95 Books Like Lottery

I’ve read this book more times than I can count.

Hell, I think I actually wore the pages out, if that’s even possible. When I was younger, I went back to it like a lab rat hitting the lever for a pellet—each parable connecting another dot. To me, the mystery was life, the teacher the universe, and I was the student—albeit a lousy one. 

The Alchemist is one of those rare novels that feels both timeless and uncomfortably personal. At its foundation, it’s about following your own path—trusting the itch of intuition and chasing something bigger than yourself, even when it feels a little foolhardy in the moment.

What I love is how Coelho cuts through with fable-like simplicity: those who love walking go farther than those who love the destination—and they usually learn a hell of a lot more if they’re paying attention. 

I recommend it because it doesn’t… show more.

Long Way Down does an incredible job of telling such a contained story, telling everything within the span of a single elevator ride.

Reynolds uses the elevator trip to make the protagonist encounter ghosts of multiple dead people in his community, all connected to his murdered brother, and question if vengeance is the right answer to his grief. This is a well-deserved classic, and a must-read for all novel-in-verse fans!

I love this book because it gives you such a wonderful example and perspective of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. It makes them so real and personable.

I like how the author doesn’t blame God for everything but sees it more like how the Bible teaches. It’s very moving. It brings you right in and gets you emotionally attached to the characters.

Did you ever want to escape your life? Like that soap commercial, “Calgon, take me away!” That just so happens in this book. The Pope and the Dalai Lama decide they need a break from their high-profile lives and just want to slip away into society. To be unnoticed and ordinary. So they don a disguise and escape the Vatican in a Maserati? Thus begins this story, a part whimsical, part spiritual road trip touring Italy, detailing cultural and political differences alongside the identities with which we define ourselves and that one difficult question gets asked, exactly where and how far does one person’s tolerance or openness end? This delightful story kept me captivated while sharing spiritual inspirations and words of hope and kindness. 

After making a fortune then losing it all, David Ponder meets Archangel Gabriel and teaches David the laws of the universe. Years later, David’s wife passes away and Archangel Gabriel reappears and informs David that he is the only one who can save all of humanity. But David must use the help of fellow travelers from the past. Welcome to the minds of great men and women who have shaped history. Churchill, Lincoln, Joan of Arc, and many more who help David and assist him on his quest to save all humanity. 

A great read, full of hope, courage, and vision.

I’m drawn to books that buck expectations, whether that’s through the format, content, or approach. So I adore how this book absolutely tears them all down and creates something more original instead. Chunks of this book are written like social media posts, which create quick, digestible sections that let the absurdity, humor, and social musings really hit.

I also admire how Lockwood is able to switch so smoothly between hilarity, heartbreak, anxiety, and sadness; I was cackling one minute and then ugly crying just a few pages later. I’ve never read a book quite like this before. Lockwood’s writing style inspires me to take more risks in my own stories.

I love a good look at class realities from nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America.

So I was eager to dive into a book about Trust’s central character, Ida Partenza, the daughter of an early twentieth-century anarchist, but also the secretary and ghostwriter for wealthy financier Andrew Bevel.

Part of what is so captivating (and mind-boggling) about Trust is its metafictional structure: Is it a novel? Wait, is it a memoir? Wait, is it Bevel’s story, or Ida’s, or Bevel’s wife’s?

To say more, I’m afraid, would ruin too many wonderful surprises, but I will say that some of the loveliest, most memorable writing in this book appears in the voice of Bevel’s wife, Mildred.

Two boys find a gun in the woods. Over the next few hours, which are rendered in a series of unforgettable scenes that travel forward and back in time, the gun will resonate through the lives of the boys, their teachers, their parents, and others.

I could not put it down, and when I finished I began reading it again. The prose is the loveliest you’ll find, and the story takes gentle and surprising turns that will stop your heart and make you feel deeply human. I loved this short, gorgeous novel and learned something about the lives of men. 

Wrecked is the third book in Joe Ide’s Isaiah Quintabe series, but really any one of the six books (so far) could have made this list.

Isaiah, IQ to those who call on his services, is an East Long Beach native. He uses his Sherlockian intelligence to solve crimes in his neighborhood that the LAPD won’t touch. He gets paid whatever his clients can afford, sometimes a freshly baked pie, sometimes money, usually nothing.

But, because IQ frequently finds himself out of his depth with local gangsters, and in Wrecked’s case, a dangerous paramilitary organization, he has found an accidental sidekick in the ex-drug-dealing, whip-smart, streetwise Dodson.

Together, these two wannabe Holmes and Watson, Forrest Gump their way through a series of poignant, funny, but very rewarding adventures. 

I personally love this book because I can identify with the characters, who are both flawed and genuine. All too often I’ve started reading a romance only to discover that both characters are gorgeous, billionaires, and have IQs over 180. I find such perfection uninteresting.

The two leads in To Have And To Hold, Sebastian and Rachel, are both train wrecks, although it is initially easier to see Rachel’s problems as she is currently a convict who is being released from prison. Sebastian’s behavior steps over the line. Way over the line. And the tension in most of the book will give you white knuckles. I have never forgotten these characters and their journey toward love was all the more rewarding for how hard-won it was.