Here are 47 books that Our Share of Night fans have personally recommended if you like Our Share of Night. 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 Cloud Cuckoo Land

leah

From Leah's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Unknown Author Why Leah loves this book

Doerr weaves together stories from 1492 Babylon, modern day Idaho, and a space station on the far future. In each, the power of words and story are what get the characters through and help them find meaning and insight. The book is expectedly paced - I was never annoyed when switching from one storyline to another. A common “lost” book is a thread deeply woven into each story. I was immersed in the worlds, taken in by each perspective character, and fascinated by the common thread of the story of “Cloud Cuckoo Land”, and how it came to be lost and found. Loss, knowledge, change (big and small), and the nature of truth and power are key thematic elements. Even though this book is quite a tome, the writing style is actually quite spare. Each paragraph is so evocative. I drew out reading the last 50 pages because I didn’t…

By Anthony Doerr ,

Why should I read it?

22 authors picked Cloud Cuckoo Land as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

On the New York Times bestseller list for over 20 weeks * A New York Times Notable Book * A National Book Award Finalist * Named a Best Book of the Year by Fresh Air, Time, Entertainment Weekly, Associated Press, and many more

“If you’re looking for a superb novel, look no further.” —The Washington Post

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of All the Light We Cannot See, comes the instant New York Times bestseller that is a “wildly inventive, a humane and uplifting book for adults that’s infused with the magic of childhood reading experiences” (The New York Times…


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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 Washington Black

Sommer Schafer Author Of The Women

From Sommer's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Sommer's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Sommer Schafer Why Sommer loves this book

I loved this book because the writing is stunning and the plotline is fresh and sucked me in. Edugyan takes the typical slave narrative and opens it up, creating something new, enlightening, and, ultimately, beautiful.

By Esi Edugyan ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2018

WINNER OF THE GILLER PRIZE

SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2020

FINALIST FOR THE CARNEGIE MEDAL AND THE ROGERS WRITERS TRUST FICTION PRIZE
LONGLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE 2019
New York Times Top Ten Book of the Year 2018
Sunday Times Paperback of the Year 2019

'A masterpiece' Attica Locke
'Strong, beautiful and beguiling' Observer
'Destined to become a future classic ... that rare book that should appeal to every kind of reader' Guardian

When two English brothers take the helm of a Barbados sugar plantation, Washington Black - an…


Book cover of Glorious Exploits

Nicholas Jubber Author Of Monsterland

From Nicholas' 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Nicholas' 3 favorite reads in 2025

Nicholas Jubber Why Nicholas loves this book

A witty take on ancient history with the likely lads putting on a play, using their Greek captives for a cast and chatting away with lively Irish jargon that somehow works. A lot of fun.

By Ferdia Lennon ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2024

'One of the most original and brilliant debuts in years' Irish Times

'Bold and totally unexpected ... I was hooked from the first page' Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain

'Brilliant ... Hilarious, moving, and profound' R. F. Kuang, author of Yellowface

***

Ancient Sicily. Enter GELON: visionary, dreamer, theatre lover. Enter LAMPO: lovesick, jobless, in need of a distraction.

Imprisoned in the quarries of Syracuse, thousands of defeated Athenians hang on by the thinnest of threads.

They're fading in the baking heat, but not everything is lost:…


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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 It Won't Always Be Like This

Sommer Schafer Author Of The Women

From Sommer's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Sommer's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Sommer Schafer Why Sommer loves this book

I loved this graphic novel because it shows the complexities and beauties of women's relationships and explores ideas of what it means to be a truly free woman, all through a mixed-race, coming-of-age storyline.

By Malaka Gharib ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked It Won't Always Be Like This as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An intimate graphic memoir about an American girl growing up with her Egyptian father’s new family, forging unexpected bonds and navigating adolescence in an unfamiliar country—from the award-winning author of I Was Their American Dream.
 
“What a joy it is to read Malaka Gharib’s It Won’t Always Be Like This, to have your heart expertly broken and put back together within the space of a few panels, to have your wonder in the world restored by her electric mind.”—Mira Jacob, author of Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations
 
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Book Riot

It’s hard…


Book cover of Fever Dream

Anna Noyes Author Of The Blue Maiden

From my list on gothic fiction imbued with atmosphere and dread.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up on a tiny peninsula in Downeast Maine, an evocative and rugged place, both lovely and haunting. As a girl, walking home late down gravel roads through an encompassing darkness I’ve found nowhere else, I sensed the world’s dangers long before I knew how to articulate them. Surrounded by woods, water, and unnerving quiet broken by the fox’s scream and rustling branches, I began to write. I sought out strange and unsettling books by Shirley Jackson and Stephen King (his home just a few towns away from mine) that left their mark. Storytelling became a way to process and explore what keeps me up at night. 

