Ten essential books of the American West

Alex Higley's new novel is Old Open.

One of the author's ten favorite books about the American West, as shared at Publishers Weekly:

The Works of Love by Wright Morris

I’m not sure if it was the accretion of mentions of Wright Morris by Michael Silverblatt on Bookworm over the years that caused me to seek Morris’s work out, or if it was that I stumbled across his photography while deep in a Robert Adams image search. Probably one of those two scenarios, or both, is the truth. When I finally did read Morris, The Works of Love, the experience was haunted. His interests and humor and his eye, all felt modern and deeply familiar to me. It was one of those instances where I felt reading the book, “I know this writer.” Here’s the opening: “In the dry places, men begin to dream. Where the rivers run sand, there is something in man that begins to flow. West of the 98th Meridian–where it sometimes rains and it sometimes doesn’t–towns, like weeds, spring up when it rains, dry up when it stops.”

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the unlikeliest SFF love stories ever told

Jeff Somers is the author of Lifers, the Avery Cates series from Orbit Books, Chum from Tyrus Books, and the Ustari Cycle from Pocket/Gallery, including We Are Not Good People. At the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy blog he tagged ten times sci-fi & fantasy went looking for love outside our species, including:

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers

There are several interspecies romances in Chambers’ delightful debut novel, including one between the nominal main character Rosemary and the reptile-like alien Sissix—who overcomes his distaste for the way humans smell—and a one-sided love affair between a technician and the AI that runs their ship. Chambers assumes that if you cram numerous sentient biological—and, er, non-biological—entities onto a ship together and send them on an extended trip across the stars, eventually, love will find a way. We have to agree.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books for getting a feel for the South Carolina Lowcountry

At MapQuest Travel Rebecca Robertson tagged five top books for getting a feel for the South Carolina Lowcountry, including:

Pawleys Island by Dorothea Benton Frank

Set in the "arrogantly shabby" setting of Pawleys Island in Georgetown County, this book with the same name follows Rebecca Simms after the dissolution of her marriage. Rebecca comes to the island to make a fresh start, but a cast of island characters changes her life once she's invited into their circle of friendship.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten novels about God

Neil Griffiths is the author of Betrayal in Naples, winner of Authors' Club Best First Novel, and Saving Caravaggio, shortlisted for the Costa Best Novel of the Year. His new novel is As a God Might Be. One of the author's ten top novels about God, as shared at the Guardian:

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The first “God is dead” narrative, and Ivan Karamazov is its storyteller. In the chapter Mutiny, he explains to Aloysha, his younger brother and novice monk, why he is returning his ticket to be present at the end of time when all those who have suffered are finally redeemed. Focusing on reports of the torture and murder of children with a kind of ecstatic glee, he asks Aloysha whether he himself would make a world that ends with universal love at the cost of a single child’s suffering. It is the question all believers must ask themselves and then live with the answer.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Brothers Karamazov made Becky Ferreira's list of the eight best siblings in literature, 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.

--Marshal Zeringue

The ten biggest bootlickers from literature and history

Deborah Parker is Professor of Italian at the University of Virginia. Mark Parker is Professor of English at James Madison University. They are coauthors of Inferno Revealed: From Dante to Dan Brown and Sucking Up: A Brief Consideration of Sycophancy.

One of their ten biggest bootlickers from literature and history, as shared at Electric Lit:

While the bargain struck by the sycophant — fleeting moments of vain gratification — often seems a losing proposition, the arrangement can at times have some advantage. In The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst presents a virtuoso suck- up in Nick Guest, a well-educated hanger-on in a rising conservative MP’s home. Hollinghurst brilliantly links Nick’s aesthetic sensibility to his abilities as a flatterer. Early in the novel Nick accompanies the family of a friend as they drive to a country estate. But while the family can be bored as they contemplate the visit, Nick is essentially on duty as resident sycophant. From the outside, one would be uncertain of Nick’s intentions. But upon arrival, Nick revels in the pleasures of an intense connoisseurship, tracing the beautiful surfaces of the estate, noting the details of its elegance and its rich evocation of architectural traditions. Nick is a flunkey but this seems the price of the ticket to the world of the rich and powerful. He savors the view, but he also relishes his intense response to it: Nick understands and enjoys what the family owns better than they do.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Line of Beauty is among Kwasi Kwarteng's top ten books about Thatcherism.

The Page 99 Test: Sucking Up.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ursula K. Le Guin's six favorite timeless novels

Ursula K. Le Guin is America's reigning queen of literary science fiction. Her new essay collection is No Time to Spare. One of the author's six favorite timeless novels, as shared at The Week magazine:

Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell

Gaskell's first novel, the tale of a working-class girl in Manchester during the Industrial Revolution, probably isn't her best, but I've not yet got through it without tears. It's so alive with indignation, sympathy, and compassion.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five of the best "Snow White" retellings

Sona Charaipotra is a New York City-based writer and editor with more than a decade’s worth of experience in print and online media. At the BN Teen blog she tagged five of the best Snow White retellings, including:

The Sleeper and the Spindle, by Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell

I’m not a huge Gaiman fan, but I’m obsessed with his retelling of Snow White, which is illustrated by Chris Riddell. A mash-up of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, it follows a young queen who sets out to rescue a princess from an enchantment on her wedding night. The drawings are gorgeous and plot twists of this illustrated short story will keep you at the edge of your seat.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top works of SF with weird bug behavior

Spencer Ellsworth’s newest novel in the Starfire Trilogy is Shadow Sun Seven. At Tor.com he tagged five top works of SF that turn weird bug behavior into great fiction, including:

Children of Time and Slaver Ants, & Pretty Much Anything Arachnic

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time is a mindblowingly weird and forward-looking science fiction novel, with a dozen different ways to explain the premise, but for brevity’s sake: there was an uplift/terraforming project. It was supposed to uplift monkeys. Instead, we got spiders.
From there, things get interesting.

(Beware: if you’re an extreme arachnophobe, this novel will either convince you that you were wrong, or make you scream and throw your Kindle/paperback out the window.)
Tchaikovsky is an arachnophile and bug-o-phile in general. So his sentient spiders learn to chemically manipulate ants to use them for purposes from fighting to mining, to working as a living computer, all through pheromones and smell signals.

It’s reminiscent of the slaver ants, though not nearly as cruel. Slaver ants move into another species’ nest, kill the adult ants, and enslave the next generation of the pupae. They do this by using the Dufour’s gland, which secrets the chemicals and pheromones so the adult ants they’re wiping out become confused and turn on one another. Basically, they pump out a steady stream of ANGER like little ant Palpatines in a nest full of Anakins.

However, the slaves don’t quite go willingly. They’ll raise their own pupae in slavery, but in some cases they’ll tear the actual slaver pupae to pieces. It’s a common enough tendency that scientists speculate that slavery among ants might soon die out.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six of the best YA books featuring furry (or scaly) companions

At the BN Teen blog Samantha Randolph tagged six incredible animal friends in YA fiction. One entry on the list:

Even the Darkest Stars, by Heather Fawcett

In Heather Fawcett’s Even the Darkest Stars, Kamzin longs to explore the world outside her small village. When a chance arises to accompany River Shara, a famous explorer, to climb the tallest mountain, Raksha, she seizes it. Alongside her is her familiar, a spunky and adorable fox. What I love most about Fawcett’s depiction of their relationship is the way Kamzin’s familiar refuses to leave her side and how Kamzin protects him. Though Kamzin is on a very dangerous journey filled with witches, snowy mountain ranges, and deception, her familiar stays by her side, even when she tells him not to. If anyone has had a beloved pet before, you know how loyal they can be and how much you’ll fight to make sure they stay safe and happy.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Simon Kernick's 6 best books

Simon Kernick latest novel is The Hanged Man. One of his six best books, as shared at the Daily Express:

STONER by John Williams

An old book that became a bestseller a few years ago. I'd had enough of a grisly crime book I was reading and was drawn to this. It's about a university professor and it just goes through his life. The way it's told is brilliant and I was moved constantly.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Stoner is among The Secret Teacher author's ten top books about teaching, Jamie Fewery's ten best fictional fathers, and Colum McCann's top ten novels featuring poets.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven politically-charged contemporary YA novels

At the BN Teen Blog, Nicole Brinkley tagged seven socially conscious contemporary YA novels, including:

Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay Coles

Marvin decides to tag along with his twin brother Tyler to a party—and it ends with Tyler dead, shot and killed by the police. As their mother unravels and his brother becomes immortalized as just another hashtag, Marvin struggles to figure out what justice and freedom really mean. Featuring one of my favorite YA covers of all time, Jay Coles’ debut has set expectations sky high.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top books about high tech

Leslie Berlin is the author of Troublemakers: How a Generation of Silicon Valley Upstarts Invented the Future. One of her top ten books about high-tech, as shared at the Guardian:

Only the Paranoid Survive by Andy Grove

The greatest guide to how technology becomes business – from one of the tech industry’s greatest managers. Grove, who died in 2016, was a hugely influential and successful CEO at Intel, the pioneering microchip company. He describes how he led the company and fostered teamwork among employees (measuring everything and imposing discipline are key features). In some sense a harbinger of today’s data-heavy management practices, the book also shares great stories. My favourite details how Grove and board chairman Gordon Moore made the wrenching decision to abandon the company’s core memory business to focus on the microprocessors that today are at the heart of Intel’s success.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue