16 Books to Read If You’re Still Thinking About Theo of Golden

Theo of Golden is the kind of book that makes you care about the people as much as the story itself. It has memorable characters, unexpected connections, and a strong sense of community that makes the fictional town of Golden feel like somewhere you’ve actually spent time.
If you’re looking for another book that gives you a similar feeling, these 16 books like Theo of Golden are a good place to start. They’re filled with characters you’ll grow attached to, friendships that matter, small communities, and stories that are hard to leave behind once you reach the final page.

Books Like Theo of Golden

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood

Violet is starting over after serving time in prison for a drunk-driving accident that killed a local teacher. Harriet is the retired teacher who ran her prison book club, while Frank is the widower of the woman Violet killed. When the three cross paths at a bookstore, their lives slowly become connected in ways none of them expected.
If you loved Theo of Golden for the kindness between strangers and the way small connections can change a life, this has a very similar feel. It’s a little heavier, but ultimately hopeful.

A charming, deeply moving novel about second chances, unlikely friendships, and the life-changing power of sharing stories.

Our Reasons meet us in the morning and whisper to us at night. Mine is an innocent, unsuspecting, eternally sixty-one-year-old woman named Lorraine Daigle…

Violet Powell, a twenty-two-year-old from rural Abbott Falls, Maine, is being released from prison after serving twenty-two months for a drunk-driving crash that killed a local kindergarten teacher. Harriet Larson, a retired English teacher who runs the prison book club, is facing the unsettling prospect of an empty nest. Frank Daigle, a retired machinist, hasn’t yet come to grips with the complications of his marriage to the woman Violet killed.

When the three encounter each other one morning in a bookstore in Portland—Violet to buy the novel she was reading in the prison book club before her release, Harriet to choose the next title for the women who remain, and Frank to dispatch his duties as the store handyman—their lives begin to intersect in transformative ways.

How to Read a Book is an unsparingly honest and profoundly hopeful story about letting go of guilt, seizing second chances, and the power of books to change our lives. With the heart, wit, grace, and depth of understanding that has characterized her work, Monica Wood illuminates the decisions that define a life and the kindnesses that make life worth living.

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Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

After losing her husband, Tova takes a night job cleaning an aquarium. There she forms an unlikely friendship with Marcellus, a very clever giant Pacific octopus.
This reminded me of Theo of Golden a lot. Remarkably Bright Creatures is about loneliness, grief, and finding connection when you least expect it.

Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow’s unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors–until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late.

Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.

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The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

A.J. Fikry is a lonely, grumpy bookstore owner who has lost his wife and much of his love for life. Then something completely unexpected arrives at his bookstore and changes the direction of his life.
If the community around Theo was your favorite part of Theo of Golden, try this one. It has that same idea of one person slowly building a new family and finding his way back to people.

A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Slowly but surely, he is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island—from Lambiase, the well-intentioned police officer who’s always felt kindly toward Fikry; from Ismay, his sister-in-law who is hell-bent on saving him from his dreary self; from Amelia, the lovely and idealistic (if eccentric) Knightley Press sales rep who keeps on taking the ferry over to Alice Island, refusing to be deterred by A.J.’s bad attitude. Even the books in his store have stopped holding pleasure for him. These days, A.J. can only see them as a sign of a world that is changing too rapidly.

And then a mysterious package appears at the bookstore. It’s a small package, but large in weight. It’s that unexpected arrival that gives A. J. Fikry the opportunity to make his life over, the ability to see everything anew. It doesn’t take long for the locals to notice the change overcoming A.J.; or for that determined sales rep, Amelia, to see her curmudgeonly client in a new light; or for the wisdom of all those books to become again the lifeblood of A.J.’s world; or for everything to twist again into a version of his life that he didn’t see coming. As surprising as it is moving, The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry is an unforgettable tale of transformation and second chances, an irresistible affirmation of why we read, and why we love.

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The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan

Anthony Peardew has spent forty years collecting lost objects after losing a precious keepsake on the same day his fiancée died. Before his death, he leaves his home and collection to his assistant, Laura, asking her to return the objects to their owners.
 
I read The Keeper of Lost Things many years ago, and when I started Theo of Golden, it actually reminded me of that book. Both have that same focus on small acts of kindness. Anthony’s lost objects bring people together in much the same way Theo’s presence quietly changes the people around him.


