Let’s take some time to look at the best Marie Claire book recommendations.
Marie Claire is an international French magazine that has been in publication since 1937. The magazine features many topics including health, beauty, fashion, career, and even books!
Marie Claire has a book club called #ReadWithMC. It is aimed at those people who are busy and might not have that much time to pick out and read a long book. Marie Claire picks the book, and those in the club go get the book and read along that month.
Marie Claire is very fond of reading. In the publication they once said, “Here at Marie Claire, we love a good book just as much as we love a great Meghan Markle outfit.”
Marie Claire Book Recommendations List
Here is a full list of the best Marie Claire book recommendations:
- Aftershocks by Nadia Owusu
- Girl A by Abigail Dean
- Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman
- Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
- We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz
- Untamed by Glennon Doyle
Aftershocks by Nadia Owusu
Aftershocks is a book written by Nadia Owusu. It was published in 2021, and is about 320 pages long. The book was a 2021 favorite of many popular magazines and publications including Time, NPR, Vogue, and Vulture.
Aftershocks follows the author Nadia Owusu’s childhood, growing up as she traveled around Europe and Africa with her Ghanaian father and being abandoned by her Armenian mother. Her father was a United Nations official, and sadly died when Nadia was only 13.
Despite being orphaned at such a young age, she was still able to overcome a lot to move to New York City, be closer to her siblings, and go to school. While there she struggled with her identity and was uncertain about her future leading to periods of depression where she would sit in a blue chair.
Aftershocks is not only an inspiring story, but also a great introduction into the traditions of Nadia’s ancestors and other African history.
Fun fact: Aftershocks by Nadia Owusu was one of Barack Obama’s favorite books in 2021!
Girl A by Abigail Dean
Girl A was written by Abigail Dean. The book was published in 2021, and is about 352 pages long. The book immediately hit the New York Times Bestseller List when it was first published.
Girl A follows Lex Gracie, the oldest of 5 siblings, a survivor of her parent’s house of horrors, and the savior of her other siblings. After she had escaped her mother went to jail where she died.
Upon death, Lex’s mom leaves her and her siblings the family home where they experienced their common childhood trauma. Lex wants to turn the house into something good, but first she must talk to each of her siblings and confront their horrible past.
With her sister, Evie, Lex learns how the trauma from their childhood affected her other siblings in their adult lives as well as the perspective each one had during the tragic events. She intimately gets to know the sibling relationships and the secret each sibling holds.
Who have her siblings become? How did their past affect their future? Have some of her siblings broken free from the house of horrors or are they stuck in their terrible past?
Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman
Call Us What We Carry is a collection of poems written by presidential inaugural poet, Amanda Gorman. The book was published at the very end of 2021. It contains 240 pages of poems, and was an instant number 1 New York Times Bestseller. The collection was also praised highly by the Wall Street Journal and USA Today.
Amanda Gorman captivated the entire United States when she read her poem, The Hill We Climb, during the presidential inauguration of President Joe Biden.
Her book of poetry includes the popular inaugural poem, as well as many more poems that explore history, language, identity, politics, and other events that happened in 2021.
In Call Us What We Carry, Amanda Gorman shows off how incredible of a poet she is with her lyrics written in inventive styles.
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Crying in H Mart was written by Michelle Zauner, singer/guitarist of indie pop band, Japanese Breakfast. It was published in 2021, and has around 256 pages. This book was wildly popular in 2021 and 2022 as it spent over one year on the New York Times Bestseller List.
In her memoir, Michelle Zauner visits many different points in her life to show how she got to where she is today.
She grew up as one of the only East Asians in her Eugene, Oregon school. Her mother had extremely high expectations for her which led to a troubled adolescence. There was something she did get to enjoy with her mother though; and that was bonding over the many plates of food during her childhood.
After school, she moved to the East Coast to attend college, where she would work in the restaurant industry, perform at local gigs, and even meet the man who she would marry. All while she felt her Korean culture getting more and more distant.
Ultimately at the age of 25, she receives some horrible news that her mother has terminal cancer, and she moves back to her hometown. There she copes with the stress of life by recording and performing with her band, Japanese Breakfast.
Crying in H Mart is about family, love, grief, and food, written with humor and honesty.
We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz
We Were Never Here was written by Andrea Bartz. The book was published back in August of 2021. It has 320 pages, and spent a few weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List.
Marie Claire named We Were Never Here as one of the best books of the year in 2021.
We Were Never Here is about two best friends who go on a hike together somewhere in the mountains of Chile. We have Emily, our main character, and Kristen. Each year they get together to go on some kind of reunion trip together to celebrate the year and bond with each other.
Things went great during the trip, except for something weird that happened on the last night. Emily walks into their hotel room to see it covered in blood and broken glass with a frantic Kristen telling her that a guy she brought home attacked her and that she killed him in self defense.
This doesn’t sit well with Emily because something similar happened during last year’s trip. Now she finds herself dealing with the trauma by getting into a new relationship and drowning herself in work.
Much to Emily’s surprise Kristen randomly shows up to visit. Now, she has to deal with her past head-on, as he gets more and more suspicious of Kristen.
Fun fact: Reese Witherspoon had We Were Never Here as her August 2021 pick for her book club, Reese’s Book Club. She said, “This book is every suspense lover’s dream and it kept me up way too late turning pages. A novel with crazy twists and turns that will have you ditching your Friday night plans for more chapters.”
Untamed by Glennon Doyle
Another popular Marie Claire book recommendations is Untamed by Glennon Doyle. It’s her third book and it reached number one on the New York Times Bestseller List, which is amazing!
Untamed is a memoir, just like her other two books, and it has 352 pages filled with inspiration and empowerment.
In this book, Glennon Doyle reminds us that we all want to be good, and that’s a wonderful thing. However, sometimes trying to be good can leave us feeling unfulfilled and overwhelmed.
But don’t worry, Glennon is here to help! She shares her own story of hiding her discontent until she found her real, authentic voice, and started living her best life.
Untamed is a wake-up call, a story of motherhood, family, brokenness, and new beginnings. But most importantly, it’s the story of one person’s ability to bring her full self to the table. And that’s a message we can all take to heart. So let’s embrace our authentic selves and live life to the fullest, just like Glennon!
If you are a fan, you can actually check out some of Glennon Doyle’s book recommendations.