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Recommendations based on The Joy Luck Clubby Clare West
* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans
The Kitchen God's Wife
by Amy Tan
A Chinese-American woman's story of family, culture, and personal growth.
The novel opens with the narrative voice of Pearl Louie Brandt, the American-born daughter of a Chinese mother and a Chinese-American father, living in San Jose, California . Pearl's mother, Winnie ... (Wikipedia)
Beaches
by Iris Rainer Dart
A lifelong friendship between two women, their ups and downs, and how they support each other through life's challenges.
Loudmouthed, redheaded Cee Cee Bloom has her sights set on Hollywood. Bertie White, quiet and conservative, dreams of getting married and having children. In 1951, their childhood worlds collide in ... (Goodreads)
Peachtree Road
by Anne Rivers Siddons
A multigenerational saga of a wealthy Atlanta family, exploring themes of love, loss, and the changing South.
Tenth anniversary edition! Set amidst the grandeur of Old Southern aristocracy, here is a novel that chronicles the turbulent changes of a great city–Atlanta--and tells the story of love and hate ... (Goodreads)
Terms of Endearment
by Larry McMurtry
A mother-daughter relationship is tested by love, loss, and life's challenges.
Widowed Aurora Greenway ( Shirley MacLaine ) keeps several suitors at arm's length in Houston , focusing instead on her close, but controlling, relationship with daughter Emma ( Debra Winger ). ... (Wikipedia)
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)
Steel Magnolias
by Robert Harling
A group of Southern women bond and support each other through life's joys and tragedies.
Presents the script of a 1988 play about a group of women in Chinquapin, Louisiana, who learn to draw upon their underlying strength and love to meet the challenges of life. ... (Goodreads)
Ladder of Years
by Anne Tyler
A woman's quest to find herself after leaving her family behind and embarking on a new life.
Married with three almost-grown children, Delia Grinstead has vanished without trace or reason. But for Delia, walking away from it all is an impulse that will lead her into a new, exciting, and ... (Goodreads)
Breathing Lessons
by Anne Tyler
A couple's journey of self-discovery over the course of one day.
The story describes the joys and pains of the ordinary marriage of Ira and Maggie Moran as they travel from Baltimore to attend a funeral and back home again in one day. It also examines Maggie's ... (Wikipedia)
Disappearing Acts
by Terry McMillan
A love story between two African American working-class individuals, exploring the complexities of relationships and personal growth.
He was tall, dark as bittersweet chocolate, and impossibly gorgeous, with a woman-melting smile. She was pretty and independent, petite and not too skinny, just his type. Franklin Swift was a ... (Goodreads)
Waiting to Exhale
by Terry McMillan
Four African American women navigate the complexities of life and relationships.
The story of friendship between four African American women who lean on each other while "waiting to exhale": waiting for that man who will take their breath away. ... (Goodreads)
Ordinary People
by Judith Guest
A family struggles to heal following a devastating tragedy.
The novel begins as life is seemingly returning to normal for the Jarretts of Lake Forest, Illinois , in September 1975. It is slightly more than a year since their elder son Buck was killed when a ... (Wikipedia)
The Pilot's Wife
by Anita Shreve
A woman's journey of overcoming personal tragedy to find strength and courage.
The novel is about Kathryn Lyons, whose husband, Jack Lyons, dies in a plane crash over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Malin Head , Ireland. As she and her daughter Mattie try to cope with this ... (Wikipedia)
The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story
by Richard Bach
Couple's journey to find true love, exploring the power of shared destiny.
More than one year on the New York Times bestseller list! Richard Bach's timeless and uplifting classic of hope and love "We're the bridge across forever, arching above the sea, adventuring for our ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Book of Bunny Suicides
by Andy Riley
A collection of darkly comic tales featuring a group of suicidal bunnies.
Rabbits. We'll never quite know why, but sometimes they decide they've just had enough of this world- and that's when they start getting inventive. The Book of Bunny Suicides follows over one hundred ... (Goodreads)
The Great Santini
by Pat Conroy
A family's psychological struggles centered around a domineering, military father.
Hard-nosed Marine fighter pilot Lt. Col. Wilbur "Bull" Meecham calls himself "The Great Santini". He runs his family with a strict hand. In 1962 before the Vietnam War , the Meecham family struggles ... (Wikipedia)
The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole
by Sue Townsend
A humorous coming-of-age story of a teenage boy navigating the difficulties of adolescence.
Adrian Mole is an outsider who feels the reason he can't quite fit in with "regular" society is that he is an intellectual. Evidence from his diary entries include a precocious interest in ... (Wikipedia)
The Last Juror
by John Grisham
A small-town journalist's journey to uncover the truth of a decades-old murder case.
