100 books like The Hungry Tide

Clarke transports the reader to England during the time of the Napoleonic Wars. There is, however, one small twist: magic once existed in this world and has now returned through two men, drastically changing the course of history and society.

The story is rich in gothic atmosphere and wry humour, and is positively bursting with ideas (there are almost 200 footnotes!). Clarke imbues her protagonists with conflicting approaches to the pursuit of knowledge, with Norrell representing cautious rationality and conservative methodology, while Strange embodies an adventurous spirit and a willingness to embrace the arcane and often the dangerous.

I love the idea that books have souls, and I adore this quotation from Zafon’s classic novel: “Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it.”

I was thrilled to find this novel after I’d written my book because it shows that there are others who sense the soulful quality of old books. I also love it because it is written by a Spanish novelist, and it is in the Spanish-speaking world that we find the true literary origins of my most-loved genre of writing – magical realism.

A wonderful book in two senses – it’s wonderfully written, and it evokes wonder. This is an idiosyncratic urban fantasy set in an imaginary metropolis called New York City (cut off from the world by an impenetrable cloud wall that lifts only occasionally, to let the trains through). In this city, amazing characters (amazingly good and amazingly evil) clash as they strive for the things that matter to them most. And the prose is as bright and vivid as a Van Gogh painting. Winter’s Tale contains one of my favorite lines in all literature, where one character is described as “breathtakingly short.”

I can only speak from my experience and, wow, this book hooked me right at the end of that first chapter, “but it’s happening faster.” Now to go into what that means, I will remain spoiler-free, but my jaw dropped. And the story only ramped up after that.

I love stories where the protagonist finds themselves in genuine peril, and Claire puts Harry August in a particular type of peril that truly had me terrified for his well-being in every chapter. The best type of suspense escalates in every chapter and it escalates here in this book in the best possible ways.

The ‘obsessive genius’ of the title is Marie Curie, the only woman to have won two Nobel Prizes. I love Goldsmith’s book because it humanizes Curie, starting with her childhood in Poland and progressing to her determination to someday become a scientist, the difficulties she faced as a woman seeking an education in Poland at the end of the nineteenth century, and finally the combination of serendipity, enduring curiosity and fierce determination that led to her groundbreaking discoveries about radioactivity, a word she is credited with coining.

This book inspired me to write. I love the way Jahren puts herself in the centre of the narrative linking the science and the scientist.

Whilst there are differences between how plants and humans respond to infections–pathogens are important for both. Thinking about cross-cutting principles across different disciplines often opens up new ideas.

A historical novel about the 1950s that is infused with contemporary feminist principles, this popular book’s plot takes surprising twists and turns in describing the admirable personal life and career of a woman chemist who struggles to overcome assault, discrimination, and misogyny.

Her experiences in the workforce ring true for anyone who has confronted the idiocies of prejudice and bureaucracy. I particularly enjoyed the many amusing perceptions about human flaws and failings that are shared by the characters and the narrator. I helped start a book club to discuss this book.

Scientific cloning fears come to life and the possible consequences of that dynamic? The protagonist, a geneticist, makes a startling and extremely consequential discovery and away we go. The story is a combination of science, crime drama, and bad guy intrigue that keeps the reader wondering how things will play out in terms of experiments and mysterious, secretive plots. Follett offers an array of engaging characters that left me pulling for some and proverbially punching others. As with the other Ken Follett novels I’ve read, the man does his research which offers educational elements as a bonus without it interfering with the flow. And the ending is a beauty. 

Questions about who we really are in terms of ourselves and maybe, just maybe, a cloned twin ‘out there’ who apparently isn’t the nice person you are? Why and how could that be? Creative ideas such as this, from the imagination… show more.

I adore everything about the premise of this book—a secret society of lady scientists, working away in an old house in London, trying to invent solutions to the problems of the day. Yes please! I also love that Lady Violet is worldly. She's knowledgeable about physical relations between men and women, and she knows about her body, what she likes, and how to prevent pregnancy. She’s very down-to-earth, empowered, and sex-positive, and she brings our brooding hero Arthur to his knees. There’s something very special about historical fiction with a modern sentimentality. Add to that a swoon-worthy hero, a cast of colorful side characters, and dark forces working against our heroine, and you’ve got a recipe for the perfect start to a super fun series.

At two pages per scientist (one of which is an annotated portrait), this is a superb introduction to the theme.

The book covers a wide time period – from the brilliant, long-dead Hypatia (c.350 CE) to brilliant, modern-day scientist, Maryam Mirzakhani (1977–). It includes sciences your kids might be familiar with, like medicine and marine biology, to ones they might not be, like industrial engineering and crystallography.

Ignotofsky’s a dab hand at condensing a life’s work plus an introduction to a scientific discipline into the space of a page. I love how her choice of a limited colour palette works in her subjects’ favour, reinforcing similarities and themes across the portraits. This is a gorgeous book that repays repeated reading.