18 books like You Can't Win

What to read after You Can't Win — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Mother Night Kurt Vonnegut · 1961 · ★ 4.2 · 206p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Mother Night is a daring challenge to our moral sense. American Howard W. Campbell, Jr., a spy during World War II, is now on trial in Israel as a Nazi war criminal. But is he really guilty? In this brilliant book rife with true gallows humor, Vonnegut turns black and white into a chilling shade of gray with a verdict that will haunt us all. Shares: Community pick

Mob star Gene Mustain · 1988 · ★ 4.3 · 269p · ≈ 8h · Moderate John Gotti is terminally ill; when he passes on to that great Mafia in the sky, co-author Capeci will be in great demand for interviews and will the plug the book.As he battles terminal cancer in a federal prison in Illinois, John Gotti, still the acting head of the Gambino Mafia family, is constantly in the news. Once Mr. Gotti ascends to Mafia heaven, he will be worldwide news-and Alpha will… Shares: Crime and criminals, Criminals, Biography & Memoir

Echoes in the darkness Joseph Wambaugh · 1987 · ★ 3.6 · 415p · ≈ 13h · Moderate On June 25, 1989, the naked corpse of schoolteacher Susan Reinert was found wedged into her hatchback car in a hotel parking lot near Philadelphia's "Main Line." Her two children had vanished. The Main Line Murder Case burst upon the headlines--and wasn't resolved for seven years. Now, master crime writer Joseph Wambaugh reconstructs the case from its roots, recounting the details, drama,… Shares: Crime and criminals, Criminals, Biography & Memoir

The only living witness Stephen G. Michaud · 1983 · ★ 4.5 · 348p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Michaud and Aynesworth are a reporter and an investigator team who interviewed serial killer Ted Bundy while he was on death row in Florida. This volume chronicles his activities throughout several states but is at its best in a long section of transcripts from the interview in which, while he never admits his quilt, Bundy offers vivid details of the crimes and commentary on the mindset of a… Shares: Crime and criminals, Criminals, Biography & Memoir

The profession of violence John Pearson · 1972 · ★ 3.5 · 336p · ≈ 11h · Moderate John Pearson details the lives of Reggie and Ronnie Kray, the infamous brothers who, for decades, ruled the criminal underground in London's East End. This biography of the identical twins is, at times, humorous and revealing, but always maintains a clear-eyed view of the seriousness of the brothers' crimes. An absorbing read. Shares: Crime and criminals, Criminals, Biography & Memoir

Confessions of a master jewel thief Bill Mason · 2003 · ★ 3.9 · 374p · ≈ 12h · Moderate The extraordinarily captivating memoir of the remarkable jewel thief who robbed the rich and the famous while maintaining an outwardly conventional life--an astonishing and completely true story, the like of which has never before been told . . . or lived.Bill Mason is arguably the greatest jewel thief who ever lived. During a thirty-year career he charmed his way into the inner circles of… Shares: Thieves, Criminals, Biography & Memoir

Presidents for Kids Presidents For Kids · 2025 TIME For Kids presents a complete overview of our nation's chief executives from George Washington to the newly elected 45th president!Did you know that James Monroe was the first president to appear without a wig in public? Or that George W. Bush appointed the first African-American secretary of state? Presidents of the United States invites the reader inside the White House to discover… Shares: United States, Biography & Memoir

Sorcerer's Apprentice Amy Wallace · 2003 · 315p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Sorcerer’s Apprentice opens with Amy Wallace’s first meeting with Carlos Castaneda, the infamous anthropologist-turned-shaman, whose books described meetings with Yaqui Indian spiritual teacher don Juan. Castaneda’s rise was meteoric in the late 1960s as he wrote massive bestsellers, inspired many to experiment with psychedelics, and was dubbed “the Godfather of the New Age.” The possibility that… Shares: Memoir, Biography & Memoir

A diary in America Frederick Marryat · 1839 · 300p · ≈ 10h · Challenging "First appeared in June 1839...in three volumes, with three supplementary volumes appearing later in the year... In preparing this edition...I have used both the first and second series." Shares: Canada, United States, Biography & Memoir

Armed and Dangerous Douglas Century · 2007 · ★ 4.5 · 240p · ≈ 8h · Moderate From the New York Times bestselling author of Under and Alone comes an intimate and riveting account of federal law-enforcement agent William Queen's relentless hunt for one of America's most cold-blooded criminals.As an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, William Queen must tackle a number of challenging cases, including going undercover to investigate a group of violent… Shares: Criminals, United States, Biography & Memoir

Tuesdays with Morrie Mitch Albom · 1994 · ★ 4.2 · 212p · ≈ 7h · Moderate Tuesdays with Morrie is a memoir by American author Mitch Albom about a series of visits Albom made to his former sociology professor Morrie Schwartz, as Schwartz gradually dies of ALS. The book topped the New York Times Non-Fiction Best-Sellers List for 23 combined weeks in 2000, and remained on the New York Times best-selling list for more than four years after. In 2006, Tuesdays with Morrie… Shares: Memoir, Biography & Memoir

Shoe Dog Phil Knight · 2014 · ★ 4.4 · 432p · ≈ 14h · Moderate "In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company's early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world's most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import… Shares: Memoir, Biography & Memoir

It's Trevor Noah Trevor Noah · 2019 · ★ 4.4 · 304p · ≈ 10h · Moderate We do horrible things to one another because we don’t see the person it affects. . . . We don’t see them as people. Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, shares his remarkable story of growing up in South Africa with a black South African mother and a white European father at a time when it was against the law for a mixed-race child to exist. But he did exist--and from the… Shares: Memoir, United States, Biography & Memoir

Civilization Edward Carpenter · 1889 · 175p · ≈ 5h · Challenging Preface to complete edition.--Civilisation: its cause and cure.--Modern science: a criticism.--The science of the future: a forecast.--Defence of criminals: a criticism of morality.--Exfoliation: Lamarck versus Darwin.--Custom.--A rational and humane science.--The new morality.--Appendix--being notes on some of the characteristics and customs of pre-civilised peoples. Shares: Crime and criminals, Criminals

走ることについて語るときに僕の語ること 村上春樹 · 2006 · ★ 3.9 · 192p · ≈ 6h · Moderate In 1982, having sold his jazz bar to devote himself to writing, Murakami began running to keep fit. A year later, he'd completed a solo course from Athens to Marathon, and now, after dozens of such races, not to mention triathlons and a dozen critically acclaimed books, he reflects upon the influence the sport has had on his life and--even more important--on his writing.Equal parts training log,… Shares: Memoir, Biography & Memoir

From sea to sea; letters of travel Rudyard Kipling · 1889 · 512p · ≈ 17h · Challenging Galley proofs, corrected in Kipling's hand, in preparation for the 1899 ed. of "From sea to sea." Only "Letters from Marque" was retained in the published version. The other parts were not published in book form until 1920, when they were included in "Letters of travel: 1892-1913." Shares: Canada, United States

Three came home Agnes Newton Keith · 1948 · ★ 4.2 · 304p · ≈ 10h · Challenging "Three Came Home" tells of the author's time in Japanese POW and civilian internee camps in North Borneo and Sarawak, and was made into a film of the same name in 1950. It describes Keith's life in North Borneo in the period immediately before the Japanese invasion in 1942, and her subsequent internment and suffering, separated from her husband Harry, and with a young son to care for. Keith was… Shares: Memoir, Biography & Memoir

Papillon Henri Charrière · 1969 · ★ 4.2 · 562p · ≈ 18h · Moderate Describes the life of a man sent to prison on a miserable island, Cayena, where escape is impossible. It is a terrible life for him but he finally escapes after much suffering. Shares: Escapes, Biography & Memoir

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