Everything I Know About Love

Dolly Alderton's memoir opens in the suburbs of Stanmore, where she and her best friend Farly Kleiner spend their teenage years glued to American sitcoms and sneaking drinks from her parents' liquor cabinet. From there, the book follows Alderton through her twenties in London: a blur of house parties, breakups, terrible flatmates, and the kind of nights out that make for better stories the morning after.

Structured as a series of personal essays interspersed with instant-message transcripts, fictional interludes, and even a recipe or two, the memoir moves between comedy and candor. Alderton writes openly about a painful breakup that derails her relationship with food, the friendships that hold steady while romantic relationships come and go, and the awkward process of building a career as a newspaper columnist.

By the end, Alderton arrives at a broader definition of love — one built less around romantic partners and more around the women who show up for each other. It's a coming-of-age story for anyone who spent their twenties convinced they were behind schedule.