6 must-read race books like Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny by Mark Cecil

Cover of Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny by Mark Cecil

Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

By: Mark Cecil

4.01

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

A large-hearted reimagining of beloved all-American legends, this epic debut novel brings men of my…

"You took in the name of God, took in the name of science, took because only your conscience stood in your way; in other words, nothing stood in your way at all. You crushed us with disease, then guns, then laws, then drink. And last and most of all, you crushed us by simply looking the other way."

-Mark Cecil, Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

"You took in the name of God, took in the name of science, took because only your conscience stood in your way; in other words, nothing stood in your way at all. You crushed us with disease, then guns, then laws, then drink. And last and most of all, you crushed us by simply looking the other way."

-Mark Cecil, Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

If you liked the race plot in Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny by Mark Cecil , here is a list of 6 books like this:

Cover of James by Percival Everett

1. James

By: Percival Everett

4.54

Format: 303 pages, Hardcover

A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , both harrowing and f… read more

Similar categories in Percival Everett's James book and Mark Cecil's Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

  • retellings
  • literary fiction
  • race
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
Cover of The Blueprint by Rae Giana Rashad

2. The Blueprint

By: Rae Giana Rashad

3.88

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

A captivating debut exploring power imbalances, bodily autonomy, love, and the generational legacy … read more

Similar categories in Rae Giana Rashad's The Blueprint book and Mark Cecil's Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

  • race
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • fantasy
Cover of America Fantastica by Tim O'Brien

3. America Fantastica

By: Tim O'Brien

3.45

Format: 464 pages, Hardcover

At 11:34 a.m. one Saturday in August 2019, Boyd Halverson strode into Community National Bank in No… read more

Similar categories in Tim O'Brien's America Fantastica book and Mark Cecil's Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

  • historical
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
Cover of Great Expectations by Vinson Cunningham

4. Great Expectations

By: Vinson Cunningham

3.35

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

A historic presidential campaign changes the trajectory of a young Black man’s life in the highly a… read more

Similar categories in Vinson Cunningham's Great Expectations book and Mark Cecil's Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

  • literary fiction
  • race
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
"For him, identity had been a kind of curation or collation—he picked up aspects as he went, freestyle."

-Vinson Cunningham, Great Expectations

"It had always struck me as a place to be lost, experienced passage by passage in a series of unfolding images—not something you could take in in one possessive glance."

-Vinson Cunningham, Great Expectations

Cover of Fire Exit by Morgan Talty

5. Fire Exit

By: Morgan Talty

3.79

Format: 243 pages, Hardcover

The blood that came out of me was blood that ran through her veins. It’s strange: all blood looks t… read more

Similar categories in Morgan Talty's Fire Exit book and Mark Cecil's Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
"...what's more sacred than laughter at the dinner table?"

-Morgan Talty, Fire Exit

"That's my life, though--not knowing, but wishing. [Charles Lamosway]"

-Morgan Talty, Fire Exit

"We are made of stories, and if we don't know them--the ones that make us--how can we ever be fully realized? How can we ever be who we really are?"

-Morgan Talty, Fire Exit

"...I was thinking and thinking about how, in just the past year, I had just started to know her, but then I began to unknow her, getting farther and farther away like watching a boat drift from the s…"

-Morgan Talty, Fire Exit

Cover of Whale Fall by Elizabeth  O'Connor

6. Whale Fall

By: Elizabeth O'Connor

3.87

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

A stunning debut from an award-winning writer, about loss, isolation, folklore, and the joy and dis… read more

Similar categories in Elizabeth O'Connor's Whale Fall book and Mark Cecil's Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

  • historical
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
Cover of Ours by Phillip B. Williams

7. Ours

By: Phillip B. Williams

3.84

Format: 592 pages, Hardcover

An epic novel set in mid-nineteenth-century America about the spiritual costs of a freedom that dem… read more

Similar categories in Phillip B. Williams's Ours book and Mark Cecil's Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

  • race
  • magical realism
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • fantasy
"In Ours, the grass that grows is sharp. It gleams at its edges, such that when the buttery light of spring falls into it, the light cries out and yellow pours slowly over the earth."

-Phillip B. Williams, Ours

Cover of There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

8. There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension

By: Hanif Abdurraqib

4.40

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

A poignant, personal reflection on basketball, talent and allegiance, and of course, LeBron James—f… read more

Similar categories in Hanif Abdurraqib's There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension book and Mark Cecil's Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

  • race
"Heartbreak itself is a primary color. Stagnant without a series of secondary colors to activate it. Longing is an activator."

-Hanif Abdurraqib, There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension

"With enough repetition, anything can become a religion. It doesn’t matter if it works or not, it simply matters if a person returns."

-Hanif Abdurraqib, There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension

"It is a strange miracle to be able to trace your own aging, your own mortality through someone who's living alongside you, someone who has survived eras at the same time as you have in some of the sa…"

-Hanif Abdurraqib, There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension

Cover of The Tower by Flora Carr

9. The Tower

By: Flora Carr

3.70

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

A bold, feminist debut novel, reimagining Mary, Queen of Scots’s darkest hour, when she was held ho… read more

Similar categories in Flora Carr's The Tower book and Mark Cecil's Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

  • historical
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
Cover of Indian Burial Ground by Nick Medina

10. Indian Burial Ground

By: Nick Medina

3.63

Format: 384 pages, Hardcover

All Noemi Broussard wanted was a fresh start. With a new boyfriend who actually treats her right an… read more

Similar categories in Nick Medina's Indian Burial Ground book and Mark Cecil's Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

  • fantasy
  • fiction
"What happened in the cemetery causes us pain, not her. You understand that, don’t you?"

-Nick Medina, Indian Burial Ground

Cover of Rednecks by Taylor  Brown

11. Rednecks

By: Taylor Brown

3.89

Format: 310 pages, Hardcover

A historical drama based on the Battle of Blair Mountain, pitting a multi-ethnic army of 10,000 co… read more

Similar categories in Taylor Brown's Rednecks book and Mark Cecil's Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

  • historical
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
Cover of Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge by Lizzie Pook

12. Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge

By: Lizzie Pook

3.59

Format: 336 pages, Paperback

An Arctic expedition. A mysterious death. And the lengths to which one woman will go to avenge her … read more

Similar categories in Lizzie Pook's Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge book and Mark Cecil's Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
Cover of We Burn Daylight by Bret Anthony Johnston

13. We Burn Daylight

By: Bret Anthony Johnston

3.95

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

An epic novel of star-crossed lovers set in a doomsday cult on the Texas prairie that asks: what wo… read more

Similar categories in Bret Anthony Johnston's We Burn Daylight book and Mark Cecil's Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

  • historical
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
Cover of All the World Beside by Garrard Conley

14. All the World Beside

By: Garrard Conley

3.75

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

An electrifying, deeply moving novel about the love story between two men in Puritan New England … read more

Similar categories in Garrard Conley's All the World Beside book and Mark Cecil's Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
Cover of Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny by Mark Cecil

15. Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

By: Mark Cecil

4.01

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

A large-hearted reimagining of beloved all-American legends, this epic debut novel brings men of my… read more

Similar categories in Mark Cecil's Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny book and Mark Cecil's Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

  • retellings
  • literary fiction
  • race
  • magical realism
  • historical
  • science fiction fantasy
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • fantasy
  • mythology
"You took in the name of God, took in the name of science, took because only your conscience stood in your way; in other words, nothing stood in your way at all. You crushed us with disease, then guns…"

-Mark Cecil, Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

Cover of Lilith by Eric Rickstad

16. Lilith

By: Eric Rickstad

3.96

Format: 245 pages, Hardcover

From the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of I Am Not Who You Think I Am—a New… read more

Similar categories in Eric Rickstad's Lilith book and Mark Cecil's Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

  • fantasy
  • fiction
"I find no comfort in it, eternity, everlasting life. When I am dead, I will be gone, and I will never know I existed. I will not know I ever was. Just as when I am asleep, I do not know I exist or ev…"

-Eric Rickstad, Lilith

Cover of 888 Love and the Divine Burden of Numbers by Abraham  Chang

17. 888 Love and the Divine Burden of Numbers

By: Abraham Chang

3.41

Format: 400 pages, Hardcover

Young Wang has received plenty of wisdom from his beloved uncle: don’t take life too seriously, get… read more

Similar categories in Abraham Chang's 888 Love and the Divine Burden of Numbers book and Mark Cecil's Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
Cover of Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

18. Long Island Compromise

By: Taffy Brodesser-Akner

3.88

Format: 464 pages, Hardcover

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An exhilarating novel about one American family, the dark moment that shatter… read more

Similar categories in Taffy Brodesser-Akner's Long Island Compromise book and Mark Cecil's Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

  • historical
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
Cover of What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust (Flavia de Luce, #11) by Alan Bradley

19. What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust (Flavia de Luce, #11)

By: Alan Bradley

4.26

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

In the absence of adult supervision, Flavia has taken on the mentorship of her “pestilent” younger … read more

Similar categories in Alan Bradley's What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust (Flavia de Luce, #11) book and Mark Cecil's Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
Cover of Nicked by M.T. Anderson

20. Nicked

By: M.T. Anderson

3.85

Format: 223 pages, Hardcover

From the award-winning and bestselling author of Feed comes a raucous and slyly funny adult fiction… read more

Similar categories in M.T. Anderson's Nicked book and Mark Cecil's Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

  • historical
  • fantasy
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
Cover of The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia by Juliet Grames

21. The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia

By: Juliet Grames

3.67

Format: 416 pages, Hardcover

One unidentified skeleton. Three missing men. A village full of secrets. The bestselling author of … read more

Similar categories in Juliet Grames's The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia book and Mark Cecil's Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny

  • historical
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction

20 best-selling fiction books like Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny by Mark Cecil

Transform Your Habits

James

Percival Everett

4.54

Transform Your Habits

The Blueprint

Rae Giana Rashad

3.88

Transform Your Habits

America Fantastica

Tim O'Brien

3.45

Transform Your Habits

Great Expectations

Vinson Cunningham

3.35

View all the books

21 Top fiction books like Indian Burial Ground by Nick Medina

Transform Your Habits

The Angel of Indian Lake (The Indian Lake Trilogy, #3)

Stephen Graham Jones

4.21

Transform Your Habits

Diavola

Jennifer Marie Thorne

3.95

Transform Your Habits

The Haunting of Velkwood

Gwendolyn Kiste

3.64

Transform Your Habits

The House That Horror Built

Christina Henry

3.22

View all the books

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