Top ten - if you like this book, then read …
Over the years, I’ve come across books that are eerily similar. Often, it’s copying or bad homage. But there are books that are similar in a good way. Here are my top ten:
Cloud Atlas → Bangkok Wakes to Rain
Interlinking stories are very popular right now. But none of them have the same depth and quality, and weird build-up with a glimpse into our future, as these two have.Life After Life → 4321
Sliding doors moments, superbly done.The Secret History → If We Were Villains
Since the release of Donna Tartt’s book, dark academia has become a subgenre. And Rio’s book is the best of the genre.Lolita →Putney
Everyone knows Lolita, but I promise you that Zinovieff does an equally excellent job with extremely difficult material.Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine →The Rosie Project
Making fun of people on the spectrum? I don’t think Honeyman does it well, but Simsion sure does.Little Women → March
If you love Little Women, you should definitely read March by Geraldine Brooks. It is looking at the same period but from the father’s point of view, far away from his family. It won the Pulitzer, and rightly so.Madame Bovary → Adele
A disaffected young woman in an unfulfilling relationship? Yep, Adele reads like a modern-day Madame Bovary.Daisy Jones & the Six → Utopia Avenue
Both of these books were published around the same time. They are about a rock band, just off by one decade, in the 70s and the 60s, both written in interview style. If you believe Gilbert’s Big Magic, you know that Reid and Mitchell grabbed the idea from the air at the same time.King Lear → A Thousand Acres
This is literally a re-telling of Shakespeare’s story but wonderfully done. A deserving Pulitzer Prize winner.Butter → Promising Young Women
Both are about young women in the 21st century and all the pressures placed on them in a world that is still very much a man’s world. But Promising Young Women is unputdownable.
Do you have pairs like this?