A charming, clever, and quietly moving debut novel of of endless possibilities and joyful discoveries that explores the promises we make and break, losing and finding ourselves, the objects that hold magic and meaning for our lives, and the surprising connections that bind us.

Lime green plastic flower-shaped hair bobbles—Found, on the playing field, Derrywood Park, 2nd September.

Bone china cup and saucer—Found, on a bench in Riveria Public Gardens, 31st October.

Anthony Peardew is the keeper of lost things. Forty years ago, he carelessly lost a keepsake from his beloved fiancée, Therese. That very same day, she died unexpectedly. Brokenhearted, Anthony sought consolation in rescuing lost objects—the things others have dropped, misplaced, or accidentally left behind—and writing stories about them. Now, in the twilight of his life, Anthony worries that he has not fully discharged his duty to reconcile all the lost things with their owners. As the end nears, he bequeaths his secret life’s mission to his unsuspecting assistant, Laura, leaving her his house and all its lost treasures, including an irritable ghost.

Recovering from a bad divorce, Laura, in some ways, is one of Anthony’s lost things. But when the lonely woman moves into his mansion, her life begins to change. She finds a new friend in the neighbor’s quirky daughter, Sunshine, and a welcome distraction in Freddy, the rugged gardener. As the dark cloud engulfing her lifts, Laura, accompanied by her new companions, sets out to realize Anthony’s last wish: reuniting his cherished lost objects with their owners.

Long ago, Eunice found a trinket on the London pavement and kept it through the years. Now, with her own end drawing near, she has lost something precious—a tragic twist of fate that forces her to break a promise she once made.

As the Keeper of Lost Objects, Laura holds the key to Anthony and Eunice’s redemption. But can she unlock the past and make the connections that will lay their spirits to rest?

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Frank and Red by Matt Coyne

Frank has shut himself away from the world after losing his wife. Then six-year-old Red moves in next door. Red is dealing with his parents’ separation and problems at his new school, and somehow this talkative little boy and his grumpy neighbor become exactly what the other needs.
Frank has a little of that Theo quality: older, lonely, and carrying a lot more than people realize. Like Theo of Golden, the real joy is watching an unlikely friendship slowly change both characters.

Estranged from his friends, son, and the ever-changing world beyond his front gate, Frank is a reclusive curmudgeon whose only company is the ‘ghost’ of his dead wife, Marcie. Then six-year-old Red moves in next door. A boy struggling to adjust to the separation of his mum and dad, a new school, and the demonic school bully, Red is curious, smart, and talkative. And he has a trampoline. From the moment Red’s blonde mop appears over the top of the fence that divides their two gardens, the unlikeliest of friendships is born.

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The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise by Colleen Oakley

Tanner is twenty-one, broke, and not exactly sure what she’s doing with her life. She reluctantly becomes a live-in caregiver for elderly Louise. Then Tanner begins to suspect that Louise may have a very surprising past, and suddenly the two are heading off on an unexpected road trip.
This is funnier and more adventurous book. But you will adore the lovely pairing of people from completely different generations who end up needing each other.

Twenty-one-year-old Tanner Quimby needs a place to live. Preferably one where she can continue sitting around in sweatpants and playing video games nineteen hours a day. Since she has no credit or money to speak of, her options are limited, so when an opportunity to work as a live-in caregiver for an elderly woman falls into her lap, she takes it.

One slip on the rug. That’s all it took for Louise Wilt’s daughter to demand that Louise have a full-time nanny living with her. Never mind that she can still walk fine, finish her daily crossword puzzle, and pour the two fingers of vodka she drinks every afternoon. Bottom line — Louise wants a caretaker even less than Tanner wants to be one.

The two start off their living arrangement happily ignoring each other until Tanner starts to notice things—weird things. Like, why does Louise keep her garden shed locked up tighter than a prison? And why is the local news fixated on the suspect of one of the biggest jewelry heists in American history who looks eerily like Louise? And why does Louise suddenly appear in her room, with a packed bag at 1 a.m. insisting that they leave town immediately?

Thus begins the story of a not-to-be-underestimated elderly woman and an aimless young woman who—if they can outrun the mistakes of their past—might just have the greatest adventure of their lives.

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Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy

Helen is an elderly widow who has returned to the English village where she grew up. After losing both her husband and son, she has mostly given up on life. Then she finds an abandoned mouse and, almost without realizing it, begins reconnecting with the world around her.
Sipsworth is about loneliness, small acts of care, and how something seemingly tiny can give a person a reason to keep going.

