Ten utterly brilliant novels that have one fatal flaw

Charlie Jane Anders is the author of All the Birds in the Sky. She’s the organizer of the Writers With Drinks reading series, and she was a founding editor of io9, a website about science fiction, science and futurism. In 2015 she consulted some book boffins for a list of top novels that are marred by a fatal flaw. Aidan Moher's suggestion:

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Hobbit is my favorite novel. It wrenched from science fiction’s arms as a child and set me on a path through the many wondrous worlds that secondary world fantasy offers. It shaped me as a reader and a writer, but, dammit if Tolkien didn’t leave a big female-shaped hole in that novel. It feels like there’s a cast of thousands (thirteen dwarfs, one hobbit, and a wizard, actually), but Tolkien’s story about a merry band of dwarfs adventuring to slay a dragon and save their home was a sausugefest through and through. You can discount it as a product of its time, but, as we all know, women have always fought. You can be sure that when I’m reading The Hobbit to my daughter in a few years, eight or nine of those dwarfs are going to switch gender—and I’ll have a lot of fun explaining to her that dwarf women have beards, too!

(This is actually one of the few instance where I applaud Peter Jackson’s ham-fisted adaptation of the novel. He may have stomped on the spirit of the book, but introducing several female characters was an important evolution for a 21st century narrative.)

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Hobbit appears on Julie Kagawa's top ten list of dragons in fiction, Rebecca Jane Stokes's list of seven favorite fictional shopaholics, Derek Landy's top ten list of villains in children's books, and John Mullan's lists of ten of the best beards in literature and ten of the best riddles in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

The 25 best cats in sci-fi & fantasy

Jeff Somers is the author of the Avery Cates series, The Ustari Cycle, Lifers, and Chum (among many other books) and numerous short stories.

At the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy blog he tagged twenty-five of the best cats in sci-fi & fantasy, including:

Behemoth in The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov

Aggressive, hilarious, and profane, Behemoth—as his name might suggest—is less a cat than a demon, one of Woland’s entourage in the classic novel. Able to take the form of a man at times, Behemoth is largely a jester in Woland’s court, and over the course of the novel isn’t given much respect, even by the humans. Smart and even somewhat sophisticated, being a fan of chess and endless, rapid-fire jokes, Behemoth is serving Satan to pay off his debts, which makes sense; for many people the idea of living your days as an enormous cat would, in fact, be hell.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Master and Margarita is among Gabriel Weston's five best books by doctors, Joel Cunningham's nine favorite talking animals in fiction, Josh Ritter's six favorite books that invoke the supernatural, Cornelius Medvei's's top ten talking animals in literature, Joseph Fiennes' six best books, and Daniel Johnson's five best books about Cold War culture. It's also a book that English actor and writer Stephen Fry tries to read as often as he can.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top books with unusual demons and devils

Sarah Porter is the author of several books for young adults, including Vassa in the Night. One of her five "favorite books featuring out-of-the-ordinary denizens of Hell," as shared at Tor.com:

Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel

Mantel, best known for her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, is also one of the greatest chroniclers of the demonic going. Her earlier, devastating novel of a horribly traumatized, but quite authentic, psychic creates jet-black humor out of unspeakable horror. Mantel’s Alison Hart is plagued by the ghosts of her abusers, a chipper flock of grotesque spirits who discuss child-rape and sandwiches with precisely the same vapid bonhomie. The suggestion that Morris and his friends have, ah, graduated from being mere ghosts into something more hellish comes from the way that they answer to “old Nick.” “Nick he is a fambly man,” the ghouls explain, and Satan himself might cut very close to home.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven of the best haunted houses in literature

At the B&N Reads blog Dell Villa tagged seven of the best haunted houses in literature, including:

The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson

Even after nearly 60 years, Hill House is unparalleled—it’s one of the most terrifying mansions in literature. When an unlikely foursome visits the rundown house on an ominous night, it quickly becomes clear that, with each turn of the page, the house is becoming more powerful, and one of the intruders is not going to make it out alive.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Also see Christopher Golden's top five haunted house novels you may not have read, Claire Barker's top ten haunted houses in fiction, and Ashley Brooke Roberts's seven best haunted house books.

