Here are 100 books that 45 Master Characters fans have personally recommended if you like 45 Master Characters. Book DNA is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Gap and The Gain: The High Achievers' Guide to Happiness, Confidence, and Success

Lisa Apolinski Author Of Weathering the Digital Storm

From my list on accelerate your business in a non-traditional way.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was introduced to small business when I was six years old—my parents purchased a drug store to run (that drug store, after being sold forty years ago, is still in business). When I started my agency, there were few books on how to start, grow, and stay in business that didn’t tout traditional thinking. I think outside the triangle. I never thought I would be an author, and I am writing book #6! I write books today that I wish were available when I started my business journey: unique strategies coupled with actionable steps to grow. I hope these books provide inspiration and ideas!

Lisa's book list on accelerate your business in a non-traditional way

Lisa Apolinski Why Lisa loves this book

I had to add a second book that I refer to often to keep my mind focused on what I have accomplished instead of what I still want to do with my business.

I love this book as it helps me to reframe business growth (and setbacks) in a way to keep my energy and focus going. I also like the summaries in the back that I can refer to when I just want a reminder of technique to get back into the gain.

By Dan Sullivan , Benjamin Hardy ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Gap and The Gain as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Dan Sullivan shares his simple yet profound teaching that, until now, has only been known to his Strategic Coach clients: unsuccessful people focus on 'The Gap', but successful people focus on 'The Gain'.

Most people, especially highly ambitious people, are unhappy because of how they measure their progress. We all have an 'ideal', a moving target that is always out of reach. When we measure ourselves against that ideal, we're in 'the GAP'. However, when we measure ourselves against our previous selves, we're in 'the GAIN'.

That is where The GAP and The GAIN concept comes in. It was developed…


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Book cover of Aggressor

Aggressor by FX Holden,

It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.

The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…

Book cover of How to Close a Deal Like Warren Buffett

Lisa Apolinski Author Of Weathering the Digital Storm

From my list on accelerate your business in a non-traditional way.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was introduced to small business when I was six years old—my parents purchased a drug store to run (that drug store, after being sold forty years ago, is still in business). When I started my agency, there were few books on how to start, grow, and stay in business that didn’t tout traditional thinking. I think outside the triangle. I never thought I would be an author, and I am writing book #6! I write books today that I wish were available when I started my business journey: unique strategies coupled with actionable steps to grow. I hope these books provide inspiration and ideas!

Lisa's book list on accelerate your business in a non-traditional way

Lisa Apolinski Why Lisa loves this book

If you are looking to revolutionize how you close deals and to use techniques from one of the best in the business, this is the book for you.

This book helps you use strategies from Warren Buffet to negotiate like a pro and develop deals your mom would be proud of. I loved the use of storytelling in the book and the examples that are laid out for readers.

By Tom Searcy , Henry DeVries ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked How to Close a Deal Like Warren Buffett as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Silver Winner--Tops Sales World's Best Sales and Marketing Book

Revealed: the winning blueprint for making deals like The Oracle of Omaha

Warren Buffett didn't become the world's third wealthiest individual on his investing instincts alone. Buffett is a master dealmaker. In fact, one of his greatest single successes came when he closed multiple deals to own 100 percent of the Government Employees Insurance Company--also known as GEICO.

Highly successful dealmakers themselves, Tom Searcy and Henry DeVries have been studying Buffett's unique approach for many years. Now, they reveal the secrets of the Oracle of Omaha. How to Close a Deal…


Book cover of 10x Is Easier Than 2x

Lisa Apolinski Author Of Weathering the Digital Storm

From my list on accelerate your business in a non-traditional way.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was introduced to small business when I was six years old—my parents purchased a drug store to run (that drug store, after being sold forty years ago, is still in business). When I started my agency, there were few books on how to start, grow, and stay in business that didn’t tout traditional thinking. I think outside the triangle. I never thought I would be an author, and I am writing book #6! I write books today that I wish were available when I started my business journey: unique strategies coupled with actionable steps to grow. I hope these books provide inspiration and ideas!

Lisa's book list on accelerate your business in a non-traditional way

Lisa Apolinski Why Lisa loves this book

Sometimes we think too small when it comes to growing our business. This is one of two of Dan’s books that I have on this list, and I love Dan as a writer and storyteller.

I loved how he uses psychology to help business owners like me unlock potential growth and get over the fear of “getting too big”. This book also helped me to think about how I am approaching growth (incremental versus exponential) and how that is holding back my business.

By Dan Sullivan , Benjamin Hardy ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked 10x Is Easier Than 2x as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Expanding upon one of his high-level foundational teachings: Strategic Coach co-founder Dan Sullivan explains why achieving 10X growth is easier than going for 2X growth.

