Books like 'Firebird'
Readers who enjoyed Firebird by Mark Doty also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
20th century lgbtq coming-of-age western family
-
Boy Underground by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsDuring WWII, a teenage boy finds his voice, the courage of his convictions, and friends for life in an emotional and uplifting novel by the New York Times and #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author.1941. Steven Katz is the son of prosperous landowners in rural California. Although his parents don’t approve, he’s found true friends in Nick, Suki, and Ollie, sons of field workers... -
The Lost Letters of Aisling: A Novel by Cynthia Ellingsen
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA woman faces the past she fled in a heart-stirring novel about unforgettable love and indomitable courage by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Lighthouse Keeper.Rainey’s grandmother makes a startling Take me home. To Ireland, the country she fled post–World War II. Though they’re inseparably close, Rainey knows few of her grandmother’s secrets... -
Far From Home by Lyn Andrews
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAs daughter of the blacksmith in her tiny Irish village, sixteen-year-old Kitty Doyle knows little of the ways of the world, but she has to grow up fast when her widowed father re-marries and she has no choice but to leave the family home.Luckily there's work to be found over the water in 1920s Liverpool and soon Kitty has a job in a grocer's, where she also catches the eye of the owner... -
Calder Brand by Janet Dailey
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA legendary era comes to vivid life in this saga of the beautiful, unforgiving American West, where the only thing more vital than hard work is the love of an unforgettable woman. "A sprawling, emotional love story... -
-
Rose's Choice by Chrissie Bradshaw
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRationing, bombing, disease and pit disasters are part of Rose Kelly’s World War 2 childhood. When the spirited coalminer’s daughter discovers a family secret, she makes a choice that overshadows her teenage years. Rose tries to make the most of post-war opportunities but family tragedy pulls her back to a life in the colliery rows... -
Still Life by Sarah Winman
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsTuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs fall around deserted villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian who has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the ruins and recall long-forgotten memories of her own youth... -
A Wing and a Prayer: A young womans journey to love and happiness by Lyn Andrews
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFor Mary Callaghan marriage has brought heartaches and disappointment. But with it have come joys, the greatest of which are her daughters, Daisy and Nell. Mary longs for them to have the one thing denied to her -- a husband who will offer them kindness, security and love. But when Daisy confesses she's pregnant, Mary knows the future looks grim, for the father's a rough, pleasure-loving man... -
When Daylight Comes by Lyn Andrews
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsJessica Brennan's world falls apart when her father is lost at sea. The death of her mother soon after is almost too much to bear. Then Jess learns that the family business is in ruins, and there are further blows to come.Suddenly a young woman who has known only comfort and security finds herself alone and friendless... -
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... -
An Ordinary Woman: An utterly captivating and uplifting story of one woman’s strength and determination… by Susan Sallis
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhen Rose was four the scandal broke about her head. She was really too young to understand what was happening - only that her mother was in disgrace and that they were leaving Aunt Mabe in America and returning home to England. The following May, Joanna - 'Jon' - was born. Rose and Jon were totally different... -
Magda's Daughter by Catrin Collier
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsStateless and destitute after the Second World War, Magda Janek settles in the Welsh town of Pontypridd, in the hope of building a new life for herself and her baby daughter, Helena. All Magda has to give Helena are the ambitions she had once cherished for herself; dreams cruelly snatched from her by the war and its terrible aftermath... -
Liverpool Lou by Lyn Andrews
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOne of Lyn Andrews' first eight novels, transferring from the original publisher to Headline; already steady sellers, they will be targeted for a huge increase in sales. Aunt Babsey considered herself a cut above her neighbours on Everton Ridge. For one thing she was 'trade'. She taught her children to be respectable, and she ruled her family with a rod of iron... -
Fairfield Hall by Margaret Dickinson
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRuthlessly ambitious Ambrose Constantine is determined that his daughter, Annabel, shall marry into the nobility. A fish merchant and self-made man, he has only his wealth to buy his way into society. When Annabel’s secret meetings with Gilbert, a young man employed at her father’s offices, stop suddenly, she learns that he has mysteriously disappeared... -
Burning Season by Rachel Ember
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe year is 1972. Dylan Chase is nineteen, and most days he’s lucky enough to ride a tough bronc, have a beer with his friends, and maybe even sleep under the stars on his family’s third-generation cattle ranch. Dylan’s life would be perfect if it weren’t for his forbidden itch. An itch he’s only scratched once… with Bo, a hitchhiker he never thought he’d see again... -
-
The Kudzu Queen by Mimi Herman
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 7 ratings“Funny, sad, and tender… Mimi Herman has written a novel that possesses a true and hard won understanding of the South.” —David Sedaris, author of Happy-Go-Lucky Fifteen-year-old Mattie Lee Watson dreams of men, not boys. So when James T...Categorized as:
family coming-of-age fiction historical-fiction literary-fiction historical audiobook 21st-century -
Yesteryear by Dorothy Garlock
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAddie Hyde spent four years waiting to see if the high-spirited husband she had married in haste would come back after the South lost the war. Yet Kirby Hyde was never among the Confederates in rags and tatters straggling through Arkansas. Addie always had spunk, but now she also had a young son, two foster children she cherished, and trouble...Categorized as:
family western 20th-century book fiction historical historical-fiction industrial-era -
This Is How It Begins by Joan Dempsey
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratings“In a time when religious liberty is on trial, This Is How It Begins is an extraordinarily pertinent novel dripping in suspense and powerful scenes of political discourse . . . a must read . . .” —Foreword (starred review)A woman bearing a thorny secret. A man fighting for religious freedom. A battle neither saw coming. Massachusetts, 2009. Ludka Zeilonka is relishing her emeritus status... -
A Chorus Line: The Complete Book of the Musical by James Kirkwood Jr., Michael Bennett
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratings(Applause Books). It is hard to believe that over 25 years have passed since A Chorus Line first electrified a New York audience. The memories of the show's birth in 1975, not to mention those of its 15-year-life and poignant death, remain incandescent and not just because nothing so exciting has happened to the American musical since... -
A Worthy Heart by Susan Anne Mason
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsCan an Irish Lass with a Dreamfor America Find True Love? Maggie Montgomery's long-held wish to see America is finally coming true. She'll visit her beloved brother Rylan and his wife, Colleen, and at the same time, escape Neill Fitzgerald's unwanted attention. In addition, Maggie has a secret! She plans to remain in America to seek her fortune and to hopefully find love... -
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... -
This Calder Range by Janet Dailey
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsChase Benteen Calder was bound to wrest a fortune from Montana land, where the whisper of riches swept across a sea of buffalo grass. With Lorna at his side, a woman who took the tough ways of the land as her destiny, he would breathe life into his dream. Through the treacherous Texas prairie, the perils of Indian country, and a bustling Dodge City, they forged their way to Montana... -
A Lawman's Christmas by Linda Lael Miller
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe sudden death of the town marshal leaves Blue River, Texas, without a lawman...and twenty-five-year-old Dara Rose Nolan without a husband. As winter approaches and her meager seamstress income dwindles, she has three options... -
Separate Rooms by Pier Vittorio Tondelli
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLeo is an Italian writer in his thirties. Thomas, his German lover, is dead. On a plane to Munich, Thomas?s home town, Leo slips into a reverie of their meeting and life in Paris, nights in Thomas?s flat in Montmartre and a desperate, drug-induced flight through the forests of northern France that spells the end for Leo and Thomas? languid, erotic life together. Leo travels to find anonymity... -
Ira Sleeps Over by Bernard Waber
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the beloved author-illustrator of Lyle, Lyle Crocodile comes a charming and relatable picture book about a child's first sleepover experience...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family 20th-century children children-books classics fiction friendship -
-
Beautiful Thing (Modern Classics) by Jonathan Harvey
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBeautiful Thing explores pre-teenage homo-erotic sensuality and the frictions and intimacies of living cheek by jowl on a Thamesmead housing estate... -
Flow Chart by John Ashbery
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsReticent, shy, unfailingly modern, Ashbery is as unorthodox [as] any of the great twentieth-century creators: Breton, Stravinsky, Picasso," observed Jeremy Reed in Britain's "Poetry Review," "We are privileged to be around at a time when he is writing... -
Lime Street Blues by Maureen Lee
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the 1960s Liverpool, and the glamorous world of music, is the place to be... -
Violet’s Children by Maureen Lee
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBeginning in 1950s Liverpool, VIOLET'S CHILDREN is a warm and nostalgicstory of a young woman who must adopt her sister's children after tragedy strikes... -
Christmas With Nurse Millie by Jean Fullerton
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsChristmas is approaching - but for Nurse Millie and Nurse Annie babies are still being born, and in the East End of London, new mothers still need all the care and support they can give... -
Ellan Vannin by Lyn Andrews
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLife was not easy for widowed George Vannin and his young daughter but somehow George had raised the child alone and Ellan adored her father. She was ten when the shaft at Foxdale Mine collapsed, and her father never came up. From then on she lived with Aunt Maud, a dour woman with a quick temper... -
Alice & Jean by Lily Hammond
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEvery lover has her story, and every town has its secrets. It’s 1946 in New Zealand, and Alice Holden has fallen for the woman delivering her milk every morning... -
The Lost Son by Prue Leith
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsGripping family drama from household name Prue Leith. Perfect for fans of Penny Vincenzi and Barbara Taylor Bradford. The Angelotti family reels when the lost son, given up for adoption in the war, traces his birth family and returns to the fold, with devastating consequences... -
Desperate by Sylvia McDaniel
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAfter the death of their father, the McKenzie sisters, Meg, Annabelle and Ruby try the normal ways for women to earn a living in a small western town. When they fail, the McKenzie sisters decide to take up their father's profession, bounty hunting...Categorized as:
western family romance contemporary historical-fiction womens-fiction 20th-century military -
A Daughter's Journey by Lyn Andrews
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAngela O'Rourke is six when her parents hand her over to an aunt and uncle in a distant village. It's a common practice for large, hard-up families in 1950s Ireland, but for Angela it means that her mother and father don't love her any more. Still, she's well cared for till she's sixteen, when her uncle starts to take too much of an interest in her... -
-
The Sun Rose in Paris: Portraits in Blue - Book One by Penny Fields-Schneider
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen a chance foray into the midst of the 1930s Parisian art world ignites passions Jack did not know existed, how can he possibly go home? Jack has been praised all his life for his extraordinary artistic talent and is rarely seen without his sketchpad... -
Reeds and Mud by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSet in Valencia, a poverty stricken city on the coast of Spain, this novel portrays the struggle of the common man against his environment. Based on the author's first hand experience in this area, the story centres around three generations of a poor Valencian family (circa 1900) who are as divided in their views on how to get along in this hostile world as any three individuals can be... -
Pictures of the Gone World by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsPublished to celebrate forty years of City Lights publishing, which began with the letterpress printing of this book in 1955.It was Lawrence Ferlinghetti's first book, and it has been reprinted twenty-one times, having never been out of print. The original edition contained the first twenty-seven poems to which the author has now added eighteen new verses... -
Carry Me Home by Sandra Kring
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe love of family. The heartbreak of war. The triumph of coming home. 1940. Rural Wisconsin. Sixteen-year-old Earl “Earwig” Gunderman is not like other boys his age. Fiercely protected by his older brother, Earwig sees his town and the world around him through the prism of his own unique understanding. He sees his mother’s sadness and his father’s growing solitude...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family 20th-century audiobook book fiction historical historical-fiction -
Winter Wheat by Mildred Walker
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFor this Bison Books edition, James Welch, the acclaimed author of Winter in the Blood (1986) and other novels, introduces Mildred Walker's vivid heroine, Ellen Webb, who lives in the dryland wheat country of central Montana during the early 1940s. He writes, "It is a story about growing up, becoming a woman, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, within the space of a year and a half... -
The Bartender's Tale by Ivan Doig
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFrom a great American storyteller, a one-of-a-kind father and his precocious son, rocked by a time of change. Tom Harry has a streak of frost in his black pompadour and a venerable bar called The Medicine Lodge, the chief watering hole and last refuge of the town of Gros Ventre, in northern Montana... -
The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsNovelist Ivan Doig revisits the American west in the early twentieth century, bringing to life the eccentric individuals and idiosyncratic institutions that made it thrive. “Can't cook but doesn't bite." So begins the newspaper ad offering the services of an "A-1 housekeeper, sound morals, exceptional disposition" that draws the attention of widower Oliver Milliron in the fall of 1909... -
The Trees by Conrad Richter
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe Trees is a moving novel of the beginning of the American trek to the west. Toward the close of the eighteenth century, the land west of the Alleghenies and north of the Ohio River was an unbroken sea of trees. Beneath them the forest trails were dark, silent, and lonely, brightened only by a few lost beams of sunlight... -
The Keeper of Secrets by Julie Thomas
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBeautiful and mysterious, this debut novel follows a priceless violin across five decades-from WWII to Stalinist Russia to the gilded international concert halls of today-and reveals the loss, love, and secrets of the families who owned it.A priceless violin. A family torn apart. A decision that could change everything.Berlin, 1939. Fourteen year old Simon Horowitz is awash in a world of music... -
Light Changes Everything by Nancy E. Turner
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratings“I adored stepping back into to the world of the Prines through tough-as-rawhide Mary Pearl. Light Changes Everything is a novel as gritty and authentic as the women of the Arizona Territory. Nancy E. Turner brings the west and its people fully to life.” –Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours Bestselling author Nancy E... -
-
The Centre of My World by Andreas Steinhöfel
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSeventeen-year-old Phil has felt like an outsider as long as he can remember. All Phil has ever known about his father is that he was Number Three on his mother's list - third in a series of affairs that have set Phil's family even further apart from the critical townspeople across the river...Categorized as:
lgbtq coming-of-age family europe western-central-europe germany romance young-adult -
Sacred Country by Rose Tremain
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAt the age of six, Mary Ward, the child of a poor farming family in Suffolk, has a revelation: she isn't Mary, she's a boy. So begins Mary's heroic struggle to change gender, while around her others also strive to find a place of safety and fulfilment in a savage and confusing world... -
1968 by Joe Haldeman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn 1968, a nation fought two wars: one abroad...and one with itself. On one front, Spider walked point and tried to survive an insanity he neither accepted nor understood. On another, his "girl," Beverly, drifted into a strange counterculture that offered her dangerous freedoms at the price of her innocence. In 1968, a great black leader was murdered on a balcony in Memphis.. -
The Jumping-Off Place by Marian Hurd McNeely
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the summer of 1910, four orphans leave their home in Wisconsin to "prove up" their claim to a parcel of land on the South Dakota prairie. Seventeen-year-old Becky Linville and her younger siblings — Dick, Phil, and Joan — hadn't intended to move to the newly opened Rosebud Reservation by themselves... -
Poems by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"Sex, death, political passion, these are the simple objects to which I give my elegiac heart"Winner of the first Renato Poggioli/William Weaver Award of PEN American CenterPier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975), who is best known in this country as an inspired filmmaker, was also the most outspoken and original Italian writer of his generation, the author of distinguished and controversial novels and... -
Calder Country by Janet Dailey
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratings1920s, Blue Moon, Montana. The small cattle town is alight with the excitement of cars, telephones, and airplanes. But as new inventions and new roles for women collide with Prohibition and the rising battle between gangsters and the FBI, Blue Moon finds itself—and some of its most infamous residents and powerful families—at a crossroads, and in battles of their own, between hearts and minds . .
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.