5 Best short stories books like If I Had Two Wings by Randall Kenan

Cover of If I Had Two Wings by Randall Kenan

If I Had Two Wings

By: Randall Kenan

3.84

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

When Randall Kenan’s first collection was published, the New York Times called it “nothing short of…

If you liked the short stories plot in If I Had Two Wings by Randall Kenan , here is a list of 5 books like this:

Cover of The Cat Who Could Read Backwards (Cat Who..., #1) by Lilian Jackson Braun

1. The Cat Who Could Read Backwards (Cat Who..., #1)

By: Lilian Jackson Braun

3.87

Format: 256 pages, Paperback

Jim Qwilleran is a prizewinning reporter who's been on the skids but is now coming back with a job … read more

Similar categories in Lilian Jackson Braun's The Cat Who Could Read Backwards (Cat Who..., #1) book and Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings

  • adult fiction
  • fiction
"It was a man's salad, zesty and full of crunch."

-Lilian Jackson Braun, The Cat Who Could Read Backwards (Cat Who..., #1)

"When a cat, who is a picture of grace and beauty, suddenly rolls over in a hideous posture, contorts his face and scratches his ear, he is telling you, sir, to go to blazes!"

-Lilian Jackson Braun, The Cat Who Could Read Backwards (Cat Who..., #1)

Cover of Cane by Jean Toomer, Darwin Turner

2. Cane

By: Jean Toomer , Darwin Turner

3.83

Format: 116 pages, Paperback

A literary masterpiece of the Harlem Renaissance, Cane is a powerful work of innovative fiction evo… read more

Similar categories in Jean Toomer's Cane book and Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings

  • short stories
  • african american
  • fiction
"Call them from their houses, and teach them to dream."

-Jean Toomer, Cane

"Her own glowing is too rich a thing to let her feel the slimness of his diluted passion."

-Jean Toomer, Cane

"There is no such thing as happiness. Life bends joy and pain, beauty and ugliness, in such a way that no one may isolate them."

-Jean Toomer, Cane

"I like to feel that something deep in me responded to the trees, the young trees that whinnied like colts impatient to be let free…"

-Jean Toomer, Cane

3. Corregidora

By: Gayl Jones

3.88

Format: 144 pages,

Here is Gayl Jones's classic novel, the tale of blues singer Ursa, consumed by her hatred of the ni… read more

Similar categories in Gayl Jones's Corregidora book and Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings

4. I Am Not Sidney Poitier

By: Percival Everett

4.10

Format: 338 pages,

An irresistible comic novel from the master storyteller Percival Everett, and an irreverent take on… read more

Similar categories in Percival Everett's I Am Not Sidney Poitier book and Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings

Cover of Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom

5. Thick: And Other Essays

By: Tressie McMillan Cottom

4.44

Format: 244 pages, Hardcover

Smart, humorous, and strikingly original thoughts on race, beauty, money, and more—by one of today'… read more

Similar categories in Tressie McMillan Cottom's Thick: And Other Essays book and Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings

  • african american
"I fix myself, even when it causes great pain to do so, because I know that I cannot fix the way the world sees me."

-Tressie McMillan Cottom, Thick: And Other Essays

"Indeed, any system of oppression must allow exceptions to validate itself as meritorious. How else will those who are oppressed by the system internalize their own oppression?"

-Tressie McMillan Cottom, Thick: And Other Essays

"Smart is only a construct of correspondence between one's abilities, one's environment, and one's moment in history. I am smart in the right way, in the right time, on the right end of globalization."

-Tressie McMillan Cottom, Thick: And Other Essays

"The networks of capital, be they politics or organizations, work most effeciently when your lowedst status characteristic is assumed. And once these gears are in motion, you can never be competent en…"

-Tressie McMillan Cottom, Thick: And Other Essays

Cover of Terrace Story by Hilary Leichter

6. Terrace Story

By: Hilary Leichter

3.58

Format: 208 pages, Hardcover

From the author of the acclaimed novel Temporary, an intimate exploration of time, a fable about lo… read more

Similar categories in Hilary Leichter's Terrace Story book and Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings

  • literary fiction
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • audiobook
"Of course, I know the details. I just reject your premise," the woman said. "What premise?" "The premise that there is no love when a person is alone."

-Hilary Leichter, Terrace Story

Cover of America Fantastica by Tim O'Brien

7. 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 Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
Cover of The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara

8. The Immortal King Rao

By: Vauhini Vara

3.67

Format: 384 pages, Hardcover

In an Indian village in the 1950s, a precocious child is born into a family of Dalit coconut farmer… read more

Similar categories in Vauhini Vara's The Immortal King Rao book and Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of The Best American Short Stories 2023 by Min Jin Lee

9. 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 Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings

  • literary fiction
  • anthologies
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel

10. 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

Similar categories in Rita Bullwinkel's Headshot book and Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"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

Cover of Missionaries by Phil Klay

11. Missionaries

By: Phil Klay

3.87

Format: 416 pages, Hardcover

From the author of the National Book Award-winning short story collection Redeployment comes an ast… read more

Similar categories in Phil Klay's Missionaries book and Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"You can see a person's soul in the eyes, they say, but you can also see them in the hands."

-Phil Klay, Missionaries

"Life," he says, grinning at his joke. "It's a terrible condition. It's got a one-hundred-percent mortality rate."

-Phil Klay, Missionaries

"Men are weak. Don't ask if they're good or bad. We're all sinful. Ask if they're better or worse than the times they lived in."

-Phil Klay, Missionaries

"fear became something in the background, like the heat of summer, something you acknowledge and sometimes even complain about but which you do not expect to change."

-Phil Klay, Missionaries

Cover of The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts by Gregg Hecimovich

12. The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts

By: Gregg Hecimovich

3.87

Format: 304 pages, ebook

A groundbreaking study of the first Black female novelist and her life as an enslaved woman, from t… read more

Similar categories in Gregg Hecimovich's The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts book and Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings

  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of The Great Offshore Grounds by Vanessa Veselka

13. The Great Offshore Grounds

By: Vanessa Veselka

3.59

Format: 448 pages, Hardcover

A wildly original, cross-country novel that subverts a long tradition of family narratives and cast… read more

Similar categories in Vanessa Veselka's The Great Offshore Grounds book and Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings

  • audiobook
  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • queer
"Have you ever noticed that girls take psych and boys take philosophy? You see it everywhere you look, this idea that women should be so interested in what someone else thinks. I'm not. And that, it t…"

-Vanessa Veselka, The Great Offshore Grounds

Cover of A Very Private School: A Memoir by Charles     Spencer

14. A Very Private School: A Memoir

By: Charles Spencer

4.09

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

In this poignant memoir, Charles Spencer recounts the trauma of being sent away from home at age ei… read more

Similar categories in Charles Spencer's A Very Private School: A Memoir book and Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings

  • audiobook
Cover of This Isn't Going to End Well: The True Story of a Man I Thought I Knew by Daniel Wallace

15. This Isn't Going to End Well: The True Story of a Man I Thought I Knew

By: Daniel Wallace

3.80

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

“A memoir wrapped in an elegy… [that] maps a strangely stunning life… [Wallace] imbues this chronic… read more

Similar categories in Daniel Wallace's This Isn't Going to End Well: The True Story of a Man I Thought I Knew book and Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings

  • audiobook
Cover of Farewell, Amethystine (Easy Rawlins, #16) by Walter Mosley

16. Farewell, Amethystine (Easy Rawlins, #16)

By: Walter Mosley

4.09

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

The Easy Rawlins novels follow the infamous detective Easy Rawlins solving mysteries on the sun-soa… read more

Similar categories in Walter Mosley's Farewell, Amethystine (Easy Rawlins, #16) book and Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings

  • african american
  • fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Queer Little Nightmares by David Ly

17. Queer Little Nightmares

By: David Ly

3.59

Format: 272 pages, Paperback

The fiction and poetry of Queer Little Nightmares reimagines monsters old and new through a queer l… read more

Similar categories in David Ly's Queer Little Nightmares book and Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings

  • audiobook
  • lgbt
  • anthologies
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • queer
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 Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • audiobook
Cover of The Index of Self-Destructive Acts by Christopher R. Beha

19. The Index of Self-Destructive Acts

By: Christopher R. Beha

4.07

Format: 520 pages, Hardcover

The day Sam Waxworth arrives in New York to write for The Interviewer, a street-corner preacher dec… read more

Similar categories in Christopher R. Beha's The Index of Self-Destructive Acts book and Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
Cover of Colored Television by Danzy Senna

20. Colored Television

By: Danzy Senna

3.83

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

A dark comedy about second acts, creative appropriation, and the racial identity–industrial complex… read more

Similar categories in Danzy Senna's Colored Television book and Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of If I Had Two Wings by Randall Kenan

21. If I Had Two Wings

By: Randall Kenan

3.84

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

When Randall Kenan’s first collection was published, the New York Times called it “nothing short of… read more

Similar categories in Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings book and Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings

  • audiobook
  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • anthologies
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • african american
  • queer

15 Best fiction books like If I Had Two Wings by Randall Kenan

Transform Your Habits

The Cat Who Could Read Backwards (Cat Who..., #1)

Lilian Jackson Braun

3.87

Transform Your Habits

Cane

Jean Toomer , Darwin Turner

3.83

Transform Your Habits

Terrace Story

Hilary Leichter

3.58

Transform Your Habits

America Fantastica

Tim O'Brien

3.45

View all the books

15 Best fiction books like The Cat Who Could Read Backwards (Cat Who..., #1) by Lilian Jackson Braun

Transform Your Habits

The Cat Who Could Read Backwards (Cat Who..., #1)

Lilian Jackson Braun

3.87

Transform Your Habits

Murder on the Prowl (Mrs. Murphy, #6)

Rita Mae Brown , Sneaky Pie Brown

3.95

Transform Your Habits

Murder Past Due (Cat in the Stacks, #1)

Miranda James

3.81

Transform Your Habits

Sneaky Pie for President (Mrs. Murphy #21)

Rita Mae Brown

3.00

View all the books

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