When you’re going through a gut-wrenching breakup, it can feel impossible to find the energy for anything productive. In fact, during a particularly awful breakup in my 20s, I struggled to even keep food down for the first month. It seemed that the only thing that brought me any comfort or hope was the stack of books on my apartment floor, also known as my never-ending “to-read” pile.
If you’re a bookworm like me and need a pick-me-up read post-breakup, here are five comforting books for the broken-hearted.
1. Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey
Written more like a personal essay than a novel, Really Good, Actually is a hilarious story centered around a long-term relationship breakup. Monica Heisey’s conversational tone makes you feel like you’re talking to a friend on your couch with a glass of wine, alternating between laughing and crying. It’s deeply relatable and heartwarming—exactly what you need to mend a broken heart.
Synopsis snippet: “Laugh-out-loud funny and filled with sharp observations, Really Good, Actually is a tender and bittersweet comedy that lays bare the uncertainties of modern love, friendship, and our search for that thing we like to call ‘happiness.’ This is a remarkable debut from an unforgettable new voice in fiction.”
2. Again Again by E. Lockhart
Again, Again by E. Lockhart follows a broken-hearted young woman who’s enduring both a breakup and a devastating family trauma. However, there’s a twist: the novel presents readers with multiple versions of events and timelines—each depending on the character’s choices. It’s both empowering and eye-opening, exploring the impact of a single decision and reminding us that we have more power than we might believe.
Synopsis snippet: “A raw, funny story that will surprise you over and over, Again Again gives us an indelible heroine grappling with the terrible and wonderful problem of loving other people.”
3. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
I will never shy away from recommending Eat, Pray, Love to the broken-hearted. This memoir follows a heartbroken, discouraged, and newly-divorced 30-something-year-old woman, Elizabeth Gilbert, who’s seemingly enduring an early midlife crisis. Rather than settling for a life that does not fulfill her, she decides to quit her job and embark on a solo journey across the world. Gilbert’s story inspires readers to leave their comfort zone, pursue their dreams, and open their minds and hearts to life and love—over and over again.
Synopsis snippet: “An intensely articulate and moving memoir of self-discovery, Eat, Pray, Love is about what can happen when you claim responsibility for your own contentment and stop trying to live in imitation of society’s ideals. It is certain to touch anyone who has ever woken up to the unrelenting need for change.”
4. Outrageous Openness: Letting the Divine Take the Lead by Tosha Silver
I read Outrageous Openness: Letting the Divine Take the Lead by Tosha Silver in my mid-20s, around the time of the pandemic, when I was also grieving the end of a six-year relationship. Confined to my apartment and attempting to find my sense of self again, I decided to take my therapist’s advice and give the spiritual self-help book a chance. As I wrote in my Goodreads review, this book helped me return home to myself and restored my faith in a higher power, whether that be God, the universe, or whatever you might believe.
Synopsis snippet: “At its heart, Outrageous Openness opens the door to a profound truth: By allowing the Divine to lead the way, we can finally put down the heavy load of hopes, fears, and opinions about how things should be. We learn how to be guided to take the right actions at the right time, and to enjoy the spectacular show that is our life.”
5. Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Similar to Again Again, Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Maybe in Another Life follows two separate timelines based on one single decision. The fiction novel is centered around 29-year-old Hannah Martin, who’s unsure what she wants to do with her life after city-hopping for the past several years.
After returning to her hometown, she runs into her high-school ex-boyfriend and faces a choice: stay at the bar with him or go home with her best friend. Little does she know, this simple decision will impact the trajectory of her life forever. Readers get to explore both outcomes, which play out like parallel timelines, showing us that no matter the choice we make, we can create something beautiful out of it.
Synopsis snippet: “From the acclaimed author of Forever, Interrupted and After I Do comes a breathtaking new novel about a young woman whose fate hinges on the choice she makes after bumping into an old flame; in alternating chapters, we see two possible scenarios unfold—with stunningly different results.”
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