Books like Voices Behind The Tears — picked by fans

I absolutely love this book. The message within about finding yourself, despite all that is going on around you, or your current circumstances really resonates with me. Where you start doesn’t have to be where you finish. It’s a book that I could read repeatedly.

This novel is like my novel in the fact that her characters also overcome many obstacles to find their way in life. They had to learn to be strong in the face of adversity. If you are someone who likes a book that shows you women finding their way amid chaos it’s a must read.

This book is also about the relationships between family and friends. After not seeing her family for many years, the lead character inherits from the family and must return home. That alone can cause anyone anxiety, returning to your hometown after an exceptionally long absence. Well as she gets reaccustomed to home and deals with all her emotions of loss and inheritance, she ends up falling for two men. Now, amiss everything else going on, she must dig deep and come to grips. This is a decision that is tearing her apart. But she must decide what she really wants. She has to decide between the two men and fast.

While learning who she is, Leslie, the lead character, makes choices based on her insecurities and those choices affect not only her, but the people around her. As she attempts to fix the mistakes she’s made, she is faced with some tough decisions. Her road to redemption will make you want to shake her back into reality. It’s a novel that will have you yelling at the book, as if Leslie is a friend and you want to help her. The characters are very relatable, they felt as if they could be people in your circle, or people you know in real life.

Vengeance Unleashed is a book that will keep you on your toes throughout the read. As the title suggests, it’s about vengeance in its truest form. The main character, a woman ex-agent, plays no games, and pulls no punches when it comes to what she wants. What she wants is to know where her sister is. She’s willing to turn the town upside down and take anyone out who gets in her way of those answers

If you’re interested in learning about domestic violence from a cross-cultural perspective, the literature on domestic violence in anthropology is an excellent place to look.

This is the second book by Jennifer Wies and Hillary Haldane, two anthropologists who have carved out a space for understanding how to apply anthropological insights to actual domestic violence work. This book offers cross-cultural ideas for how to do just that from a variety of anthropologists working all around the world who continue to work together on this issue from an applied anthropological perspective.

Both Wies and Haldane are mentors of mine, and Haldane was a huge support in the development of my own research. I have also collaborated with several of the authors in this book and can attest to the excellence of their research.

Hearing about domestic violence from a survivor’s first-hand perspective is one of the most important ways to learn about this widespread issue.

This book was one of the first that I ever read about this topic many years ago, and even though the book is nearly three decades old, it still remains one of the most powerful first-hand accounts of a survivor’s experience.

When I teach with this book, my students are blown away by Beth’s strength and what she overcomes. Through this book, they come to understand how someone can end up in such a dangerous situation, and the many barriers they often face to finding justice and safety.

For people specifically interested in understanding issues around domestic violence and the justice setting in the U.S., this is an excellent read.

Villalón provides an intimate look at the difficulties Latina immigrants specifically face when navigating their marginality in a system that is already clunky and incomplete. While my book looks more at the experience of being a Latina immigrant survivor from a health and aging perspective, this book offers more insights into the legal implications of being an immigrant survivor, and I reference her excellent research many times in my own.

In trauma studies, Judith Herman is the GOAT. Truth and Repair follows up Herman’s landmark book Trauma and Recovery and cements her contribution to the study of sexual violence, healing, and justice.

Although The Body Keeps the Score became a surprise pandemic bestseller, it is Truth and Repair that updates trauma theory and clinical practice for the #MeToo era. Herman argues that justice is part of the healing process for individuals and communities.

Her feminist perspective on the real-world factors that enable sexual abuse is clear eyed and her prescription for how to connect healing and justice is ultimately hopeful.

Laura McClusky’s investigation of conjugal abuse among a Mayan community in Belize is one of the most ethnographically compelling books I have read on lived experiences of domestic violence.

McClusky was motivated to write this book because most domestic violence research had been clinical or sociological and had focused solely on the experience of violence, often approaching the phenomenon in a “peopleless manner.”

Refreshingly, McClusky decided to focus on the emotions, desires, motivations, and personal experiences of living women more holistically, thus overcoming tendencies to reduce women to the experience of violence and granting them the recognition as agents of actions that they deserve.  

Jodi Picoult and Jenny Boylan have created a masterful novel on teenaged love and injustice.

Like an onion, the radiating relationships provide a platform for deep-dives into social issues. Woven throughout the book are detailed subplots on everything from beekeeping to gender discourse.

I love the story behind the book's title. There actually is Mad Honey, which can muddle people's thinking, and has been used to win battles in history. 

I especially appreciated the authors' notes. "What do I want the reader to take from this book?" Jodi asks rhetorically. "Nothing. I don't want the reader to take anything. But to give something, to give to the world." What an accomplishment, what a treasure.

Before even finishing the book, I'd ordered a copy for my beekeeper sister-in-law!