Person
Every book Suleika Jaouad recommended on podcasts
Across 4 podcasts. Every show Suleika Jaouad appears on, in one place — not just one.
Suleika Jaouad is an American writer, advocate, and motivational speaker. She is the author of the "Life, Interrupted" column in The New York Times and has also written for Vogue, Glamour, NPR's All Things Considered and Women's Health. Her 2021 memoir Between Two Kingdoms, covering her struggle with leukemia, was a New York Times Best Seller. Her second book, The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life, was published on April 22, 2025. Appearing on podcasts such as How I Write and The Book Review, Jaouad discussed the literary works that inspired her creative process and sustained her through personal hardship. She shared that she repeatedly read Lucy Grealy's Autobiography of a Face during her illness, describing it as her essential sick-girl Bible. Jaouad also recommended Sarah Manguso's Two Kinds of Decay as another powerful exploration of illness and survival. When discussing memoirs that shaped her appreciation for first-person storytelling, she highlighted Kay Redfield Jamison's An Unquiet Mind. Furthermore, Jaouad praised Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, explaining that Dillard's deep practice of everyday attention fundamentally transformed how she experiences the world and takes walks. These recommendations underscore her focus on resilience, acute observation, and authentic narrative nonfiction.
Books recommended by Suleika Jaouad
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The Fault in Our Stars
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green is an acclaimed young adult novel that follows two teenagers coping with terminal cancer diagnoses who fall in love while navigating the painful realities of mortality.
Discussed“It was during that time that I got my hands on a copy of The Faults and Our Stars. And I think I read it about half a dozen times. I loved it so much. The two young protagonists, both of whom have latestage terminal cancer diagnoses, came to feel like friends to me.”
Where to get it
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Autobiography of a Face
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy is a poignant memoir recounting the author's battle with Ewing sarcoma during childhood, the subsequent extensive facial reconstructive surgeries she endured, and her painful journey toward self-acceptance amidst relentless scrutiny of her physical appearance.
Recommended“one book though that I did read over and over and over again was the autobiography of a face by Lucy gy and it became my kind of sick girl Bible and still is”
Where to get it
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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
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Illness as Metaphor
Illness as Metaphor by Susan Sontag is a critical essay collection that examines how cultural myths and moral stigmas attached to diseases like cancer and tuberculosis exacerbate the suffering of patients.
Discussed“everyone who is born holds dual citizenship in the Kingdom of the well and in the Kingdom of the sick Susan sag wrote an illness as metaphor”
Where to get it
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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
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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
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The two kinds of decay
The Two Kinds of Decay is a memoir by Sarah Manguso that explores the author's harrowing experience with a devastating autoimmune disease during her youth.
Recommended“the other book that I really loved was sarum anda's two kinds of decay”
Where to get it
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Bright-sided
Bright-sided by Barbara Ehrenreich is a critical examination of the American culture of enforced optimism and toxic positivity.
Discussed“Maybe the most insidious one was stay positive, which is a byproduct of our culture of toxic positivity that Barbara Aaron Reich has written so beautifully about this idea that if you allow any bit of quote unquote negativity in, you'll somehow make your cancer worse.”
Where to get it
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Speak, Memory
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov is an autobiographical memoir that explores the author's early life as a Russian aristocrat prior to the Russian Revolution.
Discussed“and in the course of that reading i remember reading in particular speak memory by vladimir nabokov and trying to write in his style and of course doing it probably very poorly with lots of purple prose”
Where to get it
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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
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War and Peace
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy is a sprawling Russian epic novel that chronicles elite society and military conflict during the Napoleonic era.
Discussed“and i remember packing a suitcase full of books i packed war and peace thinking to myself this is one of those books that i've never read and this is finally you know the time to actually read it and to catch up on doing some of these things that i haven't had the time to do”
Where to get it
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Wild
Wild by Cheryl Strayed is a powerful memoir recounting the author's grueling, solitary 1,100-mile hike 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
Books Suleika Jaouad wrote
Appearances
Other mentions (1: passing, ad reads, own books)
“I had packed a suitcase full of books including War and Peace which was on my bedside table”