Fans pick 100 books like Manfish

By Jennifer Berne, Eric Puybaret (illustrator),

Here are 100 books that Manfish fans have personally recommended if you like Manfish. 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 Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist

Mary Batten Author Of Life in Hot Water: Wildlife at the Bottom of the Ocean

From my list on capture the excitement of ocean exploration for all.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love the ocean—the awesome power of the waves, the shifting of tides, the beauty of life below the surface, and the infinite freedom of the boundless horizon. I feel free when I walk along the ocean, at one with wild nature of which human nature is a part. I respect the life-giving force of the water that covers most of Earth’s surface, water that made life possible billions of years ago and that sustains life today. As a science writer, I feel it is my responsibility to convey my passion for the ocean and the importance of protecting it for the health of our planet and future generations.

Mary's book list on capture the excitement of ocean exploration for all

Mary Batten Why did Mary love this book?

I am inspired by people who break barriers to succeed. Ichthyologist (fish biologist) Eugenie Clark is such a person. She became a deep-sea diver at a time when not many women were in the water actively doing ocean research. All ocean creatures interested her, but her specialty was sharks! During her 92-year lifespan, she made many dives both in submersible vehicles and with SCUBA.

Because of her work, she became known as the “Shark Lady.” Once, while diving, she rode on the back of a 50-foot whale shark. I have only seen sharks in large aquariums, such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, but thanks to Eugenie Clark’s underwater research, I have learned many surprising things about them in the wild. 

By Jess Keating, Marta Álvarez Miguéns (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

11 authors picked Shark Lady as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 9, 10, 11, and 12.

What is this book about?

One of New York Times' Twelve Books for Feminist Boys and Girls!
This is the story of a woman who dared to dive, defy, discover, and inspire. This is the story of Shark Lady. One of the best science picture books for children, Shark Lady is a must for both teachers and parents alike!
An Amazon Best Book of the Month
Named a Best Children's Book of 2017 by Parents magazine
Eugenie Clark fell in love with sharks from the first moment she saw them at the aquarium. She couldn't imagine anything more exciting than studying these graceful creatures. But…


Book cover of The Snail and the Whale

Mike Lowery Author Of Everything Awesome About Sharks and Other Underwater Creatures!

From my list on the ocean for kids.

Why am I passionate about this?

Besides being an avid sketchbook keeper, author, and illustrator, I also collect weird and random facts. In my Everything Awesome book series, I love discovering cool facts to share with readers about some of my favorite topics, including sharks, space, and dinosaurs.

Mike's book list on the ocean for kids

Mike Lowery Why did Mike love this book?

Yes, it’s another snail, but a different tale! (Or should it be tail?)

Easily already a children’s lit classic since it first came out in 2003, this book takes you on an oceanic journey with two very unlikely traveling companions to see the sights. There may be danger ahead, but friendship rules the day.

By Julia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Snail and the Whale as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 3, 4, 5, and 6.

What is this book about?

"How I long to sail!" said the tiny snail.

The Snail and the Whale is a delightful tale of adventure and friendship by the unparalleled picture book partnership of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, creators of The Gruffalo.

One little snail longs to see the world and hitches a lift on the tail of an enormous whale. Together they go on an amazing journey, past icebergs and volcanoes, sharks and penguins, and the little snail feels so small in the vastness of the world. But when disaster strikes and the whale is beached in a bay, it's the tiny snail's…


Book cover of Professor Astro Cat's Deep-Sea Voyage

Mike Lowery Author Of Everything Awesome About Sharks and Other Underwater Creatures!

From my list on the ocean for kids.

Why am I passionate about this?

Besides being an avid sketchbook keeper, author, and illustrator, I also collect weird and random facts. In my Everything Awesome book series, I love discovering cool facts to share with readers about some of my favorite topics, including sharks, space, and dinosaurs.

Mike's book list on the ocean for kids

Mike Lowery Why did Mike love this book?

Ready for a deep dive to learn all about the world’s oceans?

Tag along with Professor Astro Cat and his friends as they explore from the seashore to the deepest depths of the oceans and everything in between. It's equally as much fun to visually enjoy this book's amazing illustrations as it is to devour all the fascinating facts!

By Dominic Walliman, Ben Newman (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Professor Astro Cat's Deep-Sea Voyage as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 7, 8, 9, and 10.

What is this book about?

