Other than Romance

I'm reading Julie Lessman's A Heart Revealed which is just as fun as all of her other romances, full of intense passionate love and a couple with huge obstacles to overcome in order to be together. But as I was reading, I realized that something I love about Julie's books are the friendships. As I read one scene between friends, I actually got teary eyed. It was just lovely.

It made me think about how I've been craving books that go deep into relationships that are not necessarily romances. Jason wrote a blog post awhile back about Cold Mountain and deep friendships between the same sex that kind of touched on the kind of thing I want to read.

I don't know...I often find that relationships that are not romantic often seem shallow in books..or something is missing. The heart, the feeling that there's a lot at stake, that these relationships are deeply important and exciting and fraught with complications all on their own. I think it's both a part of how increasingly isolated we are in our society and our constant addiction to romance that makes it this way. I'm just curious...can you recommend a book with a lot of heart that focuses on a relationship that is not romantic? One that might make me feel the same way a beautiful love story would but is not a love story in any conventional way? Siblings, parents, friends, I want to read them!

I was just thinking about this because my favorite U2 song is "Sometimes You Can't Make it On Your Own" which is a song Bono wrote for his father. I find this song to be just incredibly beautiful and honest in a way that guts me when I listen to it. (of course it helps that the music is very beautiful and emotional I think) and this fantastic song is not a love song. To a lesser degree, Andrew Peterson's song, "Tools" about his grandfather has always affected me in the same way.

Or this summer as I was watching the silly teen soap, Switched at Birth on ABC Family, there was a scene where Daphne one of the girls broke down with her mother and confessed she missed her but because of a lie her mother had told her, every time she looked at her she got angry all over again. It was this scene that made me realize just why I loved the show, because the relationships were crafted with so much heart, and the show wasn't relying on the romances to tell its story.

And then again yesterday as I was reading A Heart Revealed and so completely enjoying the friendship that I realized I want to find more books that explore with depth the other relationships in our lives.

Of course I realize a lot of so called "women's fiction" does but it usually also has a fair bit of romance. I'm basically just looking for books you think did this well...relationships that moved you.

Any suggestions for me? :)