18 books like Americanah

What to read after Americanah — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Homegoing Yaa Gyasi · 2016 · ★ 4.5 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Homegoing is the debut historical fiction novel by Ghanaian-American author Yaa Gyasi, published in 2016. Each chapter in the novel follows a different descendant of an Asante woman named Maame, starting with her two daughters, who are half-sisters, separated by circumstance: Effia marries James Collins, the British governor in charge of Cape Coast Castle, while her half-sister Esi is held… Shares: Literary Fiction, African Americans, History

In love & trouble Alice Walker · 1973 · 138p · ≈ 4h · Moderate The desires and fears of the American black woman are explored with compassion and understanding in these thirteen short stories. Admirers of The Color Purple will find in these stories more evidence of Walker's power to depict black women-women who vary greatly in background yet are bound together. Dating back to the early 1970s and 1980s, respectively, these short stories cover the Pulitzer… Shares: 1000blackgirlbooks, African Americans

The View from Castle Rock Alice Munro · 2006 · ★ 3.9 · 352p · ≈ 11h · Moderate "In stories that are more personal than any she's written before, Alice Munro pieces her family's history into gloriously imagined fiction. Other stories take place in more familiar Munro territory, the town and countryside around Lake Huron, where the past shows through the present and strong emotions stir beneath the surface of ordinary coming and goings. Evocative, gripping, sexy, unexpected -… Shares: Immigrants, Literary Fiction

The Wrong End of the Telescope Rabih Alameddine · 2021 · ★ 4.2 · 368p · ≈ 12h · Moderate "Not since the inimitable Aaliya of An Unnecessary Woman has Rabih Alameddine conjured such a winsome heroine to lead us to one of the most wrenching conflicts of our time. Cunningly weaving in stories of other refugees into Mina's singular own, The Wrong End of the Telescope is a bedazzling tapestry of both tragic and amusing portraits of indomitable spirits facing a humanitarian… Shares: Refugees, History

The Master Butchers Singing Club SP Louise Erdrich · 1975 · ★ 4.1 · 402p · ≈ 13h · Moderate What happens when a trained killer discovers, in the aftermath of war, that his true vocation is love? From the award-winning New York Times bestselling author of Love Medicine comes an enchanting, richly imagined world "where butchers sing like angels." Shares: Immigrants, African Americans, Romance

Meridian Alice Walker · 1976 · ★ 3.8 · 228p · ≈ 7h · Moderate Set in the 1960s and 1970s, Meridian centers on Meridian Hill, a student at the fictitious Saxon College, who becomes active in the Civil Rights Movement. She becomes romantically involved with another activist, Truman Held. They have a turbulent on-and-off relationship, during which she becomes pregnant by him. After Meridian has an abortion, Truman becomes far more attached to her and longs… Shares: 1000blackgirlbooks, African Americans

Beloved Toni Morrison · 1987 · ★ 4.0 · 362p · ≈ 12h · Moderate Toni Morrison--author of Song of Solomon and Tar Baby--is a writer of remarkable powers: her novels, brilliantly acclaimed for their passion, their dazzling language and their lyric and emotional force, combine the unassailable truths of experience and emotion with the vision of legend and imagination. It is the story--set in post-Civil War Ohio--of Sethe, an escaped slave who has risked death in… Shares: 1000blackgirlbooks, African Americans, History

Sula Toni Morrison · 1973 · ★ 4.1 · 188p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Two girls who grow up to become women. Two friends who become something worse than enemies. In this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison tells the story of Nel Wright and Sula Peace, who meet as children in the small town of Medallion, Ohio. Their devotion is fierce enough to withstand bullies and the burden of a dreadful secret. It endures even after Nel has grown up to be a pillar of the… Shares: 1000blackgirlbooks, African Americans

Coming of Age in Mississippi Anne Moody · 1968 · ★ 4.4 · 384p · ≈ 12h · Moderate Born to a poor couple who were tenant farmers on a plantation in Mississippi, Anne Moody lived through some of the most dangerous days of the pre-civil rights era in the South. In this now classic autobiography, she details the sights, smells, and suffering of growing up in a racist society and candidly reveals the soul of the black girl who had the courage to challenge it. The result is a… Shares: 1000blackgirlbooks, African Americans, History

Zoya Danielle Steel · 1980 · ★ 4.1 · 448p · ≈ 14h · Moderate Against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution and World War I Europe, Zoya, young cousin to the Tsar, flees St. Petersburg to Paris to find safety. Her entire world forever changed, she faces hard times and joins the Ballet Russe in Paris. And then, when life is kind to her, Zoya moves on to a new and glittering life in New York. The days of ease are all too brief as the Depression strikes, and… Shares: Refugees, Romance, History

Maria Chapdelaine Louis Hémon · 1916 · ★ 3.7 · 262p · ≈ 8h · Challenging Tells of a French-Canadian family in early twentieth-century Quebec, where life is ruled by the harsh winters and a young woman must choose between the life she has always known and the possibility of a different, less difficult life. Shares: Immigrants, History

The Mad Wife Meagan Church · 321p · ≈ 10h · Moderate THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERFrom bestselling author Meagan Church comes a haunting exploration of identity, motherhood, and the suffocating grip of societal expectations that will leave you questioning the lives we build—and the lies we live.They called it hysteria. She called it survival.Lulu Mayfield has spent the last five years molding herself into the perfect 1950s housewife.… Shares: Romance

The Frozen River: A GMA Book Club Pick Ariel Lawhon NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GMA BOOK CLUB PICK • AN NPR BOOK OF THE YEAR • From the New York Times bestselling author of I Was Anastasia and Code Name Hélène comes a gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history."Fans of… Shares: Romance

The Lion Women of Tehran Marjan Kamali · 2025 A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERFrom nationally bestselling author Marjan Kamali, this perfect book club read is “evocative...and a powerful portrait of friendship, feminism, and political activism” (People) set against three transformative decades in Tehran, Iran. In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move… Shares: Romance

Daughters of the Sun and Moon Lisa See · ★ 4.2 A New York Times bestseller! From beloved bestselling author Lisa See, the story of three Chinese women whose unexpected friendship helps them survive and, despite the odds, thrive, in the turmoil of post–Civil War Los Angeles. In 1870, three Chinese women arrive in the small, dusty, and violent pueblo of Los Angeles. Dove, the bound-footed daughter of an imperial scholar, is entrancing and… Shares: Romance

The Sweet Blue Distance Sara Donati · 801p · ≈ 26h · Moderate A young midwife travels west to the New Mexico Territory to care for women in need and faces dangers more harrowing than the ones she’s fleeing in this epic tale of survival, redemption, and love from Sara Donati, the international bestselling author of the Wilderness series. 1857: In a bid to outrun her past, Carrie Ballentyne accepts a nursing position with a doctor in the New Mexico… Shares: Romance

A Pair of Aces: Reese's Book Club Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • A gripping novel about two trailblazing women on opposite sides of the law—a prosecutor and a madam—who team up to bring down notorious Mob boss Lucky Luciano in 1930s New York, from the New York Times bestselling authors of the million-copy bestseller The Personal Librarian.Eunice Carter, assistant district attorney for the City of New York and Manhattan’s first Black… Shares: Romance

A Founding Mother Stephanie Dray & Laura Kamoie A REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICKIn time for the 250th Anniversary of the birth of the United States comes a sweeping, intimate portrayal of Abigail Adams—wife of one president and mother to another—whose wit, willpower, and wisdom helped shape the fledgling republic. A stunning historical novel with modern-day implications from the New York Times bestselling authors of America’s First Daughter and My… Shares: Romance

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