books about 20 somethings

50 Must-Read Books for 20-Somethings

Linh Anh Cat

Linh Anh Cat is a scientist who loves reading so much she does it for work and fun. She reads between her travels, hikes, and board games. Cozy reading weather is not a thing for Linh Anh since she is Florida-raised and California-refined. She is passionate about diversity and representation in science and literature.

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As 20-somethings, we are figuring EVERYTHING out—how am I supposed to pay those bills? Am I really in love with them? What am I doing with my life? What do I want my career to look like?

In my 20s, I’ve lost true loves, found better ones, unexpectedly lost a parent, realized how much my childhood has affected me, been confused about what kind of career I wanted, figured out how I’ve wanted to use my talents and skills doing something I like, and learned to appreciate my body (not necessarily in that order, and sometimes repeating certain stages more than once…or twice). This must-read book list covers a wide variety of topics that have helped me understand and develop my personal and professional life.

The books are grouped in sections for various aspects of your 20s: Intersectional Feminism, Love, Career, Social Life, Big Decisions, Loss and Grieving, Travel, Perspective, and Curveballs.

Intersectional Feminism

Many of us are figuring out how to put intersectional feminism into practice as we navigate the challenges of dating and being a woman in the workplace. (Or, if you identify as a man, how to act as an ally.) The following books taught me new concepts and techniques and served as a good reminder and summary of what I already knew about feminism.

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

“With humor and levity, Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century—one rooted in inclusion and awareness. She shines a light not only on blatant discrimination, but also the more insidious, institutional behaviors that marginalize women around the world, in order to help readers of all walks of life better understand the often masked realities of sexual politics. Throughout, she draws extensively on her own experiences—in the U.S., in her native Nigeria, and abroad—offering an artfully nuanced explanation of why the gender divide is harmful for women and men, alike.”

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

“In these funny and insightful essays, Roxane Gay takes us through the journey of her evolution as a woman of color while also taking readers on a ride through culture of the last few years and commenting on the state of feminism today. The portrait that emerges is not only one of an incredibly insightful woman continually growing to understand herself and our society, but also one of our culture.  Bad Feminist  is a sharp, funny, and spot-on look at the ways in which the culture we consume becomes who we are, and an inspiring call-to-arms of all the ways we still need to do better.”

Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

“Here are fifteen invaluable suggestions–compelling, direct, wryly funny, and perceptive–for how to empower a daughter to become a strong, independent woman. From encouraging her to choose a helicopter, and not only a doll, as a toy if she so desires; having open conversations with her about clothes, makeup, and sexuality; debunking the myth that women are somehow biologically arranged to be in the kitchen making dinner, and that men can “allow” women to have full careers,  Dear Ijeawele  goes right to the heart of sexual politics in the twenty-first century. It will start a new and urgently needed conversation about what it really means to be a woman today.”

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

“Ijeoma Oluo offers a contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in America, addressing head-on such issues as privilege, police brutality, intersectionality, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the “N” word. Perfectly positioned to bridge the gap between people of color and white Americans struggling with race complexities, Oluo answers the questions readers don’t dare ask, and explains the concepts that continue to elude everyday Americans.”

I imagine 20-somethings on average probably have the least stable love lives compared to those in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and beyond. And when I say love, I mean romantic and platonic friendships. It’s often the first time we’re going through adult relationships or ending the ones we established as teenagers. I’ve had my fair share of online dating mishaps and passionate long-distance flames and am now lucky to be with the most amazing person that is perfect for me. I’ve also pruned the friends I make the effort to keep up with while developing new and really rewarding adult friendships (with people significantly older and younger than me). The books below helped me get through some of the harder times in my dating life and laugh at myself and modern dating.

milk and honey  by Rupi Kaur

“milk and honey  is a collection of poetry and prose about survival. It is about the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity. It is split into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose, deals with a different pain, heals a different heartache.  milk and honey  takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look.”

The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende, translated by Nick Caistor and Amanda Hopkinson

“In 1939, as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis, young Alma Belasco’s parents send her away to live in safety with an aunt and uncle in their opulent mansion in San Francisco. There, as the rest of the world goes to war, she encounters Ichimei Fukuda, the quiet and gentle son of the family’s Japanese gardener. Unnoticed by those around them, a tender love affair begins to blossom. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the two are cruelly pulled apart as Ichimei and his family, like thousands of other Japanese Americans are declared enemies and forcibly relocated to internment camps run by the United States government. Throughout their lifetimes, Alma and Ichimei reunite again and again, but theirs is a love that they are forever forced to hide from the world.

Decades later, Alma is nearing the end of her long and eventful life. Irina Bazili, a care worker struggling to come to terms with her own troubled past, meets the elderly woman and her grandson, Seth, at San Francisco’s charmingly eccentric Lark House nursing home. As Irina and Seth forge a friendship, they become intrigued by a series of mysterious gifts and letters sent to Alma, eventually learning about Ichimei and this extraordinary secret passion that has endured for nearly seventy years.”

This section is focused on the responsible kind of grinding, the kind that builds our reputation and the foundation of our career. Some books that provide a framework on how to measure success, how to find and maintain work-life balance, and a book on understanding unusual success in others.

The Defining Decade by Meg Jay

“Our “thirty-is-the-new-twenty” culture tells us that the twentysomething years don’t matter. Some say they are an extended adolescence. Others call them an emerging adulthood. But thirty is  not  the new twenty. In this enlightening book, Dr. Meg Jay reveals how many twentysomethings have been caught in a swirl of hype and misinformation that has trivialized what are actually the most defining years of adulthood. Drawing from more than ten years of work with hundreds of twentysomething clients and students, Dr. Jay weaves the science of the twentysomething years with compelling, behind-closed-doors stories from twentysomethings themselves. Our twenties are a time when the things we do–and the things we don’t do–will have an enormous effect across years and even generations to come.”

Becoming  by Michelle Obama

“Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms.  Warm, wise, and revelatory,  Becoming  is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.”

Outliers  by Malcolm Gladwell

“Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of ‘outliers’–the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.”

Quiet  by Susan Cain

“In Quiet , Susan Cain argues that we dramatically undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose in doing so. She charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal throughout the twentieth century and explores how deeply it has come to permeate our culture. She also introduces us to successful introverts—from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Quiet has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how they see themselves.”

Very Good Lives by J.K. Rowling

“ J.K. Rowling’s words of wisdom for anyone at a turning point in life. How can we embrace failure? And how can we use our imagination to better both ourselves and others? Drawing from stories of her own post-graduate years, the world famous author addresses some of life’s most important questions with acuity and emotional force. ”

Yes Please by Amy Poehler

“In Amy Poehler’s highly anticipated first book,  Yes Please , she offers up a big juicy stew of personal stories, funny bits on sex and love and friendship and parenthood and real life advice (some useful, some not so much), like when to be funny and when to be serious. Powered by Amy’s charming and hilarious, biting yet wise voice,  Yes Please  is a book full of words to live by.”

Educated by Tara Westover

“Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her “head-for-the-hills bag”. In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father’s junkyard.  Educated  is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one’s life through new eyes and the will to change it.”

Social Life

Twenty-somethings are setting up the foundation of lifelong friends. We’re cultivating new relationships, pruning our old ones, and learning the importance of healthy friendships. It’s hard to find good friends in the workplace (which is why there are now apps for platonic friendships). At the same time, getting a good night’s sleep becomes more critical. The following books have helped me move towards a more balanced and sustainable social life.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?  by Mindy Kaling

“In  Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?,  Mindy invites readers on a tour of her life and her unscientific observations on romance, friendship, and Hollywood, with several conveniently placed stopping points for you to run errands and make phone calls. Mindy Kaling really is just a Girl Next Door—not so much literally anywhere in the continental United States, but definitely if you live in India or Sri Lanka.”

Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker

“Walker answers important questions about sleep: how do caffeine and alcohol affect sleep? What really happens during REM sleep? Why do our sleep patterns change across a lifetime? How do common sleep aids affect us and can they do long-term damage? Walker explains how we can harness sleep to improve learning, mood, and energy levels; regulate hormones; prevent cancer, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes; slow the effects of aging; increase longevity; enhance the education and lifespan of our children, and boost the efficiency, success, and productivity of our businesses.”

Tiny, Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed

“Life can be hard: your lover cheats on you; you lose a family member; you can’t pay the bills—and it can be great: you’ve had the hottest sex of your life; you get that plum job; you muster the courage to write your novel. Sugar—revealed as Cheryl Strayed, author of the bestselling memoir  Wild —is the person thousands turn to for advice.”

The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish

“Growing up in one of the poorest neighborhoods of South Central Los Angeles, Tiffany learned to survive by making people laugh. By turns hilarious, filthy, and brutally honest,  The Last Black Unicorn  shows the world who Tiffany Haddish really is—humble, grateful, down-to-earth, and funny as hell. And now, she’s ready to inspire others through the power of laughter.”

The Doctors is In by Ruth Westheimer

“Through intimate and funny stories, Dr. Ruth sheds light on how she’s learned to live a life filled with joie de vivre. And she shows listeners how they too can learn to deal with tragedy and loss, challenges and successes, all while nourishing an intellectual and emotional spark and, above all, having fun! Hilarious, inspiring, and profound,  The Doctor Is In  will change the way you think about life and love, in all its limitless possibilities.”

Making Big Decisions

SOOOO many big decisions in your 20s. Well-meaning family and friends hounding us on who, what, and where we want to commit the rest of our lives. External pressure aside, many 20-somethings are struggling with seriousness and pressure of these decisions. I’ve included books ranging from personal finance to the application of computer science concepts to dating and apartment-hunting to memoirs on what it means to live in the face of death and tragedy.

Algorithms to Live  by Brian Christian

“All our lives are constrained by limited space and time, limits that give rise to a particular set of problems. What should we do, or leave undone, in a day or a lifetime? How much messiness should we accept? What balance of new activities and familiar favorites is the most fulfilling? Brian Christian and cognitive scientist Tom Griffiths show how the algorithms used by computers can also untangle very human questions. From finding a spouse to finding a parking spot, from organizing one’s inbox to understanding the workings of memory,  Algorithms to Live By  transforms the wisdom of computer science into strategies for human living.”

How Will You Measure Your Life  by Clayton Christensen

“In this groundbreaking book, Christensen puts forth a series of questions: How can I be sure that I’ll find satisfaction in my career? How can I be sure that my personal relationships become enduring sources of happiness? How can I avoid compromising my integrity—and stay out of jail? Using lessons from some of the world’s greatest businesses, he provides incredible insights into these challenging questions.  How Will You Measure Your Life?  is full of inspiration and wisdom, and will help students, midcareer professionals, and parents alike forge their own paths to fulfillment.”

The Gift of Fear  by Gavin de Becker

“In this empowering book, Gavin de Becker, the man Oprah Winfrey calls the nation’s leading expert on violent behavior, shows you how to spot even subtle signs of danger—before it’s too late. Shattering the myth that most violent acts are unpredictable, de Becker offers specific ways to protect yourself and those you love, including how to act when approached by a stranger, when you should fear someone close to you, what to do if you are being stalked, how to uncover the source of anonymous threats or phone calls, the biggest mistake you can make with a threatening person, and more.”

Year of Yes  by Shonda Rhimes

“With three hit shows on television and three children at home, Shonda Rhimes had lots of good reasons to say no when invitations arrived. Hollywood party? No. Speaking engagement? No. Media appearances? No. And to an introvert like Shonda, who describes herself as ‘hugging the walls’ at social events and experiencing panic attacks before press interviews, there was a particular benefit to saying no: nothing new to fear. Then came Thanksgiving 2013, when Shonda’s sister Delorse muttered six little words at her: You never say yes to anything. Shonda Rhimes reveals how saying YES changed – and saved – her life.”

The Simple Path to Wealth by J.L. Collins

“This book grew out of a series of letters to [the author’s] daughter concerning various things—mostly about money and investing—she was not yet quite ready to hear. Since money is the single most powerful tool we have for navigating this complex world we’ve created, understanding it is critical. Here’s an important truth: Complex investments exist only to profit those who create and sell them. Not only are they more costly to the investor, they are less effective.”

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

“Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again. Most methods advocate a room-by-room or little-by-little approach, which doom you to pick away at your piles of stuff forever. The KonMari Method, with its revolutionary category-by-category system, leads to lasting results.”

Loss and Grieving

Because loss is not common for 20-somethings, it can be critical to have books to turn to when family and friends can’t relate to what’s happening. Some of these books also cover depression and mental health.

Modern Loss by Rebecca Soffer and Gabrielle Birkner

“Let’s face it: most of us have always had a difficult time talking about death and sharing our grief. Enter Rebecca Soffer and Gabrielle Birkner, who can help us do better. Each having lost parents as young adults, they co-founded Modern Loss, responding to a need to change the dialogue around the messy experience of grief. Now, in this wise and often funny book, they offer the insights of the Modern Loss community to help us cry, laugh, grieve, identify, and—above all—empathize.”

Option B  by Sheryl Sandberg

“After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl Sandberg felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. “I was in ‘the void, ‘” she writes, “a vast emptiness that fills your heart and lungs and restricts your ability to think or even breathe.” We are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. It is a muscle that everyone can build.  Option B  combines Sheryl’s personal insights with Adam’s eye-opening research on finding strength in the face of adversity. But  Option B  goes beyond Sheryl’s loss to explore how a broad range of people have overcome hardships including illness, job loss, sexual assault, natural disasters, and the violence of war.”

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

“At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.”

Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson

“ There are so many people out there struggling with depression and mental illness, either themselves or someone in their family—and in Furiously Happy they will find a member of their tribe offering up an uplifting message (via a taxidermied roadkill raccoon). Let’s Pretend This Never Happened ostensibly was about embracing your own weirdness, but deep down it was about family. Furiously Happy is about depression and mental illness, but deep down it’s about joy—and who doesn’t want a bit more of that?”

Our twenties are the perfect time to take solo trips, travel with friends, and take in parts of the world that are so different from our everyday experience.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

“At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State — and she would do it alone.”

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

“Around the time Elizabeth Gilbert turned thirty, she went through an early-onslaught midlife crisis. She had everything an educated, ambitious American woman was supposed to want—a husband, a house, a successful career. But instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she was consumed with panic, grief, and confusion. She went through a divorce, a crushing depression, another failed love, and the eradication of everything she ever thought she was supposed to be. To recover from all this, Gilbert took a radical step. In order to give herself the time and space to find out who she really was and what she really wanted, she got rid of her belongings, quit her job, and undertook a yearlong journey around the world—all alone.”

What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding by Kristin Newman

“ Kristin Newman spent much of her twenties and thirties buying dresses to wear to her friends’ weddings and baby showers. Not ready to settle down and in need of an escape from her fast-paced job as a sitcom writer, Kristin instead traveled the world, often alone, for several weeks each year. In addition to falling madly in love with the planet, Kristin fell for many attractive locals, men who could provide the emotional connection she wanted without costing her the freedom she desperately needed. Equal parts laugh-out-loud storytelling, candid reflection, and wanderlust-inspiring travel tales,  What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding  is a compelling debut that will have readers rushing to renew their passports. ”

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

“Paulo Coelho’s masterpiece tells the mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. His quest will lead him to riches far different—and far more satisfying—than he ever imagined. Santiago’s journey teaches us about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, of recognizing opportunity and learning to read the omens strewn along life’s path, and, most importantly, to follow our dreams.”

The Beach by Alex Garland

“After discovering a seemingly Edenic paradise on an island in a Thai national park, Richard soon finds that since civilized behavior tends to dissolve without external restraints, the utopia is hard to maintain.”

Perspective

The following are primarily nonfiction books that have given me a broad perspective on the challenges and obstacles I’ve faced as a 20-something. Some give an overview on where the world presently stands, others have changed how I think about modern life and the ways we are blessed and cursed by modern technology. Our 20s are the first decade we experience as adults, and it’s been incredibly helpful for me to understand how much can change decade-to-decade.

Sapiens by Yuval Harari

“In  Sapiens , Dr. Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the earth to the radical – and sometimes devastating – breakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural and Scientific Revolutions. Have we become happier as history has unfolded? Can we ever free our behaviour from the heritage of our ancestors? And what, if anything, can we do to influence the course of the centuries to come?”

Homo Deus by Yuval Harari

“What then will replace famine, plague, and war at the top of the human agenda? As the self-made gods of planet earth, what destinies will we set ourselves, and which quests will we undertake?  Homo Deus  explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century—from overcoming death to creating artificial life. It asks the fundamental questions: Where do we go from here? And how will we protect this fragile world from our own destructive powers? This is the next stage of evolution. This is Homo Deus.”

Factfulness  by Hans Rosling

“In  Factfulness , Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens. They reveal the ten instincts that distort our perspective—from our tendency to divide the world into two camps to the way we consume media to how we perceive progress. Our problem is that we don’t know what we don’t know, and even our guesses are informed by unconscious and predictable biases. It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think.”

Angels of Our Better Nature  by Steven Pinker

“Believe it or not, today we may be living in the most peaceful moment in our species’ existence. Steven Pinker shows that despite the ceaseless news about war, crime, and terrorism, violence has actually been in decline over long stretches of history. Exploding myths about humankind’s inherent violence and the curse of modernity, this ambitious book continues Pinker’s exploration of the essence of human nature, mixing psychology and history to provide a remarkable picture of an increasingly enlightened world.”

Into the Wild  by Jon Krakauer

“Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and, unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented. Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw away the maps. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild.”

Into Thin Air  by Jon Krakauer

“A bank of clouds was assembling on the not-so-distant horizon, but journalist-mountaineer Jon Krakauer, standing on the summit of Mt. Everest, saw nothing that “suggested that a murderous storm was bearing down.” He was wrong. The storm, which claimed five lives and left countless more–including Krakauer’s–in guilt-ridden disarray, would also provide the impetus for  Into Thin Air , Krakauer’s epic account of the May 1996 disaster.”

All the Single Ladies  by Rebecca Traister

“Today, only twenty percent of Americans are wed by age twenty-nine, compared to nearly sixty percent in 1960. The Population Reference Bureau calls it a “dramatic reversal.”  All the Single Ladies  is a remarkable portrait of contemporary American life and how we got here, through the lens of the single American woman. Covering class, race, sexual orientation, and filled with vivid anecdotes from fascinating contemporary and historical figures,  All the Single Ladies  is destined to be a classic work of social history and journalism.”

In the Country We Love by Diane Guerrero

“In the Country We Love  is a moving, heartbreaking story of one woman’s extraordinary resilience in the face of the nightmarish struggles of undocumented residents in this country. There are over 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the US, many of whom have citizen children, whose lives here are just as precarious, and whose stories haven’t been told.”

In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park

“In  In Order to Live,  Park shines a light not just into the darkest corners of life in North Korea, describing the deprivation and deception she endured and which millions of North Korean people continue to endure to this day, but also onto her own most painful and difficult memories. Still in her early twenties, Yeonmi Park has lived through experiences that few people of any age will ever know—and most people would never recover from.”

I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong

“The microbes in our bodies are part of our immune systems and protect us from disease. Bacteria provide squid with invisibility cloaks, help beetles to bring down forests, and allow worms to cause diseases that afflict millions of people. Many people think of microbes as germs to be eradicated, but those that live with us—the microbiome—build our bodies, protect our health, shape our identities, and grant us incredible abilities. In this astonishing book, Ed Yong takes us on a grand tour through our microbial partners, and introduces us to the scientists on the front lines of discovery.”

These recommendations are primarily fiction books that touched on experiences that I think many 20-somethings will connect with.

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

“Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.”

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

“ Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is the smart, warm, and uplifting story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . . the only way to survive is to open your heart.”

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

“ On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is. But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.”

My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella

“Sophie Kinsella is celebrated for her vibrant, relatable characters and her great storytelling gifts. Now she returns with all of the wit, warmth, and wisdom that are the hallmarks of her bestsellers to spin this fresh, modern story about presenting the perfect life when the reality is far from the image. Everywhere Katie Brenner looks, someone else is living the life she longs for, particularly her boss, Demeter Farlowe. Katie takes refuge in not-quite-true Instagram posts, especially as she’s desperate to make her dad proud.”

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

“ Big Little Lies  is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive.”

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

“When Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home, long drives to explore the island, and quality time with the man she might one day marry. What she doesn’t know is that Nick’s family home happens to look like a palace, that she’ll ride in more private planes than cars, and that with one of Asia’s most eligible bachelors on her arm, Rachel might as well have a target on her back. Initiated into a world of dynastic splendor beyond imagination, Rachel meets Eleanor, Nick’s formidable mother, a woman who has very strong feelings about who her son should–and should not–marry.”

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

“Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.”

What books changed your perspective in your 20s? What would you personally recommend to the 20-something in your life?

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The 25 Best Books to Read in Your 20s

Your 20s are an interesting decade, to say the absolute least. You feel perpetually stuck between being a naïve, carefree kid and an adult with endless responsibilities . Basically, it’s a weird time, which might—just might—be made better (or at least a touch more manageable) by one of these 25 books, ranging from non-cheesy self-help books about navigating post-college, pre-30s life to novels that nail the strange in-between feelings you might be having.

13 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in April

1. The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter—and How To Make The Most Of Them Now by Meg Jay

In The Defining Decade , clinical psychologist Meg Jay argues that 20-somethings have been caught in a swirl of hype and misinformation, much of which has trivialized what she sees as the most transformative time of our lives. Drawing on more than two decades of work with thousands of clients, Jay combines the latest science and studies with the stories of real 20-somethings she's worked with to explain how work, relationships, personality, identity and even the brain can change more during this decade than at any other time in adulthood and provide readers with the tools necessary to take the most of this time.

2. by Zadie Smith

In this 2005 novel, two feuding professors and their families live in a fictional college town outside Boston. The book tackles black identity, body image, infidelity and class politics, and is an absolute delight to read. (Side note: Pretty much anything Smith has written is must-read material for 20-somethings.)

3. by Lauren Groff

Lotto and Mathilde are adored, and often loathed, by their friends and classmates at Vassar College. Married at 22 after only a few weeks of dating, no one believes their union can last. Groff’s novel follows the couple’s 25 years of marriage, during which they navigate joy and sorrow, failure and success. Touching on marriage, family, art and theater, Groff dazzles with breathtaking prose, smart wit and sensuality, and a close look at the devastating consequences of little white lies.

4. By Sheila Heti

Part literary novel, part self-help manual and part vivid exploration of the artistic and sexual impulse, How Should a Person Be? is a raw, urgent depiction of female friendship and of the shape of our lives now. Heti asks, broadly, “What is the most noble way to love? What kind of person should you be?” Through a mixture of emails, transcribed conversations and prose, Heti’s protagonist travels from Toronto to New York to Atlantic City in search of clarity—a very 20-something thing to do, if you ask us.

5. by Cheryl Strayed

Reeling from the loss of her mother and the end of her marriage, then 22-year-old Strayed decided to heal by hiking the length of the Pacific Crest Trail, from the Mexican border through Oregon. Her memoir details the thrilling, scary and unforgettable journey—filled with female strength and busted hiking boots. And it just might inspire you to do something adventurous.

6. Impostor Syndrome by Kathy Wang

This 2021 novel is about something most people—not just 20-somethings—can relate to: impostor syndrome. In 2006, Julia is a recent college grad living in Moscow, when she's recruited by Russia's largest intelligence agency. Twelve years later, she's in Silicon Valley as COO one of America's most famous technology companies. Alice is a first generation Chinese American who works at the same company when she discovers that the company's privacy settings aren't as rigorous as the company claims, and the person abusing this loophole might just be Julia. As the two get closer, the book jumps from page-turning cat-and-mouse chase to a sharp satire about women in tech, Silicon Valley hubris and elusiveness of the American Dream.

7. by Rebecca Traister

Unless you’re solidly coupled up, questions that will come up time and time again in your 20s are “Are you dating anyone?” and “When are you getting married?” (Usually from a well-meaning—and probably many decades older than you—extended family member.) Traister’s book is an empowering look at the social, economic and political forces that have led to women marrying later or not at all.

8. by Toni Morrison

Inspired by a true story, this haunting novel follows a woman named Sethe and her daughter after they escape from slavery and run to Ohio. As we find out about Sethe’s deceased daughter, Beloved, we discover exactly how fiercely Sethe has had to fight to protect her children. Maternal love with a powerful message of perseverance—from one of America’s best writers. Though you probably read it in high school, pick it up again in your 20s for a clearer perspective.

9. by James Baldwin

Baldwin’s groundbreaking 1956 novel focuses on the 20-something David, an American man living in Paris, and his feelings and frustrations with his relationships with other men in his life—particularly an Italian bartender named Giovanni whom he meets at a Parisian gay bar. The book tackles social isolation, gender and sexual identity crises, as well as conflicts of masculinity.

10. by Donna Tartt

Donna Tartt won the Pulitzer for The Goldfinch , but her first novel—about a group of misfits at a New England college who fall under the spell of a charismatic, morally questionable professor—will always have our heart. The narrator, Richard, is the newest member of the group, and he finds himself suddenly burdened by some very dark secrets.

11. Luster : A Novel by Raven Leilani

This absolutely unsettling (in a good way) first novel tracks three characters: Edie, a 20-something Black assistant in a publishing house, the older white man she’s having an affair with, that older, white man’s over-achieving white wife. Eventually, Edie moves in with the couple…and things only get weirder from there.

12. by Joan Didion

Written after the death of her husband and in the midst of the serious illness of her daughter, this book is Didion’s attempt to make sense of the “weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness.” Incorporating medical and psychological research on grief and illness, she writes beautifully—if not emotionally—about what it’s like to lose someone.

13. Win Me Something by Kyle Lucia Wu

Growing up in New Jersey as a biracial Chinese American girl, Willa Chen felt hyper-visible and unseen at the same time. Now, making her way through high school and college, Willa feels lonely and adrift. But then, she starts working as a nanny for a wealthy white family in Tribeca and becomes confronted with all of the things she never had. As she grows closer to the family, Willa is forced to confront questions of who she is, and a childhood where she never felt fully at home. This poignant debut is about identity, acceptance and complicated family dynamics.

14. by Marina Keegan

When she graduated magna cum laude from Yale in May 2012, Keegan had a promising literary career ahead of her and a job waiting at The New Yorker . Tragically, five days after graduation, Marina died in a car crash. This posthumous collection of essays and stories articulates the struggle we face as we figure out what we want to be and how we can harness our talents to make an impact on the world.

15. by Jhumpa Lahiri

Lahiri’s first novel follows the Ganguli family from Calcutta to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where they attempt—with varying degrees of success—to assimilate to American culture while holding on to their roots. Lahiri examines the nuances of feeling being caught between conflicting cultures with religious, social and ideological differences. Regardless of your cultural background, you’ll see yourself in both generations of the family as the novel jumps between timelines.

16. by Jennifer Egan

Jennifer Egan’s Pulitzer Prize–winning collection of linked stories is a whirlwind tour of the 20th-century music scene, largely following aging punk rocker Bennie Salazar and his kleptomaniac assistant, Sasha. It’s rife with meditations on youth and recklessness (not to mention spectacular prose).

17. Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert

You’ve already read (and adored) Eat, Pray, Love , right? This is another Elizabeth Gilbert tome to pick up. This time, rather than describing her soul-searching trip around the world, she’s delivering realness on how to live your most creative, fulfilled life. “Wow. Big Magic is one of the most honest discussions about the creative process that I’ve ever read," one reader raves. “Her no-BS attitude helps do away with the unrealistic expectations and unnecessary melodrama attached to the concept of ‘creative living.’"

18. Buy Yourself The F*cking Lilies: And Other Rituals To Fix Your Life, From Someone Who's Been There by Tara Schuster

By the time she was in her late 20s, Schuster was a rising TV executive who had worked for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and helped launch Key & Peele . But beneath the successful exterior, she was a chronically anxious, self-medicating mess. Her debut book is the story of her path towards becoming a “ninja of self-love” through simple daily rituals, from faking gratitude until you feel gratitude to shielding yourself from your inner frenemy.

19. by Shonda Rhimes

In addition to creating, writing and producing Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal and producing Bridgerton , Rhimes is the best-selling author of an incredible memoir jam-packed with life advice. While poignantly and humorously chronicling her childhood and rise to success, Rhimes dishes out tips for achieving your goals—necessary for those wholly uncertain post-college years.

20. by Dave Eggers

Eggers was in his early 20s when his parents died within a year of each other, leaving him to take care of his younger brother, Toph, as if he were his own child. This fictionalized account of being thrust into the role of parent at such a young age is a powerful story about resilience and brotherly love.

21. by Kazuo Ishiguro

Anything but your typical dystopian sci-fi, this weirdly subtle and haunting novel imagines what life would be like if you were a clone, born to have your organs harvested in early adulthood. (We repeat: weirdly subtle and haunting .) Bizarre plot aside, its themes of friendship, approaching others with an open, nonjudgmental heart, and loss (of life and of innocence) are universal.

22. by Mary McCarthy

In 1933, eight young female friends graduate from Vassar College. This book is about their lives post-graduation, beginning with the marriage of one of the friends, Kay Strong, and ending with her funeral in 1940. We might be far removed from the ’30s, but any 20-something can relate to struggling with financial turmoil, family crises, relationship issues and more.

23. by Ta-Nehisi Coates

This winner of the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction is written as a letter to Coates’s teen son and explores the sometimes bleak reality of what it’s like to be Black in the United States. It’s a must-read for young people as well as anyone who could use a reminder of the subtle—and not so subtle—ways people of color are discriminated against every day (read: most non-POCs).

24. by Claire Messud

Julia and Cassie have been friends since nursery school, sharing everything, including their desire to escape the stifling limitations of their Massachusetts hometown. But their paths diverge as they enter adolescence, with Cassie setting out on a journey that will put her life in danger and ruin her oldest friendship. A complex coming-of-age story, Messud’s latest is an examination of youth, friendship and the clash of childhood’s imaginary worlds with the often painful reality of adulthood.

25. by Hanya Yanagihara

This best seller makes your average tearjerker look positively sunny. Four graduates from a small college in Massachusetts move to New York to follow their dreams and escape their demons. Once there, their relationships deepen, and painful secrets (like seriously messed-up stuff) from their past emerge. While the details might not always be relatable, the feeling of navigating relationships in your 20s hits close to home.

The 25 Best Sad Books to Read When You Need a Good Ugly Cry

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18 Fantastic Books to Read in Your 20s

What to read for some valuable lessons on life, love, money, friendship, and more.

Lindsay is a freelance travel and lifestyle journalist covering topics from love, marriage, fitness, wellness, psychology, and entrepreneurism.

Highlights: * Has worked as a fact checker for Real Simple since 2022 * Worked as a staff writer for Mochi Magazine * Currently runs and operates the United States blog for Student Beans

Your 20s are a pivotal decade. You leave the comfort of childhood and school schedule, and suddenly, you're supposed to be an adult. As you navigate your new world , you'll make mistakes and changes, celebrate milestones, learn lessons in love, and mourn missed opportunities. It's an important, fundamental time to explore who you are, who you want to be, and what matters most to your happiness.

Though 10 years might not seem like a long time, 20-somethings shape every generation, have buying power, and ultimately, will become leaders as their careers—and lives—grow. During this unique, transformational period, reading the works of great writers can inspire your journey. From harrowing nonfiction tales to cheeky self-help reads and page-turning fiction, here are some fantastic books to read in your 20s (and want to return to again and again).

'Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies' by Tara Schuster

Feeling envy toward successful influencers, entrepreneurs, and celebrities is entirely normal; but it's also important to remember that not everything is as it appears. This is the story of Tara Schuster, who writes about her experience as a television executive rising to stardom in her late 20s. While her life looked glamorous, in reality, she was suffering from intense anxiety and depression . Her rock-bottom moment came when she called her therapist while drunk, begging for help. Her quick-witted, straight-talking book is about accepting who you are, dealing with your baggage, owning your emotions, treating yourself with love, and building confidence .

'Revolution From Within' by Gloria Steinem

Every woman (and everyone) should keep handy a copy of this 1993 book from feminist icon Gloria Steinem. As one of the pioneers of the women's movement, Steinem's guidebook discusses sexuality, age, race , gender, and ability. In addition to sharing her own stories, she draws on the journeys of other women, all sending the message that it's vital for all people to fight for equality. It was once heralded as 'the ultimate self-help book' by the Los Angeles Times .

'Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail' by Cheryl Strayed

There's a moment in your 20s when you look around, take inventory of your life, and wonder: What would happen if I changed everything? Many resist the urge. Others dive head-first into it, like author Cheryl Strayed did. In her captivating memoir, she explains how and why she decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail alone at age 26. As she walks thousands of miles by herself, she heals the grief of losing her mother , the pain of her divorce, and discovers she has all she needs to change her life . Before you watch the movie (and even if you already have), add this book to your must-read pile.

'The Year of Magical Thinking' by Joan Didion

Joan Didion is considered one of the greatest writers of the past 50 years. Her captivating prose draws in readers with true vulnerability and realism. For any 20-something who is sadly forced to process the grief after losing a loved one , this book is an absolute must-read. Right before Christmas, Didion's only child, a daughter, was induced into a coma due to septic shock. A few days later, her husband suffered a fatal coronary right in front of her at the dinner table. While her daughter recovered, she was left to grapple with the grief of losing the love of her life. Then, four months later, she had a hematoma that required six hours of brain surgery. Her writing takes readers through her journey with a beautiful ability to connect life, death, mental health, pain, and joy, as only Didion can do.

'The Book of Moods: How I Turned My Worst Emotions Into My Best Life' by Lauren Martin

One of the reasons older generations tend to roll their eyes at those in their 20s is due to a difference in the way these age groups process emotions. With age and experience comes the ability to manage how you feel and deal with it effectively. Or do we simply better understand the social standards of what's accessible? These are the questions The Book of Moods seeks to uncover. Martin investigates how we can better accept and honor feelings, rather than shying away from emotional triggers and controlling our responses. More importantly, she shares how to prioritize our mental health habits. In addition to personal anecdotes, Martin includes thoughts from Mariska Hargitay, Bobbi Brown, Emma Robert, Brie Larson, and more.

'How to Be a Person in the World' by Heather Havrilesky

If you missed reading the amazing 'Ask Polly' column in The Cut , here's your gentle nudge to start. You'll find yourself pouring over every last word, nodding along, tearing up, and wanting more. Bad news: The column was discontinued in 2021. Good news: There is more. This book from 'Polly'—aka writer Heather Havrilesky—explores how to be your own problem solver, how to process your emotions, and how to build your sense of self. It will leave you ready to tackle anything that comes your way, guaranteed.

'The Group' by Mary McCarthy

In your 20s, you'll collect friends from different aspects of your life —the college friends, work pals, the happenstance buds you meet randomly. The Group is an older book, but a timeless one that illustrates perfectly the ups and downs of adult friendships. This classic novel takes readers along on the separate, but intertwining journeys of eight friends and Vassar graduates post-university.

'Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together' by Erin Lowry

Money is a stressful topic for most people, regardless of age. And the only way to break through feelings of discomfort and anxiety around finances is to educate yourself and take control. This detailed book helps 20-somethings navigate the big money topics most on their minds— budgeting , student loans , savings and investing—and also touches on the more hush-hush struggles that don't get enough air time, like keeping up with your friends' spending habits, asking for a raise, and getting comfortable talking about money around colleagues, romantic partners, and friends.

'The Defining Decade' by Meg Jay

The name says it all: This nonfiction best-seller is focused on remaining in the present. All too often, the 20s are touted as a throw-away decade that's full of bad mistakes, too much booze, and career mishaps. In reality, these 10 years are significant ones, and it's vital to give them the attention they deserve. Based on research, Jay takes a provocative look into why our 20s matter and how they can shape our relationships, our jobs, and our identity for decades to come.

'Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person' by Shonda Rhimes

You already know the powerhouse that is Shonda Rhimes, the creator and producer of Emmy-award-winning shows Grey's Anatomy , Scandal , How to Get Away With Murder , and Bridgerton . Though she's built an impressive career, Rhimes self-identifies as an introvert and had to force herself to lean into activities that made her uncomfortable. How? By committing to one full year of saying 'yes' to anything that scared her. Yes, anything . Her powerful and heartwarming book details this 12-month challenge and how it transformed her life for the better.

'The Silent Patient' by Alex Michaelides

A shocking thriller that takes the reader through many emotions, The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides is a suspenseful novel worthy of your time. Step into a psychological thriller of character Alicia Benson's life that turns upside down when her husband returns late from a fashion shoot and she shoots him five times in the face and never says another word. A therapist becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth of this mystery.

'In Five Years' by Rebecca Serle

An unpredictable novel with lots of twists, In Five Years by Rebecca Serle follows character Dannie Kohan who lives her picture perfect life in numbers. For a mind-blowing twist, Dannie wakes up and her life flashes forward five years and it's completely different. This book's unforgettable love story, is unexpected and captivating.

'The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue' by V.E. Schwab

A must-read for fantasy lovers, this immersive story by V.E. Schwab is compelling and takes the reader back to France in 1714, where the main character is cursed to be forgotten by anyone she meets. This enchanting novel shares Addie LaRue's journey to live forever and leave her mark on the world.

'The Power Of Habit' by Charles Duhigg

Transform your life by learning how to nip bad habits in the bud and form new healthy habits. Author Charles Duhigg teaches readers the human nature behind habits, how to create real change, and set yourself up for success to reach your highest potential.

'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen

A timeless classic, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen encourages readers to never judge a book by it's cover. At first glance, Characters Elizabeth Bennet and eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy instantly have conflict from Bennet's first impressions. Austen teaches readers the important lesson that you cannot base someone's character on first impressions.

'The Alchemist' by Paulo Coelho

In need of an enchanted escape from reality? Look no further than this mystical fantasy by Paulo Coelho. This tale follows an Andalusian shepherd boy as he travels from Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of an unknown treasure. Feel inspired by the story's message of following your heart and the power of our dreams.

'Educated: A Memoir' by Tara Westover

Author Tara Westover shares her story about her upbringing in rural Idaho and how the power of education can change lives. Westover set foot in a classroom for the first time at age 17 and went on to earn a Ph.D. from Trinity College. Book reviewers have called her memoir heartbreaking and heartwarming as well as inspiring others to seek out education.

'What The Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast' by Laura Vanderkam

Tired of hitting the snooze button? Carve out time for yourself in the morning and prioritize self-care. Explore this practical guide from writer Laura Vanderkam and learn how to become a morning person. Start maximizing your day by creating the picture-perfect morning and building habits to achieve your goals.

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22 Best Books for Twenty Somethings: Life Advice and Tips for Success

Discover our list of the best books for twenty somethings to guide you as you move into the next chapter of your adult life.

Our twenties are a whirlwind of emotions! As young adults, we start to really step into the adult world, facing new challenges and building a new life for ourselves. With so much on our shoulders, it can often feel overwhelming. But thankfully, we have plenty of people to turn to for advice, from family members to podcasts, to must-read books; everyone has a story to share about life in their twenties.

Good books can give twenty-somethings some much-needed life advice and inspiration, helping them navigate this exciting and demanding time. Whether you’re looking for practical advice on career development, personal finance, relationships, or just a good story to escape into, there’s something for everyone. Check out the best inspirational books to spark motivation!

• 1. It’s Not a Glass Ceiling, It’s a Sticky Floor by Rebecca Shambaugh
• 2. How to Write the Perfect Resume by Dan Clay
• 3. Women & Money by Suze Orman
• 4. Dress For Success by Cydey McMillon
• 5. Ashkettle Haunted by A.M. Goetz
• 6. What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard Bolles
• 7. Martha Stewart’s Cooking School by Martha Stewart
• 8. Clothesline by Kate Supino
• 9. The Queen of the Big Time by Adriana Trigiani

10. Believe It. Own It. Do It. by Jeffrey Alan Smith

• 11. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
• 12. The Defining Decade by Meg Jay, Ph.D.
• 13. Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
• 14. Feel the Fear…And Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers
• 15. Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score
• 16. The Power of Positive Thinking by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
• 17. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
• 18. You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero
• 19. Invent It, Sell It, Bank It! by Lori Greiner
• 20. My Life in France by Julia Child

21. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

22. year of yes by shonda rhimes, what books should i read in my 20s, what should a 25-year-old be reading, 1. it’s not a glass ceiling, it’s a sticky floor  by rebecca shambaugh.

Refuting the notion of the glass ceiling that purportedly keeps women in business from reaching the higher echelons of office, It’s Not a Glass Ceiling, It’s a Sticky Floor explores the self-limitations that women place on themselves. According to the author, Rebecca Shambaugh, there are seven kinds of “sticky floors.”

