Books like 'Girl'
Readers who enjoyed Girl by Blake Nelson also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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My Sweet Orange Tree by José Mauro de Vasconcelos
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsFifty years after its first publication, the multimillion-copy international bestseller is available again in English, sharing the heartbreaking tale of a gifted, mischievous, direly misunderstood boy growing up in Rio de Janeiro.When the precocious Zeze grows up, he wants to be a poet in a bow tie... -
![E.E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962 (Revised, Corrected, and Expanded Edition) by E.E. Cummings]()
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 Short Novels of John Steinbeck by John Steinbeck]()
The Short Novels of John Steinbeck by John Steinbeck
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsCollected here for the first time in a deluxe paperback volume are six of John Steinbeck's most widely read and beloved novels...Categorized as:
drama literary-fiction realistic 20th-century anthologies classics contemporary fiction -
![Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger]()
Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsNine Stories (1953) is a collection of short stories by American fiction writer J. D. Salinger published in April 1953. It includes two of his most famous short stories, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and "For Esmé – with Love and Squalor". (Nine Stories is the U.S. title; the book is published in many other countries as For Esmé - with Love and Squalor, and Other Stories...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama high-school literary-fiction realistic 20th-century anthologies classics -
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![Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin]()
Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPart of the Penguin 60s series, issued to celebrate 60 years of Penguin books. This collects "Sonny's Blues", "The Rockpile" and "Previous Condition", all taken from Going to Meet the Man (Penguin, 1991)...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama high-school literary-fiction realistic 20th-century book classics -
![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...Categorized as:
drama female-mc literary-fiction realistic 20th-century 21st-century adult anthologies -
![Heart of a Champion by Carl Deuker]()
Heart of a Champion by Carl Deuker
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsJimmy Winter is a born star on the baseball field, and Seth Barnam can only dream of being as talented. Still, the two baseball fanatics have the kind of friendship that should last forever. But when Seth experiences an unthinkable loss, he's forced to find his own personal strength--on and off the field...Categorized as:
friendship high-school realistic 20th-century action-adventure book children-books contemporary -
![Searching for David's Heart: A Christmas Story by Cherie Bennett]()
Searching for David's Heart: A Christmas Story by Cherie Bennett
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen her older brother, David, dies in an accident, Darcy feels responsible for his death. Then she meets the boy who received David's heart in an organ transplant, and learns that life truly does go on.A journey of faith, hope, and love.Life at Darcy's house isn't always easy. Money is tight, and her parents argue a lot...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama female-mc friendship realistic 20th-century action-adventure book -
![Beatles by Lars Saabye Christensen]()
Beatles by Lars Saabye Christensen
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBeatles is the story of Kim Karlsen and his three buddies, Gunnar, Ola and Seb - and, yes, they occasionally like to think of themselves as the Fab Four. They were born in 1951, and the story starts with the first wave of Beatlemania in Norway, in the spring of 1965...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama literary-fiction 20th-century audiobook bildungsroman book classics -
![Welcome to Leo's by Rochelle Alers, Brenda Jackson]()
Welcome to Leo's by Rochelle Alers, Brenda Jackson
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWelcome to Leo's--Where Anything Can Happen A proper lady lets loose on Open Mike Night--and opens her heart to a different kind of man... A Texas RAnger and a candy shop owner have a blind date--with a deliciously unexplected outcome... A widowed party planner meets a handsome doctor, but fears losing her heart for the second time.. -
![The Great Santini by Pat Conroy]()
The Great Santini by Pat Conroy
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsStep into the powerhouse life of Bull Meecham. He's all Marine --- fighter pilot, king of the clouds, and absolute ruler of his family. Lillian is his wife -- beautiful, southern-bred, with a core of velvet steel. Without her cool head, her kids would be in real trouble. Ben is the oldest, a born athlete whose best never satisfies the big man...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama high-school literary-fiction realistic 20th-century audiobook book -
![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 drama high-school literary-fiction realistic 20th-century anthologies classics -
![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... -
![Dead Poets Society by N.H. Kleinbaum, Tom Schulman]()
Dead Poets Society by N.H. Kleinbaum, Tom Schulman
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsTodd Anderson and his friends at Welton Academy can hardly believe how different life is since their new English professor, the flamboyant John Keating, has challenged them to "make your lives extraordinary! " Inspired by Keating, the boys resurrect the Dead Poets Society--a secret club where, free from the constraints and expectations of school and parents, they let their passions run wild...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama friendship high-school literary-fiction realistic 20th-century audiobook -
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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... -
![A Clean Well Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway]()
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:
high-school literary-fiction realistic 20th-century audiobook book classics contemporary -
![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 drama friendship literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure bildungsroman book -
![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...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama female-mc friendship high-school literary-fiction realistic 20th-century -
![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 drama female-mc friendship high-school literary-fiction realistic 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... -
![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... -
![Girl by Jamaica Kincaid]()
Girl by Jamaica Kincaid
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry;..." Girl, a short story by Jamaica Kincaid, was originally published in the June 26, 1978 issue of The New Yorker and subsequently included in the short story collection At the Bottom of the River in 1983...Categorized as:
literary-fiction drama realistic coming-of-age fiction feminism classics contemporary -
![A Streetcar Named Desire and Other Plays by Tennessee Williams]()
A Streetcar Named Desire and Other Plays by Tennessee Williams
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTennessee Williams’s sensuous, atmospheric plays transformed the American stage with their passion, exoticism and vibrant characters who rage against their personal demons and the modern world... -
![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 drama literary-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure book comedy -
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![Către frumusețe by David Foenkinos, Daniel Nicolescu]()
Către frumusețe by David Foenkinos, Daniel Nicolescu
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratings„Dacă nu ar părea tocit de atâta folosire, aș fi ales drept motto al romanului meu acest adagiu al lui Dostoievski: «Frumusețea va salva lumea»“, mărturisea David Foenkinos într-un interviu... -
![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:
literary-fiction female-mc friendship fiction historical-fiction audiobook contemporary family -
![Drown by Junot Díaz]()
Drown by Junot Díaz
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsWith ten stories that move from the barrios of the Dominican Republic to the struggling urban communities of New Jersey, Junot Diaz makes his remarkable debut. Diaz's work is unflinching and strong, and these stories crackle with an electric sense of discovery...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama high-school literary-fiction realistic 20th-century anthologies audiobook -
![Plainsong by Kent Haruf]()
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsA heartstrong story of family and romance, tribulation and tenacity, set on the High Plains east of Denver.In the small town of Holt, Colorado, a high school teacher is confronted with raising his two boys alone after their mother retreats first to the bedroom, then altogether...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama friendship literary-fiction realistic 20th-century adult animals -
![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... -
![Doctors by Erich Segal]()
Doctors by Erich Segal
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWriting with all the passion of "Love Story" and power of "The Class," Erich Segal sweeps us into the lives of the Harvard Medical School's class of 1962. His stunning novel reveals the making of doctors--what makes them tick, scheme, hurt . . . and love...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama friendship literary-fiction realistic 20th-century bildungsroman book -
![Birdy by William Wharton]()
Birdy by William Wharton
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHailed upon its publication as "a classic for readers not yet born" (Philadelphia Inquirer), Birdy is an inventive, hypnotic novel about friendship and family, dreaming and surviving, love and war, madness and beauty, and, above all, "birdness...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama friendship literary-fiction realistic 20th-century adult animals -
![The Lonely Passion Of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore]()
The Lonely Passion Of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratings'The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne' launched Brian Moore's distinguished literary career and also – because of his sensitive portrayal of her – enshrined Judith Hearne in the gallery of literature's unforgettable women. A penetrating, comic, tragic tale of a plain woman, it is a novel that occasionally sings with the lilt of the Irish greats... -
![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... -
![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... -
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![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 drama literary-fiction female-mc historical-fiction fiction contemporary audiobook -
![Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson]()
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars · 83 ratingsMelinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama female-mc friendship high-school literary-fiction realistic 20th-century -
![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 drama female-mc literary-fiction 20th-century 21st-century audiobook book -
![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... -
![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 literary-fiction realistic 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... -
![High Fidelity by Nick Hornby]()
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsNow a major motion picture from Touchstone Pictures.Rob is a pop music junkie who runs his own semi-failing record store. His girlfriend, Laura, has just left him for the guy upstairs, and Rob is both miserable and relieved...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama high-school literary-fiction realistic 20th-century audiobook book -
![Very Far Away from Anywhere Else by Ursula K. Le Guin]()
Very Far Away from Anywhere Else by Ursula K. Le Guin
Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsOwen is seventeen and smart. He knows what he wants to do with his life. But then he meets Natalie and he realizes he doesn't know anything much at all. A slender, realistic story of a young man's coming of age, Very Far Away from Anywhere Else is one of the most inspiring novels Ursula K. Le Guin has ever published...Categorized as:
coming-of-age friendship high-school literary-fiction realistic 20th-century book children -
![The Mozart Season by Virginia Euwer Wolff]()
The Mozart Season by Virginia Euwer Wolff
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratings"Remember, what's down inside you, all covered up—the things of your soul. The important, secret things . . . The story of you, all buried, let the music caress it out into the open."When Allegra was a little girl, she thought she would pick up her violin and it would sing for her—that the music was hidden inside her instrument...Categorized as:
coming-of-age female-mc realistic 20th-century book children children-books contemporary -
![Elling by Ingvar Ambjørnsen]()
Elling by Ingvar Ambjørnsen
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsELLING is the endearing and hilarious story of two outsiders struggling to come to terms with the real world... -
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![Curse of the Starving Class by Sam Shepard]()
Curse of the Starving Class by Sam Shepard
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA major work by one of our theatre's most respected and celebrated writers, this award-winning examination of the dislocations of contemporary American society was produced with great success in both London and New York.The setting is a farmhouse in the American West, inhabited by a family who has enough to eat but not enough to satisfy the other hungers that bedevil them... -
![See Ya, Simon by David Hill]()
See Ya, Simon by David Hill
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOver the years fourteen-year-old Nathan has learned a lot about muscular dystrophy from his best friend but is unprepared for Simon's rapid decline and approaching...Categorized as:
realistic friendship coming-of-age young-adult fiction disability contemporary children-books -
![The Glass Lake by Maeve Binchy]()
The Glass Lake by Maeve Binchy
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsKit McMahon lives in the small Irish town of Lough Glass, where everyone knows everyone; children who walk to school together grow up and become sweethearts and marry, people gossip and grumble and dream their lives away. For it is a place where change comes slowly. drowned in the lake, and then the gossip runs wild...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama female-mc friendship literary-fiction realistic 20th-century adult -
![The Commitments by Roddy Doyle]()
The Commitments by Roddy Doyle
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsBarrytown, Dublin, has something to sing about. The Commitments are spreading the gospel of the soul. Ably managed by Jimmy Rabbitte, brilliantly coached by Joey 'The Lips' Fagan, their twin assault on Motown and Barrytown takes them by leaps and bounds from the parish hall to the steps of the studio door...Categorized as:
coming-of-age friendship literary-fiction realistic 20th-century book classics comedy -
![Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro]()
Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe only novel from Alice Munro -- award-winning author of The Love of a Good Woman -- is an insightful, honest book, "autobiographical in form but not in fact," that chronicles a young girl's growing up in rural Ontario in the 1940s...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama female-mc friendship high-school literary-fiction realistic 20th-century -
![The Gift by Danielle Steel]()
The Gift by Danielle Steel
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsOn a June day, a young woman in a summer dress steps off a Chicago-bound bus into a small midwestern town. She doesn't intend to stay. She is just passing through. Yet her stopping here has a reason and it is part of a story that you will never forget. The time is the 1950s, when life was simpler, people still believed in dreams, and family was, very nearly, everything...
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