Books like

Books like A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

12 books with a reading profile close to A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. Inward-looking; a moderate read.

1

The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait

by Frida Kahlo

Also inward-looking · memoir, narrative

This volume reproduces the private journal kept by Frida Kahlo during the final decade of her life, from 1944 to 1954.
2

No One Belongs Here More Than You

by Miranda July

Also inward-looking · narrative, literary

Miranda July's debut collection brings together sixteen stories about lonely, odd and hopeful people.
3

Men Without Women

by Haruki Murakami

Also inward-looking · narrative, literary

Across seven short stories, various men cope with the physical or emotional absence of women in their lives.
4

Love Is a Dog from Hell

by Charles Bukowski

Also inward-looking · narrative, literary

Published in 1977, this collection gathers Charles Bukowski’s poetry written between 1974 and 1977.
5

My Body

by Emily Ratajkowski

Also inward-looking · memoir, narrative

In this collection of personal essays, Emily Ratajkowski examines the commodification of female beauty through her career as a high-fashion model and actress.
6

M Train

by Patti Smith

Also inward-looking · memoir, narrative

In this memoir, Patti Smith tracks her daily routines, centered on her singular habit of visiting the same Greenwich Village café to drink black coffee and write.
7

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

by Jeanette Winterson

Also inward-looking · memoir, narrative

Jeanette Winterson’s semi-autobiographical novel follows Jeanette, a young girl adopted into a strict Pentecostal household in Northern England.
8

Shark Heart

by Emily Habeck

Also inward-looking · narrative, literary

Newlyweds Wren and Lewis face a physiological crisis when Lewis is diagnosed with a rare genetic mutation that will gradually transform him into a great white shark.
9

Nightbitch

by Rachel Yoder

Also inward-looking · narrative, literary

An unnamed artist pauses her career to stay at home with her toddler, only to find the monotony and isolation of domestic labor triggering a physical mutation.
10

Rejection

by Tony Tulathimutte

Also inward-looking · narrative, literary

Tony Tulathimutte’s story collection centers on the psychological mechanics of social and sexual exclusion in the internet age.
11

Bad Girls

by Camila Sosa Villada

Also inward-looking · narrative, literary

In the city of Córdoba, Argentina, a group of trans women, travestis, work at night in a park and live together in a boarding house.
12

My Twentieth Century Evening and Other Small Breakthroughs

by Kazuo Ishiguro

Also inward-looking · memoir, narrative

This book contains the formal lecture Kazuo Ishiguro delivered upon receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature.

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