10 Nonfiction Books to Add to Your TBR List
BONUS! They're all written by women!
All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation by Rebecca Traister. Before you ask, no — this book is not anti-marriage (the author is, in fact, married), but it discusses the ways marriage habits in America have changed over time, and how these changes coincide with other historical events and medical advances. As a single woman, it honestly gave me so much peace about my own life and choices, and it left me feeling empowered to know the impact I’m currently having on the world AND the also-important impact I’ll have someday if/when I get married. You’ll finish this book feeling a lot of things — not the least of which is the feeling that you’re more informed about women’s history and so proud of the strides that have been made (even when the news/current events don’t seem to reflect those strides…).
Blowing My Way to the Top by Jen Atkin. Jen Atkin not only does the best hair in Hollywood (and she founded Ouai, which makes one of the best leave-in conditioners in the game), but she also has such an interesting backstory. I don’t consider myself a huge fan of memoirs, but this doesn’t read like one — it reads as career advice from a girlfriend who happens to also know and work with the biggest stars on the planet.
Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton. If you are a woman, especially in your 20s, you simply must read this book. That’s honestly all I can say. It’s simultaneously so funny, relatable, and helpful in terms of everything from tackling relationships to building a career — aka it’s a quick and readable entrée into the world of self-help nonfiction.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb. Speaking of self-help nonfiction, this one’s a bit more on-the-nose — and frankly, its writer has gotten some flak (including from the author of the first book on this list). All I know is that this book, written by a therapist, was incredibly useful in my own personal therapy journey and helps normalize and de-stigmatize therapy for a variety of situations and types of people (it also helped me realize that it’s okay to want to obsessively search for my therapist on social media — but that no, I shouldn’t act on those impulses).
More Than Enough by Elaine Welteroth. Arguably my favorite on this list (though that is a VERY tough call), this book quite literally changed my life. I first picked it up during my time between jobs, when I was searching for a next fulfilling move while simultaneously processing the first few years of my professional life. I have admired Elaine and her career for many years (she became the EIC of Teen Vogue when she was only 29!!!!), and this book gave me such an insightful peek behind the curtain of her talents and her career journey. If you have any interest in the magazine industry, in writing, or in creating art in general, you should read this — it’s so inspiring on a personal level and motivating on a creative level. I love you, Elaine!!!!
The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind: My Tale of Madness and Recovery by Barbara K. Lipska. Very different from the other books on this list, this tells the autobiographical story of a neuroscientist (the Director of the Human Brain Collection Core at America's National Institute of Mental Health, actually, which is a positively wild job title) who was diagnosed with a deadly brain tumor and subsequently began experiencing extreme neurological and behavioral changes. She viewed her illness and symptoms through a highly observational and scientific lens while also failing to recognize some of the most obvious among them — resulting in a super fascinating study on the brain and the ways its illnesses can impact personality and behavior. It’s a quick read — but if you have any interest whatsoever in understanding mental illness, it’s a very worthwhile one.
No One Asked For This by Cazzie David. I honestly started this to get the tea on Pete Davidson (Cazzie dated him pre-Ariana), but I finished it because Cazzie is stupid funny. When your dad is Larry David and your mom literally produced the Inconvenient Truth documentary, you’re simply destined to be the perfect blend of smart and hilarious (aka the exact description I’m striving for). This is the book that made me fall in love with essay collections, and I hope Cazzie writes many more.
What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding by Kristin Newman. While her friends were getting married and having children, Kristin Newman was traveling the world and writing for some of the most famous sitcoms in the world — but somehow still felt obligated to rationalize her life’s trajectory and her own singleness to those same friends. This one will make you feel both empowered and highly inexperienced — but the former definitely outweighs the latter.
The Wreckage of My Presence by Casey Wilson. If you haven’t watched the gone-far-too-soon TV show Happy Endings, your first order of business should be to close this tab and go watch it (in its entirety) immediately (that’s the show Damon Wayans, Jr. was in that made him leave New Girl after the pilot — Happy Endings got picked up for a second season on a rival network). Happy Endings is how I was first introduced to Casey Wilson, but you’ve definitely seen her elsewhere. She was an SNL cast member (she’s in the infamous Dooneese sketch) AND she was in one of my favorite rom-coms of all time (Killers!!!!), but she’s also a super talented and brutally honest writer. (I read a lot of books by writers about writers? What do we think about that??)
Untamed by Glennon Doyle. Finally, no nonfiction book list would be complete without the most-beloved Untamed, the super empowering and only slightly cheesy book by Glennon Doyle, who’s the host of the We Can Do Hard Things podcast with her wife Abby Wambach (Yes! THAT Abby Wambach!) and is also the writer of a bunch of other books that I frankly have not read. I can honestly say that I think about parts of this book nearly every day — Glennon’s voice plays in my head at times both expected and unexpected. It’s a cult classic for a reason, and that reason is that Glennon will make you feel so confident.