Why am I passionate about this?

I think secrets are part of who we are. Everyone has things they keep secret and things they don’t want others to know. Why is this? I’ve always been fascinated by it, even though I don’t have any major secrets myself – but I still have aspects of how I think that I don’t wish to share. I see the same thing with my eight-year-old, who just doesn’t want to tell me about that one nightmare… Hm. We keep secrets perhaps because, somehow, having other people not know is critical to how we imagine ourselves. And they make for great stories, don’t they?


I wrote

The Glass Sentence

By S. E. Grove,

Book cover of The Glass Sentence

What is my book about?

Boston, 1891. Sophia Tims comes from a family of explorers and cartologers who, for generations, have been traveling and mapping…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Thief

S. E. Grove Why did I love this book?

This book is the ultimate trickster tale. I fell in love with the book (and the whole series) when I realized that Megan Whalen Turner is an expert at creating unreliable narrators: storytellers who either can’t see the truth or intentionally hide the truth. (I won’t tell you which it is for The Thief!) At the end of the book, everything is turned on its head, and the first thing you want to do is go back to the beginning and read it all over to figure out how you missed it! The Thief’s secret is a stunner.

By Megan Whalen Turner,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Thief as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

Discover the world of the Queen's Thief New York Times-bestselling author Megan Whalen Turner's entrancing and award-winning Queen's Thief novels bring to life the world of the epics and feature one of the most charismatic and incorrigible characters of fiction, Eugenides the thief. Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief novels are rich with political machinations and intrigue, battles lost and won, dangerous journeys, divine intervention, power, passion, revenge, and deception. Perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo, Marie Lu, Patrick Rothfuss, and George R. R. Martin. Eugenides, the queen's thief, can steal anything-or so he says. When his boasting lands him in…


Book cover of Howl's Moving Castle

S. E. Grove Why did I love this book?

You might know the movie by Miyazaki, but Wynne Jones’s book is wonderful on its own terms – and kind of different (Miyazaki took some intriguing liberties). There are three main characters in this book, and all three of them are keeping secrets – in some cases because magic is keeping them silent! I first read this book long ago, and I return to it whenever I want to visit the strange but familiar landscape in which an old lady (who is really a young girl) can be friends with a fire demon.

By Diana Wynne Jones,

Why should I read it?

20 authors picked Howl's Moving Castle as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 10, 11, 12, and 13.

What is this book about?

Now an animated movie from Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki, the oscar-winning director of Spirited Away

In this beloved modern classic, young Sophie Hatter from the land of Ingary catches the unwelcome attention of the Witch of the Waste and is put under a spell...

Deciding she has nothing more to lose, Sophie makes her way to the moving castle that hovers on the hills above her town, Market Chipping. But the castle belongs to the dreaded Wizard Howl, whose appetite, they say, is satisfied only by the souls of young girls...

There Sophie meets Michael, Howl's apprentice, and Calcifer…


Book cover of Akata Witch

S. E. Grove Why did I love this book?

Akata Witch has a magic system like no other. Reading this book made me rethink the “rules” of magic systems in fantasy fiction. The weirdness, the silliness, the insects! Okorafor has also found a way to think about identity in magic (there’s the secret) that is both profound and fun.

By Nnedi Okorafor,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Akata Witch as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

Affectionately dubbed "the Nigerian Harry Potter," Akata Witch weaves together a heart-pounding tale of magic, mystery, and finding one's place in the world.

Twelve-year-old Sunny lives in Nigeria, but she was born American. Her features are African, but she's albino. She's a terrific athlete, but can't go out into the sun to play soccer. There seems to be no place where she fits in. And then she discovers something amazing-she is a "free agent" with latent magical power. Soon she's part of a quartet of magic students, studying the visible and invisible, learning to change reality. But will it be…


Book cover of The Tombs of Atuan

S. E. Grove Why did I love this book?

This book (and the series it’s a part of) utterly changed my understanding of fantasy writing. I realized that fantasy could take on big issues – and contemporary ones – by describing made-up worlds and fairly narrow lives. The “secret” in this story, stretching a bit, is the world itself, which is kept secret from the book’s protagonist, Tenar. The labyrinth that she lives in is her destined place, but she has the wisdom and grace to not only save someone who has landed in it, but to find her way out of it herself. 

By Ursula K. Le Guin,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Tombs of Atuan as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 9, 10, 11, and 12.

What is this book about?

The second book of Earthsea in a beautiful hardback edition. Complete the collection with A Wizard of Earthsea, The Furthest Shore and Tehanu

With illustrations from Charles Vess

'[This] trilogy made me look at the world in a new way, imbued everything with a magic that was so much deeper than the magic I'd encountered before then. This was a magic of words, a magic of true speaking' Neil Gaiman

'Drink this magic up. Drown in it. Dream it' David Mitchell

In this second novel in the Earthsea series, Tenar is chosen as high priestess to the ancient and nameless…


Book cover of Astrid the Unstoppable

S. E. Grove Why did I love this book?

This book is for slightly younger readers, but I think it has genuine multi-generational appeal. I read it aloud to my eight-year-old, who laughed aloud and loved it – in fact, it was the first read-aloud chapter book that he stuck with. And his grandmother is also reading and loving it! Astrid has the feel of a classic, with its humor and its gentle wisdom. Though it’s a story about a feisty girl who loves sledding, it’s also a story about how someone you love can keep a hurtful secret. How does one forgive such a thing? Astrid figures it out. 

By Maria Parr,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Astrid the Unstoppable as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 7, 8, 9, and 10.

What is this book about?

"Classic storytelling at its best, delightful and moving. I loved it." M. G. Leonard, author of Beetle Boy

Maria Parr's second novel is a hilarious and heart-warming story about family and friendship that will delight fans of Pippi Longstocking.

Astrid Glimmerdal loves to spend her days racing down the mountainside on her sledge and skis - the faster the better! She just wishes there were other children to share in her adventures. Instead, she has to put up with a grumpy 74 year old for a best friend (although secretly, she knows she wouldn't have it any other way).

Astrid's…


Explore my book 😀

The Glass Sentence

By S. E. Grove,

Book cover of The Glass Sentence

What is my book about?

Boston, 1891. Sophia Tims comes from a family of explorers and cartologers who, for generations, have been traveling and mapping the New World—a world changed by the Great Disruption of 1799, when all the continents were flung into different time periods. Eight years ago, her parents left her with her uncle Shadrack, the foremost cartologer in Boston, and went on an urgent mission. They never returned. Life with her brilliant, absent-minded, adored uncle has taught Sophia to take care of herself.

Then Shadrack is kidnapped. And Sophia, who has rarely been outside of Boston, is the only one who can search for him. Together with Theo, a refugee from the West, she travels over rough terrain and uncharted ocean, encounters pirates and traders, and relies on a combination of Shadrack’s maps, common sense, and her own slantwise powers of observation. But even as Sophia and Theo try to save Shadrack’s life, they are in danger of losing their own.

You might also like...

An Heir of Realms

By Heather Ashle,

Book cover of An Heir of Realms

Heather Ashle Author Of An Heir of Realms

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

My favorite fantasy novels tend to be rather complex. Winding plotlines, mysteriously interconnected characters, whimsical settings, and intricate, thoughtful worldbuilding combine to create immersive stories that stick in the mind like overworn folklore. Time travel or interworld travel lend additional layers of intrigue and mystery, forcing the inescapable contemplation of a more thrilling, alternate reality. And if it’s all packaged in artful, breathtaking prose that breeds full-color images, audible noises, indelible flavors, nose-crumpling odors, and tangible textures, I will happily lose myself in the pages, truly forgetting about the strictures of everyday life… at least until I get hungry and remember I need to consume more than books to survive.

Heather's book list on adult fantasy that won’t make you grow up too much

What is my book about?

An Heir of Realms tells the tale of two young heroines—a dragon rider and a portal jumper—who fight dragon-like parasites to save their realms from extinction. 

Rhoswen is training as a Realm Rider to work with dragons and burn away the Narxon swarming into her realm. Rhoswen’s dream is to Ride, but her destiny will pit her against her uncle and king, who have scorned her since before her birth. 

In the Exchange, the waystation between realms, Emmelyn fights the G’Ambit, a gambling ring with members more intent on lining their pockets than protecting the realms—or their own lives.

Both…

An Heir of Realms

By Heather Ashle,

What is this book about?

Realm-devouring parasites threaten all existence. The Exchange is desperate to destroy them. But could their radical plans endanger the realms, too?

Soul-sucking parasites are overwhelming the realms.

Rhoswen of Stanburh is of age to train as a Realm Rider—a defender of the realms. Riders and their dragons work together to burn away infiltrating Narxon as they swarm in through tears in a realm’s fabric. But it’s not an easy battle: the mere touch of the smoky, dragon-like adversaries can reduce the lively winged beasts—and their Riders—to ash.

Becoming a Realm Rider is Rhoswen’s dream, but she carries far more responsibility…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Nigeria, Norway, and magic-supernatural?

Nigeria 67 books
Norway 58 books
Magic-Supernatural 644 books