21 must-read fiction books like The Net Beneath Us by Carol Dunbar

Cover of The Net Beneath Us by Carol Dunbar

The Net Beneath Us

By: Carol Dunbar

3.98

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

In her debut novel, Carol Dunbar draws from her own lived experiences, vividly describing the wonde…

If you liked the fiction plot in The Net Beneath Us by Carol Dunbar , here is a list of 21 books like this:

Cover of After Annie by Anna Quindlen

1. After Annie

By: Anna Quindlen

4.03

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

When Annie Brown dies suddenly, her husband, her four young children and her closest friend are lef… read more

Similar categories in Anna Quindlen's After Annie book and Carol Dunbar's The Net Beneath Us

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
Cover of The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

2. The Frozen River

By: Ariel Lawhon

4.43

Format: 432 pages, Hardcover

A gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-cen… read more

Similar categories in Ariel Lawhon's The Frozen River book and Carol Dunbar's The Net Beneath Us

  • mystery thriller
  • fiction
  • mystery
  • thriller
  • audiobook
Cover of The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger

3. The River We Remember

By: William Kent Krueger

4.29

Format: 421 pages, Hardcover

In 1958, a small Minnesota town is rocked by the murder of its most powerful citizen, pouring fresh… read more

Similar categories in William Kent Krueger's The River We Remember book and Carol Dunbar's The Net Beneath Us

  • mystery thriller
  • literary fiction
  • suspense
  • fiction
  • mystery
  • thriller
  • audiobook
"Finally, she wrote: The most frightening thing we do in our lives is to love."

-William Kent Krueger, The River We Remember

"People who make other people happy are generally pretty unhappy themselves," she said."

-William Kent Krueger, The River We Remember

"Bluestone said, " Hihanni waste ." "He honnay washtay?" Sam gave him a bewildered half smile. "I'm afraid I don't understand." "Exactly my point," Bluestone said. "I've lived in a white man's world a…"

-William Kent Krueger, The River We Remember

"[Scott] heard the clock on the living room mantel strike midnight, and he could no longer lie there suffering. He slipped from his bed, dressed, and so quietly that he might not even have existed--an…"

-William Kent Krueger, The River We Remember

Cover of Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal

4. Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club

By: J. Ryan Stradal

3.63

Format: 340 pages, Hardcover

From the New York Times bestselling author J. Ryan Stradal, a story of a couple from two very diffe… read more

Similar categories in J. Ryan Stradal's Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club book and Carol Dunbar's The Net Beneath Us

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"This place is in your blood, but not your heart. Go find a place that is."

-J. Ryan Stradal, Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club

"People here liked to say they rooted for the underdog, but some of them got real quiet when the underdog was different from them."

-J. Ryan Stradal, Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club

"Winter was her cathedral, and the snow-decked trees its endless pillars, and although it was quiet, it wasn't empty. The silence coaxed voices into her imagination, voices of the past and future, voi…"

-J. Ryan Stradal, Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club

Cover of Flight by Lynn Steger Strong

5. Flight

By: Lynn Steger Strong

3.43

Format: 240 pages, Hardcover

"Arresting and powerful,  Flight  examines the possibility and pain of fierce love and hope in our … read more

Similar categories in Lynn Steger Strong's Flight book and Carol Dunbar's The Net Beneath Us

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"You must be active in your own life. You must engage. Interact in order to create."

-Lynn Steger Strong, Flight

"[T]hey'll all celebrate and toast each other, toast the small ways they can still care for and love one another, no matter how awful at it all of them are."

-Lynn Steger Strong, Flight

"When we're young we think we'll just choose the lives we'll have, the people we're becoming, but so much of it just happens. You can live a whole life without choosing anything at all."

-Lynn Steger Strong, Flight

"...she's the only person in the world who ever saw me the way she saw me, who loved me like that, who remembered me as all the things I'd ever been and also thought of me as all the things she still …"

-Lynn Steger Strong, Flight

Cover of I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger

6. 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 Carol Dunbar's The Net Beneath Us

  • literary fiction
  • 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 Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro

7. Signal Fires

By: Dani Shapiro

3.91

Format: 229 pages, Hardcover

NATIONAL BEST SELLER • From the beloved author of INHERITANCE: “a haunting, moving, and propulsive … read more

Similar categories in Dani Shapiro's Signal Fires book and Carol Dunbar's The Net Beneath Us

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • mystery
  • audiobook
"How long will molecular traces of the Wilfs remain inside 18 Division Street?"

-Dani Shapiro, Signal Fires

"It wasn't scary. I mean, it was scary being in the dark and cold and everything, but when the lady, Mrs. Wilf, died, it was like everything had no beginning, and no end. Like we were lightyears away …"

-Dani Shapiro, Signal Fires

Cover of The Road to Dalton (Dalton, Maine, #1) by Shannon Bowring

8. The Road to Dalton (Dalton, Maine, #1)

By: Shannon Bowring

4.04

Format: 250 pages, Paperback

From debut author Shannon Bowring comes a novel of small town America that Pulitzer-winner Richard … read more

Similar categories in Shannon Bowring's The Road to Dalton (Dalton, Maine, #1) book and Carol Dunbar's The Net Beneath Us

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
Cover of Saving Emma (Boady Sanden, #2) by Allen Eskens

9. Saving Emma (Boady Sanden, #2)

By: Allen Eskens

4.16

Format: 304 pages, Kindle Edition

A lawyer's race to reveal a wrongful conviction collides with the dark shadow of a murder in his ow… read more

Similar categories in Allen Eskens's Saving Emma (Boady Sanden, #2) book and Carol Dunbar's The Net Beneath Us

  • mystery thriller
  • suspense
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • mystery
  • thriller
  • audiobook
"There are no miracles, my friend. God's hand is in everything; it's only when we can't explain it that we call it a miracle."

-Allen Eskens, Saving Emma (Boady Sanden, #2)

Cover of Northwoods by Amy Pease

10. Northwoods

By: Amy Pease

3.62

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

The dark underbelly of an idyllic Midwestern resort town is revealed in the aftermath of a murder w… read more

Similar categories in Amy Pease's Northwoods book and Carol Dunbar's The Net Beneath Us

  • mystery thriller
  • suspense
  • fiction
  • mystery
  • thriller
  • audiobook
"Besides, I have my pepper spray." When his expression turned skeptical, she looked at him as if he was utterly clueless. "I'm from Chicago," she said, slowly, as if explaining something to a backward…"

-Amy Pease, Northwoods

Cover of Pete and Alice in Maine by Caitlin Shetterly

11. Pete and Alice in Maine

By: Caitlin Shetterly

3.38

Format: 256 pages, Hardcover

Reeling from a painful betrayal in her marriage as the COVID-19 pandemic takes hold in New York Cit… read more

Similar categories in Caitlin Shetterly's Pete and Alice in Maine book and Carol Dunbar's The Net Beneath Us

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
Cover of A Quiet Life by Ethan Joella

12. A Quiet Life

By: Ethan Joella

4.06

Format: 294 pages, Hardcover

From the author of A Little Hope —a Read with Jenna Bonus Pick—comes another “heartwarming, charact… read more

Similar categories in Ethan Joella's A Quiet Life book and Carol Dunbar's The Net Beneath Us

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"Maybe that is love. Maybe loving someone so deeply means accepting the fact that they occupy a specific, clear place in you. You accept that there will be a hole if you lose them- the same way a pain…"

-Ethan Joella, A Quiet Life

Cover of Crow Talk by Eileen Garvin

13. Crow Talk

By: Eileen Garvin

4.18

Format: 368 pages, Hardcover

Nationally bestselling author of The Music of Bees Eileen Garvin returns with a moving story of hop… read more

Similar categories in Eileen Garvin's Crow Talk book and Carol Dunbar's The Net Beneath Us

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
Cover of Mercury by Amy Jo Burns

14. Mercury

By: Amy Jo Burns

3.83

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

A roofing family’s bonds of loyalty are tested when they uncover a long-hidden secret at the heart … read more

Similar categories in Amy Jo Burns's Mercury book and Carol Dunbar's The Net Beneath Us

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • mystery
  • audiobook
Cover of Stealing by Margaret Verble

15. Stealing

By: Margaret Verble

4.04

Format: 238 pages, Hardcover

A gripping, gut-punch of a novel about a Cherokee child removed from her family and sent to a Chris… read more

Similar categories in Margaret Verble's Stealing book and Carol Dunbar's The Net Beneath Us

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of True North by Andrew J. Graff

16. True North

By: Andrew J. Graff

3.74

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

From the author of Raft of Stars comes a heartfelt novel of marriage and whitewater rafting, follow… read more

Similar categories in Andrew J. Graff's True North book and Carol Dunbar's The Net Beneath Us

  • audiobook
  • fiction
  • contemporary
Cover of Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo

17. Same As It Ever Was

By: Claire Lombardo

4.00

Format: 498 pages, Hardcover

Julia Ames, after a youth marked by upheaval and emotional turbulence, has found herself on the pla… read more

Similar categories in Claire Lombardo's Same As It Ever Was book and Carol Dunbar's The Net Beneath Us

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"Parenthood was a persistent cruelty, a constant, simultaneous desire to be together and apart."

-Claire Lombardo, Same As It Ever Was

Cover of Still True by Maggie Ginsberg

18. Still True

By: Maggie Ginsberg

4.28

Format: 280 pages, Paperback

One summer evening, Lib Hanson is confronted by her painful past when Matt Marlow, the forty-year-o… read more

Similar categories in Maggie Ginsberg's Still True book and Carol Dunbar's The Net Beneath Us

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
Cover of The Nature of Disappearing by Kimi Cunningham Grant

19. The Nature of Disappearing

By: Kimi Cunningham Grant

3.69

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

In this captivating novel of suspense, a wilderness guide must team up with the man who ruined her … read more

Similar categories in Kimi Cunningham Grant's The Nature of Disappearing book and Carol Dunbar's The Net Beneath Us

  • mystery thriller
  • suspense
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • mystery
  • thriller
  • audiobook
"All of them skated through life making choices that could be swept away and tidied up with incomprehensible ease simply because of who they were."

-Kimi Cunningham Grant, The Nature of Disappearing

"This is the moment Emlyn will play over and over in her mind. The moment where her life swivels from its course and heads in an entirely different direction. Life is full of these moments. Little poi…"

-Kimi Cunningham Grant, The Nature of Disappearing

Cover of The Net Beneath Us by Carol Dunbar

20. The Net Beneath Us

By: Carol Dunbar

3.98

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

In her debut novel, Carol Dunbar draws from her own lived experiences, vividly describing the wonde… read more

Similar categories in Carol Dunbar's The Net Beneath Us book and Carol Dunbar's The Net Beneath Us

  • mystery thriller
  • womens fiction
  • literary fiction
  • suspense
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • mystery
  • thriller
  • audiobook
Cover of The Sequel (The Book Series, #2) by Jean Hanff Korelitz

21. The Sequel (The Book Series, #2)

By: Jean Hanff Korelitz

4.07

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

After the “insanely readable” (Stephen King) and “perfectly told” (Malcolm Gladwell) New York Times… read more

Similar categories in Jean Hanff Korelitz's The Sequel (The Book Series, #2) book and Carol Dunbar's The Net Beneath Us

  • mystery thriller
  • suspense
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • mystery
  • thriller
  • audiobook

16 Top contemporary books like The Net Beneath Us by Carol Dunbar

Transform Your Habits

After Annie

Anna Quindlen

4.03

Transform Your Habits

Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club

J. Ryan Stradal

3.63

Transform Your Habits

Flight

Lynn Steger Strong

3.43

Transform Your Habits

Signal Fires

Dani Shapiro

3.91

View all the books

21 Best fiction books like A Quiet Life by Ethan Joella

Transform Your Habits

After Annie

Anna Quindlen

4.03

Transform Your Habits

The Berry Pickers

Amanda Peters

4.14

Transform Your Habits

The Frozen River

Ariel Lawhon

4.43

Transform Your Habits

The River We Remember

William Kent Krueger

4.29

View all the books

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