Books like Can't Hurt Me

01

Finding Ultra

Rich Roll · Memoir

Finding Ultra is Rich Roll's memoir of going from overweight, alcoholic attorney at age forty to competing in the Ultraman World Championship — a three-day, 320-mile endurance race — on a fully plant-based diet.

A kindred memoir read.

02

Born to Run

Christopher McDougall · Health

Born to Run begins as a personal injury investigation.

A kindred memoir read.

03

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

Alfred Lansing · History

In 1914, Ernest Shackleton led twenty-seven men into the Weddell Sea on a ship called the Endurance with the goal of crossing Antarctica on foot.

A kindred memoir read.

04

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Laura Hillenbrand · Biography

Unbroken follows Louis Zamperini from his juvenile delinquency in Depression-era California to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where he ran the 5,000 meters at nineteen and briefly caught Hitler's attention.

A kindred memoir read.

05

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Angela Duckworth · Psychology

Duckworth's central claim is that talent is overrated.

A kindred memoir read.

06

Never Finished

David Goggins · Memoir

Never Finished is David Goggins' follow-up to Can't Hurt Me, continuing his story and philosophy of mental toughness beyond the point where the first book left off.

Shares mental toughness and discipline with Can't Hurt Me.

07

Discipline Equals Freedom

Jocko Willink · Self-help

Discipline Equals Freedom is Jocko Willink's compressed manifesto on the relationship between self-discipline and freedom — his central argument being that the two are not opposites but the same thing.

Shares mental toughness and discipline with Can't Hurt Me.

08

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Ishmael Beah · Memoir

Ishmael Beah was twelve years old when the Sierra Leone civil war reached his village and he was separated from his family.

Both dig into trauma.

09

Hunger

Roxane Gay · Memoir

Hunger is Roxane Gay's memoir about her body, the trauma that shaped it, and the world's persistent refusal to accommodate it.

Both dig into trauma.

10

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body

Roxane Gay · Memoir

Hunger is Roxane Gay's memoir of her body — how it came to be the way it is, what she has thought about it, and what it means to live in a body that the world reads as a problem to be solved.

Both dig into trauma.

11

Know My Name: A Memoir

Chanel Miller · Memoir

Know My Name is Chanel Miller's memoir of being sexually assaulted behind a dumpster at Stanford University in 2015, being identified publicly as only "Emily Doe" throughout the subsequent trial, and the experience of navigating a legal process while the perpetrator — Stanford swimmer Brock Turner — became the more visible subject of the story.

Both dig into trauma.

12

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Stephen King · Memoir

On Writing is Stephen King's memoir of the writing life combined with a practical toolkit for writers.

Both dig into discipline.