Publication year 2021
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Music, Religion & Spirituality, Family, Coming of Age, Friendship
Tags Realistic Fiction, Children`s Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, Music, Religion & Spirituality
Family
Leo Tolstoy famously begins the novel Anna Karenina with the sentence: "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." In this thematic collection, we have gathered noteworthy texts that navigate the joyous and sorrowful emotional terrain of the family unit.
Barakah Beats
Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna
Barnaby Rudge
Barracoon
Baseball in April and Other Stories
Bastard Out Of Carolina
Bat and the Waiting Game
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
Beach Music
Beach Read
Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days!
Bear
Bearstone
Beautiful Boy
Beautiful Creatures
Beautiful Graves
Beautiful Venom
Beauty and the Beast
Beauty
Because I Killed Him
Publication year 2021
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Music, Religion & Spirituality, Family, Coming of Age, Friendship
Tags Realistic Fiction, Children`s Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, Music, Religion & Spirituality
Publication year 2021
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family, Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Perseverance, War
Tags Historical Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Military & War, Latin American Literature, Children`s Literature, World History
Publication year 1841
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Childhood & Youth, Coming of Age, Family, The Past
Tags Classic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Victorian Period, British Literature, World History, Victorian Era
Publication year 2018
Genre Biography, Nonfiction
Themes Justice, Power & Greed, Family, Perseverance, Memory, Language, Race, Community
Tags Historical Fiction, Harlem Renaissance, US History, Race & Racism, African American Literature, Anthropology, Black Lives Matter, Civil Rights & Jim Crow South, Grief & Death, History: African , Social Justice, Trauma & Abuse, World History, Biography
Originally written in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” (2018) is the transcribed posthumous autobiography of the life of Oluale “Cudjo Lewis” Kossola (1841-1935), written by Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960). Known for her involvement in the Harlem Renaissance, Hurston was a writer, anthropologist, folklorist, and filmmaker. In all her work, she held a special appreciation for Black life and Black culture of the US South. Her works... Read Barracoon Summary
Publication year 1990
Genre Short Story Collection, Fiction
Themes Shame & Pride, Language, Race, Childhood & Youth, Coming of Age, Family, Self Discovery, Social Class
Tags Realistic Fiction, Sports
Publication year 1992
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family
Tags Coming of Age, Southern Literature, LGBTQ+, Trauma & Abuse, Modern Classic Fiction, Classic Fiction
Bastard out of Carolina is a 1992 semi-autobiographical novel by American writer Dorothy Allison. It was a finalist for the National Book Award and was adapted for film in 1996. Set in Greenville County, South Carolina, where the author herself grew up in the 1950s, it chronicles the childhood and adolescence of Ruth Anne “Bone” Boatwright against the backdrop of poverty, class-based discrimination, and both physical and sexual abuse. Like much of Allison’s work, Bastard... Read Bastard Out Of Carolina Summary
Publication year 2018
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family, Forgiveness, Disability, Childhood & Youth, Animals
Tags Realistic Fiction, Children`s Literature, Animals, Disability, Contemporary Literature
Publication year 2011
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes Family, Childhood & Youth, Education, Nature Versus Nurture
Tags Parenting, Asian Literature, Symbolic Narrative, Education, Education, Chinese Literature, Biography
Amy Chua’s memoir, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (2011), depicts Chua’s experience raising two American daughters according to Chinese cultural standards. Chua is a Yale law professor specializing in globalization and ethnic conflict. She is also a second-generation Chinese American, and her husband is Jewish. Chua’s strict approach is influenced by the parenting methods used by her own parents, which clash with those of her husband. Chua’s memoir was a New York Times bestseller... Read Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother Summary
Publication year 1995
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Forgiveness, Grief, Love, Memory, Mental Health, Race, Midlife, The Past, Animals, Family, Grandparents, Mothers, Immigration, War, Loyalty & Betrayal, Music
Tags Historical Fiction, Southern Literature, Depression & Suicide, Grief & Death, Modern Classic Fiction, Dramatic Literature
Pat Conroy’s 1995 novel Beach Music is a work of historical fiction. Set primarily in South Carolina, the novel follows a community fractured by memories of the Holocaust and the social upheaval of the 1960s and 1970s. Beach Music explores the nature of generational trauma and the way our pasts shape our futures. The power of forgiveness and the differences between duty and loyalty are also prominent themes. The setting and culture of the American... Read Beach Music Summary
Publication year 2020
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Love, Literature, Family
Tags Romance, Modern Classic Fiction
Publication year 1982
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Childhood & Youth, Family, Self Discovery
Tags Humor, Realistic Fiction, Children`s Literature, Education, Education
Publication year 2002
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Conflict, Perseverance, Fear, Grief, Guilt, Hope, Joy, Loneliness, Love, Memory, Nostalgia, Death, Animals, Appearance & Reality, Place, Family, Friendship, Mothers, Community, Economics, Beauty, Fate, Good & Evil, Justice, Safety & Danger, Trust & Doubt, Truth & Lies
Tags Modern Classic Fiction, Fantasy, Animals, Romance, Canadian Literature, Classic Fiction
Publication year 1989
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Forgiveness, Indigenous Identity, Loneliness, Family
Tags Coming of Age, Action & Adventure
Bearstone, published in 1989 by author Will Hobbs, is a coming-of-age adventure story for middle-grade readers. It describes half Ute, half Navajo teenager Cloyd Attcity’s quest to escape his dull, constrained life and find purpose and meaning in the wilderness. With the help of his mentor, rancher Walter Landis, Cloyd’s search leads to a spiritual adventure in the high country and a dramatic struggle to protect a grizzly bear from a professional big-game hunter.Bearstone is... Read Bearstone Summary
Publication year 2007
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes Family
Tags Addiction & Substance Abuse, Parenting, Psychology, Psychology, Biography, Mental Illness
Published in 2008, David Sheff’s memoir, Beautiful Boy, explores his experiences of coming to terms with his son’s addiction to methamphetamine. Sheff and his wife Vicki are overjoyed when they have their son, Nic. For the first three years, they live a happy, contented life, providing Nic with everything he needs. However, when Sheff and Vicki's marriage collapses, Nic, now aged three, is deeply affected by the change. This worsens when Sheff and Vicki move... Read Beautiful Boy Summary
Publication year 2009
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Love, Family, Good & Evil
Tags Fantasy, Romance, Southern Gothic, Relationships
Beautiful Creatures (2009) is a young adult paranormal romance novel written by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Garcia and Stohl combine their interest in Southern Gothic literature with supernatural romance. Beautiful Creatures is the first book in the four-part Caster Chronicles. The novel follows the romance between Ethan Wate and Lena Duchannes as Lena comes to terms with the supernatural powers that make her a Caster. Lena and Ethan struggle to find a way to... Read Beautiful Creatures Summary
Publication year 2022
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Fear, Grief, Guilt, Love, Death, The Past, Family, Self Discovery, Art
Tags New Adult, Romance
Publication year 2025
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Guilt, Love, Revenge, Family, Self Discovery
Tags Romance, Sports, New Adult
Publication year 1740
Genre Novella, Fiction
Themes Love, Family, Marriage, Social Class
Tags Fairy Tale & Folklore, Classic Fiction, Fantasy, Love & Sexuality, Relationships, Children`s Literature, French Literature, Romance
Beauty and the Beast by Gabrielle-Suzanna Barbot De Villeneuve first appeared in her collection of fairy tales La jeune américaine, et les contes marins (The Young American and Marine Tales) in 1740 and was abridged into a Christian moral tale by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756. As a fairy-tale classic, Beauty and the Beast has been retold around the globe and in several mediums, including books, film, theater, and opera. The most well-known adaptations... Read Beauty and the Beast Summary
Publication year 1978
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Love, Beauty, Family
Tags Fairy Tale & Folklore, Fantasy, Romance
Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast (1978) is author Robin McKinley’s debut novel. It’s an adaptation of the original Beauty and the Beast fairy tale written in 1740 by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, with genre elements of fantasy and romance and marketed for a middle grade readership. McKinley’s version of the story maintains an 18th-century setting while modernizing thematic explorations of outer versus inner beauty, ideals of faithfulness and selflessness... Read Beauty Summary
Publication year 2026
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Death, The Past, Family, Social Class, Politics & Government, Justice, Loyalty & Betrayal, Safety & Danger, Truth & Lies
Tags Science Fiction, Romance