100 Books Like Pattern Recognition

Have you ever read a book that grabbed you with a character challenged by circumstances you’d never considered? Imagine being blind and trying to survive WWII! I was intrigued by this essentially two-person novel set during World War II, which had a ‘cast’ of millions.

Again, the characters! Marie-Laure LaBlanc is a young blind French woman hiding in her great-uncle’s house in Saint-Malo after the Nazis invade Paris. I found Doerr’s lyrical sensory descriptions of Marie-Laure’s efforts to make her way around town as she’s pulled into the French resistance thrilling. I loved the depth of characterization when I met the second main character, Werner Pfennig, a radio repair savant, and his journey from a Nazi soldier tracking down illicit resistance radio operators to a young man repulsed by the Nazi brutalization of civilians.

The characters and intrigue pulled me through this book; mixed in with the eventual connection of… show more.

I related to Atticus Finch.

He was the dad everyone wished they had. He was also a lot like my old high school football coach. There is authentic love and warmth when he and Scout are together. And there is honesty and spine when Atticus is in the courtroom, defending those who have been wrongly accused.

This beloved book has inspired generations of readers around the world. It is a morality tale about a rough and imperfect country, written in a way that has inspired idealists to stay the course in our fight for justice. We may be flawed, but we can still be strong.

Neal Stephenson is my favorite living author largely because of his remarkable ability to weave compellingly rich tales in a variety of genres. This is a straight up action-adventure novel set in the modern world with multiple characters getting into epic adventures all over the world.

It’s so detailed and engaging it might inspire you want to visit some of the locations. It did for me. I detoured out of my way on several trips to see how accurate Stephenson’s portrayal was (it was spot on). 

We all need rock stars to idolize, and mine is Alice Munro, a Canadian writer whose books are mostly short story collections about the quietly intense lives of farmers and townspeople in rural Canada.

I’m from a generation of writers who learned about writing through the stories of Alice Munro, Anton Chekhov, and Raymond Carver, among others. Choosing my favorite Munro book is a challenge—for decades I read them all over and over—but if I had to, I’d say it’s Dance of the Happy Shades.

No one understands better what it’s like to be an adolescent girl than Alice Munro, and no one is more gifted at portraying it, particularly in the stories “An Ounce of Cure” and “Red Dress—1946,” with such generous characterizations and courageous honesty.

It’s been a while since I read this book, but I remember thinking every place described felt real. It hits all the right notes of thriller with a fallible yet strong heroine who gets the job done, sometimes at great personal cost. Michael is as close to a shapeshifter as normal humans can be. She can become anybody. (Content warning – contains strong language)

This is a historical mystery, but so much more than a whodunit. It’s fourth in the series, but can be read alone if you don’t mind spoiling the earlier books a bit. It’s a stand-out to me because it’s about raising one’s voice against inhumanity, even when it seems commonplace, or necessary.

Maisie is an intuitive detective and as such, has to fight against conventional police interference, client skepticism, and male smugness. But what she’s fighting for is the right outcome for everyone concerned, including the victim of the crime. This novel focuses on an artist ex-soldier of WWI who was using his voice to criticize the powers within government. I just love how Maisie deliberately wields her compassion in order to see the full picture of a case.

I've always been fascinated by stories that show what happens to a couple after the wedding.

As wonderful as it is to watch Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane fall in love and finally marry in the previous books in the series, I find it even more interesting to see them adjust to marriage and the challenges it brings. The final scene in particular has been a huge influence on my own writing.

Every so often, I meet a charming, humane fictional character who seems like someone I would very much like to have a long conversation with. The gentlemanly amateur detective Charles Lenox is just such a man. And, in fact, he does seem to spend an awful lot of time having tea with his friends in this novel, set in 1865 London.

But that doesn’t stop Mr. Lenox from using his impressive wits to solve the murder of a housemaid, who is dead in an apparent suicide. I love this series by author Charles Finch and eagerly await each new installment.

I feel that Sherlock Holmes and Cyrus Barker would be friends, but even more so, Dr. Watson and Thomas Llewelyn would have much to discuss. I was hesitant to begin a new series set in Victorian London, but I’m so glad I read this book and every book in the series that followed.

It Involved is a twisty mystery rich in setting and history. Barker and Llewelyn are a formidable duo when it comes to crime fighting and detection, and Llewelyn’s humor offsets (and sometimes ratchets up) the tension.

I love Anne Perry's murder mystery books. Her historical novels take us back to a place that none of us remember but feel familiar through Charles Dickens. We learn about the dark side of Victorian England. Perry shows us the grit and struggle of the times. Her characters are complex, and we see their growth. Detective Thomas Monk (before the television show) is in a field still struggling for professionalism, and he grapples with that status. We also learn about the development of the nursing profession and how women helped and fought for rights through the other main character, Hester Latterly. Perry does an outstanding job of showing not only the surroundings but also the characters' feelings and how they processed their surroundings and pasts.