How to Be Alone by Lane Moore isn’t a self-help book or one about mental illness but I included it because I think you might find some encouragement within the pages of this book. I enjoy reading about people’s struggles and how they get through life. Especially those who are introverted like myself.



Lane Moore is a rare performer who is as impressive onstage—whether hosting her iconic show Tinder Live or being the enigmatic frontwoman of It Was Romance—as she is on the page, as both a former writer for The Onion and an award-winning sex and relationships editor for Cosmopolitan. But her story has had its obstacles, including being her own parent, living in her car as a teenager, and moving to New York City to pursue her dreams. Through it all, she looked to movies, TV, and music as the family and support systems she never had.

From spending the holidays alone to having better “stranger luck” than with those closest to her to feeling like the last hopeless romantic on earth, Lane reveals her powerful and entertaining journey in all its candor, anxiety, and ultimate acceptance—with humor always her bolstering force and greatest gift.

How to Be Alone is a must-read for anyone whose childhood still feels unresolved, who spends more time pretending to have friends online than feeling close to anyone in real life, who tries to have genuine, deep conversations in a roomful of people who would rather you not. Above all, it’s a book for anyone who desperately wants to feel less alone and a little more connected through reading her words.

I didn't know anything about Lane Moore before reading her book but if I did I wouldn't have "wished" for it. I found the swearing throughout to be offensive and perhaps this is Lane's no nonsense way of speaking her truth, but it wasn't something I liked. I thought the title of her book and message was misleading. I thought this book was going to be a survival guide for loners, but instead it was a series of chapters about Lane, ironically not being alone. There is a difference between being alone and feeling alone and this book is definitely about the latter. One can be alone in this world by not having any friends whatsoever or never having been in a romantic relationship and another person can feel alone by having all those things which was Lane's issue. I didn't feel her brutally honest stories of her life to be helpful in any way. She didn't offer any concrete advice or make me feel better about my own life. She tried linking her lonely childhood to her failed relationships as an adult but it felt like she was trying to sound like a therapist...but not a very good one. I was left feeling very confused about this book. The cover made it look like a psychology textbook and her central message was weak. She didn't explain how to be alone. It was more of a rant and nostalgic trip down memory lane about her issues around attachments in relationships. If she explained in her individual chapters about what it actually "felt like" to be alone in relationships it would have made a huge difference. Also, if she offered advice or tips at the end of each chapter on how to work with this and accept it, this book would have been successful.

In a lot of ways, I found this book to be really sad and not quite what I expected. It was well written and I think Moore has a lot to share, but it definitely was a bit of a downer. I did cry in a not-sad way when she wrote about adopting her dog though.

My feelings about this book are totally split. On the one hand, I thought the author was really insightful and she said so many things that had me nodding my head, saying, “Yes! Finally someone who gets it!” But on the other hand, there were many moments where I felt that I couldn’t relate to the author at all. In these moments, it felt that the author was saying, if you didn’t have the same experiences as her, then you couldn’t understand what it’s like to be alone. I felt that the moments of loneliness I experience were trivialized because my experience with loneliness is very different than the author’s. Don’t get me wrong, reading about someone else’s experience with being alone was incredibly interesting, but there was just something about the author’s writing that made her story feel slightly inaccessible and unrelatable.

I would recommend this book to anyone who feels alone or who doesn’t but who is interested in hearing what it’s like to be alone. I think it’s always important and beneficial to listen to other people’s stories. I was just a little disappointed in how unrelatable the book felt at times since I went into it thinking this was a book that I would really be able to latch on to.

Raw real honest Lana Moore from the opening pages describes the painful loneliness of her childhood ,her excitement at finding a friend who sadly drops her ,.Her story voice writing style will have you laughing hysterically gripped with sadness &understanding what being alone truly means.& that being alone is not always a bad thing.Higky recommend thanks#atriabooks #netgalley.

This book was such a wonderful combination of heart breaking and hopeful, which I love in a memoir. Lane does not shy away from delving into her past and her most uncomfortable feelings and moments. With her dark sense of humour, she offers insight into why she approaches love and relationships the way she does. Highly recommended.

Lane Moore has written the book I needed to exist. In some of the most raw, funny and kind writing I've ever read, Moore not only bares her life, she says the unpopular, uncomfortable truths about life today that need to be said. I rarely read books in one sitting but this was one of those experiences where it was more like meeting a fascinating, witty, honest person and just wanting the conversation to keep on going. I sobbed at the end of the book and truly consider the experience of reading it a gift. Then I clicked over to Amazon to pre-order a hard copy because I know this will go on my shelf next to "How To Be a Person in the World" and "Tiny Beautiful Things" - "How to Be Alone" is that good.