Books like 'Lucky Alan'
Readers who enjoyed Lucky Alan by Jonathan Lethem also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary literary-fiction humor satire magical-realism
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The Bluff by Emma St. Clair
Rated: 5.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIt's hard to be professional when you hate and are attracted to your boss in equal measure... -
Frank and Red by Matt Coyne, James Killeen
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsEstranged from his friends, son, and the ever-changing world beyond his front gate, Frank is a reclusive curmudgeon whose only company is the 'ghost' of his dead wife, Marcie. Then six-year-old Red moves in next door. A boy struggling to adjust to the separation of his mum and dad, a new school, and the demonic school bully, Red is curious, smart, and talkative. And he has a trampoline... -
Stiff Suit by Tawna Fenske
Rated: 4.58 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsJames "Iceman" Bracelyn is wound tighter than a vintage Rolex. Besides his CEO role at Ponderosa Resort, he's guardian of the family's biggest secrets, including a doozy that keeps him up at night. Alone. In that big bed he'd rather not share, thank you very much. That's fine with Lily Archer, who likes her flings flaming hot and fleeting... -
Summer Delights by Bella Osborne
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA cosy and heartwarming seasonal romance, perfect for fans of Trisha Ashley.Beth is running away. With her young son Leo to protect, Willow Cottage is the lifeline she so desperately needs. Overlooking the village green in a beautiful Cotswolds idyll, Beth sees a warm, caring and safe place for little Leo... -
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All for Victory by Beverley Watts
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIf you’re looking for the perfect holiday read, with lots of romance and laugh out loudcomedy, then curl up with the latest entry in the Dartmouth Diaries...It’s not often that a fledgling career in Event Management kicks off with the wedding of a Hollywood superstar... -
Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan Macmillan
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsYou're six years old. Mum's in hospital. Dad says she's 'done something stupid'. She finds it hard to be happy.So you start to make a list of everything that's brilliant about the world. Everything that's worth living for.1. Ice Cream2. Kung Fu Movies3. Burning Things4. Laughing so hard you shoot milk out your nose5. Construction cranes6. MeYou leave it on her pillow... -
Picnic, Lightning by Billy Collins
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWinner of the 1999 Paterson Poetry Prize Over the past decade, Billy Collins has emerged as the most beloved American poet since Robert Frost, garnering critical acclaim and broad popular appeal. Annie Proulx admits, "I have never before felt possessive about a poet, but I am fiercely glad that Billy Collins is ours... -
A Spring Affair by Bella Osborne
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA cosy and heartwarming seasonal romance, perfect for fans of Trisha Ashley.Beth is running away. With her young son Leo to protect, Willow Cottage is the lifeline she so desperately needs. Overlooking the village green in a beautiful Cotswolds idyll, Beth sees a warm, caring and safe place for little Leo... -
You're So Vain by Whitney Dineen
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFamily drama is something Lutéce Choate struggles to avoid. With a mother who’s an award-winning country western song writer, an aunt who’s a Country Music Hall of Famer, and a brother who’s a rock star, it hasn’t exactly been a low-key kind of life, and she’s ready for a break... -
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWith this, his first collection, Carver breathed new life into the short story. In the pared-down style that has since become his hallmark, Carver showed us how humour and tragedy dwelt in the hearts of ordinary people, and won a readership that grew with every subsequent brilliant collection of stories, poems and essays that appeared in the last eleven years of his life... -
Revenge of the Lawn / The Abortion / So the Wind Won't Blow it All Away by Richard Brautigan
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThree unforgettable Brautigan masterpieces reissued in a one-volume omnibus edition. REVENGE OF THE LAWN: Originally published in 1971, these bizarre flashes of insight and humor cover everything from "A High Building in Singapore" to the "Perfect California Day." This is Brautigan's only collection of stories and includes "The Lost Chapters of TROUT FISHING IN AMERICA... -
Easter on Lovelace Lane by Alice Ross
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSeventeen-year-old Dillon Delaney’s life might be far from perfect, but it’s one he’s grown accustomed to. Which is why, when his mother announces her ‘most fabulous idea’ of dispatching him to Lovelace Lane to stay with a grandad he barely knows, he has more than a few reservations... -
Angry Annie by Dawn L. Chiletz, Uplifting Designs
