I grow bored reading the same thing over and over, so I don’t. My favorite books challenge me, teach me, blow the walls out, and expand my horizons. I want books to take me to unexpected places and show me worlds existing and otherwise that I never dreamed could be out there. I’ve never been a fan of genre literature that strictly “follows the rules” for that reason. Some of the books on this list are from genres, but they still differ from the predictable. I want to be surprised, and then you’ll hold my attention for the entire novel, and I’ll refer back to it for years.
At times, C.S. Lewis eschewed writing what would be expected of him. For example, every volume of his Chronicles of Narnia takes the reader in a new direction, a new aspect of that fantasy world, instead of merely rehashing the popular story of the first novel, as many series do.
Science Fiction was not his field, yet Dr. Lewis dived into the genre for three novels and proved he was a master. The third book in Dr. Lewis’s space trilogy continues the epic interplanetary story of the first two but brings the tale to a dystopian Earth.
At first, the story seems unrelated to the earlier space-traveling books of the trilogy, as an engrossing study of professors playing politics and strange dreams. As the novel progresses, however, this proves to be a much larger story involving aliens, demons, the very fabric of human existence, and the return of Merlin.
Just as readers have been transfixed by the stories, characters, and deeper meanings of Lewis's timeless tales in The Chronicles of Narnia, most find this same allure in his classic Space Trilogy. In these fantasy stories for adults, we encounter, once again, magical creatures, a world of wonders, epic battles, and revelations of transcendent truths.
That Hideous Strength is the third novel in Lewis's science fiction trilogy. Set on Earth, it tells of a terrifying conspiracy against humanity. The story surrounds Mark and Jane Studdock, a newly married couple. Mark is a sociologist who is enticed to join an organization…
James Michener is my favorite author. What can I say? I’m a sucker for epics: narratives that fully explore characters, families, historical eras, and locations, both exotic and ordinary. Michener chooses a location and fully explores its history and people; those people don’t always behave as expected.
They interact in unexpected ways, making decisions that are not always what they “should” and marrying (or otherwise) lovers (and otherwise) across cultures and ages. We see how history truly is, humankind ravaging the unknown in discovery and survival.
I chose this book because it was the first one of his I read, and I lost myself in a world of wilderness, a gold rush, and a fight for statehood. It taught me most of what I know about the 49th state, as well as looking beyond the history books to see the human aspect of the past.
In this sweeping epic of the northernmost American frontier, James A. Michener guides us through Alaska’s fierce terrain and history, from the long-forgotten past to the bustling present. As his characters struggle for survival, Michener weaves together the exciting high points of Alaska’s story: its brutal origins; the American acquisition; the gold rush; the tremendous growth and exploitation of the salmon industry; the arduous construction of the Alcan Highway, undertaken to defend the territory during World War II. A spellbinding portrait of a human community fighting to establish its place in the world, Alaska traces a bold and majestic saga…
This is one of those rare books I have read more than once in adulthood. John Irving’s novel is a character study about Owen Meany, an odd, opinionated character, as seen in retrospect through his best friend John, a loner teacher at a Canadian private school.
As we follow the boys through the seemingly idyllic Fifties and turbulent Sixties in small-town New England, a number of mysteries come to light: who is John’s father? Why is Owen the way he is? What happened to this strange boy? How did John come to be the way he is? The answers are surprising. This is more than just Boomer reminiscing; It is a mystery of the highest caliber.
Why did I read it again? I looked for the clues that build to the conclusion, but more so, I revisited the characters and places so foreign yet similar to my own. I grew up in Upstate New York. I mostly reread it because Owen Meany and John’s relationship was eerily similar to one I had with a lifelong friend. When fiction resembles reality in such a way, it deserves revisiting.
'Marvellously funny . . . What better entertainment is there than a serious book which makes you laugh?' Spectator
'If you care about something you have to protect it. If you're lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.'
Summer, 1953. In the small town of Gravesend, New Hampshire, eleven-year-old John Wheelwright and his best friend Owen Meany are playing in a Little League baseball game. When Owen hits a foul ball which kills John's mother, their lives are changed in an instant.
