It’s Wednesday again everyone, and tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the US so I did think about doing a recommendsday post about books with Thanksgiving, but I don’t actually have a lot to add to the one I did a couple of years back. And so instead, I thought I’d do dysfunctional families because I know there is a lot of conflict over family dinners at events like Thanksgiving.
I think dysfunctional families come on a scale. So I’m going to start with the light(er) and fun(ner) ones. The ones that are a bit soapy and more on the family drama end of the spectrum and it often that comes with a side order of Rich People Problems. So there is The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren with a grocery store heir trying to get his inheritance from his family with a fake marriage that’s got to survive scrutiny at a family wedding on a tropical island. Then there’s Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan with another rich old money family who are trying to get rid of their son’s girlfriend because she’s not from a rich Singaporean family. There’s also Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple, where Bernadette is the mum of our protagonist, who disappears after a disastrous school fundraiser leaving her daughter behind to try and work out where her mum has gone.
Slightly less soapy but still not grim, and you have The Vacationers by Emma Straub which is about a family with a lot of secrets on holiday in Mallorca. It seems to be a divisive book – some Goodreads reviewers hate it (typically saying nothing happens or they hate all the characters) but I enjoyed it – there’s a steady drip of revelations that kept me turning the pages even as I liked the characters less! Then there’s also two Taylor Jenkins Reid books – Malibu Rising, which had the messy lives of the Riva siblings and impact of their famous dad; or The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo with the many marriages and relationships of a Hollywood star.
Getting grimmer there is The War that Saved my Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley which is a middle grade book but which I described as Goodnight Mr Tom but amped up somewhat. It’s got a satisfying ending but the early stages are heavy going. And then about as grim as I will go today on the fiction side we have The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel where a woman returns to the house she spent a summer as a teen after her cousin goes missing.
Over in the non fiction world it’s all a bit grimmer: Educated by Tara Westover and I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy were on the edges of what I could cope with, especially because you know it’s a memoir and really happened. And because I want to end on a bit of a lighter note Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher is very funny even as it’s dealing with growing up the child of famous parents, her struggles with addiction and her mental health as well as just generally being Carrie Fisher.
Happy Humpday everyone!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 