Cheryl Strayed Books,
By Lisanne Swart · 4 books, ranked and in order · Memoir & Essays · Published 2006–2015 · Updated July 2026
Cheryl Strayed was twenty-six, recently divorced, and grieving her mother's death when she decided, with almost no hiking experience, to walk eleven hundred miles of the Pacific Crest Trail alone. Wild turned that decision into one of the defining memoirs of the last two decades, but her range extends well beyond it — a novel written years earlier, and the anonymous advice column that became Tiny Beautiful Things, arguably her most quietly influential work. Below, her books ranked from essential to optional and listed in publication order.
Watch
Cheryl Strayed reflects on Wild
From Oregon Art Beat (OPB): Strayed looks back on the Pacific Crest Trail hike that became Wild, and what the book set in motion.
Cheryl Strayed is an American memoirist and essayist known for candid, unsentimental writing about grief, self-invention, and hard-won wisdom. Her best-known and most acclaimed book is Wild (2012), adapted into an Oscar-nominated film starring Reese Witherspoon. In publication order, her major books are: Torch (2006), Wild (2012), Tiny Beautiful Things (2012), and Brave Enough (2015).
Quick facts
Books
Torch
Strayed's debut novel, drawing on her own mother's death from cancer, follows a family fracturing under grief in the aftermath of a parent's death, examining loss and family dysfunction with the same unsentimental honesty that would later define Wild.
Read Torch if you want the fictional treatment of grief that preceded Strayed's own memoir on the same subject. Useful context, though less essential than her later nonfiction.
Wild
At twenty-six, grieving her mother's death and recently divorced, Strayed decided to hike eleven hundred miles of the Pacific Crest Trail alone with almost no preparation. Wild traces that hike in unglamorous detail — blisters, exhaustion, fear — while using it as the occasion for genuine reckoning with grief and self-destruction.
This is the essential Strayed book and the one to start with. A #1 bestseller and Oprah's Book Club selection, later adapted into an Oscar-nominated film.
Tiny Beautiful Things
A collection of Strayed's anonymous "Dear Sugar" advice column columns, written before she revealed her identity as the author, offering genuinely wise, often startlingly personal responses to readers' questions about grief, infidelity, addiction, and hard choices.
Read this for Strayed's advice-column writing at its best — often more directly useful and quotable than Wild itself. A strong second read.
Brave Enough
A short compilation of quotations pulled from Strayed's earlier books and columns, organized as a gift-book collection of her most quoted, most shared lines about courage, love, and difficulty.
Read this as a light, quotable companion rather than a substantial new work — most useful if you already love her voice and want a compact collection of her best lines.
Where to start with Cheryl Strayed
If you have never read her → Start with Wild. It's her best-known and most acclaimed book, and the one that established the voice everything else builds on. If you want her advice-column writing → Tiny Beautiful Things. Often more quotable and directly useful than Wild, and a natural second read. If you want the full picture, including where she started → Add Torch, her earlier novel, and Brave Enough, a short quote compilation — both work well as optional follow-ups once you know her core voice. If the grief-and-adventure angle is what draws you → My best memoirs and biographies list has more in the same vein. And my books about resilience list takes the self-reinvention theme further.More from the shelf
Frequently asked questions about Cheryl Strayed's books
What order should I read Cheryl Strayed's books in?
Start with Wild, her best-known and most acclaimed memoir, then follow with Tiny Beautiful Things for her advice-column writing. Torch, her earlier novel, and Brave Enough, a short quote compilation, work well as optional follow-ups once you're familiar with her core voice.
Is Wild based on a true story?
Yes, Wild is a memoir, not fiction. It recounts Strayed's real eleven-hundred-mile solo hike along the Pacific Crest Trail at twenty-six, undertaken while grieving her mother's death and recovering from her own divorce and period of self-destructive behavior, including heroin use.
What is Tiny Beautiful Things about?
Tiny Beautiful Things collects columns from "Dear Sugar," an anonymous advice column Strayed wrote for The Rumpus before revealing her identity as the author. The columns respond to readers' real questions about grief, infidelity, addiction, and difficult choices with unusually direct, personally revealing advice rather than generic guidance.
Was Wild adapted into a movie?
Yes, Wild was adapted into a 2014 film starring Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl Strayed, which received two Academy Award nominations, including Best Actress for Witherspoon and Best Supporting Actress for Laura Dern, who played Strayed's mother.
Who is Cheryl Strayed?
Cheryl Strayed is an American memoirist, novelist, and essayist born in 1968, best known for her #1 New York Times bestselling memoir Wild (2012), which recounts her solo 1,100-mile hike along the Pacific Crest Trail. She also wrote the anonymous "Dear Sugar" advice column for The Rumpus before revealing her identity, later collected in Tiny Beautiful Things.
How many books has Cheryl Strayed written?
Cheryl Strayed has published four major books: Torch (2006), a novel; Wild (2012), her bestselling memoir; Tiny Beautiful Things (2012), a collection of her "Dear Sugar" advice columns; and Brave Enough (2015), a short compilation of quotes from her earlier work.
From the bookshelf
“The best thing I did was to allow myself to know what I truly knew.” — Cheryl Strayed, Wild
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