Here are 100 books that The Answer Is No fans have personally recommended if you like The Answer Is No. Book DNA is a community of 13,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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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…


If you love The Answer Is No...

Book cover of When the Road Comes Around

When the Road Comes Around by Katie Powner,

In the small town of Grady, Montana, twenty-four-year-old Tad Bungley has a reputation for trouble. When he lands a job at Come Around Ranch, however, his life seems to take a positive turn. As he develops a soft spot for Sam, the ranch owner's disabled son, and a special bond…

Book cover of The Women

Karen Schreck Author Of While He Was Away

From my list on war-torn love.

Why am I passionate about this?

My passion for novels about war with a love-related component is rooted in my upbringing. My father served in the military and suffered from PTSD all his life as a result. He regaled me with stories of his time in the army during World War II, but those stories were wildly comic or compelling tales of adventure in exotic, faraway lands. The darker aspects of his experience came out in his nightmares, and later in life, in the flashbacks he experienced after his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. My mother’s life was also impacted by war. Her first marriage ended when her husband was killed in battle, and she had her own kind of PTSD as a result.

Karen's book list on war-torn love

Karen Schreck Why Karen loves this book

Here is another book about strong women who supported each other as they served in battle, not as soldiers, but as nurses.

Reading The Women, I got to experience the evacuation hospitals designed to provide rapid trauma care near combat zones. The war-torn love represented in these pages is both platonic and romantic.

This is not a YA novel, but it is a very accessible read, and it raises important ethical questions. What makes a good war, exactly?

By Kristin Hannah ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The missing. The forgotten. The brave… The women.

From master storyteller Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds, comes the story of a turbulent, transformative era in America: the 1960s. The Women is that rarest of novels—at once an intimate portrait of a woman coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided by war and broken by politics, of a generation both fueled by dreams and lost on the battlefield.

“Women can be heroes, too.”

When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these unexpected…


Book cover of A Man Called Ove

Florence Osmund Author Of Regarding Anna

From my list on ordinary people facing extraordinary choices.

Why am I passionate about this?

After thirty years in corporate America, I retired to learn the craft of writing literary fiction—publishing my first novel at sixty-two. I write about characters faced with seemingly impossible situations whose choices ultimately reveal who they truly are. Through mindful self-awareness, I want readers to search within themselves to think about what they would do in a similar situation. These are five books that shaped my understanding of what literary fiction can do through deep characterization.

Florence's book list on ordinary people facing extraordinary choices

Florence Osmund Why Florence loves this book

In this highly character-driven book, Backman shows how a grieving man, an undeniable grouch on the outside, can influence an entire neighborhood in a positive way.

Sometimes the most unlikely people can change their behavior, and even the behavior of others. We learn from him that a change in one’s perspective helps us prioritize what is really important in our lives and even the world.

By Fredrik Backman ,

Why should I read it?

27 authors picked A Man Called Ove as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'THE PERFECT HOLIDAY READ' Evening Standard

'A JOY FROM START TO FINISH' - Gavin Extence, author of THE UNIVERSE VERSUS ALEX WOODS

There is something about Ove.

At first sight, he is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots - neighbours who can't reverse a trailer properly, joggers, shop assistants who talk in code, and the perpetrators of the vicious coup d'etat that ousted him as Chairman of the Residents' Association. He will persist in making his daily inspection rounds of the local streets.

But isn't it rare, these days, to find…


If you love Fredrik Backman...

Book cover of Solo Pour

Solo Pour by Michael Crawford,

Solo Pour invites readers to slow down and rediscover the extraordinary hidden within ordinary life. Through short, heartfelt essays, Michael Crawford reflects on gratitude, caregiving, belonging, faith, resilience, family, and the quiet moments that shape who we become.

Each reflection can be read in just a few minutes, making the…

Book cover of Anxious People

Bethany Staer

From Bethany's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Unknown Author Why Bethany loves this book

“They say that a person’s personality is the sum of their experiences. But that isn’t true, at least not entirely, because if our past was all that defined us, we’d never be able to put up with ourselves. We need to be allowed to convince ourselves that we’re more than the mistakes we made yesterday. That we are all of our next choices, too, all of our tomorrows.”
― Fredrik Backman, Anxious People

“We give those we love nicknames, because love requires a word that belongs to us alone.”
― Fredrik Backman, Anxious People

“This story is about a lot of things, but mostly about idiots. So it needs saying from the outset that it’s always very easy to declare that other people are idiots, but only if you forget how idiotically difficult being human is.”
― Fredrik Backman, Anxious People

“Expensive restaurants have bigger gaps between…

By Fredrik Backman ,

Why should I read it?

