We got to choose our own theme for today’s topic (Readers who like ____), and I chose friendships in fiction, because this is a particularly difficult thing to find! My top ten:
1. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker – There are romances in this book, but the two main characters are just friends, and form a great friendship!
2. the Mistborn trilogy (and Elantris, and Warbreaker, and the Stormlight Archive…) by Brandon Sanderson – Sanderson is the number one master of friendships (individual and group) of any author I’ve ever read.
3. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery – The friendship formed between the two main characters here pretty much saves both of them. Love that!
4. the Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater – Raved about this so many times. Love the friendship between all these characters, even when romance is also added to the mix. Friends first.
5. The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist – While this dystopia is horrifying in some ways, the love and communion found in the center are just brilliant.
6. Crossed Wires (and others) by Rosy Thornton – Thornton writes romances, yes, but the friendships always come first and foremost. There is no romance without friendship first.
7. The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa – There are only really three characters in this book, all of them without names, all of them forming a tight-knit clan of people who cherish and protect each other.
8. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – The romance that develops in this one takes years to form, comes after friendship first, and then there’s the whole connection of all the people involved in the circus. I was particularly touched by Celia’s relationship with the clock-maker.
9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson – I ran out of adult/YA books. I said this was difficult! It’s much easier to find friendships in children’s books because there’s rarely romance at that reading level. Of all the children’s books I’ve read, however, the friendship between the two main characters in this book is one of my favorites.
10. MWF Seeking BFF by Rachel Bertsche – This is another cheater-pants answer, but really, it’s a good one – nonfiction about friendships (forming, keeping, the importance of, etc).
Notes: Interesting that four of these are ones I mentioned as new favorites in last week’s post, plus two more would be on that list if I’d gone back another year instead of putting my cutoff at 2011 last week. Shows how much I value friendships in fiction! Also interesting to note: Not including my last two cheater-pants answers, half of my answers are non-US books, despite the fact that US books make up the great majority of what I read.
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.
