Here are 100 books that This Must Be the Place fans have personally recommended if you like This Must Be the Place. 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 Some New Kind of Kick: A Memoir

Ali Smith

From Ali's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Unknown Author Why Ali loves this book

Kid Congo Powers stands out in a sea of musical icons because of his honesty and humor. Leave the unchecked egos to David Lee Roth. Although Kid's played in three of the best bands of all time (the Cramps, the Gun Club, the Bad Seeds), he writes about his adventures with the open-eyed excitement of the young punk who headed up a Ramones fan club. That is to say, he seems unsullied and easy to fall in love with.

By Kid Congo Powers , Chris Campion ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Some New Kind of Kick as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


If you love This Must Be the Place...

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 The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere.

Ali Smith

From Ali's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Unknown Author Why Ali loves this book

James Spooner's High Desert is a seminal read. Being a graphic novel memoir aided my ability to sit inside the life of this young punk of color growing up in the barren lands of American suburbia, with all the menace and terror and determination that comes along with that experience on full, constant display. Intense, meaningful and aesthetically beautiful.

By James Spooner ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Winner of a 2022 ALA Alex Award

Winner of the 2023 Cartoonist Studio Prize for Print Comics

One of The Washington Post's 10 Best Graphic Novels of 2022 * One of NYPL's Best Books of 2022 *A Publishers Weekly "Best Book of 2022"

A formative coming-of-age graphic memoir by the creator of Afro-punk: a young man's immersive reckoning with identity, racism, clumsy teen love and belonging in an isolated California desert, and a search for salvation and community through punk.

Apple Valley, California, in the late eighties, a thirsty, miserable desert.

Teenage James Spooner hates that he and his mom…


Book cover of Hamnet

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

It evoked such powerful emotions in me.

By Maggie O'Farrell ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

WINNER OF THE 2020 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION - THE NO. 1 BESTSELLER 2021
'Richly sensuous... something special' The Sunday Times
'A thing of shimmering wonder' David Mitchell

TWO EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE. A LOVE THAT DRAWS THEM TOGETHER. A LOSS THAT THREATENS TO TEAR THEM APART.

On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a sudden fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home?

Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London.

Neither…


If you love Maggie O'Farrell...

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 The Marriage Portrait

paula3

From Paula's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Unknown Author Why Paula loves this book

Another great read by Maggie, but this time with an added layer of a base in historical fiction. I was swept along by the story.

By Maggie O'Farrell ,

Why should I read it?

20 authors picked The Marriage Portrait as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION FINALIST • REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • The author of award-winning Hamnet brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life in this unforgettable fictional portrait of the captivating young duchess Lucrezia de' Medici as she makes her way in a troubled court.

“I could not stop reading this incredible true story.” —Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club Pick)

"O’Farrell pulls out little threads of historical detail to weave this story of a precocious girl sensitive to the contradictions of her station...You may know the history, and you may think you…


Book cover of Wolf Hall

Susan Price Author Of A Sterkarm Kiss

From my list on time and change.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a British author for children and young adults and have lost count of the number of books I’ve published. I’ve won awards, and my books have been translated into many languages. I’m also an avid reader: have been for almost all of my life. I know a good series when it hooks me in!

Susan's book list on time and change

Susan Price Why Susan loves this book

I had my doubts about reading this because, well… Tudor history.

I love Mantel’s work but…another trot through Henry VIII’s marriages and murders? I wasn’t sure it was for me. But within moments of opening the book, I was away with Mantel and Thomas Cromwell.

Even the title, Wolf Hall, demonstrates her gift. It was the name of the Seymour family’s seat, and the book never takes us there—but it was Jane Seymour who replaced Anne Boleyn and gave monstrous Henry his heir. The title hangs over the action, echoing, Man is wolf to man.

Mantel’s Cromwell is complex, often kind as well as ruthless, but Mantel herself said that she presents only one possible view of him. Read it and make up your own mind!

By Hilary Mantel ,

Why should I read it?

23 authors picked Wolf Hall as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Winner of the Man Booker Prize Shortlisted for the the Orange Prize Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award

`Dizzyingly, dazzlingly good' Daily Mail

'Our most brilliant English writer' Guardian

England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust and need comes Thomas Cromwell, first as Wolsey's clerk, and later his successor.

Cromwell is a wholly original man: the son of a brutal blacksmith, a political genius, a briber, a charmer, a bully,…


Book cover of Miss Austen: A Novel of the Austen Sisters

Tracy Wise Author Of Manufacturing a Duchess

From my list on 19th century women characters to spill the tea with.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love 19th century novels and strong heroines. I have spent so much of my life reading and living in the worlds of these novels, sometimes I feel as much (or more) a native of that world than our own 21st century. I also love vibrant, intelligent writers who know how to put a sentence together and create an atmosphere and characters who pop off of the page. If you want to get lost in a book, and hang out with incredible women, I warmly recommend these five novels.

Tracy's book list on 19th century women characters to spill the tea with

Tracy Wise Why Tracy loves this book

This is a lovely, quiet book literally set in Jane Austen’s own, private world.

