100 books like Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon

I had to include Alan Furst, the absolute master of historical fiction of the pre-WWII era. The first book of Furst’s Night Soldiers Series, this book introduced me to a new sort of spy thriller: instead of secret agents, these are ordinary people swept up in history.

I do love a makeover, but this is a life-and-death self-reinvention. When Khristo is targeted by the local fascist gang in 1934 Bulgaria, it’s time to run. When his first reinvention becomes dangerous, he reinvents himself again. And again. And finds love on the way. I was inspired at every turn by Khristo’s transformations without ever losing his core decency. The historical detail is so vivid I felt like I was right there with Khristo, whether he was in Moscow, Spain, or Paris. 

Imagine waking up to discover you’ve become the City of New York. And meeting the avatar of São Paulo walking around trying to be a mentor. As a New Yorker, I’m all for it, and I was hooked right from the start of this urban fantasy. Aliens are trying to eat the cities of Earth, but the cities fight back by choosing champions from among their populations.

New York, being New York, has six—one for the City as a whole and one for each borough because we do things right here. I got such a kick out of every borough’s particular personality and approach to being part of the whole, when just the other day, these were all ordinary people pursuing their own aims. Sudden, magical, consequential reinvention. Love it.

Is it weird that a space opera is one of my all-time comfort reads? Because it is. The first book of the Ancillary series, it’s got aliens, intergalactic war, an all-powerful ruler whose clones reach into every corner of the system, and one lonely remnant of a ship who reinvents herself to survive and ultimately fulfill her last order.

When everything is turbulent, I like to re-read Ancillary Justice and imagine I have one-tenth of protagonist Breq’s competence in a pinch. 

Nonfiction! Yes—but this is no self-help/how-to. Maria Konnikova (and some family members) suffered some personal and professional setbacks: the type of thing that happens to most of us. Bad luck. She decided to make a study of how luck impacts our success and happiness. How? By becoming a serious poker player. I loved her willingness to try something new in the face of a lot of skepticism and disapproval (especially from her beloved grandmother!).

I especially connected to her systematic approach to getting better and to her chagrin when she gets taken advantage of as the “new fish” at the poker table. I find luck a fascinating subject. Deliberately setting out to harness luck in the service of self-transformation? Yes, please. This one lives on the nightstand.

This is one of the very few novels that managed to conquer me in every aspect—the plot, the characters, the settings, and the writing. All credits go to the author, of course. But—as I now see her as a living person rather than a fictional character—I think I owe a special tribute to Big Ammachi, the female protagonist of this family saga.

She grabs the scene on page one, and although there comes a moment when she leaves (the story spans some eighty years), her profound sense of humanity keeps lingering throughout the book. More than that—she continues to linger now, even two months after I finished reading. And I suspect she will stay with me forever.

I loved to read about the women who went to Vietnam, mostly as nurses, to treat the many wounded Americans fighting there. They are a forgotten category. The main character, Frankie, did not exist, but the writer based her on several nurses she spoke to.

I use that way of working myself, too: I make up characters and put them in what looks very much like reality. Hanah showed how powerful trauma is and how it changes lives, which is another theme of mine. She really made me love Frankie.

This novel tells the story of Maise, a devoted wife and mother of four children.

It takes place over the course of a single day in October that begins with Maise nursing her infant and leads to a family outing to an orchard the following afternoon. It beautifully captures the daily emotions that a mother feels, ranging from anxiety to grief to deep love, and explores the feelings around the unpaid labor of motherhood and the financial anxiety that being a parent brings to us all. 

I loved how the author took multiple “minor characters” in the Bible and connected their stories, causing me to take a closer look at these lesser-known individuals.

In this book, Angela Hunt identifies the Lydia mentioned in Acts 16 as the same person called Euodia in Philippians 4 and presents a compelling argument as to why in her Author’s Note. The slave girl Paul liberates from a demon in Acts 16 is also given a prominent role as Euodia attempts to rescue her from a cruel master who seeks to restore her “gift.”

I enjoyed the quick pace and ever-changing setting as Euodia travels throughout Macedonia. Rich cultural details coupled with a marriage of convenience that blossoms into more made this a satisfying adventure!

The protagonist in this book is ConaLee, a 12-year-old girl mature beyond her years whose father, a Union soldier, is severely injured in the Civil War and doesn’t remember who he is (he never makes it back home). Her mother is raped by a roaming Confederate war veteran and traumatized to the point of muteness.

The Confederate soldier drops the mother and ConaLee off at a lunatic asylum in West Virginia, where a mysterious night watchman joins what becomes a compelling tale. I enjoyed this book because it introduces a spirited preteen protagonist who is trying to keep her family together and shows how devastating the Civil War was to so many families.  

The Marriage Portrait is a revisionist story of Lucrezia de Medici, the daughter of a 16th century Florentine duke who marries her off to the ruthless ruler of another region in northern Italy. Lucrezia’s husband is infertile but of course she is blamed for not being able to conceive. She overhears a plot to do away with her, so her husband can try to beget an heir on someone else. Lucrezia, who can get no help from her parents, has to figure out how to outwit her husband and escape. I’ll let you read this suspenseful and richly layered novel to find out if she manages to survive.