Books like The Uncommon Reader
12 books with a reading profile close to The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. Balanced in tone; an easy read.
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1
Such a Fun Age
by Kiley Reid
narrative, accessible
Emira Tucker, a twenty-five-year-old Black babysitter, is confronted by a security guard in a high-end grocery store and accused of kidnapping the white toddler in her care.
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2
The Imperfectionists
by Tom Rachman
narrative, accessible
Set in the fading era of print media, this novel follows the daily lives of expatriate staff at an English-language newspaper in Rome.
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3
Wonder Boys
narrative, accessible
Grady Tripp, a middle-aged English professor in Pittsburgh, wrote a successful novel years ago and has spent seven years trying to finish a second one, which has grown to thousands of pages.
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4
A Spark of Light
by Jodi Picoult
narrative, accessible
The novel takes place in a single day at a women's reproductive health clinic in Jackson, Mississippi, where a gunman takes hostages.
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5
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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6
The Casual Vacancy
by J.K. Rowling
narrative, accessible
Set in the fictional English village of Pagford, the story begins with the sudden death of parish councillor Barry Fairbrother.
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7
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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8
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
by Stephen King
narrative, accessible
Andy Dufresne, a banker convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, arrives at Shawshank State Penitentiary in Maine.
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9
Mercy
by Jodi Picoult
narrative, accessible
Cam MacDonald is a police chief in a small Massachusetts town, and he is happily married to his wife Allie.
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10
Infinite Country
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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11
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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12
The Dictionary of Lost Words
by Pip Williams
narrative, accessible
Set in the late nineteenth century during the compilation of the first Oxford English Dictionary, Esme Nicoll grows up beneath the sorting table where her father and other lexicographers classify words.
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