"A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost."
- Marion C. Garretty
I think that quote pretty much sums up why I love books about sisters so much
and why I'm getting nostalgic today with a picnic hamper full of my favourites.
Some of these books portray the deep bond and friendship between sisters
and having a wonderful sister myself I always find these really moving.
But then there's the other end of the scale And I have to admit I find these just as captivating
These are the books about sibling rivalry.
Maybe it's because sisterhood is such a strong bond
that it makes it extra fun and creepy to read about sisters
stabbing each other in the back - sometimes literally.
So today I'm going to talk about nine books about sisters from all over the scale
from sweet to sinister.
The first book in my hamper is The Favourite Sister by Jessica Knoll.
And this one is definitely from the dark and juicy end of the spectrum.
If you read Jessica Knoll's last bestseller Luckiest Girl Alive,
then you'll already have a taste for how good she is at writing complex villainous heroines.
But still nothing can prepare you for quite how dastardly the sisters in this book can
be.
The two sisters here are called Brett and Kelly.
Brett has always been the favourite, and she's now currently the most successful,
starring on a reality show after having achieved fame and fortune
for setting up a chain of feminist exercise studios.
But now Kelly wants a turn, and she's determined to manipulate her way into a role on the show.
So far, just sisterly competition, right?
Except that this competition will end in murder.
And while we're on the theme of dangerously dysfunctional sisters,
my next book is The Behaviour of Moths by Poppy Adams.
This is a gorgeously gothic book, which sees two sisters reuniting in a crumbling
old mansion after forty years of estrangement.
And before long, decades of secrets and resentments will come bubbling to the surface.
One sister, Ginny, has dedicated her life to the study of moths,
so the mansion is filled with these poor, dead, captured insects.
And with a backdrop that creepy, you get a taste for quite how sinister this book can
get.
Next up, in another crumbling castle, we meet the Mortmain sisters
in I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.
Rose and Cassandra live with their eccentric and penniless family
in the ruins of a Sussex castle
until their lives are thrown totally off balance by the arrival of two charming (and rich)
American men.
The once close sisters are torn apart by an entanglement of unrequited love,
all recorded in Cassandra's journal which she famously writes sitting in the kitchen
sink.
Now, if I Capture the Castle can't make you cry,
well, you're made of stronger stuff than I am.
But you definitely won't get through the next book on my list without any tears
and that is Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.
This one has a key difference to the other books on my list.
The two sisters here never actually meet.
Instead of getting to experience the joys of a shared childhood,
sisters Effia and Esi are set on drastically different paths,
one married off to a British slave trader, and the other sold herself as a slave.
The story then follows their family through the generations,
from 18th century Ghana to present day America.
And the impact of their different starts echoes through the lives of their descendants.
On a very different note, let's now jump to a much happier book for
all you YA fans - Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.
Fangirl is a really fun story of two inseparable twin sisters starting university
and having to learn to stand on their own two feet.
What I think is really sweet about this one is that it chronicles the transition from
these two as childhood siblings, who live together and do everything together,
to separate adults - and how they learn to support each other,
and carry that sisterhood bond into their lives as individuals.
A classic book which follows sisters into adulthood
is Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.
At the start of the book, they're young women living at home and putting
on plays in their attic.
And by the novel's end, they are adults with husbands and children of their own.
Or at least, almost all of them are.
I think Little Women is a bit too famous at this stage for anyone to view that as a spoiler.
A book that's like Little Women in reverse is How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
by Julia Alvarez.
In this book, the four Garcia girls have to flee their childhood home in the Dominican
Republic, and start new lives in New York.
But the twist is that it's told in reverse
Starting with them as fully Americanised adults, who feel like strangers on a trip back to
visit their Dominican relatives on the island,
all the way back through the painful immigrant experience,
and finishing with them as children living on the island, with a very strong sense of
family community.
Now, on a list of books about sisters, it would be impossible not to mention
The Color Purple by Alice Walker.
The sisters in this book are Celie and Nettie, who are kept apart from each other for thirty
years, and for much of it not even knowing if the
other one is alive.
Celie protects her sister Nettie from the abuse that Celie herself faces,
sending her away instead to live with a kind couple who will look after her.
And in exchange, the letters that Celie eventually receives from Nettie,
after discovering that her cruel husband had been keeping them hidden,
give Celie the courage to escape her marriage, and start a new independent life.
And finally, my favourite book about sisters of all time:
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen.
This novel follows the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne.
There is a third sister, Margaret, but sadly she doesn't get much of a look-in.
Elinor is the 'sense'.
She's secretly in love with a man that she knows she can't have,
so she hides her sadness and devotes herself to looking after her family.
Marianne is the 'sensibility' - and no, that doesn't mean that she's sensible.
Quite the opposite.
Marianne is the passionate, romantic one, who falls madly in love with Mr Willoughby
and doesn't care who knows it.
The sisters could hardly be more different, but I love the way that they look after each
other and learn from each other as the novel goes on.
This book has got all the classic charm and wit of all of Jane Austen's books,
but it's the relationship between the two sisters that makes it my favourite of them
all.
So leave me a comment below letting me know your favourite sisters in literature,
and do give this video a thumbs up if you saw any of your favourite books on the list.
And do hit that subscribe button because next week I'm going to be telling you the five
books that you must bring on your summer holidays this year.
See you next time!