The best novels about ordinary people in extraordinary situations (including time travel and paranormal)

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve narrowed down my fascination with time travel to an event that occurred in my late teens. Hitchhiking in California with a friend, we accepted a ride in a Volkswagen Beetle. My friend and I silently acknowledged a strange energy from the driver. Serial killer energy. After a few miles, we told the driver to let us out, which, thankfully, he did. Over the years I’ve wished I could travel back in time to discover if he was in fact a serial killer.  If you read my novel, Watching, A Different Type of Time Travel, Volume 1: The Garden Museum Heist, you'll find aspects of my reading (sci-fi), movie (Hitchcock), and life experiences reflected in the story.


I wrote...

Watching: Volume 1, The Garden Museum Heist

By Jeffrey Jay Levin,

Book cover of Watching: Volume 1, The Garden Museum Heist

What is my book about?

After watching a documentary about a 50-year-old unsolved crime, an otherwise ordinary guy finds himself both blessed and burdened by the ability to travel through time and space, but not in the physical sense, and only as it may relate to that unsolved crime.

Braving the debilitating physical effects of his space-time continuum journeys, he faces Mob bosses and their cronies, and murder and deceit, from both sides of the law. Determined to solve the crime and find the long lost art, and buoyed by the still unclaimed $5,000,000 reward, he has to come up with a means of convincing the FBI that his information is valid, without being locked up himself.

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Odd Thomas

Jeffrey Jay Levin Why did I love this book?

In this debut novel Odd Thomas, the title character is an engaging 20-year-old fry cook living in the small town of Pico Mundo, CA. 
Odd Thomas is an ordinary guy, except that he sees dead people. They seek him out. They do not speak, but they communicate with Odd telepathically, frequently leading him to their killers. He is a reluctant hero determined to do the right thing in a world full of wrongs. He’s a character that you wish good things for. Guided by love for his soul-mate girlfriend and dead souls, he fights evil, against all odds.

This book imbues the reader with hope that, no matter the evil or how seemingly insurmountable the odds (pun intended), a good heart can triumph. It’s a great series.

By Dean Koontz,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked Odd Thomas as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Meet Odd Thomas, the unassuming young hero of Dean Koontz’s dazzling New York Times bestseller, a gallant sentinel at the crossroads of life and death who offers up his heart in these pages and will forever capture yours.

“The dead don’t talk. I don’t know why.” But they do try to communicate, with a short-order cook in a small desert town serving as their reluctant confidant. Sometimes the silent souls who seek out Odd want justice. Occasionally their otherworldly tips help him prevent a crime. But this time it’s different.

A stranger comes to Pico Mundo, accompanied by a horde…


Book cover of The Time Traveler's Wife

Jeffrey Jay Levin Why did I love this book?

It was the concept that sucked me in right from the start: A regular guy who is diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock is reset and he finds himself hurled through time to moments of emotional gravity from his life, past, present, and future, with no control over when it happens and where in time he is sent. 

He meets the love of his life when he was thirty-six and she was six, yet they marry when he was thirty-one and she was twenty-three! I mean, really!?! Talk about ordinary people dealing with extraordinary circumstances.

A great concept and a satisfying read.

By Audrey Niffenegger,

Why should I read it?

20 authors picked The Time Traveler's Wife as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Now a series on HBO starring Rose Leslie and Theo James!

The iconic time travel love story and mega-bestselling first novel from Audrey Niffenegger is "a soaring celebration of the victory of love over time" (Chicago Tribune).

Henry DeTamble is a dashing, adventurous librarian who is at the mercy of his random time time-traveling abilities. Clare Abshire is an artist whose life moves through a natural sequential course. This is the celebrated and timeless tale of their love. Henry and Clare's passionate affair is built and endures across a sea of time and captures them in an impossibly romantic trap…


Book cover of 11/22/63

Jeffrey Jay Levin Why did I love this book?

First of all, I think Stephen King is a terrific writer and, strangely, I seem to enjoy his non-horror books the most. 

11/22/63 has some key elements that drew my attention: time travel, an ordinary guy, and an alternate reality. The protagonist, Jake Epping, suddenly discovers a portal through time. With this newfound ability, he takes it upon himself to change history in what he believes will be for the best. And to do this, he becomes determined to stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

I loved the detail into which King delves, and the time Jake takes to accomplish his goal. The story will totally engross you and the 867 pages will fly by, as will the time.

By Stephen King,

Why should I read it?

12 authors picked 11/22/63 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Now a major TV series from JJ Abrams and Stephen King, starring James Franco (Hulu US, Fox UK and Europe, Stan Australia, SKY New Zealand).

