Five books about the myths and realities of how to pull a heist

Matthew Quirk's new novel is The Directive.

One of the author's five recommended books about the myths and realities of how to pull a heist, as shared at The Daily Beast:

Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan

Hogan brought new life to the bank heist genre with a heavy shot of realism, both social and criminal. He writes with ease and an understated mastery of the ways of both FBI agents and blue-collar criminals: Bearcat scanners, b-packs, and morning glories. I used to live in Boston, and I’m a sucker for the local color. At the end of the opening heist, I could practically feel my feet sinking into the grimy sand of Revere Beach.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Also see the Barnes & Noble Review's list of five top books on heists.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight great YA novels involving characters who struggle with mental illness

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog, Dahlia Adler tagged eight great YA novels involving characters who struggle with mental illness, including:

Wild Awake, by Hilary T. Smith

Kiri is a music prodigy with a summer of freedom ahead of her, a huge competition to prepare for, and a potential romance with her best friend to pursue…until she gets a phone call about her dead sister that sets her on a new, uncontrollable path. Smith has masterfully crafted Kiri’s downward spiral and intensely growing obsession, and the journey back into self-awareness is a slow and painful and beautiful one to watch. Definitely a worthwhile read that’ll stick with you long after the final page.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Writers Read: Hilary T. Smith.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eleven scary fictional diseases

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Joel Cunningham tagged fictional maladies that will keep you up at night, including:

Mass infertility (Children of Men, by P.D. James)

Imagine throwing a big party in a house set to be demolished. Anything goes, right, because it’s not like you or anyone else is going to be accountable for the cleanup? Now imagine a global party, and no one is worried about cleanup because there will never be another baby born. That is probably not a party you’d want to attend. Activities to include: mass riots, raping and pillaging, and existential angst.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Children of Men is on John Mullan's list of the ten most notable New Years in literature, Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders's list of the twelve most unfaithful movie versions of science fiction and fantasy books, Ben H. Winters' list of three books to read before the end of the world, and John Sutherland's list of the five best books about the end of England.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six of the most faithful book-to-film adaptations

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Matt Kraus tagged six famous books with extremely faithful film adaptations, including:

No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy may be one of the most cynical writers working today, making his books an ideal fit for the Coen Brothers, creators of such films as Blood Simple, Fargo, and The Big Lebowski. Their Oscar-winning adaptation of McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men deserves every ounce of acclaim it gets, but many filmgoers likely don’t know just how much of the screenplay was lifted right from the pages of McCarthy’s novel. When asked about their writing process for the film, Joel Coen joked in a 2007 interview with The Guardian that “one of us types into the computer while the other holds the spine of the book open flat.” Some tweaking is always necessary, and the film makes one major character’s fate ambiguous where McCarthy is much more plain, but there are long stretches where the book and film feel like identical experiences. This is true right to the very end, as both conclude with retired sheriff Ed Tom Bell recounting a dream about his father.

Read about the other entries on the list.

No Country For Old Men is among Allegra Frazier's five favorite fictional gold diggers, Kimberly Turner's ten most disturbing sociopaths in literature, and Elmore Leonard's ten favorite books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top books of the English moor

At the Guardian William Atkins's tagged ten top books of the English moor...ie, not counting three of the more famous books in that tradition, RD Blackmore's Lorna Doone, Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles and Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. One title on the list:

Remains of Elmet by Ted Hughes

For Hughes himself, growing up in what was then the West Riding of Yorkshire, Tarka "gave shape and words to my world". In this volume of poetry he returns to the valleys and moors of his Calder Valley youth, reviving the land's myths and histories, and his own boyhood memories. In the volume's early editions his poems are accompanied by Fay Godwin's monolithic black-and-white photographs of the valley and its surmounting hills. She and Hughes shared with Emily Brontë a vision of these moors as not merely ruinous and bone-strewn, but places of transcendence – "a stage for the performance of heaven".

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top teen books adults shouldn't resist

One title from Kirkus Reviews' list of ten top teen books adults shouldn't resist:

NEVER ENDING
by Martyn Bedford

An English teen can't stop blaming herself for her brother's death.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Page 69 Test: Never Ending.

