100 books like One Day With You

By Shari Low,

Here are 100 books that One Day With You fans have personally recommended if you like One Day With You. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Book cover of The Accidental Tourist

MJ Werthman White Author Of An Invitation to the Party

From my list on aging, family, and relationships.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a kid, our public library in the basement of the Methodist church became my second home. However, I considered any visit a bitter disappointment that didn’t result in one or two dog stories in the stack I signed out. Big Red, Old Yeller, Lassie, Lad a Dog, Call of the Wild, White Fang (the occasional wolf was also okay), I loved them all. That experience has continued to affect the adult I’ve become. As I’ve turned to reading, and writing, stories of family, relationships, and, lately, of aging, it’s become clear to me that I’ve never found a story that wasn’t improved by the appearance of a good dog.

MJ's book list on aging, family, and relationships

MJ Werthman White Why did MJ love this book?

I read Ann Tyler for her unrivaled ability to create heartfelt stories illuminated by humor about family in all its broken splendor.

The trepidatious Macon Leary is our accidental tourist, writer of an advice column full of tips for making travel feel like staying home. He’s lost his son; his wife has left him. He’s back living with his two brothers and sister when Edward, his choleric Welsh Corgi, starts biting people. This bit of bad luck pulls him into the orbit of the irritating, opinionated, big-hearted dog trainer, Muriel, and on a journey back to a life worth living for both Macon and his dog.

Read The Accidental Tourist if your family (or certain members thereof) make you crazy. You will feel seen. (It’s also a terrific movie.)

By Anne Tyler,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Discover a beautiful story of what it is to be human from Pulitzer prize-winning Sunday Times bestselling Anne Tyler

How does a man addicted to routine - a man who flosses his teeth before love-making - cope with the chaos of everyday life?

With the loss of his son, the departure of his wife and the arrival of Muriel, a dog trainer from the Meow-Bow dog clinic, Macon's attempts at ordinary life are tragically and comically undone.

**ANNE TYLER HAS SOLD OVER 1 MILLION BOOKS WORLDWIDE**

'One of my favourite authors ' Liane Moriarty

'She spins gold' Elizabeth Buchan

'Anne…


Book cover of This Is Where I Leave You

Carmen Reid Author Of New Family Required

From my list on funny, feelgood fiction about families.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a daughter, sister, Mum, wife, and writer. I’ve been writing light-hearted books about the intricacies of family life for 20 years now. When I first began my publishing journey, I was parcelled up with ‘chick lit’, but really, I’ve always written ‘Mum lit’. I love to write about the hilarious side of life, alongside the emotional. As it’s hard enough out there in the world, I want things to turn out happily in my stories. I love to add a sprinkling of travel and a touch of fashion. Sorry, but I just can’t help noticing a well-cut jacket, an embroidered silky skirt, or a carefully chosen accessory! 

Carmen's book list on funny, feelgood fiction about families

Carmen Reid Why did Carmen love this book?

Every comedy needs a truly memorable comedy scene and once you’ve read this book, you will never look at any birthday cake with candles in quite the same way again.

This plot is based on of my favourite setups – grown up siblings being forced to spend time in their family home together. In this case, they are mourning their recently deceased Dad. The seven-day stay is long enough for all the niceties to wear off and the real sibling rivalries, unresolved arguments, and tensions to surface and here, they are properly aired and almost resolved.

The very funny side and the searingly painful side are both so well done. If your sibs and in-laws are crazy or crazy-annoying, Tropper will make sure you know you are not alone. 

By Jonathan Tropper,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked This Is Where I Leave You as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A riotously funny, emotionally raw New York Times bestselling novel about love, marriage, divorce, family, and the ties that bind-whether we like it or not.

The death of Judd Foxman's father marks the first time that the entire Foxman clan has congregated in years. There is, however, one conspicuous absence: Judd's wife, Jen, whose affair with his radio- shock-jock boss has recently become painfully public. Simultaneously mourning the demise of his father and his marriage, Judd joins his dysfunctional family as they reluctantly sit shiva and spend seven days and nights under the same roof. The week quickly spins out…


Book cover of Mad About the Boy

Lottie Phillips Author Of Sunshine at Daisy's Guesthouse

From my list on to make you laugh and cry at the same time.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love romantic comedies with an emphasis on comedy. I’m not in love with sugary-sweet romance because I don’t think it’s true to life. I know that I laugh daily because my life is very 'Bridget Jones'. You know a book genre is strong when you can describe yourself as a character written in the late nineties. My own books are full of awkward moments, endearing observations, and humour that pushes the boundaries. Why? Because what are we if we are not fallible and vulnerable to whatever life throws at us?

