Ever since Gilmore Girls premiered in 2000, it has quickly grown a reputation for being one of the most bookish shows out there. Chances are, if you’re in the literary community, you’re either a die-hard fan or at least have seen an episode or two. Whether it’s Rory’s aspirational reading list or its cozy storybook setting that first drew you in, Gilmore Girls is full to bursting with book appreciation. But if these characters were walking into a bookstore in 2025, what books would they take off the shelf?
Lorelai Gilmore: All the Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Harman
Florence’s youth was full of glamor, parties, and dreams of making it big with the rest of her girl band. Now, she’s 31, the band is long gone, and her days are spent caring for her ten-year-old son, Dylan. Sure, it’s not exciting, but Florence will do anything for her son. So when his bully, Alfie, goes missing, and everyone starts pointing fingers at Dylan, Florence knows it’s up to her to clear his name. However, confirming Dylan’s innocence proves difficult, given that she doesn’t have any sort of practical talent, every other mom absolutely hates her, and Dylan starts acting a tad suspicious…
Lorelai Gilmore is no stranger to sideways glances. After all, getting pregnant at 16 isn’t exactly the easiest way to make friends. But through it all, Lorelai has always kept her head up with relentless determination and an inappropriate joke or two. Sarah Harman’s dark humor in All the Other Mothers Hate Me is the perfect companion to Lorelai’s wit.
Rory Gilmore: Notes to John by Joan Didion
Joan Didion was a prominent essayist, known for her sharp psychological critiques and discussions of 1960s counterculture. Published posthumously, Notes to John is a collection of journal entries written after Didion began seeing a psychiatrist in 1999. Addressed to her husband, John, this diary consists of Didion’s intimate conversations from her therapy sessions, where she dissected her childhood, her family relationships, alcoholism, depression, and many other personal issues.
Rory Gilmore has always been one to debate the merits of literature, and Notes to John would certainly be one book she couldn’t pass up. Ever since its release, this collection has garnered controversy among the literary crowd, leading to discussions on the ethics of releasing a writer’s private diary after their death. As a writer and fan of Didion’s other work, Rory would definitely pick up a copy and write a thinkpiece of her own to contribute to the debate. (Who knows, maybe Luke would even display it on the back of his menus like he did with her New Yorker piece.)
Luke Danes: It Begins with You: The 9 Hard Truths About Love That Will Change Your Life by Jillian Turecki
Host of the relationship advice podcast, Jillian on Love, Jillian Turecki compiles her strongest techniques into her debut book, It Begins with You. As Turecki knows, if you want to build lasting and sustainable relationships, you must first work on loving yourself. Her nine core truths will get you started down the path toward creating the life and love you deserve to have.
Luke Danes never thought he would be the self-help book man, but after reading the book and listening to the accompanying tape that helped him “see her face,” and finally acknowledge his feelings for Lorelai, Luke knows the good that can come from seeking advice. But anyone who’s gone down a mental health journey knows that the work is never really over. Turecki’s sixth truth, “You need to be your best self (even after the honeymoon),” is especially poignant for his life now.
Lane Kim: Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock’s Wildest Festival by Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour
The Lollapalooza music festival originally started as a touring event from 1991 to 1997, and its legacy helped bring alternative rock to prominence. Now, for the first time, Lollapalooza’s origins are being told by the people who shaped its culture. Featuring interviews from iconic bands, festival organizers, roadies, and more, authors Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour show the dramatic shift in music culture that rose from this unforgettable festival.
Lane Kim is the resident music junkie of Stars Hollow. As the drummer for local band Hep Alien and a longtime music historian, Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock’s Wildest Festival would be the perfect thing for her to read in between band practices. It might even inspire her to enter Hep Alien into the festival’s next session in Chicago!
Paris Geller: (Un)kind: How ‘Be Kind’ Entrenches Sexism by Victoria Smith
How many times have we heard the phrase, “Just Be Kind,” and wanted to roll our eyes? According to journalist Victoria Smith, our ire over this expression may be justifiable. In (Un)kind: How ‘Be Kind’ Entrenches Sexism, Smith dives into the complexities associated with this trend and the pressure kindness culture places on women and girls. Performing kindness above all else, Smith argues, only succeeds in harming feminism.
Paris Geller has never been known as a “nice” girl. Born with a short fuse and an uncontrollable need to be the best above all else, Paris has no patience for over-politeness and faux sincerity. (Un)kind is a book that would have her screaming, “See? I told you!” to everyone who ever criticized her blunt edges.
