Books like The Gift of the Magi
12 books with a reading profile close to The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. Inward-looking, contemplative, clear-cut and thought-provoking; an easy read.
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1
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
by Betty Smith
Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, literary
Francie Nolan grows up in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn during the first two decades of the twentieth century.
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2
The Little Mermaid
Also thought-provoking · narrative, literary
In this fairy tale, a teenage mermaid saves a human prince from a shipwreck and falls in love with him.
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3
The Yearling
Also contemplative and clear-cut · narrative, literary
Set in the thickets of late nineteenth-century Florida, the story follows Jody Baxter, a boy living a precarious existence on a frontier farm.
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4
The Little Match Girl
Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, literary
On a freezing New Year’s Eve, a young girl wanders the streets barefoot, unable to return home because she has not sold any matches.
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5
The Enchanted April
Also contemplative and thought-provoking · narrative, literary
Living in the persistent grey of 1920s London, Lotty Wilkins and Rose Arbuthnot answer a classified advertisement for a month-long rental at an Italian castle.
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6
A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings
Also contemplative and clear-cut · narrative, literary
This collection centers on Ebenezer Scrooge, a parsimonious financier in Victorian London who views charity as a waste of resources.
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7
Christmas Carol and Other Stories
Also contemplative and clear-cut · narrative, literary
Ebenezer Scrooge is a miserly lender in Victorian London who views charity as a waste and poverty as a personal failing.
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8
Post Office
narrative, literary
Henry Chinaski is a hard-drinking, hard-gambling, constantly broke man who takes a job as a substitute mail carrier in Los Angeles.
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9
Rubyfruit Jungle
Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · narrative, literary
Molly Bolt grows up in impoverished rural Florida and York, Pennsylvania, refusing to conform to the expectations of her adoptive mother or the social dictates of the mid-twentieth century.
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10
The Red Pony
Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, literary
Jody Tiflin is a young boy growing up on his father’s California ranch, where he learns the rigid realities of life and death through his relationship with a red pony named Gabilan.
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11
Peace Like a River
by Leif Enger
Also contemplative · narrative, literary
Set in 1962 Minnesota, the story follows eleven-year-old Reuben Land, an asthmatic boy who believes his father, Jeremiah, performs literal miracles.
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12
O Pioneers!
by Willa Cather
narrative, literary
Alexandra Bergson, a Swedish-American immigrant in late nineteenth-century Nebraska, inherits her father’s struggling farm amid a harsh prairie landscape.
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