5 Books To Read To Feel Better About Life 📚

 Serendipity: a happy accident 

2023 was the year of my "awakening". I learned the most about who I was at my core, what my strengths and weaknesses were, and what I wanted most in life. It was an emotional year to say the least, and life-changing in ways no other year in my life had been. 

Here's a list of the books I found myself drawn to at the time. Some I sought out because I was looking for books with a certain topic. Others I found at random (they were available at my library at the time, or I found them in a dusty old room in my house). For whatever reason I started reading them, I felt more comfortable with who I was and how I felt about life by the end of them. They're the kinds of books you're glad found you in time.

The Midnight Library - Matt Haig

"The only way to learn is to live." 

    

                             "If you aim to be something you are not, you will always fail. Aim to be you."

 "There is no rejection, there is only redirection."

                               "I hit rock bottom and I found something solid there."

Nora, a depressed woman who is disappointed with what she considers a failed life full of bad decisions, commits suicide. What she thought would be death waiting for her on the other side turns out to be a library. Nora meets a librarian who tells her she is in limbo, and each book Nora reads is a different life she would have had if she had made different decisions.

As I expected, Nora ends up deciding to give her old life a second chance--the one she had initially considered to be a dead-end. But the novel's ending is a good kind of "I saw that coming". The full-circle gave me a sense of comfort and safety. What-ifs can drive us crazy if we entertain them enough. "What if I'd married that person instead of this one?" "What if I'd taken that job on the other side of the world?" "What if I'd pursued that PhD after all?" Unlike Haig's novel, we won't have a library waiting for us. Just the other side. So what matters is to appreciate the life you already have, because you only ever have one.

Good Vibes, Good Life - Vex King

                                                         

"Your next step should always be the one you find most exciting."    

                      "The things you're naturally drawn towards aren't random; they're picking you out in the same way that you're pursuing them."   

"Ignore what everyone else is doing. Your life is not about everyone else; it's about you. 

    

                       "Ignoring negative emotions is like keeping poison in your system. Learn to understand everything that you feel."

Most self-help gurus have talked about the Law of Attraction, but this little book introduced me to a more compelling and additional concept backed by simple explanations of metaphysics: the Law of Vibration. In simple terms, this law states that to receive what you want in life, you must be in energetic harmony with it. We are made of atoms and energy, and so is our whole universe. Our emotions reflect our core energies as people. Some people believe they are positive people, but deep down they're repressing a lot of anger, sadness, or frustration. If we pay attention to our deep emotions, we will see the "true nature" of our vibrations and therefore what we're attracting into our life--in terms of people and experiences.

I'd found this book in my sister's dusty old shelf. I was in the mood for a small non-fiction book to read and I'm glad I picked it up. I fell in love with this book because I was experiencing a self-love awakening during that time. The old "nervous energy" me was gone, and a new one filled with positive "vibes" (literal vibrations according to King) was born. King's book spoke to me in a way no other inspirational book has. It was a perfect little book to read in my garden in the morning with a nice cup of coffee.

The Humans - Matt Haig

"Make sure, as often as possible, you are doing something you'd be happy to die doing."

                            "No one will understand you. It is not, ultimately, that important. What is important is that you understand you."

"A paradox: The things you don't need to live--books, art, cinema, wine, and so on--are the things you need to live."

                               "Knowledge is finite. Wonder is infinite."

An advanced alien lifeform takes over the body of a math professor who is onto an important discovery. The professor is gone forever, but the alien lives in his body and learns to navigate the complexity of human life--including what it means to be a better husband and an available father. 

This was a funny and beautiful novel that brought me to tears at the end of it. I'd read it over the course of three days at my local library. I had just finished a stressful year completing my Master's degree, and I'd been isolated physically, emotionally, and mentally for a long time. I still remember closing the book and sitting in silence for a few seconds, appreciating how complex and remarkable humans beings are. The soft sounds of a nearby student clacking away at his keyboard triggered a flood of tears in me that caught me by surprise. All I remember thinking was, "This is the sound of a human life. And this person has a whole other life than mine, and he is not simply a background character in my story." Long story short, this is the kind of novel that makes the mundane seem miraculous, that fills you with wonder. 

Bright Lights, Big City - Jay McInerney

"Growing up meant admitting you couldn't have everything."

                            "Tears come to your eyes, and you feel such a rush of tenderness and pity that you stop beside a lamppost and hang on for support."

"The question is, which is worse: living an illusion, or losing it?"

                            "You will have to go slowly. You will have to learn everything all over again."

This novel feels personal, because it's written in the rare second-person perspective. You're a disillusioned fiction writer stuck working in the facts department at a magazine company. You were abandoned by love of your life, are estranged from your family after losing your mother, you feel fake around your friends, and the magical air of New York City no longer feels like it could make dreams come true. 

This novel is witty, reflective, sad at times, but oddly comforting. It hugs you like a friend, and tells you that it's never too late to start over again. To find the dreams you've lost, or the self you've forgotten. Life is energy, emotion, and movement, even if you've been through a rough patch. Things will work out in the end. If that's the kind of novel you're looking for, I hope this novel comforts you like it comforted me when I myself was an aspiring writer halfway through her Bachelor's degree.

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho 

"No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn't know it."

                            "Your eyes show the strength of your soul."

                           

"The boy was beginning to understand that intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life."

                            "I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you."

If you haven't read The Alchemist yet, this is your sign to give this mystical book a try. In search of treasure, a young shepherd travels across the desert and finds life and wisdom in its very dunes and among its humble people. 

There is so much to say about this beloved classic novel, but perhaps this beautiful book can be summarized by four lines from T.S. Eliot's "Little Gidding":

"We shall not cease from exploration 

"And the end of all our exploring

"Will be to arrive where we started

"And know the place for the first time."

✨✨✨✨✨

Have you read these books before? What books would you add to this list? Let me know in the comments.

Until next time.

- Aya