100 books like Twelve Minutes of Love

By Kapka Kassabova,

Here are 100 books that Twelve Minutes of Love fans have personally recommended if you like Twelve Minutes of Love. 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 Such a Fun Age

Sarah Connell Sanders Author Of Small Teaching K-8: Igniting the Teaching Spark with the Science of Learning

From my list on looking inside an adolescent’s mind.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am the co-author of Small Teaching K-8. I hold Massachusetts teacher licensure in English 5-12, Library k-12, and School Administration 5-8 as well as an M.Ed. from Boston College.

Sarah's book list on looking inside an adolescent’s mind

Sarah Connell Sanders Why did Sarah love this book?

I read this novel in one sitting because I was so taken by Reid’s portrayal of ‘parent vs. caretaker.’

As teachers, we navigate these challenging relationships every day. Such a Fun Age shows the rawness and imperfection of parenthood alongside the precariousness of taking responsibility for someone else’s child.

By Kiley Reid,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Such a Fun Age as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A Best Book of the Year:
The Washington Post • Chicago Tribune • NPR • Vogue • Elle • Real Simple • InStyle • Good Housekeeping • Parade • Slate • Vox • Kirkus Reviews • Library Journal • BookPage

Longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize

An Instant New York Times Bestseller

A Reese's Book Club Pick 

"The most provocative page-turner of the year." --Entertainment Weekly

"I urge you to read Such a Fun Age." --NPR

A striking and surprising debut novel from an exhilarating new voice, Such a Fun Age is a page-turning and big-hearted story about race and…


Book cover of The Idiot

Aggeliki Pelekidis Author Of Unlucky Mel

From my list on experience college without going into debt.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a former graduate student who holds an MA and Ph.D in English with a Creative Writing emphasis, but also as the child of immigrants and the first in my family to go to college, I love when writers deflate the pretensions of academia. I didn’t grow up around formally educated people so I can relate to the imposter syndrome some of the characters in these books experience. I don’t know who recommended Lucky Jim to me, but that book began my infatuation with the genre of academic satires or campus novels, of which there are many others. 

Aggeliki's book list on experience college without going into debt

Aggeliki Pelekidis Why did Aggeliki love this book?

Finally, a campus novel with a female protagonist who’s also an undergraduate. Batuman does a wonderful job of immersing the reader in her main character’s point of view. And what a fascinating perspective she offers–I was so enthralled with her way of thinking and the amusing things she notices about the people and places around her!

The writing constantly surprised and engaged me while taking me along on the journey of Selin’s first year of college.  

By Elif Batuman,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book * Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction * Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction

"Easily the funniest book I've read this year." -GQ

"Masterly funny debut novel . . . Erudite but never pretentious, The Idiot will make you crave more books by Batuman." -Sloane Crosley, Vanity Fair

A portrait of the artist as a young woman. A novel about not just discovering but inventing oneself.

The year is 1995, and email is new. Selin, the daughter of Turkish immigrants, arrives for her freshman year at Harvard. She signs up…


Book cover of Normal People

Freddie Gillies Author Of Because All Fades

From my list on love and friendship set in Europe.

Why am I passionate about this?

The best fiction explores complex relationships between friends and lovers. I’ve been fascinated by this for as long as I can remember because love and friendship are the cornerstones of human existence. As concepts, they give life meaning yet can also take it away. They bring us together but can also leave us estranged. The sun-soaked cities of Europe have for so long been playgrounds for young lovers and friends, enjoying both the best of life and the most melancholy. I love traveling Europe–the grandeur, the romance, the happy-sad sentiment of it all. It embodies the topic and makes for the most beautiful setting.

Freddie's book list on love and friendship set in Europe

Freddie Gillies Why did Freddie love this book?

I read this book in a few sittings. That’s how hooked it had me. There’s something about the delicacy and complexity of the relationship between the two protagonists that makes this book stand out. I love the book for this. I felt connected to the characters, invested in their future, and even furious at their inability to make things work at times (they were made for each other!). Their insecurities and feelings of inadequacy are so relatable yet so often not talked about.

