8 must-read lgbt books like Nuclear Family by Joseph Han

Cover of Nuclear Family by Joseph  Han

Nuclear Family

By: Joseph Han

3.23

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

Set in the months leading up to the 2018 nuclear missile false alarm, a Korean American family livi…

If you liked the lgbt plot in Nuclear Family by Joseph Han , here is a list of 8 books like this:

Cover of Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou

1. Disorientation

By: Elaine Hsieh Chou

3.84

Format: 403 pages, Hardcover

A Taiwanese American woman’s coming-of-consciousness ignites eye-opening revelations and chaos on a… read more

Similar categories in Elaine Hsieh Chou's Disorientation book and Joseph Han's Nuclear Family

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • asian literature
  • novels
  • audiobook
"Never apologize, Ingrid. Especially not when it concerns a man."

-Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

"She'd be split apart, never certain if the submissive and docile figure in the mirror was a reflection of who she really was, or the ghostly effect of someone telling her her entire life: this is who…"

-Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

"For once in her life, she wanted to be selfishly and deliciously lazy. To embody the most abhorred word of her generation: unproductive. She, yes she, wanted to be the person who walks away as a car …"

-Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

"Though it was a little shabby and could do with more frequent dusting, sudents flocked to the café for the worn-in armchairs and couches, free wi-fi and cheap coffee. Ingrid particularly liked the to…"

-Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

Cover of If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery

2. If I Survive You

By: Jonathan Escoffery

3.69

Format: 260 pages, Hardcover

In the 1970s, Topper and Sanya flee to Miami as political violence consumes their native Kingston. … read more

Similar categories in Jonathan Escoffery's If I Survive You book and Joseph Han's Nuclear Family

  • literary fiction
  • family
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • audiobook
"What does Whiteness feel like?... I imagine it's like walking barefoot…"

-Jonathan Escoffery, If I Survive You

"Why don't stars make any sounds in the winter? What sounds? Ethan said."

-Jonathan Escoffery, If I Survive You

"Every boy deserves to believe him father is good, but if each father were good, we’d be living in a different kind of world."

-Jonathan Escoffery, If I Survive You

"I imagined I could have begged an old girlfriend from college to send money; enough of them had expressed ambivalence about their trust funds that this seemed a plausible path down which I might drag…"

-Jonathan Escoffery, If I Survive You

Cover of Family Meal by Bryan Washington

3. Family Meal

By: Bryan Washington

3.56

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

From the bestselling, award-winning author of Memorial and Lot, an irresistible, intimate novel abo… read more

Similar categories in Bryan Washington's Family Meal book and Joseph Han's Nuclear Family

  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • audiobook
Cover of Memory Piece by Lisa Ko

4. Memory Piece

By: Lisa Ko

3.22

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

In the early 1980s, Giselle Chin, Jackie Ong, and Ellen Ng are three teenagers drawn together by th… read more

Similar categories in Lisa Ko's Memory Piece book and Joseph Han's Nuclear Family

  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • audiobook
"The physicality of making things, the performance, temporarily displaced how stuck she felt, in this particular body, family, town, time."

-Lisa Ko, Memory Piece

Cover of Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

5. Wandering Stars

By: Tommy Orange

3.89

Format: 315 pages, Hardcover

The eagerly awaited follow-up to Pulitzer Prize-finalist Tommy Orange’s breakout best seller There … read more

Similar categories in Tommy Orange's Wandering Stars book and Joseph Han's Nuclear Family

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"And in the year 1924 Indian citizenship will have been granted, even though they will mean to dissolve tribes by giving citizenship, dissolve being another word for disappearance, a kind of chemical …"

-Tommy Orange, Wandering Stars

Cover of Real Americans by Rachel Khong

6. Real Americans

By: Rachel Khong

4.04

Format: 416 pages, Hardcover

From the award-winning author of Goodbye, Vitamin: How far would you go to shape your own destiny?… read more

Similar categories in Rachel Khong's Real Americans book and Joseph Han's Nuclear Family

  • literary fiction
  • magical realism
  • family
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • audiobook
"She wasn't normal and so I wasn't either. I resented that part the most."

-Rachel Khong, Real Americans

"It was a habit, with my parents: omitting information, not wanting to worry them unnecessarily. Though they’d raised me so American, I could never manage the sorts of American relationships my friend…"

-Rachel Khong, Real Americans

"With each other they spoke loudly: Their voices periodically rose to excited shouts, and they laughed raucously. In English they were milder mannered, polite. My mother had always spoken English to m…"

-Rachel Khong, Real Americans

Cover of Stay True by Hua Hsu

7. Stay True

By: Hua Hsu

4.03

Format: 208 pages, Hardcover

From the New Yorker staff writer Hua Hsu, a gripping memoir on friendship, grief, the search for se… read more

Similar categories in Hua Hsu's Stay True book and Joseph Han's Nuclear Family

  • asian literature
  • audiobook
"My parents are great, I said. Unbelievably non-stereotypical."

-Hua Hsu, Stay True

"The first generation thinks about survival; the ones that follow tell the stories."

-Hua Hsu, Stay True

"You were describing people we had not yet met, maybe people we ourselves would become."

-Hua Hsu, Stay True

"It was a sign of personal growth, I thought to myself, that I could be friends with someone who liked Pearl Jam this much."

-Hua Hsu, Stay True

Cover of Activities of Daily Living by Lisa Hsiao Chen

8. Activities of Daily Living

By: Lisa Hsiao Chen

3.85

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

How do we take stock of a life—by what means, and by what measure? This is the question that preocc… read more

Similar categories in Lisa Hsiao Chen's Activities of Daily Living book and Joseph Han's Nuclear Family

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • asian literature
  • novels
"Grief is like watching television."

-Lisa Hsiao Chen, Activities of Daily Living

Cover of All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews

9. All This Could Be Different

By: Sarah Thankam Mathews

3.85

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

Graduating into the long maw of an American recession, Sneha is one of the fortunate ones. She's mo… read more

Similar categories in Sarah Thankam Mathews's All This Could Be Different book and Joseph Han's Nuclear Family

  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • audiobook
"The world has ended a thousand times and my name called in each new book of it."

-Sarah Thankam Mathews, All This Could Be Different

"The world we knew has always been half-terrible, made as it is by the powerful, for the powerful. We were crowning a different one. Its birth would not be easy; no birth was."

-Sarah Thankam Mathews, All This Could Be Different

"This is my tragedy and my great good fortune, to be the recipient of this bond, to be kept alive under its crushing warmth and weight, to be given it so freely, so much more than I have ever deserved."

-Sarah Thankam Mathews, All This Could Be Different

"I use the present tense, but I mean, that’s the way I remember it, and these are the things I learned about it, later, and the two combined have formed my truth of a place. We all have our truth of a…"

-Sarah Thankam Mathews, All This Could Be Different

Cover of The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang

10. The Family Chao

By: Lan Samantha Chang

3.35

Format: 303 pages, Hardcover

The residents of Haven, Wisconsin, have dined on the Fine Chao Restaurant’s delicious Americanized … read more

Similar categories in Lan Samantha Chang's The Family Chao book and Joseph Han's Nuclear Family

  • literary fiction
  • family
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • audiobook
"Our inner selves exist. They're unique, and they're meaningful and mysterious, even if they are secret sometimes even from ourselves."

-Lan Samantha Chang, The Family Chao

"After emotions are felt, expressed, where do they go? Is there a place where spent passion collects? Surely it can't simply vaporize, disappear like smoke. There must be a secret hiding place. For ev…"

-Lan Samantha Chang, The Family Chao

"In Alf's close-up, he's less than a year old, almost unrecognizably puppyish. He gazes directly at James, head slightly cocked, bat ears unfolded in typical, unceasing alertness. His small black nose…"

-Lan Samantha Chang, The Family Chao

"The half-dozen temple dogs circle him and Alf in a delirium of barking, clicking paws, and waving tails. They're mixed breeds, smooth-haired, ears neither floppy nor exactly pointed, and a few with t…"

-Lan Samantha Chang, The Family Chao

Cover of Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang

11. 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

Similar categories in C Pam Zhang's Land of Milk and Honey book and Joseph Han's Nuclear Family

  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • audiobook
" 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

Cover of Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty

12. Night of the Living Rez

By: Morgan Talty

3.91

Format: 285 pages, Paperback

How do the living come back to life?  Set in a Native community in Maine, Night of the Living Re… read more

Similar categories in Morgan Talty's Night of the Living Rez book and Joseph Han's Nuclear Family

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
"There is that terrible memory, surely, but so too are there sweet ones, the tiny memories with the tiny details that are milder in climax, no doubt, but equally powerful..."

-Morgan Talty, Night of the Living Rez

Cover of The Apology by Jimin Han

13. The Apology

By: Jimin Han

3.47

Format: 291 pages, Hardcover

This sweeping intergenerational saga tells the story of a pampered and defiant South Korean matriar… read more

Similar categories in Jimin Han's The Apology book and Joseph Han's Nuclear Family

  • literary fiction
  • magical realism
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
Cover of The Town of Babylon by Alejandro  Varela

14. The Town of Babylon

By: Alejandro Varela

3.96

Format: 308 pages, Hardcover

In this contemporary debut novel—an intimate portrait of queer, racial, and class identity —Andrés,… read more

Similar categories in Alejandro Varela's The Town of Babylon book and Joseph Han's Nuclear Family

  • contemporary
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • lgbt
Cover of A Map for the Missing by Belinda Huijuan Tang

15. A Map for the Missing

By: Belinda Huijuan Tang

4.01

Format: 400 pages, Hardcover

An epic, mesmerizing debut novel set against a rapidly changing post–Cultural Revolution China, A M… read more

Similar categories in Belinda Huijuan Tang's A Map for the Missing book and Joseph Han's Nuclear Family

  • asian literature
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Songs on Endless Repeat: Essays and Outtakes by Anthony Veasna So

16. Songs on Endless Repeat: Essays and Outtakes

By: Anthony Veasna So

4.11

Format: 240 pages, Hardcover

A Most Anticipated Book of 2023 from: LA Times * Boston Globe * The Millions * LitHub By the New… read more

Similar categories in Anthony Veasna So's Songs on Endless Repeat: Essays and Outtakes book and Joseph Han's Nuclear Family

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
"We're minorities within minorities, I'd often repeat to my friend, in an attempt to subdue his frustration with the compounding obstacles of his life."

-Anthony Veasna So, Songs on Endless Repeat: Essays and Outtakes

"You can only keep up the precarious act of sustaining this fantasy of a better world for so long when not much has actually changed in our favor. But as long as there's something new in our queue, af…"

-Anthony Veasna So, Songs on Endless Repeat: Essays and Outtakes

"But—please, hear me out—don't you think difference breathes in the expanses that lie amid your monotonous thoughts? Even as you see in the future only suicide, your mind fosters so many novel meaning…"

-Anthony Veasna So, Songs on Endless Repeat: Essays and Outtakes

Cover of Loot by Tania James

17. Loot

By: Tania James

3.82

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

A spellbinding historical novel set in the eighteenth century - a hero’s quest, a love story, the s… read more

Similar categories in Tania James's Loot book and Joseph Han's Nuclear Family

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • audiobook
"She is reading; he loves the lost expression on her face when she reads."

-Tania James, Loot

Cover of Which Side Are You On by Ryan Lee Wong

18. Which Side Are You On

By: Ryan Lee Wong

3.60

Format: 175 pages, Hardcover

How can we live with integrity and pleasure in this world of police brutality and racism? An Asian … read more

Similar categories in Ryan Lee Wong's Which Side Are You On book and Joseph Han's Nuclear Family

  • literary fiction
  • family
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • audiobook
Cover of Nuclear Family by Joseph  Han

19. Nuclear Family

By: Joseph Han

3.23

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

Set in the months leading up to the 2018 nuclear missile false alarm, a Korean American family livi… read more

Similar categories in Joseph Han's Nuclear Family book and Joseph Han's Nuclear Family

  • literary fiction
  • magical realism
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • asian literature
  • family
  • novels
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
Cover of If You Leave Me by Crystal Hana Kim

20. If You Leave Me

By: Crystal Hana Kim

3.69

Format: 417 pages, Hardcover

An emotionally riveting debut novel about war, family, and forbidden love—the unforgettable saga of… read more

Similar categories in Crystal Hana Kim's If You Leave Me book and Joseph Han's Nuclear Family

  • asian literature
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • audiobook
"I realized we were lurching toward a new world—one where women would disappear with foreigners, where Americans would never leave us alone, where they didn't simply provide us with money but with the…"

-Crystal Hana Kim, If You Leave Me

Cover of Eden by Andrea Kleine

21. Eden

By: Andrea Kleine

3.19

Format: 264 pages, Hardcover

Every other weekend, Hope and Eden—backpacks, Walkmans, and homework in hand—wait for their father … read more

Similar categories in Andrea Kleine's Eden book and Joseph Han's Nuclear Family

  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels

19 best-selling fiction books like Nuclear Family by Joseph Han

Transform Your Habits

Disorientation

Elaine Hsieh Chou

3.84

Transform Your Habits

If I Survive You

Jonathan Escoffery

3.69

Transform Your Habits

Family Meal

Bryan Washington

3.56

Transform Your Habits

Memory Piece

Lisa Ko

3.22

View all the books

21 best-selling fiction books like Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

Transform Your Habits

James

Percival Everett

4.54

Transform Your Habits

North Woods

Daniel Mason

4.15

Transform Your Habits

Wandering Stars

Tommy Orange

3.89

Transform Your Habits

Real Americans

Rachel Khong

4.04

View all the books

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