Love Half a Life? Readers share 100 books like Half a Life...

By Darin Strauss,

Here are 100 books that Half a Life fans have personally recommended if you like Half a Life. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Book cover of Vow: A Memoir of Marriage (and Other Affairs)

Kristin Louise Duncombe Author Of Trailing: A Memoir

From my list on memoirs that tell painful stories with eloquence and insight.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a therapist, and I work with people from all walks of life and with all manner of suffering. I am drawn to memoirs because I consider it the real self-help genre of literature. Like good therapy, a good memoir will make sense of a story: how it happened, why it happened, how it affected the person, and what they did (do) to face it, and thrive in spite of it. As a writer, I take pride in bringing that same quality to my work. I have been asked many times, ā€œHow can you bear to reveal all that stuff about yourself, especially when itā€™s unflattering?ā€ The answer is always ā€œIsnā€™t that the part that matters? Isnā€™t that the part where the growth occurred? Isnā€™t that what makes the story worth telling?ā€

Kristin's book list on memoirs that tell painful stories with eloquence and insight

Kristin Louise Duncombe Why did Kristin love this book?

Wendy Plumpā€™s VOW is the only memoir I have ever read that reveals what it is like to be the ā€œcheatingā€ partner (there are many books that address being cheated on). This is NOT a book touting infidelity or polyamory. It is simply an extremely honest accounting of a marriage riddled by affairs (both partners), how the author coped with the fallout, and grew into a more mature and insight-driven version of herself. This very topic activates so much judgment by so many people (just read some of the seething, scathing reviews on Amazon), but the truth is, human beings DO cheat, they DO commit infidelity, and Wendy Plump, who is a terrific, elegant writer and storyteller, has addressed this topic with great candor. It takes an extremely brave person to tell this type of story; hence, this book is brave and beautiful.

By Wendy Plump,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Vow as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

There are so many ways to find out. From a cell phone. From a bank statement. From some weird supermarket encounter. One morning in early January 2005, Wendy Plump's friend came to tell her that her husband was having an affair. It was not a shock. Actually, it explained a lot. But what Wendy was not prepared for was the revelation that her husband also had another child, living within a mile of their family home.

Monogamy is one of the most important of the many vows we make in our marriages. Yet it is a rare spouse who doesā€¦


Book cover of An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination

Monica Starkman Author Of The End of Miracles: A Novel

From my list on miscarriage and pregnancy loss.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a psychiatrist-novelist. As a psychiatrist, Iā€™ve seen many patients struggling with infertility and miscarriage. As a novelist, I became intrigued with the idea of having false pregnancy (pseudocyesis) be a key element in a characterā€™s life. My primary goal was to create an engrossing good read. I also wanted to show the psychological trauma of infertility/miscarriage. Another goal was to portray psychiatric patients, the psychiatrists who treat them, and psychiatry in a realistic way. Iā€™m so gratified by the reader reviews: ā€œgrippingā€...ā€œspell-bindingā€...ā€œrich, satisfying readā€...ā€œa page-turnerā€...ā€œIlluminatingā€.  

Monica's book list on miscarriage and pregnancy loss

Monica Starkman Why did Monica love this book?

This extraordinary book combines a lived experience with the powerful writing of an accomplished author.  Unexpectedly, in her mid-thirties, she finds a man to love and a baby is on the way. But then, the agony:  the baby dies in utero in the ninth month. She tackles head-on the deepest feelings and questions this brings. I like the way she unsparingly describes her experience and her grief, and then how she processes this and finds a way to move on. 

By Elizabeth McCracken,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"This is the happiest story in the world with the saddest ending," writes Elizabeth McCracken in her powerful, inspiring memoir. A prize-winning, successful novelist in her 30s, McCracken was happy to be an itinerant writer and self-proclaimed spinster. But suddenly she fell in love, got married, and two years ago was living in a remote part of France, working on her novel, and waiting for the birth of her first child.

This book is about what happened next. In her ninth month of pregnancy, she learned that her baby boy had died. How do you deal with and recover fromā€¦


Book cover of Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity

K. E. Garland Author Of In Search of a Salve: Memoir of a Sex Addict

From my list on understanding female sex addiction.

Why am I passionate about this?

My name is K. E. Garland, and I am a recovering female sex addict. I didnā€™t know it until I was 42. In 2014, I had a rock-bottom moment that forced me to confront my compulsions. I self-therapized through writing. As a blogger, I described ways Iā€™d buried interrelated traumas. During the nine years it took for me to research and write my memoir, there were few books about female sex addiction. Now, there are several! The books Iā€™ve recommended not only provide a well-rounded understanding of a little-known phenomenon, but they also help to demarginalize stories of how women live with behavioral addictions. I hope youā€™ll find them useful.

K.'s book list on understanding female sex addiction

K. E. Garland Why did K. love this book?

I really enjoyed this book because it was the first narrative I read about a woman who was only a sex addict. Sex addiction is primarily viewed as something men (and out-of-control celebrities) deal with. I thought I was alone as a female sex addict until I read about Cohenā€™s life.

Her book helped me feel less alone, and it showed me that I shouldnā€™t be ashamed to tell my story. I saw myself in each of her experiences, especially when she described being a sex-craved teenager. 

By Kerry Cohen,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Loose Girl as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

For everyone who was that girl.

Loose Girl is Kerry Cohen's captivating memoir about her descent into promiscuity and how she gradually found her way toward real intimacy. The story of addiction-not just to sex, but to male attention-Loose Girl is also the story of a young woman who came to believe that boys and men could give her life meaning.

For everyone who knew that girl.

In rich and immediate detail, Loose Girl re-creates what it feels like to be in that desperate moment, when a you try to control someone by handing over your body, when the touchā€¦


If you love Half a Life...

Ad

Book cover of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

Tap Dancing on Everest by Mimi Zieman,

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctorā€”and only womanā€”on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route upā€¦

Book cover of Lit

Katie Gaddini Author Of The Struggle to Stay: Why Single Evangelical Women Are Leaving the Church

From my list on womenā€™s voices.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up reading books that featured strong women, including Little Women and Anne of Green Gables so it only made sense that I would go on to write a book featuring four strong women. As much as I love reading fiction, since I am a professor, my writing is mainly academic and/or non-fiction and I aim to make research translatable and interesting to all ā€“ including mainstream audiences. Currently, I am working on a new book about evangelical Christian women and politics, which I started in 2020 right before the presidential election. No matter where I live or work, exploring the various facets of womenā€™s lives will remain my driving pursuit. 

Katie's book list on womenā€™s voices

Katie Gaddini Why did Katie love this book?

Karr's memoir diverges from my other recommendations insofar as itā€™s a memoir and features just one womanā€™s voice.

I found this book while living in Madrid over a decade ago and remember sneaking out into the living room late at night to read it. Karr is a master storyteller and a master memoirist ā€“ highly relatable even if youā€™ve never struggled with alcoholism. 

By Mary Karr,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Lit as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The long awaited sequel to the beloved and bestselling 'The Liars' Club' and 'Cherry' - a memoir about a self-professed 'blackbelt sinner's' descent into the inferno of alcoholism and madness, and her astonishing resurrection.

'If you'd told me, even a year before I start taking my son to church regular that I'd wind up whispering my sins in the confessional or on my knees saying the rosary, I would've laughed myself cockeyed. More likely pastime? Pole dancer. International spy. Drug mule. Assassin.'

Mary Karr's prizewinning 'The Liars' Club' chronicled her hardscrabble Texas childhood and sparked a renaissance in memoir, crestingā€¦


Book cover of Alternate Side

Barbara Josselsohn Author Of Secrets of the Italian Island

From my list on set on an intriguing island or coastline.

Why am I passionate about this?

