I'm looking to avoid pretty much any mention of parents, kids, spouses, and the like. Would prefer to avoid romantic topics as well. I really enjoy books about people though, fiction and nonfiction, especially books that get into psychological topics.
by brightfuture1029
6 Comments
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Beautiful world where are you by Sally Rooney
Ok so I have to ask, why avoid the most naturally occurring relationships? And the source of all of our psychological problems?
People are family people. People are relational. It is who we are, how we make sense of the world and the other people in it
Moby-Dick: or, the Whale by Melville . While the there are mentions of family, the main action is pretty much just all seamen and sperm whales
These aren’t 100% free of mentions-
The first 4 Murderbot Diaries books are very character oriented and mostly family-free (and definitely romance free). There’s some brief mentions of “he has two husbands and three kids back at home” or whatever. Fifth book, Network Effect, has family as an important plot point
The Imperial Radch trilogy is pretty much family free. And romance free. And really good psychological science fiction. In book two there’s a subplot with a shitty mom and daughter and a minor family (that you can honestly just skip), books 2 and 3 involve a small subplot with finding the living sister of a dead friend (I’d say it’s very small, I find sibling topics in books really uncomfortable and this was fine with me). The main point of the books is about identity, and how it’s affected by trauma, friendship, and grief, family is irrelevant to it
Kraken by China Miéville is a really weird book
I’m not sure why books like this are so difficult to come up with. My real life is very people oriented but family and romance free
You’d probably like anthropological books about things. Look into Bill Bryson and Mark Kurlansky, they’re my favorites. Same with the history of medical science.