83 books like The Paper Wasp

By Lauren Acampora,

Here are 83 books that The Paper Wasp fans have personally recommended if you like The Paper Wasp. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Crime and Punishment

Shobana Mahadevan Author Of A Marriage Knot: A Tangled Love Story

From my list on classical books that teach you about psychology.

Why am I passionate about this?

I started reading classical books at a very young age. Granted, I did not understand a lot of things then. Rereading the same books again after years made me realize that more than what the author was trying to convey, my maturity made a world of difference when reading a book. It was the same text but with entirely different contexts and perspectives. I love old books. Books that take me back a century or more. It gives me an insight into how people lived, thought, and felt back then. It helps me connect with people across centuries.

Shobana's book list on classical books that teach you about psychology

Shobana Mahadevan Why did Shobana love this book?

The perfect crime? Actually not! It was so imperfect that it turned into the perfect crime by just pure luck. No clues were left behind. In fact, there was nothing to trace the murder back to the murderer except his own guilt. 

His guilt turned out to be his biggest punishment. When he finally surrenders, he feels at peace–the long-eluded peace. 

By Fyodor Dostoevsky, Richard Pevear (translator), Larissa Volokhonsky (translator)

Why should I read it?

14 authors picked Crime and Punishment as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Hailed by Washington Post Book World as “the best [translation] currently available" when it was first published, this second edition has been updated in honor of the 200th anniversary of Dostoevsky’s birth.

With the same suppleness, energy, and range of voices that won their translation of The Brothers Karamazov the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Prize, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky offer a brilliant translation of Dostoevsky's astounding pyschological thriller, newly revised for his bicentenniel. 

When Raskolnikov, an impoverished student living in the St. Petersburg of the tsars, commits an act of murder and theft, he sets into motion a story that is…


Book cover of The Mars Room

Andy Mozina Author Of Tandem

From my list on literary with criminal protagonists.

Why am I passionate about this?

I like books in which there are moral stakes, which sometimes draws me to stories with criminals, and I like when the character at the center of the problem is complex or destabilizes things. Dark humor always helps. Average people should be able to see themselves in some way in the criminal’s bad behavior or at least in their desires. I have published two story collections and two novels. My first collection of short stories won the Great Lakes College Association New Writers Award. My fiction has appeared in Tin House, Southern Review, The Missouri Review, and elsewhere. I'm a professor of English at Kalamazoo College. 

Andy's book list on literary with criminal protagonists

Andy Mozina Why did Andy love this book?

A masterful book about a tough subject.

Separated from her young son, Romy Hall is serving two consecutive life sentences for killing a customer from the Mars Room, a strip club where she’d been dancing. Brilliantly written with compassion and dry, dark humor, the book explores Romy’s relationships with her fellow prisoners and the despair, dangers, and absurdities of life behind bars.

I loved this novel’s gritty texture, its sentences, its characters, and how it forced me to think more deeply about why and how we incarcerate people. The final sequence in Muir Woods is heart-pounding, wondrous, devastating, and strangely hopeful.

By Rachel Kushner,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Mars Room as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2018**
**A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND CRITICS' TOP BOOK OF 2018**

'An unforgettable novel.' DAILY TELEGRAPH
'More knowing about prison life [than Orange Is The New Black]... so powerful.' NEW YORK TIMES
'One of America's finest writers.' VOGUE

Romy Hall is at the start of two consecutive life sentences, plus six years, at Stanville Women's Correctional Facility. Outside is the world from which she has been permanently severed: the San Francisco of her youth, changed almost beyond recognition. The Mars Room strip club where she once gave lap dances for a living. And…


Book cover of Harlem Shuffle

Andy Mozina Author Of Tandem

From my list on literary with criminal protagonists.

Why am I passionate about this?

