46 books like A Different Sound

By Lucy Scholes (editor),

Here are 46 books that A Different Sound fans have personally recommended if you like A Different Sound. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Book cover of The Narrow Road to the Deep North

Lesley Glaister Author Of A Particular Man

From my list on relationships and sexuality in post-World War II Britain.

Why am I passionate about this?

About myself: As a novelist I’m crazy for detail. I believe it’s the odd and unexpected aspects of life that bring both characters and story worlds to life. This means that I try to be an observer at all times, keeping alert and using all five – and maybe six – senses. My perfect writing morning begins with a dog walk in the woods or on a beach, say, while keeping my senses sharp to the world around me and listening out for the first whisper of what the day’s writing will bring.

Lesley's book list on relationships and sexuality in post-World War II Britain

Lesley Glaister Why did Lesley love this book?

Because my father was a prisoner of war of the Japanese in Burma in World War II, I expected this book to depress me, and I dreaded reading it. But as one of my characters suffered the same fate, I thought I should at least give it a try. And what a pleasant surprise I got.

Yes, it is grim. Yes, it told me things I’d rather not know about what went on in the jungle prison camps. But it also has a sparkling narrative, and it’s romantic, erotic, moving, and exciting. In short, a great surprise and a wonderful, gripping read.

By Richard Flanagan,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Narrow Road to the Deep North 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 2014***

Forever after, there were for them only two sorts of men: the men who were on the Line, and the rest of humanity, who were not.

In the despair of a Japanese POW camp on the Burma Death Railway, surgeon Dorrigo Evans is haunted by his love affair with his uncle's young wife two years earlier. Struggling to save the men under his command from starvation, from cholera, from beatings, he receives a letter that will change his life forever.

This is a story about the many forms of love and death, of…


Book cover of The Humbler Creation

Lesley Glaister Author Of A Particular Man

From my list on relationships and sexuality in post-World War II Britain.

Why am I passionate about this?

About myself: As a novelist I’m crazy for detail. I believe it’s the odd and unexpected aspects of life that bring both characters and story worlds to life. This means that I try to be an observer at all times, keeping alert and using all five – and maybe six – senses. My perfect writing morning begins with a dog walk in the woods or on a beach, say, while keeping my senses sharp to the world around me and listening out for the first whisper of what the day’s writing will bring.

Lesley's book list on relationships and sexuality in post-World War II Britain

Lesley Glaister Why did Lesley love this book?

I was struck by this when I read it decades ago, and returned to it while researching. The Humbler Creation, written in the ’60s and set in the ’40s, gives a vivid depiction of that physically and morally shattered and patched-over post-war era.

Maurice, a repressed clergyman, lives with his wife Libby and her widowed sister, Kate, but right from the get-go, there’s the feeling that he and Kate would be better suited. But because of convention, this is not to be, and the frustrated Maurice and Kate seek satisfaction elsewhere. Passion, scandal, and tension ensue.

The characters, the dynamics between them, the sparky dialogue, and the 1940s setting all contribute to making this an addictive read. I was even more riveted the second time around.

By Pamela Hansford Johnson,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Maurice Fisher is a London parish priest in an unfashionable quarter of Kensington. He has a wife whose frigid vanity, shirking of any household or parish duties, and despairing egotism is shrouded-like her beauty-in such pathetic and frightful self-deception that to love her at all becomes one of her husband's greatest private struggles.

Into this desert of duty and self-control, where his external life is a dogged shambles, his inner life dissolving through lack of joy, arrives somebody who awakens him to all-or a great deal-that he has been missing.


Book cover of 'Curing Queers': Mental Nurses and Their Patients, 1935-74

Lesley Glaister Author Of A Particular Man

From my list on relationships and sexuality in post-World War II Britain.

Why am I passionate about this?

About myself: As a novelist I’m crazy for detail. I believe it’s the odd and unexpected aspects of life that bring both characters and story worlds to life. This means that I try to be an observer at all times, keeping alert and using all five – and maybe six – senses. My perfect writing morning begins with a dog walk in the woods or on a beach, say, while keeping my senses sharp to the world around me and listening out for the first whisper of what the day’s writing will bring.

Lesley's book list on relationships and sexuality in post-World War II Britain

Lesley Glaister Why did Lesley love this book?

I read this while researching my novel and what an eye-opener it turned out to be. It draws on a rich source of resources and the personal testimonies of gay men in the mid-20th century. These are touching and sometimes upsetting as well as illuminating and clearly demonstrate how much more tolerant our culture has become.

I was really moved as well as fascinated and educated by this beautifully put together book.

