Books like 'James'
Readers who enjoyed James by Percival Everett also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
39 ratingsThe Book of Negroes (based on the novel Someone Knows My Name) will be BET's first miniseries. The star-studded production includes lead actress Aunjanue Ellis (Ray, The Help), Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire, A Few Good Men), Oscar and Emmy winner Louis Gossett Jr...Categorized as:
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The Twelve Chairs by Ilya Ilf, Yevgeny Petrov
27 ratingsOstap Bender is an unemployed con artist living by his wits in postrevolutionary Soviet Russia. He joins forces with Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov, a former nobleman who has returned to his hometown to find a cache of missing jewels which were hidden in some chairs that have been appropriated by the Soviet authorities...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Time of White Horses by Ibrahim Nasrallah
24 ratingsSpanning the collapse of Ottoman rule and the British Mandate in Palestine, this is the story of three generations of a defiant family from the Palestinian village of Hadiya before 1948. Through the lives of Mahmud, chief elder of Hadiya, his son Khaled, and Khaled’s grandson Naji, we enter the life of a tribe whose fate is decided by one colonizer after another...Categorized as:
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They Burn Thistles by Yaşar Kemal
16 ratingsThis is the story of a bitter war between the poor Turkish peasants of the Taurus Mountains and the Aghas who covet their land. Ali Safa is determined to take possession of the village of Vayvay but its inhabitants will not sell. Then one villager weakens, prepared to part with his land in return for the Agha's best stallion...Categorized as:
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Old Enough To Know Better by Duane Boehm
10 ratingsWhen the infamous retired gunman, Gabriel Wolff, took the job of city marshal in Crystal City, Kansas, he succeeded in taming the wild cattle town in short order. The trouble was that he took to the notion that taming the town would end all the evil that lurked there...Categorized as:
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The Complete Stories and Poems by Lewis Carroll
26 ratingsThis commemorative oversized volume of the complete collection of stories and poems of Lewis Carol showcases his ingenious use of word play, inverted logic and satire. Lewis Carroll was the pen name and, it could be claimed, the alter ego of the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematician, writer and photographer...Categorized as:
classics humor literary-fiction retellings 20th-century action-adventure anthologies children -
The Mark Twain Collection by Mark Twain
14 ratingsThis exceptional collection of "Junior Classics" lets listeners enjoy the exploits and antics of Tom, Huck, Tom Canty, Hank Morgan, and other characters, in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, " and "The Prince and the Pauper...Categorized as:
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The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas by Machado de Assis, Enylton de Sá Rego
26 ratingsFans of Latin American literature will be thrilled by Oxford University Press's new translations of works by 19th-century Brazilian author Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis. His novels are both heartbreaking and comic; his limning of a colonial Brazil in flux is both perceptive and remarkably modern...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction poc-mc satire action-adventure adult -
Unto a Good Land by Vilhelm Moberg
18 ratingsConsidered one of Sweden's greatest 20th-century writers, Vilhelm Moberg created the characters Karl Oskar and Kristina Nilsson to portray the joys and tragedies of daily life for early Swedish immigrants in America. His consistently faithful depiction of these humble people's lives is a major strength of the Emigrant Novels...Categorized as:
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La pierre et le sabre by Eiji Yoshikawa
10 ratingsDans le Japon du XVIIe siècle, le jeune Takezó devient le samouraï Miyamoto Musashi et n'a plus qu'un seul but : tendre à la perfection. Dépasser ses sentiments et persévérer pour s'améliorer, se perfectionner et parvenir à comprendre le sens profond de la vie en développant son art, l'art du combat. Duel après duel, il crée son propre style... -
Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter
14 ratingsIllus. in full color. "Winter's story begins with a peg-leg sailor who aids slaves on their escape on the Underground Railroad. While working for plantation owners, Peg Leg Joe teaches the slaves a song about the drinking gourd (the Big Dipper). A couple, their son, and two others make their escape by following the song's directions...Categorized as:
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
16 ratings“We said there was no home like a raft. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery…but you feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.” Sail down the Mississippi with Huck Finn and the runaway slave, Jim...Categorized as:
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Kiss Me Duke by Tamara Gill
8 ratingsMolly Clare is living her dream. Being a guest in a gorgeous villa while she explores Rome is everything she could’ve hoped for and more. The man who owns the villa is equally charming—and entirely too tempting. At least, that’s what he appears to be. The truth of who and what he really is…well, that’s infinitely more complicated.Lord Hugh Farley is living a nightmare...Categorized as:
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Selected Stories by O. Henry
24 ratingsO. Henry originated the humorous, energetic tale that ends with an ironic, even shocking twist. In "After Twenty Years," for example, two boys agree to meet at a particular spot exactly twenty years later. Both are faithful, but in the intervening years one boy has turned into a criminal, the other into a policeman...Categorized as:
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Selected Stories by O. Henry
24 ratings"Selected Stories of O. Henry," by O. Henry, is part of the "Barnes & Noble Classics"" "series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure anthologies comedy -
The Journey to the West, Revised Edition, Volume 2 by Wu Cheng'en
10 ratingsAnthony C. Yu’s translation of The Journey to the West,initially published in 1983, introduced English-speaking audiences to the classic Chinese novel in its entirety for the first time...Categorized as:
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Hellion at Heart by Tamara Gill
10 ratingsSifting through the sands in the Middle East while learning of ancient cultures and buried civilizations is all Miss Hallie Evans dreams about. But when an impending scandal forces her back to England, her hopes and dreams are destroyed. Now, as a hired archaeologist for the rich, Hallie explores and studies the ancient ruins excavated on their properties...Categorized as:
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The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales by Virginia Hamilton
12 ratingsVirginia Hamilton (1936-2002), a giant in the world of children's literature, was the first African-American woman to win a Newbery Medal and the first children's book author to be awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant...Categorized as:
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The Tale of Kiều by Nguyễn Du, Alexander Barton Woodside
12 ratingsSince its publication in the early nineteenth century, this long narrative poem has stood unchallenged as the supreme masterpiece of Vietnamese literature... -
Impossible Dream by Gemma Jackson
14 ratingsIn 1898 three young girls leave a Dublin orphanage to enter a life of domestic service. They are placed in the home of Captain Charles Whitmore but soon discover that the household is in turmoil. Charles, hoping to amass a fortune, is preparing to set off on a long sea voyage, deliberately leaving his wife Georgina almost penniless to fend for herself and the servants...Categorized as:
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Northwest Passage by Kenneth Roberts
16 ratingsThis classic novel follows the career of Major Rogers, whose incredible exploits during the French and Indian Wars are told through Langdon Towne, an artist and Harvard student who flees trouble to join the army...Categorized as:
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Tidewater: A Novel of Pocahontas and the Jamestown Colony by Libbie Hawker
16 ratingsIn 1607, three ships arrive on the coast of Virginia to establish Jamestown Colony. One girl’s life—and the lives of her people—are changed forever.To Pocahontas and her people, the 'TIDEWATER' is the rightful home of the Powhatan tribe. To England, it is Virginia Territory, fertile with promise, rich with silver and gold...Categorized as:
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El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de La Mancha II by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
18 ratingsMany of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Pomona Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork...Categorized as:
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My Uncle Napoleon by Iraj Pezeshkzad, Azar Nafisi
18 ratingsA teenage boy makes the mistake of falling in love with the much-protected daughter of his uncle, mischievously nicknamed after his hero Napoleon Bonaparte, the curmudgeonly self-appointed patriarch of a large and extended Iranian family in 1940s Tehran...Categorized as:
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Water Music by T. Coraghessan Boyle, James R. Kincaid
18 ratingsAlternate Cover Edition can be found here and here.T.C. Boyle's riotous first novel, now in a new edition for its 25th anniversary Twenty five years ago, T.C. Boyle published his first novel, Water Music, a funny, bawdy, extremely entertaining novel of imaginative and stylistic fancy that announced to the world Boyle's tremendous gifts as a storyteller...Categorized as:
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The Ransom of Red Chief by O. Henry, Shep O'Neal
18 ratingsStarters are an introductory level to the new Oxford Bookworms Library, suitable for readers in their first or second years of learning English. The Starters series are original stories in a variety of formats: narrative, interactive, and comic strip. They contain glossaries and exercises and are carefully graded in structure and vocabulary. Cassettes are available for some titles...Categorized as:
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The Tide Between Us by Olive Collins
18 ratings1821: After the landlord of Lugdale Estate in Kerry is assassinated, young Art O'Neill's innocent father is hanged and Art is deported to the cane fields of Jamaica as an indentured servant. On Mangrove Plantation he gradually acclimatises to the exotic country and unfamiliar customs of the African slaves, and achieves a kind of contentment.Then the new heirs to the plantation arrive...Categorized as:
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Raj Kahini by Abanindranath Tagore
6 ratings<span><span>An unforgettable historical novella that leads you to the flowing sand dunes of Rajasthan, the clash of swords, to the courtyard of kings and queens. The book captures the spirit of a heroic past that never fails to move readers even today...Categorized as:
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Two Thousand Seasons by Ayi Kwei Armah
6 ratingsTrans Atlantic and African slave trades are the subject of Armah's Two Thousand Seasons (1973) in which a pluralized communal voice speaks through the history of Africa, its wet and dry seasons, from a period of one thousand years. Arab and European oppressors are portrayed as "predators," "destroyers," and "zombies"...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc slavery 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
The Journey to the West, Revised Edition, Volume 3 by Wu Cheng'en
8 ratingsAnthony C. Yu’s translation of The Journey to the West,initially published in 1983, introduced English-speaking audiences to the classic Chinese novel in its entirety for the first time...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction retellings action-adventure adult audiobook -
Almost to Freedom by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
8 ratingsLindy and her doll Sally are best friends - wherever Lindy goes, Sally stays right by her side. They eat together, sleep together, and even pick cotton together. So, on the night Lindy and her mama run away in search of freedom, Sally goes too. This young girl's rag doll vividly narrates her enslaved family's courageous escape through the Underground Railroad...Categorized as:
historical-fiction poc-mc slavery social-commentary action-adventure black-mc book children -
Long Road to Freedom by Kate Messner
8 ratingsRanger is a time-traveling golden retriever with search-and-rescue training. In this adventure, he goes to a Maryland plantation during the days of American slavery, where he meets a young girl named Sarah. When she learns that the owner has plans to sell her little brother, Jesse, to a plantation in the Deep South, it means they could be separated forever...Categorized as:
historical-fiction north-america poc-mc slavery usa action-adventure animals black-mc -
Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts, The Dark Room, The English Teacher by R.K. Narayan, Alexander McCall Smith
8 ratingsR. K. Narayan (1906—2001) witnessed nearly a century of change in his native India and captured it in fiction of uncommon warmth and vibrancy. The four novels collected here, all written during British rule, bring colonial India into intimate focus through the narrative gifts of this master of literary realism...Categorized as:
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Two Gentlemen of Lebowski: A Most Excellent Comedie and Tragical Romance by Adam Bertocci, Bernard Setaro Clark
10 ratingsWhat if William Shakespeare had written The Big Lebowski?The Dude has met the Bard, and he doth abide.Join the "Knave" and Sir Walter on a wild tale of mistaken identity, kidnapping, bowling, and a rug that, in faith, really tied the room together--in a sidesplitting Shakespearean comedy of errors and ninepins, told in five glorious acts of iambic pentameter and impeccable period prose...Categorized as:
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An Instant in the Wind by André P. Brink
10 ratingsThe year is 1749, when the Boers ruled South Africa. And so it has come to his Baas's final command to his Hottentot slave Adam, to flog his mother, because she refuses to prune the master's vineyard in order to attend her own beloved mother's funeral. And when he refuses to do so, and his Baas smashes his face with a piece of wood, Adam turns on him, and beats him almost to death...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc slavery 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
Redburn / White-Jacket / Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
12 ratingsBetween 1849 and 1851, Melville wrote three masterful stories of the sea (including the classic Moby-Dick) that captured colorful and comic glimpses of shipboard life, the excitement of the whale hunt, and seascapes that move from the brutal to the sublime; they also displayed a marvelous command of language that mixes the ordinary talk of sailors with the rhythms of the Bible and Shakespearean...Categorized as:
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The Death Ship by B. Traven
12 ratingsThe Death Ship tells the story of an American sailor, stateless and penniless because he has lost his passport, who is harassed by police and hounded across Europe until he finds an 'illegal' job shoveling coal in the hold of a steamer bound for destruction.The Death Ship is the first of B...Categorized as:
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Jeeves and the King of Clubs by Ben Schott
14 ratingsStorm clouds loom over Europe. Treason is afoot in the highest social circles. The very security of the nation is in peril. Jeeves, it transpires, has long been an agent of British Intelligence, but now His Majesty's Government must turn to the one man who can help . . . Bertie Wooster.In this magnificent new homage to P. G...Categorized as:
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The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
18 ratingsConsidered by critics to be Barth's most distinguished masterpiece, The Sot-Weed Factor has acquired the status of a modern classic. Set in the late 1600s, it recounts the wildly chaotic odyssey of hapless, ungainly Ebenezer Cooke, sent to the New World to look after his father's tobacco business and to record the struggles of the Maryland colony in an epic poem...Categorized as:
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Angelique triumphiert by Anne Golon
6 ratings...Categorized as:
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Shades by Marguerite Poland
6 ratingsSt Matthias Mission 1902: 'There are men who know that when you are finished with this war of yours and have raised your flag to the glory of your Empire - the one that we, as black men, are supposed to revere for having bestowed on us education, faith, prosperity and all the other high-sounding gifts - that you will sell us out - perhaps against the advance of metaphorical cattle - and say it... -
The Short Stories of Lucy Maud Montgomery from 1907-1908 by L.M. Montgomery
6 ratingsLucy Maud Montgomery was born at Clifton (now New London), Prince Edward Island, Canada, on November 30, 1874. She achieved international fame in her lifetime, putting Prince Edward Island and Canada on the world literary map. Best known for her "Anne of Green Gables" books, she was also a prolific writer of short stories and poetry...Categorized as:
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Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko
6 ratingsTwo extraordinary Indigenous stories set five generations apart. When Mulanyin meets the beautiful Nita in Edenglassie, their saltwater people still outnumber the British. As colonial unrest peaks, Mulanyin dreams of taking his bride home to Yugambeh Country, but his plans for independence collide with white justice. Two centuries later, fiery activist Winona meets Dr Johnny...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc fiction historical family poc-author journey -
Until the Sun Falls by Cecelia Holland
7 ratingsIn the thirteenth century the Mongol hordes swept out of Mongolia to over-run half the world. This novel follows Psin, a Mongol general, through the military campaigns in Russia and Europe, among his own family and in his own heart...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor literary-fiction poc-mc action-adventure adult book fiction -
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Journey to the West (Monkey King) by Wu Cheng'en, Gene Luen Yang
8 ratingsOne of China's Four Great Classical Novels, Monkey King was written anonymously during the Ming dynasty and is most commonly attributed to Wu Cheng'en, the son of a silk-shop clerk from east China...Categorized as:
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Tales of the North by Jack London
10 ratingsIf you enjoy nonstop adventure and heroic exploits, then you are sure to love Tales of the North... -
River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer
18 ratingsHer search begins with an ending.... The master of the Providence plantation in Barbados gathers his slaves and announces the king has decreed an end to slavery. As of the following day, the Emancipation Act of 1834 will come into effect. The cries of joy fall silent when he announces that they are no longer his slaves; they are now his apprentices. No one can leave...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction slavery poc-mc fiction historical audiobook family -
Memoir from Antproof Case by Mark Helprin
16 ratingsAn old American who lives in Brazil is writing his memoirs. An English teacher at the naval academy, he is married to a woman young enough to be his daughter and has a little son whom he loves. He sits in a mountain garden in Niterói, overlooking the ocean...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire action-adventure adult book coming-of-age -
Немили-недраги by Ivan Vazov, Иван Вазов
16 ratings...Categorized as:
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The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin by Vladimir Voinovich, Владимир Войнович
14 ratingsIvan Chonkin is a simple, bumbling peasant who has been drafted into the Red Army. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, he is sent to an obscure village with one week's ration of canned meat and orders to guard a downed plane. Apparently forgotten by his unit, Chonkin resumes his life as a peasant and passes the war tending the village postmistress's garden...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire 20th-century action-adventure adult
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