The Secret Garden

Books like The Secret Garden

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October 18, 2022
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#1 Books Like Between Shades Of Gray

In 1941, Lina, a fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl, is like any other teenager. She paints, doodles, and develops crushes on men. Up until the night when Soviet officers storm into her house and uproot her family from their cozy existence. Lina, her mother, and her baby brother slowly travel north, passing the Arctic Circle on their way to a work camp in the harshest parts of Siberia after being separated from their father and crammed aboard a cramped, filthy train car. Under Stalin’s orders, they are compelled to work in the harshest conditions to dig for beets and battle for their lives.

In an effort to let her father know they are still alive, Lina methodically and dangerously sketches out events in the hopes that these signals may reach the prison camp where he is being held. Through extraordinary bravery, love, and hope, Lina survives the protracted and terrifying voyage that lasts years and covers 6,500 miles. The book Between Shades of Gray will take your breath away and win your heart.

#2 Books Like Quarantine

Winner of the Whitbread Novel of the Year award and finalist for the Booker Prize. Four travelers enter the Judean desert in order to fast and pray for their lost souls two thousand years ago. They come across the evil trader Musa, a maniac, a sadist, a rapist, and even a Satan, who enslaves them under his dictatorial rule in the sweltering heat and barren rocks. A Galilean who has been fasting for forty days is also present; he is a faint figure in the distance, and legend has it that he is capable of doing miracles. They start their harrowing struggle for survival here, stranded in the forest.

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#3 Books Like And I Darken

Nobody anticipates a princess to be ruthless. Lada Dragwlya prefers it that way, too. Lada has always known that being merciless is essential for life since she and her sweet younger brother, Radu, were uprooted from their Wallachian birthplace and left by their father to be trained in the Ottoman courts. She and Radu are destined to play the role of pawns in a cruel game, with an invisible sword watching their every move. Because of their ancestry, which makes them unique and targets,

Lada despises the Ottomans and waits for the day she can travel back to Wallachia and reclaim her heritage before organizing her retribution. Only a place where he feels comfortable is what Radu yearns for. Radu feels as though he has discovered a true friend when they meet Mehmed, the rebellious and lonely son of the sultan, and Lada wonders if she has finally found someone deserving of her affection.

#4 Labyrinth Kate Mosse

Alice, a volunteer at an archaeological dig in the Pyrenees near Carcassonne, enters a cave by accident and finds a surprising discovery inside: two rotting skeletons, weird writing on the walls, and the layout of a labyrinth. A young woman named Alais receives a ring and a mystery book from her father to keep for safekeeping eight hundred years earlier, on the verge of a horrific crusade that will split apart southern France. He claims that the ring, which has a labyrinth engraved on it, will reveal the location of a Grail guardian, and that the book has the clue to the real Grail. To protect the labyrinth’s secret now, while crusading troops assemble outside Carcassonne’s city walls, a great sacrifice will be necessary.

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#5 The Tea Rose

East London in 1888: a unique metropolis. Where thieves, whores, and dreamers coexist, where kids play in the cobblestone streets during the day and a killer pursues at night, where bright hopes collide with the harshest realities. Together with her longtime partner, Joe Bristow, a costermonger’s son, Fiona Finnegan, a worker at a tea factory, dreams of one day owning a shop here by the Thames. Fiona and Joe struggle, save and make sacrifices to pursue their aspirations with nothing but their shared faith in each other as motivation.

But when a cruel and evil guy takes almost everything and everyone Fiona cares about from her, her life is ruined. She is compelled to leave London for New York out of fear for her own life. There, she is propelled by her unwavering spirit to ascend from a little West Side storefront to the top of Manhattan’s tea trade. In order to put an end to Fiona’s old ghosts, she must travel back to the London of her youth. There, a lethal encounter with her past serves as the key to her future.

