8 must-read biography books like Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang

Cover of Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang

Beautiful Country

By: Qian Julie Wang

4.18

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

In Chinese, the word for America, Mei Guo, translates directly to “beautiful country.” Yet when sev…

"Words rolled out of my mouth one after another and I do not dare to interrupt them with a breath. They are new words, foreign words but familiar all the same because they have been sitting at my throat for over two decades waiting their turn."

-Qian Julie Wang, Beautiful Country

"Words rolled out of my mouth one after another and I do not dare to interrupt them with a breath. They are new words, foreign words but familiar all the same because they have been sitting at my throat for over two decades waiting their turn."

-Qian Julie Wang, Beautiful Country

If you liked the biography plot in Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang , here is a list of 8 books like this:

Cover of The Berry Pickers by Amanda    Peters

1. The Berry Pickers

By: Amanda Peters

4.14

Format: 307 pages, Hardcover

A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mys… read more

Similar categories in Amanda Peters's The Berry Pickers book and Qian Julie Wang's Beautiful Country

  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See

2. Lady Tan’s Circle of Women

By: Lisa See

4.36

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

* NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!* An immersive historical novel inspired by the true story of a woma… read more

Similar categories in Lisa See's Lady Tan’s Circle of Women book and Qian Julie Wang's Beautiful Country

  • asia
  • china
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

3. Tom Lake

By: Ann Patchett

3.99

Format: 309 pages, Hardcover

In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again prov… read more

Similar categories in Ann Patchett's Tom Lake book and Qian Julie Wang's Beautiful Country

  • adult
  • audiobook
"You can’t pretend this [Covid] isn’t happening,"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

"In the summer the pear trees were fine. In the summer, all that is hideous about a pear tree is hidden by leaves and pears. But once those disguises were removed they were nothing but acres of murder…"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

"Hazel, listen to me. I'm going to tell you something important, you need to be brave.' I then explained to the dog how I have told myself for so many years that my career fell apart because I wasn't …"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

"It's as if someone bought all the diamonds at Tiffany's, and crushed them into dust, then spread that dust across the water so that it sifts down evenly, filtering through the shards of light that cu…"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

Cover of Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang

4. Beautiful Country

By: Qian Julie Wang

4.18

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

In Chinese, the word for America, Mei Guo, translates directly to “beautiful country.” Yet when sev… read more

Similar categories in Qian Julie Wang's Beautiful Country book and Qian Julie Wang's Beautiful Country

  • biography
  • memoir
  • coming of age
  • asia
  • autobiography
  • biography memoir
  • nonfiction
  • china
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Words rolled out of my mouth one after another and I do not dare to interrupt them with a breath. They are new words, foreign words but familiar all the same because they have been sitting at my thro…"

-Qian Julie Wang, Beautiful Country

Cover of A Living Remedy: A Memoir by Nicole Chung

5. A Living Remedy: A Memoir

By: Nicole Chung

4.01

Format: 256 pages, Hardcover

A searing memoir of family, class and grief—a daughter’s search to understand the lives her adoptiv… read more

Similar categories in Nicole Chung's A Living Remedy: A Memoir book and Qian Julie Wang's Beautiful Country

  • biography
  • memoir
  • biography memoir
  • nonfiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"How do you learn to cherish yourself, your life, when grief has made it unrecognizable? I am starting to feel that we do so not by trying to fill a void that can never be filled but by living as best…"

-Nicole Chung, A Living Remedy: A Memoir

Cover of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James   McBride

6. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

By: James McBride

4.00

Format: 385 pages, Hardcover

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new housing de… read more

Similar categories in James McBride's The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store book and Qian Julie Wang's Beautiful Country

  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

7. Take My Hand

By: Dolen Perkins-Valdez

4.37

Format: 359 pages, Hardcover

Inspired by true events that rocked the nation, a profoundly moving novel about a Black nurse in po… read more

Similar categories in Dolen Perkins-Valdez's Take My Hand book and Qian Julie Wang's Beautiful Country

  • adult
  • audiobook
"There wasn’t any justice for little Black girls, and never had been."

-Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Take My Hand

"The world was an enigma. My country was an enigma. Still, she was mine. And I loved every square inch of her."

-Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Take My Hand

"The past doesn't work that way. You can't just make it disappear. You can't pretend certain things didn't happen."

-Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Take My Hand

"She wore a belted yellow dress that screamed springtime even though it was chilly out. Anybody in a dress that bright had to be doing some good in the world, I decided."

-Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Take My Hand

Cover of Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

8. Hello Beautiful

By: Ann Napolitano

4.16

Format: 416 pages, Kindle Edition

An emotionally layered and engrossing story of a family that asks: Can love make a broken person wh… read more

Similar categories in Ann Napolitano's Hello Beautiful book and Qian Julie Wang's Beautiful Country

  • adult
  • audiobook
"The child inside Julia lay wide-eyed in the dark, knowing that she was Jo, but only because Sylvie was Beth."

-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

"You and your sisters have so many reference points, such a dense history," William said. "I never get used to it."

-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

"She was Julia's wild hair, she was the lake her husband had once been carried out of, and no matter what happened next, she was love."

-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

"You’re depressed, not crazy. It’s not insane to be depressed in this world. It’s more sane than being happy. I never trust those upbeat individuals who grin no matter what’s going on. Those are the o…"

-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

Cover of Real Americans by Rachel Khong

9. 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 Qian Julie Wang's Beautiful Country

  • adult
  • 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 Olga Dies Dreaming by Xóchitl González

10. Olga Dies Dreaming

By: Xóchitl González

3.98

Format: 369 pages, Hardcover

It's 2017, and Olga and her brother, Pedro "Prieto" Acevedo, are bold-faced names in their hometown… read more

Similar categories in Xóchitl González's Olga Dies Dreaming book and Qian Julie Wang's Beautiful Country

  • adult
  • audiobook
"It's a myth about motherhood, Olga felt, that the time in utero imbues mothers with a lifelong understanding of their children. Yes, they know their essences, this she didn't doubt, but mothers are s…"

-Xóchitl González, Olga Dies Dreaming

Cover of Stay True by Hua Hsu

11. 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 Qian Julie Wang's Beautiful Country

  • biography
  • memoir
  • coming of age
  • autobiography
  • biography memoir
  • nonfiction
  • 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 Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford

12. Somebody's Daughter

By: Ashley C. Ford

4.04

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

One of the most prominent voices of her generation debuts with an extraordinarily powerful memoir: … read more

Similar categories in Ashley C. Ford's Somebody's Daughter book and Qian Julie Wang's Beautiful Country

  • biography
  • memoir
  • autobiography
  • biography memoir
  • nonfiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"I wanted to be seen, but I didn't want to be watched."

-Ashley C. Ford, Somebody's Daughter

"There are few words worthy of the wonders they describe, but sunrise sounds like it feels. A u sunken to the bottom of one's throat, and an i, pointing upward and onward to a warm beyond."

-Ashley C. Ford, Somebody's Daughter

"I wanted to assert my own style, which posed a problem, because I didn't really have any style. Grandma would shake her head at me and say, "Someday baby, you'll really understand how to dress. I'm j…"

-Ashley C. Ford, Somebody's Daughter

Cover of Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

13. Crying in H Mart

By: Michelle Zauner

4.26

Format: 239 pages, Hardcover

The New York Times bestseller from the Grammy-nominated indie rockstar Japanese Breakfast, an unfli… read more

Similar categories in Michelle Zauner's Crying in H Mart book and Qian Julie Wang's Beautiful Country

  • biography
  • memoir
  • autobiography
  • biography memoir
  • nonfiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"what procellous awesomeness does not in you abound"

-Michelle Zauner, Crying in H Mart

"It felt wrong to talk to anyone, to smile or laugh or eat again knowing that she was dead."

-Michelle Zauner, Crying in H Mart

"I could almost feel in the embrace that my concerns had been her concerns, my pain had been her pain."

-Michelle Zauner, Crying in H Mart

"Maybe I was just terrified that I might be the closest thing she had to leaving a piece of herself behind."

-Michelle Zauner, Crying in H Mart

Cover of True Biz by Sara Nović

14. True Biz

By: Sara Nović

4.08

Format: 386 pages, Hardcover

TRUE BIZ (adj./exclamation; American Sign Language): really, seriously, definitely, real-talk Tr… read more

Similar categories in Sara Nović's True Biz book and Qian Julie Wang's Beautiful Country

  • coming of age
  • adult
  • audiobook
"No one is comforted by salad."

-Sara Nović, True Biz

"maybe standing for something wasn't always a choice"

-Sara Nović, True Biz

"Reason is for people who still have something to fear."

-Sara Nović, True Biz

"fewer things were more motivating than a fear of one's own extinction."

-Sara Nović, True Biz

Cover of Solito by Javier Zamora

15. Solito

By: Javier Zamora

4.48

Format: 384 pages, Hardcover

A young poet tells the story of his harrowing migration from El Salvador to the United States at th… read more

Similar categories in Javier Zamora's Solito book and Qian Julie Wang's Beautiful Country

  • biography
  • memoir
  • autobiography
  • biography memoir
  • nonfiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"We nod, and I notice stars beginning to pop behind his head."

-Javier Zamora, Solito

"Puedo sentir El Viaje en las plantas de mis pies. Lo veo en mis sueños."

-Javier Zamora, Solito

"My chest like hummingbirds fighting for the hibiscus in Abuelita's garden."

-Javier Zamora, Solito

"Mom to my left, Dad to my right, a mosquito net like a crown covering all of us."

-Javier Zamora, Solito

Cover of How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair

16. How to Say Babylon

By: Safiya Sinclair

4.47

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

With echoes of Educated and Born a Crime, How to Say Babylon is the stunning story of the author’s … read more

Similar categories in Safiya Sinclair's How to Say Babylon book and Qian Julie Wang's Beautiful Country

  • biography
  • memoir
  • biography memoir
  • nonfiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"As I grew older, I knew I would never be his perfect Rasta daughter. I was too headstrong, too curious. Too much of myself, and not enough of him."

-Safiya Sinclair, How to Say Babylon

Cover of Maame by Jessica George

17. Maame

By: Jessica George

4.06

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

Shortlisted for the TikTok Book Awards in the Book of the Year, 2023 and the Goodreads Debut and Fi… read more

Similar categories in Jessica George's Maame book and Qian Julie Wang's Beautiful Country

  • coming of age
  • adult
  • audiobook
"A white person can date a Black person and still be racist."

-Jessica George, Maame

"I can't comprehend living to work, but then I'm afraid of working just to live."

-Jessica George, Maame

"A white person can date a Black person and still be racist. Because there’s levels to that sh*t. Like a lasagna."

-Jessica George, Maame

"It's about what love is. Which is trust, commitment, empathy, and respect. It means really giving a shit about the other person."

-Jessica George, Maame

Cover of Banyan Moon by Thao Thai

18. Banyan Moon

By: Thao Thai

3.92

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

When Ann Tran gets the call that her fiercely beloved grandmother, Minh, has passed away, her life … read more

Similar categories in Thao Thai's Banyan Moon book and Qian Julie Wang's Beautiful Country

  • asia
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Through her, I understood that another mother's horror could touch us in the darkest of places, even a world away."

-Thao Thai, Banyan Moon

"Grief is a lake of perilously thin ice. You never know when you'll fall through it, or when you will fight your way back to the surface."

-Thao Thai, Banyan Moon

"My morning swims have centered me and calmed the storm inside my mind. In the water, my memories lose their sharp edges, like river stones forced smooth."

-Thao Thai, Banyan Moon

"I wonder if you can inherit evil.' 'Maybe. Or maybe it's not something you inherit, but something that runs through you, another person's trauma, their violence. It sits below the skin until you name…"

-Thao Thai, Banyan Moon

Cover of Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

19. Black Cake

By: Charmaine Wilkerson

4.10

Format: 385 pages, Hardcover

We can’t choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become? In present-day California, Ele… read more

Similar categories in Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake book and Qian Julie Wang's Beautiful Country

  • adult
  • audiobook
"But trying to undo the worry is like trying to undo his blackness."

-Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake

"More people’s lives have been shaped by violence than we like to think. And more people’s lives have been shaped by silence than we think."

-Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake

"Some people think surfing is a relationship with the sea...but surfing is really a relationship between you and yourself. The sea is going to do whatever it wants."

-Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake

"Young people had always wanted to do things their own way, and Bert had been no different. Only nowadays, there seemed to be this compulsion to eat up everything that was available to you and to let …"

-Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake

Cover of Honor by Thrity Umrigar

20. Honor

By: Thrity Umrigar

4.36

Format: 326 pages, Hardcover

In this riveting and immersive novel, bestselling author Thrity Umrigar tells the story of two coup… read more

Similar categories in Thrity Umrigar's Honor book and Qian Julie Wang's Beautiful Country

  • adult
  • audiobook
"It was as if a gust of wind had blown open a window in my heart and a sweet bird had flown in and made a nest."

-Thrity Umrigar, Honor

"Because a woman can live in one of two houses--fear or love. It is impossible to live in both at the same time."

-Thrity Umrigar, Honor

"Because a woman can live in one of two houses--- fear or love. It is impossible to live in both at the same time."

-Thrity Umrigar, Honor

"When Radha and I were children, we used to play a game. She would ask, “What is the true color of the world, Didi?"

-Thrity Umrigar, Honor

Cover of House of Sticks by Ly Tran

21. House of Sticks

By: Ly Tran

4.38

Format: 368 pages, Hardcover

New York City Book Awards Hornblower Award Winner One of Vogue and NPR’s Best Books of the Year T… read more

Similar categories in Ly Tran's House of Sticks book and Qian Julie Wang's Beautiful Country

  • biography
  • memoir
  • asia
  • autobiography
  • biography memoir
  • nonfiction
  • adult
  • audiobook

20 must-read adult books like Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang

Transform Your Habits

The Berry Pickers

Amanda Peters

4.14

Transform Your Habits

Lady Tan’s Circle of Women

Lisa See

4.36

Transform Your Habits

Tom Lake

Ann Patchett

3.99

Transform Your Habits

Beautiful Country

Qian Julie Wang

4.18

View all the books

9 must-read adult books like A Living Remedy: A Memoir by Nicole Chung

Transform Your Habits

Let Us Descend

Jesmyn Ward

3.70

Transform Your Habits

A Living Remedy: A Memoir

Nicole Chung

4.01

Transform Your Habits

Wandering Stars

Tommy Orange

3.89

Transform Your Habits

We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America

Roxanna Asgarian

4.32

View all the books

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