Books like 'I Could Read The Sky'
Readers who enjoyed I Could Read The Sky by Timothy O'Grady & Steve Pyke also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary 20th century action / adventure historical-fiction male-mc literary-fiction
-
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 49 ratingsThe seventeen pieces in Ficciones demonstrate the whirlwind of Borges's genius and mirror the precision and potency of his intellect and inventiveness, his piercing irony, his skepticism, and his obsession with fantasy... -
The Little Golden Calf by Ilya Ilf, Yevgeny Petrov
Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe name The Little Golden Calf comes from the Bible, the Book of Exodus 32:1-4 Delighted applause from both sides of the Atlantic greeted the first publication of this comic clasic about Soviet life in the early years after the Revolution. Social changes then were so drastic and came so thick and fast that even most Russians were confused...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book classics -
The Long Road Back To You by Buck Turner
Rated: 4.70 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThey say it only takes a moment to fall in love with someone, but a lifetime to forget them!From the author of Evergreen comes a stirring story that proves it is never too late for loveEighteen-year-old Charlie Ross, a shy, backward teen from Tennessee, does the one thing you should never do before going off to war - he falls in love...Categorized as:
historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book contemporary fiction military -
Captains of the Sands by Jorge Amado
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsLiving by their wits in the steamy slums of Bahia, a gang of orphans and runaways, led by fifteen-year-old "Bullet," spend their time stealing from Brazil's rich and privileged until public outcry demands their capture...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children classics -
-
Under the Midnight Sun by Keigo Higashino
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsFrom the acclaimed international bestseller Keigo Higashino (The Devotion of Suspect X) comes a sweeping novel in the tradition of Les Miserables and Crime and Punishment...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsThis classic tale of the famous Mallard ducks of Boston is available for the first time in a full-sized paperback edition. Awarded the Caldecott Medal in 1942, Make Way for Ducklings has been described as "one of the merriest picture books ever" (The New York Times). Ideal for reading aloud, this book deserves a place of honor on every child's bookshelf... -
Primeval and Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsSet in the mythical Polish village of Primeval, a microcosm of the world populated with eccentric, archetypal characters and guarded by four archangels, this novel from Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk chronicles the lives of the inhabitants over the course of the feral 20th century in prose that is forceful, direct, and the stylistic cousin of the magic realism in Gabriel García Márquez's One...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book classics -
The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsThe complete volume of Robertson Davies's acclaimed trilogy, featuring Fifth Business, The Manticore, and World of Wonders, with a new foreword by Kelly Link Fifth Business Ramsay is a man twice born, a man who has returned from the hell of the battle-grave at Passchendaele in World War I decorated with the Victoria Cross and destined to be caught in a no man's land where memory, history, and... -
Hard to Be a God by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsThe novel follows Anton, an undercover operative from the future planet Earth, in his mission on an alien planet, that is populated by human beings, whose society has not advanced beyond the Middle Ages...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book classics -
The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsHans Thomas and his father set out on a car trip through Europe, from Norway to Greece—the birthplace of philosophy—in search of Hans Thomas's mother, who left them many years earlier. On the way, Hans Thomas receives a mysterious miniature book—the fantastic memoir of a sailor shipwrecked in 1842 on a strange island where a deck of cards come to life...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children classics -
Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline, William T. Vollmann
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsLouis-Ferdinand Celine's revulsion and anger at what he considered the idiocy and hypocrisy of society explodes from nearly every page of this novel. Filled with slang and obscenities and written in raw, colloquial language, Journey to the End of the Night is a literary symphony of violence, cruelty and obscene nihilism...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book classics -
Iza's Ballad by Magda Szabó
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhen Ettie's husband dies, her daughter Iza insists that her mother give up the family house in the countryside and move to Budapest. Displaced from her community and her home, Ettie tries to find her place in this new life, but can't seem to get it right...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult aging book classics -
Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius by Jorge Luis Borges
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsHere is a handsome edition of one of Borges' "ficciones," in a translation first published in "Labyrinths" in 1962. It's an important story in the Borges' canon, incorporating most of the author's philosophical and esthetic preoccupations in a typically brief compass...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book classics contemporary -
Hourglass by Danilo Kiš
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDanilo Kiš was one of the most artful and eloquent writers of postwar Europe. Of all his books, Hourglass, the account of the final months in one man's life before he is sent to a concentration camp, is considered to be his masterpiece...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book classics contemporary -
-
The Black Stallion Returns by Walter Farley
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn this, the second book in the series, the heart-stopping adventures of the Black Stallion continue as Alec discovers that two men are after the Black. One claims to be the Black’s rightful owner and one is trying to kill the beautiful steed. An Arab chieftain proves his ownership of the Black and takes him away, but Alec is determined to find his horse again... -
Terms of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAn Oscar-winning story of a memorable mother and her feisty daughter who find the courage and humor to live through life's hazards and to love each other as never before. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lonesome Dove created two characters who won the hearts of readers and moviegoers everywhere--Aurora Greenway and her daughter Emma...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book classics -
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsFirst published in Spanish in 1998, The Savage Detectives was immediately hailed as a critical success, wining the Herralde Prize and the Romulo Gallegos Prize. But with the 2007 English-language translation the book became more than a bestseller -- it began the global sensation of Bolanomania. New Year's Eve 1975, Mexico City...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book classics -
Malgudi Days by R.K. Narayan
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsFour gems, with new introductions, mark acclaimed Indian writer R. K. Narayan’s centennialIntroducing this collection of stories, R. K. Narayan describes how in India “the writer has only to look out of the window to pick up a character and thereby a story... -
Monday Begins on Saturday by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsWhen young programmer Aleksandr Ivanovich Privalov picks up two hitchhikers while driving in Karelia, he is drawn into the mysterious world of the Scientific Research Institute of Sorcery and Wizardry, where research into magic is serious business...Categorized as:
literary-fiction male-mc 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book classics comedy -
Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsColombian drug lords, bored with Uncle Sam's hectoring, assassinate the head of the FBI. The message is clear: Bug off!At what point do these druggies threaten national security? When can a nation act against its enemies? These are questions Jack Ryan must answer because someone has quietly stepped over the line...Categorized as:
historical-fiction male-mc 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book classics -
The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHelen DeWitt's extraordinary debut, The Last Samurai, centers on the relationship between Sibylla, a single mother of precocious and rigorous intelligence, and her son, who, owing to his mother's singular attitude to education, develops into a prodigy of learning... -
Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA major classic of 1930s literature, Antal Szerb's Journey by Moonlight (Utas és Holdvilág) is the fantastically moving and darkly funny story of a bourgeois businessman torn between duty and desire.'On the train, everything seemed fine. The trouble began in Venice ...'Mihály has dreamt of Italy all his life...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book classics -
The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsOften likened to Kafka's The Castle, The Tartar Steppe is both a scathing critique of military life and a meditation on the human thirst for glory. It tells of young Giovanni Drogo, who is posted to a distant fort overlooking the vast Tartar steppe...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century absurdism action-adventure adult audiobook book -
The Time of the Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSet among a community of cadets in a Lima military school, it is notable for its experimental and complex employment of multiple perspectives. The novel was so accurate in its portraiture of the academy that the academy's authorities burned one thousand copies and condemned the book as a plan by Ecuador to denigrate Peru...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult bildungsroman book classics -
-
Replay by Ken Grimwood
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsAt forty-three Jeff Winston is tired of his low-paid, unrewarding job, tired of the long silences at the breakfast table with his wife, saddened by the thought of no children to comfort his old age. But he hopes for better things, for happiness, maybe tomorrow ...But a sudden, fatal heart attack puts paid to that... -
The Fallen Man by Tony Hillerman
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom New York Times bestselling author Tony Hillerman comes another thrilling mystery featuring Leaphorn & Chee who must investigate a cold case that has far more personal consequences than expected.“Gripping.”—New York Times Book ReviewHuman bones lie on a ledge under the peak of Ship Rock mountain, the remains of a murder victim undisturbed for more than a decade...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
How to Become King by Jan Terlouw
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsSeventeen years after the king of Katoren dies, a boy aspires to win the crown and is tested with seven impossible tasks by six Ministers... -
Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy, David Dukes
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 50 ratingsOver the course of nine novels, Tom Clancy’s “genius for big, compelling plots” and his “natural narrative gift” (The New York Times Magazine) have mesmerized hundreds of millions of readers and established him as one of the preeminent storytellers of our time. Rainbow Six, however, goes beyond anything he has done before...Categorized as:
historical-fiction male-mc 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
First Term at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsDarrell's off to her new school.But what has she packed?1. Tennis racket? Yes2. Pocket-money? Yes3. A lid for her temper? NoOh dear! Malory Towers has a whole trunkload of trouble to come!Darrell and her friends grow together as they share their school days. There are new students to induct, sporting matches to be won, tempers to control and tricks to play on teachers... -
The Wandering Fire by Guy Gavriel Kay
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsIn the second novel in Guy Gavriel Kay's critically acclaimed Fionavar Tapestry, five men and women from our world must play their parts in a colossal war, as the first of all worlds confronts an ancient evil...After a thousand years of imprisonment the Unraveller has broken free and frozen Fionavar in the ice of eternal winter...Categorized as:
historical-fiction male-mc 20th-century action-adventure arthurian audiobook book classics -
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... -
Jenny Kissed Me! by Thomas Allen
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen Jenny finds an old letter in a shoebox, her mind is flooded with memories of a long forgotten love. She and Jonathan had secretly loved one another in high school, but never shared those feelings except for that one time in the library their senior year. Jenny had impetuously kissed Jonathan—a moment neither forgot. Four decades have passed...Categorized as:
historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book christian contemporary fiction -
The Darkening Skies by Janet MacLeod Trotter
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThough by nature an optimist, when Sara Pallister arrives in the mining town of Whitton Grange, she cannot help but be appalled by the welcome she receives...Categorized as:
historical-fiction contemporary military 20th-century fiction epic family action-adventure -
Wish Me Luck by Margaret Dickinson
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFleur Bosley didn't believe in love at first sight, at least not until she bumped into Robbie Rodwell on a railway station in the blackout of wartime Britain...Categorized as:
historical-fiction romance contemporary fiction secrets womens-fiction military 20th-century -
-
Spring Magic by D.E. Stevenson
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsTwenty-five year old Frances Field wanted desperately to get away from her guardians' dull London townhouse. Unforeseen circumstances finally gave her the chance to escape. She decided for the first time in her life to go off on her own, to a quiet fishing village in Scotland... -
The Wailing Wind by Tony Hillerman
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOfficer Bernadette Manuelito found the dead man slumped over in the cab of a blue pickup abandoned in a dry gulch off a dirt road--with a rich ex-con's phone number in his pocket ... and a tobacco tin nearly filled with tracer gold. It's her initial mishandling of the scene that spell trouble for her supervisor, Sgt...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
Son of the Black Stallion by Walter Farley
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsWhen Alec receives the Black Stallion’s first son as a gift, he believes his dreams have come true, but Satan’s savage arrogance makes him dangerous and unpredictable. Still, Alec is resolved to gain the fiery colt’s trust, even if he must risk his life to do it... -
Talking God by Tony Hillerman
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA grave robber and a corpse reunite Navajo Tribal Police Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Officer Jim Chee. As Leaphorn seeks the identify of a murder victim, Chee is arresting Smithsonian conservator Henry Highhawk for ransacking the sacred bones of his anscestors...Categorized as:
historical-fiction male-mc 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
Deception on His Mind by Elizabeth George
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsBalford-le-Nez is a dying seatown on the coast of Essex. But when a member of the town's small but growing Asian community, a Pakistani named Haytham Querashi, is found dead near its beach, his neck broken, sleepy Balford-le-Nez ignites...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
Hotel by Arthur Hailey
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsDuring five days in the midst of a hot, steamy Louisiana summer, the lives of a colorful cast of characters intertwine in a series of public, private, and personal dramas at the famed St. Gregory luxury hotel...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book classics -
The High Window by Raymond Chandler
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA wealthy Pasadena widow with a mean streak, a missing daughter-in-law with a past, and a gold coin worth a small fortune—the elements don't quite add up until Marlowe discovers evidence of murder, rape, blackmail, and the worst kind of human exploitation...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book classics -
Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less by Jeffrey Archer
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThe conned: an Oxford don, a revered society physician, a chic French art dealer, and a charming English lord. They have one thing in common. Overnight, each novice investor lost his life's fortune to one man. The con: Harvey Metcalfe!!A brilliant, self-made guru of deceit. A very dangerous individual. And now, a hunted man...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book classics -
House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsThe English translation of the prize-winning international bestseller Winner of the Gunter Grass PrizeNowa Ruda is a small town in Silesia, an area that has been a part of Poland, Germany, and the former Czechoslovakia in the past. When the narrator moves into the area, she discovers everyone--and everything--has a story...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
The Encyclopedia of the Dead by Danilo Kiš
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAn entrancing, otherworldly collection of short stories from one of Europe's most accomplished 20th century writers, new to Penguin Modern ClassicsA counter-prophet attempts the impossible to prove his power; a girl sees the hideous fate of her sisters and father in a mirror bought from a gypsy; the death of a prostitute causes an unanticipated uprising; and the lives of every ordinary person... -
-
Marathon Man by William Goldman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsTom "Babe" Levy is a runner in every sense: racing tirelessly toward his goals of athletic and academic excellence--and endlessly away from the specter of his famous father's scandal-driven suicide. But an unexpected visit from his beloved older brother will set in motion a chain of events that plunge Babe into a vortex of terror, treachery, and murder--and force him into a race for his life . . -
The Little Drummer Girl by John le Carré
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsJohn le Carre's classic novels deftly navigate readers through the intricate shadow worlds of international espionage with unsurpassed skill and knowledge, and have earned him unprecedented worldwide acclaim... -
Close Range: Brokeback Mountain and Other stories by Annie Proulx
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsClose Range "Brokeback Mountain" The inspiration behind 'Life of Pi' director Ang Lee's 'Brokeback Mountain' is one of the short stories to be found in this haunting collection of Wyoming tales... -
A Heart So White by Javier Marías
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAn alternate cover of this ISBN can be found here.Javier Marías's A Heart So White chronicles with unnerving insistence the relentless power of the past. Juan knows little of the interior life of his father Ranz; but when Juan marries, he begins to consider the past anew, and begins to ponder what he doesn't really want to know...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book classics contemporary -
Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp, Book One by C.D. Payne
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsSix months in the life of the world's most dangerous teenager.Youth in Revolt is the journals of Nick Twisp, California's most precocious diarist, whose ongoing struggles to make sense out of high school, deal with his divorced parents, and lose his virginity result in his transformation from an unassuming fourteen-year-old to a modern youth in open revolt...Categorized as:
literary-fiction male-mc 20th-century action-adventure audiobook bildungsroman book children -
Secret Pilgrim by John le Carré
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsNothing is as it was. Old enemies embrace. The dark staging grounds of the Cold War -- whose shadows barely obscure the endless games of espionage -- are flooded with light. The rules are rewritten, the stakes changed and the future unfathomable. Ned has worked for the British Intelligence all of his life -- a loyal, shrewd officer of the Cold War...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book classics
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.