18 books like Papillon

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

Dirty White Boys Stephen Hunter · 1994 · ★ 4.1 · 436p · ≈ 14h · Moderate Three convicts escape from a maximum-security penitentiary. With guile, fury, and surprisingly fine manners, they slash and shoot their way through Oklahoma and North Texas in a frenzy of violence, madness, and murder. And they're having a damn good time. Until they encounter state trooper Bud Pewtie. He's hot on their trail, but a little distracted. He's also hot on the tail of his young… Shares: Escapes, Prisoners

Dead Run Joe Jackson · 1999 · ★ 4.0 · 310p · ≈ 10h · Moderate "Summers are always stifling in southern Virginia, and they're even hotter on the Mecklenburg Correctional Center's Death Row when Dennis Stockton arrives there in July 1983. Charged with murder for hire, Stockton insisted he was innocent, but his jury sentenced him to die. In prison, he begins keeping a diary and it soon becomes his lifeline, nurturing dreams of freedom and publication as an… Shares: Escapes, Prisoners, Biography & Memoir

Confessions of an economic hit man Perkins, John · 2004 · ★ 3.9 · 294p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Sinhalese translation of a controversial book on the economic policies of U.S. government with respect to developing countries. Shares: Biografía, Biography & Memoir

Recollections of an old soldier Capt. David Perry (b. 1741) · 1822 · 64p · ≈ 2h · Challenging As they were in those days, the full title of Capt David Perry's book is its own description: Recollections of an old soldier. The life of Captain David Perry, a soldier of the French and revolutionary wars, containing many extraordinary occurrences relating to his own private history, and an account of some interesting events in the history of the times in which he lived, no-where else… Shares: Personal narratives, Biography & Memoir

On the Move Oliver Sacks · 2015 · ★ 4.4 · 416p · ≈ 13h · Moderate An impassioned, tender, and joyous memoir by the author of Musicophilia and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. When Oliver Sacks was twelve years old, a perceptive schoolmaster wrote in his report: "Sacks will go far, if he does not go too far." It is now abundantly clear that Sacks has never stopped going. From its opening pages on his youthful obsession with motorcycles and speed, On the… Shares: Biografía, Biography & Memoir

A Jacobite exile G. A. Henty · 1893 · 352p · ≈ 11h · Challenging Over 50 stories and books make up this massive anthology of G.A. Henty's essential work. An active table of contents makes it easy to find each work. Works include: Among Malay Pirates At Aboukir and Acre At Agincourt At the Point of the Bayonet Beric the Briton Bonnie Prince Charlie Both Sides the Border By Right of Conquest A Chapter of Adventures Colonel Thorndyke's Secret Condemned as a… Shares: Escapes, Prisoners

Eat, Pray, Love Elizabeth Gilbert · 2001 · ★ 3.6 · 479p · ≈ 15h · Moderate This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different… Shares: Biografía, Biography & Memoir

The Rough Riders Theodore Roosevelt · 1894 · 128p · ≈ 4h · Challenging "The Rough Riders (1899) is the story of the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, the regiment Roosevelt led to enduring fame in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Roosevelt recounts how the regiment was raised from an unusual mixture of hardened southwestern frontiersmen and privileged northeastern college graduates, and how it trained in Texas and then sailed "southward through the topic seas… Shares: Personal narratives, Biography & Memoir

Pointed Roofs. Pilgrimage Dorothy Richardson · 1915 · 160p · ≈ 5h · Challenging Pointed Roofs is the first installment in Dorothy M. Richardson’s Pilgrimage sequence of autobiographical novels. It is also one of the first novels identified with the modernist technique of stream of consciousness. Set in the early 1890s, Pointed Roofs centers on seventeen-year-old Miriam Henderson. After her family runs into financial troubles, Miriam is sent to Germany to teach English at a… Shares: Autobiographical fiction, Biography & Memoir

Autobiography of a Yogi Yogananda Paramahansa · 1946 · ★ 4.3 · 567p · ≈ 18h · Challenging The autobiography of Paramahansa Yogananda (1893 - 1952) details his search for a guru, during which he encountered many spiritual leaders and world-renowned scientists. When it was published in 1946 it was the first introduction of many westerners to yoga and meditation.The famous opera singer Amelita Galli-Curci said about the book:"Amazing, true stories of saints and masters of India, blended… Shares: Biografía, Biography & Memoir

Army Life in a Black Regiment Thomas Wentworth Higginson · 1870 · ★ 3.9 · 232p · ≈ 7h · Challenging "Army Life in a Black Regiment has some claim to be the best written narrative to come from the Union [side] during the Civil War," wrote historian Henry Steele Commander. "Higginson's picture of the battle which was the origin of 'praise the Lord and pass the ammunition' and his reading of the Emancipation Proclamation to the black regiment are unsurpassed for eloquence." A Union colonel wrote… Shares: Personal narratives, Biography & Memoir

Gifted hands Ben Carson · 1990 · ★ 4.4 · 232p · ≈ 7h · Moderate In 1987, Dr. Benjamin Carson gained worldwide recognition for his part in the first successful separation of Siamese twins joined at the back of the head. The extremely complex and delicate operation, five months in the planning and twenty-two hours in the execution, involved a surgical plan that Carson helped initiate. Carson pioneered again in a rare procedure known as hemispherectomy, giving… Shares: Personal narratives, Biography & Memoir

The Web and the Rock Thomas Wolfe · 1937 · 695p · ≈ 23h · Challenging George Webber, a man raised and schooled in the south, moves to New York City where he aspires to become a successful writer, but his ambition is sidetracked when he becomes tragically obsessed with the beautiful, wealthy, and married socialite Esther Jack. Shares: Autobiographical fiction, Biography & Memoir

You Can't Win Jack Black · 1926 · ★ 4.2 · 412p · ≈ 13h · Challenging William Burroughs, at the age of 13, was inspired by this book, as he mentions in a preface to Naked Lunch. You Can't Win is a memoir that explodes our ideas about the supposedly lawful past; Jack was a drifter, robber, junkie, and hustler that survived from the frontier times til the depression era...apparently. He became a librarian of sorts, wrote his memoir, and then vanished... Shares: Escapes, Biography & Memoir

An autobiography Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi · 1927 · ★ 4.4 · 455p · ≈ 15h · Challenging Gandhi's non-violent struggles against racism, violence, and colonialism in South Africa and India had brought him to such a level of notoriety, adulation that when asked to write an autobiography midway through his career, he took it as an opportunity to explain himself. He feared the enthusiasm for his ideas tended to exceed a deeper understanding of his quest for truth rooted in devotion to… Shares: Biografía, Biography & Memoir

Elizabeth and Her German Garden Elizabeth von Arnim · 1898 · ★ 3.7 · 95p · ≈ 3h · Challenging Told in a series of diary entries, Elizabeth and Her German Garden recounts one year in the life of an Englishwoman determined to revitalize the neglected garden of their German estate. It is in the process of laying out flower beds, ordering rose varietals, and supervising the planting that she finds peace and escape from her three young children (referred to simply as the April, May, and June… Shares: Autobiographical fiction, Biography & Memoir

Ingrid Bergman Ingrid Bergman · 1980 · ★ 4.0 · 484p · ≈ 16h · Moderate from the front flap: "More than just an account of [Ingrid Bergman's] illustrious career, here is a totally candid self-portrait of a remarkable woman: her personal failures as well as her public successes." Shares: Biografía, Biography & Memoir

Livro do Desassossego Fernando Pessoa · 1982 · ★ 4.4 · 464p · ≈ 15h · Moderate The Book of Disquiet is the Portuguese modernist master Fernando Pessoa's greatest literary achievement. An "autobiography" or "diary" containing exquisite melancholy observations, aphorisms, and ruminations, this classic work grapples with all the eternal questions. Now, for the first time the texts are presented chronologically, in a complete English edition by master translator Margaret Jull… Shares: Biografía, Biography & Memoir

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