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The Bean Trees
Barbara Kingsolver
1988 · 232 pages · Literary fiction
How it reads
The Bean Trees is literary fiction (coming-of-age road novel, specifically), and its dominant mood is hopeful. Whatever it puts its people through, it believes things can get better. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.
It's set in several locations, in the present day, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are family, friendship and coming of age. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.
It opens a series. The ending resolves happily. At 232 pages it's a quick read. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something hopeful
- you want to be sure it ends well
- you're drawn to stories about family
Maybe not if…
- you need something melancholy or dark
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- literary fiction
- Author gender
- female
- Author experience
- established
- Setting: place
- multiple locations
- Setting: time
- contemporary
- Mood / feeling
- hopeful
- Pace
- moderate
- Tone / weight
- balanced
- Length
- short
- Narrative style
- first person, one narrator
- Publication era
- modern classic
- Popularity
- well known
- Series vs standalone
- first in a series
- Themes
- family, friendship, coming of age
- Ending style
- resolved and happy
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- In Defense of Food: An Eater's ManifestoMichael PollanShares: hopeful mood, balanced tone, moderate pace, resolved and happy ending
- Running on Empty: Overcome Your Childhood Emotional NeglectJonice WebbShares: hopeful mood, balanced tone, moderate pace, resolved and happy ending
The Five Dysfunctions of a TeamPatrick LencioniShares: hopeful mood, balanced tone, moderate pace, resolved and happy ending- StixBreanna LeslieShares: hopeful mood, balanced tone, moderate pace, resolved and happy ending
The AlchemistPaulo CoelhoShares: literary fiction, hopeful mood, balanced tone, moderate pace- The Annunciation (Voices of the South)Ellen GilchristShares: literary fiction, hopeful mood, balanced tone, moderate pace
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