Books like Shantaram
12 books with a reading profile close to Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. Balanced in tone; a moderate read.
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1
Travels with Charley: In Search of America
memoir, narrative
In 1960, John Steinbeck drove a custom-built camper truck named Rocinante across nearly forty states to reconnect with the country he felt he no longer understood.
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2
Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table
by Ruth Reichl
memoir, narrative
Ruth Reichl’s memoir tracks her development from a child navigating her mother’s dangerous kitchen to a professional restaurant critic.
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3
Beautiful Country
memoir, narrative
Qian Julie Wang was seven when she and her parents left China for New York in 1994, where her mother and father, a former professor and a professional, became undocumented workers.
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4
Persepolis, Volume 1
memoir, narrative
Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novel chronicles her childhood in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution and the subsequent outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War.
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5
I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman
by Nora Ephron
memoir, narrative
Nora Ephron examines the physical humiliations and domestic frustrations of aging, focusing on the specific maintenance required to camouflage a sagging neck.
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6
The Lincoln Highway
by Amor Towles
narrative, accessible
In 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson returns to his foreclosed Nebraska farm after serving time at a juvenile work farm for involuntary manslaughter.
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7
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
memoir, narrative
Fourteen-year-old Arnold Spirit Jr., a budding cartoonist born with physical vulnerabilities, lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation where poverty and alcoholism are pervasive.
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8
JUNGLEKEEPER
by Paul Rosolie
memoir, narrative
Paul Rosolie recounts his experiences living within the deep Amazon basin, focusing on the immediate realities of rainforest conservation.
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9
The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories
memoir, narrative
The collection compiles fiction and non-fiction written by Marina Keegan before her death just days after graduating from Yale.
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10
Scout, Atticus & Boo
narrative, accessible
Mary McDonagh Murphy chronicles the lasting influence of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird through a series of structured interviews with prominent writers, public figures, and Lee’s close associates.
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11
Orange Is the New Black
by Piper Kerman
memoir, narrative
Piper Kerman recounts the year she spent in a minimum-security federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, following a decade-old conviction for drug money laundering.
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12
Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil
memoir, narrative
Deborah Rodriguez, an American hairdresser from Michigan, traveled to Afghanistan in 2002 as part of a humanitarian aid mission following the fall of the Taliban.
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