Books That Let You Time Travel

Dana is a Black woman living in present-day America who’s suddenly pulled into the Antebellum South. And not just once: she’s repeatedly drawn back in time, and each visit to the past gets longer and longer, as her life and her freedom is thrown into a whirlpool that’s out of her control. Will she be able to pull herself out of the past? A thought-provoking breed of science fiction that explores the complicated issue of race in America.

Take a trip to an almost-scarily real dystopian future. Insomnia is taking over humanity as one by one, people lose their ability to fall asleep. Society crumbles as violence takes over, and a few sleep researchers battle to defeat the problem before sleeplessness destroys the world. A thrilling book where all bets are off—and the ending will surprise you.

In 1945, WWII is over and Claire Randall, a combat nurse, is back with her husband on a second honeymoon. She walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles in the British Isles and is drawn back in time to Scotland in the year 1743, a country torn by war. When Claire falls for Jamie Fraser, a young Scots warrior, she must decide between two vastly different men and two separate lives. A sweeping romantic story filled with thrilling action and impossible choices.

This sci-fi classic tells the story of a history student living in 2060, whose efforts to study the Black Plague take a turn for the disastrous when she’s transported to the Middle Ages. The book is expertly layered with vivid characterization, historical details, and a thrilling storyline. If ever there were a re-readable time travel book, it’s this one. Willis’s Oxford Time Travel series continues with WWII-set spinoffs Blackout and All Clear. 

The first great novel to imagine time travel, H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine follows a Victorian scientist who invents a machine that beams him to the year A.D. 802,701, where he encounters a highly evolved society of people called Eloi, who thrive on refinement and harmony. First impressions are misleading, however, and his discovery of the Eloi’s secrets leads him to a terrifying insight into the fate of mankind.