Recommendations based on Too Much Happiness: Storiesby Alice Munro

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

  1. 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)

  2. Dear Life

    by Alice Munro
    A collection of stories of ordinary people facing extraordinary moments of change and transformation.

    Suffused with Munro's clarity of vision and her unparalleled gift for storytelling, these tales about departures and beginnings, accidents and dangers, and outgoings and homecomings both imagined and ... (Goodreads)

  3. A Visit from the Goon Squad

    by Jennifer Egan
    A mosaic of characters, lives, and relationships as they intertwine and evolve over time.

    Jennifer Egan’s spellbinding interlocking narratives circle the lives of Bennie Salazar, an aging former punk rocker and record executive, and Sasha, the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. ... (Goodreads)

  4. The Sense of an Ending

    by Julian Barnes
    An exploration of memory and its impact on the present, looking at the choices we make in life.

    By an acclaimed writer at the height of his powers, The Sense of an Ending extends a streak of extraordinary books that began with the best-selling Arthur & George and continued with Nothing to Be ... (Goodreads)

  5. Tinkers

    by Paul Harding
    A dying man reflects on his life and family, grappling with his mortality.

    The Los Angeles Times, praised "a writer [who] describes something so well—snow, oranges, dirt—that you can smell it or feel it or sense it in the room." ,, The New Yorker, enjoyed Harding's ... (Wikipedia)

  6. Birds of America

    by Lorrie Moore
    A collection of comedic stories depicting everyday life with a unique, wry sense of humor.

    A long-awaited collection of stories–twelve in all--by one of the most exciting writers at work today, the acclaimed author of Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? and Self-Help. Stories remarkable in ... (Goodreads)

  7. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories

    by Alice Munro
    Interconnected stories exploring the complexities of love, relationships, and family.

    In the her tenth collection (the title story of which is the basis for the new film Hateship Loveship ), Alice Munro achieves new heights, creating narratives that loop and swerve like memory, and ... (Goodreads)

  8. Stoner

    by John Williams
    An academic's life of quiet desperation, finding solace in literature.

    William Stoner is born on a small farm in 1891. After high school, the county agent advises he go to agriculture school. Stoner enrolls in the University of Missouri , where all agriculture students ... (Wikipedia)

  9. 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)

  10. Olive Kitteridge

    by Elizabeth Strout
    An exploration of the life of a small-town woman, revealing her struggles and emotional complexities.

    Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition – its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires. At times stern, at other times ... (Goodreads)

  11. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

    by David Mitchell
    An epic tale of love and adventure set in an 18th century Japanese trading port.

    The novel begins in the summer of 1799 at the Dutch East India Company trading post Dejima in the harbor of Nagasaki . It tells the story of a Dutch trader's love for a Japanese midwife who is ... (Wikipedia)

  12. 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)

  13. Wolf Hall

    by Hilary Mantel
    A historical fiction about the rise of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII.

    England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry ... (Goodreads)

  14. Revolutionary Road

    by Richard Yates
    An American couple's struggle to stay afloat in suburban conventions and expectations.

    Set in 1955, the novel focuses on the hopes and aspirations of Frank and April Wheeler, self-assured Connecticut suburbanites who see themselves as very different from their neighbors in the ... (Wikipedia)

  15. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

    by Carson McCullers
    Exploring the lives of diverse characters in a small Southern town, unearthing secrets and desires.

    The book begins with a focus on the relationship between two close friends, John Singer and Spiros Antonapoulos, deaf-mutes who have lived together for several years. Antonapoulos becomes mentally ... (Wikipedia)

  16. Half of a Yellow Sun

    by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
    Story of two sisters navigating a civil war in Nigeria, and the effects of colonialism.

    The novel takes place in Nigeria prior to and during the Nigerian Civil War (1967–70). The effect of the war is shown through the relationships of five people's lives including the twin daughters of ... (Wikipedia)

  17. 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)

  18. 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)

  19. A Gate at the Stairs

    by Lorrie Moore
    An exploration of identity and belonging in the midst of cultural divides.

    The novel's main character is Tassie Keltjin. At age 20, Keltjin is attending a major university identified only as the " Athens of the Midwest ." When the novel opens, she is looking for a job as a ... (Wikipedia)

  20. A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories

    by Lucia Berlin
    An exploration of female experience, weaving together stories of love, loss, and resilience.

    A Manual for Cleaning Women compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all ... (Barnes & Noble)

  21. Americanah

    by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
    An exploration of race, identity, and belonging as two Nigerian immigrants experience life in America and beyond.

    Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to ... (Goodreads)

  22. Out Stealing Horses

    by Per Petterson
    An elderly man reflects on his past, uncovering long-buried secrets and memories.

    We were going out stealing horses. That was what he said, standing at the door to the cabin where I was spending the summer with my father. I was fifteen. It was 1948 and one of the first days of ... (Goodreads)

  23. 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)

  24. What I Loved

    by Siri Hustvedt
    A story of two friends, their families, and the art world in New York City. A tale of love, loss, and the complexities of human relationships.

    What I Loved opens with a painting of a woman 'wearing only a man's T-shirt', with the artist's shadow across the canvas. The protagonist , art historian Leon Hertzberg (Leo), purchases the painting ... (Wikipedia)

  25. The Woman Destroyed

    by Simone de Beauvoir
    A collection of three novellas exploring the consequences of societal expectations on women's lives.

    Three long stories that draw the reader into the lives of three women, all past their first youth, all facing unexpected crises. ... (Goodreads)

  26. The Hours

    by Michael Cunningham
    Interwoven stories of three women and the impact of Virginia Woolf's novel, Mrs. Dalloway.

    Note: This Summary does not contain the whole book, nor end at the ending. The stream-of-consciousness style being so prominent in this work, a summary of the plot based on physical action does not ... (Wikipedia)

  27. 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)

  28. L'Assommoir

    by Émile Zola
    An exploration of poverty and alcoholism in the Parisian working class.

    The novel is principally the story of Gervaise Macquart, who is featured briefly in the first novel in the series,, La Fortune des Rougon, , running away to Paris with her shiftless lover Lantier to ... (Wikipedia)

  29. 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)

  30. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

    by Michael Chabon
    Two cousins create a comic book superhero and find success and adventure in 1940s New York.

    The novel begins in 1939 with the arrival of 19-year-old Josef "Joe" Kavalier as a refugee in New York City , where he comes to live with his 17-year-old cousin, Sammy Klayman. With the help of his ... (Wikipedia)