100 Books Like Michal

Because I write in the biblical fiction genre, I read widely in both the fiction and nonfiction categories. This was a masterpiece novel, earning my five-star rating as one of my top ten all-time reads because Jubilee’s creative fiction offered believable answers to many unanswered questions from history and the Bible.

From the moment David—a shepherd boy with good aim—killed Goliath, Saul’s son and Crown Prince, Jonathan, vowed his undying friendship to the man who would wrench the throne from Saul’s family. And Jonathan kept that promise even after God made it clear David would rise to Israel’s throne, not Jonathan. Jubilee explores the deep and sometimes heart-rending emotions these men felt for each other and for their nation being torn apart by Saul’s madness.

Connilyn’s novels always tease every emotion for me. I also love how her books, though written in series, both stand alone yet build on the series before it to follow the chronological story of the Bible. The main or minor characters in each new series are somehow connected to the family we met in her first book (Counted With the Stars) from her first series (Out of Egypt).

Connilyn uses fictional characters to tell the Truth about major events in the Bible. This book sets the stage for Israel’s historical and political landscape during the reign of King Saul. The series title, The King’s Men, previews the novels’ subject matter—the soldiers who fight alongside Prince Jonathan and what a soldier’s life might have been like with a romance complication or two.

I’m 61 years old, and I was diagnosed with ADHD ten years ago. Though it answered many of my questions about concentration, it’s still difficult to focus while reading any book.

This journal has been so helpful because 1) each volume contains only one book of the Bible; 2) when I open a passage, the left page is filled with Scripture; and 3) the right page is either blank (with faint lines for journaling) or has a small graphic to help creative doodlers start drawing. I write a date in the margins next to the Scripture and then journal what God is doing in my life or answer the question, “What does this verse—or these verses—say to me in this season of life?”

I live in a Western culture. I’ve visited Israel twice and read through the Bible a few times. But what do I really know about the ancient Hebrew language and heritage? My knowledge is limited to what I’ve learned through researching rabbinic interpretations of the Tanakh, Legends of the Jews, Josephus, and other Jewish sacred texts.

The Jewish Study Bible gives me expert rabbinic commentary on every verse from a Jewish perspective! I finally understood Abraham’s and his descendants’ vital role in preserving God’s story—His story, history—from Creation to present.

A dear friend told me the Bible was a single Love Letter written to me—Genesis to Revelation—and I’d find Jesus was the Messiah in Genesis, not only in the New Testament. So I opened my Bible—the Love Letter—and found God waiting there. Every day, He’s waiting there to chat. 

I’m all in for the romantasy of this series, even though it takes until book 2 for the HFN payoff.

Evie has had a lifetime of being treated as lesser-than, even by her family. But when she gets the chance to remake herself from the ground up, away from expectations of who she was or who she’s been told to be, she blossoms and comes into her own. Amazing what you can do when not weighed down by the preconceptions of others or yourself. This new Evie attracts the interest of a powerful magic wielder, but ironically, it’s her old identity that causes trouble for them.

Having read the other 2 books, I love the way her entire journey plays out and the strong, determined, kick-ass woman she becomes.

I loved how Hatshepsut, as a girl, came alive on the page.

Thornton’s writing made me feel the desert heat, hear the chants of the gods, and sense Hatshepsut's ambition as she became more than a pawn and seized control of Egypt when she was destined to be overlooked by history as a royal daughter.

It reminded me that courage often begins where fairness ends.

I think it was the first biography I ever purchased. At age ten or eleven, I read in it, but now I’m reading it all the way through, and I’m pleased to say that even at that tender age, I gravitated to the best!

Fraser stops the narrative when she wants to discourse upon a particular issue or attribute and always considers her own take on events and characters worthy of elegant interjection.

She’s not afraid to discuss relevant but not strictly solemn issues, such as whether Mary was considered beautiful and the tragic queen’s love of dancing and cross-dressing. 

The Graceling series of books is one of my favorite reads ever, and this one is no exception. Part of the reason is that I love this fantasy world so very much. And part of it is that the story revisits the point of view of a much-beloved character, Bitterblue, along with that of multiple other characters (old and new) as the novel unfolds.

Plus, the mystery and intrigue cannot be beat, and a couple’s longstanding love for each other finally blossoms into everything it should be. This book felt like eating a rich, multiple-layered cake to me.

Elizabeth I is one of the most popular Tudors and her story has been told and retold in countless biographies and Anne Somerset’s weighty nonfiction study is my favourite. It details the big-picture moments of the queen’s life–her rivalries, successes, and failures–without losing sight of the human at the heart of the story. We can thus enjoy learning about Elizabeth the woman as well as Elizabeth the queen.

This is a book I occasionally dip into for a reference and invariably end up rereading in its entirety.

To me, what’s most striking about this book, a queer retelling of “Snow White,” is that in addition to the POV of the Snow White character, Lynet, there’s also narration from Mina, the Evil Queen insert. Only in this retelling Mina isn’t a superficial villain.

In fact, she’s no villain at all. I find her to be a complex heroine, and her relationship with Lynet is equally rich and complicated. I was compelled by Lynet and Mina’s struggles under the weight of feminine and royal expectations. Despite their conflicts, they are more alike than they are different, and their journey to realizing this was so satisfying.

The sapphic romance between Lynet and a surgeon provides a lovely subplot that adds to, rather than distracts from, the main storyline. One of my all-time favorite sapphic retellings.