Popsugar editors share their favorite books of all time

We all have books that echo in our bodies long after we’ve turned the last page. Whether it’s a book that formed some of our earliest memories – you will always be treasured,”Lilly’s purple plastic bag” — a book we were assigned at school, a book we received as a gift, or a random title we picked up from a library or community bookstorethe stories we read have the ability to profoundly shape the people we become.

Some of us take it more literally than others. Maybe you’re reading “A Court of Thorns and Roses” and now you’re just dating shadow fathers. Maybe you read “The Catcher in the Rye” and now everyone in your life is “fake”. Maybe you read “Arianna and the Strawberry Tea” and asked your parents to make everyone at your fifth birthday party their own strawberry tea and chocolate cakes. No? Just me?

It may sound quaint in an age dominated by tech billionaires and artificial intelligence, but nothing beats a good book. To celebrate the role of reading in our lives and the launch of 2026 Popsugar Reading ChallengeI asked Popsugar’s editors to share the one (or, let’s be real, two or three) book(s) from any point in their lives that have opened their minds to something new, and that they’ll always return to. Because if you don’t make a book about your whole personality, what do you do?

Popsugar Editor’s Book Pick

Kaitlin Hatton, Director of Audience Development

“Tomboyland: Essays” ($14, originally $15) by Melissa Faliveno moved me so deeply that I regularly return to the book, and it’s been years since I first read it. It echoed my own roots as a queer person in the Midwest in a way I hadn’t yet seen from a piece of media.

Second: The Bloody Jack series by LA Meyer. I picked up the first book in junior high and basically grew up with the main character, Jacky Faber, after that. It’s ultimately a story about being a young girl in a man’s world, and all the trials that come with that. It also has swords, so that’s a plus.

Taylor Andrews, Senior Editor

Not to go easy, but the book that changed my life is “Dusk($13, originally $17) by Stephenie Meyer. When I was a kid, I wasn’t much of a reader. I spent most of my free time playing sports or spending time with my family, so I never really got into books. But when I started hearing rumblings about a vampire/werewolf/human love triangle, I couldn’t move my life, but the series didn’t change my life. for reading now Most importantly, it taught me that books and reading doesn’t have to feel like homework or a stuffy AP literature class.

Jordan Shalhoub, supervising producer of social video

My answer is a little creepy so don’t judge me: “The subtle art of not giving a f*ck” ($16, originally $17) by Mark Manson.

Second: “Keeping you a secret” by Julie Anne Peters was a huge turning point for me as a young queer in high school. It was probably more timing and less the particular story, but hey.

Also”Be” by AC Ping.

Lena Felton, senior manager of special projects and partnerships

I was in high school when my mother, a writer herself, first gave me “Bird for bird($11, originally $17) by Anne Lamott. It’s ostensibly a book about how to write—something I’ve loved doing forever—but also a book about living. Lamott lives in Marin County, CA, where I grew up, so my mother and I have always found her novels, memoirs, and general sensibility of Bird “that I return” easy to return to. want to be reminded of why I do what I do, and where I came from.

Chandler Plante, staff writer and social producer

I hope it’s not cliche, but “On earth we are, in short, wonderful” ($17, originally $18) made me really want to be a kinder, gentler person. I read it briefly before I lost my right eye, but the way Ocean Vuong writes about love and loss and grief resonated throughout the journey.

Emma Glassman-Hughes, Associate Editor

For me it could be “Wide Sargasso Sea($10, originally $15) by Jean Rhys. For the longest time, “Jane Eyre” was my favorite book, but when I discovered that someone essentially wrote a prequel to it more than 100 years later, providing the “mad woman in the attic” with a backstory and undeniable humanity, it forced me to reckon with how there are always two sides to the story—especially because there are always two sides that have always been two. systematically minimized. It shattered my brain when I read it in college I was also fascinated by its critique of colonialism.

Second: “Their eyes looked upon God” by Zora Neale Hurston; “Eileen” by Ottessa Moshfegh; “Braid Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer; literally anything by Toni Morrison; “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee; and “Twilight,” TBH.

Caitlin Oates, Editorial Operations Coordinator

“The Time Traveler’s Wife” ($8, originally $15) by Audrey Niffenegger dazzled me in high school. It was one of the first iterations of a nuanced romance I’d seen depicted in fiction, clearly written by and told from the POV of sharp, erudite women. I was also impressed by how dense the sci-fi, time-travel aspect was—it didn’t take long for the author to ground her fiction in truth and follow the rules of the world she created. Also, Chicago-forward, which may have influenced my university decision.

Second: “Come as you are” by Emily Nagoski — I mean. There are few women for whom this isn’t impactful and eye-opening. I’m deeply invested in sexual health, wellness, and education, as a Reformed religious child, and this simply blows up the whole concept of sex/sexuality and separates it from the overriding view of the very strict, narrow, heteronormative culture.

In addition, “The Devil in the White City“by Erik Larson and”Snow falls on cedar” by David Guterson. Beautiful writing, and each makes their respective eras come alive, really.

There is also “Little bee” by Chris Cleave, a devastating story about an English reporter and a Nigerian refugee, and how their paths cross both in Nigeria and in England. It’s heavy on the commentary on colonization, the treatment of asylum seekers and political violence, and it does so through a deeply personal and specific lens. It devastated me for months and really expanded my awareness.

And lastly, “The butterfly effect” by Jon Ronson. It’s a journalistic look at the real, cruel effects of “free” porn, and who suffers for it, and absolutely changed my whole perspective on sex work in general.