Here are 100 books that Death at the Sign of the Rook fans have personally recommended if you like
Death at the Sign of the Rook.
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I am a practicing Buddhist and was transported by Mingyur's escape journey from his sheltered and sequestered life in a monastery to his 5-year wanderings as a simple monk. His bravery in the face of panic attacks and his intimate, loving, telling of nearly dying encouraged me to be less afraid of death. Subsequently, I have become a student of Mingyur through his Tergar Institute and consider him to be a root, master teacher. We are so fortunate to be alive with him now, teaching at this time.
A rare, intimate account of a world-renowned Buddhist monk’s near-death experience and the life-changing wisdom he gained from it
“One of the most inspiring books I have ever read.”—Pema Chödrön, author of When Things Fall Apart
“This book has the potential to change the reader’s life forever.”—George Saunders, author of Lincoln in the Bardo
At thirty-six years old, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche was a rising star within his generation of Tibetan masters and the respected abbot of three monasteries. Then one night, telling no one, he slipped out of his monastery in India with the intention of spending the next four…
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…
Niall Williams's book is balm for an ailing soul and a gift to readers. The title might suggest a saccharine, feel-good novel, but it is not. Christie, the book's big-hearted catalyzing character utters the title phrase precisely when he is thwarted in love, indicating that happiness is not a state but a state of mind. When tragedy arrives at the end, Christie, with difficulty, is still able to find the fullness of life.
But the narrator, 16-year-old No, is otherwise the main character of the book. From the perspective of sixty years hence, Noel recounts the life-changing events of 1960, when the rains suddenly stopped, spring felt like summer, and both Christie and electrification came to the western Irish village of Faha. The story is told recursively, in what I read as the great Irish oral storytelling tradition. Don't be put off by the slow start. The plot takes hold…
Shortlisted for Best Novel in the Irish Book Awards
Longlisted for the 2020 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction
From the acclaimed author of Man Booker-longlisted History of the Rain
'Lyrical, tender and sumptuously perceptive' Sunday Times
'A love letter to the sleepy, unhurried and delightfully odd Ireland that is all but gone' Irish Independent
After dropping out of the seminary, seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe finds himself back in Faha, a small Irish parish where nothing ever changes, including the ever-falling rain.
But one morning the rain stops and news reaches the parish - the electricity is finally arriving. With it…
Tana French is a word artist. She conjures up a world that is both beautiful and heartbreaking. And her plot is so believable, so flawless, that I can only be glad that it’s the first in a series. In her hands, a murder mystery becomes a work of art.
It was so good that I recommended it to my book club—everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.
'Terrific - terrifying, amazing' STEPHEN KING 'Completely, indescribably magnificent' MARIAN KEYES -----
A DISAPPEARANCE. A SMALL TOWN. A QUESTION THAT NEEDS ANSWERING...
Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a remote Irish village would be the perfect escape. After twenty-five years in the Chicago police force, and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens.
But then a local kid comes looking for his help. His brother has gone missing, and no one, least of all the police, seems to care. Cal wants nothing to do…
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…
This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is about the deeply traumatic years of the US Civil War and its conflicts and shortages of resources. Its focus is on a family that is falling apart and that eventually finds sanctuary in a lunatic asylum (a building that is now listed). I loved this book, although some of the time changes and changes of voice were a bit confusing in the audiobook version. I would suggest reading this in paper or ebook format.
From one of our most accomplished novelists, a mesmerizing story about a mother and daughter seeking refuge in the chaotic aftermath of the Civil War
In 1874, in the wake of the War, erasure, trauma, and namelessness haunt civilians and veterans, renegades and wanderers, freedmen and runaways. Twelve-year-old ConaLee, the adult in her family for as long as she can remember, finds herself on a buckboard journey with her mother, Eliza, who hasn’t spoken in more than a year. They arrive at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia, delivered to the hospital’s entrance by a war veteran who has…
I didn't have time to draw a breath before this book took me on a maddening ride through the world of a black sheriff in a rural Virginia county. His writing and story-telling gallops across the page with a message that elevates and enriches.
*** THE TIMES - THRILLER OF THE MONTH*** *** MAIL ON SUNDAY - BEST NEW FICTION*** *** FINANCIAL TIMES - BEST NEW CRIME BOOKS***
'A crackling good police procedural....fresh and exhilarating' STEPHEN KING
'S. A. Cosby's novels always hit the grand slam of crime fiction; unstoppable momentum, gripping intrigue and deep character with a hard and telling look at culture and society' MICHAEL CONNELLY
'Titus Crown is one of the most compelling characters I've read in a long time.' STEVE CAVANAGH
A BLACK SHERIFF. A SERIAL KILLER. AND A SMALL TOWN READY TO COMBUST.
"Terrific, life-lit moments come howling out of Hunt for the Shadow Wolf."―The Telegraph
"One of the most remarkable figures in British conservation."―The Observer
"There have been several books on the fate of British wolves, but this is the best."―The Spectator
"[Derek Gow is] a wry, profane truth teller who is equal parts yeoman farmer, historical ecologist, and pirate."―Ben Goldfarb, author of Eager and Crossings
Renowned rewilder Derek Gow has a dream: that one day we will see the return of the wolf to Britain as it has already returned elsewhere. As Derek worked to reintroduce the beaver, he began to…
A fake date, romance, and a conniving co-worker you'd love to shut down. Fun summer reading!
Liza loves helping people and creating designer shoes that feel as good as they look. Financially overextended and recovering from a divorce, her last-ditch opportunity to pitch her firm for investment falls flat. Then…
This is a fantastically researched and clearly-written biography of the singer Nick Drake. It's rather long - over 500 pages - but never loses pace as the author, Richard Morton Jack, takes you through the intricacies of Drake's troubled life. Drake has a certain air of mystery about him that's lasted through the years since his tragic death in 1974, and this book sheds light on many aspects of his life that help to solve some of those puzzles. Written with a warmth and an eye for detail, this is as good as music biographies get.
'This is the book we've been waiting for . . . It is a biography to be treasured' Joe Boyd
'The Drake completist could ask for nothing else' Daily Telegraph
'Illuminating. The definitive word on Drake' Observer
In 1968 Nick Drake had everything to live for. The product of a loving, creative family and a privileged background, he was not only a handsome and popular Cambridge undergraduate, but also a new signing to the UK's hippest record label, Island.
Three years later, however - having made three well-reviewed but low-selling albums - Nick had been overwhelmed by a mysterious mental…
Another of my favourite authors - David Nicholls. I am always happy when I see he has a new book coming out, and pre-ordered You are Here so that I would be able to read it as soon as possible. It is a great book - down-to-earth and sad and frustrating as lots of David Nicholls' books can be. He writes a very good slightly hopeless but ultimately loveable male character, I think - and often puts them through situations where they stupidly are not open and honest but if they had been they'd have made things so much easier for themselves.
I also loved the setting of the book, walking the Pennine Way. I think the book would appeal to people who know this area and who love walking, as much as to people who love character-driven fiction.
Sometimes you need to get lost to find your way . . .
Michael is coming undone. Adrift after his wife's departure, he has begun taking himself on long, solitary walks across the English countryside. Becoming ever more reclusive, he’ll do anything to avoid his empty house.
Marnie, on the other hand, is stuck. Hiding alone in her London flat, she avoids old friends and any reminders of her rotten, selfish ex-husband. Curled up with a good book, she’s battling the long afternoons of a life that feels like it’s passing her by.
While this is a stand alone contemporary spy novel, it plays with the past catching up and haunting us, and it provides us with visions and glimpses of characters we now know to be other people in other times.
“Rowdy” Randy Cox, a woman staring down the barrel of retirement, is a curmudgeonly blue-collar butch lesbian who has been single for twenty years and is trying to date again.
At the end of a long, exhausting shift, Randy finds her supervisor, Bryant, pinned and near death at the warehouse…
Nell McDaragh never knew her grandfather, the celebrated Irish poet Phil McDaragh. But his love poems seem to speak directly to her. Restless and wryly self-assured, at twenty-two Nell leaves her mother Carmel's orderly home to find her own voice as a writer (mostly online, ghost-blogging for an influencer) and to live a poetical life. As she chases obsessive love, damage, and transcendence, in Dublin and beyond, her grandfather's poetry seems to guide her home.
Nell's mother, Carmel McDaragh, knows the magic of her Daddo's poetry too well-the kind of magic that makes women in their nighties slip outside for…
