Read Alikes for Our 2019 Podcast Reads
Part reading resource, part holiday shopping guide, our Read Alike list for 2019 is here to help you add more books to your To Be Read List.
Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard and The Door by Magda Szabo
The Door opens with an acknowledgment of a death. You know Emerence has died, but you don’t know how or why. And the secret that is revealed at the end about her will change how you view her when rethinking the events of the book, much like the dramatic reveal at the end of The Transit of Venus.
The Wedding by Dorothy West and Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi
While The Wedding is grounded in realistic life and Gingerbread takes on a fairy-tale quality, both are about families and relationships between people.
Persepolis I & II by Marjane Satrapi and Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez
Satrapi’s work is a graphic novel memoir, Enriquez’s is a short story collection, but both deal with oppressive regimes and how people continue to live despite them.
The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield and The New York Stories of Edith Wharton
If you (or someone you know) has a hankering for more of the old-fashioned but lovely stories like the ones Katherine Mansfield wrote, Edith Wharton’s might do the trick.
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones and Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Much like Sophie, Katsa from Graceling is a young woman trying to make her own way in a world that is determined to tell her what to do and who she is supposed to be. Both girls are thrown into situations they never thought they’d be in, and they are forced to reckon with the fact that they are stronger than they could have ever guessed.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh and The New Me by Halle Butler and Vacuum in the Dark by Jen Beagin
If you enjoyed the pointless misanthropy of Moshfegh’s novel, you might also like Butler and Beagin, who both have young women protagonists feeling stuck in a life that they want to change, but can’t see any way out of.
Friday Black, Stories by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and The Sellout by Paul Beatty
Beatty’s Booker Prize-winning novel is biting, clever satire that doesn’t hold your hand. You might end up horrified or offended at some parts, and you might also end up laughing out loud.
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite and Adele by Leila Slimani
Dramatic, dark. and scandalous, both of these novels lead the reader on a journey that will surprise you.
Heaven by V.C. Andrews and Go Ask Alice by “Anonymous”
You will read Go Ask Alice for the same reason you’d read Heaven, for the absolute bonkers situations that the protagonists get into. The interesting angle of Go Ask Alice is that when it was originally published it was claimed to be a genuine diary from a teenager. It’s off the wall, so bizarre you can’t help but laugh while being horrified.
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez and Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday
Sigrid Nunez’s protagonist, a writer, is mourning a close friend, another writer, who also happened to be a cad. In Asymmetry, part of the novel is about a writer in a relationship with a significantly younger woman who isn’t treated well by him, making the writer, again, a cad.
How to Suppress Women’s Writing by Joanna Russ and The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations by Toni Morrison
Joanna Russ’s work is heavily academic, which is much the same as Toni Morrison’s. Morrison’s focus is on racism as much as sexism, and very importantly centers black women in her essays. Her speeches that are transcribed in this work are brilliant and a must-read.
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss and Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell
Teen girls with a survivalist streak, dealing with issues stemming from their fathers, out in nature which is where they feel most comfortable, but also where danger lies.
The Collected Schizophrenias by Esme Weijun Wang and Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan
Cahalan tracks her descent into illness much like Wang does, except that Wang’s is lifelong, while Cahalan’s only lasts a short time, but even that short time is enough to leave a lasting impression on the reader.
The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy and The Pisces by Melissa Broder
The Pisces takes the set-up of The Dud Avocado and ups the ante. A young woman moves to an unfamiliar area, determined to have an adventure. If you think what happened in The Dud Avocado was a bit out there, just wait till you read The Pisces.
Sula by Toni Morrison and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
I believe these would both be considered modern classics, by black women at the very top of their game.
Women Talking by Miriam Toews and The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
By recommending The Mars Room, am I subtly comparing the Mennonite society as depicted in Women Talking to a prison for women? Maybe I am.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong and In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
Yes, Vuong’s is a novel and Machado’s is a memoir, but both blur the line between reality and fantasy, creating something new entirely.
Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno and High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
If you couldn’t get enough of the mixtapes in Meno’s novel, Hornby’s has lists of songs too. Different genres of music to be sure, but songs being mentioned in books are always fun. Cohn and Levithan cowrote a novel, Cohn taking the teen girl chapters and Levithan the teen boy. Full of life and young love, it’s reminiscent of Charlie and Sam.
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead and Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli
Whitehead and Luiselli pull from real-life tragedies that children endured, and are still enduring. Whitehead’s is more directly influenced by history, but both novels serve to remind us of the awful truth about how children of color are treated in this country.
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi and Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
Binti is not YA, unlike Pet, but if you loved the world-building in Pet and want something grown-up, Binti might do it for you. Binti leans more sci-fi than Pet does, but it’s suspenseful and will make you cheer on the main character as they figure out how to save their community.
The Book of X by Sarah Rose Etter and Wild Milk by Sabrina Orah Mark
Strange, odd, dreamy, trippy, poetic, lyrical, all these adjectives and way more can be used to describe both books.
Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino and The Witches are Coming by Lindy West
Both Tolentino and West are Jezebel alumni, but that’s not why I think their work goes together. West’s focuses more on feminism and politics directly, while in Tolentino’s, both subjects are always circling what she’s writing about, just not front and center necessarily.
Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin and Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
Being a teen or young adult is hard, you’re figuring out how to be the person you want to be, while navigating new relationships. Skim deals with the awkwardness of teenage life in a weird yet comforting way.
10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak and Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Shafak’s novel uses the concept of what if your life really did flash before your eyes in the moment before death? Garcia Marquez’s explores what would happen if someone knew a murder was going to happen, but did nothing? And Atkinson uses the age-old idea of reincarnation to tell the story of one woman.
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa and The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell
Like The Memory Police, The Old Drift focuses on one community and the gradual shifts and switches that take place in that society.
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk and The Overstory by Richard Powers
If you want to read another novel about someone caring deeply about something non-human that tends to not just be overlooked, but often used and abused by humans, The Overstory might scratch that itch for you after you’ve read Tokarczuk’s novel.
