Items30The creator’s order
  1. 1The Commitments (1987)The Commitments (1987) 6.5/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1987Putting a soul band together gives unemployed young Dubliners a project worth arguing about. Doyle makes rehearsal, taste and musical ambition as important as the shortage of prospects outside the room. Start here for fast dialogue and the pleasure of people taking their own enthusiasm seriously,…0
  2. 2Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1958)Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1958) 7.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1958Factory worker Arthur Seaton wants wages to buy him a life, including drinking, sex and time beyond the machine. The Nottingham setting gives his defiance a particular texture rather than making him an emblem of hardship. His selfishness and treatment of women matter too: choose this for a…0
  3. 3Tipping the Velvet (1998)Tipping the Velvet (1998) 7.7/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1998Nan's journey from an oyster-selling household to Victorian music halls makes work, performance and queer desire inseparable. Waters gives her the appetite to change her circumstances and the capacity to misjudge people along the way. The sensuality and theatrical detail suit readers who want a…0
  4. 4Cloudstreet (1991)Cloudstreet (1991) 8.4/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1991The Lambs and the Pickles share a Perth house without sharing an outlook on work, luck or responsibility. Winton leaves room for jokes, resentments, meals and strange experiences alongside the struggle to get by. The long family saga has a mythic streak, and its two households keep class from…0
  5. 5Convenience store woman (2018)Convenience store woman (2018) 8.1/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2018Keiko understands the rhythms of the convenience store better than the social expectations imposed on her outside it. Her attachment to routine makes a low-status job feel meaningful on her own terms, while other people insist it cannot be enough. Murata's short, unsettling comedy is especially…0
  6. 6博士の愛した数式 (2003)博士の愛した数式 (2003) 8.4/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2003The Housekeeper and the Professor, translated by Stephen Snyder, gives a domestic worker and her son relationships built around mathematics and baseball. The professor's short-term memory lasts only eighty minutes, making ordinary acts of attention carry unusual weight. Choose it for tenderness and…0
  7. 7Baker Towers (2005)Baker Towers (2005) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2005The Novak children grow towards different futures in a Pennsylvania coal town whose institutions shape almost every choice. Haigh makes staying, leaving and looking after relatives carry distinct attractions and costs. This is a patient family novel for readers interested in how siblings from the…0
  8. 8The Cold Millions (2020)The Cold Millions (2020) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2020Rye and Gig Dolan do not agree on what a better future requires. Around Spokane's casual labour market, Walter brings together union organising, reading, vaudeville and the wish for a secure home. One brother's political commitment and the other's more immediate hopes give the historical struggle…0
  9. 9Deacon King Kong (2020)Deacon King Kong (2020) 4.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2020A shooting in a Brooklyn housing project opens onto a community that already has decades of stories about the man holding the gun. McBride's churchgoers, neighbours and hustlers are funny, exasperating and more connected than any outsider's summary would suggest. The appeal is the abundance of…0
  10. 10A House for Mr. Biswas (1961)A House for Mr. Biswas (1961) 6.7/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1961Owning a house becomes Mr Biswas's way of imagining independence from his formidable extended family in Trinidad. His stubbornness is often comic and sometimes costly to those around him. The long accumulation of work, domestic negotiation and small assertions of dignity suits readers who want…0