100 books like Pigeon Feathers

By John Updike,

Here are 100 books that Pigeon Feathers fans have personally recommended if you like Pigeon Feathers. 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 High Fidelity

Bill Torgerson Author Of Love on the Big Screen

From my list on romantic comedy from the 80s.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in the eighties, and that means I grew up watching movies such as Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, and Say Anything. Thirty years after watching those movies, some iconic scenes have stuck with me: the characters of The Breakfast Club sliding across the hallway to Simple Minds’ song “Don’t You Forget About Me,” John Cusack holding the boombox over his head while blaring Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes,” and the Psychedelic Furs “Pretty in Pink” song playing on the soundtrack of a movie by the same name. The books in this list do a lot with those same ingredients of heartbreak, music, and hope that the characters who so often remind me of myself might find love. 

Bill's book list on romantic comedy from the 80s

Bill Torgerson Why did Bill love this book?

The actor John Cusack brought me to this movie, and I read the book after the movie and loved it. One of the key differences between the movie and the book is that the movie is set in Chicago, and the book in North London. As someone who grew up in the ’80s, I started with Cusack as the nerdy sidekick in Sixteen Candles and became obsessed with his Lloyd Dobler character in Say Anything; you know, the guy who dressed in a trench coat and held a boom box over his head outside a girl’s window.

The narrator of this novel is a record shop owner in London named Rob, and he starts off with his desert island, all-time, top five most memorable breakups, in chronological order. When we’re in the record shop that Rob owns, the guys are always making lists: top 5 guitar solos, top 5…

By Nick Hornby,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

"I've always loved Nick Hornby, and the way he writes characters and the way he thinks. It's funny and heartbreaking all at the same time."—Zoë Kravitz

From the bestselling author of Funny Girl, About a Boy, A Long Way Down and Dickens and Prince, a wise and hilarious novel about love, heartbreak, and rock and roll.

Rob is a pop music junkie who runs his own semi-failing record store. His girlfriend, Laura, has just left him for the guy upstairs, and Rob is both miserable and relieved. After all, could he have spent his life with someone who has a…


Book cover of Wonder Boys

Bill Torgerson Author Of Love on the Big Screen

From my list on romantic comedy from the 80s.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in the eighties, and that means I grew up watching movies such as Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, and Say Anything. Thirty years after watching those movies, some iconic scenes have stuck with me: the characters of The Breakfast Club sliding across the hallway to Simple Minds’ song “Don’t You Forget About Me,” John Cusack holding the boombox over his head while blaring Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes,” and the Psychedelic Furs “Pretty in Pink” song playing on the soundtrack of a movie by the same name. The books in this list do a lot with those same ingredients of heartbreak, music, and hope that the characters who so often remind me of myself might find love. 

Bill's book list on romantic comedy from the 80s

Bill Torgerson Why did Bill love this book?

This is a funny and dramatic book and movie in which Grady Tripp is a university writing teacher who makes a mess out of his relationships. He’s having an affair with the chancellor of the college he teaches at, his wife has moved out maybe for good, and one of the students he has in class and who rents a room from him is attracted to him.

Tripp’s life is like a train wreck you can't stop watching, but also somehow funny. This book also became a great movie of the same name, starring Michael Douglas as the professor, Robert Downey Jr. as his agent, Frances McDormand as the chancellor, and Tobey Maguire and Katie Holmes as students. I mean, c’mon, doesn’t that sound great?!!!

By Michael Chabon,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A deft parody of the American fame factory and a piercing portrait of young and old desire, WONDER BOYS is a modern classic from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of THE ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY.

Grady Tripp is an over-sexed, pot-bellied, pot-smoking, ageing wunderkind of a novelist now teaching creative writing at a Pittsburgh college while working on his 2,000-page masterpiece, WONDER BOYS. When his rumbustious editor and friend, Terry Crabtree, arrives in town, a chaotic weekend follows - involving a tuba, a dead dog, Marilyn Monroe's ermine-lined jacket and a squashed boa constrictor.

A novel of elegant imagination, bold…


Book cover of Girl in a Band: A Memoir

Bill Torgerson Author Of Love on the Big Screen

From my list on romantic comedy from the 80s.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in the eighties, and that means I grew up watching movies such as Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, and Say Anything. Thirty years after watching those movies, some iconic scenes have stuck with me: the characters of The Breakfast Club sliding across the hallway to Simple Minds’ song “Don’t You Forget About Me,” John Cusack holding the boombox over his head while blaring Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes,” and the Psychedelic Furs “Pretty in Pink” song playing on the soundtrack of a movie by the same name. The books in this list do a lot with those same ingredients of heartbreak, music, and hope that the characters who so often remind me of myself might find love. 

