Books like 'How I Discovered Poetry'
Readers who enjoyed How I Discovered Poetry by Marilyn Nelson also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical military, war & conflict coming-of-age poc-mc historical-fiction family children social-commentary literary-fiction war
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Rashed, My Friend by Muhammed Zafar Iqbal
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 16 ratings1971 was a turning point in the sub-continent's history: it was when everything changed and Bangladesh came into existence. For nine months from March to December, the people of the country sacrificed their lives and all else that they had for their freedom in a way never before seen in the history of the world...Categorized as:
children coming-of-age historical-fiction literary-fiction war action-adventure book children-books -
![The Postcard by Anne Berest]()
The Postcard by Anne Berest
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAnne Berest’s luminous, moving, and unforgettable new novel The Postcard is the most acclaimed and beloved French book in recent years... -
![The Girls in Blue by Fenella J. Miller]()
The Girls in Blue by Fenella J. Miller
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsJane Hadley has nothing to lose when she runs away to join the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. Whatever faces her in war-torn London can't be any worse than staying at home with her abusive father...The city is nothing like she could have imagined, but she's soon on the move, travelling from base to base for her top-secret training...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war coming-of-age literary-fiction romance historical fiction ww2 -
![Retrospective by Juan Gabriel Vásquez]()
Retrospective by Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAn epic yet intimate novel about a Colombian man caught up in the sweep of global historical and ideological revolutions. The Colombian film director, Sergio Cabrera, is in Barcelona for a retrospective of his work...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war poc-mc fiction historical communism politics -
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![On a Wing and a Prayer by Helen Carey]()
On a Wing and a Prayer by Helen Carey
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratings‘This dramatic and poignant novel depicts the resilience of ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary war.Unputdownable!’ Western Telegraph Life is hard in London in 1941, and yet Helen de Burrel finds herself volunteering to join the SOE. Nobody knows that her cool exterior conceals such courage ... and such fear. It also means that love, when it strikes unexpectedly, is doubly dangerous... -
![The Wood's Edge by Lori Benton]()
The Wood's Edge by Lori Benton
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAt the wood's edge cultures collide. Can two families survive the impact?The 1757 New York frontier is home to the Oneida tribe and to British colonists, yet their feet rarely walk the same paths.On the day Fort William Henry falls, Major Reginald Aubrey is beside himself with grief. His son, born that day, has died in the arms of his sleeping wife... -
![The Bookbinder by Pip Williams]()
The Bookbinder by Pip Williams
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA young British woman working in a book bindery gets a chance to pursue knowledge and love when World War I upends her life--an exquisite novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese's Book Club pick The Dictionary of Lost Words It is 1914, and as the war draws the young men of Britain away to fight, women must keep the nation running... -
![Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan]()
Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn this searing novel, a courageous young woman tries to protect her dream of becoming a doctor as civil war devastates Sri Lanka.Jaffna, 1981. Sixteen-year-old Sashi wants to become a doctor. But over the next decade, a vicious civil war tears through her home, and her dream spins off course as she sees her four beloved brothers and their friend K swept up in the mounting violence...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war family poc-mc social-commentary fiction historical -
![Surviving the Fatherland by Annette Oppenlander]()
Surviving the Fatherland by Annette Oppenlander
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSpanning thirteen years from 1940 to 1953 and set against the epic panorama of WWII, SURVIVING THE FATHERLAND is a sweeping saga of family, love, and betrayal that illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the children's war...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century audiobook book -
![The Bomb Girl Brides by Daisy Styles]()
The Bomb Girl Brides by Daisy Styles
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt's 1944 and Britain is a country at war. The young women of the Phoenix munitions factory are giving their all to the cause, but romance is beckoning . . . The life of a Bomb Girl isn't usually glamourous. But Maggie is getting married, so she is going to make sure her wedding day is - even if she does have to spend every other day slaving on the factory floor... -
![The Woodcutter's Wife by David Johnson]()
The Woodcutter's Wife by David Johnson
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSet against the backdrop of the Civil War comes a tale of love lost and found. Mary Thomson is no ordinary woman. She works alongside her husband William cutting firewood to sell in the city, earning the nickname “The Woodcutter’s Wife.” She kills a bear with her bare hands. And she prefers plowing a field to cooking a meal... -
![The Lifeline by Deborah Swift]()
The Lifeline by Deborah Swift
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the heart of Norway to Shetland in Scotland, one couple fight to overthrow the Nazis…1942, Nazi-occupied NorwaySchoolteacher Astrid Dahl has always kept out of trouble. But when she is told to teach the fascist Nazi curriculum, she refuses and starts a teacher’s rebellion, persuading eight thousand teachers to go on strike... -
![The Maid's Secret by Shari J. Ryan]()
The Maid's Secret by Shari J. Ryan
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsCzechoslovakia, 1942: “Please don’t take him,” I plead to the Nazis.“I love you, Mila,” Ben says, hoarsely. “So much. Forever.”“Ben!” I shout as the soldiers pull him away, my heart thudding. “I love you. Please, come back.” I’m screaming at the top of my lungs as the world turns black around me.In the mountains of Bohemia, Mila, a Romani, works as a maid for an aristocratic Jewish family...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war coming-of-age literary-fiction europe western-central-europe historical ww2 -
![The Length of a String by Elissa Brent Weissman]()
The Length of a String by Elissa Brent Weissman
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsImani is adopted, and she's ready to search for her birthparents. But when she discovers the diary her Jewish great-grandmother wrote chronicling her escape from Holocaust-era Europe, Imani begins to see family in a new way.Imani knows exactly what she wants as her big bat mitzvah gift: to meet her birthparents...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family children poc-mc war literary-fiction middle-grade realistic -
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![The Lost Children by Shirley Dickson]()
The Lost Children by Shirley Dickson
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAs they walked towards the railway station, their mother took an envelope from her handbag. ‘I want you to keep this somewhere safe.’‘What’s in the letter?’‘Listen carefully. You’re never to open it unless you or your sister are in real trouble. Promise me.’England, 1943: Home is no longer safe for eight-year-old twins Molly and Jacob... -
![The Wall by Eve Bunting]()
The Wall by Eve Bunting
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA young boy and his father visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial... -
![The Fire Dream by Franklin Allen Leib]()
The Fire Dream by Franklin Allen Leib
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn epic military novel of soldier's combat in Vietnam This is a sweeping, gut-wrenching portrait of soldiers at war from a man who fought, and saw friends die, in Vietnam. It is a saga of men from all walks of life, thrown together by the arbitrary nature of unrelenting combat of Vietnam, each man in the team is put to the ultimate test-combat... -
![Valley of the Purple Hearts by Rick DeStefanis]()
Valley of the Purple Hearts by Rick DeStefanis
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe Vietnam experience, up close and personal. When eighteen-year-old Buck Marino first meets Rolley Zwyrkowski, he little realizes how much the young sergeant and their next year together in Vietnam will change his life forever...Categorized as:
coming-of-age historical-fiction literary-fiction war action-adventure adult book fiction -
![HIDDEN by Linda Gillard]()
HIDDEN by Linda Gillard
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA birth. A death. Hidden for a hundred years. The new novel from the author of Kindle bestseller THE MEMORY TREE “Lady, fiancé killed, will gladly marry officer totally blinded or otherwise incapacitated by the war...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war family literary-fiction historical 20th-century suspense fiction -
![The Wake of the Wind by J. California Cooper]()
The Wake of the Wind by J. California Cooper
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA dramatic and thought-provoking novel of one family's triumph in the face of the hardships and challenges of the post-Civil War South.The Wake of the Wind , J. California Cooper's third novel, is her most penetrating look yet at the challenges that generations of African Americans have had to overcome in order to carve out a home for themselves and their families...Categorized as:
historical-fiction social-commentary poc-mc family literary-fiction fiction drama civil-war -
![Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin]()
Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA luminous, boldly imagined debut novel about three Vietnamese siblings who seek refuge in the UK, expanding into a sweeping meditation on love, ancestry, and the power of storytelling.There are the goodbyes and then the fishing out of the bodies—everything in between is speculation... -
![At the Going Down of the Sun by Elizabeth Darrell]()
At the Going Down of the Sun by Elizabeth Darrell
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis family epic, set during World War I, follows the fortunes of three brothers and the women who loved and waited for them. One, heir to the exquisite family home of Tarant Hall in Dorset, will be driven to the Front by accusations of cowardice... -
![Dawn's Early Light by Elswyth Thane]()
Dawn's Early Light by Elswyth Thane
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsColonial Williamsburg lives again in this rich story which is Elswyth Thane's first novel of American history in her bestselling series... -
![The Bogside Boys by Eoin Dempsey]()
The Bogside Boys by Eoin Dempsey
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the Amazon Top Ten Overall Bestselling author of Finding RebeccaThe war will force him to choose between his community, his family, or the woman he loves. The city of Derry, Northern Ireland, 1972The Bogside is an area in open revolt, cordoned off from the rest of the city of Derry, patrolled by masked IRA men atop burnt out barricades... -
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![Our Last Goodbye by Shirley Dickson, Joan Walker]()
Our Last Goodbye by Shirley Dickson, Joan Walker
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA heart-wrenching, poignant and totally unforgettable tale of a young woman who must finally face up to the secret she has hidden for a lifetime. A beautiful World War Two novel for fans of Wives of War, Lisa Wingate and Diney Costeloe, that will have you reaching for the Kleenex... -
![Properties of Thirst by Marianne Wiggins]()
Properties of Thirst by Marianne Wiggins
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA National BestsellerA New Yorker Best Book of 2022Fifteen years after the publication of Evidence of Things Unseen , National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist Marianne Wiggins returns with a “big, bold book” ( USA TODAY ) destined to be an American classic: a sweeping masterwork set during World War II about the meaning of family and the limitations of the American Dream... -
![My Son, My Son by Howard Spring]()
My Son, My Son by Howard Spring
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe story of William Essex, who rose from humble beginnings to become a successful dramatist and novelist, and his friend Dermot O'Riordon, a fervent Irish patriot and founder of a great London furnishing house; and their sons, Oliver Essex and Rory O'Riordon. Plus some other assorted characters, from old Mr Moscrop and his daughter Nellie, and Maeve O'Riordon... -
![A Daughter's Secret by Anne Bennett]()
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![Into the Burning Dawn: Heartbreaking and gripping World War 2 historical fiction set in Italy by Natalie Meg Evans]()
Into the Burning Dawn: Heartbreaking and gripping World War 2 historical fiction set in Italy by Natalie Meg Evans
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the terrace courtyard of the palazzo overlooking a sparkling bay, the scent of ripening lemons filled the air. His deep brown eyes gazed into hers with determination and longing. ‘Will you do it? Risk everything and join us?’Twenty-one-year-old Imogen Fitzgerald was raised in an English orphanage and never knew her parents... -
![The Cake Tree in the Ruins by Akiyuki Nosaka]()
The Cake Tree in the Ruins by Akiyuki Nosaka
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIntensely moving stories that tell of the absurd violence of war, and tenderly depict the animals and children caught in its vortex.In 1945, Akiyuki Nosaka watched the Allied firebombing of Kobe kill his adoptive parents, and then witnessed his sister starving to death...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc war 20th-century adult anthologies asian-mc -
![Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash]()
Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratings“Spence-Ash has written the novel in eight points of view, but each character is utterly three-dimensional and distinct. This debut novel captivated me from start to finish...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century adult audiobook -
![Keep Smiling Through by Ellie Dean]()
Keep Smiling Through by Ellie Dean
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsJune 1940. Rita Smith swore she would never lose heart . . .Despite losing her mother at a young age and her father away on important war work, seventeen-year-old Rita Smith has plenty of people to turn to in the close-knit community of Cliffhaven. Until Italy sides with Germany and Rita's closest friends and neighbours are interned as enemies of the state... -
![Katie Mulholland by Catherine Cookson]()
Katie Mulholland by Catherine Cookson
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAs the daughter of a mining family, Katie Mulholland is forced to find work as a scullery maid in the house of the Rosiers. But the beautiful young girl soon captures the eye of her employer’s evil son, who rapes her and leaves her pregnant. Quick to dismiss Katie, the family forces her into a loveless marriage with the cruel manager of the Rosier mines... -
![The Children's Dream by Roberta Kagan]()
The Children's Dream by Roberta Kagan
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsSometimes Dreams Come True...And so do nightmares.When Naomi's daughter, Perle, starts to have nightmares about smokestacks and creepy doctors, Naomi is struck with terror - the terror of a mother who fears her daughter is in mortal danger. Naomi believes dreams are glimpses into the future. She, too, has had dreams of foreign soldiers with a strange flag invading her tiny village... -
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![The President's Gardens by Muohsin Ramlai, Luke Leafgren]()
The President's Gardens by Muohsin Ramlai, Luke Leafgren
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn this extraordinary novel by heralded Iraqi author Muhsin Al-Ramli, One Hundred Years of Solitude meets The Kite Runner against the backdrop of Saddam Hussein's Iraq. "A profoundly moving investigation of love, death, and injustice." --The Guardian"A standard in contemporary Middle Eastern literature." --Booklist "A stunning achievement...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc war 21st-century action-adventure adult -
![Looking At The Moon by Kit Pearson]()
Looking At The Moon by Kit Pearson
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsNorah, an English "war guest"living withthe wealthy Ogilvie family in Toronto, can hardly wait for August. She'll spend it at the Ogilvie's lavish cottage in Muskoka—a whole month of freedom, swimming, adventures with her "cousins"... But this isn't an ordinary summer. It's 1943, and the war is still going on...Categorized as:
children coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century book -
![We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama]()
We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsIn the wake of China's invasion of Tibet throughout the 1950s, Lhamo and her younger sister, Tenkyi, arrive at a refugee camp in Nepal. They survived the dangerous journey across the Himalayas, but their parents did not...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction family poc-mc war coming-of-age fiction historical -
![Independence by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni]()
Independence by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIndia, 1947. In a rural village in Bengal live three sisters, daughters of a well-respected doctor.Priya: intelligent and idealistic, resolved to follow in her father's footsteps and become a doctor, though society frowns on it.Deepa: the beauty, determined to make a marriage that will bring her family joy and status... -
![Homeseeking by Karissa Chen]()
Homeseeking by Karissa Chen
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAlternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593712993.An epic and intimate tale of one couple across sixty years as world events pull them together and apart, illuminating the Chinese diaspora and exploring what it means to find home far from your homeland.A single choice can define an entire life...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction family war coming-of-age romance fiction historical -
![Loving Liberty Levine by Colin Falconer]()
Loving Liberty Levine by Colin Falconer
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the author of The Unkillable Kitty O’Kane comes a gripping novel about finding the American Dream—and what it costs.In 1913, Sarah Levine leaves her small village and sails to New York to start a promising new life with her husband, Micha. But all Sarah really wants is what has come so easily to her sisters—a family of her own... -
![El abuelo by Александр Чудаков]()
El abuelo by Александр Чудаков
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsGalardonada en 2011 con el Premio Booker Ruso a la mejor novela de la década, El abuelo es una monumental obra que hunde sus raíces en la tradición narrativa de los grandes clásicos rusos... -
![My Lvov: Holocaust Memoir of a twelve-year-old Girl by Janina Hescheles, Yaroslav Hrytsak]()
My Lvov: Holocaust Memoir of a twelve-year-old Girl by Janina Hescheles, Yaroslav Hrytsak
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhile still twelve years old, Janina Hescheles wrote this harrowing report from her hiding place in Cracow. The notebook, filled with clear childlike writing, was fortunately preserved. She tells about the German occupation of Lvov, the loss of her parents, about the Ghetto and mass murder in the notorious forced-labor camp Janowska in Lvov...Categorized as:
coming-of-age historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century adult book fiction -
![Isabel by Javier Olivares Zurilla]()
Isabel by Javier Olivares Zurilla
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIsabel, una mujer que decidió ser la dueña de su propio destino.Hija menor de Juan II de Castilla e Isabel de Portugal, la pequeña Isabel contaba con escasas posibilidades de llegar al trono, destinado a sus hermanos varones... -
![Palace of Tears by Anna King]()
Palace of Tears by Anna King
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen Emily Ford’s kindly employers decide to escape the Zeppelin raids that bedevil Hackney in 1916, the pretty housemaid is delighted to return to her parents for an unexpected break.But the holiday proves anything but peaceful...Categorized as:
war literary-fiction historical-fiction family fiction historical drama romantic-love -
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![Promise by Rachel Eliza Griffiths]()
Promise by Rachel Eliza Griffiths
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTwo Black sisters growing up in small-town New England fight to protect their home, their bodies, and their dreams as the Civil Rights Movement sweeps the nation in this "magical, magnificent novel" (Marlon James) from "a startlingly fresh voice" (Jacqueline Woodson)...Categorized as:
historical-fiction coming-of-age literary-fiction family poc-mc war fiction historical -
![Until the Sun Falls by Cecelia Holland]()
Until the Sun Falls by Cecelia Holland
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsIn the thirteenth century the Mongol hordes swept out of Mongolia to over-run half the world. This novel follows Psin, a Mongol general, through the military campaigns in Russia and Europe, among his own family and in his own heart... -
![Au Revoir Liverpool by Maureen Lee]()
Au Revoir Liverpool by Maureen Lee
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsLiverpool, 1937. Jessica is married to Bertie, a mean, patronising man who she has stayed with purely for the sake of her two young children. To make up for the love and passion that is missing from her life, she spends the occasional afternoon at the local cinema, lost in romantic films... -
![Jane the Quene by Janet Ambrosi Wertman]()
Jane the Quene by Janet Ambrosi Wertman
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAll Jane Seymour wants is a husband; but when she catches the eye of a volatile king, she is pulled deep into the Tudor court's realm of plot and intrigue....England. 1535. Jane Seymour is 27 years old and increasingly desperate to marry and secure her place in the world... -
![Down Our Street by Lena Kennedy]()
Down Our Street by Lena Kennedy
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsGolden-haired, sunny-natured Amy is the apple of her mother's eye, youngest and dearest of Annie Flanagan's lively brood of thirteen. With the outbreak of World War II the Flanagan family is sundered, shaken from their crowded nest in London's East End. Joe is soon made a sergeant, fighting in France. Billy volunteers for the Army Transport, young Dan fulfils his dreams and joins the RAF... -
![Passage West by Rishi Reddi]()
Passage West by Rishi Reddi
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA Recommended Book from BookRiot, Bustle, The Millions and Teen Vogue A Los Angeles Times BEST CALIFORNIA BOOK of 2020 * A New England Independent Booksellers' 2020 NEW ENGLAND BOOK AWARD FINALISTA sweeping, vibrant first novel following a family of Indian sharecroppers at the onset of World War I, revealing a little-known part of California history1914: Ram Singh arrives in the Imperial Valley...
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