Eight historical thrillers with macabre medical themes

Tonya Mitchell is the author of The Arsenic Eater’s Wife, an historical true crime Gothic mystery set in 1889 Liverpool. Her debut historical novel, A Feigned Madness, won the Reader Views Reviewers Choice Award and the Kops-Fetherling International Book Award for Best New Voice in Historical Fiction.

Mitchell's latest novel is Needle and Bone, "a gothic tale of guilt, vengeance, and a girl’s fight to reclaim her soul from the shadows."

At CrimeReads the author tagged "eight novels with medical themes at their core with gothic twists you’d expect from a subgenre steeped in the creepy." One title on the list:

Bridget Collins, The Silence Factory

Arguably the most bizarre book on the list, The Silence Factory is a speculative tale with a wholly original premise. In it, Collins spins a tale of spider silk imbued with unusual powers.

When Dr. Henry arrives at Carthmute House to treat Philomel of her deafness, he uncovers a magic breed of spiders whose silk can both silence and amplify sound—yet neither is innocuous. As Henry’s mental state deteriorates, he discovers dark family secrets, corruption, and odd magic he can’t explain.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five novels of existential shipwreck

Peter Mann is the author of the novels The Torqued Man (2022) and World Pacific (2025). A longtime resident of San Francisco, he grew up in Kansas City, went to Wesleyan University, and got a PhD in Modern European history before becoming a novelist and a cartoonist.

[Q&A with Peter Mann; The Page 69 Test: The Torqued Man]

At The Strand Magazine Mann tagged "five great, albeit wildly different, novels that explore the theme of existential shipwreck and the drama of staying afloat." One title on the list:

The Sot-weed Factor by John Barth (1960)

This is the greatest comic historical novel ever written. Barth takes the historical seed of a minor early American poet who in 1706 wrote a satirical poem about the then backwater colony of Maryland, and grows it into a sprawling picaresque and bildungsroman, about the misadventures of one Ebenezer Cooke, self-proclaimed virgin and self-appointed poet laureate. We join the poet, along with his spineless servant Bertrand and enigmatic tutor Henry Burlingame, as he travels to the American colony to reclaim his father’s estate and earn his place in the literary pantheon. Naturally, all manner of intrigue and perversion intervenes to throw our hero’s plans overboard and disabuse him of his criminal innocence—literal shipwreck, piracy, buggery, bestiality, Papist skullduggery, Indian uprisings, and the love of a pox-ridden prostitute, to name just a few. Add to this the McGuffin of a secret historical diary by John Smith relating how he once harnessed the tumescent properties of eggplant to woo Pocahantas and you have the makings of a masterpiece.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Fourteen top music memoirs

At GQ (UK edition) Brit Dawson and Josiah Gogarty tagged over a dozen of the best music memoirs, including:

My Name is Barbra by Barbra Streisand

There are few showbiz lives as monumental as Barbra Streisand’s, and at just under 1,000 pages, My Name is Barbra’s formidable length proves it. But if you can get to grips with that page count, the book has endless rewards: first of which is reminding us that, though she’s a canonical star today, Streisand’s ascent was rocky, with a mocking stepfather and countless professional rejections to hurdle. Her petty delight at exposing all those doubters – and some of her less-than-gentlemanly romantic partners – is a lot of fun, as are all the encounters with other stars as her career develops.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top fantasy novels that blend genres

Veronica Lancet is a doctoral student by day and an author of dark, epic love stories by night. She loves to tread the line between right and wrong, exploring the many shades of morality through flawed heroes, forbidden desires, and the razor-thin edge between love and obsession.

Lancet's new novel is Fairydale.

At The Nerd Daily she tagged seven of the "best fantasy novels that masterfully blend genres." One entry on the list:

The Cabot Sisters series by Teresa Medeiros

Vampires. Regency gowns. Snappy banter. Need I say more? The Cabot Sisters is a deliciously underrated historical paranormal romance series that delivers both humor and heat. Teresa Medeiros writes with charm and heart, and this series is no exception. It’s witty, whimsical, and wonderfully romantic. If you’re craving a little supernatural sparkle in your historicals, this is the perfect fix.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six novels featuring women reclaiming their power & taking revenge

Katie Collom grew up in Mazatlan, Mexico, and is a life-long expat and world traveler. She spent four years in Texas and has carried a piece of it with her ever since. Currently, she resides in York, England, with her husband and three cats.

Collom's new novel is Peter Miles Has to Die.