Bill's book list on romantic comedy from the 80s

Bill Torgerson Why did Bill love this book?

The phrase “girl in a band” in the title got me to pick this book up off a table in the bookstore. I am the kind of guy who will pick up five or so books at a bookstore, take them over to the most comfortable spot I can find, and read the first few pages to see if I want to buy any of them.

The writer Kim Gordon was in an indie post-punk band called Sonic Youth, and I had just barely heard of them. After three years in Sonic Youth, Kim marries one of her fellow band members, and they stay married for 29 years. This book starts when the two of them take the stage together for the last time as they head for divorce and the band's breakup.

“They say when a marriage ends,” Gordon writes on the first pages, “that little things you never…

By Kim Gordon,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Girl in a Band as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A new edition, part of the Faber Greatest Hits series -- books that have taken writing about music in new and exciting directions for the twenty-first century.

In Girl in a Band Kim Gordon, founding member of Sonic Youth and role model for a generation of women, tells her story. She writes frankly about her route from girl to woman and pioneering icon within the music and art scene of New York City in the 1980s and 90s as well as marriage, motherhood, and independence.

Filled with the sights and sounds of a changing world and a remarkable life, Girl…


Book cover of Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

Bill Torgerson Author Of Love on the Big Screen

From my list on romantic comedy from the 80s.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in the eighties, and that means I grew up watching movies such as Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, and Say Anything. Thirty years after watching those movies, some iconic scenes have stuck with me: the characters of The Breakfast Club sliding across the hallway to Simple Minds’ song “Don’t You Forget About Me,” John Cusack holding the boombox over his head while blaring Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes,” and the Psychedelic Furs “Pretty in Pink” song playing on the soundtrack of a movie by the same name. The books in this list do a lot with those same ingredients of heartbreak, music, and hope that the characters who so often remind me of myself might find love. 

Bill's book list on romantic comedy from the 80s

Bill Torgerson Why did Bill love this book?

The cover of this book has a stack of mix tapes on it and that’s what got me first: that the writer was going to explain love using the metaphor of a mix tape. As a person who has made hundreds of mix tapes myself—and later burned CDs and after that arranged playlists on Spotify—that the phrase mix tape was in the title was enough for me to pick up the book. Plus, I remember back in the 80s when I sat around waiting for a song to come on the radio so I could record it, and that was how I made my first tapes.

Each chapter in this book starts with an image of a mix tape with the songs listed on it. The writer uses the songs on the tape to write about his relationships. The first chapter ends with this line: “I’m going to be up…

By Rob Sheffield,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Love Is a Mix Tape as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

“The happiest, saddest, sweetest book about rock ‘n’ roll that I’ve ever experienced.”—Chuck Klosterman
 
Mix tapes: We all have our favorites. Stick one into a deck, press play, and you’re instantly transported to another time in your life. For Rob Sheffield, that time was one of miraculous love and unbearable grief. A time that spanned seven years, it started when he met the girl of his dreams, and ended when he watched her die in his arms. Using the listings of fifteen of his favorite mix tapes, Rob shows that the power of music to build a bridge between people…


Book cover of Woman of a Certain Rage

Sarah Lawton Author Of A Drowning Tide

From my list on featuring older protagonist.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a reader, I’ve always been attracted to novels that are character-driven, filling my shelves with books about people who seize the day and fight for what they want, who are interesting, relatable, and flawed but who don’t let those flaws define them. As a writer, I like to put my own flawed characters in situations that force them to face who they are and either come to terms with it or overturn themselves and their lives entirely, and all the novels I’ve listed have a hint of this, too. I hope you enjoy them!

Sarah's book list on featuring older protagonist

Sarah Lawton Why did Sarah love this book?

I love books that tackle less common characters and taboo subjects. In this case, it’s the usually overlooked ‘woman of a certain age’ and menopause. In this case, Eliza has ‘had enough’ and wants to rediscover what life has to offer—something a lot of us can relate to! It’s laugh-out-loud funny, full of drama and wisdom, and people of every age and gender should read it. 

By Georgie Hall,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

'Made me laugh and flinch in equal measure' Sophie Kinsella Eliza is angry. Very angry, and very, very hot. Late for work and dodging traffic, she's still reeling from the latest row with husband Paddy. Twenty-something years ago, their eyes met over the class divide in oh-so-cool Britpop London, but while Paddy now seems content filling his downtime with canal boats and cricket, Eliza craves the freedom and excitement of her youth. Fifty sounds dangerously close to pensionable: her woke children want to cancel her, a male motorist has just called her a 'mad old bat' and to cap it…


Book cover of Can You Sue Your Parents for Malpractice?

