100 Books Like The Jewel That Was Ours

I first became acquainted with this 20th-century classic when it was turned into a popular miniseries, and I felt compelled to read the novel for myself.

Although the narrative traverses settings from London and a great English country house to Europe and even the Americas, the inception of the story is grounded in post-WWI Oxford, where the narrator introduces us to Waugh’s memorably charming but doomed character, Lord Sebastian Flyte.

Waugh’s portrayal of the exuberance of youthful college high-jinx juxtaposed against the perils of dissipation powerfully depicts the inner struggle of his narrator’s search for love, meaning, and ultimately faith.

I greatly admire Waugh’s hauntingly lyrical prose, which vividly captures the aching beauty and mystique of Oxford.

I’ve always been fascinated by the “dreaming spires” of Oxford University and enjoy Gaudy Night because it immerses me in the world of a (fictional) women’s college set in 1930s Oxford.

As a former professor, I’m intrigued by the internecine political and personal battles in the Senior Common Room (SCR), or college faculty lounge, as well as the friction between those professors devoted entirely to an academic career versus those trying to maintain the challenging balance of work and family, the same issues women struggle with today, nearly one hundred years later.

Sayers weaves together these tensions with a mysterious “poltergeist” who torments the college with poison-pen letters, pranks, vandalism, and violence into a compelling mystery under the dreaming spires.

Historical romance set in the world of C.S. Lewis at Oxford University: what’s not to love?

I am a fan of historical fiction and love to live history vicariously through the experiences of well-crafted characters, and in this case, real people. This thoroughly researched and masterfully written novel tells the story of the unlikely friendship turned marriage of Christian apologist and author C.S. Lewis to an American Jewish divorcée, Joy Davidman. 

This poignant love story has been told before in play and film versions, but this is the first time I experienced the story from Joy’s POV.

I found myself simultaneously sympathizing with and being exasperated by Joy. She was a complex and brilliant woman, and I’m very impressed with Patti Callahan’s own brilliance and chutzpah in writing, most convincingly, Joy’s story in a first-person narration.

Having studied, taught, and written about C.S. Lewis, I’m steeped in all things Lewis and Oxford. And yet, Patti Callahan’s story-telling gift enables me to transcend the facts I know about Lewis into the realm of experience.

I can live the stories of Lewis’s childhood, war, and university years, and conversion through the vivid imagination of the fictional lad George, seeing through his eyes glimpses of where Lewis found inspiration for the Narnian tales.

The split narrative between the first person of George’s older sister Megs and the 3rd person of Lewis’s life is masterfully seamless, while Patti’s prose is lyrical and haunting. The poignant frame narrative of wee George’s struggle with heart failure and his sister’s desperation to help him with Lewis’s stories moves me deeply.

I have said this before, but if there had been a fourth book in this series in 2004, I would not have written Heartsick and would not have had a career. I love Val’s Tony Hill/Carol Jordan books. They are the blueprint for all thrillers. 

She doesn’t hold back on the violence but finds these incredibly intimate character moments that tremble my heart.

The cold war holds a special spot for me. The USSR's internal conflicts are very similar to what Russians I knew escaped from before and during the buildup of the USSR talked about. I re-read this last year and found it still exudes the mysterious feel of Mother Russia. Maybe even more so now.

Arkady Renko, a Moscow homicide investigator, investigates a crime that isn’t possible because there are no murders in the Soviet Union. It must be the work of an insane person or infiltrator. Arkady struggles to do justice for the people he serves, and the bureaucrats are looking to sweep it all under the rug. Great twists make for great stories.  

I love a quirky small-town mystery with screwball comedy, and this one absolutely delivers–with a wonderful twist: the detective is Sheriff Arly Hanks, a woman forced to go home and start over after a meltdown in the big city.

I love Arly’s intelligence and spirit…and the fact that while she has a gun (and even a bullet or two), she doesn’t need more than her wits and the help of the crazy locals–including her own mother–to catch the killer. She’s my favorite funny, badass woman sleuth. 

I became obsessed with the two main characters in this book. You could say good vs. evil, but it’s more than that. For me, this was an existential journey into the tunnels of two people’s minds. I learned everything about the way Captain Delaney’s mind worked and the man he chased, Daniel Blank.

For me, this was the kind of mystery/thriller in which you eventually know more about the characters than they know about themselves. Even more thrilling was how similar they both became in the end. It was like their personalities blended into one man.

I was hooked by James Patterson’s first book of the Alex Cross series by James Patterson. A predator that enjoys playing mind games with Detective Cross, and a kidnapping that sends one of those thoughts through your mind, “No, they didn’t do that, did they?” One of the things I enjoyed are the short chapters. It’s filled with psychological suspense, a real thriller that I didn’t want to put down. This is something that I crave in books. For it to grab my attention, hold it, and surprise me at the end. And Patterson delivers.

I loved the main character of this book from the very first: Sgt Cribb of Scotland Yard. I came across this book through a television adaptation. I watched, then went scouring the shelves of my local library, finding, to my delight, that the book was the first in a series.

This was the first Cribb novel, and I found it charming, with a great mystery at its core. I love the fact that the background is a little-known Victorian sport: pedestrianism or endurance walking.