Books like 'Thumbsucker'
Readers who enjoyed Thumbsucker by Walter Kirn also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary 20th century literary-fiction coming-of-age realistic family season-spring
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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...Categorized as:
coming-of-age literary-fiction realistic 20th-century audiobook book children classics -
![Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown]()
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsIn a great green room, tucked away in bed, is a little bunny. "Goodnight room, goodnight moon." And to all the familiar things in the softly lit room -- to the picture of the three little bears sitting on chairs, to the clocks and his socks, to the mittens and the kittens, to everything one by one -- the little bunny says goodnight... -
![Love You Forever by Robert Munsch]()
Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 46 ratingsA young woman holds her newborn son And looks at him lovingly. Softly she sings to him: "I'll love you forever I'll like you for always As long as I'm living My baby you'll be."So begins the story that has touched the hearts of millions worldwide... -
![Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey]()
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... -
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![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 family literary-fiction realistic 20th-century anthologies classics contemporary -
![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 family literary-fiction realistic 20th-century book classics contemporary -
![Promise at Dawn by Romain Gary]()
Promise at Dawn by Romain Gary
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 20 ratings'Promise at Dawn' begins as the story of a mother's sacrifice. Alone and poor, she fights fiercely to give her son the very best. Gary chronicles his childhood with her in Russia, Poland, and on the French Riviera. And he recounts his adventurous life as a young man fighting for France in the Second World War... -
![Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver]()
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWith this, his first collection, Carver breathed new life into the short story. In the pared-down style that has since become his hallmark, Carver showed us how humour and tragedy dwelt in the hearts of ordinary people, and won a readership that grew with every subsequent brilliant collection of stories, poems and essays that appeared in the last eleven years of his life...Categorized as:
coming-of-age literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies classics contemporary fiction -
![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:
family literary-fiction realistic 20th-century 21st-century adult anthologies audiobook -
![Beach Music by Pat Conroy]()
Beach Music by Pat Conroy
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsAn American expatriate in Rome unearths his family legacy in this sweeping novel by the acclaimed author of The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini A Southerner living abroad, Jack McCall is scarred by tragedy and betrayal... -
![Rose by Li-Young Lee, Gerald Stern]()
Rose by Li-Young Lee, Gerald Stern
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn this outstanding first book of poems, Lee is unafraid to show emotion, especially when writing about his father or his wife. "But there is wisdom/ in the hour in which a boy/ sits in his room listening," says the first poem, and Lee's silent willingness to step outside himself imbues Rose with a rare sensitivity... -
![A Wing and a Prayer: A young womans journey to love and happiness by Lyn Andrews]()
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... -
![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 family literary-fiction realistic 20th-century audiobook book child-abuse -
![Fool for Love and Other Plays by Sam Shepard]()
Fool for Love and Other Plays by Sam Shepard
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsHere are eight of Pulitzer-prizewinning Sam Shepard's most stunning plays. This brilliant American dramatist creates what The New Yorker dubbed "Shepard Country"--a landscape of the imagination, a unique theatrical experience that captures our culture and consciouness, our fears and fantasies... -
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![Island: The Complete Stories by Alistair MacLeod]()
Island: The Complete Stories by Alistair MacLeod
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe sixteen exquisitely crafted stories in Island prove Alistair MacLeod to be a master. Quietly, precisely, he has created a body of work that is among the greatest to appear in English in the last fifty years.A book-besotted patriarch releases his only son from the obligations of the sea. A father provokes his young son to violence when he reluctantly sells the family horse...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies classics contemporary fiction -
![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 family literary-fiction realistic 20th-century anthologies classics contemporary -
![Birds of America by Lorrie Moore]()
Birds of America by Lorrie Moore
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA long-awaited collection of stories--twelve in all--by one of the most exciting writers at work today, the acclaimed author of Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? and Self-Help. Stories remarkable in their range, emotional force, and dark laughter, and in the sheer beauty and power of their language...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction realistic season-spring 20th-century adult animals anthologies -
![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... -
![The Selected Stories Of Mavis Gallant by Mavis Gallant]()
The Selected Stories Of Mavis Gallant by Mavis Gallant
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA collection of fifty-two short stories, written between 1953 and 1995, by Mavis Gallant...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary female-author fiction -
![Angels and Men by Catherine Fox]()
Angels and Men by Catherine Fox
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsParson’s daughter Mara Johns arrives as a postgraduate student at a great northern cathedral city. Antagonistic to the church and fiercely independent, she repels all friendly overtures and seeks spiritual answers in her theological research. But when her past involvement in an extreme sect resurfaces, she finds her quest won’t stay academic... -
![The Cinnamon Peeler: Selected Poems by Michael Ondaatje]()
The Cinnamon Peeler: Selected Poems by Michael Ondaatje
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMichael Ondaatje’s new selected poems, The Cinnamon Peeler, brings together poems written between 1963 and 1990, including work from his most recent collection, Secular Love. These poems bear witness to the extraordinary gifts that have won high praise for this truly original poet and novelist...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary fiction male-author -
![Joe by Larry Brown, Tom Stechschulte]()
Joe by Larry Brown, Tom Stechschulte
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNearing fifty, Joe Ransom won't slow down, not in his pickup, not with a gun-and certainly not with women. But all the fast living in Mississippi won't fill the hunger Joe can't name. At fifteen, Gary Jones is already slipping through the cracks. Part of a hopeless, homeless wandering family, he's desperate for a way out. He finds it in Joe... -
![In The Garden Of The North American Martyrs by Tobias Wolff]()
In The Garden Of The North American Martyrs by Tobias Wolff
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAmong the characters you'll find in this collection of twelve stories by Tobias Wolff are a teenage boy who tells morbid lies about his home life, a timid professor who, in the first genuine outburst of her life, pours out her opinions in spite of a protesting audience, a prudish loner who gives an obnoxious hitchhiker a ride, and an elderly couple on a golden anniversary cruise who endure the...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook classics contemporary -
![Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary]()
Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsIn this Newbery Honor Book from beloved author Beverly Cleary, eight-year-old Ramona Quimby's zest for life is infectious as ever. Whether speaking her mind to her third-grade teacher, or befriending her schoolyard bully, Ramona can't be kept down!Then one day an embarrassing incident in the classroom leaves Ramona completely humiliated...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family realistic 20th-century audiobook children children-books classics -
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![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 family literary-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure book classics -
![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... -
![Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter by J. Nozipo Maraire]()
Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter by J. Nozipo Maraire
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWritten as a letter from a Zimbabwean mother to her daughter, a student at Harvard, J. Nozipo Maraire evokes the moving story of a mother reaching out to her daughter to share the lessons life has taught her and bring the two closer than ever before...Categorized as:
literary-fiction family fiction historical-fiction contemporary epistolary 20th-century book -
![Medea and Her Children by Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Ludmila Ulitskaya]()
Medea and Her Children by Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Ludmila Ulitskaya
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMedea Georgievna Sinoply Mendez is an iconic figure in her Crimean village, the last remaining pure-blooded Greek in a family that has lived on that coast for centuries. Childless Medea is the touchstone of a large family, which gathers each spring and summer at her home...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book contemporary female-author -
![The Wine of Youth by John Fante]()
The Wine of Youth by John Fante
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsContains the stories in Dago Red, first published in 1940, together with seven new stories, including "A Nun No More" and "My Father’s God...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies classics contemporary fiction -
![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 family realistic coming-of-age fiction feminism classics contemporary -
![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 family literary-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure book comedy -
![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 family literary-fiction realistic 20th-century anthologies audiobook classics -
![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 family literary-fiction realistic 20th-century adult animals audiobook -
![Evening Class by Maeve Binchy]()
Evening Class by Maeve Binchy
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsAmong the many evening classes starting all over Dublin is an 'Introduction to Italian'. On the surface it could be just one of hundreds in which some students will succeed and some will fall along the way. the hopes and dreams of so many people are tied up in the twice weekly lessons... -
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![Tin Man by Sarah Winman]()
Tin Man by Sarah Winman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsA novel celebrating love in all of its forms and the little moments that make up the life of an autoworker in a small working-class town.This is almost a love story. But it's not as simple as that...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family literary-fiction realistic season-spring 20th-century 21st-century audiobook -
![Midwives by Chris Bohjalian]()
Midwives by Chris Bohjalian
Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsMidwives, Chris Bohjalian's fifth novel, is the story of Sibyl Danforth, a lay midwife in rural Vermont, and her daughter, Connie. The nexus of this cautionary tale is an emergency Caesarean section Sibyl performs during a home birth that goes disastrously wrong. Believing the mother is already dead from a stroke, Sibyl operates and later finds herself on trial for killing the woman... -
![Superfudge by Judy Blume]()
Superfudge by Judy Blume
Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsHe knows a lot of big words, but he doesn’t know where babies come from. He’s never heard of a stork, but he plans to be a bird when he grows up. He’s Superfudge, otherwise known as Farley Drexel Hatcher. And, according to his older brother Peter, the biggest pain ever invented. Among other things.As fans of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing already know, nothing is simple for Peter Hatcher...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family realistic 20th-century audiobook children children-books classics -
![The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin]()
The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOn an evening in late summer, the great financier Harry Wainwright, nearing the end of his life, arrives at a rustic fishing camp in a remote area of Maine. He comes bearing two things: his wish for a day of fishing in a place that has brought him solace for thirty years, and an astonishing bequest that will forever change the lives of those around him... -
![Flesh and Blood by Michael Cunningham]()
Flesh and Blood by Michael Cunningham
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn Flesh and Blood, Michael Cunningham takes us on a masterful journey through four generations of the Stassos family as he examines the dynamics of a family struggling to "come of age" in the 20th century... -
![My Name Is Venus Black by Heather Lloyd]()
My Name Is Venus Black by Heather Lloyd
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsVenus Black is a straitlaced A student fascinated by the study of astronomy—until the night she commits a shocking crime that tears her family apart and ignites a media firestorm. Venus refuses to talk about what happened or why, except to blame her mother. Adding to the mystery, Venus’s developmentally challenged younger brother, Leo, goes missing...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family literary-fiction realistic 20th-century abuse audiobook betrayal -
![The Lover by A.B. Yehoshua, Philip Simpson]()
The Lover by A.B. Yehoshua, Philip Simpson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratings“Elusive, haunting.”— New York Times Book Review A husband’s search for his wife’s lover, lost amid the turbulence of the Yom Kippur War, is the heart of this dreamlike novel. Through five different perspectives, Yehoshua explores the realities and consequences of the affair and the search, laying bare deep-rooted tensions within family, between generations, between Jews and Arabs...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction 20th-century adult book contemporary fiction historical-fiction -
![The Coast of Chicago by Stuart Dybek]()
The Coast of Chicago by Stuart Dybek
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe stolid landscape of Chicago suddenly turns dreamlike and otherworldly in Stuart Dybek's classic story collection. A child's collection of bottle caps becomes the tombstones of a graveyard. A lowly rightfielder's inexplicable death turns him into a martyr to baseball. Strains of Chopin floating down the tenement airshaft are transformed into a mysterious anthem of loss...Categorized as:
literary-fiction realistic 20th-century anthologies contemporary fiction illinois north-america -
![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 family literary-fiction historical-fiction fiction contemporary audiobook young-adult -
![Hôtel Splendid by Marie Redonnet]()
Hôtel Splendid by Marie Redonnet
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThese three short novels are the first works to appear in English by a remarkable contemporary French author, Marie Redonnet. Born in Paris in 1947, Redonnet taught for a number of years in a suburban lycée before deciding to pursue a writing career full time...Categorized as:
coming-of-age literary-fiction 20th-century adult book contemporary female-author fiction -
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![The Lockhart Women by Mary Camarillo]()
The Lockhart Women by Mary Camarillo
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBrenda Lockhart’s family has been living well beyond their means for too long when Brenda’s husband leaves them—for an older and less attractive woman than Brenda, no less. Brenda’s never worked outside the home, and the family’s economic situation quickly declines... -
![Rabbit at Rest by John Updike]()
Rabbit at Rest by John Updike
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWinner of the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In John Updike's fourth and final novel about ex-basketball player Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, the hero has acquired heart trouble, a Florida condo, and a second grandchild. His son and daughter-in-law are acting erratically, his wife Janice wants to work, and Rabbit is searching his soul, looking for reasons to live... -
![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 family literary-fiction 20th-century 21st-century audiobook book contemporary -
![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... -
![The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks]()
The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn this bestselling classic novel which became a famous film, Jane Graham, alone and pregnant, retreats to a dingy attic bedsit in Fulham where she finds unexpected companionship, happiness and love... -
![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 literary-fiction realistic 20th-century book children classics contemporary
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