“Anger is exhausting. Holding on to it will drain the life out of you.”
The Berry Pickers is a 2023 historical mystery novel by Amanda Peters. Beginning in July 1962, the story follows a Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia as they arrive in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, the family’s youngest daughter, Ruthie, disappears. The last person to see her was her six-year-old brother, Joe. Elsewhere in Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the sole child to an affluent family. Norma is often troubled by dreams and they seem to be more like memories than nightmares. As she grows up, she begins to realise there is something that her parents have been hiding from her, and she is determined to uncover what it is. If you love fascinating character studies and poignant historical tales, join us at What We Reading for the best books like The Berry Pickers!
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store – James McBride
Kicking off our list of the best books like The Berry Pickers is James McBride’s acclaimed historical fiction novel, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging up the foundations for a new housing development, the last thing they expected to uncover was a human skeleton. Who the skeleton was and how it came to be there were just two of many secrets being held by the residents of Chicken Hill, the run-down neighbourhood where African Americans and immigrant Jews live side by side.
Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived and ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, serving the community’s quirky collection of residents. When the state approached them one day looking for a deaf black child, claiming they needed to be institutionalised, the inhabitants of Chicken Hill banded together to keep the boy safe. A timely and beautiful portrait of living on the fringes of white Christian America, McBride’s bestseller is a message of how it is love and community that ultimately sustain us.
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The Frozen River – Ariel Lawhon
Maine, 1789. When the Kennebec River freezes and entombs a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is called in to examine the body and ascertain the cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she keeps a diary of every birth, death and crime committed across her tightly-knit community. Months earlier, she had made a record of a violent assault by two of the town’s most upstanding gentlemen – one of whom has now been found dead in the ice.
But, when a local physician disputes her conclusions, claiming the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate further on her own. Over the course of the winter, her diary becomes the source of much speculation across the town, forcing her to decide where her loyalties truly lie. One of the best historical mysteries similar to The Berry Pickers, Ariel Lawhon’s The Frozen River is layered, subversive and beautiful in its delivery.
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The Invisible Life Of Addie LaRue – Victoria Schwab
In France in 1714, a young man makes a Faustian bargain in a moment of desperation to live forever and be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and an incredible adventure that will spin out across centuries and continents. Finding its way across art and history, it is a dazzling tale of a young woman learning how far she is willing to go to leave her mark on the world.
But, everything changes when, after nearly three centuries, Addie encounters a young man in a hidden bookstore. A young man who, somehow, remembers her name. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a 2020 fantasy novel by Victoria Schwab that, similar to The Berry Pickers, features a coming-of-age story featuring an unforgettable female lead.
After Annie – Anna Quindlen
When Annie Brown dies suddenly, her husband, four children and closest friend are left to struggle on without the woman at the centre of all of their orbits. Bill Brown finds himself overwhelmed, and Annemarie, Annie’s best friend, soon finds herself falling back to the comforts of her old bad habits. It is Annie’s daughter, Ali, who is forced to fend for her brothers and even her own father, who manages to cling to a semblance of normality, whilst confronting the complexities of growing older.
But, over the course of the next year, while Annie continues to loom large in their memories, all three individuals are able to grow, change, and become more assured of themselves. The greatest power Annie gives to those she has left behind is the ability to love and go on without her. One of the best family portrait books like The Berry Pickers, After Annie is delivered with the sort of emotional resonance any readers of Anna Quindlen will be familiar with.
Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver
Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead is a story centred on a baby boy born to a teenage single mother. The boy possesses no assets other than his distinctive reddish hair, his father’s good looks, a caustic wit and an unshakeable will to survive.
Readers follow his journey as he braves the perils of foster care, child labour, derelict schools, addictions, sporting successes, disastrous loves and unbearable loss. As he endures through it all, he is forced to reckon with his invisibility in a world where the spotlight has firmly been shone away from rural communities such as his. A reimaging of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield for swapping Victorian London for the modern American South, Demon Copperhead is the perfect follow-up for any fans of The Berry Pickers looking for another beautifully-told coming-of-age story.
The Rent Collector – Camron Wright
Survival for Ki Lim and Sang Ly is an everyday battle at Stung Meanchey, the largest municipal dump in all of Cambodia. They fasten together a living by scavenging recyclables from the rubbish.
Their life is only made harder by the presence of their chronically ill child, Nisay, and the added expenses of expensive medicine that doesn’t seem to be doing anything. Just as things appear to be at their worst, Sang Ly learns a secret about the ill-tempered rent collector who comes demanding money from them. It is a secret that soon sets in motion a tide that will change the lives of everyone it comes into contact with. Another one of the best historical fiction books like The Berry Pickers, Camron Wright’s The Rent Collector is a story of one woman’s journey to save her son and another woman’s chance at redemption.
The River We Remember – William Kent Krueger
Nominated for Best Mystery & Thriller in the Goodreads Choice Awards, The River We Remember is a 2023 historical mystery book similar to The Berry Pickers by William Kent Krueger. On Memorial Day, the people of Jewel, Minnesota are gathering to remember the sacrifice made by the sons of the past when the half-clothed body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn is discovered floating in the Alabaster River.
Investigation into the killing falls to Sheriff Brody Dern. Before the results of the autopsy are even on his death, rumours circulate that the killer must be Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran. As suspicion and accusations continue to swell up across the town, Dern struggles not only to uncover the truth behind Quinn’s murder and make peace with his own past but also to make sense of a number of tragic histories and hidden secrets lurking in the shadows of the town.
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).
