Welcome to Shelf Life, ELLE.com’s books column, in which authors share their most memorable reads. Whether you’re on the hunt for a book to console you, move you profoundly, or make you laugh, consider a recommendation from the writers in our series, who, like you (since you’re here), love books. Perhaps one of their favorite titles will become one of yours, too.
Rooms that lack books, Glennon Doyle has said, give her a “panicky” feeling. That tracks for someone like Doyle, herself a bestselling author, whose latest book, We Can Do Hard Things, is out now. Sharing the same name as her popular podcast, the work of nonfiction is co-written with her fellow hosts: wife Abby Wambach (also an author) and sister Amanda Doyle. Described as a guidebook to “life’s 20 questions,” it features words of wisdom from such podcast guests and friends as Ashley C. Ford, Ina Garten, Roxane Gay, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Ocean Vuong, among others. Doyle’s previous books include Untamed (which was optioned by J.J. Abrams’s Bad Robot; Doyle herself will be played by Sarah Paulson); Love, Warrior; and Carry On, Warrior. She also founded media company Treat Media and nonprofit Together Rising, which has donated $55 million to women, families, and children in crisis.
The Virginia-born and -raised, California-based author is a self-described introvert; was raised by teachers and started her own career as a third-grade teacher; thought she was a Pisces for 20 years (she’s actually an Aries); played lacrosse and viola in high school; majored in English at James Madison University; did a Ted Talk (“Lessons from the Mental Hospital”) that has been viewed more than 6 million times; has three kids and two dogs; writes the newsletter A Little Treat; and executive produced the documentary Come See Me in the Good Light, which won the Sundance Festival Favorite Award and will air on AppleTV+ this fall.
Likes: Blankets; documentary films; Nacho Doritos; paint; practical joke videos; trash TV; Indigo Girls; taking a walk; truth-telling.
Dislikes: Tight clothes; meanness; dying flowers; setting an alarm; saying “never”; loading the dishwasher.
Dream job: Poet
Word she’s coined: “Brutiful,” as in life is brutal and beautiful
Comfort food: Licorice
Scroll through her book recommendations below.
The book that…
…I recommend over and over again:
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai.
…I’ve re-read the most:
Just Kids by Patti Smith.
…made me weep uncontrollably:
Like Family by Erin O. White.
…should be on every college syllabus:
The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi.
…currently sits on my nightstand:
Full of Myself by Austin Channing Brown and Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan.
…I read in one sitting; it was that good:
All the Way to the River by Elizabeth Gilbert.
…kept me up way too late:
The Girl Who Baptized Herself by Meggan Watterson.
…changed my life:
You Better be Lightning by Andrea Gibson.
…broke my heart:
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden.
…shaped my worldview:
South to America by Imani Perry and One Drop by Dr. Yaba Blay.
…helped me become a better writer:
The Writing Life by Annie Dillard.
Read Glennon Doyle’s Book Recommendations
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi
Full of Myself: Black Womanhood and the Journey to Self-Possession by Austin Channing Brown
All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Girl Who Baptized Herself: How a Lost Scripture About a Saint Named Thecla Reveals the Power of Knowing Our Worth by Meggan Watterson
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry
One Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race by Yaba Blay