At CrimeReads she tagged six novels for fans of “Goodbye Earl” by The Chicks; that is, novels that prove "that vengeance can come in many forms—sometimes it’s subtle, sometimes not so much—but there’s always a sense of satisfaction at seeing women take control." One title on the list:

Out by Natsuo Kirino

Kirino’s fantastic novel is centered around four women living in Tokyo who work the night shift at a box lunch factory. When one of them murders her abusive husband, she turns to the rest for help covering up the crime. What follows is a gritty tale about female friendship, misogyny in Japanese culture, and the lengths women go to for some semblance of control over their own lives. One of my favorite aspects of the book is its portrayal of violence inflicted by women instead of against them. It flips gender stereotypes in a way that is both shocking and unforgettable.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Out is among Emily Temple's top ten books about outsiders for teenage girls.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten psychological thrillers with explosive family secrets

Claire Douglas is the Sunday Times number-one bestselling author of eleven stand-alone novels, including The Sisters, Local Girl Missing, Last Seen Alive, Do Not Disturb, Then She Vanishes, Just Like The Other Girls, The Couple at No. 9, The Girls Who Disappeared, The Woman Who Lied, and The Wrong Sister.

[Writers Read: Claire Douglas (December 2017)]

At The Strand Magazine she tagged ten "favourite psychological thrillers with explosive family secrets." One title on the list:

THE FAMILY GAME by Catherine Steadman

A rollercoaster ride of a thriller about Harriet, newly engaged to the heir of a powerful family, Edward Holbeck. When she goes to visit them she is drawn to the family, who seem welcoming and happy about their impending marriage. But when Edward’s father, Robert, gives Harriet a tape of a book he’s been working on, she’s shocked that it’s actually a confession to an horrific crime. A murder. Is this just a ploy from Edward to test Harriet’s loyalty to the family or is there something much darker going on?

Read about the other thrillers on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine titles about female friendship in every decade of life

Michelle Herman's latest book is the essay collection If You Say So. Her books include three earlier essay collections – The Middle of Everything, Stories We Tell Ourselves, and Like A Song – as well as four novels (Missing, Dog, Devotion, and Close-Up), the novella collection A New and Glorious Life, and a book for children, A Girl’s Guide to Life.

At Electric Lit Herman tagged "a list of books in which it’s friendship that matters most, in every decade of a woman’s life." One title on the list:

Ladies’ Lunch and Other Stories by Lore Segal

No round-up of books about women’s friendship would be complete without this one by Lore Segal. Brilliant, witty, fierce, full of surprises, this book was published a year almost to the day before her death, in 2024, at 96. (Full disclosure: Lore Segal and I were longtime friends.) If you don’t know her work, I urge you to read all of it, but there’s no reason not to start with this final collection, most of which is about a group of friends, now in their 90s, who’ve been close for decades. They meet regularly for lunch, where they tell each other everything. “We are the people to whom we tell our stories,” one of them tells the others. And so, when they can no longer meet in person, they talk on the phone and over Zoom—they persevere. As Lore Segal did.

Read about the other books on Herman's list at Electric Lit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight thrillers with beach & jungle settings

Jo Morey is a graduate of the Faber Academy and the Curtis Brown Mentoring Scheme. The manuscript for Lime Juice Money was awarded the 2023 Claire Mannion Literary Endeavour Prize, came runner-up in the Cheshire Novel Prize, and was shortlisted for the Primadonna Prize, the Plaza First Pages Award and Killer Nashville's Claymore Award in the literary category. Morey lives in West Sussex, England at the foot of the South Downs with her husband, two boys, and two Portuguese Water Dogs.

Lime Juice Money is her first novel.

[The Page 69 Test: Lime Juice Money]

At CrimeReads Morey tagged eight favorite thrillers with beach and jungle settings, including:

Alex Garland, The Beach

The Beach by Alex Garland is arguably the ultimate backpacker classic. When it was first published, I was on a two-year trip around the globe and remember reading it on the beach on Gili Trawangan, Indonesia. Every other person was reading it too, and everyone was talking about it.

Set in Thailand, The Beach charts a young backpacker, Richard’s search for a legendary, idyllic and hidden island beach untouched by tourism. The paradise he finds here soon starts to unravel into a Lord of the Flies hallucinatory hellfest.

