Here are 100 books that Halayda fans have personally recommended if you like
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As a mother of two girls, Iâve always loved fostering their interests in multiple subjects and providing them with epic role models. Too often, womenâs strength in fantasy and science fiction (my favorite genres) is shown through violence or physical action, whether they can wield a blade or hold their own in a fight. Watching my girls get excited about game design, math, and science always gives me a little thrill, and I love providing them with epic heroines who use their brains as their primary weapon. STEM heroines rock!
I adore superhero fiction, but it is hard to find good versions of it outside of visual mediums like comics and film. This book was one of the first superhero novels I found, and it is a lot of fun.
Penelope wants nothing more than to develop superpowers and be a hero like her parents, but instead, she develops mad scientist powers that lead to utter chaos! I squirmed as the young characters got themselves deeper and deeper into trouble, but I also laughed at this madcap superhero world filled with puns, metal-eating robots, and epic adventure.
Penelope Akk wants to be a superhero. She's got superhero parents. She's got the ultimate mad science power, filling her life with crazy gadgets even she doesn't understand. She has two super-powered best friends. In middle school, the line between good and evil looks clear. In real life, nothing is that clear. All it takes is one hero's sidekick picking a fight, and Penny and her friends are labeled supervillains. In the process, Penny learns a hard lesson about villainy: She's good at it. Criminal masterminds, heroes in power armor, bottles of dragon blood, alien war drones, shapeshifters and ghosts,âŠ
As a mother of two girls, Iâve always loved fostering their interests in multiple subjects and providing them with epic role models. Too often, womenâs strength in fantasy and science fiction (my favorite genres) is shown through violence or physical action, whether they can wield a blade or hold their own in a fight. Watching my girls get excited about game design, math, and science always gives me a little thrill, and I love providing them with epic heroines who use their brains as their primary weapon. STEM heroines rock!
If there are two things I canât get enough of, it's fantastic holiday stories and cozy fantasy/science fiction. When you combine the two? Iâm sold. Liz Deltonâs books have a straightforward charm to them while always involving complicated world-building that gives me a world Iâd love to play in.
Her Seasons of Soldark series has four holiday or seasonal tales, and the first, the Clockwork Ice Dragon, is a cozy holiday adventure. The heroine is a determined inventor who I found equally admirable for her persistence (aka stubbornness) and frustrating for snapping to a judgment and sticking to it like a rusty bolt (also stubbornness). This only makes her more believable, though, as it is so often our greatest strengths that are also our greatest weaknesses.
An invention gone wrong. A city buried in snow. And she only has âtil Christmas to make it right.
Aurelia Sundon has an idea for a brilliant invention that will ensure her familyâs financial future. But the elite inventorâs guild has imposed a ridiculous deadline for invention applications: Christmas Day. With only four days until the deadline, Aurelia thinks she can finish it in time.
Until her old love Frederick Grandville, son of the cityâs most powerful inventor, steps back into her life. With a fantastic invention of his own to enter in the competition, Frederick might just be theâŠ
As a mother of two girls, Iâve always loved fostering their interests in multiple subjects and providing them with epic role models. Too often, womenâs strength in fantasy and science fiction (my favorite genres) is shown through violence or physical action, whether they can wield a blade or hold their own in a fight. Watching my girls get excited about game design, math, and science always gives me a little thrill, and I love providing them with epic heroines who use their brains as their primary weapon. STEM heroines rock!
Iâve adored everything Iâve read that EJ Kitchen has written. Her magical systems are almost scientificâa little in the vein of Brandon Sandersonâintricate and interlocking with multiple parts working together. In this book, we have a complex, high-concept world featuring many brave heroes and heroines trying to make do in a world cursed by evil fae.
The leading lady of the first book in the series is an airship captain, which is epic and awesome. I love how the characters have to constantly work around the limitations placed over their world that make something as simple as trying to navigate to the next town over dangerous.
In a world where the sun is a myth, dawn is coming.
Bertram Orren expected trouble with both the Time Keepers and faeries if he got caught in the faerie woods. He didnât expect to get trapped in an abandoned faerie court deep underground while trying to save airship captain Marianna Bowditch from a will-oâ-the-wisp. Nor did he expect he and Marianna to discover an ancient treasure that could help free the world from the Time Kingâs control, one that could bring back the peopleâs ability to navigate for themselves in a world where sun and moon, east and westâŠ
Truth told, folks still ask if Saul Crabtree sold his soul for the perfect voice. If he sold it to angels or devils. A Bristol newspaper once asked: âAre his love songs closer to heaven than dying?â Others wonder how he wrote a song so sad, everyone who heard itâŠ
As a mother of two girls, Iâve always loved fostering their interests in multiple subjects and providing them with epic role models. Too often, womenâs strength in fantasy and science fiction (my favorite genres) is shown through violence or physical action, whether they can wield a blade or hold their own in a fight. Watching my girls get excited about game design, math, and science always gives me a little thrill, and I love providing them with epic heroines who use their brains as their primary weapon. STEM heroines rock!
Did I mention I love superheroes? Shannon Kane, aka the Spider-Queen, ticks so many boxes for what I look for in a good character. Sheâs logical but also sometimes loses her cool. She experiences fear when sheâs overwhelmed by situations but still overcomes it like a boss ⊠oh, and her superpower is SCIENCE!
This novella has an old-school vibe to it. Sometimes I felt like I was watching a television show from the black and white days with the heist vibes and the secret agents and the tech out of an early scifi B movie. An unusual vibe for a book, but I was there for it. Itâs a fun edition to the superhero genre.
From the ashes of tragedy rises a new hero, destined to bring hope to a world on the brink of chaos.
Shannon Kane's world is shattered when her husband, the brilliant chemist Dr. Henry Kane, is brutally assassinated. With his government secrets stolen, and the authorities offering no hope, Shannon takes destiny into her own hands. Embracing her new identity as The Spider-Queen, she dives headfirst into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with her husband's killers.
"The Spider-Queen" is an action-packed superhero adventure brimming with electrifying battles, pulse-pounding chases, and a web of conspiracies that stretch across the globe. AsâŠ
Iâve been fascinated by fantasy and sci-fi books since childhood â ever since I read Harry Potter and my parents took me to Disneyland Park. My parents had a giant library, and they used to encourage me to buy books and read them. I enjoy reading books that mix genres with unexpected twists and turns, and I am always on the hunt for a good story to enjoy and review.
I was hooked from page one and finished reading the book in just a few days. Although this is a complicated story, the description was vivid and clear. The plot was fast-paced and full of actions that will keep you on the edge of your seat most of the time.
âThe expert combination of immersive storytelling, strong characters, and well-woven mixture of speculative and steampunk elements makes for an unforgettable experience.â â The Prairies Book Review
Heroes only get better with age.
Forty years after The Great War that overthrew an Empire, a former war hero, Ellaria Moonstone, has discovered a new threat to the World she helped save.
When the Peace King of the Free Cities goes missing, Ellaria uncovers a plot to overthrow the tenuous republic. Fearing that a powerful being called a Sagean Luminary has returned to claim the throne, Ellaria sends for help from old alliesâŠ
Pantheons and worship are elements of culture Iâve always found fascinating, partly from being a mostly secular person with relatives who are very religious. I read a lot of epic fantasy when I was younger that featured gods, like Erikson, and I love finding more recent works that play with how deities might affect a world, and vice versa. But I also picked some of the books below because they inject cli-fi or solarpunk into their worlds â something Iâve been adding to my second-world fantasy lately. Because why not create the same sort of aesthetic in other worlds?
This book was a serious inspiration for me when my debut novel was in an earlier draft. Tracy crafts this cool theology where âGodâ is a scientist and the world his Experiment, but not everyone agrees on whether that Experiment should be allowed to run free. What if God gets tired of playing and throws out the ant farm, or decide itâs not workingâŠ? The Nine centers on a motley-found family of characters, many of whom have rich backstories with each other that we get bits and pieces of, which is like catnip to me as a reader (and writer).
In the dark streets of Corma exists a book that writes itself, a book that some would kill for... Black market courier Rowena Downshire is just trying to pay her motherâs freedom from debtor's prison when an urgent and unexpected delivery leads her face to face with a creature out of nightmares. Rowena escapes with her life, but the strange book she was ordered to deliver is stolen. The Alchemist knows things few men have lived to tell about, and when Rowena shows up on his doorstep, frightened and empty-handed, he knows better than to turn her away. What heâŠ
Forsaking Home is a story about the life of a man who wants a better future for his children. He and his wife decide to join Earth's first off-world colony. This story is about risk takers and courageous settlers and what they would do for more freedom.
As a practicing Hedge Witch, Iâm fascinated by the marriage of science and the mystical. Now, Iâm alchemizing confidence, coherence, and clarity for soulful writers to pursue the books of their dreams. I am the author, illustrator, and designer of Mama Bear Saysâą and the Book Witch of planners and journals for your sacred words. I live at the edge of the wild woods and love to graze on wild berries, sit by a cozy hearth, and watch the magic of the animals who meander through these lands. The magic of the natural world and the healing power of Mother Earth sits as a priority in my life. These are the books on my magickal bookshelf.
Quite honestly, any book by Glennie Kindred is a must-read. I was introduced to her writing while on a pilgrimage to Glastonbury, England. Earth Alchemy is a favorite as it explores a powerful fusion between the science of alchemy and the energy inherent in the Earth. This practical guide shows us how to work with the cycles of the seasons and use this natural, alchemical energy of transformation to experience ourselves on a deeper level. The little book takes us on a journey of discovery to find our inner golden threads to weave a blanket of healing and happiness.
In Earth Alchemy - an updated edition of Glennie Kindred's The Alchemist Journey - she explores a powerful fusion between the ancient healing art of alchemy and the energy inherent in each of the eight Celtic festivals. This practical guide, written in Glennie's accessible style, show us how to work with each seasonal and alchemical shift, and use the natural energy of transformation to experience ourselves in a new way. It takes us on a journey of discovery, to find our gold, the source of our healing and happiness.
Earth Alchemy includes: * A key to the Earth Festivals andâŠ
I've always loved stories. After years of observing the importance of stories, and their role in creating our reality, the determination to write my own clicked into place. Storytelling is very much at the heart of my first novel, Strange Gods. Strange Gods features a multiverse of powerful gods, but humans still stand out for their ability to tell self-defining stories. From the inciting incident where Carcass kidnaps Spooky to be his storyteller, to the decisions she makes along her journey, the stories Spooky tells others and herself determine her outcomes. I hope the books on this list inspire you to reflect on the power of any stories you tell, as they've inspired me.
So many fantasy worlds repeat familiar settings, characters, and types of magic. Middlegame delights because it is so different. I couldnât encapsulate all of it in a single sentence, but to peel back some of the weird layers: alchemists give universal concepts like Good and Evil semi-human forms in a race to control them and attain godhood. This ties into the theme of storytelling because McGuire reframes historic literary greats like Mark Twain as alchemists, who are intentionally creating and changing the nature of the world with their books. If that isnât a powerful image of a storyteller, I donât know what is.
Master fantasist Seanan McGuire introduces readers to an America run in the shadows by the Alchemical Congress, a powerful society focused on transmuting reality itself.
Meet Roger. Skilled with words, languages come easily to him. He instinctively understands how the world works through the power of story.
Meet Dodger, his twin. Numbers are her world, her obsession, her everything. All she understands, she does so through the power of math.
Roger and Dodger aren't exactly human, though they don't realise it. They aren't exactly gods, either. Not entirely. Not yet.
Meet Reed, skilled in the alchemical arts like his progenitorâŠ
I've been making messes with paint, string, and words, as well as in love, mothering, and in virtually every other way imaginable my whole life. Eventually, an expertise began to grow, and the confusion in my life began to make sense through my creations, while at the same time, the seemingly irrelevant words and textures I was making started to tell me something about my life. Eventually, my lived experience and training in the Expressive Arts Therapies have led me to the roles of teacher, educator, and contemplative artist. If we pay attention to what we express and how we express things, we can find our way through any mess we find ourselves in.
I always seek to immerse myself in creative works like film, fiction, and music, and as a mother of three young children, I have now added children's books to this list.
The magic and simplicity of bringing together poetic voice and imagery in picture books have shown me the alchemy of weaving together mediums to convey emotion and meaning in a simple and powerful way.
Of the thousands of childrenâs books I have read (seriously!) this one struck me as a gem, exploring the vulnerability and enchanting realm of childhood, a place where creativity once roamed free within us.
This simple story of a mother and daughter and the beauty of the imagination and memory as one ages feels like an invitation made just for me asking me to reignite the spark of expression without all the added weight of adulthood.
The Paper Dolls is a stunning, lyrical story of childhood, memory and the power of imagination from Julia Donaldson, the author of The Gruffalo, and award-winning illustrator Rebecca Cobb.
A string of paper dolls go on a fantastical adventure through the house and out into the garden. They soon escape the clutches of the toy dinosaur and the snapping jaws of the oven-glove crocodile, but then a very real pair of scissors threatens . . .
The Paper Dolls is a beautiful and evocative story from Julia Donaldson and Rebecca Cobb, the bestselling creators of The Everywhere Bear.
Forsaking Home is a story about the life of a man who wants a better future for his children. He and his wife decide to join Earth's first off-world colony. This story is about what risk takers and courageous settlers and what they would do for more freedom.
Iâm Mary Sisson, award-winning writer blah-blah-blah, and when I need to pry myself off the feeds before my head explodes, I reach for a particular sort of book: story-driven with a lot of adventure, a dash of humor, another of romance, andset in a well-developed, immersive fictional world. While all of these titles can be read alone (I hate books that were clearly written to sell a sequelâ600 pages of filler ending with a cliffhanger? No thank you!)they all also form parts of series, because when my head is about to shoot right off my neck, it helps me to know that I have the remedy at hand. Enjoy!
Magic has appeared on Earth, and Addie doesnât know what to make of it. In fact, sheâs not quite sure what to make of anythingâshe has no recollection of who she is. What she does know is alchemy: While some people are magical, alchemists makemagic using potions and powders. The magical donât like the alchemists, and the New Magical donât like the Old Magical, the creepy, secretive necromancers who run funeral homes and turn people into ghouls and zombies. The Final Formulahas excitement, scares, and some mind-blowing twistsâjust know that, if you continue with the series, you cannot skip the âin-betweenâ books.
To a master alchemist like Addie, impossible is just another word for challenge. When a fiery explosion destroys the Alchemica, the premier alchemy institute in the United States, sheâs left with nothing. No home, no colleagues, and no memory. Learning what happened seems impossible, but she still has one strength, and in her opinion, itâs the only one she needs. She hasnât forgotten a thing about alchemy.
Addie brews a potion to restore her lost past, but remembers only the flames of the Alchemicaâs destructionâand a man among the ashes. A man with the elemental power of fire, who justâŠ