Can't get enough of WandaVision or the Marvel Universe? In the new show on Disney+, members of the Avengers, Wanda Maximoff and Vision are living in a world that appears to be out of a 1950's sitcom in New Jersey. They are trying to blend in, and live normal lives, but but everything is not as it seems.
Our Book Chat librarians have put together a great list of read-a-likes for the show that include stories about altered memories, powerful women and unlikely partners.
Even if you haven't watched a single episode, there is something about these books that can provide a world everyone can escape into!
Recursion by Blake Crouch
Author: Blake Crouch
Theme: Altered Memories
At first, it looks like a disease. An epidemic that spreads through no known means, driving its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. But the force that's sweeping the world is no pathogen. It's just the first shock wave, unleashed by a stunning discovery--and what's in jeopardy is not our minds but the very fabric of time itself.
The Memory Police
Author: Yoko Ogawa
Theme: Grief and Altered Memories
On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses—until things become much more serious. Most of the island's inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those few imbued with the power to recall the lost objects live in fear of the draconian Memory Police, who are committed to ensuring that what has disappeared remains forgotten.
This is not the Jess Show
Author: Anna Carey
Theme: Altered Memories
The year is 1998: Titanic just won 6 Oscars, boy bands are dominating MTV's airwaves, and like any other teenager Jess Flynn is just trying to survive high school. Jess is resigned to her small-town life, until the day she discovers a mysterious device with an apple logo, causing her to question everything and everyone she's ever known. As more cracks appear in Jess's world, she faces a choice: can she live the rest of her life knowing it's a lie or should she risk everything for the truth?
Nova
Author: Margaret Fortune
Theme: Altered Memories
Lia Johansen was created for only one purpose: to slip onto the strategically placed New Sol Space Station and explode. But her mission goes to hell when her clock malfunctions, freezing her countdown with just two minutes to go. With no Plan B, no memories of her past, and no identity besides a name stolen from a dead POW, Lia has no idea what to do next. If she wants any chance at a future, she must find a way to unlock the secrets of her past and stop her clock. But as Lia digs into her origins, she begins to suspect there's far more to her mission and to this war, than meets the eye.
Binti
Author: Nnedi Okorafor
Theme: Women of Steel
Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti's stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach. If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the university itself - but first she has to make it there, alive.
Mind of My Mind
Author: Octavia Butler
Theme: Women of steel & Too powerful to contain
A young woman harnesses the power of a viral mutation and challenges the ruthless man who controls her. Mary is a treacherous experiment. Her creator has molded the human race for generations, seeking out those with unusual talents like telepathy and breeding them into a new subrace of humans who obey his every command. The result is Mary: a young black woman living on the rough outskirts of Los Angeles in the 1970s, who has no idea how much power she will soon wield.
The Year of the Witching
Author: Alexis Henderson
Theme: Women of Steel
A young woman living in a rigid, puritanical society discovers dark powers within herself in this stunning, feminist fantasy debut. In the lands of Bethel, where the Prophet’s word is law, Immanuelle Moore’s very existence is blasphemy. But a mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood surrounding Bethel, where the first prophet once chased and killed four powerful witches. When she begins to learn grim truths about the Church and its history, she realizes the true threat to Bethel is its own darkness. And she starts to understand that if Bethel is to change, it must begin with her.
A Deadly Education
Author: Naomi Novik
Theme: Women of Steel
Scholomance is a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death — until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets. There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won’t allow its students to leave until they graduate… or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don’t walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere.
The Obsidian Tower
Author: Melissa Caruso
Theme: Women of steel & Too powerful to contain
One woman will either save an entire continent or completely destroy it in a fresh epic fantasy bursting with intrigue and ambition, questioned loyalties, and broken magic.
Ancillary Justice
Author: Ann Leckie
Theme: Robots with Emotions
On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.Once, she was the Justice of Toren - a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy. Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.
All Systems Red
Author: Martha Wells
Theme: Robots with Emotions
In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety. On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied 'droid - a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as "Murderbot." Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is. But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.
The Municipalists
Author: Seth Fried
Theme: Robots with Emotions and Unlikely Partners
In Metropolis, the gleaming city of tomorrow, the dream of the great American city has been achieved. But all that is about to change, unless a neurotic, rule-following bureaucrat and an irreverent, freewheeling artificial intelligence can save the city from a mysterious terrorist plot that threatens its very existence.
Middlegame
Author: Seanan McGuire
Theme: Too powerful to contain
Roger is skilled with words and languages come easily to him. He instinctively understands how the world works through the power of story. For Dodger, his twin numbers are her world, her obsession, her everything. All she understands, she does so through the power of math. Roger and Dodger aren't exactly human, though they don't realise it. They aren't exactly gods, either. Not entirely. Not yet. A finalist for the Hugo award this is a book about two supernatural characters that you don't want to miss!
Deal with the Devil
Author: Kit Rocha
Theme: Unlikely Partners
Nina and her team of mercenary librarians use their knowledge to save the hopeless in a crumbling America. Knox is the bitter, battle-weary captain of the Silver Devils. His squad of super-soldiers went AWOL to avoid slaughtering innocents, and now he's fighting to survive. They're on a deadly collision course, and the passion that flares between them only makes it more dangerous. They could burn down the world, destroying each other in the process… or they could do the impossible: team up.
The Heist
Authors: Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg
Theme: Unlikely Partners
Nicolas Fox is an international con man, famous for running elaborate scams on very rich and powerful people. He knows that the FBI has been hot on his trail for years—particularly FBI Special Agent Kate O'Hare. But just when it seems that Fox has been captured for good, he pulls off his greatest con of all: He convinces the FBI to offer him a job, working side by side with O'Hare.
Liar's Candle
Author: August Thomas
Theme: Unlikely Partners
In this brilliant debut thriller, a young American State Department intern, Penny, based in Turkey becomes "the woman who knows too much" and is marked for death. Soon, with only a single ally--a rookie intelligence officer fresh out of the Navy — she is running a perilous gauntlet, ruthlessly pursued by Turkey's most powerful forces and by the CIA. To survive, Penny must furiously improvise. Tradecraft takes a lifetime to master. She has less than thirty-six hours. And she's only twenty-one years old. This is her first real test — one she can't fail.
A Monster Calls
Author: Patrick Ness
Theme: Grief
An unflinching, darkly funny, and deeply moving story of a boy, his seriously ill mother, and an unexpected monstrous visitor, From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd-- whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself-- Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined.
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Last Modified April 24, 2024