Recommendations based on Saint Maybeby Anne Tyler

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

  1. The Accidental Tourist

    by Anne Tyler
    A travel writer who hates traveling, Macon Leary, navigates life after his son's death and his wife's departure.

    Set in Baltimore, Maryland , the plot revolves around Macon Leary, a writer of travel guides whose son has been killed in a shooting at a fast-food restaurant. He and his wife Sarah, separately lost ... (Wikipedia)

  2. A Patchwork Planet

    by Anne Tyler
    A young man's journey of self-discovery and finding his place in the world.

    The novel is narrated by 30-year-old Barnaby, whose life has gone off the rails since he was caught robbing neighborhood homes as an adolescent. To the despair of his distant father, his social ... (Wikipedia)

  3. Back When We Were Grownups

    by Anne Tyler
    A middle-aged woman questions her life choices and identity after inheriting her deceased husband's family business.

    Tyler's 15th novel, like most of her work, is set in Baltimore, Maryland . It opens with the sentence, "Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person." The ... (Wikipedia)

  4. The Bean Trees

    by Barbara Kingsolver
    A young woman's journey of self-discovery and resilience as she takes on motherhood and a new life.

    Clear-eyed and spirited, Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away. But when she heads west with high hopes and a barely functional car, she ... (Goodreads)

  5. Talk Before Sleep

    by Elizabeth Berg
    A group of women come together to support their dying friend, sharing stories and memories as they face the end of life.

    "Until that moment, I hadn't realized how much I'd been needing to meet someone I might be able to say everything to." They met at a party. It was hate at first sight. Ruth was far too beautiful, too ... (Goodreads)

  6. The Prince of Tides

    by Pat Conroy
    A man's search for solace and understanding in his troubled family's past.

    Tom Wingo is a middle-aged man with a wife and three young daughters who has recently lost his job as a high school English teacher and football coach. He learns that his twin sister, Savannah, has ... (Wikipedia)

  7. One True Thing

    by Anna Quindlen
    A woman learns about love and loss, grappling with the realities of life and death.

    Ellen Gulden has a high-pressure job writing for, New York, magazine . Ellen is visiting her family home for her father's surprise birthday party. It becomes obvious that she deeply admires her ... (Wikipedia)

  8. A Prayer for Owen Meany

    by John Irving
    A boy's search for faith, set against a backdrop of unlikely events.

    The story is narrated by John Wheelwright, a former citizen of New Hampshire who has become a voluntary expatriate from the United States, having settled in Toronto , Ontario , Canada and taken on ... (Wikipedia)

  9. Every Last One

    by Anna Quindlen
    A family's search for resilience as they face tragedy and unexpected struggles.

    The latest novel from Pulitzer Prize-winner Anna Quindlen In this breathtaking and beautiful novel, the #1 New York Times" bestselling author Anna Quindlen creates an unforgettable portrait of a ... (Goodreads)

  10. The Women of Brewster Place

    by Gloria Naylor
    The interconnected lives of seven African American women living in a run-down housing project. A powerful portrayal of the struggles and triumphs of black women.

    The women of Brewster Place are "hard-edged, soft-centered, brutally demanding, and easily pleased". Their names are Mattie Michael, Etta Mae Johnson, Lucielia "Ciel" Turner, Melanie "Kiswana" ... (Wikipedia)

  11. Mrs. Mike

    by Benedict Freedman
    A young woman's voyage of self-discovery, learning to survive and thrive in the Canadian wilderness.

    The novel is based on the stories of Katherine Mary O'Fallon Flannigan (1899-1954). , , , According to her fictionalized account, in 1907 at age 16 O'Fallon travels to Calgary to visit her uncle and ... (Wikipedia)

  12. The Story of Arthur Truluv

    by Elizabeth Berg
    A young boy and two older people form an unlikely friendship, finding solace in one other amidst life's struggles.

    A beautiful, life-affirming novel about a remarkably loving man who creates for himself and others second chances at happiness. A moving novel about three people who find their way back from loss and ... (Goodreads)

  13. A Gate at the Stairs

    by Lorrie Moore
    An exploration of identity and belonging in the midst of cultural divides.

    The novel's main character is Tassie Keltjin. At age 20, Keltjin is attending a major university identified only as the " Athens of the Midwest ." When the novel opens, she is looking for a job as a ... (Wikipedia)

  14. The Age of Innocence

    by Edith Wharton
    A romantic drama set in the high society of 19th century New York, exploring the limits of love and longing.

    Newland Archer, gentleman lawyer and heir to one of New York City's most illustrious families, happily anticipates his highly desirable marriage to the sheltered and beautiful May Welland. Yet he ... (Wikipedia)

  15. Love Medicine

    by Louise Erdrich
    Interconnected stories of two Native American families, exploring love, loss, and identity over generations.

    Love Medicine follows the intertwining lives of three central families, the Kashpaws, Lamartines, and Morrisseys, and two peripheral families, the Pillagers and the Lazarres. , Members of the ... (Wikipedia)

  16. The Narrows

    by Michael Connelly
    A detective's pursuit of justice, exploring the dark underworld of L.A.

    FBI agent Rachel Walling finally gets the call she's dreaded for years, the one that tells her the Poet has surfaced. She has never forgotten the serial killer who wove lines of poetry in his hideous ... (Goodreads)

  17. The Horse Whisperer

    by Nicholas Evans
    A young girl and her horse are traumatized in a riding accident, and a horse trainer helps them both heal.

    A forty-ton truck hurtles out of control on a snowy country road, a teenage girl on horseback in its path. In a few terrible seconds the life of a family is shattered. And a mother's quest beings - ... (Goodreads)

  18. Winter's Bone

    by Daniel Woodrell
    A teenage girl's struggle to save her family from poverty and despair in the rural Ozarks.

    In the rural Ozarks of Missouri , seventeen-year-old Ree Dolly looks after her mentally ill mother, twelve-year-old brother Sonny, and six-year-old sister Ashlee. She makes sure her siblings eat and ... (Wikipedia)

  19. Black Swan Green

    by David Mitchell
    A young boy confronts personal and social challenges as he navigates adolescence.

    Jason Taylor is a 13-year-old with a stammer in the small village of Black Swan Green in Worcestershire . The first chapter starts with a rule Jason's father has: "Do not set foot in my office" and ... (Wikipedia)

  20. Straight Man

    by Richard Russo
    A university professor's humorous journey of self-discovery as he navigates campus politics.

    William Henry Devereaux, Jr., spiritually suited to playing left field but forced by a bad hamstring to try first base, is the unlikely chairman of the English department at West Central Pennsylvania ... (Goodreads)

  21. Cloud Atlas

    by David Mitchell
    A dynamic narrative spanning centuries, exploring the interconnectedness of humanity.

    The book consists of six nested stories; each is read or observed by a main character of the next, thus they progress in time through the central sixth story. The first five stories are each ... (Wikipedia)

  22. On the Beach

    by Nevil Shute
    After a nuclear war, the last survivors in Australia await their inevitable death from radiation poisoning.

    The story is set primarily in and around Melbourne , Australia , in 1963. World War III has devastated most of the populated world, polluting the atmosphere with nuclear fallout , and killing all ... (Wikipedia)

  23. The Martian Chronicles

    by Ray Bradbury
    Human colonists struggle for survival on Mars, facing the challenges of a new world.

    The strange and wonderful tale of man’s experiences on Mars, filled with intense images and astonishing visions. Now part of the Voyager Classics collection. The Martian Chronicles tells the story of ... (Goodreads)

  24. The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories

    by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
    A collection of short stories exploring the struggles of women in a patriarchal society.

    Best known for the 1892 title story of this collection, a harrowing tale of a woman's descent into madness, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote more than 200 other short stories. Seven of her finest are ... (Goodreads)

  25. The Complete Poems

    by Anne Sexton
    A collection of powerful, confessional pieces exploring the beauty, tragedy, and pain of human experience.

    From the joy and anguish of her own experience, Sexton fashioned poems that told truths about the inner lives of men and women. This book comprises Sexton's ten volumes of verse, including the ... (Barnes & Noble)

  26. Sphere

    by Michael Crichton
    A group of scientists investigate a mysterious spacecraft at the bottom of the ocean.

    A group of scientists ( psychologist Norman Johnson; mathematician Harry Adams; zoologist Beth Halpern; astrophysicist Ted Fielding; and marine biologist Arthur Levine), along with U.S. Navy ... (Wikipedia)

  27. My Name Is Asher Lev

    by Chaim Potok
    A young boy's struggles to reconcile his faith and identity as a budding artist.

    Asher Lev is a boy with a prodigious artistic ability born into a Hasidic Jewish family. During his childhood in the 1950s, in the time of Joseph Stalin and the persecution of Jews and religious ... (Wikipedia)

  28. The Marriage Plot

    by Jeffrey Eugenides
    A young woman's exploration of love, life, and her place in the world.

    It's the early 1980s - the country is in a deep recession, and life after college is harder than ever. In the cafés on College Hill, the wised-up kids are inhaling Derrida and listening to the ... (Goodreads)

  29. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

    by Jonathan Safran Foer
    A young boy's quest to find the lock that matches a mysterious key his father left behind.

    Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweller, detective, vegan, and ... (Goodreads)

  30. State of Wonder

    by Ann Patchett
    A journey in the Amazon rainforest to find a missing colleague and unlock the secrets of a mysterious drug.

    In a narrative replete with poison arrows, devouring snakes, scientific miracles, and spiritual transformations, "State of Wonder" presents a world of stunning surprise and danger, rich in emotional ... (Goodreads)