100 Books Like Zucchini

Technically, Brooke Bolander's The Only Harmless Great Thing is a novella and not a novel.

But this story, set in an alternate universe in which hyperintelligent elephants are forced into toxic factory work, packs so much pathos, vivid description, and (especially!) the world-building around elephant culture—I swoon over the voice in which the elephants tell their stories and myths to the reader—it may as well be three times as long.

This is the most modern book on my list, and it did get some excellent critical attention, including the 2018 Nebula Award for Best Novelette. But Bolander's voice of the elephants alone (to say nothing of the other voices, each masterfully different) is so danged magnificent, the more people know of this work, the better.

I don’t read very much fiction (although I want to read more!) but I thought it would be interesting to check out some novels where animals are main characters.

I read several, and this is the one I still think about all the time. The main character is a crow and although the book is a fantastical mytho-poetic adventure through time and space, it is also a wonderful exercise in cross-species empathy.

While you are reading, you really feel like you understand what it means to be a crow. It really stuck with me; I found it really rich and wondrous. 

In Paul Galico's The Abandoned (copyright 1950), 8-year-old Peter is transformed into a kitten after a mysterious accident, befriends an older stray, and learns how to behave as a cat as he teaches his new friend about the occasional goodness in people.

I grew up with cats and was obsessed with all things feline, and I couldn't resist this story, in its charmingly British voice, that explained to the reader how to properly behave as one; nor, I imagine, could many other younger cat lovers if they knew about this book.

(Because it if happened to Peter, maybe it could happen to us, and we ought to read this how-to, to be prepared. You know… just in case.) 

Tom Shachtman's Beachmaster, in which the sea lion Daniel Au Fond becomes obsessed with deciphering the fragments of an ancient legend—or is it a key but semi-forgotten piece of sea lion oral history?—hit my young world in the midst of my own obsession with "The Cryptic Prophecy" fantasy trope.

Marine mammals are an uncommon choice for sentient animals in fantasy, and all this plus my own permanent obsession with exploration meant that the vast, literally ocean-crossing scale of this story, with its multiple and differing sentient animal cultures, made it irresistible.

Luckily for me, Beachmaster is actually the first book of a trilogy (followed by Wavebender and Driftwhistler), so this was only the beginning. (Consider this paragraph a vote for all 3.)

Promises Prevail turned me inside out. This is another book I’ve read more times than I can count. The plot took me to places I’d never been before. I learned to love historical westerns when I inhaled this whole Promises series. Jenna is such a sweet heroine and strong beyond measure. Yet – when her vulnerabilities emerge – I melted in sympathy. The hero, Clint, is scary as heck but gentle as a lamb. My favorite kind of man. And…the sex was surprisingly hot and opened my eyes in more ways than one. All in all, I would recommend anything Sarah McCarty writes – she’s that good.  

World Enough (And Time) is an absolute gem of a book that reads like Fawlty Towers set on Douglas Adams' Starship Titanic (if you’re old enough to remember that game!). It reads like a drawn-out comedy of errors that balances madcap situations and multiple outlandish characters into a brilliant narrative that – albeit a bit long at times – dovetails nicely with the protagonist's emotional journey. This is one to pick up if you enjoy character-driven stories told with wit and a bit of poignancy.

A lesser-known series, these six books are sure to ferret you out of your life and into a romance on the American frontier.

Donati masterfully intertwines history and adventure in this tale that spans generations. This was one of those series that sucked me in completely and left me reeling when it ended—I wanted it to keep going and going. Unlike the other books mentioned on my list, the Wilderness series doesn’t contain magic or fantasy elements, but it’s certainly a worthy escape from your routine.

Join Elizabeth Middleton as she ventures away from her comfortable estate and into the woods to live among the Mohawk people! You won’t regret it. 

Bluebird is a wordless picture book with a bird as an animal friend. The story is cinematically presented with spare, selectively coloured, and exquisitely designed images. It is a touching and heartbreaking story about a bird who befriends a lonely boy and the tragic consequences brought on by carelessness and bullying. The level of care that went into every panel of every page from cover to cover is outstanding. Be swept up by this work of art!

Can imaginary friends count as best friends? Totally. Imaginary Fred is a brilliant riff on imaginary friendship, told from the point of view of the imaginary friend. When imaginary Fred befriends non-imaginary Sam, the two have so much fun that Fred panics he’ll be replaced by a real kid (again!). But when real Sam brings home his new friend real Sammi, Sammi befriends Fred too…and her own imaginary friend Freida becomes Fred’s total B(I)FF! The book is quirky/funny, but really moving too. Everybody gets a best friend.

This sumptuous, inclusive, achingly loving, and lovable novel is the first book I remember reading and thinking…this makes me want to be a writer.

Weetzie and her offbeat group of loved ones live in an LA painted five shades more magical by Block’s descriptions of it. As sweetly as she captures the diverse set of characters, the gift I treasure most in this story is how Block also captures the atmosphere of places: it’s like she’s dug underneath the surface to what makes them matter.