Here are 92 books that This American Ex-Wife fans have personally recommended if you like
This American Ex-Wife.
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A friend once observed, “You know, Laurie, you’re a weirdo magnet.” I vigorously contested this label, all the while knowing he was right. And, so, I myself have experienced wildly outrageous dates, with what my friend dubbed “the weird.” These dates, while not ending in marriage, did provide endless fodder for my writing. What made them tick? Why did I attract them? Were they always weird? The weird, I discovered, make excellent characters, filled with idiosyncrasies, mysteries, and lessons to teach me and my readers.
I rarely see a book cover the dating world from this author’s vantage point: as a long-married woman entering the dating world after 25 years with an “I’m open to anything” attitude, yet with the gravitas and insight of a successful Manhattan psychotherapist.
Her forays into the worlds of polyamory and swinging made me go, “Wait! Stop! Go home!” Her bravery and vulnerability left me breathless. But then I realized that to find intimacy, those are the very qualities you must marshal. Equal parts action-packed and introspective, the book gave me the tools to look at my own social life.
For fans of Eat Pray Love and Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, a therapist's tale of mid-life sexual awakening as she bravely explores relationships, sex, and pleasure - and learns that it's never too late to desire and be desired. Is it ever too late to connect to the sexual part of yourself? At forty-eight years old, after her husband announced he had fallen in love with a man, Alisa Kriegel was determined to finally figure out this essential part of herself. As a psychologist, she had the tools to help others; now, it was time to help herself.…
A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
A friend once observed, “You know, Laurie, you’re a weirdo magnet.” I vigorously contested this label, all the while knowing he was right. And, so, I myself have experienced wildly outrageous dates, with what my friend dubbed “the weird.” These dates, while not ending in marriage, did provide endless fodder for my writing. What made them tick? Why did I attract them? Were they always weird? The weird, I discovered, make excellent characters, filled with idiosyncrasies, mysteries, and lessons to teach me and my readers.
In her late forties, Lithgow embarks on a dating campaign that proves wildly funny and often outrageous.
Her descriptions are enormously entertaining, but what I liked best about the book is that the author grows from her year of “putting herself out there.” She comes to fascinating realizations, both about her dates and about herself – revelations that I could apply to my own self.
After two life-shaking events-losing her father and divorcing the man she's spent half her life with, who happens to be an actor from a famous family-Rachel Lithgow leaves a thirty-year career to write full time and pursue a relationship with a calming, delightful man she recently met online. She thinks she has it all figured out... until he announces he's joining a cult and moving to Phoenix with a blonde real estate agent. Through a year of terrible dates, peppered with a few great experiences and a lot of pinot noir, the author learns that patterns can be changed, that…
A friend once observed, “You know, Laurie, you’re a weirdo magnet.” I vigorously contested this label, all the while knowing he was right. And, so, I myself have experienced wildly outrageous dates, with what my friend dubbed “the weird.” These dates, while not ending in marriage, did provide endless fodder for my writing. What made them tick? Why did I attract them? Were they always weird? The weird, I discovered, make excellent characters, filled with idiosyncrasies, mysteries, and lessons to teach me and my readers.
Williams proves an engaging storyteller as she takes us through the slings and arrows of her marital breakup and subsequent foray into dating.
What I liked best was Williams’ admission that, in writing her debut memoir, she had to learn an entirely different language, translating her complex web of emotions and experiences into the written word. So, Williams’ prose carries a “riding this horse for the first time” giddiness, freshness, and fearlessness.
As a journalist accustomed to objectivity, I, too, had to learn a new language of subjectivity, penning my first memoir. Williams served as a role model for me as I made this difficult transition.
'Gripping' Vogue 'Empowering' Cosmopolitan 'Joyful' Financial Times 'Eye-popping' Daily Mail
When her 22-year-marriage suddenly ended, 47-year-old mother of three Laura expected life as she knew it to be over. What she hadn't expected:
* An incredible one-night stand * A new-found sexual appetite * Ten men in eight months * That there is plenty of fun to be had after 40 From G-spots to bald spots, dirty talk to dating fiascos, Available is the unflinchingly honest, empowering, and humorous true story of one woman's love life after divorce.
'A real page-turner [...] Unexpected, original, funny and sometimes deeply…
Delve into this internationally best-selling series, now complete! A fast paced laugh-out-loud mix of Urban Fantasy and Mystery.
I can tell when you’re lying. Every. Single. Time. I’m Jinx, a PI hired to find a missing university student, I hope to find her propped up at a bar–yet my gut…
A friend once observed, “You know, Laurie, you’re a weirdo magnet.” I vigorously contested this label, all the while knowing he was right. And, so, I myself have experienced wildly outrageous dates, with what my friend dubbed “the weird.” These dates, while not ending in marriage, did provide endless fodder for my writing. What made them tick? Why did I attract them? Were they always weird? The weird, I discovered, make excellent characters, filled with idiosyncrasies, mysteries, and lessons to teach me and my readers.
This collection of personal essays, culled from 8,000+ submitted each year to the New York Times “Modern Love” column, absolutely sings!
What I liked best about this book of true stories about love is the revelation that everyone is inherently a storyteller. That’s because conflict is part of everyone’s life, and conflict, by definition, equals drama.
How revelatory to witness an artful 1,000 words woven out of the day a woman’s flirty email to her new beau is not answered, at least not right away. Also, I loved the writing style of each essay, as if the reader is eavesdropping on two friends telling it like it is over a cup of coffee.
The most popular, provocative, and unforgettable essays from the past fifteen years of the New York Times “Modern Love” column—including stories from the anthology series starring Tina Fey, Andy Garcia, Anne Hathaway, Catherine Keener, Dev Patel, and John Slattery
A young woman goes through the five stages of ghosting grief. A man's promising fourth date ends in the emergency room. A female lawyer with bipolar disorder experiences the highs and lows of dating. A widower hesitates about introducing his children to his new girlfriend. A divorcée in her seventies looks back at the beauty and rubble of past relationships.
I am a child of a high-conflict divorce, so when I became a clinical psychologist my mission was to prevent the kind of suffering that is common in divorce, especially for children. I have worked with thousands of children and families going through divorces, some amicably and some with extreme difficulty. Divorce can be damaging but there are ways to prevent that damage, and these books including mine, as well as my blog are all tools with the same goal: help families avoid the pain, upheaval, loss, and destruction of a litigated divorce. In my work now I focus on working with people who commit to work through their divorce without threats of litigation. I work primarily in the area of Collaborative Divorce.
With the rise in so-called “gray divorces,” adult children of divorce find that they are just as wounded, betrayed, devastated and grief-stricken as young children. The myth that it is better to “wait to divorce till after the kids are grown” turns out to be just that, a myth. Adult children of divorce have been neglected in divorce books until recently, and this book is a resource geared toward their unique circumstances, helping them process and adjust to their parent's divorce. Divorcing parents would also benefit from reading it if they have adult children.
Adult children are often overlooked and forgotten when their parents divorce later in life, but in these pages they will find comfort and understanding for the many feelings, frustrations, and challenges they face.
For more than two decades, a silent revolution has been occurring and creating a seismic shift in the American family and families in other countries. It has been unfolding without much comment, and its effects are being felt across three to four generations: more couples are divorcing later in life. Called the “gray divorce revolution,” the cultural phenomenon describes couples who divorce after the age of 50.
As a bestselling ghostwriter, I spend a lot of time reading what everyone’s reading—the chart-toppers and book club favorites. But when I stepped out of the shadows to write my own memoir about love and loss, I leaned on less obvious writers to inspire me forward. I believe that everyone has a story to tell and a unique way to tell it, and one of the more magical aspects of being a reader is discovering those voices that speak directly to you, who make you laugh when you want to cry, and allow you to breathe again. I hope my favorites list similarly lifts you up!
This exquisite memoir validated for me what I already know but sometimes resist in my own writing: let it bleed onto the page. The grief, the heartache, the anger, the resolve.
I read this book nestled safely in bed and caught myself thinking: Yes! Do more of this. Throw off the damn blankets and tell the truth! That’s how we heal.
"[Smith]...reminds you that you can...survive deep loss, sink into life's deep beauty, and constantly, constantly make yourself new." -Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author
The bestselling poet and author of the "powerful" (People) and "luminous" (Newsweek) Keep Moving offers a lush and heartrending memoir exploring coming of age in your middle age.
"Life, like a poem, is a series of choices."
In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself in lyrical vignettes that shine, hard and clear as jewels. The book begins…
On the morning of December 26, 2004, an undersea earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. The resulting tsunami killed an estimated 230,000 people across fourteen countries, from Indonesia to Sri Lanka to Thailand to the Maldives to India and all the way to East Africa.…
I have a passion for helping people move past the pain of divorce because I’ve been there myself. As a counselor I knew what I needed to do to cope and heal but I also quickly realized the importance of making prayerful decisions and trusting God. It’s my joy to walk you through steps you can take to cope now and move to a brighter future. My education, career, faith, and experiences have resulted in my book Peace after Divorce being recognized as an exemplary Christian self-help book by the Illumination Book Awards.
If you have children, this book is a great follow-up to the parenting section of my book Peace after Divorce. Based on his professional experience as a therapist and researcher Dr. Emery shares important steps you can take to see that your children become well-adjusted and thrive. I’m impressed with the depth of his insights and feel that parents who read this book will be better able to navigate the tricky pitfalls of parenting through and after divorce. Stories of families illustrate his points and make this book an interesting read as well as a rich resource for those who want to minimize the negative impact of divorce on their children. This is the only book on my list not from a Christian perspective but it is good for parents.
Nationally recognized expert Robert Emery applies his twenty-five years of experience as a researcher, therapist, and mediator to offer parents a new road map to divorce. Dr. Emery shows how our powerful emotions and the way we handle them shape how we divorce—and whether our children suffer or thrive in the long run. His message is hopeful, yet realistic—divorce is invariably painful, but parents can help promote their children’s resilience. With compassion and authority, Dr. Emery explains:
• Why it is so hard to really make divorce work • How anger and fighting can keep people from really separating •…
I am a speaker, grief investigator, filmmaker, and voracious reader! Since the death of my eldest son, Harry, 23 years ago, I have become passionate about changing the landscape for people who have to face life and work when they are living with grief. Books on grief helped me enormously right from the start with Harry’s diagnosis when I was going through ‘living’ or ‘anticipatory grief’ and even more after Harry’s death. They could be fiction or factual; it didn’t matter. They offered me a translation, a guide for what I was going through, and gave me the courage to go forward as these authors were demonstrating.
This book gave me courage when I was at a low ebb.
Clover bravely describes the ferocity of her longing and grief over her mother following an accident. Her mother is alive but is not the person she knew and loved, more a toddler in an adult body. Clover takes flight as a teenager, and in her mission to understand her own shock and turmoil, she is drawn into challenging and sometimes dangerous situations with people, which she handles with fortitude.
I was left feeling that in the face of adversity, if we are brave and walk towards our grief, we can handle it eventually, bringing it forward into a new landscape (in Clover’s case, adulthood) and learning from it every step of the way.
'Extraordinary, and a painful but invigorating read. I've never met anyone who has read it and doesn't rank it as one of their favourite books.' Dolly Alderton
'This story - so fierce and brave and visceral and raw - will stay with me forever. Clover Stroud is a force of nature, and a woman who is fearless in the face of life and death. I loved it.' Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love
'There is so much richly evoked life here... beautifully written.' Cathy Rentzenbrink, The Times
I have been researching, curating, and writing women’s history for 30 years. I curated the suffragette exhibition Purple, White, and Green at the Museum of London. I wrote The Suffragettes in Pictures; Love and Dirt: The Marriage of Arthur Munby and Hannah Cullwick; Elsie and Mairi Go To War: Two Extraordinary Women on the Western Front; The Criminal Conversation of Mrs Norton, and Rise Up, Women! The Remarkable Lives of the Suffragettes.
I am a public historian, devoted to sharing my research and writing with all. I am a keen podcaster, Youtuber, and guest on television and radio. You could say I’m a heroine addict.
I hope you love my recommendations.
The leading authority on the history of divorce in England, Lawrence Stone’s brilliantly researched books are scholarly and highly readable. Road to Divorce is a frank and intimate account of the changing moral views of the past. It is utterly engrossing, full of drama, and leads readers to appreciate what a shocking prison marriage proved to be for hundreds of thousands of couples who, until 1857, needed an Act of Parliament to escape a bad marriage. Wives found it far harder than husbands to get a divorce as the legal obstacles were greater.
The first full study of a topic rich in historical interest and contemporary importance
Despite the infamous divorce of Henry VIII in 1529, subsequent moral, political, and religious attitudes ensured that until 1857, England was the only Protestant country with virtually no facilities for full divorce on the grounds of adultery, desertion, or cruelty. Using a mass of transcribed legal testimonies, taken from hitherto unexplored court records, Professor Stone uncovers the means by which laity and lawyers reformed the divorce laws, and offers astonishingly frank and intimate insights into our ancestors' changing views about what makes a marriage.
Nelson West, a former Chicago homicide detective, is hired by wealthy heir Lionel Bing to discreetly help “fix” scandals and legal problems for his father’s wealthy friends.
Bing, a brilliant but troubled investigator, suffers from PTSD symptoms as a result of being kidnapped and witnessing the murder of his mother…
As a Certified Divorce Coach and Certified Divorce Financial Analyst®, I work with clients during one of the most difficult stages of their lives. Clients often feel regretful about the past and fearful for the future, and the right book recommendation can really help them move forward. I often give clients reading assignments between coaching sessions that help them process their grief, figure out their goals, educate themselves about finances, feel less alone in the divorce process, and become more confident in making major decisions. I’m never not reading on this subject.
Psychotherapist Daphne Rose Kingma offers ten coping strategies to heal your heart when struggling with life’s devastations, including divorce. This is a soothing read if one is still raw with grief as it offers both hope and practical suggestions for moving through loss. Divorce can be a chance to heal old wounds and grow and this book offers a terrific start to that process.
Add layoffs, foreclosures, and skyrocketing health-care costs to the inevitable crises of every life, and you have today’s landscape. Amid these challenges, even those who thought they had solid coping skills feel that their center cannot hold as things fall apart. In her first book in many years, bestselling author Daphne Rose Kingma takes us on a path of emotional and spiritual healing, with particular attention to the complex and frequently overwhelming circumstances of our lives right now. The perfect combination of empathic friend, sage counselor, savvy problem solver, and even gallows humorist, Kingma looks straight into the predicaments so…
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