Books like “Little Women”

What to read after “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

About “Little Women”

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1
Anne of Green Gables
L. M. Montgomery · 1908
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
- Coming of Age
Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert mean to adopt a boy to help on their farm, but the orphan who arrives is Anne Shirley, a talkative red-haired girl with a vivid imagination. Over years of scrapes and small triumphs she wins over the village of Avonlea and finds a place she can finally call home.
2
I Capture the Castle
Dodie Smith · 1948
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain writes her diary in a crumbling English castle where her family lives on almost nothing. When two wealthy American brothers arrive to claim the estate, love and money unsettle the household, and Cassandra grows up fast.
3
The Secret Garden
Frances Hodgson Burnett · 1911
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
- Coming of Age
Orphaned and sent to a gloomy Yorkshire house, Mary Lennox finds little to like until a robin leads her to a walled garden locked for years. With a local boy and her sickly cousin she brings the garden back to life, and the sadness buried in the house begins slowly to lift.
4
The Enchanted April
Elizabeth von Arnim · 1922
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
Four British women, strangers to one another, answer an advertisement to rent an Italian castle for April. Away from husbands and habit, each is quietly changed by the sun, the sea and the company of the others, and returns to her old life seeing it anew.
5
Beauty
Robin McKinley · 1978
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
- Slow Burn
A plain, bookish youngest daughter takes her father's place as a prisoner in an enchanted castle. As she comes to know the beast who lives there, she slowly learns that beauty and love are not what she was taught to expect.
6
Remarkably Bright Creatures
Shelby Van Pelt · 2022
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
Tova Sullivan cleans the local aquarium at night and talks to Marcellus, a clever giant Pacific octopus. When Marcellus works out the answer to a loss that has haunted her for years, a drifting young man arrives in town, and three quiet lives slowly knit together.
7
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows · 2008
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
Writer Juliet Ashton begins a friendship in letters with the people of Guernsey, an island still marked by the German occupation. Through their stories of a secret reading group, she finds a community, a purpose and a reason to cross the sea herself.
8
Legends & Lattes
Travis Baldree · 2022
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
- Slow Burn
Viv, a battle-weary orc, trades her sword for an espresso machine and opens the first coffee shop in the city of Thune. With a hobgoblin carpenter, a reformed succubus and a skeletal latte artist, she builds a warm new life -- but her old mercenary crew has not finished with her yet.
9
A Man Called Ove
Fredrik Backman · 2012
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
Ove is a grumpy widower who has decided there is nothing left for him, until a noisy young family moves in next door and keeps interrupting his plans. Piece by piece, the neighbourhood draws him back into a life he thought was over.
10
The Wind in the Willows
Kenneth Grahame · 1908
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
Mole leaves his underground home for the riverbank, where Rat, Badger and the reckless Mr. Toad become his friends. Their quiet days of boating and picnics are broken when Toad's craze for motorcars lands him in real trouble, and the four of them must set things right.
11
Eleanor & Park
Rainbow Rowell · 2012
Similar plot moves: “Friends to Lovers” and “Slow Burn”
Eleanor is the new girl on the bus, with mismatched clothes and a chaotic home life; Park is the quiet boy who lets her sit beside him. Their friendship grows through shared comics and mix tapes into a cautious first love, threatened by her abusive stepfather.
12
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Benjamin Alire Sáenz · 2012
Same genre: “Coming-of-age fiction”
In 1987 El Paso, two Mexican American boys meet at a swimming pool and slowly become friends. Over long summers they share books, secrets and fears, and each begins to understand the love and longing he has been afraid to name.