Here are 94 books that Big Jim and the White Boy fans have personally recommended if you like
Big Jim and the White Boy.
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Like most, I grew up reading the classic literature assigned to me at school. But what I always found lacking were characters and themes that related to me—a queer, poor, half-Mexican in 80’s rural Texas. I wanted to be a writer at an early age, but took a 15-year detour as an editor at DC Comics, Scholastic, and other big publishing houses. While there, I was proud to find new diverse talent with new perspectives and voices. Stories are magical when they act as windows through which we learn about others, but they can be even more powerful when they act as mirrors in which we can see ourselves.
The award-winning author of Stargazing does it again with a beautiful new fairy tale for any age. While it isn’t a reimagining of a specific tale, it has all the feels and tropes of a Disney movie—only we’re learning more about a budding friendship between a brilliant young dressmaker and a prince who struggles to be his true queer self.
If I had this story when I was a boy, I would have read it until the book fell apart and had to buy a new one. As it is now, it has a special place on my bookshelf—and in my heart.
A fairy tale for any age, Jen Wang's The Prince and the Dressmaker will steal your heart.
Paris, at the dawn of the modern age:
Prince Sebastian is looking for a bride—or rather, his parents are looking for one for him. Sebastian is too busy hiding his secret life from everyone. At night he puts on daring dresses and takes Paris by storm as the fabulous Lady Crystallia—the hottest fashion icon in the world capital of fashion!
Sebastian’s secret weapon (and best friend) is the brilliant dressmaker Frances—one of only two people who know the truth: sometimes this boy wears…
When Elliot finds herself dead for the third time, she can't remember her past, is getting the cold shoulder from her best friend, and has no idea why she keeps repeating the same mistakes across her previous lives. Elliot just wants to move on, but first, she'll be forced to…
Like most, I grew up reading the classic literature assigned to me at school. But what I always found lacking were characters and themes that related to me—a queer, poor, half-Mexican in 80’s rural Texas. I wanted to be a writer at an early age, but took a 15-year detour as an editor at DC Comics, Scholastic, and other big publishing houses. While there, I was proud to find new diverse talent with new perspectives and voices. Stories are magical when they act as windows through which we learn about others, but they can be even more powerful when they act as mirrors in which we can see ourselves.
A close friend knew I was both a comic book nerd and a fan of Charlotte Brontë. So when my birthday came around, she gifted this book to me about a young woman who flees her broken home in a small fishing town to pursue art school in New York City.
It immediately resonated with me and my story, ditching a small town in Texas to pursue my dreams of writing by moving to Manhattan. But in this reinvention of the classic of Jane Eyre, the award-winning screenwriter of The Devil Wears Prada offers a new kind of dark romance that I finished in a single sitting—and then immediately reread.
A reimagining of Charlotte Bronte's classic novel Jane Eyre set in present day, written by acclaimed screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna and Eisner Award-winning illustrator Ramon K. Perez.
Growing up in a broken home in a small fishing town, Jane dreamed of escaping to art school and following the allure of New York City. When that dream becomes a reality however, it's not long before she feels out of place by the size of the city and the talent of her peers. She soon discovers her place as she begins to nanny a young girl named Adele, but that is upended…
Like most, I grew up reading the classic literature assigned to me at school. But what I always found lacking were characters and themes that related to me—a queer, poor, half-Mexican in 80’s rural Texas. I wanted to be a writer at an early age, but took a 15-year detour as an editor at DC Comics, Scholastic, and other big publishing houses. While there, I was proud to find new diverse talent with new perspectives and voices. Stories are magical when they act as windows through which we learn about others, but they can be even more powerful when they act as mirrors in which we can see ourselves.
Little Women + witches and magic = YES PLEASE!!!! I mean, what else can I say? I grew up loving magic and stories of those who could use it. I also grew up loving Louisa May Alcott’s classic because it was about a family that was poor, just like mine.
So when I found this charming book on a shelf, I raced home to devour it, which I did in record time. The cozy story and gentle artwork lend themselves to a perfect read by the fireplace with a warm cup of tea.
From fake psychic to true believer, circus performerAnna finds herself dealing with the supernatural more and more, and isdetermined to use her growing powers to confront her sister's murderer. Has shefinally figured out whodunit, and can she prove it before a demon does herin?
Kindle Book Award Finalist. Readers' Favorite Book Award Finalist. Gotham Writers' YA Novel Discovery Contest Finalist. B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree
Brigit Quinn has always felt like an outsider. Growing up in a small town where her mom’s pagan practices are the stuff of local gossip, she’s spent her whole life trying…
Like most, I grew up reading the classic literature assigned to me at school. But what I always found lacking were characters and themes that related to me—a queer, poor, half-Mexican in 80’s rural Texas. I wanted to be a writer at an early age, but took a 15-year detour as an editor at DC Comics, Scholastic, and other big publishing houses. While there, I was proud to find new diverse talent with new perspectives and voices. Stories are magical when they act as windows through which we learn about others, but they can be even more powerful when they act as mirrors in which we can see ourselves.
Classic stories are great, but you know what’s better? Seeing decades-old books retold with diverse characters. In this instance, Anne is a Black teenager in modern-day Philly dealing with everything from robotics clubs to making new friends. My Abuela was born and raised in Mexico, so I grew up seeing a lot of racism toward her and myself.
I wish she were alive today so I could show her how many books are being written about diverse people by diverse people.
Anne of Green Gables with a twist: in this follow-up to Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy and The Secret Garden on 81st Street, this full-color graphic novel moves Anne Shirley to modern-day West Philadelphia, where where she finds new friends, new rivals, and a new family.
When Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert decide to foster a teenage girl for the first time, their lives are changed forever. Their redheaded foster daughter, Anne Shirley, is in search of an exciting life and has decided that West Philly is where she's going to find it. Armed with a big personality and unstoppable creativity,…
In the 1970s and '80s, I lived in New York, made noise in downtown bands, wrote incomprehensible texts. And obsessed about dinosaurs, ancient civilizations, Weimar, and medieval cults. The past became my drug (as I tapered off actual drugs). I couldn’t cope with the present, so I swallowed the red pill and became a historian. Took refuge in archives, libraries and museums (my safe spaces), and the history of anatomy. Because it was about sex, death, and the Body and seemed obscure and irrelevant. Pure escapism. But escape is impossible. Anatomy seems a fact of nature, what we are. But its past—and present—are tangled up in politics, aesthetics, the market, gender, class, race and desire.
I was 10 when I read Tom Sawyer. Which I loved but didn’t entirely get. To boy Mike, the midnight graveyard scene, featuring two thuggish bodysnatchers and a young unthuggish doctor, was mysterious, unmotivated. I didn’t know why bodysnatchers snatched bodies. But 19th-century readers, even children, did know: bodysnatchers stole cadavers for medical students to dissect. (Anatomy was in vogue, and medical schools lacked a supply of legal bodies.) But that’s not all.
A few chapters later, Twain presented boy Mike with another anatomical episode to puzzle over: Mr. Dobbins, Tom’s ill-tempered schoolmaster, discovers that some student has managed to unlock the drawer in his desk where he keeps his prized anatomical atlas. Dobbins is furious: a page has been torn. Unbeknownst to Dobbins, the culprit is Becky Sharp (Tom’s crush), who thereby gets to see something naughty that only anatomy books can show: “a handsomely engraved” color illustration…
"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" is the first of Mark Twain's novels to feature one of the best-loved characters in American fiction, with a critical introduction by John Seelye in "Penguin Classics". From the famous episodes of the whitewashed fence and the ordeal in the cave to the trial of Injun Joe, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" is redolent of life in the Mississippi River towns in which Twain spent his own youth. A sombre undercurrent flows through the high humour and unabashed nostalgia of the novel, however, for beneath the innocence of childhood lie the inequities of adult reality…
I learned early that information doesn’t change people’s minds and that we can’t lecture our way into people’s hearts. Real change comes through building empathy, and we do that through compelling, personal storytelling. I’ve been working on disrupting bias and building empathy my whole life. It’s why I write, and why I teach, and why I travel to speak with different groups. It’s my theory of change in the world—the first step towards moving us to a more caring, kinder global society.
This book was also heart-touching and eye-opening.
The writing was beautiful, the story was remarkable, and the insights were compelling. Maybe more than that, I kept finding myself reminded by how much our outlooks and opinions are shaped by the perspectives we receive.
Hearing “Jim’s” first-hand account was a drastically different experience than hearing about him through Huck Finn, and appreciating that—with all the complexities it entails—made the experience of reading James all the more enriching and enjoyable.
'Truly extraordinary books are rare, and this is one of them' - Roddy Doyle, Booker Prize-winning author of Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha
James by Percival Everett is a profound and ferociously funny meditation on identity, belonging and the sacrifices we make to protect the ones we love, which reimagines The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. From the author of The Trees, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and Erasure, adapted into the Oscar-winning film American Fiction.
The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new…
An Heir of Realms tells the tale of two young heroines—a dragon rider and a portal jumper—who fight dragon-like parasites to save their realms from extinction.
Rhoswen is training as a Realm Rider to work with dragons and burn away the Narxon swarming into her realm. Rhoswen’s dream is to…
While growing up in Spain, history was not my favorite subject. As told at school, it was a dreadful, long list of kings and battles. But, from time to time, I discovered, among the dry facts, a legend, a romanticized story of an event long past that ignited my imagination. Among these legends, the defeat of the last Visigoth king by the Arabs and the Asturian chieftain Pelayo’s consequent victory over them were my favorites. I believe these two stories, that figure so predominantly in my writing, are behind my love for books full of romance and adventure that take place in ancient worlds, like the ones I recommend here.
When Birle finds Orien stealing a boat by the river that runs through her village, and tries to stop him, she ends up falling in love with the young lord and his disturbing blue eyes.
Despite her infatuation, Birle is no fool. She knows that, as an innkeeper’s daughter, she has no chance to win Orien’s affections, yet she joins him in his ill-planned adventure, for she doubts the pampered lord will survive without her practical skills.
