18 books like Mexico City blues

What to read after Mexico City blues — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Factotum Charles Bukowski · 1975 · ★ 3.9 · 205p · ≈ 6h · Moderate One of Charles Bukowski's best, this beer-soaked, deliciously degenerate novel follows the wanderings of aspiring writer Henry Chinaski across World War II-era America. Deferred from military service, Chinaski travels from city to city, moving listlessly from one odd job to another, always needing money but never badly enough to keep a job. His day-to-day existence spirals into an endless litany… Shares: Beats, Beat generation

Big Sur Jack Kerouac · 1962 · ★ 3.8 · 210p · ≈ 7h · Moderate Big Sur is a novel written by Jack Kerouac, that was published in 1962. The books perspective is told from Kerouac's alter ego Jack Dulouz. The novel describes Kerouac's frustration that he has with his fame of being a writer, and how he goes to his friends cabin on Big Sur to get away from the madness of every day existence. The novel also describes Kerouac's mental state of being, and his… Shares: Beats, Beat generation, Literary Criticism

Jack Kerouac Tom Clark · 1984 · 254p · ≈ 8h · Moderate All the components of the Jack Kerouac legend are here: the excesses of alcohol and drugs; the soul-searching; the characters - Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Lucien Carr, John Clellon Holmes and William Burroughs, Jack's mother, Gabrielle, and the other women in Kerouac's life. There is also a record of the travels that became the basis for On the Road and Visions of Cody,… Shares: Beats, Beat generation

Go John Clellon Holmes · 1952 · ★ 4.0 · 311p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Go is a 1952 semi-autobiographical novel by John Clellon Holmes. (Holmes referred to the book as a roman à clef.) It is considered to be the first published novel depicting the Beat Generation. Set in New York, it concerns the lives of a collection of characters largely based on the friends Holmes used to hang around with in the 1940s and 1950s in Manhattan. An underworld of drug-fueled parties,… Shares: Beats, Beat generation

Howl Allen Ginsberg · 1959 · ★ 4.1 · 194p · ≈ 6h · Moderate This annotated version of Ginsberg's classic is the poet's own re-creation of the revolutionary work's composition process, along with anecdotes and an intimate look at the poet's writing techniques. Shares: Beat generation, American poetry, Poetry

Locating transnational ideals Walter Goebel · 2010 · 288p · ≈ 9h · Moderate This volume defines versions of the transnational in their historical and cultural specificity. By "locating," the contributors contextualize historical and contemporary understandings of the fluid term "transnational," which vary in relation to the disciplines involved. This kind of historical and geographical "locating" implicitly turns against forms of contemporary transnational euphoria… Shares: American, Literary Criticism

Camping for Boys H. W. Gibson · 2007 · 296p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Equip the next generation of outdoor enthusiasts with Camping for Boys by H. W. Gibson. First published in 1911, this foundational text quickly became an essential guide for youth leaders, educators, and the Boy Scout movement, providing detailed, practical instruction for young people to confidently engage with the wilderness.Gibson, a respected figure in organized outdoor youth activities of… Shares: American, Literary Criticism

Spoon River Anthology Edgar Lee Masters · 1914 · ★ 4.0 · 306p · ≈ 10h · Challenging In Spoon River Anthology, the American poet Edgar Lee Masters (1869–1950) created a series of compelling free-verse monologues in which former citizens of a mythical Midwestern town speak touchingly from the grave of the thwarted hopes and dream of their lives. First published in book form in 1915, the Anthology was the crowning achievement of Masters' career as a poet, and a work that would… Shares: Non-Classifiable, American poetry, Poetry

Critical Writing On Adam Fieled Philly Free School · 2006 · 7p · ≈ 14m · Moderate Critical Writing On Adam Fieled collects critical pieces on the work of American writer Adam Fieled, composed and published between 2006 and 2012 in venues like moria poetry and Galatea Resurrects, by poet/critics Jeffrey Side, Laura Goldstein, Steve Halle, Stacy Blair, and more. Shares: American poetry, Literary Criticism

Heaven's reach David Brin · 1998 · ★ 4.0 · 582p · ≈ 19h · Moderate Winner of the Nebula and Hugo Awards, David Brin brings his bestselling Uplift series to a magnificent conclusion with his most imaginative and powerful novel to date--the shattering epic of a universe poised on the brink of revelation...or annihilation.The brutal enemy that has relentlessly pursued them for centuries has arrived. Now the fugitive settlers of Jijo--both human and alien--brace for… Shares: American, Literary Criticism

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: American poetry, Poetry

From Puritanism to postmodernism Richard Ruland · 1991 · ★ 4.0 · 470p · ≈ 15h · Moderate Widely acknowledged as a contemporary classic that has introduced thousands of readers to American literature, From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of American Literature brilliantly charts the fascinating story of American literature from the Puritan legacy to the advent of postmodernism. From realism and romanticism to modernism and postmodernism it examines and reflects on the work of a… Shares: American, Literary Criticism

S.J. Perelman Steven H. Gale · 1985 · 182p · ≈ 6h · Moderate First published in 1992, this book focuses on the oeuvre of S. J. Perelman. Taken together, the essays included serve as an introduction to this important humorist’s work, both in terms of the specific short prose pieces, plays, and films examined and as an overview of his lengthy professional career. They provide insightful and in-depth literary analyses as well. The work encourages a better… Shares: American, Literary Criticism

The high window Raymond Chandler · 1942 · ★ 3.7 · 198p · ≈ 6h · Challenging Fast-talking, trouble-seeking private eye Philip Marlowe is a different kind of detective: a moral man in an amoral world. California in the 1940s and 1950s is as beautiful as a ripe fruit and rotten to the core, and Marlowe must struggle to retain his integrity amidst the corruption he encounters daily. In The High Window, Marlowe starts out on the trail of a single stolen coin and ends up… Shares: American, Literary Criticism

Poems Robert Frost · 1923 · ★ 4.1 · 259p · ≈ 8h · Challenging The long awaited comprehensive and authoritative edition. The Poetry of Robert Frost brings together for the first time the full contents of all eleven of Frost's individual books of verse, from A Boy's Will through In the Clearing. More than 350 poems comprise this new volume, scrupulously prepared under the editorship of Edward Connery Lathem, a Frost scholar, Librarian of Dartmouth College,… Shares: American, American poetry, Poetry

A Rare Benedictine Edith Pargeter · 1988 · ★ 3.8 · 150p · ≈ 5h · Moderate These three short stories form a prequel to the Ellis Peters series featuring Brother Cadfael, a medieval monk detective. The first story describes the circumstances around Brother Cadfael’s decision to renounce his former life and become a monk. The second and third stories give Brother Cadfael the opportunity to solve mysteries that occur at Shrewsbury Abbey in the years just preceding the… Shares: American, Literary Criticism

Poems Ralph Waldo Emerson · 1847 · ★ 3.5 · 324p · ≈ 10h · Challenging Interspersed are passages from the author's "Essays" and "Journal". Shares: American poetry, Poetry

Day of doom Michael Wigglesworth · 1666 · 95p · ≈ 3h · Demanding "The Day of Doom: or, A Poetical Description of the Great and Last Judgment" is a religious poem by clergyman Michael Wigglesworth that became a best-selling classic in Puritan New England for a century after it was published in 1662 by Samuel Green and Marmaduke Johnson. The poem describes the Day of Judgment, on which a vengeful God judges and sentences all men, going into detail as to the… Shares: American poetry, Poetry

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