67 Books like No Excuses!

First of all, Jen Sincero’s voice is hilarious, down-to-earth, and completely refreshing.

She basically grabs you by the shoulders and tells you to stop messing around. I remember laughing out loud while reading this. What I love most is that she shares her own journey in an honest, testimony-style way, so it doesn't feel preachy. Instead, it feels relatable.

Her writing style is great in that it makes you see the small ways you may be downplaying your ambition or talking yourself out of bigger goals. It’s the perfect reality check when you need to stop doubting yourself and start confidently going after what you want.

There was a season in my life and business where I prayed for growth, then hesitated when it showed up because I got scared. That’s why Year of Yes hit me so deeply.

Shonda Rhimes, one of the most powerful women in Hollywood, admits she was terrified of saying yes to the very opportunities she worked so hard to create. That kind of honesty is refreshing.

Her “Year of Yes" challenge is funny, vulnerable, and motivating. It reminded me that fear doesn’t disappear just because you become successful (if anything, it grows!). What changes everything is the decision to move anyway. Shonda pushed me to stop shrinking and start leaning into the rooms and responsibilities I’d earned.

If you’ve been waiting to feel ready, this is your reminder that stepping into your next level starts with saying yes to yourself.

I’ve read this book twice and own it in both physical and audio form; that’s how much I love it.

It stopped me in my tracks because it puts words to something we all experience but don’t always admit: getting in our own way! Brianna Wiest explains that self-sabotage isn’t a character flaw; it’s often a coping mechanism. That perspective really shifted things for me.

As I’ve built my business and navigated life, there have been so many moments where I would make excuses and self-sabotage, sometimes without even realizing it. Brianna’s approach helped me identify when I do and call myself out so I could move forward.

If you’ve been holding yourself back from your next level due to self-sabotage, this book will challenge you in the best way.

I first listened to this on audio and was so impacted that I bought the physical copy just to make highlights in it.

It’s short but powerful, and an absolute game-changer when it comes to your thoughts. It honestly checked me in the best way. Joseph Nguyen explains it beautifully—while our thoughts aren’t facts, so much of our suffering comes from believing they are!

I’ll be honest, I’ve struggled with doom-thinking and worst-case scenario spirals, and it's so easy for me to let one negative thought snowball into "I’m failing." 

This book helped me pause, identify the facts, and stop letting imagined outcomes in my head dictate my real-life decisions! If you’re building wealth, learning to manage your mind is just as important as managing your money.

My Lovely Mamá! parodies the decadence and ennui of Bonjour Tristesse. The narrative toys with the sort of decadence Sagan captures, by having Mathilde believe her mother is having an affair and hence attempt, unsuccessfully, to seduce her mother’s lover. The very funny novel hyperbolizes the world-weariness of Sagan’s characters. “I was terribly immature last September,” Mathilde writes, “I’ve aged a lot since then. Inwardly I’m an old, old woman now.” While it parodies certain tropes of teen girl fiction, My Lovely Mamá! nonetheless gives voice to authentic adolescent feelings, especially about sexual desire. When Mathilde receives a marriage proposal, she opts to keep things open-ended, maintaining her freedom: “I was only seventeen and everything was only just beginning, after all.” 

An aspect of contemporary criticism I deeply despise is the inability of critics to take independent views of their subjects and be misled by matters like publicity and awards. Criticism is good for the arts but not necessarily for commercial interests and my own approach has been to provoke, even at the risk of becoming unpopular.

Epstein is a less-known writer and critic (in relation to the others) but he is witty and audacious in critiquing the most celebrated writers. The title of his book is provocative since it suggests that prejudices are natural but wanted as long as they are justified though argument, which is my preferred way of expressing myself.      

This bawdy 1958 novel reads like a bizarre porn script (or a parody of one).

Like the hapless hero of Voltaire’s Candide, Candy Christian is an intelligent and generous-minded (albeit naive) college student who lets herself be taken advantage of by all sorts of sophisticated perverts whose only goal (they claim) is to assist Candy on her spiritual journey.

It’s probably asking a lot of the contemporary reader to continue with this absurd (and sexist) premise, but I admit it – I laughed a lot and on almost every single page. 

Candy is prurient, amoral, and silly, but easy and fun reading. Such novels upend the stereotype of 1950s American society as prudish and straight-laced and herald a more relaxed attitude towards sex.

In this fourteenth book in the Country Club Murders series, Ellison Russell returns from a long honeymoon to find an older woman has been murdered in her bed. With a new husband, her mother in the hospital (targeted by the murderer?), her difficult sister as a houseguest, one too many animals, and a full social calendar, Ellison can’t catch a break. Ellison is smart and funny, and she’s found herself a new, inappropriate, and wonderful husband. The spoof of the 1980s country club society is spot on.

W.E. Bowman’s comic novel, The Ascent of Rum Doodle, has achieved a cult status among mountaineers as well as aficionados of spoof adventure stories. But the sequel is much less well-known, and that’s a shame, for it is absolutely its equal in terms of humour and invention and, if anything, even more absurd and fantastical in the development of the plot, which concerns a voyage on a raft (in the manner of Thor Heyerdahl) in search of a fabled school of talking fish. I am convinced that Michael Palin’s Ripping Yarns was influenced by Bowman’s work, and if not, then this is a case of great minds thinking alike.

If you like your fantasy a little darker, with more longing than spice (but still a little spice too ;) ) then this might be the book for you. Of Divine Blood features a main character who embraces her femininity and emotions and eventually manages to turn them into a fiery rage that leads her to take revenge on her abusers. It’s pretty glorious. And Corvina’s love interest is pretty amazing too; empowering without being dominating, and he’s the perfect mix of sweet and protective. Check the trigger warnings, then give her a read!