Essays Archives - The Gilmore Guide to Books https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/reviews/genres/essays/ Connecting Books and Readers One Review at a Time Tue, 05 Aug 2025 23:56:54 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/cropped-books-on-table-2-150x150.jpg Essays Archives - The Gilmore Guide to Books https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/reviews/genres/essays/ 32 32 38398750 The Next Day https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2025/08/the-next-day/ https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2025/08/the-next-day/#comments Wed, 06 Aug 2025 07:47:48 +0000 https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/?p=19271 Nonfiction has not been rewarding for me this year. My guess is the petulant part of my brain feels that it is already working too hard to process this country’s current reality and has no room for more information. But then I discovered The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward by Melinda French Gates […]

The post The Next Day appeared first on The Gilmore Guide to Books.

]]> https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2025/08/the-next-day/feed/ 2 19271 The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2020/12/the-witches-are-coming-by-lindy-west/ https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2020/12/the-witches-are-coming-by-lindy-west/#comments Mon, 07 Dec 2020 05:20:50 +0000 https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/?p=15108   So fine, if you insist. This is a witch hunt. We’re the witches, and we’re hunting you. November and December are my months of backlist reading—the time of year when I abandon ferreting out great new reads from publishers and instead read based on my mood or other people’s recommendations. By-and-large the 2020 iteration […]

The post The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West appeared first on The Gilmore Guide to Books.

]]> https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2020/12/the-witches-are-coming-by-lindy-west/feed/ 4 15108 More Than A Woman by Caitlin Moran https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2020/10/more-than-a-woman-by-caitlin-moran/ https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2020/10/more-than-a-woman-by-caitlin-moran/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2020 04:54:48 +0000 https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/?p=14994   I’ve loved all of Caitlin Moran’s fiction (How to Build a Girl, How to Be Famous) but had never read any of her nonfiction, so was interested to see she has a new book out. More Than a Woman is her follow-up to How to Be a Woman, which she wrote when she was […]

The post More Than A Woman by Caitlin Moran appeared first on The Gilmore Guide to Books.

]]> https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2020/10/more-than-a-woman-by-caitlin-moran/feed/ 4 14994 Text Me When You Get Home https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2020/08/text-me-when-you-get-home/ https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2020/08/text-me-when-you-get-home/#respond Fri, 28 Aug 2020 04:48:58 +0000 https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/?p=14742 Today is the last of my summer nonfiction reviews, but it’s a bit unusual. It’s only partially a review of Text Me When You Get Home and mostly a rumination on all the thoughts the book brought me. Which is kind of wonderful, right? When you read a book and it fills you with good memories […]

The post Text Me When You Get Home appeared first on The Gilmore Guide to Books.

]]> https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2020/08/text-me-when-you-get-home/feed/ 0 14742 We Are Never Meeting in Real Life https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2020/05/we-are-never-meeting-in-real-life/ https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2020/05/we-are-never-meeting-in-real-life/#respond Mon, 25 May 2020 04:46:35 +0000 https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/?p=14371 Samantha Irby is a 36-year-old, black, lesbian living in Chicago. She also grew up broke-ass poor—all of which she lets you know from the get-go in her essay collection We Are Never Meeting in Real Life. But her biographical details are the least interesting thing about her. What really matters is that she is wildly […]

The post We Are Never Meeting in Real Life appeared first on The Gilmore Guide to Books.

]]> https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2020/05/we-are-never-meeting-in-real-life/feed/ 0 14371 Maybe You Should Talk to Someone https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2019/09/maybe-you-should-talk-to-someone/ https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2019/09/maybe-you-should-talk-to-someone/#comments Mon, 09 Sep 2019 07:49:30 +0000 http://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/?p=13216 Sometimes a book comes my way not from reviews or recommendations, but from simple proximity—I see it at the library and decide to read it. Very often these are some of my favorite books. This is the case with Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb. It’s her account of being a therapist and […]

The post Maybe You Should Talk to Someone appeared first on The Gilmore Guide to Books.

]]> https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2019/09/maybe-you-should-talk-to-someone/feed/ 12 13216 Feminasty by Erin Gibson https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2019/04/feminasty-by-erin-gibson/ https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2019/04/feminasty-by-erin-gibson/#comments Fri, 26 Apr 2019 07:24:18 +0000 http://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/?p=12609 It’s difficult to imagine a book that could make me laugh out loud and feel enraged at the same time, but Erin Gibson’s Feminasty did just that. It might help to know that the subtitle of the book is: The Complicated Woman’s Guide to Surviving the Patriarchy Without Drinking Herself to Death. Which is all […]

The post Feminasty by Erin Gibson appeared first on The Gilmore Guide to Books.

]]> https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2019/04/feminasty-by-erin-gibson/feed/ 4 12609 Almost Everything: Notes on Hope https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2018/12/almost-everything-notes-on-hope/ https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2018/12/almost-everything-notes-on-hope/#comments Mon, 10 Dec 2018 08:55:11 +0000 http://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/?p=11932 Anne Lamott’s new book Almost Everything: Notes on Hope is not straight path reading. It’s not her style and I, for one, am grateful for that. But if you looking for succinct advice on how to feel better about the world today, you’ll be frustrated and, maybe, disappointed. She’s a wanderer, but one who always […]

The post Almost Everything: Notes on Hope appeared first on The Gilmore Guide to Books.

]]> https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2018/12/almost-everything-notes-on-hope/feed/ 8 11932 Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2018/06/not-that-bad-dispatches-from-rape-culture/ https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2018/06/not-that-bad-dispatches-from-rape-culture/#comments Fri, 15 Jun 2018 07:52:22 +0000 http://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/?p=10809 I feel like a broken record for all the times since 2017 that I’ve said, “Important reading. Timely reading. Everyone should read.”, but here I am again. Not That Bad, with its essays from women around the world, talking about their experiences of rape, harassment, intimidation, and violence is the kind of reading that goes […]

The post Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture appeared first on The Gilmore Guide to Books.

]]> https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2018/06/not-that-bad-dispatches-from-rape-culture/feed/ 4 10809 Literally Me by Julie Houts https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2018/01/literally-me-by-julie-houts/ https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2018/01/literally-me-by-julie-houts/#comments Wed, 24 Jan 2018 08:48:33 +0000 http://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/?p=9966   After the heavy reading of Hillbilly Elegy, I needed something light and fun. With nothing at hand, I resorted to my favorite option—wandering the library. Within five minutes I’d found what looked to be perfect, even though I’m trying to move away from being a cover whore (it’s a process, all right?). Julie Houts […]

The post Literally Me by Julie Houts appeared first on The Gilmore Guide to Books.

]]> https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2018/01/literally-me-by-julie-houts/feed/ 2 9966