100 books like Mirrormaze

Having read this book when I was 22, it helped shape my fear of the danger of complacent societies. Simply but powerfully written, its first-person narrative creates a sense of claustrophobia, a glimpse into the isolating and dehumanizing life of a handmaid. 

Through Offred, the traumas she experiences, and the people she interacts with the whole world of Gilead springs to scary life. While reading the book, it struck me that nothing was totally made up. Every incident in the book was derived from history. These things had already happened, and they could happen again. It showed me that victory is not always heroic and impressive. Sometimes, victory can be just surviving oppression.

The Dream Master was originally published in Amazing (Jan/Feb 1965) titled, He Who Shapes. The novella won Roger Zelazny a Nebula Award in 1966. I have re-read this novel several times over the years, and subconsciously I think it influenced the premise for Dream Phaze. Some of the tech is a little outdated by today’s terms, but the overall idea is still fresh.

David Mitchell is a master of dreaming up non-linear, mind-bending, genre-blending stories that fuse fantasy and reality, so he has plenty of candidates for this list. I chose Number9Dream, a wonderful and genuinely bizarre coming-of-age novel that keeps the reader constantly asking if any of this is real. With gangster battles, kamikaze diaries, deadly floods and earthquakes, family tragedy, a stuttering “Goatwriter,” and (spoiler) a concluding chapter that is a blank page, this is, on the surface, the dazzling tale of a Japanese student searching for a father he’s never met. But from the opening chapter, where Eiji fantasizes about outrageous ways to confront his father’s lawyer in her place of work, but never does, the reader quickly senses that this strange journey will forever change those open-minded souls brave enough to embark on it.

Le Guin is one of my all-time favorite writers, and this book is one of her lesser-known gems. It is a weird, kaleidoscopic story about a man whose dreams change reality and a therapist who tries to take advantage of this to create his own idea of utopia.

It’s a story that doesn’t exactly leave a flattering impression of my profession. But I love it, not only for its mind-bending creativity but as a cautionary tale about what can happen when the imbalance of power in therapeutic relationships goes unchecked. Le Guin takes a question about psychotherapy that I think about all the time—who gets to define what it means to be “healthy”?—and follows it to its dizzying extreme: who gets to decide what kind of world we want to live in?

I loved this book because it spoke directly to me. Jost looks at jazz music and in particular the development of free jazz.

It all fits together and flows so easily. He includes discussions on different musicians, their impact on free jazz music and explains how different areas within America developed their own subgenres of music. This book contains so many ‘aha!’ moments which is why I recommend it. 

This book opened up jazz music for me and changed how I viewed it. It is a history book, a storybook, and a narrative on social change, and the author is both knowledgeable and intuitive in his approach.

Insights into nearly all forms of jazz are given, along with their origins. Free jazz and improvised music are explored and in the final pages, Finkelstein gives some wonderful insights into what the future of jazz might look like from the American viewpoint. Masterful writing and a glorious journey into and through the jazz genre and its development.

I felt like Finkelstein was speaking directly to me in some places. An accessible and informative read.

This was my ‘go to’ book for years when I first began to write about music and jazz music in particular.

Cooke explains many things that until then, I had only heard about. The history of jazz music is explained clearly. From Be-bop and hard bop to free jazz and the avante garde. His writing allowed me to put names to music styles I found fascinating and it was as if an author was truly speaking my language. He introduces some well-known jazz musicians and their impact on jazz music 

Barbara O’Connor is one of my very favorite authors for this age group. Her books are funny, sweet, and full of heart! She also does a great job of creating books set in the South without relying on tropes. In Wonderland, two very different girls team up to help a runaway greyhound find a more satisfying home. Mavis is brave and bold but has never had a best friend. Rose is timid and a worrier. She’s never really fit in with the other kids in the neighborhood. And then there’s Henry, a greyhound who’s run away from the Wonderland race track. Henry’s best days are behind him which could lead to his being euthanized. Alternating between the voices of Mavis, Rose, and Henry, O’Connor weaves a wonderful story of friendship, home, and redemption. Give this book to your reader who loves to laugh and to cry.

When I was kid, it was a rite of passage to watch the movie version of this musical with my parents on TV during Fourth of July week in the U.S.. I’ve since seen regional theater productions as well.

Yes, the play is fun and funny, but what did not sink in until I’d done my own research into the lives of the signers was how marvelously the words and lyrics lay out the history. When one of the flashy South Carolina delegates sings “Molasses to Rum,” you understand the underlying economics of the slave trade. The songs still hold up and advance the plot, as all great Broadway songs must do.

But if you miss the words in the 1972 film or modern staged versions, the only way to absorb it all is to dip into the official libretto itself.

If you’ve never done theater, this book will have you running for the nearest audition. The non-fiction book contains heartwarming reflections from the cast, crew, and creative team for Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, including director Joel Grey. Readers get an inside look at show life, from cast bonding to pre-opening stress to performance mishaps. The vignettes convey what each cast and crew member contributes to making the magic happen. While heavy on the feel-good memories, it rings true and mesmerizes.

Theatre Quotient: High. It’s all theater, all the time!