Over the course of a single week, a woman who is ready to die discovers an unexpected reason to live.

Following the deaths of her husband and son, Helen Cartwright returns to the English village of her childhood after living abroad for six decades. Her only wish is to die quickly and without fuss.

Helen retreats into her home on Westminster Crescent, becoming a creature of routine and habit. Then, one cold autumn night, a chance encounter with an abandoned pet mouse on the street outside her house sets Helen on a surprising journey of friendship.

Sipsworth is a reminder that there can be second chances. No matter what we have planned for ourselves, sometimes the world has plans of its own. Simon Van Booy’s lyrical storytelling is a delight even as it will fill your heart.

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The Spoon Stealer by Lesley Crewe

Emmeline is an older woman living in England with her little white dog, Vera. She’s funny, outspoken, lonely, and has a habit of stealing spoons. When she unexpectedly inherits the family farm back in Nova Scotia, she returns home and walks straight into old secrets and family wounds.
Emmeline is much louder than Theo, but underneath all that humor is a story about kindness, loneliness, family, and second chances.

Born into a basket of clean sheets—ruining a perfectly good load of laundry—Emmeline never quite fit in on her family’s rural Nova Scotian farm. After suffering multiple losses in the First World War, her family became so heavy with grief, toxicity, and mental illness that Emmeline felt their weight smothering her. And so, she fled across the Atlantic and built her life in England. Now she is retired and living in a small coastal town with her best friend, Vera, an excellent conversationalist. Vera is also a small white dog, and so Emmeline is making an effort to talk to more humans. When she joins a memoir-writing course at the library, her classmates don’t know what to make of her. Funny, loud, and with a riveting memoir, she charms the lot. As her past unfolds for her audience, friendships form, a bonus in a rather lonely life. She even shares with them her third-biggest secret: she has liberated hundreds of spoons over her lifetime—from the local library, Cary Grant, Winston Churchill. She is a compulsive spoon stealer.

When Emmeline unexpectedly inherits the farm she grew up on, she knows she needs to leave her new friends and go see the farm and what remains of her family one last time. She arrives like a tornado in their lives, an off-kilter Mary Poppins bossing everyone around and getting quite a lot wrong. But with her generosity and hard-earned wisdom, she gets an awful lot right too. A pinball ricocheting between people, offending and inspiring in equal measure, Emmeline, in her final years, believes that a spoonful—perhaps several spoonfuls—of kindness can set to rights the family so broken by loss and secrecy.

The Spoon Stealer is a classic Crewe book: full of humour, family secrets, women’s friendship, lovable animals, and immense heart.

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How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior

At eighty-five, Veronica McCreedy is wealthy, stubborn, and estranged from her family. After watching a documentary about penguins, she decides to travel to Antarctica and visit the scientists studying them. Along the way, she also gets another chance to know her grandson.
Veronica is definitely more difficult than Theo, but both books show how an older person’s life can change through unexpected connections.

A curmudgeonly but charming old woman, her estranged grandson, and a colony of penguins proves it’s never too late to be the person you want to be in this rich, heartwarming story from the acclaimed author of Ellie and the Harpmaker.

Eighty-five-year-old Veronica McCreedy is estranged from her family and wants to find a worthwhile cause to leave her fortune to. When she sees a documentary about penguins being studied in Antarctica, she tells the scientists she’s coming to visit—and won’t take no for an answer. Shortly after arriving, she convinces the reluctant team to rescue an orphaned baby penguin. He becomes part of life at the base, and Veronica’s closed heart starts to open.

Her grandson, Patrick, comes to Antarctica to make one last attempt to get to know his grandmother. Together, Veronica, Patrick, and even the scientists learn what family, love, and connection are all about.

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The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni

Sam is born with red pupils, making him a target for bullies from childhood. With the support of his parents and two close friends, he grows up and becomes an eye doctor. Years later, he has to return to the painful parts of his past and finally face what he has spent years avoiding.
The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell is more emotional than Theo of Golden, following Sam through much of his life. But it has that same focus on ordinary people, friendship, kindness, and the people who leave a permanent mark on us.

Sam Hill always saw the world through different eyes. Born with red pupils, he was called “Devil Boy” or Sam “Hell” by his classmates; “God’s will” is what his mother called his ocular albinism. Her words were of little comfort, but Sam persevered, buoyed by his mother’s devout faith, his father’s practical wisdom, and his two other misfit friends.

Sam believed it was God who sent Ernie Cantwell, the only African American kid in his class, to be the friend he so desperately needed. And that it was God’s idea for Mickie Kennedy to storm into Our Lady of Mercy like a tornado, uprooting every rule Sam had been taught about boys and girls.

Forty years later, Sam, a small-town eye doctor, is no longer certain anything was by design—especially not the tragedy that caused him to turn his back on his friends, his hometown, and the life he’d always known. Running from the pain, eyes closed, served little purpose. Now, as he looks back on his life, Sam embarks on a journey that will take him halfway around the world. This time, his eyes are wide open—bringing into clear view what changed him, defined him, and made him so afraid, until he can finally see what truly matters.

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The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna Johnston

Eighty-two-year-old Fred is kind, lonely, broke, and close to becoming homeless. Through a bizarre mix-up, he is mistaken for another elderly man and ends up living in a nursing home under that man’s identity. Fred knows he shouldn’t be there, but he quickly starts changing the lives of the people around him.
Fred is probably one of the best characters to read after Theo. Both are older men whose kindness has a ripple effect on everyone around them.

Frederick Fife was born with an extra helping of kindness in his heart. If he borrowed your car, he’d return it washed with a full tank of gas. The problem is there’s nobody left in Fred’s life to borrow from. At eighty-two, he’s desperately lonely, broke, and on the brink of homelessness. But Fred’s luck changes when, in a bizarre case of mistaken identity, he takes the place of grumpy Bernard Greer at the local nursing home. Now he has warm meals in his belly and a roof over his head—as long as his poker face is in better shape than his prostate and that his look-alike never turns up.

Denise Simms is stuck breathing the same disappointing air again and again. A middle-aged mom and caregiver at Bernard’s facility, her crumbling marriage and daughter’s health concerns are suffocating her joy for life. Wounded by her two-faced husband, she vows never to let a man deceive her again.

As Fred walks in Bernard’s shoes, he leaves a trail of kindness behind him, fueling Denise’s suspicions about his true identity. When unexpected truths are revealed, Fred and Denise rediscover their sense of purpose and learn how to return a broken life to mint condition.

Bittersweet and remarkably perceptive, The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife is a hilarious, feel-good, clever novel about grief, forgiveness, redemption, and finding family.

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The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

Renée is a concierge in an upscale Paris apartment building, but the residents have no idea how intelligent and cultured she really is. Twelve-year-old Paloma is also hiding who she truly is. Their lives begin to change when a new resident sees beyond the versions of themselves they show everyone else.
This is more philosophical than Theo of Golden, but I feel the connection is in the overlooked characters.

A moving, funny, triumphant novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us.

We are in the center of Paris, in an elegant apartment building inhabited by bourgeois families. Renée, the concierge, is witness to the lavish but vacuous lives of her numerous employers. Outwardly she conforms to every stereotype of the concierge: fat, cantankerous, addicted to television. Yet, unbeknownst to her employers, Renée is a cultured autodidact who adores art, philosophy, music, and Japanese culture. With humor and intelligence she scrutinizes the lives of the building’s tenants, who for their part are barely aware of her existence.

Then there’s Paloma, a twelve-year-old genius. She is the daughter of a tedious parliamentarian, a talented and startlingly lucid child who has decided to end her life on the sixteenth of June, her thirteenth birthday. Until then she will continue behaving as everyone expects her to behave: a mediocre pre-teen high on adolescent subculture, a good but not an outstanding student, an obedient if obstinate daughter.

Paloma and Renée hide both their true talents and their finest qualities from a world they suspect cannot or will not appreciate them. They discover their kindred souls when a wealthy Japanese man named Ozu arrives in the building. Only he is able to gain Paloma’s trust and to see through Renée’s timeworn disguise to the secret that haunts her. This is a moving, funny, triumphant novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us.

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The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

Sybil Van Antwerp is an older woman who makes sense of her life through letters. She writes to family, friends, authors, and even people who may never read what she has written. But when someone from her past reappears, Sybil has to face an old wound she has avoided for years.
If you loved Theo as a character, I think Sybil will stay with you too. They’re very different people, but both books show how much our small interactions with other people matter.

Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime.

Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.

Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.

Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be “a very small thing,” but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read.

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Into the Magic Shop by James R. Doty

Into the Magic Shop is actually a memoir. As a poor twelve-year-old growing up with a difficult home life, Jim Doty walks into a magic shop and meets a woman named Ruth. She teaches him simple practices that change the way he thinks about his life. Years later, those lessons follow him into adulthood and his career as a surgeon.
It’s quite different from Theo of Golden because it’s nonfiction, but it shares that idea that one seemingly ordinary person can enter your life and change its direction through kindness.

Growing up in the high desert of California, Jim Doty was poor, with an alcoholic father and a mother chronically depressed and paralyzed by a stroke. Today he is the director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford University, of which the Dalai Lama is a founding benefactor. But back then his life was at a dead end until at twelve he wandered into a magic shop looking for a plastic thumb. Instead he met Ruth, a woman who taught him a series of exercises to ease his own suffering and manifest his greatest desires. Her final mandate was that he keep his heart open and teach these techniques to others. She gave him his first glimpse of the unique relationship between the brain and the heart.

Doty would go on to put Ruth’s practices to work with extraordinary results—power and wealth that he could only imagine as a twelve-year-old, riding his orange Sting-Ray bike. But he neglects Ruth’s most important lesson, to keep his heart open, with disastrous results—until he has the opportunity to make a spectacular charitable contribution that will virtually ruin him. Part memoir, part science, part inspiration, and part practical instruction, Into the Magic Shop shows us how we can fundamentally change our lives by first changing our brains and our hearts.

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The Memory Library by Kate Storey

Every year on her daughter Ella’s birthday, Sally adds another book to a special library she has been building for her. The problem is that Sally and Ella have been estranged for more than twenty years. When Ella is forced to return home, she finally discovers what her mother has been creating all those years.

Like Theo of Golden, this book shows how small acts of care can mean so much. Books, missed years, forgiveness, and people trying to find their way back to each other are at the center of the story.

For forty-two years, Sally Harrison has been building a library.

Each year, on her daughter’s birthday, she adds a new book to her shelves – with a note in the front dedicated to her own greatest work.

But Ella – Sally’s only child – fled to Australia twenty-two years ago after a heated exchange, and never looked back. And though Sally still dutifully adds a new paperback to the shelves every time the clock strikes midnight on July 11th, her hopes of her daughter ever thumbing through the pages are starting to dwindle.

Then disaster strikes and Ella is forced to return to the home she once knew.

She is soon to discover that when one chapter ends, another will soon follow…

All you have to do is turn the page…

Journey through the pages of this heartwarming novel, where hope, friendship and second changes are written in the margins.

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The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett

PJ is sixty-three, has survived three heart attacks, lost his daughter, and watched his marriage fall apart. When he learns that his old high-school sweetheart is single again, he decides to drive across the country to find her. Then two orphaned children, his adult daughter, and a cat that seems able to predict death end up joining him.
This is messier and darker than Theo of Golden, but it has the same love for imperfect people. The found-family part is especially good. You start with a group of lonely, slightly lost characters and watch them slowly become something like a family.

A darkly comic and warm-hearted novel about an old man on a cross-country mission to reunite with his high school crush—bringing together his adult daughter, two orphaned kids, and a cat who can predict death—from the beloved author of Rabbit Cake and Unlikely Animals

At sixty-three years old, million-dollar lottery winner PJ Halliday would be the luckiest man in Pondville, Massachusetts, if it weren’t for the tragedies of his life: the sudden death of his eldest daughter and the way his marriage fell apart after that. Since then, PJ spends both his money and his time at the bar, and he probably doesn’t have much time left—he’s had three heart attacks already.

But when PJ reads an obituary of his old romantic rival, he realizes his high school sweetheart, Michelle Cobb, is finally single again. Filled with a new enthusiasm for life, PJ decides he’s going to drive across the country to the Tender Hearts Retirement Community in Arizona to win Michelle back.

Before PJ can hit the road, tragedy strikes Pondville, leaving PJ the sudden guardian of his estranged brother’s grandchildren. Anyone else would be deterred from the planned trip, but PJ figures the orphaned kids might benefit from getting out of town. PJ also figures he can ask Sophie, his adult daughter, adrift in her 20s, to come along to babysit. And there’s one more surprise addition to the roster: Pancakes, a former nursing home therapy cat with a knack of predicting death, who recently turned up outside PJ’s home.

This could be the second chance PJ has long hoped for—a second shot at love and parenting—but does he have the strength to do both those things again? It’s very possible his heart can’t take it.

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