If you loved
Books like Lit
A darkly hilarious, fiercely unsentimental plunge into the abyss of addiction and the messy, miraculous climb back out. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with Lit.
- raw
- chaotic
- gritty
- cathartic
- 01
The Liars' Club
Mary Karr · 1995
A fiercely funny, unsentimental plunge into a chaotic Texas childhood where storytelling is the only survival skill.
- 02
Cherry
Mary Karr · 2000
A sassy, restless dive into the chaotic thrills and paralyzing doubts of teenage rebellion.
- 03
Drinking
Caroline Knapp · 1996
An extraordinarily candid memoir that strips away the liquid armor of addiction to reveal the vulnerable realities of coping with life.
- 04
Priestdaddy
Patricia Lockwood
A wildly poetic, laugh-out-loud descent into the absurdities of a deeply eccentric Catholic upbringing.
- 05
Running with Scissors
Augusten Burroughs
A hilariously horrifying plunge into a childhood where the adults are the lunatics and survival requires a razor-sharp sense of irony.
- 06
Prozac nation
Elizabeth Wurtzel · 1994
A torrential, unapologetic plunge into the messy, chaotic reality of coming of age under the crushing weight of clinical depression.
- 07
Grace (Eventually)
Anne Lamott
A funny, bittersweet, and poignant exploration of faith and the wild adventure of being fully alive.
- 08
Furiously Happy
Jenny Lawson
A wildly tangential, laugh-out-loud manifesto on fighting crippling depression with weaponized absurdity.
- 09
The chronology of water
Lidia Yuknavitch
A raw, untraditional plunge into grief, fluid sexuality, and the fierce current of survival.
- 10
All over but the shoutin'
Rick Bragg
A lyrical, fiercely loving tribute to a mother's sacrifice and the inescapable gravity of a Southern childhood.
- 11
The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls
An unsentimental, deeply affecting journey through a childhood defined by both breathtaking freedom and devastating neglect.
- 12
Girl, interrupted
Susanna Kaysen
A razor-sharp, fragmented descent into the parallel universe of a 1960s psychiatric ward that questions the very nature of sanity.