She explains what those self-imposed career blocks are, along with guidance on overcoming them with advice on achieving work/life balance, overcoming perfectionism, being heard in the workplace, and more.

“It’s important for women to look at what they might be doing, or not doing, to hold themselves back.” Rebecca Shambaugh, It’s Not a Glass Ceiling, It’s a Sticky Floor

• Amazon Kindle Edition
• Shambaugh, Rebecca (Author)
• English (Publication Language)
• 247 Pages - 10/17/2007 (Publication Date) - McGraw Hill (Publisher)

2. How to Write the Perfect Resume  by Dan Clay

Twenty-somethings are on the job hunt, looking for that promising, fulfilling career of their dreams. But a vast majority lack the skills to craft a compelling resume that will get them noticed over their peers. This book details how to word resumes that make the candidate stand out so they get that all-important interview. How to Write the Perfect Resume is laid out in an easy-to-follow methodical way, detailing the step-by-step approach the author has mastered over ten years.

“There are far more people who fail to land a job than there are those who succeed.” Dan Clay, How to Write the Perfect Resume

• Clay, Dan (Author)
• 144 Pages - 05/27/2018 (Publication Date)

3. Women & Money  by Suze Orman

Women & Money focuses on the unique financial challenges faced by women. The author draws on her experience as a financial advisor and the stories of women she has worked with to provide practical advice and strategies for achieving financial security. Women & Money covers saving for retirement, paying off debt, investing, buying a home, and starting a small business.

Orman also addresses money’s emotional and psychological aspects, such as the fears and limiting beliefs that can hold women back from achieving financial success. It’s ideal for twenty-something women who want to start life equipped with the essentials of being financially successful.

Looking for more? Check out these essays about daily life .

“We have a right to be proud of our progress. I am so honored to witness this revolution in my lifetime. I only wish it told the whole truth.” Suze Orman, Women & Money

• Orman, Suze (Author)
• 202 Pages - 09/11/2018 (Publication Date) - Random House (Publisher)

4. Dress For Success  by Cydey McMillon

The author of Dress For Success is a life coach and founder of a style brand. As a successful businesswoman, she knows what she’s talking about regarding how a person’s dress influences their brand. This book offers guidance and advice on defining and developing your brand to achieve success in your personal and professional life.

The author outlines specific tips and strategies for creating a personal brand that aligns with your values, personality, and goals by creating a signature style. She covers how to dress for various occasions and build a wardrobe. The book is filled with interesting anecdotes and is written in an accessible style that twenty-somethings will easily relate to.

“No matter your profession or title, the way that you present yourself to others can propel your lifestyle.” Cydney McMillon, Dress For Success

• McMillon, Cydney (Author)
• 06/30/2019 (Publication Date)

5. Ashkettle Haunted  by A.M. Goetz

Ashkettle Haunted is book two of a three-part series. This installment is, on the outside, a riveting thriller that keeps readers turning the pages. Between the lines is the tale of a tormented young man haunted by his inner demons, worsened by chronic depression and the verge of mental illness.

This book is great for twenty-somethings because it documents the trials of depression and mental suffering, something many modern twenty-somethings can relate to. Ashkettle Haunted has been described as an in-depth look into PTSD and depression.

“Dack would know; he wants to feel better in the worst kind of way. He’d do just about anything to make it happen.” A.M. Goetz, Ashkettle Haunted

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6. What Color is Your Parachute?  by Richard Bolles

Originally published in 1973, What Color is Your Parachute remains one of the best books about finding your dream career that’s ever been written. It’s updated each year to reflect the ever-changing job outlook. Author Richard Bolles says that traditional job search methods, such as responding to job listings and sending out resumes, are not effective. Instead, job seekers should focus on their strengths, skills, and interests.

The book offers exercises and tools to help readers discover their unique skills and passions and to create a plan for finding a job or career that aligns with their values and goals. It also guides networking, interviewing, and negotiating job offers.

“This is your search, and you get to control how it goes.” Richard Bolles, What Color is Your Parachute?

• Bolles, Richard N. (Author)
• 353 Pages - 12/27/2022 (Publication Date) - Ten Speed Press (Publisher)

7. Martha Stewart’s Cooking School  by Martha Stewart

A long and healthy life begins with good nutrition, yet many twenty-somethings still eat like teenagers. Martha Stewart’s Cooking School: Lessons and Recipes For the Home Cook is like having your mother teach you how to cook from scratch. Of course, Martha Stewart is the modern maven of all things domestic, but even career-focused twenty-somethings will appreciate learning how to be a culinary master in their own home.

This book will free cash-strapped twenty-somethings from the fast-food drive-in lanes and put them fully in control of their nutrition. The book is written in a friendly tone and is filled with photographs and illustrations that leave nothing to chance. Readers will learn everything from baking and making a green salad and cream butter.

“As you work your way through the “curriculum” here, I am quite sure you will find that you have both the skills and the confidence to improvise and experiment in the kitchen.” Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart’s Cooking School

• Stewart, Martha (Author)
• 512 Pages - 12/20/2011 (Publication Date) - Clarkson Potter (Publisher)

8. Clothesline  by Kate Supino

Clothesline is a coming-of-age novel that follows the lives of three twenty-something women as they navigate the challenges of starting their own small business. The novel explores themes of entrepreneurship, friendship, love, and self-discovery. Each of the three main characters has unique talents and aspirations, and together they embark on a wild journey of trying out different small business ideas, from door-to-door sales to pet grooming.

As they pursue their dreams, they face challenges and setbacks that test their patience and friendship. The book is perfect for twenty-somethings who dream of someday owning a small business.

“Reading this letter makes me see how much faith my friends have in my ability to come through for them.” Kate Supino, Clothesline

9. The Queen of the Big Time  by Adriana Trigiani

The Queen of the Big Time is the fictional account of a young woman who loses the love of her life when he mysteriously disappears from the small town where they live in Italy. Four years later, on the eve of the protagonist’s wedding to another man, her first love reappears, forcing the young woman to examine her feelings and make an important decision about her future. Trigiani paints a vivid picture of her characters and the landscape where they reside. Readers will enjoy having their heartstrings pulled on this emotional rollercoaster.

“I look around at the couples there for the show and wonder how many of them will marry, and if they do, whether they will be happy.” Adriana Trigiani, The Queen of the Big Time

• Trigiani, Adriana (Author)
• 304 Pages - 07/06/2004 (Publication Date) - Random House (Publisher)

Believe It. Own It. Do It. is the inspiring story of a 19-year-old man who built a million-dollar real estate business in under three years. The author talks about his childhood, how he always wanted to be a businessman from a young age, and his circuitous path to becoming one of the most successful real estate brokers in the Memphis tri-state area.

This book is ideal for twenty-somethings who may falsely believe they’re too young to start something or won’t be taken seriously in the business world. Jeffrey Alan Smith shares his journey and outlines the steps others can take to achieve the same success in real estate.

“I consider myself a born teacher, and I’ve always strived to share what I learn with others so they, too, can reach their potential, whatever that may be.” Jeffrey Alan Smith, Believe It. Own It. Do It.

• Smith, Jeffrey Alan (Author)
• 236 Pages - 12/17/2021 (Publication Date) - JASCO Publishing (Publisher)

11. How to Win Friends and Influence People  by Dale Carnegie

How to Win Friends and Influence People is a book that will never go out of style. Although modern twenty-somethings may think they have the inside scoop on influencing others on social media, they’ll find they’ve been putting into practice many of Dale Carnegie’s ideas from 1936.

After reading this book, they’ll also realize that they still have to learn from the man born into poverty who became one of the most wealthy and successful individuals of his time. Dale Carnegie’s book is easy to read and relatable to everyone. The principles in the book reflect common sense and follow the basic laws of humanity.

“Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.” Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

12. The Defining Decade  by Meg Jay, Ph.D.

In The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter – and How to Make the Most of Them Now , clinical psychologist Meg Jay argues that 20-somethings are mired in a flurry of hype and disinformation, much of which has trivialized what she regards as the most transformational decade of our lives. Drawing on more than two decades of experience working with thousands of clients, Jay explains how work, relationships, personality, identity, and even the brain can change more during this decade than at any other time in adulthood. The author gives readers the tools to make the most of this time by fusing the most recent science and studies with the stories of real twenty-somethings she’s worked with.

“As a twenty something, life is still more about potential than proof. Those who can tell a good story about who they are and what they want leap over those who can’t.” Meg Jay, Ph.D., The Defining Decade

• Jay, Meg (Author)
• 337 Pages - 04/17/2012 (Publication Date) - Twelve (Publisher)

13. Confessions of a Shopaholic  by Sophie Kinsella

Confessions of a Shopaholic is a fun read that twenty-somethings will love. Sure, it’s a fun romp through a woman’s struggles with shopping, but it also offers a perspective on materialism that every twenty-something can benefit from. The protagonist can’t resist a good bargain.

Feel the Fear…And Do It Anyway  by Susan JeffersThat, combined with her basic misunderstanding of saving money, results in disastrous short-term consequences. But hope is on the horizon as the young woman realizes the folly of her ways and turns her entire life around until the next book in this series!

“OK. Don’t panic. Don’t panic. It’s only a VISA bill. It’s a piece of paper; a few numbers. I mean, just how scary can a few numbers be?” Sophie Kinsella, Confessions of a Shopaholic

• Kinsella, Sophie (Author)
• 384 Pages - 03/04/2003 (Publication Date) - Delta (Publisher)

14. Feel the Fear…And Do It Anyway  by Susan Jeffers

Susan Jeffers has written a book that guides overcoming fear and anxiety to achieve personal and professional success. In Feel the Fear…and Do It Anyway , Jeffers author says that fear is a natural part of the human experience, but it should not prevent us from pursuing our goals and dreams.

The book offers practical tools and strategies for understanding and managing fear, such as reframing negative thoughts, practicing positive affirmations, and embracing change. Jeffers emphasizes the importance of taking action, even in the face of fear, and using fear as a motivator for growth and development.

“I know you are probably not jumping up and down for joy just yet, but believe me when I tell you that I have just given you a great piece of news.” Susan Jeffers, Feel the Fear…And Do It Anyway

• Jeffers, Susan (Author)
• 224 Pages - 03/14/2023 (Publication Date) - Harvest (Publisher)

15. Things We Never Got Over  by Lucy Score

Things We Never Got Over is a fiction book described as a rollercoaster ride where everyone laughs instead of screams. In a small town, the characters explore their family and relationships while figuring out how to deal with past hurts and surprising future possibilities. This is a good read for twenty-somethings, as it delves into the complicated sibling rivalry phenomena and asks, are you capable of genuinely forgiving another person?

“You’re the one who has to live your life. Don’t apologize to other people for the decisions you make for yourself.” Lucy Score, Things We Never Got Over

• Score, Lucy (Author)
• 562 Pages - 01/13/2022 (Publication Date) - That's What She Said Publishing (Publisher)

16. The Power of Positive Thinking  by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale explains that one’s thoughts and attitudes have a profound impact on their experiences and outcomes in life. The Power of Positive Thinking provides practical tools and techniques for cultivating a positive mindset, such as affirmations, visualization, and prayer.

Peale encourages readers to focus on their strengths and cultivate a deep sense of faith and optimism, which can help them overcome obstacles and achieve their goals. These tools are especially valuable for twenty-somethings in today’s world.

“What you are determines the world in which you live, so as you change, your world changes also.” Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking

17. Rich Dad Poor Dad  by Robert Kiyosaki

In Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! , Robert Kiyosaki explains some basic money management facts that will surprise most twenty-somethings who have little first-hand knowledge of taking care of finances. This book was first published over 25 years ago and has already become a classic that everyone should read.

Kiyosaki discusses his modest upbringing and how his dad did little to prepare him for the world in terms of handling money. It goes to great length about the differences between how the wealthy handle money and how those struggling financially deal with it.

“An asset puts money in my pocket. A liability takes money out of my pocket.” Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad

• Kiyosaki, Robert T. (Author)
• 336 Pages - 04/11/2017 (Publication Date) - Plata Publishing (Publisher)

18. You Are a Badass  by Jen Sincero

In You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life , author Jen Sincero offers guidance and encouragement for readers to take charge of their lives and achieve their full potential. The author argues that self-doubt and fear of failure are the biggest obstacles to success and that by changing one’s mindset and taking action, one can achieve their dreams.

Sincero draws on her own experiences and those of her clients to illustrate how anyone can overcome self-doubt and create the life they want. The book is written in a witty, irreverent, entertaining, and inspiring style.

“What other people think about you has nothing to do with you and everything to do with them.” Jen Sincero, You Are a Badass

• Orders are despatched from our UK warehouse next working day.
• Sincero, Jen (Author)
• 272 Pages - 04/23/2013 (Publication Date) - Running Press Adult (Publisher)

19. Invent It, Sell It, Bank It!  by Lori Greiner

Lori Greiner is an inspiring, successful businesswoman who made a name long before the hit show Shark Tank ever came along. In Invent It, Sell It, Bank It!: Make Your Million-Dollar Idea into a Reality , Greiner shares some juicy behind-the-scenes info on the show and delves deep into strategies that readers can put into practice to bring their own million-dollar ideas into reality.

This book should not be passed up for twenty-somethings who would like to make their mark on the world the way this multi-millionaire woman has since it makes a valuable reference book for bringing ideas to market.

“Truly, anyone, at any time, can become an inventor.” Lori Greiner, Invent It, Sell It, Bank It!

• Greiner, Lori (Author)
• 290 Pages - 03/11/2014 (Publication Date) - Ballantine Books (Publisher)

20. My Life in France  by Julia Child

For twenty-somethings who dream of a life abroad, My Life in France is a true inspiration. Written with the help of her nephew, this book by the queen of the kitchen, Julia Child, documents her colorful life in France with her beloved Paul.

It’s a story of love, discovering a passion, and a story of overcoming obstacles. It demonstrates that not everyone has a clear path to one’s career in their twenties and shows that sometimes, passion is illuminated gradually over time. Looking for more? Check out our guide with essays about confidence !

“Indeed, shopping for food in Paris was a life-changing experience for me.” Julia Child, My Life in France

• Child, Julia (Author)
• 336 Pages - 04/04/2006 (Publication Date) - Anchor (Publisher)

Eat, Pray, Love is a world-renowned book that inspires readers to live life to the fullest. Elizabeth had it all, the husband, the country house, the career, but instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she is full of panic.

The book follows Elizabeth as she leaves her old life behind and sets off on a mental health and wellness journey, traveling through Itlay, India, and Bali. As Elizabeth tells her story of how she found herself on this exceptional journey, she weaves hilarious anecdotes and heartwarming moments throughout the story. The message of leaving behind the typical marks of success and following your heart speaks to young people and inspires them to live the life they truly want.

“I shut the door behind me. Another solitary bedtime in Rome. Another long night’s sleep ahead of me, with nobody and nothing in my bed except a pile of Italian phrasebook and dictionaries.” Elizabeth Gilbert , Eat Pray, Love

• Gilbert, Elizabeth (Author)
• 369 Pages - 01/30/2007 (Publication Date) - Riverhead Books (Publisher)

Year of Yes  is for all twenty-something-year-olds looking for great books to transform their lives. When writer Shonda Rhimes began saying “yes,” her whole world changed. Shonda Rhimes was an introvert, always declining social invitations and afraid to do more with her life.

This hilarious and heart-warming memoir inspires millennials worldwide — encouraging them to embrace the unknown and say “yes.” With plenty of laughs and relatable moments, this self-help book is unlike any other. Change your life with the power of “yes” to elevate your lifestyle and embrace happiness.

“My sister Delorse said six startling words and changed everything. She said six words and now, as I write this, I have become a different person.” Shonda Rhimes, Year of Yes

FAQS About Best Books for Twenty-Somethings

There are many great books that you should add to your reading list in your 20s. Some of our favorites include Briget Jones’ Diary, Anna Karenina, and The Great Gatsby .

When you turn 25, you might begin to look for books that help you navigate adulthood. Some of the best books to start with include How to Eat by Thich Nhat Hanh, The Old Money Book by Byron Tully, and The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson.

Looking for more? Check out our guide with essays about confidence !

Kate has been writing since she was 10 years old, tapping away on an old typewriter in her childhood bedroom. Today, Kate is a seasoned freelance writer with over 10 years of experience writing for print and online media. She’s an avid reader and believes in the power of words to transport readers to new worlds, and inspire and nurture creativity. Kate is also a published author and is currently working on her next project.

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12 Books to Read in Your 20s

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By The New York Times

• Oct. 25, 2016

There are far more worthy books than any of us will get to read in a lifetime. So you better get cracking in your 20s, at the latest. Below are 12 books earnestly if somewhat arbitrarily recommended. To read them all is to learn about wartime, race in America, growing up feeling like you’re different, how cities are built and lived in, grief, the power of imagination and much more.

“Catch-22,” by Joseph Heller (1961)

There’s been a surge of acclaimed fiction about war in the 21st century, but Joseph Heller’s satire “Catch-22” remains the gold standard. Heller served in World War II, and “Catch-22” reflects the horrors and absurdities of war and its attendant bureaucracies. In 1974, Heller told The Paris Review that he learned about his own books by the reaction to them. “It surprised me that things in ‘Catch-22’ turned out to be very funny,” he said. “I thought I was being humorous, but I didn’t know I would make people laugh.”

“Beloved,” by Toni Morrison (1987)

In 2006, when The New York Times Book Review asked a couple of hundred prominent writers, critics, editors and other literary types to name the best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years , Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” a ghost story about the emotional toll of slavery in America, got the most votes. In the Book Review in 1987, Margaret Atwood said Morrison’s “versatility and technical and emotional range appear to know no bounds. If there were any doubts about her stature as a pre-eminent American novelist, of her own or any other generation, ‘Beloved’ will put them to rest.”

“His Dark Materials” Trilogy, by Philip Pullman (1995-2000)

We’ll just assume you’ve read Harry Potter. Philip Pullman wrote his trilogy (“The Golden Compass,” “The Subtle Knife” and “The Amber Spyglass”) in part to counteract the religious parables of the Narnia chronicles and other children’s stories. “War, politics, magic, science, individual lives and cosmic destinies are all here,” Margo Jefferson wrote in The Times in 2002. “They are not flung together, they are shaped and assembled into a narrative of tremendous pace by a man with a generous, precise intelligence.”

“White Teeth,” by Zadie Smith (2000)

Zadie Smith’s debut novel can serve as an inspiration to anyone in their 20s, since it was published to worldwide acclaim when Smith was just 24 years old. She has since become an established critical favorite with several books under her belt, but “White Teeth,” set in turn-of-the-millennium multicultural London and teeming with characters, slang, jokes and insights, might still be the best place to start. In her review , Michiko Kakutani wrote that Smith has an “instinctive storytelling talent and a fully fashioned voice that’s street-smart and learned, sassy and philosophical all at the same time,” and “can do comedy, drama and satire, and do them all with exceptional confidence and brio.”

“The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” by Junot Díaz (2007)

When Junot Díaz published his first collection of short stories, “Drown,” in 1996, readers were quickly eager for more. They had to wait 11 years before he followed his debut with this novel, but they were duly rewarded. As was Díaz: The story of the title character, an overweight geek living with his Dominican-American family in New Jersey, went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. Michiko Kakutani called it “so original it can only be described as Mario Vargas Llosa meets ‘Star Trek’ meets David Foster Wallace meets Kanye West.”

NONFICTION:

“The Fire Next Time,” by James Baldwin (1963)

James Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time” has remained deeply relevant for more than half a century, never more so than during the current debates around policing, criminal justice, voting rights and other subjects. The book is composed of two essays about being black in America. The first, written in the form of a letter to Baldwin’s teenage nephew, was a direct inspiration for Ta-Nehisi Coates’s recent best-seller “Between the World and Me,” written as a letter to Coates’s son. Coates has called Baldwin’s essays “amazing acts of intellectual and emotional courage.”

“Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” by Joan Didion (1968)

If you’re one of the 20-somethings who currently carry tote bags emblazoned with Joan Didion’s face, you’re probably familiar with this one. But if you’re not, her first collection of nonfiction is the best place to start to understand why such tote bags exist. Didion’s essays in “Slouching” are firmly rooted in the culture of the 1960s — Haight-Ashbury, Joan Baez, political zealotry of various stripes — but their brilliance is in the way they still speak to the character (and characters) of this country today. With “Goodbye to All That,” Didion wrote the definitive account of loving and then leaving New York, which hasn’t kept hundreds of writers from trying their hand at the form.

