Books like Apocalypse — picked by fans

I love this book, which I have read several times, because it provides a lot of detail about Britain and America in the seventeenth century and the political troubles at the time.

Robert Harris’s writing style is brilliant as always, and as with all of his books, it was difficult to put down. The descriptions of the main character’s travels, especially in America, in an effort to hunt down his quarries are excellent. 

Incredibly, the author manages to create sympathy in the minds of readers for the regicides who are being hunted, even though they signed King Charles I's death warrant, and yet one also sympathises with the hunter.

Although a trusted friend recommended this recent book, I picked it up with some trepidation. A memoir about piano lessons did not exactly sound thrilling. But Denk is one of America’s greatest living classical pianists, also blessed with a talent for witty and poignant prose, and his book is totally engrossing. I love books that weave together discussion of music and musicians in ways that illuminate the creative process as something very human—flawed and messy and communal, marked by moments of dramatic failure and searing inspiration. I’ve tried to write such books myself, but as a mere historian, and I've yet to come even close to the success Denk achieves here.