flexostudio

Choose from which category and how many posts you want to show, as is shown 
name and picture of the contents of this publication.
<h3>How to use</h3>
<ol>
<li>From the Administration -> settings go to post manager options enter data, generate code copy and paste the desired place in post</li>
<li>FlexoPostManager::category_post($_args); where $ _args is an array of type 
$args = array( 
 ‘category’ => ‘pictures’, 
 ‘count’ => 5, 
 ‘h_num’ => 3, 
 ‘master_class’ => ‘post-preview’, 
 ‘return’ => false, 
 ‘title_first’ => true, 
 ‘template_func’ => ‘format_post_as_picture’, 
 ‘order_by_postmeta’ => array( 
 ‘key’ => ‘fb_score’, 
 ‘order’ => ‘DESC’ 
 ), 
); 
you can put this wherever you want in header, in sidebar …..</li>
</ol>

flexo-posts-manager

shows your chosen number of publications in the selected category

Edward Caissie

Plugin with multi-widget functionality that displays most recent posts from specific category or categories (set with user options). Also includes user options to display: Category Description; Author and meta details; comment totals; post categories; post tags; and either full post, excerpt, or your choice of the amount of words (or any combination). Please make sure to read the latest changelog for new and modified features and options. 
* Copyright 2009-2016 Edward Caissie (email : edward.caissie@gmail.com)
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify 
 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2, 
 as published by the Free Software Foundation.
You may NOT assume that you can use any other version of the GPL.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, 
 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of 
 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the 
 GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License 
 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software 
 Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
The license for this software can also likely be found here: 
 http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
<ul>
<li>Please note, support may be available on the WordPress Support forums; but, it may be faster to visit http://buynowshop.com/plugins/bns-featured-category/ and leave a comment with the issue you are experiencing.</li>
</ul>

BNS Featured Category

Displays most recent posts from a specific featured category or categories.

flexo-posts-manager vs BNS Featured Category