Recommendations based on Back When We Were Grownupsby Anne Tyler

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

  1. 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)

  2. The Amateur Marriage

    by Anne Tyler
    An exploration of a failed marriage and its consequences across generations.

    The plot concerns the marriage of Michael Anton and Pauline Barclay, who meet when he tends to her bloodied brow in his family's grocery store, located in a primarily Eastern European enclave in ... (Wikipedia)

  3. 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)

  4. 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)

  5. Falling Angels

    by Tracy Chevalier
    Family drama spanning three generations of two Victorian families in London.

    In her New York Times bestselling follow-up, Tracy Chevalier once again paints a distant age with a rich and provocative palette of characters. Told through a variety of shifting perspectives- wives ... (Goodreads)

  6. Blackbird House

    by Alice Hoffman
    A collection of interconnected stories about the inhabitants of a small house on Cape Cod, spanning over 200 years.

    Through these interconnected narratives more than a dozen men and women learn how love transforms us and how it is the one lasting element in our lives. With "incantatory prose" that "sweeps over the ... (Goodreads)

  7. The Shop on Blossom Street

    by Debbie Macomber
    A knitting class brings together four women who form unexpected friendships and find healing through their shared experiences.

    Bestselling romance author and ardent knitter Debbie Macomber combines both her skills in this novel about a newly opened Seattle yarn shop and the knitting class that brings four women together to ... (Goodreads)

  8. Picture Perfect

    by Jodi Picoult
    A woman's seemingly perfect life is shattered when her husband is accused of a heinous crime. She must confront the truth about her marriage and herself.

    Cassie Barrett is a renowned anthropologist . Cassie wakes up on top of a grave, suffering from amnesia , unable to recall any details about herself or her situation. She is found and taken to the ... (Wikipedia)

  9. A Map of the World

    by Jane Hamilton
    A story of tragedy, resilience and redemption, revealing the fragility of life.

    One unremarkable June morning, Alice Goodwin is, as usual, trying to keep in check both her temper and her tendency to blame herself for her family's shortcomings. When the Goodwins took over the ... (Goodreads)

  10. The Language of Flowers

    by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
    A young woman's journey of healing and redemption through the power of flowers.

    The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful in ... (Goodreads)

  11. Mister Pip

    by Lloyd Jones
    A story of hope and resilience in a war-torn region, inspired by a classic novel.

    The novel is the story of a girl caught in the throes of war on the island of Bougainville. Matilda survives the war through the guidance of her devoted but strict Christian mother and her white ... (Wikipedia)

  12. The Woman Upstairs

    by Claire Messud
    The story of a woman's inner turmoil as she struggles with feelings of dissatisfaction and longing.

    Nora Elridge is an elementary school teacher living in Cambridge, Massachusetts who was raised by her frustrated stay at home mother to have artistic ambitions, ambitions which she was never able to ... (Wikipedia)

  13. The Ship of Brides

    by Jojo Moyes
    A group of war brides sail from Australia to England on an aircraft carrier, facing challenges and forming unexpected bonds.

    From the, New York Times, bestselling author of, The Giver of Stars, in an earlier work available in the U.S. for the first time, a post-WWII story of the war brides who crossed the seas by the ... (Goodreads)

  14. Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

    by Fannie Flagg
    A comedic journey of self-discovery and identity as a woman in the modern world.

    Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! is the funny, serious, and compelling new novel by Fannie Flagg, author of the beloved Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (and prize-winning co-writer of ... (Goodreads)

  15. Cloudstreet

    by Tim Winton
    Two families share a house in Perth, Australia, and navigate their lives over two decades. A story of love, loss, and redemption.

    In 1943, precipitated by separate personal tragedies, two poor families, the Lambs and the Pickles, flee their rural homes to share a large house called Cloudstreet in Perth, Western Australia. , The ... (Wikipedia)

  16. A Week in Winter

    by Maeve Binchy
    A tale of friendship, love, and unexpected connections in a small Irish village.

    Stoneybridge is a small town on the west coast of Ireland where all the families know one another. When Chicky Starr decides to take an old, decaying mansion set high on the cliffs overlooking the ... (Goodreads)

  17. The Tenth Circle

    by Jodi Picoult
    A father's struggle to protect his daughter from danger in a story of love, loss, and redemption.

    When freshman Trixie Stone accuses her ex-boyfriend, Jason Underhill, of raping her at a party, students and townspeople, alike, are quick to take Jason's side when he claims that their intercourse ... (Wikipedia)

  18. 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)

  19. Excellent Women

    by Barbara Pym
    A shy spinster's journey of self-discovery, exploring the limitations of life as a single woman in 1950s England.

    The book details the everyday life of its narrator, Mildred Lathbury, , a spinster in her thirties in 1950s Britain. Perpetually self-deprecating, but with the sharpest wit, Mildred is a part-time ... (Wikipedia)

  20. Five Quarters of the Orange

    by Joanne Harris
    A gripping tale of a young woman's struggle to uncover the secrets of her past and confront her family's dark history.

    The novels of Joanne Harris are a literary feast for the senses. Five Quarters of the Orange represents Harris's most complex and sophisticated work yet - a novel in which darkness and fierce joy ... (Goodreads)

  21. The Robber Bride

    by Margaret Atwood
    A story of three women and their experiences with a manipulative friend.

    Set in present-day Toronto , Ontario , the novel is about three women and their history with old friend and nemesis, Zenia. Roz, Charis, and Tony meet once a month in a restaurant to share a meal ... (Wikipedia)

  22. The Birth of Venus

    by Sarah Dunant
    A passionate story of love and art set in 15th century Florence.

    Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family’s Florentine palazzo. ... (Goodreads)

  23. Bel Canto

    by Ann Patchett
    A story of redemption and transformation amidst a hostage crisis.

    Set in an unspecified South American country, , the story begins at a birthday party thrown at the country's vice presidential home in honor of Katsumi Hosokawa, the visiting chairman of a large ... (Wikipedia)

  24. Something Blue

    by Emily Giffin
    A woman navigates the intricacies of marriage, friendships, and career choices.

    Darcy Rhone has always been able to rely on a few things: her beauty and charm. Her fiancé Dex. Her lifelong best friend Rachel. She never needed anything else. Or so she thinks until Dex calls of ... (Barnes & Noble)

  25. Tears of the Giraffe

    by Alexander McCall Smith
    A humorous and heartwarming story of the lives of the inhabitants of a Botswana village.

    Newly engaged Mma Ramotswe is not impressed with Mr JLB Matekoni's maid, Florence Pena. Unknown to him, she has been sleeping in his bed with her men friends. Obvious to Mma Ramotswe is that she does ... (Wikipedia)

  26. 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)

  27. The Mayor of Casterbridge

    by Thomas Hardy
    A man sells his wife and daughter while drunk, then becomes a successful businessman and mayor, but his past haunts him.

    At a country fair near Casterbridge in Wessex Michael Henchard, a 21-year-old hay-trusser, argues with his wife Susan. Drunk on rum-laced furmity he auctions her off, along with their baby daughter ... (Wikipedia)

  28. Runaway: Stories

    by Alice Munro
    A collection of short stories exploring the complexities of human relationships and the struggles of women in rural Canada.

    The incomparable Alice Munro’s bestselling and rapturously acclaimed Runaway is a book of extraordinary stories about love and its infinite betrayals and surprises, from the title story about a young ... (Goodreads)

  29. 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)

  30. The Woman in Cabin 10

    by Ruth Ware
    An intrepid reporter embarks on a luxury cruise, uncovering a dark and dangerous mystery.

    INSTANT, NEW YORK TIMES, AND, USA TODAY, BESTSELLER, , FROM THE AUTHOR OF, IN A DARK, DARK WOOD, , Featured in TheSkimm, , An, Entertainment Weekly, “Summer Must List” Pick, , A, New York Post, ... (Barnes & Noble)