This one also features in Lime Juice Money and two of my characters bond over its “tropical horror.” A true literary thriller.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

The Beach appears on Ivy Pochoda's lit of five books that dive into the drug-fueled darkness of the club scene, Andrea Bartz's list of seven psychological thrillers for White Lotus fans, Lucy Clarke's top ten list of books about castaways, Hephzibah Anderson's list of eleven previously hip books that have not aged well, S J watson's list of six novels that could only take place at the seashore, Cat Barton's top five list of books on Southeast Asian travel literature, Kate Kellaway's ten best list of fictional holidays, Eleanor Muffitt top 12 list of books that make you want to pack your bags and trot the globe, Anna Wilson's top ten list of books set on the seaside, the Guardian editors' list of the 50 best summer reads ever, John Mullan's list of ten of the best swimming scenes in literature, and Sloane Crosley's list of five depressing beach reads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eleven green flag books

Certain books are a "red flag" -- they are a sign that you might not want to date the person who has them on display. The staff at GQ (UK edition) and some literary friends tagged a few green flag books -- books that indicate the reader may have more positive qualities. Josiah Gogarty's contribution to the list:

The best books are at least a little bit unhinged, and you want a dash (not too much) of the same spirit in a relationship. Save us, please, from the mediocre Hinge dates who are still stuck on the bland “sad girl lit” on special displays at Waterstones. Patricia Lockwood’s pyrotechnic memoir Priestdaddy, about her dad who’s also a priest (he became a Catholic after having kids), is suitably deranged: very funny and very emotional – and sometimes at once, just like infatuation should be.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Priestdaddy is among Tom Perrotta's six favorite funny books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books to explain the weirdest parts of religion to non-believers

Molly Worthen is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a freelance journalist. She received her BA and PhD from Yale University. Her research focuses on North American religious and intellectual history. Her most recent book, Spellbound (2025), is a history of charisma as both a religious and a political concept from the Puritans to the Trump era. Apostles of Reason (2013) examines American evangelical intellectual life since 1945, especially the internal conflicts among different evangelical subcultures. Her first book, The Man On Whom Nothing Was Lost (2006), is a behind-the-scenes study of American diplomacy and higher education told through the lens of biography.

[Writers Read: Molly Worthen (November 2013); The Page 99 Test: Apostles of Reason]

At Shepherd Worthen tagged five of the "best books to help a secular person understand the weirdest parts of religion," including:

A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken

I read this book during a very intense summer a few years ago when I was trying to figure out if Christianity could possibly be true, and how a nerdy secular academic like myself could even begin to ask that question.

I found a kindred spirit in Sheldon Vanauken. In this memoir set mainly in the 1950s, he tells the story of how he took a sabbatical from his teaching job at a little college in Virginia to go to Oxford with his wife. Neither of them was religious at the time. In fact, the first part of the book is a very intense (some might say: cloyingly sentimental) account of their romance, when they basically worshipped each other instead of a deity.

If you’re like me, you’ll want to shout “get a room already” and throw the book at the wall during the first few chapters. But I’m glad I stuck it out, because the story gets much more interesting once they get to Oxford and meet various smart, fun Anglicans, including C.S. Lewis.

Pretty soon, they realize that being a smart, fun Christian is not a contradiction in terms. They start investigating the claims of Christianity, doing a lot of reading, having late-night conversations with thoughtful Christians, and so on.

“The Holy Spirit is after you. I doubt if you’ll get away!” Lewis writes to Vanauken in a letter. I love how he captures the agony of a seeker, especially when he realizes that he’s reasoned his way to this awkward middle ground: sure, accepting Christianity would mean a leap of faith, but (it turns out) going back to his old worldview would be an even bigger leap, in the other direction. He’s on this little plateau between two chasms, and he has to make a choice because it’s crumbling fast.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven novels that prove writers can make the best protagonists

Megan Cummins is the author of the novel Atomic Hearts and the story collection If the Body Allows It, which was longlisted for the Story Prize and the PEN/Bingham Award. The managing editor of Public Books and an editor at large at A Public Space, she lives in New York City.

At Electric Lit Cummins tagged seven novels showing that writer-protagonists can be a tool of versatility in a novel. One title on the list:

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

It’s made clear at several moments in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale that the first-person narrator known to us only as Offred is offering the reader a story. (“Because I’m telling you this story I will your existence. I tell, therefore you are.”) We know from Offred’s telling that before her capture and conscription as a handmaid to one of Gilead’s “commanders” she worked in a library. She loved books when she was still allowed to have them. While perhaps not professionally a “writer,” Offred is certainly a storyteller with a literary sensibility, one whose voice the architects of Gilead are trying their hardest to silence. In the book’s epilogue, set in 2195 at an academic conference, a Professor Pieixoto of Cambridge University delivers a keynote address on the subject of his discovery and transcription of a collection of thirty cassette tapes found in a footlocker in what used to be Maine, which his partner academic has coined “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which is an intentionally vulgar pun on tail: “That being, to some extent, the bone, as it were, of contention, in that phase of Gileadean society of which our saga treats.”

