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Recommendations based on Life After Godby Douglas Coupland
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Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
by Douglas Coupland
A satirical look at the lives of disaffected young adults in the early 1990s.
Andy, Dag and Claire have been handed a society priced beyond their means. Twentysomethings, brought up with divorce, Watergate and Three Mile Island, and scarred by the 80s fall-out of yuppies, ... (Goodreads)
Hey Nostradamus!
by Douglas Coupland
Four narrators recount the aftermath of a high school shooting and how it affects their lives and faith.
Pregnant and secretly married, Cheryl Anway scribbles what becomes her last will and testament on a school binder shortly before a rampaging trio of misfit classmates gun her down in a high school ... (Goodreads)
Girlfriend in a Coma
by Douglas Coupland
A group of friends must grapple with a mysterious coma, while reflecting on their lives and relationships.
The first part of the book covers the 17 years in the lives of this group of friends after Karen's lapse into a coma. Richard has to cope with losing Karen but gaining a daughter, Megan, as ... (Wikipedia)
The Dice Man
by Luke Rhinehart
A man discovers the power of randomness and uses it to make his life decisions.
As stated at the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy user site: ... (Wikipedia)
American Psycho
by Bret Easton Ellis
A corporate psychopath's descent into homicidal madness, exposing the dark side of 1980s New York.
Set in Manhattan during the Wall Street boom of the late 1980s, American Psycho follows the life of wealthy young investment banker Patrick Bateman. Bateman, in his mid-20s when the story begins, ... (Wikipedia)
The Beach
by Alex Garland
A young backpacker discovers a hidden beach paradise in Thailand, but the utopia is not as perfect as it seems.
In a cheap hotel on Khao San Road in Bangkok , Richard, a young British backpacker, meets a mentally disturbed Scot going by the alias of Daffy Duck , who gives him a hand-drawn map with directions ... (Wikipedia)
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)
Breakfast of Champions
by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
A humorous exploration of life's absurdities, through a madcap journey of a protagonist.
Kilgore Trout is a widely published, but ignored and virtually invisible writer who is invited to deliver a keynote address at a local arts festival in distant Midland City. Dwayne Hoover is a ... (Wikipedia)
Choke
by Chuck Palahniuk
A darkly humorous story of a man's journey to self-awareness through disruption and chaos.
Choke follows Victor Mancini and his friend Denny through a few months of their lives with frequent flashbacks to the days when Victor was a child. , Victor had grown up moving from one foster home ... (Wikipedia)
Outer Dark
by Cormac McCarthy
A tale of desperation and violence, as a brother and sister confront the consequences of their forbidden relationship.
A woman bears her brother's child, a boy, the brother leaves the baby in the woods and tells her he died of natural causes. Discovering her brother's lie, she sets forth alone to find her son. Both ... (Goodreads)
Franny and Zooey
by J.D. Salinger
A brother and sister's journey towards finding spiritual understanding and inner peace.
The short story concerns Franny's weekend date with her collegiate boyfriend, Lane Coutell. Lane takes her to a fashionable lunch room, where Franny quickly becomes exasperated when he only appears ... (Wikipedia)
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
by Haruki Murakami
A surreal journey of self-discovery, exploring the inner and outer worlds.
The first part, "The Thieving Magpie", begins with the narrator, Toru Okada, a low-key and unemployed lawyer's assistant, being tasked by his wife, Kumiko, to find their missing cat. Kumiko suggests ... (Wikipedia)
Diary
by Chuck Palahniuk
An exploration of the depths of human depravity, exposing the darkest aspects of society.
Diary takes the form of a "coma diary" telling the story of Misty Marie Wilmot as her husband lies senseless in a hospital after a suicide attempt. The story is not exactly told by Misty but through ... (Wikipedia)
The Acid House
by Irvine Welsh
A collection of stories exploring the dark side of Edinburgh's working-class culture.
Description from the inside sleeve:, This scintillating, disturbing, and altogether outrageous collection of stories introduces to these shores a young writer already being called "the Scottish ... (Goodreads)
Cat's Cradle
by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
A satirical exploration of human folly, exposing the dangers of unchecked science and technology.
Told with deadpan humour and bitter irony, Kurt Vonnegut's cult tale of global destruction preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon and, worse still, surviving it ... Dr Felix Hoenikker, ... (Goodreads)
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)
The Corrections
by Jonathan Franzen
A family drama exploring the complexities of relationships, aging and life’s choices.
The novel shifts back and forth through the late 20th century, intermittently following spouses Alfred and Enid Lambert as they raise their children Gary, Chip, and Denise in the traditional ... (Wikipedia)
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)
The Elephant Vanishes
by Haruki Murakami
Collection of short stories depicting the surreal and mysterious aspects of life.
Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780679750536 With the same deadpan mania and genius for dislocation that he brought to his internationally acclaimed novels A Wild Sheep Chase and Hard-Boiled ... (Goodreads)
Jitterbug Perfume
by Tom Robbins
A journey through time and space, exploring the mysteries of life, death, and the pursuit of immortality.
A powerful and chiseled 8th-century king named Alobar narrowly escapes regicide at the hands of his own subjects, from a custom of killing the leader at the first sign of aging. After fleeing, no ... (Wikipedia)
Junky
by William S. Burroughs
A gritty, autobiographical account of a man's descent into the underworld of addiction.
Before his 1959 breakthrough, Naked Lunch , an unknown William S. Burroughs wrote Junky , his first novel. It is a candid eye-witness account of times and places that are now long gone, an ... (Goodreads)
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)
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)
On the Road
by Jack Kerouac
A young man's journey across America, seeking adventure and freedom.
The two main characters of the book are the narrator, Sal Paradise, and his friend Dean Moriarty, much admired for his carefree attitude and sense of adventure, a free-spirited maverick eager to ... (Wikipedia)
A Long Way Down
by Nick Hornby
Four strangers, all on the brink of suicide, join forces and venture on an unexpected life-affirming journey.
Disgraced TV presenter Martin Sharp, the lonely housewife Maureen (51 years old), the unsuccessful musician JJ and the rude teenager Jess (18 years old) meet at Toppers' House in London on New Year's ... (Wikipedia)
Ham on Rye
by Charles Bukowski
A semi-autobiographical novel following a young man's struggles with poverty, violence and mental illness.
The novel focuses on the protagonist, Henry Chinaski, between the years of 1920 and 1941. , It begins with Chinaski's early memories. As the story progresses the reader follows his life through the ... (Wikipedia)
London Fields
by Martin Amis
A female artist's exploration of life and death, told through the lens of an apocalyptic setting.
London Fields is set in London in 1999 against a backdrop of environmental, social and moral degradation, and the looming threat of world instability and nuclear war (referred to as "The Crisis"). ... (Wikipedia)
Stardust
by Neil Gaiman
A fantastical journey of discovery, romance and adventure in a magical world.
On the outskirts of Wall, a small town in rural England, the Faerie Market is held every nine years on the other side of the wall dividing Faerie — a mystical realm of magic — from our world and for ... (Wikipedia)
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)
Slapstick, or Lonesome No More!
by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
A satirical novel about a man who becomes president and creates a new society where everyone is assigned a new family.
Slapstick, presents an apocalyptic vision as seen through the eyes of the current King of Manhattan (and last President of the United States), a wickedly irreverent look at the all-too-possible ... (Goodreads)