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsJoslyn Walters has goals: 1. Infiltrate the life of the internet troll, Annie McClintonuck, who wrote a nasty review for her sister’s bakery before it even opened. 2. Write an article exposing Annie for a fraud, thereby catapulting Joslyn's stalled career from fact-checker to journalist. 3... -
Stolen by You by Lindsey Hart
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsInfiltrating Mr. Hotshot's house in the middle of the night?Yes, that was the plan.Getting my hands on his family jewels?Definitely what I was going for.And I mean actual jewelry, not the other round ball kind of things, alright.Now, catching the guy practically naked in his house?Oh God, definitely not what was supposed to happen... -
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Christmas Cheer by Bella Osborne
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA cosy and heartwarming seasonal romance, perfect for fans of Trisha Ashley.Beth is running away. With her young son Leo to protect, Willow Cottage is the lifeline she so desperately needs. Overlooking the village green in a beautiful Cotswolds idyll, Beth sees a warm, caring and safe place for little Leo... -
Mancandy Crush by Tawna Fenske
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsJosh Mattis is totally over getting his heart stomped six years ago, so what’s with the mule kick to the chest when he spots the girl who ghosted him? Turns out she’s not his teenage fling, but her twin sister—and she needs a fake date to her cousin’s wedding. Valerie Vincent would rather shove sewing needles in her eyes than have one more person tell her she needs adventure...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction satire contemporary fake-relationship womens-fiction young-adult anthologies -
Stories by T. Coraghessan Boyle
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsT. C. Boyle is one of the most inventive and wickedly funny short story writers at work today. Over the course of twenty-five years, Boyle has built up a body of short fiction that is remarkable in its range, richness, and exuberance... -
Petrovi u gripu i oko njega by Aleksei Salnikov, Алексей Сальников
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAleksej Saljnikov rođen je 7. avgusta 1978. u gradu Tartu, Estonija), od 1984. živeo je na Uralu, a od 2005. godine u Jekaterinburgu, gde se i odvija radnja njegovog romana.Debitovao je kao pesnik. Širom Rusije postao je poznat posle objavljivanja romana Petrovi u gripu i oko njega, koji je od žirija kritike dobio književnu nagradu NOS; dobitnik je i nagrade Nacionalni bestseler (2018)...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction magical-realism 21st-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
Peas, Carrots and Six More Feet by Hannah M. Lynn
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThis family is about to go nuclear Following straight on from the climatic events of Peas, Carrots and a Red Feather Boa, Eric Sibley faces a completely new landscape. As he struggles to come to terms with his new situation he finds support and help in some of the most unlikely places... -
The Pitch Queen by Karin Gillespie
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA hilarious send-up of the publishing business and a delight for readers who love books about books. If "Yellowface" and "Book Lovers" had a baby, it would be named "The Pitch Queen.". Claire Wyld, a literary agent, is the queen of the flashy pitch and is fighting to be the number one dealmaker in debut novels... -
Rivers of Babylon by Peter Pišťanek
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsPeter Pišt'anek’s reputation is assured by Rivers of Babylon and by its hero, the most mesmerizing character of Slovak literature, Rácz, an idiot of genius, a psychopathic gangster. Rácz and Rivers of Babylon tell the story of a Central Europe, where criminals, intellectuals and ex-secret policemen have infiltrated a new ‘democracy’... -
Selected Stories by William Trevor
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"Trevor was our twentieth century Chekov.--Wall Street Journal Selected as one of The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of the Year. Four-time winner of the O. Henry Prize, three-time winner of the Whitbread Award, and five-time nominee for the Booker Prize, William Trevor is one of the most acclaimed authors of our era... -
The Big House on Lovelace Lane by Alice Ross
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhen widow Ruth Dutton accepted her daughter’s offer to live in the annexe of The Big House on Lovelace Lane, she imagined her days being filled with sedate activities like reading and painting... -
The Little Cottage On Lovelace Lane by Alice Ross
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIt's love at first sight for Lily when she first sets eyes on Hollyhocks Cottage on the gorgeous Lovelace Lane. But after months together in a caravan while the renovations take place, boyfriend, Luke, is not quite so enamoured with the place... -
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Captain Dreamboat by Tawna Fenske
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsJonathan Bracelyn pours his soul into saving the world, and he’s still nowhere near cancelling out the sins of dear ol’ dad. But when a medical crisis prompts Jon to toss his sister the ultimate lifeline, he’s forced to hang up his captain’s hat and hit pause on the one thing that makes him…well, him. At least he has Blanka Pavlo’s heart-flooding smile to buoy his spirits... -
Einstein's Beach House by Jacob M. Appel
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA couple adopts a depressed hedgehog; a stranger shows up, claiming to be the father of a girl's imaginary friend; a woman kidnaps her ex-husband's turtle; a family is evicted from their home, but was it ever really theirs? Heartbreaking and hilarious, the eight stories of Einstein's Beach House examine how we deceive ourselves and others, all to arrive at something far more real... -
A River Called Time by Mia Couto
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"Extraordinary vision . . . his prose is suffused with striking images."—The Washington Post"To read Mia Couto is to encounter a peculiarly African sensibility, a writer of fluid, fragmentary narratives . . . remarkable... -
The Early Stories, 1953-1975 by John Updike
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsGathering together almost all the short fiction that John Updike published between 1953 and 1975, this collection opens with Updike's autobiographical stories about a young boy growing up during the Depression in a small Pennsylvania town. There follows tales of life away from home, student days, early marriage and young families, and finally Updike's experimental stories on 'The Single Life'...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction magical-realism satire adult anthologies classics contemporary -
Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories by Tobias Wolff
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThis collection of stories—twenty-one classics followed by ten potent new stories—displays Tobias Wolff's exquisite gifts over a quarter century... -
Fires: Essays, Poems, Stories by Raymond Carver
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsMore than sixty stories, poems, and essays are included in this wide-ranging collection by the extravagantly versatile Raymond Carver. Two of the stories—later revised for What We Talk About When We Talk About Love—are particularly notable in that between the first and the final versions, we see clearly the astounding process of Carver’s literary development... -
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... -
The Best of Saki by Saki
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsThe short stories of Saki give brief but dazzling glimpses into the lives of the Edwardian rich; a class that virtually disappeared with the advent of the First World War. With delicious malice, Saki portrays the follies, eloquence, tradition and foibles of his characters...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction magical-realism satire 20th-century adult anthologies classics -
Honeysuckle Hollow by Jennifer Moorman
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTessa Andrews believes she has her life all figured out, organized in carefully numbered lists to ensure she doesn’t make bad decisions. But her meticulous process is shaken when torrential rain hits Mystic Water for twenty-six hours, forty-four minutes, and two seconds, leaving parts of the town, and her condo, drowning in floodwater... -
Haute Couture by Joslyn Westbrook
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBreaking News: Mr. Right Is Always Mr. Wrong... Lauren Blake, fashionista extraordinaire, has what almost every woman wants: Glamour. Fortune. Prestige. Plus a new driver who she finds terribly annoying, despite his good looks. As the creator of the popular clothing line she's worked years to build, Lauren's got no time for love... -
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The Stories of Bernard Malamud by Bernard Malamud
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOffers stories about the American Jewish experience, interpersonal relationships, love, guilt, and...Categorized as:
humor magical-realism literary-fiction fiction classics absurdism contemporary philosophical -
Abbott Awaits: A Novel by Chris Bachelder
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA quiet tour de force, Abbott Awaits transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary, startlingly depicting the intense and poignant challenges of a vulnerable, imaginative father as he lives his everyday American existence... -
Could Have Been Us by Camilla Evergreen
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIt's all fun and games until my best friend starts dating someone who isn't me.This story starts when my best friend, Tanner, takes “having a girlfriend” to “completely ignoring me” fast enough to give me whiplash.Making matters worse while I'm recovering from said whiplash, some guy in leather ruins my life—by stealing my parking spot in front of my favorite bookstore...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction satire romance contemporary enemies-to-lovers fiction small-town -
Caledonian Road by Andrew O'Hagan
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA biting portrait of British class, politics, and money told through five interconnected families and their rising―and declining―fortunes.Campbell Flynn, art historian and biographer of Vermeer, always knew that when his life came crashing down, it would happen in public―yet he never imagined that a single year in London would expose so much... -
Timeskipper by Stefano Benni
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the author of Margherita Dolce Vita One late-winter morning as he is "hop-hiking" downhill toward his character-building destination, a vomit-yellow cube surrounded by a garden of barbarously unkempt weeds known as the Bisacconi elementary school, Stefano Benni's young hero encounters a peculiar man--as big as a mountain and as filthy as a garbage dump, with a vast beard the color of a...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction magical-realism adult book coming-of-age contemporary fiction -
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... -
The Answer Is No: A Short Story by Fredrik Backman
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn a hilarious short story from New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman, the absurdities of modern life cause one man’s solitary world to spin suddenly, and comically, out of control.Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much... -
The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsMaman was exigeante—there is no English word–and I had the benefit of her training. Others may not be so fortunate. If some other young girl, with two million dollars at stake, finds this of use I shall count myself justified.Raised in Marrakech by a French mother and English father, a 17-year-old girl has learned above all to avoid mauvais ton ("bad taste" loses something in the translation)...Categorized as:
literary-fiction humor satire fiction contemporary realistic female-author anthologies -
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 magical-realism satire 21st-century anthologies audiobook contemporary -
Missing Kissinger by Etgar Keret
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA magician tries to pull a rabbit out of a hat, but takes out only its head; a guy brings a girl home with him for the first time only to find that his best friend has pissed on his doorstep; a young man graduates from Magician School but soon discovers that he can't do everything; two drunk students do battle with a pavement and win; someone has a mother and a girlfriend who hate each other's...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies comedy contemporary fiction -
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Black Tickets by Jayne Anne Phillips
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsPhillips writes stories that lay bare the suffering and joy of men and women who rarely register in our literature. Here are the abused and the abandoned, the violent and the passive, the impoverished and the disenfranchised who populate the small towns and rural byways of the country. A patron of the arts reserves his fondest feeling for the one man who wants it least...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction magical-realism satire 20th-century adult anthologies classics -
Descent of Man by T. Coraghessan Boyle
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn seventeen slices of life that defy the expected and launch us into the absurd, T.C. Boyle offers his unique view of the world. A primate-center researcher becomes romantically involved with a chimp; a Norse poet overcomes bard-block; collectors compete to snare the ancient Aztec beer can, Quetzacoatl Lite; and Lassie abandons Timmy for a randy coyote... -
The Ice at the Bottom of the World: Stories by Mark Richard
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn these ten stories, Mark Richard, winner of the 1990 PEN/Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award, emerges as the heir apparent to Mark Twain, Flannery O'Connor, and William Faulkner... -
Love and Hydrogen: New and Selected Stories by Jim Shepard
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsI’ve been a problem baby, a lousy son, a distant brother, an off-putting neighbor, a piss-poor student, a worrisome seatmate, an unreliable employee, a bewildering lover, a frustrating confidante and a crappy husband. Among the things I do pretty well at this point I’d have to list darts, re-closing Stay-Fresh boxes, and staying out of the way...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction satire adult anthologies contemporary fiction historical-fiction -
This Champagne Mojito Is the Last Thing I Own by Ross O'Carroll-Kelly, Paul Howard
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWe don't think we can improve on the author's own summary of his book: I am many things, roysh -- unbelievable babe magnet, red-hot lover, loyal kind of goy, best forward who never played for Ireland -- but there's a few things I was basically sure I'd never be, related to a jailbird for storters, or listening to the old dear getting randier than a goat in heat, or even a father, for that matter... -
Totlandia: Book 4 by Josie Brown
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIN BOOK 4 OF THE TOTLANDIA SERIES: As summer sizzles in Totlandia, emotions boil over for the newest members of Pacific Heights Moms & Tots Club, whose trust in each other is sorely tempted by Bettina and her club politics. When Jillian's vindictive joke backfires, she learns the true meaning of forgiveness...
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