Books like 'Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words'
Readers who enjoyed Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words by Randall Munroe also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary comedy psychological humor technology nautical children outdoors personal-growth
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Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsThe perennially popular tale of Alexander's worst day is a storybook that belongs on every child's bookshelf.Alexander knew it was going to be a terrible day when he woke up with gum in this hair.And it got worse...His best friend deserted him. There was no dessert in his lunch bag... -
Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsThirteen-year-old Steven has a totally normal life (well, almost): He plays drums in the All-Star Jazz Band, has a crush on the hottest girl in school (who doesn’t know he’s alive), frequently finds himself sitting across from his school counselor (who bribes him with candy), and is constantly annoyed by his five-year-old brother, Jeffrey (who is cuter than cute)... -
The Good Egg by Jory John
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIn this follow-up to Jory John and Pete Oswald’s popular picture book The Bad Seed, meet the next best thing: a very good egg, indeed!The good egg has been good for as long as he can remember. While the other eggs in his carton are kind of rotten, he always does the right, kind, and courteous thing... -
Sabtu Bersama Bapak by Adhitya Mulya
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratings“Hai, Satya! Hai, Cakra!” Sang Bapak melambaikan tangan. “Ini Bapak. Iya, benar kok, ini Bapak. Bapak cuma pindah ke tempat lain. Gak sakit. Alhamdulillah, berkat doa Satya dan Cakra. … Mungkin Bapak tidak dapat duduk dan bermain di samping kalian. Tapi, Bapak tetap ingin kalian tumbuh dengan Bapak di samping kalian. Ingin tetap dapat bercerita kepada kalian... -
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Third Time's The Charm by Liz Talley
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen you find someone who has no hope left, give the bracelet to her… Sunshine “Sunny” Voorhees David would rather be dead than back in Morning Glory, Mississippi. But after losing both her husband and a pregnancy, she comes home temporarily to the place she swore she’d never return... -
No, David! by David Shannon
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsWhen author and artist David Shannon was five years old, he wrote a semi-autobiographical story of a little kid who broke all his mother's rules. He chewed with his mouth open, jumped on the furniture, and he broke his mother's vase... -
All That Charm: by Liz Talley
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA dying friend’s gift delivers a chance to start over… With Morning Glory in her rearview mirror, Eden Voorhees heads to New Orleans to pursue the dream she put on hold while caring for her disabled mother. But in the Big Easy, she finds a roach-infested apartment, a non-existent job and a dwindling bank account... -
Prince Not Quite Charming by Liz Talley
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA city girl can survive… Or at least that’s what New Yorker Frances Genovese hopes when she agrees to stay in Morning Glory, Mississippi for a few weeks after her brother’s wedding. Though she may not know much about small-town living, she does know a thing or two about the new restaurant her brother’s building. But she didn’t bargain for a big country boy naysaying her vision... -
The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino, Jefferson Mays
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe definitive edition of Calvino’s cosmicomics, bringing together all of these enchanting stories—including some never before translated—in one volume for the first timeIn Italo Calvino’s cosmicomics, primordial beings cavort on the nearby surface of the moon, play marbles with atoms, and bear ecstatic witness to Earth’s first dawn... -
Saint Richard Parker by Merlin Franco
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHis search for love and enlightenment across India, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia...Ace businessman, writer, and investigative journalist Richard Parker loses his job when he exposes the vegetarian CEO of his newspaper as a beef exporter. Accused of misconduct and forced to dissolve his company, he retreats to his wretched little village... -
Surprise Marriage: An Enemies to Lovers Accidental Marriage Romance by R S Elliot
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe plan was to fly to Vegas for my best friend's wedding, It was not to accidentally get married myself, end up with a fake boyfriend, and to fall in love with the enemy. Where do I even start....Sometimes I feel like I'm dreaming because this absolutely couldn't be true.After Luke broke my heart and left six years ago, I never thought I'd give him another chance... -
Giraffe Problems by Jory John
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsPenguins aren't the only animals with problems. . . . A second hilarious collaboration from picture-book superstars Lane Smith and Jory John!Can you guess what's making this giraffe self-conscious? Could it be . . . HIS ENORMOUS NECK?? Yes, it's exactly that--how on earth did you figure it out?Edward the giraffe can't understand why his neck is as long and bendy and, well, ridiculous as it is... -
Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? by Johan Harstad
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA pop-saturated epic novel about the second man on the moon, and the quiet thirty-year-old gardener who idolizes him. A story of unconventional psychiatry, the Faroe Islands, amateur boat building, and the journey across the space that divides us from other people: a journey as remote and dangerous as the trip to the moon itself... -
Убивать осознанно by Karsten Dusse
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsБьорн Димель — «грязный адвокатишка», вынужденный прикрывать и оправдывать преступления большого криминального авторитета. Брак Бьорна Димеля разваливается на части, его жена вот-вот сбежит с обожаемой дочкой в неопределенном направлении. В отчаянии Бьорн записывается на курс тренинга по осознанности... -
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Kiss Kiss by Roald Dahl
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsIn these dark, disturbing stories Roald Dahl explores the sinister side of human nature: the cunning, sly selfish part of each of us that leads into the territory of the unexpected and unsettling.Originally published in 1960, Kiss Kiss brings together 11 of Roald's macabre adult tales... -
There's A Boy In The Girl's Bathroom by Louis Sachar
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsWith the new school counselor's help, Bradley begins to see himself as less of a monster and more of an individual capable of believing in himself... -
Sleeping at the Starlite Motel: and Other Adventures on the Way Back Home by Bailey White
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAnyone who has read her bestseller Mama Makes Up Her Mind--or who has heard her on National Public Radio--knows that Bailey White is one of the keenest observers of Southern eccentricity since Mark Twain. Sleeping at the Starlite Motel revives White's reputation as a master storyteller, Southern division, as it catalogs the oddities of the Georgia town she knows so well... -
Das Kind in mir will achtsam morden by Karsten Dusse
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBjörn Diemel ist zurück – und mordet ganzheitlicher als je zuvor.Björn Diemel hat die Prinzipien der Achtsamkeit erlernt, und mit ihrer Hilfe sein Leben verbessert. Er hat den stressigen Job gekündigt und sich selbstständig gemacht. Er verbringt mehr Zeit mit seiner Tochter und streitet sich in der Regel liebevoller mit seiner Frau... -
Rock-a-bye Baby by Willow Rose
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsLisa Rasmussen just had a baby and everything in her life seems perfect at this point. Only she wishes that everyone else around her would be as flawless as she is and stop getting in her way. And if they won't listen, then she'll make them.ROCK-A-BYE BABY, is a thriller novella from Willow Rose, author of the International Bestselling horror-series starring the Danish reporter Rebekka Franck... -
Shopping à Manhattan by Sophie Kinsella
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratings8 Books Bundle: 1. Confessions of a Shopaholic, 2. Shopaholic Takes Manhattan, 3.Shopaholic Ties the Knot, 4. Shopaholic & Sister, 5. Shopaholic & Baby, 6. Remember Me?, 7. Can you keep a secret?, 8... -
Things that Fall from the Sky by Kevin Brockmeier
Rated: 3.91 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWeaving together loss and anxiety with fantastic elements and literary sleight-of-hand, Kevin Brockmeier’s richly imagined Things That Fall from the Sky views the nagging realities of the world through a hopeful lens. In the deftly told “These Hands,” a man named Lewis recounts his time babysitting a young girl and his inconsolable sense of loss after she is wrenched away... -
The Second Coming of Lucy Hatch by Marsha Moyer
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsI was thirty-three years old when my husband walked out into a field one morning and never came back, and I went in one quick leap from wife to widow. Lucy Hatch never expected more of life than to spend it on an East Texas farm with her silent and stoic husband, Mitchell... -
Single in Suburbia by Wendy Wax
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAmanda’s husband has just traded her in for an affair with a teenybopper. Brooke is a trophy wife collecting dust. And Candace (Don’t call me Candy) has had too many husbands and too little love. What do these three unlikely accomplices have in common besides a Little League team called the Mudhens? A plot to reclaim a little r-e-s-p-e-c-t. And they’re going to do it with a mop and a bucket... -
The Gamal by Ciarán Collins
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsMeet Charlie. People think he's crazy. But he's not. People think he's stupid. But he's not. People think he's innocent...He's the Gamal.Charlie has a story to tell, about his best friends Sinead and James and the bad things that happened. But he can't tell it yet, at least not 'til he's worked out where the beginning is... -
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The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAlthough most of the action of The Mezzanine occurs on the escalator of an office building, where its narrator is returning to work after buying shoelaces, this startlingly inventive and witty novel takes us farther than most fiction written today. It lends to milk cartons the associative richness of Marcel Proust's madeleines... -
The Other Shulman by Alan Zweibel
