Okay, folks it’s time to hit the book store. For anyone going through a quarter-life crisis, these 13 books are guaranteed to offer some much-needed guidance and reassure you that you are definitely not alone if you’re feeling lost or stuck. We promise that their words will shed a little light wherever you may need it. Happy reading!
1. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling
“I’m only marginally qualified to be giving advice at all. My body mass index is certainly not ideal, I frequently use my debit card to buy things that cost less than three dollars because I never have cash on me, and my bedroom is so untidy it looks like vandals ransacked the Anthropologie sale section. I’m kind of a mess.”
2. Becoming: Sex, Second Chances, & Figuring Out Who the Hell I Am by Laura Jane Williams
“They’re on their way, your person. It might not be today, though – in fact it’s probably not today, or even tomorrow – and that’s exactly how it should be. You’re not with the person of your life because you are the person of your life. They are extra. It will happen when it happens. But it will happen.”
3. The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories by Marina Keegan
“What we have to remember is that we can still do anything. We can change our minds. We can start over. Get a post-bac or try writing for the first time. The notion that it’s too late to do anything is comical. It’s hilarious. We’re graduating college. We’re so young. We can’t, we MUST not lose this sense of possibility because in the end, it’s all we have.”
4. Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s Learned by Lena Dunham
“I can never be who I was. I can simply watch her with sympathy, understanding, and some measure of awe. There she goes, backpack on, headed for the subway or the airport. She did her best with her eyeliner. She learned a new word she wants to try out on you. She is ambling along. She is looking for it.”
5. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
“It is the peculiar nature of the world to go on spinning no matter what sort of heartbreak is happening.”
6. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
“How wild it was, to let it be.”
7. Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
“When I’ve really been in love with someone, it’s not because they looked a certain way or liked a certain TV show or a certain cuisine. It’s more because when I watched a certain TV show or ate a certain cuisine with them, it was the most fun thing ever.”
8. Nice Is Just a Place in France by The Betches
“Limit yourself to wines with names you can’t pronounce that are made from grapes harvested during or before Full House season one.”
9. Yes Please by Amy Poehler
“I think we should stop asking people in their twenties what they “want to do” and start asking them what they don’t want to do.”
10. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
“She was elusive. She was today. She was tomorrow. She was the faintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitting shadow of an elf owl. We did not know what to make of her. In our minds we tried to pin her to a cork board like a butterfly, but the pin merely went through and away she flew.”
11. Approval Junkie by Faith Salie
“Wanting approval is a naked thing. It says Listen to me, love me, understand me. Those are vulnerable requests. A junkie keeps requesting.”
12. Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
“And the scary thing I have noticed is that some people really feel uncomfortable around women who don’t hate themselves. So that’s why you need to be a little bit brave.”
13. Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
“my heart woke me crying last night // how can i help i begged // my heart said // write the book”
Did we miss your favorite? Tweet us which books helped you through tough times @UConnHC !