43 books like The End of Drum-Time

By Hanna Pylvainen,

Here are 43 books that The End of Drum-Time fans have personally recommended if you like The End of Drum-Time. Shepherd is a community of 10,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Still Points North: One Alaskan Childhood, One Grown-up World, One Long Journey Home

G. Elizabeth Kretchmer Author Of The Damnable Legacy

From my list on for escaping to Alaska.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a huge fan of Alaska—a landscape of unforgiving weather patterns, inaccessible terrain, savage animals, and undeniable pristine beauty. I’m also a nature lover and spend as much time outdoors as possible, often hiking and marveling at spectacular vistas like those found in The Damnable Legacy. But I’m also an avid observer of the human race and am fascinated by all sorts of behaviors: why we pursue our passions, how we love and grieve, and whether we can really change who we are at the core. 

G.'s book list on for escaping to Alaska

G. Elizabeth Kretchmer Why did G. love this book?

The initial hook in Still Points North was, for me, the opening and its description of the 4-seat plane that the author often flew in with her father. I flew in one when I went to Denali for field research for my novel, and it became not just one of those memories I’ll never forget but also experiential data for my book. I also appreciated how the author so eloquently describes the landscape, comparing and contrasting life in the wilderness with life on the East Coast. But what most impressed me was her revelation, which coincides with the experiences of my novel’s protagonist, that relationships can sometimes be more frightening and challenging than Alaska’s natural savagery.

By Leigh Newman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Still Points North as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Part adventure story, part love story, part homecoming, Still Points North is a page-turning memoir that explores the extremes of belonging and exile, and the difference between how to survive and knowing how to truly live.

Growing up in the wilds of Alaska, seven-year-old Leigh Newman spent her time landing silver salmon, hiking glaciers, and flying in a single-prop plane. But her life split in two when her parents unexpectedly divorced, requiring her to spend summers on the tundra with her “Great Alaskan” father and the school year in Baltimore with her more urbane mother.

Navigating the fraught terrain of…


Book cover of Little Grey Rabbit’s Christmas

Martin Davies Author Of Mrs Hudson and The Christmas Canary

From my list on Christmas certain not to frighten the reindeer.

Why am I passionate about this?

Christmas, it’s often said, is a time for family, so I asked my son to answer this one for me: "He’s an all-right dad, but sometimes he’s really annoying. His most annoying habit is foraging for things in hedges. His books are actually quite good. He’s good about driving me to places. The dog loves him. He really likes Christmas. His best Christmas habit is that he loves Christmas trees, but he never wants to put them up as early as everyone else, then he always makes us keep them up till Twelfth Night."

Martin's book list on Christmas certain not to frighten the reindeer

Martin Davies Why did Martin love this book?

Christmas is a time for nostalgia, and this one takes me back to my childhood. I remember sitting mesmerised by Margaret Tempest’s gorgeous festive illustrations while the story of these woodland creatures was read to me. Gentle, atmospheric Yuletide fare that makes me want to go tobogganing under the stars.

By Alison Uttley, Margaret Tempest (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Little Grey Rabbit’s Christmas as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

Since publication of the first Little Grey Rabbit book in 1929, the series has become a classic of children's literature,
capturing the hearts of many. The popularity of Alison Uttley's magical stories and Margaret Tempest's lively
illustrations meant that generations of children grew up with Grey Rabbit, Squirrel, Hare, Moldy Warp and little
Fuzzypeg. These lovely versions of four favourite original titles will bring the world of Little Grey Rabbit to a new
generation.


Book cover of A Thousand Trails Home: Living with Caribou

Richard Chiappone Author Of The Hunger of Crows

From my list on real lives of Alaskans—not the idiots on reality TV.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have lived in Alaska for forty years, working both as a construction worker and a college professor. I love Alaska, but not always the way it is depicted, particularly on reality TV. I hope the characters I create and the stories I tell will bring a more balanced view of everyday Alaskans, who are, after all, Americans too. The Hunger of Crows shows small-town Alaska through the eyes of four characters: two lifelong Alaskans, and two “from Outside” as we say here. Hopefully, it will provide a balanced view of this great place.

Richard's book list on real lives of Alaskans—not the idiots on reality TV

Richard Chiappone Why did Richard love this book?

