Here are 17 books that The Shadow of War fans have personally recommended if you like The Shadow of War. 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 The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good?

Ron Elsdon Author Of Business Behaving Well: Social Responsibility, from Learning to Doing

From my list on purpose leadership organizations and community.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am passionate about integrating individual, organizational, and community needs to create a better world for the benefit of us all. I am an author and founder of organizations in the career and workforce development fields. My four books (Affiliation in the Workplace, Building Workforce Strength, Business Behaving Well, and How to Build a Nontraditional Career Path) and much of my career explored bringing work to life for those close to us, for ourselves, for our organizations, and for our communities. My social activism has been expressed through community volunteer work and promoting a range of social causes. I hope you enjoy the books I have chosen for you!

Ron's book list on purpose leadership organizations and community

Ron Elsdon Why Ron loves this book

Sometimes, a book brings such a perceptive view that it elicits in me a response of gratitude and respect for the author. It surfaces ideas I long suspected were there but were just beyond grasp.

This is such a book. It shines a bright light on false meritocracy and what that means. I found this book profoundly moving and reaffirming about the important principles inherent in a just society. 

By Michael J. Sandel ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A TLS, GUARDIAN AND NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020

The new bestseller from the acclaimed author of Justice and one of the world's most popular philosophers

"Astute, insightful, and empathetic...A crucial book for this moment" Tara Westover, author of Educated

These are dangerous times for democracy. We live in an age of winners and losers, where the odds are stacked in favour of the already fortunate. Stalled social mobility and entrenched inequality give the lie to the promise that "you can make it if you try". And the consequence is a brew of anger and frustration that has…


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Book cover of On the Horizon

On the Horizon by Lois Lowry,

Lois Lowry looks back at history through a personal lens as she draws from her own memories as a child in Hawaii and Japan, as well as from historical research, in this stunning work in verse for young readers.

On the Horizon tells the story of people whose lives were…

Book cover of Terrace Story

Steven Clark Cunningham Author Of It's Considerate to Be Literate about Religion: Poetry and Prose about Religion, Conflict, and Peace in Our World

From Steven's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Surgeon Scientist Poet Parent Scholar of religion

Steven's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Steven Clark Cunningham Why Steven loves this book

This a magical-realism novel is very well written. The author accomplished a lot in a short but complete novel. Multiple levels of meaning. It explores the literal and figurative space that we humans inhabit. Other themes include loss, love, and time.

By Hilary Leichter ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

From the author of the acclaimed novel Temporary, an intimate exploration of time, a fable about love, an epic daydream for a broken-hearted world

Annie, Edward, and their young daughter, Rose, live in a cramped apartment. One night, without warning, they find a beautiful terrace hidden in their closet. It wasn’t there before, and it seems to only appear when their friend Stephanie visits. A city dweller’s dream come true! But every extra bit of space has a hidden cost, and the terrace sets off a seismic chain of events, forever changing the shape of their tiny home, and the…


Book cover of Cold Mountain

T.R. Napper Author Of The Escher Man

From T.R.'s 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

T.R.'s 3 favorite reads in 2024

T.R. Napper Why T.R. loves this book

An American Civil War novel that follows Inman, a deserter from the Confederate Army, and Ada, a minister’s daughter who he knew briefly before going to war.

Historical fiction is one of my least favourite genres, but this really blew me away. Perfect prose, descriptions of the wilderness, and character depth. Frazier details the transformative brutality and pointlessness of war, and the desperate longing of love denied.

The final few chapters are both inevitable and breathtaking.

By Charles Frazier ,

Why should I read it?

13 authors picked Cold Mountain as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1997, Charles Frazier’s debut novel Cold Mountain made publishing history when it sailed to the top of The New York Times best-seller list for sixty-one weeks, won numerous literary awards, including the National Book Award, and went on to sell over three million copies. Now, the beloved American epic returns, reissued by Grove Press to coincide with the publication of Frazier’s eagerly-anticipated second novel, Thirteen Moons. Sorely wounded and fatally disillusioned in the fighting at Petersburg, a Confederate soldier named Inman decides to walk back to his home in the Blue Ridge mountains to Ada, the woman he loves.…


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Book cover of The Remarkable Cause: A Novel of James Lovell and the Crucible of the Revolution

The Remarkable Cause by Jean C. O'Connor,

The Remarkable Cause: A Novel of James Lovell and the Crucible of the Revolution is the story of James Lovell, teacher at the Boston Latin School at the beginning of the Revolution.

James Lovell demonstrates the saying “heroes are not born, but made,” with his persistent fight to help his…

Book cover of The Last Kingdom

Kat Haas

From Kat's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Unknown Author Why Kat loves this book

This applies to the Saxon Chronicles series as a whole, not just the first book. I am someone who has an interest in Viking Age Britain on a scholastic and entertainment level.

