18 books like Of Mice and Men

What to read after Of Mice and Men — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell · 1949 · ★ 4.2 · 244p · ≈ 8h · Challenging Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, often referred to as 1984, is a dystopian social science fiction novel by the English novelist George Orwell (the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair). It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final book completed in his lifetime. Thematically, Nineteen Eighty-Four centres on the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and… Shares: Classics, Drama

The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald · 1920 · ★ 3.9 · 431p · ≈ 14h · Challenging Here is a novel, glamorous, ironical, compassionate – a marvelous fusion into unity of the curious incongruities of the life of the period – which reveals a hero like no other – one who could live at no other time and in no other place. But he will live as a character, we surmise, as long as the memory of any reader lasts. "There was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to… Shares: Classics, Drama

Steinbeck John Steinbeck · 1943 · 594p · ≈ 19h · Challenging Shares: Labor Trilogy, Vida ranchera, Goal, People with mental disabilities Shares: Labor Trilogy, Vida ranchera, Goal, People with mental disabilities

Of Mice and Men & Cannery Row John Steinbeck · 1947 · ★ 4.5 · 264p · ≈ 8h · Challenging Of Mice and Men They are an unlikely pair: George is "small and quick and dark of face"; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a "family," clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. For George and Lennie have a plan: to… Shares: Labor Trilogy, Vida ranchera, Goal, People with mental disabilities

Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe · 1958 · ★ 3.9 · 196p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Things Fall Apart is the debut novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, first published in 1958. It depicts pre-colonial life in the southeastern part of Nigeria and the arrival of Europeans during the late 19th century. It is seen as the archetypal modern African novel in English, and one of the first to receive global critical acclaim. It is a staple book in schools throughout Africa and is… Shares: Contemporary Fiction, Men, Classics, Historical Fiction

Ulysses James Joyce · 1914 · ★ 3.8 · 790p · ≈ 26h · Challenging Written over a seven-year period, from 1914 to 1921, this book has survived bowdlerization, legal action and controversy. The novel deals with the events of one day in Dublin, 16th June 1904, now known as "Bloomsday". The principal characters are Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom and his wife Molly. Ulysses has been labelled dirty, blasphemous and unreadable. In a famous 1933 court decision, Judge… Shares: Men, Male friendship, Psychological fiction, Historical Fiction

Novels (A Tale of Two Cities / Great Expectations) Charles Dickens · 1989 · 835p · ≈ 27h · Moderate Tale of Two Cities After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille, the ageing Doctor Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There the lives of the two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tranquil… Shares: Contemporary Fiction, Classics, Drama, Historical Fiction

The smoke jumper Nicholas Evans · 2001 · ★ 4.1 · 432p · ≈ 14h · Moderate A woman must choose between two men, best friends, who both love her, in a story of love, loyalty, honor, and guilt set against the perilous backdrop of wilderness firefighting. Shares: Male friendship, Psychological fiction, Westerns

Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh · 1945 · ★ 4.0 · 327p · ≈ 10h · Challenging The most nostalgic and reflective of Evelyn Waugh's novels, Brideshead Revisited looks back to the golden age before the Second World War. It tells the story of Charles Ryder's infatuation with the Marchmains and the rapidly-disappearing world of privilege they inhabit. Enchanted first by Sebastian at Oxford, then by his doomed Catholic family, in particular his remote sister, Julia, Charles… Shares: Men, Male friendship, Drama

To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee · 1960 · ★ 4.3 · 309p · ≈ 10h · Moderate One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than 40 languages, sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and voted one of the best novels of the 20th century by librarians across the United States. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South… Shares: Contemporary Fiction, Classics

The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini · 2003 · ★ 4.4 · 386p · ≈ 12h · Moderate The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their… Shares: Male friendship, Drama, Historical Fiction

Private Peaceful Michael Morpurgo · 1962 · ★ 4.1 · 202p · ≈ 6h · Moderate When Thomas Peaceful's older brother is forced to join the British Army, Thomas decides to sign up as well, although he is only fourteen years old, to prove himself to his country, his family, his childhood love, Molly, and himself. Shares: People with mental disabilities, Drama

The Financier Theodore Dreiser · 1912 · ★ 4.3 · 523p · ≈ 17h · Challenging The Financier is a novel by Theodore Dreiser, based on real-life streetcar tycoon Charles Yerkes. Dreiser started writing his manuscript in 1911, and the following year published the first part of his lengthy work as The Financier. The second part appeared in 1914 as The Titan; the third volume of his Trilogy of Desire was also Dreiser's final novel, The Stoic (1947). Shares: Psychological fiction, Classics

Valley of Wild Horses Zane Grey · 1927 · 250p · ≈ 8h · Challenging The tall young cowpuncher known as Panhandle Smith had roped, gambled and fought his way from Montana to New Mexico, but Marco was the most lawless place he had ever seen. And when Panhandle faced down Dick Hardman, he knew he had to destroy Hardman to save his woman and his life. Shares: Westerns

Lost Pueblo Zane Grey · 1927 · 253p · ≈ 8h · Challenging A tale of romance in the Old West. The heroine is Jane Endicott -- a spirited young woman who travels to Arizona with her father. She falls in love with this rough and rugged frontier -- not to mention the eligible young cowboys. Her father, rushing in where angels fear to tread, tries to match her with the son of an old friend. Complications arise. Shares: Westerns

The Lost Wagon Train Zane Grey · 1936 · 384p · ≈ 12h · Challenging The story of a Civil War soldier finding his humanity in the face of horrible savagery.Emerging from the Civil War a shamed and broken man, Stephen Latch turns to a life of thievery and murder. Still hoping to uphold the values of the Confederacy, Latch sets his sights on the wealth of resources pouring westward from the northern United States, putting together a band of ruthless misfits to help… Shares: Westerns

Sally Dows Bret Harte · 1887 · 164p · ≈ 5h · Challenging What had been in the cool gray of that summer morning a dewy country lane, marked only by a few wagon tracks that never encroached upon its grassy border, and indented only by the faint footprints of a crossing fox or coon, was now, before high noon, already crushed, beaten down, and trampled out of all semblance of its former graciousness. The heavy springless jolt of gun-carriage and caisson… Shares: Westerns

The Bell-Ringer of Angel's Bret Harte · 1894 · 334p · ≈ 11h · Challenging Where the North Fork of the Stanislaus River begins to lose its youthful grace, vigor, and agility, and broadens more maturely into the plain, there is a little promontory which at certain high stages of water lies like a small island in the stream. To the strongly- marked heroics of Sierran landscape it contrasts a singular, pastoral calm. White and gray mosses from the overhanging rocks and… Shares: Westerns

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