Books like 'A Time for Dancing'
Readers who enjoyed A Time for Dancing by Davida Wills Hurwin also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary realistic high-school classics literary-fiction friendship sad grief
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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:
classics friendship high-school literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary -
Say Goodnight, Gracie by Julie Reece Deaver
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThere are friends we can't imagine living without. Morgan and Jimmy were kids together, whirling around the porch on hot summer days. They've been friends forever, and by now they know each other inside out. They do everything together--from cutting high school to go into the city to coaching each other at dance auditions and acting workshops. They even argue well. A perfect friendship... -
In Blissful Hell by Humayun Ahmed
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsStarting with the theme of sex and adolescence, tolerance and violence, balance and ambivalence finally unfurls a twilight zone of complex human existence, of Blake's innocence and experience.The characters mostly come from middle class, their hopes are enormous, their dreams are large, but all their struggles end in farce... -
The Stories of Raymond Carver by Raymond Carver
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWill You Please Be Quiet, Please? What We Talk About When We Talk About Love... -
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This Fragile Life by Kate Hewitt
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAlso published at The Other MotherYou love your best friend. You trust her with your life. But could you give her the most precious gift of all?Alex's life is a mess. She's barely holding down a job, only just affording her apartment, and can't remember when she was last in a relationship. An unexpected pregnancy is the last thing she needs.Martha's life is on track... -
Remember Me by Cheryl Lanham
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA new teen tearjerker in the heartwrenching Dear Diary series for young adults. Leeanne never thought she'd love working at the hospice so much, or that it would be so hard. Her new friend Gabriel isn't like other boys. He is dying. But in his final days, he has one last lesson to teach her... -
Stand-Off by Andrew Smith
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSenior year is supposed to be easy, but for Ryan Dean West, there are no guarantees.Ryan Dean finds himself as the rugby team's new captain and stand-off - the position once played by his lost friend, Joey. Plus, somehow he's inherited as his roommate Sam Abernathy, a twelve-year-old cooking whiz with extreme claustrophobia and a serious crush on Annie Altman, Ryan Dean's girlfriend...Categorized as:
friendship grief high-school literary-fiction realistic sad audiobook boarding-school -
Finding Forever by L.L. Collins
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLacey Russell has had enough heartbreak and loss for one lifetime. Turning tragedy into motivation, she becomes a veterinarian to honor her mother’s memory. She knows the path her life is on and she decided long ago that falling in love is not part of that plan. She’s seen firsthand that all it does is cause sorrow and pain... -
The Day After Forever by Erin Skiffington
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe Day After Forever is an emotional story centering around four teenagers who discover and demostrate the true meaning of friendship. It illustrates the agony surroundingf horrific events and how friendship will always stand strong against the circumstances. Jeff has leukemia... -
A Hundred and One Reasons by Bianca Salindong
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThere are still many things Ann needed to know, to explore and live the life she'd always imagined. But everything turned upside down when she learned that she is sick. Not cough and colds sick. No, something much complicated than that. Ann decides that she'd rather fight when she knows she had no chances of winning... -
The Wind Blows Backward by Mary Downing Hahn
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAlthough they share a love of poetry and problems with their parents, shy Lauren's attraction to popular Spencer is tempered by her fear of his moody, self-destructive side. "...hands down, Girl Book of the Year... -
The Gold Cell by Sharon Olds
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA dazzling collection of poems by the Pulitzer Prize and T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry winner, called "a poet for these times, a powerful woman who won't back down" (San Francisco Chronicle).A collection by the much praised poet whose second book The Dead and the Living, was both the Lamont Poetry Selection for 1983 and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award... -
The Weight of Zero by Karen Fortunati
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSeventeen-year-old Catherine Pulaski knows Zero is coming for her. Zero, the devastating depression born of Catherine’s bipolar disorder, almost triumphed once; that was her first suicide attempt.Being bipolar is forever. It never goes away. The med du jour might work right now, but Zero will be back for her. It’s only a matter of time... -
