Sometimes, we come across a book that speaks to us and teaches us something about life. A book that makes us look at the world in a different way. Art has the power to change our lives, to make us do something we never had the courage to do, to make us think and introspect. Here are seven must-read books that are empowering and give you a different perspective on life, love, and family.

1. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

We always think there’s enough time to do things with other people. Time to say things to them. And then something happens and then we stand there holding on to words like ‘if’.

Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove is about a grumpy old curmudgeon. Ove is a cranky old man whom the neighbours have dubbed ‘the bitter neighbour from hell’. He doesn’t like people a lot, follows staunch principles and a strict routine, and has a short fuse. Despite his rough exterior, Ove is a kind man with a sad past. When a new, boisterous family moves in next door to him, his life changes overnight. His chatty neighbours and their daughters change Ove’s worldview. The things that used to annoy him no longer bother him anymore, the people he disliked became regular people with their own stories. A heart-warming story of love, life, death, friendship, and newfound family, this book is a must-read.

2. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

If someone asks you how you are, you are meant to say FINE. You are not meant to say that you cried yourself to sleep last night because you hadn’t spoken to another person for two consecutive days. FINE is what you say.

To say Eleanor Oliphant is socially awkward is an understatement. She has no clue how to be socially appropriate and speaks her mind without a thought. She can be rude, judgemental, strange, and unlikeable. But as the story progresses, you realise Eleanor has been dealt a bad hand by life and the way she pushes through to survive is admirable. When Eleanor meets Raymond, an IT guy from her office, and Sammy, an elderly man whom she rescues, her carefully built walls begin to crack. The three rescue each other from the life of isolation they have been living. A beautiful read that teaches you not to judge a book by its cover and tells you how the past can invariably change you. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine also touches upon mental health and why it is so important to pay attention to it.

3. The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

We should always make time for the things we like. If we don’t, we might forget how to be happy.

The House in the Cerulean Sea is like a warm hug on a chilly morning. There is a sense of purity and innocence in this book that’s rarely found elsewhere. Linus Baker is a Case Worker at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth where he oversees children in government-sanctioned orphanages. He gets an unexpected summons to travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage where six dangerous children reside – a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must put his fears aside and determine if these kids will cause the end of the world. Set in a fantastic world, the enchanting story is masterfully told. A book that shows how a home is not a place, but often a person. With each page, you’ll want to hold on a little tighter and not let go when the end comes near.

4. Loveless by Alice Oseman

She’s happy with who she is. Maybe it’s not the heteronormative dream that she grew up wishing for, but… knowing who you are and loving yourself is so much better than that, I think.

Georgia has never been in love, not even a crush or a kiss. As a fanfic obsessed romantic, she’s sure she’ll find her true love. But as she starts university with her friends Pip and Jason, she realises finding love is not so easy after all. Georgia’s quest to find love lands her in a comedy of errors and she questions why love comes easy to some, but not to her. When Georgia is exposed to terms like asexual and aromantic, she wonders if she is destined to be loveless. Loveless is a beautiful book that does representation well. Alice Oseman represents the Aro/Ace community with dignity and sensitivity. Loveless also shows how valuable friendships are and why they are as important as a romantic relationship. The book also talks about the pressure people face to fit a certain mould and the stress and anxiety caused by it.

5. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

There is a moment, a cusp, when the sum of gathered experience is worn down by the details of living. We are never so wise as when we live in this moment.

What do you do when you are faced with your own mortality? When Breath Becomes Air is Paul Kalanithi’s memoir. The young neurosurgeon received a stage IV lung cancer diagnosis at the age of thirty-six. One day, he was saving lives, and the next day, he became one of the lives to be saved. What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.

6. It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

I feel like everyone fakes who they really are, when deep down we’re all equal amounts of screwed up. Some of us are just better at hiding it than others.

TW: Domestic abuse, parental abuse, attempt to rape

It Ends with Us is a heart-wrenching story. Lily has had a difficult life. She left her old life behind when she moved to Boston. When she meets the handsome neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid, life seems too good to be true. Ryle is brilliant, assertive, stubborn but sensitive. Though he follows a no-dating rule, he soon seems to break it when he meets Lily. Just when she’s overwhelmed by her new relationship, in walks Atlas Corrigan – her first love and a link to the past she left behind. It Ends with Us is an emotional story made even more heartbreaking because it draws from the author’s real life. It teaches you that love is not the be-all and end-all. And it is important to break out of negative patterns to live a happy life. Sit with a box of tissues before you start this one.

7. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I’m under absolutely no obligation to make sense to you.

Evelyn Hugo is a Hollywood icon. Seven marriages and an eternity in the industry later, at 79, she decides to share her story. Evelyn hires a no-name reporter Monique Grant to write her tell-all memoir. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a very raw depiction of what a woman of colour has to endure to make it to the top in the entertainment industry in the late 1950s. Evelyn hides her Cuban roots, weaves a web of lies, and it is very easy to brand her as calculating and capricious. But that takes away from the struggle of a woman trying to do her best without a man by her side. The book bravely depicts the grit, determination, and courage it took for Evelyn to make her space in a male-dominated industry.

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