#6 Mary Jane

Mary Jane, a fourteen-year-old in Baltimore in the 1970s, loves to cook with her mother, sing in the church choir, and take advantage of her family’s membership in the Broadway Show Tunes of the Month record club. She is happy to get a summer job as a nanny again for the daughter of a local doctor despite being quiet, reserved, and bookish. Decent employment, according to Mary Jane’s mother. in a dignified home.

The house may have a nice outside, but the interior is a literal and figurative disaster with takeout for dinner, cereal, and IMPEACHMENT: Now More Than Ever bumper stickers covering the doors. And to make matters worse, the physician is a psychiatrist who has scheduled his entire summer to focus on helping a well-known rock singer dry out. The rock star and his wife, a movie actress, move in a week after Mary Jane begins.

#7 King Warrior Magician Lover

According to the writers of this empowering manual for self-improvement, the corporate “yes man,” the wife-beater, the hot-shot male junior executive, and the emotionally detached parent are all boys posing as men. They observe signs of “Boycaps per book psychology,” which manifests in men’s abusive actions, apathy, and incapacity to act creatively, everywhere around us while writing within a Jungian framework. Moore and Gillette identify four archetypes of masculine energies from myth and literature that can help men develop into more nurturing and mature individuals: the Lover, who is full of life and sensitivity; the Magician, who directs the processes of inner and outer transformation; the selfless and wise King, who is associated with Adam or primordial man; and the Warrior, whose energies frequently go awry in destructive activity. A clear, simple map of the regions of the masculine ego is provided, and it includes methods such as dream interpretation, meditation, Jungian “active imagination,” and ritual practices.

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#8 Devil In Winter

A deal with the devil. Evangeline Jenner has enlisted the aid of the most notorious criminal in London in her desperate attempt to get away from her cunning kin. There is only one possible outcome: a convenient union. The timid, stuttering wallflower and the sinfully attractive viscount were unlikely partners. But it soon becomes apparent that Evie has a secret power, and Sebastian wants her more than any other woman he has ever met.

Evie makes a deal with the devil in an effort to regain her husband’s heart. If Sebastian can remain celibate for three months, she would let him into her bed. Sebastian makes the decision to put his own life in danger in order to defend his wife Evie when she is attacked by a bitter adversary from the past. For the sake of their intense love, they will fight against their dangerous destiny together.

#9 Grendel

Grendel is a novel written by American novelist John Gardner in 1971. It is a retelling of a portion of the Old English poem Beowulf from the antagonist, Grendel’s, point of view. Grendel is characterized as an antihero in the literature.

The first and most terrible monster in English literature, Beowulf, gives his side of the event in a book dubbed “one of the finest of our current fictions” by William Gass.

#10 Dances With Wolves

After being assigned to guard a deserted army post, John Dunbar found himself alone and on the outskirts of civilization. Thievery and survival soon led him into the Indian camp, where he embarked on a perilous journey that would change his life forever. Relive the thrill and beauty of the breathtaking film Dances with Wolves.

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#11 City Of Thieves

Lev Beniov is captured for thieving during the Nazi siege of Leningrad and put into the same cell as a gorgeous deserter named Kolya. Instead of being executed, Lev and Kolya are offered the opportunity to save their own lives by following an insane directive: obtain a dozen eggs for a powerful Soviet colonel to use in his daughter’s wedding cake. Lev and Kolya go on a hunt through the dreadful lawlessness of Leningrad and beyond enemy lines to locate the impossible in a city cut from all supplies and suffering extraordinary starvation.

City of Thieves is a compelling, cinematic World War II adventure and an emotional coming-of-age story with a total current feel for how boys become men, at turns smart and humorous, exhilarating and horrifying.

