Books like 'Fortune Smiles'
Readers who enjoyed Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson, W Morgan Sheppard, Jonathan McClain, Cassandra Campbell, Dominic Hoffman, Will Damron & Greg Chun also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary sc-fi literary-fiction dark humor realistic family
-
Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsScientist Ada has a boundless imagination and has always been hopelessly curious. Why are there pointy things stuck to a rose? Why are there hairs growing inside your nose? When her house fills with a horrific, toe-curling smell, Ada knows it’s up to her to find the source... -
![If I Built a House by Chris Van Dusen]()
If I Built a House by Chris Van Dusen
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe much-anticipated follow-up to the E. B. White Award-winning picture book If I Built a CarIn If I Built a Car, imaginative Jack dreamed up a whimsical fantasy ride that could do just about anything. Now he's back and ready to build the house of his dreams, complete with a racetrack, flying room, and gigantic slide... -
![If I Built a Car by Chris Van Dusen]()
If I Built a Car by Chris Van Dusen
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIf I built a car, it'd be totally new!Here are a few of the things that I'd do. . . .Young Jack is giving an eye-opening tour of the car he'd like to build. There's a snack bar, a pool, and even a robot named Robert to act as chauffeur... -
![Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow]()
Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSimon O’Keeffe’s biggest claim to fame should be the time his dad accidentally gave a squirrel a holy sacrament. Or maybe the alpaca disaster that went viral on YouTube. But the story the whole world wants to tell about Simon is the one he’d do anything to forget: the story in which he’s the only kid in his class who survived a school shooting... -
-
![天橋上的魔術師 by Wu Ming-Yi, 吳明益]()
-
![The Bridge to Lucy Dunne by Exurb1a]()
The Bridge to Lucy Dunne by Exurb1a
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA mad astronaut ejects a starship's sleeping crew into deep space. A playwright conjures her perfect lover into existence. Three time travellers appear to a motorbike mechanic, drink a little tea, and ruin his life. Mankind discovers the secrets of travelling to the stars, and promptly forgets them again.Exurb1a has collected 18 of his best received short stories into a book...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction action-adventure adult anthologies contemporary fiction philosophy -
![The Blur by Minh Lê]()
The Blur by Minh Lê
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMeet a child with superhero-like abilities . . . and the parents who are racing to keep up with her in this sweetly funny picturebook about the blur of childhood, from the award-winning creators of Drawn Together.From the very beginning, there was something different about this child...An ultrasonic voice. Fantastically elastic limbs. Super-magnetic powers... -
![The Semplica-Girl Diaries (short story) by George Saunders]()
The Semplica-Girl Diaries (short story) by George Saunders
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNovelette, Free online fiction.From newyorker.com“The Semplica-Girl Diaries” deals with a family in a not-too-distant future (or perhaps an alternate present or past?) that is struggling to keep up with the Joneses—which, in this society, means leasing some unusual garden ornaments... -
![Calling Major Tom by David M. Barnett, David Barnett]()
Calling Major Tom by David M. Barnett, David Barnett
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsCalling Major Tom is a heartwarming, quirky and ultimately life-affirming story of friendship, family and forgiveness - and the world's most unlikely astronaut. A man who has given up on the world. A family who show him how to live.Forty-something Thomas is very happy to be on his own, far away from other people and their problems... -
![Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah]()
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn the stories of Adjei-Brenyah’s debut, an amusement park lets players enter augmented reality to hunt terrorists or shoot intruders played by minority actors, a school shooting results in both the victim and gunman stuck in a shared purgatory, and an author sells his soul to a many-tongued god.Adjei-Brenyah's writing will grab you, haunt you, enrage, and invigorate you... -
![Love in the Time of Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith]()
Love in the Time of Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe latest installment in the delightful 44 Scotland Street series finds all our favorite residents up to their usual hilarious hijinks. In the microcosm of 44 Scotland Street, all of life's richness is found in the glorious goings-on of its residents... -
![Log of the S.S. The Mrs. Unguentine by Stanley Crawford, Ben Marcus]()
Log of the S.S. The Mrs. Unguentine by Stanley Crawford, Ben Marcus
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsForty years ago I first linked up with Unguentine and we made love on twin-hulled catamarans, sails a-billow, bless the seas . . .So begins the courtship of a certain Unguentine to the woman we know only as “Mrs. Unguentine,” the chronicler of their sad, fantastical tale. For forty years, they sail the seas together, alone on a giant land-covered barge of their own devising... -
![Czarne oceany by Jacek Dukaj]()
Czarne oceany by Jacek Dukaj
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsDukaj od nowa skonfigurował klasyczną twardą fantastykę naukową.Mroczna, sugestywna, boleśnie realistyczna wizja społeczeństwa posthumanistycznego.Czarne oceany – przerażająca otchłań myśli ludzkiej.Nicolas Hunt kieruje tajnym projektem rządowym, badającym komercyjne zastosowania telepatii. Rezultaty tych badań zmienią nieodwracalnie nie tylko jego życie, ale także losy całego świata... -
![The After Wife by Cass Hunter]()
The After Wife by Cass Hunter
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratings'Grab a box of tissues because this beautiful story will make you cry' Amazon reviewer, 5 starsWhen Rachel and Aidan fell in love, they thought it was forever.She was a brilliant, high-flying scientist. He was her loving and supportive husband.Now she's gone, and Aidan must carry on and raise their daughter alone... -
-
![Memory Wall by Anthony Doerr]()
Memory Wall by Anthony Doerr
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis is a previously-published edition of ISBN 9781439182840.In the luminous and beautiful title story, winner of a 2010 National Magazine Award, a young boy in South Africa comes to possess an old woman's secret, a piece of the past with the power to redeem a life...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction realistic 20th-century 21st-century adult anthologies audiobook -
![Tunneling to the Center of the Earth: Stories by Kevin Wilson]()
Tunneling to the Center of the Earth: Stories by Kevin Wilson
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsKevin Wilson's characters inhabit a world that moves seamlessly between the real and the imagined, the mundane and the fantastic. "Grand Stand-In" is narrated by an employee of a Nuclear Family Supplemental Provider—a company that supplies "stand-ins" for families with deceased, ill, or just plain mean grandparents...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction 21st-century anthologies audiobook contemporary fiction lgbtq -
![Rosie Revere and the Raucous Riveters by Andrea Beaty]()
Rosie Revere and the Raucous Riveters by Andrea Beaty
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsRosie Revere is no stranger to flops and fails, kerfuffles and catastrophes. After all, engineering is all about perseverance! But this time, Rosie has a really important project to tackle—one that feels much bigger than herself. Rosie’s beloved Aunt Rose and her friends, the Raucous Riveters—a group of fun-loving gals who built airplanes during World War II—need help inventing something new... -
![Zombie by Chuck Palahniuk]()
Zombie by Chuck Palahniuk
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn 'Zombies', the absurdity of both life and death are on full display as the best and brightest of a high school prep school become tragically addicted to the latest drug craze - electronic shocks from cardiac defibrillators.Funny, caustic, bizarre, poignant - this story represents everything listeners have come to love and expect from Chuck Palahniuk.©2015 Chuck Palahniuk (P)2016 W.F. Howes Ltd... -
![Not Fade Away by Jim Dodge]()
Not Fade Away by Jim Dodge
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsGeorge Gastin is a Bay Area tow-truck operator who wrecks cars as part of an insurance scam. One of the cars he is hired to demolish is a snow-white Cadillac that was supposed to be a present for the Big Bopper, who died in the Iowa plane crash that killed Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. Gastin has a change of heart and takes off in the car, heading for Texas where the Bopper is buried...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction realistic action-adventure adult book contemporary dark-humor -
![It Came from the Sky by Chelsea Sedoti]()
It Came from the Sky by Chelsea Sedoti
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"A page-turner as engrossing as any classic Twilight Zone starring two spirited brothers who run circles around the Hardy Boys." - Ben Philippe, Morris Award-winning author of The Field Guide to the North American TeenagerFrom the author of The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett and As You Wish comes the unforgettable story of the one small town's biggest hoax and the two brothers who started it all... -
