Here are 100 books that The Sun and the Star fans have personally recommended if you like
The Sun and the Star.
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I love mythological creatures! I grew up gravitating toward fantasy books but because I have a narcissistic parent, I got teased for reading them. To avoid the teasing, I ended up reading a lot of mythology because that was a “safe” fantasy option; reading mythology was “educational” rather than “silly.” When I got older, I discovered that there’s a whole category of fantasy books that retell myths from alternative points of view. This subgenre opened new doors of understanding and empathy for me. Reading old stories from new perspectives opens my eyes to a myriad of different types of people and broadens my view of the world. And I’ve been reading them ever since.
The myth of Medusa as told by her and her two Gorgon sisters. I’ve read many versions of Medusa’s story but I particularly like this one.
She’s typically treated just as an obstacle for the hero Perseus but in this book, she’s a given a voice—as an assault survivor, as the unjust victim of a god’s anger, as the baby sister of two immortal “monsters.”
The Gorgons completely rearrange their lives to accommodate the needs of their mortal sister who they love more than anything in the world. And Medusa, though she’s called a monster, makes the conscious decision to live in solitude rather than endanger others with her deadly gaze.
The definition of “monster” gets so blurry it becomes meaningless after reading this book.
** Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023 **
In Stone Blind, the instant Sunday Times bestseller, Natalie Haynes brings the infamous Medusa to life as you have never seen her before.
'Witty, gripping, ruthless' - Margaret Atwood via Twitter 'Beautiful and moving' - Neil Gaiman via Twitter
'So to mortal men, we are monsters. Because of our flight, our strength. They fear us, so they call us monsters.'
Medusa is the sole mortal in a family of gods. Growing up with her Gorgon sisters, she begins to realize that she is the only one who experiences change, the…
The Improbable Wonders of Moojie Littleman
by
Robin Gregory,
After his doting aunt dies, a special fourteen-year-old boy who has trouble fitting into a remote 1906 village goes against a powerful retired Army captain determined to eradicate his outcast kin.
As a queer, disabled YA author, I focus on writing stories that reflect the complexities of identity, disability, and mental health. I believe every teen who is disabled and/or struggles with mental illness deserves to see themselves represented, but I’m also passionate about stories that allow able-bodied readers to gain insight into new perspectives. These book recommendations showcase diverse voices and highlight a disabled experience, and I hope books like these will foster a new generation that values inclusivity and representation. Happy reading!
I think the body horror and cosmic horror are wonderfully done, but the heartwarming moments between the queer, the disabled cast are the cherry on top!
This apocalyptic story cleverly challenges the treatment and expectations of disabled and neurodivergent folks during disasters. The protagonist has epilepsy and migraines, and I was immersed by the vivid depictions that emphasize how his disabilities affect him.
A YA unbury-your-gays horror in which an undead teen must find the boy he loves before he loses his mind and body.
Five years ago, a parasite poisoned the water of Ian’s West Virginia hometown, turning dozens of locals into dark-eyed, oil-dripping shells of their former selves. With chronic migraines and seizures limiting his physical abilities, Ian relies on his best friend and secret love Eric to mercy-kill any infected people they come across.
Until a new health report about the contamination triggers a mandatory government evacuation, and Ian cracks his head in the rush. Used to hospitals and health…
I have a passion for the themes and moods of this list because they explore so many parts of my emotions. They rile me, they work me up into a hot frenzy, they turn me on, they fascinate me, they bruise me, they heal me. I see myself in these books, and I feel that I understand other people. I’ve enjoyed (and still enjoy) reading these books published for free on blogs online, but now I want to write more and read more than I’ve done before. This list is a starting point, and I hope you enjoy them!
I love this book because it is raw. For those who dismiss erotic writing, because they think there are only a finite number of ways to write about sex and sexuality, I recommend this book. The raw and transformative way it writes about the attraction, longing, and pain of sex is joyous and agonising to read.
I love it because I don’t actually like either of the main characters, and liking the characters can often rescue a book from otherwise poor writing. I loved this book despite disliking the main characters.
“I remember the movement of his hips pressing against the pinball machine. This one sentence had me in its grip until the end. Two young men find each other, always fearing that life itself might be the villain standing in their way. A stunning and heart-gripping tale.” —André Aciman, author of Call Me by Your Name
A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice
The critically acclaimed, internationally beloved novel by Philippe Besson—“this year’s Call Me By Your Name” (Vulture) with raves in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal,NPR, Vanity Fair, Vogue, O,…
In this contemporary fantasy for fans of V. E. Schwab and Kaliane Bradley, historian Aida Reale lands a dream job in Italy—only to discover her employers aren’t exactly human.
After losing her book deal and academic post, Aida is desperate. A high-paying position at a mysterious company called MODA seems…
I love humans. My clients and colleagues tell me that my profound love for humans is my superpower—that I make people feel safe and seen. I also understand that loving humans isn’t effortless. I wasn’t always in the loving-humans camp. While I was doing a doctorate at Harvard, I studied with the marvelous Robert Kegan, whose theory and methodology helped me see the fullness of the diverse people I got to interview. Ever since, I have been totally enthralled by what makes us unique—and also connected. If you are a human or have to deal with humans, your life will be much improved if you love them more!
