Books like Mudbound
12 books with a reading profile close to Mudbound by Hillary Jordan. Thought-provoking; a moderate read.
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1
Caleb's Crossing
history, narrative
Set in the 1660s on Martha's Vineyard, then called Great Harbor, the novel follows Bethia Mayfield, a minister’s daughter who forms a secret friendship with Caleb, the son of a Wampanoag chieftain.
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2
Betty
history, narrative
Set in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains during the mid-twentieth century, the narrative follows Betty Carpenter, one of eight siblings born to a white mother and a Cherokee father.
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3
A Northern Light
Also thought-provoking · history, narrative
Set in 1906 in the Adirondack Mountains, the story follows Mattie Gokey, a farm girl torn between a university scholarship and her obligations to her widowed father and siblings.
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4
The Mountains Sing
history, narrative
Hương, a young girl, narrates the Vietnam War through her family's story, as does her grandmother Diệu Lan, who in the 1950s flees land reform in the north with her children.
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5
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
Also thought-provoking · history, narrative
Set in the early 1970s New York rock scene, this oral history follows the rise and fracturing of an unlikely musical duo.
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6
The Mad Women's Ball
by Victoria Mas
Also thought-provoking · history, narrative
Set in 1885 at the Salpêtrière asylum in Paris, the narrative follows Eugénie Cléry, a young woman committed to the institution by her father after she reveals her ability to speak with spirits.
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7
Dominicana
by Angie Cruz
history, narrative
Ana Cancion is fifteen when she marries Juan Ruiz, a man twice her age, in the Dominican Republic in 1965, so that her family can eventually emigrate.
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8
The Bastard of Istanbul
by Elif Shafak
Also thought-provoking · history, narrative
Asya Kazancı is a nineteen-year-old Turkish girl in Istanbul, raised in a household of women, with no knowledge of who her father is.
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9
Cane River
history, narrative
Lalita Tademy traced her own family history to write this novel, which follows four generations of women of colour in Louisiana's Cane River region, from slavery through Reconstruction.
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10
I Must Betray You
by Ruta Sepetys
history, narrative
In 1989 Romania, seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu lives under the isolationist regime of dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu.
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11
American Wife
Also thought-provoking · history, narrative
Alice Blackwell, a quiet, bookish girl from Wisconsin, becomes a librarian and a teacher, and later marries Charlie Blackwell, a wealthy Republican who becomes President of the United States.
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12
Yellow Wife
Also thought-provoking · history, narrative
Born into a life of relative privilege on a Virginia plantation, Pheby Delores Brown is promised her freedom at age eighteen.
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