Here are 100 books that My Friends fans have personally recommended if you like My Friends. 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 Rebecca

Caroline Ebinger

From Caroline's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Unknown Author Why Caroline loves this book

Made my overthinking seem minor! What a wild ride.

By Daphne du Maurier ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

* 'The greatest psychological thriller of all time' ERIN KELLY
* 'One of the most influential novels of the twentieth century' SARAH WATERS
* 'It's the book every writer wishes they'd written' CLARE MACKINTOSH

'Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again . . .'

Working as a lady's companion, our heroine's outlook is bleak until, on a trip to the south of France, she meets a handsome widower whose proposal takes her by surprise. She accepts but, whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to brooding Manderley, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory…


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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 Giovanni's Room

S.M. Stevens Author Of Beautiful and Terrible Things

From S.M.'s 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Animal lover Renewable energy advocate Alternative music lover Mother

S.M.'s 3 favorite reads in 2025

S.M. Stevens Why S.M. loves this book

It was my introduction to heralded American author James Baldwin. As an English major and author, I really should have read him years ago! The book’s premise alone is impressive: A white bisexual man in 1950s Paris struggles with his sexuality, in a story written by a Black American. Baldwin being Baldwin, I continued to be impressed as I read, by his beautifully rendered portrayal of love, lust, friendship, identity and guilt (plus murder!) in the seedy bars and dreary streets of Paris.

By James Baldwin ,

Why should I read it?

15 authors picked Giovanni's Room as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When David meets the sensual Giovanni in a bohemian bar, he is swept into a passionate love affair. But his girlfriend's return to Paris destroys everything. Unable to admit to the truth, David pretends the liaison never happened - while Giovanni's life descends into tragedy.

United by the theme of love, the writings in the Great Loves series span over two thousand years and vastly different worlds. Readers will be introduced to love's endlessly fascinating possibilities and extremities: romantic love, platonic love, erotic love, gay love, virginal love, adulterous love, parental love, filial love, nostalgic love, unrequited love, illicit love,…


Book cover of Stoner

Gerard Conley

From Gerard's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Unknown Author Why Gerard loves this book

The honesty with which the main character lived out his life.

By John Williams ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2013

'It's the most marvellous discovery for everyone who loves literature' Ian McEwan, BBC Radio 4

Colum McCann once called Stoner one of the great forgotten novels of the past century, but it seems it is forgotten no longer - in 2013 translations of Stoner began appearing on bestseller lists across Europe. Forty-eight years after its first, quiet publication in the US, Stoner is finally finding the wide and devoted readership it deserves. Have you read it yet?

William Stoner enters the University of Missouri at nineteen to study agriculture. A seminar on English literature…


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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 The Night Watchman

30sz5qv7

From 30sz5qv7's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Unknown Author Why 30sz5qv7 loves this book

This book opened up a whole new world to me that I was unfamiliar with

By Louise Erdrich ,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked The Night Watchman as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE IN FICTION 2021

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

It is 1953. Thomas Wazhushk is the night watchman at the first factory to open near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a prominent Chippewa Council member, trying to understand a new bill that is soon to be put before Congress. The US Government calls it an 'emancipation' bill; but it isn't about freedom - it threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land, their very identity. How can he fight this betrayal?

Unlike most of the girls on the reservation, Pixie…


Book cover of The Water Dancer

S.M. Stevens Author Of Beautiful and Terrible Things

From S.M.'s 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Animal lover Renewable energy advocate Alternative music lover Mother

S.M.'s 3 favorite reads in 2025

S.M. Stevens Why S.M. loves this book

It presents the horrors of slavery in a wholly original way, wrapping a hero you root for -- due to his youthful optimism, his hard-won acceptance of his lot in life, and his embracing of his ability to move though space using the power of memory and storytelling -- in a cloak of magical realism. By the time Harriet Tubman enters the picture, you’ll be wishing fervently that the ability to magically transport slaves to freedom had really existed. The story never devolves into fairy tale, rather the fantastic element puts the heroic acts represented by the Underground Railroad into very appropriate superhuman terms.

By Ta-Nehisi Coates ,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked The Water Dancer as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE NEW YORK TIMES #1 BESTSELLER

OPRAH BOOK CLUB PICK

'One of the best books I have ever read in my entire life. I haven't felt this way since I first read Beloved . . .' Oprah Winfrey

Lose yourself in the stunning debut novel everyone is talking about - the unmissable historical story of injustice and redemption that resonates powerfully today

Hiram Walker is a man with a secret, and a war to win. A war for the right to life, to family, to freedom.

Born into bondage on a Virginia plantation, he is also born gifted with a…


Book cover of The Evening Shades

Linda Kass Author Of A Ritchie Boy

From Linda's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Bookstore owner Learner Reader Historical novelist Long distance cyclist

Linda's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Linda Kass Why Linda loves this book

This is Lee Martin’s follow up to his Pultizer Prize for Fiction finalist The Bright Forever. From the very first page, I knew I was in the hands of a master storyteller. The prose spare and evocative, this novel once again reveals the often-forgotten voices of the heartland and brings Harry Dees, the enigmatic math teacher featured in The Bright Forever, in full focus as he leaves the tiny Indiana town of Tower Hill, filled with tragedy and grief, and settles in Mount Gilead, Illinois, another little town where everyone’s business is an open book, except that visitor who comes to town. With spinster Edith Green, Henry finds love in middle age, the joy it promises but not without the serious complications it encounters. Haunting and poignant.

By Lee Martin ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The highly anticipated follow-up to Pulitzer Prize finalist The Bright Forever, The Evening Shades tells the story of two lonely people in a small Midwestern town and the dark secrets tormenting them . . .

One afternoon in the autumn of 1972, a lonely widow in Mt. Gilead, Illinois, makes the impromptu decision to rent out a room in her house to a stranger who has come to town. It is risky—she doesn't know anything about him. But Edith Green can no longer bear a life lived alone. And Henry Dees is haunted by the past he carries with him…


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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 Wild Dark Shore

Caroline Ebinger

From Caroline's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Unknown Author Why Caroline loves this book

Covers both climate and biodiversity loss masterfully. A beautiful, devastating, relatable book.

By Charlotte McConaghy ,

Why should I read it?

11 authors picked Wild Dark Shore as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world's largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has…


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…


Book cover of Not Forgetting The Whale

Mandy Hager Author Of Strays and Waifs

From Mandy's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Mandy's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Mandy Hager Why Mandy loves this book

There is a warmth and humanity to this book that stayed with me long after I'd finished reading it.

By John Ironmonger ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Not Forgetting The Whale as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Previously published as NOT FORGETTING THE WHALE

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

'A gentle and uplifting tale of warding off apocalypse in a remote corner of Cornwall . . . charming' Financial Times

For fans of ELEANOR OLIPHANT, THE ROSIE PROJECT & THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY.

It all began with the whale.

When a young man washes up on the sands of St Piran in Cornwall, it is clear to the villagers that this is not a regular day. What has brought him here? And what is the crisis only he understands, that threatens not only their community but all…


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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 The Mires

Mandy Hager Author Of Strays and Waifs

From Mandy's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Mandy's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Mandy Hager Why Mandy loves this book

Set in my home town, this book is both magical and serious, tackling the issue of the changing climate with magic realism within a deepening drama. If you haven't read a book by a New Zealander before, try this one!

By Tina Makereti ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

'Water will come and you think it will be soft. You think it will be smooth and find its way around your things: your houses and cars and furniture, your gardens and windows and hope. But water can be the foot of an elephant, the horns of a moose, a herd of buffalo running from a lion, water can be the kauri falling in the forest, a two-tonne truck, a whole stadium filled with 50,000 people, screaming . . . Water is life, and water can be death.'

Three women give birth in different countries and different decades. In the…


Book cover of Rebecca
Book cover of Giovanni's Room
Book cover of Stoner

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