#12 Making Bombs For Hitler

Lida believed she was secure. Lida is not Jewish, but her neighbors who were all sporting a yellow star were all taken away. She’ll be alright, I’m sure of it. But she is powerless to stop the atrocities of World War II. In addition to losing her beloved sister Larissa, Lida also loses her parents. Lida is taken by the Nazis to a harsh labor camp where she and other Ukrainian youngsters are made to perform torturous labor. Lida bonds with her fellow inmates while starving and in fear, but none of them are sure if they will live to see tomorrow.

Lida is unable to bear the idea of assisting the enemy when she and her friends are tasked with making bombs for the German army. Then she has an inspiration. What if she tampered with the bombs… and the Nazis? Can she achieve it without being discovered? Will she ever locate her sister again if she is released? This heart-pounding thriller of survival, fortitude, and hope depicts a lesser-known period in history – and is likely to keep readers engrossed until the very last page.

#13 Firefly Lane

Firefly Lane is for anybody who has ever sipped a glass of Boone’s Farm apple wine while listening to Abba or Fleetwood Mac. It’s more than a coming-of-age narrative; it’s about a generation of women who were simultaneously fortunate and cursed by their decisions. It’s about broken promises, secrets, and betrayals. Finally, it’s about the one individual who actually knows you—-and understands what has the potential to hurt you… and heal you. Firefly Lane is a story you’ll never forget… and one you’ll want to tell your closest friend about.

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#14 Salt To The Sea

The Wilhelm Gustloff, a German cruise ship that was meant to transport wartime staff and refugees to safety from the advancing Red Army, was sunk by a Soviet submarine on January 30, 1945, in the Baltic Sea. While the Titanic and Lusitania are both well-documented tragedies, they are not the greatest maritime tragedy in history. Over 10,500 passengers boarded the ship, which had a maximum capacity of 1,800, and over 9,000 people, including 5,000 children, died as a result.

To reflect the true tragedy, Sepetys (author of “Between Shades of Gray”) creates four fabricated but historically accurate voices. As Russian troops advance, Joana, a Lithuanian nurse with nursing experience, Florian, a Prussian soldier escaping the Nazis with looted treasure, and Emilia, a pregnant Polish girl, all begin their escape journeys. Each will eventually run into Albert, a Nazi peon with egotistical delusions who is delegated to the Gustloff decks.

#15 Treasure Island

Treasure Island has never been topped for pure storytelling fun and adventure. The story creates settings and characters that have captured the imaginations of generations of readers, starting with the first time young Jim Hawkins meets the evil Blind Pew at the Admiral Benbow Inn and ending with the final struggle for riches on a tropical island. The novel revolves around the struggle between good and evil but in this instance a particularly interesting variety of evil. It was written by a fantastic prose stylist who is a master of both action and mood. The pace of this story of betrayal, greed, and bravery is set by the villainy of that most ambiguous outlaw, Long John Silver.

Treasure Island, in the words of G. K. Chesterton, “is the realization of an ideal, that which is vowed in its suggestive and beckoning map; a vision not only of white skeletons but also of green palm trees and sapphire seas,” created to forever stoke a dream of high romance and far-off horizons. There will always be a place for tales like Treasure Island that can make boys and old men happy, according to G. S. Fraser, who calls it “a completely original work.”

#16 Fantasyland

Kurt Andersen demonstrates in this expansive, expressive history of America that what is taking on in our society right now—this post-factual, “fake news” period that we are all experiencing—is not a novel development but rather the pinnacle manifestation of our cultural identity. Wishful thinkers, magical thinkers, true believers, hucksters, and their suckers established America. Our DNA contains deep-seated fantasy.

Through the course of five centuries, from the Salem witch trials to Scientology to the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, from P. T. Barnum to Hollywood and the wild and crazy sixties, from conspiracy theories to our fetish for guns and obsession with extraterrestrials, our love of the fantastic has made America exceptional in a way that we’ve never fully acknowledged. Since the beginning, our ultra-individualism has been associated with epic imaginations and dreams; every citizen is free to pretend to be absolutely anyone or to believe absolutely anything. Andersen investigates if the great American experiment in liberty has gone awry with the joyous erudition and tell-it-like-it-is intensity of Christopher Hitchens.

