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Recommendations based on Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to Youby Peter Cameron
* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans
The Late Mattia Pascal
by Luigi Pirandello
A man's journey to reclaim his identity and freedom from a life of dullness and unhappiness.
The protagonist, Mattia Pascal, finds that his promising youth has, through misfortune or misdeed, dissolved into a dreary dead-end job and a miserable marriage. His inheritance and the woman he ... (Wikipedia)
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)
Geography Club
by Brent Hartinger
A group of high school students form a secret club to explore their sexuality and identity.
Russel Middlebrook is keeping a secret from his two best friends, Min, a bright Chinese American girl, and Gunnar, a bright and socially awkward boy. Neither of them knows he is gay and that he has ... (Wikipedia)
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)
The Baron in the Trees
by Italo Calvino
A young boy's journey of self-discovery as he lives among the trees, away from society.
A landmark new translation of a Calvino classic, a whimsical, spirited novel that imagines a life lived entirely on its own terms Cosimo di Rondó, a young Italian nobleman of the eighteenth century, ... (Barnes & Noble)
Hero
by Perry Moore
A young superhero struggles with his sexuality and the expectations of his superhero father.
Thom Creed is a 16-year-old high school basketball star, who has a tendency to get into trouble. His mother abandoned the family several years ago, and his father Hal, a publicly disgraced ... (Wikipedia)
Rainbow Boys
by Alex Sanchez
Three high-school seniors learn to accept themselves and each other as they come to terms with their sexuality.
The story follows the overlapping lives of three high school seniors, with the chapters alternating between their different points of view. Jason Carrillo, the popular jock, finds himself questioning ... (Wikipedia)
Henry and Ribsy
by Beverly Cleary
A boy and his dog's humorous adventures, learning the importance of friendship and loyalty.
Like most of the Henry Huggins books, the incidents in this book follow an ongoing plot line. In this case, Henry wants to go on a salmon-fishing trip with his father. However, Ribsy has been causing ... (Wikipedia)
The Whistling Season
by Ivan Doig
A coming-of-age story set in rural Montana in 1909, following a family's struggles and triumphs during the homesteading era.
"Can't cook but doesn't bite." So begins the newspaper ad offering the services of an "A-1 housekeeper, sound morals, exceptional disposition" that draws the hungry attention of widower Oliver ... (Goodreads)
4 3 2 1
by Paul Auster
An exploration of alternate realities, tracing the lives of four identical boys who go their own ways.
Nearly two weeks early, on March 3, 1947, in the maternity ward of Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, Archibald Isaac Ferguson, the one and only child of Rose and Stanley Ferguson, is born. ... (Goodreads)
A Single Man
by Christopher Isherwood
A man's exploration of life after losing his partner, as he contemplates his own mortality.
George, an English professor, is unable to cope with the despondent, bereaved nature of his existence after the sudden death of his partner, Jim. Throughout the day, he has various encounters with ... (Wikipedia)
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
by Jonathan Safran Foer
A young boy's quest to find the lock that matches a mysterious key his father left behind.
Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweller, detective, vegan, and ... (Goodreads)
The Leopard
by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Epic story of a Sicilian nobleman's struggle to preserve his family and their way of life in a rapidly changing world.
Most of the novel is set during the time of the, Risorgimento, , specifically during the period when Giuseppe Garibaldi , the hero of Italian unification, swept through Sicily with his forces, known ... (Wikipedia)
The Sound and the Fury
by William Faulkner
Tragic story of the decline of a southern family, exploring the human condition.
The first section of the novel is narrated by Benjamin "Benjy" Compson, a source of shame to the family due to his diminished mental capacity; the only characters who show genuine care for him are ... (Wikipedia)
No One Belongs Here More Than You
by Miranda July
Short stories of everyday people struggling to find their place in the world.
Screenwriter, director, and star of the acclaimed film Me and You and Everyone We Know, Miranda July brings her extraordinary talents to the page in a startling, sexy, and tender collection. ... (Goodreads)
Thank You for Smoking
by Christopher Buckley
A satire of the tobacco industry, exploring the power of corporate lobbying.
Nick Naylor is the chief spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, a tobacco industry lobbying firm that promotes the benefits of cigarettes. He utilizes high-profile media events and ... (Wikipedia)
Hold Still
by Nina LaCour
A young girl navigates the grief of losing her best friend through photography and self-discovery.
An arresting story about starting over after a friend’s suicide, from a breakthrough new voice in YA fiction. dear caitlin, there are so many things that i want so badly to tell you but i just can’t. ... (Goodreads)
One Day
by David Nicholls
A story of friendship and love, exploring the complexities of life and relationships.
Dexter and Emma spend the night together following their graduation from the University of Edinburgh , in 1988. They talk about how they will be once they are 40. While they do not become ... (Wikipedia)
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley
by Hannah Tinti
A father-daughter journey of healing, as they confront the secrets of the past.
A father protects his daughter from the legacy of his past and the truth about her mother's death in this thrilling new novel from the prize-winning author of, The Good Thief., After years spent ... (Goodreads)
Wintergirls
by Laurie Halse Anderson
A teenage girl struggles with anorexia and the lingering trauma of her best friend's death.
Lia Overbrook, an 18-year-old girl, just found out that her ex-best friend Cassie has died. Cassie had called Lia 33 times the night of her death. However, Lia never answered the phone. Cassie was ... (Wikipedia)
Openly Straight
by Bill Konigsberg
Rafe, a gay teenager, decides to keep his sexuality a secret when he transfers to an all-boys boarding school.
The award-winning novel about being out, being proud, and being ready for something else . . . now in paperback. Rafe is a normal teenager from Boulder, Colorado. He plays soccer. He's won skiing ... (Goodreads)
Let the Great World Spin
by Colum McCann
Interconnected stories of ordinary lives in 1970s New York, inspired by a high-wire artist's death-defying feat.
The events of the story are told in a largely non-linear fashion, with several different narrators telling the story from different perspectives. The story is interspersed with fictionalized accounts ... (Wikipedia)
Liar & Spy
by Rebecca Stead
A young boy's journey of self-discovery, navigating the complexities of bullies and friendships.
The day that Georges (with a silent s, named for Georges Seurat ) moves from a house to an apartment with his family, he sees a boy walking two dogs, disappearing into a locked door under the lobby ... (Wikipedia)
The Lottery
by Shirley Jackson
A small village's annual lottery reveals a dark secret, with sinister implications.
Details of contemporary small-town American life are embroidered upon a description of an annual rite known as "the lottery". In a small village of about 300 residents, the locals are in an excited ... (Wikipedia)
Silk
by Alessandro Baricco
Adventure of a 19th century French trader who travels to Japan to find rare silkworm eggs.
The novel tells the story of a French silkworm merchant-turned-smuggler named Hervé Joncour in 19th century France who travels to Japan for his town's supply of silkworms after a disease wipes out ... (Wikipedia)
A Home at the End of the World
by Michael Cunningham
Childhood friends Jonathan and Bobby navigate love, loss, and self-discovery in New York City and rural Woodstock.
Bobby had grown up in a home in suburban Cleveland, Ohio during the 1960s and 1970s where partying and drugs were a recurring theme. He has already witnessed the death of his mother and beloved older ... (Wikipedia)
Shotgun Lovesongs
by Nickolas Butler
Interwoven tales of four lifelong friends in rural Wisconsin, exploring love, loss and loyalty.
Hank, Leland, Kip and Ronny were all born and raised in the same Wisconsin town — Little Wing — and are now coming into their own (or not) as husbands and fathers. One of them never left, still ... (Goodreads)
The Master and Margarita
by Mikhail Bulgakov
A fantastical, satirical examination of Soviet life, intersecting with the supernatural.
The novel has two settings. The first is Moscow during the 1930s, where Satan appears at Patriarch's Ponds as Professor Woland . He is accompanied by Koroviev, a grotesquely-dressed valet; Behemoth , ... (Wikipedia)
The Complete Short Novels
by Anton Chekhov
A collection of short stories and novellas exploring the complexity of human nature.
Anton Chekhov, widely hailed as the supreme master of the short story, also wrote five works long enough to be called short novels. Here, brought together in one volume for the first time, in a ... (Goodreads)
Last Night at the Lobster
by Stewart O'Nan
A poignant story of a restaurant manager's last night at work, as he reflects on his present & past life decisions.
The Red Lobster perched in the far corner of a run-down New England mall hasn't been making its numbers and headquarters has pulled the plug. But manager Manny DeLeon still needs to navigate a tricky ... (Goodreads)