In 1970, a 23-year-old college dropout named Willie Traynor realizes that his dreams of becoming a Pulitzer -winning journalist will never come true. He moves to Clanton, Mississippi for an ... (Wikipedia)
The Partner
by John Grisham
A lawyer's daring escape from a powerful law firm and the pursuit of a hidden fortune.
It's been four years since Patrick Lanigan, a junior partner in a law firm in Biloxi, Mississippi , learned of the scheme, masterminded by his firm's client, shipbuilding magnate Benny Aricia, to ... (Wikipedia)
The Rainmaker
by John Grisham
A young lawyer's quest to bring justice to a family in need.
Rudy Baylor is about to graduate from Memphis State Law School . He secures a position with a Memphis law firm , who then loses his job when the firm is bought out by the large Memphis law firm ... (Wikipedia)
The Turn of the Screw
by Henry James
A governess confronts her fears and doubts about a mysterious and sinister presence in her employer's home.
On Christmas Eve, an unnamed narrator and some of their friends are gathered around a fire. One of them, Douglas, reads a manuscript written by his sister's late governess . The manuscript tells the ... (Wikipedia)
Thud!
by Terry Pratchett
A comedic fantasy novel about a dwarf police officer's investigation into the murder of a troll.
As the book opens, a dwarf demagogue , Grag Hamcrusher, is apparently murdered. Ethnic tensions between Ankh-Morpork 's troll and dwarf communities mount in the build-up to the anniversary of the ... (Wikipedia)
The Chosen
by Chaim Potok
Story of two boys from different backgrounds learning to understand each other and their place in the world.
In 1944 Brooklyn, fifteen-year-old Reuven Malter prepares to play a baseball game: his own Modern Orthodox school against a team from an ultra-orthodox Hasidic yeshiva. It becomes apparent that the ... (Wikipedia)
Johnny Got His Gun
by Dalton Trumbo
A young soldier's harrowing journey through physical and psychological trauma of WWI.
Joe Bonham, a young American soldier serving in World War I , awakens in a hospital bed after being caught in the blast of an exploding artillery shell . He gradually realizes that he has lost his ... (Wikipedia)
The Lincoln Lawyer
by Michael Connelly
A defense attorney navigates the legal system and unravels a conspiracy that could destroy him.
Moderately successful criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller operates around Los Angeles County out of a Lincoln Town Car (hence the title) driven by a former client working off his legal fees. ... (Wikipedia)
The Long Walk
by Richard Bachman
Fourteen boys face a grueling test of endurance and willpower as they compete in a life-or-death march.
One hundred teenage boys join an annual walking contest called "The Long Walk" or just "The Walk". Each contestant, called a "Walker", must maintain a speed of at least four miles per hour; if he ... (Wikipedia)
Cry, the Beloved Country
by Alan Paton
A journey of faith in a divided land, seeking justice and reconciliation.
In the remote village of Ndotsheni, in the Natal province of eastern South Africa , the Reverend Stephen Kumalo receives a letter from a fellow minister summoning him to Johannesburg . He is needed ... (Wikipedia)
American Pastoral
by Philip Roth
A man's experience of the American Dream gone wrong, as his daughter's political radicalism unravels his family life.
Seymour Irving Levov is born and raised in the Weequahic section of Newark, New Jersey , in 1927 as the elder son of a successful Jewish American glove manufacturer, Lou Levov, and his wife Sylvia. ... (Wikipedia)
Go Set a Watchman
by Harper Lee
Confronting the past and present, a woman struggles to reconcile her beliefs with those of her hometown.
Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, a single 26-year-old, returns from New York to her hometown, Maycomb, Alabama, for her annual fortnight-long visit to her father Atticus, a lawyer and former state ... (Wikipedia)
At the Mountains of Madness and Other Tales of Terror
by H.P. Lovecraft
Collection of horror stories about the unknown and unknowable, exploring the deepest fears of mankind.
Few writers can evoke such nightmarish visions as H. P. Lovecraft—and few of his stories are as chilling as these canonical tales of terror. ,“H. P. Lovecraft has yet to be surpassed as the twentieth ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Bluest Eye
by Toni Morrison
Coming of age story of a young Black girl dealing with prejudice and racism in 1940s Ohio.
In Lorain, Ohio , nine-year-old Claudia MacTeer and her 10-year-old sister Frieda live with their parents, a tenant named Mr. Henry, and Pecola Breedlove, a temporary foster child whose house was ... (Wikipedia)
