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Last Bus to Wisdom

Ivan Doig · back to the book

What’s in it

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24 books with the same feel

Include books by the same author
❤️

The Lincoln Highway

Amor Towles · 576 pages

"The bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s America In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father

TrainsNostalgicCharacter-DrivenTeen Protagonist
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These Happy Golden Years

Laura Ingalls Wilder · 294 pages

The Ingalls family homesteads on their claim in DeSmet, South Dakota. Fifteen-year-old Laura begins to take schoolteaching jobs to raise money for Mary's college. Laura is surprised when Almanzo Wilder begins to seek her company.

Leaving HomeNostalgicHeartwarmingTeen Protagonist
❤️

No Promises in the Wind

Irene Hunt · 223 pages

"No Promises in the Wind", by Irene Hunt, is about a 15-year-old boy and his little brother that run away from their home. It takes place in the Great Depression, 1932. After a long journey, the boys go back home and make things better.

TrainsLeaving HomeTeen ProtagonistHistorical Fiction
❤️

The Great Railroad Race: the Diary of Libby West

Kristiana Gregory · 203 pages

As the daughter of a newspaper reporter, fourteen-year-old Libby keeps a diary account of the exciting events surrounding her during the building of the railroad in the West in 1868.

TrainsNostalgicTeen ProtagonistHeartwarming
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The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Brian Selznick · 534 pages

ORPHAN, CLOCK KEEPER, AND THIEF, twelve-year-old Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric girl and the owner of a small toy booth in the train station, Hugo’s undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen

TrainsNostalgicHeartwarmingHistorical Fiction
❤️

When the Whistle Blows

Fran Cannon Slayton · 162 pages

Jimmy lives in Rowlesburg, West Virginia, during the 1940s. He does all the things boys do in the small mountain town: plays a mean game of football, pulls the unforgettable Halloween prank with his friends in the Platoon, and promises to head off into the woods on the first day of hunting season no matter what. He also knows his father belongs to a secret society, and is determined to uncover the

TrainsNostalgicTeen ProtagonistHistorical Fiction
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On the Blue Comet

Rosemary Wells · 336 pages

When the Depression hits in Cairo, Illinois, and Oscar Ogilvie's father must sell their home and vast model train set-up to look for work in California, eleven-year-old Oscar is left with his dour aunt, where he befriends a mysterious drifter, witnesses a stunning bank robbery, and is suddenly catapulted onto a train that takes him to a different time and place.

TrainsNostalgicTeen ProtagonistHistorical Fiction
❤️

Cold Sassy Tree

Olive Ann Burns · 395 pages

Had difficulty with the unfamiliar language spoken by the characters, but once I was able to figure it out I enjoyed the family dynamics. Upon finishing this book, I immediately borrowed "Leaving Cold Sassy".

NostalgicHeartwarmingCharacter-DrivenTeen Protagonist
❤️

An Old-Fashioned Girl

Louisa May Alcott · 342 pages

Leaving HomeNostalgicCharacter-DrivenHeartwarming
❤️

A Painted House

John Grisham · 465 pages

Using his own childhood for inspiration (and leaving the lawyers behind), bestselling author John Grisham sets A Painted House in 1950s rural Arkansas. During harvest time, together with hired Mexicans and hill people, seven-year-old Luke Chandler picks cotton on his family's rented 80 acres. But racial tension, a forbidden love affair, and murder cause Luke to grow up before he's ready.

Character-DrivenNostalgicTeen ProtagonistHeartwarming
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Little House on Rocky Ridge

Roger Lea MacBride · 368 pages

Leaving HomeNostalgicHeartwarmingHistorical Fiction
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All the Pretty Horses

Cormac McCarthy · 301 pages

*All the Pretty Horses* is a novel by American author Cormac McCarthy published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1992. Its romanticism (in contrast to the bleakness of McCarthy's earlier work) brought the writer much public attention. It was a bestseller, and it won both the U.S. National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Along with *The Crossing* (1994), and C*ities of the Plain* (19

Leaving HomeCharacter-DrivenTeen ProtagonistHistorical Fiction
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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Mark Haddon · 240 pages

This is Christopher's murder mystery story. There are no lies in this story because Christopher can't tell lies. Christopher does not like strangers or the colours yellow or brown or being touched. On the other hand, he knows all the countries in the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7507. When Christohper decides to find out who killed the neighbour's dog, his mystery st

TrainsCharacter-DrivenHeartwarmingTeen Protagonist
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Eleanor & Park

Rainbow Rowell · 336 pages

## Two misfits. One extraordinary love. ## ---------- ## Eleanor ## ...Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough... Eleanor. ## Park ## ...He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. T

NostalgicHeartwarmingCharacter-DrivenTeen Protagonist
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A Walk to Remember

Nicholas Sparks · 240 pages

There was a time when the world was sweeter....when the women in Beaufort, North Carolina, wore dresses, and the men donned hats.... Every April, when the wind smells of both the sea and lilacs, Landon Carter remembers 1958, his last year at Beaufort High. Landon had dated a girl or two, and even once sworn that he'd been in love. Certainly the last person he thought he'd fall for was Jamie, the s

NostalgicCharacter-DrivenHeartwarmingTeen Protagonist
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Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret

Judy Blume · 149 pages

Margaret Simon, almost twelve, likes long hair, tuna fish, the smell of rain, and things that are pink. She’s just moved from New York City to Farbook, New Jersey, and is anxious to fit in with her new friends—Nancy, Gretchen, and Janie. When they form a secret club to talk about private subjects like boys, bras, and getting their first periods, Margaret is happy to belong. But none of them can b

Leaving HomeNostalgicHeartwarmingTeen Protagonist
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Anne of Avonlea

L.M. Montgomery

NostalgicCharacter-DrivenTeen ProtagonistHeartwarming
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The Room on the Roof

Ruskin Bond · 160 pages

Leaving HomeNostalgicCharacter-DrivenMale Lead
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The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

Robert Dugoni · 448 pages

NostalgicCharacter-DrivenHeartwarmingHistorical Fiction
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Drawing from Memory

Allen Say · 63 pages

"Caldecott Medalist Allen Say presents a stunning graphic novel chronicling his journey as an artist during WWII, when he apprenticed under Noro Shinpei, Japan's premier cartoonistDRAWING FROM MEMORY is Allen Say's own story of his path to becoming the renowned artist he is today. Shunned by his father, who didn't understand his son's artistic leanings, Allen was embraced by Noro Shinpei, Japan's

Leaving HomeNostalgicCharacter-DrivenTeen Protagonist
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All-of-a-Kind Family

Sydney Taylor · 189 pages

The life of a Jewish family with seven children growing up on New York's Lower East Side in the early twentieth century is the subject of this series. It includes All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown, All-of-a-Kind Family Uptown, Ella of All-of-a-Kind Family, and others.

NostalgicCharacter-DrivenHeartwarmingHistorical Fiction
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The Flight Of The Maidens

Jane Gardam · 288 pages

"It is the summer of 1946. It is a time of clothing coupons and food rations, of postwar deprivations and social readjustment. In this precarious, new world Hetty Fallowes struggles to become independent of her suffocatingly possessive mother, whose jealousy of her daughter runs almost as deep as her pride in Hetty's accomplishments. While the bookish Hetty rebels intellectually against her famil

Leaving HomeNostalgicCharacter-DrivenHistorical Fiction
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An Irish Doctor in Peace and at War

Patrick Taylor · 416 pages

NostalgicCharacter-DrivenHeartwarmingHistorical Fiction
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The Polar Express

Chris Van Allsburg · 32 pages

TrainsNostalgicHeartwarming

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