Recommendations based on A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Storiesby Flannery O'Connor

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

  1. Everything That Rises Must Converge: Stories

    by Flannery O'Connor
    A collection of stories that explore themes of race, faith, and morality in the South.

    Flannery O'Connor was working on Everything That Rises Must Converge at the time of her death. This collection is an exquisite legacy from a genius of the American short story, in which she ... (Goodreads)

  2. The Complete Stories

    by Flannery O'Connor
    A collection of stories that explore aspects of the human condition through surreal and darkly comedic lenses.

    This is the original cover edition of, ISBN: 0374515360, (ISBN13: 9780374515362 Winner of the National Book Award The publication of this extraordinary volume firmly established Flannery O'Connor's ... (Goodreads)

  3. Wise Blood

    by Flannery O'Connor
    A darkly comic Southern Gothic tale of faith and sin, and a man's struggle to find redemption.

    Recently discharged from service in World War II and surviving on a government pension for unspecified battle wounds, Hazel Motes returns to his family home in Tennessee to find it abandoned. Leaving ... (Wikipedia)

  4. A Confederacy of Dunces

    by John Kennedy Toole
    A satirical tale of an eccentric slacker's misadventures in New Orleans.

    Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found, here, "A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles ... (Goodreads)

  5. As I Lay Dying

    by William Faulkner
    A family's struggle to fulfill the dying wish of their mother, amidst personal and societal challenges.

    The book is narrated by 15 different characters over 59 chapters. It is the story of the death of Addie Bundren and her poor, rural family's quest and motivations—noble or selfish—to honor her wish ... (Wikipedia)

  6. Where I'm Calling From: New and Selected Stories

    by Raymond Carver
    An exploration of human relationships and the complexity of emotions.

    By the time of his early death in 1988, Raymond Carver had established himself as one of the greatest practitioners of the American short story, a writer who had not only found his own voice but ... (Goodreads)

  7. Invisible Man

    by Ralph Ellison
    A black man's journey towards self-actualization in a world of racial oppression.

    The narrator, an unnamed black man, begins by describing his living conditions: an underground room wired with hundreds of electric lights, operated by power stolen from the city's electric grid. He ... (Wikipedia)

  8. Mrs. Dalloway

    by Virginia Woolf
    A day in the life of a high-society woman, delving into her inner thoughts and feelings.

    Clarissa Dalloway goes around London in the morning, getting ready to host a party that evening. The nice day reminds her of her youth spent in the countryside in Bourton and makes her wonder about ... (Wikipedia)

  9. Beloved

    by Toni Morrison
    A haunting story of loss and resilience in the aftermath of slavery.

    Beloved begins in 1873 in Cincinnati, Ohio , where the protagonist Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman, has been living with her eighteen-year-old daughter Denver at 124 Bluestone Road. The book ... (Wikipedia)

  10. A Streetcar Named Desire

    by Tennessee Williams
    A woman's struggle to come to terms with her past and present in a post-war New Orleans.

    After the loss of her family home to creditors, Blanche DuBois travels from the small town of Laurel, Mississippi , to the New Orleans French Quarter to live with her younger married sister, Stella , ... (Wikipedia)

  11. Dubliners

    by James Joyce
    Collection of stories about everyday life in Dublin, exploring the Irish psyche.

    This work of art reflects life in Ireland at the turn of the last century, and by rejecting euphemism, reveals to the Irish their unromantic realities. Each of the 15 stories offers glimpses into the ... (Goodreads)

  12. The Sun Also Rises

    by Ernest Hemingway
    A group of expatriates in 1920s Europe, struggling to come to terms with the aftermath of WWI.

    On the surface, the novel is a love story between the protagonist Jake Barnes—a man whose war wound has made him unable to have sex—and the promiscuous divorcée usually identified as Lady Brett ... (Wikipedia)

  13. Nine Stories

    by J.D. Salinger
    Nine short stories of insight into the human condition and its mysteries.

    Nine Stories (1953) is a collection of short stories by American fiction writer J. D. Salinger published in April 1953. It includes two of his most famous short stories, "A Perfect Day for ... (Goodreads)

  14. 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)

  15. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

    by Edward Albee
    A darkly comedic exploration of a troubled couple's tumultuous marriage.

