LitQueuelitqueue

After

Kitchens of the Great Midwest

J. Ryan Stradal2015

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • The Caine Mutiny

    Herman Wouk1951

    A young officer serves on a decaying Navy ship during WWII. The narrative centers on a mutiny and the subsequent court-martial of the leaders.

    warm → earnest, still coming of age

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

warm → sardonic

3 more ↓

  • A Brief History of Seven Killings

    Marlon James2014

    A large cast of characters recounts the 1976 attempt on Bob Marley's life. The narrative spans decades and moves from Jamaica to New York.

    warm → propulsive

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Ulysses

    James Joyce1914

    Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.

    warm → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

  • Briefing for a Descent into Hell

    Doris Lessing1971

    A man is found wandering London and placed in a psychiatric ward. The narrative shifts between the hospital and his internal cosmic hallucinations.

    warm → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

To recover

Same warm register

3 more ↓

  • Blossom Street Brides

    Debbie Macomber2014

    Three women in Seattle navigate marriage, pregnancy, and career changes. Their lives intersect at a local knitting store on Blossom Street.

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Murder with Peacocks

    Donna Andrews1999

    Meg Langslow manages three weddings and a murder investigation in her Virginia hometown. She navigates eccentric relatives and wedding logistics.

    warm → playful

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The Chocolate Cat Caper

    JoAnna Carl2002

    An accountant at a luxury chocolate shop investigates a murder after a local attorney is poisoned by a cyanide-laced truffle.

    warm → playful

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Candide

    Voltaire

    A naive young man travels the world while his tutor insists that everything is for the best. He encounters a series of global catastrophes.

    warm → sardonic

    pace+1·prose0·bleak0

  • The Da Vinci Code

    Dan Brown2003

    A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.

    warm → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

    A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.

    warm → wry

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Umbrella

    Will Self2013

    A psychiatrist in 1971 treats a woman who has been catatonic for decades. The prose shifts between eras and consciousnesses without paragraph breaks.

    warm → clinical

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

  • Translated Accounts

    James Kelman2001

    Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.

    warm → bleak

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2

  • The English Patient

    Michael Ondaatje1992

    Four people shelter in a ruined Italian villa at the end of WWII. They care for a burned, anonymous man who recounts his past in the desert.

    warm → elegiac

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak+1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The Underground Railroad

    Colson Whitehead2016

    Two slaves escape a Georgia plantation via a literal underground train system while being pursued by a slave catcher.

    warm → bleak

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

  • Oryx and Crake

    Margaret Atwood2003

    A man survives a genetic apocalypse in a world of engineered creatures. He remembers his past with a scientist and the woman they both loved.

    warm → sardonic

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

  • Slaughterhouse-Five

    Kurt Vonnegut1969

    Billy Pilgrim becomes unstuck in time, experiencing his life out of order, from his chaplaincy in WWII to his abduction by aliens.

    warm → sardonic

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2