It's hard to comprehend how anyone could craft a novel as compelling as "Where the Crawdads Sing" -- especially as her first book. Yet that is what Delia Owens has done. The story of a young woman abandoned in the North Carolina swamps and marshes as a child is part saga, part suspense, part legal thriller, part love story, part coming of age, part psychological research project. But Owens makes it work -- and makes you feel things and think about a myriad of issues. That's why it is this week's selection on Rick's Reading List.