100 books like The Sister Wife

In the best true-crime books, the crime itself is often indicative of a much deeper underworld that has violently broken through our norms, revealing a portal that the author then bravely descends into. Krakauer’s voyage into the fanatical religious roots beneath a horrific double murder had me riveted.

His razor-sharp prose is so clear and haunting, and I was spellbound as he moved effortlessly between the past and present narratives. This book starkly reminded me of how important it is for America to always confront the demons of its past with open eyes, unglazed by anything but the facts, and what the consequences can be when we bury it.

The mid-1800s United States was full of scoundrels, get-rich-quick schemes, and religious fervor.

James Strang was born into this milieu, was baptized into the Latter Day Saints by Joseph Smith, and claimed to be the Smith’s successor.

He located brass plates, translated them, and published them in his newspaper. He and his followers moved to an isolated island in Lake Michigan, where he was crowned king. In 1856, he was murdered.

The leader of Preparation, Charles Blancher Thompson, also grew up in this environment and joined the Mormons. Thompson followed Strang for a while. Like Strang, Thompson published revelations in his own newspaper, moved his followers to a remote location, and became postmaster. In 1858, he came close to being murdered.

The King of Confidence provided cultural context for my book.

The Amana Colonies were the most successful communes in the United States, active from 1856 to 1932.

Elected boards groups of elders made decisions and mediated conflicts. Members worked in a variety of industries. Women managed large kitchens and dining rooms. Visitors, hired laborers, and homeless people were welcome.

Amana was settled by Germans; residents suffered from anti-German violence during World War I. 

Why did the Amana Colonies survive so long when the Preparation group and others lasted only a few years? Amana’s decisions were made by groups and Amana’s spiritual life was anchored in faith and worship.

For Time and Eternity takes place during the same time period as Preparation.

Her parents forbid any contact with the wagon train camping near their Iowa farm, so when the girl meets a charming young man from the group, she questions their edict. She runs away from home and marries.

Too late, she realizes their theology is not Christian - she's trapped in a cult. The church's requirement that its men commit adultery is only the beginning.

I live a very busy life with four children, two dogs, an awesome husband, and a career of my own. If a book doesn’t pull me in right from the start, I tend to give up on it fairly quickly. This book sucks you in right away and keeps you turning the pages with fervor. It’s a complicated story about friendship, romance, and a young woman who thinks she has everything figured out, until she doesn’t, but then she does, and then she doesn’t. You get the gist.

This book is about a woman named Stella, who enters a competition to save her Christmas Tree farm from financial ruin, but she needs a fake boyfriend to sell the story.

Who is better than her best friend, Luka, who she secretly has a crush on?

I am a sucker for Christmas romance novels, and the obvious LONGING from Luka was my favorite part of the book. We spend the entire novel in Stella’s head, and I love it when the main male character is obviously in love with them but she can’t see it yet. 

I listened to this book never knowing what would come next. The life of a college student finding themselves hit home to me. I’ve searched for who I was for years and could identify with Felix in that way. I felt as if I was on a roller coaster, the emotions with such highs and lows that quickly made me root for Felix.

I may have to buy a physical copy so I can highlight some of the passages that spoke to me. In short, this book is about love. Finding love, sharing love, and loving oneself. I know at times, I have a hard time doing any of those things. Felix made me think if he could make it, so could I. This is definitely one for the permanent bookcase. 

This book is difficult to describe. One part crime, the other part literary fiction and narrated by a child, Dead Girls is unlike any other thriller I’ve read. I couldn’t put it down. When Thera’s best friend goes missing, despite being eleven years old, she decides the grown-ups are doing a bad job at finding Billie and begins investigating on her own. This is a super dark tearjerker about violence towards girls and women. But do check trigger warnings because this one is disturbing.

In this standalone addition to the Greenglass House series, Kate Milford has built a world of cozy and adventurous specificity.

It’s set mostly in the Liberty of Gammerbund, a walled municipality within the city of Nagspeake, a New England-ish coastal community populated by lots of former smugglers and pirates. Marzana and her friend Nialla learn that a girl from a neighboring school has been kidnapped, and they believe she sent a coded message using a book from a series they read obsessively. Marzana puts together a group of plucky kids (including one ghost) to solve the crime.

The setting is so lovingly created—with secret passages, architecture that modifies itself, and a magical, perpetually vacant “Glass Museum and Radioactive Teashop”—discerning readers will savor every minute of the mystery.

This story is a great exploration of FOMO for young children.

Two best friends are split apart when one moves a long way away. Herman the bear feels increasingly left behind and obsolete when he reads Henry the racoon’s correspondence (actual letters pasted into the book) describing new friends in his sunny new home. Herman feels too miserable to write back; when he finally does, deep snow has set in and the post office has closed for the winter.

So he sets off into the swirling blizzard to deliver the letter himself—up steep cliffs and frozen waterfalls, over creaking crevices and the tallest mountains, all gorgeously painted by Percival in a perfect balance of three-dimensionality and looseness. At the end, the pictures do the talking: Herman and Henry are still best friends.