Here are 97 books that Memorial Days fans have personally recommended if you like Memorial Days. 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 Heartwood

fran1

From Fran's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Unknown Author Why Fran loves this book

I love a story about walking, so Heartwood grabbed my attention.
I liked the way the book highlighted peoples comfort and discomfort in the natural world. It also had important themes of families and parents and children which I thought was presented in quite an interesting way

By Amity Gaige ,

Why should I read it?

5 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…


If you love Memorial Days...

Book cover of Dulcinea

Dulcinea by Ana Veciana-Suarez,

The woman who inspired Don Quixote sets out across the dangerous roads of Spain to honor her dying lover's final plea.

The daughter of a wealthy merchant, young Dolça Llull Prat is besotted with the dashing, bootstrapping Miguel Cervantes from their first meeting. Despite Miguel's entreaties, the ever-practical Dolça, with…

Book cover of Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love

Georgine Hodgkinson Author Of Crypto Island

From my list on confessional memoirs about courageous midlife women.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm addicted to memoirs. I love to peek inside another person's life, especially when the author embraces radical transparency, and I can’t resist being swept into the heart and mind of a courageous midlife woman. I admire writers who take risks, who remind me that sometimes our decisions, our humanness, take us down difficult roads. I'm a Professor of Communication Studies, and I author a Substack called Life Talk, which explores human connection—with others and with ourselves. The books on this list reflect both personal and professional passion: I'm endlessly drawn to self-reflexive inquiry, to stories that help me understand identity, resilience, and the courage it takes to transform.

Georgine's book list on confessional memoirs about courageous midlife women

Georgine Hodgkinson Why Georgine loves this book

I’m a sucker for a book that asks big questions, and this book does just that.

Shapiro investigates a family secret that she uncovers by chance, prompting her to probe topics that I find fascinating: How does heritage impact identity? Do we really know our parents? What happens when the world one knows is turned upside down?

I was drawn to this book because Shapiro doesn't just tell her story—she uses it to interrogate decades of secrecy in fertility treatment, and I couldn't stop thinking about other lives that were shaped by those silences.

When I finished this book, I picked up the phone and called my mother—I wanted to dig into my own heritage and ask questions about branches in our family tree that seemed askew.

By Dani Shapiro ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the acclaimed author of Inheritance and host of the hit podcast Family Secrets: a memoir about the staggering family secret uncovered by a genealogy test, an exploration of the urgent ethical questions surrounding fertility treatments and DNA testing, and a profound inquiry of paternity, identity, and love.

“Memoir gold: a profound and exquisitely rendered exploration of identity and the true meaning of family.” —People

In the spring of 2016, through a genealogy website to which she had casually submitted her DNA for analysis, Dani Shapiro received the stunning news that her beloved deceased father…


Book cover of Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury

ck92bsce

From ck92bsce's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Unknown Author Why ck92bsce loves this book

Wonderful remembrance of 1950s-1960s US, through the eyes of a historian.

By Drew Gilpin Faust ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A memoir of coming of age in a conservative Southern family in postwar America.

To grow up in the 1950s was to enter a world of polarized national alliances, nuclear threat, and destabilized social hierarchies. Two world wars and the depression that connected them had unleashed a torrent of expectations and dissatisfactions―not only in global affairs but in American society and Americans’ lives.

A privileged white girl in conservative, segregated Virginia was expected to adopt a willful blindness to the inequities of race and the constraints of gender. For Drew Gilpin, the acceptance of…


If you love Geraldine Brooks...

Book cover of Cities of Women

Cities of Women by Kathleen B. Jones,

Cities of Women is a dual timeline novel that interweaves the contemporary story of Verity Frazier, a disillusioned professor lacking passion and love in her life, with the tale of a medieval woman, who transforms herself into the artist, Anastasia, an unidentified illuminator of the manuscripts of the historical Christine…

Book cover of Jacqueline in Paris

Marianne C. Bohr Author Of When Paris Whispers

From my list on transporting you to Paris.

Why am I passionate about this?

France claimed me early, when I was a teenager. A French major, a Rotary scholarship year in the Loire Valley, and decades of return visits later, I'm still not done with this gorgeous country. Since retirement, my husband and I spend at least several weeks there every year, and in 2011, we lived in France for three months during an adult gap year. My third book, a novel set in Paris and Normandy, is the most recent evidence that France and her food, wine, culture, literature, art and landscapes, have never loosened their hold on me.

Marianne's book list on transporting you to Paris

Marianne C. Bohr Why Marianne loves this book

As a Francophile with a lifelong fascination with Jackie Kennedy, I felt that this book was written for me—and it delivered on every count.

Jacqueline in Paris follows a college-age Jackie through her junior year abroad in 1949, and the author gets both the woman and the moment exactly right. The Paris on these pages is beautiful but not romanticized. It is a city still visibly scarred by war, rebuilding itself with fragile dignity. That historical texture gives the story real weight.

What makes this a page-turner is how completely the author inhabits Jackie's inner life. You don't just observe her discovering Paris—you feel it alongside her, the enchantment and the disillusionment in equal measure. I finished it in two sittings and didn't want it to end.

By Ann Mah ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

"Captivating...Mah channels Kennedy and brings postwar Paris to life with exquisite detail and insight." -- People

From the bestselling author of The Lost Vintage, a rare and dazzling portrait of Jacqueline Bouvier's college year abroad in postwar Paris, an intimate and electrifying story of love and betrayal, and the coming-of-age of an American icon - before the world knew her as Jackie.

In September 1949 Jacqueline Bouvier arrives in postwar Paris to begin her junior year abroad. She's twenty years old, socially poised but financially precarious, and all too aware of her mother's expectations that she make a brilliant match.…


Book cover of Circle of Days

francine corry

From francine's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Unknown Author Why francine loves this book

I loved the historical setting and that I learned something about Stonehenge.

By Ken Follett ,

Why should I read it?

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


Book cover of The Correspondent

Gayle Rosengren Author Of What the Moon Said

From Gayle's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Gayle's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Gayle Rosengren Why Gayle loves this book

There were so many seeminly disparate threads to the epistolary storyline but they came together so naturally and beautifully in the end.

By Virginia Evans ,

Why should I read it?

12 authors picked The Correspondent as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Discover the emotional, funny, unforgettable BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick, Amazon Best Book of 2025 and New York Times bestselling word-of-mouth sensation that thousands of readers are calling their favourite book of the year...

Over 30,000 five star reviews on Goodreads!

'THIS NOVEL IS A CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION' Ann Patchett

'I WAS DELIGHTED AND MOVED . . . MASTERFUL' New York Times

'I CAN'T PRAISE IT ENOUGH. AN ABSOLUTE TRIUMPH' Clare Chambers

'THIS NOVEL IS A COMPLETE AND UTTER JOY' Ann Napolitano

'I DON'T HAVE ANY WORDS. WHAT A BEAUTIFUL STORY' Reader review

'I THINK I'VE JUST FINISHED MY…


If you love Memorial Days...

Book cover of The Hannah Document

The Hannah Document by Laura Swan,

A brilliant scholar, ancient libraries in danger due to war, suppressed women’s religious history, and a renegade monastery.

A doggedly determined Sofia Papandréou pursues evidence for women in leadership in early Christianity in the dusty corners of libraries, long ignored. Or worse, actively hidden away to deny women their heritage…

Book cover of What We Can Know

Tim Weed Author Of The Gatepost

From my list on recent speculative novels.

Why am I passionate about this?

When I was six, I wrote an eleven-page epic about an adventurous otter named "Ottiga." The causality between that early effort and my career as a novelist is uncertain, but it did establish a pattern. I was the perpetual new kid on the block, and novels provided a pathway to escape the difficulties of being young and introverted. I learned that fiction is an antidote to loneliness; that it has the power to transport us to entirely new worlds, or to show us the familiar world in entirely new and unexpected ways. The speculative novels on this list did that for me, and I hope they do the same for you!

Tim's book list on recent speculative novels

Tim Weed Why Tim loves this book

McEwan is one of my favorite writers, and as I was reading this, I was trying to figure out why I love his work so much.

There's just something so immersive about it: the way he uses language, the vividness of his characters, the descriptive and emotional accuracy and density of his moment-by-moment storytelling.

What We Can Know is a love story interwoven with a tense, high-stakes "thrillerish" plot powered by a heart-pounding narrative drive and sense of cold inevitability similar to those found in the author's other great novels, like Amsterdam and Atonement.

What sets this book apart from the others is its speculative, futuristic angle. To say more would be to spoil the fun, so I'll leave it there. Read this book, you won't regret it!

By Ian McEwan ,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked What We Can Know as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the Booker prize–winning, bestselling author of Atonement and Saturday, a genre-bending new novel full of secrets and surprises; an immersive exploration, across time and history, of what can ever be truly known.

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR

"It gave me so much pleasure I sometimes felt like laughing. . . . It's a sophisticated entertainment of a high order." —The New York Times

"Brilliantly, and surprisingly, plotted."—The Washington Post • "A novelist of consummate skill."—The Wall Street Journal • "Elegantly structured and provocative."—Los…


Book cover of Snake-Eater

Barrie Trinkle

From Barrie's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Unknown Author Why Barrie loves this book

It was funny and fresh and had powerful women at its core. Loved it.

By T. Kingfisher ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

In this witty fantasy horror from New York Times bestselling, Nebula and Hugo award-winning author T. Kingfisher, a young woman seeking a fresh start is confronted by ancient gods, malevolent supernatural forces, and eccentric neighbours in an isolated desert town.

Perfect for fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Chuck Tingle, and Rachel Harrison.

With only a few dollars to her name and her beloved dog Copper by her side, Selena flees her past in the city to claim her late aunt's house in the desert town of Quartz Creek.

Selena loves the strange beauty of the desert. But the people of Quartz…


Book cover of Amity

fran1

From Fran's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Unknown Author Why Fran loves this book

Coleman is a unique character an erudite, talkative and yet anxious and fearful young man who is exceeding loyal to both Oliver, his dog and June, his sister.

Amity is a story of a quest and journey which highlights family ties of many kinds. I didn't feel the emotional impact in this one as I did in Sweetness of Water, but I really loved the characters and have a soft spot in my heart for Oliver.

By Nathan Harris ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The highly anticipated second novel from the author of the Booker-longlisted THE SWEETNESS OF WATER

'Amity is deeply adventurous and astonishingly beautiful' Robert Jones, Jr., author of The Prophets
'A writer of great lyricism and power' i paper
'Harris will win over the hearts of many readers' Financial Times
'Masterful' Oprah Winfrey

Louisiana, 1869. The Civil War might be over, but former slaves Coleman and June have yet to find the freedom they've been promised. Two years ago, the siblings were separated when their old master, Mr Harper, took June away on a hair-brained scheme to Mexico, to escape the…


If you love Geraldine Brooks...

Book cover of Blood of the White Bear

Blood of the White Bear by Marcia Calhoun Forecki,

Virologist Dr. Rachel Bisette sees visions of a Kachina and remembers the plane crash that killed her parents and the Dine medicine woman who saved her life. Rachel is investigating a new and lethal hantavirus spreading through the Four Corners, and believes the Kachina is calling her to join the…

Book cover of Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague

Kate Durni

From Kate's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Unknown Author Why Kate loves this book

I love history and learning how people reacted to events.. then and now… we are likely to share similar experiences

By Geraldine Brooks ,

Why should I read it?

11 authors picked Year of Wonders as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'March' and 'People of the Book'.

A young woman's struggle to save her family and her soul during the extraordinary year of 1666, when plague suddenly struck a small Derbyshire village.

In 1666, plague swept through London, driving the King and his court to Oxford, and Samuel Pepys to Greenwich, in an attempt to escape contagion. The north of England remained untouched until, in a small community of leadminers and hill farmers, a bolt of cloth arrived from the capital. The tailor who cut the cloth had no way of knowing that…


Book cover of Heartwood
Book cover of Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love
Book cover of Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury

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