Recommendations based on He, She and Itby Marge Piercy

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. Woman on the Edge of Time

    by Marge Piercy
    A woman is sent to the future to see the potential of a utopian society and how it can be achieved.

    In the 1970s, an impoverished but intelligent thirty-seven-year-old Mexican-American woman Consuelo (Connie) Ramos, a resident of Spanish Harlem , is unfairly incarcerated in a New York mental ... (Wikipedia)

  2. The Gate to Women's Country

    by Sheri S. Tepper
    In a post-apocalyptic world, women and men live in separate communities. A woman's discovery of a forbidden truth threatens the status quo.

    The Gate to Women's Country is set in the future, 300 years after a nuclear war destroyed most of human civilization. The book focuses on a matriarchal nation known as Women's Country , and ... (Wikipedia)

  3. Parable of the Sower

    by Octavia E. Butler
    A post-apocalyptic story of survival, hope, and the power of community.

    This highly acclaimed post-apocalyptic novel of hope and terror from award-winning author Octavia E. Butler "pairs well with, 1984, or, The Handmaid's Tale," (John Green,, New York Times,)–now with a ... (Barnes & Noble)

  4. Oryx and Crake

    by Margaret Atwood
    An exploration of a post-apocalyptic world, and the power of human nature.

    The novel focuses on a post-apocalyptic character called "Snowman", living near a group of primitive human-like creatures whom he calls Crakers . Flashbacks reveal that Snowman was once a boy named ... (Wikipedia)

  5. The Lathe of Heaven

    by Ursula K. Le Guin
    An exploration of the power of dreams, with the potential to reshape reality.

    The book is set in Portland, Oregon , in the year 2002. Portland has three million inhabitants and continuous rain. It is deprived enough for the poorer inhabitants to have kwashiorkor , a protein ... (Wikipedia)

  6. A Wizard of Earthsea

    by Ursula K. Le Guin
    A young wizard embarks on a quest to master his own magical powers and battle a mysterious force of evil.

    Ged, the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, was called Sparrowhawk in his reckless youth. Hungry for power and knowledge, Sparrowhawk tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon ... (Goodreads)

  7. Fledgling

    by Octavia E. Butler
    A young girl wakes up with no memory of her past and discovers she is a genetically modified vampire. She must navigate a dangerous world of vampire politics and prejudice.

    The novel tells the story of Shori, a 53-year-old member of the Ina species, who appears to be a ten-year-old African-American girl. The Ina are nocturnal, long-lived, and derive sustenance by ... (Wikipedia)

  8. The Dispossessed

    by Ursula K. Le Guin
    A sci-fi exploration of utopian and dystopian societies, and the struggle for a better world.

    Librarian note: Alternate cover edition of ISBN, 9780061054884,. Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and attempt to tear down the ... (Goodreads)

  9. Beloved

    by Toni Morrison
    A haunting story of loss and resilience in the aftermath of slavery.

    Beloved begins in 1873 in Cincinnati, Ohio , where the protagonist Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman, has been living with her eighteen-year-old daughter Denver at 124 Bluestone Road. The book ... (Wikipedia)

  10. Wild Seed

    by Octavia E. Butler
    A shape-shifting immortal and a mortal healer's lives intertwine over centuries, exploring power, oppression, and the human condition.

    Wild Seed is the story of two immortal Africans named Doro and Anyanwu. Doro is a spirit who can take over other people's bodies, killing anyone and anything in his path, while Anyanwu is a woman ... (Wikipedia)

  11. The Name of the Rose

    by Umberto Eco
    A Franciscan friar investigates a series of murders in a medieval monastery, uncovering a sinister plot.

    In 1327, Franciscan friar William of Baskerville and Adso of Melk , a Benedictine novice travelling under his protection, arrive at a Benedictine monastery in Northern Italy to attend a theological ... (Wikipedia)

  12. The Good Earth

    by Pearl S. Buck
    A story of humble farmers facing the struggles of poverty and the upheaval of social change.

    The story begins on Wang Lung 's wedding day and follows the rise and fall of his fortunes. The House of Hwang, a family of wealthy landowners, lives in the nearby town, where Wang Lung's future ... (Wikipedia)

  13. Station Eleven

    by Emily St. John Mandel
    Post-apocalyptic exploration of a world drastically changed after a pandemic.

    An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse,, Station Eleven, tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of ... (Barnes & Noble)

  14. Tuf Voyaging

    by George R.R. Martin
    Haviland Tuf, a solitary space trader, acquires a powerful ancient starship and becomes a self-appointed ecological engineer.

    From the multiple award-winning, best-selling author of The Song of Ice and Fire series: Haviland Tuf is an honest space-trader who likes cats. So how is it that, in competition with the worst ... (Goodreads)

  15. The Sculptress

    by Minette Walters
    An investigative journalist unravels a mystery of a vigilante killer in search of justice.

    In prison, they call her the Sculptress for the strange figurines she carves - symbols of the day she hacked her mother and sister to pieces and reassembled them in a blood-drenched jigsaw. Sullen ... (Goodreads)

  16. My Ántonia

    by Willa Cather
    A young man's reminiscences of his childhood in rural Nebraska, and of his friendships with the immigrants he met there.

    Orphaned Jim Burden rides the trains from Virginia to Black Hawk, Nebraska, where he will live with his paternal grandparents. Jake, a farmhand from Virginia, rides with the 10-year-old boy. On the ... (Wikipedia)

  17. Affinity

    by Sarah Waters
    Gothic mystery of spiritual and romantic entanglement set in Victorian London.

    An upper-class woman recovering from a suicide attempt, Margaret Prior has begun visiting the women’s ward of Millbank prison, Victorian London’s grimmest jail, as part of her rehabilitative charity ... (Goodreads)

  18. Seveneves

    by Neal Stephenson
    Humanity's struggle for survival after an apocalyptic event threatens to extinguish life on Earth.

    In the near future, an unknown agent causes the Moon to shatter. As the pieces begin to collide with one another, astronomer and science popularizer "Doc" Dubois Harris calculates that Moon fragments ... (Wikipedia)

  19. Middlemarch

    by George Eliot
    A grand narrative of life in a small English town, exploring the lives of its inhabitants.

    Middlemarch centres on the lives of residents of Middlemarch, a fictitious Midlands town, from 1829 onwards – the years up to the 1832 Reform Act . The narrative is variably considered to consist of ... (Wikipedia)

  20. The Invisible Library

    by Genevieve Cogman
    A librarian embarks on a mission to retrieve a rare book from alternate realities.

    Irene must be at the top of her game or she'll be off the case - permanently... Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, which harvests fiction from different realities. And along with ... (Goodreads)

  21. Assassin's Fate

    by Robin Hobb
    Epic fantasy quest to save the world from a dark force, full of magic and adventure.

    More than twenty years ago, the first epic fantasy novel featuring FitzChivalry Farseer and his mysterious, often maddening friend the Fool struck like a bolt of brilliant lightning. Now New York ... (Goodreads)

  22. The Bluest Eye

    by Toni Morrison
    Coming of age story of a young Black girl dealing with prejudice and racism in 1940s Ohio.

    In Lorain, Ohio , nine-year-old Claudia MacTeer and her 10-year-old sister Frieda live with their parents, a tenant named Mr. Henry, and Pecola Breedlove, a temporary foster child whose house was ... (Wikipedia)

  23. Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle

    by Harold Bloom
    A satire of religion, science, and the arms race, exploring themes of morality and mortality.

    A critical overview of the work features the writings of Terry Southern, William S. Doxey, Jerome Klinkowitz, Richard Giannone, John L. Simons, James Lundquist, and other scholars. - After the bomb, ... (Goodreads)

  24. The Accidental Tourist

    by Anne Tyler
    A travel writer who hates traveling, Macon Leary, navigates life after his son's death and his wife's departure.

    Set in Baltimore, Maryland , the plot revolves around Macon Leary, a writer of travel guides whose son has been killed in a shooting at a fast-food restaurant. He and his wife Sarah, separately lost ... (Wikipedia)

  25. Wolf Hall

    by Hilary Mantel
    A historical fiction about the rise of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII.

    England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry ... (Goodreads)

  26. Golden Fool

    by Robin Hobb
    FitzChivalry Farseer, the bastard son of a prince, becomes embroiled in court intrigue and must navigate dangerous political waters to protect his loved ones.

    Fitz has succeeded in rescuing Prince Dutiful from the clutches of the Piebald rebels. But once again the cost of protecting the Farseer line has been dear: Nighteyes is dead. Fitz, though bitter and ... (Wikipedia)

  27. Fool's Assassin

    by Robin Hobb
    A retired assassin is called back into action, revealing secrets and betrayals of the past.

    FitzChivalry ("Fitz") is a bastard of the royal Farseer family of the Six Duchies, who had previously used his inherited magical skills in the service of his king. After his past heroic sacrifices, ... (Wikipedia)

  28. Red Mars

    by Kim Stanley Robinson
    Colonists brave the harsh landscapes of Mars, striving to make the planet their new home.

    Red Mars starts in 2026 with the first colonial voyage to Mars aboard the Ares , the largest interplanetary spacecraft ever built and home to a crew who are to be the first hundred Martian colonists. ... (Wikipedia)

  29. Consider Phlebas

    by Iain M. Banks
    A thrilling space opera about a galactic war between two powerful civilizations.

    The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction, cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans ... (Goodreads)

  30. Childhood's End

    by Arthur C. Clarke
    Human race is transformed by an alien presence, leading to the dawn of a new age.

    The novel is divided into three parts, following a third-person omniscient narrative with no main character. , In some editions, the short first chapter is a separate prologue rather than the ... (Wikipedia)