Why am I passionate about this?

As a child, I learned that I was able to lucid dream at will, speaking to the beings I met in these places I’d never seen before, and it always gave me a sense of interconnectedness. A thread that goes through all of us and our histories. I believe that the ancients dedicated so much of their energy and resources to preserving their stories in order to maintain this connection because it’s so important. Inside all of us is a darkness that, if left unchecked would lead us to ruin. These books all demonstrate the inner struggle we have to understand and redirect that darkness toward the light and the good. 


I wrote

These Cruel Watchers

By JD McKelvin,

Book cover of These Cruel Watchers

What is my book about?

My book is a dark historical fantasy about a tyrannical empire that worships a cryptic eye that opened on the…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of A Game of Thrones

JD McKelvin Why did I love this book?

I absolutely love this book because it explores one of my deepest philosophical questions: What blindspots in our subjective humanity allow for such violence and depravity when the power to engage in such things is granted to us?

As a veteran and long-time student of war, I am fascinated by the ever-fluctuating value of human life when it comes to power, wealth, and empire. 

By George R. R. Martin,

Why should I read it?

24 authors picked A Game of Thrones as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

HBO's hit series A GAME OF THRONES is based on George R R Martin's internationally bestselling series A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, the greatest fantasy epic of the modern age. A GAME OF THRONES is the first volume in the series.

'Completely immersive' Guardian

'When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground'

Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun.

From the fertile south, where heat breeds conspiracy, to the vast and savage eastern lands, all the way to the frozen…


Book cover of Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West

JD McKelvin Why did I love this book?

I often ask what the nature of laws and authority is. In the "Old West," when there was no overarching central authority, the survival of the fittest was the law. I’m curious how the clash of the old world with the new becomes a never-ending cycle and where it may lead.

I loved how none of the characters were all good or all bad, they were just survivors. This book is not meant to be liked or disliked. It’s meant to be experienced and "danced with."

By Cormac McCarthy,

Why should I read it?

15 authors picked Blood Meridian as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy is an epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, brilliantly subverting the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the Wild West. Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennessean who stumbles into a nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving.


Book cover of Hawaii

JD McKelvin Why did I love this book?

This book explores the customs and development of the Polynesian Islands prior to interference from European powers.

I see the rawest forms of our instincts and psychology in the indigenous peoples of the world. This book is a call for all readers to suspend the tendency to judge other cultures and time periods and just be observers. 

By James A. Michener,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Pulitzer Prize–winning author James A. Michener brings Hawaii’s epic history vividly to life in a classic saga that has captivated readers since its initial publication in 1959. As the volcanic Hawaiian Islands sprout from the ocean floor, the land remains untouched for centuries—until, little more than a thousand years ago, Polynesian seafarers make the perilous journey across the Pacific, flourishing in this tropical paradise according to their ancient traditions. Then, in the early nineteenth century, American missionaries arrive, bringing with them a new creed and a new way of life. Based on exhaustive research and told in Michener’s immersive prose,…


Book cover of Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems

JD McKelvin Why did I love this book?

Anytime I get the chance to travel to and live amongst people whose lives are completely foreign to me, I take it. Most of us look at the state of the Hawaiian islands and wonder what it was before a marketing machine convinced the world it was one big vacation resort with no past and no independent culture.

Whether the novel is historically accurate seems beside the point to me. The point is, as always, to be forced to empathize even when it hurts. 

By Galileo Galilei, Stillman Drake (translator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, published in Florence in 1632, was the most proximate cause of his being brought to trial before the Inquisition. Using the dialogue form, a genre common in classical philosophical works, Galileo masterfully demonstrates the truth of the Copernican system over the Ptolemaic one, proving, for the first time, that the earth revolves around the sun. Its influence is incalculable. The Dialogue is not only one of the most important scientific treatises ever written, but a work of supreme clarity and accessibility, remaining as readable now as when it was first published. This…


Book cover of Rome: A History in Seven Sackings

JD McKelvin Why did I love this book?

I find myself struggling with the impulse to see the great empires as superhumans or so different from me that I could never understand how they live as they do.

This book reminded me that my fears and selfish desires aren’t so different from those of the Romans. I see signs of their impact in my everyday life, and I constantly wonder what life was like for Romans who never would have thought that people like me would be studying them centuries later. This book takes me into the mindset of people living in constant threat of annihilation and how it may impact my view of humanity. 

By Matthew Kneale,

Why should I read it?

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


Explore my book 😀

These Cruel Watchers

By JD McKelvin,

Book cover of These Cruel Watchers

What is my book about?

My book is a dark historical fantasy about a tyrannical empire that worships a cryptic eye that opened on the sun 300 years ago. The Elys Empire sets about conquering the Kievan Rus, the home of Princess Lyudmyla. Her family is betrayed from within, and she is sent to live in the harem of the twisted and narcissistic ruler of the empire. 

While navigating deadly plots and court intrigues, she discovers she is connected to the cryptic eye through a long-wanted enchanted artifact in the possession of one of her captors. If she can survive long enough to escape and return home, she must then try to discover why a legion of supernatural shape-shifters are calling to her from the shadows. 

Book cover of A Game of Thrones
Book cover of Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West
Book cover of Hawaii

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Book cover of Dormice & Moonshine: Falling for Slovenia

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Why am I passionate about this?

Author Author Snow lover Fish out of water Traveller

Sam's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

When two brothers discover a 300-year-old sausage-curing cabin on the side of a Slovenian mountain, it's love at first sight. But 300-year-old cabins come with 300 problems.

Dormice & Moonshine is the true story of an Englishman seduced by Slovenia. In the wake of a breakup, he seeks temporary refuge in his hinterland house, but what was meant as a pitstop becomes life-changing when he decides to stay. Along the way, he meets a colourful cross-section of Slovene society: from dormouse hunters, moonshine makers, beekeepers, and bitcoin miners, to a man who swam the Amazon, and a hilltop matriarch who…

Dormice & Moonshine: Falling for Slovenia

By Sam Baldwin,

What is this book about?

'Charming, funny, insightful, and moving. The perfect book for any Slovenophile' - Noah Charney, BBC presenter

'A rollicking and very affectionate tour' - Steve Fallon, author of Lonely Planet Slovenia

'Delivers discovery and adventure...captivating!' - Bartosz Stefaniak, editor, 3 Seas Europe

When two brothers discover a 300-year-old sausage-curing cabin on the side of a Slovenian mountain, it's love at first sight. But 300-year-old cabins come with 300 problems.

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