Born and raised in remote bush Alaska, Kanter’s hypnotizing writing will take you with him across the remote tundra of his home territory as he hunts and lives among the great herds of caribou. Each short chapter is like a prose poem, beautifully written and evocative of the people and the place. A glimpse into historical, almost prehistorical, life in Alaska. 

By Seth Kantner,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Thousand Trails Home as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?


Bestselling, award-winning author of Ordinary Wolves, a debut novel Publisher’s Weekly called “a tour de force”
Conservation-based story of changing Arctic from an on-the-ground perpective
Features full-color photography throughout

A stunningly lyrical firsthand account of a life spent hunting, studying, and living alongside caribou, A Thousand Trails Home encompasses the historical past and present day, revealing the fragile intertwined lives of people and animals surviving on an uncertain landscape of cultural and climatic change sweeping the Alaskan Arctic. Author Seth Kantner vividly illuminates this critical story about the interconnectedness of the Iñupiat of Northwest Alaska, the Western Arctic Caribou Herd,…


Book cover of Tales from Outer Suburbia

Martin Davies Author Of Mrs Hudson and The Christmas Canary

From my list on Christmas certain not to frighten the reindeer.

Why am I passionate about this?

Christmas, it’s often said, is a time for family, so I asked my son to answer this one for me: "He’s an all-right dad, but sometimes he’s really annoying. His most annoying habit is foraging for things in hedges. His books are actually quite good. He’s good about driving me to places. The dog loves him. He really likes Christmas. His best Christmas habit is that he loves Christmas trees, but he never wants to put them up as early as everyone else, then he always makes us keep them up till Twelfth Night."

Martin's book list on Christmas certain not to frighten the reindeer

Martin Davies Why did Martin love this book?

Shaun Tan is an artist and writer, and an Oscar winner to boot, and I love the dazzling originality and quirkiness of his work. This one’s on my list because it includes the (very) short story "The Nameless Holiday". Which is not at all about Christmas. But sort of is, in an opposite-of-Christmas sort of way. (No spoilers - you really have to read it to see what I mean.) Anyway, late December always feels like a brilliant time to read it again. Another one I go back to every year. 

By Shaun Tan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Tales from Outer Suburbia as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Do you remember the water buffalo at the end of our street? Or the deep-sea diver we found near the underpass? Do you know why dogs bark in the middle of the night?Shaun Tan reveals the quiet mysteries of everyday life: homemade pets, dangerous weddings, stranded sea mammals, tiny exchange students, the unexpected edge of the world and secret rooms filled with darkness and delight.This very special book and jigsaw puzzle set includes the internationally acclaimed, multi-award winning Tales From Outer Suburbia and a jigsaw of the 'The Tuesday Afternoon Reading Group'. The 700 mm x 500 mm jigsaw comprises…


Book cover of The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

Martin Davies Author Of Mrs Hudson and The Christmas Canary

From my list on Christmas certain not to frighten the reindeer.

Why am I passionate about this?

Christmas, it’s often said, is a time for family, so I asked my son to answer this one for me: "He’s an all-right dad, but sometimes he’s really annoying. His most annoying habit is foraging for things in hedges. His books are actually quite good. He’s good about driving me to places. The dog loves him. He really likes Christmas. His best Christmas habit is that he loves Christmas trees, but he never wants to put them up as early as everyone else, then he always makes us keep them up till Twelfth Night."

Martin's book list on Christmas certain not to frighten the reindeer

Martin Davies Why did Martin love this book?

I’ve had so much joy imagining events below stairs in Baker Street, it would be wrong not to include a tale from above stairs. This one finds the great detective grappling with a Christmas goose, a stranger’s hat, and the stolen jewel of the title. My father used to bring me the Conan Doyle books from the library when I was a child, and would often wonder aloud what tales Mr. Holmes’s housekeeper could have told. Many years later, as a birthday gift for him, I wrote my first Mrs. Hudson novel. 

By Arthur Conan Doyle,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Found at the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6.30 this evening at 221B, Baker Street.

It’s the 27th of December and Sherlock Holmes has a new mystery to solve. Who is the unlucky owner of the festive goose dropped on Tottenham Court Road on Christmas morning – and just how much do they know about the priceless gem hidden inside it?

In this classic Christmas tale, Holmes and Watson take us on a riotous ride through London in search of the answer to a…


Book cover of The Night Before Christmas

Susan Grossey Author Of The Man in the Canary Waistcoat

From my list on the 1820s (officially the best decade ever).

Why am I passionate about this?

