Books like Babel: 100 fan favorites

I loved this book for the way Madeline Miller creatively retells Greek myths with a female protagonist. As Circe grows up, she discovers her power of magic, which can transform enemies into monsters and even challenge the gods.

Bold and inspiring, Miller vividly strings together figures like Prometheus, Medea, Calypso, Odysseus, and the Minotaur in a feminist reimagining of Circe's life. I find it to be a thoughtful and well-crafted biography of a complex and engaging mythological character with both divine and human strengths and flaws. I have read it several times, and the story has maintained its appeal.

Epic, in every sense of the word. A masterwork, speaking to the topics of religion, politics, relationships, poverty, exclusion, and so forth. A phenomenal best-seller, widely regarded as the most ambitious Science Fiction novel of all time.

As such, it is a hefty tome at 892 pages. It is a costume-and-culture movie-in-your-head, immersive, with a large cast and intricate plot twists, set in another world in another time—an experience that demands the audience pay attention.

When I read it in 1967, I had a wealth of esoteric SF under my belt and all the likes of Ayn Rand and Simone de Bouvier a teenager would or should stick his nose into. In addition, we had been living in Asia for eleven years. I was attending an international school, and my parents had dragged me along on three world tours. I had, and still have, an ear for cultural nuance.

Given… show more.

Clarke transports the reader to England during the time of the Napoleonic Wars. There is, however, one small twist: magic once existed in this world and has now returned through two men, drastically changing the course of history and society.

The story is rich in gothic atmosphere and wry humour, and is positively bursting with ideas (there are almost 200 footnotes!). Clarke imbues her protagonists with conflicting approaches to the pursuit of knowledge, with Norrell representing cautious rationality and conservative methodology, while Strange embodies an adventurous spirit and a willingness to embrace the arcane and often the dangerous.

All the good war stories capture the absurd alongside the epic, and what I love about this book is that both themes are core to this story. The soldiers can only find and fight their alien enemies by traveling thousands of light years almost instantly via “collapsars.”

However, the time dilation caused by each jump means dozens or even hundreds of years elapse on Earth between each fight. So, after each battle, they return to a home that’s increasingly alien to them. As much as I cheered for the heroes, in the end, I think I pitied them more than anything. Some wars just end up being more trouble than they’re worth. 

Alix Harrow writes that “behind every witch is a women wronged.”

Here are three sisters wronged by an abusive father who have hurt and betrayed each other in the past, but the bonds of love and sisterhood and witchcraft are stronger.

This book is for every woman because every woman has felt powerless. Every woman has been marginalized and dismissed but these three sisters prove to all of us that there is great power when women come together as they have throughout history.

I was rooting like crazy for these the sisters to prevail. I was charmed by the spells they cast based on fairy tales, nursery rhymes, lullabies. This is a book rooted in feminist tradition told in the tradition of great folklore. 

This is a beautiful story that captured my heart. I loved how the novel explores the concept of time travel, not with grand adventures, but through quiet, meaningful moments. The setting of the small café, where patrons can travel back in time, felt warm and comforting, and I was moved by the characters’ personal journeys as they sought closure or reconciliation.

The book shows the impact of small decisions and the importance of cherishing the present. You will need a box of tissues to read this one. If only I could visit the cafe to have a coffee with my dad.

I won’t lie; this series hurt my brain. It did not hold back with the twists or the depth of dialogue and intrigue either. I love it for the way it showed me the sheer complexity a series could offer. Asimov built a world that felt so real—complete with deep political intrigue, technological advancements, and power struggles that echoed across generations.

What captivated me most was how the storylines tied together over time, often referring back to events from the first book in ways that made everything feel interconnected. You don’t just read the Foundation series; you invest in it, piecing together the layers of Asimov’s universe as you go.

The story is full of big ideas—focusing not just on individuals but on the grand sweep of civilizations rising and falling. I felt that this series taught me the importance of understanding the long game: that things unfolding today may… show more.

Although I love a book that takes you traveling to the past or to foreign lands, sometimes I want to jump into the shoes of a contemporary character and understand their world. This book does just that. 

Starr Carter is a black teenager who lives in a poor, predominantly black neighborhood but attends an elite, mostly white private school. Starr manages to code-switch between her two lives until her childhood friend is shot by the police. 

If you like books about social justice and characters who stand up for what they believe, this is a fantastic read. 

I am a historian by day. But I have always believed that artists—whether writers, painters, or musicians—capture the human experience of history and, moreover, convey it in an enduring form for future generations far more effectively than historians. 

Historians have to present a single line of analysis or argument, which inevitably and properly makes events of a particular historical period meaningful to the particular moment in time when they are writing. A true artist can transcend both of those times. In my view, Rushdie’s book achieves that for the period, or generation, after Indian independence in 1947.

I have lived in India and written a lot about Indian history myself, including a book about Bombay, where Rushdie was partly raised. So, I have enjoyed and admired many of his earlier books, but this one remains his great achievement as a work of historical art.

Hands down, this is my favorite coming-of-age novel, written by Rainbow Rowell. Protagonist Cath copes with anxiety, family problems, and being away from home at college for the first time, but I loved this book because it plays with Harry Potter tropes, another book that appeals to adults as well as teens. 

Cath is obsessed with a Harry Potter-like series called Simon Snow. Like Harry, Simon attends a school for magic and fights against evil, but he’s also in love with his roommate, a thinly veiled version of Draco Malfoy. 

Cath not only reads all the Simon Snow books and dresses up in costumes for the movies, but she is also a devoted fan fiction writer. While Cath copes with her life and falls in love for the first time, it’s her queer Simon Snow fan fiction that kept me reading. 

If you fall in love with Simon… show more.