The Haunting of Hill House also appears on Kat Rosenfield's list of seven scary October reads, Michael Marshall Smith's top ten list of horror books, Carlos Ruiz Zafón's top ten list of 20th-century gothic novels,  and Brad Leithauser's five best list of ghost tales.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five novels with vampires who definitely don’t sparkle

Silvia Moreno-Garcia's new novel is Certain Dark Things. One of her five favorite lesser known stories featuring a vampire who doesn't sparkle, as shared at Tor.com:

Fledgling — Octavia Butler

Science fiction vampires are not as common as fantasy ones and Octavia Butler provides us with one of the more interesting examples available. Shori looks like a 10 year-old black child but is far older, the member of an alien species which lives by establishing symbiotic relationships with humans. Butler explores notions of agency, as Shori’s bite makes humans dependant on her venom. Race is also tackled: Shori’s skin color is markedly different from her fellow pale vampires, melanin proving a useful adaptation for an organism that can’t stand sunlight, but it is also a trait that marks her as different.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Fledgling is among Nisi Shawl's five stories about loving everybody.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top life-scarring scary books

Sarah Skilton is the author of Bruised, a martial arts drama for young adults; and High and Dry, a hardboiled teen mystery. At B&N Reads she tagged seven life-scarring scary books, including:

The Ruins, by Scott Smith

Four fresh-faced, semi-Ugly Americans and one German are vacationing in Mexico when they decide to ditch the beach and check out an off-map archaeological site. Once there, they are surrounded and trapped by frantic locals who draw weapons as soon as one of them fatefully steps into the vines at the edge of the ancient ruins. Unable to leave the site, and at the mercy of sinister forces, our heroes turn into a bickering, hysteria-fueled mess. Written with a sense of terrifyingly plausible, slow-motion, “this can’t be happening” dread that paralyzes the reader, the horror stems from what the main characters do to each other to stay alive amid a psychologically torturous situation.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten books of radical history

Sheila Rowbotham’s latest book is Rebel Crossings: New Women, Free Lovers and Radicals in Britain and the United States. One of her ten favorite books of radical history, as shared at the Guardian:

Primitive Rebels by Eric Hobsbawm (1959)

Packed with bandits, mobs, anarchic millenarians and wandering journeymen, this delighted me as a student. Hobsbawm, being a sage member of the Communist Party, warned against their utopianism, but I took to them like a fish to water.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top novels written as genre parodies that stand on their own

At the B&N Reads blog Nicole Hill tagged five novels written as genre parodies that stand on their own, including:

Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen

Austen isn’t necessarily the first name that comes to mind when you think “satire,” especially if you’re Mark Twain. Northanger Abbey, however, is lauded both as Austen’s Gothic parody and as one of her most lighthearted and accessible reads. Austen fans will find all the grand balls and dancing and conflicted love stories they could want, and fans of a good, spooky Gothic novel will find all the necessary ingredients, but with an added self-awareness that makes all the proceedings deliciously amusing. Naive young Catherine thinks life is like her beloved Gothic thrillers, so when she finds herself in a musty, shadowy mansion, she sees intrigue, suspense, and malfeasance at every turn.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Northanger Abbey is among Helen Maslin's ten most evocative fictional castles and manors and Johanna Lane's five best imaginary castles in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top books on architecture

Barbara Miller Lane is Andrew W. Mellon Professor Emeritus in the Humanities and Research Professor in Growth and Structure of Cities at Bryn Mawr College.

Her books include Architecture and Politics in Germany, 1918–1945, National Romanticism and Modern Architecture, Housing and Dwelling, and Houses for a New World: Builders and Buyers in American Suburbs, 1945–1965.

One of Lane's top ten books on architecture, as shared at the Princeton University Press blog:

The Food Axis: Cooking, Eating, and the Architecture of American Houses
Elizabeth C. Cromley

Cromley is a major writer about the typologies of American residential design—about the history of bedrooms, for example, and the history of apartment dwellings. In The Food Axis, she turns to cooking and eating, central functions of everyday life. But she finds that cooking and eating also depend, in their location and the designs that serve them, on the provision and storage of foodstuffs. Cromley deals with the whole of American history, an ambitious focus. The book is full of wonderful insights about the history of dining rooms, kitchens, and food storage areas. A must for those interested in the everyday functions of buildings.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six magically weird YA fantasy books

