Books like Maine
12 books with a reading profile close to Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan. Inward-looking; a moderate read.
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1
Yolk
Also inward-looking · narrative, accessible
Jayne and June Baek are sisters living in New York City with vastly different lives.
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2
You Think It, I'll Say It
narrative, accessible
Curtis Sittenfeld's collection of ten stories looks at contemporary American relationships with a sharp, witty eye.
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3
The Jane Austen Book Club
Also inward-looking · narrative, accessible
Six Californians meet monthly for six months to read and talk about one Austen novel each.
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4
Mosquitoland
by David Arnold
Also inward-looking · narrative, accessible
Mary Iris Malone, who goes by Mim, is sixteen, dosed with medication, and unhappy in Mississippi with her father and new stepmother.
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5
The Invention of Wings
narrative, accessible
The story follows Sarah Grimké, the daughter of a wealthy Charleston judge, and Hetty "Handful," the enslaved girl gifted to Sarah on her eleventh birthday.
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6
About a Boy
by Nick Hornby
Also inward-looking · narrative, accessible
Will Freeman is a thirty-six-year-old Londoner living off the royalties of a Christmas song written by his father.
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7
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
Also inward-looking · narrative, accessible
Fifteen-year-old Julia Reyes lives in a cramped Chicago apartment, navigating the high expectations of her immigrant parents while mourning her older sister, Olga.
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8
Rules of Civility
by Amor Towles
narrative, accessible
On New Year’s Eve in 1937, legal secretary Katey Kontent and her roommate Eve Ross meet a wealthy banker named Tinker Grey in a Greenwich Village jazz hole.
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9
All American Boys
narrative, accessible
Rashad Butler, a Black teenager, is brutally beaten by a white police officer who wrongly suspects him of shoplifting and assault at a corner store.
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10
Still Life with Bread Crumbs
Also inward-looking · narrative, accessible
Rebecca Winter, a once-famous New York City photographer, finds her bank account dwindling and her artistic relevance fading as she enters her sixties.
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11
Girl in Translation
by Jean Kwok
Also inward-looking · narrative, accessible
Kimberly Chang is eleven when she and her mother leave Hong Kong for Brooklyn, with little English and a debt to her aunt Paula, who owns a clothing factory.
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12
The Rachel Incident
Also inward-looking · narrative, accessible
Set in Cork, Ireland, during the post-2008 financial crisis, the story follows Rachel, a bookstore employee and student, and her intense platonic bond with her roommate, James.
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