I love giving people my favorite books as gifts. It is meaningful and they learn from the nonfiction ones and get whisked away by the fiction ones — something we could all use right now! Here are five books I’ll be giving as graduation gifts this year, including one by yours truly!
What Next?: Your Five-Year Plan for Life after College: What Next? teaches readers how to create a five-year plan and has actionable career, finance, wellness, and relationship advice to help them accomplish their goals. Reviewers have called it “the book every twentysomething needs,” “the go-to guide for life after college,” and “basically the Google Maps for post-grad life.” I wrote it!
The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter—And How to Make the Most of Them Now: Meg Jay, a clinical psychologist and an associate professor of education at the University of Virginia, used her decade of work with twentysomething clients and students to inspire her book The Defining Decade. The book includes studies about twentysomethings as well as insights from the individuals she has met. It shows readers how to make the most of their twenties in different areas of their lives like work, dating, and relationships.
Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 535 Easy(ish) Steps: Years ago a boss gave me this book because he said it seemed like something I would write. Little did we know I’d end up writing my own guide for life after college just a few years later! Adulting covers everything from finding an apartment to cooking and cleaning to dating and friendships.
I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This: How to Ask for the Money, Snag the Promotion, and Create the Career You Deserve: I read this book for a book club I was leading back in 2012 and it has remained my favorite career advice book. Kate White used to be the editor-in-chief of Cosmo and the book is fun to read and, as one could imagine, the chapters have enticing titles! It has advice for people at every stage in their careers from entry-level to exec.
Average is the New Awesome: A Manifesto for the Rest of Us: When you graduate college it can seem like everyone else has it all figured out. There can be a lot of pressure to be the best — just look at the memes about Shakespeare writing King Lear during the plague — and that level of productivity and perfection can be unattainable. Samantha Matt’s book has honest and funny advice for being happy and proud of doing YOUR best.
