This page showcases books by authors with ME/CFS, organized by genre, available for purchase through channels outside the Chronic Market (links will take you offsite for purchase). Fill out this form to suggest a book by another author with ME/CFS not already listed below.
Anthology/Misc. Nonfiction
Quarantine Quilts: Creativity in the Midst of Chaos
Contributor: Betsy Barker
The insightful words of 97 contemporary quilt artists (including Betsy) combine with evocative photos of their quarantine creations during the COVID-19 pandemic’s first months.
Near-Life Experiences
Author: Various
Seventeen skilled and diverse writers, united by their experience of chronic post-infectious illness, offer their thoughts on everything from gaslighting and grieving to birds and baking. This is the first anthology to come from the international Pillow Writers and shows that serious disability is no obstacle to creative talent and imagination.
Anthology / Chronic Illness
Moving Mountains: Writing Nature Through Illness and Disability
Louise Kenward
The first of its kind anthology of nature writing by more than 20 authors who live with illness/disability, Moving Mountains is not about overcoming or conquering, but about living with and connecting, shifting the reader’s attention to the things easily overlooked by those who move through the world untroubled by the body that carries them.
The Remote Body
Author: Various
The Remote Body is a collective of chronically ill creatives, with two zines of creative writing themed around illness.
The National Body in Mexican Literature
Rebecca Janzen
This work is about 20th century Mexican literature, and the role of illness and disability in the way that Mexico thought of itself, and imagined a new country.
Anthology / Fiction
SoWest: Danger Awaits!
Contributing Author: Betsy Barker
This anthology of short mysteries was published by the Desert Sleuths chapter of Sisters in Crime. Betsy’s story stars a woman with ME/CFS and her policeman lover as they are caught in a robbery at the Tucson Gem show. Will they survive?
Eleven Stories
Contributing Author: Sukie Wilson
Anthology of the Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize, featuring musings on menial labour under capitalism, longing, displacement, dementia, end-of-the-world hedonism, the joys of hope, and more. Winning story by the author.
Children's
Too Tall Tilly
Melissa Beardall
Too Tall TillySpunky Matilda—Tilly for short—has had enough of her name and her height. After all, being the tallest kid in her whole entire grade means getting called names like “Too Tall Tilly.” So she comes up with a plan: change her name and become someone spectacular. Too Tall Tilly is a delightful and empowering picture book that explores identity, self-confidence, and the joy of learning to stand tall—just as you are.
Twirl with Me, Mama!
Melissa Beardall
Ivy is a sweet and spirited girl whose mama lives with a chronic illness. She often feels that her life is unfair compared to that of her best friend, Lily. But as Ivy begins to see things from a new perspective, she discovers that doing things differently is what makes each family truly special.
Wimblewick Tales
Serena Redferne
Children’s picture book series explaining mental health in a child-friendly, whimsical way, including self-regulation techniques. Cozy bedtime reading, perfect for opening the conversation of wellbeing between parents, teachers, therapists and children.
Toby and the Silver Blood Witches
Sally Doherty
The first book in the award-winning Toby Bean trilogy. A magical page-turner for age 9+, featuring a young carer whose mum has ME.
Contemporary Fiction
Starling
Sarah Jane Butler
Starling has lived for 19 years on the road with her mum – but they’re out of luck, friends and money, and then her mum walks out. How can Starling find a new way of living well with the world? Contemporary fiction.
The Choice
Claire Wade
When every bite is a crime, rebellion tastes sweet. This award-winning book is a chilling dystopian tale of a world where freedom is measured, indulgence is criminal, and rebellion means risking everything.
Health
In Good Health: Uncomplicated, Allergen-Aware Recipes for a Nourished Life
Rachel Riggs
In Good Health provides people who have dysregulated immune systems, chronic illnesses, and food sensitivities with a repertoire of easy-to-prepare, nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory cuisine that is as delicious as it is nourishing.
Lingering Pathogenic Illness: An Herbal Handbook
Michael Moran
Lingering Pathogenic Illness: An Herbal Handbook is a nonfiction clinical guide to treating complex chronic illnesses like Long COVID, ME/CFS, and similar with classical Chinese medicine.
My Chemical-Free House: The Ultimate Guide to Building and Renovating With Non-Toxic Materials
Corinne Segura
A book about choosing non-toxic materials for the chemically sensitive.
Literary Fiction
All Our Tomorrows
Author: Amy DeBellis
All Our Tomorrows follows three young women living in a near-future NYC as they circle closer and closer to the drain of nihilism, climate anxiety, isolation, and grief. The book s about finding yourself in a broken world, and the small but mighty decisions that can save you from leaking down the drain.
Earth & Earth-like Planets
Author: Devaki D. Devi
A collection of stories about Indian American kids, teens and young adults coming of age and grappling with systems like capitalism, patriarchy and model minority stereotypes. These are fairly short, literary, flash fiction stories with elements of magical realism.
A Spare Key
Line Langager
A professor finds a magical door in his attic that leads to a time travelling café. Magical realism.
The Sun Shines on You Too
Line Langager
As a couple prepares for their wedding, they meet an unexpected friend—one who will nourish a part of their soul, after a loss happens in their family. A moving story about loss, reconciliation and finding hope where you least expect it.
Memoir / Chronic Illness
Gracious Wild: A Shamanic Journey with Hawks
Stacey Couch
For those of you wondering what birds of prey have to say to us, Gracious Wild is a powerful window into their world. These winged guides wrap your mind up in the mysteries they present, leading to a richer, more fulfilling life.
The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness
Meghan O’Rourke
A revelatory investigation into the elusive category of “invisible” illness, synthesizing the personal and the universal to help all of us through this new frontier. Drawing on her own experiences as well as a decade of interviews with doctors, patients, researchers, and public health experts, O’Rourke traces the history of Western definitions of illness, and reveals how inherited ideas of cause, diagnosis, and treatment have led us to ignore a host of hard-to-understand medical conditions, ones that resist easy description or simple cures.
When Force Meets Fate: A Mission to Solve an Invisible Illness
Jamison Hill
At age twenty-two, Jamison Hill was a fitness instructor who could lift more than four hundred pounds. Five years later, after surviving a tragic car accident that killed the other driver, ME/CFS left Jamison bedridden and too weak to hold a water glass. After months of not being able to speak or eat, Jamison’s health finally improved and he began to tell his story. When Force Meets Fate is an unflinching exploration of the human condition, notably how our strengths and limitations shape our identities, and how unexpected events can inevitably alter our perceptions.
Supinely Sublimely
Marion Michell
The writing in this prose collection surges off the page giving glimpses of a life bent out of shape by ME and POTS, debilitating and little understood diseases. Her words sizzle with the suppressed energy of an adventurous spirit.
Chopsy: Resistance Tales of a Working Class Woman
Maya Jordan
A memoir about class, feminism, education, mothering, chronic illness, social exclusion and the power of rewriting the stories told about us as women
The Facts of Life
Paula Knight
The Facts of Life is a full-length comics memoir, told with humor and pathos, about not having children and the circumstances that led there. It follows the author’s childhood in the 1970s, and later her adult relationship as she embarks on trying for children.
Nature
25 Birds, One Year, One Garden
Anna K. Wood
A collection of beautiful bird photos all taken from one small Glasgow garden together with text about the birds and about the challenges of being a housebound nature photographer.
Poetry
Dormiveglia
Emma Major
Dormiveglia is a collection of 80 poems and 25 digital paintings about the reality of living with Long COVID. The author seeks to provide insight into what life is like for the thousands of people who are living a life changed so completely by Long COVID and for the many millions who live with ME/CFS, FND, Fibromyalgia and other similar illnesses who have been ignored, misunderstood and often abandoned for years.
Romance
Hold Me
Helen C. Kelly
Dawn had been feeling unwell & after various tests she was finally diagnosed with fibromyalgia. She thought she had waited too long for love because no one would want her now. A chance meeting with one boy she went to school with proved her wrong. Could she believe he could love her and her broken body?
Mindfully Yours, Ella
Melissa Reynolds
This heartfelt slow-burn romance is perfect for fans of sweet-but-steady love stories, chronic illness representation and romance where personal growth is just as powerful as the happily-ever-after.
Sci Fi
Awakened
Laura Elliott
A gothic horror sci-fi dystopia, featuring sleepless monsters, ME and other disability rep, medical ethics and an anonymous billionaire locked in a tower.
Self Help / Chronic Illness
Crafting a Path Through Illness – exploring creativity while chronically ill
Germaine Hypher
An accessible, encouraging and inspirational self-help book that unites a broad selection of creative pursuits with the subject of living well with chronic illness.
How to Do Life with a Chronic Illness
Pippa Stacey
This book is your antidote to the dull, overly-medicalized advice that often dominates the chronic illness conversation. Blooming from over a decade of lived experience, it’s your one-stop guide for reconnecting with your identity, learning to champion yourself, and finding the good stuff in life alongside managing a life-altering condition.
My Several Worlds: A Coloring Adventure for Spoonies
Carrie Kellenberger
This book is made for spoonies by a full-time spoonie who has been using art as a coping tool for chronic illness and chronic pain since 2009, offering pages of inky delight to remind you that you are strong, beautiful, and uniquely you.
Begin Within Journal
Christina Kantzavelos
This daily healing journal is designed for those living life with chronic illness, mental illness or other health-related challenges. This journal allows you to document everything from your vitals to your nutrition, mood, medications, symptoms, challenges, and accomplishments.
Spirituality/Religion
A Pocketful of Prayers for ME
Keren Dibbens-Wyatt
A book of short Christian prayers for those with ME or any energy-limiting illness.
Young Adult / Fiction
Something’s Wrong with Micah
Jamison Hill
A coming of age story about two teens with disabilities who unexpectedly fall in love.
Valkyrie: Genesis
LK Walker
A rebel group stationed in Seattle 26 years from now ask for Cara’s help to save her brother, and her country, from the unethical use of the latest advance in cellular phone technology—the Si Chip. Unsurprisingly, the dirty corporation, set to profit from the tech, is hell bent on stopping Cara from joining the revolution.