18 books like A good country

What to read after A good country — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

The Call of the Wild Jack London · 1903 · ★ 3.9 · 136p · ≈ 4h · Challenging As Buck, a mixed breed dog, is taken away from his home, instead of facing a feast for breakfast and the comforts of home, he faces the hardships of being a sled dog. Soon he lands in the wrong hands, being forced to keep going when it is too rough for him and the other dogs in his pack. He also fights the urges to run free with his ancestors, the wolves who live around where he is pulling the… Shares: History

The Dark Descent David G. Hartwell · 1987 · ★ 4.3 · 1011p · ≈ 33h · Challenging pt. 1. The color of evil. The reach / Stephen King -- Evening primrose / John Collier -- The ash-tree / M.R. James -- The new mother / Lucy Clifford -- There's a long, long trail a-winding / Russell Kirk -- The call of Cthulhu / H.P. Lovecraft -- The summer people / Shirley Jackson -- The whimper of whipped dogs / Harlan Ellison -- Young Goodman Brown / Nathaniel Hawthorne -- Mr. Justice… Shares: Community pick

Men Without Women Ernest Hemingway · 1927 · ★ 3.6 · 159p · ≈ 5h · Challenging A collection of short stories, including three or four regarded as among his best. The subjects are varied, with In Another Country about a member of the Ambulance Corps in Italy during WW1, The Killers a taut crime thriller about two hit-men and The Undefeated about a bullfighter in Spain. Shares: Community pick

Drum-taps Walt Whitman · 1865 · 158p · ≈ 5h · Challenging "Walt Whitman worked as a nurse in an army hospital during the Civil War and published Drum-Taps, his war poems, as the war was coming to an end. Later, the book came out in an expanded form, including 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd,' Whitman's passionate elegy for Lincoln. The most moving and enduring poetry to emerge from America's most tragic conflict, Drum-Taps also helped to… Shares: Civil war, History

All the ugly and wonderful things Bryn Greenwood · 2016 · ★ 4.0 · 349p · ≈ 11h · Moderate "As the daughter of a drug dealer, Wavy knows not to trust people, not even her own parents. It's safer to keep her mouth shut and stay out of sight. Struggling to raise her little brother, Donal, eight-year-old Wavy is the only responsible adult around. Obsessed with the constellations, she finds peace in the starry night sky above the fields behind her house, until one night her star gazing… Shares: Literary, Bildungsromans, Coming-of-age

Asymmetry Lisa Halliday · 2018 · ★ 3.5 · 281p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Explores the imbalances that spark and sustain dramatic human relations, tracing the overlapping stories of a young American editor's relationship with a famous older writer, an unexpected New York romance during the early years of the Iraq War and an Iraqi-American man who is detained by immigration officers in Heathrow. Shares: Literary, Coming-of-age

The Girls from Corona del Mar Rufi Thorpe · 2014 · ★ 3.7 · 256p · ≈ 8h · Moderate "An emotional novel about friendships made in youth and how these bonds-- challenged by loss, illness, parenthood, and distance--either break or endure"-- Shares: California, Literary, Coming-of-age

The Idiot Elif Batuman · 1969 · ★ 3.6 · 419p · ≈ 13h · Moderate Embarking on her freshman year at Harvard in the early tech days of the 1990s, a young artist and daughter of Turkish immigrants begins a correspondence with an older mathematics student from Hungary while struggling with her changing sense of self, first love and a daunting career prospect. Shares: Literary, Bildungsromans, Coming-of-age

Talent Juliet Lapidos · 2019 · ★ 3.6 · 256p · ≈ 8h · Moderate An English grad student struggling with her dissertation about the intellectual history of inspiration desperately searches for a perfect case study to anchor her thesis, only to find it in the unlikeliest of places. Shares: Literary, Coming-of-age

Bride of the night Heather Graham · 2011 · 379p · ≈ 12h · Moderate Pinkerton detective Finn Dunne and Confederate spy Tara Fox (both half-vampires) attempt to foil a conspiracy to kill President Lincoln while warding off attacks by rogue vampires and settling their differences in each other's arms. Shares: Civil war, History

The Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane · 1855 · ★ 3.3 · 184p · ≈ 6h · Challenging The Red Badge of Courage is a war novel by American author Stephen Crane (1871–1900). Taking place during the American Civil War, the story is about a young private of the Union Army, Henry Fleming, who flees from the field of battle. Overcome with shame, he longs for a wound, a "red badge of courage," to counteract his cowardice. When his regiment once again faces the enemy, Henry acts as… Shares: Civil war, Coming-of-age, History

Candy Terry Southern · 1964 · ★ 3.9 · 224p · ≈ 7h · Moderate Banned upon its initial publication, the now-classic Candy is a romp of a story about the impossibly sweet Candy Christian, a wide-eyed, luscious, all-American girl. Candy -- a satire of Voltaire's Candide -- chronicles her adventures with mystics, sexual analysts, and everyone she meets when she sets out to experience the world. Shares: Bildungsromans, Coming-of-age

Petit pays Gaël Faye · 2016 · ★ 4.3 · 215p · ≈ 7h · Moderate En 1992, Gabriel, dix ans, vit au Burundi avec son père français, entrepreneur, sa mère rwandaise et sa petite sœur, Ana, dans un confortable quartier d’expatriés. Gabriel passe le plus clair de son temps avec ses copains, une joyeuse bande occupée à faire les quatre cents coups. Un quotidien paisible, une enfance douce qui vont se disloquer en même temps que ce « petit pays » d’Afrique… Shares: Civil war, Bildungsromans, History

色彩を持たない多崎つくると、彼の巡礼の年 村上春樹 · 2013 · ★ 3.9 · 336p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Tsukuru Tazaki reexamines his simple life as he searches for his closest high school friends to discover why he was suddenly ostracized from their group. "Cuando Tsukuru Tazakiera adolescente, se sentaba durante horas en las estaciones para ver pasar los trenes. Ahora, con treinta y seis años, es un ingeniero que diseña y construye estaciones de ferrocarril y que lleva una vida tranquila, tal… Shares: Literary, Bildungsromans, Coming-of-age

Our young man Edmund White · 2016 · ★ 3.3 · 304p · ≈ 10h · Moderate 282 pages ; 20 cm Shares: Literary, Coming-of-age

The Crisis Winston Churchill · 1901 · ★ 3.8 · 561p · ≈ 18h · Challenging "The novel is set in the years leading up to the first battles of the U.S. Civil War, mostly in the divided state of Missouri. It follows the fortunes of young Stephen Brice, a man with Union and abolitionist sympathies, and his involvement with a Southern family."--Wikipedia Shares: Civil war, History

The chocolate money Ashley Prentice Norton · 2012 · 304p · ≈ 10h · Moderate An innocent little girl, A phenomenal fortune, A mother like no other. Ten-year old Bettina and her mother, Babs, are heiresses to one of America's biggest fortunes. But Bettina's whole life is overshadowed by that of her beautiful, hedonistic mother, the glamorous but domineering Babs. At fifteen, Bettina escapes to New England and an exclusive, preppy boarding school called Cardiss, where she… Shares: Bildungsromans, Coming-of-age

Nora, Nora Anne Rivers Siddons · 2000 · 263p · ≈ 8h · Moderate "Peyton is not ready to share her widowed father with anyone, let alone a barely remembered cousin who just rolled into town, a cousin who smokes cigarettes and drives a pink Thunderbird. However, her father seems to like Nora well enough, and she does make for good conversation at the Losers Club, and prim Aunt Augusta hates her, which raises Nora slightly in Peyton's esteem. Maybe she isn't so… Shares: Literary, Bildungsromans

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