Love For Only One

A while ago my mom mentioned she had read two books about the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, David Von Drehle's TRIANGLE: THE FIRE THAT CHANGED AMERICA and Katharine Weber's TRIANGLE: A NOVEL. She insisted that I had to read both, otherwise I wouldn't get the proper perspective on the event.

I'm sure Von Drehle and Weber's respective publishers didn't acknowledge each other's existence in any way, but their books in a sense complement each other... unlike those instances where two books on the same topic, in the same genre, are forced to share shelf space. I don't know if this is happening more often recently, or if my scope of book-news has just expanded to the point where I'm more aware of it, but these pairs are everywhere! Here are two other pairs that immediately sprung to mind:

Nancy Horan's LOVING FRANK vs. T.C. Boyle's THE WOMEN: Who knew Frank Lloyd Wright's love life had enough juice in it for two novels? I own and plan to read both of these; Aforementioned Mom has read both, and says LOVING FRANK is "terrible, I don't know why it's so popular." So there you go. If I had to pick one I'd be more inclined to reach for the Boyle because I've read and liked some of his other books.

David Kirkpatrick, THE FACEBOOK EFFECT vs. Ben Mezrich, THE ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRES: Facebook is such an unavoidable force right now that you could justify reading two books about it, and I probably will if only to avoid the filtering that would result from hearing about them secondhand. Kirkpatrick's is, according to reviews I've read, better written but less even-handed since he had Zuckerberg's cooperation; it's also the most current, as it has just come out this week. However, Mezrich's book is already being adapted into what I am confident will be one of the most insane movies of the year, the David Fincher-directed, Aaron Sorkin-scripted "The Social Network." (Already campaigning for an office outing on its release date.)

Can you think of two books that are like this? And which one did you or would you pick?