By Collection Management Librarian Dontaná
This week, Hulu released the eagerly anticipated adaptation of Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere, starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. Whether you’re like me and want to read the book first or you want more domestic drama between episodes, we’ve got you covered!
Little Fires Everywhere read-alikes
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Why you should try it: The source material for Hulu's new series. While Reese's production company, Hello Sunshine, stays true to the core of the story, there are some differences between the book and the movie.
Description: Fighting an ugly custody battle with an artistic tenant who has little regard for the strict rules of their progressive Cleveland suburb, a straitlaced family woman who is seeking to adopt a baby becomes obsessed with exposing the tenant's past, only to trigger devastating consequences for both of their families.
Stream & download with: Media On Demand & Libby
A Good Neighborhood by Therese Fowler
Why you should try it: Both novels take place in suburban neighborhoods where tension between neighbors is heightened by their racial and economic backgrounds.
Description: The single mother of a mixed-race college student and a thriving business owner with a troubled daughter clash over a historic oak tree on their property line and the blossoming romance between their children.
Stream & download with: Media on Demand & Libby
The Leavers by Lisa Ko
Why you should try it: Transracial adoption, specifically Chinese children being adopted by white couples, is a major theme in both novels.
Description: An award-winning debut novel follows the experiences of a Chinese youth who when his undocumented worker mother fails to return home is adopted by a family that attempts to make him over as an American teen while he struggles to reconcile his new life with memories of the family he left behind.
Stream & download with: Media on Demand & Libby, Hoopla
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
Why you should try it: Domestic drama abounds here. It also was adapted into an HBO series starring Reese Witherspoon.
Description: Follows three mothers, each at a crossroads, and their potential involvement in a riot at a school trivia night that leaves one parent dead in what appears to be a tragic accident. But evidence shows it might have been premeditated.
Stream & download with: Media on Demand & Libby
Three Floors Up by Eshkol Nevo
Why you should try it: Apartment buildings are vertical neighborhoods. Both novels illustrate how, even if you think you know your neighbors well, you have no idea what is really going on.
Description: Set in an upper-middle-class Tel Aviv apartment building, this best-selling and warmly acclaimed Israeli novel examines the interconnected lives of its residents, whose turmoils, secrets, unreliable confessions, and problematic decisions reveal the ills of a society in the midst of an identity crisis.
Stream & download with: Hoopla (audiobook only)
The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo
Why you should try it: While this novel focuses on one family instead of a community of neighbors, there's still enough drama and secrets to go around.
Description: The four adult daughters of two Chicago parents who have been madly in love for decades recklessly ignite old rivalries, until a long-buried secret threatens to shatter the lives they built.
Stream & download with: Media on Demand & Libby
All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir by Nicole Chung
Why you should try it: This memoir discusses what it's like for a transracial adoptee trying to reconnect with her heritage on the cusp of motherhood.
Description: A Korean adoptee who grew up with a white family in Oregon discusses her journey to find her identity as an Asian American woman and a writer after becoming curious about her true origins.
Stream & download with: Media on Demand & Libby, Hoopla
About Dontaná
Dontaná is a Collection Management Librarian who was born with an unending reading list. She is almost always reading two books simultaneously and is easily distracted by cool covers.
