Love A Lesson Before Dying? Readers share 100 books like A Lesson Before Dying...

By Ernest J. Gaines,

Here are 100 books that A Lesson Before Dying fans have personally recommended if you like A Lesson Before Dying. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of In Cold Blood

David J. Krajicek Author Of Charles Manson

From my list on the minds of true-crime killers and convicts.

Why am I passionate about this?

The newspaper crime beat sunk its talons into my flesh nearly 50 years ago and has never let go. As Shakespeare knew, the best storiesā€”about love and hate, life and death, good and evilā€”can be found on the daily police blotter. Iā€™ve spent my career writing about those tales in newspapers, online, and in books. My interest has never really been the goreā€”a tally of the knife wounds or the volume of blood lost. No, my fascination is the mind and the psychology of the criminal, who always believes he is smarter than the rest of usā€”and is generally proven wrong.

David's book list on the minds of true-crime killers and convicts

David J. Krajicek Why did David love this book?

In the true crime-writing biz, access to key sources is everything. Capote and his assistant, the writer Harper Lee, enjoyed nearly unfettered contact with Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, the two sad sack ex-cons who committed the infamous murders of the Clutter family in 1959 in a Kansas whistle-stop townā€”and swung from a rope for it.

Capote made the most of the secrets he learned from Hickock and Smith, painting a psychological portrait of the pair that stands even today as a model of reporting (even if he did bend a few facts). Capoteā€™s descriptive genius left me feeling as if I were standing beside him on the vast Kansas prairie, pencil and notebook in hand.

By Truman Capote,

Why should I read it?

20 authors picked In Cold Blood as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The chilling true crime 'non-fiction novel' that made Truman Capote's name, In Cold Blood is a seminal work of modern prose, a remarkable synthesis of journalistic skill and powerfully evocative narrative published in Penguin Modern Classics.

Controversial and compelling, In Cold Blood reconstructs the murder in 1959 of a Kansas farmer, his wife and both their children. Truman Capote's comprehensive study of the killings and subsequent investigation explores the circumstances surrounding this terrible crime and the effect it had on those involved. At the centre of his study are the amoral young killers Perry Smith and Dick Hickcock, who, vividlyā€¦


Book cover of The Executioner's Song

Rick R. Reed Author Of The Man from Milwaukee

From my list on true crime that would be criminal not to read.

Why am I passionate about this?

I chose this list for two reasonsā€”one, true crime has always held great fascination for me. I have a real hunger to understand the motivations behind the darkest sides of human nature, which I believe exists in us all. My own book, The Man from Milwaukee, dives deep into this obsession by sympathetically portraying a closeted young gay man in 1991 Chicago, who sees the cannibal killer as a victim himself of his own irresistible murderous impulses, likening them to our main characterā€™s own self-loathing toward his same-sex desires. 

Rick's book list on true crime that would be criminal not to read

Rick R. Reed Why did Rick love this book?

Mailerā€™s opus dramatizes the cursed life of Gary Gilmore. In 1976, he robbed and killed two strangers. After being tried and sentenced to death, Gilmore insisted on being executed, to the disagreement of the justice system, who wanted him to remain alive. Written simply and with great compassion, the novel is disturbing, yet ultimately thought-provoking and redemptive.

By Norman Mailer,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Executioner's Song as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ANDREW O'HAGAN

In the summer of 1976 Gary Gilmore robbed two men. Then he shot them in cold blood. For those murders Gilmore was sent to languish on Death Row - and could confidently expect his sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment. In America, no one had been executed for ten years.

But Gary Gilmore wanted to die, and his ensuing battle with the authorities for the right to do so made him into a world-wide celebrity - and ensured that his execution turned into the most gruesome media event of the decade.


Book cover of To Kill a Mockingbird

Sarah Cavallaro Author Of Dogs Have Angels too

From my list on human condition themes.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am on a self-discovery journey, and each day, I discover more of why I am here on earth. The books I mentioned all have themes related to the human condition. I write to express what I understand. I love writing about characters and their journeys. I love all animals, and dogs are a great comfort. Iā€™d like to see animal abuse come to an end in my lifetime. I write about people who have fallen from great heights and how saving animals and others in need saves them. We need to love more.

Sarah's book list on human condition themes

Sarah Cavallaro Why did Sarah love this book?

This book is about defending justice, using a legal system to fight something you know is wrong, and sticking to what is right at all costs. It is about knowing whatā€™s right and whatā€™s wrong.

My main character, tooā€”Miss Pink sticks to what is right at all costs. This touching, powerful story shows the worst of people and the best. 

By Harper Lee,

Why should I read it?

42 authors picked To Kill a Mockingbird as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.'