One title on Melissa Albert's list of six magically weird YA fantasy novels, as shared at the BN Teen blog:

Vassa in the Night, by Sarah Porter

This wonderfully weird YA is a dark tangle of urban angst, Russian folklore, and Porter’s own rich invention. Vassa lives in an eerie Brooklyn plagued by lengthening nights, in which endless hours seem to pass between dusk and dawn. At the center of this mystery is BY’s, a deadly chain of all-night convenience stores where shoplifters pay the ultimate price—beware the heads on spikes that surround each store, which dance atop chicken legs till sung down to earth by a prospective shopper. When Vassa is framed for shoplifting and marked for death by Babs, the nefarious owner of her local BY’s, she’s locked into a pact: survive three nights as a BY’s cashier, and she might walk away with her life. What follows is a three-day fugue in which Vassa explores the shadowy secrets of her past, meets strange characters including a severed hand with a conscience and a pair of uncanny lawyers, and uncovers the secret behind the unending nights.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten books set in Bangkok

At Deep Travel and Lifestyle, Will Bowie tagged ten top books set in Bangkok, including:

The Queen of Patpong: A Poke Rafferty Thriller by Timothy Hallinan

Another classic read explaining the intricacies of the flesh trade, scorned and murderous past customers & the extreme differences of country life compared to big, bad Bangkok.

The paradoxical title hints at the contradictions lurking within the pages of Timothy Hallinan’s latest literary thriller, The Queen of Patpong. Rose Rafferty, prostitute turned employment counselor, is a fitting queen for the seedy area of Bangkok around Patpong Road. She’s married to writer / investigator Poke Rafferty who gallantly helps bar girls turn their lives around between cases. Poke isn’t your average brawny hero. He stumbles into danger and is saved more often by his intellect and local knowledge than weapons or martial skills. The portrayal is so genuine, the reader can imagine Hallinan in Poke’s place.

Hallinan’s prose is so lyrical and his focus on character so sharp that you will forget this is a thriller even as you careen through Rose’s past life from village farm girl to bar girl. Like many literary thrillers, the plot is fairly linear, yet layer upon layer of character depth and a few well-timed twists keep the story fresh. Hallinan shares an intimate view of the lurid world of Bangkok bar girls that is chaotic, intriguing, and often disconcerting. The Queen of Patpong is captivating even as it delivers a message of Hallinan’s deep caring for these girls or maybe because his caring feels so authentic. Highly recommended.

Read about the other books on the list.

The Page 69 Test: A Nail Through the Heart.

The Page 69 Test: The Fourth Watcher.

My Book, The Movie: The Fourth Watcher.

The Page 69 Test: Breathing Water.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six fictional women who broke the glass ceiling

At the B&N Reads blog Nicole Hill tagged six fictional femmes who fatally smashed the glass ceiling, including:

Daenerys Targaryen (A Song of Ice and Fire series, by George R.R. Martin)

Remember when people (ahem, Jorah) thought Daenerys would be through after her warlord husband’s demise? And remember when, instead of curling up into the fetal position and accepting her diminished position, she lit a fire, hatched some dragons, and emerged as the khaleesi of awe and wonder? Yeah, me too. Man, the dragon egg on everyone else’s faces was worth it. Since then, she’s done nothing but gather more forces, gain more strength, and amass more followers. She’s also proven to be one of the most level-headed potential rulers in (or around) Westeros. Granted, that’s a low bar, but it’s still worthy of note.

Read about the other entries on the list.

A Game of Thrones is among Jeff Somers's top five dad moments in science fiction & fantasy history, Julie Kagawa's top ten dragons in fiction, Ryan Britt's six best Scout Finches from sci-fi & fantasy, Charlotte Seager's top five spoiled suppers in literature, Melissa Grey's five top female characters of under-appreciated strength, Non Pratt's top ten toxic friendships in literature, Becky Ferreira's eight best siblings in literature, and Nicole Hill's top six books on gluttony. A Song of Ice and Fire is among Ferreira's six favorite redheads in literature and six best books with dragons, Joel Cunningham's seven top books featuring long winters. The Red Wedding in A Storm of Swords is one of Ferreira's top six most momentous weddings in fiction. The Lannister family from A Game of Thrones is one of Jami Attenberg's top ten dysfunctional families in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue