100 books like Yes Please

I boarded a plane in Los Angeles the day after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows released.

Before we were airborne, I opened the pages to the epic conclusion of the HP series. When I glanced to my left and right, I realized the passengers in my row were all doing the same.

What struck me in that moment was how Harry Potter transcended from a series for young adults to one for YA fans of all ages—a remarkable feat by one of the greatest YA storytellers in history.

If you haven’t read the books but have seen the films, I would highly recommend diving into the HP series as you will not be disappointed.

So many themes are woven throughout Deathly Hallows rooted in the value of love and friendship from all ages.

Okay, you've almost certainly heard of this one. You might even be thinking that The Husband's Secret is a more obvious choice for this list. But I'm including BLL anyway because I couldn't believe how enthralling it was (even though I've been a Liane Moriarty fan since The Hypnotist's Love Story).

Many of the entries on this list have depicted a marriage that looks perfect from the outside but is rotten within. This book inverts this formula, or at least complicates it—Celeste thinks her marriage is perfect (or is telling herself she thinks that), but it's obvious from the reader's outside perspective that her husband is an abuser.

There are many intriguing threads woven through this story (all coming together in a showdown so satisfying that I read it several times), but the scenes with Perry are the most impressive. They left me sick with fear.

As lead guitarist for the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards has been a massive influence on British music since the 1960s. Personal stories about his amazing life and rock' n'roll icons like John Lennon, James Brown, and Bo Diddley litter this autobiography and make it a fascinating read. He has created a book that is engaging and hard to put down!  

In a memoir co-written by two best friends, Aminatou and Ann detail the joys and struggles of their “big friendship” over the years in an honest and hilarious way. I appreciated their stories and advice on the work it takes to keep meaningful relationships that don’t fade or become resentful. It didn’t come easy to be open with each other and vulnerable about the friction they felt from ignoring racial and class dynamics in their friendship. They situate their friendship within the dynamics of their friend groups, which they term “the friendweb.” To live “shine theory” within the friendweb, ties are collaborative, supporting each other so that “I don’t shine if you don’t shine.” This book makes it clear that friendship is not always easy, but it is worth it. 

While friends are important in many ways, so are “weak ties” within our networks. In this non-fiction book, sociologist Mario Luis Small analyzes interviews with a group of graduate students, investigating who they turn to for support about a range of topics, including love, depression, and finances. Because of the obligations that close friends and family entail, Small finds that people often avoid turning to these close ties and instead rely on the convenience of people in their orbits. I’m drawn to this book because it contradicts what we think we know about who we talk to about important matters and because it’s such a rich investigation of people’s social ties and under what circumstances they actually turn to the people closest to them.

I first discovered this writer through her blog, The Bloggess. I admired her frank, weird, obscene imagination then – and I still do, now that she’s become a best-selling author. 

Her childhood in rural Texas could not be more different than mine in the urban Bronx, but she still feels like a kindred spirit. I love the way she navigates through childhood, marriage, pregnancy, and work while not allowing her physical and psychological issues to limit her in any way. 

One of those issues is being phobic, and that’s something I can relate to. You name it, I’m afraid of it!

A captivating memoir that I could not put down. The mesmerizing cover! The story of a happy child growing up in a happy family in the Midwest that is somehow riveting! I was hooked from the get-go.

As someone who used to book comics in NYC, I admire anyone who can do brilliant clean humor. I wouldn’t call her a humor writer. She’s just a fantastic writer. I do not re-read books, but I do re-read this gem to feel sane and awed and to laugh. It reminds me of simpler times and that there are good, genuine people in this messy world.

Before Wild, before Reese found her, before I even knew how to do my taxes, Cheryl Strayed was the anonymous voice behind the “Dear Sugar” column in online lit mag The Rumpus. Over her tenure, she answered some of the most achingly beautiful/painful letters that people wrote in, and with such smack-you-upside-the-head affection that one cannot help but fall in love with the human behind each tender inquiry.

Strayed is one of those rare writers whom I believe when she says that she woke in the night to answer these letters simply because she cared so much about the stranger behind them. If I were to get a tattoo, or perhaps just a really nice poster (less commitment), it would likely feature Sugar’s line: “Forgiveness doesn’t sit there like a pretty boy in a bar,” or “The fuck is your life. Answer it.” 

As a new inductee to midlife, I was excited to read the funny tales of this book. As I age, I feel like a new member of a club that I didn’t necessarily want to be a part of. I didn’t mean to register or apply, but here I am. The author of this book would certainly commiserate because here she is, too.

We are both navigating what it’s like to be in a body that’s older in years than we feel. Likewise, we understand what it means to have a new generation become the louder voice in the room. Navigating aging is a wild ride, and it’s nice to have bedfellows as messy as me punching tickets for the seat next to me.

If nothing else, we can swap stories about creaking knees and complain about gas prices until we reach our destination. I love the humor and naked… show more.

Advice by way of memoir, which I liked more as it went along. Maybe it was a slow start for me because she had seemingly lucky breaks, and I’ve had struggles. By the end, I was in LOVE.

She is frank, ballsy, unapologetic, kickass riotous, with an apparent ability to moonwalk, all of which is to say totally New York City in a way that I badly miss, having left 30 years ago.

I relived some of my youth. I learned things and laughed.