#17 Year Of Wonders

An unlikely heroine and healer emerge in the form of a housemaid named Anna Frith after a plague-infected bolt of fabric spreads from London to a remote village. As Anna and her fellow villagers battle the spread of disease and superstition, we follow the events of the tragic year of 1666 through Anna’s eyes. Anna must muster the will to face the breakdown of her society and the allure of forbidden love as death seeps into every home and the people switch from prayers to bloodthirsty witch-hunting. A year of calamity turns into annus mirabilis, or a “year of miracles,” as she strives to live and develop. Year of Wonders is a vividly detailed portrayal of a unique period in history that was inspired by the historical story of Eyam, a community in the rough hill region of England.

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#18 Euphoria

Inspired by the actual account of a lady who revolutionized how we perceive the world. Three talented young anthropologists are forced together in the New Guinean bush in 1933. They are Andrew Bankson, who accidentally enters the life of this peculiar couple and becomes utterly charmed, and Nell Stone, who is interesting, magnetic, and well-known for her contentious research on South Pacific cultures. Within a few months, the trio is creating its best work yet, but soon their relationships, jobs, and, eventually, lives are threatened by an uncontrollable firestorm of furious love and jealousy.

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#19 Ivanhoe

Scott relocated far from the backdrop of his own difficult time for this book. Instead of using the Scottish settings from all of his other books, he turned back the clock to the late 12th century and to England. He made a connection between his concerns about current affairs and Ivanhoe. The themes of historical actuality and chivalric love, social realism, grand adventure, and the past and present were brought together by Scott.

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#20 The Bear And The Nightingale

The majority of the year is spent in winter at the border of the Russian wilderness when snowdrifts tower over buildings. Vasilisa doesn’t mind, though, because she loves spending the cold winter nights cuddling up next to her darling siblings and listening to their nurse tell fairy tales. She adores the terrifying tale of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon that arrives in the icy night to seize the souls of the unwary. According to her nurse, wise Russians revere the spirits of the house, yard, and forest that guard their houses against evil and fear him.

Vasilisa’s father travels to Moscow in search of a new wife after her mother passes away. Vasilisa’s new stepmother, a fiercely devout city girl, prevents her family from worshipping the home spirits. The family agrees, but Vasilisa is terrified because she feels that more depends on their traditions than everyone is aware of. Indeed, crops start to fail, woodland monsters get closer, and bad luck follows the village. While this is going on, Vasilisa’s stepmother becomes sterner and sterner in her efforts to prepare her disobedient stepdaughter for marriage or incarceration in a convent.

#21 Matterhorn

A large, impactful tale of men in battle written over the span of 35 years by a Vietnam War veteran with a lot of decorations. Matterhorn is a visceral and enthralling book about what it’s like to be a young man at war that was written over the period of thirty years by a highly decorated Vietnam veteran. It is a remarkable book that turns the tragedy of the Vietnam War into a stirring tale of bravery, teamwork, and sacrifice that can be applied to any conflict. It is also a tribute to the literary ability to redeem human suffering.

Karl Marlantes, a Yale University graduate and Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam. He was given the Navy Cross, the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals for bravery, two Purple Hearts, and ten air medals for his service. His debut book is this one. He resides in a little town in Washington.

#22 The Henna Artist

The Henna Artist offers a door into a world that is at once rich and interesting, stark and terrible, and it does so through a vivid and riveting depiction of one woman’s battle for fulfillment in a society that oscillates between the traditional and the modern.

Lakshmi, a seventeen-year-old woman fleeing a violent marriage, travels by herself to Jaipur, a bustling city painted pink in the 1950s. She becomes the most sought-after henna artist—and confidante—among the affluent upper-class women there. She can never share her own secrets while being trusted by the richest people.

