Fans pick 100 books like Slow River

By Nicola Griffith,

Here are 100 books that Slow River fans have personally recommended if you like Slow River. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Book cover of Midnight Robber

Felicia Watson Author Of We Have Met the Enemy

From my list on sci-fi featuring awesome female leads.

Why am I passionate about this?

In school, science and reading were always my favorite subjects so is it any wonder that I grew up to be a scientist who writes? Before I entered my teens, I entered the realm of science fiction through the stories of Asimov, Bradbury, and Le Guin, and I never willingly left that realm. Back then, the one thing I hungered for but so rarely found was a compelling female character. Avid readers all want to find that character to identify with, don’t we? Fortunately, our sci-fi world is now populated with many great female MCs so I’m sharing five of my favorites here with you. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. 

Felicia's book list on sci-fi featuring awesome female leads

Felicia Watson Why did Felicia love this book?

This captivating novel draws its imagery and themes from Afro-Caribbean folklore, a refreshing change from the surfeit of Greek/Roman mythology-based stories. The MC, Tan-tan, is ripped from her comfortable life when her father forces her to join him in exile on a prison planet. In her struggle for survival on a brutal and lawless world, Tan-Tan’s greatest enemy proves to be her own father, an abusive monster. After she kills him in self-defense, Tan-tan finds refuge among the douen, an alien race drawn from Caribbean mythology. Here she evolves into a semblance of the Robber Queen of legend, and finds she can be free when she gives back two lives for the one that she took. Following Tan-tan as she makes an amazing journey from victim to hero makes this poetic novel an unforgettable read.

By Nalo Hopkinson,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

It's Carnival time and the Caribbean-colonized planet of Toussaint is celebrating with music, dance, and pageantry. Masked "Midnight Robbers" waylay revelers with brandished weapons and spellbinding words. But to you Tan-Tan, the Robber Queen is simply a favorite costume to weart at the festival -- untiel her power-coprrupted father commits an unforgivable crime.

Suddenly, both father and daughter are thrust into the brutal world of New Half-Way Tree. Here monstrous creatures from folkklore are real, and the humans are violent outcasts in the wilds. Here Tan-Tan must redeach into the heart of myth -- and become the Robber Queen herself.…


Book cover of Downbelow Station

Dietmar Arthur Wehr Author Of Phoenix Dawn

From my list on military SF books that are impossible to put down.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve had the urge to write stories as far back as public school. And despite encouragement from a creative writing teacher in high school, my first career ended up being corporate financial analysis. By the time I reached 59, I was (a) unemployed and unemployable (due to age) and (b) in a relationship with a wonderful woman who loved science fiction and was very creative (a former art teacher). With her encouragement, I finished my first SF novel at just the right time to benefit from the explosion of interest in reading ebooks bought on Amazon. I’ve now written 37 novels.

Dietmar's book list on military SF books that are impossible to put down

Dietmar Arthur Wehr Why did Dietmar love this book?

I was enthralled by this book. If memory serves me correctly, C.J. Cherrryh was awarded the title of Grand Master by an SF organization for this book and it’s obvious why.

The scope of the story universe she has created is mind-boggling. The characters are believable, and the action makes your heart beat faster. There are scenes in the book that make you want to see them in a movie. I can say that this book and her style of writing has had a bigger impact on my own writing than any other author.

If military SF is your thing, you’ll love this book.

By C. J. Cherryh,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The Hugo Award-winning classic sci-fi novel about interstellar war.

The Beyond started with the Stations orbiting the stars nearest Earth. The Great Circle the interstellar freighters traveled was long, but not unmanageable, and the early Stations were emotionally and politically dependent on Mother Earth. The Earth Company which ran this immense operation reaped incalculable profits and influenced the affairs of nations.

Then came Pell, the first station centered around a newly discovered living planet. The discovery of Pell's World forever altered the power balance of the Beyond. Earth was no longer the anchor which kept this vast empire from coming…


Book cover of Cold Welcome

Felicia Watson Author Of We Have Met the Enemy

From my list on sci-fi featuring awesome female leads.

Why am I passionate about this?

In school, science and reading were always my favorite subjects so is it any wonder that I grew up to be a scientist who writes? Before I entered my teens, I entered the realm of science fiction through the stories of Asimov, Bradbury, and Le Guin, and I never willingly left that realm. Back then, the one thing I hungered for but so rarely found was a compelling female character. Avid readers all want to find that character to identify with, don’t we? Fortunately, our sci-fi world is now populated with many great female MCs so I’m sharing five of my favorites here with you. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. 

