18 books like The Girls

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

Arcadia Lauren Groff · 2012 · ★ 3.7 · 301p · ≈ 10h · Moderate In the fields of western New York State in the 1970s, a few dozen idealists set out to live off the land, founding a commune centered on the grounds of a decaying mansion called Arcadia House. Arcadia follows this romantic utopian dream from its hopeful start through its heyday. Arcadia’s inhabitants include Handy, the charismatic leader; his wife, Astrid, a midwife; Abe, a master carpenter;… Shares: Communal living, Nineteen sixties

The high window Raymond Chandler · 1942 · ★ 3.7 · 198p · ≈ 6h · Challenging Fast-talking, trouble-seeking private eye Philip Marlowe is a different kind of detective: a moral man in an amoral world. California in the 1940s and 1950s is as beautiful as a ripe fruit and rotten to the core, and Marlowe must struggle to retain his integrity amidst the corruption he encounters daily. In The High Window, Marlowe starts out on the trail of a single stolen coin and ends up… Shares: American, California, Literary Criticism

Locating transnational ideals Walter Goebel · 2010 · 288p · ≈ 9h · Moderate This volume defines versions of the transnational in their historical and cultural specificity. By "locating," the contributors contextualize historical and contemporary understandings of the fluid term "transnational," which vary in relation to the disciplines involved. This kind of historical and geographical "locating" implicitly turns against forms of contemporary transnational euphoria… Shares: American, Literary Criticism

Camping for Boys H. W. Gibson · 2007 · 296p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Equip the next generation of outdoor enthusiasts with Camping for Boys by H. W. Gibson. First published in 1911, this foundational text quickly became an essential guide for youth leaders, educators, and the Boy Scout movement, providing detailed, practical instruction for young people to confidently engage with the wilderness.Gibson, a respected figure in organized outdoor youth activities of… Shares: American, Literary Criticism

The Freedom Maze Delia Sherman · 1950 · ★ 4.2 · 272p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Thirteen-year-old Sophie isn’t happy about spending the summer of 1960 at her grandmother’s old house in the bayou. Bored and lonely, she can’t resist exploring the house’s maze, or making an impulsive wish for a fantasy-book adventure with herself as the heroine. What she gets instead is a real adventure: a trip back in time to 1860 and the race-haunted world of her family’s Louisiana sugar… Shares: Nineteen sixties, Teenage Girls

Heaven's reach David Brin · 1998 · ★ 4.0 · 582p · ≈ 19h · Moderate Winner of the Nebula and Hugo Awards, David Brin brings his bestselling Uplift series to a magnificent conclusion with his most imaginative and powerful novel to date--the shattering epic of a universe poised on the brink of revelation...or annihilation.The brutal enemy that has relentlessly pursued them for centuries has arrived. Now the fugitive settlers of Jijo--both human and alien--brace for… Shares: American, Literary Criticism

Anatomy of a Robot Despina Kakoudaki · 2014 · 272p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Why do we find artificial people fascinating? Drawing from a rich fictional and cinematic tradition, Anatomy of a Robot explores the political and textual implications of our perennial projections of humanity onto figures such as robots, androids, cyborgs, and automata. In an engaging, sophisticated, and accessible presentation, Despina Kakoudaki argues that, in their narrative and cultural… Shares: Literary, Literary Criticism

From Puritanism to postmodernism Richard Ruland · 1991 · ★ 4.0 · 470p · ≈ 15h · Moderate Widely acknowledged as a contemporary classic that has introduced thousands of readers to American literature, From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of American Literature brilliantly charts the fascinating story of American literature from the Puritan legacy to the advent of postmodernism. From realism and romanticism to modernism and postmodernism it examines and reflects on the work of a… Shares: American, Literary Criticism

S.J. Perelman Steven H. Gale · 1985 · 182p · ≈ 6h · Moderate First published in 1992, this book focuses on the oeuvre of S. J. Perelman. Taken together, the essays included serve as an introduction to this important humorist’s work, both in terms of the specific short prose pieces, plays, and films examined and as an overview of his lengthy professional career. They provide insightful and in-depth literary analyses as well. The work encourages a better… Shares: American, Literary Criticism

Wild Cheryl Strayed · 1767 · ★ 4.5 · 336p · ≈ 11h · Demanding A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again. At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she'd lost everything when her mother died young of cancer. Her family scattered in their grief, her marriage was soon destroyed, and slowly her life spun out of control. Four years after her… Shares: American, Literary, Literary Criticism

A Rare Benedictine Edith Pargeter · 1988 · ★ 3.8 · 150p · ≈ 5h · Moderate These three short stories form a prequel to the Ellis Peters series featuring Brother Cadfael, a medieval monk detective. The first story describes the circumstances around Brother Cadfael’s decision to renounce his former life and become a monk. The second and third stories give Brother Cadfael the opportunity to solve mysteries that occur at Shrewsbury Abbey in the years just preceding the… Shares: American, Literary Criticism

Sideswipe Charles Ray Willeford · 1987 · ★ 4.4 · 300p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Hoke Moseley has had enough. Tired of struggling against alimony payments, two teenage daughters, a very pregnant, very single partner, and a low paying job as a Miami homicide detective, Hoke moves to Singer Island and vows never step foot on the mainland again. But on the street, career criminal Troy Louden is hatching plans of his own with a gang including a disfigured hooker, a talentless… Shares: American, Literary Criticism

Spies of the Balkans Alan Furst · 2010 · ★ 4.0 · 275p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Greece, 1940. Not sunny vacation Greece: northern Greece, Macedonian Greece, Balkan Greece—the city of Salonika. In that ancient port, with its wharves and warehouses, dark lanes and Turkish mansions, brothels and tavernas, a tense political drama is being played out. On the northern border, the Greek army has blocked Mussolini’s invasion, pushing his divisions back to Albania—the first defeat… Shares: American, Literary Criticism

Off the Grid C. J. Box · 2016 · ★ 4.3 · 392p · ≈ 13h · Moderate There's no hiding off the grid. Joe Pickett's old friend Nate Romanowski is off the grid, lying low while the FBI search for him. But they're not the only ones looking. Nate finds himself confronted by agents who need his help assessing a potential terror threat in Wyoming's Red Desert – in return they'll make Nate's criminal record disappear. Nate knows they can't be trusted – but with his… Shares: American, Literary Criticism

A good country Laleh Khadivi · 2017 · ★ 3.8 · 256p · ≈ 8h · Moderate "Laguna Beach, California, 2009. Alireza Courdee, a fourteen-year-old straight-A student and chemistry whiz, takes his first hit of pot. In as long as it takes to inhale and exhale, he is transformed from the high-achieving son of Iranian immigrants into a happy-go-lucky stoner. He loses his virginity, takes up surfing, and sneaks away to all-night raves. For the first time, Reza--now Rez--feels… Shares: California, Literary

Cop Town Karin Slaughter · 2012 · ★ 3.9 · 416p · ≈ 13h · Moderate "In 1974, the Atlanta Police Department is investigating a serial cop killer hardly welcomes women, so they partner Kate and Maggie to isolate them from the action. But the move will backfire, putting them right at the heart of it"-- Shares: American, Literary Criticism

The incendiaries R. O. Kwon · 2018 · ★ 3.2 · 224p · ≈ 7h · Moderate A young Korean-American woman at an elite American university is drawn into acts of domestic terrorism by a cult tied to North Korea and then disappears, leading a fellow student into an obsessive search for her. Shares: Cults, Literary

Little Faith Nickolas Butler · 2019 · ★ 3.9 · 336p · ≈ 11h · Moderate "A Wisconsin family grapples with the power and limitations of faith when one of their own falls under the influence of a radical church"-- Lyle Hovde lives a mostly content life in rural Wisconsin with his wife, Peg, daughter, Shiloh, and six-year old grandson, Isaac. After a troubled adolescence, Shiloh has become deeply involved with an extremist church, and the devout pastor courting her is… Shares: Cults, Literary

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