#23 Moon Over Manifest

I was shaken by the train’s motion like a baby. I closed my eyes and envisioned the sign that I had only ever seen in Gideon’s stories: “Manifest—A Town with a Rich Past and a Bright Future.” I looked out at the dusty landscape. Tucker feels left behind. Her father has boarded a train and is sending her away to spend the summer with an old acquaintance while he works a railroad job. Abilene climbs off the train in Manifest, Kansas with just a few items and her list of universals in order to find out more about the boy her father used to be.

Abilene is unhappy to learn that Manifest is just a dried-up, worn-out old town after hearing stories about it. But when she comes across a secret cigar box filled with keepsakes, including some ancient letters that make reference to a spy known as the Rattler, her sadness rapidly transforms into excitement. Even though they are instructed to “Leave Well Enough Alone,” these enigmatic messages set Abilene and her new friends Lettie and Ruthanne on a genuine spy hunt.

#24 Gates Of Fire

Thermopylae was a steep mountain pass in northern Greece where three hundred of the feared and revered Spartan troops were stationed. To defend the pass against the advancing millions of the powerful Persian army, it was their suicide mission.

They resisted the horrific onslaught day after bloody day, affording the Greeks some time to gather their forces. The Spartans would be recognized for the best military battle in history—one that would not finish until the rocks were awash in blood, leaving only one badly injured Spartan squire to tell the tale. They were born into a cult of spiritual heroism, physical endurance, and unsurpassed war prowess.

#25 Wide Sargasso Sea

Wide Sargasso Sea, a work of modern literature, marked Jean Rhys’s comeback to the literary spotlight. She was well renowned for her outstanding prose, haunting female characters, and astonishing early career. She cleverly illuminates one of fiction’s most fascinating characters—the madwoman in the attic from Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre—in Wide Sargasso Sea, her final and best-selling book. Antoinette Cosway, a voluptuous and shielded young woman who is traded into marriage to the arrogant Mr. Rochester, is introduced to us in this captivating piece. Cosway is portrayed by Rhys in a setting where the level of sexual inequality and racial hatred is so extreme that it practically drives a woman insane. The work’s ongoing significance is emphasized in a new introduction by Claire of the Sea Light author and award-winning author Edwidge Danticat. She enriches Rhys’s and her remarkable work by drawing on her own Caribbean heritage.

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#26 The Vine Witch

In this suspenseful fantasy set in turn-of-the-century France, a teenage witch breaks free from a curse to find her world turned upside down. The Chanceaux Valley’s famed wine is produced in the vineyards at Château Renard thanks to the skill of their vine witches, whose magic has been relied upon for ages. Then, when sorcière Elena Boureanu was taken by surprise by a curse, the art of harvest divination was destroyed. After breaking the curse that kept Elena in the marshy shallows and diminished her magic, Elena is now attempting to resume her previous life. Additionally, a handsome stranger now owns the vineyard that she intended to inherit.

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#27 Whitney My Love

Whitney Stone, fresh from her successes in Paris society, returns to England focused on winning the affection of her childhood sweetheart. Whitney is the cost of her father’s agreement with the haughty Duke of Claymore, which he reached in order can save himself from disaster.

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#28 The Viscount Who Loved Me

However, the gossip columnists are mistaken this time. Not only has Anthony Bridgerton decided to be married; but he has also selected a spouse! The only problem is Kate Sheffield, his intended’s older sister, who is the most intrusive person to ever enter a London ballroom. With her tenacity in trying to thwart the engagement, the vivacious schemer is driving Anthony insane, yet when he shuts his eyes at night, Kate is the woman who appears in his increasingly sexy fantasies.

Kate is certain that, contrary to popular perception, rehabilitated rakes do not make the ideal husbands, and Anthony Bridgerton is the evilest rogue of them all. Kate is adamant about keeping her sister safe, but she worries that her own heart is weak. And when Anthony touches her lips, she gets a sudden fear that she won’t be strong enough to resist the disgusting rake herself.

