Apples & Oranges (2008)

If you've ever loathed your sibling, even momentarily, you'll be partial to Apples & Oranges. ''It seems inconceivable that we are connected, and yet not,'' Marie Brenner writes of her obsessive-compulsive brother Carl. Brenner, a journalist, tries to understand him (why he's so condescending, why he left law to become an apple farmer) the only way she knows how: researching apples, visiting him unannounced at his 110,000-tree orchard in Washington, and taking notes. While our innate craving to pick fights with family may endure, Brenner reminds us that it's more productive to eat apples than to throw them. A-