Recommendations based on By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Weptby Paulo Coelho

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

  1. Veronika Decides to Die

    by Paulo Coelho
    A young woman's journey of self-discovery, learning to confront mortality and the power of love.

    Veronika is a young woman from Ljubljana , Slovenia, who appears to have a perfect life, but nevertheless decides to commit suicide by overdosing with sleeping pills. While she waits to die, she ... (Wikipedia)

  2. The Zahir

    by Paulo Coelho
    A man's journey to understand the meaning of love and of life, in the face of loss.

    The Zahir means 'the obvious' or 'conspicuous' in Arabic . The story revolves around the life of the narrator , a bestselling novelist, and in particular his search for his missing wife, Esther. He ... (Wikipedia)

  3. Eleven Minutes

    by Paulo Coelho
    A young woman's journey of self-discovery and sexual liberation.

    Eleven Minutes is the story of Maria, a young girl from a Brazilian village, whose first innocent brushes with love leave her heartbroken. At a tender age, she becomes convinced that she will never ... (Goodreads)

  4. Sophie's World

    by Jostein Gaarder
    A journey of philosophical discovery told through a young girl's exploration of the world.

    Sophie Amundsen is a 14-year-old girl who lives in Lillesand , Norway. The book begins with Sophie receiving two messages in her mailbox and a postcard addressed to Hilde Møller Knag. Afterwards, she ... (Wikipedia)

  5. The Prophet

    by Kahlil Gibran
    Collection of poetic musings about life, spirituality, and love.

    Kahlil Gibran’s masterpiece, The Prophet, is one of the most beloved classics of our time. Published in 1923, it has been translated into more than twenty languages, and the American editions alone ... (Goodreads)

  6. The Solitaire Mystery

    by Jostein Gaarder
    A young boy's journey to uncover the mystery of his past and the truth of his identity.

    The book follows two seemingly separate stories: A 12-year-old boy, Hans-Thomas, and his father are driving through Europe on a journey to locate and bring home the boy's estranged mother. Whilst on ... (Wikipedia)

  7. Love in the Time of Cholera

    by Gabriel García Márquez
    An epic love story spanning decades, exploring the power of true love.

    The main characters of the novel are Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. Florentino and Fermina fall in love in their youth. A secret relationship blossoms between the two with the help of Fermina's ... (Wikipedia)

  8. And the Mountains Echoed

    by Khaled Hosseini
    Interconnected stories of family and love, tracing the consequences of decisions made throughout life.

    The novel opens in the year 1952. Saboor, an impoverished farmer from the fictional village of Shadbagh, decides to sell his three-year-old daughter Pari to a wealthy, childless couple in Kabul. ... (Wikipedia)

  9. Jonathan Livingston Seagull

    by Richard Bach
    An exploration of self-expression and personal growth as a seagull learns to defy the boundaries of his flock.

    The book tells the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a seagull who is bored with daily squabbles over food. Seized by a passion for flight, he pushes himself and learns everything he can about ... (Wikipedia)

  10. The God of Small Things

    by Arundhati Roy
    A moving story of two siblings growing up in India, exploring love, politics, and class.

    The year is 1969. In the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India, a skyblue Plymouth with chrome tailfins is stranded on the highway amid a Marxist workers' demonstration. Inside the car ... (Goodreads)

  11. The Orange Girl

    by Jostein Gaarder
    Story of a young girl's magical journey through time, discovering her family's history.

    The film is based on a 2003 novel by the same name, written by Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder . The main character is the young boy Georg who one day finds a long letter from his deceased father in ... (Wikipedia)

  12. 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)

  13. Daddy-Long-Legs

    by Jean Webster
    A young girl's coming-of-age story, learning to navigate the world of adulthood.

    Jerusha Abbott was brought up at the John Grier Home, an old-fashioned orphanage . The children were completely dependent on charity and had to wear other people's cast-off clothes. Jerusha's unusual ... (Wikipedia)

  14. The Time Keeper

    by Mitch Albom
    A man is sent on a journey to discover the true meaning of time.

    From the author who's inspired millions worldwide with books like, Tuesdays with Morrie, and, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, comes his most imaginative novel yet,, The Time Keeper,—a compelling ... (Barnes & Noble)

  15. Blindness

    by José Saramago
    A society is plunged into chaos when everyone suddenly loses their sight.

    Blindness is the story of an unexplained mass epidemic of blindness afflicting nearly everyone in an unnamed city, and the social breakdown that swiftly follows. The novel follows the misfortune of a ... (Wikipedia)

  16. Like Water for Chocolate

    by Laura Esquivel
    Magical tale of forbidden love, crossed by cultural and family traditions.

    The book is divided into 12 sections named after the months of the year, starting in January and ending in December. Each section begins with a Mexican recipe . The chapters connect each dish to an ... (Wikipedia)

  17. The Celestine Prophecy

    by James Redfield
    A spiritual journey of discovery, unlocking the ancient mysteries of the universe.

    Are three decades of interest in modern physics, ecology, mystical religion and interpersonal psychology finally synthesizing into a new spiritual "common sense"? Are we now beginning to live this ... (Goodreads)

  18. The Forty Rules of Love

    by Elif Shafak
    A story of romance and spiritual enlightenment, exploring the teachings of a Sufi master.

    Ella Rubenstein is forty years old and unhappily married when she takes a job as a reader for a literary agent. Her first assignment is to read and report on Sweet Blasphemy , a novel written by a ... (Goodreads)

  19. The House of the Spirits

    by Isabel Allende
    Epic family saga spanning generations, exploring the power of love and the impact of politics.

    The story starts with the del Valle family, focusing upon the youngest and the oldest daughters of the family, Clara and Rosa. The youngest daughter, Clara del Valle, has paranormal powers and keeps ... (Wikipedia)

  20. Kafka on the Shore

    by Haruki Murakami
    A surreal journey of self-discovery, exploring the boundaries between the real and surreal.

    Comprising two distinct but interrelated plots, the narrative runs back and forth between both plots, taking up each plotline in alternating chapters. The odd-numbered chapters tell the 15-year-old ... (Wikipedia)

  21. When Nietzsche Wept

    by Irvin D. Yalom
    Exploration of the relationship between a doctor and his patient, a tormented philosopher.

    From the acclaimed author of Love's Executioner and Schopenhauer’s Couch , comes a “fascinating…shrewd intellectual thriller” ( Los Angeles Times Book Review ) about pioneering Viennese psychoanalyst ... (Barnes & Noble)

  22. For One More Day

    by Mitch Albom
    A man's journey through time, exploring the bonds of family, life, and death.

    The book's theme is mortality: , it analyzes how people might react to the chance to have a dead relative back for a day. , The book tells the story of Charles "Chick" Benetto, a former baseball ... (Wikipedia)

  23. Norwegian Wood

    by Haruki Murakami
    A young man's journey of love and loss set against the backdrop of the 1960s.

    Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of ... (Goodreads)

  24. Love Story

    by Erich Segal
    A tale of love, loss and hope, as two young lovers navigate life's challenges.

    Oliver Barrett IV, a wealthy jock from a stuffy WASP family on his way to a Harvard degree and a career in law . . . Jenny Cavilleri, a sharp-tongued, working-class beauty studying music at Radcliffe ... (Goodreads)

  25. Letter to a Child Never Born

    by Oriana Fallaci
    A woman reflects on her life and contemplates the implications of motherhood.

    Published by Rizzoli in 1975, Letter to a Child Never Born was quickly translated and sold in twenty-seven countries worldwide, becoming an extraordinary success. It is the tragic monologue of a ... (Goodreads)

  26. Memories of My Melancholy Whores

    by Gabriel García Márquez
    An elderly man's reflections on love and life, through the lens of a young prostitute.

    An old journalist, who has just celebrated his 90th birthday, seeks sex with a 14 year old prostitute, who is selling her virginity to help her family. Instead of sex, he discovers love for the first ... (Wikipedia)

  27. Of Love and Other Demons

    by Gabriel García Márquez
    A young girl is thrown into a spiritual journey of faith and superstition as she faces a mysterious illness.

    Sierva Maria de Todos Los Angeles Sierra is the twelve-year-old daughter of the Marquis and his wife Bernarda. Her hair has never been cut, and was promised to the saints when she was born with the ... (Wikipedia)

  28. Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

    by Richard Bach
    A spiritual journey of self-discovery, exploring the mysteries of life and death.

    In the cloud-washed airspace between the cornfields of Illinois and blue infinity, a man puts his faith in the propeller of his biplane. For disillusioned writer and itinerant barnstormer Richard ... (Goodreads)

  29. Message in a Bottle

    by Nicholas Sparks
    An unlikely romance develops between two strangers after a heartfelt message in a bottle is discovered.

    Divorced and disillusioned about romantic relationships, Theresa Osborne is jogging when she finds a bottle on the beach. Inside is a letter of love and belonging to "Catherine," signed simply ... (Wikipedia)

  30. The Namesake

    by Jhumpa Lahiri
    A young Indian-American's journey of reconciling two different cultures and his own identity.

    The story begins as Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli, a young Bengali couple, leave Calcutta , India, and settle in Central Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts . Ashoke is an engineering student at the ... (Wikipedia)