Fans pick 100 books like The Two Georges

I love Star Wars, and I’ve been a Star Wars nerd forever. This book jumps into an Imperial conspiracy to restore the Empire using the ghost of its old leader, Grand Admiral Thrawn, who was long thought dead. 

I read this one thinking that the “conspiracy” was upfront and required no special thought. Still, two of the key players—Borsk Fey’lya and Major Grodin Tierce—are playing their own games within games, creating an interwoven conspiracy I confess I didn’t see coming until I read it. When I re-read the book, I looked hard to find their clues, and I had to carefully study each to find the underlying markers. It was an enjoyable, if jolting, way to delve into Star Wars lore.

When I think of Heaven, I think about angels, bliss, and no more sorrow. I don’t usually think about political machinations, rivalries between angelic factions, and alliances of convenience with demons. However, in this book, I found that the afterlife isn’t what we necessarily think it is, and I loved that both Heaven and Hell have their own agendas.

Doloriel, an agent of Heaven, navigates a delicate balance of keeping his boss angel happy while not losing his own soul. This task becomes more difficult when he meets a demon consort named Casimira. I found it riveting that he and Casimira discover that their bosses have their own plans, plans that might not always match the images we know of Heaven and Hell.

I always hear that disaster brings unity, but what if that “unity” was all a manipulation for power? Hidden Empire reminded me a little of the immediate aftermath of 9/11. I’ve wondered if, given our political divisions, we could ever come together like that again.

Orson Scott Card created a world where someone manipulates our division and desire for unity, and I loved seeing how someone could play us on so many levels. Reading about the use of a common enemy to wipe out national leadership and then playing up our political differences to create chaos, I became engrossed in a story about political intrigue and whether or not a savior was the hero we really wanted or the hero he wanted us to believe he was.

Fighting off alien invasions has become a passé, so I’ve wondered what living on a conquered Earth, one where resistance was gone, would be like. How would we live? Way of the Pilgrim showed me that, along with what humans are willing to do to survive and, in some cases, thrive in such an environment. 

While I like reading about our better natures, it has always been our baser desires that have always enthralled me. Shane Evert is a cross between a selfless hero and a man with his own interests at heart, and his plans for humanity clash with his desire for comfort. In the end, he leads his own conspiracy and finds one among the aliens he never imagined could exist.

After life as an unpaid servant to her clergyman cousin, Annabelle Archer’s ecstatic to win a scholarship to Oxford from the National Society for Women’s Suffrage—even if accepting means participating in the group’s political campaigning. A drive to sway influential gentleman to the cause lands Annabelle and her new suffragist friends at a house party given by the haughty Duke of Montgomery, a man far more interested in winning back the family properties his father lost gambling than in debating married women’s property rights. Until he starts debating with Annabelle…

A familiar story, plot-wise. The joy here comes from Dunmore's lovely writing, deft characterizations, and the palpable tension she creates between two people on opposite sides who fall into desperate, exhilarating, and completely unwanted love.

This book is a glorious exhortation to live, even when—especially when!—death is lurking. It takes place in the plague of 1666. I used to have a bizarre fear of the bubonic plague (like I imagined it was in my closet and, if I opened the door, it would escape out into the world), so it’s strange how much I love this book.

I think it’s because Anna, the main character, is such a force. She repeatedly reminds me to connect with the natural world and myself and then to stretch and reach beyond what I thought I was and who I thought I could be. It's magic.

O’Brien performed some sort of alchemy in turning a previously dry and underpopulated section of the historical fiction genre into literary gold, at once gripping and supremely well-written. One follows the adventures of a Royal Navy Commander and his Irish doctor friend–a man with a secret life–through the war at sea in the Napoleonic era, and I found the balance between naval exploits–Jack Aubrey being a swashbuckler of renown–and period history made for fascinating counter-points.

Over and above that, I loved the way O’Brien built an ensemble cast and proceeded to draw the reader into their lives, making the death of any one of them a personal loss. I know that I benefitted from learning this writing trick and used it myself in my Empire series, and I know at least one other Roman author who did much the same. Wonderful stories that kept me coming back, and this is… show more.

I love this book because it captures the essence of cold war espionage when the wall was still up in Berlin. It’s a tale of a time in recent history that no longer exists. It’s written with humour, the characters are well represented, and it’s believable in an English, often eccentric way.

This book introduced me to the magnificent John le Carré and his grey man, George Smiley. The atmosphere is cold and heavy, the hero is unassuming, and the light he holds against the darkness is small and flickering.

To unravel the truth, Smiley focuses on one piece of information that doesn’t fit. He doesn’t stop until that last piece falls into place and presents him with a wrenching choice.

The Haunting of Maddy Clare is a historic tale of ghost hunters who find exactly what they are seeking in Maddy Clare—a powerful and angry specter that haunts the barn where she ended her life. The characters are well drawn in a story that offers just the right balance of fright and romantic tension. The atmosphere is as dark and unsettling as one would hope to discover in a story about a haunting spirit, with enough mystery and suspense to keep the reader wondering about the ending for each of the characters—including Maddy Clare herself.

For readers who enjoy mysteries, ghost stories, and romantic suspense…The Haunting of Maddy Clare offers all of that and more.