16 books like Swallows and Amazons

This was a fabulous story, super interesting, that read kind of like a history text/novel, something in between, an effect I really loved. The story was well-developed, with scientific and technical detail and specific stories used appropriately to develop the greater tale, along with broader overviews, capturing the activities of the whole world. The characters were all interesting. The plots, schemes, and machinations are really good. The battles ranged from thrilling to very depressing.

Overall, I thought the book was very realistic and made a lot of sense. The author thought through what would happen in an adultless present-day world. I like how he captured that while kids are often seen as innocent and virtuous, take the adults away and they have not yet learned to appreciate the value of life, etc. It really gives you a lot of food for thought about human nature and especially children.

This book was an amazing, mysterious read that sucked me back, not for suspense, but to know why—information withheld until the very end of the story, and even though the end of the book is not the end of the story, and even though I still have questions, the ending is immensely satisfying.

I’ve always been fascinated by time travel and time loops, which I find inherently broken. They would never work. But this author managed to intricately create something that actually made sense, something in which I could find no holes. One of my favorite parts was how Felix rebuilt the Internet using wood blocks and strings.

There’s also a profundity to it as well. The story seems to ponder the ideas of fate, destiny, and predestination and ultimately concludes—what does it matter? Just do what you should do. Utterly brilliant story.

This book is short but to-the-point and extremely entertaining. One of its best qualities is how much sense it actually made, how the author thought through what would happen if a bunch of preteens were abandoned on a planet with only a computer to aide them. These are some shrewd kids, making sensible decisions—like lowering the marriage age to thirteen, which is honestly hilarious.

The author really handled his wonderful characters very well, capturing the reality of life and human beings without resorting to cliché cop-outs. I was pleasantly surprised by how good this book turned out to be.

Like Alias Grace, Falling Creatures is a reimagining of a famous Victorian murder, this time set in Cornwall on Bodmin Moor. In 1844, Charlotte Dymond was a pretty, domestic servant, working on a farm on the edge of the moor, and her murder was the news sensation of the day. Stansfield’s central character, the fictional Shilly, shares Charlotte’s name and work and, after her death, plays a significant role in revealing what happened, working alongside the enigmatic detective, Mr. Williams. Stansfield plays skillfully with names and shifts in identity throughout this novel, and I was compelled by the strange balance she creates between early scientific reasoning and the lasting folk traditions of supernatural awareness. Falling Creatures is the first in Stansfield’s Cornish Mysteries series. 

In his most atmospheric and suspenseful novel, Anil’s Ghost, Michael Ondaatje transports readers into the middle of the civil war that splintered Sri Lanka. A brilliant forensic anthropologist who was educated abroad, Anil Tissera bravely returns to her homeland determined to unearth evidence to explain the brutal campaign of murders ravaging the country. With each new discovery Anil makes, at great risk to her own safety, I find myself holding my breath. Although the powerful elite are lined up against her, she stands firm, refusing to let the guns and bombs scare her away. Steeped in centuries of culture and tradition, this is truly one of my favorite books ever. 

Gentlemen and Players is a boarding house story with a dark heart. I picked this one from an aunt’s bookshelf and read it expecting something of the sweetness of Chocolat, but found a far more satisfying story, with twisting questions of identity, class, and revenge. I liked the clever split narrative, which used chess imagery, and the mystery of the Black Pawn, whose identity is deftly concealed until the close of the book. This is a surprising psychological thriller that would make a great book club pick, and I will not forget the rooftop chase nor that bonfire night.

It’s rare that I find a book that plunges me so deeply into the psychology of a character.

Grace is the protagonist of Alias Grace. She’s cunning. She’s bold. She’s possibly a murderess. The most fascinating aspect of Grace to me is that she is based on a real-life character from Canada in the mid-1800s.

Throughout the whole book, I kept wondering about her—not just the fictional character, but the real one too—was this what she was really thinking? Was this how she really behaved?

I found her voice in the novel to be absolutely undeniable. You want to believe everything she says, but at the same time, you mistrust her...

I wanted to include a one book that could be enjoyed by kids of all ages and this was a no brainer.

I was first a fan of Meloy through his music as the front man of the Decemberists but I might be an even bigger fan of him as an author, and Carson Ellis may be my favorite Illustrator working today. This is another example of a book with a hidden world that exists right in our own backyard.

Inspired by his homestate of Oregon Meloy’s love for his home shines in the book. This one is a modern day Chronicles of Narnia.

To be truthful, I would list all the Moomin books as top of my list and am only choosing one because I can’t pick them all. In Moominvalley and its enduring characters, its seasons, snowstorms, comets, floods, and finally its absences, we find lifes’ psychological dramas, doubts, and triumphs perfectly embedded in and drawn from the tempestuous and consoling presence of the natural world. I read all these books to my daughter and relished the emergence of a conjured world that was deep and familiar, yet also distant and magical, as is whatever realm of nature you most find yourself close to. I remember Moompapa at sea for its particularly philosophical and slightly wistful tone and because who doesn’t wonder about the wildness and loneliness of life inside a lighthouse. 

This was a truly unputdownable story. The science fiction concept was interesting in itself, especially watching the characters try to figure it out, but the suspense was strong. The plot had a lot going on, but it was well done and worked pretty well.

I really got to know the characters and particularly enjoyed the well-done romance between Sam and Astrid. It’s a very character-driven story, including the conflict between tyranny and freedom.