Near the end of his keynote, Professor Pieixoto scolds Offred for not describing more of the “workings” of the Gileadean empire, or better yet, printing off pages from Commander Waterford’s computer. From this epilogue we learn, for certain, that Gilead has fallen; that Offred was able to record her story, and possibly make it as far as Maine in her escape; and that the world after the fall of Gilead is just as misogynistic, that the academics have little regard for their “anonymous author,” and that Gilead’s worldview was not eradicated, just made, once again, latent.

This postscript changes one’s reading of the pages before it, but to me Pieixoto’s callous critiques enhance the feeling that Offred’s voice is her own. She tells her story as she wishes, and as she is able in her circumstances to tell it. And in Offred’s time, as in our own, telling one’s story is an act of resistance.

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

The Handmaid's Tale made Max Barry's list of five top books that are secretly science fiction, Louisa Treger's top ten list of great boundary-breaking women of fiction, Claire McGlasson's top ten list of books about cults, Siobhan Adcock's list of five top books about motherhood and dystopia, a list of four books that changed Meg Keneally, A.J. Hartley's list of five favorite books about the making of a dystopia, Lidia Yuknavitch's 6 favorite books list, Elisa Albert's list of nine revelatory books about motherhood, Michael W. Clune's top five list of books about imaginary religions, Jeff Somers's top six list of often misunderstood SF/F novels, Jason Sizemore's top five list of books that will entertain and drop you into the depths of despair, S.J. Watson's list of four books that changed him, Shaun Byron Fitzpatrick's list of eight of the most badass ladies in all of banned literature, Guy Lodge's list of ten of the best dystopias in fiction, art, film, and television, Bethan Roberts's top ten list of novels about childbirth, Rachel Cantor's list of the ten worst jobs in books, Charlie Jane Anders and Kelly Faircloth's list of the best and worst childbirth scenes in science fiction and fantasy, Lisa Tuttle's critic's chart of the top Arthur C. Clarke Award winners, and PopCrunch's list of the sixteen best dystopian books of all time.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five essential thrillers perfect for the aspiring writer

Joy Fielding is the New York Times bestselling author of The Housekeeper, Cul-de-sac, All the Wrong Places, The Bad Daughter, She’s Not There, Someone Is Watching, Charley’s Web, Heartstopper, Mad River Road, See Jane Run, and other acclaimed novels.

Her new novel is Jenny Cooper Has a Secret.

[The Page 69 Test: Shadow Creek; My Book, The Movie: Shadow Creek; The Page 69 Test: Someone Is Watching; My Book, The Movie: Someone Is Watching; My Book, The Movie: The Bad Daughter; The Page 69 Test: The Bad Daughter; My Book, The Movie: All the Wrong Places; The Page 69 Test: All the Wrong Places; Writers Read: Joy Fielding (March 2019)]

At CrimeReads Fielding tagged "five of my favorite books – in no particular order – that have helped me in various way and that I would recommend for aspiring writers." One title on the list:

Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen

Carl Hiassen is one of those rare suspense or crime novelists for whom humor is the key ingredient. His novels, all of which are set in South Florida, and deal with varying degrees of crime and corruption, are full of laugh-out-loud funny shenanigans. Tourist Season was Hiaasen’s first book and my personal favorite, although I suspect this will apply to whatever book you read first because the plots are largely interchangeable and not all that important. What makes these books special are the characters that Hiaasen creates, a bunch of not-quite-believable but somehow all-too-real, one-of-a-kind creations that you delight in spending time with. He taught me that humor is key to likeability.

Read about the other titles on Fielding's list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight titles in which a party changes everything

Jackie Thomas-Kennedy’s debut novel, The Other Wife, was included in The New York Times list of “The Summer’s Best Beach Reads.” A former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, she is the winner of the 2019 Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize. Her work has been recorded for NPR’s Selected Shorts, and her stories have appeared in American Short Fiction, One Story, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. Her reviews have appeared in The Washington Post, Harvard Review, Star Tribune, The Millions, and on the Ploughshares blog. She has received fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MacDowell, Ucross, and Saltonstall. She holds an MFA in fiction from Columbia University School of the Arts.

At Electric Lit Thomas-Kennedy tagged eight books that use "a party’s celebratory chaos as a backdrop for something important, whether dramatic conflict or quiet realization, to brilliant effect." One title on the list:

Choose This Now by Nicole Haroutunian

Haroutunian’s collection of linked stories focuses on friends Taline and Valerie (“Tal and Val”) as they navigate college and the years that follow. In “Twenty-One,” the opening story, an egg strikes Val in the temple as she and Val make their way to a Halloween party, presaging more extreme events to come. Once they finally arrive, the festivities themselves take a surprising and violent turn that will haunt Val for years. Haroutunian’s precise, understated prose sets up the questions that expand in the fourteen stories that follow: what does it feel like to grow older, to mature? How do people grapple with ambition, both artistic and personal? How do the relationships of early adulthood evolve? How does one salvage the pleasure and wash away the rest? That last question is top of mind for Val in “Twenty-One” as she cleans her face: “I want to remove egg, retain glitter.”

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six titles where competitive parenting goes off the rails

Jennifer Jabaley is the award-winning author of Lipstick Apology and Crush Control. She won Georgia Author of the Year in the young adult category and was nominated for the Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award. Jabaley is a practicing optometrist. She brings sharp focus to eye care by day and to storytelling by night. She lives in the north Georgia mountains with her sports-obsessed family and two rescue dogs.

Jabaley's new novel is What's Yours Is Mine.

At CrimeReads the author tagged six novels that depict various worlds of cutthroat parenting. One title on the list:

Megan Abbott, You Will Know Me

This book explores inside a tightly knit community of gymnasts and their hyper-involved families whose lives revolve around their children’s athletic futures. This was the first book I read that demonstrated how parents become consumed with their children’s accolades outside of an academic setting.

Being that I spend a lot of time inside the world of high-pressure sports, this story spoke to me. It really encapsulated how parents will sacrifice everything—time, money, emotional stability—to support their children’s athletic success. In a world where every parent thinks their child is the best, tension and competition boil at every opportunity for playing time, recruitment, and scholarship opportunity.

This book revolved around gymnastics and the strive for the Olympics, but it could so easily take place inside of any athletic endeavor. Her dark, tense writing style effectively portrayed the stress simmering inside parents, praying for their kids to win.

Read about the other entries on the list.

You Will Know Me is among Zach Vasquez's seven top dark novels about motherhood and Alison Wisdom's nine coming-of-age stories about girls who do bad things.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven titles that explore the inner lives of animals

Case Q. Kerns is the author of Habitat (2025), a novel of interconnected narratives beginning in a near future New England and ending a century later. Originally from Buffalo, NY, he received a BS in Cinema & Photography from Ithaca College and an MFA from Emerson College where he served as fiction editor for the literary journal Redivider. His work has appeared in The Literary Review, The Harvard Review, and West Branch. He lives in Massachusetts with his family.

At Electric Lit Kerns tagged seven "books that engage with animals in different ways, probing their behaviors and our relationship to them, our sympathies for and atrocities against them." One title on the list:

An Immense World by Ed Yong

Of all the books on this list, Ed Yong’s exploration of animals’ senses brings me closest to the experience of communicating with them. Yong begins by imagining a human joining an elephant, mouse, robin, owl, bat, rattlesnake, spider, and mosquito in a room, and then describes the sensory experience of each animal. While all occupy the same space, their individual experiences highlight the different ways in which they sense an environment and alter our understanding of how they might feel.

An important distinction Yong makes concerning what we understand and don’t understand about animals’ behavior and senses is that while we may be able to discover, biologically, how an animal “reacts to what it senses,” we don’t know “how it feels.” In the chapter on “Pain,” Yong writes: “Imagine your entire body became delicate to the touch whenever you stubbed your toe: That’s a squid’s reality.”

For anyone seeking a better understanding of how animals experience the world—not how we experience animals in a vast network of ecologies making up a world that we think belongs to us but how they might feel—I can’t recommend An Immense World enough. It’s a wondrous journey.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

Five dark books for long summer days

Sara Ochs is an author, law professor, and avid traveler. Born and raised in Upstate New York, Ochs and her husband now split their time between the United States and Sweden.

When she’s not turning one of the many places she’s visited into the setting of her next thriller, she can usually be found trip planning.

Ochs’s debut novel, a thriller set on a remote Thai island, was published as The Dive in the UK and territories and as The Resort in the US.

[Q&A with Sara Ochs]

Her new novel is This Stays Between Us.

