Love Death in a Budapest Butterfly? Readers share 100 books like Death in a Budapest Butterfly...

By Julia Buckley,

Here are 100 books that Death in a Budapest Butterfly fans have personally recommended if you like Death in a Budapest Butterfly. 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 Murder Past Due

Catherine Dilts Author Of The Body in the Cattails

From my list on women sleuths and cats solving mysteries.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love escaping into a story I know will have a dependably happy ending. Iā€™m an avid reader of cozy mysteries because life is hard. I donā€™t need my fiction to be a mirror image of the horrors of the daily news. I like puzzling through the clues, trying to solve the mysteries before the characters reach the solution. Series are fun because you really get to know the protagonist and the people in his or her world. They become old friends. The best cozy mystery authors rise above the formula and create unique characters, plots, and settings. 

Catherine's book list on women sleuths and cats solving mysteries

Catherine Dilts Why did Catherine love this book?

This cozy series breaks the mold of the female amateur sleuth with Charlie Harris, the male university librarian. The rest of my expectations are intact, although the cat character Diesel behaves more cat-like than many felines in cozy mysteries.

This series is set in the South, in usually sleepy Athena, Georgiaā€“sleepy until a murder stirs things up. I feel right at home in Charlieā€™s home/boarding house and getting to know his southern-flavored coworkers, friends, and family. 

By Miranda James,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

FIRST IN THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING CAT IN THE STACKS MYSTERY SERIES!

Everyone in Athena, Mississippi, knows Charlie Harris, the good-natured librarian with a rescued Maine coon cat named Diesel that he walks on a leash.  Heā€™s returned to his hometown to immerse himself in books, but soon enough heā€™s entangled in a real-life thriller...
 
A famous author of gory bestsellers and a former classmate of Charlieā€™s, Godfrey Priest may be the pride of Athena, but Charlie remembers him as an arrogant, manipulative jerkā€”and heā€™s not the only one. Godfreyā€™s homecoming as a distinguished alumnus couldnā€™t possibly go worse:ā€¦


Book cover of Lending a Paw: A Bookmobile Cat Mystery

Catherine Dilts Author Of The Body in the Cattails

From my list on women sleuths and cats solving mysteries.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love escaping into a story I know will have a dependably happy ending. Iā€™m an avid reader of cozy mysteries because life is hard. I donā€™t need my fiction to be a mirror image of the horrors of the daily news. I like puzzling through the clues, trying to solve the mysteries before the characters reach the solution. Series are fun because you really get to know the protagonist and the people in his or her world. They become old friends. The best cozy mystery authors rise above the formula and create unique characters, plots, and settings. 

Catherine's book list on women sleuths and cats solving mysteries

Catherine Dilts Why did Catherine love this book?

I love my local library and its bookmobile. This cozy mystery series has both. Even better, it has a clever cat. I enjoy getting a behind-the-scenes look at library operations.

Eddie, the cat, begins as a stowaway on the Michigan bookmobile and quickly becomes a huge attraction for library patrons. Minnie Hamilton and Eddie are in a unique position to discover bodies on their rural bookmobile route. There is a long romance arc in the series that slowly builds to a sweet conclusion. In a unique living situation, Minnie lives on a houseboat during the summer and in her auntā€™s B&B during the winter.

I like how Eddie is involved with uncovering the mysteries in a perfectly logical way, considering he is a cat.

By Laurie Cass,

Why should I read it?

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


Book cover of The Whole Cat and Caboodle

Catherine Dilts Author Of The Body in the Cattails

From my list on women sleuths and cats solving mysteries.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love escaping into a story I know will have a dependably happy ending. Iā€™m an avid reader of cozy mysteries because life is hard. I donā€™t need my fiction to be a mirror image of the horrors of the daily news. I like puzzling through the clues, trying to solve the mysteries before the characters reach the solution. Series are fun because you really get to know the protagonist and the people in his or her world. They become old friends. The best cozy mystery authors rise above the formula and create unique characters, plots, and settings. 

Catherine's book list on women sleuths and cats solving mysteries

Catherine Dilts Why did Catherine love this book?

While the setting and characters are standard for cozy mysteries, some elements make this a favorite series of mine. The setting is pretty typicalā€“the second-hand up-cycling shop in a small New England town is run by a single woman. Elvis the cat helps solve the mysteries in a perfectly logical and cat-like manner.

Where this series differs is the tension of the long romance arc that lands exactly where I thought it shouldā€“after being afraid Sarah would go for the wrong Mr. Right. Additionally, in some cozies, the team-of-little-old-ladies trope is bland.

Ryanā€™s characters are distinct, with varied personalities and life experiences. While meeting the expectations of the cozy reader, the formula has been refreshingly improved, lifting this author above others in the genre.

By Sofie Ryan,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Meet secondhand shop owner Sarah Grayson and her rescue cat, Elvis, in the first novel in the New York Times bestselling Second Chance Cat Mystery series...

Sarah Grayson is the happy proprietor of Second Chance, a charming shop in the oceanfront town of North Harbor, Maine. At the shop, she sells used items that she has lovingly refurbished and repurposed. But her favorite pet project so far has been adopting a stray cat she names Elvis.

Elvis has seen nine livesā€”and then some. The big black cat with a scar across his nose turned up at a local bar whenā€¦


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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 Cat About Town

Catherine Dilts Author Of The Body in the Cattails

From my list on women sleuths and cats solving mysteries.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love escaping into a story I know will have a dependably happy ending. Iā€™m an avid reader of cozy mysteries because life is hard. I donā€™t need my fiction to be a mirror image of the horrors of the daily news. I like puzzling through the clues, trying to solve the mysteries before the characters reach the solution. Series are fun because you really get to know the protagonist and the people in his or her world. They become old friends. The best cozy mystery authors rise above the formula and create unique characters, plots, and settings. 

Catherine's book list on women sleuths and cats solving mysteries

Catherine Dilts Why did Catherine love this book?

Serendipity. In 2023, I visited a cat cafĆ© in Tokyo, Japan. Then, I found this series by Cate Conte, which is based on a cat cafĆ© in New England, USA. It has all the classic elements of cozy mysteries I loveā€“a mystery to be solved, a body without too much violence and no gore, a light romance, a small-town setting, a close, if slightly problematic, family, and, of course, cats! Lots and lots of cats.

When I pick up a book in this series, I know Iā€™ll be transported away to Daybreak Island. While Maddie James tangles with solving a mystery and finding her way through her tangled personal life, each book will end with a solution. I can escape my own problems for a few hours.

By Cate Conte,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Maddie James has arrived in Daybreak Island, just off the coast of Massachusetts, eager to settle down and start her own business--and maybe even fall in love. When a stray orange tabby pounces into her life, she's inspired to open a cat cafe. But little does Maddie know that she's in for something a lot more catastrophic when her new furry companion finds the dead body of the town bully. Now all eyes are on Maddie: Who is this crazy cat-whisperer lady who's come to town? If pet-hair-maintenance and crime-fighting weren't keeping her busy enough, Maddie now has not oneā€¦


Book cover of The Cloisters

Susan Wands Author Of Magician and Fool

From my list on tarot and magic shaping destinies and fortunes.

Why am I passionate about this?

With a name like Susan Wands, it was inevitable that I would be drawn to the occult and to the world of tarot cards. In high school, I was drawn to a set of tarot cards, not knowing that this deck, the Ryde Waite deck, was illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith. Pamela was the co-creator of the worldā€™s best-selling tarot deck, and I became obsessed with her and her life story. I have written a historical fantasy series, the Arcana Oracle Series, based on Pamelaā€™s life and lectured worldwide on the Golden Dawn, Tarot, and Magical Women.

Susan's book list on tarot and magic shaping destinies and fortunes

Susan Wands Why did Susan love this book?

I had never been to The Cloisters here in Manhattan after many decades of living here, but I read Katy Hays's book, and had to visit it afterward. Haysā€™ book was a great pre-cursor to the trip to the Museum of Medieval and Early Renaissance Art.

I kept in mind the world of the fictional underdog, Anne Sitwell, who worked her way up to know there were secrets in the vault at the Cloisters. A Tarot Deck, possibly from the dā€™Este family in Italy, sets the stage for skullduggery while secrets and murders mount, leading to a plot twist at the end for our hapless Anne. It was interesting talking to the docent at the museum after I took a garden tour, and to spot a copy of this book for sale in the gift shop there.

By Katy Hays,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Cloisters as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A Today Show #ReadwithJenna Book Club Pick

ā€œFor fans of The Talented Mr. Ripley and The Secret Historyā€¦The perfect mystery.ā€ ā€”Jenna Bush Hager, Today

In this ā€œsinister, jaw-droppingā€ (Sarah Penner, author of The Lost Apothecary) debut novel, a circle of researchers uncover a mysterious deck of tarot cards and shocking secrets in New Yorkā€™s famed Met Cloisters.

When Ann Stilwell arrives in New York City, she expects to spend her summer working as a curatorial associate at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead, she finds herself assigned to The Cloisters, a gothic museum and gardenā€¦


Book cover of Six Ways: Approaches & Entries for Practical Magic

Yvonne Patricia Chireau Author Of Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition

From my list on for beginners who want to practice real magic, folk magic, and Hoodoo.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been studying American styles of magic for more than 30 years. Having received a Ph.D. in Religious Studies, I have explored the idea of magic as a natural counterpart to both religious thought and scientific theory. After teaching courses on this subject to college undergraduates, I recommend these books based on what I have found to be the favorites of students and peers as the most accessible, enjoyable, and practical sources for beginners.

Yvonne's book list on for beginners who want to practice real magic, folk magic, and Hoodoo

Yvonne Patricia Chireau Why did Yvonne love this book?

The title of this book says it all. It is about effective, practical magic with an emphasis on manifestation. Six ways an incantation that is as simple as it is powerful. The book goes into detail about different styles of magic that are available for readers who want to learn more about sorcery, witchcraft, chaos magic, and spirit work. I like this book because it takes one deep into the inner world of magic that exists within the recesses of the mind, opening up the practitioner to spiritual possibilities that have the goal of improving the self. Techniques such as meditation, trance, spiritual cleansing, and dreams are dealt with in an easy and straightforward way.

By Aidan Wachter,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Six Ways is a handbook of practical skills and methods that help build the foundation of a sound magical practice. Six Ways looks at relationships with allies, sigils, energy work and other simple approaches to magic presented in clear and direct language. It explains how to develop the internal and external skills required for effective practice.


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Book cover of Death on a Shetland Longship: The Shetland Sailing Mysteries

Death on a Shetland Longship by Marsali Taylor,

Liveaboard sailor Cass Lynch thinks her big break has finally arrived when she blags her way into skippering a Viking longship for a Hollywood film. However, this means returning to the Shetland Islands, the place she fled as a teenager. When a corpse unexpectedly appears onboard the longship, she canā€¦

Book cover of I Ching

Tommy Chong Author Of The I Chong: Meditations from the Joint

From my list on for seekers, poets, and philosophers.

Why am I passionate about this?

Tommy Chong is a Canadian-American actor, writer, director, musician, cannabis rights activist, and comedian. He is known for the Cheech and Chong comedy albums and movies along with many other roles. He is a poet and a philosopher and these are his picks for the books that mark his spiritual journey through life.

Tommy's book list on for seekers, poets, and philosophers

Tommy Chong Why did Tommy love this book?