![The Universe in Miniature in Miniature by Patrick Somerville]()
The Universe in Miniature in Miniature by Patrick Somerville
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn this genre-busting book from award-winning novelist Patrick Somerville characters, stories, and stray thoughts revolve around the "The Machine of Understanding Other People," the story of a Chicago man who is bequeathed a supernatural helmet that allows him to experience the inner worlds of those around him... -
![Pay As You Go by Eskor David Johnson]()
Pay As You Go by Eskor David Johnson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsNew to town and delusionally confident, Slide imagined himself living in a glossy building with doormen and sweeping views of the skyline. Instead he's landed in a creaking, stuffy apartment with two roommates: a loping giant who hardly leaves his room, and a weight-obsessed neurotic who keeps no fewer than forty-seven lamps throughout the house, blazing at all hours... -
![This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub]()
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsNamed a Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by Harper's Bazaar, Oprah Daily, Glamour, Entertainment Weekly, Good Housekeeping, Parade, Bustle, Marie Claire, PopSugar, Thrillist, Lit Hub and more! What if you could take a vacation to your past? With her celebrated humor, insight, and heart, beloved New York Times bestseller Emma Straub offers her own twist on traditional time travel tropes, and a... -
![Tenth of December by George Saunders]()
Tenth of December by George Saunders
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 52 ratingsOne of the most important and blazingly original writers of his generation, George Saunders is an undisputed master of the short story, and Tenth of December is his most honest, accessible, and moving collection yet... -
-
![Mothers & Other Monsters: Stories by Maureen F. McHugh]()
Mothers & Other Monsters: Stories by Maureen F. McHugh
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn her debut collection, Maureen F. McHugh examines the impacts of social and technological shifts on families. Using deceptively simple prose, she illuminates the relationship between parents and children and the expected and unexpected chasms that open between generations...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction adult anthologies contemporary dystopia female-author fiction -
![Neon Green by Margaret Wappler]()
Neon Green by Margaret Wappler
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIt's the summer of 1994 in suburban Chicago: Forrest Gump is still in theaters, teens are reeling from the recent death of Kurt Cobain, and you can enter a sweepstakes for a spaceship from Jupiter to land in your backyard. Welcome to Margaret Wappler's slightly altered alternative '90s. Everything's pretty much as you remember it, except for the aliens...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction adult alternate-history book contemporary dystopia female-author -
![Dog Logic by Tom Strelich]()
Dog Logic by Tom Strelich
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIf "Dr. Strangelove" and "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" got together and had a litter of puppies you'd get "Dog Logic", a duck-and-cover fable and love story. Funny, inflammatory, and weirdly propheticHertell Daggett is the divorced and damaged caretaker of a failing pet cemetery on the outskirts of Bakersfield, and he's just discovered a lost civilization... -
![Vapor by Amanda Filipacchi]()
Vapor by Amanda Filipacchi
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSoon to be a major motion picture directed by Neil LaBute and starring Renee Zellweger, this is a surreal love story from the author of Nude Men. Now in paperback, Amanda Filipacchi's quirky comic romance gives aspiring actress Anna Graham a makeover that no reader will ever forget... -
![The Sorrow Proper by Lindsey Drager]()
The Sorrow Proper by Lindsey Drager
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe Sorrow Proper is a novel-length investigation of the anxiety that accompanies change. A group of aging librarians must decide whether to fight or flee from the end of print and the rise of electronic publications, while the parents of the young girl who died in front of the library struggle with their role in her loss... -
![The Invented Part by Rodrigo Fresán]()
The Invented Part by Rodrigo Fresán
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratings“A kaleidoscopic, open-hearted, shamelessly polymathic storyteller, the kind who brings a blast of oxygen into the room... -
![The Lake Wobegon Virus by Garrison Keillor, Richard Dworsky]()
The Lake Wobegon Virus by Garrison Keillor, Richard Dworsky
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBestselling author and humorist Garrison Keillor returns to one of America's most beloved mythical towns, beset by a contagion of alarming candor. A mysterious virus has infiltrated the good people of Lake Wobegon, transmitted via unpasteurized cheese made by a Norwegian bachelor farmer, the effect of which is episodic loss of social inhibition... -
![The Hall of the Singing Caryatids by Victor Pelevin]()
The Hall of the Singing Caryatids by Victor Pelevin
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAfter auditioning for the part as a singing geisha at a dubious bar, Lena and eleven other “lucky” girls are sent to work at a posh underground nightclub reserved exclusively for Russia’s upper-crust elite. They are to be a sideshow attraction to the rest of the club’s entertainment, and are billed as the “famous singing caryatids.” Things only get weirder from there... -
![And Yet They Were Happy by Helen Phillips]()
And Yet They Were Happy by Helen Phillips
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"Brilliant miniatures. . . . Like the fables of Calvino, Millhauser, or W.S. Merwin. . . . Beautifully blends short story and prose poem. . . . Mermaids, subways, floods, cucumbers, magicians. . . .The book is a gallery of marvels...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction adult anthologies classics contemporary female-author female-mc -
![The Last 2% by Kim Rang]()
The Last 2% by Kim Rang
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsJeongha, si ratu pemenang undian, memang selalu beruntung. Kali ini ia mendapatkan hadiah menginap di Arizona, hotel bintang lima yang sangat terkenal. Sayangnya, keberuntungan sepertinya tidak menyertai wanita ini dalam hal percintaan... -
-
![Mania by Lionel Shriver]()
Mania by Lionel Shriver
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSet in a parallel yet all too familiar near past, a brilliant subversive novel from the New York Times bestselling author about a lifelong friendship threatened by the Culture Wars. In an alternative 2011, the Mental Parity movement takes hold. Americans now embrace the sacred, universal truth that there is no such thing as variable human intelligence... -
![What We Found in the Sofa and How it Saved the World by Henry Clark]()
What We Found in the Sofa and How it Saved the World by Henry Clark
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhen River, Freak, and Fiona discover a rare zucchini-colored crayon between the cushions of a mysterious sofa at their bus stop, they quickly find themselves in the middle of an evil plot to conquer the world! The plot's mastermind, Edward Disin, is responsible for starting the underground coal seam fire that continually burns just beyond the kids' backyards, a dastardly cover-up for an... -
![Summer of Supernovas by Darcy Woods]()
Summer of Supernovas by Darcy Woods
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratings"Whether or not you believe in fate or reading the stars, if you believe in happiness and love to laugh, read Summer of Supernovas."--Jay Asher, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Thirteen Reasons Why Fans of Jennifer E. Smith and Jenny Han will fall in love with this heartfelt and humor-laced debut following one zodiac-obsessed teen as she struggles to find the guy of her cosmic dreams... -
![1996 by Kirsty McManus]()
1996 by Kirsty McManus
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhen food blogger Anna Matthews takes a vitamin supplement that thrusts her back in time to 1996 - and into her sixteen year old body - she is naturally a little shocked. But after a hasty re-assimilation, she decides to take advantage of this amazing second chance to view her teenage years from a more mature perspective...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction romance womens-fiction time-travel fiction contemporary young-adult -
![Do You Remember Being Born? by Sean Michaels]()
Do You Remember Being Born? by Sean Michaels
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFINALIST FOR THE 2023 PARAGRAPHE HUGH MACLENNAN AWARD FOR FICTIONScotiabank Giller Prize-winner Sean Michaels' luminous new novel takes readers on a lyrical joy ride—seven, epic days in Silicon Valley with a tall, formidable poet (inspired by the real-life Marianne Moore) and her unusual new collaborator, a digital mind just one month old... -
![Extinction Journals by Jeremy Robert Johnson]()
Extinction Journals by Jeremy Robert Johnson
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsYou can survive a nuclear blast. All you need is some luck, and maybe a customized business suit coated in cockroaches. It could work. At least that's what Dean believed before the bombs actually dropped and his suit led him to murder a Very Important Man at the foot of a blackened obelisk. Now D.C. is looking awfully empty. Life on Earth is pretty much coming to an end...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction action-adventure adult apocalyptic book contemporary dystopia -
![Povídky o vlasti by Dmitry Glukhovsky]()
Povídky o vlasti by Dmitry Glukhovsky
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsRuská satira má hluboké kořeny. Již sám název této knihy je ironickým odkazem na podobnou sovětskou tradici malých, povětšinou oslavných próz. Autor však píše o zcela jiné vlasti, než byla ta sovětská, a jeho povídky mají leckdy podobu politických thrillerů. Z různých úhlů rentgenuje ruskou „demokracii“ z počátku 90...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction adult alternate-history anthologies audiobook contemporary fiction -
![The World Goes On by László Krasznahorkai]()
The World Goes On by László Krasznahorkai
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA Hungarian interpreter obsessed with waterfalls, at the edge of the abyss in his own mind, wanders the chaotic streets of Shanghai. A traveller, reeling from the sights and sounds of Varanasi, encounters a giant of a man on the banks of the Ganges ranting on the nature of a single drop of water... -
![Semiotext (e) SF by Rudy Rucker, John Shirley]()
Semiotext (e) SF by Rudy Rucker, John Shirley
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA science fiction anthology at the extremes of the genre (including gore, deviant sex, blasphemy and radicalism of all sorts), this book includes edgy works by 45 contemporary authors... -
![Bombardiers by Po Bronson]()
Bombardiers by Po Bronson
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller What Should I Do with My Life?, Bombardiers is Po Bronson’s first novel, a devastating satire of the business world told through the lens of a crazed and colorful group of salespeople forced to push increasingly absurd financial products... -
-
![OKPsyche by Anya Johanna DeNiro]()
OKPsyche by Anya Johanna DeNiro
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn unnamed trans woman is looking for a sense of belonging, a better relationship with her son, and friends that aren’t imaginary in this playful and aching short novel. As she navigates the many worlds she belongs to she wrestles with her many anxieties and fears about the world around her. Her son and ex live in another state. Companion robots are popping up... -
![The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007 by Laura Furman, Charles D'Ambrosio]()
The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007 by Laura Furman, Charles D'Ambrosio
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn arresting collection of contemporary fiction at its best, these stories explore a vast range of subjects, from love and deception to war and the insidious power of class distinctions. However clearly spoken, in voices sophisticated, cunning, or na-ve, here is fiction that consistently defies our expectations... -
![Ten Tales Tall and True by Alasdair Gray]()
Ten Tales Tall and True by Alasdair Gray
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsGray serves up a dazzling mixture of social realism, sexual comedy,science fiction, and satire here. A New York Times Notabale Book of the Year, this is a "highly imaginative" (Newark Star-Ledger) collection of stories from "one of the sprightliest and wittiest of living prose writers" (San Francisco Chronicle). Illustrated by the Author... -
![The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil: *Includes The In Persuasion Nation Collection by George Saunders]()
The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil: *Includes The In Persuasion Nation Collection by George Saunders
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBook Description Welcome to Inner Horner, a nation so small it can only accommodate one citizen at a time. The other six citizens must wait their turns in the Short-Term Residency Zone of the surrounding country of Outer Horner. It's a long-standing arrangement between the fantastical, not-exactly-human citizens of the two countries... -
![Plastic by Scott Guild]()
Plastic by Scott Guild
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"A stunningly brilliant novel. One of those books that will follow you around, into your dreams and your daily life. You have never read anything like it... -
![The Martian Child: A Novel About a Single Father Adopting a Son by David Gerrold]()
The Martian Child: A Novel About a Single Father Adopting a Son by David Gerrold
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsBasis for the major motion picture from New Line Cinema —starring John Cusack, Amanda Peet, and Joan Cusack—in theaters November 2007When David Gerrold decided he wanted to adopt a son, he thought he had prepared himself for fatherhood. But eight-year-old Dennis turned out to be more than he expected—a lot more...
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.
