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Book cover of Gulliver's Travels

Mathias B. Freese Author Of In the Throes

From my list on awaken to spiritual and psychological awareness.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a retired psychotherapist and teacher, but if someone asked me what the purpose of life is, I’d say, “to become aware.” Awareness is the capacity to see without prejudice, bias, or conditioning. I don’t like being in the dark, and so I have been on a lifelong journey to become aware. I have stepped into seeing several times in my life, so now my task is to teach others. It’s who I am—my essence is to continue teaching, to set people free from societal conditioning and their upbringings. Growing up means losing certain comforting illusions, but greater understanding fills their place. 

Mathias' book list on awaken to spiritual and psychological awareness

Mathias B. Freese Why Mathias loves this book

I liked the concept of man being small and adrift in the darkness of the wide world. This book taught me to see through politics, grandstanding, and the grandiose nonsense of man. Swift is my kind of guy, brutally satirical and profound. This book is really not for children. We see Gulliver travel on many adventures and experience Swift's disappointment as he engages different cultures, small and large, rational and irrational. 

His adventures demolish Gulliver’s sense of humanity to the point that when he is about to be rescued, at first, he rejects the offer like a misanthrope before finally climbing aboard. Swift is very dark here. Why would anyone want to return to the same old life after having their eyes opened?

By Jonathan Swift ,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked Gulliver's Travels as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 11, 12, 13, and 14.

What is this book about?

'Thus, gentle Reader, I have given thee a faithful History of my Travels for Sixteen Years, and above Seven Months; wherein I have not been so studious of Ornament as of Truth.'

In these words Gulliver represents himself as a reliable reporter of the fantastic adventures he has just set down; but how far can we rely on a narrator whose identity is elusive and whoses inventiveness is self-evident? Gulliver's Travels purports to be a travel book, and describes Gulliver's encounters with the inhabitants of four extraordinary places: Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and the country of the Houyhnhnms. A consummately skilful…


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Book cover of The High House

The High House by James Stoddard,

The Victorian mansion, Evenmere, is the mechanism that runs the universe.

The lamps must be lit, or the stars die. The clocks must be wound, or Time ceases. The Balance between Order and Chaos must be preserved, or Existence crumbles.

Appointed the Steward of Evenmere, Carter Anderson must learn the…

Book cover of The Vampire Lestat

Philip Henry Author Of Method

From my list on told from the villain’s POV.

Why am I passionate about this?

When I was about 8 years old, I read a book called Tom and the Two Handles by Russell Hoban. It’s a children’s book designed to teach that every story has two sides. This book stuck with me for some reason. So, when I started writing novels, I always made sure my villains had pure motives. Remember, no well-written bad guy THINKS he’s a bad guy. He thinks he’s doing the right thing. This is true of all the classic Bond villains right up to Thanos in the MCU. Plus, and I’m sure most writers would agree, the bad guys are always more fun to write.

Philip's book list on told from the villain’s POV

Philip Henry Why Philip loves this book

If there was one criticism I had of Interview With The Vampire, it was that there wasn’t enough Lestat. I can’t have been the only one because when Anne Rice decided to do a sequel, she didn’t keep following Louis, the tortured hero of the first book, but instead told us the story of his Maker.

I love that this book doesn’t try to repeat what the first part did and tell us another story of a vampire at odds with what he is. Lestat embraces the (after)life that is forced upon him. I admire the purity of his acceptance of what he is and having no regrets about what he must do to survive.

By Anne Rice ,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Vampire Lestat as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

#1 New York Times Bestselling author - Surrender to fiction's greatest creature of the night - Book II of the Vampire Chronicles

The vampire hero of Anne Rice’s enthralling novel is a creature of the darkest and richest imagination. Once an aristocrat in the heady days of pre-revolutionary France, now a rock star in the demonic, shimmering 1980s, he rushes through the centuries in search of others like him, seeking answers to the mystery of his eternal, terrifying exsitence. His is a mesmerizing story—passionate, complex, and thrilling.

Praise for The Vampire Lestat
 
“Frightening, sensual . . . Anne Rice will…


Book cover of Bloodsucking Fiends

David Sosnowski Author Of Vamped

From my list on lovable monsters dealing with existential dread.

Why am I passionate about this?

Along with a decidedly dark and quirky sense of humor, one of the things that connects Vamped with my other published novels is the way each takes its premise and builds an intricate world around it. I generally like to start with the world as it currently is, introduce an element of the fantastic, and then explore how that one tweak changes everything. In the case of Vamped, the fantastic element was having a group of vampires turn the vast majority of humanity into bloodsuckers by spiking blood donations, turning influencers, and getting “Pope Peter the Last” to add a little something special to the sacramental wine.  

