The most recommended books about truth

Who picked these books? Meet our 19 experts.

19 authors created a book list connected to truth, and here are their favorite truth books.
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Book cover of Vertigo

Tracey Lee Author Of Wither

From my list on the truth and lies of ordinary lives.

Why am I passionate about this?

Everybody lies. Good people, evil-doers, and the well-intentioned. My fascination began when I discovered through genealogy the mistruths, obfuscations, and lies by omission that peppered my own family tree. In my case the forebears believed there were good reasons to lie and no reason to think that the truth would ever be uncovered. But DNA profiling has shone a big light on the dark corners. Also being a teacher for a few decades means I’ve heard just about every permutation of alleged truth there is! These books focus on the character’s journey through deception and fabrications to arrive at a version of truth that is less unbearable than the lies.

Tracey's book list on the truth and lies of ordinary lives

Tracey Lee Why did Tracey love this book?

Vertigo is not so much about the lies people tell, more the reasons why they can’t face the truth. The story unfolds as the reader is immersed in the physical world of the characters. The environment frames the sense of loss and isolation they experience and is described in detail. You can almost hear and smell the land around them. Lohrey also evokes the power of the Australian bushfire season and its power to destroy everything we build. Having lived through the New Year’s Eve fire in NSW in 2019/20 I feel every raw nerve ignite through her description. 

By Amanda Lohrey, Lorraine Biggs (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Luke and Anna, thirty-something and restless, decide on a sea change. Worn down by city life and wounded by a loss neither can talk about, they flee to a sleepy village by the coast. There, surrounded by nature, they begin to feel rejuvenated. But when bushfire threatens their new home, they must confront what they have tried to put behind them.

Vertigo is a fable of love and awakening by one of Australia's finest writers, about the unexpected way emotions can return and life can change.

‘Vertigo will keep you up much too late but it’s worth a one-sitting read.’…


Book cover of The Story of America: From the Very Beginning Up to the Present

Craig Lancto Author Of All Is Still And Quiet

From my list on to reveal the truth about the Pilgrims.

Why am I passionate about this?

In researching the next book in my Kindred Spirit series I intended to tell the story of the “Angel of Hadley,” which occurred in my hometown. As I researched the topic, I fell into more, and more convoluted rabbit holes. For example, the Indian who led King Philip's War was Metacom, son of the great sachem Massasoit who signed the mutual defense treaty with Governor Carver of Plymouth Plantation when they first met in 1621. The rapid descent from 40 years of peace into the proportionally bloodiest war to take place in what is now America, was spellbinding. And my research continues.

Craig's book list on to reveal the truth about the Pilgrims

Craig Lancto Why did Craig love this book?

Not often does a history text make me guffaw. Hendrik van Loons writing is an exception. His scholarship is serious, his delivery casual and delightful. In 1922, Van Loon won the first Newberry Prize for his children's book, The History of Mankind.

The Story of America is not a linear history; it is more like an explanation, of putting it all together, around a campfire. Van Loon assumes the reader's familiarity with the events of history, and he makes value judgments and simplifies the complex with no loss of significance. It is more an explanation of history and motivation than a history of events.

Book cover of The Truth about Alice

Beth Fehlbaum Author Of Big Fat Disaster

From my list on YA about broken people.

Why am I passionate about this?

I always used food to cope with painful feelings, and I developed Binge Eating Disorder as a child. As an adult, I was in therapy to deal with traumatic stuff, and I lost 100 pounds. I finished therapy with a whole new set of tools with which to navigate the world, but I still regained the weight and started hating myself again. I said, “Whoa. Time-out. I am worthy of love. That has not changed, so why do I hate myself again?” That is what I explore in Big Fat Disaster: what is our worth, and why should that worth depend on what we look like? 

Beth's book list on YA about broken people

Beth Fehlbaum Why did Beth love this book?

Jennifer Mathieu writes fearlessly; in this book, she exposes the real nature of slut-shaming and bullying, but more importantly, she reveals what it is to see a person as “other”; to reduce them to nothing more than words on a bathroom wall. I desire to build empathy for others through my writing, and The Truth about Alice holds up a mirror to those who denigrate others, in this case, Alice, for personal fulfillment.

By Jennifer Mathieu,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Truth about Alice as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

From the author of Moxie, soon to be a major Netflix production

Fans of THIRTEEN REASONS WHY will love this powerful book about stereotypes, secrets and standing up for gender equality, from the author of Zoella Book Club book MOXIE.

There are all sorts of rumours about Alice Franklin. And after star quarterback Brandon Fitzsimmons dies in a car accident, the rumours start to spiral out of control blaming Alice for Brandon's death.

In this remarkable novel, four Healy High students - the party girl, the car accident survivor, the ex best friend and the boy next door - tell…


Book cover of The Enrollment Effect: Form Lasting Relationships Live Your Ideal Lifestyle Impact the World

Peter Lange Author Of Free Enterprise

From my list on elevating your income.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a 15-year-old, Peter started his first business remodeling houses. He hired help older than him so they could drive him to the job sites. Peter used this first business to help finance his college education. After graduating from the University of Kansas, Peter started his career working in the Space Shuttle Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center in the Houston, TX metro, and in the evenings, Peter received his M.B.A. from the University of Houston. It was through his initial career experiences, that Peter discovered he wanted to help businesses become the best that they could be in pursuit of their vision.

