Five great travel books about places you may never go

Alina Simone is the author of the novel Note to Self.

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Simone tagged five great travel books about places you may never go, including:

The Ridiculous Race, by Steve Hely and Vadi Chandrasek.

In 2008, two future 30 Rock writers made a bet: whoever could circumvent the globe first without the use of airplanes wins a rare bottle of scotch and the lifelong right to yell Booyakasha! The pair set off in opposite directions, catching rides on shipping freighters, Mongolian ponies, and (almost!) an actual jetpack in Mexico. Whereas many “stunt” books have trouble sustaining readers’ interest once the novelty wears off, Hely and Chandrasek’s willingness to forge into the unknown, the exotic, and the just plain gross proves eminently, well, engrossing. Let them drink fermented horse milk!

Read about the other books on the list.

Writers Read: Steve Hely (July 2008).

Writers Read: Vali Chandrasekaran (July 2008).

--Marshal Zeringue

Fifteen books with memorable fathers

At the Christian Science Monitor Weston Williams tagged fifteen books with memorable dads, including:

Empire Falls, by Richard Russo

Miles Roby, a manager of the Empire Grill in a small town in Maine, is the loving father of a teenage girl nicknamed "Tick." In order to get through life in Empire Falls, Miles and Tick must stick together against all odds by interacting with a cast of all sorts of colorful characters in town, including Miles' ex-wife.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top eight siblings in literature

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Becky Ferreira tagged the eight best siblings in literature, including:

The Brothers Karamazov (The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky)

It’s hard to think of a set of literary siblings with more sharply drawn philosophical differences. Dmitri, the eldest, is a pleasure hound just like his old man. The middle child, Ivan, is a Spock-level logician, and the youngest, Alexei, is deeply spiritual and well-liked. Though it is never confirmed, it’s implied that sociopath Pavel is the illegitimate fourth Karamazov brother. Only Dostoevsky could write a novel with such dark themes, and somehow leave us with a sliver of hope at the end.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Brothers Karamazov made Alexandra Silverman's list of four famous writers who spent time in jail, Paul Murray's top ten list of wicked priests in fiction, James Runcie's top ten list of books about brothers, and is one of the top ten works of literature according to Norman Mailer.

Also see: Gwyneth Rees's ten top books about siblings and Will Eaves's top ten siblings' stories.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight books perfect for reality TV fiends

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog, Rebecca Jane Stokes tagged eight books perfect for reality TV fiends, including:

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

You know it, you love it, and you’ll totally agree—this one is the real life version of Survivor. Minus Jeff Probst, plus several ridiculous outfits and the murder of small children at the behest of a totalitarian government.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Hunger Games also appears on Chrissie Gruebel's list of favorite fictional fashion icons, Lucy Christopher's top ten list of literary woods, Robert McCrum's list of the ten best books with teenage narrators, Sophie McKenzie's top ten list of teen thrillers, Gregg Olsen's top ten list of deadly YA books, Annalee Newitz's list of ten great American dystopias, Philip Webb's top ten list of pulse-racing adventure books, Charlie Higson's top ten list of fantasy books for children, and Megan Wasson's list of five fantasy series geared towards teens that adults will love too.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten feminist books

Rachel Holmes's new book, Eleanor Marx: A Life, is a biography on the daughter of Karl Marx.

One of her top ten books on the struggle against gender-based inequality, as shared at the Guardian:

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (1856)

Publication in France prompted an obscenity prosecution. The novel was first translated into English by Eleanor Marx in 1886, the same year she published The Woman Question from a Socialist Point of View. Emma Bovary haunted Tussy: "She is foolish, but there is a nobleness about her too. She is never mercenary … her life is idle, useless. And this strong woman feels there must be something to do – and she dreams … In all literature there is perhaps nothing more pathetic than her hopeless effort to 'make herself in love'."

Read about the other books on the list.

Madame Bovary is on Jill Boyd's list of six memorable marriage proposals in literature, Julia Sawalha's six best books list, Jennifer Gilmore's list of the ten worst mothers in books, Amy Sohn's list of six favorite books, Sue Townsend's 6 best books list, Helena Frith Powell's list of ten of the best sexy French books, the Christian Science Monitor's list of six novels about grand passions, John Mullan's lists of ten landmark coach rides in literature, ten of the best cathedrals in literature, ten of the best balls in literature, ten of the best bad lawyers in literature, ten of the best lotharios in literature, and ten of the best bad doctors in fiction, Valerie Martin's list of six novels about doomed marriages, and Louis Begley's list of favorite novels about cheating lovers. 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. It is one of John Bowe's six favorite books on love.

--Marshal Zeringue

The six best Hemingway novels, ranked

Nancy W. Sindelar's new biography is Influencing Hemingway: The People and Places That Shaped His Life and Work. At Publishers Weekly she ranked the six best Hemingway novels.

Number one on the list:

The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway’s first novel is at the top of my list because it reflects his reliance on his traditional Midwestern values as he encountered new experiences and values in post-World War I Europe. Using friends and acquaintances that populated the cafes along Boulevard Montparnasse in Paris, he reveals his concern about the valueless life of these Lost Generation characters and begins his personal and literary search for meaning in what appears to be a godless world. In the midst of their heavy drinking and meaningless revelry during a fiesta in Spain, Pedro Romero, the matador, becomes a hero. He conducts himself with honor and courage, and it is here we see the beginnings of what will become the Hemingway Code.

