Here are 100 books that Mythologies fans have personally recommended if you like
Mythologies.
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I grew up in the 1950s and loved getting the bejeezus scared out of me by monster movies my brother and I watched at a local theater or on TV. With a budding interest in writing, I began noting down monsters and scenes that caught my attention. In fact, it was from the TV series The Outer Limits, an episode entitled Zanti Misfits, that I later got the idea for the creatures in my book. I am currently reading books on the strange pelagic creatures that live at extreme ocean depths for a monster story with a nautical theme. I hope you find the books on my list as enjoyable and informative as I did.
There is no other book I have read that offers greater insights into the elements and structure of writing than this book. Written for screenplay writers, I find it an excellent source of guidance and support.
It offers a detailed, step by step review of story progression and structure, from the beginning of a scene/chapter through the build-up and to an ending too enticing to not turn the page. It has guided me just as it has Dominick Dunne, as quoted in Amazon’s review of the book: "In difficult periods of writing, I often turn to Robert McKee's wonderful book for guidance" - Dominick Dunne, Novelist
Structure is Character. Characters are what they do. Story events impact the characters and the characters impact events. Actions and reactions create revelation and insight, opening the door to a meaningful emotional experience for the audience. Story is what elevates a film, a novel, a play, or teleplay, transforming a good work into a great one. Movie-making in particular is a collaborative endeavour - requiring great skill and talent by the entire cast, crew and creative team - but the screenwriter is the only original artist on a film. Everyone else - the actors, directors, cameramen, production designers, editors, special…
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…
I was lucky enough not only to get published in my thirties, I also got a film deal for those first two books. I was flown to Hollywood and it was all very grand. However, what they did to my stories in translating them into film scripts horrified me. And ruined them. And the films never got made. I started to look deeper into what ‘experts’ did, and it was awful. I became obsessed with how stories work, developed my own ‘knowledge gap’ theory, proved it through my Ph.D. research, and became a story consultant in the industry. Story theory has completely taken over my life and I love it!
This book is different. After a slew of books all pedaling the same material based on the dreaded Hollywood formula, it was really good to find something that bucked the trend.
Truby focuses on morality in stories. He maintains that every story is actually a moral argument, and gives his practical steps for harnessing that morality and using it to create a strong story.
I feel there is a lot to be said for this. The only real flaw is that there are actually twelve sensible bases for a story and although the moral argument is undeniably one of those that generates a strong story, it is important for writers to understand all of them.
"If you're ready to graduate from the boy-meets-girl league of screenwriting, meet John Truby . . . [his lessons inspire] epiphanies that make you see the contours of your psyche as sharply as your script." ―LA Weekly
John Truby is one of the most respected and sought-after story consultants in the film industry, and his students have gone on to pen some of Hollywood's most successful films, including Sleepless in Seattle, Scream, and Shrek. The Anatomy of Story is his long-awaited first book, and it shares all his secrets for writing a compelling script. Based on the lessons in his…
I discovered my love for story early, growing up on TV and movies. I spent a good chunk of my teen years sitting in the dark watching everything that came out, especially foreign films. It’s safe to say that I learned the basics of storytelling by watching all the greats, from Hitchcock to David Lean to Kubrick. It’s no wonder I became a screenwriter rather than a novelist. But when I realized that story is story, regardless of the story form (book, movie, or TV commercial) a whole other world opened to me and my talent for story blossomed. Over the years, I grew this talent and passion and launched a career in Hollywood.
Beginning, middle, and an end—what writer doesn’t know about these three concepts? Well, Aristotle is the guy who wrote about these ideas in his book, and thousands of years later we’re still using them and thinking about them.
The foundations of modern literature and theater rest on this book and every writer should be familiar with its ideas and concepts. Story is story, and Aristotle started the ball rolling for everyone who is interested in storytelling.
One of the most powerful, perceptive and influential works of criticism in Western literary history
In his near-contemporary account of classical Greek tragedy, Aristotle examines the dramatic elements of plot, character, language and spectacle that combine to produce pity and fear in the audience, and asks why we derive pleasure from this apparently painful process. Taking examples from the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, the Poetics introduced into literary criticism such central concepts as mimesis ('imitation'), hamartia ('error') and katharsis ('purification'). Aristotle explains how the most effective tragedies rely on complication and resolution, recognition and reversals. The Poetics has…
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…
I was lucky enough not only to get published in my thirties, I also got a film deal for those first two books. I was flown to Hollywood and it was all very grand. However, what they did to my stories in translating them into film scripts horrified me. And ruined them. And the films never got made. I started to look deeper into what ‘experts’ did, and it was awful. I became obsessed with how stories work, developed my own ‘knowledge gap’ theory, proved it through my Ph.D. research, and became a story consultant in the industry. Story theory has completely taken over my life and I love it!
