Can't find that Oprah pick on the shelf or have you read them all? Try these read-alikes compiled by the editors of Booklist Magazine. All titles are available through the countywide library system. Items that are located at the Shaler North Hills Library are noted with a call number. Feel free to ask for assistance in locating these materials.
Oprah Pick…
The Deep End of the Ocean, by Jacqueline Mitchard
Oprah's first book-club selection tells the story of a woman whose three-year-old
son disappears while she checks into a Chicago hotel. [FIC MIT]
Read-Alikes:
Before and After, by Rosellen Brown
The "before and after" tale of one couple's discovery that their son has been charged with murder. [FIC BRO]A Map of the World, by Jane Hamilton
The accidental drowning of a child in her care completely shakes up Emma Goodwin's placid existence. [FIC HAM]Picture Perfect, by Jodi Picoult
Anthropologist Cassie Barrett meets her husband, who is a sexy movie star, on location in Tasmania. Their lives are picture perfect, until Alex shows his true self, and a pregnant Cassie finds herself on the run. [FIC PIC]
Oprah Pick…
Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
Nobel Prize winner Morrison's most accessible novel concerns a young African
American man in turmoil who sets out on a quest to find his family's secrets
and roots. [FIC MOR]
Read-Alikes:
House of Spirits, by Isabelle Allende
A look at the dramatic sweep of Latin American history through the context of one vibrant but troubled family. [FIC ALL]Autobiography of my Mother, by Jamaica Kincaid
Kincaid's novel focuses on a black child whose search for the truth about a parent becomes a search for herself.Palace Walk, by Najib Mahfuz
Translated from Arabic, this is a moving account by Nobel winner Mahfouz of the emotional and physical struggles of three generations of a Cairo middle-class family. [FIC MAH]
Oprah Pick…
The Book of Ruth, by Jane Hamilton
Ruth, her bitter mother, and her scary husband make up an unconventional family
in which acrimony rules, yet tenderness sometimes survives in some very eccentric
forms. [FIC HAM]
Read-Alikes:
The Great Santini, by Pat Conroy
Treating his family as if they were recruits in sorry need of discipline, a marine fighter pilot proves you can't run a family like the military. [FIC CON]Mister Sandman, by Barbara Gowdy
Doris and Gordon Canary, both closeted homosexuals, have passed off their daughter's illegitimate child, Joan, as their own. What other secrets does this bizarre family have?Willy Slater's Lane, by Mitch Wieland
The uneasy relationships among a group of quirky relatives are the focus of this small gem of a book.
Oprah Pick…
She's Come Undone, by Wally Lamb
The story of Dolores Price is one of almost unremitting hardship and tragedy
- yet while Dolores is certainly undone, she is never done in. [FIC LAM]
Read-Alikes:
Bastard Out of Carolina, by Dorothy Allison
Ruth Anne Boatwright is a study in courage as she deals with poverty and the sexual abuse of her stepfather.Weetzie Bat, by Francesca Lia Block
This gentle, punky love story, a revered YA novel that deserves an adult readership, features a cast of embattled teens who have an amazing ability to withstand life's tragedies. [FIC BLO]Ellen Foster, by Kaye Gibbons
Spunky, 11-year-old Ellen recalls the day-to-day traumas she endured as a child in a very troubled family and the small measure of peace she finds when she is taken into a foster home.
[FIC AC 3139-CASS ABRDG]
Oprah Pick…
Stones From the River, by Ursula Hegi
Dwarf librarian Trudi Montag chronicles the lives of the residents of rural
Burgdorf, Germany, from World War I to the early 1950's. [FIC HEG]
Read-Alikes:
The Tin Drum, by Gunter Grass
Grass' celebrated novel is the obvious literary antecedent for Hegi's work: both are intimately concerned with German history from the 1920's through the 1950's, and, remarkably, both feature a dwarf protagonist who endures the horrors of the Nazi era. [FIC GRA]
The Berlin Stories, by Christopher Isherwood
Stories about Germany on the brink of the Nazi abyss, focusing on a series of colorful characters no one would really call heroes.
Oprah Pick…
The Rapture of Canaan, by Sheri Reynolds
For14-year-old Ninah Huff, growing up in a strict religious community has meant
receiving harsh punishments for unintended acts and simple pleasures - even
the simple pleasure of love. [FIC REY]
Read-Alikes:
Joy School, by Elizabeth Berg
The story of a teenage girl's first crush on an older man. [FIC BER]Bridie and Finn, by Harry Cauley
A coming-of-age novel that traces the love story between a parochial school boy and an orphaned neighbor girl. [FIC CAU]The Saskaid, by Brian Half
Proving that organized religion has not cornered the market on intolerance and cruelty, Hall explores the tyrannical nature of commune's guru-cult leader and the destructive role he played when the commune was in its heyday. [FIC HAL]Saving Grace, by Lee Smith
Florida Grace's charismatic father is an itinerant, serpent-handling preacher, but Grace harbors a secret hatred for Jesus.
Oprah Pick…
Songs in Ordinary Time, by Mary McGarry Morris
Capturing small-town life circa 1960, Morris depicts the ramshackle Fermoyle
household, ruled by over- worked, cantankerous single-mom, Marie, during the
summer the family was set upon by a con man.
[FIC MOR]
Read-Alikes:
Before Women Had Wings, by Connie May Fowler
Set in the wilds of Florida, Glory Marie gave her daughters birds' names in the hope that they could elude sorrow, but it her own suffering that imprisons them. [FIC AC 3439 CASS ABRG]Rima in the Weeds, by Deidre McNamer
This novel of small-town Montana in the 1960s focuses on Dorrie, a 21 year-old unmarried mother who has returned home from college in despair.The Longings of Women, by Marge Piercy
A complex drama of three households, weaving together the tales of three tough-minded women facing everything from the dissolution of a marriage, to a murder indictment and homelessness. [FIC PIE]
Oprah Pick…
Breath, Eyes, Memory, by Edwidge Danticat
Raised in Haiti by her aunt, 12 year-old Sophie is being sent to live with her
mother in New York City. Not only is she being torn in terms of love and loyalty,
the shock of an alien and inhospitable culture is nearly overwhelming. [FIC
DAN]
Read-Alikes:
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, by Julia Alvarez
A novel that recounts the experiences of the four young Garcia sisters as they leave their Dominican Republic home in the early 1960s for the U.S.Salt, by Earl Lovelace
Trinidadian writer Lovelace writes of a man who reluctantly stays behind to combat the ills of his island society through a strict regimen of self-improvement. [FIC LOV]Geographies of Home, by Loida Maritza Perez
Ilana hopes to escape the pressures and traumas of her contentious Dominican Republic family by going to college. [FIC PER]
Oprah Pick…
A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest Gaines
A black teacher is conscripted by his aunt to offer lessons in manhood to her
friend's grandson, Jefferson, who is on death row for a crime he only, witnessed.
The teacher has troubles of his own being a man in Jim Crow South, and as he
instructs Jefferson in how to die, he teaches himself how to live. [FIC GAI]
Read-Alikes:
Your Blues Ain't Like Mine, by Bebe Moore Campbell
Based loosely on the Emmet Till case, the 14-year-old Chicagoan who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955, Campbell's novel examines the effect of the murder on three generations of black and white families. [FIC CAM]Time Witness, by Michael Malone
A mystery set in contemporary North Carolina about a white investigator and a black man who has been wrongly convicted. [FIC MAL]Billy, by Albert French
French compares the lives of black and white families and the blatantly racist trial that follows the accidental death of a white girl, by a little black boy. [FIC FRE]
Oprah Pick…
Ellen Foster, by Kaye Gibbons
Spunky 11-year-old Ellen Foster relates the day-to-day experiences she encountered
as a child in a very troubled family and the small measure of peace she finds
when she is taken into a foster home.
[FIC AC 3139-CASS ABRDG]
Read-Alikes:
Durable Goods, by Elizabeth Berg
A coming of age story, of 12-year-old Katie, whose mother dies of cancer, and now she and her older sister are at the mercy of their father. [YA FIC BER]Dog People, by Merry McInerney-Whiteford
Life is quickly becoming unbearable for 12-year-old Trisha as her parents' relationship grows volatile due to their alcoholism and her father's addiction to gambling.Listening for Small Sounds, by Penelope Trevor
Ten-Year-Old Joss describes how she takes cues of her abusive father's mood, by "listening for the small sounds."
Oprah Pick…
A Virtuous Woman, by Kaye Gibbons
Older, overweight Jack and vulnerable, sweet Ruby, sick with cancer, describe
their misfortunes and their great love for each other. [FIC GIB]
Read-Aikes:
East of the Mountains, by David Guterson
Retired heart surgeon Ben Givens is dying of colon cancer and he makes the decision to commit suicide to spare his family the pain of a lingering death. His simple plan becomes sidetracked when life intervenes. [FIC GUT]Breathing Lessons, by Anne Tyler
Maggie and Ira Moran road trip through Pennsylvania on their way to a funeral of a friend. Each finds meaning in their relationship with each other and within themselves. [FIC TYL]
Oprah Pick…
Here on Earth, by Alice Hoffman
March returns to her hometown with her teenage daughter, sans her husband and
is quickly drawn back into the obsessive world of an ex-beau. [FIC HOF]
Read-Alikes:
South of Resurrection, by Jonis Agee
Agee tells the story of Moline Bedwell, who returns to her hometown, Resurrection, Missouri, after a self-imposed exile of 20 years. [FIC AGE]Bedrock, by Lisa Alther
A New York photographer leaves her husband, children and friends to start a new life in a tranquil Vermont town.Places to Stay the Night, by Ann Hood
Libby finally leaves her small, run-down Massachusetts hometown, abandoning Tom (her husband and high school sweetheart), and their two children. [FIC HOO]
Oprah Pick…
Paradise, by Toni Morrison
Morrison explores America in this tale about an all-black Oklahoma
town, from its inception just after the Civil War on into the 1970s [FIC MOR]
Read-Alikes:
Naming the New World, by Calvin Baker
An intense novel that spans several generations of an African American family.Daughters of the Dust, by Julie Dash
An anthropology student at Brooklyn College in 1926 decides to study her family history. This quest takes her to an island off the cost of South Carolina, where a distinctive African-based Gullah culture thrives in isolation.Linden Hills, by Gloria Naylor
The well-off denizens of a black suburb believe that they have created paradise, but Naylor sees it as Hell-on-Earth, suggesting that they be possessed by an evil born of financial smugness and material wealth.
Oprah Pick…
Black and Blue, by Anna Quindlen
Fran Benedotto, a nurse, marries Bobby, a New York City policeman, has a son
and soon finds herself trapped in a cycle of beatings, remorse, and more violence.
[FIC QUI]
Read-Alikes:
The Woman Who Walked into Doors, by Roddy Doyle
Doyle tells a tragic tale of a woman who endures the violence of her husband for the sake of their children. [FIC DOY]Picture Perfect, by Jodi Picoult
Anthropologist Cassie Barrett meets her husband, who is a sexy movie star, on location in Tasmania. Their lives are picture perfect, until Alex shows his true self, and a pregnant Cassie finds herself on the run. [FIC PIC]Maggy's Child, by Karen Robards
When golden boy Lyle married Maggy and agreed to raise her unborn child as though it was his own, he was her savior. Ten years later, Maggy is anxious to escape his physical and emotional abuse and to discover if her son's father, suddenly back on the scene, is able and willing to protect them. [FIC ROB]
Oprah Pick…
Midwives, by Chris Bohjalian
Owing to inclement weather and the mother's dire condition, midwife Sybil Danforth
decides to perform an emergency c-section. She is subsequently charged with
involuntary manslaughter, and her teenage daughter recounts her trial in meticulous
detail. [FIC BOH]
Read-Alikes:
Bringing Out the Dead, by Joe Connellly
EMS medic Frank Pierce works the streets of Hell's Kitchen at a fast and furious pace while dealing with the guilt of losing a young patient. [FIC CON]Charms for the Easy Life, by Kaye Gibbons
Charlie Kate is a sought -after midwife and healer by the times she's 20. While her common sense and selfless doctoring practice flourishes, her marriage falters, and soon she and her daughter are going it alone. [FIC GIB]Hearts and Bones, by Margaret Lawrence
Midwife Hannah Trevor is respected for her skill but held at arm's length by many because of her independence. [FIC LAW]
Oprah Pick…
What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, by Pearl Cleage
When she tests positive for HIV, Ava Johnson returns home to a small town in
Michigan after a fast life and a successful career in Atlanta. [LARGE PRINT
CLE]
Read-Alikes:
Suspicious River, by Laura Kasischke
Motel receptionist Leila Murray becomes involved with Gary Jensen, who alternately hits and sweet-talks her, and ultimately becomes her pimp.The Promise of Rest, by Reynolds Price
Hutch Mayfield's son is dying of AIDS. His condition becomes the catalyst for Hutch's reconnection to life and love. [FIC RAY]Rocking the Babies, by Linda Raymond
The story of the friendship between two middle-aged black women who volunteer in a neonatal intensive care unit. [FIC RAY]
Oprah Pick…
White Oleander, by Janet Fitch
Astrid, the only child of Ingrid, a brilliant, obsessed poet, adores her mother,
but their private life together is shattered when Ingrid falls apart over a
lover. Distraught over the breakup, Ingrid murders the man and is sentenced
to life in prison while Astrid is placed in foster care. [FIC FIT]
Read- Alikes:
Martha Calhoun, by Richard Babcock
Martha's beautiful mother, Bunny, has terrible taste in men. But mother and daughter love each other and have always taken care of each other. Then Martha makes a mistake that sets off a chain of disasters.Anywhere But Here, by Mona Simpson
Wise child Ann August is at the mercy of her mother Adele's strange whims. Deciding that Ann could be a successful child television star, Adele leaves her husband and sets off for LA. [FIC SIM]
Oprah Pick…
I Know this Much is True, by Wally Lamb
Forty-year -old housepainter Dominick is facing many obstacles to happiness,
including his schizophrenic twin brother, Tim. [FIC LAM]
Read-Alikes:
Independence Day, Richard Ford
For the Fourth of July, Frank plans to take a road trip with his troubled son to the Sports Hall of Fame. An accident forces Frank to deal with the deep ambivalence and detachment that has damaged all of his relationships. [FIC FOR]The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, by Oscar Hijuelos
Hijuelos re-creates Latin music's invasion of American popular tastes in the 1940's and 1950's as he follows the careers of the Castillo brothers. [FIC HIJ]Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
The unlikely duo of George and Lennie represent a sort of brotherhood, as George, a hardworking laborer, and Lennie his strong but mentally challenged companion, form a partnership. [FIC STE]
Oprah Pick…
Where the Heart Is, by Billie Letts
Pregnant 17 year-old Novalee Nation is abandoned by her boyfriend in the parking
lot of an Oklahoma Wal-Mart. Within hours, Novalee has met three people who
will change her life. [FIC LET]
Read-Alikes:
The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver
Taylor Greer is determined to escape the "barefoot and pregnant" route taken by the majority of her peers. Then someone leaves an abused child in the front seat of her Volkswagen. [FIC KIN]American Pie, by Michael Lee West
No strangers to tragedy, the McBroom sisters reunite when sister Jo-Nell has a near-fatal car crash. This latest accident, however, becomes the impetus for them to face their fears and finally conquer them.
[FIC WES]Catherwood, by Marly Youmans
This spare tale transports the reader back in time to a century before the Revolutionary War in colonial New York. Catherwood Lyte and her baby daughter go off in the woods to visit neighbors but get lost along the way. [FIC YOU]
Oprah Pick…
Jewel, by Bret Lott
The year is 1943 and plainspoken Jewel Hilburn and her husband, Lester, have
made a good life for themselves and their children. Then Jewel's fifth child
is born with Down's syndrome, and her life is never the same. [FIC LOT]
Read-Alikes:
Family Pictures, by Sue Miller
The Eberhardt family seems to have it all -- Lainey is a wonderful if slightly eccentric mother, David is a good father, and they have two wonderful children. Then comes a third child who suffers from autism, altering the family picture for the next forty years. [FIC MIL]Evening, by Susan Minot
Sixty-five-year-old Ann Lord is facing certain death from cancer, Inebriated from pain and morphine, Ann drifts from memory to reverie. [FIC MIN]Roxanna Slade, by Reynolds Price
A graduate of the school of hard knocks, Roxanna Slade is a survivor, and she also tells her story with strength and dignity.
Oprah Pick…
The Reader, by Bernard Schlink
A 15-year-old boy in postwar Germany has an affair with an older woman. Later
he discovers the horrifying secrets of her past. [FIC SCH]
Read-Alikes:
Jump and Other Stories, by Nadine Gordimer
Set in contemporary South Africa, these short stories explore the theme of personal guilt and shame in the lives of people under political repression.A Judgement in Stone, by Ruth Rendell
The shame of illiteracy is the focus of this short thriller about a woman, Eunice Parchman, who works as a housekeeper for a rich family.Shoah: The Complete Text of the Acclaimed Holocaust Film, by Claude Lanzmann
For those who want to know more of the historical background of The Reader.
Oprah Pick…
The Pilot's Wife, by Anita Shreve
While grieving the death of her pilot husband, Katherine Lyons is shocked to
learn that the airline is targeting him as the suspect in the bombing that brought
down his plane. [FIC SHR]
Read-Alikes:
In the Night Season, Richard Bausch
After Jack Michaelson is killed in a freak bus accident, his wife, Nora, and son, Jason, must deal with the fallout of the many secrets Jack kept. [FIC BAU]A Bigamist's Daughter, by Alice McDermott
Elizabeth is inspired to search for the truth behind her father's bigamy when an author brings to her an unfinished novel about a bigamist.While I was Gone, by Sue Miller
Veterinarian Jo Becker has gracefully settled into middle age when she comes face to face with an old commune buddy from Cambridge. What Eli reveals about their past forces Jo into a moral crisis.
[FIC MIL]
Oprah Pick…
Daughter of Fortune, by Isabel Allende
This novel draws on what Allende knows well: Chile and California. Allende has
learned history well and she reaches into the past to construct a story of family
conflict, romance and true adventure.
[FIC ALL]
Read-Alikes:
Daughters of the Dust, by Julie Dash
An anthropology student at Brooklyn College in 1926 decides to study her family history. This quest takes her to an island off the cost of South Carolina, where a distinctive African-based Gullah culture thrives in isolation.Ahab's Wife; or, The Star-Gazer, by Sena Jeter Naslund
Naslund brings us Una, wife of the captain of the Pequod during his pursuit of Moby Dick. [FIC NAS]Sierra, by Richard Wheeler
Wheeler re-creates the American frontier and the adventure of the gold rush.
Oprah Pick…
Vinegar Hill, by A. Manette Ansay
Set two decades ago, this novel is about gritty small-town life in Wisconsin.
Ellen and her family have returned to live with her in-laws on their farm and
to learn of their dark secrets. [FIC ANS]
Read-Alikes:
Remember Me, by Laura Hendrie
Left orphaned and destitute at age 16, Rose tries to make a place for herself in a small competitive town of Quedoro, New Mexico, where the embroidery and the tourist trade are serious business.The Notebook of Lost Things, by Megan Staffel.
A tale about a small town in New York and several strained-to-the-breaking point family configurations.
Oprah Pick…
Tara Road, by Maeve Binchy
Binchy weaves an intricate story about two women, one Irish and the other American,
who, at low points in their lives embark on an interesting experiment: they
switch homes for the summer. [FIC BIN]
Read-Alikes:
Listening Now, by Anjana Appachana.
A tale of love and deception told from several perspectives.Out of Love, by Victoria Clayton.
A broken friendship is mended by laughter when Daisy runs into her former best friend, Min, 15 years after a falling-out. [FIC CLA]Swimming Lessons, by Lynne Hugo and Anna Tuttle Villegas.
A tale about the empowerment women find through friendship. [FIC HUG]
Oprah Pick…
River, Cross My Heart, by Breena Clarke
Ten-year old Johnnie Mae Bynum is haunted by the memory of her sister Clara,
who drowned in the Potomac River at a point where the neighborhood children
had been routinely warned against swimming. Set in the 1920's, this story ties
together themes of family and racial tensions in a small community.
[FIC CLA]
Read-Alikes:
Half a Heart, by Rosellen Brown
In the early 1960's, Miriam, white, Jewish and liberal, fell in love with a black professor and had a daughter, whom she was forced to give up. 18 years later she and her daughter attempt to get to know each other.Billy, by Albert French
French compares the lives of black and white families and the blatantly racist trial that follows the accidental death of a white girl, by a little black boy. [FIC FRE]Make Believe, by Joanna Scott
When a young bi-racial couple dies, two sets of grandparents, one white, one black, battle over custody of orphaned four-year old Bo. [FIC SCO]
Oprah Pick…
Map of the World, by Jane Hamilton
Alice and Howard Goodwin live on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. A toddler in Alice's
care drowns, and a patient accuses her of sexual child abuse. Alice is arrested,
and her eccentric family must cope with her absence and her trial. [FIC HAM]
Read-Alikes:
The Sweet Hereafter, by Russell Banks
Fourteen schoolchildren are killed in a bus accident in a small town in upstate New York, and, as the story unfolds, we learn what happens to a town that loses its children. [FIC BAN]A Boy in Winter, by Maxine Chernoff
A single mother has finally managed to buy a house in a Chicago for herself and her 11-year old son, Danny. They are thrilled until they meet their new neighbors and things begin to spin out of control when a hunting trip goes wrong. [FIC CHE]Evening News, by Marty Swick
Nine year-old Teddy is playing next door while his mother reads a book and his sister Trina, splashes happily in a plastic wading pool. Teddy's friend hands him his father's gun and in an instant, Trina is dead. [FIC SWI]
Oprah Pick…
Mother of Pearl, by Melinda Haynes
Set in Petal, Mississippi, amid the social and economic challenges of the Deep
South in 1956, this first novel highlights basic human longings and aspirations
common to all of us. [FIC HAY]
Read-Alikes:
Sweetbitter, Reginald Gibbons
This tale explores the coming-of-age of America and the violent conflicts between races and cultures that have marred its history.Lady Moses, by Lucinda Roy.
This novel is expansive in scope as it moves from England to America to Africa and follows Jacinta Moses' life from her childhood home to her mother's deathbed.
Oprah Pick…
Gap Creek, by Robert Morgan
Following the deaths of her younger brother and father, 17 year old Julie takes
one look at 18-year-old Richard and falls in love. The two move to Gap Creek,
North Carolina, and must cope with a devastating flood and death of a child. [FIC
MOR]
Read-Alikes:
I am One of You Forever, by Fred Chappell
Chappell describes the activities of a farm family as observed by young Jess, who finds the adult world both fascinating and mysterious. [FIC CHA]The Rosewood Casket, by Sharyn McCrumb
Old man Stargill is dying and his four grown sons are called home to the small mountain town where they grew up to say good-bye and carry out their daddy's dying wish. [FIC MCC]Black Mountain Breakdown, by Lee Smith
Set in Appalachian, Virginia, Crystal Spangler struggles to draw the line between the roles chosen for her by others and by her own desires.
Oprah Pick…
Back Roads, by Tawni O'Dell
Harley Altmyer, a 19-year-old living in the Pennsylvania backwoods works two
jobs to support himself and three younger sisters, all orphaned when their mother
is imprisoned for killing their abusive father.
[FIC ODE]
Read-Alikes:
Joe, by Larry Brown
Gary Jones, a hardworking and painfully naïve teenager, crosses paths with Joe, a middle-aged redneck with soul.The Wizard's Tide, by Frederick Buechner
Teddy Schroeder is 11 and his sister 7 when the family fortune hit bottom. [FIC BUE]Purple America, by Rick Moody
Alcoholic Hex Raitliffe has been summoned home by his invalid mother, Billie. Over the course of a weekend, he gets drunk, confronts his stepfather and disastrously attempts to fulfill his mother's request for help in killing herself. [FIC MOO]
The editors of Booklist Magazine compiled this list. The following issues were
used:
Booklist. "After Oprah." September 1, 1997, p. 64-65.
Booklist. "After Oprah." June 1 & 15, 1999, p. 1796-1797.
Booklist. "After Oprah." August, 1999, p. 2024-2025.
Booklist. "After Oprah." June 1 & 15, 2000, p.1848-1850.