#29 Edenbrooke

Marianne Daventry will do anything to get away from Bath’s monotony and an undesired suitor’s seductive advances. She, therefore, seizes the opportunity when her twin sister, Cecily, extends an offer for her to join her at a vast country house. Marianne anticipates being able to unwind and take in the beautiful English countryside while her sister woos the dashing heir of Edenbrooke, but she soon learns that even the best-laid plans may go haywire.

Marianne finds herself caught up in an unforeseen adventure with enough romance and excitement to keep her thoughts racing, including a harrowing run-in with a highwayman and an apparently innocent infatuation. Will Marianne be able to control her wayward heart, or will she be taken aback by an enigmatic stranger? When Fate transported Marianne to Edenbrooke, it wasn’t just for a carefree summer.

#30 The Maid Of Fairbourne Hall

In disguise as a housemaid, Margaret Macy leaves London with a plan to marry her off to an unethical guy. She will inherit money and independence if she can avoid getting married until her next birthday. She had no intention of actually working as a servant, though. And definitely not in the house of Lewis and Nathaniel Upchurch, two past suitors.

When suspicions are raised and nosy onlookers arrive at Fairbourne Hall, Margaret struggles to conceal her identity while she stumbles through the first meaningful work of her life. Can she evade a trap that will draw her out of hiding?

#31 The Poppy War

R. F. Kuang’s 2018 book, The Poppy War, was distributed by Harper Voyager. The Poppy War is a grimdark fantasy with a conflict modeled on the Second Sino-Japanese War and an ambiance influenced by the Song dynasty that derives its plot and politics from mid-20th century China. This epic historic military fantasy, inspired by the brutal history of China’s twentieth century and replete with treachery and magic, is in the vein of Ken Liu’s Grace of Kings and N.K. Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy marks the thrilling debut of a tremendously innovative genius.

It was a surprise to everyone when Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to identify the brightest young people to study at the Academies. The test administrators couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; Rin’s guardians thought they’d finally be capable of marrying her off and further their criminal enterprise; Rin herself realized she was finally free from the servitude and despair that had been her daily existence.

#32 Redeeming Love

Gold country in California in 1850. a time when ladies traded their bodies for a bed and men exchanged their souls for a bag of riches. Angel only anticipates betrayal from men. She was forced into prostitution as a young girl and now lives off of her resentment. She despises males who take advantage of her and leave her feeling hollow and lifeless inside.

Michael Hosea then enters her life. Michael Hosea, a man who always attempts to understand his Father’s will, complies with God’s command to wed Angel and to love her without conditions. He defies Angel’s every harsh expectation gradually, day by day, until, in spite of her resistance, her frozen heart starts to thaw.

#33 Lovely War

When Hazel and James first see each other at a party in London in 1917, World War I is at its height. He is a recently discharged soldier with aspirations to become an architect, and she is a bashful pianist with musical potential. When they first fall in love, it is intense and sudden; but, when James is sent to the killing fields, their relationship is broken.

Aubrey Edwards is also making her way to the front lines. He is a part of the 15th New York Infantry, an all-African American unit being transported to Europe to aid at the end of the Great War, and is a talented musician who has performed at Carnegie Hall. The very last thing in his head is love. However, that is before he meets Belgian chanteuse Colette Fournier, who has already endured horrific tragedy at the hands of Germans.

#34 Outlander

It is the year 1945. Former combat medic Claire Randall, who is currently on her second honeymoon with her husband after returning from the war, crosses a standing stone in one of the historic rings that dot the British Isles. In a Scotland tore apart by conflict and plundering border clans in the year of Our Lord…1743, she finds herself suddenly a Sassenach—an “outlander.”

Claire is propelled back in time by unknown powers, thrusting her into the schemes of lairds and spies that could endanger her life and break her heart. Because James Fraser, a brave young Scotsman, demonstrates to Claire an unwavering love that causes her divided between fidelity and desire as well as between two fundamentally different men with two incompatible lifestyles.