Together they enter a world that’s more dangerous than any of them could have imagined, a world that will bring them together and apart, as the wheel of fortune turns, moving the story to an unexpected, yet satisfying conclusion.
The Tale of Birle is a heartbreaking story of love and courage, that stole my heart from the first page.
There are some who say that the Lady Fortune has a wheel, and all men are fixed upon it. The wheel turns, and the men rise, or fall, with the turning of the wheel. Birle has agreed to be wed to the huntsman Muir as an escape from the drudgery of life at her father's inn -- but the moment she looks into the bellflower blue eyes of the man she comes upon stealing one of her father's boats, Birle knows she cannot marry Muir. Even after she discovers the mysterious stranger is Orien, a Lord and as unreachable to…
It’s all my father-in-law’s fault. Before I ran into him, I was a card-carrying “literary” high-brow. Shoot, I was reading Faulkner’s “The Bear” in high school and thought I would be the next generation Steinbeck if I ever got around to writing novels. But one weekend, while visiting my wife’s folks, I found myself with nothing to read—a problem solved by my father-in-law’s complete collection of Richard Stark novels. Those books knocked me head-over-heels, which is why when I did get around to writing novels, the first six were hard-edged crime fiction.
I love the way this book got me beneath the glossy veneer of our national capital and made me come to grips with the cold reality hiding there. And the perfectly imperfect guides who took me on that trip are unforgettable creations, which I ultimately discovered is par for the course for Pelecanos.
A fatal shooting that strikes too close to home leaves PI Derek Strange determined to find the killer - whatever the cost. From one of the award-winning writers of THE WIRE.
Set in darkest, downtown Washington, Hell to Pay begins with Quinn and Strange dealing with the usual detritus of the world's most violent city - a bent cop and a missing teenage-girl-turned-hooker - but then a senseless death on a sunny afternoon shakes even Derek Strange's existence.
A victim shot down by bullets meant for another; a tragic accident that strikes just too close to home. Strange's grief is…
I grew up loving sci-fi and fantasy, but especially today, I recognize how a lot of older sci-fi is patriarchal or even misogynistic. When I started to write my own books, like A Dragonbird in the Fern, I vowed to create my fantastical settings as I’d like our world to be someday—with all genders considered equal. Whether it’s a queen wielding all of the power or a witch who can save the world, women and girls in my stories get things done, and no one bats an eye.
The two girls in City of
Shattered Light could not be fiercer! Asa’s a runaway rich girl who flees
home to save her sister, a victim of scientific tests. Riven’s a tough smuggler
gunning for a big bounty to guarantee her a place in one of the city’s
matriarchal (!) crime syndicates. There’s kidnapping, a wild neon sci-fi world,
and a healthy portion of romantic longing. I loved this misfit team!
As darkness closes in on the city of shattered light, an heiress and an outlaw must decide whether to fend for themselves or fight for each other. As heiress to a powerful tech empire, seventeen-year-old Asa Almeida strives to prove she's more than her manipulative father's shadow. But when he uploads her rebellious sister’s mind to an experimental brain, Asa will do anything to save her sister from reprogramming—including fleeing her predetermined future with her sister’s digitized mind in tow. With a bounty on her head and a rogue AI hunting her, Asa’s getaway ship crash-lands in the worst possible…
"A haunting YA mystery. Touching on everything from police ineptitude and community solidarity to the endless frustration of being patronized as a young person, this paranormal thriller confidently combines timely and relatable themes within a page-turning storyline." - Self-Publishing Review
"Biel's writing is fast-paced and sharp!" - author Christy Wopat…
The stories I write are fiction, but I’ve heard hundreds of tales about survival, and family drama. I’m the secret-keeper everyone confides in. From the time I was a teen, friends shared their secrets with me. Later, as a healthcare worker, patients often told me shocking true-life stories. What started these events? How did the victims overcome the horrors? I found their tales fascinating. I invent characters that face nightmarish challenges, and they must use the tools they have to persevere. Just like in real life. My novels shed light on darker, twisted topics.
I liked the suspense baked into this story of a runaway girl, Bea. The entire novel was written in emails, mostly between her and her brother, Erza. Each exchange demonstrated their tight sibling bond and their unhappy home life since their parent’s divorce.
Bea leaves home after receiving a mysterious Twitter message from who she believes is her birth father. She hasn’t seen her dad in years and lives far from him. The story centers on escaping her abusive stepfather, apathetic mother, and her need to reconnect with her father. But she’s taking a risk by meeting a stranger from Twitter. Could he really be her long-lost dad or someone else?
Ezra wakes one day to find his sister gone. No note, no sign, nothing but an email address hidden somewhere only he would find it.
Escaping their toxic home life, Bea finds herself alone in a new city - without friends, without a real plan - chasing someone who might not even want to be found.
As things unravel at home for Ezra, Bea confronts secrets about their past that will forever change the way they think about their family. Separated by distance but connected by love, this brother and sister must learn to trust themselves before…
