Here are 100 books that Fundraising the Dead fans have personally recommended if you like Fundraising the Dead. 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 Homicide in Hardcover

Daphne Silver Author Of Crime and Parchment

From my list on cozy mysteries about rare books and museums.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am the Agatha-winning author of the Rare Books Cozy Mystery series. My first in the series, below, won the Agatha Award for Best First Mystery Novel. I’ve worked for more than twenty years in museums and symphonies and have the great fortune of being married to a librarian. When not writing, I’m drawing and painting. I live in Maryland with her family. Although I’m not much of a baker, I won’t ever turn down a sweet lokshen kugel.

Daphne's book list on cozy mysteries about rare books and museums

Daphne Silver Why Daphne loves this book

Kate Carlisle’s Bibliophile Mystery series is what made me fall in love with cozy mysteries. I wanted to restore the book bindings on old books like her main character, Brooklyn Wainwright.

Since that wasn’t going to happen, I loved living vicariously through her adventures, learning more about how she works and how that knowledge can be used to solve crimes. 

By Kate Carlisle ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Homicide in Hardcover as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Book expert Brooklyn Wainwright discovers that murder is always a bestseller in the first novel in the New York Times bestselling Bibliophile Mystery series.

Brooklyn Wainwright is a skilled surgeon. Sure, her patients might smell like mold and have spines made of leather, but no ailing book is going to die on her watch. The same can’t be said of Abraham Karastovsky, Brooklyn’s friend and former employer. 
 
On the eve of a celebration for his latest book restoration, Brooklyn finds her mentor lying in a pool of his own blood. With his final breath Abraham leaves Brooklyn with a cryptic…


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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 Murder Is Binding

Daphne Silver Author Of Crime and Parchment

From my list on cozy mysteries about rare books and museums.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am the Agatha-winning author of the Rare Books Cozy Mystery series. My first in the series, below, won the Agatha Award for Best First Mystery Novel. I’ve worked for more than twenty years in museums and symphonies and have the great fortune of being married to a librarian. When not writing, I’m drawing and painting. I live in Maryland with her family. Although I’m not much of a baker, I won’t ever turn down a sweet lokshen kugel.

Daphne's book list on cozy mysteries about rare books and museums

Daphne Silver Why Daphne loves this book

Who wouldn’t want to go to a quaint town where the streets are lined with bookstores? Sign me up! Lorna Barrett’s series features mystery bookshop owner Tricia Miles ending up solving her own crimes, including one featuring a rare cookbook.

The idea of owning a bookstore, sharing a love of mysteries, and being part of such a special community really grabbed me as a reader. Since I can’t actually move to Booktown—aka Stoneham, New Hampshire—I’m glad I can read so many books about it!

By Lorna Barrett ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The streets of Stoneham, New Hampsire are lined with bookstores...and paved with murder.

When she moved to Stoneham, city slicker Tricia Miles met nothing but friendly faces. And when she opened her mystery bookstore, she met friendly competition. But when she finds Doris Gleason dead in her own cookbook store, killed by a carving knife, the atmosphere seems more cutthroat than cordial. Someone wanted to get their hands on the rare cookbook that Doris had recently purchased-and the locals think that someone is Tricia. To clear her name, Tricia will have to take a page out of one of her…


Book cover of Feint of Art

Daphne Silver Author Of Crime and Parchment

From my list on cozy mysteries about rare books and museums.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am the Agatha-winning author of the Rare Books Cozy Mystery series. My first in the series, below, won the Agatha Award for Best First Mystery Novel. I’ve worked for more than twenty years in museums and symphonies and have the great fortune of being married to a librarian. When not writing, I’m drawing and painting. I live in Maryland with her family. Although I’m not much of a baker, I won’t ever turn down a sweet lokshen kugel.

Daphne's book list on cozy mysteries about rare books and museums

Daphne Silver Why Daphne loves this book

One of the reasons I started working for museums was that I trained as a painter and in art history, so Hailey Lind’s Annie Kincaid Mystery series was a particular delight. Her main character, Annie, is a former art forger turned faux finisher.

However, she can’t seem to put her past behind her after realizing her curator ex-boyfriend’s new big painting acquisition is a fake. I enjoy a good redemption story, especially when mixed with history and artifacts. 

By Hailey Lind ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

When Annie Kincaid informs her ex-boyfriend, curator Ernst Pettigrew, that the Brock Museum's fifteen-million-dollar Caravaggio painting is a fake, a bizarre chain of events is set in motion, forcing Annie to enter into an underworld of art forgers--a place she swore she left behind. Original.


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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 Artifact: A Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery

Daphne Silver Author Of Crime and Parchment

From my list on cozy mysteries about rare books and museums.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am the Agatha-winning author of the Rare Books Cozy Mystery series. My first in the series, below, won the Agatha Award for Best First Mystery Novel. I’ve worked for more than twenty years in museums and symphonies and have the great fortune of being married to a librarian. When not writing, I’m drawing and painting. I live in Maryland with her family. Although I’m not much of a baker, I won’t ever turn down a sweet lokshen kugel.

Daphne's book list on cozy mysteries about rare books and museums

Daphne Silver Why Daphne loves this book

Gigi Pandian has gone on to write several series I adore, including the Secret Staircase and Accidental Alchemist mysteries, but her first series about history professor Jaya Jones remains my favorite.

A bejeweled and mysterious artifact sends her globe-trotting, and I, for one, enjoyed the ride every step of the way. Jaya is smart and confident, and I would want to hang out with her and her friends any day of the week—especially that roguish possible art thief she encounters. 

By Gigi Pandian ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A Scottish legend that hides a secret. A treasure from India that vanished long ago. An unexpected package that ignites an adventure.

History professor Jaya Jones is reeling from the news of a former flame's untimely death when she receives a mysterious parcel he’d sent from abroad. Inside is a cryptic plea for help, along with a jewel-encrusted artifact hinting at a treasure from India shrouded in a Scottish legend. As she starts to unravel the mystery, the unsettling discovery of her ransacked apartment makes it clear she's not the only one on the trail.

From the iconic British Library…


Book cover of The Valley Forge Winter: Civilians and Soldiers in War

Jack N. Rakove Author Of Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution

From my list on the Revolutionary War and why the British lost it.

Why am I passionate about this?

I became a historian of the American Revolution back in the early 1970s and have been working on that subject ever since. Most of my writings pivot on national politics, the origins of the Constitution, and James Madison. But explaining why the Revolution occurred and why it took the course it did remain subjects that still fascinate me.

Jack's book list on the Revolutionary War and why the British lost it

Jack N. Rakove Why Jack loves this book

The story of how the Continental Army suffered bitterly through the winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge has been the subject of many books and the inspiration for many a patriotic myth. In this well-researched history, Bodle dispels many of those myths and carefully explains why the army had to stay so close to Philadelphia, when normally it would have moved further to the interior of Pennsylvania and sent many of its troops home for the winter. He provides a sophisticated account of the relationship between military needs and civilian politics, one that broadens our understanding of the Revolution.

By Wayne Bodle ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Valley Forge Winter as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

2003 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

Of the many dramatic episodes of the American Revolution, perhaps none is more steeped in legend than the Valley Forge winter. Paintings show Continentals huddled around campfires and Washington kneeling in the frozen woods, praying for his army's deliverance. To this day schoolchildren are taught that Valley Forge was the "turning point of the Revolution"-the event that transformed a ragged group of soldiers into a fighting army. But was Valley Forge really the "crucible of victory" it has come to represent in American history? Now, two hundred and twenty-five years later, Wayne Bodle has written…


Book cover of Washington's Crossing

Jack N. Rakove Author Of Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution

From my list on the Revolutionary War and why the British lost it.

Why am I passionate about this?

I became a historian of the American Revolution back in the early 1970s and have been working on that subject ever since. Most of my writings pivot on national politics, the origins of the Constitution, and James Madison. But explaining why the Revolution occurred and why it took the course it did remain subjects that still fascinate me.

Jack's book list on the Revolutionary War and why the British lost it

Jack N. Rakove Why Jack loves this book

We think of the American victories at Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1781 as the decisive battles of the war (and so, in a sense, they were). But in this Pulitzer Prize winner, Fischer makes a strong case that George Washington’s surprising victories at Trenton and Princeton were just as momentous, keeping “the Cause” alive at a moment when the Continental Army was on the verge of dissolution. Fischer provides a vivid account of the flow of battle and the key decisions that gave the Americans their advantage.

By David Hackett Fischer ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Washington's Crossing as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Six months after the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution was all but lost. A powerful British force had routed the Americans at New York, occupied three colonies, and advanced within sight of Philadelphia.

Yet, as David Hackett Fischer recounts in this riveting history, George Washington-and many other Americans-refused to let the Revolution die. On Christmas night, as a howling nor'easter struck the Delaware Valley, he led his men across the river and attacked the exhausted Hessian garrison at Trenton, killing or capturing nearly a thousand men. A second battle of Trenton followed within days. The Americans held off a…


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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 Indian Paths of Pennsylvania

Jason Cherry Author Of Pittsburgh's Lost Outpost: Captain Trent's Fort

From my list on the French and Indian War.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in western Pennsylvania where my dad loved history and always tried to stop at any battlefield or historic sign that happened to be within his field of vision. My mom was a passionate researcher of our family ancestry and I spent our childhood looking in cemeteries for specific names and gravestones. When I was ten years old, we joined a living history reenactment group that portrayed everyday life in the 1750s, and I was immediately hooked. I began researching about our group known as “Captain William Trent’s Company” and after almost thirty years of living and breathing summer weekends at 18th Century historic sites, the pages of Pittsburgh’s Lost Outpost: Captain Trent’s Fort came to life. I picked these five books because I want future readers to be transported like I was when I first read them.

Jason's book list on the French and Indian War

Jason Cherry Why Jason loves this book

This book is unique because it shows the reader how you can walk in the footsteps and travel like those trekking across Pennsylvania in the early 18th Century where there were no interstates or turnpikes, but instead, indigenous paths that influenced the roadways we know today. It also gave me a visual where I could experience firsthand what a traveler saw when he or she walked this route.

By Paul A. W. Wallace ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Indian Paths of Pennsylvania as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Since its original publication in 1965, Indian Paths of Pennsylvania has remained the standard volume for charting the foot trails forged and followed in Pennsylvania by Native Americans, documenting an era of interaction between Indians and European settlers in the 17th and 18th centuries. With the advent of European settlement, the Indian trails that laced the wilderness were so well-situated that there was little reason to forsake them until the age of the automobile. The trails that traverse the mountains “kept the level” so well that they remain an engineering curiosity. Equally as remarkable are the complexity of the system…


Book cover of The Permanent Resident

Ryan K. Smith Author Of Robert Morris's Folly

From my list on offbeat biographies of American founders.

Why am I passionate about this?

We think we know the American founders, who have offered subject matter for countless biographies. But those piles of books on the same circle of founders tend to flatten them out with a tiresome formula. Aren't there other ways to approach the lives of figures at the heart of the nation's earliest, formative years? As a U.S. historian, I prefer exploring that important time and place through less-traveled byways. I got pulled into that world by attempting to spin Robert Morris’s dramatic rags-to-riches-to-rags story in Robert Morris’s Folly. The other characters on this list have further widened those horizons for me.

Ryan's book list on offbeat biographies of American founders

Ryan K. Smith Why Ryan loves this book

A book on George Washington must be on this list. We can ask for no better than Levy’s highly entertaining study of Washington through the lens of archaeological discoveries made at all the sites of importance connected to the man, from Virginia to Barbados to the Ohio Valley to Philadelphia.

Through these sites and new discoveries, we meet the man in unusual ways. And Levy strikes the perfect balance between guarded cynicism and awe. I loved the final chapter on the relevance of it all to our world today.

By Philip Levy ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

No figure in American history has generated more public interest or sustained more scholarly research around his various homes and habitations than has George Washington. The Permanent Resident is the first book to bring the principal archaeological sites of Washington's life together under one cover, revealing what they say individually and collectively about Washington's life and career and how Americans have continued to invest these places with meaning.

Philip Levy begins with Washington's birthplace in Westmoreland County, Virginia, then moves to Ferry Farm-site of the mythical cherry tree-before following Washington to Barbados to examine how his only trip outside the…


Book cover of The True Story of George Washington and the Cherry Tree

Victoria Talwar Author Of The Truth About Lying: Teaching Honesty to Children at Every Age and Stage

From my list on honesty you can read with children.

Why am I passionate about this?

Victoria Talwar, PhD, is a professor and the chair of the Department of Educational & Counselling Psychology at McGill University. She is a recognized leading expert on children’s deception and has published numerous articles on children’s honesty and lie-telling behaviors. Dr. Talwar has given workshops to parents, teachers, social workers, and legal professionals. Among other distinctions, she was awarded the Society for Research on Child Development Outstanding Early Career Contributions to Child Development Research award. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Division 7), a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and a member of the College of the Royal Society of Canada. 

Victoria's book list on honesty you can read with children

Victoria Talwar Why Victoria loves this book

This is a well-known legend about George Washington. 

It also happens to be an excellent example of how to tell the truth about something you have done wrong and how it can lead to positive consequences. When examining the impact of stories on children’s truth-telling in our research, we found that when children heard this story they were more likely to subsequently tell the truth about their own transgression. 

We found that what made this story so good for children was hearing how George confessed about doing something wrong (cutting the cherry tree down) and then hearing how his father was proud of his son for telling the truth.

There is also a message for parents here. It’s important to give credit for honesty when you find it. It isn’t always easy telling the truth! 

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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 Washington: A Life

John Koopman III Author Of George Washington at War - 1776

From my list on a fresh look into the past.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been interested in history and in particular military history for my entire life. Since 2006 I have been a George Washington interpreter. I portray the great man in first person live presentations and in documentary film. I have devoted a great deal of time in study of him. As a result of my studies of Washington, I felt compelled to write a book about him. I wanted to capture aspects of him not covered in most books or in film. Four of the books I reviewed involve George Washington.

John's book list on a fresh look into the past

John Koopman III Why John loves this book

I find Ron Chernow’s biography to be the most informative and comprehensive. It is quite a tome at over 800 pages, but worth the read. Chernow has fascinating insights into his character. Washington had a temper that he sought to control. Even in that, he made an impression on people. From the introduction of the book, “His contemporaries admired him not because he was a plaster saint or an empty uniform but because they sensed his unseen power.”

We see Washington develop over his life from early childhood. The loss of his father at age eleven brought him closer to his brother Lawrence, fourteen years his senior. Lawrence became a father figure to him.

After service in the French and Indian War, Washington married Martha Custis. There was true love in the marriage. She spent every winter with him throughout the eight years of the Revolution. She came with…

By Ron Chernow ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The celebrated Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of America. With a breadth and depth matched by no other one-volume life, he carries the reader through Washington's troubled boyhood, his precocious feats in the French and Indian Wars, his creation of Mount Vernon, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention and his magnificent performance as America's first president.

Despite the reverence his name inspires Washington remains a waxwork to many readers, worthy but dull, a laconic man of remarkable self-control. But in this groundbreaking work Chernow revises forever the uninspiring…


Book cover of Homicide in Hardcover
Book cover of Murder Is Binding
Book cover of Feint of Art

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Interested in George Washington, Pennsylvania, and museums?

Pennsylvania 98 books
Museums 22 books