“The Power Broker,” by Robert Caro (1975)

It might take a considerable portion of your 20s to read this book, which clocks in at about 1,300 pages, but it will be worth it. Robert Caro is best known now for his ongoing, multivolume biography of Lyndon Johnson, but “The Power Broker,” his Pulitzer Prize-winning life of Robert Moses, would have cemented his towering reputation had it been his only book. Never elected to any public office, Moses nevertheless did more to change the shape of New York City and Long Island in the 20th century (their bridges, highways, housing, public spaces) than arguably any other figure. Caro’s book works as both a sweeping epic about an oversize personality and a granular look at the mechanisms of power and influence.

“A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,” by David Foster Wallace (1997)

Having just recommended “The Power Broker,” it would be cruel to follow it with the equally massive “Infinite Jest.” So instead of Wallace’s thousand-page, endnote-filled novel, pick up this more accessible collection of his nonfiction. It includes pieces about tennis, David Lynch and the influence of television on fiction writers. But it’s anchored by two long, hysterically funny essays that Wallace wrote for Harper’s Magazine: one about his time on a cruise ship, the other about his visit to the Illinois State Fair. In The New York Times Book Review, Laura Miller wrote that Wallace’s “distinctive and infectious style, an acrobatic cartwheeling between high intellectual discourse and vernacular insouciance, makes him tremendously entertaining to read, whatever his subject.”

“A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius,” by Dave Eggers (2000)

The first sentence of Michiko Kakutani’s review in 2000 says it all: “Dave Eggers’s new book, ‘A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius,’ is part autobiography, part postmodern collage, a novelistic ‘memoir-y kind of thing’ that tells the sad, awful, tragic story of how the author’s mother and father died within weeks of each other and how he became a surrogate parent to his 8-year-old brother, and tells it with such style and hyperventilated, self-conscious energy, such coy, Lettermanesque shtick and such genuine, heartfelt emotion, that the story is at once funny, tender, annoying and, yes, heartbreaking — an epic, in the end, not of woe, though there’s plenty of that too, but an epic about family and how families fracture and fragment and somehow, through all the tumult and upset, manage to endure.”

GRAPHIC MEMOIRS:

“Persepolis,” by Marjane Satrapi (2003)

In “Persepolis,” Marjane Satrapi recounts growing up in Iran in a family of leftists during the time of the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war. The book was followed by a sequel in 2004 and a movie adaptation in 2007. Satrapi told The Believer in 2006 that she wants her books to counteract black-and-white views of the world. “I’m not a moral lesson giver,” she said. “It’s not for me to say what is right or wrong. I describe situations as honestly as possible. The way I saw it. That’s why I use my own life as material. I have seen these things myself, and now I’m telling it to you. Because the world is not about Batman and Robin fighting the Joker; things are more complicated than that.”

“Fun Home,” by Alison Bechdel (2006)

The source of the Tony Award-winning musical, “Fun Home” is Alison Bechdel’s moving graphic memoir about her relationship with her father. The story of Bechdel’s own realization that she is a lesbian is told in tandem with the story of her father, a small-town funeral director, and his repressed homosexuality. In The New York Times Book Review, Sean Wilsey wrote : “It is a pioneering work, pushing two genres (comics and memoir) in multiple new directions, with panels that combine the detail and technical proficiency of R. Crumb with a seriousness, emotional complexity and innovation completely its own.”

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

John S. Jacobs was a fugitive, an abolitionist — and the brother of the canonical author Harriet Jacobs. Now, his own fierce autobiography has re-emerged .

Don DeLillo’s fascination with terrorism, cults and mass culture’s weirder turns has given his work a prophetic air. Here are his essential books .

Jenny Erpenbeck’s “ Kairos ,” a novel about a torrid love affair in the final years of East Germany, won the International Booker Prize , the renowned award for fiction translated into English.

Kevin Kwan, the author of “Crazy Rich Asians,” left Singapore’s opulent, status-obsessed, upper crust when he was 11. He’s still writing about it .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

Navigating the Adulting Struggle

20+ Entertaining Fiction Books You Must Read in Your 20s

Finding a good fiction book to read as a twenty-something year old sometimes feels like looking for a needle in a haystack. So, consider this post your needle! I’ve rounded up a list of  20 fiction books you must read in your 20s . 

These books are on my short list not because they’re classics or famous or have three movies about them, but because they’re about the adventures of people our age and in our stage of life. Even more, they’ve all been recommended by 20-somethings who love to read. 

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read the  full disclosure  for more information.

Fiction Books to Read in Your 20s

Perhaps like me, you loved YA in high school and some in college, too. But now when you pick up a YA novel, all you think about is how whiny the main character is. Then you go to the adult section and are overwhelmed because you don’t know if you’ll pick up a book about a couple going through a mid-life crisis, a parent having his/her first child, or someone with grown children who is trying to reconnect with them. 

On top of that, your desire to read about any of the said stories is zero because you’re just a young woman navigating the adulting struggle . You’re looking for a good read about where you’re at.

If that sounds like you, then I certainly sympathize, and you’ve come to the right place. I’ve included in this article my favorite books and authors who write secular fiction, Christian fiction, and the unclassified fiction in between.

20 Books to Read Before 30 – Fiction Edition

This list of books to read before 30 includes secular books of all genres and some of my favorite Christian books, too. I’ve read most of these books, but also received curated recommendation from twenty-something friends who love reading, too. 

But every book might not be right for you. We all have different preferences, tolerances for mature content, triggers, and personal convictions. Check Good Reads reviews, blog reviews, or bookstore reviews to see if a book fits your interests before purchasing. 

With all the disclaimers out of the way, here’s a short list of books you must read for your 20s, hand-picked by yours truly or recommended by friends. 

Top Picks – Books to Read in Twenties

My favorites top the list:

1 –  Enchanted Events Series by Jenny B. Jones

Cozy mystery & contemporary romance series. The first book  Engaged in Trouble  will have you laughing, crying, and on the edge of your seat as the mystery is solved. 

2 –  These Nameless Things  by Shawn Smucker

Mystery & Thriller. A standalone novel exploring memory and brotherhood in a new way. 

3 –  Alaskan Courage Series by Dani Pettrey

Romantic Suspense. A five-book series about a family living on the coast of Alaska and five unique and strange mysteries to be solved. You won’t want to put these books down. 

4 –   Crazy Rich Asians  by Kevin Kwan

A trilogy where you’ll be immersed in another world on our world. Funny, interesting, and unlike anything I’ve ever read. If the movie piqued your curiosity, this book is a no-brainer.

Now that you’ve seen my top picks for books to read in your twenties, let’s hop into some different genres.

Sci-Fi & Fantasy Books for 20-year-olds

5 –  Hidden Current  by Sharon Hinck

A recent fantasy pick and the first book of the Dancing Realms series. 

6 –  Mistborn Series  by Brandon Sanderson

Check out this EPIC fantasy,  packed with all the elements you love about fantasy and more. 

7 –  A Court of Thorns and Roses  by Sarah J. Mass

At first, this book seems to be a masterful Beauty and the Beast retelling. Until you get to the second half, and everything you thought you knew is flipped on its head.

8 –  Tainted  by Morgan L. Busse

A steampunk fantasy novel with magic in the Victorian Era. Part of The Soul Chronicles duology.

9 –  Sorcerer to the Crown  by Zen Cho

Magic meets the British aristocracy in this fantasy novel where magic is in danger.

10 –  Reunion: Supervillain Rehabilitation Project by H.L. Burke

Former Superhero Aiden takes up his cape again in the race against time and supervillains to save his mother. This book is a winner of a Realm Award in 2022.

YA Books for 20-year-olds

If you didn’t have much time to read in the past, you can consider this section as an opportunity to catch up on the YA (young adult) fiction you missed. Some of these are Older YA titles so are more relatable than traditional YA, too.

Even as a twenty-something year old, these books are still enjoyable for me. Maybe it’s because they’re in one of my favorite genres, fantasy and sci-fi. 

1 –  Caraval  by Stephanie Garber

A fantasy story about a bond between sisters, games, and love in a unique world.

2 –  Mark of the Raven  by Morgan L. Busse

The first installment of the Ravenwood Saga Series. A fantasy set in an old-timey setting with themes around secrets, family, and dream walking. Older YA.

3 –  The Selection Series by Kiera Cass

A five book dystopian series. Think The Bachelor but hundreds of years in the future.  Who will be the next princess?

4 –  Cinder  by Marissa Meyer

If you love fairy tales, you’ll love this Sci-Fi twist on these familiar stories in the six-book series, The Lunar Chronicles . 

5 –  Met by Midnight by Janeen Ippolito

This captivating story got me on page one, and I devoured it in one sitting. This is the tale of a captive healer and an outcast prince and their journey to finding each other. It has so many levels and threads about mental health so that it can be enjoyed by YA or adult audiences. The audiobook for Met by Midnight won the Realm Maker Award for audio in 2022.

You May Also Like: 9 Simple Ways to Unwind after Work (Without Alcohol)

Thriller & Mystery Books for 20-year-olds

11  –  Chesapeake Valor Series by Dani Pettrey

Romantic Suspense.  The first book  Cold Shot  features a retired sniper and a forensic anthropologist. Her next book series starts with  The Killing Tide , which is is riveting, too. I finished it in less than 2 days. 

12 –  Traces of Guilt  by Dee Henderson

Romantic Suspense & Mystery. A cold case. I’ve read two books from Henderson’s other series and thoroughly enjoyed her fresh take on mysteries and crime. This one is on my bookshelf right now! 

13 –  Project Hail Mary  by Andy Weir

A futuristic thriller. By the same author of The  Martian , this science thriller brings science in a digestible way and a gripping story. 

Historical Books for 20-year-olds

Historical is one of my least favorite genres, but these came so highly rated from my twenty-something friends that I had to include them on this list of 20 books to read before 30.

14 –   The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue  by V.E. Schwab

A novel set in 1714 France—at the start. Get ready to cross centuries and continents with this historical read.

15 –  The Lost Apothecary  by Sarah Penner

An adult pick from the historical section intertwining a present-day story and a historical story (1791) in London.

16 –  The Nightingale  by Kristin Hannah

Another book about sisters, this time set in France and the backdrop of World War II. 

Romance Books for Twenty Somethings

17 –  There You’ll Find Me  by Jenny B. Jones

Featuring a college student who studies abroad in Ireland to honor her brother’s memory. You can catch the movie version, too:  Finding You.

18 –  Save the Date  by Jenny B. Jones

Pretending to be someone’s fiancée is always a good idea, right? Find out in this sweet romance story that will have you laughing out loud.

19 –  Hooked on You  by Kathleen Fuller

Contemporary romance & lighthearted comedy. You never know who you might cross paths with in a small town.  Excerpt of  Hooked on You .

Must Read Christian Fiction Books

If you’re used to the conventional Christian fiction, then these Christian fiction books will surprise you in a good way. Check out the great Christian authors of these books to read in your 20s.

20 –  The Circle Series by Ted Dekker

Shifting Realities. New worlds. Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Fantasy – this series seems to have it all.

21 –  Aftermath  by Terri Blackstock

A romantic thriller and suspense novel where the characters must find out whose framing them for the latest crime.  Excerpt of  Aftermath.

22 –  The Cul-de-Sac War  by Melissa Ferguson

The line between love and hate is thinner than you thought. Heartwarming romance story between neighbors. 

23 –  Storm Rising  by Ronie Kendig

Mystery, Thriller, & Suspense Novel. Unlikely alliances drive this story forward as the countdown to a world-wide disaster commences. 

24 –  Smoke Screen by Terri Blackstock

Another nail-biting, romantic mystery novel where two childhood lovers are separated by an old murder case involving their fathers. One father was murdered; the other has spent over a decade in prison for the crime.

Now that you have the list, I hope you’ve picked a couple to explore more. As you’re deciding what to tackle next, here’s some reader advice to help.

What books should 20 somethings read?

Out of college and on your own, your days of completing a summer reading list or are over. As a 20 something on her own and adulting, what should you read?  What you’ve missed out on during school days. 

You should read what you want to read.

Most people who scrunch their noses as soon as they hear the word  reading  probably didn’t get a chance to read what they were interested in during school. Perhaps they had to stick to the classics or a certain genre, but none of these options were particularly interesting. 

Now is the time to dive into new adventures and pick up the books that you want to read just because .

Explore new genres, try new authors, and don’t be afraid to hop around until you find a book that grabs you and doesn’t let go (metaphorically, of course).

Related: Need more time? How to Take a Break from Social Media: 7 Fundamental Keys to Success

YA and NA Books

Where can you find books to read in your twenties? Fiction that interests you may be in the YA (Young Adult), NA (New Adult), Adult sections or all three. As you browse books to read in your 20s, here’s a quick review of the classification terminology.

• Young Adult (YA):  books where the main characters are usually aged 14-18. Characterized by a fast-paced story and writing style.
• Older YA:  these are books get categorized as YA, but they have older main characters (18-20). Most people consider the cut off at twenty.
• Adult:  This classification covers so much, it’s easier to define by exclusion—Anything that’s not children, juvenile, middle grade, and young adult fiction. With adult fiction, you don’t know until you pick up a book what to expect from the characters or the style of writing. But there’s a new category that  might take the guess work out for you.
• New Adult (NA): novels where the main characters are usually aged 18-25. Similar to the fast-paced story and writing style of YA books but includes some of the heavier topics of Adult books. 

Watch out for NA Books

Quick warning about this new category, NA books. Speaking from experience trolling bookstore’s NA section, writers conferences, and  articles about the new adult category , you have to be careful what you pick up. Some NA books are written simply as YA novels with sex and more foul language. 

Not your style? Me either. As Anna Nelson puts it in her article about NA books, this is not what women like you and me are looking for. 

“YA dystopian, sci-fi, futuristic, fantasy, and action books are often so much more fun that the adult versions. Neo-Adults want those types of stories but speaking to  our  experience. We want  Perks of Being A Wallflower  in college.” ~Anna Nelson,  New Adult: What should twenty somethings be reading?

Some really great books for people our age are masquerading as Older YA or NA or Adult. Confusing, but necessary until the NA category sorts itself out. That said, the list of book suggestions to read in your twenties includes some YA, NA, and Adult books. 

You May Also Like: Transitioning from College to Career: Advice for a Rewarding Post Grad Life

A Plug for Unconventional Christian Genre Books

Lastly, as you’re looking for your next read, there’s a misconception about Christian fiction to watch out for. It may seem like there are only three types of Christian fiction: Amish, romances, and stories set in Bible times. If you don’t like those three categories than you are out of luck right? 

Wrong!  As a Christian fiction writer who is currently penning a fantasy novel, I assure you that couldn’t be farther from true!

There is Christian fiction in all genres and great Christian authors who write secular fiction, too (like yours truly). 

At the same time, I’ve gone to my library many times, browsed the “inspirational” section and found books only in the 3 categories listed above. This is one of the reasons why I started to write fiction. There wasn’t any Christian fiction that I wanted to read!

Thankfully, I discovered that was simply a library stock issue. There are many more Christian genre books out there and with a wide range of spiritual heaviness. Some of them are diving deep into Christian topics, some of them are allegories, while some just contain Christian characters. You will find some of my favorites sprinkled throughout this list.

Bottom line: Even if you’ve sworn off Christian fiction, try some of these good Christian novels to read. You’ll be surprised in how varied Christian genre books can be.

20 Books You Must Read in Your 20s

So, whether you’re an avid reader or new to the reading pastime, I hope these books take you on an adventure. I hope they give you an escape. I hope they teach you something new. Above all, I hope you enjoy them, free of worry that they will be unrelatable or super boring. 

New adult, young adult, baby adult or somewhere in between, there are books out there for you! 

Fiction Books to Read in Twenties

Feel free to ask me questions about my recommendations or tell me what you liked and didn’t like by leaving a comment on this post. I often review and talk about books on my  Instagram for KJL Co.  so check there for the latest about what I’m reading, too. 

This list of books included a mix of secular and Christian fiction so choose whatever suits your fancy and tastes. But truthfully, the only 20 books to read before 30 are the ones you want to read. Those are the  books you must read in your 20s . Happy Reading!

What books have you enjoyed in your 20s? I want to hear your best reccs!

Leave me a comment below!

Don’t miss this!   More posts in the Living & Adulting Category :

• Transitioning from College to Career: Advice for a Rewarding Post Grad Life
• How to Take a Break from Social Media: 7 Fundamental Keys to Success
• 5 Easy Ways to Simplify Your Life and Stress Less This Week
• Personal Goals Every Woman in her 20s Needs for 2021 + Free Printable
• 9 Simple Ways to Unwind after Work (without alcohol)

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11 Non-fiction Books For 20 Somethings (Must Read)

Looking for non-fiction books for your 20s? This blog post will give you the best recommendations for 20 somethings! Ranging from self-help to business and understanding people that you can leverage in the real world.

The single best non fiction book every 20 something must read then it has to be The Millionaire Fastlane .

This post contains affiliate links through which I may earn a commission for every qualifying purchase at no extra cost to you. Read the full Affiliate Disclaimer here.

Best Non-fiction Books For 20 Year Olds

Not into Non-fiction but would give an arm and a leg for some fiction books? I go about all the best fiction books every 20 year old must read in this post. Definitely check it out!

The Defining Decade

The defining decade by Meg Jay is one of THE best non-fiction books for 20 somethings! As a therapist, she incorporates bits and pieces from her sessions as examples to help you understand concepts of life.

From friendships to relationships, career and identity capital, Jay gives real advice on how to navigate life!

Quote from the book: “It’s the people we hardly know, and not our closest friends, who will improve our lives most dramatically”

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman is one of the best nonfiction books to read in your 20s!

Instead of feeding the BS of how to get a million things done in a day type productivity book, this book acknowledges the fact that we have limited time on this planet and it is most definitely not possible to achieve everything we set out to. And even if we did, it wouldn’t matter in the end.

The main premise of this book is focused on doing things that have intrinsic value to YOU and taking a stoic approach to time. The perfect short book to read on a Sunday.

Q uote from the book: “We’ve been granted the mental capacities to make almost infinitely ambitious plans, yet practically no time at all to put them into action.”

Atomic Habits

If you’re stuck in a rut, can’t get yourself to do things you set out to do, Atomic Habits by James Clear is what you need. Everybody talks about this book and rightfully so.

It is one of the best non-fiction books for 20 year olds as it goes over how to build habit systems that compound over time completely skipping the cliché motivation/ goal setting approach to success.

Quotes from the book:

• Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.
• The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game.

The Courage to be Disliked

The courage to be disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga is one of the best non-fiction books to read in your early 20s as it talks about how we are free to live in the present and determine our future regardless of our past.

How freeing ourselves from the shackles of our circumstances, others’ opinions, doubts and insecurities is super liberating and helps us develop the courage to outgrow the limitations placed on us by ourselves and others.

Quote from the book: A healthy feeling of inferiority is not something that comes from comparing oneself to others; it comes from one’s comparison with one’s ideal self.

The Psychology of Money

The psychology of money by Morgan Housel is one of the best non-fiction books for 20 year olds as it approaches personal finance from a behavioral perspective.

Instead of talking about how to start investing, stocks to buy, etc., Housel digs deeper into the relationship between humans and money.

This quote from the book sums it up perfectly: “To grasp why people bury themselves in debt you don’t need to study interest rates; you need to study the history of greed, insecurity, and optimism.”

As a 20 somethings, understanding the psychology behind money, greed and your spending habits can help you achieve your financial goals faster AND sustain your wealth.

The Elephant in the Brain

The Elephant in the Brain is like the elephant in the room but that room is our brain.

The Elephant in the Brain by Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson is by far the best non-fiction books for 20 year olds that talks about hidden motives of our brain and how it affects a big chunk of our behavior!

Quote from the book: A man always has two reasons for doing something: The good reason and the real reason.

Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before

A nonfiction book that makes you shake your head and wonder why has no one told this before? Yes, Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before is one of those non fiction books by Julie Smith all 20 somethings must read!

Julie Smith, a clinical psychologist who I’m sure you’re aware of if you’re on TikTok, gives insights to life through simple examples that you can actually use in real life.

If there’s one non-fiction book every 20 something must read from this list then it has to be Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before !

Quote from the book: When we focus on trying to fix the problem, it is easy to underestimate the power of simply being there.