WHAT IF you could go back in time and change the course of history? WHAT IF the watershed moment you could change was the JFK assassination? 11.22.63, the date that Kennedy was shot - unless . . .

King takes his protagonist Jake Epping, a high school English teacher from Lisbon Falls, Maine, 2011, on a fascinating journey back to 1958 - from a world of mobile phones and iPods to a new world of…


Book cover of Hell Bent

Jeffrey Jay Levin Why did I love this book?

Wealth, Power, Murder, Magic. It sounded like a great combination, and it was. 

The main protagonist, Alex Stern, is a very troubled young woman with a very troubled past. Yet, her loyalty to her fellow purveyors of magic, all members of one of the many secret societies that abound in this part of the world, leads her to risk her very soul to save her mentor, who is half-trapped in hell. 

Set in the Ivy League of Yale, this story weaves reality (as we know it), myth, and legend into an intriguing tale of possible redemption.

By Leigh Bardugo,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Hell Bent as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Wealth. Power. Murder. Magic. Alex Stern is back and the Ivy League is going straight to hell.

Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. But Galaxy "Alex" Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory?even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale.

Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can't call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to…


Book cover of Stranger in a Strange Land

Jeffrey Jay Levin Why did I love this book?

OK, this is an oldie by today’s standards. I read this when I was much younger (high school) and it’s just one of those books that stuck with me. Heinlein is a master of science fiction, and it shows in Stranger.

Between the 2nd and 3rd World Wars, an expedition was sent to Mars.  While on its way to the red planet, one Valentine Michael Smith was born. As the only survivor of the expedition, he was raised on Mars by Martians. Upon his eventual return to Earth, now post WWIII and run by politically powerful organized religions, and The World Federation of Free Nations, which includes the demilitarized US, and a world government supported by Special Service troops. 

As Smith shows special abilities and roams through the world, fear of the unknown and prejudice raise their ugly heads, forcing Smith to learn the ways of his new world and attempt to overcome those very fears and prejudices.

By Robert A. Heinlein,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked Stranger in a Strange Land as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The original uncut edition of STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND by Hugo Award winner Robert A Heinlein - one of the most beloved, celebrated science-fiction novels of all time. Epic, ambitious and entertaining, STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND caused controversy and uproar when it was first published and is still topical and challenging today.

Twenty-five years ago, the first manned mission to Mars was lost, and all hands presumed dead. But someone survived...

Born on the doomed spaceship and raised by the Martians who saved his life, Valentine Michael Smith has never seen a human being until the day a…


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Kanazawa

By David Joiner,

Book cover of Kanazawa

David Joiner Author Of Kanazawa

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

My book recommendations reflect an abiding passion for Japanese literature, which has unquestionably influenced my own writing. My latest literary interest involves Japanese poetry—I’ve recently started a project that combines haiku and prose narration to describe my experiences as a part-time resident in a 1300-year-old Japanese hot spring town that Bashō helped make famous in The Narrow Road to the Deep North. But as a writer, my main focus remains novels. In late 2023 the second in a planned series of novels set in Ishikawa prefecture will be published. I currently live in Kanazawa, but have also been lucky to call Sapporo, Akita, Tokyo, and Fukui home at different times.

David's book list on Japanese settings not named Tokyo or Kyoto

What is my book about?

Emmitt’s plans collapse when his wife, Mirai, suddenly backs out of purchasing their dream home. Disappointed, he’s surprised to discover her subtle pursuit of a life and career in Tokyo.

In his search for a meaningful life in Japan, and after quitting his job, he finds himself helping his mother-in-law translate Kanazawa’s most famous author, Izumi Kyoka, into English. He becomes drawn into the mysterious death of a friend of Mirai’s parents, leading him and his father-in-law to climb the mountain where the man died. There, he learns the somber truth and discovers what the future holds for him and his wife.

Packed with subtle literary allusion and closely observed nuance, Kanazawa reflects the mood of Japanese fiction in a fresh, modern incarnation.

Kanazawa

By David Joiner,

What is this book about?

In Kanazawa, the first literary novel in English to be set in this storied Japanese city, Emmitt's future plans collapse when his wife, Mirai, suddenly backs out of negotiations to purchase their dream home. Disappointed, he's surprised to discover Mirai's subtle pursuit of a life and career in Tokyo, a city he dislikes.

Harmony is further disrupted when Emmitt's search for a more meaningful life in Japan leads him to quit an unsatisfying job at a local university. In the fallout, he finds himself helping his mother-in-law translate Kanazawa's most famous author, Izumi Kyoka, into English.

While continually resisting Mirai's…


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