Here are 33 books that Flashlight fans have personally recommended if you like Flashlight. 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 A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting

Julie Brooks Author Of A Haunting at Venus Bay

From Julie's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author History nerd Storyteller Traveler Coastal dweller Passionate Aussie

Julie's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Julie Brooks Why Julie loves this book

What a romp! A light and whimsical take on a Regency romance for those readers wishing that Jane Austen still walked among us (and was penning many more books). A witty comedy of manners with a dash of Regency fashion — the title says it all.

By Sophie Irwin ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

“Bridgerton fans will swoon over this entertaining romp through Britain’s Regency-era high society.”
—People

"A Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting is a sharp, modern, and absolutely delicious take on the marriage plot. Sophie Irwin's debut is one of the most fun, romantic books I've read in a long time. I cannot wait to see what she does next."
--Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Malibu Rising

A whip-smart debut that follows the adventures of an entirely unconventional heroine who throws herself into the London Season to find a wealthy husband.  But the last thing she expects is…


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Book cover of The High House

The High House by James Stoddard,

The Victorian mansion, Evenmere, is the mechanism that runs the universe.

The lamps must be lit, or the stars die. The clocks must be wound, or Time ceases. The Balance between Order and Chaos must be preserved, or Existence crumbles.

Appointed the Steward of Evenmere, Carter Anderson must learn the…

Book cover of Caledonian Road

Julie Brooks Author Of The Heirloom

From Julie's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author History nerd Storyteller Traveler Coastal dweller Passionate Aussie

Julie's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Julie Brooks Why Julie loves this book

It's hilarious! The female characters have some of the funniest lines. It's also very erudite. There are so many well voiced point-of-view characters that I don't know how the author managed to keep them in line. It's very clever satire, an even handed excoriation of British society. The plot doesn't really surprise, in that I realised pretty quickly that most of the characters would meet a bad end but the journey in getting them there held plenty of surprises and was hugely entertaining. Most of the characters are unsympathetic but in a weird, twisted way you do feel a bit sorry for them.

By Andrew O'Hagan ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

'Utterly awe-inspiring.' Douglas Stuart
'Extraordinary.' Marina Hyde
'An utter joy to read.' Monica Ali
'Majestic.' Independent
'A masterpiece.' John Lanchester
'Addictively enjoyable.' Guardian
'Pitch-perfect.' Observer

** Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction **
** A Sunday Times Bestseller **

From the author of Mayflies, an irresistible, unputdownable, state-of-the-nation novel - the story of one man's epic fall from grace.

Campbell Flynn - art historian and celebrity pundit - is entering the empire of middle age. Fuelled by an appetite for controversy and novelty, he doesn't take people half as seriously as they take themselves. Which will prove the…


Book cover of Heartwood

francine corry

From francine's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Unknown Author Why francine loves this book

I love a book about a journey and read many of them. I loved that this was both a journey and a mystery and a tale of survival.

By Amity Gaige ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

“The best thriller of 2025.” —The Boston Globe * “Genius.” —The Washington Post

“A literary thriller of the highest order” (Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Couple), Heartwood takes you on a gripping journey as a search and rescue team race against time after an experienced hiker mysteriously disappears on the Appalachian Trail in Maine.

In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to…


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Book cover of The Guardian of the Palace

The Guardian of the Palace by Steven J. Morris,

The Guardian of the Palace is the first novel in a modern fantasy series set in a New York City where magic is real—but hidden, suppressed, and dangerous when exposed.

When an ancient magic begins to leak into the world, a small group of unlikely allies is forced to act…

Book cover of How to Hold Someone in Your Heart

Julie Brooks Author Of A Haunting at Venus Bay

From Julie's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author History nerd Storyteller Traveler Coastal dweller Passionate Aussie

Julie's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Julie Brooks Why Julie loves this book

At first I thought this novel was going to be a nice piece of whimsy, an interesting conceit with a handful of quirky characters. But its slight length belies its deep understanding of love and loss. It's a meditation on grief that is full of life and love.

By Mizuki Tsujimura , Yuki Tejima (translator) ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked How to Hold Someone in Your Heart as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Book cover of Beneath the Moon and Long Dead Stars

Anthony Schneider Author Of Repercussions

From Anthony's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Anthony's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Anthony Schneider Why Anthony loves this book

A wonderful collection of short shorts (twenty-three stories in one slim, shimmering volume). Wallace packs each story with humor and pathos, love, longing and human yearning. There's a lot of wisdom in these shorts, a cast of memorable characters and loads of beautiful writing. An innovative and memorable collection from a master of the form.

By Daniel Wallace ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Beneath the Moon and Long Dead Stars as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In the dazzling flash fictions of Beneath the Moon and Long Dead Stars, lives are altered in what appear to be minor moments: an unlatched lock, an old photo, a light left on too long. But in the care of acclaimed novelist Daniel Wallace, those details constellate into something mysterious and magical. The drifter who is mistaken for a movie star, an old woman who sits on the roof of her house to smoke her secret cigarette, a man building a coffin for his wife— the men and women in these stories, hungry for connection, often find that everything hangs…


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Book cover of Oaky With a Hint of Murder

Oaky With a Hint of Murder by Dawn Brotherton,

Aury and Scott travel to the Finger Lakes in New York’s wine country to get to the bottom of the mysterious happenings at the Songscape Winery. Disturbed furniture and curious noises are one thing, but when a customer winds up dead, it’s time to dig into the details and see…

Book cover of Native Speaker

Don Lee Author Of The Partition

From my list on by now-established Korean American authors.

Why am I passionate about this?

A Korean American author myself, I published my first book in 2001, and in the ensuing years I’ve been heartened by the number of Korean Americans who have made a splash with their debut novels, as these five writers did. All five have ventured outside of what I’ve called the ethnic literature box, going far beyond the traditional stories expected from Asian Americans. They established a trend that is happily growing. 

Don's book list on by now-established Korean American authors

Don Lee Why Don loves this book

I feel Chang-Rae Lee broke out of the mold of Asian American books that always dealt with immigration or stories set in Old Asia. A young man, Henry Park, is hired to infiltrate the campaign of a Korean American running for mayor in New York City. Yes, this delves into the issues of assimilation and alienation, but the novel is about so much more. It’s lyrical and poignant and universal in its explorations of familial and marital love. 

By Chang-Rae Lee ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The debut novel from critically-acclaimed and New York Times–bestselling author of On Such a Full Sea and My Year Abroad.

In Native Speaker, author Chang-rae Lee introduces readers to Henry Park. Park has spent his entire life trying to become a true American—a native speaker. But even as the essence of his adopted country continues to elude him, his Korean heritage seems to drift further and further away.

Park's harsh Korean upbringing has taught him to hide his emotions, to remember everything he learns, and most of all to feel an overwhelming sense of alienation. In other words, it has…


Book cover of The Foreign Student

Don Lee Author Of The Partition

From my list on by now-established Korean American authors.

Why am I passionate about this?

A Korean American author myself, I published my first book in 2001, and in the ensuing years I’ve been heartened by the number of Korean Americans who have made a splash with their debut novels, as these five writers did. All five have ventured outside of what I’ve called the ethnic literature box, going far beyond the traditional stories expected from Asian Americans. They established a trend that is happily growing. 

Don's book list on by now-established Korean American authors

Don Lee Why Don loves this book

In 1950s Sewanee, Chang and Katherine slowly fall in love and find that the Souths of Korea and Tennessee are not that different after all, both subject to lingering issues of class, family, race, and civil war. I love the poetic language in this novel, as well as its ambitious story and the complexity invested in every relation.

By Susan Choi ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

"This wonderful hybrid of a novel--a love story, a war story, a novel of manners--introduces a writer of enchanting gifts, a beautiful heart wedded to a beautiful imagination. How else does Susan Choi so fully inhabit characters from disparate backgrounds, with such brilliant wit and insight? The Foreign Student stirs up great and lovely emotions."  — Francisco Goldman, author of The Ordinary Seaman

The Foreign Student is the story of a young Korean man, scarred by war, and the deeply troubled daughter of a wealthy Southern American family. In 1955, a new student arrives at a small college in the…


Book cover of Edinburgh

Alina Grabowski Author Of Women and Children First

From my list on exploring how place shapes community.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a writer who grew up in Massachusetts and now lives in Austin, Texas. Though I haven’t lived in Massachusetts for over a decade now, I find myself drawn back to the state’s coast in my fiction. My novel, Women and Children First, takes place in a fictional town south of Boston called Nashquitten. I’m obsessed with how where we’re from shapes who we become and the ways we use narrative to try and exert control over our lives. 

Alina's book list on exploring how place shapes community

Alina Grabowski Why Alina loves this book

This is a book about many things—guilt, artmaking, and love among them—but when I think of it, I think of a novel that depicts the complexities of making and sustaining a life more deftly than anything else I’ve read. How things like cruelty and beauty, innocence and evil, truth and lies all coexist. How we move forward despite this uneasy balance.

The novel follows Fee, a boy who grows up in Maine and sings in an all-boys choir. The choir director turns out to be an abuser, and his actions haunt Fee and the other boys in the choir into adulthood.

On a prose level alone, Chee’s writing is unparalleled, his sentences sharp enough to cut glass. I don’t see how anyone could read this book and come away unchanged. 

By Alexander Chee ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A poignant work of mature, haunting artistry, Edinburgh heralds the arrival of a remarkable young writer. Fee, a Korean-American child growing up in Maine, is gifted with a beautiful soprano voice and sings in a professional boys' choir. When the choir director acts out his paedophilic urges on the boys in the choir, Fee is unable to save himself, his first love, Peter, or his friends.


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Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

Book cover of Crime and Punishment

Shobana Mahadevan Author Of A Marriage Knot: A Tangled Love Story

From my list on classical books that teach you about psychology.

Why am I passionate about this?

I started reading classical books at a very young age. Granted, I did not understand a lot of things then. Rereading the same books again after years made me realize that more than what the author was trying to convey, my maturity made a world of difference when reading a book. It was the same text but with entirely different contexts and perspectives. I love old books. Books that take me back a century or more. It gives me an insight into how people lived, thought, and felt back then. It helps me connect with people across centuries.

Shobana's book list on classical books that teach you about psychology

Shobana Mahadevan Why Shobana loves this book

The perfect crime? Actually not! It was so imperfect that it turned into the perfect crime by just pure luck. No clues were left behind. In fact, there was nothing to trace the murder back to the murderer except his own guilt. 

His guilt turned out to be his biggest punishment. When he finally surrenders, he feels at peace–the long-eluded peace. 

By Fyodor Dostoevsky , Richard Pevear (translator) , Larissa Volokhonsky (translator)

Why should I read it?

19 authors picked Crime and Punishment as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Hailed by Washington Post Book World as “the best [translation] currently available" when it was first published, this second edition has been updated in honor of the 200th anniversary of Dostoevsky’s birth.

With the same suppleness, energy, and range of voices that won their translation of The Brothers Karamazov the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Prize, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky offer a brilliant translation of Dostoevsky's astounding pyschological thriller, newly revised for his bicentenniel. 

When Raskolnikov, an impoverished student living in the St. Petersburg of the tsars, commits an act of murder and theft, he sets into motion a story that is…


Book cover of A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting
Book cover of Caledonian Road
Book cover of Heartwood

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