18 books like The real diary of a real boy

What to read after The real diary of a real boy — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Paul the Peddler Horatio Alger, Jr. · 1871 · 161p · ≈ 5h · Challenging Young Paul is determined to win a better life for his mother, and he sets out on a whirlwind of entrepreneurial jobs to try to make a good living. From selling candy packages outside the post office to neckties from a cart, he will try his hand at anything to turn a profit. A rousing tale of moral triumph and free trade, "Paul the Peddler" is Horatio Alger at his best. Shares Boys, Children

Martin Bircks ungdom Hjalmar Söderberg · 1904 · 164p · ≈ 5h · Moderate "Hjalmar Soderberg's partly autobiographical second novel was originally published in 1901, and traces the development of the title character from a seemingly idyllic Stockholm childhood to maturity as a thirty-year-old man, an introspective outsider, critical of society, constantly searching for the truth but going through a gradual process of disillusionment. He dreams of being a poet, but is… Shares Literature - Classics, Classics, General

World's fair E. L. Doctorow · 1985 · ★ 3.9 · 288p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Recalls a certain New York City boyhood in the 1930s, through the eyes of the child himself and then him as an adult trying to reconstruct the past. Shares Boys, Children

Pembroke Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman · 1894 · 330p · ≈ 11h · Challenging "Pembroke begins with a heated political argument between Barney Thayer and Cephas Barnard, the father of Barney's betrothed, Charlotte Barnard. The angry Cephas throws his prospective son-in-law out of the house and, because of his immense pride, Barney refuses to apologize, even though it means he cannot marry Charlotte. The Thayers and Barnards become locked in a clash of wills, and the broken… Shares New england, Literature - Classics, Classics

Dark Rooms

Dark Rooms Lili Anolik · 2015 · ★ 3.2 · 352p · ≈ 11h · Moderate The Secret History meets Sharp Objects in this stunning debut about murder and glamour set in the ambiguous and claustrophobic world of an exclusive New England prep school.Death sets the plot in motion: the murder of Nica Baker, beautiful, wild, enigmatic, and only sixteen. The crime is solved, and quickly—a lonely classmate, unrequited love, a suicide note confession—but memory and instinct… Shares New england

Butcher's Crossing John Williams · 1960 · ★ 4.2 · 265p · ≈ 8h · Moderate In the 1870s, Will Andrews, fired up by Emerson to seek "an original relation to nature," drops out of Harvard and heads west. He washes up in Butcher's Crossing, a small Kansas town full of restless men looking for ways to make money and ways to waste it. One of these men regales Will with tales of the immense buffalo herds hidden away in the Colorado Rockies and convinces him to join an… Shares Literature - Classics, Classics

Red Land, Black Land Barbara Mertz · 1966 · ★ 4.1 · 385p · ≈ 12h · Moderate Describes how the Egyptians lived, worked, played, fought, worshiped, spent their home and political life and prepared for death. Shares Cultural Region, Chronological Period

The misfortunes of Sophy Sophie, comtesse de Ségur · 1871 · ★ 3.9 · 248p · ≈ 8h · Challenging A soldier who finds two abandoned boys entrusts them to the care of the innkeepers of the Guardian Angel, thus starting the boys and their benefactors on a series of adventures. Shares Boys, Children, Classics

Tress of the Emerald Sea

Tress of the Emerald Sea Brandon Sanderson · 2023 · ★ 4.4 · 551p · ≈ 18h · Moderate \#1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson expands his Cosmere universe shared by The Stormlight Archive and Mistborn with a new standalone novel for everyone who loved The Princess Bride. Narrated by Michael Kramer. The only life Tress has known on her island home in an emerald-green ocean has been a simple one, with the simple pleasures of collecting cups brought by sailors from… Shares General

Tom Sawyer, Detective Mark Twain · 1897 · ★ 3.5 · 104p · ≈ 3h · Challenging Tom Sawyer, Detective follows Twain's popular novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Tom Sawyer Abroad. In this novel, Tom turns detective, trying to solve a murder. Twain plays with and celebrates the detective novel, wildly popular at the time. This novel, like the others, is told through the first-person narrative of Huck Finn. Shares Boys, Literature

To Catch a King Henry Patterson · 1979 · ★ 4.0 · 254p · ≈ 8h · Moderate Shares Cultural Region, Chronological Period with this book.

Ourika Claire de Duras · 1824 · 69p · ≈ 2h · Challenging Based on a true story, Ourika relates the experiences of a Senegalese girl who is rescued from slavery and raised by an aristocratic French family during the French Revolution. Brought up in a household of learning and privilege, she is unaware of her difference until she overhears a conversation that makes her suddenly conscious of her race - and of the prejudice it arouses. From this point on,… Shares Literature - Classics, Classics, General

Sammy Feral's Diaries of Weird Eleanor Hawken · 2013 · ★ 4.1 · 256p · ≈ 8h · Moderate Shares Diaries, Boys with this book.

Eden's eyes Sean Costello · 1989 · 244p · ≈ 8h · Moderate Karen Lockhart has been blind all her life. Now she can see with a dead man's eyes but with her new blessing come an even greater curse: terror. Karen's world had grown dark until a vicious punk named Eden Crowell is killed one night in a barroom brawl and doctors salvage what they can from his ruined body. His heart goest to an old drunk, his kidney to a young girl, and his silver blue eyes… Shares Literature

Mapp and Lucia (Make Way for Lucia, Part 4) E. F. Benson · 1931 · 302p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Meet Mapp and Luciatwo of the most unpleasant, disgraceful women you're ever likely to encounter, in E.F. Benson's carefully observed tale of 1930s village life and social ranking Emmeline Lucas (known as Lucia to her friends) is emerging from mourning following the death of her husband. Pretentious, snobbish, and down-right devious, she feels her hometown of Riseholme offers no challenges and… Shares Classics, General, Literature

Reading autobiography Sidonie Smith · 2001 · 232p · ≈ 7h · Moderate Shares Literature - Classics, General with this book.

Heidi Spyri, Johanna · 1885 · ★ 4.1 · 238p · ≈ 7h · Challenging ***The famous Swiss classic about Heidi, a five-year-old orphan girl*** who goes to live with her grandfather, and his goats, in an alm (Alpine pasture)...up the Alps. **One of the most loved classics ...both by children and adults, alike.** ***Little orphan Heidi goes to live high in the Alps with her gruff grandfather and brings happiness to all who know her on the mountain. When Heidi goes… Shares Children, Classics, Literature

The Financier Theodore Dreiser · 1912 · ★ 4.3 · 523p · ≈ 17h · Moderate The Financier is a novel by Theodore Dreiser, based on real-life streetcar tycoon Charles Yerkes. Dreiser started writing his manuscript in 1911, and the following year published the first part of his lengthy work as The Financier. The second part appeared in 1914 as The Titan; the third volume of his Trilogy of Desire was also Dreiser's final novel, The Stoic (1947). Shares Classics, Literature

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