10 Books You Should Read Now That Succession is Over

Updated: May 30, 2023

Author

Carrie Thornbrugh

"The good thing about having a family that doesn't love you is you learn to live without it."

— Connor Roy

We can all finally breathe a collective sigh of relief now that the tortuous, cringe-inducing final season of HBO’s epic family drama, Succession, is over. The critically acclaimed series that delves into the power struggle within a wealthy and dysfunctional media family has reached its gripping series finale and we are shook. After captivating audiences for four seasons, the series concluded with a climactic episode that left fans buzzing with speculation, anticipation, and PTSD. If you enjoyed the complex family dynamics, drama, and power struggles portrayed in the show, here are 10 recommended books that will give you a Succession-like hit and/or help you recover from watching four seasons of familial dysfunction:

Books to Read If You Loved Succession:

Adult Survivors of Toxic Family Members by Sherrie Campbell PhD

Cutting ties with a toxic family member is a crucial step away from a legacy of dysfunction and toward healing and happiness. This compassionate guide will help you embrace your decision with a sense of pride, validation, and faith in yourself; and provides powerful tools for creating boundaries, coping with judgment, and overcoming self-doubt.

Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

"No one has portrayed New York Society this accurately and devastatingly since Edith Wharton" --The National Review. Sherman McCoy (rhymes with Shioban Roy!!!), the central figure of Tom Wolfe's first novel, is a young investment banker with a fourteen-room apartment in Manhattan. When he is involved in a freak accident in the Bronx, prosecutors, politicians, the press, the police, the clergy, and assorted hustlers high and low close in on him, licking their chops and giving us a gargantuan helping of the human comedy, of New York in the 1980s, a city boiling over with racial and ethnic hostilities and burning with the itch to Grab It Now. Wolfe's novel is a big, panoramic story of the metropolis and highlights the greed, ambition, and corruption prevalent in high society.

How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Updated for the first time in more than forty years, Dale Carnegie's timeless bestseller How to Win Friends and Influence People--a classic that has improved and transformed the personal and professional lives of millions. This new edition of the most influential self-help book of the last century has been updated to keep the book fresh for today's readers, with priceless material restored from the original 1936 text. How to Win Friends and Influence People is a historic bestseller for one simple reason: Its crucial life lessons conveyed through engaging storytelling, have shown readers how to become who they wish to be. Carnegie's rock-solid, experience-tested advice has remained relevant for generations because he addresses timeless questions about the art of getting along with people.

It Didn’t Start With You by Mark Wolynn

Depression. Anxiety. Chronic Pain. Phobias. Obsessive thoughts. The evidence is compelling: the roots of these difficulties may not reside in our immediate life experience or in chemical imbalances in our brains--but in the lives of our parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents. The latest scientific research, now making headlines, supports what many have long intuited--that traumatic experience can be passed down through generations. It Didn't Start with You builds on the work of leading experts in post-traumatic stress, including Mount Sinai School of Medicine neuroscientist Rachel Yehuda and psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score. Even if the person who suffered the original trauma has died, or the story has been forgotten or silenced, memory and feelings can live on. These emotional legacies are often hidden, encoded in everything from gene expression to everyday language, and they play a far greater role in our emotional and physical health than has ever before been understood.

King Lear by William Shakespeare

An unhinged King divides his kingdom, snubs his daughter, goes crazy, a terrible storm arrives, and everyone dies. Hmm...sound familiar? The Tragedy of King Lear by William Shakespeare is based on the mythological Leir of Britain. The play was often revised after the English Restoration for audiences who disliked its dark and depressing tone, but since the 19th century, Shakespeare's original play has been regarded as one of his supreme achievements. Both the title role and the supporting roles have been coveted by accomplished actors, and the play has been widely adapted. It's regularly cited as one of the greatest works of literature ever written, with the English poet, Percy Shelley calling it "the most perfect specimen of the dramatic art existing in the world."

Empire of Pain:The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

Empire of Pain is the saga of three generations of a single family and the mark they would leave on the world, a tale that moves from the bustling streets of early twentieth-century Brooklyn to the seaside palaces of Greenwich, Connecticut, and Cap d'Antibes to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C. It follows the family's early success with Valium to the much more potent OxyContin, marketed with a ruthless technique of co-opting doctors, influencing the FDA, downplaying the drug's addictiveness. Empire of Pain chronicles the multiple investigations of the Sacklers and their company, and the scorched-earth legal tactics that the family has used to evade accountability. A masterpiece of narrative reporting, Empire of Pain is a ferociously compelling portrait of America's second Gilded Age, a study of impunity among the super-elite and a relentless investigation of the naked greed that built one of the world's great fortunes.

The Chief: The Life of William Randolf Hurst by David Nasaw

In The Chief, David Nasaw presents an intimate portrait of William Randolph Hearst, famously characterized in the classic film Citizen Kane, and whose influence was nearly as great as many world leaders. A brilliant business strategist, Hearst controlled the largest publishing empire in the United States, including twenty-eight newspapers, the Cosmopolitan Picture Studio, radio stations, and thirteen magazines. He quickly learned how to use this media stronghold to achieve unprecedented political power. The son of a gold miner, Hearst underwent a public metamorphosis from Harvard dropout to political kingmaker; from outspoken populist to opponent of the New Deal; and from citizen to congressman. With unprecedented access to Hearst's personal and business papers, Nasaw details Heart's relationship with his wife Millicent and his romance with Marion Davies; his interactions with Hitler, Mussolini, Churchill, and every American president from Grover Cleveland to Franklin Roosevelt; and his acquaintance with movie giants such as Louis B. Mayer, Jack Warner, and Irving Thalberg.

The Heirs by Susan Rieger

Six months after Rupert Falkes dies, leaving a grieving widow and five adult sons, an unknown woman sues his estate, claiming she had two sons by him. The Falkes brothers are pitched into turmoil, at once missing their father and feeling betrayed by him. In disconcerting contrast, their mother, Eleanor, is cool and calm, showing preternatural composure. The sons see their identity and success as inextricably tied to family loyalty--a loyalty they always believed their father shared. Struggling to reclaim their identity, the brothers find Eleanor's sympathy toward the woman and her sons confounding. Widowhood has let her cast off the rigid propriety of her stifling upbringing, and the brothers begin to question whether they knew either of their parents at all. A riveting portrait of a family, told with compassion, insight, and wit, The Heirs wrestles with the tangled nature of inheritance and legacy for one unforgettable, patrician New York family. Moving seamlessly through a constellation of rich, arresting voices, The Heirs is an Edith Wharton-esque tale for the 21st century.

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

One of the 20th century's most challenging novels of ideas, The Fountainhead champions the cause of individualism through the story of a gifted young architect who fights against societal conventions and power structures. The struggle for personal integrity in a world that values conformity above creativity is powerfully illustrated through three characters. Dramatic, poetic, and demanding, The Fountainhead remains one of the towering books on the contemporary intellectual scene. This controversial novel explores themes of individualism, ambition, and the clash between traditional values and progressive ideals.

**The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck by Mark Manson**

This one channels the version of Roman Roy we see in the final episode. A man who has officially given up the fight and begins to accept that he simply DNGAF. In this generation-defining self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be positive all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people. Manson advises us to get to know our limitations and accept them. Once we embrace our fears, faults, and uncertainties, once we stop running and avoiding and start confronting painful truths, we can begin to find the courage, perseverance, honesty, responsibility, curiosity, and forgiveness we seek.

Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan

Who's down with RPP? All of us, apparently. The miserable lives of the world's 1% can be as alluring as it is terrifying. When Nicholas Young hears that his grandmother, Su Yi, is on her deathbed, he rushes to be by her bedside--but he's not alone. The entire Shang-Young clan has convened from all corners of the globe to stake claim to their matriarch's massive fortune. With each family member vying to inherit Tyersall Park--a trophy estate on 64 prime acres in the heart of Singapore--Nicholas's childhood home turns into a hotbed of speculation and sabotage. Rich People Problems is a sweeping novel that takes us from the elegantly appointed mansions of Manila to the secluded private islands in the Sulu Sea, from a kidnapping at Hong Kong's most elite private school to a surprise marriage proposal at an Indian palace, caught on camera by the telephoto lenses of paparazzi, Kevin Kwan's hilarious, gloriously wicked new novel reveals the long-buried secrets of Asia's most privileged families and their rich people problems.

These recommended books capture the essence of Succession by examining themes of familial loyalty, personal ambition, and the pursuit of power in various contexts. They offer engaging narratives that will keep you enthralled with their intricate plots and well-drawn characters--perfect fodder for your next book club pick!

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