If you ask people to name a book set in the Regency period, your money is safe if you bet on them picking a Jane Austen. But the Regency was about much more than manners and matrimony. In my own areas of interest – justice, money, and financial crime – everything was changing, with the widespread introduction of paper money and cheques, the recognition that those on trial should have a defence as well as a prosecution, and the creation of modern police in the form of the Metropolitan Police. Dickens made the Victorian era famous, but the decades before good Queen V ascended the throne are equally fascinating.

Susan's book list on the 1820s (officially the best decade ever)

Susan Grossey Why did Susan love this book?

This poem was published anonymously in 1823. It’s such a Christmas staple that it’s hard to imagine how ground-breaking it was, but the simple plot – a family sleeps on Christmas Eve while the father hears a noise outside and sees Santa Claus in a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer – was the first to set that quintessential Christmas scene. A friend of the author was charmed by the poem and sent it anonymously to a New York newspaper. The author finally owned up to it in 1837, confessing that as a Professor of Oriental and Greek Literature, he had been uneasy about being associated with “unscholarly verse” that he had written only to amuse his children. But this “unscholarly verse” made his name and charms us still.

By Clement C. Moore, Christine Brallier (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

'Twas the night before Christmas and Santa's late night visit has a man and his curious kitty investigating. Did you know that Santa can play the guitar? Well, he can! Each page is filled with thoughtful details, luscious color, and a joyful whimsy. Mosaic artist Christine Brallier has created fifteen stained glass mosaic illustrations in her unique rendition of the classic The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore. Reading the book with her family nearly five years ago, Christine was inspired to create her own version of the story and to put her family and their cat in it.…


Book cover of People of the Deer

TP Wood Author Of 77° North

From my list on stirring your heart and imagination.

Why am I passionate about this?

It’s Saturday, 5 p.m. If you could peer back in time to the late ’60s, you’d find me plunked in front of our new colour RCA Victor, a Swanson TV dinner steaming before me, and the theme…da-da-DAAA-da-da-da-da-DAAAA, announcing my favourite show: Star Trek. I absorbed the logic of Mr. Spock, the passion of Dr. McCoy, and the fantastical world of Klingons, wormholes, and warp drives. Add to that a degree in history and English, and it set the stage for my passion to read and write in genres of science fiction and magical realism. I hope you find these books as stimulating and thought-provoking as I did.  

TP's book list on stirring your heart and imagination

TP Wood Why did TP love this book?

Perseverance, and an unwitting courage against all odds; that’s the essence of Farley Mowat’s People of the Deer.

Mowat’s book immortalizes a small band of Inuit as they traverse the barrens of Canada’s eastern Arctic, enduring starvation, punishing winter conditions, and a sociopolitical system bent on eradicating their five-thousand-year-old culture. This book shattered my perception about how I see myself as a Canadian, and injustices inflicted on indigenous peoples.

Written over seventy years ago, People of the Deer is testament to Mowat’s insight into a travesty that continues to this today, and tells me we still have a long way to go. 

By Farley Mowat,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked People of the Deer as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1886, the Ihalmiut people of northern Canada numbered seven thousand by 1946, when Farley Mowat began his two-year stay in the Arctic, the population had fallen to just forty. With them, he observed for the first time the phenomenon that would inspire him for the rest of his life: the millennia-old migration of the Arctic's caribou herds. He also endured bleak, interminable winters, suffered agonizing shortages of food, and witnessed the continual, devastating intrusions of outsiders bent on exploitation. Here, in this classic and first book to demonstrate the mammoth literary talent that would produce some of the most…


Book cover of A New Path: To Transcend the Great Forgetting Through Incorporating Ancestral Practices into Contemporary Living

Jessica Carew Kraft Author Of Why We Need to Be Wild: One Woman's Quest for Ancient Human Answers to 21st Century Problems

From my list on surviving the collapse of civilization.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a writer, an anthropologist, and a mother. I spent five years researching ancient human survival skills and learning from modern wilderness survival experts about how to live the original Homo sapiens lifestyle. I became deeply invested in the importance of these skills amidst climate change and digital transformation because they connect us to our evolutionary heritage and safeguard our species’ survival into the future if and when our civilization collapses (as all past civilizations have done!) I find hope in being prepared for the possible demise of our industrial system, embracing the opportunities that arise instead of trying to preserve it at all costs. 

