The Golden State
By: Lydia Kiesling
3.68
Format: 304 pages, Hardcover
In Lydia Kiesling’s razor-sharp debut novel, The Golden State, we accompany Daphne, a young mother …
Want to Read $ 9.99"It’s not very comforting,"-Lydia Kiesling, The Golden State
"...motherhood is not a house you live in but a warren of beautiful rooms, something like Topkapi … some well-trod but magnificent place you’re only allowed to sit in for a minute and snap a photo before you are ushered out."-Lydia Kiesling, The Golden State
"The drive is supposed to take six and a half hours but somehow we have been on the road for eight when we come to the wooden sign sunk into grass that signifies the entrance to Deakins Park, and although Honey is still caterwauling, passing the sign feels like entering protected land, something apart from the ravages of the town. It sounds like hair-splitting to parse the varieties of mobile home, like something only a person obsessed about imperceptible class minutia would do, but there are mobile homes and mobile homes and despite how mortified Mom and I used to be by the fact that her parents lived in a mobile home now I happen to think Deakins Park is just as nice if not nicer than many a suburban cul-de-sac of for example the Nut Tree-adjacent variety. It’s a circle of nicely appointed and discreetly mobile homes of different styles and patterns built on either side of a large circular street, each with a good-size yard. The outer ring of houses is bounded by a split-rail fence, and beyond this the town gives over to the high desert, with low, prickly sagebrush and rafts of tumbleweed through which jackrabbits and antelopes poke delicately in the cool mornings. Everyone has plenty of space and a view of the low-lying mountains ringing the basin. The houses look pretty good. It’s a little neighborhood on the frontier. Home on the range, if you will."-Lydia Kiesling, The Golden State
If you liked the family plot in The Golden State by Lydia Kiesling , here is a list of 6 books like this:
1. The Wren, the Wren
By: Anne Enright
3.55
Format: 278 pages, Hardcover
An incandescent novel about the inheritance of trauma, wonder, and love across three generations of… read more
Want to Read $ 9.66Similar categories in Anne Enright's The Wren, the Wren book and Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State
- literary fiction
- family
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- audiobook
"It's not that I think about him constantly, he is my way of thinking. His mind is my compass, his eyes my only mirror."-Anne Enright, The Wren, the Wren
"We don’t walk down the same street as the person walking beside us. All we can do is tell the other person what we see. We can point at things and try to name them. If we do this well, our friend can…"-Anne Enright, The Wren, the Wren
"We don't walk down the same street as the person walking beside us. All we can do is tell the other person what we see. We can point at things and try to name them. If we do this well, our friend can…"-Anne Enright, The Wren, the Wren
2. Commitment
By: Mona Simpson
3.62
Format: 416 pages, Hardcover
A masterful and engrossing novel about a single mother's collapse and the fate of her family after … read more
Want to Read $ 11.99Similar categories in Mona Simpson's Commitment book and Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State
- literary fiction
- family
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- audiobook
"He respected architecture less than he once had. Some buildings were true art. A few more worked like machines for living. But when he looked at most new buildings, what he saw was ego. So many peopl…"-Mona Simpson, Commitment
3. The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions
By: Jonathan Rosen
4.07
Format: 576 pages, Hardcover
“Brave and nuanced…an act of tremendous compassion and a literary triumph.” — The New York Times … read more
Want to Read $ 12.99Similar categories in Jonathan Rosen's The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions book and Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State
- audiobook
"It's true I didn't love the job, but I did want the money. If I was too incompetent for ordinary work, I would have to do something extraordinary or face destruction."-Jonathan Rosen, The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions
"Money had replaced community mental healthcare the way medication had replaced state hospitals. Medication did not go looking for those who resisted taking it, and money could not administer itself. …"-Jonathan Rosen, The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions
4. 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
Want to Read $ 12.99Similar categories in Lauren Groff's The Vaster Wilds book and Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State
- adult fiction
- literary fiction
- fiction
- 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
5. 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
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Vinson Cunningham's Great Expectations book and Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State
- literary fiction
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- audiobook
"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
6. The Vulnerables
By: Sigrid Nunez
3.61
Format: 256 pages, Hardcover
The New York Times –bestselling, National Book Award–winning author of The Friend and What Are You … read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Sigrid Nunez's The Vulnerables book and Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State
- adult fiction
- literary fiction
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- audiobook
"Only when I was young did I believe that it was important to remember what happened in every novel I read. Now I know the truth: what matters is what you experience while reading, the states of feeli…"-Sigrid Nunez, The Vulnerables
7. Headshot
By: Rita Bullwinkel
3.63
Format: 224 pages, Hardcover
An electrifying debut novel from an “unusually gifted writer” (Lorrie Moore) about the radical inti… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Rita Bullwinkel's Headshot book and Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State
- literary fiction
- fiction
- contemporary
- womens
- novels
- audiobook
"The desire to please people is the desire to not be singular."-Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot
"Tanya Maw's sister is two years older, the perfect age gap for wisdom transmission."-Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot
"It can be intoxicating to play a sport that requires one to look in their opponent's eyes."-Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot
"It's a warmth that she'll feel again very few times in her life. It's almost like love, but it has a surer, less desperate edge to it."-Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot
8. The Morningside
By: Téa Obreht
3.61
Format: 304 pages, Hardcover
From the critically beloved, New York Times bestselling author of The Tiger's Wife and Inland, a ma… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Téa Obreht's The Morningside book and Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State
- audiobook
- literary fiction
- fiction
- novels
9. Land of Milk and Honey
By: C Pam Zhang
3.54
Format: 240 pages, Hardcover
The award-winning author of How Much of These Hills Is Gold returns with a rapturous and revelatory… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in C Pam Zhang's Land of Milk and Honey book and Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State
- audiobook
- literary fiction
- fiction
- contemporary
" Real food is whatever cooks are proud to make. "-C Pam Zhang, Land of Milk and Honey
"We all die. We have only the choice, if we are privileged, of whether death comes with a whimper or a bang; of what worlds we taste before we go."-C Pam Zhang, Land of Milk and Honey
"My employer was attuned to patterns of human behavior in which he could not take part; because he failed to be swept up in their currents, he could, from his remove, map the tides."-C Pam Zhang, Land of Milk and Honey
"What sustains in the end are doomed romances, and nicotine, and crappy peanut butter, damn the additives and cholesterol because life is finite and not all nourishment can be measured."-C Pam Zhang, Land of Milk and Honey
10. Bear
By: Julia Phillips
3.38
Format: 304 pages, Hardcover
A mesmerising novel of two sisters on a Pacific Northwest island whose lives are upended by an unex… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Julia Phillips's Bear book and Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State
- adult fiction
- literary fiction
- family
- fiction
- contemporary
- audiobook
"There'd been only three hundred students in the whole school, which made it a tiny, gossipy hellhole, a bucket of crabs snapping at each other and falling over themselves."-Julia Phillips, Bear
"What was Sam afraid of? Withering away here. Dreaming of chances she'd never be able to take, and shriveling up from that denial, getting poorer and put under more pressure and pushed farther from th…"-Julia Phillips, Bear
11. Holiday Country
By: İnci Atrek
3.25
Format: 272 pages, Hardcover
A seductive and lyrical debut following a young woman’s dangerous summer romance during an idyllic … read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in İnci Atrek's Holiday Country book and Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State
- literary fiction
- family
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- audiobook
12. Bad Animals
By: Sarah Braunstein
3.49
Format: 304 pages, Hardcover
A sexy, propulsive novel that confronts the limits of empathy and the perils of appropriation throu… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Sarah Braunstein's Bad Animals book and Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State
- adult fiction
- literary fiction
- fiction
- contemporary
- audiobook
13. Reproduction
By: Louisa Hall
3.82
Format: 224 pages, Hardcover
A lucid, genre-defying novel that explores the surreality of pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood … read more
Want to Read $ 12.99Similar categories in Louisa Hall's Reproduction book and Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State
- literary fiction
- parenting
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- audiobook
14. The Golden State
By: Lydia Kiesling
3.68
Format: 304 pages, Hardcover
In Lydia Kiesling’s razor-sharp debut novel, The Golden State, we accompany Daphne, a young mother … read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State book and Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State
- adult fiction
- literary fiction
- parenting
- the united states of america
- fiction
- contemporary
- family
- womens
- novels
- audiobook
"It’s not very comforting,"-Lydia Kiesling, The Golden State
"...motherhood is not a house you live in but a warren of beautiful rooms, something like Topkapi … some well-trod but magnificent place you’re only allowed to sit in for a minute and snap a photo bef…"-Lydia Kiesling, The Golden State
"The drive is supposed to take six and a half hours but somehow we have been on the road for eight when we come to the wooden sign sunk into grass that signifies the entrance to Deakins Park, and alth…"-Lydia Kiesling, The Golden State
15. And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready
By: Meaghan O'Connell
3.92
Format: 240 pages, Hardcover
And Now We Have Everything is O'Connell's exploration of transitioning into motherhood as a fledgli… read more
Want to Read $ 11.99Similar categories in Meaghan O'Connell's And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready book and Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State
- womens
- parenting
- audiobook
"I don't want to be a mother. I want to be a writer. I want to be taken seriously. I want money. I want more time. I want to lose weight. I want to be beautiful. I want a day completely to myself, tho…"-Meaghan O'Connell, And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready
"I didn’t know before that when parents talked about 'checking on' their children, they meant checking to make sure they weren’t dead. And when they talked about their love for their children, maybe t…"-Meaghan O'Connell, And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready
"Who wanted to be a mother, anyway? Mom called to mind a relationship with someone, not an individual...There was no mother I wanted to be. I wanted to be myself, but better...To me, this was what a m…"-Meaghan O'Connell, And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready
16. Wrong Way
By: Joanne McNeil
3.52
Format: 288 pages, Paperback
For years, Teresa has passed from one job to the next, settling into long stretches of time, strugg… read more
Want to Read $ 11.99Similar categories in Joanne McNeil's Wrong Way book and Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State
- literary fiction
- fiction
- novels
17. Catalina
By: Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
3.65
Format: 224 pages, Hardcover
A year in the life of the unforgettable Catalina Ituralde, a wickedly wry and heartbreakingly vulne… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Karla Cornejo Villavicencio's Catalina book and Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State
- adult fiction
- literary fiction
- fiction
- contemporary
- audiobook
18. BoyMom: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity
By: Ruth Whippman
4.28
Format: 320 pages, Hardcover
Combining painfully honest memoir, cultural analysis, and reporting, BoyMom is a humorous and heart… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Ruth Whippman's BoyMom: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity book and Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State
- parenting
- family
- audiobook
19. The Coin
By: Yasmin Zaher
3.55
Format: 240 pages, Hardcover
A bold and unabashed novel about a young Palestinian woman's unraveling, far from home, as she gets… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Yasmin Zaher's The Coin book and Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State
- adult fiction
- literary fiction
- fiction
- contemporary
- womens
- novels
"And the poet, he asked, who was it again? Aisha didn't know him, neither did Matthew. But, of course, Gregory did. He asked if he was the 9/11 denier. No, definitely not a denier, but very vocal when…"-Yasmin Zaher, The Coin
20. Someone Like Us
By: Dinaw Mengestu
3.66
Format: 272 pages, Hardcover
After abandoning his once promising career as a journalist in search of a new life in Paris, Mamush… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Dinaw Mengestu's Someone Like Us book and Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State
- adult fiction
- literary fiction
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- audiobook
"Sometimes I look at you and think that things go right through you. You're like a donut. There's a hole in the middle, where something solid should be"-Dinaw Mengestu, Someone Like Us
21. Small Rain
By: Garth Greenwell
4.30
Format: 320 pages, Hardcover
A medical crisis brings one man close to death—and to love, art, and beauty—in a profound and lumin… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Garth Greenwell's Small Rain book and Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State
- literary fiction
- the united states of america
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- audiobook
