I’m a big fan of the sibling tale, particularly about sisters. The trouble they got into, those Little Darlings and Sweet Valley High girls, who were so devilish I hid their yellow volumes in my closet. With a sister story there’s the thrill of name swaps and boyfriend feuds. Brothers certainly get no dearth of ink — Cain & Abe, Brothers K, Willie Lohman’s boys — but, being a sister, I always gravitate toward the girls. So many of my own sibling squabbles went unresolved. My sister held a big time grudge back in the day. I think she’s still mad about a top I borrowed in eleventh grade. And now that I’m married, in a new city without many female friends, I would truly benefit from that kind of relationship, be it a relative or not. Here are a few of my personal favorite sister titles. Add to them!
Atonement, Ian McLellen
The Story Sisters, Alice Hoffman
The Three Sisters, Anton Checkhov
The Other Bolyn Girl, Philippa Gregory
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrow of Ava Lavender, Leslye Walton
The Little Sister, Raymond Chandler
The Odyssey, Homer
The Seven Sisters, Margaret Drabble
My Sisters Keeper, Jodi Picault
Sister Fox and Brother Wolf, Russian Folk Tale
And of the quotes I’ve briefly looked at, this is the one I like most:
“If sisters were free to express how they really feel, parents would hear this: ‘Give me all the attention and all the toys and send Rebecca to live with Grandma.’ “–Linda Sunshine
Add your own title or quote to this list through the “comments” section. I’ll bet you have some . . .
Mariella Mehr — Poet, Memoirist, Acivisit, Survivor Not many Roma divulge their experience of the Holocaust. Unlike the many Jewish organizations which provide documentary evidence, . . .