It centers around her surviving sister, Cassandra, and explores what it means to be part of a sisterhood that is close and intimate, and then to lose one half of that pair. Cassandra seeks to do what she believes is best, on her sister’s behalf and to preserve (or craft, perhaps?) the memory of that sister’s life.

It is about everyday people and life (yes, there was a time when Jane Austen was simply the not-well-off daughter of a vicar in rural England). A moving read. I have not yet watched the miniseries, starring Keeley Hawes, which is available via PBS streaming.

By Gill Hornby ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The Sunday Times bestselling novel, set to be a major TV drama
________________________
'You can't help feeling that Jane would have approved.' OBSERVER

'So good, so intelligent, so clever, so entertaining - I adored it.' CLAIRE TOMALIN
________________________
Throughout her lifetime, Jane Austen wrote countless letters to her sister. But why did Cassandra burn them all?

1840: twenty three years after the death of her famous sister Jane, Cassandra Austen returns to the village of Kintbury, and the home of her family's friends, the Fowles.

She knows that, in some dusty corner of the sprawling vicarage, there is a cache…


If you love This Must Be the Place...

Book cover of Courting the Sun: A Novel of Versailles

Courting the Sun by Peggy Joque Williams,

Can a free-spirited country girl navigate the world of intrigue, illicit affairs, and power-mongering that is the court of Louis XIV—the Sun King--and still keep her head?

France, 1670. Sixteen-year-old Sylvienne d’Aubert receives an invitation to attend the court of King Louis XIV. She eagerly accepts, unaware of her mother’s…

Book cover of All the Light We Cannot See

Mercedes M. Yardley Author Of Love is a Crematorium and Other Tales

From Mercedes' 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Mercedes' 3 favorite reads in 2024

Mercedes M. Yardley Why Mercedes loves this book

What an utterly charming book. It's written beautifully, has characters I cared for, and was literary while still being easy to digest and understand. It often delves into the brutality of war but the chapters are so short that you're in the darkness for a brief time before taking a breather. I enjoyed it immensely.

By Anthony Doerr ,

Why should I read it?

55 authors picked All the Light We Cannot See as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

WINNER OF THE 2015 PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR FICTION

A beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II

Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.'

For Marie-Laure, blind since the age of six, the world is full of mazes. The miniature of a Paris neighbourhood, made by her father to teach her the way home.…


Book cover of Circe

Raymond Walker Author Of Under Dark Skies

From Raymond's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Raymond's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Raymond Walker Why Raymond loves this book

The myth of "Circe" haunts the ancient world. This novel was a new beginning to a wonderful tale well told and written. I would recommend it.

By Madeline Miller ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The international Number One bestseller from the author of The Song of Achilles, shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction

Woman. Witch. Myth. Mortal. Outcast. Lover. Destroyer. Survivor. CIRCE.

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. Circe is a strange child - not powerful and terrible, like her father, nor gorgeous and mercenary like her mother. Scorned and rejected, Circe grows up in the shadows, at home in neither the world of gods or mortals. But Circe has a dark power of her own: witchcraft. When her gift…


Book cover of A Gentleman in Moscow

Barry Maher Author Of The Great Dick

From Barry's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Barry's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Barry Maher Why Barry loves this book

I didn't expect to like A Gentleman in Moscow nearly as much as I did. I'm not a gentleman. I don't really care about gentlemen, and I'm generally not all that sympathetic to the plight of the Russian aristocracy. Most of them had what they had because they were, in effect, slave owners.

Plus Rostov spent the book in a hotel. What could be less exciting--a prison without the normal drama and suffering of a prison? This book demonstrates what a great writer can do. To put the reader inside a world and a character, creating not just interest but wonder and even excitement built on a sympathy the reader might have never expected to feel. We're all human, after all. In the most important ways, we're all the same.

By Amor Towles ,

Why should I read it?

47 authors picked A Gentleman in Moscow as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers, soon to be a major television series

From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and…


If you love Maggie O'Farrell...

Book cover of Chariot of the Soul

Chariot of the Soul by Linda Proud,

Set in Britain at the time of the Roman invasion, it is narrated by Togidubnus of the Atrebates, whose mother was a druid and father, King Verica, a strong supporter of Rome. Having spent ten years in Rome being educated by the philosopher Seneca, he comes to rely increasingly on…

Book cover of The Song of Achilles

paula3

From Paula's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Unknown Author Why Paula loves this book

As someone new to ancient greek history this provided an illuminating, detailed and relatable insight. Beautiful writing combined with a dizzying array of characters, and a curiously stunning lead. I have rarely been so moved.

By Madeline Miller ,

Why should I read it?

48 authors picked The Song of Achilles as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

**OVER 1.5 MILLION COPIES SOLD**
**A 10th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL EDITION, FEATURING A NEW FOREWORD BY THE AUTHOR**

WINNER OF THE ORANGE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION
THE INTERNATIONAL SENSATION
A SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

'Captivating' DONNA TARTT
'I loved it' J K ROWLING
'Ravishingly vivid' EMMA DONOGHUE

Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. Despite their differences, Achilles befriends the shamed prince, and as they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms…


Book cover of Some New Kind of Kick: A Memoir
Book cover of The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere.
Book cover of Hamnet

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