Ten top novels about the drama of working for the family business

Olivia Wolfgang-Smith is a Brooklyn-based author of fiction and creative nonfiction. Her debut novel is Glassworks.

Wolfgang-Smith’s writing has appeared in Salamander, Ninth Letter, The Common, and elsewhere. Her work has been longlisted for Glimmer Train's Short Story Award for New Writers and DIAGRAM’s Innovative Fiction Contest, and nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net Anthology. She earned her MFA at Florida State University, and originally hails from Rhode Island.

At Electric Lit Wolfgang-Smith tagged ten of the best novels about the drama of working for the family business, including:

The Great Glass Sea by Josh Weil

This novel, set in an alternate post-Soviet Russia, has the mesmerizing symmetry and logic of a folktale. Twin brothers Dima and Yarik work opposite shifts expanding the Oranzheria—an enormous greenhouse that, paired with the satellite mirrors that keep the city of Petroplavilsk in twenty-four-hour daylight, squeeze maximum efficiency from nature itself. Work is now both the only thing the brothers have in common and the thing that keeps them ruthlessly separated on opposing schedules—until an encounter with the mogul who owns the Oranzheria changes everything. Dima and Yarik become “the poster boys for opposing ideologies”—one drifting into anarchy to become a folk hero of the resistance; the other rising from promotion to promotion until he’s a modern icon of oligarchy.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: The Great Glass Sea.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Dinah Hannaford's "Aid and the Help"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Aid and the Help: International Development and the Transnational Extraction of Care by Dinah Hannaford.

About the book, from the publisher:

Hiring domestic workers is a routine part of the expat development lifestyle. Whether working for the United Nations, governmental aid agencies, or NGOs such as Oxfam, Save the Children, or World Vision, expatriate aid workers in the developing world employ maids, nannies, security guards, gardeners and chauffeurs. Though nearly every expat aid worker in the developing world has local people working within the intimate sphere of their homes, these relationships are seldom, if ever, discussed in analyses of the development paradigm and its praxis. Aid and the Help addresses this major lacuna through an ethnographic analysis of the intersection of development work and domestic work. Examining the reproductive labor cheaply purchased by aid workers posted overseas opens the opportunity to assess the multiple ways that the ostensibly "giving" industry of development can be an extractive industry as well.

Visit Dinah Hannaford's website.

The Page 99 Test: Aid and the Help.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Tanis Rideout reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Tanis Rideout, author of The Sea Between Two Shores: A Novel.

Her entry begins:

I tend to have a number of books on the go at any one time. Generally speaking there is a novel, a poetry collection, a research book or two, something visual and a cookbook all piled around me at any one time.

Here’s what’s on the go at the moment:

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai – I got this as a birthday gift from another writer, and am so far loving the prep school setting, the narrator, the questions the book is asking. I’ve been trying to read a lot for plot recently and this one is definitely meeting...[read on]

About The Sea Between Two Shores, from the publisher:

From the bestselling author of Above All Things and inspired by real events, this powerful novel follows two families brought together to reckon with what it means to make amends—for historic wrongs and the wrongs we commit against the ones we love. For readers of Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of All Things, Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder, Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black, Joan Thomas’s Five Wives, and Michael Christie’s Greenwood.

On a small island in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu, the Tabés are a family mourning the death of their son in the aftermath of a devastating cyclone, while worrying over the looming departure of another. Desperate to find a way to change their fates, David Tabé places a phone call halfway around the world to the Stewarts, a family bound to his own through a fraught connection in the distant past—their ancestors met on the island two hundred years earlier, with calamitous results.

In Toronto, the Stewarts are themselves locked in mourning after the accidental drowning of their youngest son. When Michelle Stewart receives David’s invitation to participate in a reconciliation ceremony to put the spirits of their respective ancestors to rest, she accepts in a desperate effort to save herself and her family. As the ceremony approaches, the Tabés and the Stewarts will uncover their shared losses and failings, their fragile hopes for what a better future might hold, and the wounds that stand in the way of freeing themselves from the legacy of past betrayals.

Heart-wrenching, thought-provoking, and morally complex, The Sea Between Two Shores immerses us in the lives of two families connected as much by their desire for healing as by the actions of their ancestors. It is an extraordinary meditation on the complications of history, the possibilities for redemption, and the meaning of the stories we tell ourselves.

Learn more about the book and author at Tanis Rideout's website.

My Book, The Movie: Above All Things.

Writers Read: Tanis Rideout.

--Marshal Zeringue

Fifteen of the best books on the Vietnam war

George Black is the author of The Long Reckoning: A Story of War, Peace, and Redemption in Vietnam.

At LitHub he tagged six "foundational books" on the “Vietnam War,” then tagged a few more that "had an especially profound impact on my thinking as I wrote The Long Reckoning. One title on the list:

Hanoi’s War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam by Lien-Hang T. Nguyen

For decades, as the United States struggled with the trauma of its first-ever defeat in a foreign war and the shattering of long-held illusions about the nation’s unique combination of strength and virtue, historians concentrated on one central question: Why did we lose? But this began to change as the Cold War ended and Vietnam, the former Soviet Union, and other formerly Communist nations began to open their long-sealed archives. With this, it became possible to address the corollary question: Why did they win?

Lien-Hang T. Nguyen, a Vietnamese-American scholar at Columbia University, goes further than anyone in answering that question, and in the process dispels much of our received wisdom about the war. Her analysis of the internal divisions in Hanoi makes it clear that it was not Ho Chi Minh but his hardline rival Le Duan who was the main architect of the war effort. And her insights into Hanoi’s diplomacy makes equally clear the skill with which it managed to navigate the Sino-Soviet split, securing aid from both of the great Communist powers but always maintaining its strategic independence.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Margaret Gilbert's "Life in Groups"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Life in Groups: How We Think, Feel, and Act Together by Margaret Gilbert.

About the book, from the publisher:

Life in Groups: How We Think, Feel, and Act Together develops and applies the author's perspective on topics she relates to joint commitment. This kind of commitment unifies those who participate in it, guides their actions going forward, and determines their relations to one another in important ways. In particular, it grounds in each of the parties a set of rights and obligations of a central kind. This volume contains thirteen essays, together with a substantial introduction, which serves both to explain joint commitment for those unfamiliar with it and to advance discussion in light of some questions it has prompted, and a reflective conclusion. The essays range over collective beliefs and intentions; rational choice and collective preference; group lies and corporate misbehavior; remorse and other emotions in a group context; rights, obligations, and freedom.

Learn more about Life in Groups at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Life in Groups.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Verlin Darrow's "Murder for Liar"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Murder for Liar by Verlin Darrow.

About the book, from the publisher:

Tom is dangerously close to discovering where his threshold is-the point of no return for his sanity. His encounter with the killer represents one more bizarre hot potato he's forced to juggle instead of filing away neatly. It's not one too many, but what if the next one is? And could all the coincidences that keep happening to Tom be nothing more than that? Could a young woman named Zig-Zag really be an angel? How could a dog lead Tom to one of the most important clues? The questions pile up, much as the murders do.

Visit Verlin Darrow's website.

Writers Read: Verlin Darrow.

My Book, The Movie: Murder for Liar.

The Page 69 Test: Murder for Liar.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten strangest alien invasion novels

Nina Allan is a novelist and critic. Her novels have previously won the British Science Fiction Award, the Kitschies Red Tentacle and the Grand Prix de L'imaginaire. She has also been nominated as a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award and the Hugo Award. Born in London, Allan now lives and works in Rothesay, on the Isle of Bute.

Allan's newest novel is Conquest.

At the Guardian she tagged she tagged ten favorite alien invasion novels "in which the divide between human and alien is not always clear cut." One title on the list:

Agents of Dreamland by Caitlín R Kiernan

The first in a trilogy of taut novellas that combine the bitter essence of noir with the cosmic terror of Lovecraft, Agents of Dreamland recounts the secret history of shadowy operatives who wrestle, like angels and demons, for the soul and continuing existence of the human race. The battle takes place in a world grown stale and grubby from government corruption, where consensus reality is steadily becoming eroded. Kiernan’s language and manner of telling manages to be both lyrical and sharp as thorns.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Beth Bailey's "An Army Afire"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: An Army Afire: How the US Army Confronted Its Racial Crisis in the Vietnam Era by Beth Bailey.

About the book, from the publisher:

By the late 1960s, what had been widely heralded as the best qualified, best-trained army in US history was descending into crisis as the Vietnam War raged without end. Morale was tanking. AWOL rates were rising. And in August 1968, a group of Black soldiers seized control of the infamous Long Binh Jail, burned buildings, and beat a white inmate to death with a shovel. The days of "same mud, same blood" were over, and a new generation of Black GIs had decisively rejected the slights and institutional racism their forefathers had endured.

As Black and white soldiers fought in barracks and bars, with violence spilling into surrounding towns within the US and in West Germany, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan, army leaders grew convinced that the growing racial crisis undermined the army’s ability to defend the nation. Acclaimed military historian Beth Bailey shows how the US Army tried to solve that racial crisis (in army terms, “the problem of race”). Army leaders were surprisingly creative in confronting demands for racial justice, even willing to challenge fundamental army principles of discipline, order, hierarchy, and authority. Bailey traces a frustrating yet fascinating story, as a massive, conservative institution came to terms with demands for change.

Visit Beth Bailey's website and follow her on Twitter.

The Page 99 Test: America's Army.

The Page 99 Test: An Army Afire.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Allison L. Bitz

From my Q&A with Allison L. Bitz, author of The Unstoppable Bridget Bloom:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

The journey to Bridget’s title was, as is the case with many contemporary books—well, a journey. This book’s original working title was Fish Out of Water¸ which is clearly much vaguer than where I landed and pretty reflective of me being new to the world of publishing. The next title, and the one it was acquired under, was In the Key of B, which I still think is clever, but my marketing and sales team at HarperCollins wanted a title that was less music focused (though this book is very music-y!), more inclusive. The Unstoppable Bridget Bloom is far and away my favorite title this book has had, and that is partially because it absolutely does a lot of work on behalf of the story. Right away, between the title and...[read on]

Visit Allison L. Bitz's website.

Q&A with Allison L. Bitz.

--Marshal Zeringue

Three top dangerous affairs in literature

Zhanna Slor was born in Ukraine and moved to the Midwest in the early 1990s. Her debut novel, At the End of the World, Turn Left, was called "elegant and authentic" by NPR and named by Booklist as one of the "Top Ten Crime Debuts" of 2021. Her second novel, Breakfall, a domestic thriller surrounding a mysterious death at a close-knit Jiu Jitsu gym, came out last month.

At CrimeReads Slor tagged three novels "that explore the why’s and how’s of infidelity," including:

I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You by Courtney Maum

“Moments of great import are often tinged with darkness because perversely we yearn to be let down,” starts Courtney Maum’s first novel, I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You. Nearly ten years after its release, it is still one of my favorite first lines in modern literature. It’s so perfectly succinct and so perfectly true, something that felt true to me even in 2014, during my early twenties, when I hardly knew anything about anything—and that is the ultimate magic of good writing. Showing you that there are ideas you can understand in a subconscious way before you understand them in a conscious way.

Maum’s book, which is set in London and Paris, follows Richard, an artist in his mid-thirties, whose wife has found about his affair just as his career begins to take off. While Richard tries to win back her affection, and find where his went in the first place, his journey brings up many questions (and, sometimes, answers) about life and love. It’s a slightly different approach to your run-of-the-mill literary dalliance, which is one of many reasons it resonated so much with readers at the time of its release in 2014. It is not just a story about infidelity, and its consequences; it’s an exploration into why people make the choices they make, what it means to love someone, and how to maintain that love for as long as possible.

“Infidelity has always fascinated me as a subject matter, especially in America, where many people view it as the ultimate trespass, whereas so many other things (alcoholism, passive aggressiveness, gambling issues, work-aholism), are forgiven on the daily,” Maum says, about her inspiration for her hit debut. “I wanted to look specifically at the act of forgiveness after infidelity as it unfolds in a home with a child in it. What would that forgiving process look like? What would that atmosphere feel like? It’s a complicated space.”

This is another aspect I enjoyed about Maum’s book when I first read it—allowing things to be complicated, and trying to disentangle the complexity instead of skipping over it, while not judging her own characters. In reality, people tend to rush to judgment when it comes to cheating and affairs. It’s easy to point fingers and blame. It’s a simple way to process mistakes. It’s almost desirable—it puts the finger-pointer on a pedestal in their own mind. “I would never do that, at least,” they say. “I must be a better person.”

Simplicity is boring, however, and it’s false, too. Everyone is capable of everything. I grew up in a house with Holocaust survivors, in Ukraine—I know this in my bones. It’s more interesting to explore what makes a character decide to make bad choices, even while knowing they are bad; or examining what long-ignored troubles in a relationship led them down such a road. Affairs don’t just happen in a bubble. Choices lead to more choices lead to more choices. You can’t undo them, but that doesn’t mean you can’t change for the better. This is what makes an affair-centered plot so juicy in books. There is built-in tension, and in most cases, lives are going to be turned upside down, forcing characters to change, whether they want to or not.

Maum understood this very clearly in her debut, which is why it’s such a great book.

The Page 69 Test: I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Ronnie Janoff-Bulman's "The Two Moralities"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Two Moralities: Conservatives, Liberals, and the Roots of Our Political Divide by Ronnie Janoff-Bulman.

About the book, from the publisher:

The most complete picture to date of the moral worlds of the political left and right and how their different views relate to specific political issues

The left and right will always have strong policy disagreements, but constructive debate and negotiation are not possible when each side demonizes the other. We need to move past our poisonous politics. In this book, social psychologist Ronnie Janoff-Bulman provides a new framework for understanding why and how we disagree.

Janoff-Bulman asks readers to consider the challenging possibility that both liberalism and conservatism are morally based and reflect genuine concern for the country. Moral psychology is an invaluable lens for understanding the roots of political differences. She presents a “Model of Moral Motives” that maps the most fundamental motivations recognized by psychology—approach and avoidance—onto these differences. Liberal morality focuses on providing for the group’s well-being and ensuring social justice. Conservative morality focuses on protecting the group from threats and preserving order.

These moralities can account for the psychological differences between liberals and conservatives and for why certain positions resonate on each side of the political spectrum. Why, for example, do conservatives oppose abortion and favor unfettered free markets while liberals favor a woman’s right to choose and economic regulation? Understanding that our political differences are rooted in two natural forms of morality can help us begin to detoxify our politics.

Learn more about The Two Moralities at the Yale University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Two Moralities.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Alicia Bessette's "Murder on Mustang Beach"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Murder on Mustang Beach by Alicia Bessette.

About the book, from the publisher:

When a killer stirs up trouble in the Outer Banks, amateur sleuth and bookseller Callie Padget is on the case, in a new beachside mystery from author Alicia Bessette.

Cattail Island in the Outer Banks is a popular destination for honeymooners and nature lovers alike. So it is a huge blow when the murder of a newlywed grinds the pre-summer season to a screeching halt. Bookseller Callie Padget launches her own investigation, after mysterious customer Geri-Lynn Humfeld, caretaker of the island’s protected wild horses, brings in an irresistible piece of information.

Determined to restore order and safety to her beloved hometown, Callie searches for answers—even as those answers cast suspicion on her soon-to-be boyfriend, Toby Dodge, whose martial arts studio was the scene of the crime. As she digs deeper, Toby becomes the police’s prime suspect. The truth raises troubling questions and sends her scouring the bookshop’s shelves for guidance.

Meanwhile, a well-loved member of the mustang herd—a pregnant mare whose anticipated foal is a symbol of summery hope for locals and visitors alike—may be facing dire circumstances. With help from Geri-Lynn, Callie unearths startling secrets surrounding not only the compromised mare, but the murdered newlywed, too. And when another body shows up, this time on isolated Mustang Beach, she must race against time to stop a killer from claiming any more innocent lives.

Visit Alicia Bessette's website.

The Page 69 Test: Murder on Mustang Beach.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five unconventional office novels

Tania Malik was born in New Delhi and raised in India, Africa, and the Middle East. She was educated in boarding schools in the foothills of the Himalayas and graduated from the University of Delhi with a degree in Geography. She has had a varied career in the travel marketing and non-profit industries. Her first novel Three Bargains received a Publishers Weekly starred review and a Booklist starred review.

[Coffee with a Canine: Tania Malik & Deuce]

At Lit Hub Malik tagged five "unconventional work novels that remind us of the way things once were, offer alternatives to the way we approach our jobs and, perhaps, spur us onward to new horizons." One title on the list:

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

The arrival of a new editorial assistant at the publishing company where Nella works is a welcome event for her as she will no longer be the only Black girl in the office. At first, they bond over their cultural similarities but her initial excitement wanes as there is something off about her new colleague. Not only does she make Nella question her own abilities, but the new girl acts and speaks in ways to make herself more palatable to their white coworkers and bosses. As a commentary on the conundrum foisted upon people of color who often end up downplaying their core identities to assimilate and function in white-dominated workspaces, the reveal at the end will make you wonder what choice you would make if you were in Nella’s place.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Other Black Girl is among Stephanie Feldman's seven novels featuring ambitious women, Caitlin Barasch’s seven novels set in the literary world, and Ashley Winstead's seven titles that explore collective guilt & individual complicity.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Harold James's "Seven Crashes"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Seven Crashes: The Economic Crises That Shaped Globalization by Harold James.