Atticus Finch gives this advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of this classic novel - a black man charged with attacking a white girl. Through the eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Lee explores the issues of race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s with compassion and humour. She also creates one of the great heroes of literature in their father, whose lone struggle for justice pricks the conscience of a town steepedā€¦


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Book cover of The Ballad of Falling Rock

The Ballad of Falling Rock by Jordan Dotson,

Truth told, folks still ask if Saul Crabtree sold his soul for the perfect voice. If he sold it to angels or devils. A Bristol newspaper once asked: ā€œAre his love songs closer to heaven than dying?ā€ Others wonder how he wrote a song so sad, everyone who heard itā€¦

Book cover of A Confederacy of Dunces

Patrick Canning Author Of For Your Benefit

From my list on absurd humor, twisty plot, and a beating heart.

Why am I passionate about this?

Life is taking a bite of the comedy/tragedy sandwich, savoring the mix of flavors, deciding how you feel about the taste, and taking another bite. I love writing that can gather experiences from across the emotional spectrum and incorporate them into a narrative that is absurd and all the more true because of it. These five books do it better than the rest. 

Patrick's book list on absurd humor, twisty plot, and a beating heart

Patrick Canning Why did Patrick love this book?

I love a book that makes me laugh out loud and feel something deep about the characters and the world it presents. Ignatius J. Reilly, this novelā€™s main character, is basically a blueprint for the modern incel: heā€™s rude, selfish, hypocritical, infantile, and inconsistently idealistic, and while heā€™d be a horror to interact with in real life, heā€™s absolutely one of the funniest characters in all of literature.

One of the many magic tricks of this book is making the reader realize theyā€™re halfway rooting for Ignatius by the end of his inane New Orleans adventures.

By John Kennedy Toole,

Why should I read it?

17 authors picked A Confederacy of Dunces as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

ONE OF THE BBC'S 100 NOVELS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD

'This is probably my favourite book of all time' Billy Connolly

A pithy, laugh-out-loud story following John Kennedy Toole's larger-than-life Ignatius J. Reilly, floundering his way through 1960s New Orleans, beautifully resigned with cover art by Gary Taxali
_____________

'This city is famous for its gamblers, prostitutes, exhibitionists, anti-Christs, alcoholics, sodomites, drug addicts, fetishists, onanists, pornographers, frauds, jades, litterbugs, and lesbians . . . don't make the mistake of bothering me.'

Ignatius J. Reilly: fat, flatulent, eloquent and almost unemployable. By the standards of ordinary folk he is pretty muchā€¦


Book cover of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Karen Conti Author Of Killing Time with John Wayne Gacy: Defending America's Most Evil Serial Killer on Death Row

From my list on books for law lovers, fairness fighters, and true crime connoisseurs.

Why am I passionate about this?

From a young age, I read and watched everything about the Jack the Rippers, Black Dahlias, and Ted Bundys of the world. I think humans are fascinated by these killers, the worst of the worst, in the same way we are drawn to the best of the best. We want to know what makes them tick. One of the reasons I became a lawyer is at a young age I wanted to be a part of making sure justice is doneā€”for everyone, regardless of their societal status. An empathetic person, I wanted to help others, even those who made horrific life choices. The law, true crime, and fighting for fairness are my passions!

Karen's book list on books for law lovers, fairness fighters, and true crime connoisseurs

Karen Conti Why did Karen love this book?

I have probably read this book five times as a kid and three more times as an adult, and every time, I take away another life lesson.

As a kid, you are caught up in the story of Charlie going through the whimsical world of Willy Wonka, with its magical wonders of candy making.

But as an adult you see the other storyā€”the story of Charlie, the underdog who grows up in a home impoverished financially but not emotionally or morally. He succeeds in winning it all in the end due to his respectfully showing self-restraint and honoring his high standards of what is right and wrong.  

By Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A splendiferous new hardback of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, part of a collection of truly delumptious classic Roald Dahl titles with stylish jackets over surprise printed colour cases, and exquisite endpaper designs.

Mr Willy Wonka is the most extraordinary chocolate maker in the world.
And do you know who Charlie is? Charlie Bucket is the hero. The other children in this book are nasty little beasts, called: Augustus Gloop - a great big greedy nincompoop; Veruca Salt - a spoiled brat; Violet Beauregarde - a repulsive little gum-chewer; Mike Teavee - a boy who only watches television.
Clutching theirā€¦


Book cover of Presumed Innocent

Robert Rotenberg Author Of Old City Hall

From my list on from writing legal thrillers to historical thrillers.

Why am I passionate about this?

