Lauren Schott Recommends Celeste Ng, Joyce Carol Oates, Tiffany McDaniel, and More

Ohio has gotten a bad rap lately, and it hurts. I was born and raised in Akron and, even though I moved away twenty-five years ago, the place still feels like home and remains my go-to setting when writing fiction. My debut thriller Very Slowly All at Once takes place in the Cleveland suburb of Bratenahl, a small strip of land along the southern shore of Lake Erie.

I’d actually never even been to that part of Cleveland when I started work on the novel. I was trying to decide on a neighborhood for my upwardly mobile main characters, and Celeste Ng had already cornered the market on Shaker Heights. Bratenahl, I discovered, is a place of huge estates built by the Cleveland industrialists, two totally incongruous (and contentious) high rises from the 1960s, and even, at one point during the Cold War, a military base full of anti-aircraft missiles. It’s one of Cleveland’s wealthiest suburbs yet is surrounded on three sides by some of the city’s most socioeconomically deprived areas. Former residents included, to name but a few, Eliot Ness, a Kardashian, and actress Margaret Hamilton, also known as the Wicked Witch of the West. There was so much rich history to draw from, and so many scandals and struggles to remain independent from the rest of Cleveland, that I felt like I’d discovered a secret slice of my state that no one knew about.

But Ohio is like that: it surprises you. Shiny cities, rocky shores, muddy swamps, small towns founded by pioneers pushing westward… And then of course the wide, flat fields that are so many people’s only vision of the Buckeye state.

For me, Ohio is the place where so much of America swirls together: the prim stoicism of New Englanders, the bravado of New Yorkers, a helping of Southern charm, some good old Appalachian grit. It’s not always an easy mix and the landscape can be unforgiving, but, as so many of these novels show, even the darker side of life in Ohio offers up rich lives worth examining.

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Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

This family saga is set in the fictitious northwestern Ohio town of Bonhomie, founded in 1857 on land made fertile by a melting Canadian glacier. The place starts out as a neat grid, and as the novel unfolds over two wars and the relationships between the characters get messier, the town does too: sprawling suburban shopping centers pop up on the outskirts. Buckeye doesn’t shy away from what war does to ‘ordinary’ Americans, but there’s beauty and redemption in the heartbreak. The inclusion of Cedar Point, the Sandusky amusement park that featured in every one of my childhood summers, was a personal highlight.

Tiffany McDaniel, Betty

Three of McDaniel’s novels are set in the fictional town of Breathed, Ohio. In Betty, the namesake heroine’s roots stretch back to the Native Americans. By the time this novel begins, most of the Cherokee tribe have been forcibly removed to Oklahoma, but Betty’s father has stayed behind as part of those willing to describe themselves as “Black Dutch,” and marries her white mother. Theirs is an Ohio of racism, violence and tragedy but also infused with magic: inspired by her father’s stories and traditions, Betty, like McDaniel, becomes a writer forged in Appalachian foothills.

Celeste Ng, Little Fires Everywhere

Shaker Heights, the suburban Cleveland setting for Ng’s novel about motherhood, race, and privilege, is the perfect location for a novel about middle class America. The real-life regulations on what color to paint your house, how short to cut your grass, and exactly where to put your garbage can on trash day make this suburb ripe for an outsider and her teenage daughter to come along and shake things up. Ng perfectly captures the strange otherness of the place; in reality, there’s no physical barrier between Shaker Heights and the neighborhoods that surround it, but when you cross into Shaker, you’ll know it immediately. The grass really is greener, at least for some.

Curtis Sittenfeld, Eligible 

In Sittenfeld’s modern retelling of Pride & Prejudice, a sprawling Tudor in an upscale Cincinnati neighborhood stands in for Longbourne in Hertfordshire. Both places could seem a bit boring, until the Bennet sisters and their suitors show up. Like her Georgian counterpart, Liz Bennet in 2013 enjoys being out in the fresh air, and her long runs offer both an opportunity to encounter Mr Darcy (here a brain surgeon from San Francisco) and showcase the local sites, including the famed Skyline Chili. It’s not Georgian England and it’s not Manhattan, where Liz had been living until her father had a heart attack and she had to return to Cincy, but this country-club-centered version of Ohio still feels high society enough to carry the original novel’s preoccupations with class, marriage, and what everyone will think of you forward into our millennium.

Tracy Chevalier, On the Edge of the Orchard

I’d wager that most Ohio schoolchildren grew up learning songs about Johnny Appleseed, and this historical novel set in southern Ohio in 1838 features the man behind the legend, John Chapman, who sold his seeds and saplings to settlers like Chevalier’s Goodenough family. This is no Little House on the Prairie though; it’s a darker take on the American pioneer experience. Alcoholic Sadie wants to grow apples they can use to make cider, and her husband James is obsessed with growing perfect eaters, in between digging graves for his children that have succumbed to fever in the swampland they inhabit. It’s an inhospitable vision of Ohio, to say the least, and yet the Goodenough who eventually makes it out and heads west to Goldrush California can’t escape the pull of his Ohio roots, almost literally.

Joyce Carol Oates, A Book of American Martyrs

This harrowing novel about the murder of a doctor at an abortion clinic in small town Ohio, and that crime’s life-shattering effect on the two families involved, encapsulates the state’s ideological divide. But what Oates does here is to explore the repercussions of the conflict between the Evangelical killer and his victims by looking at the next generation. We feel as the daughters do: weighed down by the past but still trying to make something of it all. Ohio doesn’t come out looking great, but it’s a harrowing and thoughtful rendering of the battleground for a brutal struggle that remains at the heart of America.

