Books to Celebrate Singledom

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. So, with no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail—and she would do it alone. Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

Kristin Newman spent much of her twenties and thirties buying dresses to wear to her friends’ weddings and baby showers. Not ready to settle down, Kristin instead traveled the world, often alone, falling madly in love with the planet…and the many attractive locals. Equal parts laugh-out-loud storytelling, candid reflection, and wanderlust-inspiring travel tales, What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding is a compelling debut that will have readers rushing to renew their passports.

“Whom to marry, and when will it happen—these two questions define every woman’s existence.” So begins Spinster, a revelatory and slyly erudite look at the pleasures and possibilities of remaining single. Intellectually substantial and deeply personal, this book is both an unreservedly inquisitive memoir and a broader cultural exploration that asks us to acknowledge the opportunities within ourselves to live authentically.

The creator of the Instagram sensation But Like Maybe takes us on an illustrated journey through her worst dating mistakes—a hilarious, hopeful guide to what you need to get wrong in love before you get it right.

For the commitment-averse women in the eleven sublime stories of Single, Carefree, Mellow, falling in love is never easy and always inconvenient. The women grapple with love amidst everything from unwelcome houseguests to disastrous birthday parties as Katherine Heiny spins a debut that is superbly accomplished, endlessly entertaining, and laugh-out-loud funny.

Part-manifesto, part-memoir, from the revolutionary editor who infused social consciousness into the pages of Teen Vogue, an exploration of what it means to come into your own—on your own terms. As Elaine Welteroth learns to rely on herself by looking both inward and upward, we’re ultimately reminded that we’re more than enough.