At CrimeReads Ochs tagged five "dark books that are perfect to balance out the cheeriness of summer." One title on the list:

ALL HER FAULT by Andrea Mara

The very first chapter of this addictive thriller by Andrea Mara begins with every parent’s worst nightmare: a mother turning up to a playdate to find her son missing. What unfolds is an intrinsically plotted web of secrets and lies that will leave you second guessing every single character. An underlying feeling of unease runs through the entire novel up to the very last page, and I stayed up racing through the pages well after the sun went down.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

The twenty-five best dystopian novels ever

At Entertainment Weekly Robert English and Kevin Jacobsen tagged the 25 best dystopian novels of all time. One title on the list:

The Wall by John Lanchester (2019)

Among the more contemporary dystopian literature is this suspenseful and satirical 2019 novel by John Lanchester. The Wall takes place on an island nation in a world ravaged by climate change, insulated from the widespread disaster by the titular Wall. Protagonist Joseph Kavanagh's role as a Defender on the island is to protect a section of the Wall from the Others, survivors looking to escape the rising seas on the outside. Suspenseful and timely, Lanchester's work is a compelling read of modern sociological issues seen through an affecting lens only the best fiction can achieve.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Wall is among Anne Charnock's five recent novels about climate catastrophe.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten great titles for fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid

At People magazine senior books editor Lizz Schumer tagged ten "books to read while we wait for [Taylor Jenkins Reid's] The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo movie adaptation," including:

The Education of Kia Greer by Alanna Bennett

As the daughter of a reality TV star, Kia has grown up under a media microscope. She would gladly give up the fame if it meant she could experience life as an ordinary teenager — go to parties, gossip with her friends, apply to college and make mistakes in private. Then she meets Cass, who’s his own kind of rising star, and now her first love has only pulled her deeper into the spotlight. Teenage romance is complicated enough without constant rumors and speculation. The pressure starts to take a toll, and Kia must decide what she wants for herself and what her choices might mean for their budding relationship.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven cozy mysteries that revolve around weddings

Valerie (V. M.) Burns is a mystery writer whose novels and short stories have been finalists for the Agatha, Anthony, Edgar, and Next Generation Indie Book Awards. She is the author of the Mystery Bookshop, Dog Club, RJ Franklin, and Baker Street Mystery series, as well as the Bailey the Bloodhound Mysteries under the name Kallie E. Benjamin. Burns is a member of Sisters in Crime, Crime Writers of Color, Mystery Writers of America, and the Crime Writers' Association. She is also an adjunct professor in the Writing Popular Fiction Program at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA. Born and raised in northwestern Indiana, Burns now lives in the southeastern United States with her two poodles.

Burns's new cozy mystery Icing on the Murder.

At CrimeReads the author tagged seven favorite wedding-themed cozies, including:

Jenn McKinlay, Wedding Cake Crumble (Cupcake Bakery Mystery)

The tenth book in the Cupcake Bakery Mystery series, Wedding Cake Crumble, Melanie Cooper, owner of Fairy Tale Cupcakes, is preparing for a wedding and a book signing. However, when the people hired to work at the wedding begin turning up dead, and the bestselling author is the next to bite the dust.

Mel needs to figure out how the murders are connected and why—before the killer brings the entire cupcake crew crumbling down.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top works of dieselpunk

K. W. Colyard is the author of the BNW-nominated “Those Who Forget and Those Who Perish,” which appeared in Seize the Press in 2022. Their fiction has also appeared in Clarkesworld and Diabolical Plots. They are currently working on a horror novel.

At Book Riot Colyard tagged five top works of dieselpunk, steampunk’s darker and dirtier cousin. One title on the list:

Empire State by Adam Christopher

Adam Christopher’s debut novel is the first entry in his “superhero-noir” duology. Set in an alternate version of Prohibition-era New York City, Empire State revolves around the story of the Skyguard. Once the superhero protector of Empire State, the Skyguard has been locked up by the ever-present police, who patrol the city in their ominous blimps. The day after his supposed execution, however, the Skyguard saves a private detective from being attacked by masked men. Has the superhero really avoided execution at the hands of the state? And what does his return mean for the people of Empire State?

Read about the other entries on Colyard's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books that explore the myths of sirens

Kalie Cassidy was born and raised in Southern California and spent over a decade working in LA as a professional theater actor, coach, and acting teacher. She now lives in Cleveland, Ohio with her two children and husband. She spends most of her time dreaming up new stories in her library, gardening, walking the nearby woods, and learning about “real” weather.

Cassidy's new novel is In the Veins of the Drowning.

At Lit Hub she tagged seven titles that explore the myths of sirens. One book on the list:

Emilia Hart, The Sirens

I loved Hart’s debut, Weyward, and waited impatiently for her sophomore novel about sisters separated by time but bound together by the sea. Unsurprisingly, it was worth the wait. The Sirens is a compelling mix of contemporary, historical, and speculative fiction told through multiple points of view, mysterious dreams, and magical revelations.

