Books like

Books like The Poet X

12 books with a reading profile close to The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo. Inward-looking and thought-provoking; an easy read.

1

This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage

by Ann Patchett

Also inward-looking · personal growth, narrative

Ann Patchett organizes this collection of essays around the tethering forces of commitment and steady work.
2

Same As It Ever Was

by Claire Lombardo

Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · narrative, literary

Julia Ames is fifty-seven when her life begins to unravel through a series of unexpected encounters in a grocery store and the complicated return of her adult son.
3

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted

by Suleika Jaouad

Also inward-looking · personal growth, narrative

At age twenty-two, Suleika Jaouad received a diagnosis of leukemia with a thirty-five percent chance of survival.
4

Walk Two Moons

by Sharon Creech

Also inward-looking · personal growth, narrative

Thirteen-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle travels from Ohio to Idaho in a car with her eccentric grandparents to find her mother, who left the family months earlier.
5

Breathing Lessons

by Anne Tyler

Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · narrative, literary

Maggie and Ira Moran, a married couple in their fifties in Baltimore, drive to the funeral of a friend's husband in Pennsylvania.
6

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

by Deesha Philyaw

Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · narrative, literary

Deesha Philyaw’s short story collection centers on the private lives of Black women navigating the tension between traditional Christian morality and their own physical desires.
7

Starfish

by Lisa Fipps

Also inward-looking · personal growth, narrative

Ellie is a young girl who has lived by a set of "Fat Girl Rules" since her fifth birthday party, a mental list designed to make her invisible and minimize the space she occupies.
8

Blankets

by Craig Thompson

Also inward-looking · personal growth, narrative

Craig Thompson’s autobiographical graphic novel chronicles his upbringing within a strict Evangelical household in the rural Midwest.
9

French Braid

by Anne Tyler

Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · narrative, literary

The Garrett family of Baltimore are followed over several decades, starting in 1959 when Mercy and David Garrett go on a family vacation to a lakeside spot.
10

The Danish Girl

by David Ebershoff

Also inward-looking · narrative, literary

Einar Wegener, an artist living in Denmark, experiences a profound shift in his identity, leading him to identify as a woman named Lili Elbe.
11

Drown

by Junot Díaz

Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · narrative, literary

Drown is a debut short story collection told mostly by Yunior, who grows up between a poor neighborhood in the Dominican Republic and the industrial towns of New Jersey.
12

Ask the Passengers

by A.S. King

Also inward-looking · narrative, literary

Astrid Jones is a teenager in a small Pennsylvania town where everyone gossips.

Get picks matched to your own reading on papr.

Get papr

Your library, beautifully understood.