Jessica's book list on surviving the collapse of civilization

Jessica Carew Kraft Why did Jessica love this book?

The secret to mastering your apocalypse experience is to think of it not as surviving, but as thrivingin the way that humans did for over 300,000 years as hunter-gatherers.

This book will drop you into that mindset as you read about how far our modern civilization has deviated from our original lifestyle, and the huge price we have paid for all of our comforts, conveniences, and technological wizardry.

This book may make you want to adopt an apocalypse-ready lifestyle even in the absence of societal collapse, since the new path he proposes offers so much in terms of improved health and wellbeing, rewarding outdoor activities, and IRL interaction (enjoy more sex, he says).  

By Arthur Haines,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A New Path takes a candid look at the contemporary lifeway of humans in an attempt to reinstate our biological norms--patterns of living that define each species on the planet. Whether one is to discuss a wolf, a caribou, or an eagle, there are features of these animal's lives that define them. Given their unique adaptations, they are tailored, through evolution, to living in a particular way (e.g., a caribou cannot enjoy the diet of a wolf). This book presents the forgotten species' norms of Homo sapiens and explains that when we deviate from these patterns, we experience sickness of…


Book cover of The True Story of Santa Claus: The History, the Traditions, the Magic

D.W. Boorn Author Of The Big Secret: The Whole and Honest Truth About Santa Claus

From my list on Santa Claus and his history.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was such a die-hard fan of Santa Claus as a kid, my mom had to debunk the myth two years in a row! Because, yeah, I heard you, but surely that was a bad attempt at humor last year. I won’t lie. It was traumatic. I wrote this book as a way to ease kids into the knowledge without anyone in the family feeling bad about it. It puts a great positive spin on this childhood rite of passage and empowers kids to get the info when they’re ready for it.

D.W.'s book list on Santa Claus and his history

D.W. Boorn Why did D.W. love this book?

This is a beautiful book that delves into the origins of the Big Guy but also chronicles the contemporary images to which kids have been exposed. It’s filled with short magazine-like articles about pretty much anything you can think of that’s Santa related. Rudolph the Red nosed reindeer? Miracle on 34th street? How about Santa’s favorite cookie recipe? All there and SO much more! Clear a prime spot on the coffee table and wipe those fingers before you turn the page.

By Janet Giovanelli,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

He's a symbol of hope and hapiness, of generosity and benevolence. Santa Clause is simply one of the most beloved legends ever embraced. The Story of Santa explores the history of Father Christmas. Who is he, really? Where did he come from? (His origins may surprise you!) Why does he fulfill our wishes? And what can we learn from him? 

He's become a ubiquitous figure during the Christmas season with his white beard, red suit, and prominent belly, but just how much do those celebrating the happy holiday really know about Santa Claus? Here is the whole story from the…


Book cover of The Reindeer People

Chloe Hammond Author Of Darkly Dreaming: Book 1 of the Darkly Vampire Trilogy

From my list on for quality writing and believable characters.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been a connoisseur of all things terrifying and fantastical since I was 5, and so scared of my Baba Yaga book downstairs I couldn’t sleep. I pursued the delicious fear of a well-written monster through my teens and into adulthood but found that so many books within the horror and fantasy genres are aimed at younger readers. So I wrote the books I wanted to read. I’d always planned to write, but it was developing extreme anxiety that inspired me to nurture my creative side and finally do it. I was having terrible nightmares at the time, and these awful dreams became the central scenes of my novels.

Chloe's book list on for quality writing and believable characters

Chloe Hammond Why did Chloe love this book?

Evocative, believable, beautifully written. Dark Fantasy at its finest; Megan’s characters will resonate with anyone who feels a bit different, like they don’t fit in with everyone else. Megan explores all this can mean in her trilogy, the good, the bad, and the downright terrifying. Her world is richly written, you can smell the tangy woodfires, and feel the biting cold.

By Megan Lindholm,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A voyage of discovery into the life of a remote aboriginal community in the Siberian Arctic, where the reindeer has been a part of daily life since Palaeolithic times.

The Reindeer People is the first in a series of reissues of Megan Lindholm's (Robin Hobb) classic backlist titles. It is set in the harsh wilderness of a prehistoric North America, and tells the story of a tribe of nomads and hunters as they try to survive, battling against enemy tribes, marauding packs of wolves and the very land itself.

Living on the outskirts of the tribe Tillu was happy spending…


5 book lists we think you will like!

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