Bordwell is an academic who is encyclopedic on Hollywood.
He has written several definitive works on Hollywood and despite their depth and learnedness, they are very readable and enjoyable to absorb. So when he turned his attention to ‘classical’ Hollywood story telling, I knew it would be a good one, and I was not disappointed.
Most story theorists have an approach that they are arguing for. Bordwell is analysing from a pure perspective, without ‘skin in the game’, so the result is balanced, critical, and highly enlightening for the aspiring writer.
Hollywood moviemaking is one of the constants of American life, but how much has it changed since the glory days of the big studios? David Bordwell argues that the principles of visual storytelling created in the studio era are alive and well, even in today's bloated blockbusters. American filmmakers have created a durable tradition - one that we should not be ashamed to call artistic, and one that survives in both mainstream entertainment and niche-marketed indie cinema. Bordwell traces the continuity of this tradition in a wide array of films made since 1960, from romantic comedies like "Jerry Maguire" and…
I wear many hats in my life, but none matter as much as the hat: mama. As a clairaudient medium who works first-hand with mothers on their spiritual journeys, I feel as though I know what spiritually conscious parents hope to find and be moved by in the books they read because I know what my spirit needs during this wild and overwhelming adventure called motherhood. It can be an isolating path to walk, and these books not only felt like a helping hand during the rockiest moments but also like a warm hug when I needed it most.
This book catapulted me into a deep dive into all the spiritual aspects of the motherhood journey and brought out the miracle-making goddess within me!
I found myself wholly moved and eager to dive into learning to communicate with my unborn child. I read it while pregnant, but I wish I had found it earlier; it would have helped me navigate this new adventure with so much more confidence and feel even more spiritually connected during pregnancy.
This book will absolutely change your life, whether you want to conceive, are pregnant, or are already a mother.
Am I Meant to Become a Parent? Why Can’t I Conceive? What Is My Unborn Child Trying to Tell Me?
In this reassuring, supportive, and accessible book, leading clairvoyant and medium Walter Makichen offers guidance to prospective parents eager to create a warm, nurturing environment for their soon-to-be-conceived-or-born children. Applying the wisdom and insights he has gained through twenty years of communicating with these spirit babies, Makichen helps you resolve issues about starting a family…actively participate in the psychic process of creating a child…and move past your worries and fears about becoming parents. From the seven essential chakras that link…
I’ve been fascinated by spy stories since childhood, never sure which character is a friend or foe within the stories. As I grew older, I became interested in fictional mysteries, including those with settings in the Medieval era, turn-of-the-century England, and World War II. Unsure of who to trust is a theme through my Detective Henry Ike Pierce series, of which I'm working on the third book now. False hearts abound in my stories, and Detective Pierce must sort through a seemingly flexible definition of trust, including uncertainty of his closest colleagues’ loyalty. If you're a fan of seeking the truth, I hope these books are as enjoyable to you as they were to me.
Detective Tom Shawn interrupts a young woman’s suicide attempt. She professes to know a man that predicts the future, including her father's death. The clairvoyant man predicts his own death, but Detective Shawn suspects foul play.
I enjoyed this story. I could not figure out until the end whether most of the events were within the woman’s runaway imagination, a series of happenstances, or whether the clairvoyant man was the killer. The author slowly peels back a few layers as the story progresses, but there always seems to be more, leading to a surprise ending.
NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES is Woolrich's longest and most ambitious novel. The noir classic follows Detective Tom Shawn on his nightly walk along the river which is interrupted when he follows a trial of money on the ground leading to a woman attempting suicide. After saving her life, he is drawn into her story. She tells him of a clairvoyant man that has recently predicted many strange and extreme events with stunning accuracy, and has now ensured the death of her father, with whom she is incredibly close. The man predicts that he will die in the coming days…
The Duke's Christmas Redemption
by
Arietta Richmond,
A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.
Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…
As a practicing Catholic, I believe in the supernatural and thus, other worlds. In the Nicene Creed, there is a line: “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth of all things visible and invisible.” I find inspiration in both fictional fantasy as well as nonfiction stories of people encountering the impossible and discovering their personal stories or talent. As I grew up and learned about the lives of the saints I found myself engrossed in these real people who experienced miracles. It was this conviction of my own faith that inspired me to write a more secular, Catholic-inspired Young Adult series: St. Blair: Children of Night.
I found Tyler Henry’s story helpful as it relates to the presence of those who have passed on. As an 8-year-old, I saw my cousin Ben in my thoughts. He was standing by a lake. A moment later my mother received a call that he had drowned. Tyler Henry had a near-death experience at 10 and later received a message from his dead grandmother. That was the beginning of his journey. He considered becoming a hospice nurse but accepted that his gifts might be better utilized to bring closure to those who have lost a loved one. His messages are not faith-based but come from a knowing that feels divinely guided.