This is my favorite book by my favorite author. Beware, this is seriously more addictive fiction than I’ve ever read before—I don’t know anyone who reads this one who hasn’t plowed through the rest of Goddard’s list and then reread them all.
I loved the characters in this book and loved the premise—that the world (like ours, but different) has gone through a cataclysmic event, and now the work is to make it better than it ever was before. Fundamentally, it is a book about friendship and goodness. This and the rest of Goddard’s books will have you believe that we can create a better world together. (The first pages are slow, but stay with them, and you will have dozens of hours of delight as you move through the whole set of her books.)
A simple act of friendship can change the course of history.
Cliopher Mdang is the personal secretary of the Last Emperor of Astandalas, the Lord of Rising Stars, the Lord Magus of Zunidh, the Sun-on-Earth, the god.
He has spent more time with the Emperor of Astandalas than any other person.
He has never once touched his lord.
He has never called him by name.
He has never initiated a conversation.
One day Cliopher invites the Sun-on-Earth home to the proverbially remote Vangavaye-ve for a holiday.
I’ve always been fascinated by the influence technology and science on culture and our lives, especially women’s lives. The history of women’s rights, in many ways, is a story of science and technology’s influence on women’s evolution towards having more freedom (and now less) to control our bodies. As a science writer, these themes influence many of the stories that I choose to read and tell, including both my books, In Her Own Sweet Time: Unexpected Adventures in Finding Love, Commitment and Motherhood and Reconceptions: Modern Relationships, Reproductive Science and the Unfolding Future of Family. I also love to read both fictional and non-fiction stories about the nuances of personal identity.
This novel tells the story of Maise, a devoted wife and mother of four children.
It takes place over the course of a single day in October that begins with Maise nursing her infant and leads to a family outing to an orchard the following afternoon. It beautifully captures the daily emotions that a mother feels, ranging from anxiety to grief to deep love, and explores the feelings around the unpaid labor of motherhood and the financial anxiety that being a parent brings to us all.
A novel about womanhood, modern family, and the interior landscape of maternal life, as seen through the life of a young wife and mother on a single day.
At night, Maisie Moore dreams that her life is perfect: the looming mortgages and credit card debt have magically vanished, and she can raise her four children, including newborn Esme, on an undulating current of maternal bliss, by turns oceanic and overwhelming, but awash in awe and wonder. Then she jolts awake and, after checking that her husband and baby are asleep beside her, remembers the real-world money problems to be resolved…
I grew up in a family of writers; my parents and three sisters were all successful writers, and I was the odd one out with a passion for teaching. I love to simplify, diagram, and make the complex graspable. And what’s not to like about a career in which people listen to you tell them what to do? I began writing after years of teaching, and my first novel was a mystery—a genre that no one in my family had yet written and which I’d been loving since my first Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie. Now, I combine the two: teaching and writing. Playing to both strengths and passing along what I’ve learned.
Another book that focuses on story structure, and explains the difference between literary and commercial fiction without talking down to those of us who aspire to the latter. I found it full of illuminating visuals, excellent examples, and exercises to help me immediately apply his advice. And above all, remember that advice weeks later as I write more and more pages.
It works because he does more than expound. He *engages* the reader–mentally and physically. Reading the book is like taking a master class.
How does plot influence story structure? What's the difference between plotting for commercial and literary fiction? How do you revise a plot or structure that's gone off course?
With Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure, you'll discover the answers to these questions and more. Award-winning author James Scott Bell offers clear, concise information that will help you create a believable and memorable plot, including:
• Techniques for crafting strong beginnings, middles, and ends • Easy-to-understand plotting diagrams and charts • Brainstorming techniques for original plot ideas • Thought-provoking exercises at the end of each chapter •…
I’m a novelist, essayist, and journalist who’s written extensively about the problems and consolations of faith, about belonging in and out of faith, and about the tribes of what I think of as the In Between. When you’re in between, you’re neither in it nor out of it, whatever “it” might be for you. You bear an “infinity of traces,” as the writer Antonio Gramsci called these formative influences. My first novel looks at these influences directly, while my second one looks at them indirectly. I’m late in the game with a third novel now—a detective story that investigates a murder along with these same themes.
A bit of a curveball entry, but go with it. One of the subplots in Smith’s impressively sprawling historical novel involves do-gooder Baptists who really are doing good! They’re in Anglican England to agitate for the end of slavery in the British colonies—and they’re ahead of their time in other ways, too.
They help to platform the voices of freedmen and escaped slaves, acting as allies, essentially. It’s in the main character of Eliza that the larger novel takes up this search for a liberatory truth, nominally Christian but really entrusted to anyone who can see the suffering of others and refuse to look away.
