Powered by a book like {foo}
Recommendations based on Giants in the Earthby O.E. Rølvaag
* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
by Betty Smith
A coming of age story set in Brooklyn, depicting a young girl's struggles and growth.
The novel is split into five "books", each covering a different period in the characters' lives. Book One opens in 1912 and introduces 11-year-old Francie Nolan, who lives in the Williamsburg ... (Wikipedia)
Bleak House
by Charles Dickens
A social commentary on the English legal system, exploring themes of inequality, injustice and corruption.
Bleak House opens in the twilight of foggy London, where fog grips the city most densely in the Court of Chancery. The obscure case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, in which an inheritance is gradually ... (Goodreads)
Mrs. Mike
by Benedict Freedman
A young woman's voyage of self-discovery, learning to survive and thrive in the Canadian wilderness.
The novel is based on the stories of Katherine Mary O'Fallon Flannigan (1899-1954). , , , According to her fictionalized account, in 1907 at age 16 O'Fallon travels to Calgary to visit her uncle and ... (Wikipedia)
When Will There Be Good News?
by Kate Atkinson
A gripping mystery that intertwines the lives of three individuals, each with their own secrets and tragedies, leading to a shocking conclusion.
In her crime novel When Will There Be Good News?, featuring recurring character Jackson Brodie, Kate Atkinson begins with several seemingly unrelated storylines that slowly resolve into a whole. The ... (Wikipedia)
Time and Again
by Jack Finney
A man travels back in time to the past to explore its secrets and mysteries.
In November 1970, Simon Morley, an advertising sketch artist, is approached by U.S. Army Major Ruben Prien to participate in a secret government project. He is taken to a huge warehouse on the West ... (Wikipedia)
Chesapeake
by James A. Michener
A sweeping saga of four generations of a family living in Maryland and their struggles to adapt to changing times.
The story-line, like much of Michener's work, depicts a number of characters within family groups over a long time period, richly illustrating the history of the area through these families' ... (Wikipedia)
The Good Earth
by Pearl S. Buck
A story of humble farmers facing the struggles of poverty and the upheaval of social change.
The story begins on Wang Lung 's wedding day and follows the rise and fall of his fortunes. The House of Hwang, a family of wealthy landowners, lives in the nearby town, where Wang Lung's future ... (Wikipedia)
A Child's Garden of Verses
by Robert Louis Stevenson
A collection of poems that capture the joys and wonders of childhood, from playing outside to dreaming of far-off lands.
Up into the cherry tree Who should climb but little me? I held the trunk with both my hands And looked abroad on foreign lands. Here is a delightful look at childhood, written by master poet and ... (Goodreads)
The Cat's Table
by Michael Ondaatje
A young boy's journey of self-discovery, exploring the world and its people.
A spellbinding story - by turns poignant and electrifying - about the magical, often forbidden, discoveries of childhood and a lifelong journey that begins unexpectedly with a spectacular sea voyage. ... (Goodreads)
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
by Henry Fielding
A story of a young man's adventures and misadventures in pursuit of love and fortune.
The novel's events occupy eighteen books. The book opens with the narrator stating that the purpose of the novel will be to explore "human nature". The kindly and wealthy Squire Allworthy and his ... (Wikipedia)
We Were the Mulvaneys
by Joyce Carol Oates
A family unravels after a traumatic event shatters their close-knit bond.
Michael and Corinne Mulvaney are the parents of four children: Michael Jr., Patrick, Marianne, and Judd. Living in a picture perfect farm in upstate New York , the Mulvaneys own a successful roofing ... (Wikipedia)
Julius Caesar
by William Shakespeare
Tragedy of political power and ambition as Rome's leader is betrayed by those closest to him.
The Oxford School Shakespeare has become the preferred introduction to the literary legacy of the greatest playwright in the English language. This exclusive collection of the Bard's best works has ... (Goodreads)
A Rule Against Murder
by Louise Penny
A murder mystery centered around a small Quebec town, unraveling its secrets along the way.
"What happened here last night isn't allowed," said Madame Dubois. It was such an extraordinary thing to say it stopped the ravenous Inspector Beauvoir from taking another bite of his roast beef on ... (Goodreads)
Salvage the Bones
by Jesmyn Ward
A family struggles to survive in the aftermath of a devastating hurricane.
The novel follows a working-class African-American family living in southern Mississippi in 2005. The family consists of Daddy, his daughter Esch (the narrator), and his sons Randall, Skeetah, and ... (Wikipedia)
Hawaii
by James A. Michener
Epic saga of the history, culture and people of the Hawaiian Islands.
The novel tells the history of Hawaiian Islands from the creation of the isles to the time they became an American state, through the viewpoints of selected characters who represent their ethnic and ... (Wikipedia)
The Faerie Queene
by Edmund Spenser
A classic tale of heroism, courage, and love in a mythical kingdom.
The Faerie Queene was the first epic in English and one of the most influential poems in the language for later poets from Milton to Tennyson. Dedicating his work to Elizabeth I, Spenser brilliantly ... (Goodreads)
Things Fall Apart
by Chinua Achebe
Exploration of African culture and traditions, grappling with the tension between modernity and tradition.
The novel's protagonist , Okonkwo, is famous in the villages of Umuofia for being a wrestling champion, defeating a wrestler nicknamed "Amalinze The Cat" (because he never lands on his back). Okonkwo ... (Wikipedia)
A Confederacy of Dunces
by John Kennedy Toole
A satirical tale of an eccentric slacker's misadventures in New Orleans.
Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found, here, "A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles ... (Goodreads)
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)
David Copperfield
by Charles Dickens
A rags-to-riches story of a young boy's adventures, trials, and tribulations.
David Copperfield is the story of a young man's adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among the gloriously ... (Goodreads)
The Swiss Family Robinson
by Johann David Wyss
A family is shipwrecked on a desert island, using their ingenuity and resourcefulness to survive.
The novel opens with the family in the hold of a sailing ship, weathering a great storm. The ship's crew evacuate without them, and William and Elizabeth and their four children (Fritz, Ernest, Jack ... (Wikipedia)
The Brutal Telling
by Louise Penny
A murder in a small village uncovers secrets and hidden pasts, threatening the community's peace.
The wise and beleaguered Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns to Three Pines, The Brutal Telling, the fifth book in Louise Penny's #1, New York Times, bestselling series., Chaos is coming, old son. ... (Barnes & Noble)
Foundation and Earth
by Isaac Asimov
A journey through the galaxy to find the lost planet of humanity's origin. Along the way, they uncover secrets of the universe.
Councilman Golan Trevize , historian Janov Pelorat , and Blissenobiarella of the planet Gaia (introduced in Foundation's Edge ) set out on a journey to find humanity's ancestral planet— Earth . The ... (Wikipedia)
Snow Falling on Cedars
by David Guterson
A murder trial in a small, coastal town reveals secrets of the past and its inhabitants.
Set on the fictional San Piedro Island in the northern Puget Sound region of the state of Washington coast in 1954, the plot revolves around a murder case in which Kabuo Miyamoto, a Japanese American ... (Wikipedia)
All Quiet on the Western Front
by Erich Maria Remarque
A soldier's harrowing experience of the horrors of war.
The book tells the story of Paul Bäumer, who belongs to a group of German soldiers on the Western Front during World War I . The patriotic speeches of his teacher Kantorek had led the whole class to ... (Wikipedia)
The Summer Book
by Tove Jansson
A grandmother and her granddaughter explore a remote summer island together, learning about life, love, and nature.
An elderly artist and her six-year-old granddaughter while away a summer together on a tiny island in the gulf of Finland. Gradually, the two learn to adjust to each other's fears, whims and ... (Goodreads)
The English Patient
by Michael Ondaatje
A World War II love story, exploring the depths of human emotion in the midst of tragedy.
With ravishing beauty and unsettling intelligence, Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning novel traces the intersection of four damaged lives in an Italian villa at the end of World War II. Hana, ... (Goodreads)
If You Come Softly
by Jacqueline Woodson
A heart-wrenching love story between two teenagers from different backgrounds, facing racism and prejudice in contemporary New York City.
Both Elisha (Ellie) and Jeremiah (Miah) attend Percy Academy, a private school where neither quite fits in. Ellie is wrestling with family demons, and Miah is one of the few African American ... (Goodreads)
Something Wicked This Way Comes
by Ray Bradbury
A dark fantasy tale of two boys confronting a mysterious and sinister carnival.
One of Ray Bradbury’s best-known and most popular novels, Something Wicked This Way Comes , now featuring a new introduction and material about its longstanding influence on culture and genre. For ... (Barnes & Noble)
East of Eden
by John Steinbeck
Exploration of the timeless struggle between good and evil, set against a backdrop of a family saga.
In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden “the first book,” and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas ... (Goodreads)
