Family ties vs How to Be Good

Both "How to Be Good" by Nick Hornby and "Family ties" by Danielle Steel are popular choices for readers interested in Literature and Conduct of life. This comparison helps you decide which to read first — or whether both belong on your list.

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Cover of Family ties

Family ties

Danielle Steel

1995

From Manhattan to Paris and all the way to Tehran, Danielle Steel weaves a powerfully compelling story that reminds us how challenging and unpredictable life can be—and how the bonds of family hold us together. FAMILY TIES Annie Ferguson was a bright young Manhattan architect with a limitless future—until a single phone call changed the course of her life forever. Overnight, she became the mother to her sister’s three orphaned children, keeping a promise she never regretted making, even if it meant putting her own life indefinitely on hold. Now, at forty-two, still happily single with a satisfying career and a family that means everything to her, Annie is suddenly facing an empty nest. With her nephew and nieces now grown and confronting challenges of their own, she must navigate a parent’s difficult passage between helping and letting go. The eldest, twenty-eight-year-old Liz, an overworked editor in a high-powered job at Vogue, has never allowed any man to come close enough to hurt her. Ted, at twenty-four a serious law student, is captivated by a much older woman with children, who is leading him much further than he wants to go. And the impulsive youngest, twenty-one-year old Katie, is an art student about to make a choice that will lead her to a world she is in no way prepared for but determined to embrace. Then, when least expected, a chance encounter changes Annie’s life again in the most surprising direction of all. . . .

Published 1995
Books like Family ties
Cover of How to Be Good

How to Be Good

Nick Hornby

2000

THE MILLION-COPY NO.1 BESTSELLER 'Enormously powerful' Guardian 'Hilarious, sophisticated, compulsive' The Times ___________________ 'I am in a car park in Leeds when I tell my husband I don't want to be married to him any more. . . ' London GP Katie Carr always thought she was a good person. With her husband David making a living as 'The Angriest Man in Holloway', she figured she could put up with anything. Until, that is, David meets DJ Goodnews and becomes a good person too. A far-too-good person who starts committing crimes of charity like taking in the homeless and giving their kids' toys away. Suddenly Katie's feeling very bad about herself, and thinking that if charity begins at home, then maybe it's time to move. . . This laugh-out-loud novel, from the bestselling author of About a Boy and High Fidelity, will have you gripped from start to finish and will appeal to fans of David Nicholls and Jonathan Coe, as well as readers in need of a moral compass everywhere. ___________________ 'Pins you in your armchair and won't let go . . . How to be Good? How to be bloody marvellous, more like' Mail on Sunday 'It does exactly what it says on the cover. Hornby's prose is artful and effortless, his spiky wit as razored as a number-two cut' Independent 'The writing is so funny, and the set-pieces so brilliant . . . Hornby's best book since Fever Pitch' Lynn Truss, The Times

Published 2000
Books like How to Be Good

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is easier to read: How to Be Good or Family ties?
Reading difficulty depends on your familiarity with the genre. Check each book's page count and subject matter above, and start with whichever aligns better with books you've enjoyed before.
Can I read How to Be Good and Family ties in any order?
Yes — these are standalone works. You don't need to read one before the other unless they're part of the same series.
Which book is better for beginners?
If you're new to this genre, look at the shorter book with broader appeal and start there. You can always come back for the other.

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