Before W. Somerset Maugham became the most popular writer in the world, he spent five years as a doctor in a London hospital. He says it was perfect training to be a novelist: he learned everything about human behavior from his patients. Iā€™ve been a criminal lawyer for more than 33 years, and every day, someone tells me a story I could never dream up. I meet my clients at the point of crisis and work with them through shock, anger, depression, denial, bargaining, and acceptance. Itā€™s the same for my characters, who are as alive to me and my readers as anyone in my life.

Robert's book list on from writing legal thrillers to historical thrillers

Robert Rotenberg Why did Robert love this book?

I always wanted to be a writer, but after university and a year of traveling and trying to write a book, I went to law school. A fish out of water there, all I did was criminal law. To me, this novel was a beacon. Turow was a criminal lawyer and a novelistā€”I could do the same one day. 

I loved everything about the book, from the first line to the complex and ambiguous ending. In my first novel, I ended it in the same way. One of the wonderful things about being a published author is meeting writers whose books Iā€™ve read and loved. When I met Turow, we mostly talked about baseball: Cubs versus Blue Jays. (Writers Iā€™ve learned donā€™t like to talk about writing with each other). What was unspoken but clear was my admiration and thanks for his inspiration. 

By Scott Turow,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked Presumed Innocent as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Rusty Sabich is a prosecuting lawyer in Chicago who enters a nightmare world when Carolyn, a beautiful attorney with whom he has been having an affair, is found raped and strangled. He stands accused of the crime.

This 'insider' book by a Chicago lawyer was one of the great novels of the 1980s, selling more than nine million copies, and was made into a famous film starring Harrison Ford. It's a supremely suspenseful and compelling courtroom drama about ambition, weakness, hypocrisy and American justice.


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Book cover of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

Tap Dancing on Everest by Mimi Zieman,

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctorā€”and only womanā€”on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route upā€¦

Book cover of I'd Know You Anywhere

Polly Stewart Author Of The Good Ones

From my list on fast-paced mysteries with a strong sense of place.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™m the author of the novel The Good Ones, published by Harper Books earlier this year. I grew up in a beautiful and somewhat isolated part of the country, the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and itā€™s still my favorite place to set my fiction. When I began writing crime fiction, I knew I wanted to balance telling compelling stories with creating a sense of place and interesting characters to inhabit it, and Iā€™ve learned so much from these writers about how to do that. 

Polly's book list on fast-paced mysteries with a strong sense of place

Polly Stewart Why did Polly love this book?

I think Iā€™ve read all of Laura Lippmanā€™s novels, both the Tess Monaghan series and the standalones, but this is hands-down my favorite.

On the surface, itā€™s high-concept subject matter: the story of a girl who was abducted by a serial killer and then let go, told in dual timelines. I was compelled by the thrilling and fast-paced plot, but again, the scenes I remember best are of the main characterā€™s childhood in the 1980s, as she attempts to maneuver an adult world she canā€™t yet understand.

The novel is set in a part of southern Maryland that resembles my home state of Virginia, and I love the way Lippman evokes a bucolic landscape turned suddenly sinister.

By Laura Lippman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked I'd Know You Anywhere as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

ā€œLaura Lippman is among the select group of novelists who have invigorated the crime fiction arena with smart, innovative, and exciting work.ā€
ā€”George Pelecanos

ā€œLippmanā€™s taut, mesmerizing, and exceptionally smart drama of predator and prey is at once unusually sensitive and utterly compelling.
ā€”Booklist

Laura Lippman, New York Times bestselling author of What the Dead Know, Life Sentences, and the acclaimed Tess Monaghan p.i. series, delivers a stunning stand-alone novel that explores the lasting effects on lives touched by crime. With Iā€™d Know You Anywhere, Lippmanā€”master of mystery and psychological suspense, winner of every major literary prize given for crimeā€¦


Book cover of Finding Myself Lost in Louisiana

Toby LeBlanc Author Of Soaked: Stories

From my list on South Louisiana culture.

Why am I passionate about this?

Growing up in Scott, Louisiana, I didnā€™t know that everyone else in the United States did not get Mardi Gras off from school and work. I thought everyone knew some French. Crawfish boils were a natural, expectable part of every spring. South Louisiana is a world unto itself. Over the years, Iā€™ve come to appreciate my heritage, my Cajun lineage, and the sometimes-befuddling ways we Louisianians look at that world. Between conversations with elders, reading historical documents, and even looking at land transfer maps, Iā€™ve become even more grounded in what being from this little wet corner of the world means. 

Toby's book list on South Louisiana culture

Toby LeBlanc Why did Toby love this book?

This is another book to tackle the uncommon quirks of this region. Lejeune finds the backroads through this part of the world to tie legends, myths, and history together and then bind them to epochs in his own life.

I felt like I was right next to him the whole time, feeling confusion, appreciation, and awe as every dogleg on the bayou or rise over a chenier brought me on a journey inward as well. This is a book Iā€™d like to read again while traveling.

By Keagan LeJeune,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Finding Myself Lost in Louisiana as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In Finding Myself Lost in Louisiana, author Keagan LeJeune brilliantly weaves the unusual folklore, landscape, and history of Louisiana along with his own family lineage that begins in 1760 to trace the trajectory of people's lives in the Bayou State. His account confronts the challenging environmental record evident in Louisiana's landscapes. LeJeune also celebrates and memorializes traditions of some underrepresented communities in Louisiana, communities that are vanishing or have vanished-communities including the author's own.

Each section in the memoir is a journey to a fascinating place, but it's also a search for LeJeune's own sense of belonging. The book isā€¦


Book cover of Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast

Toby LeBlanc Author Of Soaked: Stories

From my list on South Louisiana culture.

Why am I passionate about this?

Growing up in Scott, Louisiana, I didnā€™t know that everyone else in the United States did not get Mardi Gras off from school and work. I thought everyone knew some French. Crawfish boils were a natural, expectable part of every spring. South Louisiana is a world unto itself. Over the years, Iā€™ve come to appreciate my heritage, my Cajun lineage, and the sometimes-befuddling ways we Louisianians look at that world. Between conversations with elders, reading historical documents, and even looking at land transfer maps, Iā€™ve become even more grounded in what being from this little wet corner of the world means. 

Toby's book list on South Louisiana culture

Toby LeBlanc Why did Toby love this book?

South Louisianians are skeptical of anyone not from here who tries to write about us. We often end up as caricatures. But Mike Tidwell came from the outside and saw us anew.

In his book, he depicts the communities along our coastal areas and wetlands. I was shocked at how he could capture fishermen and traiteurs (faith healers) with such accuracy and respect.

And I canā€™t forget to mention how he bravely calls attention to one of Americaā€™s regions most endangered by climate change, which also happens to be the place I will always call home.

By Mike Tidwell,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The Cajun coast of Louisiana is home to a way of life as unique, complex, and beautiful as the terrain itself.  As award-winning travel writer Mike Tidwell journeys through the bayou, he introduces us to the food and the language, the shrimp fisherman, the Houma Indians, and the rich cultural history that makes it unlike any other place in the world. But seeing the skeletons of oak trees killed by the salinity of the groundwater, and whole cemeteries sinking into swampland and out of sight, Tidwell also explains why each introduction may be a farewellā€”as the storied Louisiana coast steadilyā€¦


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Book cover of This Animal Body

This Animal Body by Meredith Walters,

Neuroscience PhD student Frankie Conner has finally gotten her life togetherā€”sheā€™s determined to discover the cause of her depression and find a cure for herself and everyone like her. But the first day of her program, she meets a group of talking animals who have an urgent message they refuseā€¦

Book cover of Signals: New and Selected Stories

Toby LeBlanc Author Of Soaked: Stories

From my list on South Louisiana culture.

Why am I passionate about this?

Growing up in Scott, Louisiana, I didnā€™t know that everyone else in the United States did not get Mardi Gras off from school and work. I thought everyone knew some French. Crawfish boils were a natural, expectable part of every spring. South Louisiana is a world unto itself. Over the years, Iā€™ve come to appreciate my heritage, my Cajun lineage, and the sometimes-befuddling ways we Louisianians look at that world. Between conversations with elders, reading historical documents, and even looking at land transfer maps, Iā€™ve become even more grounded in what being from this little wet corner of the world means. 

Toby's book list on South Louisiana culture

Toby LeBlanc Why did Toby love this book?

When I grow up, I want to write like Tim Gautreaux.

I read this book about five years ago, and it was like Iā€™d just started reading all over again. I felt seen. Gautreaux found the soul of South Louisiana, distilled it, and somehow made it make all the sense in the world. His characters breathe.

I closed the book and stayed in his fictional town of Crapaud. Anytime I am lonesome for my home state I just need to read any one of these stories.

By Tim Gautreaux,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

ONE OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL AND NPR'S BEST BOOKS OF 2017

Containing twelve new stories and nine classics from previous collections, Signals is Tim Gautreaux at his best. Effortlessly conjuring the heat and humidity of the authorā€™s beloved South, these stories of men and women grappling with faith, small town life, and blue-collar work are alternately ridiculous and sublime. For both longtime fans and readers lucky enough to encounter him for the very first time, Signals cements Gautreauxā€™s place as an American master.


Book cover of In Cold Blood
Book cover of The Executioner's Song
Book cover of To Kill a Mockingbird

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Interested in African-American men, death row, and Louisiana?

Death Row 16 books
Louisiana 118 books