I read the entire series back to back and found it quick, easy, enjoyable and sometimes hard-hitting. Uhtred isn't a perfect person, he often gets in his own way and has his bad qualities but deep down he is a good man, even if he can be viewed as more morally grey than perhaps the other major characters in the plot.

There's plenty of bloody action and drama but you also see characters evolve as they grow older and the world dramatically changes around them during this very pivotal time in British history.

By Bernard Cornwell ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The first book in the epic and bestselling series that has gripped millions.

A hero will be forged from this broken land.

As seen on Netflix and BBC around the world.

In a land torn apart by conflict, an orphan boy has come of age. Raised by the Vikings, deadly enemies of his own Saxon people, Uhtred is a fierce and skilled warrior who kneels to no-one.

Alfred - Saxon, king, man of god - fights to hold the throne of the only land still resisting the pagan northerners.

Uhtred and Alfred's fates are tangled, soaked in blood and blackened…


Book cover of Johnny Tremain

David Churchill Barrow Author Of And Justice for All, Even Redcoats

From my list on learning lessons from history the easy way.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a descendant of William Bradford and Myles Standish, of Pilgrim fame. I was raised in a Massachusetts farmhouse where the commission of James Churchill as a Captain in the militia still hangs, signed by John Hancock. I have lived and breathed this stuff since first opening my eyes. My wife, MaryLu, is a retired elementary teacher who helps bring life to the young characters. Together, through the medium of novels they would actually enjoy reading, we seek to inspire American youth with the principles of our founding, so that they may be more effective in preserving and defending them.

David's book list on learning lessons from history the easy way

David Churchill Barrow Why David loves this book

“To the youth of the world in whose spirit and courage rest the hope of eventual freedom for all mankind.” Thus begins Disney’s film version of this novel. Like Walt himself, this novel inspired a love of the history of our revolution in me at a young age.

Did you know that Liberty Square in the Magic Kingdom is from this story? Johnny learns early in the story that “pride cometh before a fall,” but his personal struggles become subsumed in a cause greater than himself.

The author comes from an old Yankee family with ties to the revolution, and so do I.  The commission of James Churchill as a Captain in the Massachusetts militia, signed by John Hancock, still hangs in the farmhouse where I grew up. It’s in her blood, and that comes through in this timeless classic. 

By Esther Hoskins Forbes ,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Johnny Tremain as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 10, 11, and 12.

What is this book about?

This thrilling Newbery Medal-winning novel about the Revolutionary War is a classic of children's historical fiction.

Fourteen-year-old Johnny Tremain, an apprentice silversmith with a bright future ahead of him, injures his hand in a tragic accident, forcing him to look for other work. In his new job as a horse-boy, riding for the patriotic newspaper The Boston Observer and as a messenger for the Sons of Liberty, he encounters John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Dr. Joseph Warren.

Soon Johnny is involved in the pivotal events of the American Revolution, from the Boston Tea Party to the first shots fired at…


Book cover of All Quiet on the Western Front

Luke Sherlock

From Luke's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Unknown Author Why Luke loves this book

Paul is a dawg.

By Erich Maria Remarque , Arthur Wesley Wheen (translator) ,

Why should I read it?

24 authors picked All Quiet on the Western Front as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 9, 10, 11, and 12.

What is this book about?

The story is told by a young 'unknown soldier' in the trenches of Flanders during the First World War. Through his eyes we see all the realities of war; under fire, on patrol, waiting in the trenches, at home on leave, and in hospitals and dressing stations. Although there are vividly described incidents which remain in mind, there is no sense of adventure here, only the feeling of youth betrayed and a deceptively simple indictment of war - of any war - told for a whole generation of victims.


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Book cover of Rebel City

Rebel City by Mark Simmons,

'There it is, the city of Liverpool,' says Henry Kitto, master of the Hannah Leigh three days out of Fowey in Cornwall with a cargo of China Clay standing beside Ben Pascoe, 'a cesspool of humanity and no mistake. Yet full of opportunity for them that can grab it.'

Thus,…

Book cover of Master and Commander

Anthony Riches Author Of Wounds of Honour

From my list on insight as to why men go to war.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m pretty well qualified to provide you with a list of five great books about men at war because, frankly, I’ve spent half my life reading them and the other half trying to write them (you be the judge!). My degree in Military Studies was focused on the question of what makes men endure the lunacy of war (whether they be ‘goodies’ or ‘baddies’), and it was in fiction that I found some of the clearest answers–clue: it’s often less about country and duty and more about the love of the men alongside the soldier. In learning how to write, I also learned how to recognize great–enjoy!