22 authors picked Anxious People as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The funny, touching and unpredictable No. 1 New York Times bestseller, now a major Netflix TV series

'A brilliant and comforting read' MATT HAIG
'Funny, compassionate and wise. An absolute joy' A.J. PEARCE
'A surefooted insight into the absurdity, beauty and ache of life' GUARDIAN
'I laughed, I sobbed, I recommended it to literally everyone I know' BUZZFEED
'Captures the messy essence of being human' WASHINGTON POST

From the 18 million copy internationally bestselling author of A Man Called Ove
_______

It's New Year's Eve and House Tricks estate agents are hosting an open viewing in an up-market apartment when…


Book cover of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

Khristin Wierman Author Of Buck's Pantry

From my list on novels that speak difficult truths and still leave you feeling optimistic.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a writer who was first a reader and am convinced that novels can speak profound truth. They’ve helped me too many times to believe otherwise. I write novels about how we unwind from painful pasts to create new and better lives. In my experience, that requires us to face difficult truths and choose to be different until we are. I write fiction because I can begin with something awful, cut out boring detours that didn’t matter, and get my honorable and well-intentioned characters to happy endings faster than I’ve gotten to mine. These books map similar journeys, and all have left me better off for having read them.

Khristin's book list on novels that speak difficult truths and still leave you feeling optimistic

Khristin Wierman Why Khristin loves this book

Humor wielded with ill intention is a cruel weapon. Yet in thoughtful and caring hands, laughter is such a balm.

This is a hard story, yet I’m not sure I can count how often I laughed out loud while reading—not at someone’s expense but at Gail Honeyman’s ability to adeptly portray so many of the odd moments that come along with being a human on this earth.

Most importantly, this story beautifully illustrates how one person with more emotional baggage than anyone should have to carry is able to walk herself into a peaceful life so different than the one that nearly crippled her. And of the help she gets along the way.

By Gail Honeyman ,

Why should I read it?

33 authors picked Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick

"Beautifully written and incredibly funny, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is about the importance of friendship and human connection. I fell in love with Eleanor, an eccentric and regimented loner whose life beautifully unfolds after a chance encounter with a stranger; I think you will fall in love, too!" -Reese Witherspoon

No one's ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine.

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of…


Book cover of Beartown

Gareth Griffiths

From Gareth's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Unknown Author Why Gareth loves this book

I felt this book really captured what it was like growing up in a small town. The characters seemed real and made decisions that felt natural to their characters.

By Fredrik Backman ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

FROM THE MULTI-MILLION COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ANXIOUS PEOPLE AND A MAN CALLED OVE, FREDRIK BACKMAN

**NOW A MAJOR HBO TV SERIES**

'I utterly believed in the residents of Beartown and felt ripped apart by the events in the book' JOJO MOYES

'I couldn't put it down. Heart-rending and engrossing' 5***** Reader Review
_________

In a large Swedish forest, Beartown hides a dark secret . . .

Cut-off from everywhere else, it experiences the kind of isolation that tears people apart.

And each year, more and more of the town is swallowed by the forest.

Then the town is offered…


If you love The Answer Is No...

Book cover of East of Troost

East of Troost by Ellen Barker,

East of Troost’s fictional narrator has moved back to her childhood home in a neighborhood that is now mostly Black and vastly changed by an expressway that displaced hundreds of families. It is the area located east of Troost Avenue, an invisible barrier created in the early 1900s to…

Book cover of Bel Canto

Kelly Bennett Author Of Out of the Mouth of Babe

From Kelly's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Kelly's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Kelly Bennett Why Kelly loves this book

There is a reason Ann Patchett is lauded as one of our best authors. The opening scene, which unfolds like an Action-Adventure Triller is so well-written--not one wasted word, flowery description, dialogue chain--it left me breathless and so tense I had to get up and move. From there, Patchett sculpt characters we come to know, and care so much about--each and every one of them--I wanted them all to live on happily-ever after! As a reader, I was so caught up in the story, I wanted to read faster and faster. As a writer, I wanted to stop and dissect it as BEL CANTO is a master class.

By Ann Patchett ,

Why should I read it?

10 authors picked Bel Canto as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Winner of The Women's Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

The poignant - and at times very funny - novel from the author of The Dutch House and Commonwealth.

Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honour of the powerful businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Roxane Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerised the international guests with her singing.

It is a perfect evening - until a band of gun-wielding terrorists takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening…


Book cover of Britt-Marie Was Here

Debbie Chein Morris Author Of We Used to Dance: Loving Judy, My Disabled Twin

From my list on getting through life’s challenges.