Lottie's book list on to make you laugh and cry at the same time

Lottie Phillips Why did Lottie love this book?

Who doesn’t immediately fall in love with Bridget Jones upon meeting her?

This book is full of laughs, tears, and now parenthood! I adored the other books in the Bridget Jones series, and this didn’t disappoint. If, like me, you like to read about a woman who feels ‘real’ and relatable, this book is just divine.

Bridget Jones is the sister to all of us women who need to hear that someone else goes through such highs and lows.

By Helen Fielding,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Mad About the Boy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER

What do you do when a girlfriend's 60th birthday party is the same day as your boyfriend's 30th?

Is it wrong to lie about your age when online dating?

Is it morally wrong to have a blow-dry when one of your children has head lice?

Does the Dalai Lama actually tweet or is it his assistant?

Is technology now the fifth element? Or is that wood?

Is sleeping with someone after 2 dates and 6 weeks of texting the same as getting married after 2 meetings and 6 months of letter writing in Jane Austen's day?…


Book cover of For Every Solution, A Problem

Carmen Reid Author Of New Family Required

From my list on funny, feelgood fiction about families.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a daughter, sister, Mum, wife, and writer. I’ve been writing light-hearted books about the intricacies of family life for 20 years now. When I first began my publishing journey, I was parcelled up with ‘chick lit’, but really, I’ve always written ‘Mum lit’. I love to write about the hilarious side of life, alongside the emotional. As it’s hard enough out there in the world, I want things to turn out happily in my stories. I love to add a sprinkling of travel and a touch of fashion. Sorry, but I just can’t help noticing a well-cut jacket, an embroidered silky skirt, or a carefully chosen accessory! 

Carmen's book list on funny, feelgood fiction about families

Carmen Reid Why did Carmen love this book?

Why are more of Kerstin’s rom-com novels not available in English? That’s what I want to know.

This really is hilarious from start to finish, as we follow the hapless adventures of romance writer Gerri. While she tries to cope with losing her job, feeling forever single and even suicidal, her mother, father, and siblings only want to know when is she going to meet someone, preferably a professor, and settle down.

It’s the bizarre family dinners that capture the perfect madness that get-togethers with your parents and grown-up siblings can produce. And it takes an extremely talented writer to create an attempted (maybe that should be interrupted) suicide scene that is at once truly touching and hilarious.

A joyful read, particularly if, like me, you have some German relatives!

By Kerstin Gier, Erik J. Macki (translator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked For Every Solution, A Problem as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Trashy-romance writer Gerri has it all - an overbearing family, a dead-end job, and no man but a ton of pressure to get married and have kids. Frustrated and hopeless that things will ever change, she decides it's time to transition from "tragic loser" to "tragic loss." Armed with a shoebox full of sleeping pills and a big bottle of vodka, she's ready to end it all. First, she writes "honest" farewell notes to everyone she knows...

However, her big exit becomes her latest failure, and now she must face all those she's offended with her "final" words. Is it…


Book cover of Picture Us in the Light

Catherine Con Morse Author Of The Notes

From my list on coming of age Asian authors love a good cry.

Why am I passionate about this?

Growing up, I hardly ever saw books written by people who looked like me, about people who looked like me. When I did, the Asians were often side characters, typecast as nerds (and not in a good way). I didn’t get to see Asians being “cool” kids, and I definitely didn’t see them as love interests. When I went to a performing arts boarding school, it was the first time I wasn’t the only Asian student in my class, and it was life-changing. I think if I had had these books when I was a kid, it would’ve been easier to be confident about who I was.

Catherine's book list on coming of age Asian authors love a good cry

Catherine Con Morse Why did Catherine love this book?

I fell for this book because of its lyrical sentences, multiple narratives uncovering long-buried secrets, and exploration of the tensions and traumas of family, friendship, romantic love, and the immigrant experience. The people in this novel are all memorable and well-developed—even the adults, which can sometimes be hard to come by in YA books.

I was swept up in the world of the high-pressure Cupertino suburbs, and I love that nearly all the characters were Asian American. It also didn’t hurt that it’s narrated by a talented and troubled teen artist.

By Kelly Loy Gilbert,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Picture Us in the Light as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14, 15, 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

"Picture me madly in love with this moving, tender, unapologetically honest book."—Becky Albertalli, #1 best-selling author of Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Danny Cheng has always known his parents have secrets. But when he discovers a taped-up box in his father's closet filled with old letters and a file on a powerful Bay Area family, he realizes there's much more to his family's past than he ever imagined.

Danny has been an artist for as long as he can remember and it seems his path is set, with a scholarship to RISD and his family's blessing to pursue the…


Book cover of Heartmates

Eric Dakota Author Of Except for Cough Drops

From my list on gay coming-of-age books that capture the realism of the experience.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up a closeted gay in a very straight world. I enjoy reading both true and fictional stories about how others grew up and came out. I decided to write about coming-out and coming-of-age because this mixture of topics just didn’t exist when I was a teen. The books that I have listed here are ones that I feel capture both the realism of what is, what we wished had been, and the hope of what could be—a world where "coming out" wouldn’t be necessary.

Eric's book list on gay coming-of-age books that capture the realism of the experience

Eric Dakota Why did Eric love this book?

Love gone wrong. I grew to really care about Lars (Conner... somewhat), and I turned the pages because why the love had gone wrong was a mystery until late in the novel. I thought Lars’ pining away over a boy he cared about but hadn’t talked to in three years was compelling, especially in an age where we are encouraged to "move on" or "get over it."

I loved this story and plan to read it again soon!

By Marcus Herzig,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Heartmates as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14, 15, 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

Science, Shakespeare, and superheroes come together in this heartwarming tale of friendship, love, and second chances

This Valentine's Day, sixteen-year-old Lars Lofgren is crabby. Everyone is in love and reminding him he isn't. Things proceed from bad to worse when Connor Perry, Lars's former best friend and first crush who hasn't spoken with him in three years, starts dating social media star Jaden-Dominic Choi.

Joining an illustrious cast of characters for a school production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, the former friends suddenly find themselves back in the same social circle, but it's a complicated affair as Lars can't seem to…


Book cover of Nina X

Liam Bell Author Of The Sleepless

From my list on communes and cults.

Why am I passionate about this?

I don’t think I’m alone in considering cults and those who join cults fascinating, but I’ve also always found it frustrating when non-fiction accounts or documentaries focus on the logistics of how the communes operate rather than finding out the why. Why do people join a cult, why do they stay, why do they follow increasingly erratic and dangerous instruction? For me, researching cults for my new novel The Sleepless – about a commune whose disciples believe that sleep is a social construct – was about finding out about the characters, the individuals, who are drawn into organisations which often ask you to relinquish that self-same sense of individuality.

Liam's book list on communes and cults

Liam Bell Why did Liam love this book?

This is a novel about a young woman, the titular Nina, escaping from a Maoist cult and it’s a terrifically absorbing and engrossing tale.

What makes it unique is that it’s as much about the protagonist reclaiming, or even forming, her own identity as it is about the cult that she’s wrestling herself free from. Both the storyline and the form of the book itself involves the reader in that journey into freedom. An excellent and under-rated book.

By Ewan Morrison,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Winner of the Saltire Literary Award Fiction Book of the Year

'Literary gold . . . Morrison has published his masterpiece' Sunday Times

'Sensational. Like nothing I've ever read. A tour de force' Ian Rankin

Nina X has never been outside. She has never met another child.
Nina X has no books, no toys and no privacy.
Nina X has no idea what the outside world is like.
Nina X has a lot to learn.

Nina X has no mother and no father; she has Comrade Chen, and Comrades Uma, Jeni and Ruth. Her closest emotional connection is with the…


Book cover of The Ring Breaker

J.G. Harlond Author Of The Doomsong Sword

From my list on factual fantasy for coming-of-age Viking stories.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up on a Viking battlefield, in an English coastal village once raided then occupied by Norsemen. We had ancestors who lived on the Isle of Orkney, and in the Celtic south-west. From a young age, I read Norse and Celtic myths and legends, and went on to study history and philosophy – and then became an author. Now, I have family in Sweden and grandchildren of Ash and Elm. My list offers pure escapism, but also shows how our ancestors lived in an age with no electricity or compulsory schooling. It’s the wonderful combination of the ‘other world’ myths and history that I believe makes us who we are. 

J.G.'s book list on factual fantasy for coming-of-age Viking stories

J.G. Harlond Why did J.G. love this book?

This beautifully written novel showed me what life must have been like on the island of Orkney in the Dark Ages and trapped me in a gripping, almost ‘other-world’ coming-of-age tale.

Full of fascinating descriptive details and wise human insight, the story tells of the developing, sometimes tender, sometimes aggressive, relationship between two homeless adolescents in a very dangerous adult environment.

By Jean Gill,

Why should I read it?

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


Book cover of All the Pretty Boys

Eric Dakota Author Of Except for Cough Drops

From my list on gay coming-of-age books that capture the realism of the experience.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up a closeted gay in a very straight world. I enjoy reading both true and fictional stories about how others grew up and came out. I decided to write about coming-out and coming-of-age because this mixture of topics just didn’t exist when I was a teen. The books that I have listed here are ones that I feel capture both the realism of what is, what we wished had been, and the hope of what could be—a world where "coming out" wouldn’t be necessary.

Eric's book list on gay coming-of-age books that capture the realism of the experience

Eric Dakota Why did Eric love this book?

I loved the mixture of third and first person that this story is told in. The main character Dillon is both fun, sad, and imminently well-drawn. His harrowing dash from Perth to Sydney, his relationships with Amy, Pastor Pete, wonderful Dixie, and Stephen, and his sheer will to be his authentic self, had me both scared and happy for him.

I loved the mixture of coming-out and coming-of-age with some thriller elements thrown in, not something that I see a lot of in coming-of-age novels.

By Jay Castelletti,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked All the Pretty Boys as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A teenager's quest for freedom leads him on the streets and into the path of a local serial killer.

15-year-old Dillon is on the run.

Until recently he enjoyed friends, family, and the safe confines of a religious cult. But when a confession ignites the wrath of his church Dillon escapes ... and he's about to discover a vast world beyond the private walls of his former life.

Once in Sydney he faces a bustling city full of dreams and nightmares. Desperate to survive, Dillon is lured to the red-light district where strangers pay for pretty boys.

Here he forges…


Book cover of Lessons

Jane Hamilton Author Of The Excellent Lombards

From my list on sad but funny bummer literature.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m no particular expert on anything, but I know what I love in a book, and I’ve read approximately a million books, plus or minus. I’ve written novels with the hope that they will be funny and poignant in about equal measure, I value humor in books more than just about anything, and here I have listed books that I cherish.  

Jane's book list on sad but funny bummer literature

Jane Hamilton Why did Jane love this book?

I fell off the Ewan McEwan wagon for several years. 

Why? His sentences are gorgeous and impeccable but sometimes his plots seemed glitchy to me or his research was too in your face. But, Lessons! It’s one of those books that has so much of the world in it, while at the same time the characters are deep, vivid, flawed (yes, indeed), and the scenes intense and unforgettable. 

The clarity of his thinking and his understanding of politics, the eras we’ve lived through, the confusion of emotions we suffer from, and the way people fail each other as well as show up—I clutch this book to my heart.  

By Ian McEwan,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Discover the Sunday Times bestselling new novel from Ian McEwan.

Lessons is an intimate yet universal story of love, regret and a restless search for answers.

When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has descended, young Roland Baines's life is turned upside down. Stranded at boarding school, his vulnerability attracts his piano teacher, Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade.

Twenty-five years later Roland's wife mysteriously vanishes, and he is left alone with their baby son. Her disappearance sparks of journey of…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in coming of age, Glasgow, and genetics?

Coming Of Age 1,353 books
Glasgow 31 books
Genetics 44 books