A native of New Yorkā€™s Long Island, Iā€™ve always been obsessed with the shoreline. My best early memories are of traveling with my family to the eastern edge of Long Island for our two-week summer vacation. My parents didnā€™t earn a lot of money, and we didnā€™t vacation often, so those two weeks in August were heavenly. As an adult, I gravitate to coastlines and islands. Iā€™ve always been a fan of books with a strong sense of place, especially when that place is the shore. And I loved setting my current book on an island in the Mediterranean, delving into the qualities and characteristics that make a coastline so evocative and so appealing. 

Barbara's book list on set on an intriguing island or coastline

Barbara Josselsohn Why did Barbara love this book?

Full disclosureā€”Iā€™m a former New Yorker who adores the Big Apple.

So how could I not include a book set on the vibrant, unpredictable island of Manhattan? Anna Quindlen has long been one of my go-to writers, and this is my favorite of her novels ā€“ sophisticated, subtle, and thought-provoking.

It revolves around a series of charactersā€”some earnest, some quirky, but all flawedā€”who live in an apartment building rocked by a disturbing act of violence. I love this book because of all the questions it raises about family, loyalty, and communityā€”and I love the way the building becomes a kind of island itself.

To me, Quindlen is a top-notch chronicler of contemporary motherhood, marriage, and familyā€”and with this story, she is at her best.

By Anna Quindlen,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Alternate Side as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

For fans of Elizabeth Strout and Anne Tyler comes a brilliantly provocative novel from the Richard and Judy Book Club and Number One bestselling author Anna Quindlen.

'Mesmerizing. Quindlen makes her characters so richly alive, so believable, that it's impossible not to feel every doubt and dream they harbour . . . Overwhelmingly moving' New York Times

Anna Quindlen follows her highly-praised novel Miller's Valley - 'reads like a companion to Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge', Elisabeth Egan - with a captivating novel about money, class and self-discovery set in the heart of New York where the tensions in a tight-knitā€¦


Book cover of Animal

Vanessa Cuti Author Of The Tip Line

From my list on a divisive/polarizing main character.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™m a sucker for unlikeable. A charged word thatā€™s sometimes used about protagonists but mostly only about female protagonists. When they donā€™t fit a template. When they are imperfect. When they push back. When they are too emotional or too distant or too interior or too driven or too obsessed or too mean or too nice or too smart or not smart enough. The protagonists in these novels are flawedā€”period. But flawed is complex and perfect is simple and simple is boring and no one wants to read a boring novel.

Vanessa's book list on a divisive/polarizing main character

Vanessa Cuti Why did Vanessa love this book?

Joan abandons her life and moves across the country on a quest to find a stranger from her past, convinced it will help her find peace.

In a savagely honest style, Animal recounts Joanā€™s affairs, family history, a traumatic incident from her youth, and a gaping emptiness within herself that sheā€™s desperate to understand. ā€œIf someone asked me to describe myself in a single word, depraved is the one I would use.ā€

Depraved, sure. Maybe. But itā€™s impossible to be angry at her because sheā€™s so candid about what sheā€™s doing and why. The prose itself is fresh and stark and haunting.

By Lisa Taddeo,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Animal as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From Lisa Taddeo, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller and global phenomenon Three Women, comes an ā€œintoxicatingā€ (Entertainment Weekly), ā€œfearlessā€ (Los Angeles Times), and ā€œexplosiveā€ (People) novel about ā€œwhat happens when women are pushed beyond the brink, and what comes after the reckoningā€ (Esquire).

Joan has spent a lifetime enduring the cruelties of men. But when one of them commits a shocking act of violence in front of her, she flees New York City in search of Alice, the only person alive who can help her make sense of her past. In the sweltering hills above Los Angeles,ā€¦


If you love Darin Strauss...

Ad

Book cover of Me and The Times: My wild ride from elevator operator to New York Times editor, columnist, and change agent (1967-97)

Me and The Times by Robert W. Stock,

Me and The Times offers a fresh perspective on those pre-internet days when the Sunday sections of The New York Times shaped the countryā€™s political and cultural conversation. Starting in 1967, Robert Stock edited seven of those sections over 30 years, innovating and troublemaking all the way.

His memoir isā€¦

Book cover of Clever Girl

Kate Cayley Author Of How You Were Born

From my list on short stories that make domestic life seem weird.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have written two short story collections and am working on a third. I have been passionate about short stories for as long as I have been a reader, and continue to find the form extraordinary. Alice Munro famously defined a short story as a house you can step inside rather than a journey you undertake. I feel that a short story is a respectful invitation to the reader to visit briefly and enjoy a small interlude on the way to wherever they are going. 

Kate's book list on short stories that make domestic life seem weird

Kate Cayley Why did Kate love this book?

A lower-middle-class girl grows up in provincial England, and we follow her from early childhood through middle age. Thatā€™s it. She has a few relationships, a few kids, and some friendships. She fights with her mother, she works, and she thinks about her life, but only in passing because sheā€™s busy living.

The kind of book thatā€™s not supposed to work, except it does. It was technically marketed as a novel but exists on the disputed border between connected short story collections and novels. Each section can be read by itself and is a world unto itself. This book is full of moments that express how strange it is to have consciousness, how we are caught, suddenly, in the midst of ourselves, unable to believe we are here. 

By Tessa Hadley,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Clever Girl as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An indelible story of one womanā€™s life, revealed in a series of beautifully sculpted episodes that illuminate an era, moving from the 1960s to today, from one of Britainā€™s leading literary lightsā€”Tessa Hadley.

ā€œClever Girl isā€¦what could be called a ā€˜sensibilityā€™ novelā€”a story that doesnā€™t overreach, about a character who feels real, told in prose that isnā€™t ornate yet is startlingly exact. The effect is a fine and well-chosen pileup of experiences that gather meaning and power.ā€ā€”Meg Wolitzer, New York Times Book Review

Clever Girl is a powerful exploration of family relationships and class in modern life, witnessed through theā€¦


Book cover of All Other Nights

Mary Glickman Author Of An Undisturbed Peace

From my list on southern themes youā€™ve never heard of (maybe).

Why am I passionate about this?

My heart has been Southern for 35 years although I was raised in Boston and never knew the South until well into my adulthood. I loved it as soon as I saw it but I needed to learn it before I could call it home. These books and others helped shape me as a Southerner and as an author of historical Southern Jewish novels. Cormac McCarthy doesnā€™t describe 19th-century North Carolina so much as immerse his voice and his reader in it. Dara Horn captures her era seamlessly. Steve Stern is so wedded to place he elevates it to mythic. I donā€™t know if these five are much read anymore but they should be.

Mary's book list on southern themes youā€™ve never heard of (maybe)

Mary Glickman Why did Mary love this book?

Dara Horn is a fabulous writer. A recent work, People Love Dead Jews, won the National Jewish Book Award, and for good reason. She is an exquisitely profound, solidly intellectual writer in Guide for the Perplexed. In All Other Nights, she proves herself as a master storyteller on matters of the heart and soul. Set during the Civil War, a young Jewish man volunteers for not-so-patriotic reasons in the Union Army and is set upon a mission of spying and assassination at the bosom of his Southern family. Itā€™s a brilliant story of lovers and enemies separated and reunited with the tragedies of war in between. Beyond all that, itā€™s a meditation on loyalty and the cruel duplicity of man. Our hero faces innumerable moral choices that attempt to answer the question: Whatā€™s a nice Jewish boy doing in a war like this? Hornā€™s answers do notā€¦

By Dara Horn,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked All Other Nights as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

How is tonight different from all other nights? For Jacob Rappaport, a Jewish soldier in the Union army during the Civil War, it is a question his commanders have already answered for him-on Passover, 1862, he is ordered to murder his own uncle in New Orleans, who is plotting to assassinate President Lincoln. After this harrowing mission, Jacob is recruited to pursue another enemy agent, the daughter of a Virginia family friend. But this time, his assignment isn't to murder the spy, but to marry her. Their marriage, with its riveting and horrifying consequences, reveals the deep divisions that stillā€¦


Book cover of Hopeless

Dana Christy Author Of A Heart's Salvation

From my list on romance that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Why am I passionate about this?

A lover of suspense thrillers and all things horror, my first introduction to romance novels was during book club. I love a good Rom-Com but as a reader, I used to shy away from erotica or meet-cute alpha male novels. Now I devour romance novels but they need very specific things. Strong heroines and suspense...and yes, great love scenes. Sparking my passion for the romance-suspense mash-up, I took a personal story and turned it into a suspense-driven romance full of angst. With 2 published novels, I continue to read and write romance thrillers hoping to change the stigma of romance as ā€˜fluffā€™ and ā€˜smutā€™ and show the strength in love.

Dana's book list on romance that keeps you on the edge of your seat

Dana Christy Why did Dana love this book?

This bookā€¦ Wow! I read it in one night. No joke. Could not put it down. Colleen Hoover has hit the mark with many #1 selling novels, but this particular novel was a favorite for me. Not many YA romances are this thrilling but Hooverā€™s writing and story building have a way of drawing you in. The flashback memories give you snapshots of why Sky Davis never feels anything for a guy, without giving away the BIG reveal. When she meets Dean Holder, her attraction to him is jarring because sheā€™s used to feeling nothing. The reason why sheā€™s drawn to him was such a thrill ride of suspense, drama, pain, and real love. If youā€™ve never read a Colleen Hoover novel, start with this book.

By Colleen Hoover,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Hopeless as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of It Ends With Us comes the beginning of Sky and Dean's passionate love story - where well-kept secrets threaten to open wounds of a dark past.

Would you rather know a truth that makes you feel hopeless, or keep believing the lies?

Beloved and bestselling author Colleen Hoover returns with the spellbinding story of two young people with devastating pasts who embark on a passionate, intriguing journey to discover the lessons of life, love, trust - and above all, the healing power that only truth can bring.

Sky, a senior inā€¦


If you love Half a Life...

Ad

Book cover of We're All Mad Here

We're All Mad Here by Marie Kuipers,

Fiercely opinionated and unapologetically peculiar, Marie Kuipers credits her New Jersey upbringing for her no-f*cks-given philosophy. As for why she spent most of her adult life underemployed, she points at her momā€”who believes she knows better than God Himselfā€”for that.

Weā€™re All Mad Here dares to peer behind the curtainā€¦

Book cover of Started Early, Took My Dog

Amy Tector Author Of Honor the Dead

From my list on dog sidekicks nothing happens to the good boys.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ve been a dog owner my entire life, from my childhood mutt, Paddy, to our current nine-year-old cockapoo, Daffodil. To me, a home isnā€™t a home without a dog thumping its tail somewhere inside. When I started writing mysteries, I realized that some of my favorites featured dogs. The animalā€™s loyalty, joy, and unwavering love were a necessary counter to the darker themes mysteries often explore.

Amy's book list on dog sidekicks nothing happens to the good boys

Amy Tector Why did Amy love this book?

I love Kate Atkinsonā€™s Jackson Brodie mystery series. She writes thoughtful, intelligent, laugh-out-loud stories with poignant characters and fascinating plots. In this latest outing, Jackson rescues a tiny dog improbably named The Ambassador. Working hard to untangle a complicated story of kidnapping and murder, Jackson and The Ambassador help each other find answers, if not peace.  

By Kate Atkinson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Started Early, Took My Dog as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The fourth Jackson Brodie novel: literary crime from the prizewinning number-one bestselling author of Big Sky and Transcription.

'Crime has given Atkinson the freedom to write an ambitious, panoramic work, full of excitement, colour and compassion' Sunday Times

A day like any other for security chief Tracy Waterhouse, until she makes a shocking impulse purchase. That one moment of madness is all it takes for Tracy's humdrum world to be turned upside down, the tedium of everyday life replaced by fear and danger at every turn.

Witnesses to Tracy's outrageous exchange in the Merrion Centre in Leeds are Tilly, anā€¦


Book cover of Vow: A Memoir of Marriage (and Other Affairs)
Book cover of An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination
Book cover of Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

2,008

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in suicide, New York City, and presidential biography?

Suicide 203 books
New York City 1,169 books