Navigating your twenties is not only a journey but a defining decade, they play a huge role in who you’ll become personally and professionally. The years go by quickly, but they can be some of the most important and transformative of your life. Your twenties are a prime time to develop your personality, education, career, and relationships.
Here are 20 books to read in your twenties to make navigating this time a little easier through wisdom, inspiration, and sometimes a little comic relief. They also serve as the perfect reminder that we’re not alone as we learn to face loss, love, and other life lessons.
1. The Strength In Our Scars by Bianca Sparracino
The Strength In Our Stars tackles the gut-wrenching but understandable experiences of moving on, self-love, and ultimately learning how to heal ourselves. In this book you will find peace, you will find a rock, you will find understanding, and you will find hope.
2. Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton
Everything I Know About Love, winner of Autobiography of the Year at the National Book Awards 2018, follows two childhood best friends as they experience bad dates, heartaches, and humiliations in an intimate memoir.
3. The Defining Decade by Meg Jay
The Defining Decade is likely the first book to pop up if you Google “books to read in your 20s.” Dr. Meg Jay is a clinical psychologist who argues that twentysomethings have been caught in a swirl of hype and misinformation, much of which has trivialized the most transformative time of our lives. This book will resonate with anyone in their 20s who wants to take advantage of the time they have right now to create the best future for themselves.
4. I Might Regret This by Abbi Johnson
This bestselling essay collection is about love, loss, work, comedy, and figuring out who you really are when you thought you already knew. I Might Regret This, is a must-have for any twentysomething’s bookshelf.
5. A Hundred Other Girls by Iman Hariri-Kia
Iman Hariri-Kia’s novel follows Noora, a 22-year-old Iranian American lifestyle blogger, who lands her first job post-grad as an editorial assistant and writer in New York City. Clever, incisive, and thoroughly fun, A Hundred Other Girls is an insider's take on the changing media industry, an ode to sisterhood, and a profound exploration of what it means to chase your dreams.
6. Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman
A close friendship is one of the most influential and important relationships a human life can contain. In this open-hearted novel, the authors show us how a friendship can be as rewarding and enduring as a marriage, they urge us to value it accordingly- as they do. They define Big Friendship as a strong, significant bond that transcends life phases, geographical locations, and emotional shifts.
7. The Myths of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirksy
The Myth of Happiness empowers readers to look beyond their first response, sharing scientific evidence that often it is our mindset that matters. Lyibomirsky examines how the ‘shoulds’ of happiness not only undermine well-being but also make it hard for individuals to cope with the sometimes difficult realities of adulthood.
8. Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies by Tara Schuster
The hilarious and relatable self-help/memoir tells the story of Tara’s path to re-parenting herself and becoming a “ninja of self-love.” Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies reveals through simple daily rituals, Tara transformed her mind, body, and relationship
9. The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life’s most important topics.
10. The Idiot by Elif Batuman
A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, The Idiot is a novel leavened with humor and a protagonist so relatable she's almost impossible to forget. The year is 1995 and Selin arrives for her freshman year at Harvard where she experiences a newfound independence while not only discovering, but inventing herself with a crushing first love.
11. Imposter Syndrome by Kathy Wang
The term “imposter syndrome” has been trending for a while now. While it can impact anyone at any given age, it often begins in our 20s. That feeling of not being good enough in your career or confident in your abilities is a dreadful sentiment. This fictional bestseller, Imposter Syndrome, entwines together the lives of flourishing women in tech, and their struggle with feeling like imposters as they work toward the so-called American dream.
12. 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think by Brianna Wiest
The global bestseller, 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think by Brianna Wiest, is a collection of her most beloved pieces of writing that will change the way you interpret both the world and yourself. Exploring both purpose and passion, each piece will leave you thinking: this idea changed my life.
13. Stay Inspired: Finding Motivation for Your Creative Work by Brandon Stosuy
An interactive guide to staying creatively curious in your own life, Stay Inspired by Brandon Stosuy explores how to grow an idea into a project and how to keep the spark of creativity present in your day-to-day life.
14. Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by Adrienne Maree Brown
Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown reminds us, directly and by example, that wonder is the foundation of our ability to shape, change, and create the world we want. Adrienne leads us on a passionate and purposeful ride where relationships spawn new possibilities.
15. Conversations on Love by Natasha Lunn
While interweaving personal essays and revealing interviews with experts on love, journalist Natasha Lunn guides us through the paradoxical heart of three key questions about love in Conversations on Love– How do we find love? How do we sustain it? And how do we survive when we lose it?
16. The Mountain is You by Brianna Wiest
This is a book about self-sabotage. Why we do it, when we do it, and how to stop doing it–for good. The Mountain is You by Brianna Wiest talks about emotional aspects and limiting beliefs you have, what you need to delve into, and how to release those clinging negative emotions that are holding you back.
17. Blueberries by Ellena Savage
Blueberries by Ellena Savage is a moving memoir and a collection of essays focusing on topics of relationships, home, and the female body as well as the art of writing itself.
18. How to Money: Your Ultimate Visual Guide to the Basics of Finance by Jean Chatzky
At some point in our life, most of us have taken a personal finance class in college but if not no worries! Jean Chatzky’s How to Money teaches you everything there is to know about how to manage your finances, student loans, and investing.
19. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Alchemist, a story full of magic and wisdom, follows Santiago, a shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. The treasures he finds along the way teaches us about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts and following our dreams.
20. When You’re Ready, This Is How You Heal by Brianna Wiest
A great read for anyone on a healing journey of some sort, This is How You Heal allows you to open your eyes and find your inner sanctum while embarking on the path of true transformation. Wiest’s words are a balm for any soul on the journey of their own becoming.
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