Books like The Last Book Party by Karen Dukess

During World War II, a foster girl in Nazi Germany steals books to share with neighbors and a hidden Jewish man, proving literature’s power to nourish the soul amid darkness.

The Goldfinch chronicles the life of thirteen‑year‑old Theo Decker, who survives a museum attack that kills his mother and carries an art piece that becomes a lifelong obsession, exploring loss, identity, and art in contemporary America.

A novel about Emma Woodhouse, a young woman's struggles with matchmaking, misplaced pride, and the dangers of meddling in others' lives in 18th-century England.

Tsukuru Tazaki, a quiet railway engineer, embarks on a lonely journey to reunite with high‑school friends, seeking answers for his sudden ostracism and the shadowed past that still haunts him.

Set in a Southern California black community, The Mothers follows 17‑year‑old Nadia Turner as she navigates grief, a forbidden romance, and an unplanned pregnancy that shapes her and her friends' futures for years to come.

A coming‑of‑age tale that follows teenage girls as they form bonds over shared love for books in a library setting, weaving in themes of friendship, English literature, and the lives of widowers.

Over one tense dinner, two married couples confront a long‑buried secret that unravels their friendships and culminates in shocking violence.

Duke: A Love Story is a stunning, deeply moving book, the warm, funny, tender and finally, tragic story of the last years of one of America's most beloved men-by the woman he loved. John Wayne and Pat Stacy were together for seven years. For all those years she was his secretary and companion, for the last five the woman he loved, so openly and with pride, and who loved him back. They shared everything together, alone and with his family and friends, and the Wayne she gives us is very different from the Wayne of legend. This is "Duke" the man, tender, loving, stubborn, generous, cantankerous, impulsive, humorous, and finally, full of rage at the cancer he had to battle for the second time in his life; the cancer that, after Stacy cared for him day after day and shared his agony, cut away at the man who had been so vital and strong-but to which he reused to succumb. Duke: A Love Story is a revelation, a book full of joy and sorrow and courage-the real John Wayne brought to vivid, loving life.

Loitering with Intent follows Fleur Talbot, a young aspiring novelist working for the peculiar Sir Quentin Oliver at the Autobiographical Association, where her unfinished manuscript accidentally comes true, sparking comedic chaos.

Set in post–World War I America, Alice Adams follows a Midwestern girl from a lower‑middle‑class family as she navigates social boundaries and love while aspiring to rise above her modest origins.