Peter's book list on elevating your income

Peter Lange Why did Peter love this book?

To succeed in selling your product, service, or even yourself into the job of your dreams, Tyler Watson asserts that you shouldn’t be selling at all! Instead, your focus needs to be on enrolling your customers or your new employer into what you are bringing to the table that will transform their lives. The Enrollment Effect gives you the information you need to master the tools of enrollment at all levels including relationships and your own personal success psychology. So, whether you are working on starting a new business or looking for your dream job, you must study and master enrollment to fulfill your objectives and elevate your income!

By Tyler J. Watson,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

In 2013, Tyler Watson was averaging $15 an hour as a massage therapist. Today, he is earning five to six figures a month teaching message-bearers like you—networkers, trainers, speakers, leaders, healers, those in service-based sales, anyone with a message—how to share your message, master your stories, and sell your passion in a way that will allow you to step into your power and enroll clients consistently. What has made the difference? In The Enrollment Effect, Tyler reveals the powerful set of truths that has unlocked his earning potential and moved him into a sphere of success he once believed was…


Book cover of A Day Like This

MJ Mumford Author Of TimeBlink

From MJ's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

MJ's 3 favorite reads in 2024

MJ Mumford Why did MJ love this book?

Like Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter, this novel explores alternate realities, but through an entirely different lens. While both feature protagonists awakening to drastically changed lives, McNeil takes us down a more introspective, metaphysical path.

Annie Beyers’ determination to uncover what happened to the life she remembered but no longer existed—her marriage, her home, and most heartbreakingly, her daughter—pulled at something raw and real inside me. McNeil proves that stories about parallel lives don't need complex science to explore the profound questions of identity and choice.

Incidentally, I discovered this book right here on the Shepherd site, illustrating the platform's knack for matching readers with their ideal books.

By Kelley McNeil,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Day Like This as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

What if everything you've ever loved, ever known, ever believed to be true...just disappeared?

Annie Beyers has everything-a beautiful house, a loving husband, and an adorable daughter. It's a day like any other when she takes Hannah to the pediatrician...until she wakes hours later from a car accident. When she asks for her daughter, confused doctors tell Annie that Hannah never existed. In fact, nothing after waking from the crash is the same as Annie remembers. Five happy years of her life apparently never happened.

Annie's marriage is coming to an end. Now a successful artist living in Manhattan, she's…


Book cover of The Truth about Grandparents

Lynda Pilon Author Of The Sleepover

From my list on funny stories about grandchildren and grandparents.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always loved being around children, first as a primary school teacher, then as a parent and now as a grandma. The love, laughter, humour, and fun that I share with my grandkids keep me young in mind, body, and soul. My story is about the wonderful adventures we have. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing the world through the eyes of a child and I am enjoying every minute of it.

Lynda's book list on funny stories about grandchildren and grandparents

Lynda Pilon Why did Lynda love this book?

This author’s writing style and her great sense of humour will definitely be a big hit with the kids and also with grandparents. I love the twist Ellis puts on her book. She accomplishes this by telling a story that does not in any way match the illustrations. The reader’s attention is captured immediately because he realizes that something is different about this book, something isn’t quite right. The drawings are funny, exaggerated, and colourful, all the ingredients that kids love to see in a book. I’m a grandparent and I laughed right along with my grandchildren as we read the story. The ending is priceless. On the last page, the illustrations finally match the words. What an entertaining book for both the young and the young at heart.  

By Elina Ellis,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Truth about Grandparents 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?

A Children's Book of the Year in The Telegraph and an Empathy Lab Read for Empathy book 2020.

A very funny and lovable picture book tribute to grandparents and older people.

When you're small, everybody bigger than you seems really old. But does being older have to mean being boring, or slow, or quiet? NO! Elina Ellis' wonderful illustrations reveal that the age you are makes no difference to how amazing you can be.

From the winner of the Macmillan Prize for Illustration 2017, The Truth About Old People is an instant favourite with children and grown-ups that tackles ageism…


Book cover of On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature

Rob Smith Author Of Shrader Marks: Keelhouse

From my list on for fiction writers who tell the truth.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was one of those kids who wanted to understand everything. Early on, I worked at a research laboratory and majored in biology. When studies in religion and philosophy offered an even deeper level of inquiry, I turned to archeology, anthropology, psychology, and linguistic analysis. Over the years, I was a counselor for people at the end of life, taught college philosophy, and a cultural approach to religion. I have traveled throughout western Kenya, Guyana, New Zealand, Alaska, and Labrador. I also listened for the stories of the people. Additionally, I have sailed for more than forty years. I write about what I know, and about what still puzzles me.

Rob's book list on for fiction writers who tell the truth

Rob Smith Why did Rob love this book?

C.S. Lewis is widely known for his children’s book series, The Chronicles of Narnia. His list of publications is, however, much longer. This little volume of essays gives a reader (or a writer) insight into how the form of a story shapes its meaning. For instance, he writes about stories for children and how some authors mistakenly think that children are only interested in childish things. He compares that to people who have the gift of being able to access the child that is still in them and speak with them in a shared experience. 

Of science fiction, he shares the difference between an author who is a creator of worlds, and one who rearranges alien props to make a pedestrian story appear clever. The key is a story that makes contact with the reader.

By C. S. Lewis,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The theme of this collection is the excellence of the Story, especially the kind of story dear to Lewis-fantasy and science fiction, which he fostered in an age dominated by realistic fiction. On Stories is a companion volume to Lewis’s collected shorter fiction, The Dark Tower and Other Stories. Edited and with a Preface by Walter Hooper.


Book cover of Essays in Freethinking

Eric Maisel Author Of Choose Your Life Purposes

From my list on the truth about the truth.

Why am I passionate about this?

The sixty books I’ve written wander in and out of existential thought, as that breakthrough thinking, where man was told to take personal responsibility for his life and stop looking up or elsewhere for purpose and meaning, has informed everything I do and write about. Over the years, I’ve been a family therapist, a creativity coach, an existential wellness coach, and an advocate for critical psychology and critical psychiatry, points of view that dispute the current pseudo-medical “mental disorder” paradigm. 

Eric's book list on the truth about the truth

Eric Maisel Why did Eric love this book?

One of the top freethinkers of the early 1900s, Chapman Cohen, is all but lost in the mists of history and obscurity. But he is one of my favorite sharp-eyed debunkers of humbug, without which debunking the truth stands no chance.

Cohen wrote on a wide variety of subjects, from how tyrants target scientists to the contemporary witch trials of his times to the connection between religious zealotry and a preoccupation with other people’s sexual practices to the differences between English and French atheism.

If you’ve read smart essays by the likes of Bertrand Russell and George Orwell, you will enjoy the essays of Chapman Cohen, a thinker you likely have never heard of—but might love to get to know.

By Chapman Cohen,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Book by Chapman Cohen


Book cover of The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth

Tom Wheeler Author Of From Gutenberg to Google: The History of Our Future

From my list on today’s roadmap to tomorrow.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been fortunate to have spent the last 40 years of my professional life dealing with new networks and new technology. From the early days of cable television and mobile communications to the development of digital video and the transmission of data over cable lines and satellite. It was a career topped off with the privilege of being the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with regulatory responsibly for approximately 1/6th of the American economy (on which the other 5/6s depended). 

Tom's book list on today’s roadmap to tomorrow

Tom Wheeler Why did Tom love this book?

At a time when new technology has delivered us to a world of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation, we have lost our shared understanding of just what facts and truth are.

Jonathan Rauch helps us recall the importance of facts and truth to the liberal democratic process. He challenges us to reinstate knowledge and truth. 

By Jonathan Rauch,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Arming Americans to defend the truth from today's war on facts.

Disinformation. Trolling. Conspiracies. Social media pile-ons. Campus intolerance. On the surface, these recent additions to our daily vocabulary appear to have little in common. But together, they are driving an epistemic crisis: a multi-front challenge to America's ability to distinguish fact from fiction and elevate truth above falsehood.

In 2016 Russian trolls and bots nearly drowned the truth in a flood of fake news and conspiracy theories, and Donald Trump and his troll armies continued to do the same. Social media companies struggled to keep up with a flood…


Book cover of How Do You Kill 11 Million People? Softcover

Esther K. Bowen Author Of Mind Games

From my list on government oppression and courageous resistance.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a child, I read stories of courageous women and men who risked their lives for their faith, for their freedom, or for the freedom of others. Many of these stories were dark and brutal. History taught me that governments are capable of atrocities that defy understanding. Fiction stories led me to envision dark futures. But I do not enjoy stories that discourage or depress. Instead, I believe stories should display hope, faithfulness, and sacrifice. I admire the heroes of our history and I seek fiction that speaks these same truths. We need stories that inspire us to stand up, to speak out against injustice, no matter the consequences.

Esther's book list on government oppression and courageous resistance

Esther K. Bowen Why did Esther love this book?

In this short, but incredibly powerful book, Andrews asks questions every citizen should consider. The reader is confronted with questions about truth, freedom, and the price of apathy. This book transformed my understanding of oppression and why people allow it. It is a call to think, to seek truth, and to hold government leaders accountable. It can be read in about twenty minutes.

By Andy Andrews,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked How Do You Kill 11 Million People? Softcover as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

How do you get away with the murder of 11 million people? The answer is simple-and disturbing. You lie to them. Learn how you can become an informed, passionate citizen who demands honesty and integrity from your leaders in this updated and expanded edition of the original New York Times bestselling book.

In this updated and expanded nonpartisan New York Times bestselling book, Andy Andrews emphasizes that seeking and discerning the truth is of critical importance, and that believing lies is the most dangerous thing you can do. You'll be challenged to become a more careful student of the past,…


Book cover of Vertigo
Book cover of The Story of America: From the Very Beginning Up to the Present
Book cover of The Truth about Alice

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