (memoir), and June Sparrow and the Million Dollar Penny (children's book). Her third play, Obit, will premiere in September 2026 at Theater for the New City (NYC). A regular contributor to The New York Times, her nonfiction essays have appeared in The Yale Review, New England Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, and other publications. Her fellowships include Civitella Ranieri, MacDowell, Yaddo, Dora Maar House, American Academy of Rome (Visiting Artist), among others. She is a Faculty Associate at Bard College Institute for Writing and Thinking.

At Electric Lit Chace tagged seven books that "explore the complicated, private heartbreak of losing a friend." One title on the list:

Ponti by Sharlene Teo

This novel is haunted by a glamorous mother who became a B-movie horror film star. What a great premise! The story is told from three points of view: the mother, her insecure, adolescent daughter, Szu—a social outcast at her school in Singapore—and Circe, the classmate who appears to be a fellow outcast despite her wealth and beauty. Szu’s distant, cruel mother and her Auntie now scrape by as mediums (though their psychic gifts are questionable, according to Szu). Circe becomes Szu’s “best friend” for better and worse. The novel has a gothic horror sensibility that echoes the campy film that made Szu’s mother famous, but the teenage friendship, with its complex cocktail of loyalty and betrayal, is utterly real.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top literary titles by Southern writers

Suzanne Van Atten is a columnist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

She tagged five "summer novels more substantive than your typical beach read," including:

How to Date a Fanatic by Aruni Kashyap

Rohit is a professor at Delhi University in modern-day India who lives in a bubble of like-minded queer academics in this new novel by Aruni Kashyap, an associate professor at the University of Georgia and director of the creative writing program. Obsessed by an unrequited love, Rohit seeks solace in relationships with other men. Meanwhile, religious and ethnic unrest mounts, to which Rohit remains oblivious until the growing movement of conservative extremism threatens his insulated world.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

The best science fiction titles of the century

The experts at Book Riot tagged the best science fiction books of the century (so far). One title on the list:

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

This has been a comfort read since I first read it almost 20 years ago. A story of two childhood friends who eventually took different paths: one went to school for witchcraft while the other pursued science. They are forever bound together by fate and the mysterious man who has followed them for years. They grow up, they make mistakes, they gain knowledge, and once again cross paths as adults in warring factions who find themselves fighting to save the world from destruction. I’ve always loved tales of science vs. magic and this is my favorite. Full disclosure: I’m friends with the author but read this long before we became friends.
- Patricia Elzie-Tuttle

Read about the other books on the list.

All The Birds in The Sky is among Akemi C. Brodsky's top ten novels about mad scientists, Jeff Somers's fifty science fiction essentials written by women, Nancy Kress's five best books with ambitious birds, and Laura Lam's five top books about futuristic California.

My Book, The Movie: All the Birds in the Sky.

--Marshal Zeringue

Karin Slaughter’s favorite dark and twisty books

Karin Slaughter is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty-five novels, including the Edgar nominated Cop Town and standalone novels Pretty Girls and False Witness. An international bestseller, Slaughter is published in 120 countries with more than 40 million copies sold across the globe. Pieces of Her, based on her novel, debuted at #1 worldwide on Netflix as an original series in 2022. Her bestselling thriller series, Will Trent, is now a television and streaming sensation in its 4th season. The Good Daughter will soon be a limited series starring Rose Byrne and Meghann Fahy, and further projects are currently in development for film/TV.

Slaughter's newest novel is The Secrets We Hide.

At Oprah Daily she tagged the seven thrillers she considers essential reading. One title on the list:

King of Ashes, by S.A. Cosby

The latest book from the award-winning crime writer is a Southern Noir family saga—two genres I am pulled towards in my own writing—with The Godfather vibes. King of Ashes follows Roman Carruthers, a charming and complicated Atlanta businessman, who returns to his oppressively small hometown to care for his ailing father. From the moment Roman returns to Virginia, things begin to unravel. His siblings are both a mess. The family business is falling apart. And there is an outsized debt that must be paid. This book is high-stakes from the very first pages. It’s dark, gritty, emotionally charged, and has incredible twists that all hinge on what people will do, or won’t do, to protect their family secrets. If this one doesn’t keep your heart pounding, then you might want to make sure that you still have a pulse.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top messy love stories

Alicia Upano was born and raised in Hawai‘i. She is the recipient of the Poets & Writers Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award Hawai‘i, the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, and a Bread Loaf-Rona Jaffe Scholarship. Her short fiction has appeared in The Massachusetts Review, The Southern Review, The Best Peace Fiction: A Social Justice Anthology, and more. After living in Asia and both U.S. continental coasts, she now resides on O‘ahu with her family.

Upano's debut novel is Everything to the Sea.

At Lit Hub the author tagged seven books that are "interested in romantic love as a process of transformation, not a terminus." One title on the list:

Mohsin Hamid, Exit West

This slim book is magical. Love blooms between Saeed and Nadia as civil war breaks out in their unnamed city. The stakes could not be higher, as Hamid writes as the novel opens, “[O]ne moment we are pottering about our errands as usual and the next we are dying.” In such a landscape, what are young lovers to do?

Exit West explores the tension between duty and independence, desire and convention, and how to move forward when the present is untenable. Our young lovers must leave their families and country, fleeing through the first of many doors as refugees. This novel highlights the refugee crisis, with sharp interstitials of global violence, while also grappling with the questions of any relationship that is no longer new: How do we change through every door we pass through? Have we passed through so many doors that we are no longer the people we were? Can we continue this journey together? And will you remember me, no matter how this journey ends?

Read about the other entries on the list.

Exit West is among Andrew Forrester's ten love stories for the romance reluctant, Forbes's thirty greatest dystopian books of all time, Ore Agbaje-Williams's seven top books featuring very complicated friendships, Gian Sardar's eight of the best novels about war-torn love, C Pam Zhang's top ten novels about moving and Helen Phillips's six notable novels involving alternate realities.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine top Southern Gothic novels

Lo Patrick is a former lawyer and current novelist living in the suburbs of Atlanta.

Her debut, The Floating Girls, earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly, was a finalist for the Townsend Prize for Fiction, and was a Reader's Digest Editor's Pick.

Patrick's newest novel is The Sins of Summer Daughters.

At People magazine the author tagged nine must-read Southern Gothic novels. One title on the list:

Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell

Nobody writes the hard edge of the South better, or poverty and isolation. Winter’s Bone is also an excellent example of the often warped trajectory of adolescence in some rural communities. Kids are asked to take on adult responsibilities, leaning on years of dysfunction as their preparation.

Read about the other novels on the list.

Winter's Bone is among Louisa Luna's four difficult women characters worth celebrating, Carl Vonderau's nine greatest moral compromises in crime fiction, Adam Sternbergh's six top crime novels that double as great literature and Lauren Passell's ten must-read books that take place in the Midwest.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight fantastic short SFF books

At Book Riot Liberty Hardy tagged “eight slim science fiction and fantasy novels you can read in one sitting." One entry on the list:

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark

This is an exciting dark fantasy about assassins and honor. Eveen the Eviscerator is a professional killer who skillfully carries out every job she is assigned. But when one job turns out to hit a little too close to home, she fails to complete it. Now she’s running from the people she used to work with, while trying to make sense of everything. (FYI, there are no dead cats in this book. They just liked the name.)

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue