Here are 100 books that Sandry's Book fans have personally recommended if you like
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Both as a writer and reader, I adore stories of fantasy and magic. The thing is, these stories have what I call a “price of admission,” which is the time and effort it takes to learn the world of the story in order to immerse yourself in it. That's one reason I am passionate about reading series books: they welcome me back to a world I already love and understand. Speaking as a writer, multiple volumes allow me to make the world I've created richer and deeper with each new book. A new book in a beloved series feels like catching up with an old friend, whether you're reading or writing.
There is a special kind of joy in seeing a new talent burst onto the scene with a brilliant debut, and that was what I felt when I found Shannon Hale's gorgeous take on this old tale, one first collected by the Brothers Grimm.
Though I knew the bones of the story, I was completely drawn into the complex world that Shannon created from such sparse material and awash with admiration for how she made it all her own. There are three more entries in The Books of Bayern, and each is an absolute gem.
In this beloved first book in the Books of Bayern, from New York Times bestselling author Shannon Hale, Princess Ani must become a goose girl before she can become queen.
Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildenree, spends the first years of her life listening to her aunt's stories and learning the language of the birds, especially the swans. As she grows up, Ani develops the skills of animal speech, but she never feels quite comfortable speaking with people.
So when Ani's mother sends her away to be married in a foreign land, she finds herself at the mercy of…
Both as a writer and reader, I adore stories of fantasy and magic. The thing is, these stories have what I call a “price of admission,” which is the time and effort it takes to learn the world of the story in order to immerse yourself in it. That's one reason I am passionate about reading series books: they welcome me back to a world I already love and understand. Speaking as a writer, multiple volumes allow me to make the world I've created richer and deeper with each new book. A new book in a beloved series feels like catching up with an old friend, whether you're reading or writing.
I rarely laughed as much at an audiobook as I did at this one. At one point, I thought I was going to have to pull over to the side of the road because I was laughing so hard that it was getting dangerous!
The thing about Terry Pratchett is that he started out being very funny and then managed to become something even better–very funny and wise. I was listening to one of the later books in this series while driving with my wife, and I stopped the recording to say, “I think I want to fling myself out the window because I will never write anything as smart and funny as this.” That's how good I think he is!
A nightmarish danger threatens from the other side of reality . . .
Armed with only a frying pan and her common sense, young witch-to-be Tiffany Aching must defend her home against the monsters of Fairyland. Luckily she has some very unusual help: the local Nac Mac Feegle - aka the Wee Free Men - a clan of fierce, sheep-stealing, sword-wielding, six-inch-high blue men.
Together they must face headless horsemen, ferocious grimhounds, terrifying dreams come true, and ultimately the sinister Queen of the Elves herself . . .
I spent all my teenage years daydreaming about being magical (cue a handful of sparkling glitter). Even as an adult, those daydreams haven’t stopped. Magic promises the ability to change the story. I revisit those teen years when I can because ultimately, what each of these stories of magic offer is a coming-of-age story. The struggle of being pulled between two different worlds has always felt familiar to me, whether those worlds are literally different worlds (magical vs non-magical) or figurative (childhood vs adulthood). I’ve felt some version of that struggle my whole life, and I think I always will, which is why these stories will always feel like home.
Suze Simon might be one of my favorite characters of all time.
She’s a mediator (which means she speaks to the dead, and sometimes kicks their butts too). She grew up in New York, which made her tough and edgy. Our story starts when her mom remarries and they move to sunny California to live with Suze’s new stepdad and step-brothers (who are all varying degrees of hilarious, annoying, and down right adorable). Suze has to figure out how to navigate going from life as an only child to life as one of four kids kind of overnight.
I love how Meg Cabot plays with what it’s like to be the new kid, particularly the new kid with a BIG secret.
Shadowland is the first book in the thrilling, romantic Mediator series, from the New York Times bestselling author of the Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot.
Suze is a mediator—a liaison between the living and the dead. In other words, she sees dead people. And they won't leave her alone until she helps them resolve their unfinished business with the living.
But Jesse, the hot ghost haunting her bedroom, doesn't seem to need her help. Which is a relief, because Suze has just moved to sunny California and plans to start fresh, with trips to the mall instead of the cemetery, and…
Both as a writer and reader, I adore stories of fantasy and magic. The thing is, these stories have what I call a “price of admission,” which is the time and effort it takes to learn the world of the story in order to immerse yourself in it. That's one reason I am passionate about reading series books: they welcome me back to a world I already love and understand. Speaking as a writer, multiple volumes allow me to make the world I've created richer and deeper with each new book. A new book in a beloved series feels like catching up with an old friend, whether you're reading or writing.
I love to laugh, I love fantasy, I love dragons, and this book provides hilarity and dragons in rich measure. Patricia C. Wrede has a delightful way of twisting old tropes into something fresh and new.
Even better, she is a master of creating feisty female characters...the kind that I wanted my daughter and my students to read about.
Meet Princess Cimorene-a princess who refuses to be proper. She is everything a princess is not supposed to be: headstrong, tomboyish, smart . . . and bored. So bored that she runs away to live with a dragon. And not just any dragon, but Kazul-one of the most powerful and dangerous dragons around. With a new look and new introduction from the author, this story is sure to acquire a new generation of fans. AGES: 10-13 AUTHOR: Patricia C. Wrede has written many novels, including all four books in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles as well as 'Sorcery and Cecilia', 'The…
Both as a writer and reader, I adore stories of fantasy and magic. The thing is, these stories have what I call a “price of admission,” which is the time and effort it takes to learn the world of the story in order to immerse yourself in it. That's one reason I am passionate about reading series books: they welcome me back to a world I already love and understand. Speaking as a writer, multiple volumes allow me to make the world I've created richer and deeper with each new book. A new book in a beloved series feels like catching up with an old friend, whether you're reading or writing.
I first read this book over 40 years ago when I was struggling to learn how to write fantasy for young readers. I loved it so much that it became a foundational text for me. Lloyd Alexander's gift for building characters that fairly leap off the page, characters that made me laugh but then broke my heart as they were forced to deal with painful decisions, gave me something to aspire to in my own writing.
The series grows in depth and complexity, and the final book makes me weep every time I read it. It provided one of my greatest joys as an elementary school teacher when I used all five volumes as a year-long reading text with a group of gifted fourth graders.
Since The Book of Three was first published in 1964, young readers have been enthralled by the adventures of Taran the Assistant Pig-keeper and his quest to become a hero. Taran is joined by an engaging cast of characters that includes Eilonwy, the strong-willed and sharp-tongued princess; Fflewddur Fflam, the hyperbole-prone bard; the ever-faithful Gurgi; and the curmudgeonly Doli--all of whom become involved in an epic struggle between good and evil that shapes the fate of the legendary land of Prydain.
Released over a period of five years, Lloyd Alexander's beautifully written tales not only captured children's imaginations but also…
I spent all my teenage years daydreaming about being magical (cue a handful of sparkling glitter). Even as an adult, those daydreams haven’t stopped. Magic promises the ability to change the story. I revisit those teen years when I can because ultimately, what each of these stories of magic offer is a coming-of-age story. The struggle of being pulled between two different worlds has always felt familiar to me, whether those worlds are literally different worlds (magical vs non-magical) or figurative (childhood vs adulthood). I’ve felt some version of that struggle my whole life, and I think I always will, which is why these stories will always feel like home.
My best friend hates me for recommending this book, but I won’t stop. It’s 1895, and Gemma Doyle is British but has grown up in India. After seeing her mother killed in a vision (which she didn’t even know she had) and then finding she’s been killed in real life, Gemma is sent to boarding school to learn to become a proper lady. That’s when the real magic begins.
I love the friendships in this story, the real struggles, the grief, the dirt and grime of real life mixed with the mystery and glitter of magic. The story sucks me in every single time, no matter how many times I read it.
It's 1895, and after the death of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma's reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she's being followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence's most powerful girls - and their foray into the spiritual world - lead to?
I spent all my teenage years daydreaming about being magical (cue a handful of sparkling glitter). Even as an adult, those daydreams haven’t stopped. Magic promises the ability to change the story. I revisit those teen years when I can because ultimately, what each of these stories of magic offer is a coming-of-age story. The struggle of being pulled between two different worlds has always felt familiar to me, whether those worlds are literally different worlds (magical vs non-magical) or figurative (childhood vs adulthood). I’ve felt some version of that struggle my whole life, and I think I always will, which is why these stories will always feel like home.
Is it cliche to recommend Harry Potter? Maybe, but I’m doing it anyway because no list specifically claiming to offer 5 of the BEST books for daydreaming about being a magical teenager would be complete without the boy who lived.
In the sixth of the Harry Potter books (which might be my favorite), Harry is so solidly in that hard space of life pre-adulthood but post-childhood. I love this particular story because I identified so much (minus the death wizards) with his struggle: navigating grief, friendship, love, loyalty, and doing the right thing even when the right thing is really hard and will probably cost you more than you’ll gain.
This story has always reminded me that there is always hope, no matter how dark things get.
New, repackaged audio editions of the classic and internationally bestselling, multi-award-winning series, read by Stephen Fry containing 17 CDs with a total running time of 20 hours and 45 minutes. With irresistible new jackets by Jonny Duddle to bring Harry Potter to the next generation of readers.
When Dumbledore arrives at Privet Drive one summer night to collect Harry Potter, his wand hand is blackened and shrivelled, but he does not reveal why. Secrets and suspicion are spreading through the wizarding world, and Hogwarts itself is not safe. Harry is convinced that Malfoy bears the Dark Mark: there is a…
I spent all my teenage years daydreaming about being magical (cue a handful of sparkling glitter). Even as an adult, those daydreams haven’t stopped. Magic promises the ability to change the story. I revisit those teen years when I can because ultimately, what each of these stories of magic offer is a coming-of-age story. The struggle of being pulled between two different worlds has always felt familiar to me, whether those worlds are literally different worlds (magical vs non-magical) or figurative (childhood vs adulthood). I’ve felt some version of that struggle my whole life, and I think I always will, which is why these stories will always feel like home.
I fell totally in love with this book! This is the story of Gemma and Oliver, two best friends about to be separated by the gift Gemma has been waiting for her whole life, which is also the biggest and only secret she’s ever kept from Oliver. On the night of her 17th birthday, she will be claimed by one of three branches of magic.
This story is everything that is wonderful about being seventeen, falling in love, and figuring out where you fit in the world, especially when you feel so tied to two completely different worlds. A Tangle of Dreams is part one in a duology that kept me up into the wee hours of the morning because I needed so desperately to read “one more chapter”!
Gemma and Oliver have been best friends their entire lives. But no matter how well Ollie thinks he knows Gemma, there’s one secret standing between them, one secret she swore she’d never tell: magic is real. And she’s waited her whole life to have it. On their seventeenth birthday, Gemma and her twin brother, Milo, will be Claimed by one of the three branches of magic. Only then will they have access to the power they’ve always seen but been unable to touch.
Gemma’s counting down the days until she becomes one of the…
John Julius Norwich’s A Short History of Byzantium ignited my passion for the Byzantines in the early 2000s. I knew little about them before reading that book; now I rarely read any other topic. I have always loved historical fiction and was dismayed to find so few books about the Byzantines. Once I read about the remarkable life of Anna Dalassena I realized I had found a character to write about and remedy that shortage. I am presently working on my fifth book and third novel, which will be about Anna’s son, Emperor Alexios I Comnenus. I also have a book of short stories and a brief Byzantine history.
I had never looked at or had an interest in graphic novels until I saw this graphic novel about the mother of one of the Byzantine Empire’s most important rulers, Basil II. But if there was ever going to be one I would read, it had to be a Byzantine one! I loved it! The vivid artwork in this book is superb and tells of Theophano’s life from innkeeper’s daughter to wife of not one, but two emperors. If you want to ease into Byzantine historical fiction, this graphic novel is a great places to start.
A fairytale marriage that goes terribly wrong, a ruling dynasty struggling to keep everything together by having overly ambitious palace officials do the dirty work, and prominent Roman generals who dream of taking the throne for themselves.
This explosive mixture of occurrences takes place in the 10th century Byzantine Empire. An era of territorial resurgence and Imperial extravagance, but also an era of dynastic intrigue and endless plotting for the ultimate prize. The Roman throne.
During that time, an ordinary girl, marries the heir to the throne, enters the palace and becomes Theophano, an ambitious woman ready to climb the…
Many students are still taught that the Roman Empire ended in 476 AD. To the contrary, the Roman Empire survived and flourished through the Middle Ages up to the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. The Roman state was incredibly long-lived and resilient. Modern historians often call its medieval incarnation the Byzantine Empire. I have devoted my professional life to studying these medieval Romans (or Byzantines) and to telling others about them. I teach courses at my university, write books, consult for documentaries, appear on podcasts, and engage on Twitter. The early Byzantine period was a time of both continuity and immense change and I find it endlessly fascinating.
This work of historical fiction attracted me to the study of the Byzantine Empire.
I read it as a first-year university student and was astonished at its story of intrigue, mutilation, and murder in a medieval, Christian Roman Empire. Fans of medieval fantasy such as George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series might be drawn to this riveting and dramatic tale.
This story of the life of the volcanic and unpredictable emperor Justinian II (r. 685-695 and 705-711 A.D.) welcomed me to the Byzantine world, and perhaps it will do the same for you!
A Hugo Award-winner offers a fictional account of the violent reign of seventh-century Roman Emperor Justinian II, capturing the drama of his youthful rise to the throne, his expansion of Roman rule, and his eventual overthrow. Reprint.
