Here are 100 books that It Starts with Us fans have personally recommended if you like
It Starts with Us.
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I have always gravitated towards women’s issues both in my writing and how I lead my life. I believe that women need to speak their truth to each other and gain the support of their friends who are likely going through the same thing. I have also spoken about and been on panels about women’s empowerment in midlife. I am a woman in the middle of her life, and I have lived through so many of the issues that I speak about.
I enjoy a story where a woman rethinks her life and tries to decide if the path she is on is the right path.
Diana O’Toole is a woman who thinks she knows what she wants, but as the book goes on, she begins to rethink everything. I had a career that I loved but left it when I had my children. After my kids became more independent, I had to figure out the second chapter of my life and where I wanted my career to go.
Having choices in life is very important and sometimes we put ourselves into a corner and don’t realize we can make different decisions.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Small Great Things and The Book of Two Ways comes “a powerfully evocative story of resilience and the triumph of the human spirit” (Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six)
Rights sold to Netflix for adaptation as a feature film • Named one of the best books of the year by She Reads
Diana O’Toole is perfectly on track. She will be married by thirty, done having kids by thirty-five, and move out to the New York City suburbs, all…
I’ve always been interested in what drives people, their passions, and whether or not they’ve gone after them. I love it when something inspires them to emerge from a dormant state and give it their all. Show me a person who graduates from college at 85 or skydives at 99. Those people are inspiring! People go through the most incredible situations and use them as fuel for their lives. I funneled all of this into my latest novel. It’s a universal story that’s singular only to the person going through it. We can all take something positive away from this type of story.
I can probably find a way to put this novel into every book category there is – I love it that much!
Elizabeth Zott is a brilliant chemist in the 1960s, a time when society accepted that only men could be brilliant or chemists. But through a series of opportunities and her defiance in the face of attempts to marginalize her, Elizabeth becomes a de facto leader of a small but mighty group of women who change their circumstances and thereby begin to change the world.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • Meet Elizabeth Zott: a “formidable, unapologetic and inspiring” (PARADE) scientist in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show in this novel that is “irresistible, satisfying and full of fuel. It reminds you that change takes time and always requires heat” (The New York Times Book Review).
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Oprah Daily, Newsweek, GoodReads
"A unique heroine ... you'll find yourself wishing she wasn’t fictional." —Seattle Times
I’ve spent most of my life fascinated by what happens when women stop editing themselves. As a former television reporter, health educator, and memoirist, I’ve lived on both sides of the polished story and the private reckoning in my search for truth. Writing my own memoir forced me to confront how often women are encouraged to soften conflict, spiritualize pain, or tidy up the truth to make it more palatable. I’m drawn to books that refuse that impulse—stories where healing isn’t performative, and transformation isn’t neat.
I loved this book because it was Glennon Doyle before she became “Glennon Doyle.”
This book still has dirt under its nails. Her honesty about addiction, self-sabotage, marriage, and spiritual confusion felt genuinely risky at the time, and you can feel that on the page.
What stayed with me was her willingness to admit how lost she was without trying to rush the reader toward wisdom or resolution. It reminded me that transformation doesn’t start with clarity—it starts with telling the truth about how bad things actually feel.
WHAT CAME BEFORE HER NEW #1 BESTSELLER UNTAMED ...
'IT'S AS IF SHE REACHED INTO HER HEART, CAPTURED THE RAW EMOTIONS THERE, AND TRANSLATED THEM INTO WORDS THAT ANYONE WHO'S EVER KNOWN PAIN OR SHAME CAN RELATE TO' OPRAH WINFREY, Oprah's Book Club
'EPIC' ELIZABETH GILBERT | 'BLEW ME AWAY' BRENE BROWN
... Just when Glennon Doyle was beginning to feel she had it all figured out - three happy children, a doting spouse, and a writing career so successful that her first book catapulted to the top of the New York Times bestseller list - her husband revealed…
Always Orchid is the moving, award-winning finale to the Goodbye Orchid series that Glamour Magazine called "a modern, important take on the power of love." With themes of identity, disability, and the redemptive power of love, Always Orchid is perfect for fans of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle…
I have been writing and publishing memoirs since I was in my twenties and working at The New York Times, where I learned the power of sharing what it is we know after what we’ve been through. What I now know is that memoir is the single greatest portal to self-discovery. I do not know how I feel about anything until I write it down. Teaching memoir for thirty years has allowed me to witness people reoccupy themselves after they take back the power of their stories from oppressors, abusers, medical trauma, and the other deep influences of life. Getting one’s story in one’s hands is the road to change. Memoir allows for that change, both for the reader and the writer.
