7 Best fiction books like Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong

Cover of Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong

Time Is a Mother

By: Ocean Vuong

3.94

Format: 114 pages, Hardcover

In this deeply intimate second poetry collection, Ocean Vuong searches for life among the aftershoc…

If you liked the fiction plot in Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong , here is a list of 7 books like this:

Cover of Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse by Anne Carson, Stesichorus

1. Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse

By: Anne Carson , Stesichorus

4.27

Format: 160 pages, Paperback

The award-winning poet Anne Carson reinvents a genre in Autobiography of Red, a stunning work that … read more

Similar categories in Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse book and Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother

  • poetry
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • queer
"Under the seams runs the pain."

-Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse

"There is no person without a world."

-Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse

"Don't want to be free want to be with you."

-Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse

"Sometimes a journey makes itself necessary."

-Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse

Cover of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities by Jericho Brown, None, Chen Chen

2. When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

By: Jericho Brown , None , Chen Chen

4.26

Format: 96 pages, Paperback

In this ferocious and tender debut, Chen Chen investigates inherited forms of love and family—the s… read more

Similar categories in Jericho Brown's When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities book and Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother

  • poetry
  • gay
  • lgbt
  • queer lit
  • contemporary
  • asian literature
  • adult
  • queer
"What is it, to remember nothing, of what one loved?"

-Jericho Brown, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

"But sometimes no one said anything & I saw him, the local paper boy on his route. His beanstalk frame & fragile bicycle. & I knew: we would be so terribly happy."

-Jericho Brown, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

"My mother was in the hospital & everyone wanted to be my friend. But I was busy making a list: good dog, bad citizen, short skeleton, tall mocha. Typical Tuesday. My mother was in the hospital & no o…"

-Jericho Brown, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

Cover of A Thousand Mornings: Poems by Mary Oliver

3. A Thousand Mornings: Poems

By: Mary Oliver

4.21

Format: 82 pages, Hardcover

In A Thousand Mornings, Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has come to define her life’s work,… read more

Similar categories in Mary Oliver's A Thousand Mornings: Poems book and Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother

  • contemporary
  • poetry
  • adult
  • lgbt
"they won't be false and they won't be true, but hey'll be real."

-Mary Oliver, A Thousand Mornings: Poems

"When a man says he hears angels singing, he hears angels singing."

-Mary Oliver, A Thousand Mornings: Poems

"When death is about to happen does the body grow heavier, or lighter?"

-Mary Oliver, A Thousand Mornings: Poems

"From the poem: The First Time Percy Came Back Yes, it’s all different,"

-Mary Oliver, A Thousand Mornings: Poems

Cover of Sharks in the Rivers by Ada Limon

4. Sharks in the Rivers

By: Ada Limon

3.95

Format: 269 pages, Paperback

The speaker in this extraordinary collection finds herself multiply dislocated: from her childhood … read more

Similar categories in Ada Limon's Sharks in the Rivers book and Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother

  • poetry
  • adult
  • contemporary
Cover of Don't Call Us Dead: Poems by Danez Smith

5. Don't Call Us Dead: Poems

By: Danez Smith

3.97

Format: 0 pages, Paperback

The highly anticipated second collection by Danez Smith--"Hallelujah is an understatement" (Patrici… read more

Similar categories in Danez Smith's Don't Call Us Dead: Poems book and Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother

  • poetry
  • lgbt
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • queer
Cover of Crush by Richard Siken

6. Crush

By: Richard Siken

3.67

Format: None pages, Paperback

Richard Siken's Crush, selected as the 2004 winner of the Yale Younger Poets prize, is a powerful c… read more

Similar categories in Richard Siken's Crush book and Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother

  • poetry
  • gay
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • queer
Cover of Bluets by Maggie Nelson

7. Bluets

By: Maggie Nelson

4.22

Format: 72 pages, Paperback

Suppose I were to begin by saying that I had fallen in love with a color... A lyrical, philosophica… read more

Similar categories in Maggie Nelson's Bluets book and Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother

  • queer
  • contemporary

8. Bright Dead Things

By: Ada Limon

3.57

Format: None pages,

Bright Dead Things examines the chaos that is life, the dangerous thrill of living in a world you k… read more

Similar categories in Ada Limon's Bright Dead Things book and Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother

Cover of Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

9. Giovanni’s Room

By: James Baldwin

4.33

Format: 224 pages, Paperback

Set in the contemporary Paris of American  expatraites, liasons, and violence, a young man finds  h… read more

Similar categories in James Baldwin's Giovanni’s Room book and Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother

  • fiction
  • lgbt
  • gay
  • queer
"Nobody can stay in the Garden of Eden."

-James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

"Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition."

-James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

"...for nothing is more unbearable, once one has it, than freedom."

-James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

"I loved her as much as ever and I still did not know how much that was."

-James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

10. Felicity

By: Mary Oliver

4.12

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

Mary Oliver, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, celebrates love in her new collection of poems "If I ha… read more

Similar categories in Mary Oliver's Felicity book and Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother

11. War of the Foxes

By: Richard Siken

3.75

Format: 166 pages, Paperback

In this long-awaited follow-up to Crush, Yale Series of Younger Poets prize-winner Richard Siken tu… read more

Similar categories in Richard Siken's War of the Foxes book and Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother

12. Calling a Wolf a Wolf

By: Kaveh Akbar

4.00

Format: 98 pages, Paperback

"The struggle from late youth on, with and without God, agony, narcotics and love is a torment rare… read more

Similar categories in Kaveh Akbar's Calling a Wolf a Wolf book and Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother

Cover of Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong

13. Time Is a Mother

By: Ocean Vuong

3.94

Format: 114 pages, Hardcover

In this deeply intimate second poetry collection, Ocean Vuong searches for life among the aftershoc… read more

Similar categories in Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother book and Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother

  • audiobook
  • poetry
  • gay
  • lgbt
  • queer lit
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • asian literature
  • adult
  • queer
Cover of The Tradition by Jericho Brown

14. The Tradition

By: Jericho Brown

4.24

Format: 77 pages, Paperback

Jericho Brown’s daring new book The Tradition details the normalization of evil and its history at … read more

Similar categories in Jericho Brown's The Tradition book and Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother

  • audiobook
  • poetry
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • queer
"The opposite of rape is understanding."

-Jericho Brown, The Tradition

"Nobody in this nation feels safe, and I'm still a reason why."

-Jericho Brown, The Tradition

"There is the happiness you have And the happiness you deserve."

-Jericho Brown, The Tradition

"We few left who listen to the radio leave Ourselves available to surprise."

-Jericho Brown, The Tradition

Cover of The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On by Franny Choi

15. The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On

By: Franny Choi

3.99

Format: 144 pages, Hardcover

From acclaimed poet Franny Choi comes a poetry collection for the ends of worlds--past, present, an… read more

Similar categories in Franny Choi's The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On book and Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother

  • audiobook
  • poetry
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • asian literature
  • adult
  • queer
"I have last year's ashes in my throat, stories stuffed so full of morals they bleed sugar."

-Franny Choi, The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On

"How can I explain the things and things and things I did wrong? I was never any good at telling the difference between what wanted me and what wanted me gone"

-Franny Choi, The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On

Cover of The Hurting Kind: Poems by Ada Limon

16. The Hurting Kind: Poems

By: Ada Limon

4.34

Format: 120 pages, Hardcover

An astonishing collection about interconnectedness—between the human and nonhuman, ancestors and ou… read more

Similar categories in Ada Limon's The Hurting Kind: Poems book and Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother

  • poetry
  • adult
  • audiobook
"There is a solitude in this world I cannot pierce. I would die for it."

-Ada Limon, The Hurting Kind: Poems

"Before, the only thing I was interested in was love, how it grips you, how it terrifies you, how it annihilates and resuscitates you. I didn’t know then that it wasn’t even love that I was interested…"

-Ada Limon, The Hurting Kind: Poems

Cover of All the Flowers Kneeling (Penguin Poets) by Paul Tran

17. All the Flowers Kneeling (Penguin Poets)

By: Paul Tran

3.87

Format: 112 pages, Paperback

A profound meditation on physical, emotional, and psychological transformation in the aftermath of … read more

Similar categories in Paul Tran's All the Flowers Kneeling (Penguin Poets) book and Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother

  • audiobook
  • poetry
  • gay
  • lgbt
  • queer lit
  • contemporary
  • queer
"There is no truth. Only a version. Aversion. A verge. A vengeance."

-Paul Tran, All the Flowers Kneeling (Penguin Poets)

"I see not stars but their light reaching across the distance between us."

-Paul Tran, All the Flowers Kneeling (Penguin Poets)

"I, after so much isolation, so much indifference, kept going even if going meant only waiting, hovering in place. So far below, so far away from the rest of life...."

-Paul Tran, All the Flowers Kneeling (Penguin Poets)

"...an actualized poem requires the actualization, or radical transformation, of the poet - that a poem is the discovery and enactment of an emotional and psychological investigation into the vexed in…"

-Paul Tran, All the Flowers Kneeling (Penguin Poets)

Cover of Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire

18. Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head

By: Warsan Shire

4.21

Format: 86 pages, Paperback

Poems of migration, womanhood, trauma, and resilience from the celebrated collaborator on Beyoncé's… read more

Similar categories in Warsan Shire's Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head book and Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother

  • audiobook
  • poetry
  • adult
  • contemporary
"You only leave home when home won't let you stay."

-Warsan Shire, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head

"No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark."

-Warsan Shire, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head

"Under your feet, the trapdoor to heaven opens its mouth, its teeth grazing your toes."

-Warsan Shire, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head

"Mother says there are locked rooms inside all women. Sometimes, the men--they come with keys, and sometimes, the men--they come with hammers."

-Warsan Shire, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head

Cover of Alive At The End Of The World by Saeed Jones

19. Alive At The End Of The World

By: Saeed Jones

4.35

Format: 104 pages, Paperback

Pierced by grief and charged with history, this new poetry collection from the award-winning author… read more

Similar categories in Saeed Jones's Alive At The End Of The World book and Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother

  • audiobook
  • poetry
  • lgbt
  • queer lit
  • adult
  • queer
"The end of the world was mistaken for just another midday massacre in America."

-Saeed Jones, Alive At The End Of The World

"I wish I knew a woman who was both the light and every shadow the light pierces."

-Saeed Jones, Alive At The End Of The World

"I'm most dangerous when I'm hungry. I'm most hungry when I'm hurting. Seems like I'm always hurting."

-Saeed Jones, Alive At The End Of The World

"A few months and many deaths ago, I asked someone "how are you doing" and felt, in the way her eye fell, how I had failed her before I had even reached the end of my question. I've hurt many people b…"

-Saeed Jones, Alive At The End Of The World

Cover of The Carrying by Ada Limon

20. The Carrying

By: Ada Limon

4.40

Format: 120 pages, Hardcover

From National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Ada Limón comes The Carryi… read more

Similar categories in Ada Limon's The Carrying book and Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother

  • audiobook
  • poetry
  • adult
  • contemporary
"What if, instead of carrying a child, I am supposed to carry grief?"

-Ada Limon, The Carrying

"All I’ve been working on is napping, and maybe being kinder to others, to myself."

-Ada Limon, The Carrying

"I know you don’t always understand, but let me point to the first wet drops landing on the stones, the noise like fingers drumming the skin. I can’t help it. I will never get over making everything s…"

-Ada Limon, The Carrying

"I saw a mom take her raincoat off and give it to her young daughter when a storm took over the afternoon. My god, I thought, my whole life I’ve been under her raincoat thinking it was somehow a marve…"

-Ada Limon, The Carrying

Cover of Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency by Chen Chen

21. Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency

By: Chen Chen

4.15

Format: 128 pages, Paperback

What happens when everything falls away, when those you call on in times of need are themselves cal… read more

Similar categories in Chen Chen's Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency book and Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother

  • audiobook
  • poetry
  • gay
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • asian literature
  • adult
  • queer
"If we could communicate fully, there would be no need to communicate. If we could love perfectly, there would be no need to love. If we could finish grieving, there would be no need to live. If we co…"

-Chen Chen, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency

"You climb back in bed & touch my face. You climb back in bed to touch my face. You wrap your arms around me & it’s like you’re the patron saint if touch as well as soft sunlight & soothed dogs. Or yo…"

-Chen Chen, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency

12 Best contemporary books like Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong

Transform Your Habits

When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

Jericho Brown , None , Chen Chen

4.26

Transform Your Habits

A Thousand Mornings: Poems

Mary Oliver

4.21

Transform Your Habits

Sharks in the Rivers

Ada Limon

3.95

Transform Your Habits

Don't Call Us Dead: Poems

Danez Smith

3.97

View all the books

18 Top fiction books like Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

Transform Your Habits

Play It As It Lays

Joan Didion , David Thomson

3.92

Transform Your Habits

The Bluest Eye

Toni Morrison

4.12

Transform Your Habits

The Stranger

Albert Camus , Matthew Ward , Stuart Gilbert , None

4.02

Transform Your Habits

White Nights

Fyodor Dostoevsky

4.06

View all the books

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