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsShulman, a chubby, middle-aged stationery-store owner from New Jersey, has always claimed that he's been gaining and losing the same thirty-five pounds since junior high-and that if you added all of that discarded weight together, he had lost an entire person. Another Shulman. A Shulman he never really cared for. A Shulman he'd always tried to lose by dieting and exercising... -
Brute: Extreme Horror by Ash Ericmore
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsNever enter a house when no one knows where you are …Grace is canvasing for the Green Party. Ugh. Knocking on doors in a clearly conservative road. But the first house is a bust, and when the second offers a kindly gent looking for assistance – she can do nothing but offer to help.And that’s when everything goes so horribly wrong.Grace is no long free. Grace is a captive... -
The Romantic Movement: Sex, Shopping, and the Novel by Alain de Botton
Rated: 3.79 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn The Romantic Movement , Alain de Botton explores the progress of a love affair from first meeting to breaking up, intercut with musings on the nature of art of love... -
A Crowded Marriage by Catherine Alliott
Rated: 3.79 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThere are three people in Imogen Cameron’s marriage – herself, her husband, Alex, and their son, Rufus – and that’s just the way she likes it. But that’s about to change... When the Camerons hit dire financial straits they’re forced to leave London and accept Eleanor Latimer’s offer of a rent-free cottage on her country estate... -
Julie Tudor Is Not a Psychopath by Jennifer Holdich
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsJulie Tudor is Not a Psychopath.Julie Tudor is 49 and has it a fantastic job (well-maintained spreadsheets are the lynchpin of an efficient office), a beautiful house (some may wonder how she got the money for it, but nothing has been proved) and the man of her dreams. Julie Tudor is Not a Stalker. Sean is 25 and the love of Julie's life... -
Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen
Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsMarine biologist Chaz Perrone can't tell a sea horse from a sawhorse. And when he throws his beautiful wife, Joey, off a cruise liner, he really should know better. An expert swimmer, Joey makes her way to a floating bale of Jamaican pot-and then to an island inhabited by an ex-cop named Mick Stranahan, whose ex-wives include five waitresses and a TV producer... -
Therapy by David Lodge
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBy all appearances, Laurence Passmore is sitting pretty. True, he is almost bald and his nickname in "Tubby", but the TV sitcom he writes keeps the money coming in, he has an exclusive house in Rummridge, a state-of-the-art car, a vigorous sex life with his wife of thirty years, and a platonic mistress to talk shop with. What money can't buy, and his many therapists can't deliver, is contentment... -
Wake Up, Sir! by Jonathan Ames
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom the creator of the HBO series Bored to Death, the story of a young alcoholic writer and his personal valet, a hilarious homage to the Bertie and Jeeves novels of P.G. Wodehouse.Alan Blair, the hero of Wake Up, Sir!, is a young, loony writer with numerous problems of the mental, emotional, sexual, spiritual, and physical variety. He's very good at problems... -
Revolting Youth: The Further Journals of Nick Twisp by C.D. Payne
Rated: 3.71 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMove over Bridget Jones. Nick Twisp is back. In Revolting Youth: The Further Journals of Nick Twisp America's own comic diarist returns with more riotous adventures through the land mines of 21st century adolescence. This sequel to C.D. Payne's epic-length first-novel Youth in Revolt finds love-struck Nick Twisp still on the lam from the law and his parents...Categorized as:
humor anthologies comedy coming-of-age contemporary dark-humor fiction literary-fiction -
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Hector and the Search for Lost Time by François Lelord
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe delightful third book in the multimillion-copy internationally bestselling seriesBeing up against the clock was a real problem for so many people, thought Hector. What could he possibly do to help them?First he tackled happiness. Then he took on love. And now Hector, our endearing young French psychiatrist, confronts the persistent march of time... -
The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsEvery decade seems to produce a novel that captures the public's imagination with a story that sweeps readers up and takes them on a thrilling, unforgettable ride.Ron McLarty's The Memory of Running is this decade's novel. By all accounts, especially his own, Smithson "Smithy" Ide is a loser... -
Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued About by Mil Millington
Rated: 3.69 of 5 stars · 16 ratings1st edition 1st printing trade paperback, fine, In stock shipped from our UK... -
Thinks . . . by David Lodge
Rated: 3.69 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsDavid Lodge's novels have earned comparisons to those of John Updike and Philip Roth and established him as a cult figure on both sides of the Atlantic (The New York Times). Thinks . . -
Nice by Jen Sacks
Rated: 3.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSexy, funny, and dark--this is the story of a nice girl who discovers that murder is the only way out of a dead-end relationship. But one man knows exactly what she's up to because he's exactly like Grace. He's a killer himself. The cult favorite that was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best First Novel is back in a special 15th Anniversary Edition. .. -
A Friend of the Earth by T. Coraghessan Boyle
Rated: 3.68 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsOne of LitHub's 365 Books to Start Your Climate Change Library "Fiction about ecological disaster tends to be written in a tragic key. Boyle, by contrast, favors the darkly comic." -Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth ExtinctionOriginally published in 2000, T. C. Boyle's prescient novel about global warming and ecological collapseIt is the year 2025. Global warming is a reality... -
The War of the Roses by Warren Adler
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWarren Adler is the acclaimed author of 25 novels, published in 30 languages. Two of his books, "The War of the Roses" and "Random Hearts" were made into major motion pictures. He lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and New York City. This is the book that became one of the most famous movies about divorce ever produced... -
The Children Act by Ian McEwan
Rated: 3.72 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsA fiercely intelligent, well-respected High Court judge in London faces a morally ambiguous case while her own marriage crumbles in a novel that will keep readers thoroughly enthralled until the last stunning page.Fiona Maye is a High Court judge in London presiding over cases in family court... -
Literally Show Me a Healthy Person by Darcie Wilder
Rated: 3.57 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt's a book of grief and anxiety, of questions and confessions. One that explores the way pain and anxiety can be simultaneously public and private, constant but not always at the top of a person's mind...Categorized as:
humor fiction contemporary mental-illness feminism literary-fiction psychological female-author -
Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIt’s time for eighteen-year-old James Sveck to begin his freshman year at Brown. Instead, he’s surfing the real estate listings, searching for a sanctuary—a nice farmhouse in Kansas, perhaps. Although James lives in twenty-first-century Manhattan, he’s more at home in the faraway worlds of Eric Rohmer or Anthony Trollope—or his favorite writer, the obscure and tragic Denton Welch... -
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The Clinic by David Jester
Rated: 3.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThey didn't have much to live for. Malcolm, Darren and Eddie, all had their own tragedies, their own demons to face. Malcolm was alone in the world, Darren might as well have been and Eddie, well, Eddie wished he was. The isolated rehab clinic was not an easy target for these opportunistic thieves, on the contrary, it revealed a dark past and an evil that was sown way before their time... -
Turning Thirty by Mike Gayle
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhat's the big deal? Unlike a lot of people, Matt Beckford is actually looking forward to turning thirty. His twenties really weren't so great...and now he has his love life, his career, his finances -- even his record collection -- pretty much in order, like any good grown-up should... -
The Fantastic Book of Everybody's Secrets by Sophie Hannah
Rated: 3.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsEverybody has their secrets.Who, for instance, is the hooded figure hiding in the bushes outside a young man’s house? Why does the same stranger keep appearing in the background of a family’s holiday photographs? What makes a woman stand mesmerized by two children in a school playground, children she’s never met but whose names she knows well? All will be revealed . . . but at a cost... -
Little Children by Tom Perrotta
Rated: 3.61 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsTom Perrotta's thirtyish parents of young children are a varied and surprising bunch. There's Todd, the handsome stay-at-home dad dubbed "The Prom King" by the moms at the playground, and his wife, Kathy, a documentary filmmaker envious of the connection Todd has forged with their toddler son... -
Love: A User's Guide by Clare Naylor
Rated: 3.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWorking for Vogue, Amy spends her days dressing waif models in London's latest apparel while fending off insults from the Gucci-garbed staff. Hardly the glamorous job she hoped it would be. But that won't stop her from fantasizing about the jet-set life she knows she's destined for--or the prince who's bound to redeem her from a less than glowing record in romance... -
Hector and the Secrets of Love by François Lelord
Rated: 3.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe irresistible second installment in the beloved series that has sold millions of copies worldwide. Since his first captivating adventure in Hector and the Search for Happiness, Hector the young French psychiatrist has continued to explore the mysteries of the human soul. Having found that love seems virtually inseparable from happiness, he begins taking notes on this powerful emotion...Categorized as:
humor personal-growth action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook comedy contemporary
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