Books like 'Where the Dead Sit Talking'
Readers who enjoyed Where the Dead Sit Talking by Brandon Hobson also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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Kukum by Michel Jean
Rated: 4.61 of 5 stars · 18 ratings«C'est un de ces soirs où je trayais les vaches dans la lumière du soleil couchant que je l'ai vu pour la première fois. Un canot est apparu, descendant en silence la rivière. Un homme torse nu, à la peau cuivrée, ramait sans se presser, se laissant pousser par le courant. Il paraissait à peine plus âgé que moi. Nos regards se sont croisés. Il n'a pas souri. Et je n'ai pas eu peur... -
Five Little Indians: A Novel by Michelle Good
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWinner of the 2018 HarperCollins/UBC Prize for Best New Fiction Michelle Good's FIVE LITTLE INDIANS, told from the alternating points of view of five former residential school students as they struggle to survive in 1960s Vancouver—one finding her way into the dangerous world of the American Indian movement; one finding unexpected strength in motherhood; and one unable to escape his demons - and... -
Watercress by Andrea Wang
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsGathering watercress by the side of the road brings a girl closer to her family's Chinese Heritage.Driving through Ohio in an old Pontiac, a young girl's parents stop suddenly when they spot watercress growing wild in a ditch by the side of the road... -
The Essay by Robin Yocum
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 16 ratings“Yocum writes like the reporter he used to be. He’s observant and still has his eye for detail and nuance.”—Richmond Times-DispatchJimmy Lee Hickam grew up along Red Dog Road, a dead-end strip of gravel and mud buried deep in the bowels of Appalachian Ohio. It is the poorest road, in the poorest county, in the poorest region of the state...Categorized as:
coming-of-age historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc realistic black-mc book fiction -
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Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsInspired by true events that rocked the nation, a profoundly moving novel about a Black nurse in post-segregation Alabama who blows the whistle on a terrible wrong done to her patients, from the New York Times bestselling author of Wench.Montgomery, Alabama 1973. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend has big plans to make a difference, especially in her African American community...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction north-america poc-mc realistic social-commentary usa adult -
Silva Rerum II by Kristina Sabaliauskaitė
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsRomāna darbība notiek no 1707. līdz 1710.gadam. Karš, mēris, bads, nesamērīga greznība un nāvīgs izsalkums, zviedru un krievu karavīri, jūdu ārsti, holandiešu kāršu spēlmaņi, turku konkubīnes, franču dāmas, spītīgi žemaiši un ironiski viļņieši, bezvārda mūks, kurš apglabājis vairāk nekā divdesmit tūkstošus mēra upuru, un, protams, vēl viena bajāru Norvaišu dzimtas paaudze... -
In Search of Satisfaction by J. California Cooper
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe folk flavor of her storytelling has earned her constant comparison to Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, but through four collections of short stories and two novels, J. California Cooper has proven that hers is a wholly original talent --one that embraces readers in an ever-widening circle from one book to the next... -
Sarah and Solomon: Only A Stone Should Be Alone by Roberta Kagan
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“…Fathers and Give me your children!” – Chaim RumkowskiIt is September 1942, and the already battered occupants of the Lodz Ghetto have just been dealt another horrendous blow from Hitler’s iron fist. They must surrender their sick, elderly, and children for ‘deportation... -
Don't Cry for Me by Daniel Black
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA Black father makes amends with his gay son through letters written on his deathbed in this wise and penetrating novel of empathy and forgiveness, for fans of Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robert Jones Jr. and Alice Walker As Jacob lies dying, he begins to write a letter to his only son, Isaac. They have not met or spoken in many years, and there are things that Isaac must know...Categorized as:
coming-of-age grief historical-fiction lgbtq literary-fiction poc-mc realistic social-commentary -
Northern Borders: A Novel by Howard Frank Mosher
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA New York Times Notable A novel about growing up in a remote corner of Vermont, from the author Richard Russo calls “one of our very best writers... -
Goin' Someplace Special by Jerry Pinkney, Patricia C. McKissack
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratings1950s Nashville, Tennessee is segregated, and black people are persecuted, but young Tricia Ann is determined to venture on her own across town to someplace special. A must read book about persecution of minorities, but also about hope and light... -
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsThe new novel from the bestselling, National Book Award-winning, Oprah Book Club-picked, Barack Obama favourite James McBride.In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well...Categorized as:
north-america usa historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc social-commentary pennsylvania fiction -
Wenjack by Joseph Boyden
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsShortlisted for the 2017 OLSN Northern Lit AwardAn Ojibwe boy runs away from a North Ontario Indian School, not realizing just how far away home is. Along the way he's followed by Manitous, spirits of the forest who comment on his plight, cajoling, taunting, and ultimately offering him a type of comfort on his difficult journey back to the place he was so brutally removed from...Categorized as:
grief historical-fiction indigenous-mc literary-fiction poc-mc realistic social-commentary abuse -
If You Want to Make God Laugh by Bianca Marais
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA rich, unforgettable story of three unique women in post-Apartheid South Africa who are brought together in their darkest time and discover the ways that love can transcend the strictest of boundaries.In a squatter camp on the outskirts of Johannesburg, seventeen-year-old Zodwa lives in desperate poverty, under the shadowy threat of a civil war and a growing AIDS epidemic...Categorized as:
coming-of-age historical-fiction lgbtq literary-fiction poc-mc realistic 21st-century adult -
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Erin's Child by Sheelagh Kelly
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFamily ties have united the Feeneys through famine and poverty, but can they withstand success? It is 1875 and the Feeneys have left the squalor of York’s slums behind them. Yet all is not well. Patrick remains a man of simple tastes, increasingly out of touch with Thomasin’s ambition to expand her business empire still further across Yorkshire... -
Between Earth and Sky by Amanda Skenandore
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsOn a quiet Philadelphia morning in 1906, a newspaper headline catapults Alma Mitchell back to her past. A federal agent is dead, and the murder suspect is Alma’s childhood friend, Harry Muskrat. Harry—or Asku, as Alma knew him—was the most promising student at the “savage-taming” boarding school run by her father, where Alma was the only white pupil...Categorized as:
coming-of-age crime historical-fiction indigenous-mc literary-fiction north-america poc-mc usa -
The Outside Boy by Jeanine Cummins
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIreland, 1959: Young Christy Hurley is a Pavee gypsy, traveling with his father and extended family from town to town, carrying all their worldly possessions in their wagons. Christy carries with him a burden of guilt as well, haunted by the story of his mother's death in childbirth. The peripatetic life is the only one Christy has ever known, but when his grandfather dies, everything changes... -
Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsSome bodies won't stay buried.Some stories need to be told. When seventeen-year-old Rowan Chase finds a skeleton on her family's property, she has no idea that investigating the brutal century-old murder will lead to a summer of painful discoveries about the present and the past...Categorized as:
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Of Mice and Men by Kevin Hinkle, John Steinbeck
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratings...Categorized as:
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Neither Present Time by Caren J. Werlinger
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsCan a house save the lives of the people who live in it? Can an inscription written in a book over sixty years ago change the fates of people not even born when it was written? Beryl Gray is solid and dependable – her partner, Claire, thinks so, her family thinks so, her colleagues think so. She has a long-term relationship and a job she likes as a university librarian... -
Beyond the Great River by Zoe Saadia
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThey felt she was too spirited, too forward, too boyish, not as feminine and as graceful as a young woman should be. Their frowns followed her like a cloud, but she didn't care. Other girls may have worked happily, danced beautifully, or sewn themselves pretty dresses, but they could not climb or run or swim as well as she did, the silly, giggly, empty-headed creatures that they were...Categorized as:
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The Garden of the Departed Cats by Bilge Karasu
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn an ancient Mediterranean city, a tradition is maintained: every ten years an archaic game of human chess is staged, the players (visitors versus locals) bearing weapons. This archaic game, the central event of The Garden of the Departed Cats, may prove as fatal as the deadly attraction our narrator feels for the local man who is the Vizier, or Captain, of the home team...Categorized as:
historical-fiction lgbtq literary-fiction 20th-century adult book fiction historical -
Hanta Yo: An American Saga by Ruth Beebe Hill
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA multigenerational saga that depicts the lives of two families of Teton Sioux from the late 1700s to the 1830s, before the arrival of the white man...Categorized as:
historical-fiction indigenous-mc poc-mc adult book fiction historical industrial-era -
After Francesco by Brian Malloy
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAcclaimed author Brian Malloy brings insight, humor, and the authenticity of his own experiences as a member of the AIDS generation to this universal story of love and loss set in New York City and Minneapolis at the peak of the AIDS crisis...Categorized as:
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Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the author of the National Book Award finalist Patron Saints of Nothing comes an emotionally charged, moving novel about four generations of Filipino American boys grappling with identity, masculinity, and their fraught father-son relationships.Watsonville, 1930. Francisco Maghabol barely ekes out a living in the fields of California...Categorized as:
historical-fiction realistic poc-mc social-commentary coming-of-age young-adult fiction audiobook -
The Lies They Told by Ellen Marie Wiseman
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn rural 1930s Virginia, a young immigrant mother fights for her dignity and those she loves against America’s rising eugenics movement – when widespread support for policies of prejudice drove imprisonment and forced sterilizations based on class, race, disability, education, and country of origin – in this tragic and uplifting novel of social injustice, survival, and hope for readers of Susan... -
People of the Nightland by W. Michael Gear, Kathleen O'Neal Gear
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIt has been a thousand years since Wolf Dreamer lead his people up through the dark hole in the ice to a rich, untouched continent bursting with game. But the world has changed. Most of the magnificent animals are gone, and the last of the great glaciers is melting, forming a huge freshwater lake in the middle of the world. Over the centuries the People of the Wolf have split into two clans... -
Gordo by Jaime Cortez
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe first ever collection of short stories by Jaime Cortez, Gordo is set in a migrant workers camp near Watsonville, California in the 1970s. A young, probably gay, boy named Gordo puts on a wrestler's mask and throws fists with a boy in the neighborhood, fighting his own tears as he tries to grow into the idea of manhood so imposed on him by his father...Categorized as:
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Beneficence by Meredith Hall
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAfter a sudden and terrible loss, how does a loving family find their way back to the goodness and peace they once shared? Reviewers and readers have called this literary historical novel “hauntingly beautiful,” “a masterpiece of compassion,” “a page-turner and an artistic triumph.”Written by a masterful storyteller, this is a book that illuminates the journey we make through grief to healing... -
The Quarry Girls by Jess Lourey
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsMinnesota, 1977. For the teens of one close-knit community, summer means late-night swimming parties at the quarry, the county fair, and venturing into the tunnels beneath the city. But for two best friends, it’s not all fun and games.Heather and Brenda have a secret. Something they saw in the dark. Something they can’t forget. They’ve decided to never tell a soul... -
Fifth Born by Zelda Lockhart
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen Odessa Blackburn is three years old her beloved grandmother dies, and so begins her story, set in St. Louis, Missouri, and rural Mississippi. As the fifth born of eight children, Odessa loses her innocence at first when her drunken father sexually abuses her, and then again when she alone witnesses her father taking the life of his own brother...Categorized as:
coming-of-age historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc realistic abuse adult black-mc -
Spinning Jenny by Sylvia Ann McLain
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"I guess I'll name you Jenny, something I can say easy. That was my mammy's name, anyway. Jenny. You be Jenny from now on..." Cornelius Carson's mother cautioned him never to own slaves, but in 1830s Louisiana, land and slaves are proof of a man's worth. At 23 Cornelius is ambitious, and in love. He owns one elderly slave, Malachi, and a small cotton farm along Bayou Cocodrie...Categorized as:
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Not Without Laughter by Langston Hughes
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn a poor town in Kansas, an African American family struggles. At its centre sits Sandy Rodgers - a young boy attempting to find purpose amid the chaos, meagreness and music of his surroundings...Categorized as:
coming-of-age historical-fiction lgbtq literary-fiction north-america poc-mc social-commentary usa -
All the Children Are Home by Patry Francis
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA sweeping saga in the vein of Ask Again, Yes following a foster family through almost a decade of dazzling triumph and wrenching heartbreak—from the author of The Orphans at Race Point...Categorized as:
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Earl, Honey by D.S. Getson, Denise Getson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsEARL HAHN is slow, the last one to catch on to things. Since the day his father hit him in the head with a two-by-four of loblolly pine, he’s struggled with a “thickness in his brain.” It takes him longer to make the connections others arrive at easily. When his father is prosecuted for the crime of incest, it feels like deliverance for Earl, his mother Lizzie Belle and the entire Hahn family... -
Fathers and Crows by William T. Vollmann
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWith the same panoramic vision and mythic sensibility he brought to The Ice-Shirt, William T. Vollmann continues his hugely original fictional history of the clash of Indians and Europeans in the New World...Categorized as:
historical-fiction indigenous-mc literary-fiction poc-mc 20th-century adult book early-modern -
Savage Innocence by Cassie Edwards
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLife in small-town Minnesota was too confining for an independent young woman who yearns for adventure --- so Danette leaves home to seek a new life along the rugged frontier. She never expects to find herself wrapped in the arms of Gray Wolf, the magnificent Chippewa warrior who rules the land with battle-hardened courage ... and unexpected compassion .. -
Born in a Treacherous time by Jacqui Murray
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBorn in the harsh world of East Africa 1.8 million years ago, where hunger, death, and predation are a normal part of daily life, Lucy and her band of early humans struggle to survive. It is a time in history when they are relentlessly annihilated by predators, nature, their own people, and the next iteration of man. To make it worse, Lucy’s band hates her... -
Across the Great Sparkling Water (The Peacemaker Series) by Zoe Saadia
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTo live in captivity, adopted by the enemies of her people, or to break the law and tradition by running away? That question did not occur to Onheda until after she fled Little Falls on the spur of the moment, against any better judgment. If she was to die in the woods, making her way back to her people, accused, even by them, of breaking the ancient custom, it was still the better choice... -
Savage Torment by Cassie Edwards
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFree-spirited Judith McMahon's idea of a good adventure doesn't involve taking over her father's lumber business, but the Chippewa country surrounding the mill inflames her imagination. The reality is something she could never have prepared for - a virile stranger who sets her blood on fire, makes her tremble like a fawn, and calls her his enemy... -
Savage Vision by Cassie Edwards
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA New York Times Bestseller From her first sight of the shadowy ship with its tattered sails, Scarlet sensed it meant trouble. And when its lunatic captain forced her aboard, her despair knew no bounds. She could hardly believe her eyes when the stunningly handsome Indian she'd met just once appeared to save her... -
Mail Order Bride: An Indian Bride by Leah Laurens
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFitting in is never easy... especially when you’re an Indian mail order bride.Bíawacheeitchish—Bia to her friends—has just left the only home she's ever known.Her brothers want her to marry Askook, an Indian man from an enemy tribe whom she does not love.Bia is supposed to be the prize that will bring peace to their tribes.She knows Askook is dangerous but her brothers won't listen...Categorized as:
historical-fiction indigenous-mc poc-mc adult book fiction historical industrial-era -
Forgotten by Jeanne Hardt
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRumor has it, the war is about to end. But that doesn’t stop Billy Denton from running away to enlist. He’s lived a privileged life on the Wellesley estate, where slavery is seen as a necessary means to operate their textile production. Believing no human should be enslaved by another, he’s willing to fight—and even die—to change the future of the woman who holds his heart... -
The Cheerleader by Ruth Doan MacDougall
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFirst published in 1973 and 1974 by Putnam and Bantam, The Cheerleader was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection, optioned by Twentieth Century-Fox, made into an NBC sitcom pilot, and became a best-seller beloved by generations of readers. p/pThe reprint of this classic coming-of-age novel features a foreword by English professor Ann V...Categorized as:
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Savage Obsession by Cassie Edwards
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhile her beloved family struggle to put down stakes in the harsh Minnesota territory, Lorinda Odell is in St. Paul to get a proper education. But the bustling city is not without its own hazards, especially for a young woman as lovely as Lorinda... -
Drinking from a Bitter Cup by Angela Jackson-Brown
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratings“1978. The year I turned ten and the year my mama killed herself. She was thirty-five, and dying is the last thing that should have been on her mind.” After the death of her mother, Sylvia Butler’s father, a man she knows only from an old photo, takes her from Louisville, Kentucky to Ozark, Alabama to live with his family... -
The Dove in the Belly by Jim Grimsley
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAt the University of North Carolina, Ronny's made some friends, kept his secrets, survived dorm life, and protected his heart.Until he can't. Ben is in some ways Ronny's opposite; he's big and solid where Ronny is small and slight. Ben's at UNC on a football scholarship. Confident, with that easy jock swagger, and an explosive temper always simmering. He has a steady stream of girlfriends...Categorized as:
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Gold Mountain by Karen J. Hasley
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA Remarkable Woman. An Unforgettable Love Story. When Dinah Hudson leaves China in 1901, she hopes to leave behind dark memories of violence and sudden death, as well. Spending time with her sister in San Francisco will be just what she needs to help her forget China’s murderous Boxer Uprising... -
Mail Order Mystery by Robin Deeter
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLeigh Hawthorne, a widow and local farmer in Beckham, Massachusetts, enlists the services of Elizabeth Miller, the creator of the nationally published, Groom’s Gazette, to find a husband. Leigh is a strong woman, who knows her own mind, and she’s willing to travel across the country to Oklahoma to in the hope of finding love again... -
Clover Blue by Eldonna Edwards
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsSet against the backdrop of a 1970s commune in Northern California, Clover Blue is a compelling, beautifully written story of a young boy's search for identity. There are many things twelve-year-old Clover Blue isn't sure of: his exact date of birth, his name before he was adopted into the Saffron Freedom Community, or who his first parents were...Categorized as:
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