Five books that made a difference to Jennifer Garner

Actor Jennifer Garner told O, The Oprah Magazine about five books that made a difference in her life.

One title on the list:

Crimes of the Heart
by Beth Henley

I always loved acting, and I exhausted every performing opportunity my hometown had to offer. I never thought it was going to become anything more than a hobby for me, and when I started college, I was a chemistry major. I was so excited that there was a beginning acting class, so I signed up. Crimes of the Heart was the first play I read that I completely related to: I am the middle of three sisters, I come from a Southern family, and I wanted to be cast as one of the girls in this story. I changed my major to theater right after that. I love the immediacy—how a play distills the essence of the story. I've been a fan of Beth Henley's ever since. I've done bits of her plays in acting classes and they always fit like a glove.

Read about the other books on Garner's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the best devils

At the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best devils in literature.

One devil on the list:

Muriel Spark's Douglas Dougal

It is not surprising that the devilish (and devoutly Roman Catholic) Spark should spring a Satanic manipulator on the modern world in The Ballad of Peckham Rye. The company of Meadows, Meade & Grindley hires the charming and resourceful Dougal to do "human research" on its employees. His diabolical ability is bringing out the worst in people. As the narrator keeps saying: "It wouldn't have happened if Dougal Douglas hadn't come."

Read about all ten devils on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five best books on political conspiracy

Joseph Finder is a member of the ­Association of Former Intelligence Officers. His ­novels include Paranoia, High Crimes, and the recently released suspense thriller Vanished.

For the Wall Street Journal, he named a five best list of novels on political conspiracy.

One title on the list:

Libra
by Don DeLillo
Viking, 1988

Don DeLillo, our poet of paranoia, here reimagines the assassination of John F. Kennedy. It's a conspiracy theory about ­conspiracy theories, about the ­powerful ­mythology of the greatest crime of the American century. DeLillo's ­language is dazzling as he presents an ingenious fusing of fact and fiction, theory and reality. A CIA operative ­devises an "electrifying event" that will force the invasion of Cuba. He ­enlists a pawn, Lee Harvey Oswald, to unwittingly carry out a "spectacular miss." But of course a perfect plan conceived by "men in small rooms" must self-destruct in the cold light of reality. This is a ­hallucinatory ­meditation on the ­seductiveness of conspiracy: strangely lyrical and fraught with steadily ­encroaching ­terror. Oswald, the ­puppet, is no more paranoid than his masters; the difference is that they realize that there is always "a world inside the world."

Read about all five novels on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten books about the Berlin Wall

At the Guardian's books blog, Suzanne Munshower named a top ten list of books which "can provide a better understanding of the geography of, the history behind and the collateral damage caused by this monument to humankind's perversity."

One novel on the list:

It's this pre-Wall yet segregated city that takes centre stage in The Innocent, its disconnection as much a character as the novel's young English protagonist. Starting from the true story of a joint CIA-MI6 surveillance project, Ian McEwan has written an edge-of-the-seat espionage story that's also a searing tale of lost innocence and the untrustworthiness of naivete. His Berlin is both corrupted and corrupting, west as well as east.

Read the complete blog entry.

--Marshal Zeringue

James Patterson's best children’s books

Bestselling novelist James Patterson named a best children's books list for The Week magazine.

One title on his list:

Nate the Great by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat (Delacorte, $14).

Nate understands that you have to solve a few minor-league cases before you can move on to Sam Spade–style crime-stopping. Great stories and snappy, clear writing. Attentive readers can help Nate pick up clues along the way.

Read about all six books on Patterson's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten Turkish books

Selçuk Altun's first novel was published in Turkey in 2001. Songs My Mother Never Taught Me, his fourth, and the first to be translated into English, was published in 2008. His latest novel, Many and Many a Year Ago, is now available in the US.

One book on the list:

Memed, My Hawk by Yaşar Kemal

The only son of a poor widow, Memed has to fight for his love and life against an evil feudal lord in southern Turkey. A tour de force.