The book also tops my list because it reveals Hemingway’s courageous attempt to write in a new and different way by portraying the bad and the ugly as well as the beautiful. Though The Sun Also Rises was well received by the critics, it was not well received by Hemingway’s acquaintances who saw themselves portrayed as self-indulgent, alcoholic and sexually promiscuous in his unflattering, but honest, characterizations. Nor was it well received by his mother, who said he had produced “one of the filthiest books of the year.”

Read about the other books on the list.

The Sun Also Rises is on Chris Pavone's list of five books that changed him, Sara Jonsson's list of seven of the best literary treatments of envy, Simon Akam's top ten list of the most attractive women in literature and John Mullan's list of 10 of the best taxis in literature. It came in at #6 on the American Book Review list of the 100 best last lines from novels; it is a book that Andre Dubus III frequently returns to.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven funny books that funny dads of all stripes will appreciate

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Molly Schoemann-McCann tagged seven "funny books that funny dads of all stripes will appreciate," including:

For the Dad Who Has Seen Things: Dad is Fat, by Jim Gaffigan

Jim Gaffigan and his wife went and had five young children in a two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan, and somehow he lived not only to tell the tale, but to sit down and write a book about it. And what a book—Dad is Fat is a hilarious, insightful, and yes, heart-warming look at parenting from the perspective of a comedian and family man who has been in the trenches of childrearing. Best of all, Gaffigan manages to be funny while keeping it clean—and when it comes to experiences we share with parents, keeping things g-rated is always an added bonus. (Remember the time you accidentally took your folks to see Eyes Wide Shut because you thought it was a musical comedy? I rest my case.)

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Three top books on Afghanistan

At the Guardian, Pushpinder Khaneka named three of the best books on Afghanistan. One title on the list:

The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi

In a bare room in a war zone, a woman nurses her comatose husband, who has a bullet lodged in his neck.

The jihadist fighter was injured in a spat about honour rather than in battle.

The nameless woman has been abandoned by her family and left to care for him and two young daughters alone.

While tending to her husband, she begins to reveal grievances and confide long-buried secrets to the unconscious man. Emboldened by his silence, her outpourings become ever more shocking as she rails against men, war, marriage and God.

The fighting taking place outside – gunfire, explosions and screams are heard – intrudes from time to time.

The wounded husband becomes her patience stone of Persian legend. The magic stone – to which "you confess everything … you don't dare tell anyone" – absorbs all your secrets, until one day it explodes and sets the confessor free from torment.

Rahimi's haunting, beautifully written and extraordinarily powerful novella lifts the veil on the harsh lives of Afghan women.

The novelist and film-maker fled Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation and sought asylum in France. For this – his fourth – novel, he chose French over his native Dari. It won the Prix Goncourt, France's top literary prize.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Also see: Five top books about the struggle for Afghanistan; Top ten books on Afghanistan; Five top books on foreigners in Afghanistan; Five books on Afghanistan; and Five best books about Afghanistan.

--Marshal Zeringue

Twelve books with the most irresistible titles

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Joel Cunningham tagged twelve books with the most irresistible titles, including:

The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin

I didn’t really read any sci-fi before I got to high school, when one of my teachers let me choose my extra credit reading from a stack of books in her cabinet. I had no idea what this was about, but as soon as I saw the title on its spine, I was sold.

Read about the other books on the list.

The Left Hand of Darkness is among Damien Walter's top five science fiction novels for people who hate sci-fi and Ian Marchant's top 10 books of the night. Charlie Jane Anders included it on her list of ten science fiction novels that will never be movies.

--Marshal Zeringue

John Green's six favorite coming-of-age books

John Green's books include the best-selling novel, The Fault in Our Stars.

One of the author's six favorite coming-of-age books, as shared at The Week magazine:

Sula by Toni Morrison

Morrison won the Nobel Prize in literature the same year that I read Song of Solomon in a high school English class. I loved that novel so much I read Sula (and Beloved) for fun that summer. The friendship between Sula and Nel transformed the way I thought about love and gender.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books that changed Richelle Mead

Richelle Mead is the author of the Vampire Academy series. One of five books that changed her, as shared with the Sydney Morning Herald:

The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel

I think what was most extraordinary about this book was that my mother let me read it (and its increasingly graphic sequels) when I was nine years old. That might have been a bit too young for some of the sex and violence, but it was the perfect age to be reading a tale of a young girl surviving in the wilderness. All the other books of that nature I'd found had male heroes, so it was empowering to see a girl battling the elements and taming cave lions.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

The ten best recordings of poets

Richard Carrington and Andrew Motion set up the Poetry Archive, a continually expanding online audio library of poets reading their own work. One of Motion's ten favorite recordings in the collection:

"Filling Station"
Elizabeth Bishop, 1965

When I started reading poems seriously in the mid-1960s, the general view of contemporary American poetry was that Robert Lowell was driving the bus, John Berryman was wandering up and down the aisle, and Elizabeth Bishop was sitting quietly at the back. But quietness can turn out to be loud – or resonant anyway, and now by common consent, Bishop is in the driving seat. Her recitation of Filling Station – self-deprecating, nearly throwaway – tells us a great deal about her late style. And for all its modesties it is absolutely mesmeric and authoritative.

Read about--and listen to--the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue