18 books like Trading Up

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

Breaking the rules Barbara Taylor Bradford · 1843 · 512p · ≈ 17h · Challenging Thirty years ago the world was introduced to Emma Harte. Now meet M, a new woman of substance guaranteed to win our hearts all over again. A new era has begun.When those you love are threatened, there's nothing you won't do to protect them... you'll even resort to Breaking the Rules. Following a terrifying encounter in the quiet English countryside, a dark beauty flees to New York in search of a… Shares: Models, Celebrities, Young women, New york

By Sorrow's River Larry McMurtry · 2001 · ★ 3.9 · 347p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Raising her young son, Monty, Tasmin Berrybender hopes to turn him into an English gentleman despite his life on the trail toward Santa Fe, an endeavor that is compromised by painful occurrences in the lives of Tasmin's husband and father. Shares: Jeunes femmes, Young women, Bildungsromans

Miss Marjoribanks Margaret Oliphant · 1866 · 546p · ≈ 18h · Challenging When Dr. Marjoribanks’s wife dies, his teenage daughter makes it her purpose in life “to be a comfort to dear papa.” At least, Lucilla thinks, ten years of such devotion might suffice, by which time she might have begun to “go off.” But beneath this grand intention lies a yet more ambitious plan: to revolutionize the moribund and constricted social life of Carlingford. She is remarkably… Shares: Young women, Bildungsromans

Light a Penny Candle Maeve Binchy · 1970 · ★ 4.5 · 600p · ≈ 20h · Moderate As a child, Elizabeth White was sent from her war-torn London home to a safer life in the small Irish town of Kilgarret. It was there, in the crowded, chaotic O'Connor household, that she met Aisling-who would become her very best friend, sharing her pet kitten and secretly teaching her the intricacies of Catholicism. Aisling's boldness brought Elizabeth out of her proper shell; later, her… Shares: Jeunes femmes, Young women

The bent twig Dorothy Canfield Fisher · 1915 · 480p · ≈ 16h · Challenging Unlike other young women of her generation, who were "bred up from childhood to sit behind tea-tables and say the right things to tea-drinkers," Sylvia Marshall - the "twig" of this novel - was reared to think for herself and to trust her own instincts and experience. This, coupled with her passionate temperament, makes Sylvia a compelling figure as she resists efforts to mold her with every… Shares: Young women, Bildungsromans

Among Others Jo Walton · 2011 · ★ 3.7 · 336p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Seeking refuge in fantasy novel worlds throughout a youth under the shadow of a dubiously sane half-brother who dabbled in magic, Mori Phelps is forced to confront her mother in a tragic battle and gains unwanted attention when she attempts to perform spells herself. Shares: Jeunes femmes, Young women

The Monsters of Templeton Lauren Groff · 1998 · ★ 3.9 · 480p · ≈ 16h · Moderate A rollicking memoir by one of the greatest (and most outrageous) supermodels of the 1970s.Janice Dickinson was not only the first of the supermodels, she endured a nightmarishly traumatic childhood at the hands of a sadistic, sexually and emotionally abusive father, and emerged in the early 1970s as the first lush-lipped 'exotic' brunette to break into a modelling world dominated by sunny… Shares: Models, New york

Carolina Moon Nora Roberts · 2000 · ★ 4.1 · 416p · ≈ 13h · Moderate Tory Bodeen grew up in South Carolina, in a small run-down house, where her father ruled with an iron fist and a leather belt--and where her dreams and talents had no room to flourish. But she had Hope, who lived in the big house just a short skip away and whose friendship allowed Tory to be something she wasn't allowed to be at home: a child. After young Hope's brutal murder, unsolved to this… Shares: Jeunes femmes, Young women

Twelve Nick McDonell · 2002 · ★ 3.2 · 244p · ≈ 8h · Moderate "White Mike is clean. He has never smoked a cigarette in his life. Never had a drink, never sucked down a doobie. But White Mike has become a very good drug dealer, even though it started out as a one-shot deal with his cousin Charlie. White Mike was a good student, but he's been out of school for six months, and though some people might wonder what he's doing, no one seams to care very much that… Shares: Bildungsromans, New york

Candy Terry Southern · 1964 · ★ 3.9 · 224p · ≈ 7h · Moderate Banned upon its initial publication, the now-classic Candy is a romp of a story about the impossibly sweet Candy Christian, a wide-eyed, luscious, all-American girl. Candy -- a satire of Voltaire's Candide -- chronicles her adventures with mystics, sexual analysts, and everyone she meets when she sets out to experience the world. Shares: Young women, Bildungsromans

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: Bildungsromans, New york

Roustabout Michelle Chalfoun · 1996 · ★ 4.3 · 236p · ≈ 7h · Moderate the seedy side of the circus through the eyes of a young female worker Shares: Young women, Bildungsromans

A Student of Weather Elizabeth Hay · 2000 · ★ 3.7 · 368p · ≈ 12h · Moderate A Student of Weather is the brilliant first novel by acclaimed storywriter, Elizabeth Hay. It tells the story of the rivalry between two contrasting sisters and of a stranger who changes both of their lives forever. Spanning thirty years, it opens in the Prairie Dust Bowl of the 1930s and, later, in the decades following the war, moves back and forth between Ottawa and New York City. Maurice… Shares: Young women, Bildungsromans, New york

Running Cara Hoffman · 2017 · ★ 4.3 · 288p · ≈ 9h · Moderate "Running brings together an ensemble of outsiders who get by as "runners"hustlers who sell tourists on low-end accommodations for a small commission and a place to stay. Bridey Sullivan, a young American woman who has fled a peculiar and traumatic upbringing in Washington State, takes up with a queer British couple, the poet Milo Rollack and Eton drop-out Jasper Lethe. Slipping in and out of… Shares: Young women, Bildungsromans

Judith Paris Hugh Walpole · 1931 · 782p · ≈ 26h · Challenging Covering the years 1771 to 1822 and set partly in Revolutionary Paris, and partly in romantic Cumbria, Judith Paris is the story of the two very different men who love Walpole's most delightful heroine. Daughter of Francis Herries and Mirabell Starr, Judith was described on publication as "the most delightful of Walpole's heroines." As impetuous, impulsive and passionate as her father, she is… Shares: Young women, Bildungsromans

Confessions of a Shopaholic, Shopaholic Takes Manhattan, and Shopaholic Ties the Knot (Shopaholic Series, Books 1, 2, & 3) Sophie Kinsella · 2001 · ★ 4.6 · 310p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Meet Becky Bloomwood, America’s favorite shopaholic—a young woman with a big heart, big dreams…and just one little weakness. Becky has a fabulous flat in London's trendiest neighborhood, a troupe of glamorous socialite friends, and a closet brimming with the season's must-haves. The only trouble is that she can't actually afford it—not any of it. Her job writing at Successful Savings not only… Shares: Young women, Bildungsromans

Lili Annie Wang · 2001 · ★ 4.0 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Derrière le portrait d'une jeune Chinoise dans les années 1980, l'histoire d'une prise de conscience sociale qui aboutit aux événements de la place Tian'anmen en 1989. [SDM]. Shares: Young women, Bildungsromans

Nora, Nora Anne Rivers Siddons · 2000 · 263p · ≈ 8h · Moderate "Peyton is not ready to share her widowed father with anyone, let alone a barely remembered cousin who just rolled into town, a cousin who smokes cigarettes and drives a pink Thunderbird. However, her father seems to like Nora well enough, and she does make for good conversation at the Losers Club, and prim Aunt Augusta hates her, which raises Nora slightly in Peyton's esteem. Maybe she isn't so… Shares: Young women, Bildungsromans

About the book Trading Up →