6 best-selling family books like Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

Cover of Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

Black Cake

By: Charmaine Wilkerson

4.10

Format: 385 pages, Hardcover

We can’t choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become? In present-day California, Ele…

"But trying to undo the worry is like trying to undo his blackness."

-Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake

"But trying to undo the worry is like trying to undo his blackness."

-Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake

"More people’s lives have been shaped by violence than we like to think. And more people’s lives have been shaped by silence than we think."

-Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake

"More people’s lives have been shaped by violence than we like to think. And more people’s lives have been shaped by silence than we think."

-Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake

If you liked the family plot in Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson , here is a list of 6 books like this:

Cover of The Women by Kristin Hannah

1. The Women

By: Kristin Hannah

4.64

Format: 471 pages, Hardcover

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these wor… read more

Similar categories in Kristin Hannah's The Women book and Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake

  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"Words were creators of worlds; you had to be careful with them."

-Kristin Hannah, The Women

"Love mattered in this ruined world, but so did honor. What was one without the other?"

-Kristin Hannah, The Women

"Love. A thing to be shouted from the rooftops, celebrated, not cultivated in secret and clipped into shape in the dark."

-Kristin Hannah, The Women

Cover of The Berry Pickers by Amanda    Peters

2. The Berry Pickers

By: Amanda Peters

4.14

Format: 307 pages, Hardcover

A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mys… read more

Similar categories in Amanda Peters's The Berry Pickers book and Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • mystery
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston

3. First Lie Wins

By: Ashley Elston

4.05

Format: 340 pages, Hardcover

Evie Porter has everything a nice, Southern girl could want: a perfect, doting boyfriend, a house w… read more

Similar categories in Ashley Elston's First Lie Wins book and Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake

  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • mystery
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"Blunt honesty has more value than blind worship"

-Ashley Elston, First Lie Wins

"It’s because you’re not ready to tell me the truth and I’d rather you not lie to me."

-Ashley Elston, First Lie Wins

"There’s an old saying: The first lie wins. It’s not referring to the little white kind that tumble out with no thought; it refers to the big one. The one that changes the game. The one that is delibe…"

-Ashley Elston, First Lie Wins

Cover of The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

4. The Frozen River

By: Ariel Lawhon

4.43

Format: 432 pages, Hardcover

A gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-cen… read more

Similar categories in Ariel Lawhon's The Frozen River book and Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake

  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • mystery
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
Cover of Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See

5. Lady Tan’s Circle of Women

By: Lisa See

4.36

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

* NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!* An immersive historical novel inspired by the true story of a woma… read more

Similar categories in Lisa See's Lady Tan’s Circle of Women book and Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
Cover of Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

6. Tom Lake

By: Ann Patchett

3.99

Format: 309 pages, Hardcover

In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again prov… read more

Similar categories in Ann Patchett's Tom Lake book and Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake

  • literary fiction
  • family
  • historical fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"You can’t pretend this [Covid] isn’t happening,"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

"In the summer the pear trees were fine. In the summer, all that is hideous about a pear tree is hidden by leaves and pears. But once those disguises were removed they were nothing but acres of murder…"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

"Hazel, listen to me. I'm going to tell you something important, you need to be brave.' I then explained to the dog how I have told myself for so many years that my career fell apart because I wasn't …"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

"It's as if someone bought all the diamonds at Tiffany's, and crushed them into dust, then spread that dust across the water so that it sifts down evenly, filtering through the shards of light that cu…"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

Cover of The Covenant of Water by Abraham   Verghese

7. The Covenant of Water

By: Abraham Verghese

4.45

Format: 724 pages, Hardcover

From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial ep… read more

Similar categories in Abraham Verghese's The Covenant of Water book and Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • family
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • book club
  • audiobook
Cover of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James   McBride

8. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

By: James McBride

4.00

Format: 385 pages, Hardcover

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new housing de… read more

Similar categories in James McBride's The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store book and Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • mystery
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
Cover of Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

9. Take My Hand

By: Dolen Perkins-Valdez

4.37

Format: 359 pages, Hardcover

Inspired by true events that rocked the nation, a profoundly moving novel about a Black nurse in po… read more

Similar categories in Dolen Perkins-Valdez's Take My Hand book and Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake

  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"There wasn’t any justice for little Black girls, and never had been."

-Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Take My Hand

"The world was an enigma. My country was an enigma. Still, she was mine. And I loved every square inch of her."

-Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Take My Hand

"The past doesn't work that way. You can't just make it disappear. You can't pretend certain things didn't happen."

-Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Take My Hand

"She wore a belted yellow dress that screamed springtime even though it was chilly out. Anybody in a dress that bright had to be doing some good in the world, I decided."

-Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Take My Hand

Cover of Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

10. Remarkably Bright Creatures

By: Shelby Van Pelt

4.39

Format: 368 pages, Hardcover

Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's u… read more

Similar categories in Shelby Van Pelt's Remarkably Bright Creatures book and Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • mystery
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"How does it feel, you ask? It is comfortable. It is home. I am lucky. I am grateful"

-Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures

"Day 1,361 of My Captiv- Oh, Let Us Cut the Shit, Shall We? We Have a Ring to Retrieve."

-Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures

"Why can humans not use their millions of words to simply tell one another what they desire?"

-Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures

"Humans are the only species who subvert truth for their own entertainment. They call them jokes. Sometimes puns."

-Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures

Cover of Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

11. Hello Beautiful

By: Ann Napolitano

4.16

Format: 416 pages, Kindle Edition

An emotionally layered and engrossing story of a family that asks: Can love make a broken person wh… read more

Similar categories in Ann Napolitano's Hello Beautiful book and Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake

  • literary fiction
  • family
  • historical fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"The child inside Julia lay wide-eyed in the dark, knowing that she was Jo, but only because Sylvie was Beth."

-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

"You and your sisters have so many reference points, such a dense history," William said. "I never get used to it."

-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

"She was Julia's wild hair, she was the lake her husband had once been carried out of, and no matter what happened next, she was love."

-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

"You’re depressed, not crazy. It’s not insane to be depressed in this world. It’s more sane than being happy. I never trust those upbeat individuals who grin no matter what’s going on. Those are the o…"

-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

Cover of Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

12. Yellowface

By: R.F. Kuang

3.77

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences… Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says… read more

Similar categories in R.F. Kuang's Yellowface book and Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • mystery
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"The truth is fluid, there is always another way to spin the story."

-R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

"They tell authors never to look at Goodreads, but nobody follows that advice—none of us can resist the urge to know how our work is being received."

-R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

"Writing is the closest thing we have to real magic. Writing is creating something out of nothing, is opening doors to other lands. Writing gives you power to shape your own world when the real one hu…"

-R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

Cover of Pineapple Street by Jenny   Jackson

13. Pineapple Street

By: Jenny Jackson

3.57

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

Darley, the eldest daughter in the well-connected, old money Stockton family, followed her heart, t… read more

Similar categories in Jenny Jackson's Pineapple Street book and Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake

  • literary fiction
  • family
  • historical fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
"But you know foundations shouldn't have to be the answer. The real problems are tax laws, anti-labor policies, and the slow expansion of the welfare state," Chip said. Everyone turned and looked at h…"

-Jenny Jackson, Pineapple Street

Cover of Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

14. Demon Copperhead

By: Barbara Kingsolver

4.50

Format: 560 pages, Hardcover

"Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose." Set in t… read more

Similar categories in Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead book and Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"A kid is a terrible thing to be, in charge of nothing."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

"I can still feel in my bones how being mad was the one thing holding me together."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

"Counting on Jesus to save the day is no more real than sending up the Batman signal."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

"life is a wild, impetuous ride. There could be good shit up ahead, don’t rule it out."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

Cover of Maame by Jessica George

15. Maame

By: Jessica George

4.06

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

Shortlisted for the TikTok Book Awards in the Book of the Year, 2023 and the Goodreads Debut and Fi… read more

Similar categories in Jessica George's Maame book and Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake

  • literary fiction
  • family
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
"A white person can date a Black person and still be racist."

-Jessica George, Maame

"I can't comprehend living to work, but then I'm afraid of working just to live."

-Jessica George, Maame

"A white person can date a Black person and still be racist. Because there’s levels to that sh*t. Like a lasagna."

-Jessica George, Maame

"It's about what love is. Which is trust, commitment, empathy, and respect. It means really giving a shit about the other person."

-Jessica George, Maame

Cover of The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson

16. The House of Eve

By: Sadeqa Johnson

4.26

Format: 384 pages, Hardcover

From the award-winning author of Yellow Wife, a daring and redemptive novel set in 1950s Philadelph… read more

Similar categories in Sadeqa Johnson's The House of Eve book and Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake

  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
Cover of Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

17. Black Cake

By: Charmaine Wilkerson

4.10

Format: 385 pages, Hardcover

We can’t choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become? In present-day California, Ele… read more

Similar categories in Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake book and Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • mystery
  • historical fiction
  • family
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"But trying to undo the worry is like trying to undo his blackness."

-Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake

"More people’s lives have been shaped by violence than we like to think. And more people’s lives have been shaped by silence than we think."

-Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake

"Some people think surfing is a relationship with the sea...but surfing is really a relationship between you and yourself. The sea is going to do whatever it wants."

-Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake

"Young people had always wanted to do things their own way, and Bert had been no different. Only nowadays, there seemed to be this compulsion to eat up everything that was available to you and to let …"

-Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake

Cover of Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

18. Our Missing Hearts

By: Celeste Ng

3.80

Format: 335 pages, Hardcover

A novel about a mother’s unbreakable love in a world consumed by fear. Twelve-year-old Bird Gard… read more

Similar categories in Celeste Ng's Our Missing Hearts book and Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • mystery
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"Succulents would grow anew from a broken-off leaf, pushing roots out into the air, then down into the soil: a piece of its own body, transformed into its child."

-Celeste Ng, Our Missing Hearts

"Evidence of his mother, out there, elsewhere, so worried about somebody else's children though she'd left her own behind. The irony of it leached into his veins."

-Celeste Ng, Our Missing Hearts

"Why did I tell you so many stories? Because I wanted the world to make sense to you. I wanted to make sense of the world, for you. I wanted the world to make sense."

-Celeste Ng, Our Missing Hearts

"And we need their generosity to keep this place open. Or, just as likely, someone got nervous and got rid of it preemptively. Us public libraries--a lot of us just can't take the risk."

-Celeste Ng, Our Missing Hearts

Cover of The Measure by Nikki Erlick

19. The Measure

By: Nikki Erlick

3.99

Format: 353 pages, Hardcover

Eight ordinary people. One extraordinary choice. It seems like any other day. You wake up, pour … read more

Similar categories in Nikki Erlick's The Measure book and Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake

  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
Cover of Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult

20. Mad Honey

By: Jodi Picoult

4.09

Format: 464 pages, Hardcover

A soul-stirring novel about what we choose to keep from our past, and what we choose to leave behin… read more

Similar categories in Jodi Picoult's Mad Honey book and Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake

  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • mystery
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"Being gay or straight,"

-Jodi Picoult, Mad Honey

"People always talk about their love for you is unconditional. Then you reveal your most private self to them, and you find out how many conditions there are in unconditional love."

-Jodi Picoult, Mad Honey

"Dark honey from the second harvest. It's made late in the season after the nectar drought at the end of July when the bees turn to goldenrod and sunflowers instead. It's deeper and richer, it tastes …"

-Jodi Picoult, Mad Honey

"My father taught me that beekeeping is both a burden and a privilege. You don’t bother the bees unless they need your help, and you help them when they need it. It’s a feudal relationship: protection…"

-Jodi Picoult, Mad Honey

Cover of The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer

21. The Wishing Game

By: Meg Shaffer

4.07

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

Make a wish. . . . Lucy Hart knows better than anyone what it’s like to grow up without parents … read more

Similar categories in Meg Shaffer's The Wishing Game book and Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake

  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • mystery
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Hate is a knife without a handle. You can't cut something with it without cutting yourself."

-Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

"Another thing I learned in therapy?" Angie said. "The kids in dysfunctional families who act out and rebel are the ones who are the healthiest mentally. They're the ones who see that something's wron…"

-Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

"Once, he'd loved the ocean. Loved seeing it every morning, every night. Seeing all its facets, all its faces. Not many people knew what the sea looked like in all seasons, under all phases of the moo…"

-Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

21 Best fiction books like Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

Transform Your Habits

The Women

Kristin Hannah

4.64

Transform Your Habits

The Berry Pickers

Amanda Peters

4.14

Transform Your Habits

First Lie Wins

Ashley Elston

4.05

Transform Your Habits

The Frozen River

Ariel Lawhon

4.43

View all the books

21 must-read fiction books like Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See

Transform Your Habits

The Women

Kristin Hannah

4.64

Transform Your Habits

The Berry Pickers

Amanda Peters

4.14

Transform Your Habits

First Lie Wins

Ashley Elston

4.05

Transform Your Habits

The Paris Daughter

Kristin Harmel

4.25

View all the books

Never miss a story from us, get weekly updates in your inbox.