Books like Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

01

Man's Search for Meaning

Viktor E. Frankl · Psychology

Man's Search for Meaning is Viktor Frankl's account of his years as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and the psychological theory he developed from that experience.

A kindred memoir read.

02

The Road Less Traveled

M. Scott Peck · Philosophy

The Road Less Traveled opens with one of the most direct sentences in self-help literature: "Life is difficult." Peck's argument is that this is not a complaint but a liberation — once you genuinely accept that suffering is intrinsic to life rather than a problem to be solved, you stop wasting energy resisting it and can begin the actual work of growth.

A kindred memoir read.

03

The Body Keeps the Score

Bessel van der Kolk · Psychology

The Body Keeps the Score is Bessel van der Kolk's account of four decades spent studying and treating trauma, from Vietnam veterans at the VA in the 1970s to survivors of childhood abuse, accidents, and domestic violence.

A kindred memoir read.

04

Lost Connections

Johann Hari · Health

Lost Connections is Johann Hari's argument that depression and anxiety are not primarily chemical imbalances in the brain but responses to social and environmental conditions — disconnection from meaningful work, close relationships, the natural world, a secure future, and status that feels deserved.

A kindred memoir read.

05

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

Atul Gawande · Health

Being Mortal is Atul Gawande's investigation into why modern medicine is so bad at helping people die well.

A kindred memoir read.

06

The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves

Stephen Grosz · Psychology

The Examined Life is a collection of short psychoanalytic case studies drawn from Stephen Grosz's 25 years of practice as a psychoanalyst in London.

Shares self-knowledge and change with Maybe You Should Talk to Someone.

07

A Grief Observed

C. S. Lewis · Memoir

A Grief Observed is C.

Both dig into grief.

08

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Dave Eggers · Memoir

Dave Eggers's debut memoir about losing both parents to cancer within five weeks and raising his younger brother Toph while trying to start a literary magazine in San Francisco in the mid-1990s arrived in 2000 with unusual self-consciousness about its own nature.

Both dig into grief.

09

Crying in H Mart

Michelle Zauner · Memoir

Crying in H Mart is Michelle Zauner's memoir of her mother's death from cancer and the loss it made her confront: not just of a parent but of the Korean half of her identity.

Both dig into grief.

10

Spare

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex · Memoir

Spare is Prince Harry's account of his life from childhood through his decision to step back from senior royal duties in 2020.

Both dig into grief.

11

The Light We Carry

Michelle Obama · Memoir

The Light We Carry is Michelle Obama's second memoir, published in 2022 as a follow-up to Becoming.

Both dig into self-knowledge.

12

The Snow Leopard

Peter Matthiessen · Memoir

Peter Matthiessen's National Book Award-winning account of a two-month trek into the Dolpo region of Nepal in 1973 is several things at once: a naturalist's field journal, a spiritual autobiography, and a meditation on grief.

Both dig into grief.