Most family drama is juicy 鈥� think about the popularity of TV shows like 鈥淪uccession鈥� or 鈥淭he Sopranos,鈥� or the staying power of movies like 1998鈥檚 鈥淭he Parent Trap.鈥�
But family dynamics don鈥檛 just play out on the screen. They鈥檝e long been fodder for novelists and non-fiction writers, too.
鈥溾�奍 think we love reading about other people鈥檚 families because we only know what鈥檚 going on in ours, and there鈥檚 a little bit of competition of, 鈥楳y family is maybe better or worse than yours,鈥欌�� , host and creator of 鈥淭he Stacks鈥� podcast, said. 鈥淏ut I think there鈥檚 also solace in knowing that you are not the only one who鈥檚 going through something with your mom or your cousin or your uncle.鈥�
Book recommendations from Traci Thomas
Fiction
- 鈥�鈥� by Mary H. K. Choi
鈥溾�奍t鈥檚 Jane and June, and they are 20-somethings living in New York. They grew up being very close, but by the time they got to New York, they sort of have big differences. June is the type-A older sister: first-born, got a finance job, the whole thing.
鈥淛ane is the one who鈥檚 still in college, not really doing her homework. But then June gets cancer, and because Jane is in college, she鈥檚 got healthcare. And so it becomes this conversation about what can Jane do to help her sister? There might be some fraud coming up. That鈥檚 an idea they have, but it鈥檚 also just about these two young women navigating family and each other in a really beautiful and moving way.鈥�
- 鈥�鈥� by Brit Bennett
鈥溾�奣his is historical fiction. It starts in the Deep South in the 1950s. It fast forwards to the 1990s. They鈥檙e identical twin sisters who are Black. They are both able to pass as white. One chooses to pass as white. The other one chooses to live as a Black woman in the South with her daughter, who is visibly Black.
鈥淚t鈥檚 about them having separated from each other and living these two separate lives, and then how their lives come back together. And it鈥檚, again, another really beautiful and interesting conversation about sisters and growing apart.鈥�
- 鈥�鈥� by Amy Tan
鈥溾�奍t鈥檚 one of the great books on mothers and daughters because it is funny and tender, and it kind of shows the ways that parents try to shield their lives from their children and the ways that children always end up finding out something, or the way that children know. I love this idea of sort of protection because the daughters are trying to protect the moms from themselves and each other.
鈥溾�奡he also does such a great job of tapping into the competition. It鈥檚 like you can hate your mom or you can hate your daughter, but if someone else hates them, it鈥檚 a fight. And she taps so well into this sort of shifting allegiances and alliances within families and within friend groups. And I think that is also something that makes the book so special and so human.鈥�
- 鈥溾�� by
- 鈥溾�� by Jacqueline Woodson
- 鈥�鈥� by Torrey Peters
- 鈥�鈥� by Toni Morrison
- 鈥�鈥� by Melissa Mogollon
- 鈥�鈥� by Jonathan Franzen
- 鈥�鈥� by Yael Van Der Wouden
Nonfiction
- 鈥�鈥� by Jesselyn Cook
鈥溾�奍t feels very much on the nose of what a lot of people are experiencing in their families, where there might be family members who are having different political opinions, or you feel like your family member one way or the other has sort of gone off the deep end, and they鈥檙e unreachable.
鈥淭his book follows different families who have family members who have joined QAnon. And it kind of shows how they got there and the ways that families are trying to kind of get their family members back.
鈥淪o it鈥檚 political, but also it鈥檚 really about connection and what we lose and what we gain from online communities and how that can impact our real-life relationships.鈥�
- 鈥�鈥� by Rebecca Carroll
鈥溾�奟ebecca Carroll was adopted at birth by two white parents, and she was sort of taught this idyllic, colorblind world. And then eventually she meets her birth mother, who鈥檚 a white woman who sort of has a lot of opinions and thoughts about race, and there鈥檚 this tension and this rivalry between Rebecca and her birth mother, and then also what her adoptive parents had taught her.
鈥淪he has to confront race and family and parenting, and it kind of drives her towards depression and unhealthy lifestyle until she works through it. It鈥檚 just a really powerful investigation of what it means to be in a family, what it means to be loved, and what it means to have your own identity.鈥�
Click for host Robin Young鈥檚 conversation with Rebecca Carroll
- 鈥�鈥� by Alison Bechdel
鈥溾�奍t鈥檚 about Alison Bechdel as a child. Her dad is the director of the town funeral home, which is what they call the 鈥楩un Home.鈥� So that鈥檚 where the book gets its title.
鈥淎lison goes to college. She comes out as a lesbian, and then, in that process, realizes, 鈥極h, my dad is actually gay.鈥� And so the book is sort of investigating that. I won鈥檛 give other pieces away, though. I think it鈥檚 public knowledge what happened, but it鈥檚 this exploration of her childhood and looking back and looking for clues of what鈥檚 going on, and it鈥檚 really, really great.鈥�
- 鈥溾�� by Robert Kolker
- 鈥�鈥� by
- 鈥�鈥� by
- 鈥�鈥� by Patrick Radden Keefe
- 鈥�鈥� by Nicole Chung
- 鈥�鈥� by Elizabeth Alexander
- 鈥�鈥� by
- 鈥�鈥� by Cristina Rivera Garza
- 鈥�鈥� by Maureen Callahan
- 鈥�鈥� by James Whitfield Thomson
- 鈥�鈥� by
- 鈥�鈥� by Mira Jacob
- 鈥�鈥� by Thi Bui
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produced and edited this interview for broadcast with . adapted it for the web.
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