100 books like The Edwardians

By Vita Sackville-West,

Here are 100 books that The Edwardians fans have personally recommended if you like The Edwardians. 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 Heartburn

Jeannie Zusy Author Of The Frederick Sisters Are Living the Dream

From my list on middle-aged women taking on mid-life things.

Why am I passionate about this?

Mid-life for women is many things, including greatly underrepresented in the stories around us. I am forever in awe of the women around me as they continue to rise to each crazy occasion that life presents, managing and coping with wisdom, humor, and strength. This is why I am recommending these books about kickass middle-aged women. I wrote a novel inspired by some of my own challenges in mid-life. It was published by Atria Books, Simon & Schuster. I hope you love the recommendations as much as I do and that you’ll be inspired to check out my book as well. 

Jeannie's book list on middle-aged women taking on mid-life things

Jeannie Zusy Why did Jeannie love this book?

I am a fan of Nora Ephron’s films (When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, Julie/Julia…, etc.), but I hadn’t read any of her books. I started with this one—a slim one, as I remembered the movie from years ago.

Our protagonist, Rachael Samstat, seems to have an enviable life: a successful career as a cookbook writer, happily married to a dynamic man, a baby with another on the way, and a calendar of social events with equally lucky people. However, her husband’s betrayal while she is pregnant sends her spinning and onto a painful, witty, sometimes petty, and ultimately empowering journey.

I listened to the book, and Meryl Streep’s narration is relatable. It made me laugh out loud numerous times.

By Nora Ephron,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

If I had to do it over again, I would have made a different kind of pie. The pie I threw at Mark made a terrific mess, but a blueberry pie would have been even better, since it would have permanently ruined his new blazer, the one he bought with Thelma ... I picked up the pie, thanked God for linoleum floor, and threw it'
Rachel Samstat is smart, successful, married to a high-flying Washington journalist... and devastated. She has discovered that her husband is having an affair with Thelma Rice, 'a fairly tall person with a neck as long…


Book cover of Swan Song

Margaux Vialleron Author Of The Yellow Kitchen

From my list on to make you hungry.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a French-born, London-based novelist and food writer. As an author, I have nurtured my voice at the kitchen counter, where I find language loosens up and as a reader, cookbooks, food memoirs, and novels sit in one pile on my bedside table. Food is never not political and I find that its depiction is a wonderful narrative tool, for plot development with the setting of a meal or to portray a character through ingredients for examples. The relationship between food, culture, and writing is something I also explore with my podcast, book club, and culinary community The Salmon Pink Kitchen. Happy reading, and bon appétit! 

Margaux's book list on to make you hungry

Margaux Vialleron Why did Margaux love this book?

If you enjoy a long novel, gossip, and the dark side of life, then look no further. 

Based on the true story of the women whom Truman Capote called ‘his swans,’ and who deserted him after he had published an indiscreet short story about their lives in Esquire, Swan Song is filled with socialite glitters and cocktails. From meals eaten on planes to the high-end restaurants of New York City, food and drinks are key to the novel’s development. 

My personal highlight is the account of Babe Paley’s last meal, which was served after her funeral and which she had organised herself while being ill with lung cancer. ‘The luncheon to end all luncheons,’ as writes Greenberg-Jephcott, is a wonderful example of how the description of a meal can portray a character brilliantly.

By Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

WINNER OF THE McKITTERICK PRIZE
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2019 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION
SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSBORO BOOKS GLASS BELL AWARD

'Sparkling' GUARDIAN
'Fascinating' RED
'Remarkable' WOMAN AND HOME
'Astounding' EMERALD STREET
'Glamorous' IRISH TIMES
'Scandalous' DAILY MAIL
'Spellbinding' SUNDAY EXPRESS
___________________________

To the outside world, they were the icons of high society - the most glamorous and influential women of their age. To Truman Capote they were his Swans: the ideal heroines, as vulnerable as they were powerful. They trusted him with their most guarded, martini-soaked secrets, each believing she was more special and loved than the next...

Until…


Book cover of Unsettled Ground

Joy M. Lilley Author Of The Liberty Bodice

From my list on WW2 and women of the Special Operations Executive.

Why am I passionate about this?

My name is Joy Gerken pen name Joy M., Lilley. I live in Kent, England with husband Michael and our three rescue cats. We have four children, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. I began writing in 2013 after retiring from a long nursing career. My list is multi-genre, I like to both read and write books from all genres. It broadens my horizons and helps me focus more clearly on my own writing. I recommend all five books to you as I have enjoyed the reading of them all.

Joy's book list on WW2 and women of the Special Operations Executive

Joy M. Lilley Why did Joy love this book?

This is a glorious read that supplies verve, love, and heart. Two siblings are still living with their mother in their fifties in poverty and isolation. There is a serious risk of the inability to cope following their mother's demise. Music is a theme running throughout this charming story of resilience, and the survival instinct.

The two find they are living on the fringes of society, however, the ending proves that light can be spun from darkness.

By Claire Fuller,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Winner of the 2021 Costa Novel Award


Finalist for the Women's Prize in Fiction


Named a Best Book of the Month by Entertainment Weekly, PopSugar, Bustle, Chicago Review of Books, PureWow, a Best Book of Summer by Daily Beast and one of Good Housekeeping's Best Books of 2021


"Full of dramatic twists and turns right up until its moving, beautiful end." —NPR Books




At fifty-one years old, twins Jeanie and Julius still live with their mother, Dot, in rural isolation in the English countryside. The cottage they have shared their entire lives is their only protection against the modernizing world…


Book cover of The Pachinko Parlor

Margaux Vialleron Author Of The Yellow Kitchen

From my list on to make you hungry.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a French-born, London-based novelist and food writer. As an author, I have nurtured my voice at the kitchen counter, where I find language loosens up and as a reader, cookbooks, food memoirs, and novels sit in one pile on my bedside table. Food is never not political and I find that its depiction is a wonderful narrative tool, for plot development with the setting of a meal or to portray a character through ingredients for examples. The relationship between food, culture, and writing is something I also explore with my podcast, book club, and culinary community The Salmon Pink Kitchen. Happy reading, and bon appétit! 

Margaux's book list on to make you hungry

Margaux Vialleron Why did Margaux love this book?

If you’re looking for a novel that will make your mouth water with flavours and cravings, then Elisa Shua Dusapin is the writer you need. From the supermarket’s chilled section to hot pots of noodles, the pages of this short novel are an explosion for the senses. But the descriptions of the food are not only delicious, they also serve the purpose of the plot in this novel set over the course of one summer in Tokyo, about identity, loneliness, and language.

The Pachinko Parlour is translated from French into English by Aneesa Abbas Higgins and will be published in the UK on 18th August 2022.

By Elisa Shua Dusapin, Aneesa Abbas Higgins (translator),

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

From the author of Winter in Sokcho, Winner of the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature.

The days are beginning to draw in. The sky is dark by seven in the evening. I lie on the floor and gaze out of the window. Women’s calves, men’s shoes, heels trodden down by the weight of bodies borne for too long.

It is summer in Tokyo. Claire finds herself dividing her time between tutoring twelve-year-old Mieko, in an apartment in an abandoned hotel, and lying on the floor at her grandparents’: daydreaming, playing Tetris, and listening to the sounds from the…


Book cover of The Earthsea Trilogy

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 is pure, classic fantasy with dragons and wizards. Full of magic and gripping action scenes, including aerial battles between dragons, this is also a beautifully written coming-of-age story.

Le Guin’s world building is utterly believable; there are tense moments of human doubt and despair, evil antagonists, and a story that has kept me turning the pages for years – even though I know what is going to happen. Another example of top class, classic fantasy that offers more on each reading. 

By Ursula Le Guin,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Exclusive 3-in-1 harcover book. Includes A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA: The windswept isles of Earthsea were famous for wizards, and the greatest of all was Ged, called Sparrowhawk in his reckless youth. Hungry for power and knowledge, Sparrowhawk tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon and crossed death’s threshold to restore the balance.THE TOMBS OF ATUAN: Chosen to serve the Ancient and Nameless Powers of the Earth, Tenar is taken away from her home and family to…


Book cover of The Way of the Samurai Musashi Book 1

Joe Milan Jr. Author Of The All-American

From my list on coming-of-age while Asian.

Why am I passionate about this?

The heights of American literature are crowded with coming-of-age tales like Huckleberry Finn and Catcher and the Rye. It’s probably because for us, as Americans, figuring out what it means to be American is something that isn’t as clear as what it means to be from another country with thousands of years of existence behind it. Yet, the stories I was given rarely had people who looked like me (Asian) or lived lives that weren’t solely defined as being “foreign.” These books tell coming-of-age stories in different ways that I wish I had read when I was coming up to broaden my own mind with what was possible.

Joe's book list on coming-of-age while Asian

Joe Milan Jr. Why did Joe love this book?

Musashi is the first Asian superhero I read.

It’s about a young guy, Takezo” looking for adventure in war and ends up nearly killed, confused, and lost. He finds rebirth in discipline and study with a mysterious monk who starts him on his study of the ways of the sword. He goes on a quest to master the sword and ways of Buddhist truth, a quest where we watch this village kid become “Musashi.”

Its fight scenes are among the best I’ve ever read. And while the feeling of the story being propaganda lurks in the back of the mind (like every Hollywood action film), this was the very first novel that I read cover to cover.

By Eiji Yoshikawa,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Way of the Samurai Musashi Book 1 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Book by Eiji Yoshikawa


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 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 You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty

Allyson Morgan Author Of The Perfect Place

From my list on female authors about coming of age…at any age.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a female author myself, I always want to uplift and highlight other women-identifying writers who are weaving complicated stories about growing up. The truth is, I think we’re all continuing to change at all ages - it’s never too late to grow from past mistakes and make different choices, especially as we grow older and experience both our first love and first heartbreak. All of these stories are bonded by good women who sometimes do bad things - just like in my novel - and I think it’s important to show that female protagonists, particularly sculpted by female writers, can be just as messy, vulnerable, and complicated as male leads.

Allyson's book list on female authors about coming of age…at any age

Allyson Morgan Why did Allyson love this book?

To be fair, I read this book on a summer holiday in Cinque Terre, Italy, which perhaps made the experience even more dreamy and lush.

This is a modern love story that celebrates the desire of its female protagonist, and makes no apologies for her ability to take what she wants - in the form of her current romantic partner’s father. The story contains nuance and delicacy, and talks about relationships with honesty and vulnerability.

There is an undercurrent of grief here, as well, which bonds our lovers, and makes the lightness of the romance that much deeper.

By Akwaeke Emezi,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
ONE OF THE EVENING STANDARD'S BLOCKBUSTER BOOK TRENDS OF THE YEAR
SHORTLISTED FOR FOYLES FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR
NOMINATED FOR THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS FOR ROMANCE
A ZOELLA BOOK CLUB PICK

'This book filled me with excitement and possibilities.' Jenny Colgan
'Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous.' @savidgereads
'Say hello to the book of the summer' @bettysbooksuk
'Fantastic . . . I cannot put it down.' @thebibliotucker
____________
Have you fallen for this INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING novelist's sizzling hot entrance into the world of romance?

It's the opportunity of a lifetime:

Feyi is about to be given the chance…


Book cover of Rich in Love

David Haynes Author Of Right by My Side

From my list on kids with attitude.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a forty-five-year career educator, sharing my classrooms with students from primary school through graduate programs in creative writing. What I love most in every classroom I enter is sharing the books and stories and poems I love with my students. The best days: when I’m reading one of my favorite parts of the book out loud to the group and I look up and they laugh or gasp, or I look up and see their eyes full of joy. If it’s my own work I’m reading from, all the better!

David's book list on kids with attitude

David Haynes Why did David love this book?

Ah, these juvenile narrators: they think they know it all. Lucille Odem has it all figured out. She can fix her broken family and heal her parent’s broken hearts—because of course she can. For me, the pleasure of a great young adult narrator is watching as even the smartest of these smarty pants comes to learn that we all have blind spots and that it’s often the things we can’t see or don’t know that are the most important part of the equation. What a sweet book this is.  

By Josephine Humphreys,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

At the age of seventeen, Lucille Odom finds herself in the middle of an unexpected domestic crisis. As she helps guide her family through its discontent, Lucille discovers in herself a woman rich in wisdom, rich in humor, and rich in love.


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in coming of age, the Edwardian era, and bildungsroman?

Coming Of Age 1,373 books
Bildungsroman 329 books