Primarily known for her columns, Molly Ivins was not born a columnist, even though she did long to write from a young age . In Bill Minutaglio & W. Michael Smith's engrossing biography, Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life, we are allowed to step inside her life. She was born in California, but grew up in Texas, which is when most of the world met her.

If you like history, and even if you don't, you'll want to pick up a copy of Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. This witty, clever and engrossing book reads like a novel and not a study of presidential assassinations, but that's exactly what it is.

At first glance, Nancy Farmer's novel, The House of the Scorpion, is a coming of age story set in a traditional science fiction universe. And while it is very much a coming of age story, Farmer's book is more than that. It's a rather surprisingly profound look at what it means to be human.

The following family sagas track generations over many years, offering us casts of characters we care out, complicated relationships among the clans and atmospheric settings. They also set in a variety of countries and feature a range of time periods.

Check out these novels featuring family stories.