Deborah Eisenberg's 10 favorite books

Deborah Eisenberg is a MacArthur Foundation Fellow and the recipient of honors including the 2011 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, a Whiting Writer’s Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her latest story collection is Your Duck Is My Duck. One of Eisenberg's ten favorite books, as shared at Vulture.com:

Into That Darkness, by Gitta Sereny

How is it possible that Franz Stangl, a kindly, unassuming, mild-mannered family man and policeman from the small Austrian city of Linz became the commandant of the Nazi death camp Treblinka, where he wore white riding breaches to oversee mass murders of Jews? Gitta Sereny conducts her months of interviews of him in prison — as well as interviews with his wife and acquaintances — with her customary decorum, intelligence, and respect. One of her many outstanding strengths as a journalist is that she is entirely committed to understanding her subjects rather than demonstrating that she and her readers are unassailably superior.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top fugitive stories that master survival and suspense

Lou Berney is the author of November Road and three previous novels, Gutshot Straight, Whiplash River, and multiple prize-winning The Long and Faraway Gone. At CrimeReads he tagged ten top stories about characters on the run, including:

No Country For Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy
(The Dreadful Predator)

In a novel about characters on the run, the antagonist often assumes an outsized importance. If the predator doesn’t create dread, if the prey’s escape seems a foregone conclusion or even a decent possibility, the dramatic conflict falls apart.

For me there’s no predator who creates more dread—no one I’d least want to meet in my nightmares—than Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men.

What makes Chigurh so memorably scary? Part of it, I think, is what he represents. He’s not just a very bad dude, the way McCarthy shapes him, but also an implacable force of nature, ill-willed fate itself, metaphysical doom.

Plus, he is a very bad dude. A very competent bad dude, which is maybe his most frightening quality. One of my favorite beats is when Chigurh shoots the unnamed big-wig in his high-rise office. Chigurh uses a shotgun shell loaded with shot “the size collectors use to take bird specimens” because he doesn’t want to shatter the window and raise suspicion.

Read about the other entries on the list.

No Country For Old Men is among Chris Ewan's top ten chases in literature, Mark Watson's ten top hotel novels, Matt Kraus's top six famous books with extremely faithful film adaptations, 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

Rose Byrne’s 10 favorite books

Rose Byrne is an Australian actor. Her new movie is Juliet, Naked, adapted from the Nick Hornby novel. One of her ten favorite books, as shared at Vulture.com:

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

The rarest of books about the experience of a science writer uncovering and investigating a cell line that changed the world, all while being thrown into a transformative journey of discovering race and racism in America, the culture of African-Americans in the USA, and the painful reality of loss and family. A truly remarkable read — and I failed at science. Fascinating and phenomenal, heartbreaking and utterly compelling.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is among Adam Kay's five top medical books and Austin Duffy's top ten books about cancer.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six books Jodi Picoult recommends

Jodi Picoult's new novel is A Spark of Light.

One of six books she recommended at The Week magazine:

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel (2001).

This is the book I wish I'd written. A boy found floating in a lifeboat in the Pacific tells his rescuers a story involving a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a tiger that were in the boat with him. When no one believes him, he says that he was on the lifeboat with three other people, one a bloodthirsty chef who killed the others. His rescuers (and the reader) must decide which version they believe. How can a writer not love a novel that asks to whom a story belongs?

Read about the other entries on the list.

See: Four books that changed Jodi Picoult.

Life of Pi is on Martyn Ford's top ten list of fantastical pets in children's literature, Off the Shelf's list of eight great books told by child narrators, Janis MacKay's top ten list of books set on the ocean, Kathryn Williams's list of six notable novels set in just one place, Scott Greenstone's list of seven top allegorical novels, Sara Gruen's six favorite books list, the Barnes & Noble Review's list of five top books on castaways, and John Mullan's list of ten of the best zoos in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books with secret Norse tropes

April Genevieve Tucholke is the author of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, Between the Spark and the Burn, and Wink Poppy Midnight.

Her new novel is The Boneless Mercies.

At Tor.com the author tagged "five books with classic fantasy elements that echo Norse myth," including:

WEIRD SISTERSThree Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

Rowling once said she adored Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and that it inspired the Harry Potter books, particularly the scene of Macbeth meeting the three witches. Shakespeare’s three witches, in turn, are often thought to have their roots in both the Greek Fates and the Norse Norns—three women who spin the threads of fate at the foot of Yggdrasil, the World Tree. Witches, witches, witches. In Blake’s Three Dark Crowns, three witch-sisters must fight to the death for the right to be queen—one is an elemental, one a poisoner, one a naturalist. This is brutal, bloody witch-fantasy at its best.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten books to read before your next job interview

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 Reads blog he tagged ten books "that will make you the darling of hiring managers everywhere." One entry on the list:

Grant, by Ron Chernow

What can the biography of one of America’s great military leaders tell you about your upcoming interview? Well, Grant spent the first 40 years of his life more or less continuously failing: he lost jobs, lived in near-poverty, and by the time of the Civil War, was a broken, sad-sack of a man—a professional and financial failure. And then: he rose to be the supreme commander of the United States military, and was then elected president, proving that no matter how many interviews you bomb, you’re not done until you give up. Take a breath, read more books, get some sleep, and send out another stack of resumes.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven Washington, D.C., books (that aren't about politics)

Camille Acker was raised in Washington, DC.

She holds a B.A. in English from Howard University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from New Mexico State University and has more than fifteen years experience as a writer and editor. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Creative Writing program at New Mexico State University. Her short story collection, Training School for Negro Girls, is out this month from The Feminist Press.

One of Acker's favorite books set in Washington, DC, as shared at Publishers Weekly:

The Man Who Came Uptown by George Pelecanos

It would be impossible to leave Pelecanos off this list so steeped is he in the streets of D.C. His detective novels have legions of fans who appreciate the morally ambiguous spaces in which Pelecanos’s characters live. The latest addition to his oeuvre is The Man Who Came Uptown. The story of Phil Ornazian, a D.C. private investigator, delivers Pelecanos’s signature storytelling.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books about girls who don’t care if you like them or not

Claire Legrand's new book, Sawkill Girls, is a queer young adult horror novel.

At Tor.com she tagged five books about girls who don’t care if they’re “likeable” or not, including:

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

Catherine Fisher’s duology of Incarceron and its sequel, Sapphique, about a vast, sentient prison, were instant favorites when I read them years ago. Like His Dark Materials, this is a series distinguished by its phenomenal world building, as well as its precisely elegant prose and complex characters. My favorite of the two primary protagonists, Claudia, is daughter of the Incarceron Warden, and has lived a life of privilege and luxury. While trying to avoid an arranged marriage, Claudia begins to discover Incarceron’s secrets, while Incarceron itself strives to outwit her. Claudia is intelligent and strong-willed, but she is also spoiled thanks to her upbringing and doesn’t always acknowledge her privilege, even as she works to dismantle the system that allowed her that privilege. She is also blinded by a fiercely protective love for her tutor and a thirst for the love of her cold, calculating father. With this love comes an occasional selfishness that keeps Claudia oblivious to the needs and fears of others, often making her seem as cold as the father she fears. I adore these complexities and contradictions. I don’t remember much of the other, more “likable” protagonist, Finn. It’s complex, prickly Claudia whom I often find myself thinking about, years later.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ruby Bentall's 6 best books

Ruby Bentall is an English actress, known for playing Minnie in Lark Rise to Candleford, Mary Bennet in Lost in Austen, and Verity Poldark in the 2015 BBC adaptation of Winston Graham's Poldark novels. One of her six best books, as shared at the Daily Express:

HOW TO BE BOTH by Ali Smith

This is two stories, one set in the Renaissance and one more modern.

It’s about a person who is mourning.

I picked it up because I liked the cover but if I lose anyone close, I think I’ll reread it because she writes about it so eloquently.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Twelve essential political scandal thrillers

Peter Stone is a lifelong fan of thrillers on the big screen, small screen, and page. Prior to his career in TV and film marketing, he worked in Washington, DC, first as an intern on Capitol Hill and later as a Spanish tutor for a former Speaker of the House. The Perfect Candidate is his debut novel.

At CrimeReads he tagged twelve essential political scandal thrillers, including:

Michael Dobbs, House of Cards

Before Netflix introduced the world to a despotic DC in the American series and the BBC released its take on British bureaucrats behaving badly—Michael Dobbs’ novel started it all. I tracked down a copy after I’d binged the US adaptation, and I found the UK-based inspiration to be even colder and more disturbing. Prime Minister wannabe Francis Urquhardt stalks the halls of Parliament with unnerving ease and disturbing charm. Barely evading the chase of his past sins, the deliciously devious chief whip’s actions would make even Machiavelli phone the Ethics Committee.

Read about the other entries on the list.

House of Cards is among Jeff Somers's ten best political thrillers and Terry Stiastny’s ten top books about Westminster politics.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books to get to a grip on the pace of life

Judy Wajcman is the Anthony Giddens Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is the author of several books on technology and culture, such as The Social Shaping of Technology, Feminism Confronts Technology and TechnoFeminism.

Wajcman's latest book is Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism.

At the Guardian she tagged "five books to explain why we’re moving so fast – and how to slow down," including:

Our fixation with optimising time recalls The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, whose eponymous hero arrives on Earth to find a merchant selling sophisticated pills intended to quench one’s thirst: take one each week and the need to drink disappears. “Why are you selling those?” the little prince asks. “Because it saves a lot of time,” replies the merchant. “Experts have worked it all out. You save 53 minutes a week.” “If I had 53 minutes to spend,” says the prince, “I would walk very slowly towards a spring of fresh water.”

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Steven Pearlstein's notable book recommendations

Steven Pearlstein is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post and the Robinson Professor of Public Affairs at George Mason University. His new book is Can American Capitalism Survive?: Why Greed Is Not Good, Opportunity Is Not Equal, and Fairness Won't Make Us Poor.

One of six books he recommended at The Week magazine:

Unequal Chances: Family Background and Economic Success edited by Samuel Bowles, Herbert Gintis, and Melissa Osborne Groves (2005).

This collection of authoritative essays on the social sciences demonstrates why, because of both nature and nurture, genuine equality of economic opportunity is neither possible nor even desirable.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue