As you can tell from one of my previous posts, I love books and libraries and reading for pleasure. At times, over the years as my stress levels increased, I found it difficult to read for pleasure. I could not concentrate and lose myself in a book and the world it portrayed through characters, words, and landscapes. But, during the past few years I have found myself “needing” to read especially when I was stressed; requiring a change of scenery in my mind; and comforting myself with different worlds and relationships. I find that reading for pleasure allows me to discover new things about myself, my clients, and the work we are doing together. Reading allows me to feel empathy, joy, and hope when sometimes that is difficult in my real life.
As we begin a new year, I wanted to share a list of books that my book group colleagues have enjoyed the most over the years. Perhaps, you can find time and space to pick up one or more of these books and read for pleasure – and gaining insights into your life and the lives of others.
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead: A Novel by Olga Tokarczuk
The Bone People: A Novel by Keri Hulme
The Enigma of Arrival by V. S. Naipaul
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Kim by Rudyard Kipling
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Sing, Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Reading Lolita by Azar Nafisi
Plainsong Trilogy by Kent Haruf
An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver
The Glass House by Simon Mawar
The End of Eddy by Edouard Louis
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips
White Tears by Hari Kunzru
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich