{"id":56475,"date":"2025-05-29T06:00:42","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/?p=56475"},"modified":"2025-05-08T09:05:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T14:05:53","slug":"books-about-divorce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/books-about-divorce\/","title":{"rendered":"Books about Divorce"},"content":{"rendered":"

Books about divorces are trending right now. Whether it is a nonfiction memoir or an autofictional novel, the representation of divorce in these books is varied. Below you will find a list of nonfiction and fiction books about divorce published recently that are all\u00a0owned by the Davenport Public Library. Descriptions are provided by the publishers.<\/p>\n

Nonfiction<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This American Ex-Wife: How I Ended My Marriage and Started My Life<\/a><\/em><\/strong> by Lyz Lenz<\/p>\n

Studies show that nearly 70 percent of divorces are initiated by women\u2014women who are tired, fed up, exhausted, and unhappy. We\u2019ve all seen how the media portrays divorc\u00e9es: sad, lonely, drowning their sorrows in a bottle of wine. Lyz Lenz is one such woman whose life fell apart after she reached a breaking point in her twelve-year marriage. But she refused to take part in that tired narrative and decided to flip the script on divorce.<\/em><\/p>\n

In this exuberant and unapologetic book, Lenz makes an argument for the advantages of getting divorced, framing it as a practical and effective solution for women to take back the power they are owed. Weaving reportage with sociological research and literature with popular culture along with personal stories of coming together and breaking up, Lenz creates a kaleidoscopic and poignant portrait of American marriage today. She argues that the mechanisms of American power, justice, love, and gender equality remain deeply flawed, and that marriage, like any other cultural institution, is due for a reckoning. A raucous argument for acceptance, solidarity, and collective female refusal, This American Ex-Wife takes readers on a riveting ride\u2014while pointing us all toward a life that is a little more free.<\/em> – Crown<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward<\/a><\/em><\/strong>\u00a0by Melinda French Gates<\/p>\n

Transitions are moments in which we step out of our familiar surroundings and into a new landscape\u2014a space that, for many people, is shadowed by confusion, fear, and indecision. The Next Day accompanies readers as they cross that space, offering guidance on how to make the most of the time between an ending and a new beginning and how to move forward into the next day when the ground beneath you is shifting.<\/em><\/p>\n

In this book, Melinda will reflect, for the first time in print, on some of the most significant transitions in her own life, including becoming a parent, the death of a dear friend, and her departure from the Gates Foundation. The stories she tells illuminate universal lessons about loosening the bonds of perfectionism, helping friends navigate times of crisis, embracing uncertainty, and more.<\/em><\/p>\n

Each one of us, no matter who we are or where we are in life, is headed toward transitions of our own. With her signature warmth and grace, Melinda candidly shares stories of times when she was in need of wisdom and shines a path through the open space stretching out before us all.<\/em> – Flatiron Books<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>No Fault: A Memoir of Romance and Divorce<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Haley Mlotek<\/p>\n

An intimate and candid account of one of the most romantic and revolutionary of relationships: divorce<\/em><\/p>\n

Divorce was everything for Haley Mlotek. As a child, she listened to her twice-divorced grandmother tell stories about her \u201chusbands.\u201d As a pre-teen, she answered the phones for her mother\u2019s mediation and marriage counseling practice and typed out the paperwork for couples in the process of leaving each other. She grew up with the sense that divorce was an outcome to both resist and desire, an ordeal that promised something better on the other side of something bad. But when she herself went on to marry\u2014and then divorce\u2014the man she had been with for twelve years, suddenly, she had to reconsider her generation\u2019s inherited understanding of the institution.<\/em><\/p>\n

Deftly combining her personal story with wry, searching social and literary exploration, No Fault is a deeply felt and radiant account of 21st century divorce\u2014the remarkably common and seemingly singular experience, and what it reveals about our society and our desires for family, love, and friendship. Mlotek asks profound questions about what divorce should be, who it is for, and why the institution of marriage maintains its power, all while charting a poignant and cathartic journey away from her own marriage towards an unknown future.<\/em><\/p>\n

Brilliant, funny, and unflinchingly honest, No Fault is a kaleidoscopic look at marriage, secrets, ambitions, and what it means to love and live with uncertainty, betrayal, and hope.<\/em> – Viking<\/p>\n

Fiction<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>All Fours<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Miranda July<\/p>\n

A semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to NY. Thirty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, checks into a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in an entirely different journey.<\/em><\/p>\n

Miranda July\u2019s second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July\u2019s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy, and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, All Fours tells the story of one woman\u2019s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic, and domestic life of a forty-five-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectation while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive.<\/em> – Riverhead Books<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>Liars<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Sarah Manguso<\/p>\n

A nuclear family can destroy a woman artist. I\u2019d always known that. But I\u2019d never suspected how easily I\u2019d fall into one anyway.<\/em><\/p>\n

When Jane, an aspiring writer, meets filmmaker John Bridges, they both want the same things: to be in love, to live a successful, creative life, and to be happy. When they marry, Jane believes she has found everything she was looking for, including\u2014a few years later\u2014all the attendant joys and labors of motherhood. But it\u2019s not long until Jane finds herself subsumed by John\u2019s ambitions, whims, and ego; in short, she becomes a wife.<\/em><\/p>\n

As Jane\u2019s career flourishes, their marriage starts to falter. Throughout the upheavals of family life, Jane tries to hold it all together. That is, until John leaves her.<\/em><\/p>\n

Liars is a tour de force of wit and rage, telling the blistering story of a marriage as it burns to the ground, and of a woman rising inexorably from its ashes.<\/em> – Hogarth<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>Animal Instinct<\/a><\/em><\/strong> by Amy Shearn<\/p>\n

The world has stopped. But Rachel is just getting started\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s spring of 2020 and Rachel Bloomstein\u2014mother of three, recent divorc\u00e9e, and Brooklynite\u2014is stuck inside. But her newly awakened sexual desire and lust for a new life refuse to be contained. Leaning on her best friend Lulu to show her the ropes, Rachel dips a toe in the online dating world, leading to park dates with younger men, flirtations with beautiful women, and actual, in-person sex. None of them, individually, are perfect . . . hence her rotation.<\/em><\/p>\n

But what if one person could perfectly cater to all her emotional needs? <\/em>
\nDriven by this possibility, Rachel creates Frankie, the AI chatbot she programs with all the good parts of dating in middle age . . . and some of the bad. But as Rachel plays with her fantasy to her heart\u2019s content, she begins to realize she can\u2019t reprogram her ex-husband, her children, her friends, or the roster of paramours that\u2019s grown unwieldy. Perhaps real life has more in store for Rachel than she could ever program for herself.<\/em> – G.P. Putnam’s Sons<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>Crush<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>by Ada Calhoun<\/p>\n

When a husband asks his wife to consider what might be missing from their marriage, what follows surprises them both\u2014sex, heartbreak and heart rekindling, and a rediscovered sense of all that is possible<\/em><\/p>\n

She\u2019s happy and settled and productive and content in her full life\u2014a child, a career, an admirable marriage, deep friendships, happy parents, and a spouse she still loves. But when her husband urges her to address what the narrow labels of \u201chusband\u201d and \u201cwife\u201d force them to edit out of their lives, the very best kind of hell breaks loose.<\/em><\/p>\n

Using the author\u2019s personal experiences as a jumping-off point, Crush is about the danger and liberation of chasing desire, the havoc it can wreak, and most of all the clear sense of self one finds when the storm passes. Destined to become a classic novel of marriage, and tackling the big questions being asked about partnership in postpandemic relationships, Crush is a sharp, funny, seductive, and revelatory novel about holding on to everything it\u2019s possible to love\u2014friends, children, parents, passion, lovers, husbands, all of the world\u2019s good books, and most of all one\u2019s own deep sense of purpose.<\/em> – Viking<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Books about divorces are trending right now. Whether it is a nonfiction memoir or an autofictional novel, the representation of divorce in these books is varied. Below you will find a list of nonfiction and fiction books about divorce published recently that are all\u00a0owned by the Davenport Public Library. Descriptions[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,5,1,8],"tags":[10128,10121,10126,10125,10127,407,402,10130,10123,10134,10132,1187,10122,10129,676,10124,10131,10133],"class_list":["post-56475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-read-a-likes","category-reference","category-staff-picks","tag-ada-calhoun","tag-all-fours","tag-amy-shearn","tag-animal-instinct","tag-crush","tag-divorce","tag-fiction","tag-haley-mlotek","tag-liars","tag-lyz-lenz","tag-melinda-french-gates","tag-memoir","tag-miranda-july","tag-no-fault","tag-nonfiction","tag-sarah-manguso","tag-the-next-day","tag-this-american-ex-wife"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-eGT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56475"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56979,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56475\/revisions\/56979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}