Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and while the holiday can be a joyous occasion where you surround yourself with family, friends and good food, it can also be chaotic and stressful. In other words, it’s the perfect time to get lost in a book. So, whether you’re taking a little break from all that cooking or just need some time away from your relatives, here are some engaging stories centered on families.
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters (2023)
It’s July 1962 and six-year-old Joe and his family take their annual trip to Maine where they pick blueberries for the season. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia, they and the other pickers work hard and keep to themselves. However, everything changes when Joe’s little sister Ruthie disappears causing a chain of events that will forever haunt the family, especially Joe. Meanwhile, a girl named Norma lives a quiet life with her parents. As she grows up, though, she becomes plagued with dreams that depict a different life from the one she’s always known. Over the next several decades, we follow Joe and Norma; two supposed strangers who feel out of place in the world but try their hardest to thrive despite the many hardships they face. It is an intense hopeful narrative about how the bonds of a family cannot be easily broken no matter what challenges arise.
Other People’s Houses by Abbi Waxman (2018)
Frances Bloom is a carpool mom shuttling kids to and from school every day. As a result, she often gets a reluctant glimpse into the private lives of her neighbors. There’s her cousin Iris who secretly wants to have another baby with her wife, quiet Bill Horton whose wife hasn’t been seen in months and Anne Porter who is having an affair; something Frances only knows about because she accidentally walked in on it. Between fighting with her angsty teenage daughter, getting up early on weekends for soccer practice and keeping the house tidy, Anne’s love life is the last thing on Frances’ mind. Unfortunately, she and the rest of the neighborhood find that simply ignoring the tryst is easier said than done once all is revealed. At times hilarious and at times heartfelt, Other People’s Houses is a story that depicts the trials and tribulations of life in suburbia showing that a sheltered community who can easily ostracize one another can also come together to support each other when it matters.
Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson (2023)
The Stocktons are an old money family from Brooklyn Heights who made their fortune in real estate. Though their wealth has afforded them a comfortable lifestyle, the adult children of the affluent brood find that having all the money in the world can’t solve their problems. Darley, the eldest daughter, is a dutiful wife and mother who longs for the days when she was a career woman. Elsewhere, Georgiana, the youngest, grapples with her role as a member of the upper class while also getting involved in a secret love affair. Last but not least, there’s Sasha, a middle-class woman who married into the family and has trouble fitting in to the high-class world of her husband and his doting sisters. Over a tumultuous couple of months, we follow the three Stockton women as they navigate the ups and downs of being a rich family. Many of you may already be familiar with this novel because it was featured in our Feel-Good Fiction book club over the summer, but, regardless of whether or not you participated in that event, you should still pick this up. While reading about the characters’ “issues” can come across as trivial and annoying in comparison to our own real-life troubles, what saves the story for me is that, thanks to Jenny Jackson’s writing, the plot is more satire than it is sincere. This makes for an amusing tale that’s guaranteed to keep you thinking about its posh world long after you finish reading.
Other books about families include:
Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan (2021)