Anna's book list on gothic fiction imbued with atmosphere and dread

Anna Noyes Why Anna loves this book

As the title suggests, this book lingers like a disquieting dream. A mother to a toddler myself, I think of what the protagonist Amanda calls the “rescue distance” often – the ground between herself and her child, should something perilous occur.

This book distills maternal protectiveness and anxiety into something as potent as poison or as powerful as a curse. It makes me want to look over my shoulder, lock the doors, draw the blinds. It carries an air of contagion. I can think of few other reads that evoke such a visceral reaction with such subtle strokes.

By Samanta Schweblin , Megan McDowell (translator) ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2017

'The book I wish I had written' Lisa Taddeo, author of Three Women and Animal

A young woman named Amanda lies dying in a remote Argentinian hospital. A boy named David sits beside her.

She's not his mother. He's not her child.

At David's ever more insistent prompting, Amanda recounts a series of events from the apparently recent past, a conversation that opens a chest of horrors. Together, they tell a haunting story of broken souls, toxins, and the power and desperation of family.

A chilling tale of maternal anxiety and ecological…


Book cover of Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories

Anna Noyes Author Of The Blue Maiden

From my list on gothic fiction imbued with atmosphere and dread.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up on a tiny peninsula in Downeast Maine, an evocative and rugged place, both lovely and haunting. As a girl, walking home late down gravel roads through an encompassing darkness I’ve found nowhere else, I sensed the world’s dangers long before I knew how to articulate them. Surrounded by woods, water, and unnerving quiet broken by the fox’s scream and rustling branches, I began to write. I sought out strange and unsettling books by Shirley Jackson and Stephen King (his home just a few towns away from mine) that left their mark. Storytelling became a way to process and explore what keeps me up at night. 

Anna's book list on gothic fiction imbued with atmosphere and dread

Anna Noyes Why Anna loves this book

Horrifying, brutal, sinuous, and uncanny, this one floored me. It evokes the peril of girlhood and womanhood with unwavering intensity.

Each story is fresh and unexpected, yet also timeless, rich with wisdom and mythology centuries old. Steeped in painful history, past atrocities twine with the present to nightmarish effect.

Mariana Enríquez is part of a new vanguard of Argentine and Latin American Gothic writers alongside Samanta Schweblin. Their writing, born from real-world horrors, is among the most thrilling discoveries I’ve made in years. 

By Mariana Enríquez , Megan McDowell (translator) ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Things We Lost in the Fire as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'A portrait of a world in fragments, a mirrorball made of razor blades' Guardian

Sleep-deprived fathers conjuring phantoms; sharp-toothed children and stolen skulls; persecuted young women drawn to self-immolation. Organized crime sits side-by-side with the occult in Buenos Aires - a place where reality and the preternatural fuse into strange, new shapes. These stories follow the wayward and downtrodden, revealing the scars of Argentina's dictatorship and the ghosts and traumas that have settled in the minds of its people. Provocative, brutal and uncanny, Things We Lost in the Fire is a paragon of contemporary Gothic from a writer of singular…


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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 Little Eyes

Richard Polt Author Of The Typewriter Revolution

From my list on tech skeptics with an imagination.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a lifelong typewriter lover. That passion has taken me down some deep and wonderful rabbit holes, including critiques of digital tech. I’m just as hooked on tech as the average person today, and of course, it has real benefits, but I’m painfully aware of how my addiction damages my attention, privacy, and self-reliance. The books I’ve picked help me articulate the problems, imagine just how bad things can get, and see alternatives. In my day job as a philosophy professor, I think about topics like memory, time, and technology, and specialize in controversial thinker Martin Heidegger (I own his typewriter!). 

Richard's book list on tech skeptics with an imagination

Richard Polt Why Richard loves this book

I devoured this book in a day, and it has kept me thinking for years. Say you can buy a stuffed animal equipped with a camera, and an anonymous user somewhere on the planet can see through that camera, move the toy, and make a rudimentary noise. What could possibly go wrong?

I was fascinated by the range of stories Schweblin imagines: fun, sweet, silly, and absolutely awful. Why can’t people in Silicon Valley think outside the box like this before they release the latest gadget that’s supposed to make our lives better? 

By Samanta Schweblin , Megan McDowell (translator) ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A visionary novel about our interconnected world, about the collision of horror and humanity, from the Man Booker-shortlisted master of the spine-tingling tale

A Guardian & Observer Best Fiction Book of 2020 * A Sunday Times Best Science Fiction Book of the Year * The Times Best Science Fiction Books of the Year * NPR Best Books of the Year

World Literature Today's 75 Notable Translations of 2020 * Ebook Travel Guides Best 5 Books of 2020 * A New York Times Notable Book of 2020

They're not pets. Not ghosts or robots. These are kentukis, and they are in…


Book cover of Rendezvous with Rama

Jonathan Mugan Author Of The Curiosity Cycle: Preparing Your Child for the Ongoing Technological Explosion

From Jonathan's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Jonathan's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Jonathan Mugan Why Jonathan loves this book

I love the feeling of exploration. It’s old but doesn’t feel stale like a lot of older scifi does.

By Arthur C. Clarke ,

Why should I read it?

11 authors picked Rendezvous with Rama as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In the year 2130, a mysterious and apparently untenanted alien spaceship, Rama, enters our solar system. The first product of an alien civilisation to be encountered by man, it reveals a world of technological marvels and an unparalleled artificial ecology.

But what is its purpose in 2131?

Who is inside it?

And why?


Book cover of Young Men and Fire

Matthew O. Jackson Author Of The Human Network: How Your Social Position Determines Your Power, Beliefs, and Behaviors

From my list on fiction driven by rich historical context.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a lover of both fiction and nonfiction, I find that the ultimate pleasure in reading is when the author combines the two without short-changing either. These are books that provide accurate and deep historical background, but also tell stories shaped by that context. These are also books that have intricate, unusual, and effective narrative structures.   

Matthew's book list on fiction driven by rich historical context

Matthew O. Jackson Why Matthew loves this book

This book concerns a group of young firefighters known as smokejumpers and the catastrophic Mann Gulch Forest Fire in Montana in 1949. 

Maclean was from the community and worked in the US Forest Service before he became a professor and eventually an author who spent years researching the event. You learn about the physics of forest fires, the invention of the first "escape fire," how multiple and cascading errors can lead to a disastrous outcome, and about the lives and heroics of a group of firefighters.

Interestingly, it is all seen through the journey of a man trying to understand a captivating event from his past. This book falls pretty squarely in the non-fiction category, but has multiple stories interwoven with the facts. It helps that Maclean was not only an author of many nonfiction articles, but also the author of the highly successful novel (and movie) A River Runs…

By Norman MacLean ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

When Norman Maclean sent the manuscript of A River Runs through It to New York publishers, he received a slew of rejections. One editor, so the story goes, replied, "It has trees in it." Forty years later, the title novella is widely recognized as one of the great American tales of the twentieth century, and Maclean as one of the most beloved writers of our time. Maclean's later triumph, Young Men and Fire, has over the decades also established itself as a classic of the American West. And with this twenty-fifth-anniversary edition, a fresh audience will be introduced to Maclean's…


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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 Beloved

Judith Teitelman Author Of Guesthouse for Ganesha

From Judith's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Traveler Seeker Educator Insightful

Judith's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Judith Teitelman Why Judith loves this book

Decades had passed since I last read Beloved and I felt compelled to revisit this rich, powerful, provocative masterpiece. Morrison's writing is exquisite.

By Toni Morrison ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

'Toni Morrison was a giant of her times and ours... Beloved is a heart-breaking testimony to the ongoing ravages of slavery, and should be read by all' Margaret Atwood, New York Times

Discover this beautiful gift edition of Toni Morrison's prize-winning contemporary classic Beloved

It is the mid-1800s and as slavery looks to be coming to an end, Sethe is haunted by the violent trauma it wrought on her former enslaved life at Sweet Home, Kentucky. Her dead baby daughter, whose tombstone bears the single word, Beloved, returns as a spectre to punish her mother, but also to elicit her…


Book cover of Cloud Cuckoo Land
Book cover of Washington Black
Book cover of Glorious Exploits

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