By Donna Seaman
Caring for loved ones struggling with disease, advanced age, or both takes a toll, as do so many aspects of life. These candid, informative, practical, and inspiring memoirs and guides address the demands on caregivers and the need for self-care for everyone.
Already Toast: Caregiving and Burnout in America.
By Kate Washington. 2021. Beacon.
Washington chronicles the exhausting caregiving stint she took on when her husband was diagnosed with lym-phoma, then widens the lens to consider the challenges faced by caregivers and call for new and improved caregiver-centered government, employer, medical, and insurance policies.
First in the Family: A Story of Survival, Recovery, and the American Dream.
By Jessica Hoppe. 2024. Flatiron.
Hoppe, a high-fashion-focused social media influencer, delves into her family’s traumas, how such hardships can lead to drug and alcohol use as a coping mechanism, and how often BIPOC individuals are omitted from recovery research and practices.
Get Rooted: Reclaim Your Soul, Serenity, and Sisterhood through the Healing Medicine of the Grandmothers.
By Robyn Moreno. 2022. Hachette Go.
TV host, podcaster, and life coach Moreno chronicles her struggle with deep-seated trauma, then provides practical steps for any woman’s journey towards healing in a blend of memoir and guide rooted in her Mexican heritage, especially the Indigenous traditions of curanderas.
How Are You, Really? Living Your Truth One Answer at a Time.
By Jenna Kutcher. 2022. Morrow/Dey St.
Host of the popular Goal Digger podcast, Kutcher says it’s time to find out who we are, who we have around us, and what we’re going to do to improve our lives, urging readers to feel at home in our bodies, explore the world, build meaningful relationships, and have fun.
Joy Is My Justice: Reclaim What Is Yours.
By Tanmeet Sethi. 2023. Hachette.
After her three-year-old son was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy when she was nine months pregnant, Sethi, a Sikh American physician, activist, and meditation teacher, launched a search for joy and power, and now offers actions to help others face tough challenges.
Life in Five Senses: How Exploring the Senses Got Me out of My Head and into the World.
By Gretchen Rubin. 2023. Crown.
A scare at the eye doctor prompted podcaster Rubin to focus on her five senses and their contributions to her happiness. Drawing on scientific studies, classes, experiments, and her own explorations of sensory input, she recommends activities that will lead to greater awareness and deeper connections to family and friends.
My Two Elaines: Learning, Coping, and Surviving as an Alzheimer’s Caregiver.
By Martin J. Schreiber. 2022. Harper Horizon.
Marty Schreiber, former governor of Wisconsin, and his wife, Elaine, were always a political team until she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Schreiber writes frankly about the struggles of a caregiver, sharing invaluable information, advice, and encouragement.
Saving Time: Discovering a Life beyond the Clock.
By Jenny Odell. 2023. Random.
Odell (How to Do Nothing, 2019) considers the imperative to squeeze as much quantifiable output as possible from our time, examines how this has corrupted our relationships to work, leisure, and self-worth, and suggests alternatives.
Taming the Chaos of Dementia: A Caregiver’s Guide to Interventions That Make a Difference.
By Barbara Huelat and Sharon T. Pochron. 2023. Rowman & Littlefield.
Dementia is taxing on loved ones. Huelat and her daughter offer a candid and practical account of caregiving lessons learned while watching over Huelat’s mother, diagnosed with Parkinson’s and dementia, and her husband, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
We Will Rest! The Art of Escape.
By Tricia Hersey. 2024. Little, Brown.
Hersey (Rest Is Resistance, 2022), founder of the Nap Ministry, encourages people to resist the incessant call for constant productivity, create boundaries, and question feelings of guilt and shame for resting
What We Carry.
By Maya Shanbhag Lang. 2020. Dial.
Lang uses her relationship with her Indian immigrant mother as a foundation from which to consider women’s choices, the emotional complexities of caregiving for a parent, the turbulence of early parenthood, and the nature of creativity.
What Your Body Knows About Happiness: How to Use Your Body to Change Your Mind.
By Janice Kaplan. 2025. Sourcebooks.
You may have noticed that it’s easier to feel empowered when standing up straight. Kaplan outlines how messages from the body can be used to increase gratitude, creativity, health, and happiness.
When You Care: The Unexpected Magic of Caring for Others.
By Elissa Strauss. 2024. Gallery.
Caring for others—including children, aging parents, special-needs family members, and the recovering—should be embraced by the community rather than foisted upon women in the household, writes Strauss, who also argues that caregiving is an opportunity to bring meaning and purpose into others’ lives and that caregivers deserve financial and emotional support.
Your Turn: How to Be an Adult.
By Julie Lythcott-Haims. 2021. Holt.
Lythcott-Haims, a former dean at Stanford, Black, and queer, addresses twentysomethings, identifying “fending”—knowing “it’s on you to handle something”— and supporting yourself as the main ingredients in “adulting,” while also covering sensitive, relevant, and essential social issues.
This article was originally published in Booklist Reader, the magazine for library patrons, from the American Library Association’s nationally distributed book review publication, Booklist.
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