59 books like They Split the Party

Thirteen-year-old Alice moves to a new town where no one knows she has Asperger’s syndrome. When she behaves in a way her teachers feel is inappropriate she gets sent to detention. It’s there she meets Megan, a hard-core “bad girl” who becomes the only person to make a meaningful connection with Alice. 

Alice likes rules, Megan likes to break rules. Yet somehow the two girls manage to become good friends. Megan’s home life is bad and she decides to run away. Despite the angst and the inner voice telling her not to, Alice goes with Megan to protect her.

Quote: “Is a hero average in type, appearance, achievement, function, and development?” Alice asks.

This book stands out for me because it shows that we all can “go farther” than any perceived limitation, be it developmental, physical, or emotional. 

Hinds' mesmerizing paintings set the scene for a beautiful graphic rendition of The Odyssey. Anyone who has moved or travelled a lot, or seems to not be able to find a way home, can appreciate the story of Odysseus. I read this book many times with my two (once) young children, hopefully preparing them for a life of travel and living in Greece with their wanderer, researcher mom. For us Greek mythology is not for learning a "western" canon, which was never defined by ethnic Greeks anyway. We read the Odyssey to appreciate our roots in Greek island cultures and the hospitality they offer, which this lovely version makes palpable.

My book is theoretical, on the nature of heroes. Reed’s book is the perfect complement to it. It provides brief bios for numerous heroes—many who are famous and many who are not but should be. One vivid example of the latter is Katharine Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl. Many people realize that Winston Churchill recognized early on the evil of Hitler and the need to oppose National Socialism. But few know that the diminutive Duchess realized it sooner, that she warned Churchill, that she had the full translated speeches of Hitler sent to him, that she stood up to Neville Chamberlain, head of her own party, and that, in defense of liberty, she fearlessly warned the West against the dangers of both the Soviets and the Nazis. Lawrence Reed’s book is replete with true stories of such little known heroes.

The renowned Rosemary Sutcliff examines the life and times of legendary hero, Finn MacCool in this modern and compelling book. Her descriptive writing and attention to detail makes the writing flow effortlessly across the page. The book doesn’t read like a collection of legends, but like a modern thriller. I highly recommend it, along with its companion book, The Hound of Ulster.

As a historian I have often felt the need to get to grips with the basis of western mythical-historical writing, meaning—Homer. After reading Mythos, I couldn’t resist reading Fry’s second book of his Greek mythology trilogy, and I was rewarded! Despite the often-confusing flood of Greek names of gods, Titans, divine mortals, etc. you can’t help enjoying this exciting read of Paris’ abduction of Helen of Sparta. As usual, Fry’s erudition is combined with side-splitting humor and wit. He has the brilliance to bring alive the ancient classical Homer’s Iliad to a modern-day audience. 

Hook draws an interesting distinction in his book on heroes. He discusses two types of heroes: the eventful man and the event-making man. “The eventful man in history is any man whose actions influenced subsequent developments along a quite different course than would have been followed if those actions had not been taken. The event-making man is an eventful man whose actions are the consequence of outstanding capacities of intellect, will, and character rather than of accidents of position. This distinction tries to do justice to the general belief that a hero is great not merely in virtue of what he does but in virtue of what he is." 

This is an interesting distinction that we can profitably deliberate on. Hook was a philosophy professor for decades at NYU and he brings to the issue of heroes a grasp of the historical discussion of it.

The Bad Guys series which chronicles the adventures of some stereotypically dangerous animals trying to do good and save the world pulled me in from page one.

You have humor (especially around bodily functions which always gets a giggle) and well-developed characters that are oftentimes naughty but incredibly likable. In the first episode, the book has been broken down into manageable chapters, the dialogue is not too lengthy and the high-paced illustrations communicate action and humor perfectly.

Young readers will certainly feel accomplished after completing this 144-page graphic novel.

To me, it seems like you have to become an optimist when you study history, because you understand the terrible circumstances that we have managed to get away from. But it doesn’t happen by itself. This is the story about some of the most important individuals who made that possible. Jim Powell portrays freedom fighters throughout history, from Cicero and Locke to Martin Luther King Jr and F A Hayek, and many less well-known names. But Powell does not just describe their ideas, but their lives, the communities that made them possible, their courage, and their doubts. It’s incredibly inspiring.

The main character in this book is a badass, snarky, strong female lead and I fell in love with her immediately. But I also loved the humour in this book.

Annette Marie is particularly good at creating humourous dialogue and she did it so well in this book. There is also a reverse harem type of feel with several mages all of whom are kind of competing for the attention of the lead character.

However, unlike some reverse harem series on the market, this one is very clean with light romance – the plot is more focused around mystery-solving and action, my favourite combination! I tore through the entire series in a few weeks. Highly addictive reading!

I am also a sucker for rituals. We don’t have enough of them in this country, and this book is about a modern American ritual that makes me think about the specifics of American military service and why I should recall it. People will often ask me what they can do personally to help honor our service members.

When I read this book about why we have white tables, what their elements should be, and what each of those elements represents, I had a much better idea of the right response. If I were a kid, I would have a lot of questions by the time I finished reading this book, and that is a very good thing.