For me, Nora Ephron is the epitome of humor and grace as she dishes up the very ingredients that go into being a woman in this crazy world. Humor is the hardest thing to write, and this author, who believed that everything is copy, brings to the book the full force of that life rule as well as an eye that is infallible.
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A candid, hilarious look at women of a certain age and dealing with the tribulations of maintenance, menopause, empty nests, and life itself.
“Wickedly witty ... Crackling sharp ... Fireworks shoot out [of this collection].” —The Boston Globe
With her disarming, intimate, completely accessible voice, and dry sense of humor, Nora Ephron chronicles her life as an obsessed cook, passionate city dweller, and hapless parent. But mostly she speaks frankly and uproariously about life as an older woman. Utterly courageous, uproariously funny, and unexpectedly moving in its truth telling, I Feel Bad About My Neck is…
I’m a Canadian author who thought too much about death as a child. But I was also a happy little goblin who grew up watching Disney fairytales and Transformers cartoons—all of which shine in my blend of twisting horror meeting tales of love and friendship. My degree in History helps me add depth and a political thriller edge. Bands of brothers, found family, and loyal hounds round out my books. I adore being scared, but I also want my characters to find happiness. So I’ll put you on the edge of your seat and have you jumping at the next twist—but don’t worry, the dog always lives.
This book rose out of the grave and grabbed me by the ankles. I’ve always loved (and been completely terrified of) zombies. After 28 Days Later scarred me for life (that one scene with the crow and the blood ACK), zombies became somewhat of an obsession. But I always found myself wanting…more. Then this book shambled in my door, and suddenly, I had the twisted, funny, heartwarming zombie fairytale I never knew I needed in my life. It upended the undead genre, and I will love it forever for giving the mix of zombies and romance a big ole bear hug.
Now a major motion picture starring Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer and John Malkovich, Warm Bodies is the ultimate zombie read this Halloween.
'R' is a zombie. He has no name, no memories, and no pulse, but he has dreams. He is a little different from his fellow Dead.
Amongst the ruins of an abandoned city, R meets a girl. Her name is Julie and she is the opposite of everything he knows - warm and bright and very much alive, she is a blast of colour in a dreary grey landscape. For reasons…
My name is Elle Rivers, and I’ve been a romance reader and writer for over ten years. I started reading when I was in high school because I was a lonely kid who loved watching people fall in love. I love the romance genre because it always has a happy ending, and reading about characters overcoming their struggles reminds me that I can also face any hard moments in life. I try to write the same kinds of characters in my books. They’re all a piece of me, and I am so excited that others can read them, too.
This book was THE book that made me want to write a marriage in trouble.
It features characters to absolutely hate in the first few chapters, but then they turn it around and become lovable by the end of the book. I love the idea of a married couple (or engaged one) sleeping in separate rooms because of their distance and then they slowly move back into the same room.
This book also features a terrible mom who gets owned by her kid who’s finally had enough of them, which is always my favorite part of any book. This is a novel to get hooked on, and the ending scene where she finds their wedding invitations in the trash had my jaw on the FLOOR!
When your nemesis also happens to be your fiancé, happily ever after becomes a lot more complicated in this wickedly funny, lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy debut.
Naomi Westfield has the perfect fiancé: Nicholas Rose holds doors open for her, remembers her restaurant orders, and comes from the kind of upstanding society family any bride would love to be a part of. They never fight. They’re preparing for their lavish wedding that's three months away. And she is miserably and utterly sick of him.
Naomi wants out, but there's a catch: whoever ends the engagement will have to foot the nonrefundable wedding…
The House on Mountain Laurel Lane
by
Eileen Goudge,
A widow and mom of two struggles to let go of the past and embrace the future in a powerful novel about friendship, love, and taking risks by New York Times bestselling author Eileen Goudge.
Ever since her husband Sean’s death, Jo Myers just can’t move on. Until she receives…
Well, truly, who doesn’t want to live inside of a magical castle? A few years ago, I was lucky enough to become the owner of a crumbling Victorian house. It was in bad shape—a hoarder had lived there before with lots of cats and also, somehow, rats?—but the place had “good bones.” My husband and I were determined to scrape away all of the rot and give it new life—all while I was writing my middle-grade novel. Now that both projects are done, I truly feel like I live in an enchanted space.
I am a huge fan of Roshani Chokshi’s work—but she outdid herself with this book. The writing is thickly luxurious, and the House of Dreams, where much of the story takes place, feels like it sits at the borders of a fae otherworld. The magic is palpable. And deliciously foreboding.
A sumptuous, gothic story about an obsessive female friendship cursed to end in tragedy, a marriage unraveled by dark secrets, and the danger of believing in fairy tales - the breathtaking adult debut from New York Times bestselling author Roshani Chokshi.
Once upon a time, a man who believed in fairy tales married a beautiful, mysterious woman named Indigo Maxwell-Castenada. He was a scholar of myths. She was heiress to a fortune. They exchanged gifts and stories and believed…
I’m a romance writer who moved around often as a child. Whenever I started a new school, I’d bring a book with me. Even now, I always run errands with a print book and my Kindle as I’m a writer, wife, and mother of four. Two of my children have medical conditions, and I’ve spent time in various doctor and hospital waiting rooms. I’ve taken books into MRI booths where I’d read while my daughter underwent an MRI. I gravitate toward emotional romances that keep me entertained while possessing a thread of humor or something unique about them so I can lose myself in their world anytime, anywhere.
I love books featuring strong chemistry between the two leads, and Nora and John’s chemistry leapt off the page. I also love series that have a strong family connection, and this is the first in a series with three sisters.
John enlists Nora’s help to uncover the identity of his birth mother, and this inspirational romance pulled on my heartstrings. I loved John, especially as he was the type of hero who was silent and impactful. The book was well-written and had enough scenes revolving around food to make me hungry. John and Nora’s story stayed with me long after I finished turning the last page.
After a devastating heartbreak three years ago, genealogist and historical village owner Nora Bradford has decided that burying her nose in her work and her books is far safer than romance in the here and now.
Unlike Nora, former Navy SEAL and Medal of Honor recipient John Lawson is a modern-day man, usually 100 percent focused on the present. But when he's diagnosed with an inherited condition, he's forced to dig into the secrets of his past and his adoption as an infant, enlisting Nora to help him uncover the…
I’ve been obsessed with fantasy stories for as long as I can remember, but the books I read growing up usually took place “somewhere else.” When I first started seeing books that brought magic to a world that resembled mine, I fell in love. Reading magic in a modern setting brought it home and made it real. Now, I gobble up every story I can find that brings magic to the mundane, and I even write my own. I hope the books on this list inspire you to look for the magic in your own life, as they have for me.
Enchanting, action-packed, and full of heart, this book is everything an urban fantasy novel should be. I picked this book up at a library sale, not realizing it was a later book in a series, but the story stood on its own and made me want to run out and buy the rest. The idea of magic families as corporations was unique and intriguing, and Andrews handled it beautifully.
The plot was tightly woven and intense enough that I had trouble setting the book down and blew through it in a few days. I loved the two main characters and their lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers backstory that set up just the right amount of heat for me.
Ilona Andrews, #1 New York Times bestselling author, continues her spellbinding series set in the Hidden Legacy world where magic controls everything...except the hearts of those who wield it.
As Prime magic users, Catalina Baylor and her sisters have extraordinary powers-powers their ruthless grandmother would love to control. Catalina can earn her family some protection working as deputy to the Warden of Texas, overseeing breaches of magic law in the state, but that has risks as well. When House Baylor is under attack and monsters haunt her every step, Catalina is forced to rely on handsome, dangerous Alessandro Sagredo,…
A love story and a family saga about three different women and the city they call home, San Francisco.
Chiara's love for the wrong man warps her life. Marie Hélène faces love, loss, and love reborn. And when Marie Hélène's daughter and Chiara's son fall in love, disaster looms. Sonny…
I came from a country town in Australia and I love the sense of community that’s still so woven into the fabric of society in country towns. That enjoyment drove me to write the award-winning Hope Creek Series, which has all the elements of small town romance I admire. The importance of a strong sense of identity within the community, support from townspeople in keeping each other’s secrets or in rallying around to try to help each other in times of crisis. The willingness to stand by a mate despite the mate being flawed.
The Dream Harbor series is a collection of stand-alone novels set in Dream Harbor, and I love that the small-town romance series has recurring characters that I was interested in and felt as though I’d bonded with.
One of the classic tropes used in this series is especially evident in book one (Pumpkin Spice Café in Dream Harbor) and it’s a trope I love. The author has made the most of these opposites-attract characters to produce some very witty banter that had me laughing out loud.
There’s a lot of personal growth of Laurie Gilmore’s characters, and I felt the romance was truly heartwarming.
The first book of the viral Dream Harbor series by #1 New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author Laurie Gilmore! 🍁
TikTok Made Me Buy It - Winner of the TikTok Shop Book of the Year 2024, Sunday Times and USA Today bestseller. As seen on Good Morning America!
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When Jeanie's aunt gifts her the beloved Pumpkin Spice Cafe in the small town of Dream Harbor, Jeanie jumps at the chance for a fresh start away from her very dull desk job.
Logan is a local farmer who avoids Dream Harbor's gossip at all costs.…
