From stories about love to the science of climate change, here are ten books I loved–maybe you will too.
- The Forty Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi, Elif Shafak (2010). I love this gorgeously written book about the relationship between Rumi and his spiritual mentor, the whirling dervish Shams of Tabriz.
- Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro (2021). This is a fascinating book about love and emotion with the backdrop of artificial intelligence and ethical dilemmas.
- Crossroads, Jonathan Franzen (2021). From the author of The Corrections comes another novel about complex family dynamics. I think this is Franzen’s best book yet.
- Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, Katherine Boo (2012). This is a non-fiction book that reads like a fiction novel. If you’ve ever wondered what life in a slum is like or what your life choices are if you are born into extreme poverty, this is a great book for you.
- The Glucose Revolution: The Life Changing Power of Balancing Your Blood Sugar, Jessie Inchaupse (2022). The information in this book can level up your health by offering simple hacks to lower your blood sugar. The technical concepts are presented in a clear, accessible way, and the hacks seem almost too simple to be true. I’m following these principles and feeling better than ever.
- Love’s Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy: Irvin Yalom (2012). This book profiles some real-life cases from Yalom’s psychotherapy practice. I loved reading the case studies–it is like a window into therapy without going to therapy yourself.
- Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty: Patrick Radden Keefe (2021). This book will give you compassion for anyone who has struggled with the dark side of prescription drugs. The history of painkillers in the US (Oxycontin, etc.) will shock you.
- The Queen’s Gambit, Walter Tevis (2018). The book is always better than the screen version, and this is another example of that fact. If you like the Netflix show, read the book.
- Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project, Jack Mayer (2011). This remarkable true story weaves together the life of Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker during World War II who saved thousands of children from the Warsaw Ghetto, with the lives of three high school students who discovered her story over 60 years later.
- Under the Sky We Make: How to Be Human In a Warming World, Kimberly Nicholas (2021). This isn’t an easy read, but it is an important one. “It’s warming. It’s us. We’re sure. It’s bad. But we can fix it.” summarizes this book.
Looking for even more book recommendations? Visit our Amazon Store to see my top pics and the recommendations of others in our community. Happy reading!