Books like 'Anywhere But Here'
Readers who enjoyed Anywhere But Here by Mona Simpson also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary 20th century coming-of-age literary-fiction family season-summer high-school friendship humor female-mc
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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...Categorized as:
friendship high-school literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies classics contemporary -
![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...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship high-school humor literary-fiction season-summer 20th-century -
![Promise at Dawn by Romain Gary]()
Promise at Dawn by Romain Gary
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 20 ratings'Promise at Dawn' begins as the story of a mother's sacrifice. Alone and poor, she fights fiercely to give her son the very best. Gary chronicles his childhood with her in Russia, Poland, and on the French Riviera. And he recounts his adventurous life as a young man fighting for France in the Second World War... -
![Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver]()
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...Categorized as:
coming-of-age humor literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies classics contemporary -
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![A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories by Lucia Berlin, Lydia Davis]()
A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories by Lucia Berlin, Lydia Davis
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA Manual for Cleaning Women compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin... -
![Under a Greek Moon by Carol Kirkwood]()
Under a Greek Moon by Carol Kirkwood
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe escapist Sunday Times bestselling debut from the nation’s best loved TV presenter, Carol Kirkwood.‘Loved it! It sizzles with secrets and passion...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family female-mc friendship literary-fiction season-summer 20th-century adult -
![Revenge of the Lawn / The Abortion / So the Wind Won't Blow it All Away by Richard Brautigan]()
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...Categorized as:
high-school humor literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies comedy contemporary -
![The Life Before Us by Romain Gary]()
The Life Before Us by Romain Gary
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe Life Before Us is a novel by French author Romain Gary who wrote it under the pseudonym of "Emile Ajar". It was originally published in English as Momo then re-published in 1986 as The Life Before Us...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family high-school humor literary-fiction 20th-century audiobook bildungsroman -
![The Wishing Well by Anna Jacobs]()
The Wishing Well by Anna Jacobs
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen her unfaithful husband, Craig, dies in a car accident, shortly after moving out of the family home, Laura Wells decides to leave Australia and go back to her native Lancashire to help nurse her ailing mother. After all, Laura’s two children, Ryan and Deb, are grown up now, and Deb has made it plain that she holder her mother responsible for her father’s desertion and death... -
![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:
coming-of-age family high-school humor literary-fiction 20th-century anthologies classics -
![Beaches by Iris Rainer Dart]()
Beaches by Iris Rainer Dart
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsLoudmouthed, redheaded Cee Cee Bloom has her sights set on Hollywood. Bertie White, quiet and conservative, dreams of getting married and having children. In 1951, their childhood worlds collide in Atlantic City. Keeping in touch as pen pals, they reunite over the years ... always near the ocean... -
![Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo]()
Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsRichard Russo's slyly funny and moving novel follows the unexpected operation of grace in a deadbeat town in upstate New York—and in the life of one of its unluckiest citizens, Sully, who has been doing the wrong thing triumphantly for fifty years... -
![A Secret In The Family by Lyn Andrews]()
A Secret In The Family by Lyn Andrews
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhen best friends Dee Campbell and Jean Williams leave school in 1959, it feels like every opportunity awaits them. Their families haven't long moved from a rundown part of the city to leafy Kirkby when Jean???s father wins the Irish sweepstake and soon Jean's set up her own hairdressing salon, while both girls have fallen for good-looking lads with prospects... -
![The Dilemma by Julia Roberts]()
The Dilemma by Julia Roberts
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMy child means everything to me. But saving his life means destroying my best friend’s family…I didn’t plan to fall pregnant, but when I found out, I was overjoyed. Even though I’d be going it alone, I swore I’d give my baby everything they needed.But I didn’t know who the man I met on that sweltering summer night, the father of my child, really was...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction female-mc friendship audiobook fiction thriller psychological -
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![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 literary-fiction female-mc friendship audiobook fiction suspense -
![The Room on the Roof by Ruskin Bond]()
The Room on the Roof by Ruskin Bond
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe Room on the Roof is a timeless coming-of-age novel that will resonate with a whole new generation of readers. Written by renowned author Ruskin Bond when he was just seventeen, it is the story of Rusty, a teenage Anglo-Indian boy who is orphaned and has to live with his English guardian in the stifling European quarter of Dehra Dun...Categorized as:
coming-of-age friendship humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure bildungsroman book -
![Flight Patterns by Karen White]()
Flight Patterns by Karen White
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe New York Times bestselling author of the Tradd Street novels tells the story of a woman coming home to the family she left behind—and to the woman she always wanted to be.... Georgia Chambers has spent her life sifting through other people’s pasts while trying to forget her own... -
![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:
coming-of-age family friendship humor 20th-century audiobook children children-books -
![Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, the Flesh, and L.A. by Eve Babitz]()
Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, the Flesh, and L.A. by Eve Babitz
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsEve Babitz captured the voluptuous quality of L.A. in the 1960s in a wildly original, totally unique voice. These stories are time capsule gems, as poignant and startling today as they were when published in the early 1970s. Eve Babitz is not well known today, but she should be. Her first hand experiences in the L.A...Categorized as:
female-mc friendship humor literary-fiction season-summer 20th-century adult anthologies -
![Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden]()
Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 33 ratings"If you don't put that ring on this minute, I'm going to take it back," Annie whispered in my ear. She leaned back, looking at me, her hands still on my shoulders, her eyes shining softly at me and snow falling, melting, on her nose. "Buon Natale," she whispered, "amore mio.""Merry Christmas, my love," I answered... -
![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:
coming-of-age family female-mc friendship high-school humor literary-fiction 20th-century -
![Mel by Liz Berry]()
Mel by Liz Berry
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen her mother is hospitalized after suffering a mental breakdown, seventeen-year-old Mel redecorates the house, initiates a neighborhood clean-up, and becomes involved with a rock star... -
![1982: Maneater by Cambria Hebert, Crystal Bryant]()
1982: Maneater by Cambria Hebert, Crystal Bryant
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom three-time UTOPiA Award-winning author Cambria Hebert. Watch out, girls. Here she comes.There's always that girl. She's popular, beautiful, and has everything together. The one with the perfectly teased hair, arms full of colorful (but coordinated) bangles, and expertly painted bright-pink lips.A teacher's pet. Daddy's girl.Everyone loves her.Because everyone is afraid to challenge her...Categorized as:
friendship high-school humor 20th-century anthologies contemporary fiction historical-fiction -
![Spring, Summer, Autumn, Us by Fiona Collins]()
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Us by Fiona Collins
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFour decades. Four seasons. Four chance encounters with the same man. Spring 1986, Oxford. Rachel has landed on her engaged to handsome author Jonny, soon to be stepmother to his young daughter Teddy, and with a dream to open her own art gallery. It’s everything she wished for during her unsettled childhood...Categorized as:
literary-fiction female-mc family romance fiction contemporary audiobook womens-fiction -
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![Blue Plate Special by Michelle D. Kwasney]()
Blue Plate Special by Michelle D. Kwasney
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsDoomed loves, failed families, nixed dreamssomeone else's leftovers are heaped on our plates the day we come into this world. Big Macs and pop tunes mask the emptiness as Madeline watches her mom drink away their welfare checks. Until the day Tad, a quirky McDonald's counter boy, asks Madeline out for a date, and she gets her first taste of normal... -
![Ugly Ways by Tina McElroy Ansa]()
Ugly Ways by Tina McElroy Ansa
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe bestselling tale-powerful, compassionate, humorous-of the three Lovejoy sisters reunited in their hometown of Mulberry, Georgia, on the occasion of their mother’s death. As the emotionally scarred Lovejoys prepare for their mother’s funeral, the spirit of the selfish and manipulative Mudear hovers above them, complaining about her daughters’ “ugly ways” in death as she did in life... -
![The Wine of Youth by John Fante]()
The Wine of Youth by John Fante
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsContains the stories in Dago Red, first published in 1940, together with seven new stories, including "A Nun No More" and "My Father’s God... -
![The Risk Pool by Richard Russo]()
The Risk Pool by Richard Russo
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Risk Pool is a thirty-year journey through the lives of Sam Hall, a small-town gambling hellraiser, and his watchful, introspective son Ned...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure book comedy -
![In a Single Moment by Imogen Clark]()
In a Single Moment by Imogen Clark
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom million-copy bestselling author Imogen Clark comes a story of two families, two babies and one maddeningly hot day that will change their lives forever.It’s the hottest day of the 1976 heatwave and there’s not a breath of fresh air in the labour ward at Lincoln County Hospital. Michelle is having her fourth child, a girl, while beloved husband Dean is sipping a cold pint in the pub...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction female-mc friendship fiction historical-fiction audiobook contemporary -
![The Book Of Nightmares by Galway Kinnell]()
The Book Of Nightmares by Galway Kinnell
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsGalway Kinnell's poetry has always been marked by richness of language, devotion to the things and creatures of the world, and an effort to transform every understanding into the universality of art... -
![The Promise by Danielle Steel]()
The Promise by Danielle Steel
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsYoung architect Micheal Hillyard and artist Nancy McAllister are determined to get married despite his wealthy mother's disapproval. Then minutes before their wedding, a terrifying accident and a cruel deception separate Micheal and Nancy--perhaps forever. Each pursues a new life--Nancy in California, Micheal in New York... -
![Superfudge by Judy Blume]()
Superfudge by Judy Blume
Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsHe knows a lot of big words, but he doesn’t know where babies come from. He’s never heard of a stork, but he plans to be a bird when he grows up. He’s Superfudge, otherwise known as Farley Drexel Hatcher. And, according to his older brother Peter, the biggest pain ever invented. Among other things.As fans of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing already know, nothing is simple for Peter Hatcher...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship humor 20th-century audiobook children children-books -
![Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years by Sue Townsend]()
Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years by Sue Townsend
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen we last heard from Adrian, he had fallen in love with Daisy Flowers and they had embarked on a new life with their baby, Gracie. Fast-forward four years and Adrian's life is in turmoil again. Living in the Piggeries is far from ideal, middle age is beckoning and the ups and downs of parenthood are still plaguing him... -
