I kept seeing recommendations for this book on Shepherd, but I was reluctant to try it. Many years ago, I tried a progressive fantasy book, and it left a bad taste in my mouth. This was a colossal mistake on my part because Dungeon Crawler Carl is a work of genius.
This book is one of the funniest, most beautiful books I have ever read. The satire is biting, and I love the characters from the bottom of my heart. If you love the TV show “Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” you will love the dark, absurd humor of this book. And this book isn’t all laughter; the characters often moved me to tears as they try to hold on to their humanity in the face of utter inhumanity and insanity.
I read all seven books in two weeks and recommended them to a friend, who also devoured them. This series is truly special and I can't wait for book eight.
(Note: This book is a huge reason I am building this website: I want to help readers discover books like this and increase authors' exposure to potential readers.)
A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible.
In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth—from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds—collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground.
The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe.
The premise of this book is that humans thrive when we regularly do hard, uncomfortable things. And because modern society has become so comfortable, we are losing our resilience and the meaning and health benefits that come from doing hard things.
I completely agree with this concept, and it aligns with my own experiences with long-distance running, solo bike trips, and other adventures. The meaning and joy those experiences brought me have been good for my soul. I can’t imagine being the person I want to be without them.
It isn’t just the physical challenge; it is also the mental and emotional challenges of being hungry, bored, alone, lost, cold, soaked by the rain, frozen by the wind, boiled by the sun, frustrated, or afraid. It is being alone with the voices in your head until the day you realize they are no longer saying anything. I wish I had had this book in high school, as I would have had a map instead of blundering about without one.
I love the author’s personal narrative because he tests these theories on himself while weaving in interviews with experts on science and psychology. This makes it really hard to put down, as you want to hear the results! The book culminates in a nail-biting trip to the Arctic that I will leave spoiler-free.
One of my favorite concepts in the book is called a “misogi.” It is this idea of taking one massive challenge each year where you have a 50/50 chance of failure (don’t die is rule #1). It helped push me to do a 3-week self-supported solo bike trip to the Alps this year.
“If you’ve been looking for something different to level up your health, fitness, and personal growth, this is it.”—Melissa Urban, Whole30 CEO and New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Boundaries
“Michael Easter’s genius is that he puts data around the edges of what we intuitively believe. His work has inspired many to change their lives for the better.”—Dr. Peter Attia, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Outlive
Discover the evolutionary mind and body benefits of living at the edges of your comfort zone and reconnecting with the wild—from the author of Scarcity Brain, coming in September!…
This book series is pure magic. It’s hard to put into words what Ken Follett has accomplished.
I read a LOT of historical fiction, and I’ve never found another series that lets you live through history with characters you love, while also showing the sweeping forces that shape the world.
It makes for intense reading because you will experience the day-to-day reality of fighting for women’s right to vote in England or resisting the Nazi party’s slow takeover of Germany, and you do this through the eyes of characters you have grown to love. You feel what it is like on a daily basis, frustrated with the pace of change, and also just living the regular ups and downs of your life. It feels like the life you are living right now.
At the same time, you can see the big waves coming and want to scream at them to do more, even though they might not be able to do more. And sometimes you watch as the waves break over them without any warning or care. But throughout it all, you understand why these waves are happening with incredible clarity.
When you finish these books, you will have likely cried, laughed, and have a profoundly intimate understanding of the key historical events of the 20th century. It is one of the few books that has helped me better translate the day-to-day beats into the broader, big-picture historical moments you read about (which is a "fun" thing to do in the year 2025).
This is an epic of love, hatred, war and revolution. This is a huge novel that follows five families through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for votes for women. It is 1911. The Coronation Day of King George V. The Williams, a Welsh coal-mining family, is linked by romance and enmity to the Fitzherberts, aristocratic coal-mine owners. Lady Maud Fitzherbert falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German Embassy in London. Their destiny is entangled with that of an ambitious young aide to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson…
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