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Recommendations based on Avenue of Mysteriesby John Irving
* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans
The Hotel New Hampshire
by John Irving
A family's uproarious journey of growth and transformation, set in a series of hotels.
This novel is the story of the Berrys, a quirky New Hampshire family composed of a married couple, Win and Mary, and their five children, Frank, Franny, John, Lilly, and Egg. The parents, both from ... (Wikipedia)
Beartown
by Fredrik Backman
A small-town hockey team and its community grapple with the consequences of a traumatic event.
Peter Andersson, in his forties, is the general manager of the ice hockey club in Beartown, a small town located somewhere in Sweden. Peter grew up in Beartown and was a junior hockey star. He went ... (Wikipedia)
Until I Find You
by John Irving
A man's quest to uncover the secrets of his past, revealing the realities of his family's history.
Every major character in Until I Find You has been marked for life – not only William Burns, a church organist who is addicted to being tattooed, but also William's song, Jack, an actor who is shaped ... (Goodreads)
In One Person
by John Irving
A coming-of-age story of a bisexual man fighting for acceptance in a world of intolerance.
A New York Times bestselling novel of desire, secrecy, and sexual identity, In One Person is a story of unfulfilled love—tormented, funny, and affecting—and an impassioned embrace of our sexual ... (Goodreads)
Life After Life
by Kate Atkinson
A woman lives multiple lives, reflecting on choices and consequences and the power of love.
The novel has an unusual structure, repeatedly looping back in time to describe alternative possible lives for its central character, Ursula Todd, who is born on 11 February 1910 to an ... (Wikipedia)
The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock
by Imogen Hermes Gowar
A merchant acquires a mermaid and exhibits her to high society, leading to an unexpected relationship with a courtesan.
One September evening in 1785, the merchant Jonah Hancock finds one of his captains waiting eagerly on his doorstep. He has sold Jonah’s ship for what appears to be a mermaid. As gossip spreads ... (Goodreads)
Someone
by Alice McDermott
A young woman's struggle to find her place in a rapidly changing world.
An ordinary life - its sharp pains and unexpected joys, its bursts of clarity and moments of confusion - lived by an ordinary woman: this is the subject of Someone, Alice McDermott's extraordinary ... (Goodreads)
The Plague of Doves
by Louise Erdrich
A coming-of-age story set in a small Minnesota town, examining the legacy of violence and vengeance.
The unsolved murder of a farm family still haunts the white small town of Pluto, North Dakota, generations after the vengeance exacted and the distortions of fact transformed the lives of Ojibwe ... (Goodreads)
The Bees
by Laline Paull
An epic adventure of a humble worker bee who challenges the social hierarchy of the hive.
The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Hunger Games in this brilliantly imagined debut set in an ancient culture where only the queen may breed and deformity means death. Flora 717 is a sanitation worker, a ... (Barnes & Noble)
Lincoln in the Bardo
by George Saunders
A spiritual exploration of death, exploring the afterlife through the eyes of President Lincoln.
In his long-awaited first novel, American master George Saunders delivers his most original, transcendent, and moving work yet. Unfolding in a graveyard over the course of a single night, narrated by ... (Goodreads)
The Museum of Extraordinary Things
by Alice Hoffman
A love story set in early 20th century New York City, featuring a museum of oddities and two young people searching for their place in the world.
The “spellbinding” (,People, 4 stars),, New York Times, bestseller from the author of, The Dovekeepers,: an extraordinary novel about an electric and impassioned love affair—“an enchanting love story ... (Barnes & Noble)
Purity
by Jonathan Franzen
A young woman's quest to uncover her identity and family secrets.
The novel tells the intersecting stories of several different people of widely diverging ages and backgrounds. Purity Tyler, who goes by the name "Pip" is 23 and has $130,000 in student loan debt. ... (Wikipedia)
The Little Paris Bookshop
by Nina George
A heartbroken bookseller sails through France on a literary journey to heal his own broken heart.
“There are books that are suitable for a million people, others for only a hundred. There are even remedies—I mean books—that were written for one person only…A book is both medic and medicine at ... (Goodreads)
Sophie's Choice
by William Styron
A survivor of the Holocaust is confronted with a devastating moral dilemma.
Stingo, a novelist who is recalling the summer when he began his first novel, has been fired from his low-level reader's job at the publisher McGraw-Hill and has moved into a cheap boarding house in ... (Wikipedia)
Us Against You
by Fredrik Backman
Small town rivalry threatens the bonds of family and community as two towns battle for the same hockey team.
The #1, New York Times, bestselling author of, A Man Called Ove, and, Beartown, returns with an unforgettable novel “about people—about strength and tribal loyalty and what we unwittingly do when ... (Barnes & Noble)
My Name Is Lucy Barton
by Elizabeth Strout
A woman's journey of self-reflection, uncovering secrets from her past.
Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn't spoken for many years, comes to see her. Her unexpected visit forces Lucy to confront ... (Goodreads)
Commonwealth
by Ann Patchett
Intertwining story of two families across multiple generations, and how their lives become intertwined.
It started at Franny Keating’s christening party. Bert Cousins wasn’t even invited, but looking for an excuse to get out of the house, away from his three noisy children and pregnant wife for a few ... (Wikipedia)
Light in August
by William Faulkner
A story of redemption and hope set in the Jim Crow South.
The novel is set in the American South in the 1930s, during the time of Prohibition and Jim Crow laws that legalized racial segregation in the South. It begins with the journey of Lena Grove, a young ... (Wikipedia)
Absalom, Absalom!
by William Faulkner
A tangled web of family secrets, betrayal, and tragedy in the American South.
Absalom, Absalom! details the rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen , a white man born into poverty in West Virginia who moves to Mississippi with the complementary aims of gaining wealth and becoming a ... (Wikipedia)
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry
by Fredrik Backman
An imaginative quest to uncover the truth behind a beloved grandmother's mysterious stories.
The story takes place in Sweden and follows Elsa, a 7-year-old who knows she is different from other children her age. Elsa has a habit of correcting others' grammar, she is smart for her age, and is ... (Wikipedia)
Sing, Unburied, Sing
by Jesmyn Ward
A family's journey through the Mississippi Delta, confronting a traumatic past.
It is Jojo's thirteenth birthday. To step into his new role as a man, Jojo tries to bravely help his grandfather, Pop, kill a goat. Jojo ends up throwing up at the sight although Pop is sympathetic. ... (Wikipedia)
A Tale for the Time Being
by Ruth Ozeki
An exploration of the connections between two lives, bridging time, space and cultures.
In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying, but before she ends it all, Nao plans to document the life of her ... (Goodreads)
The Last Time I Saw You
by Liv Constantine
A suspenseful thriller about a woman who returns to her hometown for her high school reunion, only to be confronted with dark secrets from her past.
The internationally bestselling author of The Last Mrs. Parrish follows that success with an addictive thriller filled with shocking twists about the aftermath of a brutal high-society murder. In a ... (Barnes & Noble)
Tully
by Paullina Simons
A young woman's journey to find herself and her place in the world, through love, loss, and self-discovery.
The astonishing debut novel from international number one bestselling author Paullina Simons, now beautifully repackaged Tully Makker is a tough young woman from the wrong side of the tracks and she ... (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)
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
by Haruki Murakami
A man's journey of self-reflection to address his past and understand his place in the world.
A mesmerising mystery story about friendship from the internationally bestselling author of, Norwegian Wood, and, 1Q84, Tsukuru Tazaki had four best friends at school. By chance all of their names ... (Goodreads)
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)
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
by Gabrielle Zevin
Life of an isolated bookseller is transformed when an unexpected visitor brings unexpected joy.
“Marvelously optimistic about the future of books and bookstores and the people who love both.”—, The Washington Post, A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. He lives alone, his ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Overstory
by Richard Powers
Nine strangers are brought together by their love for trees, leading to a fight to save the last of the remaining forests.
Nicholas Hoel, Mimi Ma, Adam Appich, Ray Brinkman, Dorothy Cazaly, Douglas Pavlicek, Neelay Mehta, Patricia Westerford, and Olivia Vandergriff are people who had unique relationships with trees which ... (Wikipedia)
Cutting for Stone
by Abraham Verghese
A sweeping journey of two twin brothers and their search for identity, belonging and family.
The story is told by the protagonist, Marion Stone. He and his conjoined twin Shiva are born at Mission Hospital (called "Missing" in accordance with the local pronunciation), Addis Ababa , in ... (Wikipedia)