Jess Mariano: The Agonies by Ben Faulkner
Armand is suffering under the weight of life itself. As if today’s world weren’t cruel and chaotic enough, Armand is still expected to juggle work, college, and relationships, too — all while fighting his internal savage spirit. The Agonies follows Armand’s coming-of-age as he spirals closer and closer to violence.
Resident bad boy Jess Mariano, at his heart, is really a thoughtful, literary soul. Always with a trusty book in his back pocket and pencil ready for notetaking, Jess has a particular affinity for indie fiction. Ben Faulkner’s book, which has been compared to one of Jess’s favorite writers, J. D. Salinger, would be his perfect next read. Though he may have left his troubled youth behind, Jess would still find Armand’s instability and struggles relatable.
Sookie St. James: Last Minute Brunch Party: Over 100 Inspiring Dishes to Feed Family and Friends at a Moment’s Notice by Amelia Wasiliev
Who doesn’t love a good brunch? Sweet and savory flavors, caffeine, and the occasional drop of booze set this meal’s vibe apart from all others in the day. But with so many possible flavor combinations to choose from, hosting a brunch fête can be stressful! That’s where chef and food stylist Amelia Wasiliev comes in. With 100 easy-to-follow and gorgeous-looking recipes to choose from, Wasiliev will make sure your next brunch is Insta-worthy and drop-dead delicious.
Sookie St. James is the chef to end all chefs. But the pressure to draft up tasty and original menus every week for the Dragonfly Inn and its special events gets to her head more than once in the course of the show. Last Minute Brunch Party is the perfect recipe book for any cook with a tendency to panic and procrastinate. (Of course, knowing Sookie, she’ll probably end up changing half the instructions and creating something even more stunning and entirely her own.)
Logan Huntzberger: This Is for Everyone: The Unfinished Story of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee
Sir Tim Berners-Lee is the inventor of the World Wide Web, and he shocked the business world by choosing to distribute his creation without any monetary prize. In This Is for Everyone, Berners-Lee recounts his time as a young engineer, his esteemed invention, and the legacy it’s left behind. As he puts it, the goal for creating the World Wide Web was always to bring human society closer together than ever before. With the onset of artificial intelligence and the potential threat it holds for the digital world, Berners-Lee steps in to offer his insight and pledge his commitment to constructing a digital society where humanity matters above profit.
Aspiring tech mogul, Logan Huntzberger, always has his pulse on every new development in the business world. The artificial intelligence question has disrupted the entire industry, and who better to hear about its potential impact than the man who revolutionized the Internet itself? After all, Logan needs to be prepared for his next big investment meeting.
Richard Gilmore: The Lives of the Caesars by Suetonius, Translated by Tom Holland
The Caesars left their mark on Roman politics more than any other dynasty in this ancient civilization’s history. Scholar Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus first chronicled these emperors’ legacies in the second century BCE, linking each generation and tracing the connection between their complex personal lives and their foreign policies. In accomplished historian Tom Holland’s new translation of The Lives of the Caesars, Suetonius’s biographies come to life like never before.
Throughout Gilmore Girls, the studious Richard Gilmore is never far from a heavy, historical tome. (Who can forget when he read through the sixth and final volume of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire to cope with his separation? King energy.) Though Richard and his actor, Edward Herrmann, have passed on, The Lives of the Caesars still encapsulates his reading tastes. Maybe Rory would pick it up in memory of her beloved grandfather.
Emily Gilmore: Last Twilight in Paris by Pam Jenoff
In 1953 London, Louise struggles to escape from the shadow of World War II and settle into her new role as a housewife. When she discovers a necklace in a consignment store wrapped in a box belonging to a Parisian department store, Louise recognizes the jewelry and is certain that it must be connected to her friend Franny’s death. Louise follows the necklace to Paris and discovers the dark history of Lévitan, a department store formerly used as a Nazi prison. Her quest for the truth is riddled with obstacles, including the reappearance of her former boss, Ian, with whom she has a romantic past. Can Louise unravel the secrets surrounding both the necklace and Franny’s death?
As a former history student and tenured member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), Emily Gilmore, similar to her husband, Richard, is an accomplished historian. Last Twilight in Paris by Pam Jenoff would be the perfect story to accompany Emily on late nights, sitting on the porch at her Nantucket cottage. Plus, its setting is quintessential Emily; as she always says, Paris is the best city in the world.
Dean Forester: The Bovadium Fragments: Together with The Origins of Bovadium by J.R.R. Tolkien, Edited by Christopher Tolkien
The Bovadium Fragments were originally written for J.R.R. Tolkien’s own private amusement. In 1940s Oxford, Tolkien was working as a professor and growing increasingly frustrated by the hoity-toity ridiculousness of academia and the destruction that rising reliance on the automobile was causing to his beloved town. J.R.R. Tolkien’s brilliant satirical writing is resurrected by his son, Christopher, who provides occasional commentary to grant readers the proper context of his father’s life and writing during the time.
Dean Forester may not be as traditionally literary as Rory’s other boyfriends, but his love for The Lord of the Rings and all things Tolkien is a common thread in the show. Though The Bovadium Fragments is, admittedly, lacking in elves and orcs and mythical adventure, Dean would still be curious to read Tolkien’s previously unpublished work, especially if it includes a takedown of pompous high society culture.
Michel Gerard: Uptown Girl by Christie Brinkley
Christie Brinkley’s meteoric rise from small-town American girl to international supermodel captivated the public from the late ‘70s to the early ‘90s. Together with her four marriages — including her high-profile and heartbreaking split from Billy Joel — Brinkley’s legacy in the public eye has been captured in photograph after photograph, but never in print. In her new memoir, Uptown Girl, Christie Brinkley invites us into the hidden parts of her personal life, allowing us to discover the artist and woman behind the magazine cover.
Uptight, fashion-obsessed concierge Michel Gerard has always had a penchant for celebrity gossip. Between getting the latest news from Page Six and wishing for a Destiny’s Child reunion tour, Michel would definitely be curious to hear a tell-all from one of the biggest models of his youth.
Miss Patty: Heart Strings by Ivy Fairbanks
Lo Valdez is tougher than she looks, and surviving her battle with cancer taught her that life is too short to waste. When she moved from Texas to Galway for medical school, she thought she had found it all when she met Aidan O’Toole, a sexy, tattooed musician and lawyer who stole her heart almost as fast as she stole his. But when he’s given the opportunity to record an album in London, he chases his dream… and leaves Lo behind. Two years after the heartbreak, Aidan still can’t stop writing songs about the one that got away. When Lo and Aidan cross paths again during a weekend wedding in an Irish castle, Aidan has one last chance to convince Lo that their love song was meant to last.
If there’s one thing Miss Patty loves more than “that business we call show,” it’s an attractive man. And if said attractive man sings, has an accent, and engages in some ultra-spicy behavior? You already know Patty is calling Babette and sharing every sordid detail.
Jackson Belleville: Give It a Grow: Simple Projects to Nurture Food, Flowers and Wildlife in Any Outdoor Space by Martha Swales
Urban gardener and cook, Martha Swales, has spent her career teaching others how to cultivate plants and produce in any space, big or small. Her first book, Give It a Grow, is full of practical, inexpensive tips to transform your gardens, windowsills, and other outdoor areas. Separated by vegetables, fruit, herbs, flowers, and wildlife, Swales’ chapters pair colorful illustrations with inspiring gardening projects and the occasional recipe.
Produce man Jackson Belleville loves three things: his family, his friends, and his plants. Jackson is no stranger to hands-on projects, always cross-breeding produce to invent new flavors or building greenhouses to better shelter his fruits and vegetables. Give It a Grow would be the perfect inspiration for this nature-loving man, whose small-town lifestyle might leave him desperate to find new places and ways to grow his food.
Kirk Gleason: An Interview with Michael Martone by Matt Baker
In 2010, author Michael Martone began interviewing himself under the pen name Matt Baker. Published under the guise of non-fiction, Martone sent these interviews out to several literary magazines across the country. Now, in An Interview with Michael Martone, all nine interviews are finally collected together. According to him, eight of the interviews are fictional, and only one of them is truthful. Which one? Who knows…
Kirk Gleason is the elusive, bizarre, and impossible to nail down personality of the Stars Hollow crowd. In the course of the original show alone, Kirk held over 60 jobs across the small town, popping up at the grocery store, the beauty salon, the Independence Inn, and countless other establishments around the community. And who can forget his turn as a filmmaker and performance artist? (Kirk in a Box, anyone?) Needless to say, Kirk is an enigma, and the absurdism prevalent in An Interview with Michael Martone matches his own mystery to a T.
There you have it! We all know every Gilmore Girls fan has a favorite character, and now you have a designated TBR selection to go right along with them.
For more Gilmore-themed book recommendations, click here.
Find these titles and more on our 2025 New Release bookshelf on Bookshop.
