Recommendations based on Boy, Snow, Birdby Helen Oyeyemi

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

    by Helen Oyeyemi
    A collection of interconnected short stories exploring the themes of love, identity, and the power of keys and locks.

    The key to a house, the key to a heart, the key to a secret—Oyeyemi’s keys not only unlock elements of her characters’ lives, they promise further labyrinths on the other side. In “Books and Roses” ... (Goodreads)

  2. Eileen

    by Ottessa Moshfegh
    Eileen, a disturbed young woman, works at a boys' prison and becomes involved in a crime. A dark and unsettling character study.

    The story of an unhappy 24-year-old woman named Eileen who works at a prison, and what happens to her during a bitter Massachusetts winter in 1964. The novel was well received by, The New York Times, ... (Wikipedia)

  3. This One Summer

    by Mariko Tamaki
    A poignant coming-of-age story about two teenage girls navigating growing up, family relationships, and the complexities of summer.

    Rose has been coming to a cottage in Awago every summer and meeting her summer friend, Windy, as long as she can remember. , Rose is about eighteen months older than Windy and is the narrator of the ... (Wikipedia)

  4. Sass & Sorcery

    by Kurtis J. Wiebe
    A fantasy adventure of a mischievous sorceress and a daring prince, facing a powerful enemy.

    The eponymous "Rat Queens" are a rambunctious party of adventurers in a medieval fantasy setting. They comprise the rockabilly elven mage Hannah, the hipster dwarven warrior Violet who shaved her ... (Wikipedia)

  5. Love

    by Toni Morrison
    A complex and layered exploration of love, its many forms, and the ways in which it shapes our lives.

    Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison’s spellbinding new novel is a Faulknerian symphony of passion and hatred, power and perversity, color and class that spans three generations of black women in a ... (Goodreads)

  6. Fates and Furies

    by Lauren Groff
    A tale of the secrets and passions of a marriage, exploring the depths of private lives.

    Every story has two sides. Every relationship has two perspectives. And sometimes, it turns out, the key to a great marriage is not its truths but its secrets. At the core of this rich, expansive, ... (Goodreads)

  7. The Waste Land and Other Poems

    by T.S. Eliot
    A collection of poems exploring themes of identity, mortality, and spiritual and psychological desolation.

    The Waste Land and Other Poems , by T. S. Eliot , is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including ... (Barnes & Noble)

  8. The Ghost Bride

    by Yangsze Choo
    A young woman's journey to the spirit world, as she discovers the power of faith and fate.

    A startlingly original voice makes her literary debut with this wondrous coming-of-age story infused with Chinese folklore, romantic intrigue, adventure, and fascinating, dreamlike twists. 'One ... (Goodreads)

  9. Half Blood Blues

    by Esi Edugyan
    Tale of a jazz band's tumultuous journey through the shadows of Nazi Germany.

    The aftermath of the fall of Paris, 1940. Hieronymus Falk, a rising star on the cabaret scene, is arrested in a cafe and never heard from again. He is twenty years old. A German citizen. And he is ... (Goodreads)

  10. A Tale for the Time Being

    by Ruth Ozeki
    An exploration of the connections between two lives, bridging time, space and cultures.

    In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying, but before she ends it all, Nao plans to document the life of her ... (Goodreads)

  11. Half of a Yellow Sun

    by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
    Story of two sisters navigating a civil war in Nigeria, and the effects of colonialism.

    The novel takes place in Nigeria prior to and during the Nigerian Civil War (1967–70). The effect of the war is shown through the relationships of five people's lives including the twin daughters of ... (Wikipedia)

  12. The Plague of Doves

    by Louise Erdrich
    A coming-of-age story set in a small Minnesota town, examining the legacy of violence and vengeance.

    The unsolved murder of a farm family still haunts the white small town of Pluto, North Dakota, generations after the vengeance exacted and the distortions of fact transformed the lives of Ojibwe ... (Goodreads)

  13. The Name of the Rose

    by Umberto Eco
    A Franciscan friar investigates a series of murders in a medieval monastery, uncovering a sinister plot.

    In 1327, Franciscan friar William of Baskerville and Adso of Melk , a Benedictine novice travelling under his protection, arrive at a Benedictine monastery in Northern Italy to attend a theological ... (Wikipedia)

  14. The Moor's Account

    by Laila Lalami
    A fictional memoir of the first black explorer of America, Estebanico, who was part of the Narváez expedition in the 16th century.

    The story is narrated in the first person by Mustafa ibn Muhammad ibn Abdussalam al-Zamori, a Moroccan slave who has been taken by his Spanish master, Andrés de Dorantes, on an expedition to the New ... (Wikipedia)

  15. Dumplin'

    by Julie Murphy
    A story of self-love and acceptance, challenging societal expectations and beauty standards.

    Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom) has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini ... (Goodreads)

  16. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

    by Haruki Murakami
    A man's journey of self-reflection to address his past and understand his place in the world.

    A mesmerising mystery story about friendship from the internationally bestselling author of, Norwegian Wood, and, 1Q84, Tsukuru Tazaki had four best friends at school. By chance all of their names ... (Goodreads)

  17. Hild

    by Nicola Griffith
    A young girl's rise from obscurity to power, as she navigates a medieval world of danger and intrigue.

    Hild is born into a world in transition. In seventh-century Britain, small kingdoms are merging, usually violently. A new religion is coming ashore; the old gods’ priests are worrying. Edwin of ... (Goodreads)

  18. The Bone People

    by Keri Hulme
    A story of three damaged individuals who come together in a remote coastal community in New Zealand, and their journey towards healing and redemption.

    The Bone People is an unusual story of love. What makes it unique are the way of telling, the subject matter, and the form of love that the story narrates. This is not a romance, but a story filled ... (Wikipedia)

  19. How to Be Both

    by Ali Smith
    Exploring duality and interconnectedness through the life of a girl and a Renaissance artist.

    Passionate, compassionate, vitally inventive and scrupulously playful, Ali Smith’s novels are like nothing else. A true original, she is a one-of-a-kind literary sensation. Her novels consistently ... (Goodreads)

  20. Fairest

    by Marissa Meyer
    A twisted tale of beauty and ambition, exploring the power of identity and the consequences of choices.

    In this stunning bridge book between Cress and Winter in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles, Queen Levana’s story is finally told. Mirror, mirror on the wall,Who is the fairest of them all? Fans of the ... (Goodreads)

  21. Life After Life

    by Kate Atkinson
    A woman lives multiple lives, reflecting on choices and consequences and the power of love.

    The novel has an unusual structure, repeatedly looping back in time to describe alternative possible lives for its central character, Ursula Todd, who is born on 11 February 1910 to an ... (Wikipedia)

  22. East of Eden

    by John Steinbeck
    Exploration of the timeless struggle between good and evil, set against a backdrop of a family saga.

    In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden “the first book,” and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas ... (Goodreads)

  23. Alif the Unseen

    by G. Willow Wilson
    A hacker navigates a dangerous and repressive world while seeking love and justice.

    In an unnamed Middle Eastern security state, a young Arab-Indian hacker shields his clients—dissidents, outlaws, Islamists, and other watched groups—from surveillance and tries to stay out of ... (Goodreads)

  24. The Constant Gardener

    by John le Carré
    A diplomatic couple uncover a sinister conspiracy while investigating a suspicious death in Africa.

    Justin Quayle, a British diplomat in Nairobi , Kenya , is told that his activist wife, Tessa, was killed while travelling with a doctor friend in a desolate region of Africa . Investigating on his ... (Wikipedia)

  25. Leaving the Atocha Station

    by Ben Lerner
    A young poet's journey of self-discovery, struggling to find a sense of purpose in life.

    Adam Gordon is a brilliant, if highly unreliable, young American poet on a prestigious fellowship in Madrid, struggling to establish his sense of self and his relationship to art. What is actual when ... (Goodreads)

  26. Homegoing

    by Yaa Gyasi
    Spanning centuries, the intertwining stories of two African sisters, their descendants, and the legacy of slavery.

    Effia is raised by her mother, Baaba, who is cruel to her. Nevertheless she works hard to please her mother. Known as a beauty, Effia is intended to be married to the future chief of her village, but ... (Wikipedia)

  27. Angels in America

    by Tony Kushner
    Epic story of America in the midst of the AIDS crisis, exploring themes of identity, loss, and hope.

    Set in New York City, the play takes place between October 1985 and February 1986. , The play begins with the funeral of Sarah Ironson, an elderly Jewish woman, whose rabbi eulogizes not only her, ... (Wikipedia)

  28. Wolf Hall

    by Hilary Mantel
    A historical fiction about the rise of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII.

    England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry ... (Goodreads)

  29. Lincoln in the Bardo

    by George Saunders
    A spiritual exploration of death, exploring the afterlife through the eyes of President Lincoln.

    In his long-awaited first novel, American master George Saunders delivers his most original, transcendent, and moving work yet. Unfolding in a graveyard over the course of a single night, narrated by ... (Goodreads)

  30. Honor

    by Elif Shafak
    A family saga that explores the concept of honor and its impact on individuals and society.

    An honor killing shatters and transforms the lives of Turkish immigrants in 1970s London Internationally bestselling Turkish author Elif Shafak’s new novel is a dramatic tale of families, love, and ... (Goodreads)