7 must-read short stories books like Natural History by Andrea Barrett

Cover of Natural History by Andrea Barrett

Natural History

By: Andrea Barrett

3.76

Format: 208 pages, Hardcover

In Natural History, Andrea Barrett completes the beautiful arc of intertwined lives of a family of …

If you liked the short stories plot in Natural History by Andrea Barrett , here is a list of 7 books like this:

Cover of The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl

1. The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year

By: Margaret Renkl

4.37

Format: 270 pages, Hardcover

From the beloved New York Times opinion writer and bestselling author of Late Migrations comes a “h… read more

Similar categories in Margaret Renkl's The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year book and Andrea Barrett's Natural History

  • nature
  • natural history
  • audiobook
Cover of Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories by Kate Atkinson

2. Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

By: Kate Atkinson

3.71

Format: 212 pages, Hardcover

A dazzling collection of eleven interconnected stories from the bestselling, award-winning author o… read more

Similar categories in Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories book and Andrea Barrett's Natural History

  • adult fiction
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • audiobook
"Hello, Boy," Franklin said. He liked dogs, they were uncomplicated. "I'm a girl, actually," the dog said."

-Kate Atkinson, Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

Cover of Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet

3. Dinosaurs

By: Lydia Millet

3.88

Format: 230 pages, Hardcover

A man named Gil walks from New York to Arizona to recover from a failed love. After he arrives, new… read more

Similar categories in Lydia Millet's Dinosaurs book and Andrea Barrett's Natural History

  • adult fiction
  • fiction
  • audiobook
"They say those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, but don’t we all?"

-Lydia Millet, Dinosaurs

"You gotta be a generalist, in the new climate. But that’s not enough either. If there’s too much poison around. We’re talking pesticides, mostly. Agrochemicals everywhere. Take the sparrows. So anywa…"

-Lydia Millet, Dinosaurs

"Good news. Maybe the insects would handle it. Since the dinosaurs didn’t have it in them. The insects might be naturals at revolution, with their hive minds. Their brainless, decentralized intelligen…"

-Lydia Millet, Dinosaurs

"And freedom, that sacred cow that was always invoked as an excuse for bad behavior, all manner of atrocity—what was it, even? They told you to love it, in the schools and the songs, but never said wh…"

-Lydia Millet, Dinosaurs

Cover of North Woods by Daniel       Mason

4. North Woods

By: Daniel Mason

4.15

Format: 372 pages, Hardcover

A sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New England, told through the lives of those … read more

Similar categories in Daniel Mason's North Woods book and Andrea Barrett's Natural History

  • adult fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • nature
  • audiobook
Cover of This Other Eden by Paul Harding

5. This Other Eden

By: Paul Harding

3.78

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

Set at the beginning of the twentieth century and inspired by historical events, This Other Eden te… read more

Similar categories in Paul Harding's This Other Eden book and Andrea Barrett's Natural History

  • literature
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

6. Birnam Wood

By: Eleanor Catton

3.82

Format: 432 pages, Hardcover

Birnam Wood is on the move . . . Five years ago, Mira Bunting founded a guerrilla gardening gro… read more

Similar categories in Eleanor Catton's Birnam Wood book and Andrea Barrett's Natural History

  • fiction
  • audiobook
"...wondering, not for the first time, when exactly she had become so technologically dependent that her first instinct in every unpredicted circumstance was to outsource her imagination to her phone."

-Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood

"Not at all,’ he said. ‘I was just going to remark that being a cliche can be very useful. You ought to consider it some time.’ ’Oh yeah?’ ’Yeah,’ he said. ‘It means people underestimate you. They thi…"

-Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood

"As his rhetoric and reading life matured, he grew intensely scornful of what passed at his high school for 'education' - the mania for testing; the intolerance of real dissent; and the conformist cel…"

-Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood

"... his future, had either been sold or laid to waste by his parents' generation, trapping him in a perpetual adolescence that was further heightened by the infantilising unreality of the Internet as…"

-Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood

Cover of Absolution by Alice McDermott

7. Absolution

By: Alice McDermott

3.81

Format: 324 pages, Hardcover

A riveting account of women’s lives on the margins of the Vietnam War. In Saigon in 1963, two yo… read more

Similar categories in Alice McDermott's Absolution book and Andrea Barrett's Natural History

  • adult fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

8. The Vaster Wilds

By: Lauren Groff

3.77

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

A taut and electrifying novel from celebrated bestselling author Lauren Groff, about one spirited g… read more

Similar categories in Lauren Groff's The Vaster Wilds book and Andrea Barrett's Natural History

  • adult fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • nature
  • audiobook
"For what is a girl but a vessel made to hold the desires of men."

-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

"O put the memory away, girl, she told herself sternly. For the sorrow could eat you entire."

-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

"And humans were not made to be always alone; humans survive only in the company of other humans."

-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

"Against the resistance of other minds, one's thoughts are pulled out of their comfortable shapes, and true thinking begins."

-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

Cover of The Hero of This Book by Elizabeth McCracken

9. The Hero of This Book

By: Elizabeth McCracken

3.77

Format: 192 pages, Hardcover

A taut, groundbreaking new novel from bestselling and award-winning author Elizabeth McCracken, abo… read more

Similar categories in Elizabeth McCracken's The Hero of This Book book and Andrea Barrett's Natural History

  • adult fiction
  • fiction
  • audiobook
"As for me, I don't think writing is that hard, as long as you're comfortable with failure on every single level."

-Elizabeth McCracken, The Hero of This Book

"My mother's favorite cats were male and nervous and needed her. "Come to Mommy," my mother would say to one of them. "Yes, I love you, too." "You are not that cat's mother," I said, sitting on the so…"

-Elizabeth McCracken, The Hero of This Book

"I've always hated the notion, in life or in fiction, that the human personality is a puzzle to be solved, that we are a single flashback away from understanding why this person is cruel to her childr…"

-Elizabeth McCracken, The Hero of This Book

Cover of The Best American Short Stories 2023 by Min Jin Lee

10. The Best American Short Stories 2023

By: Min Jin Lee

3.77

Format: 331 pages, Kindle Edition

A collection of the year’s best short stories, selected by National Book Award finalist Min Jin Lee… read more

Similar categories in Min Jin Lee's The Best American Short Stories 2023 book and Andrea Barrett's Natural History

  • short stories
  • fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger

11. I Cheerfully Refuse

By: Leif Enger

4.03

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

Set in a not-too-distant America, I Cheerfully Refuse is the tale of Rainy, an aspiring musician se… read more

Similar categories in Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse book and Andrea Barrett's Natural History

  • fiction
  • audiobook
"Those thieves and lovers and wandering poets- what big lives they had! I began watching everyone I met for secret greatness."

-Leif Enger, I Cheerfully Refuse

"I think the sea has no in-between: you get either rage and wayward lightning and schizoid frenzy or such freehanded beauty that time contract or turns in on itself leaving you forgetful and no more n…"

-Leif Enger, I Cheerfully Refuse

"One shelf became two. Then a wall. Then eight-foot rolling racks from a shut library in Hayward, Wisconsin. Maudie suggested changing the shop name to reflect its inventory. Bread and Books. Loaves a…"

-Leif Enger, I Cheerfully Refuse

"Much as I wanted to think of Lark in someplace better, I knew from a thousand conversations that she never worried abut that place. Maybe it was real and full of saints and poets, or maybe it was poe…"

-Leif Enger, I Cheerfully Refuse

Cover of So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men by Claire Keegan

12. So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men

By: Claire Keegan

3.99

Format: 128 pages, Hardcover

Librarian's Note: This is the entry for the short story collection. Please don't combine it with th… read more

Similar categories in Claire Keegan's So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men book and Andrea Barrett's Natural History

  • literature
  • adult fiction
  • short stories
  • fiction
"You know what is at the heart of misogyny? When it comes down to it?’ ‘So I’m a misogynist now?’ ‘It’s simply about not giving,’ she said."

-Claire Keegan, So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men

Cover of Whale Fall by Elizabeth  O'Connor

13. 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 Andrea Barrett's Natural History

  • adult fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • nature
  • audiobook
Cover of Enlightenment by Sarah Perry

14. Enlightenment

By: Sarah Perry

3.70

Format: 384 pages, Hardcover

A dazzling new work of literary fiction from the author of The Essex Serpent, a story of love and a… read more

Similar categories in Sarah Perry's Enlightenment book and Andrea Barrett's Natural History

  • audiobook
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
"Thomas [Hart] lived where he'd been born, and where (so he often thought without rancor) he'd very likely die; and if he lived alone he was not lonely, that being a condition not of solitude but of l…"

-Sarah Perry, Enlightenment

"So I told her this: that it's true I've only rarely been happy, and perhaps more often been sad. But I have been content. I have lived. I have felt everything available to me: I've been faithless, de…"

-Sarah Perry, Enlightenment

"I wish I could say, James, that we forgave each other in the end. I wish I could say: she put her head on my shoulder and I welcomed it and we laughed and said all was well. But in fact we were quiet…"

-Sarah Perry, Enlightenment

"...in the ordinary way we love because we're loved, and give more or less what we're given. But to love without return is more strange and more wonderful, and not the humiliating thing I'd once taken…"

-Sarah Perry, Enlightenment

Cover of This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud

15. This Strange Eventful History

By: Claire Messud

3.63

Format: 448 pages, Hardcover

An immersive, masterful story of a family born on the wrong side of history, from one of our finest… read more

Similar categories in Claire Messud's This Strange Eventful History book and Andrea Barrett's Natural History

  • audiobook
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
"Family life, like playing chess, involved always thinking several steps ahead."

-Claire Messud, This Strange Eventful History

"Literature... Now, that's a religion I can believe in. That is perhaps my God."

-Claire Messud, This Strange Eventful History

"... she'd been a fool, enamored of a figment, had created the soul of a man who never existed -"

-Claire Messud, This Strange Eventful History

"All-U-Can Hi-way 4-Sale Thru. This American English thrilled him - its energy, its freedom, its carelessness."

-Claire Messud, This Strange Eventful History

Cover of After the Funeral and Other Stories by Tessa Hadley

16. After the Funeral and Other Stories

By: Tessa Hadley

3.81

Format: 240 pages, Hardcover

A masterful collection of stories that plumb the depths of everyday life to reveal the shifting tid… read more

Similar categories in Tessa Hadley's After the Funeral and Other Stories book and Andrea Barrett's Natural History

  • literature
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Properties of Thirst by Marianne Wiggins

17. Properties of Thirst

By: Marianne Wiggins

4.17

Format: 544 pages, Hardcover

A National Bestseller A New Yorker Best Book of 2022 Fifteen years after the publication of Evi… read more

Similar categories in Marianne Wiggins's Properties of Thirst book and Andrea Barrett's Natural History

  • audiobook
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
Cover of Learning to Talk by Hilary Mantel

18. Learning to Talk

By: Hilary Mantel

3.67

Format: 176 pages, Hardcover

A dazzling collection of short stories from the two-time winner of the Booker Prize and #1 New York… read more

Similar categories in Hilary Mantel's Learning to Talk book and Andrea Barrett's Natural History

  • literature
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • audiobook
"Straight is the line of Duty, Curved is the line of Beauty, Follow the straight line, thou shall see. The curved line ever follow thee."

-Hilary Mantel, Learning to Talk

Cover of Natural History by Andrea Barrett

19. Natural History

By: Andrea Barrett

3.76

Format: 208 pages, Hardcover

In Natural History, Andrea Barrett completes the beautiful arc of intertwined lives of a family of … read more

Similar categories in Andrea Barrett's Natural History book and Andrea Barrett's Natural History

  • adult fiction
  • literature
  • historical
  • natural history
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • book club
  • nature
  • audiobook
Cover of Desert Notebooks: A Road Map for the End of Time by Ben Ehrenreich

20. Desert Notebooks: A Road Map for the End of Time

By: Ben Ehrenreich

3.51

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

Layering climate science, mythologies, nature writing, and personal experiences, National Magazine… read more

Similar categories in Ben Ehrenreich's Desert Notebooks: A Road Map for the End of Time book and Andrea Barrett's Natural History

  • nature
  • audiobook
"How painful and absurd, this fantasy that your own labors might in turn be redeemed by strangers centuries and perhaps continents away who would need to hear what you had to whisper, this delusion th…"

-Ben Ehrenreich, Desert Notebooks: A Road Map for the End of Time

"Already on that highway Las Vegas felt like a dream, fleeing from my memory, growing fuzzier and more unreal with every passing mile of creosote basin rimmed by jagged hills. Will what we call civili…"

-Ben Ehrenreich, Desert Notebooks: A Road Map for the End of Time

Cover of The Sadness of Beautiful Things: Stories by Simon Van Booy

21. The Sadness of Beautiful Things: Stories

By: Simon Van Booy

3.70

Format: 208 pages, Paperback

An exquisite new collection of short stories from award-winning author Simon Van Booy.   Over the p… read more

Similar categories in Simon Van Booy's The Sadness of Beautiful Things: Stories book and Andrea Barrett's Natural History

  • short stories
  • fiction
  • audiobook

19 Top fiction books like Natural History by Andrea Barrett

Transform Your Habits

Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

Kate Atkinson

3.71

Transform Your Habits

Dinosaurs

Lydia Millet

3.88

Transform Your Habits

North Woods

Daniel Mason

4.15

Transform Your Habits

This Other Eden

Paul Harding

3.78

View all the books

18 must-read audiobook books like The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl

Transform Your Habits

After Annie

Anna Quindlen

4.03

Transform Your Habits

The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year

Margaret Renkl

4.37

Transform Your Habits

James

Percival Everett

4.54

Transform Your Habits

The Backyard Bird Chronicles

Amy Tan

4.14

View all the books

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