Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been fascinated by sisters, siblings, and my place in the family since I was old enough to realize I had an older sister and a younger brother. I asked my parents a lot of questions. Why am I blonde? Why is my sister taller? Lots of questions my parents didn’t have answers for. At school in biology, we studied genes, familial traits, and nature versus nurture. I was fascinated, and still am today. Why does my sister behave the way she does? Why do I? Is it because of our upbringing, or was she just born with an aversion to cheese? I wanted to know the answers. I’m still searching.


I wrote

The Pact

By Lisa Darcy,

Book cover of The Pact

What is my book about?

I love writing contemporary popular fiction, typically stories about women navigating friendships, careers, and romance and ultimately triumphing over…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

The books I picked & why

Book cover of Little Women

Lisa Darcy Why did I love this book?

I first read this book as a teenager but didn’t appreciate Louisa May Alcott’s gift for storytelling until years later, when I reread it. 

This time, I didn’t want the story to end because I’d fallen in love with the four March sisters Jo, Beth, Meg, and Amy. I laughed. I cried. Though fictional characters and separated by hundreds of years, the March sisters felt real to me, and I was a little bereft at the end of their story. 

Along with universal themes of love, betrayal, anger, lust, revenge, and death, Little Women deftly portrays each sister’s struggles and aspirations and explores the conflicts each sister has between personal ambition, familial responsibility, and wanting to embrace the unknown.  

For one brief moment, I wished I had more than one sister…and then I came to my senses.

By Louisa May Alcott,

Why should I read it?

19 authors picked Little Women as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 5, 6, 7, and 8.

What is this book about?

Louisa May Alcott shares the innocence of girlhood in this classic coming of age story about four sisters-Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy.

In picturesque nineteenth-century New England, tomboyish Jo, beautiful Meg, fragile Beth, and romantic Amy are responsible for keeping a home while their father is off to war. At the same time, they must come to terms with their individual personalities-and make the transition from girlhood to womanhood. It can all be quite a challenge. But the March sisters, however different, are nurtured by their wise and beloved Marmee, bound by their love for each other and the feminine…


Book cover of The Words We Keep

Lisa Darcy Why did I love this book?

This gripping and heartbreaking YA novel about Lily and her older, bipolar sister, Alice, has stayed with me. I found the plot and characters so realistic and absorbing that I forgot I was reading fiction. 

This book is an intense read, but set in a world I became thoroughly immersed in. I connected with Lily’s compulsion to be the perfect daughter and straight-A student. I cried for her having to swallow her emotions and words, while internally struggling with her own demons.

It’s a must-read for anyone who has survived their teenage years. It’s considered, wholehearted, and delivers a convincing portrayal of sisterly bonds, mental health issues, and the people who are courageous enough to confront them. I’m teary now just thinking about it.

By Erin Stewart,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Words We Keep as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A beautifully realistic, relatable story about mental health—anxiety, perfectionism, depression—and the healing powers of art--perfect for fans of Girl in Pieces and How it Feels to Float. Whatever you struggle with, you are not alone and you are already enough—just the way you are.

It's been three months since The Night on the Bathroom Floor--when Lily found her older sister Alice hurting herself. Ever since then, Lily has been desperately trying to keep things together, for herself and for her family. But now Alice is coming home from her treatment program and it is becoming harder for Lily to ignore…


Book cover of My Dream Time: A Memoir of Tennis & Teamwork

Lisa Darcy Why did I love this book?

I devoured this book! Written like she’s chatting to her sister or best friend, Ash comes across as friendly and self-deprecating when highlighting the mental and physical strain that years of being on the WTA tour took on her. 

Family is always on her mind, and Ash isn’t afraid to wear her heart on her sleeve when it comes to thanking and acknowledging the many sacrifices her parents and sisters made to enable her to realise her dream of becoming the world's number one female tennis player.

I admire Ash’s focus and determination. "If I win, it’s a bonus. If I lose, the sun still comes up the next day, and it’s all good." This quote particularly resonates with me because it captures her down-to-earth, resilient, and positive nature. She sounds like a thoroughly decent person.

By Ashleigh Barty,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked My Dream Time as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

It's a tennis story. It's a family story. It's a teamwork story. It's the story of how I got to where and who I am today.


WINNER OF THE ABIA AWARD FOR BEST BIOGRAPHY 2023

I'm only in my mid-twenties, and some might think that's young to write a memoir. Who does that, right? But for me and my team it's always been important to reflect on every part of the journey, especially the end. In that context, the timing is perfect to share my story, from the first time I picked up a racquet as a 5-year-old girl in…


Book cover of Eligible

Lisa Darcy Why did I love this book?

I laughed a lot reading Eligible. Yes, it’s silly, but this version of Pride and Prejudice had me hooked from the outset, probably for no other reason than that it forced me to consider the Bennet family and the sisters, in a new, twenty-first century light.

Liz, late 30’s, magazine writer, and her older sister, Jane, a yoga instructor, live in New York, whilst youngest sisters Kitty and Lydia, are busy with their CrossFit workouts and Paleo diets to consider careers. Mary, the middle sister, is earning her third online master's degree. And, yes, Mrs Bennet just wants to marry off her daughters.

I loved the five sisters’ dynamics: at times sweet, bitchy, caring, dismissive, rude, and compulsively dishing out home truths. I also appreciated the women were trying to break away from family expectations and controls. After reading this, I was very glad I only have one sister - and she’s not a yoga instructor, nor is she obsessed with CrossFit and a Paleo diet.

By Curtis Sittenfeld,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Eligible as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Wonderfully tender and hilariously funny, Eligible tackles gender, class, courtship, and family as Curtis Sittenfeld reaffirms herself as one of the most dazzling authors writing today.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR AND THE TIMES (UK)

This version of the Bennet family—and Mr. Darcy—is one that you have and haven’t met before: Liz is a magazine writer in her late thirties who, like her yoga instructor older sister, Jane, lives in New York City. When their father has a health scare, they return to their childhood home in Cincinnati to…


Book cover of In Her Shoes

Lisa Darcy Why did I love this book?

I adore Jennifer Weiner’s witty, conversational writing style and relatable, three-dimensional characters. With In Her Shoes, Weiner captures the essence of two completely different sisters who are barely on speaking terms. She does it deftly, her characters nuanced and believable, exposing their many flaws and frailties. 

I love this book because it helped me see my own sister in a new light. In the book, the sisters’ actions are so realistic (verbal brutality, sniping, home truths) that I felt guilty about how I’d treated my sister over the years. And yes, I rang her several times whilst reading it, and I bought her a copy the following week. Highly recommended.

By Jennifer Weiner,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked In Her Shoes as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Rose Feller is thirty years old, a high-powered attorney, with a secret passion for romance novels, an exercise regime she's going to start next week, and dreams of a man who will slide off her glasses, gaze into her eyes, and tell her that she's beautiful.

Meet Rose's sister Maggie. Twenty-eight years old, drop-dead gorgeous and only occasionally employed, Maggie is a backing singer in a band called. She dreams of fame and fortune -- and of getting her dowdy big sister to stick to a skin-care regime.

These two women with nothing in common but a childhood tragedy, shared…


Explore my book 😀

The Pact

By Lisa Darcy,

Book cover of The Pact

What is my book about?

I love writing contemporary popular fiction, typically stories about women navigating friendships, careers, and romance and ultimately triumphing over adversity. 

With The Pact, I wanted to write about sisters. I made them doubles tennis champions to amplify the usual sibling issues and then explored their professional partnership and personal relationships—similarities, differences, motivation, competition, abandonment, and grief—and how they each respond to the stress of constantly being under the media spotlight. What happens when, at the pinnacle of fame, it all falls apart? With dreams shattered and egos destroyed, how do they cope? I had a lot of fun writing this story and hope it resonates with readers, even if they don’t play tennis or know much about the game!

Book cover of Little Women
Book cover of The Words We Keep
Book cover of My Dream Time: A Memoir of Tennis & Teamwork

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,457

readers submitted
so far, will you?

You might also like...

From One Cell: A Journey into Life's Origins and the Future of Medicine

By Ben Stanger,

Book cover of From One Cell: A Journey into Life's Origins and the Future of Medicine

Ad
Ben Stanger Author Of From One Cell: A Journey into Life's Origins and the Future of Medicine

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a Harvard- and MIT-trained physician-scientist, and I am drawn to research problems that bridge the basic and the practical – how a better understanding of cells and tissues can inform new therapies for cancer and other diseases. As children, we are all scientists – mini-hypothesis generators trying to make sense of the world. I suppose I never outgrew that curiosity. My list of best science books credits writers who bring to life the excitement that comes from looking at the natural world in a new way, a spirit that I try to emulate in my own writing. I hope you enjoy these books as much as I have!

Ben's book list on science written by scientists

What is my book about?

Everybody knows that all animals—bats, bears, sharks, ponies, and people—start out as a single cell: the fertilized egg. But how does something no bigger than the period at the end of this sentence give rise to the remarkable complexity of each of these creatures?

FROM ONE CELL is a dive inside the cell and its evolutionary prerogatives to explain how these "endless forms most beautiful," as Charles Darwin called them, come about. Along the way, we learn about the scientific process, filled as it is with serendipity, as the story is told through the eyes of the scientists who informed…

From One Cell: A Journey into Life's Origins and the Future of Medicine

By Ben Stanger,

What is this book about?

Every animal on Earth begins life as a single cell. From this humble origin, the nascent creature embarks on a risky journey fraught with opportunities for disaster-yet with astounding regularity, it reaches its destination intact. From One Cell illuminates this epic transformation-still one of nature's most mysterious feats-to show where we all come from and where we're going.

Through the eyes of the scientists unraveling the secrets of development, we see how all the information needed to build a human fits into a fertilised egg, and how the trillions of cells that emerge know what to become and where to…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in sisters, romantic love, and mental disorders?

Sisters 209 books
Romantic Love 944 books
Mental Disorders 182 books