Here are 2 books that Diary of a Madman fans have personally recommended if you like Diary of a Madman. Book DNA is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Convenience Store Woman

Elizabeth Blackley Author Of ROW Your Business to Health

From my list on frank and fearless conversations about the workplace.

Why am I passionate about this?

Burnout has become common enough to require regulation, which says something about how work is being structured. Much of the response continues to focus on individuals, while the environments that produce the problem remain largely unchanged. At some point, that approach reaches its limit. The focus needs to broaden and become a more explicit, shared responsibility between organisations and the people who work within them.

Elizabeth's book list on frank and fearless conversations about the workplace

Elizabeth Blackley Why Elizabeth loves this book

This one is different from the others because everyone loves a story, don’t they? Through Keiko, Sayaka Murata explores what it means to find stability within a clearly defined role while showing how quickly systems and social expectations question anything outside the norm. 

There is a terrific, palpable tension: a system that rewards conformity set against an individual making deliberate choices about how to live within or alongside it. I applaud Murata’s deft hand to expose how social pressure can determine identity, labour, and belonging, making Keiko’s small acts feel both radical and painfully ordinary. The novel asks a simple, urgent question: who decides what a meaningful working life looks like?

By Sayaka Murata , Ginny Tapley Takemori (translator) ,

Why should I read it?

12 authors picked Convenience Store Woman as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Meet Keiko.

Keiko is 36 years old. She's never had a boyfriend, and she's been working in the same supermarket for eighteen years.

Keiko's family wishes she'd get a proper job. Her friends wonder why she won't get married.

But Keiko knows what makes her happy, and she's not going to let anyone come between her and her convenience store...


If you love Diary of a Madman...

Book cover of These Blue Mountains

These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

Book cover of Swimming in the Dark

Yaron Peleg Author Of New Hebrews

From Yaron's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Yaron's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Yaron Peleg Why Yaron loves this book

I loved how it turned a cliched love story into something fresh. As a sober romantic, I love when books tip the scales toward the romantic, which the sober in me always keeps a close eye on and checks for false cords. This book did it really well and sent me back to the younger and more naive person I was years ago. It was a wonderful feeling.

By Tomasz Jedrowski ,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Swimming in the Dark as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

LONGLISTED FOR THE POLARI PRIZE 2021
A Guardian Book of the Year

'The highest talent at work' Sebastian Barry

'Beautiful ... A masterpiece' Attitude

Poland, 1980. Shy, anxious Ludwik has been sent along with the rest of his university class to an agricultural camp. Here he meets Janusz - and together they spend a dreamlike summer falling in love.

But with summer over, the two are sent back to Warsaw. Confronted by the scrutiny, intolerance and corruption of life under the Party, Ludwik and Janusz must decide how they will survive; and in their different choices, find themselves torn apart.


Book cover of Convenience Store Woman
Book cover of Swimming in the Dark

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