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Recommendations based on We Live in Waterby Jess Walter
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The Financial Lives of the Poets
by Jess Walter
A struggling poet turns to selling marijuana to save his family from financial ruin.
The Financial Lives of the Poets is a comic and heartfelt novel from National Book Award nominee Jess Walter, author of Citizen Vince and The Zero , about how we get to the edge of ruin—and how we ... (Goodreads)
Beautiful Ruins
by Jess Walter
A romantic story of fate, secrets, and destiny, spanning from Italy in the 1960s to present day.
"The best novel of the year." — Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air A #1 New York Times bestseller, this “absolute masterpiece” (Richard Russo) is the story of an almost-love affair that begins on the ... (Goodreads)
Tenth of December
by George Saunders
A collection of stories exploring the human condition through diverse characters and their struggles.
A young girl named Alison is kidnapped three days before her birthday. Kyle, a boy who lives nearby whose parents enforce very strict household rules, sees the event unfold and must decide whether to ... (Wikipedia)
The Tsar of Love and Techno
by Anthony Marra
A collection of interconnected stories set in Russia, exploring the power of art and the human spirit in the face of political oppression.
From the New York Times bestselling author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena —dazzling, poignant, and lyrical interwoven stories about family, sacrifice, the legacy of war, and the redemptive ... (Goodreads)
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
by Aimee Bender
A girl discovers she can taste emotions in food, leading to a painful realization about her family.
The story begins before Rose's ninth birthday, when her mother, Lane, bakes her a cake for the occasion. Rose knows that Lane is unhappy with her life, but Lane’s emotions show otherwise. From the ... (Wikipedia)
Telegraph Avenue
by Michael Chabon
Two friends navigate life's obstacles to keep their record store afloat in a changing neighborhood.
Set in 2004, Archy Stallings, who is black, and Nat Jaffe, who is Jewish, are proprietors of Brokeland Records, a record shop located in north Oakland for twelve years. Their used vinyl business is ... (Wikipedia)
The Imperfectionists
by Tom Rachman
A story of interconnected lives, exploring the fragility of human relationships.
Set against the gorgeous backdrop of Rome, Tom Rachman’s wry, vibrant debut follows the topsy-turvy private lives of the reporters, editors, and executives of an international English language ... (Goodreads)
The Devil All the Time
by Donald Ray Pollock
A dark tale of sin and redemption, set in a rural southern town.
The Devil All the Time follows the events and fates of various characters who all carry their own secrets from the past. As the novel progresses the lives of these people converge in unexpected ways. ... (Wikipedia)
Dept. of Speculation
by Jenny Offill
A woman's exploration of relationships, marriage, and motherhood amidst personal and familial struggles.
Dept. of Speculation is a portrait of a marriage. It is also a beguiling rumination on the mysteries of intimacy, trust, faith, knowledge, and the condition of universal shipwreck that unites us all. ... (Goodreads)
Joyland
by Stephen King
A young man's investigation into a mysterious amusement park, uncovering secrets and discovering his own identity in the process.
The novel is set at a North Carolina amusement park in 1973 and involves a carny who must confront the "legacy of a vicious murder and the fate of a dying child". Devin Jones, age twenty-one, who ... (Wikipedia)
The Sisters Brothers
by Patrick deWitt
A unique western, following two brothers on a quest to find and murder a prospector.
In 1851, Eli and Charlie Sisters, a pair of assassins of minor repute, are hired by a wealthy businessman known only as "the Commodore" to travel from Oregon City to California in order to murder a ... (Wikipedia)
Space Case
by Stuart Gibbs
A group of kids on a moon base investigate a mysterious death. They uncover a conspiracy that puts their own lives in danger.
It’s a murder mystery on the moon in this humorous and suspenseful space adventure from the author of Belly Up and Spy School that The New York Times Book Review called “a delightful and brilliantly ... (Barnes & Noble)
Superfudge
by Judy Blume
Peter Hatcher's life is turned upside down when his little brother Fudge arrives. Chaos and hilarity ensue.
The Hatcher family temporarily moves from New York City to Princeton, New Jersey . Fudge is extremely jealous of his new baby sister, Tamara, who earns the nickname "Tootsie" from their mother Ann's ... (Wikipedia)
Doctor Sleep
by Stephen King
A man confronts his dark past as he defends a young girl from a supernatural evil.
Following the events of The Shining , after receiving a settlement from the owners of the Overlook Hotel, Danny Torrance remains psychologically traumatized as his mother Wendy slowly recovers from ... (Wikipedia)
The Arrangement
by Sarah Dunn
A married couple decides to explore an open relationship, leading to unexpected consequences and self-discovery.
National Bestseller: A hilarious and emotionally charged novel about a couple who embark on an open marriage-what could possibly go wrong? Lucy and Owen, ambitious, thoroughly-therapized New Yorkers, ... (Barnes & Noble)
Dragon Tears
by Dean Koontz
A detective and a teacher are trapped in a theme park with a psychopath and his genetically modified creatures. They must fight to survive.
Harry Lyon is a cop who embraces tradition and order. His partner, Connie Gulliver, is Harry's exact opposite. Harry does not like the messiness of her desk, her lack of social polish or her ... (Wikipedia)
All Things Cease to Appear
by Elizabeth Brundage
A family moves into a haunted farmhouse, and the husband is accused of murder. The past and present collide in this chilling mystery.
A dark, riveting, beautifully written book—by “a brilliant novelist” according to Richard Bausch—that combines noir and the gothic in a story about two families entwined in their own unhappiness, ... (Goodreads)
Tricks
by Ellen Hopkins
A novel in verse about five troubled teenagers and their struggles with addiction, abuse, and love.
In the novel Tricks , the story begins with five teenagers, all residing in various parts of the United States. The first character, Eden Streit, lives with her father, mother, and younger sister, ... (Wikipedia)
Mostly Dead Things
by Kristen Arnett
After her father's suicide, Jessa-Lynn Morton takes over the family taxidermy business and navigates love, loss, and grief.
One morning, Jessa-Lynn Morton walks into the family taxidermy shop to find that her father has committed suicide, right there on one of the metal tables. Shocked and grieving, Jessa steps up to ... (Goodreads)
Freedom
by Jonathan Franzen
A family saga revealing the struggles of a divided nation, and the power of love to heal.
The novel opens with a brief look at the Berglund family during their time living in St. Paul, Minnesota , from the perspective of their nosy neighbors. The Berglunds are portrayed as an ideal ... (Wikipedia)
Pigeon English
by Stephen Kelman
A young Ghanaian boy living in London investigates a murder in his community.
The novel begins with the death of a young boy on the fictional Dell Farm estate in an unspecified area of London. Harri Opoku, a recent Ghanaian immigrant living with his mother and sister, becomes ... (Wikipedia)
High Fidelity
by Nick Hornby
A man reflects on his past relationships while trying to understand the nature of love.
Rob Fleming is a 35-year-old man who owns a record shop in London called Championship Vinyl. His lawyer girlfriend, Laura, has just left him and now he's going through a crisis. At his record shop, ... (Wikipedia)
Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself
by Judy Blume
An 8-year old's imaginative journey to Florida in the aftermath of World War II.
Sally J. Freedman moves from New Jersey to Miami , Florida with her brother and their mother and grandmother at the end of World War II. This is because of her brother Douglas's health, for he caught ... (Wikipedia)
Waiting for Godot
by Samuel Beckett
Two men wait for a mysterious figure who never arrives, reflecting on their lives and existence.
Two men, Vladimir and Estragon, have met near a leafless tree. Estragon spent the previous night lying in a ditch and receiving a beating from some unnamed assailants. The two men discuss a variety ... (Wikipedia)
Where They Found Her
by Kimberly McCreight
A small town is rocked by the discovery of a dead newborn, and three women's lives become intertwined in the investigation.
An idyllic suburban town. A devastating discovery. Shocking revelations that will change three lives forever., At the end of a long winter in well-to-do Ridgedale, New Jersey, the body of a newborn ... (Barnes & Noble)
Ulysses
by James Joyce
Epic narrative following a day in the life of an Irishman living in Dublin.
It is 8 a.m. Buck Mulligan , a boisterous medical student, calls Stephen Dedalus (a young writer encountered as the principal subject of, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, ) up to the roof of ... (Wikipedia)
Infinite Jest
by David Foster Wallace
A journey through the absurdist world of entertainment, drugs, addiction & death.
There are four major interwoven narratives: , These narratives are connected via a film, Infinite Jest , also referred to in the novel as "the Entertainment" or "the samizdat ". The film is so ... (Wikipedia)
The Middlesteins
by Jami Attenberg
A family struggles with the matriarch's obesity and its impact on their relationships. A poignant and humorous exploration of love, addiction, and forgiveness.
For more than thirty years, Edie and Richard Middlestein shared a solid family life together in the suburbs of Chicago. But now things are splintering apart, for one reason, it seems: Edie's enormous ... (Barnes & Noble)
No Country for Old Men
by Cormac McCarthy
A gripping tale of violence and pursuit in Texas' desolate landscape.
The plot follows the interweaving paths of the three central characters (Llewelyn Moss, Anton Chigurh , and Ed Tom Bell) set in motion by events related to a drug deal gone bad near the ... (Wikipedia)
Witness to a Trial
by John Grisham
A short story about a murder trial, told from the perspective of a witness.
A startling and original courtroom drama from, New York Times, #1 Bestseller John Grisham that is the prequel to his newest legal thriller, THE WHISTLER A judge’s first murder trial. A defense ... (Goodreads)