From Tyler Henry, clairvoyant and star of E!’s hit reality series Hollywood Medium with Tyler Henry, comes Between Two Worlds, a captivating memoir about his journey as a medium thus far.
“Dying doesn’t mean having to say goodbye.”
Tyler Henry discovered his gift for communicating with the departed when he was just ten years old. After experiencing a sudden, accurate premonition of his grandmother’s death—what Tyler would later describe as his first experience of “knowingness”—life would never be the same. Now in his twenties, Tyler is a renowned, practicing medium, star of the smash hit E! reality show, Hollywood Medium…
When I was a girl, my grandmother called me an ‘old soul’ and said she thought my fascination with the 19th century meant that I’d lived then in another life. Ever since, this notion that a person might have lived before has always fascinated me! I gravitate to books that bring the past and present together in all sorts of ways–through memory, ghosts, time travel…and reincarnation. Now my own books of suspense for kids and teens deal with many of those same themes. I always write books I would want to read myself!
This is another tale that starts with a
fortune-teller—but this time it’s teenage Jo who gets her future told. The clairvoyant tells her that there is only
one true love for her—but the last time Jo saw him was in a past life! Now she needs to find him in this life. Jo doesn’t believe a word of this, but events
start to unsettle her. Could
reincarnation possibly be true? But
what if she can’t recognize her soul-mate when she finds him again in this
life? I love the suspense elements in
this book as well as the romance.
Unlucky in love Jo is dragged along to see a clairvoyant by her two coupled-up best friends, and is told that there's only one boy for her. The trouble is, the last time she saw him was in a past life, when she worked as a governess to his younger brother. The clairvoyant tells her that as she is back in this life, so is he, and she must find him if she is ever to know true happiness and love.
Jo doesn't believe a word of it - but then a series of events begin to change her mind.…
Since discovering the Enneagram a few years ago, I’ve been absolutely fascinated by the psychology behind personalities. Each one is unique, influenced by innumerable things from both nature and nurture. And the misunderstandings that come from different types of interaction have contributed significantly to challenges in my personal life. But they also make stories more interesting to read, especially when you get to see things from the perspective of multiple different characters. Nothing is juicier to me as a reader than watching characters initially misunderstand and dislike each other, but over time grow to understand and even respect each other as close friends and/or romantic interests as the story unfolds!
Told from a total of six perspectives, this book begins with the single most amazing prologue I’ve ever read. We learn that the clairvoyant family members of the FMC have predicted her whole life that one day, she will kill her true love. And it just so happens that a relative has come for a visit and immediately announces that this is the year the FMC will fall in love.
It’s so freaking good!
Of course watching that unfold from both the FMC and the MMC’s POVs kept me flipping pages fast, but I also enjoyed the other friendships, struggles, and romances happening in the other POVs. A solid multi-POV series I frequently recommend!
'There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark's Eve,' Neeve said. 'Either you're his true love ... or you killed him.'Every year Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue never sees them - until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks to her.His name is Gansey, a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble. But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a…
This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the world’s most famous heart surgeon.
In these and other intimate conversations, the book…
My grandmother had what we in the South call the sight. I have it as well—that sense of foreboding. Of knowing what will happen next. Some call it a premonition, others Deja vu. Whatever you call it, I think it’s something we’ve all experienced at some point in our lives. Empathy, telepathy, telekinesis…the list is endless. There’s no proof that psychic abilities exist, but there’s no proof that they don’t, either. I find the concept fascinating, so when I started writing, it was a natural fit for me to combine my love for thrillers and mysteries with the added twist of psychic ability. I hope you love it too.
I have to say it—Charlaine Harris can write a good story. I read all the Stackhouse books, but it was when I found her Harper Connelly series that I was truly hooked. This book has all the elements I love: a complex female protagonist, good supporting characters, and a unique psychic ability.
Combine all that with great writing, and it doesn’t get any better. I read this book and then quickly flew through the rest of the series. This was the first book I’d read featuring a psychic twist, and discovering this new genre opened the door to my writing journey.
Harper Connelly had a lucky escape when she was hit by lightning: she didn't die. But sometimes she wishes she had died, because the lightning strike left her with an unusual talent: she can find dead people - and that's not always comfortable. Everyone wants to know how she does it: it's a little like hearing a bee droning inside her head, or maybe the pop of a Geiger counter, a persistent, irregular noise that increases in strength as she gets closer. It's almost electric: a buzzing all through her body, and the fresher the corpse, the more intense the…
