Books like Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
12 books with a reading profile close to Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King. Balanced in tone; an easy read.
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1
Small Great Things
by Jodi Picoult
narrative, accessible
Ruth Jefferson, a labor and delivery nurse with twenty years of experience, begins her shift at a Connecticut hospital only to be reassigned because a patient’s parents are white supremacists who demand that no African…
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2
Little Bee
by Chris Cleave
narrative, accessible
The story follows two women whose lives intersect on a Nigerian beach during a violent encounter involving an oil company’s mercenaries.
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3
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
narrative, accessible
In 1972, workers digging a foundation in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, discover a skeleton at the bottom of a well.
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4
The Book of Unknown Americans
narrative, accessible
Two families move into the same apartment building in Delaware: the Riveras, who came from Mexico, and the Toros from Panama.
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5
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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6
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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7
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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8
Monster
narrative, accessible
Sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon sits in a courtroom facing charges of felony murder for his alleged role as a lookout in a drugstore robbery.
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9
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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10
I Am the Messenger
by Markus Zusak
narrative, accessible
Ed Kennedy is an underage cab driver in a dead-end Australian suburb with no prospects beyond playing cards with his eccentric friends.
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11
The Jane Austen Book Club
narrative, accessible
Six Californians meet monthly for six months to read and talk about one Austen novel each.
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12
Behold the Dreamers
by Imbolo Mbue
narrative, accessible
Jende Jonga, a Cameroonian immigrant living in Harlem, secures a job as a chauffeur for Clark Edwards, an executive at Lehman Brothers.
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