Here are 100 books that Burnt Sugar fans have personally recommended if you like
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I’ve heard many stories from friends who, as adults, discovered that the person they always believed to be their mother or father was not, and saw what it did to their sense of self. I became fascinated by the how and why a family would perpetuate such a lie, and it made me wonder about the difference between a secret and a lie, and if there is one. This set me off writing novels about family secrets, and reading many more. I enjoy exploring what such devastating news does to a person, and to the entire family, once the secret is discovered.
I was drawn into this story from its first brilliant line.
Before this book was released, I read an ARC of the novel as a member of the Group Reads committee that curates a list of novels perfect for book clubs. Immediately, I felt this would be a bestseller and am so glad I was right.
The multilayered characters are so well drawn, and the propulsive mystery is deftly laid out, making it a page turner. This is a novel I kept reading late into the night.
The acclaimed debut novel by the author of Little Fires Everywhere and Our Missing Hearts
"A taut tale of ever deepening and quickening suspense." -O, the Oprah Magazine
"Explosive . . . Both a propulsive mystery and a profound examination of a mixed-race family." -Entertainment Weekly
"Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet." So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia's body…
A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
I’ve always been drawn to stories about daughters coming home to complicated mothers and the unfinished versions of themselves they left behind. As an immigrant who moved from India to the U.S. at thirteen, and now as a physician and mother, I live in that in-between space where past and present, duty and desire constantly collide. Reading great novels that explored these tensions was the spark that pushed me to start writing my own. I gravitate toward books where family love is real but messy, home is both refuge and trigger, and women are allowed to be imperfect, angry, tender, and still deeply human.
Lahiri writes about immigrant families with a kind of quiet precision that always undoes me.
I love how this novel follows Gogol's uneasy relationship with his name, his parents, and the home they left behind. It's a beautiful exploration of how we inherit both love and loneliness from our families, and how long it can take to understand either.
'The Namesake' is the story of a boy brought up Indian in America.
'When her grandmother learned of Ashima's pregnancy, she was particularly thrilled at the prospect of naming the family's first sahib. And so Ashima and Ashoke have agreed to put off the decision of what to name the baby until a letter comes...'
For now, the label on his hospital cot reads simply BABY BOY GANGULI. But as time passes and still no letter arrives from India, American bureaucracy takes over and demands that 'baby boy Ganguli' be given a name. In a panic, his father decides to…
I’ve always been drawn to stories about daughters coming home to complicated mothers and the unfinished versions of themselves they left behind. As an immigrant who moved from India to the U.S. at thirteen, and now as a physician and mother, I live in that in-between space where past and present, duty and desire constantly collide. Reading great novels that explored these tensions was the spark that pushed me to start writing my own. I gravitate toward books where family love is real but messy, home is both refuge and trigger, and women are allowed to be imperfect, angry, tender, and still deeply human.
This is such a tender, funny, and honest portrait of three sisters fulfilling their mother's final wish.
I love how the pilgrimage to India becomes a mirror for each woman's private disappointments, loyalties, and quiet strengths. It captures the messiness of sibling dynamics and the complicated afterlife of a mother's expectations.
Grab your passport and let the Shergill sisters take you on a journey...
Meet the Shergill Sisters.
The know-it-all, Rajni. The drama queen, Jezmeen. The golden child, Shirina.
They have never been close. But their mother's dying wish was for them to take a pilgrimage across India together, to carry out her final rites. And so, the sisters are thrown together for one last (and very strange) family holiday.
The three women seem to have nothing in common, apart from the fact that each of them has a secret she would prefer to keep hidden. But as one unlikely adventure…
Sine, a professor of creative writing, accompanies Sam, a neuroscientist, on a conference trip to a Hotel Castle. Sam wants to present a new device, the "monitor." Sine hopes to recover from tending to her mother who just passed away.
When they arrive, Sine is in a dream-like state. Real…
I’ve always been drawn to stories about daughters coming home to complicated mothers and the unfinished versions of themselves they left behind. As an immigrant who moved from India to the U.S. at thirteen, and now as a physician and mother, I live in that in-between space where past and present, duty and desire constantly collide. Reading great novels that explored these tensions was the spark that pushed me to start writing my own. I gravitate toward books where family love is real but messy, home is both refuge and trigger, and women are allowed to be imperfect, angry, tender, and still deeply human.
In this essay, Roy writes about her relationship with her mother, Mary, with a mix of sharp honesty and tenderness.
I love how she captures a daughter’s push-and-pull between rebellion and devotion, irritation and gratitude. It’s a reminder that our mothers can be both our fiercest critics and our fiercest protectors—and that understanding them often means revisiting the stories we’ve told ourselves for years.
I’ve always been fascinated by the darker corners of the human mind, such as what drives people to commit unspeakable acts and how others find the strength to face them. As both a neuropsychologist and a thriller author, I explore those questions on the page, weaving together my background in psychology with my love of twisty, character-driven stories. Books where the crimes are as twisted as the minds behind them have shaped my own writing, including my latest novel, Heavy Are the Stones. I read them not just for the suspense, but for the unsettling and raw truths they reveal about us all as humans.
I enjoy mysteries that tie my brain in knots, and With A Vengeance had more twists than a pretzel.
Right from the start, the premise flips the genre on its head where the main character, Anna Matheson, who wishes everyone she has gathered together was dead, is also the one who must save them. I loved that Riley Sager set the entire locked-room mystery inside a moving train where every passenger is a suspect, yet somehow maybe none of them are guilty.
I spent the whole ride toggling between motives and alibis, sure I’d cracked it, only to be blindsided by another twist. Sager’s color-coded cast felt like walking Clue pieces, vivid enough that I swore I would find Mr. Plum in the Conservatory with the candlestick. But I certainly didn’t make the correct guess, and there’s nothing I love in a book more than a surprise ending!
One train. No stops. A deadly game of survival and revenge.
'A locked room thriller at its best! Nonstop suspense with twists and turns that will leave your head spinning' FREIDA MCFADDEN
'Sager wields a deft hand in bringing all the elements together into a rip-roaring, tension-filled tale of greed, murder and revenge' DAVID BALDACCI
In 1942, six people destroyed Anna Matheson's family. Twelve years later, she's ready for retribution.
Under false pretenses, Anna has lured those responsible for her family's downfall onto a luxury train from Philadelphia to Chicago, an overnight journey of fourteen hours. Her goal? Confront the…
I am a long-time journalist and have been passionate about understanding history ever since taking a wonderful AP course in European history in high school. I have read many historical books, both fiction and nonfiction, so it makes sense that my first novel, Rebecca of Ivanhoe, is historical fiction. To be a good journalist and citizen, you have to know and understand history to inform your reporting and try to prevent the bad moments of history from repeating themselves.
The protagonist in this book is ConaLee, a 12-year-old girl mature beyond her years whose father, a Union soldier, is severely injured in the Civil War and doesn’t remember who he is (he never makes it back home). Her mother is raped by a roaming Confederate war veteran and traumatized to the point of muteness.
The Confederate soldier drops the mother and ConaLee off at a lunatic asylum in West Virginia, where a mysterious night watchman joins what becomes a compelling tale. I enjoyed this book because it introduces a spirited preteen protagonist who is trying to keep her family together and shows how devastating the Civil War was to so many families.
From one of our most accomplished novelists, a mesmerizing story about a mother and daughter seeking refuge in the chaotic aftermath of the Civil War
In 1874, in the wake of the War, erasure, trauma, and namelessness haunt civilians and veterans, renegades and wanderers, freedmen and runaways. Twelve-year-old ConaLee, the adult in her family for as long as she can remember, finds herself on a buckboard journey with her mother, Eliza, who hasn’t spoken in more than a year. They arrive at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia, delivered to the hospital’s entrance by a war veteran who has…
In an age of splendor, a heretic king strips Egypt bare—forcing his queen to quell rebellion and plunging his children into a conspiracy against the crown.
Salvation in the Sun follows Nefertiti as she ascends the throne beside Pharaoh Amenhotep—soon to become Akhenaten—just as he declares war on Egypt’s ancient…
I’ve heard many stories from friends who, as adults, discovered that the person they always believed to be their mother or father was not, and saw what it did to their sense of self. I became fascinated by the how and why a family would perpetuate such a lie, and it made me wonder about the difference between a secret and a lie, and if there is one. This set me off writing novels about family secrets, and reading many more. I enjoy exploring what such devastating news does to a person, and to the entire family, once the secret is discovered.
This story grabbed my heart, sometimes clutching it in pain, sometimes bursting with pleasure.
This is a family saga I will long remember. I love a book with gorgeous prose that makes me stop and re-read. Napolitano’s sentences and phrases, metaphors, and similes did that. I wanted to savor the words, like rich dark chocolate, on my tongue.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Dear Edward comes a poignant and engrossing family story that asks: Can love make a broken person whole?
“Hello Beautiful is exactly that: beautiful, perceptive, wistful. It’s a story of family and friendship, of how the people we are bound to can also set us free. I loved it.”—Miranda Cowley Heller, author of The Paper Palace
William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him—so when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman…
I worked in publishing while earning my master’s degree in English, thinking I would eventually teach. Stories, however, were my first love, as was theology. I grew up in the church, but it wasn’t until I discovered how to study the Bible through a cultural lens that Scripture came springing to life in a new way. I was hooked, and I began to see an intersection between my passions—storytelling, teaching, and theology. Now, I pen stories that highlight the humanity of Bible characters and the goodness of the God they serve. My hope is that the Bible will spring to life for others the way it did for me.
I loved how the author took multiple “minor characters” in the Bible and connected their stories, causing me to take a closer look at these lesser-known individuals.
In this book, Angela Hunt identifies the Lydia mentioned in Acts 16 as the same person called Euodia in Philippians 4 and presents a compelling argument as to why in her Author’s Note. The slave girl Paul liberates from a demon in Acts 16 is also given a prominent role as Euodia attempts to rescue her from a cruel master who seeks to restore her “gift.”
I enjoyed the quick pace and ever-changing setting as Euodia travels throughout Macedonia. Rich cultural details coupled with a marriage of convenience that blossoms into more made this a satisfying adventure!
"I love the way Hunt weaves history throughout to bring readers into ancient times. The book is rich in detail, and the characters are fully rendered."--FRANCINE RIVERS, bestselling author of Redeeming Love
"I completely lost my heart to Euodia, Ariston, and Sabina. . . . A beautiful beginning to a new series."--ROBIN LEE HATCHER, bestselling author of All She Ever Dreamed
Widowed Euodia, known to her neighbors as "the Lydian woman," seeks to make a fresh start by moving to the foreign city of Philippi. She finds new purpose after meeting Paulos, apostle to the Gentiles, who opens her eyes…
I have been an avid sci-fi/fantasy lover and tabletop gamer my whole life. Many of my best memories involve me inventing stories explaining why my buddy’s armies and mine were duking it out on the battlefield or interpreting what the dice rolls really meant for my character. Today, I write for one of my favorite game universes, Kings of War. I have made a living out of stories by writing them or teaching about them. I love making my universes believable while still maintaining integrity to their original source material. I also love making flawed, relatable characters to give readers hope as they read about them overcoming those flaws.
What kind of list would this be about massive universes without mentioning the Cosmere? Brandon Sanderson is the undisputed king of worldbuilding because he is so meticulously obsessed with the details, and is so good at juggling all of them in a way that interweaves like a tapestry of crossing stories.
The fact that this story holds dozens of nods to characters from his other stories that exist within the same universe as the worlds on which this book takes place while not being confusing to someone unfamiliar with all that the Cosmere has to offer is why I want to recommend this book in particular, though.
I will freely admit that I am not a Cosmere aficionado. The task of trying to keep up on everything that Sanderson writes is entirely too daunting for me (how does the man write so much, so well, and so fast?!!). But I…
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson―creator of The Stormlight Archive, the Mistborn Saga, and countless bestselling works of science fiction and fantasy―comes this gripping story set in the Cosmere universe told by Hoid, where two people from incredibly different cultures must work together to save their worlds from certain disaster.
Yumi has spent her entire life in strict obedience, granting her the power to summon the spirits that bestow vital aid upon her society―but she longs for even a single day as a normal person. Painter patrols the dark streets dreaming of being a hero―a goal that…
Born the heir of a master woodcutter in a queendom defined by guilds and matrilineal inheritance, nonbinary Sorin can’t quite seem to find their place. At seventeen, an opportunity to attend an alchemical guild fair and secure an apprenticeship with the…
I grew up hearing stories about my grandfather, who was the blacksmith in Saratoga, California, from the 1920s to the 1940s, and I wanted to write a novel about him. As I began to research his life, a world opened up to me. I learned how the suburbs I’d grown up in were built on one of the world’s greatest fruit-growing regions, and the story about my grandfather grew into a story about the profound changes we’ve wrought upon the land. That novel, The Blossom Festival, was the beginning of my lifelong engagement with the peoples and places of my home state that I’ve carried through in all the books I’ve written.
Set in the inland regions of Southern California, far from glamor, this novel contains a cross section of characters from California’s past, present, and future, all connected by blood, by place, by history. It begins with an act of violence committed to disrupt a sexual assault, and that act has consequences that echo through decades. The landscape, beautiful and treacherous and fire-prone, acts like one more character.
The novel ends with a standoff between the characters we’ve grown to know and love and ICE agents—a haunting and newly relevant image. A tremendous work of art.
One of The Washington Post's Ten Best Books of 2022. Finalist for the 2022 Kirkus Prize and the 2023 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. One of the New York Times' 10 Best California Books of 2022 and one of NPR's Best Books of 2022. A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice.
"A wide and deep view of a dynamic, multiethnic Southern California . . . Susan Straight is an essential voice in American writing and in writing of the West." ―The New York Times Book Review
From the National Book Award finalist Susan Straight, Mecca is a stunning epic tracing…