I loved the way the book explores deeper male emotions and the pressure felt by men in a world where talking about feelings has historically been seen as a weakness. Lastly, I love it because it is lyrical, melancholic, hopeful, and real. All of that is what life is. 

By Sally Rooney,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

NOW AN EMMY-NOMINATED HULU ORIGINAL SERIES • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A stunning novel about the transformative power of relationships” (People) from the author of Conversations with Friends, “a master of the literary page-turner” (J. Courtney Sullivan).
 
ONE OF THE TEN BEST NOVELS OF THE DECADE—Entertainment Weekly

TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR—People, Slate, The New York Public Library, Harvard Crimson

AND BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR—The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, O: The Oprah Magazine, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Vogue, Esquire, Glamour, Elle, Marie Claire, Vox, The Paris Review, Good Housekeeping, Town &…


Book cover of Treats

Kate Tough Author Of Kissing Lying Down

From my list on relationships and dating in the modern age.

Why am I passionate about this?

It occurred to me that if someone wanted to design a method of introduction for people who don’t actually want to date, then they’d design online dating as we know it today! One can't help feeling that many people using dating sites have no intention of forming a relationship (for a host of personal reasons). And that’s what makes it ripe for failure, and for fiction. Anyone who’s ever looked for the right connection (IRL or online), or tried to make an existing connection work, will recognise something in the story collection.

Kate's book list on relationships and dating in the modern age

Kate Tough Why did Kate love this book?

Many excellent story collections would fit on this list but with Treats you’re squarely in contemporary territory; arranging a date via the internet and then returning home to open the laptop again when the date wasn’t successful. Or finding a boyfriend online, only to discover his strange fetish for penguin costumes. Or realising that your girlfriend is checking out of the relationship when she refuses to pose for a selfie. There are twenty-plus stories, some just a few pages long, but the details are rich enough to evoke a whole life. There’s a unifying milieu where realism meets absurdism, preventing the dysfunction from feeling too desperate, and I appreciated the author’s inclusion of knowing one-liners, to great comic effect.

By Lara Williams,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

"It was the curse of the modern age, options; who needed options, when everything was essentially meaningless?" So says one of the characters in this extraordinary debut collection. This fresh, beguiling new voice paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood, balancing wry humor with a pervading sense of alienation. These characters struggle with how to negotiate intimacy within relationships and isolation when single. Meanwhile the dilemmas of contemporary adulthood play out, including abortion, depression, extra-marital affairs, infatuation, new baby anxiety, bereavement, hair loss, sexual ethics, cats and taxidermy.


Book cover of Chance and Circumstance: Twenty Years with Cage and Cunningham

Louis Menand Author Of The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War

From my list on memoirs from a wide array of people.

Why am I passionate about this?

I started my career as a graduate student studying the Victorian period, a great age for autobiography. And although autobiography is no longer taught much in English departments, I guess I retain my passion for the genre. The greatest, of course, is Rousseau’s Confessions.

Louis' book list on memoirs from a wide array of people

Louis Menand Why did Louis love this book?

Even if you know nothing about dance, this (not short) memoir takes you inside one of the most imaginative collaborations of the twentieth-century avant-garde, and gives you the flavor of some of its extraordinary characters—not only Cage and Cunningham, but Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Morton Feldman, and others.

By Carolyn Brown,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Carolyn Brown, one of the most renowned dancers of the last half-century, lived at the center of New York's bold and vibrant artistic community, which included not only dancers and choreographers but composers and painters as well. Brown's memoir recounts her own remarkable twenty-year tenure with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and provides a first-hand account of a pivotal period in twentieth-century art.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, Brown developed close relationships with musical director John Cage and set-designer Robert Rauschenberg and with Cunningham himself. Brown's memoir reveals the personal dynamics between the reserved and moody Cunningham and the…


Book cover of Steps in Time: An Autobiography

Nathan Morley Author Of Jack Hawkins: A Biography

From my list on memoirs and biographies from Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always had a passion for cinema, especially gritty British productions of the 1940s and 50s. The voices of Kathleen Harrison, Robert Beatty, Kenneth More, Dirk Bogarde, Jack Warner, and Susan Shaw can be heard nightly radiating from my TV. I’m also a huge fan of radio, in particular classic BBC shows. As a biographer, I’m known for shining a light on personalities of yesteryear – those we might recognize by name and face but know little about. My recent books include biographies on Erich Honecker (OK, he wasn’t a movie star), Jack Hawkins, and David Tomlinson (they were).

Nathan's book list on memoirs and biographies from Hollywood’s Golden Age

Nathan Morley Why did Nathan love this book?

I adored Fred Astaire so much that during a trip to Los Angeles, I made a special little pilgrimage to the RKO studios on the corner of Melrose Ave and Gower Street to see where he shot those famous 1930s movies, Top Hat, Follow the Fleet, and Flying Down to Rio.

From his debut in vaudeville as a kid to his remarkable career as the star of many of the most popular Hollywood musicals ever captured on celluloid, Fred tells his own compelling story.

By Fred Astaire,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

One of the foremost entertainers of the twentieth century—singer, actor, choreographer, and, of course, the most dazzling "hoofer" in the history of motion pictures—Fred Astaire was the epitome of charm, grace, and suave sophistication, with a style all his own and a complete disregard for the laws of gravity. Steps in Time is Astaire's story in his own words, a memoir as beguiling, exuberant, and enthralling as the great artist himself, the man ballet legends George Balanchine and Rudolf Nureyev cited as, hands down, the century's greatest dancer.

From his debut in vaudeville at age six through his remarkable career…


Book cover of The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince

Matt Thorne Author Of Prince: The Man and His Music

From my list on by Prince associates.

Why am I passionate about this?

Having spent seven years researching and writing about Prince (and another year updating the book), I spoke to as many people who worked and lived with him as I could. While my book is rich with information gleaned from interviews, alongside my own analysis, there were a few people who didn’t talk to me. Of the above, I did talk to Dez Dickerson, but the others were holding off (presumably because their own books were in the works). All the books below work as perfect compliments to mine and are all must-haves for any Prince fan’s purple library.

Matt's book list on by Prince associates

Matt Thorne Why did Matt love this book?

Prince was different things to different people and one of the things you’ll discover through these books is that they work as a mosaic showing different sides of him. Only two people will ever know what it was like to be married to Prince, and Mayte is one of them.

By Mayte Garcia,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

In The Most Beautiful, a title inspired by the hit song Prince wrote about their legendary love story, Mayte Garcia for the first time shares the deeply personal story of their relationship and offers a singular perspective on the music icon and their world together: from their unconventional meeting backstage at a concert (and the long-distance romance that followed), to their fairy-tale wedding (and their groundbreaking artistic partnership), to the devastating losses that ultimately dissolved their romantic relationship for good. Throughout it all, they shared a bond more intimate than any other in Prince's life. No one else can tell…


Book cover of Josephine Baker: The Hungry Heart

Marcia DeSanctis Author Of 100 Places in France Every Woman Should Go

From my list on women in France.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm a former television news producer who worked for Barbara Walters and Peter Jennings at ABC News, and at Dateline NBC and CBS’s 60 Minutes. I was always a journalist, but mid-career, I switched lanes from TV to writing. Since then, I've contributed essays and stories to many publications, among them Vogue, Travel & Leisure, The New York Times, BBC Travel, and others. I mostly write about travel, but also cover beauty, wellness, international development, and health. I'm the recipient of five Lowell Thomas Awards for excellence in travel journalism, including one for Travel Journalist of the Year. My book of essays, A Hard Place to Leave: Stories From a Restless Life comes out in May 2022.

Marcia's book list on women in France

Marcia DeSanctis Why did Marcia love this book?

I can’t remember a 600-page book that I’ve ever read so fast and yes, so hungrily. Baker’s trajectory defies credulity. Above all, it is the paradigmatic story of a Black American targeted by racism in her own country, who found acceptance and fame (and in Baker’s case, so much more) in Paris. From the slums of St. Louis, at nineteen she became an instant sensation with her dazzling performance at La Revue Nègre. She strolled the Champs Élysées with a cheetah and, during the war, hid Jewish refugees in her château in the Dordogne. In the 1963 March on Washington, she spoke alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, the only woman to address the crowd that day. With exhaustive research that never weighs down the narrative, author Jean-Claude Baker, her unofficial thirteenth child who worked for her towards the end of her life, paints a portrait of a hugely complex woman.…

By Jean-Claude Baker, Chris Chase,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Based on twenty years of research and thousands of interviews, this authoritative biography of performer Josephine Baker (1906-1975) provides a candid look at her tempestuous life. Born into poverty in St. Louis, the uninhibited chorus girl became the sensation of Europe and the last century's first black sex symbol. A heroine of the French Resistance in World War II, she entranced figures as diverse as de Gaulle, Tito, Castro, Princess Grace, two popes, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Yet Josephine was also, as one critic put it, "a monster who made Joan Crawford look like the Virgin Mary." Jean-Claude Baker's…


Book cover of Princess Naomi Helps a Unicorn

Kimberley Paterson Author Of Mysty the Mystical Unicorn

From my list on that capture the magic of unicorns.

Why am I passionate about this?

My only granddaughter and her love and fascination with unicorns is the reason why I dedicated Mysty the Mystical Unicorn to her! I hope that Mysty inspires children everywhere to focus on their imagination, creativity and to always believe in themselves! My desire to write a children’s picture book started at a very young age, reading is a passion of mine that my own children inherited and now my grandchildren too! My wish is that all children will love Mysty and enjoy her adventures as well as the five books that I have recommended. Always keep on believing in magic, miracles, and yourselves!

Kimberley's book list on that capture the magic of unicorns

Kimberley Paterson Why did Kimberley love this book?

This is a beautiful story about the friendship and bonds between sisters, not just ordinary sisters, but Princess sisters Naomi and Miranda. They were very close but like all siblings, sometimes, they did not get along so Princess Naomi left their castle where she came upon a beautiful little unicorn that had fallen asleep among the red poppies (known for putting unicorns to sleep). She managed to wake the unicorn and they started out to find the unicorn’s baby that was missing. After her fun-filled adventure, she realized she was no longer angry with her sister and could not wait to share her story with Princess Miranda! The bond between family is strong and a wonderful thing.

By Once Upon a Dance, Ethan Roffler (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Princess Naomi Helps a Unicorn as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

Unicorns and Horses and Snakes, oh my!

Princess Naomi Helps a Unicorn is a 2021 Mom's Choice Gold Award Recipient.

Interactive movement wrapped up in a charming story of sibling angst, anger management, compassion, and triumph. Grown-ups sit; kiddos move and practice dance fundamentals.

Fed up with her annoying sister, Naomi storms out of the castle, only to discover a unicorn in need of help. With a sense of purpose, she quickly forgets her anger.

Ballerina Konora is featured on each page as optional movement guide for kids who want to get up and dance.

“Cheerful and heartwarming, this movement…


Book cover of A Dance Autobiography

Adin Dalton Author Of Fate

From my list on the artistry of ballet and classical music.

Why am I passionate about this?

P. I. Tchaikovsky is a world-famous composer but few people know anything about him. Much of his life was hidden by the Soviet Union due to his homosexuality. As information finally came to light, the mystery of his death in 1893 became an obsession for me. The truth of it lies beyond the rumors of suicide or cholera, as particular circumstances exposed in my novel clearly show. I am a ballet historian and the writing of Fate was an eight-year endeavor. Readers of Fate can now be the proverbial fly on the wall while Tchaikovsky lives his life and creates his major works.

Adin's book list on the artistry of ballet and classical music

Adin Dalton Why did Adin love this book?

For an intriguing, first-hand account of the art and life of the greatest ballerina of our time, don't miss this grand read. Natalia Makarova, the prima ballerina of them all gives this thrilling autobiography life as she describes not only her roles at the Kirov Ballet in St. Petersburg and at American Ballet Theatre in New York City, but also her daring escape from KGB agents in London where she defected. Glorious photography crowns this amazing achievement. On a personal note, my life changed after seeing her dance—first in a video of Giselle and then later in person at the Metropolitan Opera House. 

Book cover of Such a Fun Age
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