With one set of sisters on a convict ship set for Australia and the other managing haunting images, a strange skin condition, and stories of men going missing, I was utterly engrossed. And as always, Hart’s prose is immaculate.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books that show Pittsburgh is a perfect backdrop for drama

Anna Bruno is the author of Fine Young People and Ordinary Hazards. She teaches at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business and the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. Previously, Bruno managed public relations and marketing for technology and financial services companies in Silicon Valley. She holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, an MBA from Cornell University, and a BA from Stanford University. She lives in Iowa City with her husband, two sons, and blue heeler.

At Electric Lit Bruno tagged "seven books that show Pittsburgh is the best place to come of age—at any age." One title on the list:

Emily, Alone by Stewart O’Nan

Somehow Stewart O’Nan managed to burrow deeply into the psyche of an old lady for Emily, Alone. There is no character in fiction who feels more real than Emily Maxwell. She reads the newspaper, cleans before the housekeeper arrives, and waits impatiently for thank you notes from her grandchildren.

As Emily traverses Pittsburgh in her cobalt-blue Subaru Outback, I found myself on Google maps, tracing her routes around my hometown. Her journey ends when she leaves the city to visit the rural Pennsylvania outpost where she grew up. There, she finds the house of her childhood, restored to its original white with forest-green shutters, and her mother’s hydrangeas in full bloom. For the first time, she doesn’t wish to distance herself from the child she once was, proving that nobody is ever too old to come of age. Fortunately, Emily will be back this fall in O’Nan’s newest book, Evensong.

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

Emily, Alone is among Ben Schrank's six notable books on love, betrayal, and creative people who behave badly.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five thriller novels that grab you from page one

Ryan Pote is a twelve-year veteran Navy helicopter pilot who was part of a joint interagency special operations task force, deployed throughout Central and South America conducting counter narcotics. Before the Navy, he was a scuba diving instructor in Hawaii and a lab tech conducting algae-biofuels research. He holds a Masters degree in History from Ashland University. He lives with his wife and children in New England.

Pote's new novel is Blood and Treasure.

At CrimeReads the author tagged five thriller novels that grab you from page one. One title on the list:

Killing Floor by Lee Child

Jack Reacher, a drifter with no baggage, steps off a bus in a sleepy Georgia town and gets arrested for a murder he didn’t commit, sparking a brutal fight for survival.

Lee Child’s Killing Floor is like a punch you didn’t see coming. Reacher’s a towering, no-nonsense ex-military cop who walks into trouble like it’s his day job, and from the first page, you’re strapped in for a gritty, twisty ride. This is the kind of book that makes you miss your beach umbrella’s shade because you’re too busy flipping pages.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Killing Floor is among the Telegraph's twenty-three greatest thrillers ever written.

--Marshal Zeringue

Thirteen top feminist books

Emma Specter is the Culture Writer at Vogue, where she covers film, TV, books, politics, news and (almost) anything queer. She has previously worked at GARAGE and LAist and has freelanced for outlets including The Hairpin, Bon Appetit, them, the Hollywood Reporter and more. Her first book is More Please: On Food, Fat, Bingeing, Longing and the Lust for ‘Enough’.

Specter lives in Los Angeles. In her spare time, she shops for vintage purses and bakes a lot of bagels.

For Vogue she and her colleagues tagged thirteen feminist books that deserve a place on your nightstand. One title on the list:

Love Is an Ex-Country by Randa Jarrar (2021)

Driving cross-country solo is potentially one of the most empowering things a woman can do, and Jarrar gives a new and distinctive voice to the experience in this memoir about traversing America as a queer, Muslim, Palestinian Egyptian feminist determined to chart the course of her own story.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Also see Adrienne Westenfeld's fifteen feminist books that will inspire, enrage, & educate you.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten "Murderbot" read-alikes with just enough existential dread

At B&N Reads Margarita Polkowska tagged ten "Murderbot read-alikes with just enough existential dread." One title on the list:

Annihilation Aria: Book One of the Space Operas by Michael R. Underwood

A space opera that actually sings, this a fun albeit high-stakes adventure you don’t want to miss out on. It’s an action-packed, heartfelt romp through a highly-controlled galaxy where knowledge is forbidden and songs are — weapons.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight books featuring cults

Lauren Wilson has a degree in Journalism and an MA in Creative Writing, both from Northumbria University. She has previously worked as a freelance radio reporter, set up her own content writing and social media management business, and she currently works for Mslexia, a magazine committed to championing women’s writing.

