Books like 'Just Kids'
Readers who enjoyed Just Kids by Patti Smith also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary 20th century coming-of-age lgbtq urban classics friendship celebrity season-summer university
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Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney, Anita Jeram
Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsThis bestselling storybook--a Publishers Weekly Best Book, an American Bookseller Best Book of the Year, and a Booklist Editors' Choice--is now available in this extra-sized read-aloud picture book. Full color... -
![A Ballad for Georg Henig by Viktor Paskov]()
A Ballad for Georg Henig by Viktor Paskov
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe poignant story of an elderly, impoverished violin maker, a master craftsman who refuses to trim his values for the modern age, as seen through the eyes of his young protégé. A best-seller in Bulgaria, this is one of Paskow's major works... -
![Love You Forever by Robert Munsch]()
Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 46 ratingsA young woman holds her newborn son And looks at him lovingly. Softly she sings to him: "I'll love you forever I'll like you for always As long as I'm living My baby you'll be."So begins the story that has touched the hearts of millions worldwide... -
![E.E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962 (Revised, Corrected, and Expanded Edition) by E.E. Cummings]()
E.E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962 (Revised, Corrected, and Expanded Edition) by E.E. Cummings
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAt the time of his death in 1962, E. E. Cummings was, next to Robert Frost, the most widely read poet in America. Combining Thoreau's controlled belligerence with the brash abandon of an uninhibited bohemian, Cummings, together with Pound, Eliot, and William Carlos Williams, helped bring about the twentieth-century revolution in literary expression... -
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![The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky]()
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 94 ratingsNow in a special edition to mark the twentieth anniversary of a beloved cult classic! Read the #1 New York Times bestselling coming-of-age story that takes a sometimes heartbreaking, often hysterical, and always honest look at high school in all its glory... -
![A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks]()
A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 49 ratingsA high school rebel and a minister's daughter find strength in each other in this star-crossed tale of "young but everlasting love" (Chicago Sun-Times).There was a time when the world was sweeter....when the women in Beaufort, North Carolina, wore dresses, and the men donned hats...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction sad season-summer 20th-century -
![When I Last Saw You by Bette Lee Crosby]()
When I Last Saw You by Bette Lee Crosby
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom USA Today Bestselling Author Bette Lee Crosby comes a powerful southern saga based on a true story... Betrayal and secrets tore her family apart decades ago, now a lonely widow must search for the pieces of her broken childhood. WHEN I LAST SAW YOUGeorgia, 1968 - Margaret Rose McCutcheon has just buried her husband and must now name a beneficiary for the estate upon her demise...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction 20th-century adult book contemporary fiction womens-fiction -
![Ours: A Russian Family Album by Sergei Dovlatov]()
Ours: A Russian Family Album by Sergei Dovlatov
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSergei Dovlatov’s The Compromise (“Fresh and funny!” said Kurt Vonnegut) and The Zone won him acclaim throughout the American literary establishment. His writings in The New Yorker and other prominent periodicals have made him one of the most widely read of Russian émigré authors... -
![Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin]()
Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPart of the Penguin 60s series, issued to celebrate 60 years of Penguin books. This collects "Sonny's Blues", "The Rockpile" and "Previous Condition", all taken from Going to Meet the Man (Penguin, 1991)... -
![Selected Poems by E.E. Cummings]()
Selected Poems by E.E. Cummings
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe one hundred and fifty-six poems here, arranged in twelve sections and introduced by E. E. Cummings's biographer, include his most popular poems, spanning his earliest creations, his vivacious linguistic acrobatics, up to his last valedictory sonnets. Also featured are thirteen drawings, oils, and watercolors by Cummings, most of them never before published...Categorized as:
classics season-summer university 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary fiction -
![Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski]()
Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsIn what is widely hailed as the best of his many novels, Charles Bukowski details the long, lonely years of his own hardscrabble youth in the raw voice of alter ego Henry Chinaski. From a harrowingly cheerless childhood in Germany through acne-riddled high school years and his adolescent discoveries of alcohol, women, and the Los Angeles Public Library's collection of D. H...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction season-summer urban 20th-century audiobook -
![Island: The Complete Stories by Alistair MacLeod]()
Island: The Complete Stories by Alistair MacLeod
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe sixteen exquisitely crafted stories in Island prove Alistair MacLeod to be a master. Quietly, precisely, he has created a body of work that is among the greatest to appear in English in the last fifty years.A book-besotted patriarch releases his only son from the obligations of the sea. A father provokes his young son to violence when he reluctantly sells the family horse...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary fiction -
![Seven Plays by Sam Shepard]()
Seven Plays by Sam Shepard
