Making up and getting back together. Putting the band back together. Finding long lost loved ones. Reconnecting with your hometown friends. Reuniting with your fellow sitcom stars for a highly-anticipated reunion. Unfortunately, the library doesn't have a way to provide HBO access for you to watch the Friends reunion, but we can share something even better: books.
Whether it ends well or not, reunions make for rich stories with often unpredictable outcomes. Romanticized ideals of loving reconcilliations don't pan out without some significant hurdles. In good fiction and in real life, the passage of time changes people, places and things in ways that make it impossible to get back to the idealized beginning in anyone's heart. Pick up one of these selected fiction and non-fiction titles full of deep reflection, anticipation, persistance, and fascinating casts of characters.
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We were the lucky ones
by Georgia Hunter A novel based on the true story of a Jewish-Polish family recounts how the Kurcs are scattered throughout the world by the horrors of World War II and fight hardships to survive, reach safety, and find each other |
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The jetsetters : a novel
by Amanda Eyre Ward Winning the grand prize in an essay contest, a single mother reunites her estranged adult children on a 10-day cruise while confronting long-buried secrets from their dysfunctional shared past. By the best-selling author of The Same Sky. |
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Make up to breakup : my life in and out of Kiss
by Peter Criss A founding member and drummer of the iconic rock-and-roll bank describes his Brooklyn youth in the mid-20th century, his insights into the band from the perspective of his sparks-emitting drum riser and his struggles with drug abuse, depression and cancer. . |
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Philomena : a mother, her son, and a fifty-year search
by Martin Sixsmith Fifty years after being forced to give her son up for adoption, Irishwoman Philomena Lee decides to find him, while, on the other side of the Atlantic, her son, a leading lawyer in the first Bush administration, struggles to hide secrets that would jeopardize his career and endanger his search to find his mother. Original. Movie tie-in. |
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The lady in gold : the extraordinary tale of Gustav Klimt's masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer
by Anne Marie O'Connor Shares the dramatic and fantastical events that shaped the creation of the Austrian Symbolist painter's most famous portrait, covering such topics as the story of the beautiful Viennese Jewish salon hostess who was his model, contributing factors in turn-of-the-century Vienna and the painting's bizarre fate. |
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Normal people : [a novel]
by Sally Rooney The unconventional secret childhood bond between popular Connell and lonely, intensely private Marianne is tested by character reversals in their first year at a Dublin college that render Connell introspective and Marianne social, but self-destructive |
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Forty autumns : a family's story of courage and survival on both sides of the Berlin Wall
by Nina Willner A former American military intelligence officer traces the experiences of five women in her family who were separated by the Iron Curtain for more than 40 years and who endured terrifying Communist rule before being reunited after the fall of the Berlin Wall. |
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Old records never die : one man's quest for his vinyl and his past
by Eric Spitznagel The author tries to find the original vinyl record collection he sold twenty years earlier, reminiscing about the music of that era and the people from his past that he shared the music with |
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Sharp objects : a novel
by Gillian Flynn Returning to her hometown after an eight-year absence to investigate the murders of two girls, reporter Camille Preaker is reunited with her neurotic mother and enigmatic, 13-year-old half-sister. |
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The waiting : the true story of a lost child, a lifetime of longing, and a miracle for a mother who never gave up
by Cathy LaGrow In a true story of faith, forgiveness, and love, a woman spent decades searching for news of the infant daughter she gave up for adoption in 1928, until nearly eighty years later, mother and daughter were reunited |
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Friendshipping : The Art of Finding Friends, Making Friends, and Being Friends
by Jenn Bane Humorous and sincere, this book of advice, illustrated throughout, presents the tips and tools readers need to make new friends and improve the quality of existing friendships. |
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Accidental brothers : the story of twins exchanged at birth and the power of nature and nurture
by Nancy L. Segal Combining great science with human interest, an exploration of nature vs. nurture follows the unique case of two sets of identical twins, who, born in Colombia, were separated at birth and improbably reunited as adults. |
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Finding Gobi : the true story of one little dog's big journey
by Dion Leonard The incredible true story of Dion Leonard, an athlete who was befriended by a stray dog while running an ultramarathon through the Gobi Desert. Named for the desert in which he found her, Gobi became Dion's closest companion throughout the 80-mile race across China. The scrappy little pup ran mile after mile alongside Dion, through treacherous conditions and across raging rivers. They crossed the finish line together--not first, but together--and Dion decidedto bring Gobi home to Scotland. Just before they were about to leave, however, Gobi disappeared, setting off a worldwide search for the stray. In a town of more than 3 million people, the search seemed hopeless, but this tale of friendship will surprise and delight you as you find out what happens! |
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The lost family : how DNA testing is upending who we are
by Libby Copeland A journalist investigates the business practices of companies like Ancestry and 23andMe and explores the stories of individuals who participated in home genetic testing and had their lives turned upside down by the results. |
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Sing, unburied, sing : a novel
by Jesmyn Ward Living with his grandparents and toddler sister on a Gulf Coast farm, Jojo navigates the challenges of his mother's addictions and his grandmother's terminal cancer before the release of his father from prison prompts a road trip. |
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Americanah : a novel
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Separated by differing ambitions after falling in love in occupied Nigeria, beautiful Ifemelu experiences triumph and defeat in America, while Obinze endures an undocumented status in London until the pair is reunited in their homeland fifteen years later |
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Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young : the wild, definitive saga of rock's greatest supergroup
by David Browne Together, few groups were as in sync with their times as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Starting with the original trio's landmark 1969 debut album, the group embodied much about its era: communal musicmaking, protest songs that took on the establishment and Richard Nixon, and liberal attitudes toward partners and lifestyles. Their group or individual songs -- became the soundtrack of a generation. Their story would rarely be as harmonious as their legendary and influential vocal blend. In the years that followed, these four volatile men would continually break up, reunite, and disband again -- all against a backdrop of social and musical change, recurring disagreements and jealousies, and self-destructive tendencies that threatened to cripple them both as a group and as individuals." |
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Swimming Back to Trout River
by Linda Rui Feng Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, this lyrical novel follows a father’s determination to reunite his family before his daughter Junie’s 12th birthday, even if it means bringing painful family secrets to light. |
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The book thieves : the Nazi looting of Europe's libraries and the race to return a literary inheritance
by Anders Rydell An account of the Nazis' systematic pillaging of Europe's libraries, and the heroic efforts of librarians working today to return the books to their owners, explores how stolen books were used as part of a campaign to rewrite history in accordance with Third Reich views. |
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In the darkroom
by Susan Faludi The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling author of Backlash presents an astonishing confrontation with the enigma of her father and the larger riddle of identity consuming our age. |
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The book of Rosy : a mother's story of separation at the border
by Rosayra Pablo Cruz A searing critique of the Trump administration-induced immigration crisis, written by a mother who was separated from her children and the American who helped reunite the family, shares timely insights into the injustices of today’s migrant experience. |
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Where the lost dogs go : a story of love, search, and the power of reunion
by Susannah Charleson The best-selling author of Scent of the Missing draws on expert studies in animal behavior, lost-pet search tactics and the psychology of loss in an analysis of the world of lost dogs and the power of reunion. |
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Blood brothers : the story of the strange friendship between Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill
by Deanne Stillman Documents the unlikely friendship between Buffalo Bill Cody and Sitting Bull, tracing the events of their brief but important collaboration during Cody's 1880s Wild West Show and the impact of Little Big Horn, the contributions of Annie Oakley and Sitting Bull's assassination in 1890. |
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The nightingale
by Kristin Hannah Reunited when the elder's husband is sent to fight in World War II, French sisters Vianne and Isabelle find their bond as well as their respective beliefs tested by a world that changes in horrific ways |
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Beach house reunion
by Mary Alice Monroe "Continuing the saga of her bestselling Beach House series, Mary Alice Monroe weaves together a tale of the struggles and triumphs of the historic Rutledge family of Charleston, South Carolina. Beautifully wrought and rich with keen insight, this is an illuminating tale of continuance, resilience, and one family's enduring love" |
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Another Brooklyn : a novel
by Jacqueline Woodson Torn between the fantasies of her youth and the realities of a life marked by violence and abandonment, August reunites with a beloved old friend who challenges her to reconcile her past and come to terms with the difficulties that forced her to grow up too quickly |
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Fare thee well : the final chapter of the Grateful Dead's long, strange trip
by Joel Selvin A tell-all biography details the epic in-fighting of the Grateful Dead in the years following band leader Jerry Garcia's death in 1995, and explains how the "core four" finally got together after 20 years of squabbling. By the author of Altamont. |