LIKE WE ALWAYS SAY: If you want to be a better sister, read. What follows is the start of a booklist for sisters–fiction and non-fiction alike. Please add suggested additions in the comments space, so that with your help, the list can grow.
FROM ANASTASIA SMITH OF ‘CLAIMING SISTERHOOD’
BEEZUS AND RAMONA, by BEVERLY CLEARY: As a part of a series about the commonly misunderstood antics of Ramona Quimby, this young-adult novel portrays the comic (and constant) ruckus that 4-year-old Ramona causes in her older sister’s life.
HOW THE GARCIA GIRLS LOST THEIR ACCENTS, by JULIA ALVAREZ: The four Garcia girls (Carla, Sandra, Yolanda, and Sofia) live a privileged and protected life in the Dominican Republic until their family is forced out by a dictator’s military police. They relocate to New York, where the sisters must straddle cultural lines and learn to speak English without a trace of their Spanish accent.
from ST. LUCY’S HOME FOR GIRLS RAISED BY WOLVES, by KAREN RUSSELL: In the story “Ava Wrestles the Alligator,” Ava tries to save her older sister, Ossie, from the grasp of a phantom lover while the two girls are left alone on their family’s alligator farm. It is a story of addiction, isolation, and the power of language.
THE VIRGIN SUICIDES, by JEFFREY EUGENIDES: Told from the perspective of curious neighborhood boys, The Virgin Suicides is the story of the five elusive Lisbon sisters (Cecila, Lux, Bonnie, Mary, and Therese) who are hidden away from the world by their overprotective Catholic parents.
from REASONS TO LIVE, by AMY HEMPEL: In “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried,” Hempel renders an incredible image of the human struggle to reconcile with the death through the eyes of a woman visiting her best friend in the hospital.
THE NAMESAKE, by JHUMPA LAHIRI: Lahiri tells the life of Gogol (a first generation American from Indian parents), as he struggles to navigate identity through many conflicting roles.
TIS PITY SHE’S A WHORE, by JOHN FORD: You will never succeed at finding another story where twins have an incestuous love affair, and in a jealous rage the brother cuts out his sister’s heart and brings it to her wedding feast on a sword. Not bad for 17th century fiction.
THE HANDMAID’S TALE, by MARGARET ATWOOD: In this dystopian novel about female subjugation, women are reduced to chattel. Yet the women in Handmaid’s Tale hold a certain power over their oppressors through their solidarity. Written in 1985, this novel is a stinging social critique of a culture’s backlash against feminism.
HAVING OUR SAY: THE DELANY SISTERS’ FIRST 100 YEARS, by SARAH L. DELANY, A. ELIZABETH DELANY, and AMY HILL HEARTH: An oral history of the lives of Sadie and Bessie Delany, conducted by Amy Hill Hearth during a series of interviews when the sisters were 101 and 102 years old. Sadie was the first African-American woman to be granted permission to teach Domestic Science in New York, and Bessie was the second black woman to receive a dentistry license in the state. Their story is, in part, the story of the American civil rights movement.
FOR HER OWN GOOD by BARBARA EHRENREICH and DEIDRE ENGLISH: 25 years since its first publishing (and updated to cover the most recent quarter-century), For Her own Good chronicles two centuries of “expert” medical advice for women, from pregnancy (a disabling disease) to intense conversation (hazardous to women’s health). Ehrenreich and English write an account of history that is both comical and “deadly serious.”
WE ARE YOUR SISTERS by DOROTHY STERLING: In their own words, African American women document everyday life in the 19th century. Drawing largely from the Federal Writers Project’s collected testimonies of slaves and recovered letters, Sterling paints a vivid picture of the daily challenges of black women living before and after the Civil War. The contributors within We Are Your Sisters not only tell their intensely moving personal stories, but also the story of our nation’s history.
THE AWAKENING by KATE CHOPIN: First published in 1899, this classic novel took on a shockingly progressive issues for its time. In The Awakening, Chopin describes the stifled unhappy marriage of Edna Pontellier and her consequent evolution into a free and liberated woman. While this novel caused quite the uproar at the time of its publication, it continues to be a delightful and rich read over a century later.
FROM MARION ROACH SMITH OF ‘SHE SAID, SHE SAID’ BLOG:
Marion’s Classics
ANTIGONE, by SOPHOCLES: The original Pride and Prejudice.
KING LEAR, by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: The best argument on why never to divide property among offspring.
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, by JANE AUSTEN: Sisters who grow together stay together.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, by JANE AUSTEN: Ditto.
MANSFIELD PARK, by JANE AUSTEN: How one three-way sister spat plays out in the lives of so many.
HOWARDS END, by E.M. FORSTER: A great study of separate sister politics and yet total sister loyalty.
LITTLE WOMEN, by LOUISA MAY ALCOTT: Sibling love above all else is a fine, if rare, thing.
BUNNER SISTERS, by EDITH WHARTON: Ah, Edith. Who does the dashed hopes of women better than Edith Wharton? And in this case, you get a double dose in the sisters so eloquently portrayed in her short novel.
Marion’s Contemporary Picks
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, by HARPER LEE: Ah, Scout. Where is there a better little sister?
MEMBER OF THE WEDDING, by CARSON MCCULLERS: Best story/play on growing out of being merely a little sister.
HOUSEKEEPING, by MARILYNNE ROBINSON: Best debut novel on sisters. Period.
THE VIRGIN SUICIDES, by JEFFREY EUGENIDES: Five sisters from the Greek-chorus POV of teenage boys.
THE PRINCE OF TIDES, by PAT CONROY: The brother/sister bond amid what reads like perhaps America’s most dysfunctional family.
THE SISTER, by POPPY ADAMS: A debut novel written in the voice of older sister Ginny, whose ordered life gets wildly disrupted by the return of sister Vivien, the book is part ghost story, part love story, and every inch a neo-Gothic tale. The Detroit News called it “deliciously creepy.”
ATLAS OF UNKNOWNS, by TANIA JAMES: Combining the dream that can be America, with the hush-hush-eccentric backgrounds families can have, the story rockets one sister toward another in ways that are unexpected, remarkable and unforgettable.
BREATHING LESSONS, by ANNE TYLER Earned her the 1989 Pulitzer Prize. A woman makes it her goal to connect and unite the beautiful people around her.
ALFRED & EMILY, by DORIS LESSING: Lessing examines her parents’ relationship and what may have happened in their lives had there been no war.
EVA MOVES THE FURNITURE, by MARGO LIVESEY: I thought I knew about imaginary friends. I knew only my side. But there is another world to consider when that topic comes up, and Margot Livesey weighs them in the palm of her cool hand, and the result is magical suggestion of what is out there in the world for us, if only our hearts are open.
A GATE AT THE STAIRS, by LORRIE MOORE: It takes place in the Midwest, and starts quietly, gently inducing this state of transit to real thought in the most subtle of writerly gestures, posing the topics to us as illustrated in a thorny sisterhood between some women and one child.
THE HOUSE ON FORTUNE STREET, by MARGOT LIVESEY: This is as good a book about the complexities of long friendship between two women as I’ve read. Gorgeously wrought, intricate and precise, it is told from four points of view, with only one of those written in first person. So difficult to do as a writer; so deeply satisfying for the reader–to look at one friendship from all those angles.
THE STORY SISTERS, by ALICE HOFFMAN: What has greater impact, the stories we tell ourselves, or the stories others tell us? When the subject is us, which do we believe more? Those are the questions posed, poked, provoked, and provided by Hoffman’s haunting new novel.
THE POISONWOOD BIBLE, by BARBARA KINGSOLVER: I cannot imagine a better book on sisterhood. That Kingsolver chose to tell the story of American imperialism and colonial Africa from the point of view of a mother and her four daughters continues to dazzle me, even days after I had to finally put it down when reaching the book’s remarkable end.
SAVAGE BEAUTY: THE LIFE OF EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY, by NANCY MILFORD: A compelling and exhaustive biography of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. Savage and beautiful, indeed. (Neither this nor the next title is fiction, though both are every bit as compelling as the juiciest novel.)
THE SISTERS: THE SAGA OF THE MITFORD FAMILY, by MARY S. LOVELL: A group biography of the six Mitford sisters, minor members of the English aristocracy, all of whom came to prominence and notoriety for their beliefs or their accomplishments. An amazing family and a captivating read.
FROM PAIGE SMITH ORLOFF OF THE TSP BLOG ‘HEY, LITTLE SISTER:’
CAT’S EYE, by MARGARET ATWOOD: The best book ever written about the delicacy and pain of female friendship.
MADELINE IS SLEEPING, by SARAH SHUN-LIEN BYNUM: A surreal story of a young French girl’s adventures in dreamland.
NICE TO COME HOME TO, by REBECCA FLOWERS: When the men in your life disappoint, your sister will carry you. A modern re-telling of Pride and Prejudice set in Washington, DC.
THE JOY LUCK CLUB, by AMY TAN: Four Chinese-born mothers, their American-born daughters, and a journey back to China to find one family’s long-lost half-sisters.
CASSANDRA AT THE WEDDING, by DOROTHY BAKER: A twin heads home for her sister’s wedding, determined to stop it.
THE SISTERS GRIMM (a series), by MICHAEL BUCKLEY AND PETER FERGUSON: The adventures of sisters Daphne and Sabrina Grimm. After the deaths of their parents, the girls are sent to live with a mysterious grandmother they never knew existed. Their new hometown, Ferryport Landing, is populated by the “Everafters,” characters straight from fairy tales, and full of mysteries the girls must help to solve. Recommended for sisters of all ages.
I SEE YOU EVERYWHERE, by JULIA GLASS: Two sisters struggle with envy and jealousy even as they are strongly bound to each other. From the National Book Award-winning author of The Three Junes.
ONE SPECIAL SUMMER, by JACQUELINE AND LEE BOUVIER: Jacqueline Bouvier–soon to be better known as Jacqueline Kennedy–spent the summer of 1951 on a glamorous grand tour of Europe with her younger sister, Lee, and the two documented their travels in a sort of scrapbook for their mother. Even if you’re not obsessed with Jackie O, this is a charming passport to another time and another world.
FROM TSP READER COMMENTS:
THE SEVEN SISTERS, by MARGARET DRABBLE: A great story about the empowerment of a middle-aged woman who was betrayed by her husband and estranged from her daughters.
THE BLIND ASSASSIN, by MARGARET ATWOOD: This is one reader’s “new favorite–besides being a book about sisters, it weaves three different-though-related stories together.”
THE COLOR PURPLE, by ALICE WALKER: A beautiful sister book that addresses African American female life in the South during the 1930′s.
DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD, by REBECCA WELLS: As one reader perfectly describes, “It’s about finding your sisters wherever they may be and hanging on for dear life.”
LITTLE ALTARS EVERYWHERE, by REBECCA WELLS: Chronicles the adventures of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.
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Thank you for putting this together, I’ll have to print it out and carry it with me.
And I just read The Poisonwood Bible over the holidays and can’t say enough about how I loved it as well. An unexpected gift of beauty that has forever changed me.
Dear Marion: Where’s ‘Lonesome Dove?’ You recommended it to me when it first came out and it remains one of my favorite books. I also enjoyed being asked by my sister why I was suddenly employing phrases such as ‘I reckon …’ and ‘let’s mosey..’ I guess it really made an impression ;^) And let’s not forget A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, nor Tai Pan by James Clavell.
Thanks, Deb, and also Winetipper…good suggestions. We hope to make this a really amazing list with the help of all our new “sisters”. :) See you soon!
Hi there, Deb. So glad you loved The Poisonwood Bible. My husband just read it as well, and was amazed. Please bring us your suggestions. We’re looking forward to more great reading in 2010.
Hi there, Winetipper. What a lovely memory of your sister and you. I can just hear it. So glad for your suggestions. Keep ‘em coming.
How about The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown?
I love the Pulitzer prize winning “A Thousand Acres” by Jane Smiley about three sisters who grew up on a Midwestern farm under the domination of an egocentric, tyrannical father. It’s Smiley’s feminist version of “King Lear” with the unusual twist of being narrated not by the eldest daughter, nor by the youngest one, but by one in the middle — a sisterly voice not often heard from…