Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Girls on the Verge: Debutante Dips, Drive-Bys, and Other Initiations | 1999 | Vendela Vida | Buy |
| 2 | Confidence, or the Appearance of Confidence: The Best of the Believer Music Interviews | 2014 | Vendela Vida | Buy |
| 3 | Let’s Break Some Black Hearts: A Decade of Film Interviews from The Believer | 2015 | Vendela Vida | Buy |
Vendela Vida’s non-fiction work began with Girls on the Verge (1999), a study of female initiation rituals across American cultures. The book examines everything from debutante balls to gang initiations, looking at how these rituals shape young women’s identities.
Her later non-fiction consists of two edited collections drawn from The Believer magazine: Confidence, or the Appearance of Confidence (2014), gathering music interviews, and Let’s Break Some Black Hearts (2015), collecting film interviews from a decade of the magazine’s publication.