Fans pick 100 books like What You Are Looking for Is in the Library

By Michiko Aoyama,

Here are 100 books that What You Are Looking for Is in the Library fans have personally recommended if you like What You Are Looking for Is in the Library. 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 Hate U Give

Leanne Lieberman Author Of Cleaning Up

From my list on YA that adults will love too.

Why am I passionate about this?

Like many adults, I love a good YA story. YA books take us back to our younger days when we were stronger, faster, and likely better-looking, but also to the confusing transitional time of being a teenager. Mostly, I love reading and writing YA novels because despite being about hard topics–friendship, disease, toppling the patriarchy–they are hopeful. In this confusing, stressful world, we need a little optimism. With that in mind, I offer you five of my favorite YA books that I think adults will love, too.

Leanne's book list on YA that adults will love too

Leanne Lieberman Why did Leanne love this book?

Although I love a book that takes you traveling to the past or to foreign lands, sometimes I want to jump into the shoes of a contemporary character and understand their world. This book does just that. 

Starr Carter is a black teenager who lives in a poor, predominantly black neighborhood but attends an elite, mostly white private school. Starr manages to code-switch between her two lives until her childhood friend is shot by the police. 

If you like books about social justice and characters who stand up for what they believe, this is a fantastic read. 

By Angie Thomas,

Why should I read it?

11 authors picked The Hate U Give as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14, 15, 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

Now a major motion picture, starring Amandla Stenberg

No. 1 New York Times bestseller

Winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize * Goodreads Choice Awards Best of the Best * National Book Award Longlist * British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year * Teen Vogue Best YA Book of the Year

Sixteen-year-old Starr lives in two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she was born and raised and her posh high school in the suburbs. The uneasy balance between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a…


Book cover of The Light Pirate

Lori B. Duff Author Of Devil's Defense: A Fischer at Law Novel

From my list on contemporary books with smart, female protagonists.

Why am I passionate about this?

I like to think I’m the smart female protagonist of my own life. Each of the women I’ve described in this book calls out to me in some way. They’re misunderstood or devalued by the people around them. They know more than they’re given credit for. I think most women feel that to some degree. I think its understood now that representation matters. We all want to see ourselves in the media we take in. I saw myself in these protagonists, or I saw a need that these books would fill in my life if I lived in their worlds.

Lori's book list on contemporary books with smart, female protagonists

Lori B. Duff Why did Lori love this book?

I can’t stop thinking about this book. The setting is Florida in the near future, where climate change has reached a point where the ocean is reclaiming the state. The book spans the entire life of the protagonist, Wanda. Wanda broke my heart. She suffered so much loss, none of which was her own fault. But, smart and curious, she found a way, led primarily by an older woman who took her under her wing. 

I felt for Wanda as she lost her family and friends, dealt with bullies, and lost her home. And I cheered her on when she found ways to survive. Wanda is the light: the message of the book, which could easily have been horribly depressing, was that love will find a way—life will find a way if you give it room to breathe.

By Lily Brooks-Dalton,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Light Pirate as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Set in the near future, this hopeful story of survival and resilience follows Wanda—a luminous child born out of a devastating hurricane—as she navigates a rapidly changing world: A “symphony of beauty and heartbreak” (Associated Press).

A Good Morning America Book Club pick · #1 Indie Next pick · LibraryReads pick · Book of the Month Club selection ·  Marie Claire #ReadWithMC book club selection · 2022 NPR “Book We Love” · New York Times Editors’ Choice

Florida is slipping away. As devastating weather patterns and rising sea levels wreak gradual havoc on the state’s infrastructure, a powerful hurricane approaches…


Book cover of Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Leanbh Pearson Author Of Three Curses and Other Dark Tales

From my list on folklore retellings in fantasy & horror.

Why am I passionate about this?

I write fairy tales and folklore, dark fantasy and horror. I have an academic background in history and archaeology. I am Australian (yes, lots of scary creatures here!) but inspired by this rich, multicultural country with First Nations tales for over 60,000 years. I am fascinated by how fairy tales, folklore and mythologies can be similar and yet so intriguingly different across time and space, written and oral telling. I love the enduring power of the fairytale and how, with each retelling, it transforms it into a new story, and as people travel, new tales are retold and transformed into a new version for a new place and generation. 

Leanbh's book list on folklore retellings in fantasy & horror

Leanbh Pearson Why did Leanbh love this book?

I immediately loved this book for its alternate history, detailed folklore, and dark academic vibes. I connected with the complex characters and a strong female protagonist who was fearless of social expectations. The unique combination of folklore and an archaeology background that I share with the author Heather Fawcett was something I found familiarity with instantly.

I enjoyed the alternate history where dark academia met with the more traditional Gaslamp-style fantasy fiction to create something new. This combination of dark academia, marginalized voices, and alternate history is a style I enjoy delving into the past in new, unusual ways and revealing voices that otherwise remain unheard.  

By Heather Fawcett,

Why should I read it?

15 authors picked Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love in the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series.

“A darkly gorgeous fantasy that sparkles with snow and magic.”—Sangu Mandanna, author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is…


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Book cover of At What Cost, Silence?

At What Cost, Silence? by Karen Lynne Klink,

Secrets, misunderstandings, and a plethora of family conflicts abound in this historical novel set along the Brazos River in antebellum Washington County, East Texas.

It is a compelling story of two neighboring plantation families and a few of the enslaved people who serve them. These two plantations are a microcosm…

Book cover of Cassandra in Reverse

Lori B. Duff Author Of Devil's Defense: A Fischer at Law Novel

From my list on contemporary books with smart, female protagonists.

Why am I passionate about this?

I like to think I’m the smart female protagonist of my own life. Each of the women I’ve described in this book calls out to me in some way. They’re misunderstood or devalued by the people around them. They know more than they’re given credit for. I think most women feel that to some degree. I think its understood now that representation matters. We all want to see ourselves in the media we take in. I saw myself in these protagonists, or I saw a need that these books would fill in my life if I lived in their worlds.

Lori's book list on contemporary books with smart, female protagonists

Lori B. Duff Why did Lori love this book?

I’ve always been drawn to the mythological character of Cassandra. Many times, I feel like her, always accurately predicting the future, but no one listens to me. I loved this twist on the Cassandra myth—this particular Cassandra is neurodivergent and clearly does not understand the people around her. She has a terrible day—she gets dumped and fired, and the café is out of banana muffins. 

In the freak out that follows, she learns that she has the ability to rewind time in small bits so she can do things over again. It’s like Groundhog’s Day, but on purpose. And as she tries to redo things, as she gets the ability to think about how she’ll respond, she learns a lot about herself. I am fascinated by this concept, and the book made me laugh out loud and, in turns, cringe and cheer for Cassandra.  

By Holly Smale,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK from the author of the GEEK GIRL series, now on NETFLIX!

"Fascinating...witty...self-deprecating...We meet Cassandra on the worst day of her life. She's getting fired, her boyfriend dumps her, and her roommates hate her. On that same day, she discovers she has the power to go back in time. You'd think you would know how this book is going to end, but it really surprised me. There's a twist at the end that I did not see coming!" —Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club June ’23 Pick)

If you had the power to change the past…where would…


Book cover of Number9dream

Jeff Beamish Author Of No, You're Crazy

From my list on questioning the nature of reality.

Why am I passionate about this?

As someone who spent his days working as a journalist and his nights writing novels and short stories, I've always been fascinated by the fine line separating fact and fiction. We live our lives conforming to the rules of our universe, yet sometimes feel brave enough to ask what’s that? and watch with delight as reality transforms into fantasy. What, exactly, is that brilliant sunset? Billions of bits of light being processed by our survival-evolved brain as a reminder to seek shelter before the perilous darkness descends? The wondrous work of God’s hand? A pleasing distraction from the brutality of our brief existence? Something else we may never comprehend? Great stories help us decide.

Jeff's book list on questioning the nature of reality

Jeff Beamish Why did Jeff love this book?

David Mitchell is a master of dreaming up non-linear, mind-bending, genre-blending stories that fuse fantasy and reality, so he has plenty of candidates for this list. I chose Number9Dream, a wonderful and genuinely bizarre coming-of-age novel that keeps the reader constantly asking if any of this is real. With gangster battles, kamikaze diaries, deadly floods and earthquakes, family tragedy, a stuttering “Goatwriter,” and (spoiler) a concluding chapter that is a blank page, this is, on the surface, the dazzling tale of a Japanese student searching for a father he’s never met. But from the opening chapter, where Eiji fantasizes about outrageous ways to confront his father’s lawyer in her place of work, but never does, the reader quickly senses that this strange journey will forever change those open-minded souls brave enough to embark on it.

By David Mitchell,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Number9dream as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

As Eiji Miyake's twentieth birthday nears, he sets out for the seething metropolis of Tokyo to find the father he has never met. There, he begins a thrilling, whirlwind journey where dreams, memories and reality collide then diverge as Eiji is caught up in a feverish succession of encounters by turn bizarre, hilarious and shockingly dangerous. But until Eiji has fallen in love and exorcised his childhood demons, the belonging he craves will remain, tantalizingly, just beyond his grasp...


Book cover of Before the Coffee Gets Cold

Kirsten McKenzie Author Of Fifteen Postcards

From my list on time travel that sucks you into alternate reality.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of time travel, especially how it can pull you into an entirely different timeline and make you question the choices that shape your life. As a reader, I’m drawn to stories where time travel isn’t just a plot device but a way to explore themes of fate, identity, and the consequences of our actions. Over the years, I’ve delved into countless books that do just that—books that transport me to worlds both familiar and entirely new. This list reflects my passion for time travel stories that not only entertain but make me think long after I’ve turned the last page.

Kirsten's book list on time travel that sucks you into alternate reality

Kirsten McKenzie Why did Kirsten love this book?

This is a beautiful story that captured my heart. I loved how the novel explores the concept of time travel, not with grand adventures, but through quiet, meaningful moments. The setting of the small café, where patrons can travel back in time, felt warm and comforting, and I was moved by the characters’ personal journeys as they sought closure or reconciliation.

The book shows the impact of small decisions and the importance of cherishing the present. You will need a box of tissues to read this one. If only I could visit the cafe to have a coffee with my dad.

By Toshikazu Kawaguchi,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked Before the Coffee Gets Cold as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

*NOW AN LA TIMES BESTSELLER*

*OVER ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD*

*AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER*

If you could go back in time, who would you want to meet?

In a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee—the chance to travel back in time.

Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn’t so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most…


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Book cover of Sor Juana, My Beloved

Sor Juana, My Beloved by MaryAnn Shank,

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, this brilliant 17th century nun flew through Mexico City on the breeze of poetry and philosophy. She met with princes of the Church, and with the royalty of Spain and Mexico. Then she met a stunning, powerful woman with lavender eyes, la Vicereine Maria…

Book cover of Who's in Your Room?: The Question That Will Change Your Life

Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino Author Of The Change Guidebook: How to Align Your Heart, Truths, and Energy to Find Success in All Areas of Your Life

From my list on to implement and manage change.

Why am I passionate about this?

Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino is the founder of The Best Ever You Network and co-founder of Compliance4. Through these companies, she has helped individuals and organizations around the world be their best and achieve world-class excellence with gratitude-based behavior and belief systems. She is one of America's foremost personal and corporate development consultants specializing in mindset, change management, strategy, leadership, and taking action. Elizabeth is also the author of the award-winning personal development book PERCOLATE - Let Your Best Self Filter Through (Hay House) and multiple children’s books as a contributor and author. Elizabeth lives her daily life with life-threatening food allergies. Elizabeth and her husband live in Maine with their four sons and three rescued cats. 

Elizabeth's book list on to implement and manage change

Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino Why did Elizabeth love this book?

Dr. Ivan Misner is the father of modern networking. It stands to reason he knows a thing or two or three about change. When you are trying to make changes in your life or be successful, it is very important to surround yourself with the right people to foster your growth and success. This book shows you just how to do that. This is one of my favorite books to recommend to people when they feel stuck.

By Ivan Misner, Stewart Emery, Rick Sapio

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Who's in Your Room? as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

People may be out of your life, but they're still in your head. Learn how to control the ongoing psychological impact of all your relationships and achieve happiness, success, and fulfillment.

Who’s in Your Room? is a metaphor and a method for understanding how our relationships, past and present, impact our lives.
 
Imagine that you live your entire life in one room. Inside are all the people with whom you have ever had a relationship. The room is infinitely large, and anyone you let in will be in your room for the rest of your life. Neurologists report that as…


Book cover of The Weekend

Joanna Horton Author Of Between You and Me

From my list on complex female friendship.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an Australian writer with a passion for literary fiction, especially novels centered on complex and multi-layered power dynamics. To me, relationships between women are particularly ripe for this kind of exploration – my own friendships with other women have been influential and formative, but not always easy! My interest in these darker and more complex dynamics of close friendship eventually led me to write my own novel on the topic. I’ve also published a range of essays, reviews, criticism, and creative nonfiction. 

Joanna's book list on complex female friendship

Joanna Horton Why did Joanna love this book?

While many novels about female friendship focus on young women, The Weekend follows three women in their seventies, whose decades-long friendship has sustained them through illness, infidelity, divorce – and recently the death of their fourth close friend, Sylvie.

Drawn together over a weekend to clear out Sylvie’s house, the remaining women must grapple with their shared past and uncertain future. I loved this glimpse into the lives of older women – a reality not often portrayed in fiction – and admired Wood’s ability to make each of her three narrators flawed, relatable, and human.

If you like immersive character-driven novels, this book won’t disappoint.

By Charlotte Wood,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Shortlisted for the 2020 Stella Prize

People went on about death bringing friends together, but it wasn't true. The graveyard, the stony dirt - that's what it was like now . . . Despite the three women knowing each other better than their own siblings, Sylvie's death had opened up strange caverns of distance between them.

Four older women have a lifelong friendship of the best kind: loving, practical, frank and steadfast. But when Sylvie dies, the ground shifts dangerously for the remaining three. Can they survive together without her?

They are Jude, a once-famous restaurateur, Wendy, an acclaimed public…


Book cover of The Natashas

John Biscello Author Of Broken Land, a Brooklyn Tale

From my list on mystery is given an existential makeover.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have long been an ardent admirer and student of works that transgress boundaries and extend the frontiers of literature. A blurring and subversion of genres, or fusion of forms and modalities, arouses my imagination and inspires me to see differently, to read differently, to travel to places within myself that otherwise might remain undiscovered and uncharted. To me, writing is an ongoing experiment, a series of progressions and adventures which ask me to stay open, supple, and curious. There is no set formula—each book demands its own form, and both as writer and reader, I most desire to be engaged in what is a solitary ritual of interaction.  

John's book list on mystery is given an existential makeover

John Biscello Why did John love this book?

Ukrainian-born, Yelena Moskovich, is one of the most daring and radical stylists working in contemporary literature, and I was “bewitched, bothered and bewildered,” in the best possible ways, by her debut novel, The Natashas. Set in contemporary Paris, it is through the mirrored introversion of two protagonists—Beatrice, a jazz singer, and Cesar, an actor—that the dramatic tensions between self and other, silence and voice, are played out, with “the Natashas,” women resigned to a void, functioning as the novel’s haunted, nesting doll chorus. Moskovich’s book is an experiment that closes in on itself, and with claustrophobic intimacy produces a strange, brooding, and salacious form of music. 

By Yelena Moskovich,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Beatrice, a solitary young jazz singer from a genteel Parisian suburb, meets a mysterious woman named Polina. Polina visits her at night and whispers in her ear: 'There are people who leave their bodies and their bodies go on living without them. These people are named Natasha.'

Cesar, a lonely Mexican actor working in a call centre, receives the opportunity of a lifetime: a role as a serial killer on a French TV series. But as he prepares for the audition, he starts falling in love with the psychopath he is to play.

Beatrice and Cesar are drawn deeper into…


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Book cover of Feral Maril & Her Little Brother Carol

Feral Maril & Her Little Brother Carol by Leslie Tall Manning,

Winner of the Literary Titan Book Award

Bright but unassuming Marilyn Jones has some grown-up decisions to make, especially after Mama goes to prison for drugs and larceny. With no one to take care of them, Marilyn and her younger, mentally challenged brother, Carol, get tossed into the foster care…

Book cover of Happiness

James Sulzer Author Of The Voice at the Door

From my list on poets and politics.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a teenager, I “discovered” the poetry of Emily Dickinson and put her verse to music. Later, at Yale University I delved deeper into the power of rhythms, the beauty of images, the clarity of insights—how they combine to create a genuine poetic voice that reveals an interior world. Politics, of course, define our interactions in the exterior world, and great novels meld these two elements—poetry and politics—into a seamless union. I’ve been inspired to write novels about two poets—Emily Dickinson and John Keats—to bring the reader into the intense, poetic world of their blazing interiors and their unique outward politics.

James' book list on poets and politics

James Sulzer Why did James love this book?

Happiness is a gentle, insightful, poetic depiction of the politics of nature in London, England—specifically, the treatment of urban foxes in the midst of human activity. The layers of life (children, adults, foxes, falcons, street cleaners, psychiatrists, immigrants, landowners) interact here in ways deeply moving and insightful, reminding me of the central question in much of my writing: the boundaries between our private, poetic perceptions and the politics of survival.

By Aminatta Forna,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

'Forna's voice is relentlessly compelling, her ability to summon atmosphere extraordinary ... A thing of lasting beauty' OBSERVER SHORTLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2019 SHORTLISTED FOR THE JHALAK PRIZE 2019 A breathtaking novel from Orange Prize-shortlisted and Commonwealth Writers' Prize-winning author Aminatta Forna Waterloo Bridge, London. Two strangers collide. Attila, a Ghanaian psychiatrist, and Jean, an American studying the habits of urban foxes. From this chance encounter in the midst of the rush of a great city, numerous moments of connections span out and interweave, bringing disparate lives together. Attila has arrived in London with two tasks: to deliver…


Book cover of The Hate U Give
Book cover of The Light Pirate
Book cover of Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

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