Neil Pearson's six best books

The actor (Bridget Jones's Diary, Fever Pitch) and author Neil Pearson named his six best books for the Daily Express.

One title on the list:

A Moveable Feast
by Ernest Hemingway

Like Orson Welles, Hemingway never equalled the beginning of his career except here. A collection of essays about the time he spent in the Paris of the Twenties, the book sighs with love for the city, for the people he knew there and heartbreakingly for the person he used to be. Hemingway committed suicide before the book was published.

Read about the other books on Pearson's list.

A Moveable Feast made Diana Souhami's top ten list of "books about Paris and London lesbians in the early 20th century" and Laura Landro's five best list of books about travel; it is a book to which Russell Banks always returns.

--Marshal Zeringue

Neil Cross' literary top ten

Neil Cross' latest novel in the UK is Captured. A previous novel, Burial, releases in the US in March. From his literary top ten at Pulp.Net:

Book I Finished Reading but Wanted My Time Back Afterwards

No contest. American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis. Corrupted, self-important nonsense smothered in blubber. The skeleton of a fine novella — something with the potential length and stature of Heart of Darkness. As it is, American Psycho continues a steady cultural decline — from controversy, through the alternative canon, to kitsch. The only book in the history of publishing that might conceivably have been improved by a Reader’s Digest Condensed Edition.

Read about the other nine items on Cross' list.

American Psycho appears on Nick Brooks' top ten list of literary murderers and on Chris Power's list of his six top books on the 1980s.

Check out which fictional character who Cross says most resembles him.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top 10 boxing books

Markus Zusak's novels for younger readers have won numerous awards and one, The Book Thief, has become a worldwide bestseller. One of his books, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, which was originally published in 2001, has been reissued in the UK.

He named his ten favorite boxing books for the Guardian.

One title on the list:

Fat City by Leonard Gardner

I have such a clear memory of one seemingly glib moment in this novel. It's when the young boxer, Ernie Munger, is given instructions between rounds. He nods his head and "listens to none of it". This book is acknowledged by many as one of the great books about boxing, desolation, and just getting by in the disaster areas sitting just left and right of the American dream.

Read about the other books on the list.

Gerald Haslam nominated Fat City as the Great California Novel.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six essential rock fiction reads

For Flavorpill, Tobias Carroll named "six rock-n-roll novels that feature rock stars and wedding bands, local scenes and world tours, and inspiration both creative and personal — a primer of what the rock novel can address."

One book on the list:

Blake Nelson, Girl

Andrea Marr, the narrator of Blake Nelson’s 1994 Girl, dwells on the fringes of Portland’s indie rock scene. Girl follows her through most of high school, paralleling her search for an identity with the evolution of a band formed by her classmates. Much like Meno’s Hairstyles of the Damned, Nelson uses his setting to touch on issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality, never losing sight of music’s appeal, but also remaining honest about its limitations for inspiration.

Read about the other novels on the list.

Writers Read: Blake Nelson.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the best horrid children in fiction

For the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best horrid children in literature.

One entry on the list:

The Parsons children

In Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four, Parsons is Winston Smith's neighbour, a man utterly loyal to the Party. His paternal affections are rewarded when his children betray him to the authorities for thought-crimes revealed when he talks in his sleep. (They are resentful because he wouldn't take them to a public execution.) He is proud of their infant allegiance to the state.

Read about the other horrid children on the list.

Nineteen Eighty-four is #7 on a list of the 100 best last lines from novels. It disappointed Neil deGrasse upon re-reading. The book made Daniel Johnson's five best list of books about Cold War culture, Robert Collins' top ten list of dystopian novels, Gemma Malley's top 10 list of dystopian novels for teenagers, is one of Norman Tebbit's six best books and one of the top ten works of literature according to Stephen King, and appears on John Mullan's list of ten of the best rats in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jackie Collins' six best books

Author and former actor Jackie Collins named a six best books list for The Week magazine.

One title on the list:

The Godfather by Mario Puzo

This is another book I reread every couple of years. Mario Puzo creates a tapestry of Mafia life that’s so rich and brilliant the characters jump off the page and become part of your life. Puzo’s writing is vibrant and timeless. The movie The Godfather is a classic; so is the book that it’s based on.

Read about the other books on Collins' list.

The Godfather also made Collins' 2008 five best list of literary guilty pleasures. George Pelecanos re-read it and was disappointed.

--Marshal Zeringue

Alton Brown's five best cookbooks

Alton Brown, a Food Network host and commentator, and author of Good Eats: The Early Years, named a five best list of cookbooks for the Wall Street Journal.