Why am I passionate about this?

At the age of fifty-three, I was suddenly thrust into the role of primary caregiver for my disabled twin sister who was unable to sit, stand, feed herself, eat solid foods, or communicate. Up to that point, that role had been my mother’s with the help of home-attendants; but my mother was aging and the care provided by the ever-changing attendants was wanting. I was forced to place Judy in a nursing home. The challenge left me overwhelmed with the responsibility of overseeing her care and there were days I wondered if I could go on. With the support of family and friends, I was able to make it through.

Debbie's book list on getting through life’s challenges

Debbie Chein Morris Why Debbie loves this book

Britt-Marie Was Here is a book of fiction. Nonetheless, it speaks to me as an example of persevering to get through life’s challenges.

Backman is a master of character development and I easily connected with the protagonist. I, like Britt Marie, have found myself outside my comfort zone, slowly moving forward to figure out how to navigate my new position in life.

For Britt Marie, it was living on her own in a new place, with new people, after leaving her husband upon whom she depended for everything; for me it was becoming a primary caregiver and decision-maker for my disabled twin sister.

Very different positions and yet sharing the challenge of accepting our new situation in life. I didn’t want the book to end.

By Fredrik Backman ,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Britt-Marie Was Here as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, and Anxious People captivates readers with this “warm and satisfying” (People) story “about a woman rediscovering herself after a personal crisis…fans of Backman will find another winner in these pages” (Publishers Weekly).

Britt-Marie can’t stand mess. A disorganized cutlery drawer ranks high on her list of unforgivable sins. She is not one to judge others—no matter how ill-mannered, unkempt, or morally suspect they might be. It’s just that sometimes people interpret her helpful suggestions as criticisms, which is certainly not…


Book cover of My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

Daniel J. Barrett Author Of Efficient Linux at the Command Line: Boost Your Command-Line Skills

From my list on quirky people and their adventures.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a nonfiction author, I’ve always been mystified by fictional character development. What qualities make one character fascinating and another a dud? How do great writers make us fall in love with their creations? If I had one wish as an author, it would be to create one truly beloved character. I particularly like quirky nonconformists who forge their own paths, making mistakes along the way, yet they remain sympathetic. When I finish reading the story, I miss their company. My five recommended books include some of my favorite characters in modern literature.

Daniel's book list on quirky people and their adventures

Daniel J. Barrett Why Daniel loves this book

I thought this book (another by the king of quirk, Backman) was hysterical. The relationship between the precocious seven-year-old main character, Elsa, and her nutty grandmother is laugh-out-loud funny yet poignant.

I also liked that the story included a bit of magical realism, so I was never quite sure what would happen next.


By Fredrik Backman ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A must-read for fans of Rachel Joyce's The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, BernadetteHeartbreaking and hilarious in equal measure, by the author of the New York Times bestselling phenomenon A Man Called Ove will charm and delight anyone who has ever had a grandmother. Everyone remembers the smell of their grandmother's house. Everyone remembers the stories their grandmother told them.But does everyone remember their grandmother flirting with policemen? Driving illegally?Breaking into a zoo in the middle of the night? Firing a paintball gun from a balcony in her dressing gown?Seven-year-old Elsa does.Some might call…


If you love Fredrik Backman...

Book cover of Liberty Bell and the Last American

Liberty Bell and the Last American by James Stoddard,

Americans love their Constitution. In seventeen-year-old Liberty Bell’s era it has become a myth. Centuries after the Great Blackout obliterates the world's digitized information, America's history is forgotten. Only confused legends remain, written in "The Americana," a book depicting a golden age where famous Americans from different eras existed together.

Book cover of Pride and Prejudice

Carol Stock Kranowitz Author Of The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Differences

From Carol's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Carol's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Carol Stock Kranowitz Why Carol loves this book

What's not to love about Jane Austen? She amuses, informs, instructs, and surprises us in her work. I've read her books more than once, and each reading is more delightful and meaningful.

By Jane Austen ,

Why should I read it?

43 authors picked Pride and Prejudice as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One of BBC's 100 Novels That Shaped Our World.

Jane Austen's best-loved novel is an unforgettable story about the inaccuracy of first impressions, the power of reason, and above all the strange dynamics of human relationships and emotions.

Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is illustrated by Hugh Thomson and features an afterword by author and critic, Henry Hitchings.

A tour de force of wit and sparkling dialogue, Pride and…


Book cover of Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague
Book cover of The Women
Book cover of A Man Called Ove

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