You Could Make This Place Beautiful
By: Maggie Smith
4.08
Format: 320 pages, Hardcover
In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of…
Want to Read $ 14.99"At our wedding, our college creative writing professor read a poem—John Ciardi’s “Most Like an Arch This Marriage."-Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful
"How I picture it: We are all nesting dolls, carrying the earlier iterations of ourselves inside. We carry the past inside us. We take ourselves–all of our selves–wherever we go. Inside forty-something me is the woman I was in my thirties, the woman I was in my twenties, the teenager I was, the child I was. Inside divorced me: married me, the me who loved my husband, the me who believed what we had was irrevocable and permanent, the me who believed in permanence. I still carry these versions of myself. It's a kind of reincarnation without death: all these different lives we get to live in this one body, as ourselves."-Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful
If you liked the biography plot in You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith , here is a list of 10 books like this:
1. Splinters
By: Leslie Jamison
3.86
Format: 272 pages, Hardcover
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Recovering and The Empathy Exams comes the riveti… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Leslie Jamison's Splinters book and Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- biography
- memoir
- feminism
- biography memoir
- nonfiction
- essays
- audiobook
2. Happiness Falls
By: Angie Kim
3.75
Format: 387 pages, Hardcover
When a father goes missing, his family's desperate search leads them to question everything they kn… read more
Want to Read $ 12.99Similar categories in Angie Kim's Happiness Falls book and Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- adult
- audiobook
"I lost a World - the other day! Has Anybody found? - Emily Dickinson, 1896"-Angie Kim, Happiness Falls
3. Tom Lake
By: Ann Patchett
3.99
Format: 309 pages, Hardcover
In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again prov… read more
Want to Read $ 15.99Similar categories in Ann Patchett's Tom Lake book and Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- adult
- audiobook
"You can’t pretend this [Covid] isn’t happening,"-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake
"In the summer the pear trees were fine. In the summer, all that is hideous about a pear tree is hidden by leaves and pears. But once those disguises were removed they were nothing but acres of murder…"-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake
"Hazel, listen to me. I'm going to tell you something important, you need to be brave.' I then explained to the dog how I have told myself for so many years that my career fell apart because I wasn't …"-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake
"It's as if someone bought all the diamonds at Tiffany's, and crushed them into dust, then spread that dust across the water so that it sifts down evenly, filtering through the shards of light that cu…"-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake
4. While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence
By: Meg Kissinger
4.28
Format: 320 pages, Hardcover
From award-winning journalist Meg Kissinger, a searing memoir of a family besieged by mental illnes… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Meg Kissinger's While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence book and Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- biography
- memoir
- biography memoir
- nonfiction
- audiobook
5. How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told
By: Harrison Scott Key
4.07
Format: 320 pages, Hardcover
From Harrison Scott Key, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, How to Stay Married tells … read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Harrison Scott Key's How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told book and Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- biography
- memoir
- biography memoir
- nonfiction
- audiobook
"He was "as deep as bro country and possessed all the charm of an unsalted potato."-Harrison Scott Key, How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told
"I play the drums, an instrument that has caused more divorces than any other musical instrument in history, after the banjo."-Harrison Scott Key, How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told
"The memories do not dissolve. They cohere into captivating art films that play endlessly in the International Infidelity Film Festival of my mind."-Harrison Scott Key, How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told
"Coco will be gone in less than two years and Pippi and Ginsburg not long after, and then it'll just be the two of us again and this weird-ass marriage."-Harrison Scott Key, How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told
6. Grief Is for People
By: Sloane Crosley
3.91
Format: 208 pages, Hardcover
Following the death of her closest friend, Sloane Crosley explores multiple kinds of loss in this d… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Sloane Crosley's Grief Is for People book and Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- biography
- memoir
- biography memoir
- nonfiction
- essays
- audiobook
"Grief is for people, not things."-Sloane Crosley, Grief Is for People
"Suicide is a tax on human consciousness."-Sloane Crosley, Grief Is for People
"How will he know you loved him," she asks, "unless you try to destroy yourself?"-Sloane Crosley, Grief Is for People
"Pictures should be of what you see, not of what the world sees when it sees you."-Sloane Crosley, Grief Is for People
7. A Living Remedy: A Memoir
By: Nicole Chung
4.01
Format: 256 pages, Hardcover
A searing memoir of family, class and grief—a daughter’s search to understand the lives her adoptiv… read more
Want to Read $ 12.99Similar categories in Nicole Chung's A Living Remedy: A Memoir book and Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- biography
- memoir
- biography memoir
- nonfiction
- adult
- audiobook
"How do you learn to cherish yourself, your life, when grief has made it unrecognizable? I am starting to feel that we do so not by trying to fill a void that can never be filled but by living as best…"-Nicole Chung, A Living Remedy: A Memoir
8. Somehow: Thoughts on Love
By: Anne Lamott
3.95
Format: 204 pages, Hardcover
From the bestselling author of Dusk, Night, Dawn and Help, Thanks, Wow , a joyful celebration of lo… read more
Want to Read $ 11.99Similar categories in Anne Lamott's Somehow: Thoughts on Love book and Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- nonfiction
- memoir
- essays
- audiobook
"I don’t know"-Anne Lamott, Somehow: Thoughts on Love
"…nobody in isolation becomes who they were designed to be."-Anne Lamott, Somehow: Thoughts on Love
"Sometimes it all just sucks, as Jesus says somewhere in the Gospels (although off the top of my head I can’t recall chapter and verse."-Anne Lamott, Somehow: Thoughts on Love
"When I first got sober, a man told me that upon waking every morning, instead of reciting the standard flowery recovery prayer, he said, “Whatever,“ and at night when he turned off his lights to go t…"-Anne Lamott, Somehow: Thoughts on Love
9. All Fours
By: Miranda July
3.81
Format: 336 pages, Hardcover
The New York Times–bestselling author of The First Bad Man returns with an irreverently sexy, tende… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Miranda July's All Fours book and Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- feminism
- adult
- audiobook
"But maybe the road split between: a life spent longing vs. a life that was continually surprising"-Miranda July, All Fours
"Maybe we shouldn't do that," Jordi said. "Flatten ourselves like that. Erratic doesn't have to mean crazy or irresponsible. Shouldn't we be normalizing change?"-Miranda July, All Fours
"I guess any calling, no mater what it is, is a kind of unresolved ache," I said, giving in to knowing more than him. "It's a problem that you can't fix, but there is some relief in knowing you will c…"-Miranda July, All Fours
"For me lying created just the right amount of problems and what you saw was just one of my four or five faces- each real, each with different needs. The only dangerous lie was one that asked me to co…"-Miranda July, All Fours
10. This American Ex-Wife: How I Ended My Marriage and Started My Life
By: Lyz Lenz
3.99
Format: 288 pages, Hardcover
A manifesto on the gender politics of marriage (bad) and divorce (actually pretty good!) in America… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Lyz Lenz's This American Ex-Wife: How I Ended My Marriage and Started My Life book and Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- biography
- memoir
- feminism
- biography memoir
- nonfiction
- divorce
- audiobook
"So much of our culture depicts young girls dreaming about their weddings. But every middle-aged woman I know dreams about living alone in the woods, maybe with a dog."-Lyz Lenz, This American Ex-Wife: How I Ended My Marriage and Started My Life
11. It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs
By: Mary Louise Kelly
3.86
Format: 240 pages, Hardcover
Operating Instructions meets Glennon Doyle in this new book by famed NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Mary Louise Kelly's It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs book and Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- biography
- memoir
- biography memoir
- nonfiction
- adult
- audiobook
"In his book "Being Mortal", the surgeon Atul Gawande accurately describes the joy that flows from being good at your work. 'You become a doctor for what you imagine to be the satisfaction of the work…"-Mary Louise Kelly, It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs
12. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
By: James McBride
4.00
Format: 385 pages, Hardcover
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new housing de… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in James McBride's The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store book and Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- adult
- audiobook
13. Hello Beautiful
By: Ann Napolitano
4.16
Format: 416 pages, Kindle Edition
An emotionally layered and engrossing story of a family that asks: Can love make a broken person wh… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Ann Napolitano's Hello Beautiful book and Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- adult
- audiobook
"The child inside Julia lay wide-eyed in the dark, knowing that she was Jo, but only because Sylvie was Beth."-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful
"You and your sisters have so many reference points, such a dense history," William said. "I never get used to it."-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful
"She was Julia's wild hair, she was the lake her husband had once been carried out of, and no matter what happened next, she was love."-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful
"You’re depressed, not crazy. It’s not insane to be depressed in this world. It’s more sane than being happy. I never trust those upbeat individuals who grin no matter what’s going on. Those are the o…"-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful
14. Real Americans
By: Rachel Khong
4.04
Format: 416 pages, Hardcover
From the award-winning author of Goodbye, Vitamin: How far would you go to shape your own destiny?… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Rachel Khong's Real Americans book and Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- adult
- audiobook
"She wasn't normal and so I wasn't either. I resented that part the most."-Rachel Khong, Real Americans
"It was a habit, with my parents: omitting information, not wanting to worry them unnecessarily. Though they’d raised me so American, I could never manage the sorts of American relationships my friend…"-Rachel Khong, Real Americans
"With each other they spoke loudly: Their voices periodically rose to excited shouts, and they laughed raucously. In English they were milder mannered, polite. My mother had always spoken English to m…"-Rachel Khong, Real Americans
15. Wellness
By: Nathan Hill
4.00
Format: 611 pages, Hardcover
The New York Times best-selling author of The Nix is back with a poignant and witty novel about mar… read more
Want to Read $ 12.99Similar categories in Nathan Hill's Wellness book and Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- audiobook
"It's an altogether manic and ceaseless conversation, a conversation that feels sometimes like falling down stairs, barely keeping upright, taken by gravity, skipping, grasping, and then somehow landi…"-Nathan Hill, Wellness
"Behind curtains, this, he thinks, is what lovers do—they are alchemists and architects; pioneers and fabulists; they make one thing another; they invent the world around them. So he says, ‘Yes I beli…"-Nathan Hill, Wellness
16. The Vaster Wilds
By: Lauren Groff
3.77
Format: 272 pages, Hardcover
A taut and electrifying novel from celebrated bestselling author Lauren Groff, about one spirited g… read more
Want to Read $ 12.99Similar categories in Lauren Groff's The Vaster Wilds book and Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- adult
- audiobook
"For what is a girl but a vessel made to hold the desires of men."-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds
"O put the memory away, girl, she told herself sternly. For the sorrow could eat you entire."-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds
"And humans were not made to be always alone; humans survive only in the company of other humans."-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds
"Against the resistance of other minds, one's thoughts are pulled out of their comfortable shapes, and true thinking begins."-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds
17. You Could Make This Place Beautiful
By: Maggie Smith
4.08
Format: 320 pages, Hardcover
In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful book and Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- poetry
- biography
- memoir
- feminism
- biography memoir
- nonfiction
- essays
- adult
- divorce
- audiobook
"At our wedding, our college creative writing professor read a poem—John Ciardi’s “Most Like an Arch This Marriage."-Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful
"How I picture it: We are all nesting dolls, carrying the earlier iterations of ourselves inside. We carry the past inside us. We take ourselves–all of our selves–wherever we go. Inside forty-somethin…"-Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful
18. Sandwich
By: Catherine Newman
3.75
Format: 229 pages, Hardcover
From the beloved author of We All Want Impossible Things, a moving, hilarious story of a family sum… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Catherine Newman's Sandwich book and Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- adult
- audiobook
"What does loss look like, in your body? Where is it? It feels like an air bubble stuck in your psyche. It feels like peering down into a deep hole. The vertigo of that. The potential for obliteration…"-Catherine Newman, Sandwich
"We're just ruined by sex, women---our bodies, our psyches. We're sexually assaulted every five minutes. We're infected with everything. Traumatized by conceiving, by not conceiving. But let's keep at…"-Catherine Newman, Sandwich
19. Quietly Hostile: Essays
By: Samantha Irby
3.70
Format: 290 pages, Paperback
Samantha Irby invites us to share in the gory particulars of her real life, all that festers behind… read more
Want to Read $ 4.99Similar categories in Samantha Irby's Quietly Hostile: Essays book and Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- memoir
- nonfiction
- essays
- adult
- audiobook
"[...] and my face is sore from smiling so hard in an effort to appear friendly and nonthreatening."-Samantha Irby, Quietly Hostile: Essays
"I'm so embarrassed by everything all the time, humiliated even by the need to breathe air where other people can see me"-Samantha Irby, Quietly Hostile: Essays
"I want to push back against this idea that it's not real love if you're not passionately chattering at each other all the time, that it's just as valid (and romantic!) to know instinctively when to s…"-Samantha Irby, Quietly Hostile: Essays
"I lived in blissful solitude for a long time...and you learn a lot about yourself and what you require for life when it's just you that you have to think about...You can buy frozen fish sticks and ea…"-Samantha Irby, Quietly Hostile: Essays
20. The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing
By: Lara Love Hardin
4.46
Format: 319 pages, Kindle Edition
No one expects the police to knock on the million-dollar, two-story home of the perfect cul-de-sac … read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Lara Love Hardin's The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing book and Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- biography
- memoir
- biography memoir
- nonfiction
- adult
- audiobook
21. Congratulations, the Best is Over!
By: R. Eric Thomas
4.07
Format: 240 pages, Hardcover
The beloved bestselling author of Here for It presents a collection of heartening, thoughtful, and … read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in R. Eric Thomas's Congratulations, the Best is Over! book and Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- biography
- memoir
- biography memoir
- nonfiction
- essays
- audiobook
"If I'm not heading toward a place where I can feel joy, then hope in the present has nothing to hold on to."-R. Eric Thomas, Congratulations, the Best is Over!