By Tommy Dickinson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked 'Curing Queers' as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Drawing on a rich array of source materials including previously unseen, fascinating (and often quite moving) oral histories, archival and news media sources, 'Curing queers' examines the plight of men who were institutionalised in British mental hospitals to receive 'treatment' for homosexuality and transvestism, and the perceptions and actions of the men and women who nursed them. It examines why the majority of the nurses followed orders in administering the treatment - in spite of the zero success-rate in 'straightening out' queer men - but also why a small number surreptitiously defied their superiors by engaging in fascinating subversive behaviours.…


Book cover of The New Look: A Social History of the Forties and Fifties in Britain

Lesley Glaister Author Of A Particular Man

From my list on relationships and sexuality in post-World War II Britain.

Why am I passionate about this?

About myself: As a novelist I’m crazy for detail. I believe it’s the odd and unexpected aspects of life that bring both characters and story worlds to life. This means that I try to be an observer at all times, keeping alert and using all five – and maybe six – senses. My perfect writing morning begins with a dog walk in the woods or on a beach, say, while keeping my senses sharp to the world around me and listening out for the first whisper of what the day’s writing will bring.

Lesley's book list on relationships and sexuality in post-World War II Britain

Lesley Glaister Why did Lesley love this book?

I bought this to research certain social and political aspects of the 1940s, fearing it might be dry, but it’s brilliantly written – one of the few history books I’ve continued to read for pleasure once I’ve gleaned my research.

Not only does it look at political and historical events and include a generous and delicious selection of photographs, but it’s also concerned with popular culture from the bleak post-war period up to the age of skiffle, television, and the beginnings of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

It gives importance to the morals of the time, attitudes to homosexuality, strip clubs, sex outside marriage, etc. It’s earned a permanent home on my bookshelf.

By Harry Hopkins,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Minimal wear. A very nice clean copy. Previous owner details to free front endpaper. Unclipoped dustwrapper protected by mylar style wrapper


Book cover of Threads: The Delicate Life of John Craske

Clare Hunter Author Of Threads of Life: A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle

From my list on needlework that will surprise and move you.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have sewn since I was a child, taught by my mother to keep me out of mischief. From having the best-dressed dolls in the neighbourhood I graduated to making my own, sometimes outlandish, forms of fashion and then became a banner maker and community textile artist. Sewing is in my DNA and I love the tactile, rhythmic soothe of it. But I have long been curious about how, in the many books are published about needlework, very few ever mention why people sew. This is what fascinates me, the stories of sewing, because it is through its purpose that we discover the spirit that lies within it. 

Clare's book list on needlework that will surprise and move you

Clare Hunter Why did Clare love this book?

This is a rare and poignant insight into a man’s needlecraft and it was a delight to read. Julia Blackburn sets out on a mission to rediscover the neglected embroideries and forgotten story of the Norfolk fisherman, John Craske, (1881-1943). Her research leads her to many dead ends and unexpected encounters and, along the way, she experiences and shares her own story of loss. I love this book because it takes me into the world of the sea captured in the fishing folk Blackburn meets and introduces me to Craske’s mesmerising embroideries made under tragic circumstances.

By Julia Blackburn,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Winner of the East Anglian Book of the Year 2015

John Craske, a Norfok fisherman, was born in 1881 and in 1917, when he had just turned thirty-six, he fell seriously ill. For the rest of his life he kept moving in and out of what was described as 'a stuporous state'. In 1923 he started making paintings of the sea and boats and the coastline seen from the sea, and later, when he was too ill to stand and paint, he turned to embroidery, which he could do lying in bed. His embroideries were also the sea, including his…


Book cover of Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont

Christina McKenna Author Of The Misremembered Man

From my list on overcoming fear and embracing change.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up on a farm in Northern Ireland. Ulster was always an inspiration, for both my painting and my writing. My first novel, The Misremembered Man, became a bestseller worldwide, and I followed it with several more works of fiction. I attribute their success to the magic of rural Ireland, and the wonderful characters who peopled my childhood. My formative years, unhappy and fearful though they were, serve as a repository of emotion and stimulation, which I draw upon frequently in my writing. Having the courage to change and grow in difficult circumstances is a common theme. Since all my novels are character-driven, my book choices broadly reflect this strength in the authors I have chosen.

Christina's book list on overcoming fear and embracing change

Christina McKenna Why did Christina love this book?

Elizabeth Taylor—not to be confused with the actress of the same name—has been called ‘the unsung heroine of British twentieth-century fiction.’ I wholeheartedly agree, and Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont is Taylor at her sublime best. It’s the tale of an elderly woman, wealthy but recently widowed, who’s faced with a choice: "Do I spend my last days in a care home—or check into a grand hotel?" She opts for the latter and finds herself among a group of fascinating characters, each as eccentric as she herself. 

Insightful about the sadness and loneliness of ageing, this book did not make me feel despondent about growing older. On the contrary, it showed me that love, happiness, and a sense of adventure can be ours at any age, if we’re willing to take chances and open our hearts to others.

By Elizabeth Taylor,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont is, for me, her masterpiece' - Robert McCrum, Guardian, 'The Best 100 Novels'
'An author of great subtlety, great compassion and great depth' - SARAH WATERS
'Jane Austen, Elizabeth Taylor, Elizabath Bowen - soul-sisters all' ANNE TYLER

On a rainy Sunday in January, the recently widowed Mrs Palfrey arrives at the Claremont Hotel where she will spend her remaining days. Her fellow residents are magnificently eccentric and endlessly curious, living off crumbs of affection and snippets of gossip. Together, upper lips stiffened, they fight off their twin enemies: boredom and the Grim Reaper.

Then one…


Book cover of The Weather In The Streets

Clare Morgan Author Of Scar Tissue

From my list on love, desire and loneliness in women’s lives, without flinching.

Why am I passionate about this?

When writing about women's lives, it's important to me to get below the surface and question the things that really have an impact on how we live and breathe, how we relate to others as friends or lovers, how we feel guilt, pain, joy, and ecstasy, how we relish triumph and mitigate disaster, how we grow old and hope and think and make our way from start to finish in a turbulent world. I try to tell the truth as a writer and make new discoveries along the way. I’ve published two novels and two collections of short stories, and I’m a reviewer and writer on literature, a teacher too.  

Clare's book list on love, desire and loneliness in women’s lives, without flinching

Clare Morgan Why did Clare love this book?

Love, desire, falling too passionately for a married man, the world may be different from when this book was published in 1936, but the angst, the joy, the terror, and the hard choices remain the same.

An intelligent, capable, charismatic woman falls for a handsome, upper-class man, tantalizingly just out of her social and emotional reach. Will he leave his wife and the easy security of a stable relationship? Will love trump duty? Life-changing decisions reach a climax in the office of a back-street abortionist, where the snare of passion and its potentially destructive consequences are laid bare.

Written in lyrical and episodic prose, this is a truly timeless and memorable read.

By Rosamond Lehmann,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

ONE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE BRITISH WRITERS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

'With brilliant dialogue and intense passages of elation and despair, The Weather in the Streets takes you on the rollercoaster of their relationship' ESTHER FREUD, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

'Lehmann legitimised a type of writing that took on deep personal themes' ENGLISH PEN

'The first writer to filter her stories through a woman's feelings & perceptions' ANITA BROOKNER

Taking up where Invitation to the Waltz left off, The Weather in the Streets shows us Olivia Curtis ten years older, a failed marriage behind her, thinner, sadder, and apparently not much wiser.…


Book cover of It's All about the Dress: What I Learned in Forty Years about Men, Women, Sex, and Fashion

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been a journalist for years, and to write my first book, I ended up doing a ton of original research and reporting about photography, fashion, the art world, and the magazine industry in midcentury New York. But certain passages in the twins’ interviews reminded me strongly of many books I’d read growing up, that address the challenges young women face as they confront choices in life. And their story, with its wild and colorful characters, begged to be structured like a novel. It also took place when American society was changing dramatically for women, as it is today. So, I kept books like these in mind while writing.

Carol's book list on best books about young women figuring out their lives while society is changing around them

Carol Kino Why did Carol love this book?

I fell in love with designer Vicky Tiel’s 2011 memoir because of what I’ll call its “sex-positive” rompiness, which reads like a Swinging Sixties female version of Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones. (I stumbled upon it during research because it includes some of my characters, primarily Mia Fonssagrives, daughter of supermodel Lisa Fonssagrives and stepdaughter of Irving Penn.) 

In the book, Tiel, who made her name designing catsuits, hotpants, and miniskirts, explains how she and Mia went from being design students in New York to “It” fashion designers in Paris pretty much overnight. They have many adventures, bed many men, and pick up practical life advice from models and movie stars like Elizabeth Taylor while growing up. It’s a total period piece but also, it hasn’t aged. With pictures and recipes!  

By Vicky Tiel,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked It's All about the Dress as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Vicky Tiel started as an "it" girl of the 1960s and has had a four decade career designing clothes that make real women look fabulous. Her sexy, fresh hot pants and miniskirts were used by Woody Allen in his first movie, What's New, Pussycat?, her classic design inspired the red dress that transformed Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, and her creations are worn today by stars such as Halle Berry and Kim Kardashian. Tiel's own life has been dance-the-night-away fun, from her earliest days flunking out of Parsons to design on her own, to starting a chic boutique with best…


Book cover of The View From Breast Pocket Mountain

Suzanne Kamata Author Of Squeaky Wheels: Travels with My Daughter by Train, Plane, Metro, Tuk-tuk and Wheelchair

From my list on memoirs by foreigners in Japan.

Why am I passionate about this?

Japan is endlessly fascinating. Many foreigners who have spent a year or two engaging with Japanese culture have published memoirs. But there are also many who have lived here longer, perhaps marrying and raising families and retiring in Japan. The stories of long-term foreign residents dig deep into the culture and share unique challenges and triumphs. My own memoir, Squeaky Wheels is about my experience raising a biracial daughter who is deaf and has cerebral palsy in off-the-beaten-track Japan. It also details our mother-daughter travels around Japan, to the United States, and ultimately to Paris. It is ultimately a story of my attempt to open the world to my daughter.

Suzanne's book list on memoirs by foreigners in Japan

Suzanne Kamata Why did Suzanne love this book?

Anton, a former columnist for The Japan Times, grew up in New York City, one of three children raised solely by an African American father. (Her mother was institutionalized due to mental illness.) She studied dance with Martha Graham, modeled for the pages of LOOK magazine at a time when African American models were few and far between, and copy-edited for Joseph Heller. Later, she traveled to Europe where she met Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton when she interviewed to be their house-sitter in Gstaad, fell in love and gave birth in Denmark, then later journeyed overland from Europe to Asia with her childhood friend and future husband, Billy. Any one chapter of her life could have been the basis for an entire book. Anton is an engaging storyteller with an exceptional story -- an unbeatable combination. I highly recommend this memoir to anyone interested in Japan, multicultural families,…

By Karen Hill Anton,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The View From Breast Pocket Mountain as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

GRAND PRIZE Winner 2022 Memoir Prize
GOLD PRIZE Winner SPR Book Awards (2020)
Book Readers Appreciation Group (B.R.A.G.) MEDALLION (2021)

Crossing Borders and Cultures, Creating Home
The View From Breast Pocket Mountain is a unique and previously untold story, a treasure trove of experiences crossing borders and cultures, creating a life, and finding contentment in a far-off country.

To those who've ever wondered what their lives would be if they'd taken that road without a map, this is the book you need to read. The View From Breast Pocket Mountain gives us a glimpse of a life not designed or…


Book cover of Murder In The Adirondacks

Regina Buttner Author Of Down a Bad Road

From my list on love triangles that turn deadly.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have a close girlfriend who was once involved with a man she wanted to marry. The trouble was, the guy was always hanging out with this other woman who he’d known since childhood. Just friends, he said. Nothing going on. Ha! The shenanigans they got up to were unbelievable, and extremely upsetting to my girlfriend, who eventually broke up with the cad. Her unlucky experience got me interested in the psychology of the love triangle, and why some people remain mired in these dead-end relationships. My reading jam is anything twisty and suspenseful, and what’s more fraught than a three-way competition for someone’s affections.

Regina's book list on love triangles that turn deadly

Regina Buttner Why did Regina love this book?

In 1906, a handsome scoundrel named Chester Gillette murdered his girlfriend, Grace Brown, by rowing her out onto a secluded mountain lake, whacking her with a tennis racket and pushing her overboard.

Why? Grace was a lowly factory girl, and her inconvenient pregnancy threatened to rain on Chester’s skirt-chasing parade. I was sucked into this poignant tale, having camped and canoed in upstate New York where the crime took place. I even teared up as I imagined what it felt like for poor Grace, cast to the bottom of a lake by the young man she thought was going to marry her.

This carefully researched non-fiction account is an irresistible combination of detective story and romantic drama.

By Craig Brandon (editor),

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Over 100 years ago, the Chester Gillette Grace Brown murder case was considered the trial of the century. The case became the basis for Theodore Dreiser's classic novel An American Tragedy and the movie A Place in the Sun, starring Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor. Revisit the tragedy at Big Moose Lake and the ensuing trial in this fully revised and expanded edition of the definitive book about the Gillette Brown murder.In the 30 years since the best-selling Murder in the Adirondacks was written, author Craig Brandon has continued to research the Gillette Brown murder case. This revised and expanded…


Book cover of The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Book cover of The Humbler Creation
Book cover of 'Curing Queers': Mental Nurses and Their Patients, 1935-74

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,171

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in the British Raj, India, and colonial India?

The British Raj 27 books
India 481 books
Colonial India 11 books