I'd Rather Be Reading

We’ve got a special bonus episode of season 16 for you—I’m chatting with Erin Claire Jones, author of the new book How Do You Choose?: A Human Design Guide to What’s Best for You at Work, in Love, and in Life , which came out on May 13. I am big on self-awareness, and I absolutely love learning more about myself and those I love, so I was drawn to this book after hearing Erin describe Human Design...

As we close season 16, I have a guest today that goes all the way back to season one of the show—well, actually, for me personally he goes back way further than that, but more on that in a moment. Dr. Sparky Reardon was one of my very first guests on season one of I’d Rather Be Reading, and I encourage you to go back and listen to that episode from 2021 if you enjoy this conversation, which I know...

The kickoff of college football, blessedly, is just around the corner, something I’ve been waiting for since January and the end of the last college football season. College football is jam-packed with rivalries, and one of the most heated among them is the rivalry between the University of Alabama Crimson Tide and the Auburn Tigers. Both teams are located, of course, in Alabama, where I lived—Bir...

We’ve got a great episode for you today with Scott Ellsworth about his new book Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination, and the Rebirth of America , which is out July 15. I told Scott in today’s episode that the subtitle alone sounds like three books—he covers so much ground here, and it’s written in such a narrative format that you will just gobble this...

Happy July—so excited to be back with you to talk about one of my favorite books I’ve read lately, Dr. Michael Norton’s The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions, which came out April 9, 2024. We have talked at length about habits on the show, but today, ritual gets its due. Dr. Norton explains what ritual is, and how, in his words, ritual can shift...

We’ve got such a fun one for you today—we’re chatting with Nora Princiotti about her new book Hit Girls: Britney, Taylor, Beyonce, and the Women Who Built Pop’s Shiniest Decade , which comes out on June 17. This book is being billed—rightfully so—as “the ultimate love letter to pop music,” and in this book Nora takes us on a deep dive into how female pop stars broke through the music industry in t...

So excited to be back with you and our guest today, Megan Hellerer, author of Directional Living: A Transformational Guide to Fulfillment in Work and Life , which came out last September 24. In this book, Megan introduces us to the concept of the underfulfilled overachiever—and I bet there are many of you listening, like myself, who will completely resonate with that term. Underfulfilled overachie...

One of the most popular books of 2025 so far is Dr. Judith Joseph’s High Functioning: Overcome Your Hidden Depression and Reclaim Your Joy , which introduces us to the concept of High Functioning Depression—where you may look fine on the outside but don’t feel fine on the inside. When people think of depression, they most likely think of “can’t get out of bed” depression—but what about the lesser-...

Today on the show I’m thrilled to have Sophie Gilbert, author of Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves , which came out April 29. This book looks specifically at the late 1990s and early 2000s—when both Sophie and I were coming of age—as an inflection point, when the energy of feminism collapsed and regressed into a period of hyper-objectification, sexualiza...

I am thrilled to have Amina AlTai here with me today to talk about her new book The Ambition Trap: How to Stop Chasing and Start Living , which is out May 13. Here’s what I love about this book, among many things, honestly—it is billed as “the anti-hustle guide to getting what you really want,” and it delivers . If you are experiencing or have experienced burnout, overwork, and stress when it come...

Once again, we don’t often have fiction picks on I’d Rather Be Reading, but usually every year I leave you with a fiction book of the summer around this time of year—and here is one for you: Hotter in the Hamptons by none other than Tinx, who is my esteemed guest today! In case you’re in the 1 percent of the population who isn’t familiar with Tinx, she is an influencer that has become known as “Ti...

Today we are talking about a topic that will resonate with each and every one of you—waiting. Every last one of us has walked through a waiting season at some point in our lives, and I bet that most, if not all, of us are waiting on something to happen for them right now. Be it a marriage, a child, a job, a home, on and on and on, it’s not so much that life is made up of waiting seasons, but life...

Today on the show we’re talking about the beauty of staying put, and we’re talking with Annie B. Jones, author of the new book Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned While Staying Put , which comes out April 22. Annie is a podcaster herself—her books podcast, From the Front Porch, is a huge hit—and she is the owner of The Bookshelf in Thomasville, Georgia, one of the most well-respected bookstores in the...

I am delighted to have on the show today Chris Guillebeau, here to talk about his latest, Time Anxiety: The Illusion of Urgency and a Better Way to Live , which is out April 15. You may know Chris from his popular newsletter “A Year of Mental Health” or for his books, including 2010’s The Art of Non-Conformity , 2012’s The $100 Startup , 2014’s The Happiness of Pursuit , 2016’s Born for This , 201...

Whether you are decidedly a Swiftie or decidedly not, I promise you’re going to get something out of this conversation. It’s hard to believe that we’ve never, to my knowledge, spoken about Taylor Swift in her own episode in the nearly four years and 300-plus episodes of I’d Rather Be Reading, but now, she gets her due. Here today I have Kevin Evers, a senior editor at the Harvard Business Review w...

We are in for such a fun conversation today with Dr. Morgan Cutlip, author of A Better Share: How Couples Can Tackle the Mental Load for More Fun, Less Resentment, and Great Sex, which is out April 8. In today's episode, Morgan teaches us why understanding the mental load is so important to a successful partnership. She teaches us that the mental load is comprised of three parts—physical, cogn...

As our guest today, Dr. Caroline Fleck, writes in her new book Validation: How the Skill Set That Revolutionized Psychology Will Transform Your Relationships, Increase Your Influence, and Change Your Life —which came out February 18—validation is psychology’s best kept secret. What is validation, anyway, and why does it matter? Caroline and I dig into all of it, including the power of validation,...

I have spoken before on the show about my absolute love and admiration for the one and only Nora Ephron, who is the reason why I am a writer. I have met my match in today’s guest, Ilana Kaplan, who I previously worked with at People , who is absolutely fantastic, and who has written this gem of a book about our shared heroine called Nora Ephron at the Movies: A Visual Celebration of the Writer and...

Today on the show we’ve got Jenny Wood discussing her new book Wild Courage: Go After What You Want and Get It , which hits shelves on March 25. In the book, Jenny writes about how courage is essential to our success, and how, in her words, “Wild courage will change your life.” She explains to us what wild courage is , anyway; how to look fear in the eye and do it—whatever it is to you—scared; the...

Our guest today, Brad Meltzer, is one of the busiest people in book writing. It’s only March, and already he’s had two books come out in 2025 alone: The JFK Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Kennedy—and Why It Failed , written with his friend Josh Mensch and released January 14, and Make Magic: The Book of Inspiration You Didn’t Know You Needed , which came out March 4. Today on the show we talk...

There aren’t many of us—if any of us—who aren’t experiencing stress. But what if I told you that a little stress isn’t just okay for us as humans, but it’s necessary? That’s what Dr. Sharon Horesh Bergquist writes about in her new book The Stress Paradox: Why You Need Stress to Live Longer, Healthier, and Happier , which is out March 25. Now, hear her out—in this fascinating book, she argues that...

Welcome back to week two of I’d Rather Be Reading season 16! Today on the show we have the lovely Grace Valentine, here to talk about her new book The Better Friend: 12 Truths to Shift from Shallow and One-Sided Connections to Vibrant Friendships , which comes out March 11. We talked a lot in season 15 about friendship, and the conversation is spilling over to season 16, too. Grace is a TEDx speak...

I am thrilled to be back with each and every one of you for season 16—and I am thrilled to be joined by our guest today, Neha Ruch, author of The Power Pause: How to Plan a Career Break After Kids—and Come Back Stronger Than Ever , which came out January 14. We’ve all heard that phrase about having it all, about work/life balance (which I find to be a fallacy), and how to juggle it all, and Neha’s...

Today I am chatting with one of my absolute favorite writers, the one and only Gretchen Rubin, about her forthcoming book Secrets of Adulthood: Simple Truths for Our Complex Lives , which comes out April 1. Gretchen writes here about the lessons she’s learned to making life more meaningful and satisfying, covering areas as wide ranging as self-improvement, adventure, the challenge of love, friends...

What an absolute honor it is today to have the first ever African American Rockette, the fabulous Jennifer Jones, here with me to talk about her new book Becoming Spectacular: The Rhythm of Resilience from the First African American Rockette , which comes out February 18. What a powerhouse woman Jennifer is. The Radio City Music Hall Rockettes had been in existence for 62 years in 1987, when Jenni...