--Marshal Zeringue

The ten best books for fans of "The Twilight Zone"

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Becky Ferreira tagged the ten best books for fans of The Twilight Zone, including:

The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman

Again, The Forever War is basically a Twilight Zone episode extended into a novel. It's the gritty, heart-wrenching story of an intergalactic war started on shaky grounds and drawn out over millennia. A harrowing read at times, but one you'll be glad you started.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Forever War made Emily Stamm and Charlie Jane Anders's list of the ten best science fiction stories where humans are the villains and Charlie Jane Anders's list of the 12 greatest science fiction war stories.

--Marshal Zeringue

Bob Mould's six favorite books

Bob Mould is an American musician, singer-songwriter, producer, and DJ. An original member of the influential 1980's band Hüsker Dü, he released several albums after the band separated, including Workbook, Body of Song and Life and Times as well as Sugar's legendary album Copper Blue. His memoir is See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody. One of Mould's six favorite books, as shared at The Week magazine:

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs

To my then 17-year-old eyes, this book was a revelation. The characters, the horrors, the comic tragedy... I couldn't put it down; I had to consume it in one sitting. Everything I thought I knew was instantly wrong after I'd seen the world through the twisted prism of William Lee.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Naked Lunch is among John Mullan's ten best drug experiences in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

The top fifteen male characters in Jane Austen's novels

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Melissa Albert ranked, "in ascending order from cads to dreamboats, [fifteen of the] romantic leads (and wannabes) of Austen’s brilliant books." Number one on the list:

Captain Frederick Wentworth (Persuasion)

Hot captain alert! One must forgive Wentworth’s initial cruelty to Anne Elliott when they meet again after an eight-year parting—only a man still in love would be so unkind to the woman who jilted him. Though a thoughtless flirtation with Louisa Musgrove throws a crook in the path of his and Anne’s reunion, it’s only a matter of time before he forgives her persuadability and writes her a passionate love letter, putting his neck on the line for a second jilting. But Anne’s no fool (not twice, anyway): she claims her brave, sexy captain while the claiming’s good.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Persuasion is among Yiyun Li's six favorite novels, Joanna Trollope's six best books, Paula Byrne's ten best Jane Austen characters, Marjorie Kehe's list of ten perfect books for Valentine's Day gifts, Howard Jacobson's 5 favorite literary heroines and top ten novels of sexual jealousy, Elizabeth Buchan's top ten books guaranteed to give comfort during the ending of a relationship, and appears on John Mullan's list of ten of the best concerts in literature.

The Page 99 Test: Persuasion.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten boarding school stories

Murder Most Unladylike, the first book in Robin Stevens's Wells and Wong Mysteries series, will be out in the UK on June 5th, 2014, and in the US in spring 2015. One of the author's top ten boarding school stories, as shared at the Guardian:

Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey

Josephine Tey is an unsung hero of detective fiction's Golden Age. Technically, I think she's one of the best crime writers ever to put pen to paper – her books are brilliantly plotted, intensely atmospheric and excellently written. This book is set in a sixth form college just before exams, and the hothouse atmosphere is almost unbearably claustrophobic. Everyone is terrifyingly unhappy and on edge (they have been taught, like all good boarding school girls, that failure in exams means FAILURE IN LIFE). But then someone is accused of cheating – and a body is found on the gym floor… This is my all-time favourite crime novel, a perfect portrait of the darkest side of boarding school life.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Mary Beard's six best books

Mary Beard is professor in classics at Cambridge and classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement. Her books include The Roman Triumph and The Fires of Vesuvius.

One of Beard's six best books, as shared at the Daily Express:

WHITE TEETH by Zadie Smith

It’s amazing to think that this elegant, intricate, accomplished and witty novel was Smith’s first book. It’s one of the best ever explorations of race and migrant identities in Britain – and teeth are a surprising linking theme.

Read about the other entries on the list.

White Teeth is on John Mullan's list of the ten most notable New Years in literature, Melissa Albert's list of five notable--and ambitious--debut novels and Nigel Williams's list of ten of the best books about suburbia.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven of the worst fictional kids to babysit

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Sara Jonsson tagged seven of the worst fictional kids to babysit, including:

Eloise (Eloise, by Kay Thompson)

You need a very healthy imagination to keep up with Eloise. You also need to know the ins and outs of the Plaza Hotel, or she will run you ragged. Not only is she more self-possessed and worldly than you in many ways, she also does not care for one second what people think of her. She will use her 6-year-old’s stature to disappear into a crowd of adults, and you won’t find her again until she returns to the hotel room to put Skipperdee to bed.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue