Breaking up is never easy, even if it’s amicable. A couple can realize they’re no longer a good fit for each other, maybe there’s infidelity, or perhaps one fight too many finally sealed the deal. Whatever the reason, they’re no less difficult to deal with. These books to read after a breakup help pick up the pieces left behind from a broken relationship and include tips on recovering, healing, and moving on.
Here are ten books on breakups to help you get through this difficult time:
1. The Breakup Bible: The Smart Woman’s Guide to Healing from a Breakup or Divorce
Every person is likely to suffer a breakup at some point. This guide is tailored to women, but anyone can benefit from relationship expert Rachel Sussman’s tried-and-true techniques. She helps readers create a personalized plan that walks through the three phases of a breakup: healing, understanding, and transformation, providing real stories from women at every phase to help heal from the breakup and prevent any future relationship anxiety.
2. Rising Strong: How the Ability to Reset Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
Brené Brown’s book isn’t about breakups specifically, but it is about leaning into vulnerability and the lessons that can be learned from being emotionally honest. Brown’s work allows readers to tap into those emotional hurts, especially when we know it would be much easier to ignore them. Through a series of stories, advice, and reflection, Brown helps readers understand the strength of being honest with your emotional needs and working through grief after a breakup.
3. When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
If you find strength in mindfulness and Buddhist practices, then When Things Fall Apart is a good book to have on your shelf when facing heartbreak. Pema Chödrön’s book is a collection of talks she gave as one of the more well-known contemporary spiritual leaders. It includes advice on breaking habitual patterns and commitment issues, finding peace in chaos, and communicating in ways that encourage openness.
4. The Divorce Recovery Workbook
Divorce is complicated. Between the legal ramifications, the expenses, the emotional weight of it all, maybe even having to tell the kids – it’s understandable to feel depressed, angry, or stressed.
This book walks through the stages of divorce while offering compassion, mindfulness, and positive psychology to help you get back on your feet.
5. Self-Love Workbook for Women
Breakups can be pretty impactful to your self-confidence. Even if you knew it was the right thing to do and you don’t regret it, it could still affect how you see yourself. If you were the one broken up with, your confidence could feel non-existent.
Take a little time to heal with this workbook designed to help you release doubt and loneliness, and fall in love with yourself again. Written by a therapist, it provides proven techniques, exercises, and more.
6. Maybe You Should Talk To Someone
Even therapists need therapy. That’s what happened to Lori Gottlieb after she faced her own crisis. The result ended up with her in a therapist’s office for the first time, seeing how it works from the other side.
While not about breakups specifically, this book, with its stories about other patients, her own therapy, and the similarities she noticed in both types of sessions, illustrates the wisdom that comes from dealing with feelings of emptiness and understanding yourself a little bit better than before.
7. Stop Overthinking: 23 Techniques to Relieve Stress, Stop Negative Spirals, Declutter Your Mind, and Focus on the Present
Can’t stop ruminating on what you did wrong, or all the ways you could have fixed things? Do you spend your days post-breakup analyzing every detail of your relationship, either to identify where they went wrong, how to not repeat it, or something else? You’re not alone. It’s easy to get caught up in the what-ifs after a breakup, but if you can’t stop thinking about someone, you may appreciate this guide.
8. Getting Past Your Breakup
Maybe you want your ex back. Maybe you’re still dreaming about them and you’ve concocted a plan to get them to fall back in love with you. Or maybe you just can’t move on because you’re still stuck in a relationship that no longer exists.
Whatever the reason, moving on isn’t just important; it’s necessary if you want to have a life beyond your ex. Susan J. Elliot offers techniques and advice on getting past the breakup, from going no-contact to healing from fear and rejection.
9. Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey
Heartbreak can be more than just hurt feelings: Often, these difficult and painful emotions physically resonate in the body. Author and journalist Florence Williams discovered this when her 25-year marriage ended. She lost weight and felt physically ill often. Inspired to find out why heartbreak can feel so physical, she wrote about her findings in this half-personal journal, half-scientific study.
10. Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar
Dear Sugar was an anonymous advice column in The Rumpus a few years ago. Now revealed to be author Cheryl Strayed, this book is a collection of some of the best letters she received and the answers she provided them. Readers who had lost loved ones, wanted to leave toxic relationships, and more turned to Sugar’s column, where she provided witty, sage advice about being human. This book encapsulates the ups and downs of life and all it throws at you to remind readers that, while things can be hard, they can also be really, really good.
When to See a Therapist
Breakups can uproot your entire life and leave feeling lost. If you’re struggling to move on or find yourself overthinking everything you think you did wrong, it may be helpful to see a therapist. They can help you move forward and create healthy dating habits going forward. Find a therapist today.
