Books like The Joy Luck Club
12 books with a reading profile close to The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. Deep, inward-looking, contemplative and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
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1
The Berry Pickers
Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, accessible
In 1962, a four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl named Ruthie vanishes from a blueberry field in Maine while her family works the harvest.
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2
Black Cake
Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · narrative, accessible
After the death of Eleanor Bennett, her estranged children, Byron and Benny, reunite in California to hear her final recorded message.
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3
Small Things Like These
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, accessible
In 1985, during the weeks preceding Christmas in a small Irish town, coal merchant Bill Furlong balances the demands of his business and his responsibility to his wife and daughters.
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4
Was man von hier aus sehen kann
by Mariana Leky
Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, accessible
Luise, a ten-year-old girl in a small village in the German Westerwald, learns that whenever her grandmother Selma dreams of an okapi, someone in the village will die within twenty-four hours.
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5
Commonwealth
by Ann Patchett
Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, accessible
The story begins at a 1960s christening party in Southern California, where a chance kiss between Bert Cousins and Beverly Keating leads to the dissolution of two marriages.
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6
Behold the Dreamers
by Imbolo Mbue
Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · 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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7
Bel Canto
by Ann Patchett
Also inward-looking · narrative, accessible
In a nameless South American country, a lavish birthday party for Japanese mogul Katsumi Hosokawa ends in a prolonged hostage crisis.
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8
Infinite Country
Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · narrative, accessible
The narrative follows Elena and Mauro, a Colombian couple who overstay their visas in the United States, and the three children they raise across two nations.
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9
Detransition, Baby
Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · narrative, accessible
The story centers on Reese, a trans woman in New York whose life is stalled by self-destruction and a lack of traditional domestic paths.
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10
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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11
The Heart's Invisible Furies
by John Boyne
Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · narrative, accessible
Born in a rural Irish village to an unwed teenager, Cyril Avery is adopted by an eccentric, wealthy Dublin couple who constantly remind him he is not a "real" Avery.
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12
Writers & Lovers
by Lily King
Also inward-looking · narrative, accessible
Set in 1997 Massachusetts, the narrative follows Casey Peabody, a thirty-one-year-old waitress mourning her mother’s sudden death while struggling to finish a novel she has worked on for six years.
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