Books like 'S.'
Readers who enjoyed S. by John Updike also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary psychological religion literary-fiction satire humor spirituality
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Collected Stories by Raymond Carver
Rated: 4.57 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsRaymond Carver’s spare dramas of loneliness, despair, and troubled relationships breathed new life into the American short story of the 1970s and ’80s. In collections such as Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? and What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Carver wrote with unflinching exactness about men and women enduring lives on the knife-edge of poverty and other deprivations... -
![The Desert Flowers - Lily by Judith Keim]()
The Desert Flowers - Lily by Judith Keim
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThree talented women are brought together by a man they all love, becoming his Desert Flowers, who work together to save his hotel from being ruined by the company buying it…When Lily Weaver is asked to help Alec Thurston, the one man she’s ever truly loved, and to come to Palm Desert, California, she doesn’t hesitate...Categorized as:
religion literary-fiction spirituality fiction womens-fiction psychological sad contemporary -
![I Hid My Voice by Parinoush Saniee]()
I Hid My Voice by Parinoush Saniee
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis is the story, based on fact, of a boy who couldn’t speak until the age of seven. Now twenty, he describes the events of his life.Four-year-old Shahaab has not started talking. The family doctor believes there is no cause for concern; nevertheless, Shahaab is ridiculed by others who call him "dumb... -
![A Thousand Tomorrows & Just Beyond The Clouds Omnibus by Karen Kingsbury]()
A Thousand Tomorrows & Just Beyond The Clouds Omnibus by Karen Kingsbury
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn A Thousand Tomorrows, Cody Gunner, a talented but angry cowboy, meets Ali Daniels, a lovely and mysterious barrel-racer. The two are national champions, top of their game, alone and intent on staying that way. Cody has rejected everything about his past, and only has room for his little brother, Carl Joseph, born with Down Syndrome...Categorized as:
literary-fiction spirituality adult book christian contemporary fiction psychological -
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![A Road Trip to Remember by Judith Keim]()
A Road Trip to Remember by Judith Keim
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAfter agreeing to enter the New Life Assisted-Living Community outside of Boston, Agatha “Aggie” Robard talks her devoted, serious granddaughter, Blythe, into driving her to Florida, stopping to see old college friends along the way. She particularly needs to speak to Donovan Bailey, the man she’d thought she would marry right after graduating from college...Categorized as:
literary-fiction religion spirituality adult anthologies audiobook contemporary female-mc -
![Good Old Neon by David Foster Wallace]()
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![The Desert Flowers - Willow by Judith Keim]()
The Desert Flowers - Willow by Judith Keim
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe power of love and the strength of women working together are proved once again.When Willow Sanchez is asked to help Alec Thurston, the man for whom her parents work and who’s always treated her as the daughter he once lost, she doesn’t hesitate to leave Boston and come back home to Palm Desert, California... -
![The Desert Flowers - Rose by Judith Keim]()
The Desert Flowers - Rose by Judith Keim
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThree talented women brought together by a man’s love…When Rose Macklin is asked to help Alec Thurston, the one man she’s ever truly loved, by coming to Palm Desert, California, she doesn’t hesitate. He’s dying of cancer and needs her help overseeing the sale of his hotel, the Desert Sage Inn, to another hotel group...Categorized as:
religion literary-fiction spirituality womens-fiction psychological sad contemporary fiction -
![Dreaming of Italy by T.A. Williams]()
Dreaming of Italy by T.A. Williams
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsUp for a dream promotion, Emma won’t let anything get in her way – not even love. Working for a major Hollywood film company isn’t all glitz and glam. But when Emma gets sent to tour around Italy to scout the perfect location for a new blockbuster movie, she’s not going to complain... -
![The Key to the Last House Before the Sea by Liz Eeles]()
The Key to the Last House Before the Sea by Liz Eeles
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsTears trickling down her cheeks, she recognises her grandmother’s writing scrawled across the manila envelope. Inside is an engraved key that sits heavy in her hand. Will the tumbledown cottage be the start of a new life – or will it tear her life apart?With her back to the sparkling sea, single mum Nessa stands in the doorway of the stone cottage her grandmother left behind...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction religion spirituality adult book contemporary enemies-to-lovers -
![No Wedding Like Nantucket by Grace Palmer]()
No Wedding Like Nantucket by Grace Palmer
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe wedding of the year versus the storm of the century. Who will win?Things are finally looking up for the Benson family. After a year of tough choices and big leaps of faith, it seems like love, success, and happiness are right in their grasp. But with a wedding on the horizon and a successful new restaurant growing faster than anyone ever expected, everyone certainly has their hands full...Categorized as:
literary-fiction religion spirituality adult book breakup contemporary domestic-drama -
![Claron by Katharine E. Hamilton]()
Claron by Katharine E. Hamilton
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsTossing her belongings into a suitcase and escaping heartbreak seemed like the best idea for Rhea Conners. She’d simply travel across the ocean to visit her grandfather in Ireland and heal. Then she’d come back. Simple. But what she doesn’t expect is to find solace and healing in the form of the O’Rifcan family. One member in Claron...Categorized as:
humor religion spirituality romance contemporary fiction womens-fiction psychological -
![High Tea at The Beach House Hotel by Judith Keim]()
High Tea at The Beach House Hotel by Judith Keim
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsGuests can be surprising…Ann and Rhonda continue their work at The Beach House Hotel, always striving to make their upscale property the best on the Gulf Coast of Florida. As they’ve learned, not all guests are easy...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction religion spirituality womens-fiction psychological cozy fiction -
![Tilly's Tuscan Teashop: A gorgeously uplifting summer read by Daisy James]()
Tilly's Tuscan Teashop: A gorgeously uplifting summer read by Daisy James
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWelcome to Tilly's Tuscan Teashop, the first book in a brand new series from the author of the Hummingbird Hotel and the Cornish Confetti Agency series.When photographer Natalie Nicholson’s beach hut studio – and everything she’s spent the last two years working on – is destroyed in a fire, she doesn’t think things can get any worse... -
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![What's Bred in the Bone by Robertson Davies]()
What's Bred in the Bone by Robertson Davies
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsFrancis Cornish was always good at keeping secrets. From the well-hidden family secret of his childhood to his mysterious encounters with a small-town embalmer, an expert art restorer, a Bavarian countess, and various masters of espionage, the events in Francis's life were not always what they seemed... -
![Charm Artist by Creston Mapes]()
Charm Artist by Creston Mapes
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAfter the Portland terrorist attack, the kidnapping of his daughter, and the domestic violence case that almost killed him, Portland Police Investigator Wayne Deetz and his wife Joanie escape for a long overdue vacation in Sedona, Arizona, to make some monumental career decisions... -
![Night in Question by Tobias Wolff]()
Night in Question by Tobias Wolff
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAuthor most recently of a stunningly clear-eyed memoir, This Boy's Life, Tobias Wolff's new collection of short stories maintains a similar steady gaze on his fictional creations. The author steels himself with a fine sense of irony and an awareness of moral ambiguity against the unjust suffering that is part of life... -
![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... -
![The Dalai Lama's Cat by David Michie]()
The Dalai Lama's Cat by David Michie
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratings“‘Oh! How adorable! I didn’t know you had a cat!’ she exclaimed.I am always surprised how many people make this observation. Why should His Holiness not have a cat?‘If only she could speak,’ continued the actress. ‘I’m sure she’d have such wisdom to share.’And so the seed was planted . .Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction religion spirituality action-adventure animals anthropomorphism audiobook -
![Christmas at the Cornish Confetti Agency by Daisy James]()
Christmas at the Cornish Confetti Agency by Daisy James
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt's Christmas at The Cornish Confetti Agency!When Lexie Harrington is asked to choreograph Phoebe and Sam’s Christmas-themed wedding, she can’t wait to create the perfect winter wonderland - elegantly dressed fir trees, glossy garlands of holly and mistletoe, baskets of yule logs and pine cones, and the mouth-watering fragrance of gingerbread, cinnamon sticks and warm mulled wine floating... -
![What Lies Beyond The Stars by Michael Goorjian]()
What Lies Beyond The Stars by Michael Goorjian
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“Something in me knows of a life I was meant to live but for whatever reason, I have not . . . ”Words that ring painfully true for Adam Sheppard, a San Francisco programmer who has spent the vast majority of his 30-something years lost in the dim glow of a computer screen...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction spirituality action-adventure adult book contemporary fiction -
![His Secret Baby (A McKnight Family Romance) by Lucy McConnell, Anne-Marie Meyer]()
His Secret Baby (A McKnight Family Romance) by Lucy McConnell, Anne-Marie Meyer
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsI came back to town for closure... And found a daughter I never knew I had...Return to the McKnight family series where the one person Penny never wanted to come back has just walked into her life: Katie's dad... -
![Torture the Artist by Joey Goebel]()
Torture the Artist by Joey Goebel
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsVincent Spinetti is an archetypal tortured artist ? a sensitive young writer who falls victim to alienation, parental neglect, poverty, depression, alcoholism, illness, nervous breakdowns, and unrequited love... -
![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... -
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![The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth]()
The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis novel in verse about a group of California yuppies was one of the most highly praised books of 1986 and a bestseller on both coasts... -
![Sum: Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman, Multivoice]()
Sum: Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman, Multivoice
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSUM shows us forty wonderfully imagined possibilities of life beyond death. In one afterlife you may find that God is the size of a microbe and is unaware of your existence. In another, your creators are a species of dim-witted creatures who built us to figure out what they could not. In a different version of the afterlife you work as a background character in other people's dreams... -
![Silent Signs by Ana Simons]()
Silent Signs by Ana Simons
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings~When life falls apart, what if sharing your secrets with a perfect stranger made it all fall back into place? ~ On the fateful weekend her husband puts an end to their marriage, Sophie Thompson must leave for a two-week work assignment in London. As she juggles her emotions at the airport terminal, Matthew O’Brian observes her, intrigued...Categorized as:
literary-fiction religion spirituality romance contemporary fiction womens-fiction cheating -
![Shy Girl by Katie Cross]()
Shy Girl by Katie Cross
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsDagny:Once upon a time, I thought my stutter was the worst thing that ever happened to me. But now I know better.Being held at gunpoint outranks a speech impediment any day.Thankfully, my longtime crush Jayson Hernandez tackled that problem to the ground with those broad shoulders—the ones that make my stutter oh-so-much-worse... -
![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... -
![Like Life by Lorrie Moore]()
Like Life by Lorrie Moore
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn Like Life's eight exquisite stories, Lorrie Moore's characters stumble through their daily existence. These men and women, unsettled and adrift and often frightened, can't quite understand how they arrived at their present situations. Harry has been reworking a play for years in his apartment near Times Square in New York. Jane is biding her time at a cheese shop in a Midwest mall... -
![My Ishmael by Daniel Quinn]()
My Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsAn extraordinary and startlingly original sequel to Ishmael "Enthralling, shocking, hope-filled, and utterly fearless, Daniel Quinn leads us deeper and deeper into the human heart, history, and spirit. In My Ishmael, Quinn strikes out into entirely new territory, posing questions that will rock you on your heels, and providing tantalizing possibilities for a truly new world vision... -
![One, No One and One Hundred Thousand by Luigi Pirandello]()
One, No One and One Hundred Thousand by Luigi Pirandello
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe great Pirandello's (1867-1936) 1926 novel, previously published here in 1933 in another translation, synthesizes the themes and personalities that illuminate such dramas as Six Characters in Search of an Author... -
![Among the Missing by Dan Chaon]()
Among the Missing by Dan Chaon
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn this haunting, bracing new collection, Dan Chaon shares stories of men, women, and children who live far outside the American Dream, while wondering which decision, which path, or which accident brought them to this place. Chaon mines the psychological landscape of his characters to dazzling effect. Each story radiates with sharp humor, mystery, wonder, and startling compassion... -
![The Divine Farce by Michael S.A. Graziano]()
The Divine Farce by Michael S.A. Graziano
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratings“A Dante/Beckett reduction of human struggle to its lowest common denominator.”— Michael Mirolla, author of The Formal Logic of Emotion and Berlin“One of the most original and thought-provoking stories I have ever read...true literary art...Not a word is wasted in this masterpiece. Yes, I call it that... -
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![The Heartbreaker by Susan Howatch]()
The Heartbreaker by Susan Howatch
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsDeftly combining the sacred and the profane—the unmistakable hallmark of her fiction over the past decade—Susan Howatch gives us a spellbinding, suspenseful and psychologically intense new novel. The financial heart of London—the City—is an adrenaline-charged square mile deep in recession in the 1990s, a place where sex is just another commodity to be bought and sold in the marketplace...Categorized as:
literary-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century adult book christian contemporary -
![Words Unspoken by Elizabeth Musser]()
Words Unspoken by Elizabeth Musser
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLissa Randall's future was bright with academic promise until the tragic accident that took her mother's life--and brought her own plans to a screeching halt. Eighteen months later Lissa is still unable to get back behind the wheel.Ev McAllistair's driving school looks like Lissa's best hope for getting her life back on the road again...Categorized as:
religion spirituality romance christian fiction historical-fiction contemporary psychological -
![Amber Sky by Cassia Leo]()
Amber Sky by Cassia Leo
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom New York Times bestselling author Cassia Leo comes Amber Sky, the haunting, atmospheric love story of Walker Ainsley and Cassidy O'Connor. A devastating car crash leaves Cassidy O'Connor stranded in rural Pennsylvania. Her only company is Walker Ainsley, the ruggedly handsome man who saved her from the wreckage and took her into his home...Categorized as:
literary-fiction religion spirituality action-adventure adult book contemporary death -
![You Are Not a Stranger Here by Adam Haslett]()
You Are Not a Stranger Here by Adam Haslett
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn his bestselling and lavishly praised first book of stories, Adam Haslett explores lives that appear shuttered by loss and discovers entire worlds hidden inside them. The impact is at once harrowing and thrilling.An elderly inventor, burning with manic creativity, tries to reconcile with his estranged gay son...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction satire 21st-century adult anthologies audiobook coming-of-age -
![A Perfectly Good Man by Patrick Gale]()
A Perfectly Good Man by Patrick Gale
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhen 20-year-old Lenny Barnes, paralysed in a rugby accident, commits suicide in the presence of Barnaby Johnson, the much-loved priest of a West Cornwall parish, the tragedy's reverberations open up the fault-lines between Barnaby and his nearest and dearest...Categorized as:
literary-fiction religion spirituality 21st-century adult audiobook book contemporary -
![The Royal Family by William T. Vollmann]()
The Royal Family by William T. Vollmann
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSince the publication of his first book in 1987, William T. Vollmann has established himself as one of the most fascinating and unconventional literary figures on the scene today...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction religion satire spirituality 21st-century action-adventure adult -
![Meg's Confession by Sierra Donovan]()
Meg's Confession by Sierra Donovan
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMeg Reilly is a pregnant widow who ducks into a confessional to spill her deepest, darkest secrets. Trouble is, the man on the other side of the booth isn't a priest. Craig Stovall is the owner of a local construction business--he's just there to repair the confessional. But when Meg starts talking, he's too surprised and tongue-tied to stop her until he hears too much... -
![Tortuga by Rudolfo Anaya]()
Tortuga by Rudolfo Anaya
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsRudolfo Anaya's personal journey to Tortuga began one desert-hot day when, as an adolescent, he and some friends were swimming in irrigation ditches. He dove in, sustaining an injury that put him in the hospital for an arduous period of time.Tortuga is set in a hospital for crippled children and is based on Anaya's swimming accident... -
![I Regret Everything: A Love Story by Seth Greenland]()
I Regret Everything: A Love Story by Seth Greenland
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA modern love story, I Regret Everything confronts the oceanic uncertainty of what it means to be alive, and in love. Jeremy Best, a Manhattan-based trusts and estates lawyer, leads a second life as published poet Jinx Bell. To his boss’s daughter, Spaulding Simonson, at 33 years old, Jeremy is already halfway to dead. When Spaulding, an aspiring 19-year-old writer, discovers Mr... -
![The Clouds by Juan José Saer]()
The Clouds by Juan José Saer
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"Saer is one of the best writers of today in any language."—Ricardo Piglia"What Saer presents marvelously is the experience of reality, and the characters' attempts to write their own narratives within its excess... -
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![The Allegations by Mark Lawson]()
The Allegations by Mark Lawson
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOn the morning after he has celebrated his 60th birthday party at a celebrity-filled party, Ned Marriott is in bed with his partner, Emma, when there's a knock on the door. Detectives from the London police force's 'Operation Millpond' have come to arrest him over an allegation of sexual assault... -
![The Years, Months, Days: Two Novellas by Yan Lianke]()
The Years, Months, Days: Two Novellas by Yan Lianke
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOver the last decade, Yan Lianke has been continually heralded as one of the "best contemporary Chinese writers" (The Independent) and "one of the country's fiercest satirists" (The Guardian). Among many awards and honors, he has been twice a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize and he was awarded the prestigious Franz Kafka Prize for his impressive body of work...Categorized as:
satire humor literary-fiction fiction magical-realism contemporary journey historical-fiction -
![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... -
![Walking Across Egypt by Clyde Edgerton]()
Walking Across Egypt by Clyde Edgerton
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsShe has as much business keeping a stray dog as she would walking across Egypt–which not so incidentally is the title of her favorite hymn. She’s Mattie Rigsbee, an independent, strong-minded senior citizen who, at seventy-eight, might be slowing down just a bit. When teenage delinquent Wesley Benfield drops in on her life, he is even less likely a companion than the stray dog... -
![A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen]()
A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA New York Times Editors' Choice Named a Best Book of 2018 by Bookforum, Nylon, Esquire, and Vulture"This artful and autumnal novel, published in high summer, is a gift to those who wish to receive it."--Dwight Garner, The New York Times"Hilarious, heartbreaking . . . A Terrible Country may be one of the best books you'll read this year... -
![Bon Bons to Yoga Pants by Katie Cross]()
Bon Bons to Yoga Pants by Katie Cross
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLexie Greene has always had such a pretty face. Unfortunately, that's where it seemed to stop. She's grown up hearing her Mother constantly remind her that she needs to lose weight. And twenty-two-year-old Lexie knows she's overweight. With her younger sister's wedding on the horizon and a crush to stalk on Facebook, Lexie's had enough...
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