A review by waytoomanybooks
Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

4.75

Love love love this book. It’s cliche, but it really did make me both laugh and cry. This memoir came to me at exactly the right time and place in my life. Sugar/Cheryl kindly, lovingly, and patiently gives advice, which stems from stories from her own personal life, which, I must admit comes off a tad preachy at times. However, she is as vulnerable with her readers as her readers are with her, and I can tell that her advice comes from her heart. The letters she receives and the responses she gives feel like I’m reading a conversation between two friends, which is both sweet and cathartic in its own way.

There are two quotes towards the end of the memoir that I feel capture the essence of the advice Sugar/Cheryl gives:

“It was a becoming that I would not have dreamed was mine” (323)

“Your life will be a great and continous unfolding” (351).

I highly recommend this book. And if you like this one, then you will also love How to be a Person in the World by Heather Havrilesky/Ask Polly.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism