Lists

100 Must-Read Books About Sisters

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Alison Doherty

Senior Contributor

Alison Doherty is a writing teacher and part time assistant professor living in Brooklyn, New York. She has an MFA from The New School in writing for children and teenagers. She loves writing about books on the Internet, listening to audiobooks on the subway, and reading anything with a twisty plot or a happily ever after.

I was only eighteen-months-old when my little sister was born. I literally cannot remember a world where I didn’t have a sister. Having and being a sister has been my most important relationship to date. It’s probably not a surprise that I love sister books. Growing they were always my favorite. I read Ballet Shoes, by Noel Streatfeild, so many times the cover eventually fell off. My sister and I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books so much we’d imagine our bunk beds were a covered wagon to reenact Laura and Mary’s journey West.  On this list you’ll see a few of my childhood favorites mixed in with books that range from classics to contemporary novels and fantasy to nonfiction. What they all have in common is interesting sister relationships. Please let me know which ones you love and what books I missed and should have added to the list!

  1. Half of the Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  2. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
  3. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
  • How the García Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
  • In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
  • The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
  • Pride and Prejudice  by Jane Austen
  • Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
  • Trail of Broken Wings by Sejal Badani
  • The Brontës by Juliet Barker*
  • The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall
  • Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake
  • The Sisters Grimm Series by Michael Buckley
  • The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
  • The Dark Queen Saga by Susan Carroll
  • Wise Children by Angela Carter
  • Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary
  • Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen by Marilyn Chin
  • Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung
  • The Sisters of Versailles by Sally Christie
  • The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
  • One by Sarah Crossan
  • The Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz
  • Tell Me Something Real by Calla Devlin
  • Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Y. Dennis-Benn
  • Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
  • The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
  • Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
  • Entwined by Heather Dixon
  • Sister Mother Husband Dog by Delia Ephron*
  • Like Water for Chocolate by Laurel Esquivel
  • The Virgin Suicides  by Jeffrey Eugenides
  • Howards End by E. M. Forster
  • I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass
  • The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
  • Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
  • To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
  • The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
  • Rules for Stealing Stars by Corey Ann Haydu
  • Positively 4th Street by David Hajdu*
  • Frederica by Georgette Heyer
  • Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
  • Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
  • We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
  • Atlas of Unknowns by Tania James
  • The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton: A True Story of Conjoined Twins by Dean Jensen*
  • The Key to the Golden Firebird by Maureen Johnson
  • Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
  • Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
  • Watermelon by Marion Keyes
  • The Secret Lives of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
  • The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
  • Mambo in Chinatown by Jean Kwok
  • The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine
  • The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family by Mary S. Lovell*
  • Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire
  • Bumped by Megan McCafferty
  • Summer of the Mariposas by Guadalupe Garcia McCall
  • Atonement by Ian McEwan
  • The Summer Girls by Mary Alice Monroe
  • Beloved by Toni Morrison
  • The Distant Hours by Kate Morton
  • Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You by Alice Munro
  • The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
  • Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
  • Things I Want My Daughters to Know by Elizabeth Noble
  • Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins
  • Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver
  • Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
  • Vanessa and her Sister by Priya Parmar
  • My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
  • The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra by Helen Rappaport*
  • Three Sisters Island Trilogy by Nora Roberts
  • Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
  • Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
  • I Love I Hate I Miss My Sister by Amélie Sarn
  • Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
  • The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
  • Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld
  • A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
  • I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
  • Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild
  • Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma
  • The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan
  • All of a Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
  • Sisters by Raina Telgemeier
  • The Color Purple by Alice Walker
  • The Silver Star by Jeanette Walls
  • This Side of Home by Renée Watson
  • In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner
  • The Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton
  • Mind Games by Kiersten White
  • Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • Tiny Little Thing by Beatriz Williams
  • One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
  • The Other Daughter by Lauren Willig
  • Lena by Jacqueline Woodson
  • Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique
  • The Truth About Twinkie Pie by Kat Yeh
  • What’s Left of Me by Kat Zhang

    *nonfiction