Author Guide · Spiritual Self-Help
Books Written by
Iyanla Vanzant was born Rhonda Eva Harris in 1953, according to her own account in the back of a taxi in Brooklyn. By 27 she had left an abusive marriage with three young children and was living on welfare; by 1986 she had a law degree from the City University of New York, and from 1988 she worked as a public defender in Philadelphia. Her first book appeared in 1992. Six years later In the Meantime was a number one bestseller and she was a regular guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, a run that ended in a public falling-out in 1999. Her later books, written after the death of her daughter Gemmia in 2003, are about what she calls getting through what you are going through. This guide covers her 12 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 12 key books · 1992–2018 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Iyanla Vanzant has published more than a dozen books since 1992. The best known are In the Meantime (1998), a number one bestseller about love and relationships, Acts of Faith (1993), daily meditations for people of colour, and Peace from Broken Pieces (2010), her account of the years after she left Oprah’s show. Start with In the Meantime; below is every key book in order and what each one is for.
Where to Start with Iyanla Vanzant
If you want her best-known book on love
→ In the Meantime (1998) — the 1998 number one bestseller.
If you want something to read one page a day
→ Acts of Faith (1993) — 365 short meditations.
If you want her own story
→ Peace from Broken Pieces (2010) — loss, divorce and the break with Oprah.
If you want a practical programme
→ Forgiveness (2013) — a 21-day plan with journaling.
12 Iyanla Vanzant Books, in Order
Tapping the Power Within
Her first book, written from an Afrocentric perspective and drawn from her years of training in the Yoruba tradition, in which she was ordained a priestess in 1983. It covers breathing and meditation, setting up a home altar and connecting with ancestors. A revised 20th-anniversary edition, with her later commentary, was reissued under the subtitle A Path to Self-Empowerment for Women.
Acts of Faith
A meditation for every day of the year, each a short reflection on faith, self-worth and responsibility addressed to Black readers. It set the pattern for the devotionals that followed, including Until Today! and Every Day I Pray.
The Value in the Valley
Vanzant calls life’s hard stretches — a job you dislike, a painful relationship, strain in the family — “valleys”, and argues that each has a purpose and that suffering is optional. She uses her own valleys as examples of how to move through them.
Faith in the Valley
A companion to The Value in the Valley, written as a series of short lessons for women about keeping faith during difficult periods and finding peace on the other side of them.
In the Meantime
A book about the period between relationships, built on the image of love as a three-storey house: everyone starts in the basement, where self-image is formed, and has to clean each floor of old hurts and fears before moving up. It reached number one on the hardcover nonfiction bestseller list in 1998, the year she became a regular guest on Oprah’s show.
One Day My Soul Just Opened Up
A forty-day programme of daily readings and exercises toward spiritual strength and personal growth, designed to be worked through one day at a time rather than read in one go.
Yesterday, I Cried
Her most autobiographical book before Peace from Broken Pieces: she tells episodes from her own life, from losing her mother as a small child to the abusive marriage she left in 1980, and draws a lesson about living and loving from each.
Until Today!
A second book of daily devotions after Acts of Faith: a short reading for each day, aimed at spiritual growth and peace of mind, in the same format as the earlier book.
Peace from Broken Pieces
Her account of the decade after 1999: the break with Harpo Productions, the cancellation of her own talk show, the death of her daughter Gemmia from colon cancer in 2003, divorce and the foreclosure on her home. Published by SmileyBooks in November 2010, it reached number one on The New York Times bestseller list; she discussed the break with Oprah on air in 2011.
Forgiveness
A 21-day plan for forgiving parents, children, partners, colleagues, yourself and God, using journaling and Emotional Freedom Techniques (tapping). She defines forgiveness as letting go of the past rather than approving of it. A revised edition, Forgive Everyone for Everything, appeared in 2025.
Trust
Through stories of broken trust and betrayal, including her own, Vanzant argues that four kinds of trust are needed to get through life: trust in yourself, in God, in other people and in the process of life itself.
Get Over It!
What she calls “thought therapy”: 42 prayers and affirmations, with energy-clearing techniques, aimed at the negative thought patterns behind common problems. She draws on her own experience of abuse, poverty and her daughter’s cancer, and on popular accounts of neuroplasticity.
In What Order to Read Iyanla Vanzant
Her books do not depend on each other, so you can start with whichever problem you have. They fall into three kinds: daily devotionals (Acts of Faith, Until Today!), programmes with exercises (One Day My Soul Just Opened Up, Forgiveness) and longer books that mix her own story with advice (In the Meantime, Yesterday, I Cried, Peace from Broken Pieces).
Publication order does show a shift. The books of the 1990s were written mainly for Black women and draw on the Yoruba and New Thought traditions she trained in; the books after 2010, written after the losses of the 2000s and alongside Iyanla: Fix My Life, address a broader audience and lean more on practical techniques.
A reading path
1. In the Meantime (1998)
2. Acts of Faith (1993)
3. Yesterday, I Cried (1998)
4. Peace from Broken Pieces (2010)
5. Forgiveness (2013)
Everything Else Iyanla Vanzant Published
Beyond the 12 key books: 6 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Companions, devotionals and other books
6
6 books · 1997–2025
- 1997The Spirit of a Mana book addressed to men
- 1999Don’t Give It Away!a workbook for young women, with Almasi Wilcots
- 2001Living Through the Meantimea follow-up to In the Meantime on breaking old patterns
- 2001Every Day I Praya book of prayers
- 2003Up from Heresubtitled Reclaiming the Male Spirit
- 2025Forgive Everyone for Everythingrevised edition of Forgiveness
The years · 1953–2021
Quick facts about Iyanla Vanzant
- Known for
- Iyanla Vanzant is known for spiritual self-help written from her own life, for her appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1998–99, and for hosting Iyanla: Fix My Life on OWN from 2012 to 2021.
- 1953
- Born Rhonda Eva Harris in Brooklyn
- 1986
- Law degree from the City University of New York
- 1998
- In the Meantime
- 2021
- Last season of Iyanla: Fix My Life
- Born
- 13 September 1953, Brooklyn, New York, as Rhonda Eva Harris
- Education
- Medgar Evers College (BA, 1983); City University of New York School of Law (JD, 1986)
- Worked
- Public defender in Philadelphia, 1988–1992
- Name
- Took the name Iyanla on her ordination as a Yoruba priestess in 1983
- Television
- Iyanla (2001–2002), Starting Over (2004–2006), Iyanla: Fix My Life (OWN, 2012–2021)
- Founded
- Inner Visions Institute for Spiritual Development
- Honours
- Daytime Emmys for Starting Over (2005) and Iyanla: Fix My Life (2014, 2015, 2017, 2019)
The red mark is 1998: In the Meantime, her number one bestseller, published the year she became a regular on Oprah’s show.
How Iyanla Vanzant Writes: Her Own Life as the Case Study
Vanzant’s main evidence is her own life. The abusive marriage, the years on welfare, the break with Harpo and the death of her daughter are not background but the examples she works through, most fully in Yesterday, I Cried and Peace from Broken Pieces. The advice comes after the story, framed as what she learned rather than as research.
She builds books around one controlling image or structure: the valley in The Value in the Valley, the three-storey house in In the Meantime, forty days in One Day My Soul Just Opened Up, 21 days in Forgiveness, four trusts in Trust. Many are meant to be used daily, with a short reading, a statement to repeat and a journaling prompt.
Her sources are spiritual rather than clinical: the Yoruba tradition in which she was ordained, Christian New Thought, in which she is an ordained minister, and prayer. Her later books add techniques such as tapping and references to neuroplasticity. That mix has drawn criticism from some Christian ministers, and she has answered that she teaches universal principles rather than a single religion.
Frequently asked questions about Iyanla Vanzant’s books
How many books has Iyanla Vanzant written?
Her publisher, Simon & Schuster, describes her as the author of seventeen books; counting workbooks, prayer books and revised editions the number of titles is higher. Twelve are the key books on this page, from Tapping the Power Within (1992) to Get Over It! (2018); six more are listed under everything else.
What are Iyanla Vanzant’s books in order?
Tapping the Power Within (1992), Acts of Faith (1993), The Value in the Valley (1995), Faith in the Valley (1996), In the Meantime (1998), One Day My Soul Just Opened Up (1998), Yesterday, I Cried (1998), Until Today! (2000), Peace from Broken Pieces (2010), Forgiveness (2013), Trust (2015) and Get Over It! (2018).
Where should I start with Iyanla Vanzant?
In the Meantime (1998), her book about the period between relationships and the one that made her name. If you would rather read a page a day, start with Acts of Faith; if you want her own story, Peace from Broken Pieces.
What is Iyanla Vanzant’s most famous book?
In the Meantime (1998), the number one bestseller that came out in the year of her Oprah appearances. Acts of Faith (1993), her book of daily meditations, and Peace from Broken Pieces (2010), also a number one bestseller, are the other two she is best known for.
What is Peace from Broken Pieces about?
The years after she left The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1999: the cancellation of her own talk show, the death of her daughter Gemmia from colon cancer in 2003, her divorce and the loss of her home. She uses that decade to show how she got through it. It was published in November 2010 and reached number one on The New York Times bestseller list.
Why did Iyanla Vanzant and Oprah fall out?
After about twenty appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1998 and 1999 she was in line for a show of her own produced by Harpo. When other producers approached her, including Barbara Walters, she went back to Harpo and asked Harpo for a show straight away, and the relationship ended; her own talk show, Iyanla, ran for one season in 2001–2002. She has said she never spoke to Oprah directly at the time and was “out of my league”. The two discussed the split on air in 2011 and she went on to host Iyanla: Fix My Life on Oprah’s network, OWN.
What is Iyanla: Fix My Life?
Her reality series on OWN, which ran from 2012 to 2021, in which she worked with people and families in crisis. It won the Daytime Emmy for outstanding reality series in 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2019.
What does the name Iyanla mean?
She took the name Iyanla, which she translates as “great mother”, in 1983, when she was initiated as a priestess in the Yoruba tradition. She was born Rhonda Eva Harris.
Is Iyanla Vanzant still alive?
Yes. She was born on 13 September 1953 in Brooklyn, New York. She leads the Inner Visions Institute for Spiritual Development, which she founded, and in 2025 published a revised edition of Forgiveness as Forgive Everyone for Everything.
Footnotes
- Iyanla Vanzant — Wikipedia
- Iyanla Vanzant (1953– ) — BlackPast
- The ups and downs between Iyanla Vanzant and Oprah Winfrey — NPR/WUSF, 2011
- Iyanla Vanzant returns to New York City — Amsterdam News, 2011
- Iyanla’s House — The Root, 2008
- The Monitor’s Guide to Bestsellers — Christian Science Monitor, 1998
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“We all start out in the basement of life.”
— Iyanla Vanzant, In the Meantime (1998)
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