TBR 2024: Top 10 Must-Read Books for Your 2024 To Be Read List

Reading is back in again (thanks #BookTok), but finding good reads can be extremely overwhelming, anxiety-producing, and stressful, so we wanted to lighten your load and make decision-making a little easier. Here are 10 different books that you should include on your To Be Read (TBR) list for 2024. 

Come Together: The Science (and Art!) of Creating Lasting Sexual Relationships by Emily Nagoski

Most of us struggle at some point to maintain a sexual connection with our partner/s or spouse. And many of us are given not-very-good advice on what to do about it. In this book, Nagoski dispels the myths we've been taught about sex--for instance, the belief that sexual satisfaction and desire are highest at the beginning of a relationship and that they inevitably decline the longer that relationship lasts. Nagoski assures us that's not true.

So, what is true? Come Together isn't about how much we want sex, or how often we're having it; it's about whether we like the sex we're having. Nagoski breaks down the obstacles that impede us from enjoying sex--from stress and body image to relationship difficulties and gendered beliefs about how sex "should" be--and presents the best ways to overcome them.

Polysecure, The Polysecure Workbook, and The Hearts of Being Polysecure by Jessica Fern

How can we create secure, happy attachments with multiple partners? This set of two books and a fold-out poster is a practical toolkit for building secure attachments in polyamory. In Polysecure, psychotherapist Jessica Fern extends attachment theory into the realm of consensual nonmonogamy. The accompanying folded poster displays her HEARTS framework-- six specific strategies to help you move toward secure attachments in multiple relationships-- and The Polysecure Workbook provides practical prompts to explore your own attachment history and reasons for practicing nonmonogamy. The Complete Polysecure Bundle provides the tools needed to navigate multiple loving relationships and to build personal security.

Securely Attached: Transform Your Attachment Patterns Into Loving, Lasting Romantic  Relationships by Eli Hardwood

Transform insecure attachment patterns and unlock the key to deeply satisfying relationships with this engaging and insightful journal by licensed therapist and attachment expert Eli Harwood (aka @attachmentnerd).

Navigating the path to an intimate, secure romantic partnership can feel daunting. But the good news is attachment theory research shows that everyone can overcome insecure patterns. Securely Attached clearly and gently guides you in delving deeper and overcoming problematic patterns that are holding you back from getting--and keeping--the close, fulfilling relationship you want.

Multiamory: Essentials Tools for Modern Relationships by Jase Lindgren, Dedeker Winston, & Emily Sotelo Matlack

In this book, you'll learn how to get what you need out of conversations with your partner with the Triforce of Communication Create Microscripts that will interrupt old patterns, diffuse tension, and form better communication habits, process and reconnect after an argument with Repair SHOP, determine your unique processing style, and how it may be clashing with your partner's, set up a regular RADAR check-in to support the long-term health of all of your relationships, and more!

Sensual Self by Ev’yan Whitney

A self-paced journal offering guidance to those seeking reconnection with their pleasure, featuring 150+ prompts to help readers define sensuality for themselves.

Pleasure transcends sexuality; Sensual Self is here to help you embrace it. This guided journal is a self-written manual for your unique sensuality. With interactive, thought-provoking questions, you'll be guided to map and explore the inner landscape of your body--the textures, shapes, tempos, and temperatures that bring you bliss.

Sensual Self allows ample room to record your process and express yourself, giving you space for intimate conversations with yourself surrounding your pleasure and desires. 150+ prompts and exercises will help you focus on grounding yourself, checking in with your mind and body, self-acceptance, self-care, and body consciousness--from "In what ways do you keep your sensuality hidden?" to "What does an enthusiastic 'yes!' feel like in your body?"

Slow Pleasure: Explore Your Pleasure Spectrum by Euphemia Russel

Slow Pleasure is a practical and philosophical exploration of pleasure, teaching you how to claim, prioritize and integrate pleasure into your daily life. Starting with the philosophy of pleasure, Euphemia deepens your understanding and then helps you interrogate what is impeding your ability to feel the whole pleasure spectrum. Slow Pleasure will help you establish a pleasure practice of your own, expand your pleasure dial, help you understand your desires and teach you how to continue to explore the depths and boundaries of your pleasure. Woven throughout the book are reflection questions and pleasure practices that bring you back into your body, make you slow down to listen to yourself, and help you consciously begin to prioritize your pleasure. Slow Pleasure teaches us that pleasure goes way beyond sex and should be cultivated and celebrated in every moment.

Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good by Adrienne Marie bBrown

How do we make social justice the most pleasurable human experience? How can we awaken within ourselves desires that make it impossible to settle for anything less than a fulfilling life? Author and editor adrienne maree brown finds the answer in something she calls "pleasure activism," a politics of healing and happiness that explodes the dour myth that changing the world is just another form of work. Drawing on the black feminist tradition, she challenges us to rethink the ground rules of activism. Her mindset-altering essays are interwoven with conversations and insights from other feminist thinkers, including Audre Lorde, Joan Morgan, Cara Page, Sonya Renee Taylor, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Together they cover a wide array of subjects--from sex work to climate change, from race and gender to sex and drugs--building new narratives about how politics can feel good and how what feels good always has a complex politics of its own.

Building on the success of her popular Emergent Strategy, brown launches a new series of the same name with this volume, bringing readers books that explore experimental, expansive, and innovative ways to meet the challenges that face our world today. Books that find the opportunity in every crisis!

Smart Sex: How to Boost Your Sex IQ and Own Your Pleasure by Dr. Emily Morse

In this essential book you'll uncover: A new sexual intelligence that will allow you to connect deeply with your body, your desires, and the psychological and physical blocks that are keeping you from experiencing the pleasure that is your birthright. Communication hacks to talk to your partner about topics ranging from oral sex to open relationships and everything in between. The truth about orgasms and how to start having more plentiful, powerful, and satisfying orgasms. Everything you need to know to be a good lover, from collaboration to technique. (Hint: it's not what you think), and so much more.

Sex Positive Talks to Have With Kids: A guide to raising sexually healthy, informed, empowered young people by Melissa P. Carnagey

Sex Positive Talks to Have with Kids is your guide to creating an open, shame-free connection with the young people in your world. These talks will help caregivers create the kind of bond that keeps kids safer, empowered, and returning to you for support along their journey. This inclusive, medically accurate, comprehensive guide is perfect for any parent or caregiver that's ready to normalize the talks and be that trusted adult we all needed growing up.

Sex Ed for the Stroller Set: How to Have Honest Conversations with Young Children by Dr. Laura Hancock & Dr. Karen Rayne

Sex Ed for the Stroller Set gives parents practical tools to proactively teach young children about sexuality and the confidence to use these tools. When adults bring intention and thoughtfulness to providing sexual health education to their young children, they can establish healthy attitudes toward sexuality and prepare their children and themselves for sexual topics that will arise in later years. While there are many books on sexual health written for parents of teens and young adults, there are very few written for parents of young children. But the early years are crucial to sexual health, and what parents do and say is of the utmost importance.

If you are looking to prioritize your sexuality and please, looking to talk about sex with your children, or want to strengthen your relationship you should consider adding these books to your library. Happy reading!