Love Happy Hour? Readers share 99 books like Happy Hour...

By Marlowe Granados,

Here are 99 books that Happy Hour fans have personally recommended if you like Happy Hour. 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 My Year of Rest and Relaxation

Rachana Vajjhala Author Of Kinetic Cultures: Modernism and Embodiment on the Belle Epoque Stage

From my list on dazzlingly written books from the past five years with both style and substance.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™m a music historian who loves to read novels. Most of my childhood was spent either playing the piano or devouring whatever books I could get my hands on. Now, I try to share my love of music and good writing with my students at Boston University. When not at school, you can usually find me exploring the trails of New England with my dog.     

Rachana's book list on dazzlingly written books from the past five years with both style and substance

Rachana Vajjhala Why did Rachana love this book?

Who knew a book about sleeping could be so funny and engaging?

As someone who constantly wants and needs more rest, I related to the protagonistā€™s hunch that a year of (almost uninterrupted) sleep would change her life. And it does, though not at all in the way she expects.

Moshfegh writes about trips to the local bodega and the edgy conceptual art scene in such a brilliant way that the book will (perhaps, unfortunately!) keep you up late.

By Ottessa Moshfegh,

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked My Year of Rest and Relaxation as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, Time, NPR, Amazon,Vice, Bustle, The New York Times, The Guardian, Kirkus Reviews, Entertainment Weekly, The AV Club, & Audible

A New York Times Bestseller

"One of the most compelling protagonists modern fiction has offered in years: a loopy, quietly furious pillhead whose Ambien ramblings and Xanaxed b*tcheries somehow wend their way through sad and funny and strange toward something genuinely profound." - Entertainment Weekly

"Darkly hilarious . . . [Moshfegh's] the kind of provocateur who makes you laugh out loud while drawing blood." -Vogue

From one of our boldest,ā€¦


Book cover of The Girls

Martin Nathan Author Of A Place of Safety

From my list on people in dangerous systems of belief.

Why am I passionate about this?

My family was divided by religion, leaving me skeptical about belief systems. After a background in science, I studied philosophy and became intrigued by Heidegger's ā€˜pitiless atheism.ā€™ The power of his thought but his personal failings have long been an issue for academics. I have since been fascinated partly by powerful personalities but more by the struggle of their followers as they suspend critical thinking and make huge sacrifices to offer their support. This struggle and difficulty of turning back, particularly as the systems begin to collapse, are a feature of many of the works of fiction that intrigue me most, particularly in the books I have chosen.

Martin's book list on people in dangerous systems of belief

Martin Nathan Why did Martin love this book?

I liked the subtlety of the storytelling here and the way the whole tragic plot develops. Events develop as much out of boredom and lack of engagement rather than from evil intent.

The false messiah here doesnā€™t offer a great path and is not particularly charismatic. He just offers something slightly more interesting than all the others around. The outcome depends on accident more than any evil intention. Emma Cline finds an engaging way to explore a piece of history without exploitation.

By Emma Cline,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A gripping and dark fictionalised account of life inside the Manson family from one of the most exciting young voices in fiction.

If you're lost, they'll find you...

Evie Boyd is fourteen and desperate to be noticed.

It's the summer of 1969 and restless, empty days stretch ahead of her. Until she sees them. The girls. Hair long and uncombed, jewelry catching the sun. And at their centre, Suzanne, black-haired and beautiful.

If not for Suzanne, she might not have gone. But, intoxicated by her and the life she promises, Evie follows the girls back to the decaying ranch whereā€¦


Book cover of Luster

Theodore Carter Author Of Stealing the Scream

From my list on Book starring tortured artists.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™m the descendant of three generations of visual artists, a gene I thought had skipped me. However, art popped up in many of my stories when I started writing fiction. In 2012, I published The Life Story of a Chilean Sea Blob, and to promote it, I launched a street art campaign that included putting plaster blobs on the streets of Washington, D.C. This blossomed into several other street art projects and earned attention from The Washington Post and several D.C. TV news stations. My next two books centered around Frida Kahlo and Edvard Munch.

Theodore's book list on Book starring tortured artists

Theodore Carter Why did Theodore love this book?

At the beginning of this book, I recognized the ingredients that make up popular erotic novels. The main character, Edie, a Black woman and struggling artist, is beginning a relationship with an older, wealthy, successful white man in an open marriage. Thereā€™s a power imbalance. To a certain extent, this excites Edie, and in this way, the book fits neatly into the parameters of the genre.

However, the relationship becomes messy, and Edieā€™s life, both with and away from Eric, is fraught with bad decisions. Race, wealth, and gender intersect with sex in a complex and uncomfortable milieu. Through all of this, and with the guidance of Ericā€™s wife, Edie begins to make progressive, less destructive choices, and as she does, her art progresses.

By Raven Leilani,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

WINNER of the NBCC John Leonard Prize, the Kirkus Prize, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award

One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2020
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, The New York Times Book Review, O Magazine, Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Times, Glamour, Shondaland, Boston Globe, and many more!

"So delicious that it feels illicit . . . Raven Leilaniā€™s first novel reads like summer: sentences like ice that crackle orā€¦


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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 Exalted

Julia Argy Author Of The One

From my list on women grinding their way through late capitalism.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a novelist with my debut, The One, out in April 2023. Iā€™m interested in stories about the role of gender, technology, and privacy in our contemporary culture. We spend so many hours at work, yet often the literature we read spends so little time discussing what that experience is actually like. As I wrote my own novel with a narrator flailing so aimlessly through her early post-grad years that she ends up on a reality dating show, I craved other books that tackled what it was like to have to earn a living at the forefront of the text, rather than a nebulous character detail in the background. 

Julia's book list on women grinding their way through late capitalism

Julia Argy Why did Julia love this book?

Exalted follows two women, Emily, an Internet astrologer, and Dawn, a lesbian waitress looking for a connection of any sort.

Dornā€™s writing is sharp and funny as she tracks the way that both women are forced to scrape together a living. I love to see a character at work, and Emilyā€™s wry sense of humor as she manipulates viral trends and conjures somewhat bogus readings is a powerful engine for the story.

As the novel progresses, the main charactersā€™ lives begin to overlap, and you begin to wonder whether some destinies are really written in the stars as any good astrologer would insist. 

By Anna Dorn,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

"A brutally funny and observant ride through astrology culture, love, and self-discovery." ā€”NYLON's Most Anticipated Books of 2022


"A depressed Millennial astrologist, a self-hating lesbian with a rage (and drinking) problem, and profound questions of connection and destiny make Exalted an unforgettable read. Clear your schedule and consult your horoscope because Anna Dorn's novel will make you cackle and gasp, and you won't be able to put it down."
ā€”Edan Lepucki


Emily Forrest runs Exalted, the hottest astrology account on Instagram, from her studio apartment in Los Angeles. Burned out on meme-making and listicles, Emilyā€™s passion for astrology is waningā€¦


Book cover of Temporary

Alison B. Hart Author Of The Work Wife

From my list on womenā€™s ambition and battle for our souls at work.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ll tell you a secret. Iā€™m obsessed with moneyā€”not fast cars, designer labels, and McMansions, but the accumulation of capital: who has it, how they got it, and what lengths theyā€™re willing to go to to keep it. So Iā€™ve always loved novels about work. They cut right to the heart of a characterā€™s true motivations, revealing what theyā€™ll fight for and who theyā€™ll love. Donā€™t show me what a person looks like, show me how they earn (or donā€™t earn) their living, and Iā€™ll remember them forever.

Alison's book list on womenā€™s ambition and battle for our souls at work

Alison B. Hart Why did Alison love this book?

I spent my summers during college doing odd jobs as a temp, but even readers whoā€™ve never known anything but ā€œthe steadinessā€ at work will enjoy this mythical look at the gig economy.

The unnamed narrator, born from a long line of temps, takes pride in her ability to ā€œaccurately replace a person,ā€ whether thatā€™s a pirate, an assassin, or even the chairman of the board. This book is for anyone whoā€™s ever wondered what it would take not just to survive their job but to transcend it.

By Hilary Leichter,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

In Temporary, a young womanā€™s workplace is the size of the world. She fills increasingly bizarre placements in search of steadiness, connection, and something, at last, to call her own. Whether itā€™s shining an endless closet of shoes, swabbing the deck of a pirate ship, assisting an assassin, or filling in for the Chairman of the Board, for the mythical Temporary, ā€œthere is nothing more personal than doing your job.ā€ 

This riveting quest, at once hilarious and profound, will resonate with anyone who has ever done their best at work, even when the work is only temporary.


Book cover of Long Live the Post Horn!

Julia Argy Author Of The One

From my list on women grinding their way through late capitalism.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a novelist with my debut, The One, out in April 2023. Iā€™m interested in stories about the role of gender, technology, and privacy in our contemporary culture. We spend so many hours at work, yet often the literature we read spends so little time discussing what that experience is actually like. As I wrote my own novel with a narrator flailing so aimlessly through her early post-grad years that she ends up on a reality dating show, I craved other books that tackled what it was like to have to earn a living at the forefront of the text, rather than a nebulous character detail in the background. 

Julia's book list on women grinding their way through late capitalism

Julia Argy Why did Julia love this book?

To close off the list, I picked a novel where the main character ends up becoming energized by her work.

At an otherwise soul-sucking job at a PR firm, Ellinor becomes involved with, and motivated by, a political movement about supporting postal workers in Norway.

For a novel that could have been bogged down by the inner workings of the EU and the Norwegian Postal Service, Hjorthā€™s writing style is crisp and perfect. She could choose any subject matter and it would be interesting. 

By Vigdis Hjorth,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Long Live the Post Horn! as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Ellinor, a 35-year-old media consultant, has not been feeling herself; she's not been feeling much at all lately. Far beyond jaded, she picks through an old diary and fails to recognise the woman in its pages, seemingly as far away from the world around her as she's ever been. But when her coworker vanishes overnight, an unusual new task is dropped on her desk. Off she goes to meet the Norwegian Postal Workers Union, setting the ball rolling on a strange and transformative six months.

This is an existential scream of a novel about loneliness (and the postal service!), writtenā€¦


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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 Girls They Write Songs About

Sarah Priscus Author Of Groupies

From my list on complex, chaotic female friendships.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm fascinated by stories about complicated friendships because they speak to our eternal need to be part of something. Everyone wants to have friends, especially when weā€™re young, but what if those friendships arenā€™t good for us? What happens when self-interest motivates our social choices? It seems thereā€™s often a fragile boundary between love and hate. This volatile intensity becomes addictive. I'm a Canadian writer with a BA in English from the University of Ottawa. When writing fiction, I love exploring the toxic threads of jealousy, ambition, and obsession that both bind us together and tear us apart.

Sarah's book list on complex, chaotic female friendships

Sarah Priscus Why did Sarah love this book?

I adored Charlotte and Roseā€™s heartbreaking friendship.

First, Charlotte and Rose come of age in the late nineties, a perfect pair with an inseparable bond taking on New York City. As they grow up, itā€™s their individual problems and decisions that loosen the bolts holding them together. Some friendships shape us into who we are, so losing a friend brings grief and anger.

Charlotte and Rose are both rich, fully realized characters with goals that donā€™t always align. Bauerā€™s brilliant prose makes this a book I could read again and again.

By Carlene Bauer,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Girls They Write Songs About as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'The instant feminist classic our generation has been waiting for' Ada Calhoun, author of Why We Can't Sleep

What happens when growing up means growing apart?

1997. New York.

Earnest, bookish Rose.

Brash, extrovert Charlotte.

When they moved to New York in the late nineties, coffee cost less than a dollar and you could still smoke in bars. You could stay up drinking all night, sat in vinyl booths patched up with duct tape.

Everyone has their own New York, and for Rose and Charlotte it was a place to feed their ambition, a place to dance and party andā€¦


Book cover of Bunny

Sarah Priscus Author Of Groupies

From my list on complex, chaotic female friendships.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm fascinated by stories about complicated friendships because they speak to our eternal need to be part of something. Everyone wants to have friends, especially when weā€™re young, but what if those friendships arenā€™t good for us? What happens when self-interest motivates our social choices? It seems thereā€™s often a fragile boundary between love and hate. This volatile intensity becomes addictive. I'm a Canadian writer with a BA in English from the University of Ottawa. When writing fiction, I love exploring the toxic threads of jealousy, ambition, and obsession that both bind us together and tear us apart.

Sarah's book list on complex, chaotic female friendships

Sarah Priscus Why did Sarah love this book?

This satire of academia's petty politics is horrifying and hilarious.

The Bunnies are a clique of wealthy MFA students whose uncomfortably close friendship disgusts and intrigues lonely Samantha. When Samanthaā€™s invited to join the group for a night, she tosses her only other friend aside. She hates the Bunnies, but you know what they say: if you canā€™t beat them, join them. Samanthaā€™s inner conflict fascinated me.

We struggle with her to understand whatā€™s compelling her to fall for the group's strange allure. This friend group is toxic to its core, but this book showed me that it's surprisingly easy to drink poison if it tastes good enough.

By Mona Awad,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Soon to be a major motion picture

"Jon Swift + Witches of Eastwick + Kelly 'Get In Trouble' Link + Mean Girls + Creative Writing Degree Hell! No punches pulled, no hilarities dodged, no meme unmangled! O Bunny you are sooo genius!" ā€”Margaret Atwood, via Twitter

"A wild, audacious and ultimately unforgettable novel." ā€”Michael Schaub, Los Angeles Times

"Awad is a stone-cold genius." ā€”Ann Bauer, The Washington Post

The Vegetarian meets Heathers in this darkly funny, seductively strange novel from the acclaimed author of 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl.

"We were just these innocent girls in theā€¦


Book cover of What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women and the Food That Tells Their Stories

Amanda L. Van Lanen Author Of The Washington Apple: Orchards and the Development of Industrial Agriculture

From my list on food for thought- books that will change the way you think about food and agriculture.

Why am I passionate about this?

I come from a family of eaters. Food was often at the center of family stories and celebrations. I first became fascinated with apples while I was working on my Ph.D. in history, and my interest has since expanded to include all things related to food history. Iā€™ve taught classes on food history, and a few years ago, I started collecting cookbooks. I blog about my cookbook collection and other historical food oddities on my website.

Amanda's book list on food for thought- books that will change the way you think about food and agriculture

Amanda L. Van Lanen Why did Amanda love this book?

This book is delightful. Shapiro is one of my favorite food historians. I recommend all her books, but if youā€™ve never read her before, start here.

Itā€™s full of surprising and unexpected stories. Eleanor Roosevelt extracts culinary revenge, Eva Braun drinks champagne while worrying about her weight, and Helen Gurley Brown binges on sugar-free gelatin. These stories left me thinking about my own relationship with food and what that says about the society we live in. 

By Laura Shapiro,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

'If you find the subject of food to be both vexing and transfixing, you'll love What She Ate' Elle

Did you know that Eleanor Roosevelt dished up Eggs Mexican (a concoction of rice, fried eggs, and bananas) in the White House?

Or that Helen Gurley Brown's commitment to 'having it all' meant dining on supersized portions of diet gelatine?

In the irresistible What She Ate, Laura Shapiro examines the plates, recipe books and shopping trolleys of six extraordinary women, from Dorothy Wordsworth to Eva Braun.
Delving into diaries, newspaper articles, cook books and more, Shapiro casts a different light onā€¦


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Book cover of Vivian Amberville - The Weaver of Odds

Vivian Amberville - The Weaver of Odds by Louise Blackwick,

Vivian AmbervilleĀ® is a popular dark fantasy book series about a girl whose thoughts can reshape reality.

First in the series, The Weaver of Odds introduces 13-year-old Vivian to her power to alter luck, odds, and circumstances. She is a traveler between realities, whose imagination can twist reality into impossibleā€¦

Book cover of Those Who Write for Immortality: Romantic Reputations and the Dream of Lasting Fame

Benjamin Hoffmann Author Of The Paradoxes of Posterity

From my list on why people write books.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in Bordeaux, a city that became prominent during the eighteenth century. My hometown inspired my love of eighteenth-century French studies, which led me to the Sorbonne, then to Yale University where I earned a PhD. Today, I am an Associate Professor at The Ohio State University. I am the author of eight novels and monographs published in France and the US, including American Pandemonium, Posthumous America, and Sentinel Island. My work explores numerous genres to question a number of recurring themes: exile and the representation of otherness; nostalgia and the experience of bereavement; the social impact of new technologies; Americaā€™s history and its troubled present.

Benjamin's book list on why people write books

Benjamin Hoffmann Why did Benjamin love this book?

Those Who Write for Immortality is, simply put, a remarkable book. Itā€™s an in-depth study of British writers whose work was written with the goal of surviving what Horace called ā€œthe teeth of time.ā€ It confronts the literary careers of authors who managed to be remembered after their deaths to the failed attempts of gifted, but ultimately unsuccessful rivals. This study illuminates both the romantic period and the quest for literary fame in our own time. A must-read for anyone interested in Austen, Keats, Blake, and Lord Biron, it is also indispensable for readers willing to explore the theoretical issues associated with the goal of writing for those who are yet to be born, people whose values and aesthetic preferences might very well become completely different from our own.

By H.J. Jackson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Those Who Write for Immortality as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A provocative inquiry into lasting literary fame, the gifted writers who have achieved it, and the gifted writers who have not

Great writers of the past whose works we still read and love will be read forever. They will survive the test of time. We remember authors of true genius because their writings are simply the best. Or . . . might there be other reasons that account for an author's literary fate?

This original book takes a fresh look at our beliefs about literary fame by examining how it actually comes about. H. J. Jackson wrestles with entrenched notionsā€¦


Book cover of My Year of Rest and Relaxation
Book cover of The Girls
Book cover of Luster

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Interested in celebrities, friendships, and school?

Celebrities 46 books
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School 280 books