1. Rising Strong: How The Ability To Reset Transforms The Way We Live, Love, Parent, And Lead by Brene Brown
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Brene Brown's
Rising Strong isn't about specifically about breakups or heartbreak per se but she explores how we can regain ourselves and rise back up after a fall. You might see your previous relationship as a failure, and Brene Brown truly strives to help you to recover, not allowing your past to hold you back in the future.
2. Juliet Takes A Breath by Gabby Rivera
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Juliet Takes A Breath by Gabby Rivera is a funny and poignant story about a young Peurto Rican woman at the start of her adult life, exploring her identity and sexuality and realizing that the solutions to your own life cannot be figured out by someone else, but by yourself.
3. Milk And Honey by Rupi Kaur
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Rupi Kaur's wonderful book of poems,
Milk And Honey, is certainly one to pick up if you are going through a breakup, or even if you are just facing some difficult emotions. Kaur is just so intuitive with how she articulates and understands universal emotions and she explores heartbreak and healing.
4. Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou
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The iconic Maya Angelou's book,
Phenomenal Woman is a collection of four poems that celebrate women in all of their glory and certainly something to read to renew your confidence after a breakup. These poems are some of Maya Angelou's most remembered and loved poems.
5. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
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Matt Haig's
The Midnight Library has endless shelves of books that quite literally go on forever. And each book you choose allows you a chance to try another life that you could have lived if you made different choices. And it's the perfect chance to escape, reflect, and unpack your own choices in life.
6. Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton
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Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton is a hilarious and somethings heartbreaking exploration of love in all of its forms, as well as growing up as a young adult. It's really an honest and touching and funny take on all of the different kinds of love you might experience.
7. When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice For Difficult Times by Pema Chodron
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If you are going through some heartbreak or a difficult time, Pema Chodron's books are always full of Buddhist wisdom that focuses positively on how to sit more cooly within the extremely uncomfortable feelings and confines of loneliness and heartache and learn to live with them.
8. The Pisces by Melissa Broder
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Melissa Broder's
Pisces is a true masterpiece that you'll struggle to put down and perfect if you are looking for some escapism, even if you feel like escaping would do you no good! This is a story that begins with a breakup and develops with an erotic rebound with a merman.
9. Circe by Madeline Miller
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Circe by Madeline Miller is a captivating story that is perfect if you need a distraction and to take a break from this reality for a little while. Circe is a Greek goddess, and she is a fiercely independent woman who is able to survive and strive alone.
10. The Course Of Love by Alain de Botton
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Alain de Botton's
The Course Of Love follows the story of two people, Rabih and Kirsten who meet, fall in love, and then get married. But instead of leaving it there like many of the classics we know and love, de Botton explores the marriage itself too, describing love as more of a "skill than enthusiasm".
11. Anger: Wisdom For Cooling The Flames by Thich Nhat Hanh
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Buddhist wisdom helps us to sit with and reframe our reactions to certain uncomfortable feelings and this book from Thich Nhat Hanh,
Anger: Wisdom For Cooling The Flames, focuses on anger but is perfect for helping you on your way to healing from a breakup.
12. Audrey, Wait! by Robin Brenway
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Audrey, Wait! is actually the title of Audrey's band-obsessed ex-boyfriend's song that he released with his band, and it absolutely topped the charts, making the character, Audrey, famous! And everyone assumes they know what happened in their breakup - but it's Audrey's turn now to tell her side of the story and make HER voice heard!
13. Love Hurts: Buddhist Advice For The Heartbroken by Lodro Rinzler
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Another book containing Buddhist wisdom has made it to the list and it's none other than Lodro Rinzler's
Love Hurts... This self-help book strives to help you through your emotional pain after suffering from a broken heart and give you practical advice to help you to get through your breakup.
14. Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
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Candice Carty-Williams's
Queenie follows Queenie Jenkins and at the start of the book, she is going through a really messy breakup with her long-term boyfriend. And during the time post-breakup, she engages in some pretty damaging behavior. It's an honest, hilarious, and at times painful read.
15. In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
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Carmen Maria Machado's
In The Dream House is ultimately an innovative and haunting account of a relationship gone bad in many ways, including becoming an abusive relationship. The 'dream house' itself acts as a powerful metaphor throughout the book of how a house can promise you your dreams of domestic bliss and happiness but can ultimately turn into a prison.
16. Heartburn by Nora Ephron
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The creator of "Sleepless in Seattle", Nora Ephron's novel
Heartburn follows a breakup after a seemingly perfect marriage. You see, seven months into her pregnancy, the protagonist finds out that her 'perfect' husband is in love with someone else! There are times she tries to win him back, and times when she wishes him dead!
17. Stag's Leap by Sharon Olds
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This stunningly beautiful collection of poetry in
Stag's Leap by Sharon Olds explores her divorce and all of its heartbreaking truths. The collection of heartbreaking poetry explores the crevices of divorce, the relationship, sex, love, sorrow, and passion, and is truly a masterpiece for a broken heart.
18. The Idiot by Elif Batuman
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Elif Batuman's novel
The Idiot might just grab your attention when you're going through a breakup when nothing else can. It doesn't center around the breakup itself but if you find yourself still longing for your ex, you might be able to draw some parallels between your experience and the experiences and emotions explored within the book.
19. Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austin
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Now perhaps you enjoy the classics, and there's no better place to look for some post-breakup healing than in Jane Austin's
Pride And Prejudice. The truth is, this masterpiece ultimately reassures us that all humans are completely imperfect, and so is their love.
20. The Modern Breakup by Daniel Chidiac
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The Modern Breakup by Daniel Chidiac centers around a breakup, as the title suggests, and it is absolutely jam-packed and full of hard truths about dating, love, and breaking up. And it's particularly useful if you're finding yourself ready to get back on to the dating scene and don't know where to start!
21. The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan
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David Levitan's
The Lover's Dictionary uses a unique and innovative method of telling a story of finding love and breaking up in the style of a dictionary. Using this intertextual reference to the dictionary, each of the 26 chapters centers around a specific and significantly meaningful word, and the story is told in alphabetical order.
22. Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
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Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed is a collection of advice columns written by Strayed herself. She wrote the columns under the pseudonym 'Dear Sugar' in an agony aunt style and reassures you that other people have the same questions, thoughts, and worries as you might be having.
23. How To Date Men When You Hate Men by Blythe Roberson
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Comedian Blythe Roberson's
How To Date Men When You Hate Men is a hilarious and thought-provoking exploration of how she, and many other women, are attracted to those who oppress her. If you're in need of a laugh and a giggle, and to get deep in thought, this is the book for you post-breakup.
24. All About Love by Bell Hooks
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Bell Hooks's
All About Love gives us an insight into her own ideas of love, both from internal and external sources, whether it's love from another person, you're own love for others or your own self-love. And she explores the idea of loving yourself in order to love others.
25. The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down by Haemin Sunim
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Haemin Sunim is a Buddhist Monk and he has written
The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down as an effective guide to slowing down and practicing mindfulness effectively. He advises how you can slow down in such a busy world and how you can live with more intention.
26. Atlas Of The Heart by Brene Brown
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Brene Brown has made it to the list for a second time with her groundbreaking book,
Atlas Of The Heart. In it, she explores 87 human emotions to help us truly understand them because, as she says, if we don't understand our emotions fully, they're always going to have power over us.
27. Playing With Matches by Hannah Orenstein
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Playing With Matches by Hannah Orenstein centers around a messy breakup between a young matchmaker, Sasha, and her boyfriend who works in finance. And Sasha's new career is an interesting one as she tries to find her own place in this swipe-heavy world, dishing out dating advice and coaching them through rejection.
28. The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy
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Ariel Levy's memoir,
The Rules Do Not Apply, might be just what you're looking for if you are going through your own heartbreak. You see, in the book, she explores and navigates a huge heartbreaking breakup, and an affair, and also deals with the upset of a devastating miscarriage.
29. Maybe You Should Talk To Someone by Lori Gottlieb
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Maybe You Should Talk To Someone is a powerful book to read after a breakup from psychotherapist and author Lori Gottlieb. In the book, she writes about breaking up with someone that she thought she would spend the rest of her life with and gives us eye-opening wisdom and insight into both sides of the therapy couch.
30. The Goodbye Girls by Lisa Harrington
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The Goodbye Girls by Lisa Harrington centers around a character named Lizzie who is inspired by the breakups that keep happening at her high school. In fact, they are so terrible that they are even breaking up with each other via text. But Lizzie manages to create a great business inspired by them: breakup gift baskets!