Reading Recommendations: Family Ties
A new month means another batch of reading recommendations! November’s theme is Family Ties! The books featured on this list are themed around families. I hope you enjoy these picks!
The Guerreros have lived in Nothar Park, a predominantly Dominican part of New York City, for twenty years. When demolition begins on a neighboring tenement, Eusebia, an elder of the community, takes matters into her own hands by devising an increasingly dangerous series of schemes to stop construction of the luxury condos. Meanwhile Eusebia’s daughter, Luz, a rising associate at a top Manhattan law firm who strives to live the bougie lifestyle her parents worked hard to give her, becomes distracted by a sweltering romance with the handsome white developer of the company her mother so vehemently opposes.
As Luz’s father, Vladimir, secretly designs their retirement home in the Dominican Republic, mother and daughter collide, ramping up tensions in Nothar Park, racing towards a near fatal climax.
Neruda On The Park is a narrative that weaves together the tale of the Guerrero’s who live in the neighborhood of Nothar Park. This historical and rich neighborhood is under the threat of gentrification as a company wants to bring in new apartment buildings. The book mainly follows the perspective of Luz and Eusebia Guererro and how the changes within the neighborhood also shift the dynamic of their mother-daughter relationship.
Cee has been trapped on an abandoned island for three years without any recollection of how she arrived, or memories from her life prior. All she knows is that somewhere out there, beyond the horizon, she has a sister named Kay, and it’s up to Cee to cross the ocean and find her.
In a world apart, 16-year-old STEM prodigy Kasey Mizuhara lives in an eco-city built for people who protected the planet―and now need protecting from it. With natural disasters on the rise due to climate change, eco-cities provide clean air, water, and shelter. Their residents, in exchange, must spend at least a third of their time in stasis pods, conducting business virtually whenever possible to reduce their environmental footprint. While Kasey, an introvert and loner, doesn’t mind the lifestyle, her sister Celia hated it. Popular and lovable, Celia much preferred the outside world. But no one could have predicted that Celia would take a boat out to sea, never to return.
The novel follows two sisters Cecilia and Kasey who are very close to one another and they share a very special bond but are complete opposites. It is definitely an interesting narrative surrounding two sisters that are trying to find their way back to each other but also grapple with the torrent of emotions and the past that haunts them inside. The futuristic aspect of the world that they live in with holograms and different kinds of futuristic technology is a unique setting for the story. There is also the bigger mystery of trying to figure out what happened to the sisters to end up where they are now.
Logan Foster has pretty much given up on the idea of ever being adopted. It could have something to with his awkward manner, his photographic memory, or his affection for reciting curious facts, but whatever the cause, Logan and his “PP’s” (prospective parents) have never clicked.
No matter what Logan could have imagined, nothing prepared him for the truth: His PP’s are actually superheroes, and they’re being hunted down by dastardly forces. Logan’s found himself caught in the middle in a massive battle and the very fate of the world may hang in the balance. Will Logan be able to find a way to save the day and his new family?
hough Margie and Gil make strange superhero parents, this is the first time Logan feels like he has a home. Sure he might not have the typical definition of a “family” but he’s finally in an environment where he can truly be himself. This book has a lot of conversation surrounding prejudice, being neurodivergent, and bullying. It validates younger readers and helps them to celebrate their differences and learn to appreciate themselves and what makes them unique.
When teen social activist and history buff Kezi Smith is killed under mysterious circumstances after attending a social justice rally, her devastated sister Happi and their family are left reeling in the aftermath. As Kezi becomes another immortalized victim in the fight against police brutality, Happi begins to question the idealized way her sister is remembered. Perfect. Angelic.
One of the good ones.
Even as the phrase rings wrong in her mind—why are only certain people deemed worthy to be missed?—Happi and her sister Genny embark on a journey to honor Kezi in their own way, using an heirloom copy of The Negro Motorist Green Book as their guide. But there’s a twist to Kezi’s story that no one could’ve ever expected—one that will change everything all over again.
Told from varying perspectives and through different timelines, the story focuses on Happi, Kezi, and Genny. When Kezi dies after going to a social justice rally their family is shaken to the core. Struggling to grieve, the remaining sisters deal with the loss and try to heal while Kezi is painted as a martyr, “one of the good ones” due to her civil rights activism work. This book packed a powerful punch from beginning to end and even threw in some unsuspecting twists in its narrative. Most of all the novel unpacks important discussions about race, civil rights history, and the media.
Lou Bulosan-Nelson is going to build her dream. She shares a room with her mom in her grandmother’s house in San Francisco, and longs for a place of her own where she can escape her lovable but large extended Filipino family. Lou has a talent for woodshop class and creating projects, and plans to build a tiny house, 100 square feet, all her own, on land that she inherited from her dad, who died before she was born. Then Lou discovers it’s not so easy to build one, but she won’t give up on her dream—and her friends and family won’t either. This heartwarming coming-of-age story explores culture and family, forgiveness and friendship, and what makes a house a true home.
This novel though short was so heartwarming and full of all the emotions that come with growing up and dealing with change. Lou is confronted by a possible move to a brand-new city and doesn’t want to leave her friends and family behind. Though she has a large family she sometimes wants to escape from she seeks comfort in her presence. She also finds comfort in her tiny house dream due to her land having a strong familial significance to her. Readers watch Lou as she tries to overcome obstacles and deal with a possible new beginning in her life. Reading this book reminded me that change is inevitable, but it isn’t always easy to cope with it.
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters’ storylines intersect?
The novel follows the narrative of two twins, Desiree and Stella Vignes that come from a small town named Mallard. Once they turn eighteen they leave their home to live separate lives. Stella passes for White and lives a completely new life while Desiree ends up eventually moving back home. The readers are taken on a journey through time spanning the 1950s through the early 1990s following the narratives of not only the twins but their daughters’ lives and how they intersect. History seems to haunt them their entire lives and it’s always there to remind them of where they came from.
That concludes my reading recommendations for family-themed books! What books do you recommend or what are your favorites? Comment below!
