Publication year 2018
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family, Mental Health, Race, Coming of Age
Tags Coming of Age, Romance, Humor, Asian Literature, Realistic Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction, Asian Literature
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.
American Panda
American Royals
American Sniper
American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin [“Probably twilight ...”]
American Street
Amerika
A Midwife's Tale
A Mighty Long Way
A Million Little Pieces
Amina's Voice
Amongst Women
An American Beauty
An Anonymous Girl
Anansi Boys
Anastasia Krupnik
And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer And Longer
And Now, Back to You
And the Mountains Echoed
And Then, Boom!
A Nearly Normal Family
Publication year 2018
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family, Mental Health, Race, Coming of Age
Tags Coming of Age, Romance, Humor, Asian Literature, Realistic Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction, Asian Literature
Publication year 2019
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Power & Greed, Family, Siblings, Love, Social Class
Tags Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction
Publication year 2012
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes War, Good & Evil, Family, Siblings
Tags US History, Iraq War, Military & War, World History, Biography
American Sniper is the autobiography of Chris Kyle, the single deadliest sniper in the history of the United States military. The narrative, co-written by Chris Kyle, Jim deFelice, Scott McEwen, and Chris’s wife Taya, opens with events that took place in 2003 in Iraq. At the time, Chris was providing protective fire for a group of Marines; a female insurgent attempted to attack the Marines with a grenade, but Chris shot her, registering his first... Read American Sniper Summary
Publication year 2017
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Family, Race, Fate, Safety & Danger, Future, Hate & Anger, Fear
Tags Lyric Poem, Race & Racism, Trauma & Abuse, Black Lives Matter, African American Literature
Publication year 2017
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Loyalty & Betrayal, Family
Tags Realistic Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction, Magical Realism, Romance
American Street is a contemporary coming-of-age novel by Haitian American young adult author Ibi Zoboi. It was published in 2017 and was a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature the same year. Plot SummaryAmerican Street tells the story of a teenage Haitian immigrant named Fabiola who moves back home to the United States, her country of birth. As she and her mother are reentering the US, immigrant authorities seize Fabiola’s mother... Read American Street Summary
Publication year 1927
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Immigration, Friendship, Coming of Age, Family, Loyalty & Betrayal, Social Class
Tags Classic Fiction, Immigration & Refugeeism, Coming of Age, Action & Adventure, Satirical Literature, Social Class
Publication year 1990
Genre Biography, Nonfiction
Themes Memory, Birth, Family, Community, Religion & Spirituality
Tags US History, Health, Gender & Feminism, Women`s Studies
A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on her Diary, 1785-1812 is a 1990 nonfiction biography of midwife Martha Ballard by American historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. Using Martha Ballard’s diary as a primary source, Ulrich utilizes a microhistorical approach to evaluate the life of Ballard, the history of Maine’s Kennebec River region, and the themes of social medicine, women’s role in the economy, and religion’s place in everyday life. A Midwife’s Tale won... Read A Midwife's Tale Summary
Publication year 2009
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes Education, Community, Family, Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Perseverance
Tags US History, Social Justice, Race & Racism, Education, Trauma & Abuse, Education, World History, Biography
Publication year 2003
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Mental Health, Guilt, Hate & Anger, Love, Nature Versus Nurture, Family, Self Discovery
Tags Life-Inspired Fiction, Addiction & Substance Abuse
A Million Little Pieces (2003) is a controversial memoir-style novel by American author James Frey. Characterized by its raw, stream-of-consciousness prose, the book recounts a young man’s experience in drug and alcohol rehabilitation. The narrative graphically explores the nature of addiction and the painful challenges of overcoming it. Initially marketed as a memoir, A Million Little Pieces was selected for Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club and became a New York Times bestseller. However, the book became... Read A Million Little Pieces Summary
Publication year 2017
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Gender Identity, Music, Coming of Age, Family
Tags Realistic Fiction, Middle Eastern History, Bullying, Children`s Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, Arts & Culture, Religion & Spirituality
Eleven-year-old Pakistani-American Amina Khokar lives in Milwaukee with her mother, father, and brother, Mustafa. At school, a Korean girl named Soojin Kim is her best friend. Amina is distressed when Soojin befriends Emily, a girl who has historically joined in on racially-motivated taunts against Soojin and Amina. The situation is complicated when Amina, Emily, and Soojin—along with the class oddball, Bradley—are assigned to the same group for an Oregon Trail project in their social studies... Read Amina's Voice Summary
Publication year 1990
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Femininity, Family, Nation
Tags Modern Classic Fiction, World History, Historical Fiction, Irish Literature, Classic Fiction
Amongst Women by John McGahern is a contemporary Irish novel published in 1990. This novel explores themes of The Individual in a Changing World, The Individual Versus the Collective, and The Importance of Women. Amongst Women is also specific to Irish history and culture, as it portrays a rapidly modernizing Ireland that threatens the protagonist Moran’s sense of self. Considered McGahern’s greatest work, Amongst Women is the fifth of his six published novels. It was... Read Amongst Women Summary
Publication year 2023
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Perseverance, Love, Gender Identity, Family, Social Class, Art, Beauty
Tags Love & Sexuality, Realistic Fiction, World History, Dramatic Literature, Historical Fiction, Romance
Publication year 2019
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Guilt, Family, Truth & Lies
Tags Psychological Fiction, Horror & Suspense, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction
Publication year 2005
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family, Siblings, Fathers, Death
Tags Fantasy, Modern Classic Fiction, Magical Realism, Humor
Anansi Boys is a fantasy novel by British author Neil Gaiman, written in 2005. It is set within the same world as his earlier novel American Gods and shares the title character of Anansi. In 2006, the novel won both the Locus Award and the British Fantasy Society Award. Anansi Boys deals with themes of family, duality, and storytelling, drawing from West African mythology and archetypes to create a story rooted in the here and... Read Anansi Boys Summary
Publication year 1978
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family, Childhood & Youth, Coming of Age, Death
Tags Children`s Literature, Realistic Fiction, Humor
Publication year 2015
Genre Novella, Fiction
Themes Family, Death, Memory
Tags Modern Classic Fiction, Literary Fiction, Scandinavian Literature, Contemporary Literature
Publication year 2026
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Love, Femininity, Mental Health, Family, Siblings, Order & Chaos
Tags Romance
B. K. Borison’s And Now, Back to You (2026) is a contemporary romance novel and the second installment in the Heartstrings series, following First-Time Caller (2025). Borison, a New York Times best-selling author known for her cozy Lovelight series (the first book of which is Lovelight Farms [2021]), presents an opposites-attract, workplace-rivals story inspired by classic romantic comedies like When Harry Met Sally…. The novel centers on two competing Baltimore meteorologists: Jackson Clark, a fastidious... Read And Now, Back to You Summary
Publication year 2012
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family
Tags Historical Fiction, Middle Eastern Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, World History, Dramatic Literature
The third novel by Khaled Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed, is a work of historical fiction that examines the factors surrounding one action: A poor family sells their youngest daughter to a wealthy couple in Kabul. Set in Afghanistan, the novel spans over 50 years and four generations. Hosseini includes several narrative voices, rather than just the story’s main family. The multiple narrators provide several different angles into the grand narrative of the main family... Read And the Mountains Echoed Summary
Publication year 2024
Genre Novel/Book in Verse, Fiction
Themes Mental Health, Childhood & Youth, Food, Family, Grandparents, Social Class, Economics, Safety & Danger, Trust & Doubt
Tags Children`s Literature
Publication year 2018
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family, Truth & Lies, Regret, Femininity, Appearance & Reality, Justice
Tags Horror & Suspense, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction