Recs if you like Babel...

Standalone fantasy books that won't make you invest your life in a dozen installments

campuses, the occult, a bacchanalia or two. only true dark academia in this list 🍂🚬☕️

Need a gift for your extremist family member, but they already have a red baseball cap AND a Don't Tread on Me shirt? Were you told "Don't bring up politics at family dinner" and need some safe books to discuss instead? Well we have a full menu for you to choose from! Each just for fun book comes with our guarantee: No real world political messages under the 100% fictional plot! 😉 (Taking Recommendations!)

I'm sure some of these are already on your TBR, so might as well add some more! Let me know if I am missing any of your favorites!

I couldnt find a list of these yet, so i made one! You may not be able to collect the badges anymore, but if you’re a completionist like me; here are all the books of the pagebound seasonal readalongs and the special event readalongs!

“Oh yes they would.”

Reading is ALWAYS political!

Feel free to recommend your own in the comments (fiction and nonfiction) and let’s create a list of books about people + systems + power !! Would love any recs to diversify this list too, knowledge is power people !

I'm quite experienced in the man-hating field. These books made me hate men more than I already did.

Book that have an element you’ll miss out on if you read as an audiobook, whether it’s fun formatting or illustrations

dark academia books with queer and trans MCs

Many of these are the beginning of series, but all of them are about academics in fantasy settings. All cross genres are welcome.

books featured in the cozy video game “tiny bookshop”

books featuring or set in magic schools / universities / academies, aka, one of the best subgenres in existence !

this list has books for all ages (am actively looking for more adult options), most of the books are dark academia, and ALL of them are fantastical 🪄 recs welcome <3

(alternatively, books to fall in love with & share with others to help avoid supporting or promoting JKR. i will never shut up ab how the Nevermoor series deserves the popularity that Harry Potter enjoys !)

Books that illustrate some aspect of the immigrant experience - in fantasy, or in the real world; in childhood, or in old age; in history, or in the modern day. (work in progress - recs welcome!)

Bibliophilia at its best - books about books, readers, libraries, bookstores!

We love books with a verbose title, and this list celebrates them! Suggestions welcome 🤗

*SFF novels which use footnotes as a secondary narrative, paratext, or metacommentary on events in the main narrative.

Books that blend the magic of fantasy with real world history (i.e., books set within actual historical time periods and not inspired-by settings). Feedback and recs welcome!

Fiction has always been where truth hides. Across horror, thriller, literary fiction, fantasy & mystery every book on this list has something to say about power, who holds it, who destroys it, and how it reproduces itself.

Fiction and Non-Fiction books that challenge colonial frameworks either through storytelling and/or through information. These books are books that have had an impact on me - but open to suggestions to build this out further!