Books like

Books like In Other Words

12 books with a reading profile close to In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri. Deep, inward-looking and contemplative; a moderate read.

1

Heavy

by Kiese Laymon

Also deep and inward-looking · memoir, narrative

In this memoir, Kiese Laymon addresses his mother to recount a childhood in Jackson, Mississippi, shaped by academic rigor and physical discipline.
2

Happening

by Annie Ernaux

Also deep and inward-looking · memoir, narrative

In 1963, when abortion remained illegal in France, Annie Ernaux, then a university student, discovered she was pregnant.
3

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder

by Salman Rushdie

Also deep and inward-looking · memoir, narrative

In August 2022, thirty-three years after the fatwa against him, Salman Rushdie was attacked on stage at the Chautauqua Institution.
4

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

by Jeanette Winterson

Also inward-looking and contemplative · memoir, narrative

Jeanette Winterson’s memoir returns to her upbringing in a strict Pentecostal household in Northern England, expanding on the lived reality behind her debut novel.
5

Liliana's Invincible Summer: A Sister's Search for Justice

by Cristina Rivera Garza

Also deep and inward-looking · memoir, narrative

In 1990, Liliana Rivera Garza was murdered in Mexico City by an ex-boyfriend who refused to accept the end of their relationship.
6

Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love

by Dani Shapiro

Also inward-looking and contemplative · memoir, narrative

In 2016, Dani Shapiro submitted a DNA kit for analysis, expecting to confirm her Ashkenazi Jewish heritage.
7

M Train

by Patti Smith

Also inward-looking and contemplative · 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.
8

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.
9

Paula

by Isabel Allende

Also inward-looking and contemplative · memoir, narrative

Isabel Allende began writing this chronicle in 1991 while sitting bedside in a Spanish hospital where her daughter, Paula, lay in a porphyria-induced coma.
10

A Man's Place

by Annie Ernaux

Also deep and inward-looking · memoir, narrative

Annie Ernaux recounts her father's life, from his childhood as a Norman farm laborer to his job in a factory and later running a café and grocery.
11

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.
12

Stay True

by Hua Hsu

Also deep and inward-looking · memoir, narrative

Hua Hsu recounts his undergraduate years at Berkeley in the mid-1990s, focusing on his complex friendship with Ken, a Japanese American peer whose mainstream tastes Hsu initially judged as conventional.

Get picks matched to your own reading on papr.

Get papr

Your library, beautifully understood.