Where did all the water on our planet come from? How deep is the ocean? What exactly is a fish?

Find out all of this and more in the newest Professor Astro Cat adventure!

Despite covering over 70% of the Earth's surface, the ocean is still roughly 95% unexplored. Join Professor Astro Cat and the gang as they take a deep dive from the sea shore all the way to the darkest depths of the ocean floor to find out more about this mysterious watery world. From coral reefs to deep-sea vents, there's so much to discover on this Deep-sea…


Book cover of Crab and Snail: The Invisible Whale

Mike Lowery Author Of Everything Awesome About Sharks and Other Underwater Creatures!

From my list on the ocean for kids.

Why am I passionate about this?

Besides being an avid sketchbook keeper, author, and illustrator, I also collect weird and random facts. In my Everything Awesome book series, I love discovering cool facts to share with readers about some of my favorite topics, including sharks, space, and dinosaurs.

Mike's book list on the ocean for kids

Mike Lowery Why did Mike love this book?

I love how these best beach friends (that’s BBF to you!) think deeply about both friendship and the realities of being invisible. They also need to work together to figure out why the rain won’t stop falling on only the two of them! Can they figure it out?

This book is a funny and charming seaside tale. 

By Beth Ferry, Jared Chapman (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Crab and Snail as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 6, 7, 8, and 9.

What is this book about?

Join Crab and Snail in the surf zone, where they think deep thoughts and have unforgettable seaside adventures, in this graphic early reader series debut by New York Times bestselling author Beth Ferry and beloved illustrator Jared Chapman.

The never-ending rain is putting a damper on Crab and Snail's plans for a sunny, funny day. So when the BBFs (Best Beach Friends) realize that it's only raining on them, they put their heads together and consult one know-it-all gull (he really does know it all!) to get to the bottom of it. By the time the rain clears, the duo…


Book cover of Jacques Cousteau

Mary Batten Author Of Life in Hot Water: Wildlife at the Bottom of the Ocean

From my list on capture the excitement of ocean exploration for all.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love the ocean—the awesome power of the waves, the shifting of tides, the beauty of life below the surface, and the infinite freedom of the boundless horizon. I feel free when I walk along the ocean, at one with wild nature of which human nature is a part. I respect the life-giving force of the water that covers most of Earth’s surface, water that made life possible billions of years ago and that sustains life today. As a science writer, I feel it is my responsibility to convey my passion for the ocean and the importance of protecting it for the health of our planet and future generations.

Mary's book list on capture the excitement of ocean exploration for all

Mary Batten Why did Mary love this book?

One of the treasured privileges of my life was working for the great ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau. It was from Cousteau, whom we called “the Captain” or “JYC” (pronounced Jeek for his initials, Jacques Yves Cousteau), that my passion for the ocean and the life within its depths expanded and intensified.

He called Earth our “water planet” because almost 71 percent of its surface is covered with water. He was one of my scientist/explorer heroes, a stunning example of what one person can do to enrich people’s lives with new knowledge and change the world for the better.

His television series, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, introduced and educated millions of people to the unseen beauty of life below the surface and the importance of protecting our life-sustaining oceans.

By Jim Ollhoff,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

This title introduces readers to Jacques Cousteau, the great explorer who introduced millions of people to the undersea world from his ship the Calypso. Cousteau's life story is examined from his childhood to his marriage and his education at the French Naval Academy and his service in the French Navy and World War II. Cousteau's collaboration with engineer Emile Gagnan is included, including their invention of the Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus or SCUBA system, as is his invention of the underwater camera. Cousteau's film work is examined, including his Academy Award-winning films The Silent World (1956) and World Without Sun…


Book cover of Napoleon's Wars: An International History

Lisa Chaplin Author Of The Tide Watchers

From my list on hidden histories on The Napoleonic Wars.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a very ordinary person. A history and literary nerd. A wife and mother. I don’t have any M.As or PhDs. I started teaching myself to write in 1991, and after joining the Romance Writers of America, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as Writing NSW (New South Wales), I had my first writing award, and first short story published in 1997. I got my first writing contract in 2000 (Silhouette Books, NY). I quit romance in 2012 to focus on historical fiction and YA, both of which I still love, and putting a little romance in there never hurts. I've given workshops and talks for the Historical Novel Societies of Australia and North America.

Lisa's book list on hidden histories on The Napoleonic Wars

Lisa Chaplin Why did Lisa love this book?

This compelling history goes “beyond the legend that Napoleon himself helped create, to form a new, genuinely international context for his military career.”

History is most often written by the victors, and real life is never so one-sided. Esdaile writes as though he lived Napoleon’s life, and shows that many times his decisions were made (or changed) because of acts, or provocation, by British diplomats or agents. The quote by Napoleon’s stepdaughter Hortense says it all: “Any man who becomes the sole head of a great country by means other than heredity can only maintain himself in power if he gives the nation either liberty or military glory – if he makes himself, in short, either a Washington or a conqueror...it was impossible for him to establish...an absolute power except by bemusing reason [and] by every three months presenting the French people with some new spectacle.” Esdaile brings this unspoken…

By Charles J. Esdaile,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A glorious?and conclusive?chronicle of the wars waged by one of the most polarizing figures in military history

Acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic as a new standard on the subject, this sweeping, boldly written history of the Napoleonic era reveals its central protagonist as a man driven by an insatiable desire for fame, and determined ?to push matters to extremes.? More than a myth-busting portrait of Napoleon, however, it offers a panoramic view of the armed conflicts that spread so quickly out of revolutionary France to countries as remote as Sweden and Egypt. As it expertly moves through conflicts…


Book cover of The Ebony Tower

Rosalind Brackenbury Author Of The Lost Love Letters of Henri Fournier

From my list on set in France with themes to match.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m fascinated by these themes – love, France, mystery, women’s lives, war, and peace. My parents took me to France when I was 12 and I’ve spent years there in between and go back whenever I can. I started reading in French when sent to be an au pair in Switzerland when I was 17. My own novel, The Lost Love Letters Of Henri Fournier was absorbing to write as it contains all of the above. I found an unpublished novel of Fournier’s in a village in rural France a few years ago and decided I had to write about him and his lover, Pauline, who was a famous French actress. 

Rosalind's book list on set in France with themes to match

Rosalind Brackenbury Why did Rosalind love this book?

Another story that's impossible to forget – actually this is a novella in a collection of stories with this name. Again, about a lost house in a forest in France, an artist, a young man in love, and the two young women who bewitch him in turns. John Fowles is an English writer from the 1960s, whose work I loved when young and still do. He was much influenced by Alain-Fournier.

By John Fowles,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The Ebony Tower, comprising a novella, three stories, and a translation of a medieval French tale, echoes themes from John Fowles's internationally celebrated novels as it probes the fitful relations between love and hate, pleasure and pain, fantasy and reality.


Book cover of Gap Year Girl: A Baby Boomer Adventure Across 21 Countries

Marianne C. Bohr Author Of The Twenty: One Woman's Trek Across Corsica on the GR20 Trail

From my list on by women about outdoor adventure.

Why am I passionate about this?

I married my high school sweetheart and travel partner, and followed my own advice to do graduate work, and started my career working for the French National Railroad in New York City, mapping itineraries for travelers to Europe. Travel means the world to me, and if I don’t have a trip on the horizon, I feel aimless and untethered. I worked in book publishing for 30 years and dropped out of the corporate rat race to take a gap year abroad. I wrote about our “Senior year abroad” in my first book Gap Year Girl. I returned to the US to teach middle school French and organize student trips to France. 

Marianne's book list on by women about outdoor adventure

Marianne C. Bohr Why did Marianne love this book?

For readers with wanderlust who long to hit the road, Gap Year Girl is a pleasure to read.

It is the author’s travel adventure memoir about how she and her husband, late Baby Boomers, retraced their backpacking travels abroad from much earlier years. Bohr describes what it’s like to kiss your job goodbye, sell your possessions, pack your bags, and take off on a quest for adventure.

Readers will be intrigued and inspired by this account of a couple’s experiences on an unconventional, past-the-blush-of-youth quest. Bohr blends the details of travel, culture, and history with humor and the intimacy of her life.

She shares that seven weeks into their journey, homesickness hit them hard in a cold, ancient village in southwestern France, but they rallied and went on to continue their adventure. 

By Marianne C. Bohr,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

In the 1960s and '70s, thousands of baby boomers strapped packs to their backs and flocked to Europe, wandering the continent on missions of self-discovery. Many of these boomers still dream of "going back"-of once again cutting themselves free and revisiting the places they encountered in their youth, recapturing what was, and creating fresh memories along the way. Marianne Bohr and her husband, Joe, did just that.

