Books like 'The Financial Lives of the Poets'
Readers who enjoyed The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary comedy humor literary-fiction family satire realistic crime drama social-commentary
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The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (abridged) by Adam Long, Daniel Singer
20 ratingsRevised from the rather long original complete works of Shakespeare, this abridged version is written by three Americans, with no qualifications worth speaking of. The playtext is reproduced here with footnotes which will be of no help to anyone and a letter from the authors to the Queen... -
The Little Golden Calf by Ilya Ilf, Yevgeny Petrov
20 ratingsThe name The Little Golden Calf comes from the Bible, the Book of Exodus 32:1-4 Delighted applause from both sides of the Atlantic greeted the first publication of this comic clasic about Soviet life in the early years after the Revolution. Social changes then were so drastic and came so thick and fast that even most Russians were confused...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire 20th-century action-adventure adult -
The Suitcase by Sergei Dovlatov
18 ratingsSergei Dovlatov’s subtle, dark-edged humor and wry observations are in full force in The Suitcase as he examines eight objects—the items he brought with him in his luggage upon his emigration from the U.S.S.R... -
Sabtu Bersama Bapak by Adhitya Mulya
18 ratings“Hai, Satya! Hai, Cakra!” Sang Bapak melambaikan tangan. “Ini Bapak. Iya, benar kok, ini Bapak. Bapak cuma pindah ke tempat lain. Gak sakit. Alhamdulillah, berkat doa Satya dan Cakra. … Mungkin Bapak tidak dapat duduk dan bermain di samping kalian. Tapi, Bapak tetap ingin kalian tumbuh dengan Bapak di samping kalian. Ingin tetap dapat bercerita kepada kalian... -
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The Chronicles of Audy: 21 by Orizuka
14 ratingsHai. Namaku Audy. Umurku masih 22 tahun. Hidupku tadinya biasa-biasa saja, sampai aku memutuskan untuk bekerja di rumah 4R. Aku sempat berhenti, tapi mereka berhasil membujukku untuk kembali setelah memberiku titel baru: "bagian dari keluarga". Di saat aku merasa semakin akrab dengan mereka, pada suatu siang, salah seorang dari mereka mengungkapkan perasaannya kepadaku... -
Si by Bob Ong
16 ratings"Maari bang malaman ang iyong pangalan?""Victoria""Kailan kita masisilayan, Victoria?""Sa iyong... -
Heathers the Musical by Laurence O'Keefe, Kevin Murphy
8 ratingsHeathers The Musical is the darkly delicious story of Veronica Sawyer, a brainy, beautiful teenage misfit who hustles her way into the most powerful and ruthless clique at Westerberg High: the Heathers. But before she can get comfortable atop the high school food chain, Veronica falls in love with the dangerously sexy new kid J.D... -
Vinyl Cafe Unplugged by Stuart McLean
14 ratingsBestselling author and radio storytelling sensation Stuart McLean revisits the heartwarming and hilarious friends from his iconic Vinyl Cafe.Dave and his wife Morley would no doubt tell you that life is what you make it. Unfortunately for them, that means a compilation tape of mistakes, miscues, misunderstandings, and muddle... -
Barney's Version by Mordecai Richler
24 ratingsEbullient and perverse, thrice married, Barney Panofsky has always clung to two cherished beliefs: life is absurd and nobody truly ever understands anybody else. But when his sworn enemy publicly states that Barney is a wife abuser, an intellectual fraud and probably a murderer, he is driven to write his own memoirs... -
Peas, Carrots and Six More Feet by Hannah M. Lynn
6 ratingsThis family is about to go nuclear Following straight on from the climatic events of Peas, Carrots and a Red Feather Boa, Eric Sibley faces a completely new landscape. As he struggles to come to terms with his new situation he finds support and help in some of the most unlikely places... -
10 Dares by Emily James
8 ratingsCan 10 Dares help Melinda loosen up, conquer stress and find love? Or might they push her over the edge...Melinda Spencer had everything but now her life has fallen apart.Her two best friends, Mikey and Joanie are worried. Melinda’s been acting even more highly strung than usual. They decide to stage an intervention. Something to help her lighten up and take her mind off things: 10 crazy dares... -
Einstein's Beach House by Jacob M. Appel
12 ratingsA couple adopts a depressed hedgehog; a stranger shows up, claiming to be the father of a girl's imaginary friend; a woman kidnaps her ex-husband's turtle; a family is evicted from their home, but was it ever really theirs? Heartbreaking and hilarious, the eight stories of Einstein's Beach House examine how we deceive ourselves and others, all to arrive at something far more real... -
Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo, Joseph Farrell
16 ratingsIn its first two years of production, Dario Fo's controversial farce, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, was seen by over half a million people. It has since been performed all over the world and is widely recognised as a classic of modern drama... -
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee
35 ratings"Twelve times a week," answered Uta Hagen when asked how often she'd like to play Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In the same way, audiences and critics alike could not get enough of Edward Albee's masterful play. A dark comedy, it portrays husband and wife George and Martha in a searing night of dangerous fun and games... -
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What a Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe
24 ratingsIf Charles Dickens and Agatha Christie had ever managed to collaborate, they might have produced this shamelessly entertaining novel, which introduces readers to what may be the most powerful family in England--and is certainly the vilest. A tour de force of menace, malicious comedy, and torrential social bile, this book marks the American debut of an extraordinary writer... -
Dinner Party by Tracy Bloom
10 ratingsNever has an unexpected guest caused such chaos! Three couples take it in turns to host a monthly dinner party. Beth, Sarah and Marie have been friends forever. Now they are grown up, with busy lives, busy husbands, busy kids… but they still find time to meet up over dinner once a month. A cosy, comfortable gathering of happy couples - or so they thought... -
The Poor Mouth: A Bad Story about the Hard Life by Flann O'Brien
14 ratingsThe Poor Mouth relates the story of one Bonaparte O'Coonassa, born in a cabin in a fictitious village called Corkadoragha in western Ireland equally renowned for its beauty and the abject poverty of its residents. Potatoes constitute the basis of his family's daily fare, and they share both bed and board with the sheep and pigs... -
The Risk Pool by Richard Russo
18 ratingsThe Risk Pool is a thirty-year journey through the lives of Sam Hall, a small-town gambling hellraiser, and his watchful, introspective son Ned... -
The Illicit Happiness of Other People by Manu Joseph
18 ratingsOusep Chacko, journalist and failed novelist, prides himself on being “the last of the real men.” This includes waking neighbors upon returning late from the pub. His wife Mariamma stretches their money, raises their two boys, and, in her spare time, gleefully fantasizes about Ousep dying... -
The World According to Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith
20 ratings"The World According to Bertie" is the fourth in the series and revolves around the many colourful characters that come and go at No. 44 Scotland Street. McCall Smith handles the characters with his customary charm and deftness - the stalwart Tory chartered surveyor, the pushy mother, and, most importantly in this novel, the beleaguered Italian-speaking prodigy, Bertie... -
Ucieczka z Chinatown by Charles Yu
31 ratingsFrom the infinitely inventive author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe comes a deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play. Willis Wu doesn't perceive himself as a protagonist even in his own life: he's merely Generic Asian Man...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction humor literary-fiction realistic satire social-commentary -
Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender
18 ratings"Contemporary fairy tales, cushioned by goofy humor and a deep tenderness for her characters, that aren't always as dark or as sinister as they initially appear." --The New York Times Book Review Aimee Bender s Willful Creatures conjures a fantastical world in which authentic love blooms... -
Yoga Pant Nation by Laurie Gelman
18 ratingsFrom the author of Class Mom and You've Been Volunteered comes Yoga Pant Nation--a novel about one mom's challenges through parenting and life, keeping her on her toes and perpetually in yoga pants... -
The High Road by Terry Fallis
16 ratingsA brilliant follow-up to the Stephen Leacock Award-winner The Best Laid Plans , this deeply funny satire continues the story of Honest Angus McLintock, an amateur politician who dares to do the unthinkable: tell the truth... -
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Handling Sin by Michael Malone
14 ratingsOn the Ides of March, our hero, Raleigh Whittier Hayes (forgetful husband, baffled father, prosperous insurance agent and leading citizen of Thermopylae, North Carolina), learns that his father has discharged himself from the hospital, taken all his money out of the bank and, with a young black female mental patient, vanished in a yellow Cadillac convertible... -
My Big Greek Summer by Sue Roberts
14 ratingsA holiday can solve everything… can’t it? A hilarious, hot new summer escape about kissing your past goodbye and learning to love again… Carefree, thirty-something Mandy thought she’d be married to first-love Danny forever. So when she discovers her heart-throb husband has had a fling, she realises it’s time to make some BIG changes... -
Descent of Man by T. Coraghessan Boyle
10 ratingsIn seventeen slices of life that defy the expected and launch us into the absurd, T.C. Boyle offers his unique view of the world. A primate-center researcher becomes romantically involved with a chimp; a Norse poet overcomes bard-block; collectors compete to snare the ancient Aztec beer can, Quetzacoatl Lite; and Lassie abandons Timmy for a randy coyote... -
The Harpole Report by J.L. Carr
6 ratingsThe Harpole Report is the third novel by J. L. Carr, published in 1972. The novel tells the story mostly in the form of a school log book kept by George Harpole, temporary Head Teacher of the Church of England primary school of "Tampling St. Nicholas". Like all of Carr's novels, it is grounded in personal experience...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction satire social-commentary 20th-century adult anthologies comedy -
The Snapper by Roddy Doyle
18 ratingsFrom the Booker Prize-winning author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, the follow up to his acclaimed debut novel The CommitmentsWatch for Roddy Doyle's new novel, Smile, coming in October of 2017Twenty-year-old Sharon Rabbitte is pregnant. She's also unmarried, living at home, working in a grocery store, and keeping the father's identity a secret. Her own father, Jimmy Sr., is shocked by the news... -
Miss Julia Throws a Wedding by Ann B. Ross
18 ratingsReaders love Miss Julia, the proper lady of a certain age with a backbone of iron and perfect Steel Magnolia poise, not to mention the sharpest tongue south of the Mason-Dixon Line. In Miss Julia Throws a Wedding , we find her feeling a little wistful when Hazel Marie, once her late husband's paramour and now her best friend, prepares to move out and live in sin with that marriage-shy Mr... -
The Tenants of Moonbloom by Edward Lewis Wallant
10 ratingsNorman Moonbloom is a loser, a drop-out who can't even make it as a deadbeat. His brother, a slumlord, hires him to collect rent in the buildings he owns in Manhattan... -
The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper
24 ratingsRight after high school, Joe Goffman left sleepy Bush Falls, Connecticut and never looked back. Then he wrote a novel savaging everything in town, a novel that became a national bestseller and a huge hit movie... -
The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis
24 ratingsA burnt-out political aide quits just before an election — but is forced to run a hopeless campaign on the way out. He makes a deal with a crusty old Scot, Angus McLintock — an engineering professor who will do anything, anything, to avoid teaching English to engineers — to let his name stand in the election... -
After the Workshop by John McNally
6 ratingsYou graduate from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop with a short story published in The New Yorker and subsequently Best American Short Stories. You stay in town and work on your novel. And work on your novel. Until, finally, twelve years have passed and you are working as a media escort for author tours and your unfinished novel sits in a box under your bed. Your girlfriend has left you... -
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Folly Beach by Dorothea Benton Frank
20 ratingsFolly Beach Home is the place that knows us best. . . . A woman returns to the past to find her future in this enchanting new tale of loss, acceptance, family, and love. With its sandy beaches and bohemian charms, surfers and suits alike consider Folly Beach to be one of South Carolina's most historic and romantic spots... -
The Closed Circle by Jonathan Coe
18 ratingsThe characters of The Rotters’ Club—Jonathan Coe’s nostalgic, humorous evocation of adolescent life in the 1970s—have bartered their innocence for the vengeance of middle age in a story that is very much of the moment, charged with such issues as 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq... -
Hits and Misses by Simon Rich
16 ratings'Simon Rich is outrageously, lavishly gifted'- Caitlin Moran'Simon Rich is the funniest writer alive'- Matt Haig'How fabulously funny'- Lauren Laverne'One of my favourite authors'- B J NovakFrom a bitter tell-all by a horse who made a man famous and then got left behind to a gushing magazine profile of one of your favorite World War II dictators, these stories trawl through history to skewer our... -
Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
28 ratingsA modern classic, now in a welcome new edition, Wonder Boys firmly established Michael Chabon as a force to be reckoned with in American fiction... -
Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson
26 ratingsReclusive literary legend M. M. “Mimi” Banning has been holed up in her Bel Air mansion for years, but now she’s writing her first book in decades and to ensure timely completion her publisher sends an assistant to monitor her progress. Mimi reluctantly complies—with a few stipulations: No Ivy Leaguers or English majors. Must drive, cook, tidy. Computer whiz. Good with kids. Quiet, discreet, sane...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction humor literary-fiction realistic 21st-century audiobook -
The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old by Hendrik Groen, Hester Velmans
26 ratingsA #1 international bestseller in the vein of Fredrik Bachman's A Man Called Ove: an irresistible, funny, charming, and tender-hearted tale about friendship, love, and an old man who is young at heart. Technically speaking, Hendrik Groen is....elderly. But at age 83 1/4, this feisty, indomitable curmudgeon has no plans to go out quietly... -
The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill
24 ratingsThe Threepenny Opera was Brecht's first and greatest commercial success, and it remains one of his best-loved and most-performed plays. Based on John Gay's eighteenth-century Beggar's Opera, the play is set in Victorian England's Soho but satirizes the bourgeois society of the Weimar Republic through its wry love story of Polly Peachum and "Mack the Knife" Macheath... -
The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
36 ratings.The Bonfire of the Vanities is a 1987 satirical novel by Tom Wolfe. The story is a drama about ambition, racism, social class, politics, and greed in 1980s New York City, and centers on three main characters: WASP bond trader Sherman McCoy, Jewish assistant district attorney Larry Kramer, and British expatriate journalist Peter Fallow...Categorized as:
crime drama historical-fiction humor literary-fiction realistic satire social-commentary -
Bombardiers by Po Bronson
8 ratingsFrom the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller What Should I Do with My Life?, Bombardiers is Po Bronson’s first novel, a devastating satire of the business world told through the lens of a crazed and colorful group of salespeople forced to push increasingly absurd financial products... -
A Love Like This by Maria Duffy
8 ratingsWilliam and Donna were born on the same day and in the same hospital, but they couldn't be more different. Will grew up in an affluent suburb and struggles to balance what he wants with what will keep his overbearing mother happy. Donna had a difficult childhood—she was raised by her older sister. She often wonders what her life would be like without her troubled mother around... -
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Lowcountry Summer by Dorothea Benton Frank
18 ratingsDorothea Benton Frank is a native of the South whose novels vividly capture the wild beauty, laid-back atmosphere, earthy characters, and charming eccentricities of life in South Carolina's Lowcountry. Written with compelling honesty and emotional depth, her stories have touched readers from coast to coast, and propelled her to the top ranks of bestsellerdom nationwide... -
Budding Prospects: A Pastoral by T. Coraghessan Boyle
16 ratingsAll Felix Nasmyth and friends have to do is harvest a crop of Cannabis Sativa......and half a million tax-free dollars will be theirs. But they haven't reckoned on nosy Northern California-style neighbors, torrential rain, demands of the flesh, and Felix's improbable new love, a wayward sculptress on whose behalf he undertakes a one-man vendetta against a drug-busting state trooper named Jerpbak... -
Bucky F*cking Dent: A Novel by David Duchovny
16 ratingsTed Fullilove, aka Mr. Peanut, is not like other Ivy League grads. He shares an apartment with Goldberg, his beloved battery-operated fish, sleeps on a bed littered with yellow legal pads penned with what he hopes will be the next great American novel, and spends the waning malaise-filled days of the Carter administration at Yankee Stadium, waxing poetic while slinging peanuts to pay the rent... -
The Withdrawal Method by Pasha Malla
6 ratingsPasha Malla knows joy in all of its weird, unsettling, and wondrous forms. In their humor, warmth, and rigorous honesty, his stories clearly capture something odd and beautiful: the unmistakable feeling of empathy... -
A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe
24 ratingsThe Barnes & Noble Review Before THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES, the literary question of the day was, Could Tom Wolfe, the self-proclaimed avatar of the New Journalism, write fiction? After BONFIRE, that question quickly became, Yeah, but can he do it again? Delayed by a number of false starts, revisions, and in 1996, a heart attack and subsequent quintuple bypass surgery, the publication of...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction humor literary-fiction realistic satire social-commentary 20th-century -
Terms & Conditions by Robert Glancy
14 ratingsFrank has been in a serious car accident and he’s missing memories—of the people around him, of the history they share, and of how he came to be in the crash. All he remembers is that he is a lawyer who specializes in fine print, and as he narrates his story, he applies this expertise in the form of footnotes...
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