8 Books To Read If You Still Can’t Get Enough Of Gilmore Girls

Gilmore Girls season is finally here — and we couldn’t be more excited.

The series, which celebrated its 20th anniversary earlier this month, has been one of our go-to watches for when the weather gets colder and the leaves start to fall.

Just imagine curling up under a big, cosy blanket with a mug of hot chocolate and tuning into the goings-on of Stars Hollow. Pretty perfect for autumn, right?

But if you’ve watched (and re-watched) Gilmore Girls and A Year in the Life and still can’t get enough of Rory, Luke, Lorelai and the rest of the Stars Hollow residents, it’s time to head to the bookstore.

If you’ve ever wanted to take a stroll around Stars Hollow, have a cup of coffee at Luke’s or stay at the Dragonfly Inn, why not follow Rory’s lead and pick up one of these 8 books that will definitely cure your Gilmore Girls withdrawal.

 

1. Like Mother, Like Daughter by Catherine Clark

How could we have a list like this without including the actual Gilmore Girls books?

Like Mother, Like Daughter is first in the Gilmore Girls book series, which is told entirely from Rory’s point of view and is based on the first few episodes of season one.

Since it follows pretty close to what you see play out on-screen, it’s kind of like having all the charm of Stars Hollow with you wherever you go.

 

2. Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham

This is another book that seemed like a natural choice to include.

In this collection of essays, Lauren Graham looks back on her life — sharing laugh-out-loud stories about growing up, starting out as an actress, and, years later, sitting in her trailer on the Parenthood set and asking herself, “Did you, um, make it?”.

And, naturally, she reflects on her time in Stars Hollow — and how it felt to pick up Lorelai Gilmore nine years later, for Netflix’s Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life. It also has plenty of photos and excerpts from the diary she kept during the filming of the revival.

 

3. The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg

This is an unforgettable comedic mystery about two women who are forced to reimagine who they really are — led by none other than Sookie (no, not that Sookie, sadly).

Mrs. Sookie Poole has married off the last of her daughters, and is quite looking forward to having an empty nest. Maybe she and her husband Earle will go traveling — or maybe they’ll just relax a little more. The only thing left for her to contend with is her mother, Lenore Simmons Krackenberry. Lenore may be a lot of fun for other people, but is, for the most part, an overbearing presence for her daughter.

Then one day, Sookie finds out a secret about her mum that knocks her for a loop — and calls into question everything that she ever thought she knew about her family, her future and herself.

 

4. Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Lorelai went on her own Wild adventure during A Year In The Life after reading Cheryl Strayed’s book over the summer — and now you can do it too, from the comfort of your own couch.

At 26 years old, Cheryl thought that she had lost everything she held close. Following the death of her mother, her family disbanded and her marriage came to an end. And now, she’s got nothing to lose — so she’s decided to make the most impulsive decision of her life.

She’s going to walk 1,100 miles, along the west coast of America — and she’s going to do it alone. She had no experience of long-distance hiking and the journey was nothing more than a line on a map. But it held a promise — a promise of piecing together a life that lay shattered at her feet.

 

5. Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

A story of hopes, finding yourself and trying to live out your dreams in the big city. We’re definitely getting some echoes of Rory’s journey in A Year In The Life.

Beginning in January 1995, Franny Banks has got six months left on the three-year deadline that she’d set herself when she moved to the Big Apple. When she moved, she was dreaming of Broadway and of doing “important work” — but instead, all she’s gotten is a part in an ad for ugly Christmas sweaters and a job waiting tables in a comedy club.

Her roommates―her best friend Jane, and Dan, an aspiring sci-fi writer―are supportive, but Franny knows a two-person fan club doesn’t exactly count as success. Everyone tells her that she needs a backup plan and, while she can nearly picture moving back home and settling down with her ex, she’s not ready to give up on her dreams. Not just yet.

She dreams of one day having a career like her idols, Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton. But in the meantime, she would be happy to settle for a speaking part in anything. And maybe finding a combination of hair products that works. Everything is riding on her acting class’ upcoming showcase, where she’ll have the chance to perform for people who could (maybe, hopefully) hire her. But she can’t get distracted by James Franklin, the notorious flirt and most successful actor in her class, who has started paying attention to her.

Elsewhere, her father’s begging her to come home — and her agent’s not returning her calls. But for some reason, she keeps believing that she just might get what she came for.

 

6. The Girls of Mischief Bay by Susan Mallery

For fans of the friendship between Lorelai and Sookie, as well as between Rory and Lane, this series is about three friends, each on the brink of a new beginning — and discovering that friends can become family, and that life is richer with them at your side.

Nicole is learning that there’s a difference between being supportive and supporting her husband, who quit his job to write a screenplay she’s never seen. He won’t even help take care of their son, leaving Nicole to run the house and work full-time at her Mischief Bay Pilates studio — and wondering if she can say enough is enough without losing the man she loves.

Sacrificing a personal life for her career is how Shannon rose to become vice president in her firm, but she’s now wondering whether she made the right choice. An exciting new relationship with a great guy convinces her that it might not be too late—until he drops a bombshell that has her questioning whether she can have it all. If she can, does she want it?

Although Pam has a beautiful house and a husband she adores, she feels… restless. She wonders who a stay-at-home mom becomes after the kids are grown. Finding sexy new ways to surprise her husband brings the spark back to their marriage, but when unexpected change turns her life upside down, she’ll have to redefine herself. Again.

 

7. Empire Falls by Richard Russo

If you’re head-over heels for Gilmore Girls because of its setting, then this would be the book for you.

Empire Falls is a blue-collar town full of abandoned mills, whose citizens surround themselves with the comforts and feuds provided by lifelong friends and neighbours and who find humour and hope in the most unlikely places.

Miles Roby has been slinging burgers at the Empire Grill for 20 years, a job that cost him his college education and a lot of his self-respect. As for what keeps him there, it could be his bright, sensitive daughter Tick, who needs all his help surviving the local high school. Or maybe it’s Janine, Miles’ soon-to-be ex-wife, who’s taken up with a noxiously vain health-club proprietor. Or perhaps it’s the imperious Francine Whiting, who owns everything in town–and seems to believe that “everything” includes Miles himself.

 

8. How to Party With an Infant by Kaui Hart Hemmings

A story of a quirky single mum who finds friendship (and love) where she least expected it. Sound familiar, Gilmore Girls fans?

When Mele Bart told her boyfriend Bobby that she was pregnant with his child, he had an announcement of his own — he’s engaged. To someone else. Two years on, Mele’s daughter Ellie is a toddler. Bobby and his fiancée want the young girl to be the flower girl at their wedding and Mele, who has also agreed to attend the wedding, knows she can’t keep obsessing about her ex and his cheese making, Napa-residing, fiancée. She needs something to do.

So she answers a questionnaire provided by the San Francisco Mommy Club in elaborate and shocking detail and decides to enter their cookbook writing contest. And even though she joined the group out of desperation, Mele has found her people: Annie, Barrett, Georgia, and Henry (a stay-at-home dad). As the wedding date approaches, Mele uses her friends’ stories to inspire recipes and find comfort.

READ NEXT: 10 Best Romance Novels of the Decade