95 books like The Deluge

By Stephen Markley,

Here are 95 books that The Deluge fans have personally recommended if you like The Deluge. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Ministry for the Future

Trista Harris Author Of Future Good: How to Use Futurism to Save the World

From my list on dreamers who want to shape the future.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been obsessed with making the future a better place since I was 8 years old and spent my evenings hanging out in a local community center. I realized that things got better when people who cared showed up for each other. I am now a philanthropic futurist and have spent my career dedicated to helping visionary leaders build a more beautiful and equitable future. All of the books on this list have inspired me, and I hope they inspire you, too. If we all do our small part, we can ensure we have a Star Trek future and not a Hunger Games future.

Trista's book list on dreamers who want to shape the future

Trista Harris Why did Trista love this book?

I don’t usually read science fiction, but this book completely changed my perspective. It was an eye-opening experience, vividly illustrating what the climate crisis could look like if we don’t take significant action now. I was hooked by how realistic the scenarios felt, even though the story is fiction.

I found myself thinking deeply about the potential consequences of inaction and how urgent it is to address the climate crisis. The fictional eyewitness accounts made it even more impactful, giving me a sense of immediacy and personal connection to the issue. I didn’t expect a science fiction novel to be so relevant to our current world, but this one is a must-read for everyone. 

By Kim Stanley Robinson,

Why should I read it?

25 authors picked The Ministry for the Future as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR

“The best science-fiction nonfiction novel I’ve ever read.” —Jonathan Lethem
 
"If I could get policymakers, and citizens, everywhere to read just one book this year, it would be Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future." —Ezra Klein (Vox)

The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, postapocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us. Chosen by Barack Obama as one of his favorite…


Book cover of Parable of the Sower

Alison McBain Author Of The New Empire

From my list on reimagine the past and see a strange new future.

Why am I passionate about this?

My family could never afford vacations when I was growing up, so I had to travel in my imagination through what I read. But that allowed me even greater freedom—I could go back in time, forward into the future, and everything in between. This skill led me to research and write my books today and have a career as an award-winning author and editor. History, to me, is only one side of the story—what about all the people in the past who never had the chance to speak? Alternate history is a way to explore the voices we’ve never heard except through a writer’s imagination.

Alison's book list on reimagine the past and see a strange new future

Alison McBain Why did Alison love this book?

I’ve long been inspired by Butler’s writing, which features BIPOC characters front and center. As a multiracial person, I seldom saw people who looked and thought like me in the older fiction I read.

The notable thing about this book is that it’s technically science fiction, not alternate history, since the novel's beginning in 2024 (this year!). However, much of what Butler wrote has come to pass, raising one question: Has her vision of the future become an alternate version of the past? I love trying to wrap my head around that conundrum.

By Octavia E. Butler,

Why should I read it?

28 authors picked Parable of the Sower as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The extraordinary, prescient NEW YORK TIMES-bestselling novel.

'If there is one thing scarier than a dystopian novel about the future, it's one written in the past that has already begun to come true. This is what makes Parable of the Sower even more impressive than it was when first published' GLORIA STEINEM

'Unnervingly prescient and wise' YAA GYASI

--

We are coming apart. We're a rope, breaking, a single strand at a time.

America is a place of chaos, where violence rules and only the rich and powerful are safe. Lauren Olamina, a young woman with the extraordinary power to…


Book cover of Our Final Warning: Six Degrees of Climate Emergency

Michael J. Albert Author Of Navigating the Polycrisis: Mapping the Futures of Capitalism and the Earth

From my list on books that help us make sense of the future.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a lecturer in Global Environmental Politics at the University of Edinburgh. My work is driven by the conviction that we need more thorough and realistic maps of possible futures in an increasingly turbulent and uncertain world. Ever since learning about the intersections between climate, energy, and economic crises, I have been fascinated by the question of how our future will unfold and how we might create more just and liveable futures from the wreckage of the present world. And I have been driven to bring down artificial disciplinary divides in order to integrate knowledge across the sciences and humanities in ways that can illuminate the possible pathways ahead. 

Michael's book list on books that help us make sense of the future

Michael J. Albert Why did Michael love this book?

