Books like

Books like Instructions for Dancing

12 books with a reading profile close to Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon. Practical, inward-looking and clear-cut; an easy read.

1

A Very Large Expanse of Sea

by Tahereh Mafi

Also practical and inward-looking · romance, narrative

Set in 2002, one year after the 9/11 attacks, the story follows Shirin, a sixteen-year-old Persian-American girl navigating a suburban high school.
2

Georgie, All Along

by Kate Clayborn

Also inward-looking and clear-cut · romance, narrative

Georgie Mulcahy returns to her Virginia hometown after her professional life in Los Angeles collapses.
3

The Girl He Used to Know

by Tracey Garvis Graves

Also practical and inward-looking · romance, narrative

Annika Rose, a quiet, brilliant student with undiagnosed autism, meets Wes Winters at the University of Illinois chess club in the early 1990s.
4

Boy Meets Boy

by David Levithan

Also inward-looking and clear-cut · romance, narrative

Paul Ames lives in a fictional town where being gay is unremarkable, the high school homecoming queen is a star quarterback named Infinite Darlene, and the Boy Scouts are inclusive.
5

Us

by David Nicholls

Also inward-looking and clear-cut · romance, narrative

Douglas Petersen, a biochemist, wakes one night to hear his wife Connie say she thinks their marriage is over.
6

Frankly in Love

by David Yoon

Also inward-looking and clear-cut · romance, narrative

Frank Li is a Korean American high school senior living in California, navigating the strict expectations of his traditional immigrant parents.
7

Circle of Friends

by Maeve Binchy

Also inward-looking and clear-cut · romance, narrative

Benny Hogan, a shy, plump girl from a small Irish town, goes to University College Dublin in the 1950s, where she becomes friends with Eve Malone, an orphan raised by nuns, and the glamorous Nan Mahon.
8

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

by Rachel Cohn

Also practical and inward-looking · romance, narrative

Nick and Norah meet in a crowded Manhattan punk club when Nick asks a total stranger to be his girlfriend for five minutes to avoid his ex.
9

Where the Heart Is

by Billie Letts

Also inward-looking and clear-cut · romance, narrative

Novalee Nation is seventeen, seven months pregnant, and abandoned by her boyfriend at a Walmart in a small Oklahoma town.
10

The Last Summer of You and Me

by Ann Brashares

Also practical and inward-looking · romance, narrative

Riley, Alice and Paul are friends who grew up together in a small town in Maine.
11

Twenty Boy Summer

by Sarah Ockler

Also inward-looking and clear-cut · romance, narrative

Anna and her best friend Frankie, both fifteen, spend a summer with Frankie's family at a beach house in California.
12

Nana, Vol. 1

by Ai Yazawa

Also inward-looking · romance, narrative

Two young women, both named Nana, travel on the same train to Tokyo at age twenty.

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