18 books like Paradise

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

River, Cross My Heart Breena Clarke · 1999 · ★ 3.5 · 256p · ≈ 8h · Moderate The impact of a child's drowning on a black family in 1925 Washington, especially on the 12-year-old sister who was baby-sitting the girl. Told against the background of the lot of African Americans at the time. Shares African American families, Afro-Americans, African Americans, Domestic fiction

Soul kiss Shay Youngblood · 1997 · ★ 4.0 · 207p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Left by her mother in the care of her aunts at the age of seven, Mariah dreams of her mother's return and of the father she has never met, eventually beginning a correspondence with him that leads to a tumultuous visit when she turns fourteen. A first novel. Shares Noirs américains, African American families, African American women, African Americans

Sula Toni Morrison · 1973 · ★ 4.1 · 188p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Two girls who grow up to become women. Two friends who become something worse than enemies. In this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison tells the story of Nel Wright and Sula Peace, who meet as children in the small town of Medallion, Ohio. Their devotion is fierce enough to withstand bullies and the burden of a dreadful secret. It endures even after Nel has grown up to be a pillar of the… Shares African American women, City and town life, African Americans, Domestic fiction

Roots Alex Haley · 1861 · ★ 4.5 · 476p · ≈ 15h · Challenging Roots is a novel written by Alex Haley and published in 1976. It portrays the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent and sold into slavery in the United States, and follows his life and the lives of his alleged descendants in the U.S. down to Haley. The release of the novel, combined with its hugely popular television adaptation, Roots (1977), led to a cultural… Shares African American families, Afro-Americans, African Americans

In love & trouble Alice Walker · 1973 · 138p · ≈ 4h · Moderate The desires and fears of the American black woman are explored with compassion and understanding in these thirteen short stories. Admirers of The Color Purple will find in these stories more evidence of Walker's power to depict black women-women who vary greatly in background yet are bound together. Dating back to the early 1970s and 1980s, respectively, these short stories cover the Pulitzer… Shares African American women, African Americans, Women

Song of Solomon Toni Morrison · 1634 · ★ 4.4 · 352p · ≈ 11h · Challenging Milkman Dead was born shortly after a neighborhood eccentric hurled himself off a rooftop in a vain attempt at flight. For the rest of his life he, too, will be trying to fly. With this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison transfigures the coming-of-age story as audaciously as Saul Bellow or Gabriel García Márquez. As she follows Milkman from his rustbelt city to the place of his family’s… Shares African American families, Afro-Americans, African Americans, Domestic fiction

Leaving Atlanta Tayari Jones · 2002 · ★ 4.1 · 272p · ≈ 9h · Moderate "It was the end of summer, a summer during a two-year nightmare. African American children around Atlanta were vanishing, and twenty-nine would be murdered by the end of 1981. Like all kids across the city, fifth-grade classmates Tasha Baxter, Rodney Green, and Octavia Harrison were discovering that back-to-school now meant special safety lessons, indoor recess, and being thrown into a world… Shares African American families, African Americans, Domestic fiction

A Raisin in the Sun Lorraine Hansberry · 1958 · ★ 3.9 · 146p · ≈ 4h · Moderate This groundbreaking play starred Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeill, Ruby Dee and Diana Sands in the Broadway production which opened in 1959. Set on Chicago's South Side, the plot revolves around the divergent dreams and conflicts within three generations of the Younger family: son Walter Lee, his wife Ruth, his sister Beneatha, his son Travis and matriarch Lena, called Mama. When her deceased… Shares African American families, Afro-Americans, African Americans

Dust tracks on a road Zora Neale Hurston · 1942 · ★ 4.1 · 328p · ≈ 10h · Moderate xii, 308, 16 pages : 21 cm Shares African American women, African Americans, Social conditions

Mama Day Gloria Naylor · 1988 · ★ 4.2 · 312p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Mama day is about many things. It's the story of Ophelia and George two black American's and how they fall in love in try to reconcile their differences of upbringing and culture. It's about the dying culture of Gullah on the Georgia sea islands and it is even a reworking of Shakespeare's Tempest. Shares Afro-Americans, African American women, African Americans

Going to Meet the Man James Baldwin · 1965 · ★ 4.4 · 226p · ≈ 7h · Moderate African-American fiction Shares Afro-Americans, African Americans, Social conditions

Rich Man, Poor Man Irwin Shaw · 1970 · ★ 4.5 · 640p · ≈ 21h · Challenging A novel of two brothers from the end of World War II to the 1960's. The story of Rudolph, Gretchen, and Thomas Jordache, children of an embittered German immigrant. Nurtured on traditional views of American success, each pursues the illusion of happiness in his own way, determined to achieve his "birthright." Shares Social conditions, Domestic fiction

Act of will Barbara Taylor Bradford · 1986 · ★ 4.0 · 432p · ≈ 14h · Moderate Audra is an impoverished children's nanny from Leeds who sacrificed everything for her only daughter. Christina is a talented art student who won world renown as a fashion designer – yet who has known pain and heartache. Kyle is a rebellious young woman who chafes against her mother's success – and in whom her grandmother's spirit of duty and sacrifice is reborn. Moving from the bleak Yorkshire… Shares Domestic fiction, Women, Literature

The secret life of bees Sue Monk Kidd · 2000 · ★ 4.1 · 302p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Sue Monk Kidd's ravishing debut novel has stolen the hearts of reviewers and readers alike with its strong, assured voice. Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the town's fiercest… Shares African American women, Domestic fiction, Literature

To Take B. Love · 2017 · 82p · ≈ 2h · Light iii, 72 pages ; 20 cm Shares African American women, African Americans

A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry · 1995 · ★ 4.4 · 719p · ≈ 23h · Challenging A Fine Balance is Rohinton Mistry's eagerly awaited second novel and follows his critically acclaimed Such a Long Journey, the book that won three prestigious literary awards in 1991. Set in India in the mid-1970s, A Fine Balance is a richly textured novel which sweeps the reader up into its special world. Large in scope, the narrative focuses on four unlikely people who come together in a… Shares City and town life, Domestic fiction, Literature

Looking at the stars Jo Cotterill · 2014 · ★ 4.1 · 374p · ≈ 12h · Moderate Amina's community is ravaged by war, and her family welcome what they hope is a liberating force. However, they face further oppression, from a regime which enforces the subordination of women, and everyone is force to wear badges indicating their class. Amina's family is separate, and she tries to survive and remain whole by telling stories to her sister. First person recount. Shares Social conditions, Women

Ruth (volume II) Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell · 1853 · ★ 4.5 · 458p · ≈ 15h · Challenging Ruth Volume 2 By Elizabeth Gaskell A sensitive portrayal of relationships within small towns and an exploration of seduction and illegitimacy within a small Dissenting community where tolerance and rigid morality clash. Shares Social conditions, Domestic fiction, Literature

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