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10 books to read if you love Lady Bird

10 books to read if you love Lady Bird

By Josh Glicksman

November 21, 2017 at 10:30 AM EST

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More mother/daughter friction and coming-of-age stories for Lady Bird fans

Credit: HarperCollins; Little, Brown and Company; Back Bay Books; Penguin; Vintage

Greta Gerwig's directorial Lady Bird — starring Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Timothée Chalamet, and more — has taken the movie world by storm, with the film still upholding a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score. If you're like us and can't get enough of the film, then the following books should help satisfy your craving for additional like-minded content.

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Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club

Credit: Penguin

Amy Tan's novel follows a group of women who call themselves the Joy Luck Club, sharing their stories of hope and loss over dim sum and mahjong. Beginning their meetings in San Francisco in 1949, the story intensely follows all the intricacies of relationships between mothers and daughters, with the book shifting voices throughout.

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Mona Simpson, Anywhere But Here

Credit: Knopf Doubleday

Later adapted into a film starring Natalie Portman and Susan Sarandon, Anywhere But Here follows Ann August and her mother, Adele. Though often conflicting in their ambitions, the story expresses the power of family and the things we do for love.

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Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Credit: Signet Classics

Standing the test of time as a classic, Pride and Prejudice tells the story of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy and the evolution of an extremely negative first impression. The Jane Austen novel also focuses on family, specifically honing in on the happenings in the Bennet family.

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Maria Semple, Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Credit: Little, Brown and Company

Where'd You Go, Bernadette portrays the story of Bee Fox compiling email messages, official documents, and secret correspondence in an effort to find the whereabouts of her mother, Bernadette. The Maria Semple novel is in the process of becoming a major motion picture starring Cate Blanchett.

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Elizabeth Strout, Amy and Isabelle

Credit: Vintage

Friction between mother and daughter runs amuck in Amy and Isabelle. The distant relationship reaches the peak of its tension when Amy's sexuality begins to unfold in the gossip-ridden small town of Shirley Falls. The Elizabeth Strout novel depicts plenty of love and loathing between mother and teenage daughter.

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Janet Fitch, White Oleander

Credit: Back Bay Books

In Janet Fitch's mother-daughter tale, Ingrid – a brilliant poet – is imprisoned for murder, so her daughter, Astrid, launches into a journey of self-discovery as she goes from one foster home to the next in Los Angeles. Each home comes with its own lessons to be learned.

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Anne Lamott, Rosie

Credit: Penguin

Rosie, written by Anne Lamott, provides an honest yet humorous look at the growing pains of motherhood, as Elizabeth Ferguson tries to figure out how to best shield her daughter Rosie from the dangers of the world. As Rosie continues to grow up and become more inquisitive, Elizabeth discovers she must do the same in order to nurture her extraordinary daughter.

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Alison Bechdel, Are You My Mother?

Credit: Mariner Books

This comic drama written by Alison Bechdel focuses on the story of a mother – unhappily married to a closeted gay man – and her daughter. Along the way of exploring the mother-daughter relationship, the novel takes readers from the work of psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott, to a very specific Dr. Seuss illustration, to the author's own love life before eventually coming back to mother.

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Rebecca Wells, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Credit: HarperCollins

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood spent a whopping 68 weeks at the top of The New York Times best-seller list and for good reason. This Rebecca Wells novel explores a lifetime friendship between four Southern women, also taking a dive into the highs and lows of relationships between mothers and daughters. The uplifting tale has received rave reviews.

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Edwidge Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory

Credit: Soho Press

Edwidge Danticat's literary debut soars as she tells the story of Sophie Caco, a 12-year-old sent from her native Haiti to New York to be reunited with a mother whom she possesses little memory of in the first place. In New York, Sophie discovers secrets beyond her years and a legacy of shame that can only be healed in Haiti. Breath, Eyes, Memory also dips into the supernatural and frequents with discussion of political violence.

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10 books to read if you love Lady Bird

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More mother/daughter friction and coming-of-age stories for Lady Bird fans

1 of 11