I'm kind of obsessed with the idea of books that should be read together. Maybe they deal with similar subject matter in a completely different way, or share the same setting but tell wildly different stories. I'm basically looking for who books that have clear parallels, but also significant (and interesting!) differences.
I mostly read literary fiction, so here are a couple of examples that I thought of, but I'd love to hear about any "pairings" you can think of!
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Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl and Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman. Reichl is a former NYT food critic who recounts her madcap adventures visiting and reviewing the fanciest restaurants in New York City (in a series of wacky disguises). Help Wanted is a novel about the lives of a group of big box store employees in suburban upstate New York as they struggle to improve their lives and survive on minimum wage. Both books are super fun and both are very rooted in the state of New York, but they feel like they take place in completely different worlds.
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Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Devil in the Grove is an amazing nonfiction book that tells a true story that is eerily similar to TKAMB. It is fascinating to look at the similarities and differences between this true story and the novel that everyone knows and loves.
by Glittering-Skill7172
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**King Leopold’s Ghost, by Adam Hochschild** and T**he Dream of the Celt, by Mario Vargas Llosa.**
I did this combination entirely by accident and had an…intense few weeks. Significant sections of *The Dream of the Celt* take place in the Belgian Congo. *King Leopold’s Ghost* is a nonfiction book about the same time and place
*The Thief of Always* by Clive Barker and *Coraline* by Neil Gaiman
Also, the OTHER perfect match…
**Wind, Sand and Stars** with **The Little Prince.** Both books are by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
**W,S&S** is Saint-Exupery’s memoir of life as a pilot, doing mail runs through remote North African desert and up the spine of the Andes. It’s some of the best writing about flight and what draws people to flight that I’ve ever found. The centrepiece of the book is his recounting of a crash in the Sahara that very nearly killed him.
If you crack open **The Little Prince**, you’ll see the same crash again…
Read the books in either order, it doesn’t matter which comes first. Whichever book you read first, you’ll see its shadow in the other