18 books like Boy

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

On a Chinese screen William Somerset Maugham · 1922 · 242p · ≈ 8h · Challenging On a Chinese Screen was first published in 1922 by Heinemann Publishers, London. Its 58 short vignettes are based on Maugham’s travels along the Yangtze River from 1919 to 1920. Although later editions of the book added the subtitle “Sketches of Life in China,” there are actually only a few descriptions of the places he visited and the local Chinese people he met; rather, Maugham focuses on… Shares: English Authors, Authors, Manners and customs, Travel

Ayyām Ṭāhā Ḥusayn · 1932 · 248p · ≈ 8h · Challenging Shares: Childhood and youth, Youth, Social life and customs, Biography & Memoir

War Boy Michael Foreman · 1990 · ★ 4.0 · 92p · ≈ 3h · Moderate An English artist writes and illustrates a memoir of his own wartime childhood. Shares: Childhood and youth, English Authors, Authors, Manners and customs

Mosaic Holroyd, Michael. · 2004 · ★ 3.9 · 288p · ≈ 9h · Moderate A love story, a detective story, a book of secrets, a beautifully written journey into a forest of family trees. After writing the definitive biographies of Lytton Strachey and George Bernard Shaw, Michael Holroyd turned his hand to a more personal subject: his own family. The result was Basil Street Blues, published in 1999. But rather than the story being over, it was in fact only beginning. As… Shares: Childhood and youth, English Authors, Authors, Manners and customs

Paul Kelver Jerome Klapka Jérôme · 1902 · 322p · ≈ 10h · Challenging IN WHICH THE AUTHOR SEEKS TO CAST THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THIS STORY UPON ANOTHER. Shares: English Authors, Authors, Biography & Memoir

Детство; Отрочество; Юность Лев Толстой · 1862 · ★ 3.9 · 408p · ≈ 13h · Challenging Written from 1852 to 1856, this autobiographical novel was Tolstoy's first publication. The early life of Nikolai, the son of wealthy landowner in Russia, is fully explored, slowly revealing this young boy's inner mind, relationships, and social standing. As he describes his tutor, angelic mother, aloof father, worldly brother, and later his moralistic friend, Nikolai displays a mind given to… Shares: Childhood and youth, Youth, Social life and customs, Biography & Memoir

Words Jean-Paul Sartre · 1964 · ★ 3.7 · 214p · ≈ 7h · Moderate The book, consisting of Sartre distancing himself from writing and making his farewells to literature was very successful for the author and was hailed nearly unanimously as a "literary success"[citation needed]. In November of the same year, 1964, he refused the Nobel Prize for Literature awarded for his work, described as "rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for… Shares: Autobiografie, Authors, Biography & Memoir

Far away and long ago W. H. Hudson · 1918 · ★ 3.9 · 332p · ≈ 11h · Challenging Argentinian-English ornithologist and writer William Henry Hudson recounts his early years in Argentina and his move to England in this 1918 autobiography. Shares: Childhood and youth, English Authors, Travel, Social life and customs

Here Lies Eric Ambler · 1985 · 234p · ≈ 7h · Moderate Winner of the Edgar Award, Eric Ambler’s autobiography Here Lies is an intriguing look inside the mind of one of our greatest thriller writers. Here the famously recalcitrant Ambler peels back the layers of experience that affected his life with the same skill he uses to unfold the plots of his novels. His South London childhood; his brief engineering career, which he gave up to work in theater;… Shares: English Authors, Authors, Biography & Memoir

Adolphe Benjamin Constant · 1816 · ★ 3.7 · 202p · ≈ 6h · Challenging Adolphe is a privileged and refined young man, bored by the stupidity he perceives in the world around him. After a number of meaningless conquests, he at last encounters Ellenore, a beautiful and passionate older woman. Adolphe is enraptured and gradually wears down her resistance to his declarations of love. But as they embark on an intense and tortured affair, Ellenore gives way to a flood of… Shares: Childhood and youth, Manners and customs, Social life and customs, Biography & Memoir

Hooking up Tom Wolfe · 2000 · ★ 3.5 · 293p · ≈ 9h · Moderate "Wolfe ranges from coast to coast, chronicling everything from the sexual manners and mores of teenagers...to fundamental changes in the way human beings now regard themselves, thanks to the hot new fields of genetics and neuroscience...to the reasons why, at the dawn of a new millenium, no one is celebrating the second American Century.". "Printed here in its entirety is Ambush at Fort Bragg, a… Shares: Youth, Manners and customs, Social life and customs, Biography & Memoir

Bitter lemons Lawrence Durrell · 1957 · 271p · ≈ 9h · Moderate With the publication of Justine Lawrence Durrell became, almost overnight, one of the most talked about, widely acclaimed novelists of the decade. Now, in Bitter Lemons, his focus has shifted from the world of his imagination to life itself. Writing in the exquisite poetic prose that critics have hailed as unequalled in contemporary literature, he tells the perceptive, often humorous story of his… Shares: Manners and customs, Travel, Social life and customs

Wild Wales George Henry Borrow · 1798 · 608p · ≈ 20h · Demanding Wild Wales: Its People, Language and Scenery is a travel book by the English Victorian gentleman writer George Borrow (1803–1881), first published in 1862. Shares: English Authors, Travel, Social life and customs, Biography & Memoir

Cowper Goldwin Smith · 1800 · 128p · ≈ 4h · Challenging In this masterful biography, Goldwin Smith presents the life and works of William Cowper (1731-1800), whom Samuel Taylor Coleridge called “the best modern poet". Tracing Cowper's life—from his beginnings in England to his death—Smith analyzes his major lyrical works and as well as his hymns. Smith also offers an examination of the writer's lasting influence on Romantic poetry. Shares: English Authors, Authors, Biography & Memoir

Palmetto-leaves Harriet Beecher Stowe · 1873 · 96p · ≈ 3h · Challenging After the Civil War, the Stowes bought a house on the St. Johns River near Mandarin, Florida. For several years, they spent the winters at their Florida home. In 1872, Stowe published Pametto Leaves describing the area, its people and wildlife. The book is organized as a series of articles and includes several ink sketches. It provides a unique view of north Florida and may have influenced Henry… Shares: Authors, Travel, Social life and customs

Life of Samuel Johnson James Boswell · 1776 · ★ 3.8 · 567p · ≈ 18h · Demanding Poet, lexicographer, critic, moralist and Great Cham, Dr. Johnson had in his friend Boswell the ideal biographer. Notoriously and self-confessedly intemperate, Boswell shared with Johnson a huge appetite for life and threw equal energy into recording its every aspect in minute but telling detail. This irrepressible Scotsman was 'always studying human nature and making experiments', and the… Shares: English Authors, Authors, Travel, Biography & Memoir

Diary of a provincial lady E. M. Delafield · 1930 · ★ 3.9 · 128p · ≈ 4h · Challenging The goal of the provincial lady is to maintain 'niceness', whether it be in the home, relationships or personal behaviour. 'The Diary of a Provincial Lady' first published in the 1930s is a witty celebration of the suburban British housewife between the wars. Shares: English Authors, Manners and customs, Social life and customs, Biography & Memoir

Seven Years in Tibet (Sieben Jahre in Tibet) Heinrich Harrer · 1952 · ★ 4.3 · 314p · ≈ 10h · Moderate An account of an Austrian mountain climber's escape from a British internment camp in India during World War II and his twenty-one-month journey through the Himalayas to safety in the Forbidden City of Lhasa in Tibet. Shares: Childhood and youth, Manners and customs, Travel, Social life and customs

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