I like books in which there are moral stakes, which sometimes draws me to stories with criminals, and I like when the character at the center of the problem is complex or destabilizes things. Dark humor always helps. Average people should be able to see themselves in some way in the criminal’s bad behavior or at least in their desires. I have published two story collections and two novels. My first collection of short stories won the Great Lakes College Association New Writers Award. My fiction has appeared in Tin House, Southern Review, The Missouri Review, and elsewhere. I'm a professor of English at Kalamazoo College. 

Andy's book list on literary with criminal protagonists

Andy Mozina Why did Andy love this book?

Raymond Carney—savvy furniture store owner in 1960s Harlem; a small-time, look-the-other-way fence for stolen goods—is one of the most likable criminals I’ve ever read about.

He dreams of moving his young family on up to a nice apartment on Riverside Dr. and scraps for every dollar. His hustling ways occasionally flare into big-time crime or revenge, but his insights into the teeming city are always keen.

Whitehead can do it all: perfectly observed details of the time and place, great characters, wry humor, surprising plot developments, devastating emotional scenes. The implications of race and class are deftly drawn. The prose is gorgeous.

Really, no American writer is better than Whitehead right now. A fun and profound ride. 

By Colson Whitehead,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Harlem Shuffle as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, this gloriously entertaining novel is  “fast-paced, keen-eyed and very funny ... about race, power and the history of Harlem all disguised as a thrill-ride crime novel" (San Francisco Chronicle).

"Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked..." To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents…


Book cover of American Woman

Andy Mozina Author Of Tandem

From my list on literary with criminal protagonists.

Why am I passionate about this?

I like books in which there are moral stakes, which sometimes draws me to stories with criminals, and I like when the character at the center of the problem is complex or destabilizes things. Dark humor always helps. Average people should be able to see themselves in some way in the criminal’s bad behavior or at least in their desires. I have published two story collections and two novels. My first collection of short stories won the Great Lakes College Association New Writers Award. My fiction has appeared in Tin House, Southern Review, The Missouri Review, and elsewhere. I'm a professor of English at Kalamazoo College. 

Andy's book list on literary with criminal protagonists

Andy Mozina Why did Andy love this book?

I’m fascinated by novels that treat famous real events from an insider perspective.

In this case, it’s the events following the Symbionese Liberation Army’s kidnapping of Patty Hearst in 1974. Fugitive SLA members, including a character based on Hearst, are sheltered by a former radical, Jenny Shimada (based on Wendy Yoshimura), who is also wanted by the FBI in connection with the bombing of draft offices.

Jenny is a sort of house mother to the volatile fugitives, who hope to write a book while in hiding to raise money for their cause, but inevitably she is drawn into their latest dangerous scheme. Filled with brilliant character studies, the novel astutely shows connections between the tortured personalities of individuals and the public acts they commit which end up shaping our culture. 

By Susan Choi,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked American Woman as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A fictionalization of the Patty Hearst kidnapping focuses on Jenny Shimada, a Japanese-American woman who helps Pauline and her kidnappers during their stay in a New York State farmhouse.


Book cover of The Decline of the West, Two Volumes in One

Martín López Corredoira Author Of The Twilight of the Scientific Age

From my list on the decline of science.

Why am I passionate about this?

Apart from my professional expertise as a philosopher, I have directly observed science by working as a professional researcher in Physics and Astronomy. In any field, either arts, science, humanities, literature,... I observe the same thing: decline, ugliness, lack of spirit, lack of great intellectual achievements, and stupidity. Of course, we have technology, medicine, engineering, the Internet, and material things… and they are better than ever, but our culture and spirit are dying. Science is part of this culture, which is also in decadence, and working as a scientist and reading Spengler is a good combination to realize it.

Martín's book list on the decline of science

Martín López Corredoira Why did Martín love this book?

I think its force resides in its attempt to understand the engines of history without falling into the metaphysical idealist speculations of other previous philosophers, like Hegel.

I do not agree with all of Spengler’s statements, but I consider his book to be a masterpiece in many ways, a very recommendable book, with plenty of lucid ideas and an admirable global vision.

He is a a giant, a brave thinker with a strong character and something interesting to tell, rather than a boring treatise of trivialities and diplomatic sentences of the kind so common among our dwarf philosophers.

By Oswald Spengler,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Decline of the West, Two Volumes in One as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

" ...the World-War was no longer a momentary constellation of casual facts due to national sentiments, personal influences, or economic tendencies, ...but the type of a historical change of phase occurring within a great historical organism of definable compass at the point preordained for it hundreds of years ago." --Oswald Spengler, Decline of the West Vol. I, 1914

The Decline of the West by German historian Oswald Spengler, originally published in German as Der Untergang des Abendlandes (Vols. I and II in resp. 1918 and 1922), became an instant success in Germany after its defeat in World War I. Spengler's…


Book cover of Tales of the Unexpected

Rohit Prasad Author Of Moods Swings

From my list on story collections with unexpected endings.

Why am I passionate about this?

A banker by day and a cynical cartoonist-cum-blogger by night, I have traveled the world, have met many interesting people with compelling backgrounds, and have experienced many peculiar and beautiful things. I love getting inspiration from my experiences and spinning stories out of that. As an author, I always look out for the unconventional ending fueled by my fervid imagination. I prefer the medium of the short story as it keeps the author honest and sharp—no meandering into unrelated tangents. 

Rohit's book list on story collections with unexpected endings

Rohit Prasad Why did Rohit love this book?

The great children's author of Matilda and Willie Wonka fame offers a glimpse into his deeply peculiar psyche and whimsical mixture of the comical and the grotesque. In this collection of wonderful stories, Roald Dahl has included colorful characters and bizarre situations only he could think up. 

My favorite is Lamb for the Slaughter, where the answers to a cop’s death lie right under his colleagues' noses. This book is a perfect segue to Switch Bitch, a book as risque as they get, showcasing the range of the author’s literary oeuvre. 

Reading this book, one is left marveling at the vast canvas inside the author’s mind and his amazing command of the English language, which has not received adequate justice from any Wes Anderson movie.

By Roald Dahl,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Tales of the Unexpected as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The author's short stories have been bestsellers since the 50s and now their addictive air of suspense comes to audio in these ten brilliant stories.


Book cover of We'll Always Have Casablanca: The Legend and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Film

Bob Whalen Author Of Casablanca's Conscience

From my list on books about the best movies (for movie fans).

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a historian, with a special interest in the 20th century. I’ve written about Freud’s Vienna, the aftermath of the First World War, strikes in the 1920s and 1930s in America’s cotton South, the plot to assassinate Hitler, and the notorious 1940s gangsters nicknamed “Murder, Inc.”. What intrigues me about the 20th century are the era’s underlying values and the shocking and violent collisions among them. In Casablanca’s Conscience, I use the great film as a lens with which to take another look at the tumultuous times just a generation ago.

Bob's book list on books about the best movies (for movie fans)

Bob Whalen Why did Bob love this book?

Isenberg has explored all the Hollywood archives and has produced a delightful and fascinating story of the actors, the director and producer, the writers, and all the technicians who created the film. A splendid guide to Casablanca and a great example of an in-depth, how-it-was-made history of a single film. 

By Noah Isenberg,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked We'll Always Have Casablanca as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Casablanca is "not one movie," Umberto Eco once quipped; "it is 'movies.'" Film historian Noah Isenberg's We'll Always Have Casablanca offers a rich account of the film's origins, the myths and realities behind its production, and the reasons it remains so revered today, over seventy-five years after its premiere.


Book cover of Awakening the Witch

Nathan Lowell Author Of Ravenwood: A Tanyth Fairport Adventure

From my list on magical stories about second chances.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always looked for stories that aren’t stamped out of the same mold. Having broken that mold in my own writing years before with Tanyth Fairport and Ravenwood, I dove into this new blend of second chances, paranormal romances, and characters that might be fighting for their lives against supernatural forces but always kept the human spark burning.

Nathan's book list on magical stories about second chances

Nathan Lowell Why did Nathan love this book?

Christina Garner’s funny and poignant midlife magic story hooked me from the git-go. I admired the main character’s struggle to find her footing when tossed into a strange world of supernatural beings. Her struggle of trying to balance her need to honor the mystical connection to her late grandmother with the demands of her professional career drew me in and wouldn’t let me go.

By Christina Garner,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Awakening the Witch as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A paranormal women's fiction novel with Gen X attitude and a heart of gold.

Welcome to Hollywood Lakes, where the water is warm, the coffee is hot, and magic begins at midlife.

Shay Atwater is a talent manager in Hollywood with a knack for making dreams come true. But somehow, she's never quite found her own. At 44, she fears she's running out of time—especially in Hollywood where women of a certain age become invisible.

She needs a reset, and settling her grandmother's estate is the perfect opportunity for a getaway to Hollywood Lakes, the idyllic town where she spent…


Book cover of Pygmalion and My Fair Lady

Elyce Helford Author Of What Price Hollywood?: Gender and Sex in the Films of George Cukor

From my list on classic Hollywood from a scholar and fan of film.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a film fan and scholar who has a joyful yet complex relationship with Hollywood. I have basked in the classics of Hollywood’s Golden Age (1930s-1950s) from my teen years on, including the musical delights of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, the screwball comedies of Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant, the magnificent Universal monsters, and the deliciously dark creativity of film noir. Reading about the history of Hollywood has helped me enjoy this pastime even more, learning everything from economics and politics to method and form. The more I know, the richer grows my interest in both the past and present of that unique institution we call Hollywood.

Elyce's book list on classic Hollywood from a scholar and fan of film

Elyce Helford Why did Elyce love this book?

I once played Henry Higgins' mother in a local theatrical production of My Fair Lady. I delighted in the music and in portraying (in a white wig and wrinkled make-up) the stern, wise Mrs. Higgins, even as I also wondered whether Higgins and Pickering were perhaps secretly a couple and if Eliza was asexual.

This made me want to read the play on which My Fair Lady is based, George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. I did not get answers to my somewhat whimsical questions about sexuality, but I did see in even greater relief the turning of women into objects that ambitious, selfish men may do.

By George Bernard Shaw, Alan Jay Lerner,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Pygmalion and My Fair Lady as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This Greek legend is presented in two different formats--the original by Shaw and the musical play by Lerner.


Book cover of Without Lying down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood

Emily Carman Author Of Independent Stardom: Freelance Women in the Hollywood Studio System

From my list on women in 20th century Hollywood.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have loved classic Hollywood movies since childhood, especially the legendary actresses of the era. My grandmother nurtured this love, taking me to the video stores to rent movies and the library to read biographies and books about actresses and Old Hollywood. Now, I am a professor of film history at Chapman University, where I teach classes on American cinema and women in film. Still, my passion for female-centered classic Hollywood movies remains strong. I have compiled a list showing the multi-faceted ways that women have participated in Hollywood cinema during its first century.

Emily's book list on women in 20th century Hollywood

Emily Carman Why did Emily love this book?

In my teen years, I was a voracious reader of star biographies. I still love them, and the late Cari Beauchamp’s book is a page-turning, spellbinding biography that details the life of pioneering screenwriter Frances Marion, the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood for nearly three decades. 

Beauchamp also introduces readers to the early Hollywood sisterhood network that furnished Marion and other powerful women in American film at the time (Mary Pickford, Adela Rogers St. John, Hedda Hopper). I recommend this book as a historical backdrop for understanding the current gender parity issues plaguing Hollywood.

By Cari Beauchamp,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Without Lying down as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Cari Beauchamp masterfully combines biography with social and cultural history to examine the lives of Frances Marion and her many female colleagues who shaped filmmaking from 1912 through the 1940s. Frances Marion was Hollywood's highest paid screenwriter--male or female--or almost three decades, wrote almost 200 produced films and won Academy Awards for writing "The Big House" and "The Champ."


Book cover of Crime and Punishment
Book cover of The Mars Room
Book cover of Harlem Shuffle

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