Felicia's book list on sci-fi featuring awesome female leads

Felicia Watson Why did Felicia love this book?

Cold Welcome is the first book in the Vatta's Peace Series by Elizabeth Moon (a sequel series to Vatta’s war), but it stands alone and can be read by a newcomer. The MC, Kylara Vatta, rejected a place in her powerful family’s space trading business and instead elected to join the military. Our war hero returns home to find not the accolades she was given to expect but an assassination attempt. The sabotage of her shuttle leaves Vatta and her crew fighting for survival, first in an icy sea and then a frozen wasteland, for history buffs this is a definite nod to Shackleton. Vatta manages to find a clandestine underground facility, which provides somewhat risky shelter for the group since the builders of the facility will do anything to keep their secrets. This is an engaging, fast-paced read; though not actually set in space, it has a classic space-opera…

By Elizabeth Moon,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Admiral Ky Vatta should return to her childhood home a war hero, but on the way her shuttle is downed by sabotage.
Marooned in a hostile landscape it'll take every bit of wit, skill and luck she can muster to lead her fellow survivors to safety, knowing that the mysterious enemies who destroyed the ship are on the hunt, and may have an agent in the group ready to finish the job at any moment. And was the sabotage an attempt on Ky's own life, or someone else's?


Book cover of The Future of Another Timeline

Felicia Watson Author Of We Have Met the Enemy

From my list on sci-fi featuring awesome female leads.

Why am I passionate about this?

In school, science and reading were always my favorite subjects so is it any wonder that I grew up to be a scientist who writes? Before I entered my teens, I entered the realm of science fiction through the stories of Asimov, Bradbury, and Le Guin, and I never willingly left that realm. Back then, the one thing I hungered for but so rarely found was a compelling female character. Avid readers all want to find that character to identify with, don’t we? Fortunately, our sci-fi world is now populated with many great female MCs so I’m sharing five of my favorites here with you. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. 

Felicia's book list on sci-fi featuring awesome female leads

Felicia Watson Why did Felicia love this book?

If you are a fan of alt-rock and alternative history, then this book is for you. It features two MCs: Beth, a Riot Grrrl fan from the 1990s, and Tess, a time-traveling scientist from the future, both of whom are trying in their own way to fix the past. Beth is dealing with the aftermath of using deadly force to defend her friend from a rapist while Tess is hellbent on changing the timeline to fight the "Comstockers” – a group of men who used time travel to change history and remove all women's rights, especially those of the reproductive sort. Newitz manages to thoroughly entertain while telling a riveting story that deals with admittedly heavy subject matter.

By Annalee Newitz,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

“A revolution is happening in speculative fiction, and Annalee Newitz is leading the vanguard."--Wil Wheaton

From Annalee Newitz, founding editor of io9, comes a story of time travel, murder, and the lengths we'll go to protect the ones we love.

1992: After a confrontation at a riot grrl concert, seventeen-year-old Beth finds herself in a car with her friend's abusive boyfriend dead in the backseat, agreeing to help her friends hide the body. This murder sets Beth and her friends on a path of escalating violence and vengeance as they realize many other young women in the world need protecting…


Book cover of Morvern Callar

Iain Hood Author Of This Good Book

From my list on Scottish reads about moments of madness.

Why am I passionate about this?

Scotland’s greatest poet since Burns, Hugh MacDiarmid, said that there were no traditions in writing, only precedents. He was thinking that, were traditions followed, adhered to, applauded, and praised, and prized too highly, then the danger of slavish repetition rather than creative divergence was too high. We need the mad moments, when all bets are off and something truly unpredictable will happen. I write with Scots modernist, postmodernist, and experimental precedents in mind. I want there to be Scots literature that reflects a divergent, creative nation, willing to experiment with words and life, and, in Alasdair Gray’s formulation, “work as though in the early days of a better nation.”

Iain's book list on Scottish reads about moments of madness

Iain Hood Why did Iain love this book?

Ah, were you ever going to shout the famous question, “Why’d you do it!?”, at a character, it would have to be at Morvern.

Another book that grabbed the filmic imagination, this time of Lynne Ramsay, Morvern has the quietest moment of madness on this list. She finds her boyfriend, whom she never names but gives him a Godlike uppercase H whenever He is mentioned, dead by his own hand on the floor of their flat and coolly accepts the fact.

Then, as a sort of civic duty and not to cause a fuss, she chops him up and buries the pieces of him in a suitably empty Scottish landscape. As you do. The draft novel she steals from him seems obviously hers, as all her actions seem obviously Morvern.

By Alan Warner,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

An utterly unforgettable novel that portrays a vast internal emptiness by using the cool, haunting voice of a young woman in Scotland lost in the profound anomie of her generation—from “one of the most talented, original and interesting voices around” (Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting). 

Morvern Callar, a low-paid employee in the local supermarket in a desolate and beautiful port town in the west of Scotland, wakes one morning in late December to find her strange boyfriend has committed suicide and is dead on the kitchen floor. Morvern's reaction is both intriguing and immoral. What she does next is even…


Book cover of Await Your Reply

Jan-Andrew Henderson Author Of The Kirkfallen Stopwatch

From my list on absolutely crazy plots.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve written many types of book—fiction and non-fiction—for readers of all ages. But I keep returning to my first passion—the clever, crazy, over the top psychological thrillers I was addicted to reading or watching on TV when I was growing up. I’ve always loved trying to write page turners with plots readers have never seen before. Certainly, I want my audience to care about the book’s characters and laugh at the one-liners. But nothing beats making people think… there’s no way he can possibly pull all these plot strands together at the end. And then doing it. Besides, my nutty thrillers are the ones that get the best reviews.

Jan-Andrew's book list on absolutely crazy plots

Jan-Andrew Henderson Why did Jan-Andrew love this book?

I love an intricate plot. But sometimes you want some real literary heft to go along with it. In which case, you can’t do better than anything by Dan Chaon.

A lot of books witter on about the nature of self and identity. This one actually nails it. The characterizations and descriptions are superb. Best of all, it’s a sublimely written triple mystery, whose disparate strands finally lock in a devastating fashion.

By Dan Chaon,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

BONUS: This edition contains an Await Your Reply discussion guide.

The lives of three strangers interconnect in unforeseen ways–and with unexpected consequences–in acclaimed author Dan Chaon’s gripping, brilliantly written new novel.

Longing to get on with his life, Miles Cheshire nevertheless can’t stop searching for his troubled twin brother, Hayden, who has been missing for ten years. Hayden has covered his tracks skillfully, moving stealthily from place to place, managing along the way to hold down various jobs and seem, to the people he meets, entirely normal. But some version of the truth is always concealed.

A few days after…


Book cover of Mog and the Baby

Mary Hoffman Author Of Babies, Babies Everywhere!

From my list on babies.

Why am I passionate about this?

Mary Hoffman is not exactly an expert on babies but she has had three of her own and five grandbabies. The youngest is two and Mary has made colourful blankets for each one. The four-year-old still takes hers everywhere. Mary is very good at sending babies to sleep, which Mog might have appreciated, but she has never fed any of them avocado. Mary has been making up stories for babies and children for as long as she can remember, long before she had any of her own. She does this because what she liked best herself as a small child was stories and she would have loved to have any of these books read to her when she was little.

Mary's book list on babies

Mary Hoffman Why did Mary love this book?

“Mog loves babies!” says the poor cat’s owners but this is not strictly true. Mog just wants to snooze undisturbed but a visiting baby soon puts paid to that. Her expressions are brilliantly done as the baby takes more and more liberties. When Mog escapes out the window, the baby follows, with almost catastrophic results in the road outside. But Mog saves the day - and the baby - and is rewarded with a gigantic fish. 

By Judith Kerr,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Share in fifty years of a really remarkable cat...

Mog is everyone's favourite family cat! Join her in this warm-hearted and funny escapade about Mog's first meeting with a baby...

From the creator of The Tiger Who Came to Tea and Mog the Forgetful Cat comes a delightful family adventure about a really remarkable cat!

Celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Mog the Forgetful Cat with special anniversary editions of her much-loved adventures.

Mog's peaceful day is shattered when a baby comes to visit. All Mog wants to do and sleep and play but there is no chance of that now...…


Book cover of Mog the Forgetful Cat

Lil Chase Author Of The Cat Who Ate Christmas

From my list on frisky fictional felines (for children).

Why am I passionate about this?

As the author of The Cat Who Ate Christmas, I love a book about a cat who is cunning, quirky, perhaps calamity-prone, but also a cutie. There are plenty of books about loving pets, but their characters all seem to be too earnest, too driven to do the right thing. Not with cats! They will lie, cheat and do what it takes to get what they want… as long as it doesn’t get in the way of nap time. Cats are anti-heroes by nature, aren’t they? That’s why they make the best animals to read about – and an absolute dream to write about. 

Lil's book list on frisky fictional felines (for children)

Lil Chase Why did Lil love this book?

Mog is a sweet old cat. She’s very loving to her family – The Thomas’s – but very dim. She doesn’t understand the human world and her hilarious misunderstandings get her into a lot of hot water. Occasionally, she accidentally saves the day too – usually from a disaster of her own making.

The combination of this lovable cat who gets it wrong is a perennial winner. The first Mog book was written over 50 years ago and has never been out of print.

By Judith Kerr,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Share in fifty years of a really remarkable cat...

Everyone's favourite family cat first appeared fifty years ago and is loved by children everywhere for her funny and warm-hearted escapades.

Mog the Forgetful Cat was first published in 1970 and has never been out of print! The classic picture book story of a very forgetful cat, her family, and a very exciting adventure is the perfect gift for families, boys, girls, and anyone who has ever known or loved a cat.

From Judith Kerr, the bestselling author of The Tiger Who Came to Tea, the beloved Mog stories still delight…


Book cover of The Innocents Abroad

Alan Pell Crawford Author Of This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America's Revolutionary War in the South

From my list on surviving an American presidential election.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a journalist who has written books on American history for the general reader but not an academic historian or specialist, though I have the utmost respect for both. I like to think I have an independent mind and that I look for ideas that challenge conventional wisdom but are rooted in good sense and critical intelligence. The books I have recommended here reflect this temperament and, I believe, an innate sense of the comic and absurd. These are desperately needed at a time when people take themselves much too seriously—as in a presidential election year. 

Alan's book list on surviving an American presidential election

Alan Pell Crawford Why did Alan love this book?

I love this book because it might be the quintessential American book. Mark Twain brings an American perspective to his European travels that has, to my mind, never been matched.

His pose—the comic character he creates—is at once naïve and shrewdly intelligent, penetrating in his take on Europe and the Middle East. I love this book, but I also love Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. With Mark Twain, you can’t go wrong. 

By Mark Twain,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A beautiful edition with the formatting and all 234 images from the original first edition published in 1869. The cover is from an Antonio Joli painting of Rome. Use Amazon's Lookinside feature to compare this edition with others. You'll be impressed by the differences. Don't be fooled by other versions that have no illustrations or contain very small print. Reading our edition will make you feel that you are back traveling the Mediterranean with Mark. If you like our book, be sure to leave a review!

Published under the full name The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims' Progress, this…


Book cover of Orison for a Curlew: In Search for a Bird on the Edge of Extinction

Jane Wilson-Howarth Author Of A Glimpse of Eternal Snows: A Journey of Love and Loss in the Himalayas

From my list on enjoying wildlife when travelling.

Why am I passionate about this?

I put my hand where I couldn’t see it and was repaid for my foolishness by a scorpion sting. I was the doctor on an expedition to Madagascar and my friends thought their doctor was going to die. I was already fascinated with the ways animals interact with humans and this incident brought such reactions into sharp focus. Working as a physician in England, Nepal, and elsewhere, I’ve collected stories about ‘creepy crawlies’, parasites, and chance meetings between people and wildlife. Weird, wonderful creatures and wild places have always been my sources of solace and distraction from the challenging life of a working doctor and watching animals has taught me how to reassure and work with scared paediatric patients.

Jane's book list on enjoying wildlife when travelling

Jane Wilson-Howarth Why did Jane love this book?

Clare is another consummate wordsmith – he even managed to write an engaging book about spending months on container ships – but with Orison he manages to weave a fascinating story using beautiful prose and superb writing to bring intelligent discussions and good research to life while introducing us to key conservation personalities he meets during his journeys.
Clare sets out to search for the highly endangered and secretive slender-billed curlew in a range of wetlands in a troubled Eastern Europe and discovers inspiring if sometimes eccentric movers and shakers devoted to saving our wild places.
And how about this for a profound final sentence in a book: ‘Too much certainty is a miserable thing, while the unknowable has a pristine beauty and a wonder with no end.’

By Horatio Clare,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The Slender-billed Curlew, Numenius tenuirostris, 'the slim beak of the new moon', is one of the world's rarest birds. It once bred in Siberia and wintered in the Mediterranean basin, passing through the wetlands and estuaries of Italy, Greece, the Balkans and Central Asia. Today the Slender-billed Curlew exists as a rumour, a ghost species surrounded by unconfirmed sightings and speculation. The only certainty is that it now stands on the brink of extinction. Birds are key environmental indicators. Their health or hardship has a message for us about the planet, and our future. What does the fate of the…


Book cover of Midnight Robber
Book cover of Downbelow Station
Book cover of Cold Welcome

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