18 books like The Book of Longings

What to read after The Book of Longings — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Circe Madeline Miller · 2018 · ★ 4.2 · 404p · ≈ 13h · Moderate In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power--the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. Threatened, Zeus… Shares: Ancient, Historical

The Regency Brides Collection Michelle Griep · 2017 · 609p · ≈ 20h · Moderate Seven couples must navigate society's gauntlet to secure the hand of true love.... Shares: Historical, Romance & Relationships

Autobiography and Questions of Gender Shirley Neuman · 2015 · 217p · ≈ 7h · Moderate Originally published in 1991. Addressing the ways in which the ideology of gender and its social construction determine autobiographical self-representations, the essays here consider several women’s works in the light of the social and historical conditions which enabled their production. Some examine diaries as a feminine form and ask about the ways in which thematic content such as childbirth… Shares: Women authors, American literature

The Life of Charlotte Bronte Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell · 1857 · 411p · ≈ 13h · Challenging Intertwining fact and story, The Life of Charlotte Bronte takes the reader by one hand and Charlotte Bronte by the other to run rampant through the making of one of the greatest authoresses of all time. Follow Charlotte from her birthplace of Thornton as she sets off for school and later returns to teach her sisters, and come to know the “characteristic kindness of the Brontes.” This… Shares: Women authors, Authors

Dracul Dacre Stoker · 2018 · ★ 4.2 · 516p · ≈ 17h · Moderate It is 1868, and a twenty-one-year-old Bram Stoker waits in a desolate tower to face an indescribable evil. Armed only with crucifixes, holy water, and a rifle, he prays to survive a single night, the longest of his life. Desperate to record what he has witnessed, Bram scribbles down the events that led him here... A sickly child, Bram spent his early days bedridden in his parents' Dublin home,… Shares: Historical, Authors

Lady Oracle Margaret Atwood · 1976 · ★ 3.7 · 345p · ≈ 11h · Moderate A bored wife takes off on a journey of excitement and discovery. Shares: Women authors, Authors

Comfort Me with Apples Ruth Reichl · 2001 · ★ 3.6 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Warm, very descriptive of mouth watering food interspersed with receipes. A story of food and her life which was quite an exciting one of a restaurant critic. Shares: Women authors, Authors

Jane's fame Claire Harman · 2009 · 341p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Part biography and part cultural history, this splendid book not only tells the captivating story of Jane Austen's life, but also her literary legacy. The slow growth of Austen's fame, the changing status of her work, and what it has stood for in English culture is a story of personal struggle and family dynamics as well as a history of critical practices and changing public tastes. Jane's Fame… Shares: Women authors, Authors

Scions Patrice Michelle · 2008 · ★ 4.0 · 224p · ≈ 7h · Moderate When Detective Kaitlyn McKinney responds to a call about a strange, burned body, she discovers something far more complicated--and dangerous.Landon Rourke is a werewolf, exiled from his pack and dedicated to keeping a protective watch over Kaitlyn.A prophecy has said that his kind and vampires would one day come to a truce. But that day has yet to come.Landon has his own past to deal with, too,… Shares: Women authors, Romance & Relationships

Kristin Lavransdatter III Sigrid Undset · 1922 · ★ 4.0 · 394p · ≈ 13h · Challenging In her great historical epic Kristin Lavransdatter, set in fourteenth-century Norway, Nobel laureate Sigrid Undset tells the life story of one passionate and headstrong woman. Painting a richly detailed backdrop, Undset immerses readers in the day-to-day life, social conventions, and political and religious undercurrents of the period. Now in one volume, Tiina Nunnally's award-winning definitive… Shares: Women authors, Romance & Relationships

Au nom du coeur Danielle Steel · 1973 · ★ 3.7 · 316p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Bestselling novelist Danielle Steel takes us on a harrowing journey into the heart of America's hidden shame in a novel that explores the power of forgiveness, the dark side of childhood, and one woman's unbreakable spirit.From her secret perch at the top of the stairs, Gabriella Harrison watches the guests arrive at her parents' lavish Manhattan townhouse. At seven, she knows she is an intruder… Shares: Women authors, Authors, Romance & Relationships

Ask the Dust John Fante · 1939 · ★ 4.3 · 208p · ≈ 6h · Challenging Arturo Bandini is a struggling writer lodging in a seedy LA hotel. While basking in the glory of having had a single short story published in a small magazine, he meets local waitress Camilla Lopez and they embark on a strange and strained love-hate relationship/ Slowly, but inexorably, it descends into the realms of madness. Ask the Dust is one of the truly great, yet unsung, American novels of… Shares: Authors, Romance & Relationships

slouching towards bethlehem Joan Didion · 1967 · ★ 4.2 · 238p · ≈ 7h · Moderate American novelist Joan Didion's first volume of nonfiction essays, first published in 1968, consisting of twenty works that reflect the atmosphere in America during the 1960s, especially in California. Shares: Women authors, American literature

In the Night Room Peter Straub · 2004 · ★ 3.4 · 352p · ≈ 11h · Moderate In the wake of a grotesque accident, a famous children’s book author realizes that the most basic facts of her existence, including her existence itself, have come into question. Willy Patrick, the respected author of the award-winning young-adult novel In the Night Room, thinks she is losing her mind–again. One day, she is drawn helplessly into the parking lot of a warehouse. She knows somehow… Shares: Women authors, Authors

The Stolen Queen Fiona Davis · 2025 · ★ 3.9 · 352p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Egypt, 1936: When anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, she leaps at the opportunity. But after an unbearable tragedy strikes, Charlotte knows her future will never be the same. New York City, 1978: Eighteen-year-old Annie Jenkins is thrilled when she lands an opportunity to work for iconic former Vogue fashion… Shares: Historical, American literature

The Chronology of Water Lidia Yuknavitch · 2011 · ★ 4.2 · 296p · ≈ 9h · Moderate This is not your mother's memoir. In The Chronology of Water, Lidia Yuknavitch expertly moves the reader through issues of gender, sexuality, violence, and the family from the point of view of a lifelong swimmer turned artist. In writing that explores the nature of memoir itself, her story traces the effect of extreme grief on a young woman's developing sexuality that some define as untraditional… Shares: Women authors, Authors

Oracle Night Paul Auster · 2003 · ★ 3.8 · 251p · ≈ 8h · Moderate A novelist recovers from an accident. He begins to write again, after buying a blue portugese notebook. The words flow, but at some point, strange things begin to happen: his beloved wife behaves strangely, fiction and reality get mixed up, and what about this strange stationary shop where he bought the notebook? It disappears over night. Shares: Authors, Romance & Relationships, American literature

The Shipping News Annie Proulx · 1993 · ★ 3.9 · 348p · ≈ 11h · Moderate At thirty-six, Quoyle, a third-rate newspaperman, is wrenched violently out of his workaday life when his two-timing wife meets her just deserts. He retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim his life. As three generations of his family cobble up new lives,… Shares: Women authors, American literature

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