18 books like Play It as It Lays

What to read after Play It as It Lays — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Take two Karen Kingsbury · 2009 · ★ 4.4 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Filmmakers Chase Ryan and Keith Ellison have completed their first feature film, and Hollywood is buzzing with the news. In the wake of that excitement, the producers acquire rights to a novel that has all the ingredients they want for their next project. At the same time they cross paths with a well-connected player who introduces them to the right people, and suddenly every studio in town wants… Shares: Hollywood, Motion picture industry

Sátántangó Krasznahorkai, László. · 1985 · ★ 4.0 · 296p · ≈ 9h · Moderate "Set in an isolated hamlet, Satantango unfolds over the course of a few rain-soaked days. Only a dozen inhabitants remain in the bleak village, rank with the stench of failed schemes, betrayals, failure, infidelity, sudden hopes, and aborted dreams. At the center of Satantango is the eponymous drunken dance."--P. [i]. Shares: Novels, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Classics

Az ellenállás melankóliája Krasznahorkai, László. · 1989 · ★ 4.5 · 333p · ≈ 11h · Moderate A powerful, surreal novel, in the tradition of Gogol, about the chaotic events surrounding the arrival of a circus in a small Hungarian town. _The Melancholy of Resistance_, László Krasznahorkai's magisterial, surreal novel, depicts a chain of mysterious events in a small Hungarian town. A circus, promising to display the stuffed body of the largest whale in the world, arrives in the dead of… Shares: Novels, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Classics

Get Shorty Elmore Leonard · 1990 · ★ 4.0 · 292p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Mob-connected loanshark Chili Palmer is sick of the Miami grind -- plus his "friends" have a bad habit of dying there. So when he chases a deadbeat client out to Hollywood, Chili figures he might like to stay. This town with its dreammakers, glitter, hucksters, and liars -- plus gorgeous, partially clad would-be starlets everywhere you look -- seems ideal for an enterprising criminal with a taste… Shares: Hollywood, Motion picture industry

Weight Jeanette Winterson · 2005 · ★ 3.7 · 151p · ≈ 5h · Moderate Condemned to shoulder the world "for ever" by the gods he dared defy, freedom seems unattainable to Atlas. But then he receives an unexpected visit from Heracles, the one man strong enough to share the burden, and it seems they can strike a bargain that might release him . . . Jeanette Winterson asks difficult questions about the nature of choice and coercion in her dazzling retelling of the myth… Shares: Novels, Literary Fiction, Contemporary

Through the Kitchen Window Arlene Voski Avakian · 1997 · ★ 4.1 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Moderate With recipes from many, and contributions by Dorothy Allison, Maya Angelou, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, and Marge Piercy, among others, Through the Kitchen Window offers a fresh and delicious look at food and cooking as more than the makings of a meal. For the writers in this provocative collection, food is a cultural declaration, an expression of hidden hungers, a symbol of our intimate connections… Shares: Feminism, Women

The Englishman's Boy Guy Vanderhaeghe · 1996 · ★ 3.5 · 333p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Winner of the 1996 Governor-General's Literary Award. Shares: Hollywood, Motion picture industry

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo Taylor Jenkins Reid · 2017 · ★ 4.4 · 400p · ≈ 13h · Moderate Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now? Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of… Shares: Hollywood, Motion picture industry

In Memoriam Alice Winn · 2023 · ★ 4.5 · 400p · ≈ 13h · Moderate GMA BUZZ PICK • INTERNATIONAL BEST SELLER AND AWARD WINNER • A haunting, virtuosic debut novel about two young men who fall in love during World War I • “Will live in your mind long after you’ve closed the final pages.” —Maggie O’Farrell, best-selling author of Hamnet and The Marriage PortraitA Best Book of the Year: The New Yorker, The Washington Post, NPR“In Memoriam is the story of a… Shares: Novels, Literary Fiction

Her Body and Other Parties Carmen Maria Machado · 2017 · ★ 3.9 · 264p · ≈ 8h · Moderate In this electric and provocative debut, Carmen Maria Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women's lives and the violence visited upon their bodies. A wife refuses her husband's entreaties to remove the green ribbon from around her neck. A woman recounts her sexual encounters as a plague slowly consumes humanity. A salesclerk in a mall makes a horrifying… Shares: Feminism, Women

Charmed Nora Roberts · 1992 · ★ 4.2 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Boone Sawyer never expected to move next door to a woman who looked like one of the fairy princesses he often wrote about. Anastasia Donovan had a serene kind of femininity that would baffle and allure any man who was still breathing -- and Boone was definitely breathing! Ana's gift was for healing. Though her intriguing new neighbor made his living writing fairy tales, she didn't think he'd… Shares: Contemporary, California

Homeward Bound, Or, The Chase: A Tale of the Sea James Fenimore Cooper · 1800 · 466p · ≈ 15h · Challenging "Homeward Bound; Or, the Chase: A Tale of the Sea" by James Fenimore Cooper is a thrilling maritime fiction adventure that follows the epic sea voyage of the ship Homeward Bound and its crew. As a master of adventure novels, James Fenimore Cooper spins a captivating tale of nautical adventure, where the open ocean becomes the stage for high-stakes drama and daring escapades. Set against the… Shares: Feminism, Women

East of Eden John Steinbeck, David Wyatt & Susan Shillinglaw Set in the rich farmland of the Salinas Valley, California, this powerful, often brutal novel, follows the interwined destinies of two families - the Trasks and the Hamiltons - whose generations hopelessly re-enact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. Here Steinbeck created some of his most memorable characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of… Shares: Classics

Lord of the Flies William Golding, Lois Lowry & Jennifer Buehler Lord of the Flies is the 1954 debut novel of British author William Golding. The plot concerns a group of prepubescent British boys who are stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves that lead to a descent into savagery. The novels themes include morality, leadership, and the tension between civility and chaos. Shares: Classics

The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas · 1964 · ★ 4.5 · 242p · ≈ 8h · Moderate Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantès is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes determined not only to escape, but also to use the treasure to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. Shares: Classics

The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov · 141p · ≈ 4h · Moderate The Master and Margarita () is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, written in the Soviet Union between 1928 and 1940. A censored version, with several chapters cut by editors, was published posthumously in Moscow magazine in 1966–1967 by his widow Elena Bulgakova. The manuscript was first published as a book in 1967, in Paris, France. A samizdat version circulated that included parts cut out by official… Shares: Classics

Les Misérables Christine Donougher & Victor Hugo Les Misérables (, ) is a French epic historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published on 31 March 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. Les Misérables has been popularized through numerous adaptations for film, television, and the stage, including a musical. Shares: Classics

The Left Hand of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin & Charlie Jane Anders The Left Hand of Darkness is a science fiction novel by the American writer Ursula K. Le Guin. Published in 1969, its popularity established Le Guins status as a major author of science fiction. The novel is set in the fictional universe of the Hainish Cycle, a series of novels and short stories by Le Guin, which she introduced in the 1964 short story "The Dowry of Angyar". It was fourth in… Shares: Classics

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