Episode · How I Write · 2026-05-27
Books mentioned on Suleika Jaouad: NYT Bestselling Author Teaches Writing | How I Write
Suleika Jaouad says: "If you want to write a good book, write what you don't want others to know about you. But if you want to write a great book, write what you don't want to know about yourself.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
-
Between Two Kingdoms
Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad is a poignant memoir documenting the author's harrowing battle with leukemia, her protracted recovery, and the subsequent cross-country road trip she undertook to figure out how to rejoin the land of the living.
Discussed“When I was writing Between Two Kingdoms, I reached out to everyone I knew who had a house somewhere remote and offered dog sitting and house sitting services, and I would go and do these sort of self-styled residencies because I needed that space.”
Where to get it
-
Wild
Wild by Cheryl Strayed is a bestselling memoir chronicling the author's grueling solo hike of over a thousand miles along the Pacific Crest Trail as a journey of personal healing and redemption.
Discussed“And she said to me, you know, when I went to write the book that became Wild, I kept telling everyone around me, I don't want to write about my dead mother. All I write about is my dead mother. And of course the book she wrote ended up being about this hike on the Pacific Crest Trail, but it's”
Where to get it
-
The Book of Alchemy
Discussed“I mean, the second book, The Book of Alchemy, is exactly that. I've been journaling from the time I could hold a pen. I have hundreds and hundreds of journals. I didn't want to write a book about it because it felt unserious and um just I don't know.”
Where to get it
-
An Unquiet Mind
An Unquiet Mind is a memoir by Kay Redfield Jamison that chronicles her personal and professional life while living with bipolar disorder.
Recommended“my you know, I read uh Nabokov's memoir in high school, and uh I read Kay Redfield Jamison, The Unquiet Mind. I was always fascinated by by stories told in the first person, but I never imagined myself writing in the first person.”
Where to get it
-
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard is a Pulitzer Prize-winning narrative of nature, observation, and spiritual reflection set in the suburban landscape of Virginia.
Recommended“And one of my favorite things about Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is it's she was you know, in the wilds of Montana. This was a creek in her suburban neighborhood. That she sat down and uh not just paid attention to, but paid attention to day after day after day that unspooled into what I believe to be one of”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (2) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“And it was from the hospital bed that she started writing for the New York Times, and then from there she wrote a memoir called Between Two Kingdoms, and a book about creativity itself called The Book of Alchemy.”
“And it was from the hospital bed that she started writing for the New York Times, and then from there she wrote a memoir called Between Two Kingdoms, and a book about creativity itself called The Book of Alchemy.”