Pieces of You by Tablo
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsEpik High leader Tablo's short stories weave together the secrets and anxieties of youth, whispering words of solace to a lost generation... -
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Selected Poems by William Carlos Williams
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsOpening with Professor Tomlinson's superbly clear and helpful introduction this selection reflects the most up-to-date Williams scholarship. In addition to including many more pieces, Tomlinson has organized the whole in chronological order...Categorized as:
classics high-school literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary fiction -
Robert's Rules by J.F. Riordan
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAs the new Chairman of the Town Board, Fiona Campbell finds that life has become a series of petty squabbles, dull meetings, and papers everywhere, all complicated by her guardianship of the as yet unidentified screaming goat. In desperation, she hires an unknown newcomer, the compulsively orderly Oliver Robert, to run her office and keep her organized... -
We, The Wildflowers by L.B. Simmons
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratings“Their strength and ferocity stem from below the surface where their roots are forever tangled, interwoven in such a way that for the remainder of time they bloom together …”GenesisAdamChloeLukasNo one loves them, no one cares about them, no one even sees them until they end up in Mary Rodriguez’s home, an outpost for Sacred Heart’s troubled youth program... -
The Last Wish of Sasha Cade by Cheyanne Young
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe day Raquel has been dreading for months has finally arrived. Sasha, her best friend in the whole world, has died of cancer. Overwhelmed and brokenhearted, Raquel can't even imagine life without her. And then a letter from Sasha arrives... -
On Herring Cove Road: Mr. Rosen and His 43Lb Anxiety by Michael Kroft
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsOnce an amusing extrovert with a reputation as a prankster, Mr. Rosen is entering his retirement years as a stoic thirty-year converted introvert who has no interest in people, despises change, and is more than content to have his wife navigate his life... -
Telling Christina Goodbye by Lurlene McDaniel
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTrisha Thompson and her best friend Christina are having a great senior year. Trisha and her boyfriend, Cody, are making plans to attend Indiana University together in the fall, while Christina has already received a scholarship to the University of Vermont... -
A Clean Well Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" is a short story by American author Ernest Hemingway, first published in Scribner's Magazine in 1933; it was also included in his collection Winner Take Nothing (1933).James Joyce once remarked: "He [Hemingway] has reduced the veil between literature and life, which is what every writer strives to do. Have you read 'A Clean Well-Lighted Place'?... It is masterly...Categorized as:
classics high-school literary-fiction realistic 20th-century audiobook book contemporary -
World Cup Wishes by Eshkol Nevo
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFour friends get together to watch the 1998 World Cup final. One of them has an idea: let's write down our wishes for the next few years, put them away, and during the next final - four years from now - we'll get them out and see how many we've achieved. This is how World Cup Wishes opens, and from here we watch what happens to their wishes and their friendships as life marches on...Categorized as:
friendship literary-fiction realistic 21st-century adult audiobook book contemporary -
A Quiet Life by Ethan Joella, Stacey Glemboski
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratings8 hours, 41 minutes From the author of A Little Hope—a Read with Jenna Bonus Pick—comes an enormously powerful and life-affirming novel about three individuals facing challenges and grappling with loss in his or her own way.Chuck Ayers can’t decide if he should make the trip to Hilton Head this winter without his wife, Cat... -
Caitlin's Lucky Charm by Lisa Schroeder
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFour best friends, one lucky bracelet, and an utterly charming new middle-grade series!Caitlin would stay at summer camp forever if she could. Her new best friends in the world, Hannah, Mia, and Libby are there... -
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You Don't Even Know by Sue Lawson
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAlex Hudson is a good guy. He plays water polo. He has a part-time job. He’s doing okay at school.Then the thing that anchors Alex is ripped away and his life seems pointless... -
Freeze Frame by Heidi Ayarbe
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNo matter how many times Kyle rewrites the scene, he can't get it right. He tries it in the style of Hitchcock, Tarantino, Eastwood, all of his favorite directors—but regardless of the style, he can't remember what happened that day in the shed. The day Jason died... -
Somewhere Between Life and Death by Lurlene McDaniel
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe celebration isn't supposed to end in tragedy. The night of their high-school drama group's cast party starts out as fun for sisters Amy and Erin. Their lives come crashing down when Amy takes the car to get more food and has a horrible accident. Erin and her family pray for Amy to awaken from her coma... -
The Mission by Jason Myers
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWake up and do something! Kaden Norris's life is shattered when his older brother -- his best friend and hero -- is killed in Iraq. All Kaden has left of Kenny is a letter, urging him to break away from his sheltered life and to go to San Francisco to visit his cousin, James. Kaden is blown away, as James introduces him to a life filled with drugs, sex, and apathy...Categorized as:
realistic high-school grief young-adult fiction contemporary coming-of-age substance-abuse -
Three Things I Know Are True by Betty Culley
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFans of Jandy Nelson and Marieke Nijkamp will love this deeply moving novel in verse about the aftermath of a gun accident. Life changes forever for Liv when her older brother, Jonah, accidentally shoots himself with his best friend Clay’s father’s gun... -
The People Look Like Flowers at Last by Charles Bukowski
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe People Look like Flowers at Last is the last of five collections of never-before published poetry from the late great Dirty Old Man, Charles Bukowski.In it, he speaks on topics ranging from horse racing to military elephants, lost love to the fear of death. He writes extensively about writing, and about talking to people about writers such as Camus, Hemingway, and Stein... -
A Man Asleep by Georges Perec
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA Man Asleep (French: Un homme qui dort) is a 1967 novel by the French writer Georges Perec. It uses a second-person narrative, and follows a 25-year-old student, who one day decides to be indifferent about the world. A Man Asleep was adapted into a 1974 film, The Man Who Sleeps... -
The Year After You by Nina de Pass
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSan Francisco. New Year's Eve. A tragic accident after the party of the year. Cara survives. Her best friend, G, doesn't.Nine months later, Cara is still struggling, consumed by guilt and grief. In the hopes of giving Cara a fresh start, her mother sends her to boarding school in Switzerland, a place where no one knows what happened--and where they never will, if Cara can help it... -
Faceless by Alyssa B. Sheinmel
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen Maisie Winters wakes up, she’s in the hospital.The last thing she remembers is running through the hills of her neighborhood one misty morning. Slowly, she puts the pieces together. Before she could make it home, a storm gathered. Lightning hit a power line and sparks rained down, the hot-burning electrical fire consuming her. Destroying her face...Categorized as:
friendship grief high-school literary-fiction realistic sad action-adventure audiobook -
Sealed with a Kiss by Sarra Manning
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWill a lengthy road trip test Edie and Dylan's hard-won couplehood to the breaking point?Edie and Dylan have been dreaming about their road trip across America forever, but nine weeks in a car together is going to be a huge test for them...Categorized as:
friendship high-school realistic book contemporary fiction womens-fiction young-adult -
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Roots by Malayattoor Ramakrishnan
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIncreasingly possessed by a yearning to escape the ennui of an indifferent marriage and the empty but comfortable lifestyle of a bureaucrat, Raghu decides to visit the small patch of ancestral property in his native village. The novel moves between the two worlds - the past and the present - with pungent, earthy humour and sharp insights... -
The Final Four by Paul Volponi
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFour players with one thing in common: the will to winMalcolm wants to get to the NBA ASAP. Roko wants to be the pride of his native Croatia. Crispin wants the girl of his dreams. M.J. just wants a chance.March Madness is in full swing, and there are only four teams left in the NCAA basketball championship...Categorized as:
realistic high-school friendship sports young-adult fiction contemporary middle-grade -
All the Days of Her Life by Lurlene McDaniel
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsOut of control - that's how Lacey Duval feels in almost every aspect of her life. There's nothing she can do about her parents divorce, there's nothing she can do about the death of her young friend, there's nothing she can do about having diabetes - that's what Lacey believes. After a special summer at Jenny House, Lacey is determined to put her problems behind her... -
Violet in Bloom by Lauren Myracle
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsKatie-Rose, Violet, Milla, and Yasaman—four girls with seemingly little in common but their flower names—are nurturing their new friendship and are busy building luvyabunches.com, their very own social-networking site. Their first flower-power task? A doomed campaign to get their school to serve healthier snacks... -
The Girl Next Door by Selene Castrovilla
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn The Girl Next Door, two teens are forced to make some very grown-up decisions when one of them is diagnosed with terminal cancer.Seventeen year old Samantha has been best friends with seventeen year old Jesse since she moved into the New York high-rise apartment next door to his thirteen years ago... -
P.S. I Really Like You by Nancy E. Krulik
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBestselling author Nancy Krulik takes an inside look at what it takes to survive middle school.Jenny has been getting gifts, cards, and notes from a secret admirer. Who could the mystery boy be? While Jenny is dealing with her admirer, Rachel and Felicia stop speaking following a basketball game in which Rachel refused to pass the ball to Felicia, and then missed the winning basket... -
What You Always Wanted by Kristin Rae
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsEnjoy What You Always Wanted and the other standalone titles in Bloomsbury's contemporary If Only romance line centered around an impossible you always want what you can't have !Maddie Brooks has always had high standards for guys. But she has yet to find one who can live up to the romantic, classic Hollywood heartthrobs, especially the dreamy song-and-dance man Gene Kelly... -
Everything Left Unsaid by Jessica Davidson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"I wait for him, the cold seeping through my clothes, until it finally dawns on me that he's not coming back. And I wonder why he chose her instead of me? Why he went looking for her when I was right there." Tai and Juliet have been best friends forever – since they met at kindy and decided to get married in first grade. They understand each other in the way that only best friends can... -
Radiate by Marley Gibson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsHayley Matthews is determined to be the best cheerleader she can. She works hard and pushes herself 110% all the time. Then Hayley finds a lump on her leg. The diagnosis is cancer. The prognosis is unclear. She could lose her leg. Or maybe her life. At first Hayley is scared, terrified. In an instant, everything she’s worked for seems out of reach. But Hayley is strong... -
Don't Forget Me by Victoria Stevens
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSeventeen-year-old Hazel Clarke is no stranger to heartbreaks, and being sent to live with a father she’s never met is the latest in a string of them. Even the beauty of eastern Australia isn’t enough to take her mind off her mother and the life she had to leave behind in England... -
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The Comeback by Marlene Perez
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA novel about ruling high school, being exiled, and fighting your way back to your rightful throne.Sophie Donnelly is one half of the most popular and powerful couple in school, until new girl Angie Vogel shows up and compromises everything. Angie steals Sophie's starring role in the school play, and, worse, her super-popular boyfriend...Categorized as:
friendship high-school realistic book coming-of-age contemporary fiction womens-fiction -
The Way The Light Bends by Cordelia Jensen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsVirtual twins Linc and Holly were once extremely close. But while artistic, creative Linc is her parents' daughter biologically, it's smart, popular Holly, adopted from Ghana as a baby, who exemplifies the family's high-achieving model of academic success... -
The Breakable Vow by Kathryn Ann Clarke
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOne night will change her life . . . Annie McGowan is eighteen years old, smart, wisecracking, fun-loving . . . a typical teenager. Yet circumstances force Annie out of the security of high school and into a world of problems all her own. Faced with an unexpected pregnancy and a turbulent, violent relationship with her boyfriend, Kevin, Annie's life begins to spiral out of control... -
Sweet Thirteen by Annie Bryant
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsCharlotte's thrilled -- Sophie's on her way from Paris to meet the BSG, and Charlotte's writing a special story as a welcome gift... -
Maybe One Day by Melissa Kantor
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsCritically acclaimed author Melissa Kantor masterfully captures the joy of friendship, the agony of loss, and the unique experience of being a teenager in this poignant new novel about a girl grappling with her best friend's life-threatening illness.Zoe and her best friend, Olivia, have always had big plans for the future, none of which included Olivia getting sick... -
The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWinner of the National Book Award for FictionBernard Malamud's first book of short stories, The Magic Barrel, has been recognized as a classic from the time it was published in 1959...Categorized as:
classics high-school literary-fiction realistic 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook
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