Ned Lecic Author Of The Law is (Not) for Kids: A Legal Rights Guide for Canadian Children and Teens

From my list on demonstrating that children are people too.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have a deep-set interest in and passion for human and civil rights, particularly children’s rights. I see the law, with which I have had a fascination since the age of 14, as the primary vehicle for advancing those rights. My research on the law has always been on my own, and apart from several legally themed high school and university courses, I am a layman in this field. Nonetheless, I have extensively studied law privately for many years, with a particular focus on how it affects relations among people, including those between children and adults. Activism for social change is one of my primary motivators in life, my main purpose and direction, and my reason for being. 

Ned's book list on demonstrating that children are people too

Ned Lecic Why did Ned love this book?

I love this classic novel; it is one of my old favorites.

Nowhere in the genre of young adult literature does there seem to be an author more subversive than Paula Danziger; here (and in the companion novel The Cat Ate My Gymsuit), she directly encourages the young reader to question adult authority and suggests that with protests and education about what rights the law gives (and withholds from) young people, it might be possible to effect change and increase their rights.

I also found it great that the novel shows the protagonist’s parents in raw realism–the father as a hypocritical, cheap, unlikable domestic despot, the mother as a shrinking violet who at first tends to excuse the father and conform to his expectations, but eventually starts questioning her stance when she sees her daughters rebel.

By Paula Danziger,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Can You Sue Your Parents for Malpractice? 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?

Lauren's fed up. She's been dumped by her boyfriend and pushed around by her parents. Everyone seems to be making decisions for her - she's even got to share a bedroom with her annoying little sister. Which is why she decides to take a new class at school: Law for Children and Young People. She's determined to find out her rights, and stand up for them. What she isn't expecting to find is a new boyfriend - especially one who's a whole year younger than her...


Book cover of Echoes of Honor

Kal Spriggs Author Of Valor's Child

From my list on sci-fi and fantasy to fall in love with reading.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a military veteran who has read science fiction and fantasy since the second grade. After reading everything on my parent’s bookshelves, everything in the school and public libraries, I had a teacher recommend I become an author. I love stories about strong-willed individuals standing up for what they believe in and changing the world. I have a master’s degree in engineering, a love for well-built things and taking stuff apart to see how it works, and a fascination with people and how they behave. In addition to writing, I am an avid gamer and a dabbler in a variety of things, from metalworking to hiking. 

Kal's book list on sci-fi and fantasy to fall in love with reading

Kal Spriggs Why did Kal love this book?

I read this book in high school and absolutely loved the entire idea, of essentially a prisoner of war escape plan similar to The Great Escape, set in a science fiction universe against the scale and scope of a planet. 

I love how the author took a main character that had been so strong and tough through seven previous books and made her vulnerable, gave her new room to grow, and allowed some of her supporting cast to shine as well.

By David Weber,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

For eight bloody years, Commodore Honor Harrington has been in the forefront of the battle between the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the vastly more powerful People's Republic of Haven. Now Honor has fallen, captured by the Peep Navy, turned over to the forces of State Security, and executed, her death shown on the interstellar network's nightly news. The Manticoran Alliance is determined to avenge her. Yet their military is over-extended and the People's Republic is poised to take the offensive once more. And neither protagonist is aware of events on a distant, isolated, inescapable prison planet called Hell. Honor…


Book cover of Juggling Truths

Gothataone Moeng Author Of Call and Response: Stories

From my list on glance into Botswana’s past and present.

Why am I passionate about this?

Botswana is not one of the sexy African countries; I sometimes joke in response to people who tell me, a writer from Botswana, that they have never before heard of any writers or literature from Botswana. By that, I mean that my small, landlocked country hardly ever makes international news and is often overshadowed by bigger, more populous countries on the continent. However, there has been a plethora of writing from Botswana published mostly within the African continent but also increasingly in the West. I think this list of books is a great introduction to anyone who is curious to know the country and its people.

Gothataone's book list on glance into Botswana’s past and present

Gothataone Moeng Why did Gothataone love this book?

I love this humorous coming-of-age story narrated by a naïve yet academically smart girl who is juggling the various conflicting truths of her life—what she is taught in school, what she learns at home, what she learns from her friends and her siblings, what she is told about how life is and what she observes for herself. How is a person to reconcile all these truths?

By becoming the Queen of England, which is what Monei, the narrator, says she wants to become when she grows up since the Queen is the only woman, as far as Monei can tell, who can make decisions. This is one of the funniest books I have ever read. Dow brilliantly captures the perplexed voice of a growing girl and the idiom of Botswana life around Independence.

By Unity Dow,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Unity Dow's third novel, Juggling Truths portrays the childhood of Monei Ntuka in the Botswanan village of Mochudi in Africa. Go to the past with me, so you can take the past to the future, asks her Nkoko. Nei takes us on an extraordinary journey through the many truths that shape her life; the truths of the colonisers and their churches and of her own people. We travel with her through dreams and share the wisdom of her grandmother as she lets the never-ending stories weave their own reality in face of a universe of conflicting truths. Unity Dow recreates…


Book cover of A Ballad of Love and Glory

Mario Acevedo Author Of The Nymphos of Rocky Flats

From my list on illuminating historical truths through fiction.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love learning about history, and the more I learn, the more I appreciate my place in this world. While military history, particularly from pre-WW1 to the end of WW2, was what made me first plant my nose in a book, I can geek out on pretty much any historical period: the rise of human civilization, Rome, the conquest of the New World, the development of airplanes. But it’s the personal element that most draws me in, and the fact that we humans remain fundamentally the same in how we cope with another through the ages. It’s through fiction that we see the past in a way that makes sense.

Mario's book list on illuminating historical truths through fiction

Mario Acevedo Why did Mario love this book?

If you’ve never heard of the Saint Patrick’s Battalion—the Irish soldiers who deserted the US Army to fight for Mexico during the Mexican-American War of 1847—with this novel, Reyna Grande will fill in the blanks in grand style. She pulls you in using the trope of a romance between Ximena, a curandera, and John Riley, an Irish-American artilleryman, both pawns in a gigantic land grab now regarded as one of the US’s forgotten wars.

We listen to the big personalities—Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna and US General Zachary Taylor—give their version of events even as the book provides an unflinching eye at the plight of the common people caught in the chaos and bloodshed.

By Reyna Grande,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked A Ballad of Love and Glory as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

2023 International Latino Book Award Winner
Finalist for the Texas Institute of Letters’s Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Fiction

A Long Petal of the Sea meets Cold Mountain in this “epic and exquisitely wrought” (Patricia Engel, New York Times bestselling author) saga following a Mexican army nurse and an Irish soldier who must fight, at first for their survival and then for their love, amidst the atrocity of the Mexican-American War—from the author of The Distance Between Us.

A forgotten war. An unforgettable romance.

The year is 1846. After the controversial annexation of Texas, the US Army marches south…


Book cover of Stuart Little

Betty G. Birney Author Of Happiness According to Humphrey

From my list on childrens books featuring helpful, lovable problem-solving animal friends.

Why am I passionate about this?

I fell deeply in love with books as a child, wrote oodles of stories growing up, majored in English literature, and built a writing career in advertising and TV. But my deep love of children’s books never faded. Somewhere in my 30s, I had an epiphany sitting on the couch one day: I clearly saw that writing children’s books was what I wanted to build my life around. It took a lot of time and effort to accomplish that, but with the aid of a helpful hamster named Humphrey – and his friend Og - I found my happy place, and I hope I never, ever “grow up.”

Betty's book list on childrens books featuring helpful, lovable problem-solving animal friends

Betty G. Birney Why did Betty love this book?

Another friendly rodent tale with a clever premise! I read this long before there was ever a movie about Stuart. Once again, the author’s imagination amazed me. I was enchanted with all the clever things Stuart could do – his car, his canoe, his friendship with Margalo the bird, and the humans that accepted him as part of their family.

I remember bringing the library book to my grandmother’s house when I spent the weekend. I don’t think the book was out of my grasp except when I was sleeping. And even then, I was dreaming of being a writer and “living” in a world like Stuart’s. 

By E.B. White, Garth Williams (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Stuart Little as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 5, 6, 7, and 8.

What is this book about?

The classic story by E. B. White, author of the Newbery Honor Book Charlotte's Web and The Trumpet of the Swan, about one small mouse on a very big adventure.

Stuart Little is no ordinary mouse. Born to a family of humans, he lives in New York City with his parents, his older brother George, and Snowbell the cat. Though he's shy and thoughtful, he's also a true lover of adventure.

Stuart's greatest adventure comes when his best friend, a beautiful little bird named Margalo, disappears from her nest. Determined to track her down, Stuart ventures away from home for…


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