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Recommendations based on The Story of Bby Daniel Quinn
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Ishmael
by Daniel Quinn
A gorilla's provocative teachings on the human condition, exposing the flaws of modern society.
Implicitly set in the early 1990s, Ishmael begins with a newspaper advertisement: "Teacher seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person". , The nameless narrator and ... (Wikipedia)
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)
Stranger in a Strange Land
by Robert A. Heinlein
A human raised by Martians must find his place in a hostile Earth society.
The story focuses on a human raised on Mars and his adaptation to and understanding of humans and their culture. It is set in a post- Third World War United States, where organized religions are ... (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)
Atlas Shrugged
by Ayn Rand
A tale of a dystopian future where the strongest minds take control of society.
This is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world and did. Was he a destroyer or the greatest of liberators? Why did he have to fight his battle, not against his enemies, ... (Goodreads)
Still Life with Woodpecker
by Tom Robbins
Quirky exploration of love and revolution, delving into the nature of reality.
Princess Leigh-Cheri, a redheaded vegetarian liberal princess and former cheerleader, lives with her exiled royal parents Max and Tilli and their last loyal servant Gulietta in a converted farmhouse ... (Wikipedia)
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)
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
by Christopher Moore
A retelling of the life of Jesus Christ, told through the eyes of his childhood best friend.
Biff is resurrected in the 20th Century to complete missing parts of the Bible , under the inefficient supervision of Raziel ; wherefore Biff narrates that he and Joshua (by Biff's account, the ... (Wikipedia)
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
by Dave Eggers
An autobiographical account of a young man dealing with grief and responsibility.
'When you read his extraordinary memoir you don't laugh, then cry, then laugh again; you somehow experience these emotions all at once.' "Well, this was when Bill was sighing a lot. He had decided ... (Goodreads)
Invisible Man
by Ralph Ellison
A black man's journey towards self-actualization in a world of racial oppression.
The narrator, an unnamed black man, begins by describing his living conditions: an underground room wired with hundreds of electric lights, operated by power stolen from the city's electric grid. He ... (Wikipedia)
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
by Robert M. Pirsig
A philosophical exploration of the meaning of life, seen through the lens of a cross-country motorcycle journey.
Robert M. Pirsig's Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is an examination of how we live, a meditation on how to live better set around the narration of a summer motorcycle trip across America's ... (Goodreads)
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)
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)
Oryx and Crake
by Margaret Atwood
An exploration of a post-apocalyptic world, and the power of human nature.
The novel focuses on a post-apocalyptic character called "Snowman", living near a group of primitive human-like creatures whom he calls Crakers . Flashbacks reveal that Snowman was once a boy named ... (Wikipedia)
Steppenwolf
by Hermann Hesse
The inner struggles of a tortured soul as he searches for redemption.
The book is presented as a manuscript written by its protagonist , a middle-aged man named Harry Haller, who leaves it to a chance acquaintance, the nephew of his landlady. The acquaintance adds a ... (Wikipedia)
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
by Junot Díaz
An exploration of love, identity, and the power of fate in a family's struggles and triumphs.
Oscar de León (nicknamed Oscar Wao, a bastardization of Oscar Wilde ) is an overweight Dominican growing up in Paterson, New Jersey. Oscar desperately wants to be successful with women but, from a ... (Wikipedia)
Infinite Jest
by David Foster Wallace
A journey through the absurdist world of entertainment, drugs, addiction & death.
There are four major interwoven narratives: , These narratives are connected via a film, Infinite Jest , also referred to in the novel as "the Entertainment" or "the samizdat ". The film is so ... (Wikipedia)
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)
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 Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams
An eccentric space adventure filled with comedic misadventures and cosmic revelations.
At last in paperback in one complete volume, here are the five novels from Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker series. "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" Seconds before the Earth is demolished for a ... (Goodreads)
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
by Max Brooks
A collection of interviews recounting tales of the zombie apocalypse.
It has been nearly twenty years since the start of the apocalyptic worldwide pandemic known as the Zombie War, and about ten years since the war has ended in humanity's victory. The framing device ... (Wikipedia)
Reservation Blues
by Sherman Alexie
A Native American rock band embarks on a journey to reclaim their cultural identity.
The novel follows the story of the rise and fall of Coyote Springs, a rock and blues band of Spokane Indians from the Spokane Reservation . In 1995, Thomas Builds-The-Fire, Junior Polatkin, and ... (Wikipedia)
Galápagos
by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
A journey to the Galápagos Islands revealing secrets of evolution, humanity, and the future.
Galápagos is the story of a small band of mismatched humans who are shipwrecked on the fictional island of Santa Rosalia in the Galápagos Islands after a global financial crisis cripples the world's ... (Wikipedia)
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)
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)
The Year of the Flood
by Margaret Atwood
A dystopian tale of survival as humanity faces a new plague, and two women fight against a powerful corporation.
The Year of the Flood details the events of, Oryx and Crake, from the perspective of the lower classes in the pleeblands , specifically the God's Gardeners. God's Gardeners are a religious sect that ... (Wikipedia)
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)
Life, the Universe and Everything
by Douglas Adams
An intergalactic quest to find the answer to the ultimate question of life.
After being stranded on pre-historic Earth after the events in, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, , Arthur Dent is met by his old friend Ford Prefect , who drags him into a space-time eddy , ... (Wikipedia)
Where the Red Fern Grows
by Wilson Rawls
A young boy embarks on an adventure with his beloved hunting dogs, learning valuable life lessons.
An old man named Billy Colman rescues a redbone hound under attack by neighborhood dogs. He takes it home with him so that its wounds can heal. In light of this event, he has a flashback to when he ... (Wikipedia)
The Awakening
by Kate Chopin
A woman's journey of self-discovery, challenging the norms of the Victorian era.
When first published in 1899, The Awakening shocked readers with its honest treatment of female marital infidelity. Audiences accustomed to the pieties of late Victorian romantic fiction were taken ... (Goodreads)
