80 books like The Faerie Throne

By Belle Manuel,

Here are 80 books that The Faerie Throne fans have personally recommended if you like The Faerie Throne. 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 The Fairyland Series

Nafiza Azad Author Of Road of the Lost

From my list on about the fae.

Why am I passionate about this?

Many kids love fairy tales and so did I but I was always puzzled by the lack of fairies in these tales. The idea of a separate world containing these beautiful but flawed creatures enthralled me from an early age. I read everything about them so that I could get my hands on, whether the book was fiction or nonfiction. When doing my Master's in Children’s Literature, I studied fae tales that appear around the world which evoked a thirst in me to write my own…so I did. All the books on this list give a glimpse of the chaotic nature of the fae, of the world that surely exists beyond our comprehension. I hope they are as much a treat for your imagination as they were mine.

Nafiza's book list on about the fae

Nafiza Azad Why did Nafiza love this book?

If you’ve read any book by Valente, you will know the worlds she creates are a trip. As a reader, you have no choice but to trust her and she doesn’t let you down. This series is ostensibly for middle graders but I dare say that you will enjoy it no matter your age—as long as you allow your imagination free rein (or is it reign? Either way). The story features a young girl who goes to Fairyland and has many adventures while learning important life lessons. It is loads of fun.

By Catherynne M. Valente, Ana Juan,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The Fairyland Series (Books 1-3): The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, The Girl Who Fell Beneath Faiyland and Led the Revels There, and The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two
"One of the most extraordinary works of fantasy, for adults or children, published so far this century"—Time magazine, on the Fairyland series

Twelve-year-old September lives in Omaha, and used to have an ordinary life, until her father went to war and her mother went to work. One day, September is met at her kitchen window by a Green Wind…


Book cover of In Fairyland

Maria de Fátima Santos Author Of Serendipity

From my list on nature and fantasy storytelling for children.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been fascinated by the richness of fairy tales since I was a child. The fantasy writing offers endless possibilities to nourish my mind’s eye and pearls of wisdom that I can transfer to real life. I remember from childhood that I cried reading the Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen. This childhood memory never left me. Fantasy writing is interwoven with the realm of nature and beings other than humans that offer a tapestry for the tradition of storytelling and nature writing, which I found a fascinating field to explore. I hope you can find the same in the books on this list.

Maria's book list on nature and fantasy storytelling for children

Maria de Fátima Santos Why did Maria love this book?

This book is a classic story that transported me to a realm where fairies come alive—I felt I could be there dancing with them, too.

I love the story's initial opening with the magical expression, “Once upon a time.” It’s like opening a gateway to my mind’s eye, imagining life in that country that was very close to Fairy Land, guided by the exquisite illustrations in the book.

I like also very much the simplicity of the names of the characters, like for example, “Princess Niente (Princess Nobody) and of the structure of the story divided into three chapters.

The end is sweet: “Journeys end in lovers meeting, and so do stories.” And offered me a pearl with the quote of Apuleius and the poem.

By Andrew Lang, Richard Doyle (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The King and Queen of the country next to Fairyland are blessed with a daughter whom Prince Comical rescues in the land of magic Mushrooms


Book cover of Between Two Thorns

Jackie Dana Author Of The Favor Faeries

From my list on YA faerie novels.

Why am I passionate about this?

Tales of magic have captivated me since I was a small child, and I started writing fantasy stories in high school. But it was only when I discovered the YA faerie subgenre several years ago that I truly found my niche. As my book recommendations will demonstrate, there’s a delicious connection between faerie magic and teenage angst, and it’s the tension that arises that makes for fantastic worldbuilding and storytelling. I hope that you enjoy my top books in the genre and find a new favorite for yourself!

Jackie's book list on YA faerie novels

Jackie Dana Why did Jackie love this book?

Prepare to have your world turned upside down in this peculiar take on the faerie novel. We meet Cathy as a resident of modern England but learn she’s actually an escapee from “The Nether,” a faerie mirror world that’s stuck in the 19th century. As a historian, I absolutely love how Newman moves characters between the worlds—without time travel! And just imagine being in the shoes of a young woman forced to straddle the freedoms that come with modern life with a life with an arranged marriage. And above all, she must appeal to the whims of the faerie lord who controls her family’s fortunes. Come for the premise, but stick around for her deep world-building and richly-drawn characters (I mean, who doesn’t love a talking gargoyle?)

By Emma Newman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Between Two Thorns as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Beautiful and nuanced as it is dangerous, the manners of Regency and Victorian England blend into a scintillating fusion of contemporary urban fantasy and court intrigue.

Between Mundanus, the world of humans, and Exilium, the world of the Fae, lies the Nether, a mirror-world where the social structure of 19th-century England is preserved by Fae-touched families who remain loyal to their ageless masters. Born into this world is Catherine Rhoeas-Papaver, who escapes it all to live a normal life in Mundanus, free from her parents and the strictures of Fae-touched society. But now she's being dragged back to face an…


Book cover of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

Jan Bozarth Author Of Queens of Aventurine

From my list on fantasy adventure books with female heroines.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always been interested in feminine culture and how we move through loss & disappointment, build self-worth, find beauty, make and keep friendships, handle family strife, love the natural world, and value a rich imagination. I love creating fantasy worlds. My fantasy world is fueled by a lifetime of lucid dreaming and a group of animal spirits who always find a place in my stories. Music is my lifelong passion and profession, so original songs are a part of my storytelling package. I am steeped in the expression of the many facets of being a girl and practiced at the myriad of ways to explore them creatively. 

Jan's book list on fantasy adventure books with female heroines

Jan Bozarth Why did Jan love this book?

I love this book for its keen originality, which turns tropes on their heads while telling a story that both kids and adults enjoy. It is set in a strange, whimsical, and fragmented fairyland. I simply cannot get over how wonderfully surprising Valente's tone and writing style are.

It's both fluid and fun, yet matter-of-fact in its telling of September, a brave and stubborn heroine as she navigates a mostly broken Fairyland and its cadre of colorful and unexpected creatures, such as a soap golem, centipedes, and a spoonless witch, to name a few. 

By Catherynne M. Valente, Ana Juan (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 10, 11, 12, and 13.

What is this book about?

"One of the most extraordinary works of fantasy, for adults or children, published so far this century."—Time magazine, on the Fairyland series

Twelve-year-old September lives in Omaha, and used to have an ordinary life, until her father went to war and her mother went to work. One day, September is met at her kitchen window by a Green Wind (taking the form of a gentleman in a green jacket), who invites her on an adventure, implying that her help is needed in Fairyland. The new Marquess is unpredictable and fickle, and also not much older than September. Only September can…


Book cover of Lament

Jackie Dana Author Of The Favor Faeries

From my list on YA faerie novels.

Why am I passionate about this?

Tales of magic have captivated me since I was a small child, and I started writing fantasy stories in high school. But it was only when I discovered the YA faerie subgenre several years ago that I truly found my niche. As my book recommendations will demonstrate, there’s a delicious connection between faerie magic and teenage angst, and it’s the tension that arises that makes for fantastic worldbuilding and storytelling. I hope that you enjoy my top books in the genre and find a new favorite for yourself!

Jackie's book list on YA faerie novels

Jackie Dana Why did Jackie love this book?

In the first of two books, Stiefvater introduces us to Deirdre, an accomplished teen musician who has just met the mysterious Luke—who just happens to be a faerie that none of her friends or family can see. Oh, and he’s also an assassin. Caught between a mundane life of music recitals, school, and her family on one side, and the dangerous world of faerie on the other, what’s a girl to do? As a nerd and a loner growing up, what I wouldn’t have given for a secret faerie friend who dragged me into a world of magic and danger! Although Stiefvater has gone on to write more complex novels, her faerie duology will always have a place in my heart.

By Maggie Stiefvater,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING NOVEL SHIVER

"Vibrant and potent, YA readers searching for faerie stories will be happy to find this accomplished debut novel."
–Publishers Weekly
(starred review)

"This beautiful and out-of-the-ordinary debut novel, with its authentic depiction of Celtic Faerie lore and dangerous forbidden love in a contemporary American setting, will appeal to readers of Nancy Werlin's Impossible and Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series."
–Booklist
(starred review)

"Part adventure, part fantasy, and wholly riveting love story, Lament will delight nearly all audiences with its skillful blend of magic and ordinary life."
―KLIATT (starred review)

Sixteen-year-old…


Book cover of The Ottoman World: A Cultural History Reader, 1450-1700

Caroline Finkel Author Of Osman's Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire

From my list on the Ottoman Empire.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a Scottish Ottoman historian who has lived half my life in Istanbul. Realising that the archive-based research of my PhD and after was read by too few, I wrote Osman's Dream, which has been translated into several languages and is read generally, as well as by students. I am fascinated by the 'where' of history, and follow historical routes the slow way, by foot or on horseback, to reach the sites where events occurred. That's the thing about living where the history you study happened: its traces and artefacts are all around, every day. I hope I have brought a sense of Ottoman place to Osman's Dream.

Caroline's book list on the Ottoman Empire

Caroline Finkel Why did Caroline love this book?

The workings of the state and the actions of state functionaries have long supplied the essential narrative informing our understanding of Ottoman history. This new volume by University of Chicago partner scholars is the first to give a platform to a wide spectrum of voices hailing from across the sultan's multilingual realm. Women and men, Muslims, Jews and Christians, prisoners and prostitutes, mystics and scholars, and a host of others, reach across the centuries to beguile us with their dreams and legends, anecdotes and jokes, biographies, and hagiographies. Although billed also as a textbook, as is customary these days in order to reach the widest readership, this book is for anyone who seeks affinity with the people of the early modern Ottoman world.

By Hakan T. Karateke (editor), Helga Anetshofer (editor),

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The Ottoman lands, which extended from modern Hungary to the Arabian peninsula, were home to a vast population with a rich variety of cultures. The Ottoman World is the first primary source reader to bring a wide and diverse set of voices across Ottoman society into the classroom. Written in many languages-not only Ottoman Turkish but also Arabic, Armenian, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, and Persian-these texts, here translated, span the extent of the early modern Ottoman empire, from the 1450s to 1700.

Instructors are supplied with narratives conveying the lived experiences of individuals through texts that highlight human variety and accelerate…


Book cover of R. E. Lee: A Biography, Vol. 3

John Reeves Author Of A Fire in the Wilderness: The First Battle Between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee

From my list on understanding Robert E. Lee.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am the author of The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee and A Fire in the Wilderness: The First Battle Between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. I’ve been a teacher, editor, and writer for over twenty-five years. The Civil War, in particular, has been my passion since I first read Bruce Catton’s The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War as an elementary school student in the 1960s. My articles on Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant have been featured in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and on the History News Network.

John's book list on understanding Robert E. Lee

John Reeves Why did John love this book?

Freeman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning, four-volume account of Lee remains the gold standard among the numerous biographies of the general. Freeman tirelessly examined the documentary record, and wrote a compelling narrative of Lee’s eventful life. The coverage here of the crucial battles of the Civil War is outstanding. One must be careful with Freeman’s biography, however. Freeman is unabashedly devoted to Lee and is extremely biased in his opinions. In the final volume, Freeman admits that he came “to respect and to love” the subject of his biography. In the third volume, which I recommend here, Freeman argues that Lee would have been successful at Gettysburg, if not for the insubordination of General James Longstreet. The Wilderness Campaign is also examined in this volume. Despite all of the hagiography, Freeman’s R.E. Lee remains an essential work for anyone interested in the Confederate general.

By Douglas Southall Freeman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked R. E. Lee as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Book by Freeman, Douglas Southall


Book cover of Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes, and Letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee

John Reeves Author Of A Fire in the Wilderness: The First Battle Between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee

From my list on understanding Robert E. Lee.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am the author of The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee and A Fire in the Wilderness: The First Battle Between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. I’ve been a teacher, editor, and writer for over twenty-five years. The Civil War, in particular, has been my passion since I first read Bruce Catton’s The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War as an elementary school student in the 1960s. My articles on Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant have been featured in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and on the History News Network.

John's book list on understanding Robert E. Lee

John Reeves Why did John love this book?

The documents for this important collection, first published in 1874, were originally intended for an official biography of Lee. When that book was abandoned, Jones published all of the documents along with accompanying observations and anecdotes. Lee’s wife approved of the project. One historian said this collection “became a source book for all future Lee biographers.” The hagiography here in some of Jones’s anecdotes actually exceeds that of Douglas Southall Freeman, but it’s still an essential book for serious students of Robert E. Lee. Jones knew Lee personally and had access to all of his private papers.

By John William Jones,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes, and Letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Robert E. Lee lived only five years after the end of the War Between the States. Dedicated to his work in directing the education of young men at Washington College in Lexington, Virginia, where he served as president, he did not have time or opportunity to write his memoirs. One of his chaplains with whom he was quite close in Christian fellowship ─ his familial friend, J. William Jones, set about to prepare a near approximation of Lee’s memoirs, which was endorsed both by the Lee family and Washington (and Lee) College. Lee’s story is told topically as Jones looks…


Book cover of The Quest for Corvo

Nile Green Author Of Empire's Son, Empire's Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah

From my list on fascinating lives in far-off places.

Why am I passionate about this?

Aged seventeen, I set off for Istanbul on what turned into several decades of travels across the Muslim world. From the last nomad tents of Iran to the Sufi shrines of Pakistan and Afghanistan and the ancient cities of Syria and Yemen, I’ve met all kinds of fascinating and complex people. Although I write about the past, those living experiences always shape my approach to writing. As a biographer, I write about individuals who are intriguing but complicated—like all of us, only more so. And as a historian drawn to encounters between cultures, I write about how different parts of the world understand (and misunderstand) each other. 

Nile's book list on fascinating lives in far-off places

Nile Green Why did Nile love this book?

This book is a literary biography that reads like a detective novel. I found it to be gripping, shocking, hilarious, and tragic. I also consider it a great work of literature in its own right, effectively reinventing the genre of biography and turning it into an artwork forged in the era of Raymond Chandler. It was first published in 1934, but has been through many reissues, including with the alternative subtitle, Genius or Charlatan? 

That question captures perfectly the state of mind in which I was left after finishing Symons’s account of the life of Frederick Rolfe, who called himself Baron Corvo, as he swanned around southern Europe in the 1900s. While Corvo was a writer—he wrote a series of over-ripe novels, most famously Hadrian the Seventhhis life is more the stuff of the unbelievable potboiler than the usual tedious life of authors tied to their typewriters.

And…

By A.J.A. Symons,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Quest for Corvo as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One day in 1925 a friend asked A. J. A. Symons if he had read Fr. Rolfe's Hadrian the Seventh. He hadn't, but soon did, and found himself entranced by the novel -- "a masterpiece"-- and no less fascinated by the mysterious person of its all-but-forgotten creator. The Quest for Corvo is a hilarious and heartbreaking portrait of the strange Frederick Rolfe, self-appointed Baron Corvo, an artist, writer, and frustrated aspirant to the priesthood with a bottomless talent for self-destruction. But this singular work, subtitled "an experiment in biography," is also a remarkable self-portrait, a study of the obsession and…


Book cover of Alamein: War Without Hate

John Sadler Author Of Blitzing Rommel

From my list on the War in the Desert 1940 – 1943.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a successful published author of military history nonfiction and fiction with 44 titles in print and have been a lifelong obsessive on the subject of WWII which was my parents’ war. I started on a diet of black & white war movies, then epics such as Tobruk, Raid on Rommel et al. I have been lecturing on the subject at the former Centre for Lifelong Learning at Newcastle University (Now the ‘Explore’ Programme) for 25 years. I am also an experienced and much travelled WWII Battlefield tour guide, with experience of guiding all the major Western Front campaigns. I’m a lifelong historical interpreter and re-enactor.

John's book list on the War in the Desert 1940 – 1943

John Sadler Why did John love this book?

A good modern account of the battle with a well-researched and detailed context. The authors are primarily journalists and the story is fully fleshed out with a good, well-paced contextual analysis and their version makes an interesting comparison/contrast with the more traditional, often hagiographic accounts of the Battle and of Montgomery as a general.

By John Bierman, Colin Smith,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

'Excellent ... a remarkable achievement and ought to be recognised as one of the most successful histories of the Western Desert and North African fighting yet to have appeared' John Keegan, Daily Telegraph

For the British, the battle fought at El Alamein in October 1942 became the turning point of the Second World War. In this study of the desert war, John Bierman and Colin Smith show why it is remembered by its survivors as a 'war without hate'. Through extensive research the authors provide a compellingly fresh perspective on the see-saw campaign in which the two sides chased each…


Book cover of The Fairyland Series
Book cover of In Fairyland
Book cover of Between Two Thorns

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