Here are 36 books that The Devil Wears Prada fans have personally recommended once you finish the The Devil Wears Prada series.
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As a writer, wife, and mom, I love reading novels and memoirs about women who are navigating parenting, relationships, and careers simultaneously. My favorites are those that make me laugh out loud while presenting a relatable picture of all this juggling act entails. Smart and witty heroines who approach life with a can-do spirit and the ability to laugh at themselves as the world tosses one curveball after another their way capture my heart every time.
Who can resist a diary? It’s hard not to fall in love with the title character, who’s on a perpetual quest for self-improvement. As Bridget, a lovable thirty-something singleton, finds herself in dozens of entertaining and embarrassing situations, she navigates them with her trademark pluck.
Very loosely based on Pride and Prejudice and complete with its own Mr. Darcy, I adored this novel and yearned for Bridget to realize she’s a catch exactly as she is. I read this at a time in my life when I, too, was a work in progress, and finding Bridget felt like connecting with a funny friend.
A dazzlingly urban satire on modern relationships? An ironic, tragic insight into the demise of the nuclear family? Or the confused ramblings of a pissed thirty-something?
As Bridget documents her struggles through the social minefield of her thirties and tries to weigh up the eternal question (Daniel Cleaver or Mark Darcy?), she turns for support to four indispensable friends: Shazzer, Jude, Tom and a bottle of chardonnay.
Welcome to Bridget's first diary: mercilessly funny, endlessly touching and utterly addictive.
Helen Fielding's first Bridget Jones novel, Bridget Jones's Diary, sparked a phenomenon that has seen…
I’ve spent my life in music and the creative industries, having worked in major record companies in London (among other places), and have loved every minute of it. Over the past 20 years, I've also studied it academically and run courses on entertainment management in colleges and Universities. It is rewarding to work with people who want to make a career in the creative industries. A colleague once said to me, “If you can give me a graduate who can have a conversation with a Chief Financial Officer and not freak them out, and then have a conversation with an artist and not freak them out, then you will be doing the world a great favor, because this is comparatively rare.”
Some autobiographies of eminent arts and entertainment managers are very gracious and discreet. This is not one of them. Joseph Volpe is the former General Manager of New York’s Metropolitan Opera House, and I just love this book’s jaw-dropping honesty and candor. He famously fired the tempestuous soprano Kathleen Battle, and this book recounts in detail the story behind her dismissal (among many other dramas).
How much prima donna behavior should we tolerate when managing creative artists? For Volpe, not that much! But he did have the prestige of a world famous opera house behind him.
The Toughest Show on Earth is the ultimate behind-the-scenes chronicle of the divas and the dramas of New York’s Metropolitan Opera House, by the remarkable man who rose from apprentice carpenter to general manager.
Joseph Volpe gives us an anecdote-filled tour of more than four decades at the Met, an institution full of vast egos and complicated politics. With stunning candor, he writes about the general managers he worked under, his embattled rise to the top, the maneuverings of the blue-chip board, and his masterful approach to making a family of such artist-stars as Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Teresa Stratas,…
I’ve spent my life in music and the creative industries, having worked in major record companies in London (among other places), and have loved every minute of it. Over the past 20 years, I've also studied it academically and run courses on entertainment management in colleges and Universities. It is rewarding to work with people who want to make a career in the creative industries. A colleague once said to me, “If you can give me a graduate who can have a conversation with a Chief Financial Officer and not freak them out, and then have a conversation with an artist and not freak them out, then you will be doing the world a great favor, because this is comparatively rare.”
I loved this book because it takes three creative industries–television production, record companies, and magazine journalism–and interviews workers about what makes them feel bad about working in the industry and what makes them feel good. ‘Good creative work’ makes us feel motivated, fulfilled, and self-realized. Bad work makes us experience things like powerlessness and self-estrangement.
This is really important, given the growing importance of wellness and mental health in the workplace. Although it was published in 2011 for a largely academic audience, it still has profound things to say about creating a workplace that is positive and not psychologically corrosive.
What is it like to work in the media? Are media jobs more 'creative' than those in other sectors? To answer these questions, this book explores the creative industries, using a combination of original research and a synthesis of existing studies.
Through its close analysis of key issues - such as tensions between commerce and creativity, the conditions and experiences of workers, alienation, autonomy, self-realisation, emotional and affective labour, self-exploitation, and how possible it might be to produce 'good work' - Creative Labour makes a major contribution to our understanding of the media, of work, and of social and cultural…
I’ve spent my life in music and the creative industries, having worked in major record companies in London (among other places), and have loved every minute of it. Over the past 20 years, I've also studied it academically and run courses on entertainment management in colleges and Universities. It is rewarding to work with people who want to make a career in the creative industries. A colleague once said to me, “If you can give me a graduate who can have a conversation with a Chief Financial Officer and not freak them out, and then have a conversation with an artist and not freak them out, then you will be doing the world a great favor, because this is comparatively rare.”
I loved this book because it shows how economic forces are pushing us in the direction of a ‘winner takes all’ economy, both in the creative industries and more generally.
The scalability of digital creations, the impact of algorithms, bandwagon effects, network effects, and economies of scale are resulting in 1 percent of artists owning the majority of the pie. This has big implications for those working in the creative industries.
Alan Krueger, a former chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, uses the music industry, from superstar artists to music executives, from managers to promoters, as a way in to explain key principles of economics, and the forces shaping our economic lives.
The music industry is a leading indicator of today's economy; it is among the first to be disrupted by the latest wave of technology, and examining the ins and outs of how musicians create and sell new songs and plan concert tours offers valuable lessons for what is in store for businesses and employees in other industries…
I’ve been fascinated by the world of fashion for more than a decade. Back in 2012, a serious bike accident left me incapacitated for the best part of six months. By the time I recovered from my injuries, a chance encounter with a Russian dressmaker would change everything; I decided to learn how to sew. I sat in front of my sewing machine, made my own clothes, and expanded into making dresses for my friends. Since I’ve always enjoyed reading gritty mysteries, it was only natural for me to incorporate my art into my writing. Cold Dresses was born out of a passion for fashion and dark thrillers.
It has a great plot and wonderful scenery and is definitely not as ‘twisted’ as the other four on the list. Saying that I had to mention it because the writing is so beautifully descriptive, and the mystery about the "eight dresses" got me hooked until the very end.
Set in 1950s Paris and London in 2017, the novel is as gorgeous as the exquisite dresses and an absolutely worthwhile read.
The secret is hidden within a collection of Dior dresses...
London, 2017. There’s no one Lucille adores more than her grandmother. So when her beloved Granny Sylvie asks for Lucille’s assistance with a small matter, she’s happy to help. The next thing she knows, Lucille is on a train to Paris, tasked with retrieving a priceless Dior dress. But not everything is as it seems, and what Lucille finds in a small Parisian apartment will have her scouring the city for answers to a question that could change her entire life.
Paris, 1952. Postwar France is full of glamour and…
I’ve been fascinated by the world of fashion for more than a decade. Back in 2012, a serious bike accident left me incapacitated for the best part of six months. By the time I recovered from my injuries, a chance encounter with a Russian dressmaker would change everything; I decided to learn how to sew. I sat in front of my sewing machine, made my own clothes, and expanded into making dresses for my friends. Since I’ve always enjoyed reading gritty mysteries, it was only natural for me to incorporate my art into my writing. Cold Dresses was born out of a passion for fashion and dark thrillers.
It's literally Dexter meets The Devil Wears Prada. It’s a slasher novel set in the cut-throat world that is the fashion industry (get my drift?) Yes, there’s blood galore and the bodies quickly start piling up!
The story is told entirely from the perspective of the main character (Anya), who is equally unhinged yet fascinating, friendly yet psychotic.
It’s diabolical, vicious, and darkly funny. I read it in just two days and had to literally force myself to put it down to go to sleep!
A darkly thrilling take on the fashion world - and soon to be a major television series on E! - #FashionVictim is Heathers meets The Devil Wears Prada.
Fashion editor Anya St. Clair is on the verge of greatness. Her wardrobe is to die for. Her social media is killer. And her career path is littered with the bodies of anyone who got in her way. She’s worked hard to get where she is, but she doesn’t have everything.
Not like Sarah Taft. Anya’s obsession sits one desk away. Beautiful, stylish, and rich, she was born to be a fashion…
I’ve been fascinated by the world of fashion for more than a decade. Back in 2012, a serious bike accident left me incapacitated for the best part of six months. By the time I recovered from my injuries, a chance encounter with a Russian dressmaker would change everything; I decided to learn how to sew. I sat in front of my sewing machine, made my own clothes, and expanded into making dresses for my friends. Since I’ve always enjoyed reading gritty mysteries, it was only natural for me to incorporate my art into my writing. Cold Dresses was born out of a passion for fashion and dark thrillers.
Okay, let’s start with stats: I love the story so much that I’ve read the book twice and watched the movie adaptation three times (Kate Winslet is wonderful, as always.) This will forever remain my first foray into “haute couture noir.”
Tilly is one of those characters that speaks to me: a gifted dressmaker with a troubled past. Her beautiful dresses not only arouse competition and envy but also cause old resentments to surface. As for Tilly herself, her mind is soon set on a darker design: sweet revenge on those who wronged her.
The writing is lush, and the novel is viciously funny.
A darkly satirical novel of love, revenge, and 1950s haute couture—now a major motion picture starring Kate Winslet, Judy Davis, Liam Hemsworth, and Hugo Weaving
After twenty years spent mastering the art of dressmaking at couture houses in Paris, Tilly Dunnage returns to the small Australian town she was banished from as a child. She plans only to check on her ailing mother and leave. But Tilly decides to stay, and though she is still an outcast, her lush, exquisite dresses prove irresistible to the prim women of Dungatar. Through her fashion business, her friendship with Sergeant Farrat—the town’s only…
In 2017, I was laid off from my first job out of college, an experience that I think more young people are going through as we move further into an uncertain economic future. That experience formed the basis of my novel, which was published earlier this year. Afterwards, I met a lot of people, most of whom I didn’t know, who told me they’d resonated with the feeling of malaise captured by those first few chapters: of working jobs that seem to be dead ends, wondering if you’ll be here, at this desk, twenty years from now. It’s something most everybody can relate to but doesn't appear in novels nearly as much as it should.
This may be the first book one thinks of when picturing The American Office Novel. It’s one of the older books on this list. It’s also the funniest, and strangest, and the truest.
Centered around a Chicago advertising agency struggling to preserve its relevancy amid the vastly changing media landscape of the 90s and employing one of the only uses of first-person plural that I think works in entirety, this book is a true gem, a marvel that tells a fairly straightforward story that practically vibrates with the amount of beautiful, carefully arranged detail throughout it.
No one knows us quite the same way as the men and women who sit beside us in department meetings and crowd the office refrigerator with their labeled yogurts. Every office is a family of sorts, and the ad agency Joshua Ferris brilliantly depicts in his debut novel is family at its strangest and best, coping with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks. With a demon's eye for the details that make life worth noticing, Joshua Ferris tells a true and funny story about survival in life's strangest environment--the one we…
In 2017, I was laid off from my first job out of college, an experience that I think more young people are going through as we move further into an uncertain economic future. That experience formed the basis of my novel, which was published earlier this year. Afterwards, I met a lot of people, most of whom I didn’t know, who told me they’d resonated with the feeling of malaise captured by those first few chapters: of working jobs that seem to be dead ends, wondering if you’ll be here, at this desk, twenty years from now. It’s something most everybody can relate to but doesn't appear in novels nearly as much as it should.
I read this novel a few years ago, back before I had any kind of writing career to speak of.
Personally, books about the life cycle of a lie have always fascinated me, which is why Something to Live For—a book about a man who must finally come to terms with the fact that the adoring wife and children he talks about at work every day do not actually exist—captured my heart.
The novel deals with that liminal space between home life and work life, the different people we become when we cross that border, and the obligation of authenticity (whatever that means). The result is beautiful and heartbreaking.
'If you loved Eleanor Oliphant, try this brilliant new read. We completely fell in love with this funny, uplifting debut' Fabulous Magazine
'A magnificent read. Tender, funny, compelling' Lucy Foley, bestselling author of The Hunting Party
Sometimes you have to risk everything to find your something...
All Andrew wants is to be normal. He has the perfect wife and 2.4 children waiting at home for him after a long day. At least, that's what he's told people.
The truth is, his life isn't exactly as people think and his little white lie is about to catch up with him.
In 2017, I was laid off from my first job out of college, an experience that I think more young people are going through as we move further into an uncertain economic future. That experience formed the basis of my novel, which was published earlier this year. Afterwards, I met a lot of people, most of whom I didn’t know, who told me they’d resonated with the feeling of malaise captured by those first few chapters: of working jobs that seem to be dead ends, wondering if you’ll be here, at this desk, twenty years from now. It’s something most everybody can relate to but doesn't appear in novels nearly as much as it should.
Molly McGhee’s debut novel centers around a wayward young man who accepts a new job auditing the dreams of unsuspecting middle class workers.
I found it crushing and poignant—all things one would expect from a workplace novel that hits far too close to home—but more surprisingly, I found it immensely funny. We spend a great deal of our lives faced with a choice between laughing and crying about the state of our existence. I choose the former.
"The novel is a magical-realist office drama infused with millennial anomie, and McGhee's canny, often bittersweetly hilarious prose reads as if George Saunders infiltrated the Severance writers' room." -Rafael Frumkin, Washington Post
"This laugh-out-loud debut is a wildly imaginative, tender and piercing critique of the squeeze of capitalism." -Xochitl Gonzalez, Good Morning America
"A scathing critique of capitalism that holds onto the humanity of its characters." -Laura Zornosa, TIME
Jonathan Abernathy is a self-proclaimed loser. . . he's behind on his debts, has no prospects, no friends, and no ambitions. But when a government loan forgiveness program offers him a…