#35 The Secret Life Of Bees

The Secret Life of Bees is a 1964 South Carolina-set novel about Lily Owens, whose life has been molded by the vague recollection of the afternoon her mother was murdered. Lily chooses to set both of the town’s most virulent racists free when Rosaleen, her strong-willed black “stand-in mother,” taunts them. They flee to Tiburon, South Carolina, a place where the truth about her mother’s background may be found. Lily is taken in by an oddball group of three black beekeeping sisters, who show her around their fascinating world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna. Women will share and pass on this amazing book on divine female strength to their daughters for many years to come.

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#36 Circe

A daughter is born at the home of Helios, the sun god and most powerful of the Titans. Circe, however, is an odd child who lacks her mother’s cruel allure or her father’s might. She seeks out the company of people and learns that she does have power—the power of witchcraft, which may turn enemies into monsters and endanger the gods.

Zeus exiles her to a barren island because he feels threatened by her. There, she develops her occult skills, tames wild animals, and meets many of the most famous mythological characters, including the Minotaur, Daedalus, and his tragic son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, cunning Odysseus.

#37 Daisy Jones And The Six

A suspenseful book that explores the meteoric rise of a famous rock band from the 1970s and the mystery surrounding their historic breakup. Daisy Jones & The Six are well-known, but up until this point, no one was aware of the exact cause of their breakup at the height of their fame.

Daisy is a young woman coming of age in Los Angeles in the late 1960s who dreams of performing at the Whisky a Go-Go while sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip and sleeping with rock stars. Although the drugs and the sex are exciting, she prefers rock & roll over them all. By the time she is twenty, people are starting to take note of her voice, and she exudes the reckless beauty that drives people crazy.

#38 Number The Stars

Annemarie Johansen, 10, and her closest mate Ellen Rosen frequently reflect on life before World War II. Now in 1943, they must deal with school, food scarcity, and the Nazi army sweeping through Copenhagen. Ellen settles in with the Johansens and poses as one of the family after the Jews of Denmark are “relocated.” Annemarie will soon be requested to undertake a hazardous mission in order to save Ellen’s life.

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#39 Gone With The Wind

American author Margaret Mitchell first released her book Gone with the Wind in 1936. During the American Civil War and the Reconstruction Era, the story takes place in Clayton County and Atlanta, both in Georgia.

After Sherman’s March to the Sea, Scarlett O’Hara, the gorgeous and privileged daughter of a wealthy plantation owner in Georgia, must rely on all of her resources to dig her way out of poverty.

#40 Blood Meridian

Blood Meridian is an epic book that successfully subverts the tropes of the Western novel and the Wild West legend to tell the story of the brutality and depravity that accompanied America’s westward expansion. It follows the fates of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennessee native who falls into a nightmare world where Indians are being killed and the market for their scalps is growing. It is based on actual events that happened on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s.

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#41 Pillars Of The Earth

Here, readers will find intrigue, frantic action, and passionate romance—everything they have come to expect from Follett. The twelfth century, feudal England, and the topic of the construction of a magnificent cathedral, however, are what set The Pillars of the Earth apart from other novels. Follett has faithfully recreated the gaudy, extravagant England of the Middle Ages. The huge forests, walled cities, castles, and monasteries turn into a recognizable scene.

The master storyteller entices the reader inexorably into the linked lives of his characters into their dreams, labors, and loves against this vividly envisioned and intricately interwoven backdrop, packed with the horrors of war and the rhythms of daily life: Tom, the master builder, Aliena, the stunningly attractive nobility, Philip, the previous of Kingsbridge, Jack, the stone artisan, and Ellen, the curse-casting forest creature round out the cast. Each individual, from the lowly stonemason to the regal ruler, is wonderfully portrayed.