Here are 97 books that Waiting for the Night Song fans have personally recommended if you like
Waiting for the Night Song.
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For the publication of our book, Climate Adaptation: Accounts of Resilience, Self-Sufficiency and Systems Change, I have worked closely with activists and academics from around the world, hearing more about the work they do and the unique and individual ways they have made adaptations within their communities. This experience has allowed me to have a deeper understanding of climate adaptation as a topic, both in a scientific and a cultural sense, thus meaning I have been more readily able to recognise the qualities of a great adaptation book!
Naomi Klein highlights the role of our economy in determining how we adapt to climate change, exploring some of the deep-rooted problems that we face. Again, this book values the importance of grassroots action when it comes to changing our society, despite governments and large corporations being the cause of the problem.
'Naomi Klein's work has always moved and guided me. She is the great chronicler of our age of climate emergency, an inspirer of generations' - Greta Thunberg
For more than twenty years Naomi Klein's books have defined our era, chronicling the exploitation of people and the planet and demanding justice. On Fire gathers for the first time more than a decade of her impassioned writing from the frontline of climate breakdown, and pairs it with new material on the staggeringly high stakes of what we choose to do next.
Here is Klein at her most prophetic and philosophical, investigating the…
I grew up in Uganda and Kenya, and when I moved to the United States, I felt separated from myself. Learning how to be American was exhausting and so I disappeared into books. I’m now more settled, but I still travel through fiction. These days, I am reading fiction by African women. You should be, too! There is so much stunning literature out there. These five books are just the beginning, but they are novels I can’t stop thinking about.
What does environmental racism look like? ReadHow Beautiful We Wereby Imobolo Mbue for a vital, searing answer. An American oil company is destroying the land and water of the fictional village of Kosawa. Children are dying. The company does this because they can, spouting only empty words about restitution. The novel narrates the village’s fight back, using alternating points of view to electric, pulsing effect.
'Sweeping and quietly devastating' New York Times 'A David and Goliath story for our times' O, the Oprah Magazine
Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, this is the story of a people living in fear amidst environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of clean-up and financial reparations are made - and broken. Left with few choices, the people of Kosawa decide to fight back. But it will come at a steep price - one which generation after generation…
I am obsessed with books about people fighting for social justice—particularly around racism and the climate crisis (which are definitely interconnected). I have two main approaches: people with longstanding commitments to making change who take increasingly bold steps to fight for justice, and the accidental activists, who had no intention of taking on injustice, but found themselves in unexpected circumstances and rose to the occasion. I write stories about people—mostly women of color—who are part of teams and movements who fight to make the world right, and win. I think of myself as trying to create roadmaps for us to win in the fight against racism and the climate crisis in the real world.
When fifteen-year-old Cuban American Mariana Ruiz’s father runs for president, Mari starts to see him with new eyes. Throughout his successful political career, he has always had his daughter’s vote, but the campaign brings a whole new level of scrutiny to Mariana and the rest of her Cuban American family. As Mari begins to learn about the details of her father’s political positions—particularly some very questionable stances on the environment— she realizes that her father is not the man she thought he was. As the climate crisis escalates around them in Florida, she begins to connect with activist teens.
I love how this novel traces a young woman’s political awakening, and how sometimes standing up for what you believe in begins with standing up to your family.
When fifteen-year-old Cuban American Mariana Ruiz's father runs for president, Mari starts to see him with new eyes. A novel about waking up and standing up, and what happens when you stop seeing your dad as your hero - while the whole country is watching. In this thoughtful, authentic, humorous, and gorgeously written novel about privacy, waking up, and speaking up, Senator Anthony Ruiz is running for president. Throughout his successful political career he has always had his daughter's vote, but a presidential campaign brings a whole new level of scrutiny to sheltered fifteen-year-old Mariana and the rest of her…
Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.
I am obsessed with books about people fighting for social justice—particularly around racism and the climate crisis (which are definitely interconnected). I have two main approaches: people with longstanding commitments to making change who take increasingly bold steps to fight for justice, and the accidental activists, who had no intention of taking on injustice, but found themselves in unexpected circumstances and rose to the occasion. I write stories about people—mostly women of color—who are part of teams and movements who fight to make the world right, and win. I think of myself as trying to create roadmaps for us to win in the fight against racism and the climate crisis in the real world.
When an unprecedented hurricane devastates the city of Houston, Noah Mishner finds shelter in the Dallas Mavericks’ basketball arena. Though he finds community among other queer refugees, Noah fears his trans and Jewish identities put him at risk with certain “capital-T” Texans. His fears take form when he starts seeing visions of his great-grandfather Abe, who fled Nazi Germany as a boy. As the climate crisis intensifies and conditions in the shelter deteriorate, Abe’s ghost grows more powerful. Ultimately, Noah must decide whether he can trust his ancestor — and what he’s willing to sacrifice in order to survive.
I love the way that this novella offers a deeply intersectional view of the climate crisis, and how critical it is to find solidarity among vulnerable populations whose vulnerability increases during disasters.
When an unprecedented hurricane devastates the city of Houston, Noah Mishner finds shelter in the Dallas Mavericks' basketball arena. Though he finds community among other queer refugees, Noah fears his trans and Jewish identities put him at risk with certain "capital-T" Texans. His fears take form when he starts seeing visions of his great-grandfather Abe, who fled Nazi Germany as a boy. As the climate crisis intensifies and conditions in the shelter deteriorate, Abe's ghost grows more powerful. Ultimately, Noah must decide whether he can trust his ancestor - and whether he's willing to sacrifice his identity and community in…
As a mystery author, I’ve long been drawn to stories about missing persons, particularly novels featuring missing mothers. I suspect the special appeal of books about missing moms is because my own mother was M-I-A during my childhood. Whereas my older sisters lost our mother to mental illness at the tender ages of four and seven, in some ways, I was fortunate because I was an infant when our mom was institutionalized and, thus, had never fully bonded with her. And yet, the longing for my mother was ever-present. She left behind a large empty space in our family.
I loved this book for its exploration of shock, grief, and denial on the part of two adult daughters whose mother inexplicably ends her own life by drowning in the sea. At odds for many years, the two very different women slowly mend their relationship as they discover a long-buried secret their mother had been keeping.
I especially related to the healing of their relationship as it was in adulthood that I drew much closer to my own sisters. As children, they associated my arrival with the loss of their mother, which did not make for an easy relationship.
CAN TWO SISTERS SOLVE THEIR MOTHER'S DISAPPEARANCE?
'This may be the perfect staycation read' THE TIMES, Thriller of the Month 'Brilliant, compelling, heart-wrenching writing' PETER JAMES
One perfect summer day, mother of two Alice walks into the sea . . . and never returns. Her daughters - loyal but fragile Lily, and headstrong, long-absent Marietta - are forcibly reunited by her disappearance.
Meanwhile, with retirement looming, DI Fox investigates cold cases long since forgotten. And there's one obsession he won't let go: a tragic death twenty years before.
Can Lily and Marietta uncover what happened to their mother? Will Fox…
I am a writer of psychological thrillers. I have a keen interest in psychology and how events and experiences in our childhood shape who we become. When I work on a new book, I always build a detailed profile of my characters’ childhoods – and as I write thrillers, these are often challenging ones with issues like narcissistic parents or siblings, coping with grief, mental illness, or bullying. My plot will always be at least partly driven by the secrets my characters form in their childhood or early life, and so I also really value this depth in the psychological thrillers I read.
The opening to this psychological thriller is stunning. Beautifully written, dark, tense and emotional – there is no way you can’t read on. And the rest of the book is equally good. There’s a complex plot that is revealed in bite-sized chunks at just the right time, the two main characters are likeable and authentic, and Cummin’s writing style keeps you just on the right side of ‘on edge’ throughout the book. But the reason this thriller really stood out for me is how it explores intense relationships formed in childhood under extreme conditions, and how they play out in adulthood decades later.
When I Was Ten is the stay-up-all-night thriller by acclaimed crime author Fiona Cummins.
'Grips like a vice' - Val McDermid 'Absorbing, tense and beautifully paced' - Daily Mail
Twenty-one years ago, Dr Richard Carter and his wife Pamela were killed in what has become the most infamous double murder of the modern age.
Their ten year-old daughter - nicknamed the Angel of Death - spent eight years in a children's secure unit and is living quietly under an assumed name with a family of her own.
Now, on the anniversary of the trial, a documentary team has tracked down…
Riley Masterson has moved to Greenbrier, SC, anxious to escape the chaos that has overwhelmed her life.
Questioned in a murder in Alabama, she has spent eighteen months under suspicion by a sheriff’s office, unable to make an arrest. But things in gentrifying Greenbrier are not as they seem. As…
As a mystery author, I’ve long been drawn to stories about missing persons, particularly novels featuring missing mothers. I suspect the special appeal of books about missing moms is because my own mother was M-I-A during my childhood. Whereas my older sisters lost our mother to mental illness at the tender ages of four and seven, in some ways, I was fortunate because I was an infant when our mom was institutionalized and, thus, had never fully bonded with her. And yet, the longing for my mother was ever-present. She left behind a large empty space in our family.
Having grown up in a waterfront community, I couldn’t resist this atmospheric thriller featuring a young woman drawn back to a small Southern town built around a lake. Years ago, her mother had abandoned her, leaving her with her stepfather. Or so she’s always been told.
But as she peels away family secrets and lies, she discovers that her mother never intended to leave her, and she has no idea who hurt her mother or who may be trying to silence her. The plot twists and sense of ever-present dread kept me reading long into the night!
Her father was the town detective. Her mother its most notorious criminal. Now the secrets of Mirror Lake are coming to the surface…and changing everything. "[A] stunning psychological thriller from one of the most insightful writers around” (CrimeReads), don’t miss the latest from Megan Miranda, the instant New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls, The Last to Vanish, and The Only Survivors.
“Miranda…exposes revelation after twisty revelation…Small-town claustrophobia and intimacies alike propel this twist-filled psychological thriller” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).
I write mysteries and I love to read them. The mysteries I write are traditional and cozy. The focus is on my sleuth as she solves murders, her relationships, and on the local setting. These past few years I've enjoyed reading mysteries quite a bit edgier than the ones I write. These books are filled with characters that are often unstable or emotionally damaged. The murders are more brutal; the plots are more complex. Psychological thrillers veer off in many directions, and the person narrating the story is not always reliable. You can't take for granted that what a character says is true. Your best bet is to observe the action and enjoy the ride!
A writer is working on a true crime book when she goes out into a snowstorm and discovers a child. Many years earlier, two young girls ventured out into the night. One returned to discover her parents have been murdered and her brother is a suspect. The other girl never returns. Who is this child and how did he get there? Going from the current mystery to the cold case years earlier, the solutions to both are resolved with a truly surprising punch.
“Fully realized, wholly absorbing and almost painfully suspenseful...The journey is mesmerizing.” —New York Times
A woman receives an unexpected visitor during a deadly snowstorm in this chilling thriller from New York Times bestselling author Heather Gudenkauf.
True crime writer Wylie Lark doesn’t mind being snowed in at the isolated farmhouse where she’s retreated to write her new book. A cozy fire, complete silence. It would be perfect, if not for the fact that decades earlier, at this very house, two people were murdered in cold blood and a girl disappeared without a trace.
Puzzles intrigued me since I was a three-year-old. Puzzle pieces that fit into pre-sized spaces. Then, disassembling and reassembling small 3-D animal shapes. Crosswords were next. Finally, Nancy Drew entered my life. I was addicted. Sherlock and Agatha became my mentors. But I loved to paint as well, so art was my first major at Michigan State University. Changed it to advertising in my senior year. Shortly after, Leo Burnett hired me to write print and radio media for Buster Brown shoes. Television was next. I solved many advertising puzzles at Foote, Cone & Belding, but after retiring, mystery re-entered my life when I wrote my first book.
Life throws us many curves. How some of us deal with them at times forces an action that is unforgivable. Others take pains to hide the act and watch as another is punished for it.
However, in some cases circumstances recall the unforgivable act and the realization that the ‘guilty’ one who died in prison was also a victim. No matter how much time may pass, or how close the friendship, the threads of secrets unravel. No protagonist crime fighter here, just a friend searching for the truth to discover the real who and the why.
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THE RICHARD & JUDY PICK
'Deliciously dark and utterly addictive - my favourite Ruth Ware yet' LUCY FOLEY
Everyone wanted her life Someone wanted her dead
It was Hannah who found April's body ten years ago. It was Hannah who didn't question what she saw that day. Did her testimony put an innocent man in prison?
She needs to know the truth.
Even if it means questioning her own friends. Even if it means putting her own life at risk.
Five days before the end of humanity, five unlikely heroes find themselves on an impossible quest to outlive the apocalypse.
5 Stars is the survival story of a mother and her baby facing impossible odds amidst a global apocalypse. Set in a dying world overseen by “The Neon God,” the…
When writing about friendships, it was important for me to highlight the highs and the lows of friendships. This approach takes the reader on a journey with the main character as she remembers the good times while she navigates through the tough times. By sprinkling in humor, a story that could sway to the serious side and stay there is suddenly entertaining and balanced, giving the main character’s plight depth and the reader an engrossing experience.
"The Restoration of Celia Fairchild is wise, witty, and utterly compelling." -Jane Green, New York Times bestselling author of The Friends We Keep
Evvie Drake Starts Over meets The Friday Night Knitting Club in this wise and witty novel about a fired advice columnist who discovers lost and found family members in Charleston, by the New York Times bestselling author of The Second Sister.
Celia Fairchild, known as advice columnist 'Dear Calpurnia', has insight into everybody's problems - except her own. Still bruised by the end of a marriage she thought was her last chance to create a family, Celia…