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIncludes "Buried Child", "Curse of the Starving Class" , "The Tooth of Crime", "La Turista" , "Savage Loge", and "True West". Brilliant, prolific, uniquely American, Pulitzer prizewinning playwright Sam Separd is a major voice in contemporary theatre. And here are seven of his very best. "One of the most original, prolific and gifted dramatists at work today... -
![The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty]()
The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWith a preface written by the author especially for this edition, this is the complete collection of stories by Eudora Welty...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction season-summer university 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook -
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![Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction by J.D. Salinger]()
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction by J.D. Salinger
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsThe author writes: The two long pieces in this book originally came out in The New Yorker ? RAISE HIGH THE ROOF BEAM, CARPENTERS in 1955, SEYMOUR ? An Introduction in 1959. Whatever their differences in mood or effect, they are both very much concerned with Seymour Glass, who is the main character in my still-uncompleted series about the Glass family...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction university 20th-century anthologies contemporary -
![Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton]()
Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe very first Famous Five adventure, featuring Julian, Dick, Anne, not forgetting tomboy George and her beloved dog, Timmy! There's a shipwreck off Kirrin Island! But where is the treasure? The Famous Five are on the trail - looking for clues - but they're not alone! Someone else has got the same idea... -
![A Borrowed Path by Imogen Clark]()
A Borrowed Path by Imogen Clark
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsHome is where the heartache is.Eve has always had a tricky relationship with her mother, Agatha, and returning to Fox House, the family home, hasn’t made it any easier. When Eve’s daughter, Lyra, and granddaughter, Skye, unexpectedly turn up, it becomes clear that four generations of women under one roof is a recipe for trouble. Not least because Lyra clearly needs help but refuses to say why...Categorized as:
family season-summer historical-fiction friendship audiobook fiction suspense mystery -
![Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo by Ntozake Shange]()
Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo by Ntozake Shange
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNtozake Shange's most beloved novel, Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo, is the story of three "colored girls," three sisters and their mama from Charleston, South Carolina. Sassafrass, the oldest, is a poet and a weaver like her mother, gone north to college and living with other artists in Los Angeles, trying to weave a life out of her work, her man, her memories, and her dreams... -
![Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman]()
Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 77 ratingsA New York Times BestsellerA USA Today BestsellerA Los Angeles Times BestsellerA Vulture Book Club PickAn Instant Classic and One of the Great Love Stories of Our TimeAndré Aciman's Call Me by Your Name is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents' cliff-side mansion on the Italian Riviera... -
![The Front Runner by Patricia Nell Warren]()
The Front Runner by Patricia Nell Warren
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFirst published in 1974, The Front Runner raced to international acclaim - the first novel about gay love to become popular with mainstream. In 1975, coach Harlan Brown is hiding from his past at an obscure New York college, after he was fired from Penn State University on suspicion of being gay. A tough, lonely ex-Marine of 39, Harlan has never allowed himself to love another man... -
![Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary]()
Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsIn this Newbery Honor Book from beloved author Beverly Cleary, eight-year-old Ramona Quimby's zest for life is infectious as ever. Whether speaking her mind to her third-grade teacher, or befriending her schoolyard bully, Ramona can't be kept down!Then one day an embarrassing incident in the classroom leaves Ramona completely humiliated...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family friendship 20th-century audiobook children children-books -
![If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson]()
If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsBoth Elisha (Ellie) and Jeremiah (Miah) attend Percy Academy, a private school where neither quite fits in. Ellie is wrestling with family demons, and Miah is one of the few African American students. The two of them find each other, and fall in love -- but they are hesitant to share their newfound happiness with their friends and families, who will not understand... -
![A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood]()
A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 26 ratings"When A Single Man was originally published, it shocked many by its frank, sympathetic, and moving portrayal of a gay man in midlife. George, the protagonist, is adjusting to life on his own after the sudden death of his partner, determined to persist in the routines of his daily life...Categorized as:
classics friendship grief historical-fiction lgbtq season-summer university 20th-century -
![Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts]()
Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsTalk about unlucky sevens. An hour ago, seventeen-year-old, seven months pregnant Novalee Nation was heading for California with her boyfriend. Now she finds herself stranded at a Wal-Mart in Sequoyah, Oklahoma, with just $7.77 in change...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction sad 20th-century action-adventure -
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![A Man Asleep by Georges Perec]()
A Man Asleep by Georges Perec
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA Man Asleep (French: Un homme qui dort) is a 1967 novel by the French writer Georges Perec. It uses a second-person narrative, and follows a 25-year-old student, who one day decides to be indifferent about the world. A Man Asleep was adapted into a 1974 film, The Man Who Sleeps... -
![The Toughest Indian in the World by Sherman Alexie]()
The Toughest Indian in the World by Sherman Alexie
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA beloved American writer whose books are championed by critics and readers alike, Sherman Alexie has been hailed by Time as "one of the better new novelists, Indian or otherwise". Now his acclaimed new collection, The Toughest Indian in the World, which received universal praise in hardcover, is available in paperback...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction lgbtq 20th-century 21st-century -
![The Easter Parade by Richard Yates]()
The Easter Parade by Richard Yates
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIn The Easter Parade, first published in 1976, we meet sisters Sarah and Emily Grimes when they are still the children of divorced parents. We observe the sisters over four decades, watching them grow into two very different women. Sarah is stable and stalwart, settling into an unhappy marriage. Emily is precocious and independent, struggling with one unsatisfactory love affair after another... -
![Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson]()
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 85 ratingsJess Aarons' greatest ambition is to be the fastest runner in his grade. He's been practicing all summer and can't wait to see his classmates' faces when he beats them all. But on the first day of school, a new girl boldly crosses over to the boys' side and outruns everyone.That's not a very promising beginning for a friendship, but Jess and Leslie Burke become inseparable... -
![Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin]()
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsSan Francisco, 1976. A naïve young secretary, fresh out of Cleveland, tumbles headlong into a brave new world of laundromat Lotharios, pot-growing landladies, cut throat debutantes, and Jockey Shorts dance contests. The saga that ensues is manic, romantic, tawdry, touching, and outrageous—unmistakably the handiwork of Armistead Maupin...Categorized as:
classics friendship historical-fiction lgbtq season-summer urban 20th-century audiobook -
![Chasing Redbird by Sharon Creech]()
Chasing Redbird by Sharon Creech
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratings“Intriguing, delightful, and touching.” —School Library Journal (starred review)“Creech’s best yet.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)It started out as an ordinary summer. But the minute thirteen-year-old Zinny discovered the old, overgrown trail that ran through the woods behind her family’s house, she realized that things were about to change...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family grief historical-fiction season-summer 20th-century action-adventure -
![Tin Man by Sarah Winman]()
Tin Man by Sarah Winman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsA novel celebrating love in all of its forms and the little moments that make up the life of an autoworker in a small working-class town.This is almost a love story. But it's not as simple as that... -
![Doctors by Erich Segal]()
Doctors by Erich Segal
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWriting with all the passion of "Love Story" and power of "The Class," Erich Segal sweeps us into the lives of the Harvard Medical School's class of 1962. His stunning novel reveals the making of doctors--what makes them tick, scheme, hurt . . . and love...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age friendship historical-fiction university 20th-century bildungsroman book -
![Monsieur Linh and His Child by Philippe Claudel]()
Monsieur Linh and His Child by Philippe Claudel
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAn alternate cover edition can be found here.Traumatized by memories of his war-ravaged country, and with his son and daughter-in-law dead, Monsieur Linh travels to a foreign land to bring the child in his arms to safety. The other refugees in the detention centre are unsure how to help the old man; his caseworkers are compassionate, but overworked... -
![The Grass Harp, Including A Tree of Night and Other Stories by Truman Capote]()
The Grass Harp, Including A Tree of Night and Other Stories by Truman Capote
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSet on the outskirts of a small Southern town, The Grass Harp tells the story of three endearing misfits--an orphaned boy and two whimsical old ladies--who one day take up residence in a tree house. AS they pass sweet yet hazardous hours in a china tree, The Grass Harp manages to convey all the pleasures and responsibilities of freedom...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction lgbtq university 20th-century adult -
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![Summer Term at St Clare's by Enid Blyton]()
Summer Term at St Clare's by Enid Blyton
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSchooldays at St Clare's are never dull for twins Pat and Isabel O'Sullivan in Enid Blyton's much-loved boarding school series. In book three, Pat and Isabel look forward to their first summer term at St Clare's. They soon make friends with new girl Carlotta, who has a secret past that she's desperate to hide. But sneaky Prudence finds out and tells everybody... -
![The Centre of My World by Andreas Steinhöfel]()
The Centre of My World by Andreas Steinhöfel
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSeventeen-year-old Phil has felt like an outsider as long as he can remember. All Phil has ever known about his father is that he was Number Three on his mother's list - third in a series of affairs that have set Phil's family even further apart from the critical townspeople across the river...Categorized as:
lgbtq coming-of-age family friendship season-summer europe western-central-europe germany -
![The Swell Season: A Text on the Most Important Things in Life by Josef Škvorecký]()
The Swell Season: A Text on the Most Important Things in Life by Josef Škvorecký
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSix tales which trace the libidinous ardours of a young man in wartime Czechoslovakia. His fantasies obstinately refuse to become reality, and in a world of unyielding girls and ruthless Nazi invaders, jazz is his only solace. By the author of "The Bass Saxophone" and "The Engineer of Human Souls"...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction university 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary fiction -
![Plays Well with Others by Allan Gurganus]()
Plays Well with Others by Allan Gurganus
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWith great narrative inventiveness and emotional amplitude, Allan Gurganus gives us artistic Manhattan in the wild 1980s, where young artists--refugees from the middle class--hurl themselves into playful work and serious fun. Our guide is Hartley Mims Jr., a Southerner whose native knack for happiness might thwart his literary ambitions...Categorized as:
lgbtq friendship historical-fiction fiction 20th-century literary-fiction realistic humor -
![Judge on Trial by Ivan Klíma]()
Judge on Trial by Ivan Klíma
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn epic novel about those who stayed in Prague after 1968. When middle-aged judge Adam Kindl is asked not only to try a double murder case but is also expected to find the accused guilty, it is his own shattered faith in the political system that is put on trial... -
![Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger]()
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 40 ratings‘Everything everybody does is so—I don’t know—not wrong, or even mean, or even stupid necessarily. But just so tiny and meaningless and—sad-making. And the worst part is, if you go bohemian or something crazy like that, you’re conforming just as much only in a different way...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction season-summer university urban 20th-century -
![Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech]()
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 67 ratings"How about a story? Spin us a yarn."Instantly, Phoebe Winterbottom came to mind. "I could tell you an extensively strange story," I warned."Oh, good!" Gram said. "Delicious!"And that is how I happened to tell them about Phoebe, her disappearing mother, and the lunatic... -
![Moon Palace by Paul Auster]()
Moon Palace by Paul Auster
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsMarco Stanley Fogg is an orphan, a child of the sixties, a quester tirelessly seeking the key to his past, the answers to the ultimate riddle of his fate. As Marco sets out on a journey from the canyons of Manhattan to the deserts of Utah, he encounters a gallery of characters and a series of events as rich and surprising as any in modern fiction...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction university urban 20th-century action-adventure -
![Dancer from the Dance by Andrew Holleran]()
Dancer from the Dance by Andrew Holleran
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOne of the most important works of gay literature, this haunting, brilliant novel is a seriocomic remembrance of things past -- and still poignantly present. It depicts the adventures of Malone, a beautiful young man searching for love amid New York's emerging gay scene... -
![The Lost Language of Cranes by David Leavitt]()
The Lost Language of Cranes by David Leavitt
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDavid Leavitt's extraordinary first novel, now reissued in paperback, is a seminal work about family, sexual identity, home, and loss. Set in the 1980s against the backdrop of a swiftly gentrifying Manhattan, The Lost Language of Cranes tells the story of twenty-five-year-old Philip, who realizes he must come out to his parents after falling in love for the first time with a man... -
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![Black Swans by Eve Babitz]()
Black Swans by Eve Babitz
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBlack Swans is a collection of nine stories that look back on the 1980s and early 1990s—decades of dreams, drink, and stoned youth turning Republican. Babitz prowls California, telling tales of a changing world...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age historical-fiction season-summer 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook -
![The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks]()
The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn this bestselling classic novel which became a famous film, Jane Graham, alone and pregnant, retreats to a dingy attic bedsit in Fulham where she finds unexpected companionship, happiness and love...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction 20th-century adult book contemporary -
![The French Girl by Felicia Donovan]()
The French Girl by Felicia Donovan
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe heartwarming story of a young French girl raised in a world of prejudice and despair, who becomes orphaned and is sent to live with her distant cousin and her cousin's partner... -
![The Flight of Icarus by Raymond Queneau]()
The Flight of Icarus by Raymond Queneau
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn late 19th-century Paris, the writer Hubert is shocked to discover that Icarus, the protagonist of the new novel he's working on, has vanished. Looking for him among the manuscripts of his rivals does not solve the mystery, so a detective is hired to find the runaway character... -
![Our Place on the Island by Erika Montgomery]()
Our Place on the Island by Erika Montgomery
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFor decades, the Campbell women have reunited at the family’s rambling seaside cottage known as Beech House to celebrate life’s many occasions. But this year, they will be called back to Martha's Vineyard for a celebration of a different their beloved matriarch Cora is getting remarried...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family season-summer romance fiction contemporary womens-fiction audiobook -
![I Stand Here Ironing by Tillie Olsen]()
I Stand Here Ironing by Tillie Olsen
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsPublished in Tillie Olsen's short story collection "Tell Me a Riddle" in 1961...Categorized as:
classics family university fiction literary-fiction 20th-century female-author contemporary
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