Anthony's book list on insight as to why men go to war

Anthony Riches Why Anthony loves this book

O’Brien performed some sort of alchemy in turning a previously dry and underpopulated section of the historical fiction genre into literary gold, at once gripping and supremely well-written. One follows the adventures of a Royal Navy Commander and his Irish doctor friend–a man with a secret life–through the war at sea in the Napoleonic era, and I found the balance between naval exploits–Jack Aubrey being a swashbuckler of renown–and period history made for fascinating counter-points.

Over and above that, I loved the way O’Brien built an ensemble cast and proceeded to draw the reader into their lives, making the death of any one of them a personal loss. I know that I benefitted from learning this writing trick and used it myself in my Empire series, and I know at least one other Roman author who did much the same. Wonderful stories that kept me coming back, and this is…

By Patrick O'Brian ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

This, the first in the splendid series of Jack Aubrey novels, establishes the friendship between Captain Aubrey, R.N., and Stephen Maturin, ship's surgeon and intelligence agent, against a thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. Details of a life aboard a man-of-war in Nelson's navy are faultlessly rendered: the conversational idiom of the officers in the ward room and the men on the lower deck, the food, the floggings, the mysteries of the wind and the rigging, and the roar of broadsides as the great ships close in battle.


Book cover of The Last Full Measure

Philip Duke Author Of The Village: A Novel of Wartime Crete

From my list on wartime historical fiction.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a retired professor of anthropology. I was first drawn to archaeology after a high-school presentation by a Classics master on the ruins of Paestum. I have enjoyed exploring the past but have a special passion for Greece. Because of my working-class origin in Liverpool, England, class struggle and the fight for human dignity has been a leitmotif of first my academic and now my fiction writing. My books explore how war inevitably changes the lives of the characters. I have bachelors and graduate degrees from Cambridge University and the University of Calgary. I'm a Fellow of the Society of Antiquities. I hope you enjoy the books on my list!

Philip's book list on wartime historical fiction

Philip Duke Why Philip loves this book

I actually think that Shaara has outdone his father. Both, of course, weave the story around actual historical events, although Shaara Junior’s introduction of fictional characters livens the narrative up. I’ve enjoyed all of Shaara’s books, regardless of their historical setting, but I chose this one because it was a good way for me to learn more about the Civil War post-Gettysburg and also have a really good read.

By Jeff Shaara ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

In the Pulitzer prize–winning classic The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara created the finest Civil War novel of our time. In the bestselling Gods and Generals, Shaara’s son, Jeff, brilliantly sustained his father’s vision, telling the epic story of the events culminating in the Battle of Gettysburg. Now, Jeff Shaara brings this legendary father-son trilogy to its stunning conclusion in a novel that brings to life the final two years of the Civil War.
 
As The Last Full Measure opens, Gettysburg is past and the war advances to its third brutal year. On the Union side, the gulf between the politicians…


Book cover of Northwest Passage

Norman Gilliland Author Of Sand Mansions

From my list on dropping you into another time and place.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in Gainesville, Florida, and read every history of the area I could get my hands on, all the while imagining who lived there and what their lives were like. I got three degrees from the University of Florida and applied the skills learned there to Sand Mansions. The novel covers the years 1876 to 1905, a time in which a get-rich-quick frontier mentality slowly gave way to a more stable approach to community building. Sand Mansions won a prize for Best Adult Fiction from the Florida Authors and Publishers Association.

Norman's book list on dropping you into another time and place

Norman Gilliland Why Norman loves this book

When I was 11 years old, there was a TV show called Northwest Passage, which was an eye-opener for me because it took place at a time when the American frontier was somewhere in New York State. At the end of each episode the image of a book appeared, and I pestered my parents to get me a copy. A few days before my birthday, I caught sight of the book in a bag on my dad’s dresser. I was thrilled. I loved the adventures of Rogers’ Rangers as they fought their way through an endless forest during the French and Indian War and searched for the fabled shortcut to the Orient. In school, my book report on Northwest Passage was so long and enthusiastic that the teacher called time on me.

By Kenneth Roberts ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

This classic novel follows the career of Major Rogers, whose incredible exploits during the French and Indian Wars are told through Langdon Towne, an artist and Harvard student who flees trouble to join the army.


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Book cover of War and Preservation

War and Preservation by Karen Lynne Klink,

In the throes of the Civil War, Adrien Villere joins Terry's Texas Rangers to safeguard his East Texas home and protect the reputation of his love, Lily Hart.

As war unfolds, Adrien grapples with forbidden love, ethical dilemmas, and the harsh treatment of the enslaved, culminating in a poignant realization…

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 Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good?
Book cover of Terrace Story
Book cover of Cold Mountain

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