    George and Martha engage in dangerous emotional games. George is an associate professor of history and Martha is the daughter of the president of the college where George teaches. After they return ... (Wikipedia)

  16. The Things They Carried

    by Tim O'Brien
    A collection of stories about the Vietnam War, interweaving the past and present.

    In 1979, Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato —a novel about the Vietnam War—won the National Book Award. In this, his second work of fiction about Vietnam, O'Brien's unique artistic vision is again ... (Goodreads)

  17. The Unbearable Lightness of Being

    by Milan Kundera
    A story of love and loss in a politically turbulent Czechoslovakia.

    In The Unbearable Lightness of Being , Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and ... (Goodreads)

  18. The Sound and the Fury

    by William Faulkner
    Tragic story of the decline of a southern family, exploring the human condition.

    The first section of the novel is narrated by Benjamin "Benjy" Compson, a source of shame to the family due to his diminished mental capacity; the only characters who show genuine care for him are ... (Wikipedia)

  19. Long Day's Journey into Night

    by Eugene O'Neill
    Tragic story of a family's struggles with addiction, emotions and guilt.

    Eugene O'Neill's autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night is regarded as his finest work. First published by Yale University Press in 1956, it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957 and has since ... (Goodreads)

  20. Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West

    by Cormac McCarthy
    A violent and bloody western epic, exploring the depths of human depravity.

    An epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, Blood Meridian brilliantly subverts the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the "wild west." ... (Barnes & Noble)

  21. The Glass Menagerie

    by Tennessee Williams
    A young woman's struggle to find her place in society, while being held back by her family.

    The play is introduced to the audience by Tom, the narrator and protagonist, as a memory play based on his recollection of his mother Amanda and his sister Laura. Because the play is based on memory, ... (Wikipedia)

  22. Cathedral

    by Raymond Carver
    An unexpected encounter changes a man's outlook on life and his relationships.

    Raymond Carver’s third collection of stories, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, including the canonical titular story about blindness and learning to enter the very different world of another. These ... (Goodreads)

  23. Song of Solomon

    by Toni Morrison
    A tale of family, heritage, and identity, exploring the power of memory and its impact on the present.

    Song of Solomon opens with the death of Robert Smith, an insurance agent and member of The Seven Days, an organization that kills white people in retaliation for the racial killing of black people. ... (Wikipedia)

  24. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

    by Raymond Carver
    Exploration of relationships, revealing the complexities of love and its many forms.

    Alternate-cover edition can be found, here, In his second collection, Carver establishes his reputation as one of the most celebrated and beloved short-story writers in American literature—a haunting ... (Goodreads)

  25. To the Lighthouse

    by Virginia Woolf
    Exploration of the complexities of human relationships and family life.

    The novel is set in the Ramsays' summer home in the Hebrides , on the Isle of Skye . The section begins with Mrs Ramsay assuring her son James that they should be able to visit the lighthouse on the ... (Wikipedia)

  26. Geek Love

    by Katherine Dunn
    A family of self-made circus freaks navigates love, loyalty, and morality in a world that shuns them for their differences.

    The novel takes place in two interwoven , time periods: the first deals with the Binewski children's constant struggle against each other through life. They especially have to deal with the ... (Wikipedia)

  27. Things Fall Apart

    by Chinua Achebe
    Exploration of African culture and traditions, grappling with the tension between modernity and tradition.

    The novel's protagonist , Okonkwo, is famous in the villages of Umuofia for being a wrestling champion, defeating a wrestler nicknamed "Amalinze The Cat" (because he never lands on his back). Okonkwo ... (Wikipedia)

  28. A Farewell to Arms

    by Ernest Hemingway
    A story of unrequited love in the midst of war.

    The novel is divided into five sections or 'books'. Frederic Henry is first person narrator of the story. Lieutenant Frederic Henry, an American paramedic , is serving in the Italian Army . The novel ... (Wikipedia)

  29. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

    by Junot Díaz
    An exploration of love, identity, and the power of fate in a family's struggles and triumphs.

    Oscar de León (nicknamed Oscar Wao, a bastardization of Oscar Wilde ) is an overweight Dominican growing up in Paterson, New Jersey. Oscar desperately wants to be successful with women but, from a ... (Wikipedia)

  30. Their Eyes Were Watching God

    by Zora Neale Hurston
    A woman's journey of self-discovery, liberation and empowerment.

    Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person – no mean feat for a black woman in the '30s. Janie's quest for identity takes her through three ... (Goodreads)