![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:
coming-of-age family high-school humor literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies -
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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... -
![Full of Life by John Fante]()
Full of Life by John Fante
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe narrator is an Italian-American writer living in Los Angeles with his pregnant wife, Joyce. As the novel follows the course of Joyce's pregnancy, John deals with Joyce's shifting emotional moods, her growing interest in Roman Catholicism (from which John himself has fallen away), and termite infestation in the house... -
![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... -
![The Little Disturbances of Man by Grace Paley]()
The Little Disturbances of Man by Grace Paley
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWith a sure and humorous touch, Grace Paley explores the "little disturbances" that lie behind our everyday lives. Whether writing about sexy little girls, loving and bickering couples, angry suburbanites, frustrated job-seekers, or Jewish children performing a Christmas play, she captures the loneliness, poignancy, and humor of human experience with matchless style... -
![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... -
![The Family Ship by Sonja Yoerg]()
The Family Ship by Sonja Yoerg
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestselling author of True Places comes a disarming and emotional novel about a family in distress and a daughter’s mission to keep it from going under.Chesapeake Bay, 1980. Eighteen-year-old Verity Vergennes is the captain of the USS Nepenthe, and her seven younger siblings are her crew...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family literary-fiction female-mc historical-fiction fiction contemporary audiobook -
![The Age of Miracles by Ellen Gilchrist]()
The Age of Miracles by Ellen Gilchrist
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn observation of family life at its least conventional. These stories portray human longing and love as an elderly couple find joy and recognition, a physician tries to mould his lover into the image of his dead wife and some children kidnap their mother to stop her having a facelift...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary female-author fiction -
![The Franchiser by Stanley Elkin, William H. Gass]()
The Franchiser by Stanley Elkin, William H. Gass
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBen Flesh is one of the men "who made America look like America, who made America famous." He collects franchises, traveling from state to state, acquiring the brand-name establishments that shape the American landscape. But both the nation and Ben are running out of energy... -
![The Lockhart Women by Mary Camarillo]()
The Lockhart Women by Mary Camarillo
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBrenda Lockhart’s family has been living well beyond their means for too long when Brenda’s husband leaves them—for an older and less attractive woman than Brenda, no less. Brenda’s never worked outside the home, and the family’s economic situation quickly declines...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction female-mc coming-of-age fiction historical-fiction womens-fiction audiobook -
![Mona in Three Acts by Griet Op de Beeck, Michele Hutchison]()
Mona in Three Acts by Griet Op de Beeck, Michele Hutchison
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn this international bestseller, a woman comes of age in a poignant novel about forgiveness, pain, and self-discovery.Mona’s demanding mother ruled their home until a car crash took her life and changed their family forever. Left to tend to a distant father and a needy younger brother, Mona finds her new role almost too much to bear...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family female-mc humor literary-fiction 20th-century 21st-century audiobook -
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![Fine Things by Danielle Steel]()
Fine Things by Danielle Steel
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSmart, likable, Bernie Fine was the wonder boy of Wolff's, New York's most glamorous department store. A senior VP moving up, he arrives in San Fransisco to open a West Coast store. His career is skyrocketing, but his life is lacking a center... -
![Absolutely Normal Chaos by Sharon Creech]()
Absolutely Normal Chaos by Sharon Creech
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsAt the beginning of the summer holidays, 13-year-old Mary Lou Finney begins to keep a diary as a project for her new English teacher. 200 pages later, there is rather a lot she doesn't really want her teacher to know...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family female-mc friendship humor season-summer 20th-century audiobook -
![Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman]()
Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsBel Kaufman's Up the Down Staircase is one of the best-loved novels of our time. It has been translated into sixteen languages, made into a prize-winning motion picture, and staged as a play at high schools all over the United States; its very title has become part of the American idiom.Never before has a novel so compellingly laid bare the inner workings of a metropolitan high school...Categorized as:
coming-of-age female-mc high-school humor literary-fiction 20th-century audiobook book -
![The Snapper by Roddy Doyle]()
The Snapper by Roddy Doyle
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the Booker Prize-winning author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, the follow up to his acclaimed debut novel The CommitmentsWatch for Roddy Doyle's new novel, Smile, coming in October of 2017Twenty-year-old Sharon Rabbitte is pregnant. She's also unmarried, living at home, working in a grocery store, and keeping the father's identity a secret. Her own father, Jimmy Sr., is shocked by the news... -
![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... -
![No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym]()
No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDulcie Mainwaring, the heroine of the book, is one of those excellent women who is always helping others and never looking out for herself- especially in the realms of love. The novel has a delicate tangle of schemes and unfulfilled dreams, hidden secrets and a castle or two. Told wonderfully in the deadpan honesty that has become a Pym hallmark, this book is a delight...
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