18 books like Candy

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

Miss Marjoribanks Margaret Oliphant · 1866 · 546p · ≈ 18h · Challenging When Dr. Marjoribanks’s wife dies, his teenage daughter makes it her purpose in life “to be a comfort to dear papa.” At least, Lucilla thinks, ten years of such devotion might suffice, by which time she might have begun to “go off.” But beneath this grand intention lies a yet more ambitious plan: to revolutionize the moribund and constricted social life of Carlingford. She is remarkably… Shares: Young women, Bildungsromans

The bent twig Dorothy Canfield Fisher · 1915 · 480p · ≈ 16h · Challenging Unlike other young women of her generation, who were "bred up from childhood to sit behind tea-tables and say the right things to tea-drinkers," Sylvia Marshall - the "twig" of this novel - was reared to think for herself and to trust her own instincts and experience. This, coupled with her passionate temperament, makes Sylvia a compelling figure as she resists efforts to mold her with every… Shares: Young women, Bildungsromans

Roustabout Michelle Chalfoun · 1996 · ★ 4.3 · 236p · ≈ 7h · Moderate the seedy side of the circus through the eyes of a young female worker Shares: Young women, Bildungsromans

Memoirs of Fanny Hill John Cleland · 1749 · ★ 3.3 · 221p · ≈ 7h · Demanding Memoirs of Fanny Hill was written in debtor's prison in 1784 and was the first modern erotic novel in English. A young woman, Fanny Hill, is forced by poverty to go into service, but is tricked into becoming a prostitute instead. She is then saved by her love, only to have his jealous father send him from the country some months later. She moves from one lover to the next, gaining maturity with… Shares: Sexual Behavior, Young women

Running Cara Hoffman · 2017 · ★ 4.3 · 288p · ≈ 9h · Moderate "Running brings together an ensemble of outsiders who get by as "runners"hustlers who sell tourists on low-end accommodations for a small commission and a place to stay. Bridey Sullivan, a young American woman who has fled a peculiar and traumatic upbringing in Washington State, takes up with a queer British couple, the poet Milo Rollack and Eton drop-out Jasper Lethe. Slipping in and out of… Shares: Young women, Bildungsromans

Belinda Maria Edgeworth · 1802 · 483p · ≈ 16h · Challenging Maria Edgeworth won the admiration of her contemporaries Jane Austen and Walter Scott as well as later writers such as Thackeray and Turgenev. In Belinda (1801) she tackles issues of gender and race in a manner at once comic and thought-provoking. Braving the perils of the marriage market, Belinda learns to think for herself as the examples of her friends prove singularly unreliable. Edgeworth's… Shares: Young women, Coming-of-age

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

Petropolis Anya Ulinich · 2007 · ★ 4.5 · 336p · ≈ 11h · Moderate In her stunning debut novel, Anya Ulinich delivers a funny and unforgettable story of a Russian mail-order bride trying to find her place in America. After losing her father, her boyfriend, and her baby, Sasha Goldberg decides that getting herself to the United States is the surest path to deliverance. But she finds that life in Phoenix with her Red Lobster–loving fiance isn't much better than… Shares: Young women, Bildungsromans, Coming-of-age

Judith Paris Hugh Walpole · 1931 · 782p · ≈ 26h · Challenging Covering the years 1771 to 1822 and set partly in Revolutionary Paris, and partly in romantic Cumbria, Judith Paris is the story of the two very different men who love Walpole's most delightful heroine. Daughter of Francis Herries and Mirabell Starr, Judith was described on publication as "the most delightful of Walpole's heroines." As impetuous, impulsive and passionate as her father, she is… Shares: Young women, Bildungsromans

Confessions of a Shopaholic, Shopaholic Takes Manhattan, and Shopaholic Ties the Knot (Shopaholic Series, Books 1, 2, & 3) Sophie Kinsella · 2001 · ★ 4.6 · 310p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Meet Becky Bloomwood, America’s favorite shopaholic—a young woman with a big heart, big dreams…and just one little weakness. Becky has a fabulous flat in London's trendiest neighborhood, a troupe of glamorous socialite friends, and a closet brimming with the season's must-haves. The only trouble is that she can't actually afford it—not any of it. Her job writing at Successful Savings not only… Shares: Young women, Bildungsromans

Lili Annie Wang · 2001 · ★ 4.0 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Derrière le portrait d'une jeune Chinoise dans les années 1980, l'histoire d'une prise de conscience sociale qui aboutit aux événements de la place Tian'anmen en 1989. [SDM]. Shares: Young women, Bildungsromans

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: Young women, Bildungsromans

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: Bildungsromans, Coming-of-age

The Book of Form and Emptiness Ruth L. Ozeki · 2021 · ★ 4.0 · 560p · ≈ 18h · Moderate The Book of Form and Emptiness is a novel by American author Ruth Ozeki, published in 2021 by Viking. Ozekis fourth novel, the book won the 2022 Women's Prize for Fiction. The story follows a boy who hears voices from inanimate objects while the narrative explores themes of mental illness and bereavement. Shares: Bildungsromans, Coming-of-age

Special Topics in Calamity Physics Marisha Pessl · 2006 · ★ 3.7 · 514p · ≈ 17h · Moderate A darkly funny coming-of-age novel and a richly plotted suspense tale told through the distinctive voice of its heroine, Blue van Meer. After a childhood moving from one academic outpost to another with her father (a man prone to aphorisms and meteoric affairs), Blue is clever, deadpan, and possessed of a vast lexicon of literary, political, philosophical, and scientific knowledge--and is quite… Shares: Young women, Coming-of-age

Downtown Anne Rivers Siddons · 1994 · ★ 3.8 · 621p · ≈ 20h · Moderate Set on the cusp of the country's great social movements - youth, women's, peace, and civil rights - in the year before the love turned to anger and the peace to militancy, Downtown is the story of Smoky O'Donnell, her career and her heart. When Smoky arrives in Atlanta in 1966, after an airless lifetime back in Savannah, she is at once thrilled and chastened by this dazzling, hectic young city… Shares: Young women, Bildungsromans

Object Lessons Anna Quindlen · 1991 · ★ 4.0 · 262p · ≈ 8h · Moderate It is the 1960s, in suburban New York City. Maggie and her family, are in the thrall of her powerful grandfather Jack Scanlan. In the summer of her twelfth year, Maggie is despertately trying to master the object lessons her grandfather fills her head with. But there is too much going on to concentrate. Everything at home is in upheaval, her grandfather is changing, and Maggie is unsure if what… Shares: Young women, Coming-of-age

Bloodsucking Fiends Christopher Moore · 1995 · ★ 4.2 · 304p · ≈ 10h · Moderate At last, a love story you can really sink your teeth into! With a psychedelic inventiveness that invites comparison with Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Robbins, Christopher Moore, the author of Coyote Blue, spins a hip tale of vampires on the loose and in love in San Francisco. When Jody wakes up in an alley, under a dupster, with a badly burned arm and a pain in her neck, she knows it isn't going to be… Shares: Bildungsromans, Coming-of-age

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