I'm currently in a reading slump and am struggling to get out. I've read only one book this year.
Anyone have any recs of books that you can't put down based on books I've enjoyed? I know it seems like a random list but common themes among some of them are war and survival, the immigrant experience, friendship, and mental health.
Americanah, Half of a Yellow Sun and Purple Hibiscus – Chimamanda Nhozi Adichie
The City of Thieves – David Benioff
My sister the serial killer – Oyinkan Braithwaite
The Goldfinch – Donna Tart
The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
A thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner – Khaled Husseini
Me Before You series – Jojo Moyes (found this to be a more easier read)
The Stationary Shop of Tehran – Marjan Kamali
Tell it to the skies – Erica James
The Book Thief – Marcus Zusak
The girl with the dragon tattoo – Stieg Larsson
All about love – Bell Hooks
by awakeatwhatcost
6 Comments
You may like “The Island of Forgetting” by Jasmine Sealy or “The Diamond Eye” by Kate Quinn
We like a lot of the same books! Here are some I also enjoyed:
– Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
– Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel
– The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
– Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura
– Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
– Earth of Mankind (Pramoedya Ananta Toer)
– Beauty is Wound (Eka Kurniawan)
– 100 Years Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared (Jonas Jonasson)
The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper is a memoir about growing up in Liberia and escaping during the 1980 coup.
Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu has everything on your wishlist. It’s about an Ethiopian immigrant who flees to the US after his father is killed in front of him during a civil war. It’s about him trying to live The American Dream while suffering from PTSD, survivor’s guilt, and depression. There’s also a strong element of friendship but not like “the magic of friendship”, if you know what I mean.
Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides. A… couple… flees from the Armenian War and immigrates to the US. Their grandkid has a pretty difficult life as a result of the couple’s secret. CW: graphic scenes of war and incest
A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee (anything by him, really). A Korean Japanese WW II veteran moves to Canada (I think, maybe the US?) and tries to live a normal suburban life with this adopted daughter but the war, and the things he saw and did, kind of messed him up pretty bad. CW for SA, it’s not too graphic, but Lee is such a great writer you just *feel* it.
Hmmm I wrote a book about a foreign man who scammed me for a green card and pretended to be my best friend since I’d marry him and could lies betray, mentally abuse me, threaten my life and get my property keeping me financially trapped for years until I became stronger and stood up for myself to escape. https://www.amazon.com/Bliss-This-Incredible-Cultural-Marriage/dp/B0CHR2YBZ5