Books like 'The Help'
Readers who enjoyed The Help by Kathryn Stockett also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical 20th century comedy historical-fiction classics drama realistic literary-fiction friendship humor
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Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 46 ratingsIt's first the story of two women in the 1980s, of gray-headed Mrs. Threadgoode telling her life story to Evelyn, who is in the sad slump of middle age... -
![Life With Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse]()
Life With Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIt is old Bertie Wooster's habit to land in the soup from time to time. To get into a spot of bother. Circumstances, aided and abetted by Aunt Agatha, Aunt Dahlia, Bingo Little, Tuppy, Sippy and others, seem to conspire against him, and a frightful muddle ensues.Enter Jeeves, the source of all solace. Jeeves of the infinite sagacity...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction realistic 20th-century adult anthologies -
![The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker, Marion Meade]()
The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker, Marion Meade
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe second revision in sixty years, this sublime collection ranges over the verse, stories, essays, and journalism of one of the twentieth century's most quotable authors.For this new twenty-first-century edition, devoted admirers can be sure to find their favorite verse and stories. But a variety of fresh material has also been added to create a fuller, more authentic picture of her life's work...Categorized as:
classics drama high-school historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century adult -
![Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger]()
Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA contemporary American classic—a poignant and hilarious tale of baseball, hero worship, eccentric behavior, and unlikely friendshipLast Days of Summer is the story of Joey Margolis, neighborhood punching bag, growing up goofy and mostly fatherless in Brooklyn in the early 1940s...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction humor literary-fiction realistic -
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![The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays by Oscar Wilde, Richard Allen Cave]()
The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays by Oscar Wilde, Richard Allen Cave
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsCombining epigrammatic brilliance and shrewd social observation, the works collected in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays are edited with an introduction, commentaries and notes by Richard Allen Cave in Penguin Classics...Categorized as:
classics drama high-school historical-fiction humor literary-fiction realistic 20th-century -
![The Plays of Oscar Wilde by Oscar Wilde]()
The Plays of Oscar Wilde by Oscar Wilde
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThis work consists of the plays "Lady Windermere's Fan" and "A Woman of No Importance". Both the plays deal with the theme of a guilty secret. The wit of the dialogue softens the serious criticism of English manners and morals that lie behind the settings and frivolity of his plays... -
![Pygmalion / My Fair Lady by George Bernard Shaw, Alan Jay Lerner]()
Pygmalion / My Fair Lady by George Bernard Shaw, Alan Jay Lerner
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe ancient Greeks tell the legend of the sculptor Pygmalion, who created a statue of a woman of such surpassing beauty that he fell in love with his own creation. Then, Aphrodite, taking pity on this man whose love could not reach beyond the barrier of stone, brought the statue to life and gave her to Pygmalion as his bride...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies -
![Run with the Horsemen by Ferrol Sams]()
Run with the Horsemen by Ferrol Sams
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsPorter Osborne Jr. is a precocious, sensitive, and rambunctious boy trying to make it through adolescence during the depression years. On a red-clay farm in Georgia he learns all there is to know about cotton chopping, hog killing, watermelon thumping, and mule handling. School provides a quick course in practical joking, schoolboy crushes, athletic glory, and clandestine sex...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century animals -
![Deacon King Kong by James McBride]()
Deacon King Kong by James McBride
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsIn September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and in front of everybody shoots the project's drug dealer at point-blank range... -
![The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham]()
The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsLarry Darrell is a young American in search of the absolute. The progress of this spiritual odyssey involves him with some of Maugham's most brillant characters - his fiancee Isabel, whose choice between love and wealth have lifelong repercussions, and Elliot Templeton, her uncle, a classic expatriate American snob...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age drama family high-school historical-fiction humor literary-fiction -
![Remembrance of Things Past: Volume II - The Guermantes Way & Cities of the Plain by Marcel Proust]()
Remembrance of Things Past: Volume II - The Guermantes Way & Cities of the Plain by Marcel Proust
Rated: 4.52 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIncluding THE GUERMANTES WAY and CITIES OF THE PLAIN... -
![The Complete Saki by Saki]()
The Complete Saki by Saki
Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsHector Hugh Munro is perhaps the most graceful spokesman for England's "golden afternoon''--those slow and peaceful years prior to the outbreak of World War I. The good wit of bad manners, elegantly spiced with irony and deftly controlled malice, has made Saki stories small, perfect gems of the English language...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies -
![Extinction by Thomas Bernhard]()
Extinction by Thomas Bernhard
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe last work of fiction by one of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, Extinction is widely considered Thomas Bernhard’s magnum opus. Franz-Josef Murau—the intellectual black sheep of a powerful Austrian land-owning family—lives in Rome in self-imposed exile, surrounded by a coterie of artistic and intellectual friends...Categorized as:
classics drama family historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure -
![Today I Wrote Nothing: The Selected Writings by Daniil Kharms, Matvei Yankelevich]()
Today I Wrote Nothing: The Selected Writings by Daniil Kharms, Matvei Yankelevich
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDaniil Kharms has long been heralded as one of the most iconoclastic writers of the Soviet era, but the full breadth of his achievement is only in recent years, following the opening of Kharms' archives, being recognized internationally... -
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![My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok]()
My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsAsher Lev is a Ladover Hasid who keeps kosher, prays three times a day and believes in the Ribbono Shel Olom, the Master of the Universe. Asher Lev is an artist who is compulsively driven to render the world he sees and feels even when it leads him to blasphemy...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age drama family high-school historical-fiction humor literary-fiction -
![A Foreign Woman by Sergei Dovlatov, Antonina W. Bouis]()
A Foreign Woman by Sergei Dovlatov, Antonina W. Bouis
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAfter leaving the Soviet Union following a series of unsatisfying relationships, Marusya Tatarovich quickly becomes the center of the Russian community in Queens, New York, but finds that it mirrors in many ways the community she left...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction politics 20th-century adult audiobook -
![Uncle Fred in the Springtime by P.G. Wodehouse]()
Uncle Fred in the Springtime by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPongo Twistleton is in a state of financial embarrassment, again. Uncle Fred, meanwhile, has been asked by Lord Emsworth to foil a plot to steal the Empress, his prize pig. Along with Polly Pott (daughter of old Mustard), they form a deputation to Blandings Castle, bent on doing a "bit of good"...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book -
![The Lion in Winter by James Goldman]()
The Lion in Winter by James Goldman
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsInsecure siblings fighting for their parents’ attention; bickering spouses who can’t stand to be together or apart; adultery and sexual experimentation; even the struggle to balance work and family: These are themes as much at home in our time as they were in the twelfth century. In James Goldman’s classic play The Lion in Winter, domestic turmoil rises to an art form...Categorized as:
classics drama family high-school historical-fiction humor literary-fiction politics -
![Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish]()
Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 61 ratingsFrom dressing the chicken to dusting the furniture, Amelia Bedelia does exactly what Mr. and Mrs. Rogers tell her. ...But somehow things never turn out quite right... -
![Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse]()
Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsBertie Wooster vows that nothing will induce him to return to Totleigh Towers, lair of former magistrate Sir Watkyn Bassett. Apart from Sir Watkyn himself, the place is infested with his ghastly daughter Madeline and her admirer, would-be dictator Roderick Spode. But when his old friend 'Stinker' Pinker asks for Bertie's help, there is nothing for it but to buckle down and go there...Categorized as:
classics drama friendship historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century adult -
![Selected Stories by O. Henry]()
Selected Stories by O. Henry
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratings"Selected Stories of O. Henry," by O. Henry, is part of the "Barnes & Noble Classics"" "series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure anthologies -
![Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein, Jerry Bock]()
Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein, Jerry Bock
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe full text and complete lyrics, as well as photographs from the original production. "One of the great works of the American musical theatre. It is darling, touching, beautiful, warm, funny and inspiring. It is a work of art...Categorized as:
classics drama high-school historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century adult -
![The Short Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald]()
The Short Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsToday, F. Scott Fitzgerald is known for his novels, but in his lifetime, his fame stemmed from his prolific achievement as one of America's most gifted (and best-paid) writers of stories and novellas. In 'The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald', Matthew J...Categorized as:
classics high-school historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century anthologies audiobook -
![True Grit by Charles Portis]()
True Grit by Charles Portis
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsFourteen-year-old Mattie Ross' father was shot and killed. Told through her eyes, True Grit is the story of how she and hard-drinking Marshal Rooster Cogburn set out to find and prosecute his murderer. "An epic and a legend".--Washington Post... -
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![The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovannino Guareschi]()
The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovannino Guareschi
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThis tragicomical stories, often politically or socially charged, mostly situated in a fictional village on the Po called Boscaccio, in the period immediately after World War II, paint a clear picture of the post-war Italy. In this period the Italian Communist Party is very strong, but the Second World War and fascism are still vividly remembered. Boscaccio has a communist mayor named Peppone... -
![My Fair Lady by Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe]()
My Fair Lady by Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe ancient Greeks tell the legend of the sculptor Pygmalion, who created a statue of a woman of such surpassing beauty that he fell in love with his own creation. Then, Aphrodite, taking pity on this man whose love could not reach beyond the barrier of stone, brought the statue to life and gave her to Pygmalion as his bride... -
![Mama's Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes]()
Mama's Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe charming adventures of the Mama of an immigrant Norwegian family living in San Francisco. This bestselling book inspired the play, motion picture, and television series I Remember Mama...Categorized as:
classics family high-school historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century book -
![My Uncle Napoleon by Iraj Pezeshkzad, Azar Nafisi]()
My Uncle Napoleon by Iraj Pezeshkzad, Azar Nafisi
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA teenage boy makes the mistake of falling in love with the much-protected daughter of his uncle, mischievously nicknamed after his hero Napoleon Bonaparte, the curmudgeonly self-appointed patriarch of a large and extended Iranian family in 1940s Tehran...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction humor literary-fiction poc-mc politics -
![Much Obliged, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse]()
Much Obliged, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA Bertie and Jeeves classic, featuring the Junior Ganymede, a Market Snodsbury election, and the Observer crossword puzzle.Jeeves, who has saved Bertie Wooster so often in the past, may finally prove to be the unwitting cause of this young master's undoing in Jeeves and the Tie that Binds... -
![Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit by P.G. Wodehouse]()
Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen Bertie Wooster goes to stay with his Aunt Dahlia at Brinkley Court and finds himself engaged to the imperious Lady Florence Craye, disaster threatens from all sides...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook -
![The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry]()
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 68 ratingsOne dollar and eighty-seven cents is all the money Della has in the world to buy her beloved a Christmas present. She has nothing to sell except her only treasure--her long, beautiful brown hair. Set in New York at the turn of the twentieth century, this classic piece of American literature tells the story of a young couple and the sacrifices each must make to buy the other a gift...Categorized as:
classics drama family high-school historical-fiction humor literary-fiction realistic -
![Venetia by Georgette Heyer]()
Venetia by Georgette Heyer
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsTwenty-five-year-old Venetia Lanyon's beauty is rivaled only by her sensibility. Intelligent and independent, her future seems safe and predictable... -
![Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring]()
Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe play is a farcical black comedy revolving around Mortimer Brewster, author who wrights against marriage who must deal with his crazy, homicidal family and local police in Brooklyn, New York, as he debates whether to go through with a honeymoon with the woman he loves and has recently agreed to marry...Categorized as:
classics drama high-school historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century adult -
![The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan by W.S. Gilbert]()
The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan by W.S. Gilbert
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom Trial by Jury to The Pirates of Penzance: the complete librettos of all fourteen Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Gilbert's verses for Sullivan's music are the most fastidiously turned and inventively rhymed in all lyric comedy. As the Savoy Operas enter their second century on a swell of renewed popularity, Gilbert's reputation as the supreme wordsmith of light opera remains secure... -
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![Selected Stories by O. Henry]()
Selected Stories by O. Henry
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsO. Henry originated the humorous, energetic tale that ends with an ironic, even shocking twist. In "After Twenty Years," for example, two boys agree to meet at a particular spot exactly twenty years later. Both are faithful, but in the intervening years one boy has turned into a criminal, the other into a policeman...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure anthologies -
![A Pelican at Blandings by P.G. Wodehouse, Nigel Lambert]()
A Pelican at Blandings by P.G. Wodehouse, Nigel Lambert
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsClarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth, sank back in his chair, looking like the good old man in a Victorian melodrama whose mortgage the villain had just foreclosed. He felt the absence of that gentle glow which customarily accompanied the departure of one of his sisters. Lord Emsworth needed Galahad... -
![Full Moon by P.G. Wodehouse]()
Full Moon by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhen the moon is full at Blandings, strange things happen: among them the commissioning of a portrait of The Empress, twice in succession winner in the Fat Pigs Class at the Shropshire Agricultural Show. What better choice of artist, in Lord Emsworth's opinion, than Landseer...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book -
![Dumb Luck by Vũ Trọng Phụng, Peter Zinoman]()
Dumb Luck by Vũ Trọng Phụng, Peter Zinoman
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBanned in Vietnam until 1986, Dumb Luck--by the controversial and influential Vietnamese writer Vu Trong Phung--is a bitter satire of the rage for modernization in Vietnam during the late colonial era. First published in Hanoi during 1936, it follows the absurd and unexpected rise within colonial society of a street-smart vagabond named Red-haired Xuan... -
![Going to the Dogs: The Story of a Moralist by Erich Kästner]()
Going to the Dogs: The Story of a Moralist by Erich Kästner
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsGoing to the Dogs is set in Berlin after the crash of 1929 and before the Nazi takeover, years of rising unemployment and financial collapse. The moralist in question is Jakob Fabian, “aged thirty-two, profession variable, at present advertising copywriter . .Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction humor literary-fiction politics 20th-century adult -
![The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford]()
The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMitford's most famous novels, "The Pursuit of Love" and "Love in a Cold Climate," satirize British aristocracy in the '20s and '30s through the amorous adventures of the Radletts, an exuberantly unconventional family closely modeled on Mitford's own...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction humor literary-fiction realistic -
![Miss Buncle's Book by D.E. Stevenson]()
Miss Buncle's Book by D.E. Stevenson
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe storyline of Miss Buncle's Book (1934) is a simple one: Barbara Buncle, who is unmarried and perhaps in her late 30s, lives in a small village and writes a novel about it in order to try and supplement her meagre income. D.E. Stevenson had an enormously successful writing career: between 1923 and 1970, four million copies of her books were sold in Britain and three million in the States...Categorized as:
classics drama family friendship historical-fiction humor literary-fiction realistic -
![Arabella by Georgette Heyer]()
Arabella by Georgette Heyer
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsTo Arabella Tallant, the eldest daughter of a penniless country clergyman, the invitation to stay with her London godmother was like the key to heaven, for in addition to living in the glamorous city, Arabella might even find a suitable husband there...Categorized as:
classics drama family female-mc historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century -
![Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck, Robert DeMott]()
Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck, Robert DeMott
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn Monterey, on the California coast, Sweet Thursday is what they call the day after Lousy Wednesday, which is one of those days that are just naturally bad...Categorized as:
classics drama friendship historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century adult -
![Sylvester by Georgette Heyer, Joan Wolf]()
Sylvester by Georgette Heyer, Joan Wolf
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhen the news went out that Sylvester Rayne, the elegant, impeccable Duke of Salford, was seeking a wife, all England was aflutter! Lord Sylvester is a polished bachelor who has stringent requirements for his future wife -- she must be well-born, intelligent, elegant and attractive. And of course she must be able to present herself well in high society...Categorized as:
classics drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction humor literary-fiction -
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![Amadeus by Peter Shaffer]()
Amadeus by Peter Shaffer
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAmbition and jealousyall set to music. Devout court composer Antonio Salieri plots against his rival, the dissolute but supremely talented Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. How far will Salieri go to achieve the fame that Mozart disregards? The 1981 Tony Award winner for Best Play. An L.A...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook -
![Cannery Row by John Steinbeck]()
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsCannery Row is a book without much of a plot. Rather, it is an attempt to capture the feeling and people of a place, the cannery district of Monterey, California, which is populated by a mix of those down on their luck and those who choose for other reasons not to live "up the hill" in the more respectable area of town...Categorized as:
classics drama friendship high-school historical-fiction humor literary-fiction realistic -
![Like One of the Family: Conversations from a Domestic's Life by Alice Childress]()
Like One of the Family: Conversations from a Domestic's Life by Alice Childress
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsLike One of the Family, which provides historical context for Kathryn Stockett's novel, The Help, is comprised of a series of conversations between Mildred, a black domestic, and her friend Marge. They create a vibrant picture of the life of a black working woman in New York in the 1950s...Categorized as:
historical-fiction classics social-commentary poc-mc female-mc friendship humor family -
![The Valley of Bones by Anthony Powell]()
The Valley of Bones by Anthony Powell
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWith their lives drastically remodeled by World War II, the characters of The Dance to the Music of Time series continue their colorful exploits. Nicholas Jenkins, the narrarator, now in his thirties, is second-lieutenant in an infrantry regiment and life in the army is examined at startingly close range...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book -
![Quick Service by P.G. Wodehouse]()
Quick Service by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhen imperious American widow Beatice Chavender eats a forkful of inferior ham at her sister's country home near London, it affects the lives of everyone around her--her sister, her brother-in-law, her sister's butler, her sister's poor relation Sally, Sally's fiance Lord Holbeton, and, most of all, Mrs. Chavender's own one-time fiance, "Ham King" J.B... -
![The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton]()
The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsEngland in the middle of World War II, a war that seems fated to go on forever, a war that has become a way of life. Heroic resistance is old hat. Everything is in short supply, and tempers are even shorter...
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