“If we don’t celebrate the small movements forward, we forget they existed at all.”
Call Your Daughter Home is a historical fiction novel by Deb Spera. Set in 1924 in South Carolina devastated by the infamous boll weevil infestation, readers are introduced to three fierce and remarkable Southern women. Gertrude is a mother of four who is forced to make a decision to save her daughters from starvation or die at the hands of her abusive husband. Retta is navigating the tricky world of a first-generation freed slave. Annie is the matriarch of the Coles family, the plantation-owning family who employ Retta and whose worlds were upended by a terrible secret. These women seemingly have nothing in common, but find themselves pulled together by the injustices that plague their small community. If you love powerful stories of the power of family, long-buried secrets and the fearlessness of motherhood, join us at What We Reading for the best books like Call Your Daughter Home!
The Berry Pickers – Amanda Peters
First up on our list of books like Call Your Daughter Home is Amanda Peters’ acclaimed novel, The Berry Pickers. Set in July 1962, the story begins with a Mi’kmaq family moving from Nova Scotia to Maine to pick blueberries for the season. Weeks later, the family’s young daughter suddenly vanishes. The last person to see four-year-old Ruthie was her brother, six-year-old Joe, who his sister’s disappearance will haunt for years to come.
Elsewhere in Maine, Norma grows up as the only child of in an affluent household. Her father is emotionally absent, her mother is frustratingly overbearing. Norma is often troubled by visions that feel far too vivid just to be dreams or figments of her imagination. As she grows up, she slowly begins to discover how there are many things her parents haven’t told her, leading her down a path of spending decades attempting to uncover the truth.
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Crow Mary – Kathleen Grissom
In 1872, sixteen-year-old Goes First, a Crow Native woman, weds Abe Farwell, a white fur trader. He gives her the name Mary, and the two of them embark on a trip to his trading post in the Cypress Hills of Saskatchewan, Canada. Along the way, Mary makes an unexpected friend, a lifelong enemy and, despite learning of Farwell’s sordid history, manages to fall in love with her husband.
However, on the eve of their return to Montana, Mary is forced to witness a group of whiskey traders murder forty Nakota and take five hostages back with them. When her husband refuses to help, she creeps into their fort and saves the women from an unimaginable fate. What follows is a gripping tale spanning decades where cultures collide, the breathtaking beauty of the upper West and Canada is put on show, and how an assortment of colourful characters push Farwell and Crow Mary’s love for one another to breaking point. An ambitious and sweeping saga, Kathleen Grissom’s Crow Mary is one of the best follow-ups to Call Your Daughter Home for another exploration of the intimacies of a woman’s heart.
Whistling Past The Graveyard – Susan Crandall
The summer of 1963 begins like any other for nine-year-old Starla Claudelle. Born to teenage parents in Mississippi, she is brought up by her strict grandmother, Mamie, Starla nevertheless continues to believe that her mother will fulfil her promise of taking her and her daddy to Nashville one day, where their family will be complete and perfect again.
However, after being grounded on the Fourth of July, Starla runs away from Mamie’s home. Out in the country, she runs into and is offered a lift by a black woman, Eula, who is travelling with a white baby. As the two unlikely companions begin their journey together, Starla is taken on a tour through the dangers and hardships of Southern segregation. Similar to Call Your Daughter Home, through conversations, reconnections and misadventures, Starla also learns that family is forged from those who are there for you, no matter whether they’re bound by blood or by the heart.
Where The Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
One of the best books with a slow-burning, Southern feel like Call Your Daughter Home comes from Delia Owens in Where the Crawdads Sing. For years, rumours of the infamous ‘Marsh Girl’ terrorised the small fishing village of Barkley Cove. Kya Clark is barefoot, wild and unfit for ‘proper’ society. So when the body of the popular Chase Andrews is discovered in late 1969, all suspicion immediately falls on her.
But Kya is not at all like what people think of her. A naturalist with the skills to survive indefinitely out in the wild, she yearns to be touched and loved as anyone else does. Drawn to two young men from the town, who are equally bewitched by her wild beauty, she soon finds herself opening up to a new and startling world – until the unthinkable happens.
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Go As A River – Shelley Read
On a cool autumn day in 1948, Victor Nash delivers ripe late-season peaches from her family’s farm in the rugged beauty of the Colorado wilderness. As she makes her way to the village, she encounters a sickly-looking stranger who asks her the way. How she chooses to answer him will unknowingly define the course both of their young lives take.
So begins Shelley Read’s stunning coming-of-age historical fiction story, Go as a River. What follows for Victoria is a tale of split-second decisions and courageous acts that rip her from the only home she has ever known, and towards a reckoning with loss, hope and her untapped resilience. Much like some of the gut-wrenching decisions made by the women in Call Your Daughter Home, Victoria’s tale culminates in a single rocky decision that promises to change her life forever.
When Two Feathers Fell From The Sky – Margaret Verble
Another book like Call Your Daughter Home set in the turbulent times of the 1920s, When Two Feathers Fell From The Sky is a 2021 historical fiction novel by Pulitzer Prize finalist, Margaret Verble. The story follows Two Feathers, a young Cherokee horse diver on loan to Glendale Park Zoo, who is determined to find her own way in the world. Her closest friend at Glendale is Hank Crawford, a member of a high-earning, land-owning Black family also struggling to assimilate into 1920s Nashville society.
When disaster strikes during one of Two’s shows, strange occurrences begin to afflict the park. Apparitions appear, vestiges of an ancient past begin to surface and even the hippopotamus falls ill. To get the bottom of these mysteries, performers, employees and even the wealthy stakeholders must all come together in this captivating tale of exotic animals, lingering spirits and unexpected friendships.
Only The Beautiful – Susan Meissner
When sixteen-year-old Rosanne loses her parents in an accident, she is taken in by the owners of a vineyard. She lives her whole life as a vinedresser’s daughter. But, she also has a secret that she keeps hidden from Celine and Truman Calvert: she sees colours when she hears sounds. Her abilities leave her feeling isolated and lonely, which soon leads to her letting her guard slip and winding up pregnant. Cast out by the Calverts, she believes she is being sent to a home for unwed mothers. The truth is far worse than she could have imagined.
Meanwhile, at witnessing firsthand the horrors of Adolf Hitler’s ascent to power, Helen Calvert – Truman’s sister – is ready to return to the United States. But, upon her arrival at her brother’s vineyard, she is shocked to learn what happened to Rosanne all those years ago. Another one of the best books similar to Call Your Daughter Home about the power of family, Susan Meissner’s Only The Beautiful follows Helen and her determined efforts to find Rosanne.
Mercy House – Alena Dillon
In the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood of Brooklyn stands a century-old row house ruled over by the silver-haired renegade Sister Evelyn. Husky and gruff on the outside but warm and welcoming on the inside, Evelyn and her fellow sisters make Mercy House a safe haven for women who have been abused and abandoned.
Among their residents include Lucia, Mei-Li, Desiree, Esther and Katrina, all of whom have experienced first-hand what it means to be broken by men. The sisters’ efforts are prohibited by the church, and the news that Bishop Robert Hawkins intends to investigate the building could spell the end for Mercy House. In Alena Dillon’s startling debut novel, Mercy House, readers follow Sister Evelyn as she battles everything from burly gang members to her own dark past to preserve Mercy House and the vibrant diverse women it protects.
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
