Books like Them by Joyce Carol Oates

The beloved classic of American literature, Little Women, narrates the adventures of four March sisters as they grow up during the Civil War era.

Alice Walker's 1982 novel, The Color Purple, won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, exploring the lives of black women in the South and their experiences of abuse and struggle for independence.

A Black man's journey through racism, identity and activism in 1940s Harlem, culminating in a revelatory escape from the streets to self-knowledge.

Alex Haley’s Pulitzer‑winning saga follows Kunta Kinte from his capture in Africa through centuries of slavery and generations of his descendants, revealing the deep roots of African‑American history.

Jonah P., a troubled young man accused of sexual molestation, navigates the harsh scrutiny of his family, a court-appointed psychiatrist, and his own haunting dreams, while his grandmother’s indulgence blurs the lines between protection and complicity.

In the Oklahoma town of Ruby, nine men attack a convent in 1976, uncovering a century of African‑American history, hardship, and survival in an intimate community of women.

In an industrial upstate New York town of the 1950s, Joyce Carol Oates explores a family’s hidden desires and moral boundaries, from a strained marriage and a son’s idealistic politics to a teenage girl’s forbidden love with her older uncle.

A close‑knit family and their surrounding community unravel when a traumatic act of sexual violence disrupts their unity.

Joyce Carol Oates gives a biographical fiction portrait of Marilyn Monroe, tracing her life from birth to death against the backdrop of Hollywood's glittering yet tragic world.

When the commended five siblings of the Vanderbeeker family learn they must leave their Harlem brownstone after Christmas, they set out to convince their reclusive landlord to keep them in place.

In Upstate New York, a family’s tangled history intertwines with the environmental disaster of Love Canal as nuclear waste threatens the working poor and dark secrets surface.

In the late 1960s, 11‑year‑old Richard Everett narrates his unsettling life in an affluent suburb, examining his alienation from privileged parents and his drastic, violent rebellion that foreshadows a darker era.

In 20th‑century Princeton, New Jersey, a powerful curse snuffs out a wealthy family’s brightest hope when a bride disappears, and her brother’s quest leads him into the city’s darkest underbelly and its most outspoken figures.

A young freed slave girl’s diary chronicles life in the American South during Reconstruction, blending history and personal hope into a moving coming‑of‑age story.

Juvenile Clara Walpole climbs out of poverty and violence, seeking independence through relationships with four men—her resentful father, the protective Lowry, the steady Revere, and her son Swan—while grappling with the psychological weight of her ambitions.

American Appetites is classic Joyce Carol Oates—a suspenseful thriller in which the happy facade of an affluent suburban couple crumbles under the weight of tragedy and scandal. For twenty-six years, Ian McCullough, a demographics researcher at a social science think tank, has been happily married to Glynnis, a successful cookbook writer and a brilliant hostess. When a drunken argument about a suspected infidelity turns physical, Ian accidentally pushes Glynnis through a plate glass window—or did she fall? Now, Glynnis is dead, Ian is charged with murder, and their American dream is shattered. And soon, in a courtroom where guilt and responsibility become two very separate issues, Ian will stand trial, fighting for his life. A sophisticated, witty, and chilling novel from the incomparable Joyce Carol Oates, American Appetites explores our insatiable hunger for power, love, and success, and how comfortable, privileged lives—and the course of fate—can be dramatically transformed in an instant.

In the affluent town of Salthill-on-Hudson, just a half‑hour train ride from Manhattan, a charismatic sculptor’s sudden heroic death sends shock waves through the community of beautiful, middle‑aged residents.

A Jewish immigrant family struggles in 1930s upstate New York; after tragedy, daughter Rebecca embarks on an odyssey of self‑invention that culminates in a bittersweet, distinctly American triumph.

Set in 1950s New York, Oates’ novel follows Iris Courtney and black basketball player Jinx Fairchild, whose forbidden attraction culminates in a violent act that reshapes their lives and tests race relations in an industrial town.

The Wapshot Chronicle follows the lives of a New England fishing family—captain, sons, and their loves, betrayals, and humor—in a richly detailed, character‑driven portrait of 20th‑century America.

A Black & White love story against the backdrop of 1960s New York, as a college student navigates romance, identity, and painful memories.

In the Sierra de México, an American family encounters the mixed‑race Mundo community, unraveling secrets of identity, sexuality, and familial truth while exploring the fragile bonds between fathers and daughters.