№ 01
“One of my top ten favorite books of all time, for it is a perfect and unsentimental tale of two ungovernable females at loose in nature, and it thrills me.” source
Author of Eat Pray Love and Big Magic
Elizabeth Gilbert
Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of Eat Pray Love, Big Magic, The Signature of All Things, and City of Girls. She hosts the Magic Lessons podcast and writes the Letters from Love Substack. Her book recommendations show up in NYT interviews, cover blurbs, TED essays, and her own acknowledgments. Picks below come from her own words.
12
Recommendations
2025
Most recent list
Non-Fiction
Most-recommended
On the record
All Elizabeth Gilbert book recommendations.
№ 02
“These poems get me closer to the divine than almost any other writing I know. They celebrate the body, the spirit, nature, mystery, sensuality, love, and transcendence.” source
№ 03
“A nonfiction literary masterpiece at the same level as In Cold Blood, and just as suspenseful, bone-chilling, and harrowing, in its own way. Lisa Taddeo is a tireless reporter, a brilliant writer, and a storyteller possessed of almost supernatural humanity.” source
№ 04
“A beautifully crafted book that points directly to the wisdom within us and shows us exactly how to access it. Byron Katie is an immeasurable gift to the world.” source
№ 05
“I keep a copy of it right by my bed, and I read a few pages every night. It's incredibly soothing to me that a long-dead Roman emperor worried about the same stuff I worry about.” source
№ 06
“Jack Gilbert was a beautiful man and a grand poet who could have been one of the great literary rock stars of his age, except he didn't care about fame, fortune or reputation.” source
№ 07
“The Oz stories were tales of a farm girl who went on otherworldly adventures and who was incredibly brave. I always credit these books with making me into a traveler and a writer.” source
№ 08
“I discovered this book two years ago and it's become supremely important to me. Jennings, both a psychotherapist and Buddhist practitioner, writes intelligently about the merits and pitfalls of both Western and Eastern philosophy.” source
№ 09
“That book had been my touchstone during my research. She's my Mick Jagger.” source
№ 10
“Nothing in the last few years has dazzled me more than Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. I've read that book three times, and I'm still trying to figure out how she did it. So now I'm on to Bring Up the Bodies, hoping for more Thomas Cromwell.” source
№ 11
“Never miss an Ann Patchett novel, and don't miss this one.” source
№ 12
“An extraordinary epic of love, family, art and ambition in England, right before the first World War.” source
Readers with overlapping taste