Dan Sullivan, the world's leading coach for highly successful entrepreneurs, wants you to know that achieving 10X growth is exponentially easier than striving for 2X growth. Most find this idea confusing at first because simply imagining 10X growth causes them to think they need to do 10X more work to achieve it. However, being a 10X entrepreneur is nothing like what most people think.

10X is not the outcome; it's a counterintuitive process you can…


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Book cover of The Year Mrs. Cooper Got Out More: A Great Wharf Novel

The Year Mrs. Cooper Got Out More by Meredith Marple,

The coastal tourist town of Great Wharf, Maine, boasts a crime rate so low you might suspect someone’s lying.

Nevertheless, jobless empty nester Mallory Cooper has become increasingly reclusive and fearful. Careful to keep the red wine handy and loath to leave the house, Mallory misses her happier self—and so…

Book cover of The Most Amazing Marketing Book Ever

Lisa Apolinski Author Of Weathering the Digital Storm

From my list on accelerate your business in a non-traditional way.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was introduced to small business when I was six years old—my parents purchased a drug store to run (that drug store, after being sold forty years ago, is still in business). When I started my agency, there were few books on how to start, grow, and stay in business that didn’t tout traditional thinking. I think outside the triangle. I never thought I would be an author, and I am writing book #6! I write books today that I wish were available when I started my business journey: unique strategies coupled with actionable steps to grow. I hope these books provide inspiration and ideas!

Lisa's book list on accelerate your business in a non-traditional way

Lisa Apolinski Why Lisa loves this book

As the final book on my list, I refer to this book often, and you will, too. I wrote one of the chapters in the book, and the level of expertise in this book still shocks me!

This book helps me to do all things marketing, and provides specific actions that I can take as a business owner today to up my digital marketing game.

By Brian Piper , Mark W. Schaefer , Fiona Lucas

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Most Amazing Marketing Book Ever as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

35 marketing experts joined best-selling author, entrepreneur, and marketing strategist Mark Schaefer to write this practical guide for small business owners.. You’d love to spend less for better marketing results. . The challenge is knowing what will work.. With market conditions, your customer base, and marketing itself evolving, getting the maximum return on your marketing investment is a moving target.. Yet your business’s growth depends on your ability to adapt.. And with so many voices vying for attention, how do you stand out?. This guide answers the questions small business owners are asking to make smarter, more cost-effective marketing decisions..…


Book cover of Lady Eve's Last Con

Catriona Silvey Author Of Love and Other Paradoxes

From my list on sci-fi romcoms that combine ideas, jokes, and feels.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up on science fiction: I was obsessed with Star Trek as a child, and as I got older, my love for space, aliens, and time travel spilled over into my taste in books. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy showed me that science fiction could be funny, and The Time Traveler’s Wife showed me that it could be romantic. But why not both at once? As a lifelong passionate reader, and now an author of two novels and counting, I love seeking out books that cross, blend, and transcend genres, as well as writing my own.

Catriona's book list on sci-fi romcoms that combine ideas, jokes, and feels

Catriona Silvey Why Catriona loves this book

This book is like nothing I’ve ever read.

Fraimow combines a con-job storyline, a space diaspora setting, a 1920s aesthetic, and an unexpected sapphic romance, and somehow, it all works. I found myself totally immersed in the fragile glitz of New Monte, a kind of Monaco-in-space clinging to a satellite, where debutantes wear breathers as fashion accessories and extravagance masks the threat of scarcity.

And I fell in love with the characters: Ruthi, the cool, competent protagonist with a gift for wisecracks and a tender underside, and Sol, the chivalrous, sharp-suited, hoverbike-riding love interest, who develops from an intriguing antagonist into a fully-rounded human being who is Ruthi’s perfect match.

By Rebecca Fraimow ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Lady Eve's Last Con as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST ROMANCE NOVELS OF 2024 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES

Ruth Johnson and her sister Jules have been small-time hustlers on the interstellar cruise lines for years. But then Jules fell in love with one of their targets, Esteban Mendez-Yuki, sole heir to the family insurance fortune. Esteban seemed to love her too, until she told him who she really was, at which point he fled without a word.

Now Ruth is set on revenge: disguised as provincial debutante Evelyn Ojukwu and set for the swanky satellite New Monte, she's going to make Esteban fall in…


Book cover of Juggling Truths

Gothataone Moeng Author Of Call and Response: Stories

From my list on glance into Botswana’s past and present.

Why am I passionate about this?

Botswana is not one of the sexy African countries; I sometimes joke in response to people who tell me, a writer from Botswana, that they have never before heard of any writers or literature from Botswana. By that, I mean that my small, landlocked country hardly ever makes international news and is often overshadowed by bigger, more populous countries on the continent. However, there has been a plethora of writing from Botswana published mostly within the African continent but also increasingly in the West. I think this list of books is a great introduction to anyone who is curious to know the country and its people.

Gothataone's book list on glance into Botswana’s past and present

Gothataone Moeng Why Gothataone loves this book

I love this humorous coming-of-age story narrated by a naïve yet academically smart girl who is juggling the various conflicting truths of her life—what she is taught in school, what she learns at home, what she learns from her friends and her siblings, what she is told about how life is and what she observes for herself. How is a person to reconcile all these truths?

By becoming the Queen of England, which is what Monei, the narrator, says she wants to become when she grows up since the Queen is the only woman, as far as Monei can tell, who can make decisions. This is one of the funniest books I have ever read. Dow brilliantly captures the perplexed voice of a growing girl and the idiom of Botswana life around Independence.

By Unity Dow ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Juggling Truths as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Unity Dow's third novel, Juggling Truths portrays the childhood of Monei Ntuka in the Botswanan village of Mochudi in Africa. Go to the past with me, so you can take the past to the future, asks her Nkoko. Nei takes us on an extraordinary journey through the many truths that shape her life; the truths of the colonisers and their churches and of her own people. We travel with her through dreams and share the wisdom of her grandmother as she lets the never-ending stories weave their own reality in face of a universe of conflicting truths. Unity Dow recreates…


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Book cover of That First Heady Burn

That First Heady Burn by George Bixley,

Don’t mess with the hothead—or he might just mess with you. Slater Ibáñez is only interested in two kinds of guys: the ones he wants to punch, and the ones he sleeps with. Things get interesting when they start to overlap. A freelance investigator, Slater trolls the dark side of…

Book cover of Sleeping Murder

KJ Sweeney Author Of The Body at Back Beach

From my list on adventures of female amateur sleuths.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve loved murder mysteries since I first discovered the genre. As a child, I loved watching Morse, Miss Marple, and other detectives as they got to the bottom of whodunit. I was hooked. It wasn’t long before I started to read books starring these detectives. I really love the way that female amateur detectives often have far more ideas of what’s going on and why things have happened than the men who populate the books. What woman can’t resist reading about another woman who just gets to the bottom of it all? I know I can’t, but these books are some of the very best in the genre.

KJ's book list on adventures of female amateur sleuths

KJ Sweeney Why KJ loves this book

My all-time favorite amateur detective is Miss Marple, and if I had to pick a favorite book she is in, it would be this one. I love the idea of a quiet, mostly ignored spinster who most people dismiss being the one character who seems to know exactly what is going on and what people are up to.

I really like the way Miss Marple figures out why the main character thinks she is going mad and proves that she isn’t. In this book, Miss Marple really proves her status as one of the best amateur detectives, and I love it.

By Agatha Christie ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Sleeping Murder as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A strange house A ghost from the past

As soon as she moves into Hillside, Gwenda knows there's something strange about this house.

A sealed room. A hidden door. The apparition of a young woman being strangled.

But strangest of all - this all seems quite familiar.

As her friend Jane Marple investigates, the answer seems to lie in a crime committed nearly twenty years ago.

The killer may have gotten away with murder. But Miss Marple is never far behind.

Never underestimate Miss Marple

'Reading a perfectly plotted Agatha Christie is like crunching into a perfect apple: that pure,…


Book cover of The Murmur of Bees

Tessa Bridal Author Of The Tree of Red Stars

From my list on complex historical and modern Latin America.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am passionate about historical facts, and fiction. My narrative has a universeal appeal making my work relevant to readers of diverse backgrounds. My books entertain and at the same time educate the reader, giving him/her a greater appreciation of the complex world of Latin America and the resilience of its people. I love reading diverse approaches to history and exploring ideas of how our personal interpretations of history shape our opinions.

Tessa's book list on complex historical and modern Latin America

Tessa Bridal Why Tessa loves this book

I really enjoyed this novel by Sofía Segovia. She takes us to a mystical world. Exceptionally well described, the main character, Simonopio, sees things nobody else can see, visions of what is to come. Disfigured and covered in a blanket of bees, Simonopio is welcomed by Francisco and Beatriz Morales, who adopt and care for him as if they were their own. His swarm of bees always helps Simonopio, and his mission is to protect his adoptive family from threats, both human and those of nature. For me, this is a fascinating book that shows the beauty of this little boy.


By Sofia Segovia , Simon Bruni (translator) ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Murmur of Bees as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From a beguiling voice in Mexican fiction comes an astonishing novel-her first to be translated into English-about a mysterious child with the power to change a family's history in a country on the verge of revolution.

From the day that old Nana Reja found a baby abandoned under a bridge, the life of a small Mexican town forever changed. Disfigured and covered in a blanket of bees, little Simonopio is for some locals the stuff of superstition, a child kissed by the devil. But he is welcomed by landowners Francisco and Beatriz Morales, who adopt him and care for him…


Book cover of The Mirror of Simple Souls

Laura Swan Author Of The Wisdom of the Beguines

From my list on reveal the hidden history of women.

Why am I passionate about this?

It’s not my fault! My foremothers were strong, capable, compassionate women. Angry with the silence around women in history, I have been passionate about restoring the voices and contributions of women to history and culture. I have written several books on neglected aspects of women's history that have been translated into 12 languages. While a voracious reader of history, I enjoy historical fiction (when it’s done well). I will never recommend a novel that does not respect this. And I love author’s notes and/or historical notes where the author explains what is real and what is imagined; and resources to learn more about the subject of the novel. 

Laura's book list on reveal the hidden history of women

Laura Swan Why Laura loves this book

Set in a beguinage in 1310 Paris, which is churning with palace intrigue and the pyres of the Inquisition. I felt drawn into the lives of these beguines as they strive to hold their place in society with strong political forces set against their independent lifestyle.

I felt the smells, sights, and sounds of medieval Paris. An innocent Maheut arrives, unintentionally stirring up life among the beguines as they and the girl try to outwit the Inquisitors. Maheut is hunted, but the beguines are not sure by whom, and she won’t talk. A great resolution.

By Aline Kiner , Susan Emanuel (translator) ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Mirror of Simple Souls as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'A rich, surprising and devastating story of a female institution long-forgotten' Marj Charlier, author of The Rebel Nun

A heretical text, a vengeful husband, a forbidden love...

It's 1310 and Paris is alive with talk of the trial of the Templars. Religious repression is on the rise, and the smoke of execution pyres blackens the sky above the city. But sheltered behind the walls of Paris's great beguinage, a community of women are still free to work, study and live their lives away from the domination of men.

When a wild, red-haired child clothed in rags arrives at the beguinage…


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Book cover of My Book Boyfriend

My Book Boyfriend by Kathy Strobos,

Lily loves her community garden. Rupert wants to bulldoze it. When feelings grow, will they blossom or turn to rubble?

"It literally had everything! - Bookworm Characters - Humor - Banter - Swoon-worthy lines."  - Book Reviewer.

Book cover of The Troubled Deep

Jo Jakeman Author Of The Vanishing Act

From my list on books with the allure of a cold case.

Why am I passionate about this?

It’s hard to pinpoint where my interest in cold cases began, but I remember reading about the Isdal Woman and being intrigued. She was found in Norway in 1970, badly burned, with the labels cut off her clothes. Police discovered fake identities and disguises in suitcases left at the railway station, but, to this day, have no idea who she was. I’m a member of several Facebook groups where people investigate cold cases, and I’m always amazed at how these clues can be put together so many years later. Or, in some cases, how some people go unnamed, or crimes unsolved despite all the resources at our fingertips.

Jo's book list on books with the allure of a cold case

Jo Jakeman Why Jo loves this book

This is a brilliantly plotted book with a fascinating protagonist.

It’s fair to say that Cam Killick has issues stemming from his time in the Marines. He starts looking into a decades-old case of a family who went missing on the way back from a party. It was widely accepted that their car had probably crashed into the marshes and had lain there for thirty years. But when Cam finds the car, the remains of the family are nowhere to be found.

By Rob Parker ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Troubled Deep as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Compelling and so atmospheric ... the perfect new crime series to dive into' HEAT
'Rob Parker is a master of the stone-cold twist' JANICE HALLETT
'Brilliant pacing ... a great addition to your to-be-read stacks' PRIMA
'The very definition of a one-sitting read' ROBERT RUTHERFORD

Cam Killick left the special forces with a handful of medals, stories he can't share and PTSD so bad he can only find peace under water. Working as a salvage diver in the Norfolk Broads keeps him sane, and the county's many tales of the lost keep him busy.

And one particular local unsolved mystery…


Book cover of The Gap and The Gain: The High Achievers' Guide to Happiness, Confidence, and Success
Book cover of How to Close a Deal Like Warren Buffett
Book cover of 10x Is Easier Than 2x

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Interested in archetypes, London, and police?

Archetypes 37 books
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