Integrated Advisory: Sisterland

I use Grammarly's grammar check because having bad grammar is like diet ice cream, no one takes you seriously.


It's been a while since I wrote a multi-type (integrated) advisory post. This was one of my favorite books of last year.

Sisterland
By Curtis Sittenfeld
Copyright 2013

Summary: Twins Kate and Violet are psychic. They can sense the future. Violet loves it, and even makes a career out of it. Kate is more reserved and even embarrassed by it as an adult. She even went so far as to shut it off. After a minor earth quake hits their small town of Missouri, Vi makes a public prediction about an even bigger one to come. She gets some attention from this prediction on national TV, to Kate's horror. Kate can't help but wonder if Vi is right, though. Will she support her sister in an effort to save people from real harm, or will she ignore it and try to save her family from ridicule? There is a lot of back-and-forth from their adulthood to their childhood, so we get to know their parents, their school friends, and even Kate's own children.



Read Alikes:

Sister
By Rosamund Lupton
Copyright 2010

In this book, the characters are sisters, but not twins. There's a bossy, serious sister and an artsy, flighty sister - just like Kate and Vi. There are secrets between the sisters - just like Kate and Vi. Lupton's book is a mystery, where Sittenfeld's is literary fiction, but the characters in the two books can definitely be compared.

The Girls
By Lori Lansens
Copyright 2007

Rose and Ruby are 29-year-old conjoined twins. I chose this book as a read alike because it is about twins who tell their individual stories in alternating chapters, and because their stories reveal that there are definitely secrets kept from each other. Who could know you better than your twin, and especially your conjoined twin? Who is more loyal to you than your twin, even when they doubt you?








Separated at Earth: The Story of Psychic Twins
By Terry and Linda Jamison

This is a non-fiction book about real-life psychic twins. They predicted all kinds of national disasters like JFK Jr.'s death, the attacks of 9/11, and the 2000 stock market crash.












Videos:

Medium

This is a TV show about...a medium! Kate and Vi in Sisterland have psychic abilities and Vi works as a professional medium. A TV show about clairvoyance is a natural fit.

National Geographic: In the Womb
Learn how twins develop and grow in the womb! Backed by the authority and quality of National Geographic.


Here is a list of movies about psychics and clairvoyants.

Here is a list of movies about twins. 

Here is a list of movies about sibling relationships.









Music:

The Mars Volta

Based on nothing but my own feelings, I associate the book Sisterland with the prog-rock band The Mars Volta. They're somewhat experimental, a bit psychedelic, and even a bit fusion of jazz, latin, punk, electronic, and rock music. In other words, they're complicated. Just like Kate and Vi and their relationship.







Games:

Earthbound and Super Smash Brothers

Pictured left is Ness. He is a psycho-kinetic character who makes appearances in the Playstation games Earthbound and Super Smash Brothers. Cute, isn't he? Ok, so he doesn't see the future, but as long as we're talking about video game characters with psychic abilities, he gets a mention.

Sweet Valley High Game

In Sisterland, Kate and Vi grew up in the '80s. They were very much like the Sweet Valley Twins, who were also products of the 80s. True, the Sweet Valley Twins were more wholesome and less psychic, but it still fits the bill for our purposes here.