As one can tell from the title, this is not a book for the faint-hearted. But it is a masterful and nuanced synthesis of climate and earth system science that details what is likely to happen if the climate crisis continues unabated.

I loved the way it shows us in a systematic, step-by-step fashion how each additional degree of planetary heating will disrupt our world and steadily push us towards the brink. And it does so in a way that is sensitive to geographical variation and uneven vulnerabilities between the global north and south. This is an essential guide to an over-heating world and a warning of what is to come if we fail to rapidly bring down emissions.  

By Mark Lynas,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

This book must not be ignored. It really is our final warning.

Mark Lynas delivers a vital account of the future of our earth, and our civilisation, if current rates of global warming persist. And it's only looking worse.

We are living in a climate emergency. But how much worse could it get? Will civilisation collapse? Are we already past the point of no return? What kind of future can our children expect? Rigorously cataloguing the very latest climate science, Mark Lynas explores the course we have set for Earth over the next century and beyond. Degree by terrifying degree,…


Book cover of Militarized Global Apartheid

Michael J. Albert Author Of Navigating the Polycrisis: Mapping the Futures of Capitalism and the Earth

From my list on books that help us make sense of the future.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a lecturer in Global Environmental Politics at the University of Edinburgh. My work is driven by the conviction that we need more thorough and realistic maps of possible futures in an increasingly turbulent and uncertain world. Ever since learning about the intersections between climate, energy, and economic crises, I have been fascinated by the question of how our future will unfold and how we might create more just and liveable futures from the wreckage of the present world. And I have been driven to bring down artificial disciplinary divides in order to integrate knowledge across the sciences and humanities in ways that can illuminate the possible pathways ahead. 

Michael's book list on books that help us make sense of the future

Michael J. Albert Why did Michael love this book?

This is mainly a book about our dark present, but it can also be read as a window into an even darker future.

What I loved most about it is how it illuminates the entanglements between violent practices of border policing, surveillance, and oppression around the globe – from the US-Mexico border to China’s AI police state in Xinjiang, the EU’s militarized policing of the Mediterranean, the brutal Israeli occupation of Palestine, and other regimes of violence around the world.

The book shows how the intersections between climate change, capitalism, and violent logics of racism and militarized borders are giving rise to a globalized security apparatus that Besteman calls “militarized global apartheid.” But it also shows how movements for migrant justice can disrupt these trends and bring down the walls in order to create a more liveable future. 

By Catherine Besteman,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

In Militarized Global Apartheid Catherine Besteman offers a sweeping theorization of the ways in which countries from the global north are reproducing South Africa's apartheid system on a worldwide scale to control the mobility and labor of people from the global south. Exploring the different manifestations of global apartheid, Besteman traces how militarization and securitization reconfigure older forms of white supremacy and deploy them in new contexts to maintain this racialized global order. Whether using the language of security, military intervention, surveillance technologies, or detention centers and other forms of incarceration, these projects reinforce and consolidate the global north's political…


Book cover of Savage Run

Micheal E. Jimerson Author Of Draw A Hard Line

From my list on thrillers moral dilemmas time and location.

Why am I passionate about this?

I've been a lawyer for 30 years, 20 of them as an elected district attorney, and writing relieves stress for me. Real crime is messy and irrational; crime fiction restores order. But literary fiction is too slow—a novel must compel the reader to turn the page. Good thrillers tackle major issues, revealing themes that deepen our understanding of humanity. I've witnessed courage during grief and stress, but I'd never betray that trust by writing nonfiction accounts. I deliberately jumbled character traits and real events and combined them with my understanding of modern police techniques like geofencing and DNA.

Micheal's book list on thrillers moral dilemmas time and location

Micheal E. Jimerson Why did Micheal love this book?

My next pick, by C.J. Book, presents Joe Pickett with the dilemma of facing his failings. He didn’t do enough to save his daughter. Further confounding his guilt is the fact the girl was more of an adopted child. Did self-preservation and the preservation of his family compel him to sell her out, or did he do all he could? 

Pickett comes to terms with assisting a fugitive to promote a greater good. 

By C. J. Box,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett heads for the forests of Twelve Sleep County to investigate a massive explosion that may have killed a colorful environmental activist and uncovers evidence of a deadly conspiracy that challenges his courage, survival skills, and ethics. By the author of Open Season. 30,000 first printing.


Book cover of Angels Fall

C.F. Francis Author Of Sanctuary Island

From my list on romantic suspense twists to make your head spin.

Why am I passionate about this?

I walked to the library every Saturday to find a new mystery. I think I read everyone and read some more than once. As I matured, I discovered the mixture of romance and suspense I was hooked. I literally read every book in the genre’ at my local library. 

C.F.'s book list on romantic suspense twists to make your head spin

C.F. Francis Why did C.F. love this book?

What can I say? Romantic suspense by the great.

The damaged heroine and the cocky MC. The dialogue and writing are fun and the ‘who-dun-it’ kept me guessing. The beauty of the Grand Tetons is so well described you feel like you there and in awe of the backdrop.

A great read.

By Nora Roberts,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The sole survivor of a brutal crime, Reece Gilmore is on the run, desperately fighting the panic attacks and the nightmares that haunt her. She doesn't intend to stay in the sleepy town of Angel's Fist one second longer than she needs to, despite its friendly - if curious - inhabitants, and the irresistible attraction of local writer Brody.

However, on a hike into the mountains she witnesses a couple having a vicious argument that culminates in murder. Faced with a lack of evidence, the authorities in Angel's Fist find it hard to believe Reece's story. But when a series…


Book cover of You Shouldn't Have Come Here

Jennifer Vido Author Of Serendipity by the Sea

From my list on reads for the beach for moms.

Why am I passionate about this?

When our two sons were younger, I ran a book club for moms. We met at the local library branch once a month—an excuse to get out of the house for some adult conversation. I frequently offer book suggestions to friends and family because I keep my finger on the pulse of what books moms want to read, especially in the summertime at the beach. Typically, I read three to four beach reads on vacation, and I like a variety of genres. I gravitate towards stories with some element of romance, fitting since I’m a sweet romance writer who loves a good book.   

Jennifer's book list on reads for the beach for moms

Jennifer Vido Why did Jennifer love this book?

This book is an irresistible thriller about Grace Evans, an overworked New Yorker who rents an Airbnb on a ranch in the middle of Wyoming for some rest and relaxation and stumbles upon an intriguing rancher and townsfolk with secrets to keep.

The sexual attraction between Grace and Calvin Wells, the handsome rancher, kept me turning the pages. I never saw the shocking twist coming at the end. It made me think twice about booking a vacation rental in a remote area without cell service!

I devoured this novel in a few days, making it a good choice for a quick beach read.   

Book cover of Hell Is Empty

Kellen Burden Author Of Flash Bang

From my list on brutal thrillers with heart.

Why am I passionate about this?

There's something about broken people trying to do good that has always resonated with me. In basic training, a drill sergeant with debilitating PTSD told us what combat would be like through a storm of choking sobs and a haze of tears. He needed us to know. Even if it broke him. Working as an investigator in Denver and Washington, I watched people with complicated pasts and uncertain futures fight tooth and nail (sometimes literally) to put human traffickers behind bars. Literature has always been a bridle for that wildness I saw in the world. A tool for taking the ghashing, stomping, unruliness of the human experience and making it rideable, relatable, survivable.

Kellen's book list on brutal thrillers with heart

Kellen Burden Why did Kellen love this book?

This one is a standout of the Longmire series. A bus full of serial killers mashes its potatoes into the side of a mountain during a whiteout and it’s up to Absaroka County Sheriff Walt Longmire to get rounded them up. There’s an epicness about this story that leaves you feeling like you’re riding a literary wave into the pilings and Craig Johnson paints the whole debacle with a Hillerman-esque mysticism and his own singular brand of stoic humor. 

By Craig Johnson,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The seventh book in the New York Times bestselling Longmire series, featuring Sheriff Walt Longmire.

Raynaud Shade, an adopted Crow Indian and one of the country's most dangerous sociopaths, has just confessed to murdering a boy twenty years ago and burying him deep within the Bighorn Mountains. Absaroka County Sherriff Walt Longmire must escort Shade through a snowstorm to the site, but the mission turns personal when Walt learns whom the dead boy's family is.

Guided only by Indian mysticism and a battered paperback of Dante's Inferno, Walt braves the icy hell of the Cloud Peak Wilderness Area, cheating death…


Book cover of The Cold Dish

Cam Torrens Author Of Stable: Someone is Taking Them...

From my list on suspense about veterans solving problems as civilians.

Why am I passionate about this?

When I retired from the service, I wanted to be done with big decisions and just focus on family. I’d had enough war-zone drama. I’m drawn to stories where the veteran finds he/she just can’t do that. My protagonist in my debut, Stable deals with this. He’s overcome so much…the loss of his son, the loss of an aircrew, and years of depression. Now that he’s “back,” he just wants to lead a normal life. I wanted to show you can pull the veteran from the battlefield, but it’s hard to quell his or her desire to continue to serve—and the inherent conflict of service before self or family remains.

Cam's book list on suspense about veterans solving problems as civilians

Cam Torrens Why did Cam love this book?

The Cold Dish follows Absaroka County Sheriff, Walt Longmire, as he investigates the murder of a young man near a Native American reservation.

As Longmire delves deeper into the case, he realizes that someone may be seeking revenge against a group of high school boys who had been involved in a rape two years prior.

What differentiates this novel from others is how Johnson has skillfully crafted Longmire as a character shaped by his experiences in the military. Longmire's service as a Marine in Vietnam has left a lasting impact on him, influencing how he approaches his work as a sheriff and how he interacts with those around him.

His sharp instincts and unrelenting dedication to justice make him a formidable protagonist, while his vulnerabilities and moments of introspection give him depth and complexity. You won’t be able to stop reading this series. And if you listen on audio, prepare…

By Craig Johnson,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Introducing Wyoming's Sheriff Walt Longmire in this riveting novel from the New York Times bestselling author, the first in the Longmire mystery series

Craig Johnson's new novel, LAND OF WOLVES, is forthcoming from Viking

Fans of Ace Atkins, Nevada Barr and Robert B. Parker will love this outstanding first novel, in which New York Times bestselling author Craig Johnson introduces Sheriff Walt Longmire of Wyoming's Absaroka County. Johnson draws on his deep attachment to the American West to produce a literary mystery of stunning authenticity, and full of memorable characters. After twenty-five years as sheriff of Absaroka County, Walt Longmire's…


Book cover of Another Man's Moccasins

AJ Davidson Author Of A Stillness Lost: A Val Bosanquet Mystery

From my list on portray a sense of place.

Why am I passionate about this?

I believe many writers suspect they are Strangers in a Strange Land. How ironic that I, a confirmed atheist, should use a biblical quote to describe the mindset of authors. Some discover where they belong through their writing. My book recommendations have a strong sense of place, whether it be the Old West, wartime Berlin, or modern-day Scotland. I was born into a 300-year-old N. Ireland Protestant Plantation family, yet many people saw us as interlopers: we weren’t quite Irish, and we weren’t quite British, yet we held dual passports. It was not until I left Ireland that I realized my Irish Heritage exerted a stronger pull than my British.

AJ's book list on portray a sense of place

AJ Davidson Why did AJ love this book?

In contrast to Lonesome Dove, I’ve included this book by Craig Johnston, partly because of my anthropology training. Johnston relates the modern life of a Wyoming sheriff interacting with the culture of the Sioux and Cheyenne.

I particularly admire the way Johnston handles the spiritual aspect of the native people. His depiction of Wyoming's emptiness or mountainous areas kept me turning pages all night long. His protagonist knows only too well that law and order is not a black-and-white matter and is prepared to dispense justice as he seems fit.

I have watched the TV series of the books but found it underwhelming. The printed word can often outdo the constraints of a TV producer.

By Craig Johnson,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Walt Longmire unravels a mystery that connects two murders across forty years

When the body of a young Vietnamese woman is found alongside the interstate in Absaroka County, Wyoming, Sherriff Walt Longmire is determined to discover the identity of the victim and is forced to confront the horrible similarities of this murder to that of his first homicide investigation as a marine in Vietnam.

To complicate matters, Virgil White Buffalo, a homeless Crow Indian, is found living in a nearby culvert and in possession of the young woman?s purse. There are only two problems with what appears to be an…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Wyoming, climate change, and activists?

Wyoming 51 books
Climate Change 215 books
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