Here are 6 books that By the Fire We Carry fans have personally recommended if you like By the Fire We Carry. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of For Whom the Bell Tolls

Theresa Brown Author Of The Shift

From Theresa's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Theresa's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Theresa Brown Why Theresa loves this book

I was living in Spain when I re-read this novel and wanted to learn more about the Spanish civil war. The book tells a great story with memorable characters, plus it's so very human.

By Ernest Hemingway ,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked For Whom the Bell Tolls as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Inspired by his experiences as a reporter during the Spanish Civil War, Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls tells the story of Robert Jordan, an American volunteer in the International Brigades fighting to defend the Spanish Republic against Franco. After being ordered to work with guerrilla fighters to destroy a bridge, Jordan finds himself falling in love with a young Spanish woman and clashing with the guerrilla leader over the risks of their mission.

One of the great novels of the twentieth century, For Whom the Bell Tolls was first published in 1940. It powerfully explores the brutality of…


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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 Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains

Susan A. Brewer Author Of The Best Land: Four Hundred Years of Love and Betrayal on Oneida Territory

From Susan's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Susan's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Susan A. Brewer Why Susan loves this book

I was impressed with the way the author grappled with her own nostalgia regarding her home town while also showing how the mill at its economic and social center was killing the people who lived there.

By Kerri Arsenault ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Mill Town as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In Mill Town "[Kerri] Arsenault pays loving homage to her family's tight-knit Maine town even as she examines the cancers that have stricken so many residents."-The New York Times Book Review

"Mill Town is a powerful, blistering, devastating book. Kerri Arsenault is both a graceful writer and a grieving daughter in search of answers and ultimately, justice. In telling the story of the town where generations of her family have lived and died, she raises important and timely questions." -Dani Shapiro, author of Inheritance

Kerri Arsenault grew up in the rural working class town of Mexico, Maine. For over 100…


Book cover of Yellowface

Fran Laniado Author Of Beautiful: A Tale of Beauties and Beasts

From Fran's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Reader Educator Theatre geek Yoga junkie

Fran's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Fran Laniado Why Fran loves this book

I loved RF Kuang's Babel last year, and I loved this complete change of pace this year! Kuang addresses issues of cultural appropriation, race, representation, authorship, and scandal. She also manages to make the book compelling in spite of it's rather loathsome main character and subvert some fictional tropes that readers might expect.

By R. F. Kuang ,

Why should I read it?

37 authors picked Yellowface as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The No. 1 Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller from literary sensation R.F. Kuang

*A Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick*

'Propulsive' SUNDAY TIMES

'Razor-sharp' TIME

'A wild ride' STYLIST

'Darkly comic' GQ

'A riot' PANDORA SYKES

'Hard to put down, harder to forget' STEPHEN KING

Athena Liu is a literary darling and June Hayward is literally nobody.

White lies
When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song.

Dark humour
But as evidence threatens June's stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she…


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Book cover of Trusting Her Duke

Trusting Her Duke by Arietta Richmond,

A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.

Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…

Book cover of The House Is on Fire

Leslie K. Simmons Author Of Red Clay, Running Waters

From Leslie's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author History enthusiast Anthropology enthusiast Reader Gardener Art enthusiast

Leslie's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Leslie K. Simmons Why Leslie loves this book

One of the best reads of the year, and goes in the class of a near perfect, with an ensemble cast of strong, complex and interesting characters (real people).

Wizzed through this is 3 days spare time reading for two reasons: Could not put it down, and the structure and tight language keep the pace as breathless as the events.

One might hunger for a sequel???

By Rachel Beanland ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The House Is on Fire as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A "wildly entertaining" (NPR), "gripping" (The Washington Post) work of historical fiction about an incendiary tragedy that shocked a young nation and tore apart a community in a single night, from the author of Florence Adler Swims Forever.

Richmond, Virginia 1811. It's the height of the winter social season, the General Assembly is in session, and many of Virginia's gentleman planters, along with their wives and children, have made the long and arduous journey to the capital in hopes of whiling away the darkest days of the year. At the city's only theater, the Charleston-based Placide & Green Company puts…


Book cover of Where You Come from

Susan A. Brewer Author Of The Best Land: Four Hundred Years of Love and Betrayal on Oneida Territory

From Susan's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Susan's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Susan A. Brewer Why Susan loves this book

The novel about refugees of ethnic cleansing considers how where you come from shapes your life. It combines darkness with humor with real and imagined memories.

By Saša Stanišić , Damion Searls (translator) ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Where You Come from as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award

A Washington Post, Chicago Review of Books, Kirkus, and Christian Science Monitor Best Book of the Month

“Inventive, funny and moving.” ―The New York Times Book Review

Translated from the German by Damion Searls

Winner of the German Book Prize, Saša Stanišic’s inventive and surprising novel asks: what makes us who we are?

In August, 1992, a boy and his mother flee the war in Yugoslavia and arrive in Germany. Six months later, the boy’s father joins them, bringing a brown suitcase, insomnia, and a scar on his thigh. Saša Stanišic’s Where You…


Book cover of The Looking Glass War

Theresa Brown Author Of The Shift

From Theresa's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Theresa's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Theresa Brown Why Theresa loves this book

Le Carre said that when this book came out people hated it. I'm a big fan of his and I wanted to read this book that he felt very attached to, but critics and the public loathed. It does not disappoint--cynical, human, and oh-so-smart about all the ways that bureaucrats and government officials can lie to themselves. But George Smiley (the beloved recurring spymaster) is there to offer redemption.

By John le Carré ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Looking Glass War as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Legacy of Spies. 

"You are either good or bad, and both are dangerous."

It would have been an easy job for the Circus: a can of film couriered from Helsinki to London. In the past the Circus handled all things political, while the Department dealt with matters military. But the Department has been moribund since the War, its resources siphoned away. Now, one of their agents is dead, and vital evidence verifying the presence of Soviet missiles near the West German border is gone. John Avery is the Department's younger member…


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Book cover of The Duke's Christmas Redemption

The Duke's Christmas Redemption by Arietta Richmond,

A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.

Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…

Book cover of For Whom the Bell Tolls
Book cover of Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains
Book cover of Yellowface

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