In Gap Year Girl, Bohr describes what it's like to kiss your job good-bye, sell your worldly possessions, pack your bags, and take off on a quest for adventure. Page by page, she…


Book cover of Perilous Glory: The Rise of Western Military Power

Beatrice Heuser Author Of War: A Genealogy of Western Ideas and Practices

From my list on war in general.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have studied aspects of war and strategy – mainly on the political-military interface level – for the past forty years of my life. My interest originated from my parents’ stories about their childhood and early youth in the Second World Wars, its horrors and hardships, and from myself living in South-East Asia during the time of the Vietnam War. Moreover, I became obsessed with the fear of nuclear war through reading and hearing about it. So I have studied aspects of war, much as an oncologist studies cancer, in the hope that a better understanding may eventually help us ban it in practice (and not just in theory as it has been since the Briand-Kellogg Pact of 1928).

Beatrice's book list on war in general

Beatrice Heuser Why did Beatrice love this book?

John France has a knack for making the history of war interesting and readable, without taking away its gore and horror, without making you think it in any way romantic or desirable. The title already captures it: the book is largely about the rise of Europe (or later: the West) on the back of military prowess, but at what perilous price! The book aptly traces military traditions and continuity of ideas and concepts, but also profound changes, from Antiquity to the present, giving us a grasp of the essence of warfare during different periods. This book can be said to replace Sir Charles Oman’s old classic.

By John France,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A major new history of war that challenges our understanding of military dominance and how it is achieved

This expansive book surveys the history of warfare from ancient Mesopotamia to the Gulf War in search of a deeper understanding of the origins of Western warfare and the reasons for its eminence today. Historian John France explores the experience of war around the globe, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. His bold conclusions cast doubt on well-entrenched attitudes about the development of military strength, the impact of culture on warfare, the future of Western dominance, and much more.

Taking into account…


Book cover of The Josephine B. Trilogy

Marcia DeSanctis Author Of 100 Places in France Every Woman Should Go

From my list on women in France.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm a former television news producer who worked for Barbara Walters and Peter Jennings at ABC News, and at Dateline NBC and CBS’s 60 Minutes. I was always a journalist, but mid-career, I switched lanes from TV to writing. Since then, I've contributed essays and stories to many publications, among them Vogue, Travel & Leisure, The New York Times, BBC Travel, and others. I mostly write about travel, but also cover beauty, wellness, international development, and health. I'm the recipient of five Lowell Thomas Awards for excellence in travel journalism, including one for Travel Journalist of the Year. My book of essays, A Hard Place to Leave: Stories From a Restless Life comes out in May 2022.

Marcia's book list on women in France

Marcia DeSanctis Why did Marcia love this book?

It can be difficult to recall that, while laying waste to the armies of Europe, proving himself to be one of the finest military commanders in history, Napoleon was writing salty love letters home to his wife. Narrated in first-person diary-style by Josephine, Sandra Gulland’s sensational trio of books is a credit to the sometimes-overlooked genre of historical autobiographical fiction. The events around her life with the self-anointed Emperor of the French are defined with both intimacy and sweep. Josephine emerges as a most intriguing woman, charming and clever, and a full participant aside from her husband as he rises and falls.

The three books cover the many phases of her exceptional life. From her childhood in the French colony of Martinique, through her first marriage and imprisonment during the revolution, to her fateful introduction to the “strange little man,” and through their marriage and demise, the woman who became…

By Sandra Gulland,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The Josephine B. Trilogy comprises three acclaimed,bestselling novels that draw the reader into the delicate yet passionaterelationship between Josephine and Napoleon Bonaparte: The Many Lives& Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.; Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe;and The Last Great Dance on Earth. Together in this omnibusedition, they form an irresistible epic, tracing Josephine’s transformationfrom impressionable young girl to canny and compassionate wife, to confidanteempress and one of the most sophisticated and powerful women in history.

Adored by readers of historical fiction, the Josephine novelsare a sweeping tale of love and loss, political intrigue and revolution duringone of the most tumultuous…


Book cover of Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist
Book cover of The Snail and the Whale
Book cover of Professor Astro Cat's Deep-Sea Voyage

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5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in France, oceanography, and the ocean?

France 947 books
Oceanography 15 books
The Ocean 40 books