Never Split the Difference

Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss has to be one of the best books to learn the art of negotiation. A major part of your 20s will be working around people so this skill is something you need to have!

The ideas in this book give an insight into peoples’ behavior and how to understand them to your advantage by negotiating.

Quote from the book: Negotiate in their world. Persuasion is not about how bright or smooth or forceful you are. It’s about the other party convincing themselves that the solution you want is their own idea. So don’t beat them with logic or brute force. Ask them questions that open paths to your goals. It’s not about you.

The Millionaire Fastlane

The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco is the top non fiction book everyone in their 20s HAS to read! It’s far from the online get rich easy schemes, you’ll see why.

DeMarco talks about how to avoid the “slow lane” and build a business that actually makes money. Slow lane being the classic go to college -> get a job -> get a better job to become rich.

From x to switching from the consumer to producer mindset to showing commitment rather than just interest, there’s so much every 20 somethings can learn from this non fiction book!

Quote from the book: Interest works on your business 1 hour a day Monday to Friday, commitment works 7 days a week whenever time permits.

These were some of the best non-fiction books everyone in their 20s must read to change their outlook on life! What’s on your list? Lemme know!

Tinted Twenties is a one stop destination to all things twenties. Any problem you're dealing with in your twenties, chances of finding a solution here are high!

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17 Excellent And Life Changing Books For Twenty-Somethings

Overcome your childhood traumas, find true love, build a successful career, set goals, get rich and more! These extraordinary books will help you transform your twenties and your life.

BuzzFeed Staff

1. The Defining Decade by Meg Jay

The Defining Decade is THE definitive book for twenty-somethings today. The author, clinical psychologist Meg Jay, is an expert on this demographic. Contemporary culture sees the twenties as throwaway years where you're meant to be "exploring" and having vaguely defined "experiences." However, the things we do or don't do have consequences for the rest of our life. Jay offers a concrete guide to navigating this uncertain landscape, taking control and taking concrete action with what you know and have right now. I've recommended this book to all my twenty-something friends.

Price: ₹458

2. Supernormal by Meg Jay

Even if you had a "good enough" childhood, you've probably dealt with serious troubles and traumas by the time you enter adulthood — parental divorce or separation, alcoholism, poverty, mental health issues, abuse, bullying, etc. Narrated through intimate case studies of real people, this book helps us realise the impact these traumas have on us, how we coped with what we didn't understand, and how we can overcome today.

Price: ₹219

3. Marry Him: The Case For Settling For Mr. Good Enough by Lori Gottlieb

Although primarily aimed at cis-hetero women, people of all genders and sexual orientations who want a committed, long-term partnership someday would benefit from reading Marry Him . Don't let the funny and provocative title fool you. If you've based relationships on criteria that may not matter long-term, lost perspective or swiped left on the right partner for all the wrong reasons, you have to read this book. Psychologist Lori Gottleib is full of major truth bombs on getting out of your own way when it comes to finding true love and your own, authentic happily ever after.

Price: ₹800

4. Zero To One by Peter Thiel

"What important truth do very few people agree with you on?" This is the question at the heart of Zero To One , a short, powerful book about deliberate creation, believing in your own vision no matter how contrarian, and making something out of nothing. Although it's primarily about building startups, the lessons are quite universal. (PS - If you've never heard of Peter Thiel, he's a leading entrepreneur and investor who co-founded PayPal, invested early in Facebook, and more.)

Price: ₹312

5. Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

“You are growing into consciousness, and my wish for you is that you feel no need to constrict yourself to make other people comfortable ."

How do you live in a world that does not treat you as an equal human based on your identity? This is the question at the heart of Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between The World And Me . Written as a letter from a father to his son, it explores the specific realities of being black in the United States, but also contains insights on being "a conscious citizen of this terrible and beautiful world" that would universally resonate with anyone who lives in the world today.

Price: ₹467

6. The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko

Unlike the glamorous, consumerist image of the millionaire depicted in media, the majority of high net worth individuals tend to be self-made, have regular jobs, and live modest lives. This practical and engaging book explores how these people accumulate and grow their wealth, and offers key lessons in personal finance.

Price: ₹849

7. Goals! by Brian Tracy

If you know what you want, but struggle to get there, Goals! is #goals when it comes to goal-setting and goal-achieving. It simplifies the process down to a system that can be used by anyone to achieve any goal, no matter how small or big.

Price: ₹218

8. How Not To Die by Michael Greger

Eating is something we do everyday, and good nutrition can help us reverse disease, defy our genes and get healthy. This book offers scientifically-proven nutrition strategies to prevent the most common diseases (like heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, and diabetes) and helps you make simple dietary shifts towards exponentially better health.

Price: ₹284

9. Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

First published in 1937, this bestselling book has principles that hold true to this day. For decades, Napolean Hill interviewed some of the wealthiest, most successful people about how they achieved their wealth and well-being. Based on this, he created actionable principles for self-improvement and success.

10. The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

This bestselling book (now a popular Netflix show) by Japanese organising consultant Marie Kondo is about picturing your ideal, uniquely personal lifestyle and then discarding everything that doesn't suit it. Although it's primarily about decluttering, keeping only that which "sparks joy" in your space using the KonMari method tends to have dramatic consequences for the rest of your life too. Taking control of their space has helped Marie Kondo's clients become more themselves in other ways like getting fit, ending toxic relationships, launching their own businesses, and more.

Price: ₹966

11. Adulting by Kelly Williams Brown

This is a hilarious how-to-be-an-adult guide for people who still feel, well, not-grown-up-enough. From setting up a comfortable home to breaking up with frenemies to avoiding common, stupid mistakes, this book covers it all in a relatable tone.

Price: ₹806

12. The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone

Most people operate with only three degrees of action — no action, retreat, or normal action. But to attain big goals quickly you need to take the fourth degree of action — "massive action" also known as the 10x rule. Narrated in a very no-bullshit tone, The 10x Rule will help you break out of apathy, take risks, gain momentum, and crush your goals.

Price: ₹1,306

13. Quiet: The Power Of Introverts In A World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

One third to half of people are introverts — they prefer less stimulating environments, enjoy quiet concentration, listen more than they talk, and think before they speak. However, culture today idealises and rewards extroverts, which has led to many introverts giving into the culture of personality and masking as extroverts to fit in. They lose touch with who they really are, along with their unique powers, like focus, imagination, and depth. Cain argues that big ideas and great leadership can come from introverts too, and advocates for individual awareness of the strengths of introversion as well as societal understanding and inclusion of people of various temperaments. If you've been described as sensitive, serious, shy or quiet, this book is a must-read.

Price: ₹516

14. The 48 Laws Of Power by Robert Greene

This amoral best-selling book for those who "want power, watch power, or want to arm themselves against power" educates you on the nature of power through the successful and not-so-successful strategies of historical figures of the past. Perfect for twenty-somethings or anyone who feels they need to break out of their naïveté.

Price: ₹449

15. Lean In: Women, Work, And The Will To Lead by Sheryl Sandberg

Lean In is Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's bestseller about work-life balance and the gender leadership gap. It examines structural issues that pressurise women into leaving successful careers to be homemakers, "imposter syndrome" and how female ambition is perceived differently (ambitious women are less liked; women face more scrutiny and are promoted basis their proven track record, while men are promoted based on their "potential"). Backed with statistics as well as personal anecdotes, Lean In also offers practical advice for individuals, organisations, and society to create better opportunities for women to thrive in the workplace.

Price: ₹274

16. WomanCode by Alissa Vitti

There's little research or funding devoted to women's health, so it's unsurprising that most women don't even know their own biology. WomanCode fills this gap, helping educate and empower you about your hormones, menstrual cycle, fertility, and health. You learn to manage your period and any period-related issues (including PCOS, endometriosis and more), hormones and endocrine function. Vitti provides guidance on minimising environmental toxins and improving your diet to be in harmony with your feminine energy and your body's natural rhythm. (Fun fact, actress Frieda Pinto counts this book as a must-read. In an interview with New York magazine, she said: "It’s no longer, 'Oh, I’m PMSing.' I don’t even use that term anymore. I just say, 'I’m in the luteal phase.'")

Price: ₹938

17. Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

In this book, psychiatrist Viktor E Frankl shares his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. He shares his idea of "meaning", purpose (every patient has unique, deeply personal reasons to be alive that are connected to their life purpose), having a positive outlook on life, and his theory and method of psychoanalysis. Although written in 1946, it contains lessons on grit, survival, and purpose that hold true across place and time.

Price: ₹224

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The 22 best books to read in your 20s, from captivating memoirs to personal finance guides

When you buy through our links, Business Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

• Your 20s are probably spent answering some fundamental questions and gaining basic skills.
• I asked my coworkers to share the books that were most important to them in their "defining decade."
• You'll find everything from essay collections and memoirs to money guides and cookbooks .

As for many others, my 20s have been a decade of nonstop growth. From learning how to budget and cook to discovering my  broader career goals , going to therapy , and slowly figuring out what makes me happy , I've leaned on friends and family to help me grapple with the big questions. 

But just as often, my colleagues and I have found books to be our best teachers. In what psychologist Dr. Meg Jay has nicknamed a " defining decade, " we've grown from culture essay collections , no-nonsense investing guides , and cookbooks that are so accessible, they could teach a martian how to fry a salmon filet. 

Below, you'll find the books the Insider team relied on the most in our 20s.

22 books to read in your 20s:

General advice, relatable memoirs, essays, and poetry, career and money, relationships, "the defining decade: why your twenties matter — and how to make the most of them now" by meg jay.

Available at Audible , Amazon , Barnes & Noble , and Twelve Books  

This is the first book I read after graduating college at 22 and it helped me think critically about what lay ahead — in relationships, work, and mental wellness. The author is a clinical psychologist who weaves together anecdotes from her 20-something clients and her own observations and research to encourage readers to be proactive and not reactive in all areas of life.

Your 20s are a "developmental sweet spot," Jay says, and not the throwaway years they were once assumed to be. The book was updated in 2021 and includes even more tools and practical insights for the digital generation. — Tanza Loudenback, personal finance correspondent

"F*ck! I'm in My Twenties" by Emma Koenig

Available at Amazon

A friend gifted me this book when I, like many, was struggling with the many question marks that come with the transition out of undergrad. This quick, hilarious read mostly consists of hand-drawn graphics and notes — all of which are a bit too honest in a way that's incredibly refreshing.

Not much can quell the anxiety of feeling like you have absolutely no idea what you're doing at all times (sigh), but commiserating with Koenig's incredibly true sentiments did ease the uncertainty a bit. — Emily Hein, senior story producer

“How to Be a Person in the World: Ask Polly's Guide Through the Paradoxes of Modern Life” by Heather Havrilesky

Available at Audible , Amazon , and Bookshop

After reading every single Ask Polly column in The Cut , I went back to The Awl's archives — that's how good Heather's writing is. If you're the type of 20something who feels too complicated and messy for the world or like your emotions are always a massive inconvenience to other people, Heather is an expert in honoring your feelings and moving past shame (while also finding tangible solutions to your problems). — Julia Pugachevsky, education and personal development editor

"Maybe You Should Talk to Someone" by Lori Gottlieb

Available at Audible , Amazon , Barnes & Noble , and Bookshop.org

In "Maybe You Should Talk to Someone," psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb talks about her own experience in therapy as well as the sessions she conducts with diverse patients — a self-involved Hollywood producer, a young newlywed with a terminal illness, a twenty-something with dissatisfying relationships, and an isolated senior citizen.

As we weave through these intimate vignettes, we're able to see A.) what therapy is like and learn some lessons that apply to everyone , and B.) Find solace in how similar most people's desires are, making us feel less alone. This book gave me a newer, deeper perspective on myself and other people — and helped me to prioritize going to therapy myself. — Mara Leighton, senior education and personal development reporter

"I Might Regret This" by Abbi Jacobson

Available at Audible and Amazon

"I Might Regret This" is a must-read for anyone in their 20s who's grappling with self-discovery, coming into their own queerness, or learning how to embrace their own vulnerability. Abbi's authenticity and openness when discussing her journey into comedy (both before and beyond "Broad City"), her recent breakup, and her solo cross country road trip reads with a level of humanity that's not often seen in celebrity memoirs or essay collections.

There is no better feeling than another person's vulnerability allowing you to feel comfortable with your own insecurities, and "I Might Regret This" accomplishes exactly that. The stream-of-consciousness-like recounts of anxious thoughts — particularly those about struggling to fall asleep or potential ways in which Abbi and her ex could run into each other — were the highlight for me, but this relatable and poignant essay collection is likely to have something for everyone. — Emily Hein, senior story producer

“The Year of Magical Thinking” by Joan Didion

This is probably the book I gift the most. It's written in the aftermath of Didion's partner of 40 years, John Dunne, unexpectedly passing away one evening at dinner. Didion writes about the strange and bottomless experience of grief and, relatedly, love, with the wisdom of a person who has lived many years intentionally. It's the kind of birds-eye-view — the missive from that dreaded island of "this is what it's like to lose what really matters" — that helps put life into perspective. Like Didion, it's intimate, secular, unfussy, and shrewdly perceptive.

Whenever I think of it, I feel a rush of gratitude for the people in my life — and a renewed peace in putting them first whenever possible. Or, as John Leonard from New York Review of Books put it , "I can't imagine dying without this book." — Mara Leighton, senior education and personal development reporter

“Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail” by Cheryl Strayed

Cheryl was 22 when her mother died — an event that left her feeling wholly untethered and ultimately led to her divorce. At 26, Cheryl decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail by herself, walking over a thousand miles completely on her own. While Cheryl's experience is extraordinary and perhaps not directly relatable to most readers, her storytelling makes this book transcend beyond the simple retelling of a hiking adventure. It's a highly inspiring, spiritual read, mandatory for anyone who feels stuck or limited in their own power to transform their life. — Julia Pugachevsky, education and personal development editor

"Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion" by Jia Tolentino

Available at Audible , Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Divided into nine different essays, "Trick Mirror," critiques the way we engage and perceive modern life. Jia Tolentino writes in such a way that challenges the reader to examine how the internet, pop culture, politics, and so much more, shapes us, especially in a time where everything centers around the self. This collection of essays is powerful, witty, and a conversation starter. — Alexa Bleustein, e-commerce analyst

“Devotions” by Mary Oliver

Available at Amazon , Barnes & Noble , and Bookshop.org

This is one more book I love to gift . Mary Oliver may have won a Pulitzer for poetry, but her writing is far from stuffy or overly intellectualized — even people I know who don't like poetry count her as an exception.

Oliver's poems — mainly about experiencing joy or wonder in nature — feel more like practicing meditation to me. You make a lot of important mistakes and decisions in your 20s, and this helps ground me in things I value — like joy, simplicity, and my own happy insignificance in the grand scheme of things — when I need the reminder. — Mara Leighton, senior education and personal development reporter

"Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear" by Elizabeth Gilbert

Available at Audible , Amazon and Bookshop

While she's best known for her bestseller "Eat, Pray, Love," Elizabeth Gilbert's "Big Magic" is filled with useful gems. As someone who considers herself a creative, I took away so many insights from this book that touches everything from imposter syndrome, writer's block, and putting your creative projects into the world.

Throughout the book, Gilbert challenges readers to consider that they may very well fail but should still do the things that scare them anyways —Maliah West, home & kitchen reviews fellow

"The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels" by Michael D. Watkins

Available at Audible , Amazon , Barnes & Noble , and Walmart

I read this book in one sitting and had a wild amount of notes once the last page was turned. It's a great read offering practical advice for promotions and job transitions alike. I read it during my last month of college to prepare for a new role for the following month, and I feel more prepared than ever to confidently start my first day. — Victoria Giardina, buying guides fellow

"Get Good with Money: Ten Simple Steps to Becoming Financially Whole" By Tiffany Aliche (The Budgetnista)

Tiffany Aliche lost her job as a pre-K teacher during the 2008 recession and was in huge debt after being scammed by a shady advisor. She moved back in with her parents as she slowly worked her way out of her financial hole, developing budgeting tips and building her financial education brand, The Budgetnista , along the way.

With the expertise and realness of someone who actually knows what it's like to be in debt, Aliche addresses all the money-related questions you might have. — Julia Pugachevsky, education and personal development editor 

"The Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey

Available at Amazon and Bookshop

"The Total Money Makeover" gives you a game plan for how to use your money to serve yourself, serve others, and save for retirement. The backbone of the book is the "Baby Steps." They are, in order: Save $1,000 fast for an emergency fund, pay off debts smallest to largest, build a larger emergency fund, maximize retirement investing, work on kids' college fund, pay off a mortgage, and build wealth like crazy.

The book has strong Christian themes, but I'm not religious and still found it incredibly useful. — James Brains, home & kitchen reporter

"The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need" by Andrew Tobias

"The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need" is one of those books that I wish I had been introduced to much sooner. Andrew Tobias offers up a lot of advice, big and small, on how to live in a financially responsible way. In this guide, he'll walk you through the often-confusing world of the stock market, how to deal with and avoid debt, and he'll even try to convince you to cut your own hair. Better still, this book is written in a funny, approachable way that even those with limited attention spans can appreciate. — Tercius Bufete, deals editor

"It's About Damn Time: How to Turn Being Underestimated into Your Greatest Advantage" by Arlan Hamilton

As someone still in my 20s, I think about this book a lot. I loved reading about Arlan Hamilton and her story of becoming a self-taught venture capitalist. Her vulnerability and honesty is beyond inspirational as I navigate the early years of my career. Additionally, Hamilton provides anecdotes throughout the entire book about being a queer, Black woman in a predominantly white, male-dominated industry. I cannot recommend this book more. — Anna Popp, home and kitchen fellow

“How to Cook Everything” by Mark Bittman

Historically, I love to eat but hate to cook. Mark Bittman's no-knead recipe got me into baking bread (like everyone else) this year, and I eventually bought his cookbook .

If you're learning to cook from scratch, I highly recommend buying this book. Bittman's tone is descriptive and conversational, and his recipes are diverse and pragmatic. Even the construction of the cookbook, which Bittman writes he wanted to be "as much reference as recipe collection" is designed for newcomers.

Since most people who don't like cooking cite their inability to be spontaneous, he's created a comprehensive index so you can search by ingredient (e.g. tofu) or recipe (e.g. brownies) quickly. In other words, this book was completely designed for newbies — and if even I can feel comfortable cooking because of it , so can you. — Mara Leighton, senior education and personal development reporter

“Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking” by Samin Nosrat

For someone who loves learning about food and the science of cooking just as much as eating, "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" is one of my most revisited books on my shelf. Whether you love, hate, or know nothing about the kitchen, Nosrat's book gives you everything you need to make good food, with or without a recipe.

The first part is all about the four elements of cooking: salt, fat, acid, heat. From the different types of fats and salts to the pH levels of foods, you'll learn everything from how to make mayonnaise with just oil and an egg to how to work the four elements together to create the perfect meal. You'll find recipes and more explainers in the second half of the book, along with a list of pantry and kitchen essentials inside the book cover.

Beautifully illustrated, this modern-day Betty Crocker will transform your relationship with cooking for years to come. You can also check out the Netflix series based on the book. — Allison Arnold, story production fellow

"Appetites: A Cookbook" by Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever

A bare-bones crash course in kitchen basics filled with flippant (if agreeable) proclamations on how anything and everything should and shouldn't be done, I wish this book were around when I was in my twenties. This guide grazes just about any kitchen technique you'd want to learn without getting too technical or dragging you too far into the weeds, from a basic omelet to Portuguese stew and mapo tofu. You get a taste of the cuisines of the world, along with the occasional history lesson. (For example, I had no clue that the classic Caesar salad was of Mexican origin.)

Moreover, though, you can really get a feel for basic flavor profiles and food pairings and run wild with them. Use the recipes in this book as anything from a vague sketch to a meticulous set of blueprints. Either way, your home cooking will be all the better for it. I only wish my twenty-something, straight-out-of-school self had something as colorful, evocative, and inspiring as this sitting next to the hot plate and toaster oven in my efficiency studio back then.

This book just makes you want to cook and have fun in the kitchen. The classics, like Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" , are great and all, but not exactly page-turners, and certainly not at whatever bleary-eyed state I would have been in when turning to their expertise. — Owen Burke, senior home and kitchen reporter 

“Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar” by Cheryl Strayed

Adding another Cheryl Strayed to this list! I read this book when I was in my mid-20s and I really loved so much of the advice from Cheryl, particularly around love and dating.

