Our Top 5 Life-Affirming Books to Read This Year

New Year, New You? That phrase can put quite a lot of pressure on us at a time when we just need to be a little more patient with ourselves. Perhaps instead, if you really want to make a change, you could try: New Year, New Perspective.

And there aren’t many better ways to gain a new perspective on life than with a good old fashioned book.

A good book can stay with you beyond the last page, with stories of historical figures, fictional characters or real-life people leaving a positive influence on the way you see the world. 

With your feet up, a blanket on, and a brief escape into another world where your imagination runs wild and inspiration runs wilder. 

We’ve picked a few (five, to be precise) of our favourite books that have stayed with us that we would love to share with you, and might hopefully light the spark you’re looking for to keep motivated this New Year…

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

This book is written by the same author as the very famous Tuesdays With Morrie, and Mitch Albom has a beautiful way of addressing one of life’s most difficult topics and turning it into a story you can’t stop talking about. 

The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a story of an elderly amusement park maintenance worker who dies trying to save a young girl who gets in the way of a falling cart at his work.  Eddie goes to heaven, and one by one meets five people who – unbeknownst to Eddie – played a big part in his life. Amongst these meetings and coinciding with flashbacks to Eddie’s life, we learn about Eddie’s life whilst he learns what his purpose on earth was. 

One Minute Later by Susan Lewis

Susan Lewis’ novel is a bit of a mixture between a suspenseful thriller and a real-life story of the battle that organ transplant patients endure. But perhaps the biggest highlight of this book is a character called Jim Lynskey, who waited for four years for a heart. 

One Minute Later feeds any thrill-seeking reader’s desires for a page-turning novel, but also brings home the very poignant reality that people, like Jim Lynskey (who was a real person who sadly died at the age of 23 in 2019), had to endure whilst waiting for an organ transplant.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

First and foremost, if you’re going to sit down and read this book, be sure to keep a box of tissues next to you. This book is a heartbreaking read, but also addresses the very important issue of assisted dying.

It’s important to note that this book doesn’t focus on death, nor does it address the rightness or wrongness of euthanasia, but what it does do is highlight the importance of giving terminal patients a voice. 

P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern

You’ve probably already heard of this book, and seen the film, and it’s likely that everybody else that you know has heard of it, too. 

The beautiful thing about this book is that it normalises every side of grief; the ugly crying, the anger, the sadness, the laughter. But most importantly it shows us that no matter how raw that loss is, you can always learn to live again. It makes you feel good, it makes you feel sad, but it also reignites a zest for life, even when the beloved person that’s died is watching from afar.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

Harold Fry is a newly-retired, unhappily married man in a small Devonshire village, when one day he receives a letter from a dying woman he hasn’t seen or heard from in twenty years. That letter sparked a short walk, which turned into a six-hundred-mile journey from Devon to Berwick-upon-Tweed. 

But throughout his journey, Harold meets several people who each unlock a different part of Harold’s life that has been hidden away, and we learn how Harold’s journey – brought upon by an imminent death – ignited Harold’s love for life again.