About the book, from the publisher:

A leading economic historian presents a new history of financial crises, showing how some led to greater globalization while others kept nations apart

The eminent economic historian Harold James presents a new perspective on financial crises, dividing them into “good” crises, which ultimately expand markets and globalization, and “bad” crises, which result in a smaller, less prosperous world. Examining seven turning points in financial history—from the depression of the 1840s through the Great Depression of the 1930s to the Covid-19 crisis—James shows how crashes prompted by a lack of supply, like the oil shortages of the 1970s, lead to greater globalization as markets expand and producers innovate to increase supply. By contrast, crises triggered by a lack of demand—such as the Global Financial Crisis of 2007–2008—result in less globalization as markets contract, austerity measures are imposed, and skepticism of government grows.

By considering not only the times but also the observers who shaped our understanding of each crisis—from Karl Marx to John Maynard Keynes to Larry Summers—James shows how the uneven course of globalization has led to new economic thinking, and how understanding this history can help us better prepare for the future.

Learn more about Seven Crashes at the Yale University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Making the European Monetary Union.

The Page 99 Test: Seven Crashes.

--Marshal Zeringue

Verlin Darrow's "Murder for Liar," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Murder for Liar by Verlin Darrow.

The entry begins:

I didn't have any specific actors in mind when I wrote Murder For Liar, but I definitely pictured each character in detail, and if I think about which actors match up to those images... Let's see.

I guess the psychotherapist protagonist, Tom, who is a big guy with a rugged, scarred face, could be portrayed by a fortyish Nick Nolte. He'd need to be a bit more bewildered than usual. Zig-zag, the waif-like twenty-year-old daughter of a deceased spiritual leader could be played by a young Natalie Portman. Dizzy is a strong African American character who draws Tom into...[read on]

Visit Verlin Darrow's website.

Writers Read: Verlin Darrow.

My Book, The Movie: Murder for Liar.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight top taut thrillers set over three days or fewer

Anna Snoekstra is an award-winning author and screenwriter. She lives in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia, where she writes from an old football factory. She is the author of Only Daughter, Little Secrets, The Spite Game and, most recently, Out of Breath. Her novels have been published in over twenty languages and optioned for film and television.

At CrimeReads Snoekstra tagged eight thrillers "with pacing so rapid and relentless the fate of their protagonists seem to hang by the thinnest of threads." One title on the list:

Her Dark Lies by JT Ellison
A long weekend

This one has some real Rebecca vibes, which makes it right up my alley! Her Dark Lies is part of the trend we’re seeing of re-emergence of locked-room style stories in interesting locations, this one being set on the small Italian island Isle Isola. Nashville artist Claire is there for her wedding to uber-wealthy Jack. But this long weekend is, of course, far from idyllic with skeletal remains discovered on day one and the mysterious sailing-accident death of Jack’s first wife called into question. Adding to the break-neck pacing is the use of multiple POVs, all characters with secrets who are put to the test over this long weekend.

Read about another entry on the list.

Her Dark Lies is among Amanda Jayatissa's seven best thrillers set at weddings.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Robin Douglass's "Mandeville’s Fable"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Mandeville’s Fable: Pride, Hypocrisy, and Sociability by Robin Douglass.

About the book, from the publisher:

Why we should take Bernard Mandeville seriously as a philosopher

Bernard Mandeville’s The Fable of the Bees outraged its eighteenth-century audience by proclaiming that private vices lead to public prosperity. Today the work is best known as an early iteration of laissez-faire capitalism. In this book, Robin Douglass looks beyond the notoriety of Mandeville’s great work to reclaim its status as one of the most incisive philosophical studies of human nature and the origin of society in the Enlightenment era. Focusing on Mandeville’s moral, social, and political ideas, Douglass offers a revelatory account of why we should take Mandeville seriously as a philosopher.

Douglass expertly reconstructs Mandeville’s theory of how self-centred individuals, who care for their reputation and social standing above all else, could live peacefully together in large societies. Pride and shame are the principal motives of human behaviour, on this account, with a large dose of hypocrisy and self-deception lying behind our moral practices. In his analysis, Douglass attends closely to the changes between different editions of the Fable; considers Mandeville’s arguments in light of objections and rival accounts from other eighteenth-century philosophers, including Shaftesbury, Hume, and Smith; and draws on more recent findings from social psychology.

