When I got divorced, I went searching for books that could help me make sense of it all—what happened, why I felt the way I did, and what the hell I was supposed to do next.
What did I find? Not much.
Everything on the shelves was either about co-parenting (cats didn’t count) or religious-based divorce recovery (I wasn’t even allowed to go on a Christian service trip when I was in high school because I wasn’t a regular member of the church, so…). I wanted stories that reflected my experience—so I started collecting them myself.
Enter The Divorcée Bookshelf—a reading list of books I wish existed when I got divorced that I’ve collected over the years. These are books that have helped me untangle marriage, love, friendship, and everything in between.
The Divorcée Bookshelf: Required Reading for Rebuilding your Life
Books about divorce that should have existed sooner:
- You Could Make This Place Beautiful – Maggie Smith
- This Story Will Change: After the Happily Ever After – Elizabeth Crane
- This American Ex-Wife: How I Ended My Marriage and Started My Life – Lyz Lenz
- Dinner for One: How Cooking in Paris Saved Me – Sutanya Dacres
Books to help you understand marriage:
- But You Seemed So Happy: A Marriage, in Pieces and Bits – Kimberly Harrington
- Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage – Elizabeth Gilbert
- Anatomy of Love: A Natural History of Mating, Marriage, and Why We Stray – Helen Fisher, PhD
- The Second Sex – Simone de Beauvoir
Books to help reframe dating (and erase the Sex & the City/He’s Just Not Into You brainwashing)
- The Lonely Hunter: How the Search for Love Is Broken – Aimée Lutkin
- Thank You, More Please: A Feminist Guide to Breaking Dumb Dating Rules and Finding Love – Lily Womble
Books About Friendship (which you know we love)
- Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close – Aminatou Sow & Ann Friedman
- I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This [But I’m Going to Anyway] – Chelsea Devantez
Books on learning how to trust yourself again
- Splinters – Leslie Jamison
- Tough Girl: Lessons in Courage and Heart from Olympic Gold to the Camino de Santiago – Carolyn Wood
Fiction picks (because sometimes you just need a novel)
- The Divorcées – Rowan Beaird
- The Female Persuasion – Meg Wolitzer
- The Signature of All Things – Elizabeth Gilbert
- Girl, Woman, Other – Bernardine Evaristo
Books to read if you want to be mad at men (with data)
- The End of Men: And the Rise of Women – Hanna Rosin
- Three Women – Lisa Taddeo
- Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger – Soraya Chemaly
- The Marriage Plot – Jeffrey Eugenides
Final thoughts
This list? It’s my divorce syllabus—the books that helped me process, question, and rebuild. Maybe you’ll find something in here that speaks to you, too.
Want more recommendations?
Books about divorce are being published all the time. We’ll update this list and add more recommendations to the Divorcée Bookshelf regularly.
Watch the video, drop a comment, or join the Dispatched Divorcée community to keep the conversation going.
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