Read about all nine books on Altun's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight YA novels with characters who are changed by music

Cecil Castellucci, author of five books including the rock novel Beige, named eight YA novels with characters whose lives are changed by music.

One novel on the list:

"Fat Kid Rules the World" by K.L. Going

Troy is a fat kid who doesn't have any friends, just can't take it anymore and decides to end it all. But high school music legend Curt McCrae steps in and saves him, and everything changes. Curt sees something in Troy that no one else sees; even though Troy can’t drum, Curt thinks that Troy should be the drummer for his new band Rage/Tectonic. It’s a funny thing how when someone starts seeing something special in you, you start seeing yourself in a different way, too.

Read about all 8 books on Castellucci's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the best concerts in fiction

At the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best concerts in literature.

One book on the list:

Persuasion, by Jane Austen

Anne Elliot attends a recital in Bath, all a flutter with the knowledge that she has reawakened Captain Wentworth's romantic interest. The creepy Mr Elliot sits next to her and explains the lyrics of amorous Italian songs, while Wentworth stands at the back of the concert room and burns with jealousy.

Read about the other nine concerts on Mullan's list.

Persuasion is among Elizabeth Buchan's "top 10 books guaranteed to give comfort during the ending of a relationship."

The Page 99 Test: Persuasion.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five best books about trial lawyers at work

The trial lawyer John Quinn is the founder and managing ­partner of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges LLP in Los Angeles.

For the Wall Street Journal he named a five best list of books about trial lawyers at work. One title on the list:

Courting Justice
by David Boies
Hyperion, 2004

In "Courting Justice," David Boies captures the life of a business trial lawyer, especially the way it often ­requires the simultaneous immersion in multiple, unrelated ­proceedings and different casts of characters—all of which the lawyer has to keep straight. One of the most interesting cases he describes is the antitrust action that the Justice Department, ­represented by Boies, brought against Microsoft in 1998. Bill Gates, who might have been a powerful voice for the company, was effectively neutered as a trial witness, thanks to his overly clever fencing with Boies at his deposition. It's a basic lesson that all litigators learn—at least the successful ones: A witness cannot be credible at trial if he has not been credible at deposition. The book brims with such hard-won insights.

Read about the other four books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Critic's chart: 6 books featuring medical breakthroughs

Last year Thomas Stuttaford, The Times (London) doctor, named a critic's chart of six books featuring medical breakthroughs.

One title on the list:

Medicine's 10 Greatest Discoveries by Meyer Friedman and Gerald Friedland

This inspired book of science by two American clinicians shows keen observation for a human story.

Read about the other five books on Stuttaford's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Best books: Kate Walbert

Kate Walbert, author of the new novel A Short History of Women, named a best books list of her favorite (unlikely) heroines for The Week magazine.

One novel on her list:

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

With Clarissa Dalloway, Woolf magically exposes the complexities and contradictions of an ordinary woman’s life through the course of one single brave day. While reading it, everything that’s possible in fiction suddenly hangs in perfect equilibrium.

Read about the other five literary heroines on Walbert's list.

Mrs. Dalloway also appears on John Mullan's list of ten of the best prime ministers in fiction, and among Michael Cunningham's 5 most important books and Dani Shapiro's 10 favorite books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top 10 graphic novels for teenagers

Malorie Blackman's has written more than 50 books, including Pig-Heart Boy, Hacker and Whizziwig. She also writes for theatre and TV. Her latest book, Double Cross, the fourth in the award-winning Noughts and Crosses series, has just been published in paperback in the UK.

For the Guardian, she named a top ten list of graphic novels for teenagers.

Number One on her list:

V For Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd

This book started my love of graphic novels. I'd always read comics as a child but I didn't realise stories could be told in this format for adults and teenagers until I read this story. V For Vendetta is complex, absorbing and truly brilliant. The story is set in an England in the near future where those deemed "deviants" are sent to camps to be exterminated or experimented on. What I love about this story is that it celebrates the individual, how just one person can make a difference, can start a domino effect that can change a whole society. Awe-inspiring stuff.

Read about all ten books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue