18 books like Adventures in Contentment

What to read after Adventures in Contentment — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

The egg and I Betty MacDonald · 1945 · ★ 3.9 · 277p · ≈ 9h · Challenging When Betty MacDonald married a marine and moved to a small chicken farm on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, she was largely unprepared for the rigors of life in the wild. With no running water, no electricity, a house in need of constant repair, and days that ran from four in the morning to nine at night, the MacDonalds had barely a moment to put their feet up and relax. And then came… Shares: Farm life, American Authors, Country life, Social life and customs

Passages from the American note-books of Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne · 1860 · ★ 4.0 · 460p · ≈ 15h · Challenging The American Notebooks follows chronological order, tracing Hawthorne's development over a period of eighteen years. The individual entries, however, are quite random in their makeup and contain adages, animal folklore, and biblical references that captivated Hawthorne. Observations of people whom he saw in the streets of nineteenth century Salem, Boston, and North Adams, Massachusetts, are mixed… Shares: Homes and haunts, Intellectual life, American Authors, Manners and customs

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou · 1969 · ★ 4.4 · 281p · ≈ 9h · Moderate She was born Marguerite, but her brother Bailey nicknamed her Maya ("mine"). As little children they were sent to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. Their early world revolved around this remarkable woman and the Store she ran for the black community. White people were more than strangers - they were from another planet. And yet, even unseen they ruled. The Store was a microcosm… Shares: Homes and haunts, Intellectual life, American Authors, Social life and customs

Walden Henry David Thoreau · 1854 · ★ 3.9 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Challenging Walden first published in 1854 as Walden; or, Life in the Woods) is a book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon the author's simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and—to some degree—a manual for self-reliance. Walden details… Shares: Homes and haunts, American Authors, Essays, Social life and customs

One Man's Meat E. B. White · 1941 · 350p · ≈ 11h · Challenging First published in 1942, this collection of essays on Maine life has been in print almost without interruption. The author began this collection as a series of pieces for Harper's Magazine when he left New York City and moved to a saltwater farm in Brooklin, Maine. His observations on town meetings, poultry, the weather, songbirds, compost, taxes, war, winter, and much more will resonate just as… Shares: Farm life, American Authors, Country life, Essays

A Moveable Feast Ernest Hemingway · 1964 · ★ 4.0 · 207p · ≈ 6h · Moderate A Moveable Feast is a 1964 memoir belles-lettres by American author Ernest Hemingway about his years as a struggling expat journalist and writer in Paris during the 1920s. It was published posthumously.[1] The book details Hemingway's first marriage to Hadley Richardson and his associations with other cultural figures of the Lost Generation in Interwar France. The memoir consists of various… Shares: Homes and haunts, Intellectual life, American Authors, Social life and customs

Walden and Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau · 1960 · ★ 3.6 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Moderate A transcendentalist classic on social responsibility and a manifesto that inspired modern protest movements  Critical of 19th-century America’s booming commercialism and industrialism, Henry David Thoreau moved to a small cabin in the woods of Concord, Massachusetts in 1845. Walden, the account of his stay near Walden Pond, conveys at once a naturalist’s wonder at the commonplace and a… Shares: Homes and haunts, American Authors, Massachusetts, Manners and customs

Life on the Mississippi Mark Twain · 1883 · ★ 3.9 · 273p · ≈ 9h · Challenging At once a romantic history of a mighty river, an autobiographical account of Twains early steamboat days, and a storehouse of humorous anecdotes and sketches, here is the raw material from which Mark Twain wrote his finest novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Shares: Intellectual life, American Authors, Social life and customs, Classic Literature

Roughing It Mark Twain · 1872 · ★ 3.9 · 369p · ≈ 12h · Challenging Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), better known as "Mark Twain," left Missouri in 1861 to work with his brother, the newly appointed Secretary of the Nevada Territory. Once settled in Nevada, Clemens fell victim to gold fever and went to the Humboldt mines. When prospecting lost its attractions, Clemens found work as a reporter in Virginia City. In 1864, Clemens moved to California and worked… Shares: Homes and haunts, Intellectual life, American Authors, Biography & Memoir

John Barleycorn Jack London · 1913 · ★ 4.0 · 162p · ≈ 5h · Challenging It all came to me one election day. It was on a warm California afternoon, and I had ridden down into the Valley of the Moon from the ranch to the little village to vote Yes and No to a host of proposed amendments to the Constitution of the State of California. Because of the warmth of the day I had had several drinks before casting my ballot, and divers drinks after casting it. Then I had ridden… Shares: Écrivains américains, American Authors, Classic Literature, Biography & Memoir

All's Fair in Love and Law Alan Hammond · 2011 · 252p · ≈ 8h · Moderate "Dufty Dufty Popple & Dunn is a traditional solicitors' firm in the small Midlands town of Hockam (pronounced Hokum, as the local residents are at pains to point out). This heart-warming collection of stories revolves around the lives, relationships, triumphs and failures of the good people of Hockam and of the lawyers to whom they look for help. We meet the lonely dentist and his noisy… Shares: Country life, Manners and customs, Social life and customs

La vérité sur l'affaire Harry Quebert Joël Dicker · 2012 · ★ 4.2 · 680p · ≈ 22h · Moderate Sous ses airs de thriller à l'américaine, La vérité sur l'affaire Harry Quebert est une réflexion sur l'Amérique, sur les travers de la société moderne, sur la littérature, sur la justice et sur les médias. Shares: Écrivains américains, American Authors

The Blithedale Romance Nathaniel Hawthorne · 1852 · ★ 3.4 · 344p · ≈ 11h · Challenging A superb depiction of a utopian community that cannot survive the individual passions of its members. In language that is suggestive and often erotic, Nathaniel Hawthorne tells a tale of failed possibilities and multiple personal betrayals as he explores the contrasts between what his characters espouse and what they actually experience in an 'ideal' community. A theme of unrealized sexual… Shares: Farm life, Massachusetts, Classic Literature

Walden, or, Life in the Woods / On the Duty of Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau · 1849 · 202p · ≈ 6h · Challenging «Se è indubbio che Thoreau abbia trascorso gran parte della sua vita nella natura libera, per lo più in solitudine, lontano dal consorzio civile, è altrettanto vero che nella sua personalità così poliedrica e contraddittoria si manifesta anche una tendenza alla critica sociale: tutte le sue opere, sia le principali che le minori, testimoniano questo aspetto e lo confermano come estensione dei… Shares: Homes and haunts, American Authors, Massachusetts, Social life and customs

Far from the Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy · 1874 · ★ 3.9 · 491p · ≈ 16h · Challenging Independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her bold presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each, in contrasting ways, unsettles her decisions and complicates her life, and tragedy ensues,… Shares: Farm life, Manners and customs, Social life and customs, Classic Literature

Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau · 1800 · ★ 4.0 · 28p · ≈ 56m · Challenging Written with the motto "that government is best that governs least", when men are ready for it, that will be the kind of government we will have. This book tries to tell us to think for ourselves. This is a Must Read for anyone anti-government. Please note: This book is in easy to read true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher. This e-Book is printable. Shares: Homes and haunts, American Authors, Essays, Biography & Memoir

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson · 1902 · ★ 3.8 · 31p · ≈ 1h · Challenging A new, wide-ranging selection of Ralph Waldo Emerson's most influential writings, this edition captures the essence of American Transcendentalism and illustrates the breadth of one of America's greatest philosophers and poets.The writings featured here show Emerson as a protester against social conformity, a lover of nature, an activist for the rights of women and slaves, and a poet of great… Shares: American Authors, Essays, Classic Literature

Modern selves Philip Dodd · 1986 · 192p · ≈ 6h · Moderate This book discusses gender and autobiography, and the politics of autobiography. It offers examples of ways of making sense of individual works or groups of works. Shares: Écrivains américains, American Authors, Biography & Memoir

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