I first did the I Ching when I was in my 20s. The first reading I had was by a guitar player in Vancouver, and it came out like perfection. This was before my success, before Cheech, and it just lit up my path forward in life. It wasnā€™t until I was headed to jail that I picked it up again. My brother-in-law sent me a copy, and it was the first thing I did when I got inside. The first line I got back was ā€œyou are in jail for a reasonā€. It was astounding. The word penitentiary comes from the word penance, I took that to heart and that is what I did. I view my time in jail as a religious retreat.

By Alfred Huang,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Translated by the eminent Taoist Master Alfred Huang, The Complete I Chinghas been praised by scholars and new students of the I Ching since its first edition. A native Chinese speaker, Master Huang first translated the original ideograms of the I Ching into contemporary Chinese and then into English, bringing forth the intuitive meanings embodied in the images of the I Ching and imbuing his translation with an accuracy and authenticity not possible in other English translations. However, what makes his translation truly definitive is his return to prominence of the Ten Wings, the commentaries by Confucius that are essentialā€¦


Book cover of Red Tarot: A Decolonial Guide to Divinatory Literacy

Amy Torok and Risa Dickens Author Of Missing Witches Deck of Oracles: Feminist Ancestor Magic for Meditations, Divination, and Spellwork

From my list on understanding real modern witchcraft.

Why we are passionate about this?

We are Witches. Real Witches, doing real magic, casting spells, and weaving webs. We are Amy Torok and Risa Dickensā€“the co-creators of the Missing Witches project, researching what it means to be a Witch. Together, we have put out almost 300 podcast episodes and published two books and an oracle deck of cards: Missing Witches: Recovering True Histories Of Feminist Magic, New Moon Magic: 13 Anti-capitalist Tools for Resistance and Re-enchantment, and The Missing Witches Deck of Oracles: Feminist Ancestor Magic for Meditations, Divination and Spellwork. Our first book appeared on VICE Magazineā€™s list: The Best Books for Starting an Occult Library.

Amy and Risa's book list on understanding real modern witchcraft

Amy Torok and Risa Dickens Why did Amy and Risa love this book?

In this book, Christopher Marmalejo entranced us with a singular take on investigating tarot cards through a queer and Indigenous lens. Exploring cartomancy as a mirror to understand lived experience, Christopher brings to light a practice that is unafraid to confront, listen, critique, and unveil.

We love how Christopherā€™s personality shines through this thoroughly academic yet approachable description of tarot cards and their uses. Reading it filled us with hope for a future of liberation and ideas of how we can make that happen.

By Christopher Marmolejo,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Designed to be used with any deck, Red Tarot is a radical praxis and decolonized oracle that moves beyond self-help and divination to reclaim tarot for liberation, self-determination, and collective healing.

For readers of Postcolonial Astrology and Tarot for Change

Red Tarot speaks to anyone othered for their identity or ways of being or thinkingā€”LGBTQIA2S+ and BIPOC folks in particularā€”presenting the tarot as a radical epistemology that shifts the authority of knowing into the hands of the people themselves.

Author Christopher Marmolejo frames literacy as key to liberation, and explores an understanding of tarot as critical literacy. They show howā€¦


Book cover of The Creative Tarot: A Modern Guide to an Inspired Life

Tania Pryputniewicz Author Of Heart's Compass Tarot

From my list on tarot improvisation for writers and artists.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™m a poet, tarot muse, and artist whose childhood experiences with vivid night-time dreams and a handful of years on a commune in the cornfields ignited my passion for exploring inner imagery. I read voraciously from science fiction to fairytales to channelings. I discovered tarot in my twenties, using it to read for others, mend my broken heart, and get squared away enough to apply to graduate school for poetry in the heartland at the Iowa Writersā€™ Workshop. Ever since, tarot is my favorite mirror for self-reflection. Author of two poetry collections, I wrote a workbook to help others apply the tarot in joyful, healing ways through writing and art.

Tania's book list on tarot improvisation for writers and artists

Tania Pryputniewicz Why did Tania love this book?