The Goldens is her first novel.

At CrimeReads Wilson tagged her eight favorite books featuring cults. One title on the list:

The Project – Courtney Summers

In this dark and striking YA thriller, journalist Lo is determined to track down her older sister, Bea, who joined a group called The Unity Project after their parents were killed in a car accident. Lo is determined to both expose The Project for what she believes it really is – a sinister cult led by a charismatic leader – and save her sister at any cost. Told from the perspectives of both Lo and Bea, this is a hard-hitting read that explores both family and cult dynamics.

Read about the other books on Wilson's list at CrimeReads.

Also see Lisa Black's five books about cults, Kate Robards's five essential books about cults, Janice Hallett's five top books on cults, Melanie Abrams's seven novels about crimes in communes, cults, & other alternative communities, Joanna Hershon's seven darkly fascinating books about cults, Claire McGlasson's top ten books about cults, and Sam Jordison's top ten books on cults and religious extremists.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight novels about class & racial tensions in the suburbs

Kate Broad holds a BA from Wellesley College and a PhD in English from the CUNY Graduate Center. She is a Bronx Council on the Arts award winner for fiction, and her writing appears or is forthcoming in The Rumpus, No Tokens, The Brooklyn Review, and elsewhere.

Greenwich is her first novel.

At Electric Lit Broad tagged eight "novels about class and racial tensions in the American suburbs, each of them engrossing and unsettling, concerned with the powerful forces that shape a community. These are books about belonging, about insiders and outsiders, that ask how far we’ll go and how much we’ll risk in pursuit of the good life."

One title on the list:

Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan

New to suburban Long Island, Brooklyn transplant Gertie Wilde thinks she’s finally found an idyllic home for her family on Maple Street, especially thanks to her new friend and neighbor Rhea Schroeder. But when a sinkhole opens in the neighborhood and Rhea’s daughter falls in, Rhea turns against the Wildes in a frantic effort to protect her own reputation and find an easy target to blame. She hurls vicious accusations against Gertie’s husband, and things quickly escalate into a frenzied neighborhood witch hunt. Maple Street is majority white, and it’s clear the one Indian American family on the block had better get in line. But class in this novel is as much of a marker of outsider status as race, and the consequences for anyone who doesn’t fit in and follow the rules can be deadly.

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

Good Neighbors is among Katrina Monroe's nine terrible mothers in horror, Chris Cander's eight novels about dealing with difficult neighbors, and Amelia Kahaney's six top coming-of-age mysteries & thrillers.

The Page 69 Test: Good Neighbors.

My Book, The Movie: Good Neighbors.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top Civil War historical fiction titles

Rachel Brittain is a writer, Day Dreamer, and Amateur Aerialist. Her short fiction has appeared in Luna Station Quarterly, Andromeda Spaceways, and others. She is a contributing editor for Book Riot, where she screams into the void about her love of books. Brittain lives in Northwest Arkansas with a rambunctious rescue pup, a snake, and a houseful of plants (most of which aren’t carnivorous).

At Book Riot she tagged five "Civil War historical fiction books [that] provide some insight into what it was like for people at the time—to choose sides, to unlearn their own prejudices and misconceptions, and to question everything about what it means to be an American." One entry on the list:

The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris

When two brothers seek refuge on a farm in the wake of the Emancipation Proclamation, they kindle an unexpected friendship with the couple who take them in. The brothers save up money in the hopes of going North to reunite with their mother, even as they bring comfort to the grieving couple who lost their only son in the war. A pair of Confederate soldiers, meanwhile, take their tryst to the local woods. When their forbidden romance is discovered, the chaos and repercussions unleashed rock the entire community to its core.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books that feature toxic friendships

Christina Dotson is an Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award runner-up. In addition to writing, she is a licensed clinical social worker for a palliative care practice and lives in Kentucky.

Dotson's new novel is Love You To Death.

At CrimeReads she tagged "five books guaranteed to give you the toxic friendship vibes we love to see." One title on the list:

Jesse Q. Sutanto, I’m Not Done with You Yet

Competition, jealousy, obsession, and betrayal fuel this story of two toxic friends, Jane and Thalia, who meet in college and whose lives take very different paths after the duo lose touch. For Jane, life is a series of mundane events, including her marriage and career.

When she discovers Thalia on The New York Times bestseller list, Jane is determined to reunite with her former bestie and pick up where they left off, but this may not be the reunion either of them expects. Sometimes, reliving the past can have deadly consequences.

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

--Marshal Zeringue