Books exploring paths not taken
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Anonymous
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Hello,
I’m currently listening to “The Midnight Library” and really like it. I previously read and loved “The Husbands”. Other books I’ve enjoyed recently include “Cassandra in Reverse” and “In Somebody Else’s Shoes”. This made me think about how much I enjoy books about paths not taken / alternate realities. I especially like relationships between characters and seeing how they evolve or don’t on these different journeys. I’d love suggestions for other books like this! Thank you |
Anonymous
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The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult
Oona Out of Order isn’t quite the same, but might appeal. |
Anonymous
| The Names by Florence Knapp is like this, but I didn't really enjoy it TBH. |
Anonymous
| Oh-and if you want a show along these lines, try Being Erica. |
Anonymous
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Check out All This and More by Peng Shepherd. It's a choose your own adventure for adults!
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Anonymous
| Bridges of Madison County |
Anonymous
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If you'd be willing to read Harry Potter fanfiction, alternate universes is a whole subgenre.
Here is a good starter: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/9993319/1/The-Young-Adventurer-s-Club |
Anonymous
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I also enjoyed Midnight Library. On a similar journey, I really liked…
The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett (three different yet always intersecting paths based upon one small deviation in an original timeline). Also Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. Especially loved this! The MC has a bit of a groundhogs day experience, getting reborn and experiencing different paths through the first half of the 1900s in the UK. This book made me a big Kate Atkinson fan. |
Anonymous
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I’m not familiar with the books mentioned above but you might enjoy:
The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young “The Unmaking of June Farrow is a 2023 novel by Adrienne Young that blends magical realism, mystery, and romance, following June Farrow as she discovers a mysterious red door that transports her to 1951” |
Anonymous
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I recommend "My Real Children" by Jo Walton. It explores two timelines for the main character--in one, personal/home life is ideal and the events of the world are bad/troubling. The other timeline is flipped--a very difficult home life but the events/general direction of the world is more positive.
It's kind of a trippy book, but very very readable. It's also very memorable--I read it 8(?) years ago and I still think about it all the time. |
Anonymous
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Atonement
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Anonymous
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You might like this brief essay:
https://therumpus.net/2011/04/21/dear-sugar-the-rumpus-advice-column-71-the-ghost-ship-that-didnt-carry-us/ |
Anonymous
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Rodham: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld. Imagine if Hillary and Bill had never married
Three More Months by Sarah Echevarre. Chloe is transported three months back in time to right her priorities Half Life by Jillian Cantor- imagining if Marie Curie had chosen a different path. 11/22/63 by Stephen King. What if JFK wasn’t assassinated on 11/22/63? |
Anonymous
Rodham was a very interesting book but more softcore than I expected. I really felt embarrassed for liking it because I would not have wanted a book like that written about me/my alternate universe self. The author really shouldn't have, but she did. |
Anonymous
| This Time Tomorrow, Emma Straub. This is a "time travel" book, but back to the protagonist's own life: Alice, almost 40, finds a way back and forth to her earlier self at 16 years, and has a chance to reassess her decisions. But the center of the story is her dying, much loved father, who she gets to experience again in his earlier stages of life. Thought it was a really great book - though the focus may be a little different than your request. |