From acclaimed and bestselling novelist Zadie Smith, a kaleidoscopic work of historical fiction set against the legal trial that divided Victorian England, about who gets to tell their story—and who gets to be believed
It is 1873. Mrs. Eliza Touchet is the Scottish housekeeper—and cousin by marriage—of a once-famous novelist, now in decline, William Ainsworth, with whom she has lived for thirty years.
Mrs. Touchet is a woman of many interests: literature, justice, abolitionism, class, her cousin, his wives, this life and the next. But she is also sceptical. She suspects her cousin of…
Why do I love dual-timeline romance so much? Because, for me, it’s all about character depth. I’m fascinated by what makes characters tick—those defining moments in their past that shape their inner wounds, their dreams, and subsequently, their reactions in the present. When a dual timeline is done right, I am fully invested in both narratives. And being able to watch the main characters fall in love not just once but twice doubles the emotional impact and makes their happily ever after even sweeter. Witnessing them fall in love initially and then earn their second chance in the present always keeps me riveted!
A book about writing and publishing is always special to my heart, and even more so when it incorporates dual timelines. When Eva Mercy, a single mom and best-selling erotica writer, encounters literary darling Shane Hall, their chemistry raises eyebrows.
But what I loved most was how their week falling in love twenty years ago was a secret to everyone else, as it really amplified my intrigue. I love this book for how it managed to portray a heart-wrenching romance while also addressing other hard-hitting topics, including chronic illness, overcoming generational trauma, and addiction.
I also enjoyed how this book was about writers and had commentary on BIPOC authors in the publishing industry. This book immersed me from start to finish with its raw interiority and nuanced characters.
The instant New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon book club pick is "a heady combination of book love and between-the-sheets love.” (Ruth Ware)
“Tia Williams’s book is a smart, sexy testament to Black joy, to the well of strength from which women draw, and to tragic romances that mature into second chances. I absolutely loved it.” —JODI PICOULT, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Two Ways and Small Great Things
Seven days to fall in love, fifteen years to forget, and seven days to get it all back again...
I’m a firm believer in Jesus Christ, and I’ve spent the majority of my life reading Christian fiction, but one day, I felt Jesus drop a story onto my heart. And I wrote it. And He gave me more inspiration, and I kept writing. I always say Jesus gives me my stories. I must obey. The world needs more Jesus, and not every Christian book has to fall under “Christian romance.” The Christian fiction space needs warm, Christian family stories, and I pray God continues to let me write them. I hope you enjoy the Christian family books on this list as much as I did!
This Christian fiction novel holds a special place in my heart because I didn’t really know who Melody Carlson wrote this book for.
Christy Miller was written for teens and young adults. Where Yesterday Lives was written for Young Adults. But what Christian family drama has characters that are 16, 37, and 72?! Okay, maybe grandma is 71, but the point of the matter is that it’s told from multiple POVs across three different generations.
As of writing this, I’m 28 and I loved it. Why? It’s about a family. A true-to-life family, with true-to-life problems. Girls get taken out of school and pulled away from their boyfriends in real life. Sometimes moms and dads get divorced. And sadly, sometimes grandma or grandpa may start forgetting things they should remember.
This story made me laugh, cry, and feel so grateful that even in our mess, God still loves us. If…
When life feels like it's closing in around you, sometimes the solution is to open the doors wide and invite others in . . .
Jewel McKerry is on the brink of unraveling as she heads home to Oregon to help care for her father who has early-onset dementia. Her thirteen-year-old daughter is upset about the move. Her beekeeper dad is a humorous handful. Her mom is overworked and overwhelmed. Finances are stretched tight. And, according to her father, the neighbors are nothing but trouble.
Despite all of these challenges, Jewel takes on one more when she convinces her parents…
The stars aligned to ignite my passion for magic-realism romance after a few things had happened. 1) I got heavily into the idea of the multiverse and alternate realities in high school, having been inspired by my physics teacher. 2) I read and fell in love with The Time Traveler’s Wife (see list!). 3) I binge-watched the incredible sci-fi show Fringe, which deals with parallel universes and time jumps. 4) I decided to write my first multiverse romance, inspired by all the above factors and more besides. Since then, I’ve focused most of my reading on romantic novels, with those that share a magic realism twist being auto-reads—of course!
I loved everything about this book: the dreamy New York co-op apartment setting, the relatable main female character Clementine (a book publicist!), the lovable main male character Iwan (a chef!), and the fact that they lived seven years apart. I found it had the perfect balance of witty banter, romantic yearning, depth of feeling, and a sense of place. It also deals with tougher issues, such as grief in Clementine’s loss of her beloved aunt and a sense of self in Clementine’s search for her future path and the aunt’s own background.
And, like every true romance novel should have, that incandescently happy ending! This is my favorite book I’ve read so far this year.
"A gorgeous love story from one of the finest romance writers out there." —Carley Fortune, New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After
A Most Anticipated Book by Entertainment Weekly ∙ Harper's Bazaar ∙ PopSugar ∙ Real Simple ∙ BookRiot ∙ and more!
An overworked book publicist with a perfectly planned future hits a snag when she falls in love with her temporary roommate…only to discover he lives seven years in the past, in this witty and wise new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dead Romantics.