David's book list on lovable monsters dealing with existential dread

David Sosnowski Why David loves this book

Bloodsucking Fiends begins in the mid-1990s (the present day as of its writing) and is set in AIDS-fighting, pre-tech-boom San Francisco – a time and place rendered with great affection and plenty of humor. It’s that latter quality – the humor – that I love about this book. Beginning with the beginning, we get Moore’s take on the classic tableau of a vampire rising as the sun sets. But instead of emerging from a coffin, our vamp pops out of a dumpster that’s being peed on by a homeless, benevolent lunatic known as the Emperor. If that setup just made you smile (fangs or no fangs) then Bloodsucking Fiends is for you. It is also why, when I decided to write a funny vampire novel, I turned to Mr. Moore’s novel for inspiration.  

By Christopher Moore ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Bloodsucking Fiends as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Jody never asked to become a vampire. But when she wakes up under an alley Dumpster with a badly burned arm, an aching neck, superhuman strength, and a distinctly Nosferatuan thirst, she realises the decision has been made for her. Making the transition from the nine-to-five grind to an eternity of nocturnal prowlings is going to take some doing, however, and that's where C. Thomas Flood fits in. A would-be Kerouac from Incontinence, Indiana, Tommy (to his friends) is biding his time night-clerking and frozen turkey bowling in a San Francisco Safeway.

But all that changes when a beautiful, undead…


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Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

Book cover of About a Boy

Jeremy Bursey Author Of The Computer Nerd

From my list on quirky people who overcomplicate simple goals.

Why am I passionate about this?

Although I can enjoy almost any kind of book that sparks my humor or imagination, the ones that do the best job are those that put familiar characters into unfamiliar situations, whether harrowing or hilarious and challenge my understanding of what I might do if put in a similar situation. When average people are called into extraordinary situations, if not also absurd or ridiculous, I want to see how they handle it, how they overcome obstacles when they have no tool in the toolbox that would simplify it, or when their adversaries try taking the tools they do have away from them. I think these five books provide that spark. 

Jeremy's book list on quirky people who overcomplicate simple goals

Jeremy Bursey Why Jeremy loves this book

Sometimes, I just want an uncomplicated novel with endearing characters who can entertain me without spinning me with florid words or energetic action pieces, characters who can capture my imagination with simple goals and relatable decisions that become catalysts for major life transformations because I want to believe such simplicity can always lead to such beautiful and unexpected outcomes as those that happen in this book.

When even the shallowest of characters can demonstrate such depth and growth over such a short span of time after pursuing what, on the surface, seems like a shallow goal through shallow means and doing so properly and hilariously, I’m hooked. This is my second favorite book of all time.

By Nick Hornby ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked About a Boy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE MILLION COPY NO. 1 BESTSELLER THAT BECAMEAN ACCLAIMED FILM STARRING HUGH GRANT AND NICOLAS HOULT

'A very entertaining and endearing read' The Times
___________________

Thirty-six-year-old Londoner Will loves his life. Living carefree off the royalties of his dad's Christmas song, he's rich, unattached and has zero responsibilities - just the way he likes it.

But when Will meets Marcus, an awkward twelve-year-old who listens to Joni Mitchell and accidentally kills ducks with loaves of bread, an unlikely friendship starts to bloom.

Can this odd duo teach each another how to finally act their age?

Hugely funny and equally heartfelt,…


Book cover of The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Rob Cameron Author Of Daydreamer

From my list on children doing the impossible.

Why am I passionate about this?

Maurice Sendak said, "Children do live in fantasy and reality, they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do." In other words, children do the impossible. Growing up, stories where the real and imagined collided were like fresh air when I felt like I couldn't breathe. They've always been important to me, and for many reasons, hold a special place in our literature. Now, as a full-time teacher, writer, and daddy, I get to be on the other side of that joy equation, guiding new readers and writers as they become travelers of the fantastic. 

Rob's book list on children doing the impossible

Rob Cameron Why Rob loves this book

I love this book because it really erases the line between the real and the fantastic. I’ve been a Neil Gaiman fan since Sandman. This is a middle-grade book written for me. The path I took through this book led me back to my childhood and reminded me of Where the Wild Things Are, with its nearly seamless transition between the “real” world and the imagined.

Neil’s done this before with Caroline and the Graveyard. But Ocean is different. Here, I never lose touch with the real world. The turn to fantasy just makes the real world more dangerous. I think that’s an important change. When I was a child, when I daydreamed or pondered the things and people and dark corners that I didn’t understand, when I added the additional layer of the fantastic, it wasn’t really an escape.

It just made the challenges of being a child…

By Neil Gaiman , Elise Hurst (illustrator) ,

Why should I read it?

15 authors picked The Ocean at the End of the Lane as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 'BOOK OF THE YEAR'

AN ACCLAIMED WEST END THEATRE PRODUCTION *****

'Neil Gaiman's entire body of work is a feat of elegant sorcery. He writes with such assurance and originality that the reader has no choice but to surrender to a waking dream' ARMISTEAD MAUPIN

'Some books just swallow you up, heart and soul' JOANNE HARRIS

'Summons both the powerlessness and wonder of childhood, and the complicated landscape of memory and forgetting' GUARDIAN

---

'My favourite response to this book is when people say, 'My childhood was nothing like that - and it was as if…


Book cover of Alice in Wonderland

Lance Lee Author Of Orpheus Rising: By Sam And His Father John With Some Help From A Very Wise Elephant Who Likes To Dance

From my list on YA/middle grade fantasy and their parents.

Why am I passionate about this?

I don't write within received categories: our lives aren't lived in categories, but are full of varying realities, whether of home, childhood, marriage, parenthood, fantasy, dream, work, or relaxation, and more all mixed together. I can't write in any other way, however dominant a particular strand or age may be on the surface in a given work. Orpheus Rising may have a child hero, and a fantastic, elegant Edwardian Elephant as a spirit guide, but it let me tell a story of love lost and regained, of family broken and remade, of a father in despair and remade, themes of real importance in any life.

Lance's book list on YA/middle grade fantasy and their parents

Lance Lee Why Lance loves this book

We absorb this tale, like Peter Pan's, from childhood, and it provides us all with a leaning to light-hearted fantasy and a story pattern of leaving the real world and returning to it. An adventure may begin by going through a wardrobe as in the first Narnia novel, or into and out of Tom Bombadil's Old Forest in Tolkien. Alice goes down a rabbit hole. There are rabbit holes, wardrobes, forests, sailboats.... The world Alice gets to is full of strangeness appealed to me for Orpheus Rising whose characters have a similar variety.

By Lewis Carroll , Illustrated by Rebecca Dautremer ,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked Alice in Wonderland as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When Alice sees the White Rabbit running by on the river bank, she follows him, tumbling down a Rabbit Hole into a magical world where nothing is ever as it seems...

Lewis Carroll's classic story has delighted children since 1865. One hundred and fifty years since its first publication, Hodder celebrates in style with this sumptuous new edition, illustrated by Rebecca Dautremer, whose dreamlike illustrations bring vibrant new life to Carroll's beloved characters. The original text appears complete and unabridged.

Rebecca Dautremer is the celebrated illustrator of The Secret Lives of Princesses.


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Book cover of Trusting Her Duke

Trusting Her Duke by Arietta Richmond,

A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.

Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…

Book cover of It

Micky Neilson Author Of Skinner

From my list on horror that will haunt you to the grave.

Why am I passionate about this?

Scary books and movies hooked me early in life and never let go. I’m fascinated by the themes that are explored in all of the various sub-genres of horror. I’m intrigued by the lore that’s created, and I’m impressed with the imagination of so many horror creators. Horror remains and always will be one of the most popular genres of storytelling.

Micky's book list on horror that will haunt you to the grave

Micky Neilson Why Micky loves this book

I read this as a teenager, just as I was diving into the horror genre. I already knew at this point that I wanted to be a storyteller. What struck me while reading It was the jumping back and forth between time periods.

I had never read a book structured that way, and it seemed that every chapter ended on a cliffhanger, forcing me to keep reading. There aren’t many books that I would say I had a hard time putting down (I get bored easily), but It was certainly one of them!

By Stephen King ,

Why should I read it?

21 authors picked It as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This tie-in edition will be available from 16 July

TIE IN TO A NEW MAJOR MOTION PICTURE, IT: CHAPTER 2, ADAPTED FROM KING'S TERRIFYING CLASSIC

27 years later, the Losers Club have grown up and moved away, until a devastating phone call brings them back...

Derry, Maine was just an ordinary town: familiar, well-ordered for the most part, a good place to live.

It was a group of children who saw- and felt- what made Derry so horribly different. In the storm drains, in the sewers, IT lurked, taking on the shape of every nightmare, each one's deepest dread. Sometimes…


Book cover of House Held Up by Trees

Norm Konyu Author Of The Junction

From my list on illustrated books for ‘grown-ups’.

Why am I passionate about this?

At some point in our tweens, we learn that picture books are for children, and comic books are for nerds. I personally never heard it spoken aloud. It was more that thinly disguised looks of disapproval from adults delivered the message. As a graphic novelist, it sometimes feels like an uphill battle. I find pushing a reluctant ‘grown-up’ straight to graphic novels is perhaps a step too far. A start is an illustrated book. No speech bubbles. No comic book panels. Just illustrations supporting text, and text supporting illustrations. And sometimes, just sometimes, this opens the door to graphic novels.

Norm's book list on illustrated books for ‘grown-ups’

Norm Konyu Why Norm loves this book

This book is so evocative, a marriage of poetic words and nuanced illustrations so successful that when I first read it, it immediately took me back decades to my childhood and the old barn on my parents’ property. I could almost smell the pine trees through the barn boards, hear the birds nested in the rafters, and feel the summer sun on my face. 

By Ted Kooser , Jon Klassen (illustrator) ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked House Held Up by Trees as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Ted Kooser and Kate Greenaway winner Jon Klassen comes a poignant tale of loss, change and nature's quiet triumph.

From Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Ted Kooser and Jon Klassen, author-illustrator of the first ever title to win both the Kate Greenaway and Caldecott Medal, comes a lovely, lyrical exploration of loss, change and the natural world, and a story about a house over the passage of time. When the house was new, not a single tree remained on its perfect lawn to give shade from the sun. The children in the house trailed the scent of wild…


Book cover of Ramayana: Divine Loophole

Norm Konyu Author Of The Junction

From my list on illustrated books for ‘grown-ups’.

Why am I passionate about this?

At some point in our tweens, we learn that picture books are for children, and comic books are for nerds. I personally never heard it spoken aloud. It was more that thinly disguised looks of disapproval from adults delivered the message. As a graphic novelist, it sometimes feels like an uphill battle. I find pushing a reluctant ‘grown-up’ straight to graphic novels is perhaps a step too far. A start is an illustrated book. No speech bubbles. No comic book panels. Just illustrations supporting text, and text supporting illustrations. And sometimes, just sometimes, this opens the door to graphic novels.

Norm's book list on illustrated books for ‘grown-ups’

Norm Konyu Why Norm loves this book

As an animator, I first knew of Sanjay Patel through his work at Pixar before discovering his book, Ramayana, a virtual explosion of colour and sharply-edged design, exploring traditional tales from Hindu Mythology through anything but traditional means. Would I have read these tales without the artwork dragging me in? Probably not. But I’m so glad they did, opening my eyes to a whole new world of folklore I was unaware of.

By Sanjay Patel ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Ramayana as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A 21st century retelling of a 2500-year old story

One of Hindu mythology's best-loved and most enduring tales gets a modern touch: Artist and veteran Pixar animator Sanjay Patel lends a lush, whimsical illustration style and lighthearted voice to one of Hindu mythology's best-loved and most enduring tales. Teeming with powerful deities, love-struck monsters, flying monkey gods, magic weapons, demon armies, and divine love, Ramayana: Divine Loophole tells the story of Rama, a god-turned-prince, and his quest to rescue his wife Sita after she is kidnapped by a demon king.

* Illustrated tale features over 100 colorful full-spread illustrations, a…


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Book cover of Aggressor

Aggressor by FX Holden,

It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.

The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…

Book cover of The Howling

Micky Neilson Author Of Skinner

From my list on horror that will haunt you to the grave.

Why am I passionate about this?

Scary books and movies hooked me early in life and never let go. I’m fascinated by the themes that are explored in all of the various sub-genres of horror. I’m intrigued by the lore that’s created, and I’m impressed with the imagination of so many horror creators. Horror remains and always will be one of the most popular genres of storytelling.

Micky's book list on horror that will haunt you to the grave

Micky Neilson Why Micky loves this book

Werewolf stories are my favorite sub-genre of horror, whether it be books or movies. Brandner’s book set the stage for one of the greatest werewolf movies ever. The writing, the characters, and the setting are all top-notch.

For a fun experiment, watch the movie and then read the book, or vice versa, and compare what was changed and whether the movie made improvements. In my opinion, it did, but the book absolutely stands on its own.

By Gary Brandner ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Howling as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This is it! Gary Brandner's famous book, "THE HOWLING." A must read!

"If you haven't read Gary Brandner you're missing a treat."
STEPHEN KING.

* * *

Karyn and her husband Roy had come to the peaceful California village of Drago to escape the savagery of the city. On the surface Drago appeared to be like most small rural towns.
But it was not.
The village had a most unsavory history. Unexplained disappearances, sudden deaths.
People just vanished, never to be found.

* * *

Don't forget to check out:
THE HOWLING II
&
THE HOWLING III


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