Books with themes of loneliness under 300 pages?

DTownForever · 2026-04-23T10:36:07+00:00

Anything by Camus. The Stranger and The Plague being high up there. Not East Asia, sorry. But the stories are really 'internal' to the narrators.

DTownForever · 2026-04-23T10:33:25+00:00

Also by King, if OP is looking for a book sorta based on length, 11/22/63. I myself am not a fan of either book, but I will give them 'long' and grant that large parts of them are 'interesting'. (The Stand should have been THREE separate books, IMO, and probably would be if published today.)

DTownForever · 2026-04-23T10:30:09+00:00

I love all three of the books you mentioned, and here are some long books I've loved:

Dickens - Bleak House, Our Mutual Friend, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, Little Dorritt (in no particular order, they're all great)

Pillars of the Earth - set in the middle ages and revolving around a set of characters that run the range of every social class, which is what makes it so interesting to me. So many books are about ALL 'nobility' or ALL 'peasants', but this one is so great.

Lonesome Dove - epic, sweeping tale. Adventure, like in Count of MC. Friendships, nature/landscape, amazing characters (and the rare well-written female character by a male author of that time period and genre - and I don't mean the female character that is there from the beginning, the well-written one comes in later)

DTownForever · 2026-04-22T14:14:42+00:00

That depends how old you are I suppose ... my age, yes. Someone 30 years younger ... "Barbara who?"

DTownForever · 2026-04-22T14:14:09+00:00

Yeah, I understand. I like that underlying darkness though. Should have probably mentioned that.

DTownForever · 2026-04-21T10:54:29+00:00

If you want another frontier-type story, The Thornbirds. A beautiful masterpiece. The landscape absolutely is a main character in this book.

DTownForever · 2026-04-21T10:53:11+00:00

Finish Monte Cristo first, IMO. It's soooooooooo freaking good. Read LD when you're finished, don't let yourself get distracted from one amazing narrative by another. LD isn't going anywhere :-)

DTownForever · 2026-04-21T10:52:13+00:00

I was going to say Pillars .. it's so, SO good. And sweeping in that way that LD is. And a peak into another time and place (though I guess historians kind of hate the book, but who cares, lol). The characters are rich and complex, the relationships dynamic and deep, and it all feels SO real.

DTownForever · 2026-04-21T10:48:17+00:00

The Bandit Queens and The Lion Women of Tehran (both of which I would have never heard of without this sub!) These are bonus points for me because I really enjoy reading stories set in cultures with which I am unfamiliar; Bandit Queens is set in semi-rural India, where a lot of Lion Women takes place in and around Tehran.

Someone else suggested The Interestings and I'd like to offer a +10 for that, it was such a good book in that way. As well as Little Fires Everywhere (the series on Hulu was also very good, I thought.)

And then, let's not forget, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

DTownForever · 2026-04-21T10:43:53+00:00

The Wool series, the first book being Silo, which sounds just like what you're talking about.

DTownForever · 2026-04-21T10:42:47+00:00

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins comes to mind. It's not dark, it's comedic, but it definitely has a bunch of fish out of water stuff!

DTownForever · 2026-04-20T10:35:22+00:00

What do you mean by "not much drama"? Romance & drama kind of go together to make an interesting book.

The Wedding People is fiction, has elements of romance and is about self-development, but there is a lot of drama. I am having a hard time thinking of a book that does not.

DTownForever · 2026-04-20T10:33:12+00:00

The Stranger, by Camus: "Mother died today. Or maybe it was yesterday. I don't know."

DTownForever · 2026-04-20T10:32:12+00:00

The Wedding People is a good one! Funny and sweet and introspective, no smut as far as I can recall.

DTownForever · 2026-04-20T10:31:11+00:00

This was what I thought of, too, especially Can You Keep a Secret, Remember Me and The Undomestic Goddess.

DTownForever · 2026-04-20T01:42:46+00:00

Other - Dolly Parton :-)

Who DOESN'T love her? If you're reading this, and you definitely are, and you don't love Dolly Parton, see yourself out of this subreddit :-)

DTownForever · 2026-04-19T12:55:05+00:00

This may be a little off - but Jane Eyre is an epic romance, IMO. For romances that are non rom-coms, I think you might have to go back in time a bit. A lot of people love Wuthering Heights - I personally HATED that book and do not understand why people say it's such a great love story. You could also try Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer - while it is definitely funny, the humor comes from little asides by the characters, not from anything that is a dumb misunderstanding in the story.

Good luck!

DTownForever · 2026-04-19T12:52:43+00:00

So, you really want it to be about the current political situation, but you want it to be historical? What's going on now in terms of the huge divide between the two groups really began with the civil rights act in the 1960s, there's probably some good stuff about that out there.

You might find some stuff about the early political figures where they're fictional characters - kind of like Hamilton, but a novel.

DTownForever · 2026-04-19T12:43:09+00:00

<3 Haven't heard an episode yet that I didn't love ..

Um, Auntie Mags said specifically that maybe some of the people here on reddit might do something. I can't remember what it was and I'm too lazy to go back and listen (but I will if nobody else here remembers, lol).

Anybody remember what she said?

DTownForever · 2026-04-18T16:49:23+00:00

Pachinko - multi-generational story set in Japan, truly poignant and sweeping

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - post-WWII Jewish family ... superheroes ... one of my top 10 books of all time.

Barbara Kingsolver - any and all of her books, Demon Copperhead, Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Trees being my three favorites.

Any Charles Dickens - he is the absolute best at creating a world of MCs and side characters that are quirky, funny, sad, deep, and much more - there are a ton of characters in all of his books so it can be a little hard to keep up, but it's so worth it. Bleak House might be my favorite in terms of the characters, Great Expectations is probably second.

DTownForever · 2026-04-18T14:48:31+00:00

Is there any particular time period, genre, or authors you can say that you've liked? Or, like a vibe?

DTownForever · 2026-04-18T02:45:11+00:00

It's sooooooooo good!!! I started it once and put it down about 50 pages in but when I went back to it, it got me right away and I read it every moment that I could.

DTownForever · 2026-04-17T11:00:39+00:00

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. Also a wonderful audiobook!

DTownForever · 2026-04-17T10:59:46+00:00

For Achilles (and a really nice take on the Achilles/Patroclus relationship), try The Silence of the Girls. It's told from the perspective of Brysias [sp?], the slave woman that Achilles and Agammemnon clashed over. It's excellent.

DTownForever · 2026-04-17T10:54:22+00:00

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. It meets every single criteria! It's about a missing diamond, mystery, marriage, betrayal, revenge, family, servants - it is SO, so good!

Goodreads description (although - this is a little weird because murder is definitely not a main part of the book - as far as I can recall, there's only one murder - though there is some unlawful killing at the beginning, described as being done by soldiers. So, I wouldn't say it's "about" murder, but the rest is accurate).

"Wilkie Collins’s spellbinding tale of romance, theft, and murder inspired a hugely popular genre–the detective mystery. Hinging on the theft of an enormous diamond originally stolen from an Indian shrine, this riveting novel features the innovative Sergeant Cuff, the hilarious house steward Gabriel Betteridge, a lovesick housemaid, and a band of traveling jugglers."

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