Barbara Kingsolver’s magnum opus follows a Georgia missionary family’s self-destruction in the dark jungles of the Belgian Congo. The story is narrated by the mother and four daughters as the father, Nathan Price, leads his family to a remote village where they live squalid lives.
In a series of misadventures, he is resolute and foolish, attempting to lead the natives to Christ. Through poverty, culture clashes, and even death, the American women learn to depend on the villagers as Nathan blindly attempts to shove them into an Americanized form of Christianity. Kingsolver’s epic is an engrossing study of how destructive blind, stubborn, prejudiced faith can become. It is, at times, heartbreaking and painfully realistic.
Kingsolver is not afraid to question Christians' motives and show the dark side of Christianity. Yet, she is also respectful of the faith and especially respectful of the African villagers. After reading this story, I found myself looking through a different lens.
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An international bestseller and a modern classic, this suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and their remarkable reconstruction has been read, adored and shared by millions around the world.
'Breathtaking.' Sunday Times 'Exquisite.' The Times 'Beautiful.' Independent 'Powerful.' New York Times
This story is told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959.
They carry with them everything they believe they will…
Everything we know of Fantasy began with J.R.R. Tolkien: magical elves, warrior dwarves, powerful wizards, fantastic lands, and noble quests. All of these have been done to death in genre form, but they are mere shadows of Tolkien, whose prose allows you to get lost in an amazing world of his own design.
Tolkien created Middle Earth from the ground up, not only the magical map in his novels’ opening pages but also the languages of the mystical creatures and even their history from before the most famous trilogy of all time. This book is more than an adventure story; it is an immersion into a magical realm. I love books I can get lost in.
This brand-new unabridged audio book of The Fellowship of the Ring, the first part of J. R. R. Tolkien's epic adventure, The Lord of the Rings, is read by the BAFTA award-winning actor, director and author, Andy Serkis.
In a sleepy village in the Shire, a young hobbit is entrusted with an immense task. He must make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ruling Ring of Power - the only thing that prevents the Dark Lord Sauron's evil dominion.
Thus begins J. R. R. Tolkien's classic tale of adventure, which continues in…
A day in the life of a community, as seen through the eyes of God. God sees how one person’s decision affects another person’s outcome in ways the first person will never know. An elderly woman rebuffs a young man’s effort to hold the door for her. “I’m not an invalid!” she shouts. The young man’s confidence is shaken as a result, and he fails a job interview.
Such begins the chain of events where a homeless man makes good, an election’s outcome is determined, a silver-haired hero pulls a woman from an inferno, a scared, pregnant teen flees her murderous father, and the elderly woman’s son finds redemption in the midst of a prison riot.
I always want to be where I am not. This was why I read sci-fi and fantasy as a child. This was why I left the country of my birth and became a professional nomad. This is why I am spellbound by mountains I will never climb and oceans I will never dive into. Imagination can take you everywhere. It took me to the academy, where speculative literature became my scholarly field, and to the publishing world, where I am now getting ready for the launch of my eighth novel. When you are at home nowhere, you are at home everywhere–including on the summits of impossible mountains.
In Svetlana's country, it’s a felony to break a mirror. Mirrors are conduits of the Voice, the deity worshiped by all who follow Light. The Voice protects humans of MotherLand from the dangers that beset them on all sides: an invading army of wolf-headed men on their borders and the infectious, ever-evolving, zombie-like Enemy that plagues them at home. When Svetlana meets Andrei, a traumatized and amnesiac soldier from another war, she embarks on a harrowing journey of adventure and self-discovery that leads her to question everything she was taught to…
A voice through Svetlana's mirror guides her beloved MotherLand from behind its' electric tower. The war with Wulfstan is not going as well as Sveta and her parents hope, but Sveta trusts the Voice. When her best friend Tattie goes missing, and Sveta saves Andrei, a soldier in summer uniform in the dead of winter, it takes Sveta through a crucible of Light, doubt, and back to the altar of true belief. Girl of Light unravels Sveta's beloved MotherLand in a war-torn adventure through monsters, missing eyes and broken mirrors.
