There are certain milestones in life: losing your first tooth, experiencing your first kiss, discovering that life isn’t always fair, and turning 25. the last two go hand in hand. Twenty-five is when you’re so young but feel so old (don’t worry, you’re not). That’s when the term “student loans” turns from hopeful to your worst nightmare. and that’s when you secretly pin pictures of people climbing mt. kilimanjaro or walk mongolia to his “things to do” pinterest board while sitting inside his cubicle at work.
but not everything is bad. Your mid-twenties is when you (hopefully) start down the road of figuring out what you want your life to be like. Or maybe you just want to kick back with your friends at happy hour and philosophize about your latest worst date. either way, books can help.
You are reading: Best books for 25 year-old woman
I’m not talking about super “serious” self-help books that teach you to pray to the cosmos and sing about a fiery sage in hopes of getting all the answers. I’m talking about books filled with pain, suffering, one-night stands, outrageous trips, and hilarious blunders. assuming you read some basic books like the bell jar, the catcher in the rye, on the road and fear and loathing in las vegaswhile meditating and dreaming in school high school and in their 20s, here are 17 books everyone should be reading by age 25.
they could change your life or just entertain you. either way, it’s a win.
breakfast chocolates by pamela moore
Moore’s novel was considered scandalous when it was published in 1956, reason enough to check it out. It is about Courtney Farrell, a teenager who moves between the Hollywood apartment of her mother, a struggling actress, and the world of her wealthy and distant father’s boarding school in Manhattan. she is gossip girl and the catcher in the rye . It’s perfect if you need a bored literary heroine like yourself.
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a harrowing work of amazing genius by dave eggers
This funny and tragic memoir shocked 20-somethings around the world when it was published in 2000 and launched the career of eggers. read it if you want to reconnect with and appreciate your parents and siblings.
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eleanor & park by rainbow rowell
yes, this is about teenage love, so it’s good to read (or reread) at 25. say everyone on tinder sucks and you don’t adorably bump into someone in a bookstore like they do in the movies, and You just need a little reminder that true love exists and it can be quietly explosive and subtly mind-blowing. eleanor & park (soon to be a movie!) will give you hope.
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my horizontal life by chelsea handler
if, on the other hand, you are meeting a lot of people on tinder or in bookstores and accidentally wake up on purpose next to them in the morning, handler’s essays on his many are well worth it read many one night stands. I think it’s his funniest book by far.
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loose woman: poems by sandra cisneros
if you finish my horizontal life and feel the need for some poems that celebrate female sexuality, take a look at this one. she is a “goddess of guiltless lust”. and she gets better from there.
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fear of flying by erica jong
This is a classic that caused a sensation in the early 1970s (how the hell can a woman be so uninhibited?!) and sold over 12 million copies. Jong’s story is funny, painful and relatable. it’s about a woman trying to shake off the shackles of those tired 1950s notions about what a woman’s role is in the world. basically she’s just trying to figure it all out and makes mistakes along the way. like you. probably.
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kids only by patti smith
Are you trying to make it as a painter, singer, or dancer? Is the notion of the “distressed artist” starting to seem a little less romantic to you, due to things like rent, bills and the cost of gas? let the legendary punk singer, poet and artist rekindle your passion and light a fire under your butt. she fought she and robert mapplethorpe survived by drinking coffee and eating lettuce, and it was all worth it. it’s also a beautiful, tender, and poetic memoir that’s well worth reading, no matter how old you are.
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white teeth by zadie smith
smith and dave eggers burst onto the scene at the same time, and smith’s debut novel quickly gained a passionate fan base with its tale of the unlikely friendship between archie jones and samad iqbal. read it if you feel the need to celebrate the simple things in life, like his friends, and real human connection regardless of race, class, creed…just read it.
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best of all by rona jaffe
Any story about friends trying to make it in the big city will be compared to sex and the city until the end of time, and that’s fine. not such a terrible touchstone, but definitely not the first. Jaffe’s 1958 novel about several friends who work in publishing and try to make it in New York is a bit dated, but still a fun read.
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heartburn by nora ephron
every woman should read nora ephron, and what better time to start than at age 20. Ephron was a beloved essayist, a revered filmmaker, the woman who created Harry and Sally and the “I’ll have what she’s having” scene, and she left us too soon. Heartburn is her bittersweet (and largely autobiographical) novel about a painful divorce that also manages to be hilarious and uplifting. the movie with meryl streep and jack nicholson is also fabulous.
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self-inflicted wounds by aisha tyler
tyler, comedian, actor, writer, businesswoman and the voice of lana kane in archer, is also a very witty essayist. Self-Inflicted Wounds is all about growing up awkward, making nerdy mistakes, and still coming out okay. fun and inspiring.
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anaïs nin’s diary by anaïs nin
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Maybe you dream of escaping your 9-5 concert and rushing out to the cafes of Paris to contemplate life and destiny and the simple beauty of a baguette. It’s time to dive into Anaïs Nin: lover, philosopher, poet, chronicler maniac. However, don’t be surprised if she finds herself looking up airfares in Paris halfway through the book. It’s not my fault.
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beautiful little things from cheryl strayed
You can also read wild, but this one is full of tips and insights straight from the newly resurrected strayed “dear sugar” column: hooray. you’ll find bits of wisdom about breakups, bad sex, good sex, jobs, and the meaning of life.
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the beach by alex garland
It’s better to read this at 25, because at 35 or 45 I may not have the same je ne sais quoi. If you’re full of wanderlust, you’ll love this book about a handsome, sexy backpacker who finds an idyllic, mysterious lagoon in Thailand filled with hot, sexy travelers. The movie version with Leonardo DiCaprio is pretty cheesy, but it’s also hot and sexy, so there’s nothing wrong with watching it after you finish the book.
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sloane crosley told me there would be cake
like aisha tyler, crosley finds humor in being clumsy, screwing up and making colossal mistakes. if you fancy something a little lighter than anaïs nin, these fun essays are worth a read, two or four.
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tina fey’s bossy pants
Whether you’re an aspiring comedian/snl writer/host of the golden globes or not, fey’s memoir is well worth a read. he’s funny as hell, obviously, but his stories and his take on breaking through and breaking up the boys’ club will likely have you underlining passages as you deal with your own professional frustrations, beginning with, “you can’t be that.” boy standing on top of water slide, thinking too much. you have to go down the slide. thanks, tina.
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bent towards nativity scene by joan didion
now that everyone’s heads have collectively exploded because of those celine ads with joan didion, we can all re-read her work. She is a master essayist who wrote, “One of the mixed blessings of being twenty and twenty-one and even twenty-three is the conviction that nothing like this, despite all evidence to the contrary, has ever happened before.” wise words.
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so there you go. a shelf full of memoirs, novels, and bittersweet essays that will make that magical year, 25, a little better.
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