With Spring being right around the corner, we thought it would be a great time to bring about some positive changes in our lives.
This edition of MDLR’s book club includes 6 book recommendations that can help you through the difficulties that you might be facing in life. We at MDLR hope that you can find insight in these books the same way we do.
Year of Magical Thinking – Joan Didion
Written by one of America’s most renowned writers, Joan Didion explores her journey of navigating grief. After losing her husband, and almost losing her daughter, The Year of Magical Thinking shows that grief comes in unexpectedly – like crashing waves on the shoreline. Didion dives deep into her innermost thoughts she faced whilst grieving.
We’ve spent the past few months recovering from the last couple of years, and many of you might experience some losses along the way. We recommend reading The Year of Magical Thinking as it sheds light on topics surrounding death that many are afraid to discuss yet face in their lives.
Conversations on Love – Natasha lunn
In this book, Natasha Lunn navigates the different types of love that each human experiences, which are; platonic, romantic, and familial – it is an investigation of love in all its forms. In this book, she interviewed researchers, authors, friends, and family on topics such as friendship, romance, expectations, acceptance, change, vulnerability, and many more.
Conversations on Love gives you a whole new perspective on the word “love” – it shows you love beyond romance, and love that you can already find in your life. Conversations of Love might be your newest Spring read if you are ready to take on a new and fresh viewpoint of “love”.
Ghosts: A Novel – Dolly Alderton
For those who like fiction, Ghosts by Dolly Alderton is surely for you. Ghosts tell us the story of Nina Dean, on paper, she would have everything you’d ever wanted – loving friends, a successful career, and a wonderful home, however, she still struggles to find “the one”.
Ghosts demonstrate the relatable difficulties of dating in the modern world while in your early 30s, and perhaps you can identify with Nina's difficulties. In this book, Alderton reminds us that there is hope and that you are not suffering alone.
What My Bones Know – Stephanie Foo
Stephanie Foo’s memoir describes in detail her journey battling C-PTSD (complex post-traumatic stress disorder). On the outside, everything seems to be going well for her – she is well-known in her field of work, she is working her dream job, and she is surrounded by a supportive community. Yet, she was suffering panic attacks and crying at her desk every morning behind her office door.
In a courageous narrative, Foo examines how one woman might reclaim agency from her trauma while confronting the power of the past and the mind over the body. If you ever feel stuck in the past, What My Bones Know is a great book to read because it will help you see that there are ways to move past your issues.
How To Do Nothing – Jenny Odell
It can seem impossible to escape in a world where compulsive technology is created to purchase and sell our attention, and our value is based on our 24/7 data productivity. Yet artist and critic Jenny Odell illustrate how we may still reclaim our lives in this motivating field guide to leaving the attention economy.
If you’re looking for a book that can teach you how to simply be, look no further than How To Do Nothing as it will give you the understanding that we are more than what we present to the world at work and online.
In a Dream You Saw a Way to Survive – Clementine von Radics
With the major themes of love, bereavement, mental health, and abuse as this book’s foundation, Von Radics’ anthology assesses life's most challenging and inspirational experiences. In a Dream You Saw a Way to Survive is a tribute to a vulnerability that delivers focused, thought-provoking, and earnest verse in an effort to understand and to be understood.
For fans of poetry, Von Radics’ book In A Dream You Saw A Way To Survive is a book filled with simple words that carry great resonance – written in a beautiful and lyrical way, we recommend this book in case you’re looking for beauty in the midst of pain.