Before we get there, I want to talk about the evolution of this genre for a moment. When I started in libraries this genre was referred to as "Women's Fiction." It was basically considered to be books for women, about their lives, starting after the "happily ever after."
But even back when Joyce Saricks and I were teaching the RA class at the graduate school, we told our students that we didn't love the name as there wasn't a men's fiction and saying everything else was men's fiction was not helpful either. It did a disservice to these books, kept them marginalized, and did not leave room for the full breadth of stories that could be told.
And yet, reference books were written on Women's Fiction and the genre persisted.
As the years went on, however, it changed, for the better. The genre morphed into what I describe it as today in my training programs. This is the text from Slide 17 of my Demystifying Genre presentation:
Intimate look into lives people outside of romance.
Sympathetic link with reader
All relationships considered but women tend to be at forefront
NF: Memoirs are about relationships
Celebrity book group choices
Trends: marginalized voices, navigating different cultures, friendship or family relationships, cross-over with gentle reads, older adults as real people
These are stories about people, intimate stories that are meant to elicit an emotional response from the reader and they are not only about love and they are not only focused on women. Friendships, entire families, people from different cultures and LGBTQ characters are also considered. And many books have a mixture of relationships and identities.
Relationship fiction includes some of our most popular titles. Take just the first four I have on Slide 17 as an example:
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
- The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
- Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
- Heart the Lover by Lily King
But despite the popularity of Relationship Fiction, there are very few resources to help us help readers. A lot of that goes back to its roots as being dismissed as "Women's Fiction." The genre has evlolved but the attitudes about it have not.
Which brings me back to the annual Booklist Spotlight on Relationship Fiction because it is our best resource to help these readers.
First, make sure you have all of the titles on their current list (below). Get them ordered if you don't. Second, use the link I added to pull up the backlist of recent Top 10 Relationship Fiction titles in print and audio. Third, get up a display, make lists, promote these crowd pleasing titles for all readers.
Here is the content from the issue
Spotlight on Relationship Fiction
And then click on this link for one-click access to the backlist of these lists for print and audio going back to 2023.
But wait, there is more. There is also the annual feature: To Beach Their Own!
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