If you're someone who's afraid of commitment or terrified of breaking up, Cheryl's advice in these letters is firm but kind — she doesn't sugarcoat that things will be peachy when you first leave your long-term partner, but she also reassures you that living your authentic truth is the only real path forward, using experiences from her own life as examples that things still turn out ok. — Julia Pugachevsky, education and personal development editor

"How to Hug a Porcupine: Easy Ways to Love Difficult People in Your Life" by June Eding

I got this book to navigate my relationships with family members and I found it incredibly helpful. It gave me an alternative perspective on people I struggle to get along with and I learned effective tips on communication, patience, and showing grace. I also learned how I can sometimes be difficult as well, so it's an all-around insightful and reflective book. — Anna Popp, home and kitchen fellow

"The Art of Showing Up: How to Be There for Yourself and Your People" by Rachel Wilkerson Miller

Friendships in your 20s can be hard — especially when your college friends move away and you have to more actively stay in touch, or when your respective jobs get more involved and it's hard to keep up.

This book is cleverly laid out into two big sections — showing up for yourself, and showing up for other people — because you can't really show up for your relationships if you're spreading yourself too thin or overcommitting to plans you hate. — Julia Pugachevsky, education and personal development editor

“Single, Dating, Engaged, Married: Navigating Life and Love in the Modern Age” by Ben Stuart

Whether it's the enneagram, love languages, or listening to podcasts, I love learning about new perspectives on relationship dynamics. Stuart's book is a faith-based overview of each major relational life stage, chock full of research and how to enjoy the season of life you're currently in. It's one of the best books I've read, by far — especially if you're in college or in your early 20s. — Victoria Giardina, buying guides fellow

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9 Books That Will Make 20-Somethings Feel Seen

If you find yourself struggling to read as much as you used to, you’re not alone. We’re all fairly inundated with distractions—whether it’s the news or work or just needing a little sleep. And anyone who tries to make you feel bad about this needs to chill because as twentysomethings, we have enough to feel bad about.

Everyone I know—including myself—has all kinds of anxieties about the state of the world , let alone the state of our futures, so, I get it. It can be hard to turn that all off to get into a book for a few hours. But I urge you to try—because sometimes, a good book might just be the reassurance we need that life will be okay. Or that our fears and pains are normal. Or that there’s just beauty and hope that still exists around us. These books, I’ve found, give equal doses of inspiration and comfort—even if the subject matter can veer into darker territories. These aren’t the only books you should read when you’re in your twenties, but they uniquely tap into the emotions and experiences we go through. At the very least, I hope they inspire a trip to your local independent bookstore.

“A Room Called Earth” – Madeleine Ryan

Going to a party is always a loaded occasion, but it’s even more so for neurodivergent people. While I’m not on the spectrum myself, I found that Madeleine Ryan’s “A Room Called Earth” was a call home for all anxious, overthinking partygoers.

The book takes place over one single night, as the protagonist mulls over her life while also observing the idiosyncrasies of the people at a party. It’s an earnest, lovely, and kind examination of one’s foibles and strengths, and it easily became one of my favorite books of the last few years.

“Luster” – Raven Leilani

Sexuality in the modern age is a weird, ever-evolving topic, and it becomes even stranger to navigate when you’re a minority. In a time when it’s easier than ever to commodify and pornify intimacy, Raven Leilani has created a novel that will make you uncomfortable with how accurate it is.

“Luster” follows a young Black woman’s experience getting involved in an open marriage, where the husband is rough with her and the wife becomes a strange role model. The arrangement is only made more complicated when she strikes up a bond with their adopted daughter, the only Black girl in her whole neighborhood. It’s a sobering read, and many times you’ll wish you could be there to support her, only to realize that she reminds you of someone in your own life.

“My Year of Rest and Relaxation” – Ottessa Moshfegh

Who else has sleep issues and is perpetually tormented by the post-capitalistic hellscape we were born into? Haha…yeah. I don’t think this book was meant to be a comforting read, and yet somehow, the protagonist’s blithe rejection of modern life was something of a terrifying triumph to follow.

The protagonist is a beautiful, well-educated socialite, but she’s completely alone, following the death of her parents. This pairs poorly with the incompetence of her new psychiatrist, who freely prescribes her whatever she asks for. What results is her attempt to sleep for an entire year, aided by medication. It’s a dark and intense read, one that I wouldn’t recommend for those who struggle with substance abuse issues, but I will say, it was critically acclaimed for a reason.

“The New Me” – Halle Butler

This book is tonally very similar to “My Year of Rest and Relaxation,” but is a touch more grounded in nature. The protagonist, Millie, is similarly dissatisfied with her life and the world around her, having entered her thirties still seeking work through temp agencies. But unlike Ottessa’s protagonist, Millie soldiers on through it, even if she doesn’t believe in what she’s working towards.

While Millie isn’t in her twenties anymore, I found that her feelings of malaise struck true in me and my friends, as we struggle to find purpose in what we do (during an era that feels so removed from reality). At times, you want to shake Millie, tell her to get a hold of herself—but at the end of the day, she’s really just like us.

“Memorial” – Bryan Washington

Interracial dating is…hard, to say the least. And it’s especially difficult to maintain long-term relationships in today’s modern hookup culture. Such a topic has merited a thorough and intimate examination for a long time, and Bryan Washington handled it with immense grace and talent.

“Memorial” is a book about mourning and yearning. Benson still wants to make things work with Mike, but they’re at a point where they’re wondering if it’s still worth it. Then, Mike’s father in Osaka calls to tell him he’s dying, and with little warning, he leaves to be with him. At the same time, his mother arrives in Texas, and now Benson is strapped with taking care of her—as well as her foul temper. It’s a gorgeous book, one of my absolute favorite quarantine reads, and I’m incredibly excited for its a24 TV show in the works .

“The Idiot” – Elif Batuman

Full disclosure, I’m not done with this book yet—it’s been on my list forever and, like many, I’m just not as “good” of a reader as I used to be—but it’s proved to be worth all of the critical acclaims it’s received, and then some. Never have I felt so sympathetic towards a complete and utter “idiot.”

But Selin isn’t really an idiot. She attends Harvard after all, for what that’s worth. It’s more that she’s…romantically challenged. And while I wouldn’t say I was ever as dense as she was, I could still relate to her constant overthinking and over-analyzing of the ins and outs of intimacy, the “etiquette” of it all…it’s both frustrating and incredibly, incredibly real.

“Transcendent Kingdom” – Yaa Gyasi

The traditional American narrative of one’s twenties is gallivanting in reckless excess, but for most immigrant families, the story is fairly different. “Transcendent Kingdom” is such a story, following its incredibly likable protagonist Gifty, whose Ghanaian family goes through intense hardships that continue to affect her well into her twenties.

It’s not a story I could relate to much at all, yet I was glued to each and every page. Yaa Gyasi is one of the most talented authors of our time, and her ability to weave prose into her storytelling is seamless and captivating. Just as captivating was Gifty’s internal monologue, whether she’s examining the mice in her grad lab, or going to church and wondering why.

“The Goldfinch” – Donna Tartt

I’m a little peeved that Donna Tartt’s canon got lumped into the “dark academia” trend because in my opinion, it made her books seem like their only value was in their trendiness. Not trying to gatekeep , just trying to say, there’s a lot more to her writing than a simple aesthetic trend.

“The Goldfinch,” in particular, made me weep at 3 in the morning. Although it follows Theo’s journey from childhood to adulthood, the intense way it dissects and experiences grief is unbelievably cathartic, even though Theo’s circumstances were extraordinary. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone, if only to enjoy Tartt’s immense gift for storytelling.

“Just Kids” – Patti Smith

It’s autobiographical, sure, but sometimes it feels good to read about someone whose life could very well be yours. I first read “Just Kids” as an eighteen-year-old, about to ship off to college, and I really believe it was one of those transformative books that made me who I am today. Years later, it still has a tangible effect on me.

Patti Smith writes in a way that’s idealistic, almost to a fault, which is probably why it made such an impression on me as a kid. But I think there’s a beauty in that which our generation could stand to learn from. We’re so jaded and distanced from our passions, and at times, it can be difficult to remember the value in authentic artistry. “Just Kids,” in that regard, is a reminder that love, in all forms, is beautiful, and loving our art, and our people, as genuinely and earnestly as possible is what makes us who we are.

(Featured Image: Paramount)

The Best Nonfiction Books of 2024, So Far

Here’s what memoirs, histories, and essay collections we’re indulging in this spring.

Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

Truth-swallowing can too often taste of forced medicine. Where the most successful nonfiction triumphs is in its ability to instruct, encourage, and demand without spoon-feeding. Getting to read and reward this year’s best nonfiction, then, is as much a treat as a lesson. I can’t pretend to be as intelligent, empathetic, self-knowledgeable, or even as well-read as many of the authors on this list. But appreciating the results of their labors is a more-than-sufficient consolation.

Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture by Kyle Chayka

There’s a lot to ponder in the latest project from New Yorker writer Kyle Chayka, who elegantly argues that algorithms have eroded—if not erased—the essential development of personal taste. As Chayka puts forth in Filterworld , the age of flawed-but-fulfilling human cultural curation has given way to the sanitization of Spotify’s so-called “Discover” playlists, or of Netflix’s Emily in Paris, or of subway tile and shiplap . There’s perhaps an old-school sanctimony to this criticism that some readers might chafe against. But there’s also a very real and alarming truth to Chayka’s insights, assembled alongside interviews and examples that span decades, mediums, and genres under the giant umbrella we call “culture.” Filterworld is the kind of book worth wrestling with, critiquing, and absorbing deeply—the antithesis of mindless consumption.

American Girls: One Woman's Journey Into the Islamic State and Her Sister's Fight to Bring Her Home by Jessica Roy

In 2019, former ELLE digital director Jessica Roy published a story about the Sally sisters , two American women who grew up in the same Jehovah’s Witness family and married a pair of brothers—but only one of those sisters ended up in Syria, her husband fighting on behalf of ISIS. American Girls , Roy’s nonfiction debut, expands upon that story of sibling love, sibling rivalry, abuse and extremism, adding reams of reporting to create a riveting tale that treats its subjects with true empathy while never flinching from the reality of their choices.

Leonor: The Story of a Lost Childhood by Paula Delgado-Kling

In this small but gutting work of memoir-meets-biography, Colombian journalist Paula Delgado-King chronicles two lives that intersect in violence: hers, and that of Leonor, a Colombian child solider who was beckoned into the guerilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) only to endure years of death and abuse. Over the course of 19 years, Delgago-King followed Leonor through her recruitment into FARC; her sexual slavery to a man decades her senior; her eventual escape; and her rehabilitation. The author’s resulting account is visceral, a clear-eyed account of the utterly human impact wrought by war.

Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum by Antonia Hylton

A meticulous work of research and commitment, Antonia Hylton’s Madness takes readers deep inside the nearly century-old history of Maryland’s Crownsville State Hospital, one of the only segregated mental asylums with records—and a campus—that remain to this day. Featuring interviews with both former Crownsville staff and family members of those who lived there, Madness is a radically complex work of historical study, etching the intersections of race, mental health, criminal justice, public health, memory, and the essential quest for human dignity.

Come Together: The Science (and Art!) of Creating Lasting Sexual Connections by Emily Nagoski

Out January 30.

Emily Nagoski’s bestselling Come As You Are opened up a generations-wide conversation about women and their relationship with sex: why some love it, why some hate it, and why it can feel so impossible to find help or answers in either camp. In Come Together , Nagoski returns to the subject with a renewed focus on pleasure—and why it is ultimately so much more pivotal for long-term sexual relationships than spontaneity or frequency. This is not only an accessible, gentle-hearted guide to a still-taboo topic; it’s a fascinating exploration of how our most intimate connections can not just endure but thrive.

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis by Jonathan Blitzer

A remarkable volume—its 500-page length itself underscoring the author’s commitment to the complexity of the problem—Jonathan Blitzer’s Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here tracks the history of the migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border through the intimate accounts of those who’ve lived it. In painstaking detail, Blitzer compiles the history of the U.S.’s involvement in Central America, and illustrates how foreign and immigration policies have irrevocably altered human lives—as well as tying them to one another. “Immigrants have a way of changing two places at once: their new homes and their old ones,” Blitzer writes. “Rather than cleaving apart the worlds of the U.S., El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, the Americans were irrevocably binding them together.”

How to Live Free in a Dangerous World: A Decolonial Memoir by Shayla Lawson

Out February 6.

“I used to say taking a trip was just a coping mechanism,” writes Shayla Lawson in their travel-memoir-in-essays How to Live Free in a Dangerous World . “I know better now; it’s my way of mapping the Earth, so I know there’s something to come back to.” In stream-of-consciousness prose, the This Is Major author guides the reader through an enthralling journey across Zimbabwe, Japan, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Bermuda, and beyond, using each location as the touchstone for their essays exploring how (and why) race, gender, grief, sexuality, beauty, and autonomy impact their experience of a land and its people. There’s a real courage and generosity to Lawson’s work; readers will find much here to embolden their own self-exploration.

Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See by Bianca Bosker

There’s no end to the arguments for “why art matters,” but in our era of ephemeral imagery and mass-produced decor, there is enormous wisdom to be gleaned from Get the Picture , Bianca Bosker’s insider account of art-world infatuation. In this new work of nonfiction, readers have the pleasure of following the Cork Dork author as she embeds herself amongst the gallerists, collectors, painters, critics, and performers who fill today’s contemporary scene. There, they teach her (and us) what makes art art— and why that question’s worth asking in an increasingly fractured world.

Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti

A profoundly unusual, experimental, yet engrossing work of not-quite-memoir, Sheila Heti’s Alphabetical Diaries is exactly what its title promises: The book comprises a decade of the author’s personal diaries, the sentences copied and pasted into alphabetical order. Each chapter begins with a new letter, all the accumulated sentences starting with “A”, then “B,” and so forth. The resulting effect is all but certain to repel some readers who crave a more linear storyline, but for those who can understand her ambition beyond the form, settling into the rhythm of Heti’s poetic observations gives way to a rich narrative reward.

Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes by Chantha Nguon

Out February 20.

“Even now, I can taste my own history,” writes Chantha Nguon in her gorgeous Slow Noodles . “One occupying force tried to erase it all.” In this deeply personal memoir, Nguon guides us through her life as a Cambodian refugee from the Khmer Rouge; her escapes to Vietnam and Thailand; the loss of all those she loved and held dear; and the foods that kept her heritage—and her story—ultimately intact. Interwoven with recipes and lists of ingredients, Nguon’s heart-rending writing reinforces the joy and agony of her core thesis: “The past never goes away.”

Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story by Leslie Jamison

The first time I stumbled upon a Leslie Jamison essay on (the platform formerly known as) Twitter, I was transfixed; I stayed in bed late into the morning as I clicked through her work, swallowing paragraphs like Skittles. But, of course, Jamison’s work is so much more satisfying than candy, and her new memoir, Splinters , is Jamison operating at the height of her talents. A tale of Jamison’s early motherhood and the end of her marriage, the book is unshrinking, nuanced, radiant, and so wondrously honest—a referendum on the splintered identities that complicate and comprise the artist, the wife, the mother, the woman.

The Great Wave: The Era of Radical Disruption and the Rise of the Outsider by Michiko Kakutani

The former chief book critic of the New York Times , Michiko Kakutani is not only an invaluable literary denizen, but also a brilliant observer of how politics and culture disrupt the mechanics of power and influence. In The Great Wave , she turns our attention toward global instability as epitomized by figures such as Donald Trump and watershed moments such as the creation of AI. In the midst of these numerous case studies, she argues for how our deeply interconnected world might better weather the competing crises that threaten to submerge us, should we not choose to better understand them.

Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection by Charles Duhigg

From the author of the now-ubiquitous The Power of Habit arrives Supercommunicators , a head-first study of the tools that make conversations actually work . Charles Duhigg makes the case that every chat is really about one of three inquiries (“What’s this about?” “How do we feel?” or “Who are we?”) and knowing one from another is the key to real connection. Executives and professional-speaker types are sure to glom on to this sort of work, but my hope is that other, less business-oriented motives might be satisfied by the logic this volume imbues.

Whiskey Tender by Deborah Jackson Taffa

Out February 27.

“Tell me your favorite childhood memory, and I’ll tell you who you are,” or so writes Deborah Jackson Taffa in Whiskey Tender , her memoir of assimilation and separation as a mixed-tribe Native woman raised in the shadow of a specific portrait of the American Dream. As a descendant of the Quechan (Yuma) Nation and Laguna Pueblo tribe, Taffa illustrates her childhood in New Mexico while threading through the histories of her parents and grandparents, themselves forever altered by Indian boarding schools, government relocation, prison systems, and the “erasure of [our] own people.” Taffa’s is a story of immense and reverent heart, told with precise and pure skill.

Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley

With its chapters organized by their position in the infamous five stages of grief, Sloane Crosley’s Grief is For People is at times bracingly funny, then abruptly sober. The effect is less like whiplash than recognition; anyone who has lost or grieved understands the way these emotions crash into each other without warning. Crosley makes excellent use of this reality in Grief is For People , as she weaves between two wrenching losses in her own life: the death of her dear friend Russell Perreault, and the robbery of her apartment. Crosley’s resulting story—short but powerful—is as difficult and precious and singular as grief itself.

American Negra by Natasha S. Alford

In American Negra , theGrio and CNN journalist Natasha S. Alford turns toward her own story, tracing the contours of her childhood in Syracuse, New York, as she came to understand the ways her Afro-Latino background built her—and set her apart. As the memoir follows Alford’s coming-of-age from Syracuse to Harvard University, then abroad and, later, across the U.S., the author highlights how she learned to embrace the cornerstones of intersectionality, in spite of her country’s many efforts to encourage the opposite.

The House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul

Out March 5.

A raw and assured account by one of the most famous queer icons of our era, RuPaul’s memoir, The House of Hidden Meanings , promises readers arms-wide-open access to the drag queen before Drag Race . Detailing his childhood in California, his come-up in the drag scene, his own intimate love story, and his quest for living proudly in the face of unceasing condemnation, The House of Hidden Meanings is easily one of the most intriguing celebrity projects of the year.

Here After by Amy Lin

Here After reads like poetry: Its tiny, mere-sentences-long chapters only serve to strengthen its elegiac, ferocious impact. I was sobbing within minutes of opening this book. But I implore readers not to avoid the heavy subject matter; they will find in Amy Lin’s memoir such a profound and complex gift: the truth of her devotion to her husband, Kurtis, and the reality of her pain when he died suddenly, with neither platitudes nor hyperbole. This book is a little wonder—a clear, utterly courageous act of love.

Thunder Song by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe

Red Paint author and poet Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe returns this spring with a rhythmic memoir-in-essays called Thunder Song , following the beats of her upbringing as a queer Coast Salish woman entrenched in communities—the punk and music scenes, in particular—that did not always reflect or respect her. Blending beautiful family history with her own personal memories, LaPointe’s writing is a ballad against amnesia, and a call to action for healing, for decolonization, for hope.

Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against "The Apocalypse" by Emily Raboteau

Out March 12.

In Emily Raboteau’s Lessons For Survival , the author (and novelist, essayist, professor, and street photographer) tells us her framework for the book is modeled loosely after one of her mother’s quilts: “pieced together out of love by a parent who wants her children to inherit a world where life is sustainable.” The essays that follow are meditations and reports on motherhood in the midst of compounding crises, whether climate change or war or racism or mental health. Through stories and photographs drawn from her own life and her studies abroad, Raboteau grounds the audience in the beauty—and resilience—of nature.

What to Read in 2024

Yael van der Wouden on The Safekeep

How to Read the 'Bridgerton' Books in Order

Shelf Life: R.O. Kwon

Remembering Bendel’s Legendary Morning Lineup

My Anxiety Had Something to Teach Me

The Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reads of 2024

Shelf Life: Miranda July

Kaliane Bradley on The Ministry of Time

Read an Excerpt from 'The Midnight Feast'

Shelf Life: Claire Messud

Honor Levy Says ‘Goodnight Meme’

28 books to read this summer

From absorbing histories to funny fiction and everything in between

According to experts, this is going to be the busiest summer for travel in almost 20 years. You’ll need books for all those trains, planes and automobiles (only in the passenger seats, please). Here are 28 books we’ve enjoyed this year that would make good company, from absorbing histories to funny fiction and everything in between.

‘The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq’

By Steve Coll

Nonfiction | The latest from Pulitzer Prize winner and former Washington Post writer and editor Coll is a bracing moment of clarity for anyone in the U.S. foreign policy establishment willing to listen. It revisits Saddam Hussein as a nuanced figure, not a caricature, reexamining the mutually reinforcing delusions of the Iraqi dictator and four U.S. administrations. (Penguin Press)

‘The Cemetery of Untold Stories’

By Julia Alvarez

Fiction | Alvarez’s new novel — like her pathbreaking “How the García Girls Lost Their Accents,” from 1991 — explores sisterhood, family secrets, and immigration and return. But it also charts new, at times surreal, territory for her, with its story of a celebrated Dominican American author who resolves to build a little house on some inherited land, where she literally buries her unfinished work. (Algonquin)

‘Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space’

By Adam Higginbotham

Nonfiction | Calamities and near misses have molded NASA as much as the giant leaps the agency has taken, and no tragedy is more indelible than the space shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986. Higginbotham’s book is a compelling, exhaustively researched and freshly told chronicle of the tragedy that traces its full arc. (Avid Reader)

‘City in Ruins’

By Don Winslow

Fiction | The final volume of Winslow’s City trilogy — and, apparently, his fiction-writing career — is a spectacular farewell. Over the course of the series (inspired by Virgil’s “Aeneid”), its hero, Danny Ryan, has gotten mixed up with the mob in his home state of Rhode Island and resurrected himself in Hollywood. In “City in Ruins,” Ryan has landed in Las Vegas, where past vendettas resurface in delightfully terrible ways. (William Morrow)

‘Come and Get It’

By Kiley Reid

Fiction | Reid’s novel examines the lives of young women at the University of Arkansas. There’s sex in it, but the real complications and most intimate details involve financial figures and the ways that unequal economic positions create clashing sets of values. Reid’s exquisitely calibrated tone slips tantalizingly between sympathy and satire. (Putnam)

‘Glad to the Brink of Fear: A Portrait of Ralph Waldo Emerson’

By James Marcus

Nonfiction | Much has been written about the brilliant essayist and transcendentalist pioneer, but Marcus’s work stands out for his passion for his subject and his understanding of what makes a successful biography. This book is delightful for any reader, however much (or little) they already know about Emerson. (Princeton)

‘Great Expectations’

By Vinson Cunningham

Fiction | A roman à clef about the first Obama presidential campaign, based on Cunningham’s own experiences, “Great Expectations” elegantly explores the mind of its young Black narrator as he struggles to divine his place in the nation. With an eye to questions of faith, Cunningham crafts a coming-of-age story that captures not only the soul of America but also the unquenchable thirst for meaning. (Hogarth)

‘Grief Is for People’

By Sloane Crosley

Nonfiction | Crosley, an essayist and novelist known for her humor, holds on to it here while telling the story of her best friend and his suicide in 2019. Her book is not a philosophical meditation on grief but an honest account of its cruelties and contradictions. It contains no lessons, no morals and no solutions. It is as messy, rollicking and chaotic as life is. (MCD)

‘The Hunter’

By Tana French

Fiction | French’s sequel to “The Searcher” brings readers back to rural Ireland, where retired Chicago police detective Cal Hooper is drawn into a long con involving the father of a young teen he has taken under his wing. This tense and moody novel burns slowly and beautifully, its plot unfolding mostly through conversations that hint at lurking trouble. (Viking)

‘The Husbands’

By Holly Gramazio

Fiction | In a world of endless choices — dating apps, shopping, games — why not romantic partners? Gramazio’s 31-year-old protagonist is thrown into a revolving door of possible husbands and possible lives, a fantastical way for her — and readers — to ponder the age-old question: “What if?” (Doubleday)

‘I Heard Her Call My Name’

By Lucy Sante

Nonfiction | In this memoir , Sante, an essayist on art and culture and the author of “Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York,” bounces between her experience of gender transition in 2021 and the eventful and well-told details of her entire life. It’s about the cost of trying to live two different lives: as a man or a woman, but also as a human being and a writer. (Penguin Press)

By Percival Everett

Fiction | Everett is a preeminent American author, and “James” is his sly response to “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” The title immediately suggests what he is up to with this subversive revision. In these pages, the enslaved man known as Jim can finally declare: “I will not let this condition define me. … My name became my own.” While Everett flashes his own brand of humor, the novel gathers speed and terror like a swelling storm. Its conclusion is equally shocking and exhilarating. (Doubleday)

‘Listen for the Lie’

By Amy Tintera

Fiction | Did Lucy kill her best friend years ago? She doesn’t remember, or so she says, and her attempt to put this all behind her is upended when a podcaster unearths the cold case. Tintera draws on our love of true crime, and podcasts about true crime, to create an entertaining and thoroughly modern mystery novel . (Celadon)

‘Long Island’

By Colm Tóibín

Fiction | In Colm Tóibín’s “Brooklyn” (2009), a young woman named Eilis Lacey left her home in Ireland for New York. This sequel revisits the themes of home and loss from a completely new perspective. Eilis is now in her 40s, the mother of two teenagers, and she learns of a dramatic secret her husband has been keeping. (Scribner)

‘The Mango Tree: A Memoir of Fruit, Florida, and Felony’

By Annabelle Tometich

Nonfiction | Tometich knew there would be headlines when her mother, Josefina, was arrested for using a pellet gun to shoot out the car window of a mango thief. But she was still surprised by how harshly people judged her Filipina immigrant mother. In seeking to understand the complexity of Josefina’s life, Tometich reveals the difficulties that many immigrants and multiracial families face. (Little, Brown)

‘The Ministry of Time’

By Kaliane Bradley

Fiction | Can a 21st-century British-Cambodian woman find love with a 19th-century officer of the British navy? That’s the question at the heart of Bradley’s debut , a delicious blend of historical fact, archaeological speculation and wacky fantasy. What feels initially like a time-traveling romance soon turns on curious questions about the possibility of moral progress. (Avid Reader)

By Phillip B. Williams

Fiction | In the 1830s, a mysterious woman named Saint uses magic to free enslaved people and help them build a magically hidden town near St. Louis named Ours. Williams finds new ways to ask age-old questions : How do we have both safety and freedom? What makes a ragtag group into a community? And most important, how do we find the missing parts of ourselves in other people? (Viking)

‘Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring’

By Brad Gooch

Nonfiction | Haring, a joyful artist best known for his “Radiant Baby” drawings — cartoon infants surrounded by rays of energy — influentially blurred the lines between art and commerce before dying from AIDS, at 31, in 1990. Gooch’s biography does exactly what biographies of the exceptionally famous should do: Gently, graciously, it reels in the myth, restoring the flesh-and-bone reality of its subject. (Harper)

By Justin Taylor

Fiction | Taylor’s second novel is a very serious story about the perniciousness of conspiracy thinking, wrapped in a very funny yarn about the possible reboot of “Rev Beach,” a short-lived but beloved teen drama in the vein of “The O.C.” Taylor captures some Don DeLillo-like paranoia (and humor), worried that living in a heavily mediated reality is messing with our heads. (Pantheon)

‘The Spoiled Heart’

By Sunjeev Sahota

Fiction | In “The Spoiled Heart,” Sahota, who has twice been nominated for the Booker Prize, makes a provocative, humane drama out of a labor union election and its two leading candidates: Nayan Olak, an affable, well-respected Anglo-Indian manager, and Megha Sharma, a smart young woman, also of Indian descent, fluent in the combative dialects of critical theory and identity politics. (Viking)

‘There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension’

By Hanif Abdurraqib

Nonfiction | The latest from award-winning poet and essayist Abdurraqib is part sports memoir, part love letter to Columbus, Ohio. The narrative is structured like a basketball game: divided into quarters, with “timeouts” where the flow of prose is punctuated by verse. Focused in part on LeBron James and his 2010 split from the Cleveland Cavaliers, it’s a book about who makes it and why, and what “making it” even means. (Random House)

‘This Strange Eventful History’

By Claire Messud

Fiction | Messud’s new novel was partly inspired by a 1,500-page memoir written by her paternal grandfather. The novel imagines how three generations of a family (the Cassars) rode the geopolitical waves from World War II into the 21st century. It’s a work of cavernous depth and relentless exploration, and makes us realize how much we know and how little we confess about our own families. (W.W. Norton)

‘An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s’

By Doris Kearns Goodwin

Nonfiction | There are hundreds of books about the politics of the 1960s, but the latest from the acclaimed historian Goodwin manages to be different. She and her husband, Richard, were extremely close to the Kennedys and Lyndon Johnson. Goodwin gives us hundreds of interesting vignettes about these historic characters, and she apportions credit for the landmark legislative accomplishments of the decade. (Simon & Schuster)

‘Wandering Stars’

By Tommy Orange

Fiction | Six years after his explosive debut, “There There,” Orange’s second novel expands that story’s universe of Native American characters struggling to define their identities. “Wandering Stars” stretches from 1864 to the present day to consider how a program of cultural annihilation designed by White society affects the descendants of a Cheyenne boy who barely survived a massacre against his people. (Knopf)

‘We Loved It All: A Memory of Life’

By Lydia Millet

Nonfiction | Acclaimed novelist Millet’s first foray into nonfiction is a profoundly evocative ode to life itself , in all its strange, wondrous and imperiled forms. She weaves disparate threads together expertly, reinforcing how our individual memories, our ancestral identities, and the future of human and nonhuman life are fundamentally inextricable. (W.W. Norton)

‘Whiskey Tender’

By Deborah Jackson Taffa

Nonfiction | Taffa, part of a mixed-tribe, mixed-race family, spent her early years on the Quechan (Yuma) reservation in southeastern California. By her late teens, living in New Mexico, she was disillusioned with the middle-class life her parents had “jerry-rigged” for her and longed for a deeper connection to her Native identity. Some reviewers have called this a “Native memoir,” but Taffa’s story is in fact distinctly American , full stop, and one that a country afraid of its own history needs to hear. (Harper)

‘The Women’

By Kristin Hannah

Fiction | Hannah’s latest historical novel is another best-selling, tear-jerking tragedy. The fate that befalls Frankie McGrath is multilayered, but all of it can be traced back to the moment she impulsively volunteers to be an Army nurse in Vietnam. Hannah does her characteristic best to have readers hanging on Frankie’s fate and that of a robust supporting cast. (St. Martin’s)

By Alexandra Tanner

Fiction | Tanner’s bitingly funny debut novel , set in the pre-pandemic months of 2019, follows two sisters as they slide into mutual isolation in their Brooklyn apartment. It is paced like the internet, full of petty micro-dramas, and it suggests that we were doomed to social isolation long before covid began to spread. (Scribner)

The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2024 (So Far)

Posted: May 24, 2024 | Last updated: May 28, 2024

When you want to learn about something, chances are the first thing you do is go running to Google. But there’s another way to live and to learn—a better way, we’d argue. It’s called cracking open a book .

To make sense of an ever-changing world, we recommend skipping Dr. Google and going straight to the experts. Do you want to expand your knowledge about hot-button issues like wealth inequality, algorithmic overload , and conservative culture wars? There’s a book for that. Or maybe you’re more of a memoir type, looking to glean information through other people’s lived experiences. Whether you’re interested in identity, grief , or marriage , there’s a book for that, too.

Whatever your persuasion as a reader and a learner may be, we’ve rounded up our favorite titles of the year for expanding your mind and heart. Here are the best nonfiction books of 2024 (so far), presented in publication order. Watch this space for updates—we’ll continue adding to our list as the year progresses.

1) Filterworld, by Kyle Chayka

Just how much do algorithms control our lives—and what can we do about it? In this eye-opening investigation, Chayka enumerates the insidious ways that algorithms have flattened our culture and circumscribed our lives, from our online echo chambers to the design of our coffee shops. But all is not lost: Chayka argues for a more conscientious consumption of culture, encouraging that we seek out trusted curators, challenging material, and spirited conversations. After reading Filterworld , you’ll be ready to start your own “algorithmic cleanse” and get back in touch with your humanity.

Read an interview with the author here at Esquire.

2) Limitarianism, by Ingrid Robeyns

“Billionaires shouldn’t exist”—or so goes the popular refrain. In this revolutionary volume, an ethicist expands that thought into a comprehensive plan to eradicate extreme wealth. Robeyns connects outrageous wealth to all manner of societal ills, from human-rights violations to the corporate ransacking of Earth’s natural resources. She also lays out a multi-pronged solution: We must legislate a wealth cap, she argues, coupled with measures like robust taxes and a universal basic income. Though we’re a long ways away from enacting Robeyns’s radical vision, Limitarianism is a thoughtful blueprint for the world so many of us want to live in—one where capitalism is curbed and greed is limited.

3) I Heard Her Call My Name, by Lucy Sante

In this candid and soulful memoir of gender transition, Sante recounts her experience of transitioning later in life, at age sixty-six. She describes an electrifying experiment with FaceApp’s “gender-swapping feature,” where the sight of her face (digitally altered to look more feminine) produced “one shock of recognition after another.” In one dimension of the memoir, Sante traces her realization of her true self and her process of coming out; in another, she reconsiders her entire life through the prism of what she knows now. Sante’s account of meeting her true self is arresting, intimate, and a work in progress. As she writes, "Transitioning is not an event but a process, and it will occupy the rest of my life as I go on changing."

4) This American Ex-Wife, by Lyz Lenz

In This American Ex-Wife , a blistering memoir-meets-manifesto about the fraught gender politics of marriage and divorce, Lenz details how the end of her marriage became the beginning of her life. Raised in a religious household and married at a young age, Lenz walked away from an unsatisfying partnership to rebuild her life on her own terms, only to discover that happiness and autonomy lay on the other side. Weaving together a detailed history of marriage, sociological research, cultural commentary, and a frank dissection of her own personal experiences, Lenz paints a damning portrait of marriage in America: “an institution built on the fundamental inequality of women.” Yet the book is also a rousing and exuberant cry for a reckoning—one in which couples can love freely, leave freely, and build meaningful partnerships based on the full and equal humanity of men and women alike.

5) Working in the 21st Century, by Mark Larson

Fifty years after Studs Terkel’s Working , a historian delivers a comprehensive sequel for the age of late-stage capitalism. Through a polyphonic oral history, Larson presents 101 conversations with American workers from all walks of life, including teachers, nurses, truck drivers, executives, dairy farmers, stay-at-home parents, wildland firefighters, funeral directors, and many more. In the wake of the pandemic and the Great Resignation, Larson’s subjects share their struggles to make ends meet, reckon with economic upheaval, and locate meaning and purpose in their work. Assembled in one thick volume, these often-fascinating anecdotes are a rich examination of modern-day economic anxiety and social change.

6) Splinters, by Leslie Jamison

In her latest bravura memoir, Jamison chronicles a wrenching period of rupture and rebirth. When their daughter was thirteen months old, Jamison and her husband separated; what followed was a brutal struggle to balance parenthood, work, dating, sobriety, and creative fulfillment, all while the pandemic loomed. Told in overlapping, ever-widening circles of thought, Splinters details Jamison’s struggle to inhabit the roles we ask of women: mother, daughter, lover, friend. At the same time, the book is an intimate tribute to the author’s rapturous love for her daughter. Splinters thrives in this messy, imperfect complexity—in “the difference between the story of love and the texture of living it, the story of motherhood and the texture of living it.” Honest, gutsy, and unflinching, Jamison scours herself clean here, finding exquisite, hard-won joy in the aftermath.

7) Whiskey Tender, by Deborah Jackson Taffa

Born on the California Yuma reservation and raised in Navajo Territory in New Mexico, Taffa situates her outstanding debut memoir in similar collisions of culture, land, and tradition. Here, she recalls the people and places that raised her—especially her parents, who pushed her to idealize the American dream and assimilate through education. Taffa layers in diligent research about her mixed-race, mixed-tribe heritage, highlighting little-known Native American history and the shattering injustices of colonial oppression. Together, the many strands of narrative coalesce to form a visceral story of family, survival, and belonging, flooding the field with cleansing light.

8) Grief Is for People, by Sloane Crosley

In 2019, Crosley suffered two keelhauling losses: First, her apartment was burglarized and her jewelry stolen; then, one month later, her friend and mentor Russell Perrault took his own life. For Crosley, the two losses became braided together. “I am waiting for the things I love to come back to me, to tell me they were only joking,” she writes. In this raw and poignant memoir, divided into five sections that correspond to the five stages of grief, she links her frantic desire to recover the stolen jewelry with her inability to bring back Perrault. Leavened by Crosley’s characteristic gimlet wit, this excavation of grief, loss, and friendship leaves a lasting twinge.

9) Who’s Afraid of Gender?, by Judith Butler

One of our foremost thinkers returns with an essential polemic on gender, an urgent front line of the culture wars. Butler argues that by turning gender into a “phantasmic scene,” conservative politicians have diverted political will from the most pressing problems of our time, like climate change, war, and capitalist exploitation. Butler explores how various movements around the world have weaponized gender to achieve their goals, with a particular focus on trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs). Who’s Afraid of Gender? calls for gender expression to be recognized as a basic human right, and for radical solidarity across our differences. With masterful analysis of where we’ve been and an inspiring vision for where we must go next, this book resounds like an impassioned depth charge.

10) Ian Fleming: The Complete Man, by Nicholas Shakespeare

When Ian Fleming’s family approached Nicholas Shakespeare to write a biography of the late spy novelist, promising access to never-before-seen family materials, Shakespeare soon concluded that “under the jarring surface of his popular image,” he could “see a different person.” In this outstanding biography, the author uncovers countless sides of his complicated subject to construct “the complete man.” From Fleming’s youth spent at the vanguard of military and journalistic history to his later years as “a slave to a serial character,” Shakespeare constructs an exhaustive portrait of the author’s life and influences. Clocking in at just under nine hundred pages, Ian Fleming: The Complete Man leaves no stone unturned. It’s the definitive biography of an endlessly fascinating subject.

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The 25 must-read books of summer 2024

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Picture this: The sun is high in the sky and you’re on your way to the beach with your friends with the latest Chappell Roan song blasting on the radio. You’re all slathered in SPF and have your folding chairs and coolers at the ready. It’s summertime, finally, and the only thing that’s missing is the perfect book to read while you burn to a red hot crisp by the side of the ocean.

Not sure what to bring with you? Good news! There are a ton of books coming out between the months of June and August that are worth checking out. There’s a clever reimagining of the story of Lady Macbeth, celebrated children’s author M.T. Anderson’s adult debut, the follow up to 2022’s hottest romantic fantasy, and a truly surprising number of heist novels. Which is all to say that there are plenty of options for you to choose from.

Below you’ll find 25 of the most romantic, fantastical, and action packed books coming out this summer that we can’t wait to kick back and read.

Barely Even Friends by Mae Bennett

If you’re in the mood to read a steamy, contemporary retelling of Beauty and the Beast , look no further than Mae Bennett’s debut romance novel, Barely Even Friends .

A contractor by trade and expert in all things to do with home renovation, Bellamy Price is determined to get a leg up and prove herself in a typically male-dominated field. Luckily, the perfect opportunity presents itself when she’s offered a job working on the palatial and mysterious Killington Estate. Expecting the house to be empty upon her arrival, Bellamy is shocked to discover it’s occupied by none other than Oliver Killington, recluse and heir to the vast Killington empire, who happens to have a very convenient thing for suspenders. Though frustratingly obstinate at first, it quickly becomes clear that there’s more to Oliver than meets the eye, and a common enemy quickly brings him and Bellamy closer together than either are expecting.

• $19 at Bookshop.org

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky

From the author of Elder Race and Children of Time comes a new, surprisingly funny and deeply philosophical sci-fi novel about a murderous robot valet by the name of Charles that’s perfect for fans of I, Robot and Jeeves .

When Charles, a robot valet meticulously designed to be at the right hand of any modern human, gets the idea to murder their master — and subsequently does — they’re forced to go on the run, something they never thought they’d be able to do. Charles quickly discovers that the world is much larger than the home they worked in, and that they’re not the only robot discovering their independence.

• $27 at Bookshop.org

The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei

It’s hard not to be incredibly excited about The Stardust Grail , a book that’s pitched as an anti-colonial space heist with a protagonist who returns stolen artifacts to the alien civilizations they belong to rather than keeping them for herself or putting them behind glass in a museum.

Set ten years after a job goes horribly wrong, Maya Hoshimoto — once considered to be the galaxy’s best art thief — is approached by an old friend with an offer she can’t refuse: track down an powerful alien artifact. The catch? The artifact in question might not actually exist, and if it does, its discovery could lead to the end of human civilization as we know it.

Moonbound by Robin Sloan

If you, like me, read Robin Sloan’s delightful novel, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore , and thought to yourself, “That was strange,” then you might want to hold onto your hat.

Set 13,000 years in the future, Moonbound tells the story of Ariel, a boy who lives in a town under the control of a wizard. When Ariel accidentally stumbles across an important piece of record-keeping technology from the past, he finds himself called to adventure and a mission to save the world.

The Art Of Catching Feelings by Alicia Thompson

What better time to read a romance novel about baseball than during the height of summer?

In Alicia Thompson’s novel, The Art of Catching Feelings , a professional baseball player and his number one heckler navigate a delightful enemies-to-lovers romance. When Daphne Brink takes her taunting a little too far, driving Chris Kepler to literal tears during the middle of a game, she reaches out over social media to apologize. When Chris messages her back, it quickly becomes clear that he doesn’t know who Daphne is, and their relationship begins to grow into more than a few sweet DMs. But as the season progresses and their feelings for one another become undeniable, Daphne realizes she might not be able to keep her true identity from Chris forever.

• $18 at Bookshop.org

Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adeyemi

It’s (almost) here! The final installment of Tomi Adeyemi’s Lady of Orïsha series finally hits shelves in late June.

As the blood moon grows ever closer, Zélie faces the king who has been hunting her heart. But there is little she can do to prepare herself while she is trapped on a foreign ship bound for distant lands, warriors with iron skulls, and unfamiliar allies.

• $23 at Bookshop.org

The Daughters’ War by Christopher Buehlman

I have been counting down the days until the release of The Daughters’ War since I first caught wind that Christopher Buehlman would be writing a prequel to his fantastic fantasy novel, The Blacktongue Thief . Rather than return to the lush world that he’s crafted with a sequel (we’ll see Kinch again eventually), Buehlman is taking readers back in time with a tale about Galva as she rides into battle against goblins on the back of her war-corvid.

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

Set in the Adirondack Mountains during the late summer of 1975, The God of the Woods tells the story of 13-year-old Barbara Van Laar, who vanishes from her bunk overnight while at summer camp. Barbara isn’t just any camper though, and this isn’t the first time a Van Laar has gone missing. Sixteen years ago, Barbara’s older brother also vanished too, never to be seen again.

This is a gorgeously written and tragic tale with a non-linear plot that jumps through time from the 1950s to the 1970s as Moore transports her readers, weaving a rich and complicated tapestry.

• $28 at Bookshop.org

The Undermining of Twyla and Frank by Megan Bannen

Hot off the heels of her first heartwarming romance novel, The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy , Megan Bannen returns to the magical world of Tanria with its friends-to-lovers sequel, The Undermining of Twyla and Frank .

It’s fair to say the entire town of Eternity was shocked when Twyla Banneker, middle-aged and a widow, joined her best friend, Frank Ellis, to be a Tanrian marshal. But, eight years later, Twyla is still at it (and very good at her job, to boot). Her life takes a sudden and exciting turn when she and Frank discover the dead body of one of their fellow marshals covered in — of all things — glitter. As Twyla and Frank are drawn further into the mystery afoot, it becomes increasingly clear that the two are much more than just work partners.

Pink Slime by Fernanda Trías

Set in a not-to-distant future in which the world has been utterly devastated by a plague, Pink Slime by Fernanda Trías is a deeply distressing but compulsively readable work of climate fiction.

When a mysterious algae bloom poisons the air blowing inland from the ocean, a nameless corporation develops a vile pink food substance — think Pepto Bismol crossed with Soylent Green — for everyone to eat. As the end of the world grows ever closer and society continues to collapse, one woman in particular — the narrator of this story — refuses to leave the family and friends she loves behind, clinging to the life she once knew.

• $22 at Bookshop.org

Toward Eternity by Anton Hur

Already a force to be reckoned with in the world of literary translation, Anton Hur’s upcoming novel, Toward Eternity , is a brilliant and thought provoking examination of what it means to be human.

Told in the form of journal entries that connect characters across centuries, Toward Eternity is set in a world where cancerous cells can be replaced by nanites — robotic cells — effectively eradicating the disease. It’s nothing short of a miracle. At the same time, a literary researcher and the doctor who holds the patent to nano-technology join forces to place an AI program into a physical, robotic form, effectively giving it bodily autonomy and bringing mortality and humanity into question in the process.

• $25 at Bookshop.org

Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi

Fans of Windup Girl , The Water Knife , and Shipbreaker , rejoice! An exciting new science fiction title from Paolo Bacigalupi is hitting shelves in July.

Set in an Italian Renaissance-inspired world, Navolo is a mashup of literary scifi/fantasy and historical fiction that tells the story of Davico di Regulai, a young lord set to take over his family’s vast empire. The di Regulai family are wealthy beyond belief and have influenced the rise and fall of politicians and great cities alike, but not everything in the city of Navola is as it seems. When Davico discovers the existence of a fossilized dragon eye — a symbol of raw power that is pictured on Navola’s excellent cover — he finds that there are few he can trust, including members of his own family.

The Sky On Fire by Jenn Lyons

Billed as Dragonriders of Pern but for modern readers, The Sky on Fire promises to be exactly what fans of Temeraire , Fourth Wing , and even Patricia C. Wrede’s beloved Dealing With Dragons are craving.

After being saved from a local warlord by a group of unlikely adventuring misfits — picture an average D&D party — Anahrod realizes that her new companions are determined to reach the cloud cities and the immense dragon’s hoard located there. The only problem with this plan is that the hoard belongs to Neveranimas, and Neveranimas wants nothing more than to see Anahrod dead.

Nicked by M.T. Anderson

If there’s one thing about M.T. Anderson, it’s that he’s going to write a book with a plot that’s as delightful and captivating as it is downright strange. His adult debut Nicked is no exception.

In the year 1801, the Italian port city of Bari is wracked by a plague, and a monk by the name of Brother Nicephorus is visited by Saint Nicholas in his dreams. His superiors don’t believe him, but Tyun, a treasure hunter, does and the two soon hit the road to collect Saint Nicholas’s bones and the mysterious liquid they rest in, which is rumored to heal the sick. What follows is a heist that is complex and action packed enough to make even the likes of Steven Soderbergh jealous.

• $26 at Bookshop.org

Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan

Sarah Rees Brennan’s adult debut, Long Live Evil , proves that sometimes it feels good to be a little bad.

Rae is dying, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. As her world comes crumbling down around her, she makes a last ditch magical bargain that transports her to the court of her favorite fictional character, the Once and Forever Emperor. The catch? Rae isn’t the hero of this story. Quite the opposite, in fact. As the emperor becomes increasingly violent, Rae assembles an unlikely team of villainous allies who deserve a much better ending than the one originally written for them.

The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey

James S.A. Corey, the dynamic duo behind the phenomenal series, The Expanse , is back once again for a brand new, utterly epic sci-fi adventure.

For generations, the Carryx — a combination of an empire and a hive — have waged wars and enslaved alien species across the galaxy. They are a force to be reckoned with to say the least, but when they finally meet their match, it becomes clear that the best and brightest humans living on the planet Anjiin are the only ones who can save them. The result is a gripping tale of survival, rebellion, and hope.

Loving, Ohio by Matthew Erman and illustrated by Sam Beck

It’s safe to say that Loving, Ohio — written by Matthew Erman and gorgeously illustrated by Sam Beck — is my favorite horror graphic novel that I’ve read since Emily Carroll’s In The Woods . It’s a perfectly balanced mix of punk rock, small town coming-of-age, and bone chilling, nightmare fueling dread.

After the shocking suicide of their friend, four teens are grief stricken, unmoored, and counting down the days until high school comes to an end. There’s not much for them in Loving anyways, besides the mysterious new age cult known as the Chorus that has taken root there. When tragedy strikes again, the group can’t help but wonder if the Chorus is somehow behind it, and one in particular, Sloane, is hell-bent on finding out the truth, no matter the coast.

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T Kingfisher

T. Kingfisher has outdone herself once again, proving to sci-fi and fantasy readers alike why she’s one of the best in the biz. A retelling inspired by the Brothers Grimm fairytale Goose Girl , A Sorceress Comes to Call is a bewitching and wildly entertaining adventure.

Cordelia has not had an easy life. Raised by a domineering, emotionally manipulative and downright abusive mother in a house without any doors, and with only a beautiful white horse for a friend, Cordelia craves a freedom she’s certain she’ll never have. When a death in town forces the two women to go on the run in the middle of the night, they find themselves seeking shelter with a wealthy man, his unwed sister, Hester, and a squire. When Hester recognizes the pain and torment that Cordelia has suffered, and that Cordelia’s mother isn’t the woman she pretends to be, she becomes determined to save everyone she cares for before it’s too late.

Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis

Having dabbled in the literary side of Star Wars for some time, Beth Revis is no stranger to science fiction, outer space, impossible heists, or romantic tension. Her new novella, Full Speed to a Crash Landing (the first in a trilogy) has all that going for it and more.

When readers first meet Ada Lamarr, she’s running out of time. And oxygen. But help soon arrives in the form of a government sanctioned salvage crew. They’re less than thrilled to have her on board as they head to their destination, a secret mission helmed by the delightfully handsome Agent Rian White, but Ada promises to stay out of their hair and out of their business. This, of course, is a lie. But as Ada and Rian spend more time together and their attraction to one another continues to grow, it becomes increasingly unclear who is playing who.

• $21 at Bookshop.org

A Mask of Flies by Matthew Lyons

If you’re in the mood to read a dynamic and brutal horror novel that will have you on the edge of your seat from cover-to-cover, look no further than A Mask of Flies by Matthew Lyons.

After a bank heist goes horribly awry, Anne Heller is forced to hole up in her family’s old cabin with Jessup, her badly wounded partner-in-crime, and Dutch, the police officer they’ve taken hostage. Jessup, unfortunately, doesn’t make it. Anne and Dutch decide to bury his body, only for something that is-but-isn’t Jessup to rise from his grave and try to get back into the cabin.

Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid

When it comes to complicated, multi-faceted female characters, Ava Reid reigns supreme, and her upcoming novel, Lady Macbeth , reimagines the story of one of Shakespeare’s most ruthless, unforgiving, power-hungry women.

The Lady knows what her fate holds in store for her. She knows that she is destined to marry a brutish Scot and to drive men to madness. The Lady also knows that sometimes it takes a little witchcraft to get by. What she doesn’t know is that her husband has secrets of his own, including his own ties to the occult.

Blackheart Man by Nalo Hopkinson

Inspired by Caribbean culture, folklore, and history that deftly blurs the lines between reality and fiction, Blackheart Man by Nalo Hopkinson is a gripping tale of a magical island and the man who will do whatever he can to protect it.

Veycosi, a scholar on the island of Cynchin, wants nothing more in the world than the chance to get his hands on the Alamat Book of Light, a tome that contains knowledge that would ensure his place on his island’s Colloquium. His plans go abruptly sideways when fifteen galleons from a neighboring land arrive, forcing the island and its inhabitants into a trade agreement that proves to be much more dangerous than anticipated.

Asunder by Kerstin Hall

If you play Dungeons & Dragons and love the Warlock class and their pacts with mysterious, often otherworldly beings, then Asunder by Kerstin Hall is the perfect book for you.

In a world where magic users are allowed to choose their gods, Karys Eska is bound to an eldritch creature with three faces and hundreds of wings who has gifted her the ability to communicate with the dead. Karys uses her powers to help investigate strange deaths in the city where she lives, knowing that, one day, she’ll be forced permanently to the real where her benefactor exists. Her life takes an unexpected turn, however, when she meets a dying man who she inadvertently binds to her shadow.

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White

Now being published in North America for the first time, Voyage of the Damned by Frances White has a little bit of everything. Part And Then There Were None , part fantasy novel, queer as hell, and surprisingly, delightfully romantic, it’s sure to scratch the Pirates of the Caribbean and Our Flag Means Death itch for a lot of readers.

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40 Facts About Elektrostal

Written by Lanette Mayes

Modified & Updated: 01 Jun 2024

Reviewed by Jessica Corbett

Elektrostal is a vibrant city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia. With a rich history, stunning architecture, and a thriving community, Elektrostal is a city that has much to offer. Whether you are a history buff, nature enthusiast, or simply curious about different cultures, Elektrostal is sure to captivate you.

This article will provide you with 40 fascinating facts about Elektrostal, giving you a better understanding of why this city is worth exploring. From its origins as an industrial hub to its modern-day charm, we will delve into the various aspects that make Elektrostal a unique and must-visit destination.

So, join us as we uncover the hidden treasures of Elektrostal and discover what makes this city a true gem in the heart of Russia.

Key Takeaways:

• Elektrostal, known as the “Motor City of Russia,” is a vibrant and growing city with a rich industrial history, offering diverse cultural experiences and a strong commitment to environmental sustainability.
• With its convenient location near Moscow, Elektrostal provides a picturesque landscape, vibrant nightlife, and a range of recreational activities, making it an ideal destination for residents and visitors alike.

Known as the “Motor City of Russia.”

Elektrostal, a city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia, earned the nickname “Motor City” due to its significant involvement in the automotive industry.

Home to the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Elektrostal is renowned for its metallurgical plant, which has been producing high-quality steel and alloys since its establishment in 1916.

Boasts a rich industrial heritage.

Elektrostal has a long history of industrial development, contributing to the growth and progress of the region.

Founded in 1916.

The city of Elektrostal was founded in 1916 as a result of the construction of the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Located approximately 50 kilometers east of Moscow.

Elektrostal is situated in close proximity to the Russian capital, making it easily accessible for both residents and visitors.

Known for its vibrant cultural scene.

Elektrostal is home to several cultural institutions, including museums, theaters, and art galleries that showcase the city’s rich artistic heritage.

A popular destination for nature lovers.

Surrounded by picturesque landscapes and forests, Elektrostal offers ample opportunities for outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, and birdwatching.

Hosts the annual Elektrostal City Day celebrations.

Every year, Elektrostal organizes festive events and activities to celebrate its founding, bringing together residents and visitors in a spirit of unity and joy.

Has a population of approximately 160,000 people.

Elektrostal is home to a diverse and vibrant community of around 160,000 residents, contributing to its dynamic atmosphere.

Boasts excellent education facilities.

The city is known for its well-established educational institutions, providing quality education to students of all ages.

A center for scientific research and innovation.

Elektrostal serves as an important hub for scientific research, particularly in the fields of metallurgy , materials science, and engineering.

Surrounded by picturesque lakes.

The city is blessed with numerous beautiful lakes , offering scenic views and recreational opportunities for locals and visitors alike.

Well-connected transportation system.

Elektrostal benefits from an efficient transportation network, including highways, railways, and public transportation options, ensuring convenient travel within and beyond the city.

Famous for its traditional Russian cuisine.

Food enthusiasts can indulge in authentic Russian dishes at numerous restaurants and cafes scattered throughout Elektrostal.

Home to notable architectural landmarks.

Elektrostal boasts impressive architecture, including the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord and the Elektrostal Palace of Culture.

Offers a wide range of recreational facilities.

Residents and visitors can enjoy various recreational activities, such as sports complexes, swimming pools, and fitness centers, enhancing the overall quality of life.

Provides a high standard of healthcare.

Elektrostal is equipped with modern medical facilities, ensuring residents have access to quality healthcare services.

Home to the Elektrostal History Museum.

The Elektrostal History Museum showcases the city’s fascinating past through exhibitions and displays.

A hub for sports enthusiasts.

Elektrostal is passionate about sports, with numerous stadiums, arenas, and sports clubs offering opportunities for athletes and spectators.

Celebrates diverse cultural festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal hosts a variety of cultural festivals, celebrating different ethnicities, traditions, and art forms.

Electric power played a significant role in its early development.

Elektrostal owes its name and initial growth to the establishment of electric power stations and the utilization of electricity in the industrial sector.

Boasts a thriving economy.

The city’s strong industrial base, coupled with its strategic location near Moscow, has contributed to Elektrostal’s prosperous economic status.

Houses the Elektrostal Drama Theater.

The Elektrostal Drama Theater is a cultural centerpiece, attracting theater enthusiasts from far and wide.

Popular destination for winter sports.

Elektrostal’s proximity to ski resorts and winter sport facilities makes it a favorite destination for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter activities.

Promotes environmental sustainability.

Elektrostal prioritizes environmental protection and sustainability, implementing initiatives to reduce pollution and preserve natural resources.

Home to renowned educational institutions.

Elektrostal is known for its prestigious schools and universities, offering a wide range of academic programs to students.

Committed to cultural preservation.

The city values its cultural heritage and takes active steps to preserve and promote traditional customs, crafts, and arts.

Hosts an annual International Film Festival.

The Elektrostal International Film Festival attracts filmmakers and cinema enthusiasts from around the world, showcasing a diverse range of films.

Encourages entrepreneurship and innovation.

Elektrostal supports aspiring entrepreneurs and fosters a culture of innovation, providing opportunities for startups and business development .

Offers a range of housing options.

Elektrostal provides diverse housing options, including apartments, houses, and residential complexes, catering to different lifestyles and budgets.

Home to notable sports teams.

Elektrostal is proud of its sports legacy , with several successful sports teams competing at regional and national levels.

Boasts a vibrant nightlife scene.

Residents and visitors can enjoy a lively nightlife in Elektrostal, with numerous bars, clubs, and entertainment venues.

Promotes cultural exchange and international relations.

Elektrostal actively engages in international partnerships, cultural exchanges, and diplomatic collaborations to foster global connections.

Surrounded by beautiful nature reserves.

Nearby nature reserves, such as the Barybino Forest and Luchinskoye Lake, offer opportunities for nature enthusiasts to explore and appreciate the region’s biodiversity.

Commemorates historical events.

The city pays tribute to significant historical events through memorials, monuments, and exhibitions, ensuring the preservation of collective memory.

Promotes sports and youth development.

Elektrostal invests in sports infrastructure and programs to encourage youth participation, health, and physical fitness.

Hosts annual cultural and artistic festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal celebrates its cultural diversity through festivals dedicated to music, dance, art, and theater.

Provides a picturesque landscape for photography enthusiasts.

The city’s scenic beauty, architectural landmarks, and natural surroundings make it a paradise for photographers.

Connects to Moscow via a direct train line.

The convenient train connection between Elektrostal and Moscow makes commuting between the two cities effortless.

A city with a bright future.

Elektrostal continues to grow and develop, aiming to become a model city in terms of infrastructure, sustainability, and quality of life for its residents.

In conclusion, Elektrostal is a fascinating city with a rich history and a vibrant present. From its origins as a center of steel production to its modern-day status as a hub for education and industry, Elektrostal has plenty to offer both residents and visitors. With its beautiful parks, cultural attractions, and proximity to Moscow, there is no shortage of things to see and do in this dynamic city. Whether you’re interested in exploring its historical landmarks, enjoying outdoor activities, or immersing yourself in the local culture, Elektrostal has something for everyone. So, next time you find yourself in the Moscow region, don’t miss the opportunity to discover the hidden gems of Elektrostal.

Q: What is the population of Elektrostal?

A: As of the latest data, the population of Elektrostal is approximately XXXX.

Q: How far is Elektrostal from Moscow?

A: Elektrostal is located approximately XX kilometers away from Moscow.

Q: Are there any famous landmarks in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to several notable landmarks, including XXXX and XXXX.

Q: What industries are prominent in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal is known for its steel production industry and is also a center for engineering and manufacturing.

Q: Are there any universities or educational institutions in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to XXXX University and several other educational institutions.

Q: What are some popular outdoor activities in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal offers several outdoor activities, such as hiking, cycling, and picnicking in its beautiful parks.

Q: Is Elektrostal well-connected in terms of transportation?

A: Yes, Elektrostal has good transportation links, including trains and buses, making it easily accessible from nearby cities.

Q: Are there any annual events or festivals in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal hosts various events and festivals throughout the year, including XXXX and XXXX.

Elektrostal's fascinating history, vibrant culture, and promising future make it a city worth exploring. For more captivating facts about cities around the world, discover the unique characteristics that define each city . Uncover the hidden gems of Moscow Oblast through our in-depth look at Kolomna. Lastly, dive into the rich industrial heritage of Teesside, a thriving industrial center with its own story to tell.

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