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Recommendations based on Rain of Goldby Victor Villaseñor
* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans
Bless Me, Ultima
by Rudolfo Anaya
A young boy navigates the complexities of life in rural New Mexico with the guidance of his curandera grandmother, Ultima.
Set in the small town of Guadalupe, New Mexico , just after World War II , , Antonio Márez y Luna (Tony) tells his story from the memories of his adult self, who reflects on his growing up. The novel ... (Wikipedia)
Inés of My Soul
by Isabel Allende
A historical novel of a woman's struggles and triumphs in colonial Latin America.
This historial novel is about the main facts of the life of Inés (an important figure in Chile), written in older Ines' first-person voice, with its intended audience to be Ines' adoptive daughter, ... (Wikipedia)
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)
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)
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)
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)
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water
by Michael Dorris
A multi-generational story of three Native American women and their struggles with identity, family, and love.
Michael Dorris has crafted a fierce saga of three generations of Indian women, beset by hardships and torn by angry secrets, yet inextricably joined by the bonds of kinship. Starting in the present ... (Goodreads)
Grandfather's Journey
by Allen Say
A Japanese man moves to America, but misses his homeland. His grandson later moves to Japan and feels the same way.
A young man from Japan , during the Meiji era , crosses the Pacific Ocean and explores the United States. He finds that of all the places he has seen, he likes coastal California best because of the ... (Wikipedia)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
by Sherman Alexie
A young Native American boy's struggles to survive in a difficult world.
The book follows a fourteen-year-old boy living with his family on the Spokane Indian Reservation near Wellpinit, Washington for a school year. It is told in episodic diary style, moving from the ... (Wikipedia)
Uncle Tom's Cabin
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
An anti-slavery novel exploring themes of morality, faith, and justice.
The book opens with a Kentucky farmer named Arthur Shelby facing the loss of his farm because of debts. Even though he and his wife Emily Shelby believe that they have a benevolent relationship with ... (Wikipedia)
Love in the Time of Cholera
by Gabriel García Márquez
An epic love story spanning decades, exploring the power of true love.
The main characters of the novel are Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. Florentino and Fermina fall in love in their youth. A secret relationship blossoms between the two with the help of Fermina's ... (Wikipedia)
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)
The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway
by Ernest Hemingway
Collection of short stories depicting the human experience in all its complexities.
THE ONLY COMPLETE COLLECTION BY THE NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR In this definitive collection of Ernest Hemingway's short stories, readers will delight in the author's most beloved classics such as ... (Goodreads)
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)
Caramelo
by Sandra Cisneros
A Latina girl's story of growing up and coming to terms with her cultural identity.
Every year, Ceyala “Lala” Reyes' family—aunts, uncles, mothers, fathers, and Lala's six older brothers—packs up three cars and, in a wild ride, drive from Chicago to the Little Grandfather and Awful ... (Barnes & Noble)
Tender Is the Night
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A young couple's tumultuous journey through love, wealth and tragedy.
Dick and Nicole Diver are a glamorous couple who rent a villa in the South of France and surround themselves with a circle of friends, mainly Americans. Also staying at the nearby resort are Rosemary ... (Wikipedia)
Esperanza Rising
by Pam Muñoz Ryan
A young girl from a wealthy Mexican family is forced to flee to California during the Great Depression and learns to adapt to a new life as a farm worker.
Esperanza is a child in Aguascalientes , Mexico, daughter of wealthy landowner Sixto Ortega. She lives on her family's ranch, El Rancho de la Rosas, with her mother, father, and grandmother Abuelita. ... (Wikipedia)
Howl and Other Poems
by Allen Ginsberg
A collection of poems exploring themes of individualism and modern culture.
The Far Pavilions
by M.M. Kaye
Epic adventure story set in 19th century India, exploring the clash of East and West.
Ashton Pelham-Martyn (Ash) is the son of a British botanist travelling through India; he is born on the road shortly before the Sepoy uprising of 1857 . His mother dies from childbed fever shortly ... (Wikipedia)
The Pecan Man
by Cassie Dandridge Selleck
A woman's journey of self-discovery, as she uncovers the truth about her family's past.
The Pecan Man is a work of Southern fiction whose first chapter was the First Place winner of the 2006 CNW/FFWA Florida State Writing Competition in the Unpublished Novel category. In the summer of ... (Goodreads)
The Shipping News
by Annie Proulx
A man's attempt to rebuild his life in a small Newfoundland town, discovering compassion and joy.
The story centers around Quoyle, a newspaper reporter from upstate New York , whose father had emigrated from Newfoundland . Shortly after his parents' joint suicide, Quoyle's unfaithful and abusive ... (Wikipedia)
Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings
by Christopher Moore
A hilarious and absurd tale of a man who discovers he was once a dolphin, and sets out on a quest to find his true identity.
Whale researcher Nathan Quinn has a problem. It’s not a new problem; in fact, it’s been around for nearly 20 million years. And Nate’s spent most of his adult life working to solve it. You see, ... (Goodreads)
The Rent Collector
by Camron Wright
A poor Cambodian family's story of resilience in the face of hardship.
Survival for Ki Lim and Sang Ly is a daily battle at Stung Meanchey, the largest municipal waste dump in all of Cambodia. They make their living scavenging recyclables from the trash. Life would be ... (Goodreads)
Standing in the Rainbow
by Fannie Flagg
A comedic story of a small town in Alabama and its eccentric inhabitants, highlighting the beauty of human relationships.
Along with Neighbor Dorothy, the lady with the smile in her voice, whose daily radio broadcasts keep us delightfully informed on all the local news, we also meet Bobby, her ten-year-old son, destined ... (Goodreads)
Nights of Rain and Stars
by Maeve Binchy
A group of strangers on holiday in a small Greek village, coming together through tragedy and joy.
In a small town in Greece , a group of people witness a boating accident and subsequently become tangled in each other's lives. Thomas is a California university professor escaping from a tense ... (Wikipedia)
Ceremony
by Leslie Marmon Silko
A young Native American man's healing journey, reclaiming cultural roots and identity.
Ceremony follows a half- Pueblo , half-white man named Tayo after his return from World War II . His white doctors say he is suffering from "battle fatigue," which would be called post-traumatic ... (Wikipedia)
The Collected Poems
by Langston Hughes
A compilation of works reflecting the African-American experience through a poetic lens.
Spanning five decades and comprising 868 poems (nearly 300 of which have never before appeared in book form), this magnificent volume is the definitive sampling of a writer who has been called the ... (Goodreads)
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)
Still Alice
by Lisa Genova
A woman's struggle to hold on to her identity in the face of a devastating diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's disease.
Still Alice is a compelling debut novel about a 50-year-old woman's sudden descent into early onset Alzheimer's disease, written by first-time author Lisa Genova, who holds a Ph. D in neuroscience ... (Goodreads)
The Paying Guests
by Sarah Waters
A forbidden affair between two women in 1920s London, amidst an era of social change.
It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned; the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa—a large, silent house now ... (Goodreads)