Jessa Crispinā€™s Creative Tarot suggests ways to connect to oneā€™s muse through tarot. Crispinā€™s chapters match each tarot cardā€™s essence to artists, thinkers, philosophers, and writers, looking at challenges and gifts each personality encountered over the course of their lifetime (and how they manifested in detriment or bloom). One of my favorite lines makes tarot card exploration forever relevant: Crispin writes, ā€œIt is about retelling the present.ā€ And it is about how to ground tarot energy in specifics: what does it mean to be a King of Cups? Who has lived such an incarnation? Her ā€œliving examplesā€ make tarot tangible for my students; I love her specific suggestions for how to explore the energy of each tarot card through music, film, paintings, art, and literature. 

By Jessa Crispin,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A hip, accessible, and practical guide for artists and creative people looking to tarot for guidance and inspiration in the tradition of The Secret Language of Birthdaysand Steal Like an Artist.

What if the path to creativity was not as challenging as everyone thinks? What if you could find that spark, plot twist, or next project by simply looking at your life and your art through a different lens?

Written for novices and seasoned readers alike, The Creative Tarotis a unique guidebook that reimagines tarot cards and the ways they can boost the creative process. Jessa Crispin guides you throughā€¦


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Book cover of Trudy, Madly, Deeply

Trudy, Madly, Deeply by Wendy Delaney,

Human lie detector, Charmaine Digby, is psyched to put her ability to the test as the County Coroner's new investigative assistant. But she sure never expected sheā€™d need it to solve a murder! Not until she got her first assignment. Interview the hunky doctor reporting the suspicious death of Trudy,ā€¦

Book cover of The Bathhouse at Midnight: An Historical Survey of Magic and Divination in Russia

Elizabeth Wayland Barber Author Of The Dancing Goddesses: Folklore, Archaeology, and the Origins of European Dance

From my list on European dance in female fertility and health.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™m an information junkie who loves to dance. I fell in love with folk dancing at age 6, European archaeology at 11, linguistics and cognition at 21ā€”and could never drop any of them. My scientist-father always said, ā€œFollow the problem, not the discipline,ā€ and I began to see how these fields could help answer each otherā€™s questions. Words can survive for millenniaā€”with information about what archaeologists donā€™t find, like oh-so-perishable cloth. Determining how to reconstruct prehistoric textiles (Womenā€™s Work: The First 20,000 Years) then led me to trace the origins of various European folk costumes, and finally even to reconstruct something about the origins of the dances themselves.

Elizabeth's book list on European dance in female fertility and health

Elizabeth Wayland Barber Why did Elizabeth love this book?

I chose this book because it is such a wide-ranging compendium of Russian folk beliefs in general (in English!) as well as of Russian customs involved in trying to ensure the fertility and health of crops, farm animals, and women, all desperately needed for the survival of the community. It is these fascinating and picturesque customs that so often get incorporated into dances. Furthermore, the Dancing Goddesses were often pressed into service for divination of the future, especially by young girls worrying about whom they would marry and how many children they would have, or if they would die first. (I accidentally witnessed one of these ceremonies in Danzig in 1993ā€”they have not died!)

By W.F. Ryan,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The title of this book refers to the classic time and place for magic, witchcraft, and divination in Russia. The Bathhouse at Midnight, by one of the world's foremost experts on the subject, surveys all forms of magic, both learned and popular, in Russia from the fifth to the eighteenth century. While no book on the subject could be exhaustive, The Bathhouse at Midnight does describe and assess all the literary sources of magic, witchcraft, astrology, alchemy, and divination from Kiev Rus and Imperial Russia, and to some extent Ukraine and Belorussia. Where possible, Ryan identifies the sources of theā€¦


Book cover of Murder Past Due
Book cover of Lending a Paw: A Bookmobile Cat Mystery
Book cover of The Whole Cat and Caboodle

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