With this detailed and original reassessment of Mandeville’s philosophy, Douglass shows how The Fable of the Bees―by shining a light on the dark side of human nature―has the power to unsettle readers even today.

Learn more about Mandeville’s Fable at the Princeton University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Mandeville’s Fable.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jennifer Nissley's "The Rules of Us"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Rules of Us by Jennifer Nissley.

About the book, from the publisher:

Come out. Break up. Stay friends? In this heartwarming queer love story about love of all kinds, exes navigate new crushes, new feelings, and a newly uncertain future after unexpectedly coming out to each other on prom night turns their lives—and their friendship—upside down. Can they figure out how to move on without losing each other?

Jillian and Henry are the kind of couple who do everything together. They take the same classes, have the same hobbies, and applied for the same super-competitive scholarship so they can go to the same dream college. They even come out as gay to each other on the same night, after junior prom, prompting a sudden breakup that threatens their intertwined identities and carefully designed future. Jillian knows the only way to keep everything on track is to approach their breakup with the same precision and planning as their scholarship application. They will still be “Jillian and Henry”—even if they’re broken up.

Except they hadn’t planned on Henry meeting the boy of his dreams or Jillian obsessing over a cool girl at school. Jillian is desperate to hold on to her best friend when so much else is changing. But as she and Henry explore what—and who—they really want, it becomes harder to hold on to the careful definitions she has always lived her life by. Stuck somewhere between who she was with Henry and who she might be on her own, Jillian has to face what she can’t control and let go of the rules holding her back.

Visit Jennifer Nissley's website.

Q&A with Jennifer Nissley.

The Page 69 Test: The Rules of Us.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Verlin Darrow reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Verlin Darrow, author of Murder for Liar.

His entry begins:

Lately, I've been revisiting a few of my favorite authors, both because I've forgotten some of their work enough to enjoy them again, and because some have continued to turn out novels I haven't read yet. In Donald E. Westlake's case, I'm discovering a trove of early work using various pen names. He was far too prolific for his publisher.

Others include Jonathan Carroll, Thomas Perry, Thomas Berger, and Elmore Leonard. I highly recommend these authors to anyone who hasn't tried them, each for a different reason. Westlake combines character-based humor with twisty crime plots in which...[read on]

About Murder for Liar, from the publisher:

Tom is dangerously close to discovering where his threshold is-the point of no return for his sanity. His encounter with the killer represents one more bizarre hot potato he's forced to juggle instead of filing away neatly. It's not one too many, but what if the next one is? And could all the coincidences that keep happening to Tom be nothing more than that? Could a young woman named Zig-Zag really be an angel? How could a dog lead Tom to one of the most important clues? The questions pile up, much as the murders do.

Visit Verlin Darrow's website.

Writers Read: Verlin Darrow.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight books about the lives of single mothers

Kelly McMasters is an essayist, professor, mother, and former bookshop owner. She is the author of The Leaving Season: A Memoir-in-Essays (2023) and co-editor of the ABA national bestseller Wanting: Women Writing About Desire (2023). Her first book, Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town, was listed as one of Oprah's top 5 summer memoirs and is the basis for the documentary film The Atomic States of America, a 2012 Sundance selection, and the anthology she co-edited with Margot Kahn, This Is the Place: Women Writing About Home (2017), was a New York Times Editor’s Choice.

At Electric Lit McMasters tagged eight "books that delve into the life of single mothers, both fictional and real," including:

Galatea by Madeline Miller

As with Miller’s other masterful stories, Galatea is a feminist retelling of an accepted Greek myth, in this case tracing the story of the sculptor Pygmalion who creates his perfect woman in marble. After a blessing from a goddess, the sculpture comes to life, but Pygmalion soon boils over with rage when he realizes that by breathing life into her stone beauty, his creation now also has a mind of her own with desires and independent thought. After giving birth to their child, Galatea can no longer pretend to be submissive and obedient, understanding that unless she leaves, she is locking her own daughter into a cycle of thwarted independence. Galatea breaks free, working to build a beautiful life alone with her child, for a period. This tiny book (all of 64 pages) feels giant, with characters who dig their talons into you and refuse to let go.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue