New Year, New You: Berkleigh Wright’s Nonfiction Favorites, Habits and Book List for 2024

The SI Swimsuit rookie is an avid reader and a huge proponent of self-help literature. Here are her preferred and future reads.

Berkleigh Wright.Courtesy of Berkleigh Wright

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For Berkleigh Wright, reading isn’t a new New Year’s resolution. She picked up the pastime during the pandemic, and has stuck with it ever since.

But reading nonfiction is a newer phenomenon for the Denver Broncos cheerleader and 2024 SI Swimsuit rookie. Having found herself drawn to reading through fantastical fiction books, she didn’t initially feel the pull of nonfiction. It took a bit of adversity to pull Wright out of her fictional revelry. At that point, she realized she wanted to use reading for the purpose of learning as well as pleasure.

Nonfiction, and particularly self-help literature, are some of the means by which the 29-year-old learns about “[her]self” and “the world,” she tells SI Swimsuit in an exclusive interview. “Recently, I’ve been focusing more on [books that] I can challenge myself with or learn something new about myself [with].”

Despite having three jobs, Wright always finds a way to fit reading into her daily schedule. As such, she has a growing pile of books that she has already finished and another that she intends to read in the coming weeks and months. Between those that she has already read and loved, those that she’s planning to peruse in 2024, and her personal methods for reading and internalizing nonfiction reads, you’re sure to learn something from the bibliophile.

The self-help books Wright recommends 

Since realizing how important nonfiction books are on her personal journey, Wright has tried hard to incorporate them more frequently into her reading practice. While she has several that she could speak to and recommend, the following are undeniable favorites.

Single State of Mind by Andi Dorfman

Wright finds herself drawn to autobiographies penned by authors who she “can relate to in some way,” she explains. For her, that includes Single State of Mind by Andi Dorfman, a star of the hit TV series, The Bachelorette. 

The reality TV star “went through a similar experience” to Wright, ending her engagement, calling off a wedding and moving to a new city. “I learned a lot from her book in terms of self-love, strength and fighting through that [hardship],” she says.

The Defining Decade by Dr. Meg Jay

While walking through the aisles of a “unique” bookstore in Boston, the model came across this popular book by clinical psychologist Dr. Meg Jay. She immediately gravitated toward the read, which explores the experience of living in your twenties.

“I do think it’s a really pivotal time in your life,” she said. “That is something that this book really taught me—how to really capitalize on that time in your life.”

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

Coming across this book at her local bookstore in Denver was what Wright would call “serendipitous.” A friend had recommended the read to her, but she had yet to pick it up. So, when she saw it in her store, she knew she had to read it.

The book explores “how different religions have [similar] beliefs and how four simple things to think about each day can completely transform your life,” she says.

Her nonfiction habits

Part of her desire to curate an extensive library lies in her love of loaning out books to others. She takes pleasure in helping fellow readers find books that they enjoy, and her growing collection of fiction and nonfiction alike is an important piece of that.

But that becomes a bit more challenging with her self-help books. They’re simply “harder to loan out because I do like to make little notes in the margins or highlight certain things,” she explains.

It’s a habit that makes rereading those particular sorts of books more informative and interesting. Rereading isn’t necessarily a habit of hers, but there have been a few self-help books that she has returned to several times.

“At different times in your life, you can get something new out of those books each time you read them,” she says. “You can keep them the rest of your life and read them 10 years from now and still learn something new.”

The nonfiction reads she has in the lineup for 2024

Wright doesn’t usually go looking for self-help books. She lets friends and family recommend them and then determines what is “speaking to [her] in the moment.”

That’s exactly how she found Be the One You Need: 21 Life Lessons I Learned While Taking Care of Everyone But Me by Sophia A. Nelson. It was a gift from her dad and she knows just how much it would mean to him if she read it. It’s the first self-help book on her list for 2024.

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