Recommendations based on The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishingby Melissa Bank

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

  1. The Nanny Diaries

    by Emma McLaughlin
    A young woman's struggle to balance her professional and personal obligations as a nanny.

    Wanted: One young woman to take care of four-year-old boy. Must be cheerful, enthusiastic and selfless–bordering on masochistic. Must relish sixteen-hour shifts with a deliberately nap-deprived ... (Goodreads)

  2. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason

    by Helen Fielding
    A humorous journey of self-discovery for a thirty-something single woman.

    Lurching from the cappuccino bars of Notting Hill to the blissed-out shores of Thailand, Bridget Jones searches for The Truth in spite of pathetically unevolved men, insane dating theories, and Smug ... (Goodreads)

  3. Behind the Scenes at the Museum

    by Kate Atkinson
    A young girl's exploration of her family's history, unravelling their secrets and lies.

    Ruby Lennox begins narrating her life at the moment of conception, and from there takes us on a whirlwind tour of the twentieth century as seen through the eyes of an English girl determined to learn ... (Goodreads)

  4. 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)

  5. Where the Heart Is

    by Billie Letts
    A journey of resilience and courage, as a young woman faces her struggles with poverty and hardship.

    This novel opens with Novalee and Willy Jack, her then boyfriend, traveling from Tennessee to California , where Willy Jack claims he was promised by his cousin, J. Paul, a job working at a train ... (Wikipedia)

  6. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret

    by Judy Blume
    A young girl's journey of self-discovery, navigating the transition from childhood to adolescence.

    Margaret Simon is just eleven going on twelve when her family moves from New York City to Farbrook, New Jersey. Margaret's mother is Christian and her father is Jewish . Margaret has been raised ... (Wikipedia)

  7. Like Water for Chocolate

    by Laura Esquivel
    Magical tale of forbidden love, crossed by cultural and family traditions.

    The book is divided into 12 sections named after the months of the year, starting in January and ending in December. Each section begins with a Mexican recipe . The chapters connect each dish to an ... (Wikipedia)

  8. Push

    by Sapphire
    A harrowing tale of a young girl's journey through poverty, abuse, and illiteracy in Harlem.

    Claireece Precious Jones is an obese, illiterate 16-year-old girl who lives in Harlem with her abusive mother Mary. Precious is a few months pregnant with her second child, the product of her father ... (Wikipedia)

  9. Mr. Maybe

    by Jane Green
    A young woman navigates through her love life, trying to find the perfect man. Along the way, she learns about herself and what she truly wants.

    To Libby Mason, Mr. Right has always meant Mr. Rich. A twenty seven-year-old publicist, she's barely able to afford her fashionable and fabulous lifestyle and often has to foot the bill for dates ... (Goodreads)

  10. Good in Bed

    by Jennifer Weiner
    A story of finding identity, redemption, and self-love in spite of life's challenges.

    Candace (Cannie) Shapiro is a smart, sarcastic, and successful entertainment journalist living in Philadelphia . Although she has a small group of close friends, including her best friend Samantha, ... (Wikipedia)

  11. White Teeth

    by Zadie Smith
    A multi-generational saga exploring identity, race, and culture in modern-day London.

    On New Year's Day 1975, Archie Jones, a 47-year-old Englishman whose disturbed Italian wife has just walked out on him, is attempting to take his own life by gassing himself in his car when a chance ... (Wikipedia)

  12. 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)

  13. 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)

  14. Case Histories

    by Kate Atkinson
    A series of intertwining stories of people whose lives are changed by an unexpected event.

    'Case Histories' tells the story of Jackson Brodie, a private investigator who tries to find out the truth of some cases. Brodie meets some people who reclaims his help to solve their cases Kirkus ... (Wikipedia)

  15. 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)

  16. Midwives

    by Chris Bohjalian
    A midwife's journey of self-discovery, uncovering secrets of her own past.

    The time is 1981, and Sibyl Danforth has been a dedicated midwife in the rural community of Reddington, Vermont, for fifteen years. But one treacherous winter night, in a house isolated by icy roads ... (Goodreads)

  17. The Reader

    by Bernhard Schlink
    A man's journey of understanding, uncovering a dark secret from his past.

    Hailed for its coiled eroticism and the moral claims it makes upon the reader, this mesmerizing novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of ... (Goodreads)

  18. The Bourne Identity

    by Robert Ludlum
    An amnesiac assassin must uncover his past and true identity in a deadly search for the truth.

    The preface of the novel consists of two real-life newspaper articles from 1975 about terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, known as " Carlos the Jackal ." The story opens with gunfire on a boat in the ... (Wikipedia)

  19. A Separate Peace

    by John Knowles
    A coming-of-age story about two boys and their complex friendship set during World War II.

    Gene Forrester returns to his old prep school, Devon (a thinly veiled portrayal of Knowles's alma mater, Phillips Exeter Academy ), , 15 years after he graduated, to visit two places he regards as ... (Wikipedia)

  20. Kiss the Girls

    by James Patterson
    Detective Alex Cross races against time to stop a serial killer from abducting more victims.

    As a teenage boy in 1975 Boca Raton , Florida , a future serial killer calling himself Casanova kills his first four victims. Elsewhere in 1981 Chapel Hill , North Carolina , another killer calling ... (Wikipedia)

  21. Bergdorf Blondes

    by Plum Sykes
    A satirical novel about the lives of wealthy socialites in New York City, filled with fashion, parties, and drama.

    Plum Sykes beguiling debut welcomes readers to the glamorous world of Park Avenue Princesses, the girls who careen through Manhattan in search of the perfect Fake Bake (tan acquired from Portofino ... (Goodreads)

  22. Interpreter of Maladies

    by Jhumpa Lahiri
    Collection of stories exploring the struggles of Indian-American immigrants in the US.

    A married couple, Shukumar and Shoba, live as strangers in their house until an electrical outage brings them together when all of sudden "they [are] able to talk to each other again" in the four ... (Wikipedia)

  23. 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)

  24. The Buddha in the Attic

    by Julie Otsuka
    A story of Japanese picture brides, told through a chorus of their collective voice.

    There is no plot in the usual sense of specific individuals going through particular events. The novel is told in the first person plural, from the point of view of many girls and women, none of whom ... (Wikipedia)

  25. I Know This Much Is True

    by Wally Lamb
    A man's journey of self-discovery, coming to terms with family trauma and understanding his identity.

    The novel takes place in Three Rivers, Connecticut in the early 1990s. Dominick Birdsey's identical twin , Thomas Birdsey, suffers from paranoid schizophrenia . With medication, Thomas is able to ... (Wikipedia)

  26. The Other Boleyn Girl

    by Philippa Gregory
    A historical fiction recounting the rivalry between two sisters vying for the love of King Henry VIII.

    In 1521 England, Queen Catherine of Aragon's failure to provide King Henry VIII a male heir has strained their marriage. Thomas Boleyn and his brother-in-law Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk, plan ... (Wikipedia)

  27. The Blind Assassin

    by Margaret Atwood
    A complex, interwoven story of family secrets, love, tragedy, and mystery.

    The novel's protagonist , Iris Chase, and her sister Laura, grow up well-off but motherless in a small town in southern Ontario. As an old woman, Iris recalls the events and relationships of her ... (Wikipedia)

  28. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

    by Katherine Howe
    A graduate student uncovers a family secret and a mysterious book, leading her on a journey to uncover the truth about her ancestors and their involvement in the Salem witch trials.

    Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin needs to spend her summer doing research for her doctoral dissertation. But when her mother asks her to handle the sale of Connie’s grandmother’s abandoned ... (Wikipedia)

  29. 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)

  30. 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)