One title on the list:

Ratio
by Michael Ruhlman
Scribner, 2009

"Proportions form the backbone of the craft of cooking," Michael Ruhlman says. "When you know a culinary ratio, it's not like knowing a single recipe, it's instantly knowing a thousand. Here is the ratio for bread: 5 parts flour : 3 parts water." In "Ratio," Ruhlman emphasizes "the simple codes behind the craft of everyday cooking," bringing a simple clarity to making everything from sausage to vinaigrette. Forget about teaspoons, ounces, cups and (shudder) fractions; it's all about the "parts." This is a refreshing, illuminating and perhaps even revolutionary look at the relations that make food work.

Read about the other cookbooks on Brown's list.

Also see: T. Susan Chang's 10 best cookbooks of 2009, the Independent's ten best list of children's cookbooks, and Kate Colquhoun's top 10 unusual cookbooks.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top 10 books written by librarians

The Reading Copy Book Blog posted a top ten list of books written by librarians.

One title on the list:

Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

An ex-librarian AND bookseller, Petterson’s novel was one of the NY Times’ books of the year in 2007.

Read about the other books on the list.

Out Stealing Horses was one of the 20 most loaned books in Norway's libraries in 2008.

Read Ray Taras' review of Out Stealing Horses.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten literary stepmothers

Sam Baker, author of the novels Fashion Victim, This Year's Model, and The Stepmother's Support Group, named a top ten list of fictional stepmothers for the Guardian.

One character on the list:

Emelia in Love and Other Impossible Pursuits by Ayelet Waldman

William, the five-year-old boy cum "very small 62-year-old man" at the heart of Ayelet Waldman's story is the real hero, but you can't help but be moved by Emelia's struggle to learn to love him, as she copes with the death of her own baby and the resentment of his (now pregnant) mother. Flawed, self-absorbed, grieving and guilt-ridden, Emelia may not be especially likeable – but her battle to love another woman's child lies at the heart of most step-relationships.

Read about the other stepmothers on the list.

Visit Ayelet Waldman's website.

The Page 69 Test: Love and Other Impossible Pursuits.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books about: the Super Bowl

From The Barnes & Noble Review -- one of five books about the Super Bowl:

The Catch: One Play, Two Dynasties, and the Game That Changed the NFL
by Gary Myers

The 1980s dynasty of the San Francisco 49ers was founded on one incredible catch (see the book cover at left) with 51 seconds left in a game against the Dallas Cowboys -- who experienced their own long reign of dominance put to a sudden end by the same play. Making this moment his keystone in a study of a changing game, Myers brings to light the long-term effects of the catch on players, teams, and the whole world of pro football.

Read about the other four books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five best novels set in the British-colonial East

Janice Y. K. Lee was born and raised in Hong Kong and graduated from Harvard College. A former features editor at Elle and Mirabella magazines, she currently lives in Hong Kong.

Her new novel The Piano Teacher, is now available in paperback.

For the Wall Street Journal, she named a five best list of novels set in the British-colonial East. One title on the list:

Sea of Poppies
by Amitay Ghosh
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008

Amitay Ghosh uses a vast and vibrant canvas for "Sea of Poppies," the first in a trilogy that is still being written. Set in the years before the Opium Wars in the mid-19th century, when Britain was making a fortune from poppy crops in India, the story opens in the port city of Calcutta and brings together characters that include a low-caste giant who runs away with a widow; a mulatto sailor with "skin the color of old ivory"; and Paulette, a French orphan. These people will meet as they gradually make their way to the Ibis, a triple-masted schooner that is being prepped to take indentured workers to Mauritius, off the African coast. Ghosh revels in the joy of language—"as chuckmuck a rascal as ever you'll see: eyes as bright as muggerbees, smile like a xeraphim"—but he is also a splendid storyteller. In the last pages, the Ibis is being tossed by a mighty storm, the characters growing desperate. I was desperate, too, for the next book.

Read about the other books on Lee's list.

Janice Y. K. Lee's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Piano Teacher.

--Marshal Zeringue

John Bowe's six favorite books on love

John Bowe is the editor of the new book, Us: Americans Talk About Love.

For The Week magazine, he named his six favorite books on the subject. One classic on the list:

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

When it comes to love, we think we’re playing chess; really, we’re riding bumper cars. The way Flaubert explores the limits of cherished notions like “romance” and “freedom” couldn’t be more modern, touching, or scary. Emma Bovary’s plight forces us to ask, “Is there anything going on here greater than our own vanity?”

Read about the other books on Bowe's list.

Madame Bovary is also on Valerie Martin's list of six novels about doomed marriages, Louis Begley's list of favorite novels about cheating lovers, and John Mullan's list of ten of the best bad lawyers in literature. It tops Peter Carey's list of the top ten works of literature and was second on a top ten works of literature list selected by leading writers from Britain, America and Australia in 2007.

--Marshal Zeringue