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Very Slowly All At Once by Lauren Schott is available from Harper.

PAINESVILLE, Ohio, — Lake County’s next full property reappraisal will be delayed by one year due to a statewide realignment of Ohio’s revaluation schedule, county Auditor Christopher Galloway announced Friday.

The Ohio Department of Taxation’s realignment of Ohio’s property reappraisal calendar shifts Lake County’s next sexennial revaluation from 2030 to 2031.

The county’s 2027 triennial update will still move forward on schedule.

The change is part of a broader effort to smooth out how counties across the state conduct large-scale property valuations.

In total, 16 counties, including Lake County, will see their reappraisal years adjusted so the workload is spread more evenly from year to year, according to a press release.

Galloway, vice president of the County Auditors Association of Ohio and a member of the governor’s Property Tax Working Group, said the shift has been a long time coming.

“It is important that the three-year staggered cycles be better balanced to ensure the work of property valuation is done as efficiently and accurately as possible,” he said. “As a county that is moving from 2030 to 2031, knowing now helps us plan and best communicate with residents well in advance.”

By redistributing counties more evenly across the calendar, state officials say assessors can do their work more accurately and with fewer resource strains.

For Lake County officials, the advance notice also helps with planning and communication. Galloway said the change gives officials time to prepare and to explain the process to residents well before it happens.

For property owners, the most immediate impact is timing. Instead of seeing a full reappraisal three years after the 2027 triennial update, Lake County residents will now wait four years.

Galloway said that extra year could matter, especially if the housing market cools and returns to more typical patterns.

“My hope is that it buys our residents more time and hopefully a housing and real estate market that returns to historical norms and therefore far lower valuation increases,” he said. “Additionally, it is my hope that technology advances by 2031 will help us to greatly reduce the cost of the Sexennial revaluation and therefore save tax dollars,”

Indiana’s national championship is a sign of the changes that have happened to college football in the last several years. However, it’s still Ohio State that is opening as the favorite to win the national title next year, ahead of other big-name programs such as Notre Dame and Texas.

The Buckeyes have +600 (6-to-1) odds on BetMGM to win it all. OSU is ahead of three schools that are just behind at +700: Notre Dame, Texas and Oregon.

Ohio State and Notre Dame met for the national title a year ago. Oregon has made the College Football Playoff each of the last two years, and Texas made it to a semifinal last year. All four are bringing back starting quarterbacks.

The Hoosiers, fresh off their first national championship, round out the top five, just a tick behind at +800.

It’s no surprise to see Ohio State as the favorite. The Buckeyes are bringing back Heisman Trophy finalist quarterback Julian Sayin and elite wide receiver prospect Jeremiah Smith. OSU is going to lose a lot of NFL talent from its stout defense but has the headline stars to expect another strong team. The Buckeyes were 12-0 this season before losing back-to-back games, first in the Big Ten Championship Game and then the CFP.

Notre Dame was a source of plenty of controversy because of its exclusion from this season’s CFP, but the Irish have been a consistent contender under coach Marcus Freeman. Running back Jeremiyah Love is headed for the NFL, but quarterback CJ Carr was impressive as a freshman and could even be a Heisman contender next year.

As for the freshly crowned Hoosiers, there will be a lot of new faces. Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza is expected to be a top pick in the NFL Draft, and IU will also lose its top two running backs, standout wide receiver Elijah Sarratt and likely some NFL talent off its defense, which was dominant for most of the CFP. However, coach Curt Cignetti has, of course, been active in the transfer portal. Quarterback Josh Hoover (TCU) and wide receiver Nick Marsh (Michigan State) highlight IU’s portal haul.

Can Indiana prove to be a consistent winner? Cignetti has done nothing to make anyone think otherwise, but a lot of stalwarts from the last two seasons will be gone. At least for now, the betting odds imply IU should be a top-five team in the preseason.

Texas coming in so high is going to make some eyes roll after the Longhorns were the preseason No. 1 team last season and failed to live up to that hype. Arch Manning will enter 2026 with a year of starting experience under his belt, plus the Longhorns added former Auburn wide receiver Cam Coleman out of the transfer portal. If the offensive line shows improvement, the weapons are there for Texas to be good, although many will be more skeptical than they were entering 2025.

As for Oregon, it’s going to take some time to stop focusing on the Ducks’ getting obliterated by Indiana in the semifinal, but quarterback Dante Moore is returning to Eugene instead of going pro. He had a strong first year as a starter, even if memories of his tough showing in that semifinal will linger.

The rest of the top 10 is Georgia (+900), LSU (+1500), Texas A&M (+1500), Texas Tech (+1500) and Alabama (+1500). LSU’s inclusion on this list shows faith in Lane Kiffin having a quick rebuild. After his dramatic coaching move from Ole Miss to LSU, Kiffin landed quarterback Sam Leavitt out of the transfer portal from Arizona State.

Miami is just outside the top 10 at +2000 (20-to-1). The Hurricanes were one drive away from potentially winning this year’s national title and will bring back wide receiver Malachi Toney but will have a new quarterback with Carson Beck running out of eligibility.

These are the favorites for now, but plenty can still change before teams take the field in August. Indiana just won the national title after being at 100-to-1 before the season, so who knows whether there’s another surprise in store next year.

College football 2026-27 national championship odds

Odds per BetMGM