Books like 'This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More. For Young and Old Alike.'
Readers who enjoyed This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More. For Young and Old Alike. by Augusten Burroughs also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary psychological comedy humor personal-growth grief lgbtq dark satire
-
Erasure by Percival Everett
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"Thelonious (Monk) Ellison has never allowed race to define his identity. But as both a writer and an African American, he is offended and angered by the success of We's Lives in Da Ghetto, the exploitative debut novel of a young, middle-class black woman who once visited "some relatives in Harlem for a couple of days... -
![Running the Light by Sam Tallent, Doug Stanhope]()
Running the Light by Sam Tallent, Doug Stanhope
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA bona fide “instant classic” (Doug Stanhope) novel that tells the story of a road comic crashing and burning by acclaimed comedian Sam TallentBilly Ray Schafer stepped off the plane in Amarillo, Texas, with twenty-six hundred dollars tucked down the leg of his black ostrich-skin cowboy boot... -
![What Makes Sammy Run? by Budd Schulberg]()
What Makes Sammy Run? by Budd Schulberg
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhat Makes Sammy Run?Everyone of us knows someone who runs. He is one of the symp-toms of our times—from the little man who shoves you out of the way on the street to the go-getter who shoves you out of a job in the office to the Fuehrer who shoves you out of the world. And all of us have stopped to wonder, at some time or another, what it is that makes these people tick... -
![Saint Richard Parker by Merlin Franco]()
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... -
-
![Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee]()
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 35 ratings"Twelve times a week," answered Uta Hagen when asked how often she'd like to play Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In the same way, audiences and critics alike could not get enough of Edward Albee's masterful play. A dark comedy, it portrays husband and wife George and Martha in a searing night of dangerous fun and games... -
![Dead Head by C.J. Skuse]()
Dead Head by C.J. Skuse
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsCan a serial killer ever lose their taste for murder?Since confessing to her bloody murder spree Rhiannon Lewis, the now-notorious Sweetpea killer, has been feeling out-of-sorts.Having fled the UK on a cruise ship to start her new life, Rhiannon should be feeling happy. But it’s hard to turn over a new leaf when she’s stuck in an oversized floating tin can with the Gammonati and screaming kids... -
![Surprise Marriage: An Enemies to Lovers Accidental Marriage Romance by R S Elliot]()
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... -
![Dead Men's Trousers by Irvine Welsh]()
Dead Men's Trousers by Irvine Welsh
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA spectacular return of the wild, dissolute gang from Trainspotting, from the author the New York Times called “Blisteringly funny…. ”The gang from Trainspotting have mostly cleaned up their act…until they are drawn back together to Scotland for one last scheme—a scheme one of them won’t survive. It’s an action-packed, hilarious and rollicking trip, as well as a moving elegy to the crew... -
![Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? by Johan Harstad]()
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... -
![A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley]()
A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrederick Exley's inimitable "fictional memoir" A Fan's Notes has assumed the status of a classic since its first publication in 1968. Mordantly and poignantly, Exley describes the profound failures of his life; professional, sexual, and personal... -
![The Illicit Happiness of Other People by Manu Joseph]()
The Illicit Happiness of Other People by Manu Joseph
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOusep Chacko, journalist and failed novelist, prides himself on being “the last of the real men.” This includes waking neighbors upon returning late from the pub. His wife Mariamma stretches their money, raises their two boys, and, in her spare time, gleefully fantasizes about Ousep dying... -
![Boy Parts by Eliza Clark]()
Boy Parts by Eliza Clark
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIrina obsessively takes explicit photographs of the average-looking men she persuades to model for her, scouted from the streets of Newcastle.Placed on sabbatical from her dead-end bar job, she is offered an exhibition at a fashionable London gallery, promising to revive her career in the art world and offering an escape from her rut of drugs, alcohol, and extreme cinema... -
![Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory by Raphael Bob-Waksberg]()
Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory by Raphael Bob-Waksberg
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsFrom the creator and executive producer of the beloved and universally acclaimed television series BoJack Horseman, a fabulously off-beat collection of short stories about love--the best and worst thing in the universeWritten with all the scathing dark humor that is a hallmark of BoJack Horseman, Raphael Bob-Waksberg's stories will make readers laugh, weep, and shiver in uncomfortably delicious... -
![Kiss Kiss by Roald Dahl]()
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... -
-
![Blister by Jeff Strand]()
Blister by Jeff Strand
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThey call her Blister. She’s a hideously disfigured twenty-three year-old woman, living in a shed next to her father’s house, hidden away from the world.Jason Tray is a successful cartoonist, banished to his agent’s lakeside cabin for a few days of mandatory rest and relaxation... -
![Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk]()
Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsShe's a catwalk model who has everything: a boyfriend, a career, a loyal best friend. But when a sudden motor 'accident' leaves her disfigured and incapable of speech, she goes from being the beautiful centre of attention to being an invisible monster, so hideous that no one will acknowledge she exists... -
![Post Office by Charles Bukowski]()
Post Office by Charles Bukowski
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 40 ratings"It began as a mistake." By middle age, Henry Chinaski has lost more than twelve years of his life to the U.S. Postal Service... -
![Gargoyles by Thomas Bernhard]()
Gargoyles by Thomas Bernhard
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe playwright and novelist Thomas Bernhard was one of the most widely translated and admired writers of his generation, winner of the three most coveted literary prizes in Germany. Gargoyles, one of his earliest novels, is a singular, surreal study of the nature of humanity. One morning a doctor and his son set out on daily rounds through the grim mountainous Austrian countryside... -
![The Tenants of Moonbloom by Edward Lewis Wallant]()
The Tenants of Moonbloom by Edward Lewis Wallant
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNorman Moonbloom is a loser, a drop-out who can't even make it as a deadbeat. His brother, a slumlord, hires him to collect rent in the buildings he owns in Manhattan... -
![The House of Sleep by Jonathan Coe]()
The House of Sleep by Jonathan Coe
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsLike a surreal and highly caffeinated version of The Big Chill, Jonathan Coe's new novel follows four students who knew each other in college in the eighties. Sarah is a narcoleptic who has dreams so vivid she mistakes them for real events. Robert has his life changed forever by the misunderstandings that arise from her condition. Terry spends his wakeful nights fueling his obsession with movies... -
![Everything Changes by Jonathan Tropper]()
Everything Changes by Jonathan Tropper
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsJonathan Tropper’s novel The Book of Joe dazzled critics and readers alike with its heartfelt blend of humor and pathos. Now Tropper brings all that—and more—to an irresistible new novel. In Everything Changes , Tropper delivers a touching, wickedly funny new tale about love, loss, and the perils of a well-planned life. To all appearances, Zachary King is a man with luck on his side... -
![Observatory Mansions by Edward Carey, محمد غفوری]()
Observatory Mansions by Edward Carey, محمد غفوری
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsOnce the Orme family’s magnificent ancestral estate, Observatory Mansions is now a crumbling apartment complex, home to an eccentric group of misfits. One of them is Francis Orme, who earns his livelihood as a living statue. When not practicing “inner and outer stillness,” Francis steals the cherished possessions of others to add to his private museum... -
![Folly Beach by Dorothea Benton Frank]()
Folly Beach by Dorothea Benton Frank
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFolly Beach Home is the place that knows us best. . . . A woman returns to the past to find her future in this enchanting new tale of loss, acceptance, family, and love. With its sandy beaches and bohemian charms, surfers and suits alike consider Folly Beach to be one of South Carolina's most historic and romantic spots... -
![The Bell by Iris Murdoch]()
The Bell by Iris Murdoch
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA lay community of thoroughly mixed-up people is encamped outside Imber Abbey, home of an enclosed order of nuns. A new bell, legendary symbol of religion and magic, is rediscovered. Dora Greenfield, erring wife, returns to her husband... -
-
![Das Kind in mir will achtsam morden by Karsten Dusse]()
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... -
![The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler]()
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsMacon Leary is a travel writer who hates both travel and anything out of the ordinary. He is grounded by loneliness and an unwillingness to compromise his creature comforts when he meets Muriel, a deliciously peculiar dog-obedience trainer who up-ends Macon’s insular world and thrusts him headlong into a remarkable engagement with life... -
![House of God, The by Samuel Shem]()
House of God, The by Samuel Shem
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsNow a classic! The hilarious novel of the healing arts that reveals everything your doctor never wanted you to know. Six eager interns -- they saw themselves as modern saviors-to-be. They came from the top of their medical school class to the bottom of the hospital staff to serve a year in the time-honored tradition, racing to answer the flash of on-duty call lights and nubile nurses... -
![Things that Fall from the Sky by Kevin Brockmeier]()
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... -
![I Might Be in Trouble by Daniel Aleman]()
I Might Be in Trouble by Daniel Aleman
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA suspenseful dark comedy about a struggling writer who wakes up to find his date from the night before dead—and must then decide how far he’s willing to go to spin the misadventure into his next big book.A few years ago, David Alvarez had it all: a six-figure book deal, a loving boyfriend, and an exciting writing career... -
![The Other Shulman by Alan Zweibel]()
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]()
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... -
![A Crowded Marriage by Catherine Alliott]()
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... -
![The Man Who Walked Through Walls by Marcel Aymé]()
The Man Who Walked Through Walls by Marcel Aymé
Rated: 3.85 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe excellent Monsieur Dutilleul has always been able to pass through walls, but has never seen the point of using his gift, given the general availability of doors. One day, however, his tyrannical boss drives him to desperate, creative measures — he develops a taste for intramural travel and becomes something of a super-villain... -
![Women by Charles Bukowski]()
Women by Charles Bukowski
Rated: 3.84 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsLow-life writer and unrepentant alcoholic Henry Chinaski was born to survive. After decades of slacking off at low-paying dead-end jobs, blowing his cash on booze and women, and scrimping by in flea-bitten apartments, Chinaski sees his poetic star rising at last... -
-
![Sheppard Lee, Written by Himself by Robert Montgomery Bird]()
Sheppard Lee, Written by Himself by Robert Montgomery Bird
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOriginally published in 1836.Sheppard Lee, Written By Himself is a work of dark satire from the early years of the American Republic. Published as an autobiography and praised by Edgar Allan Poe, this is the story of a young idler who goes in search of buried treasure and finds instead the power to transfer his soul into other men's bodies... -
![I Am Stalker by Ashley S. Clancy, Jimmy Tudeski]()
I Am Stalker by Ashley S. Clancy, Jimmy Tudeski
Rated: 3.70 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhat exactly is a stalker? What if you were ever watched and stalked yourself? Would you ever trust a man just out of prison, convicted of indecency and stalking crimes? Now you must decide, because he's here!The final book and last ever thriller to be written by Ashley.S Clancy and said to be her best work yet... -
![The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins by Irvine Welsh]()
The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins by Irvine Welsh
Rated: 3.78 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen Lucy Brennan, a Miami Beach personal-fitness trainer, disarms a gunman chasing two frightened homeless men, the police and the breaking-news cameras are not far behind and, within hours, Lucy is a media hero... -
![Insane City by Dave Barry]()
Insane City by Dave Barry
Rated: 3.78 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA dark comic masterpiece—the first solo adult novel in more than a decade from the Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times–bestselling author.Seth Weinstein knew Tina was way out of his league in pretty much any way you could imagine, which is why it continued to astonish him that he was on the plane now for their destination wedding in Florida... -
![Therapy by David Lodge]()
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... -
![Revolting Youth: The Further Journals of Nick Twisp by C.D. Payne]()
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... -
![Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz]()
Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz
Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsIn this bitterly funny novel by the renowned Polish author Witold Gombrowicz. a writer finds himself tossed into a chaotic world of schoolboys by a diabolical professor who wishes to reduce him to childishness. Originally published in Poland in 1937. Ferdydurke became an instant literary sensation and catapulted the young author to fame. Deemed scandalous and subversive by Nazis. Stalinists... -
![Hector and the Search for Lost Time by François Lelord]()
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...Categorized as:
personal-growth humor satire fiction philosophy psychological contemporary audiobook -
![The Face of Another by Kōbō Abe]()
The Face of Another by Kōbō Abe
Rated: 3.77 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsLike an elegantly chilling postscript to The Metamorphosis, this classic of postwar Japanese literature describes a bizarre physical transformation that exposes the duplicities of an entire world. The narrator is a scientist hideously deformed in a laboratory accident–a man who has lost his face and, with it, his connection to other people. Even his wife is now repulsed by him... -
![Sideways by Rex Pickett]()
Sideways by Rex Pickett
Rated: 3.72 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSideways is the story of two friends--Miles and Jack--going away together for the last time to steep themselves in everything that makes it good to be young and single: pinot, putting, and prowling bars. In the week before Jack plans to marry, the pair heads out from Los Angeles to the Santa Ynez wine country. For Jack, the tasting tour is Seven Days to D-Day, his final stretch of freedom... -
-
![Deaf Sentence by David Lodge]()
Deaf Sentence by David Lodge
Rated: 3.72 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFunny and moving by turns, Deaf Sentence is a witty, original and absorbing account of one man’s effort to come to terms with deafness, ageing and mortality, and the comedy and tragedy of human lives. When the university merged his Department of English with Linguistics, Professor Desmond Bates took early retirement, but he is not enjoying it... -
![The Pleasure of My Company: A Novel by Steve Martin]()
The Pleasure of My Company: A Novel by Steve Martin
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of Shopgirl comes the tender story of a troubled man who finds love, and life, in the most unexpected place.Daniel resides in his Santa Monica apartment, living much of his life as a bystander: He watches from his window as the world goes by, and his only relationships seem to be with people who barely know he exists... -
![The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty]()
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... -
![The Hole in the Middle by Kate Hilton]()
The Hole in the Middle by Kate Hilton
Rated: 3.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsI Don’t Know How She Does It for the This Is 40 generation. Sophie Whelan is the epitome of the modern super woman. When she operates at peak performance, she can cajole balky employees, soothe her cranky children, trouble-shoot career disasters, throw a dinner party for 10, and draft an upbeat Christmas letter—all in the same day... -
![Anything Considered by Peter Mayle]()
Anything Considered by Peter Mayle
Rated: 3.69 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsPeter Mayle sets his latest irresistible tale in the thyme- and lavender-scented south of France. Bennett, a suave if slightly threadbare English ex-patriot who is fast approaching the end of his credit, advertises his "services" in The International Herald Tribune. In no time, he is being paid handsomely to impersonate the mysterious and very wealthy Julian Poe... -
![Love, Etc. by Julian Barnes]()
Love, Etc. by Julian Barnes
Rated: 3.69 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTwice shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Julian Barnes continues to reinvigorate the novel with his pyrotechnic verbal skill and playful manipulation of plot and character. In Love, etc. he uses all the surprising, sophisticated ingredients of a delightful farce to create a tragicomedy of human frailties and needs...
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.
