Books That Change Your Life

I believe that stories within books are not only just there to help us escape the real world, but they also change us and make us think. We can relate to the characters because most likely we’ve had similar situations or feel the same emotions as they did or even have similar personalities to them. Below are mini reviews of wonderful stories that might inspire you to make a change in your life.

Once Upon a Wardrobe  by Patti Callahan Henry is about a university student named Megs Devonshire whose major is in physics and math at Oxford. Meg’s younger brother George has cancer and isn’t expected to live long. George’s last wish is for Megs to find out where Narnia came from after reading C.S. Lewis’s The Lion The Witch & The Wardrobe. Each week Megs visits C.S. Lewis and his brother Warren and C.S. Lewis never gives Meg a straight answer on where Narnia comes from but many answers from the magical stories he’s read and his life experiences. While stories are meant to entertain, stories are also meant to transport us somewhere, some when to tell us some type of truth and to let us know while there is a lot of pain, anguish and ugly things in the world there is also beauty, joy and most importantly hope. There’s hope that at the end of the dark tunnel there is a bright light. Prepare to get some tissues because you will get emotional.

In Five Years, by Rebecca Serle is a novel about time travel and learning that while it is good to have plans, we need spontaneity too. Dannie Kohan likes to plan everything minute by minute. Dannie’s best friend Bella is definitely her polar opposite as she likes to live spontaneously. After accepting her boyfriend’s proposal and getting the job promotion she wanted, Dannie wakes up the next morning in a different apartment next to a very different man…. Dannie lives a little bit in this new future and then wakes back up in the present. This book spoke to me a lot. I like to have a plan too but I’ve learned to enjoy spontaneity. The little book also reminds us that we have limited time on earth and to use that time to make life good for us and those around us. If things don’t work out it’s not necessarily a bad thing and to be open to new things.  Five years ago, I didn’t know such a thing as blogging existed and what a blog was. I look back on my life a lot and realize a lot of things. I realized I only went to college because it was expected of me to go. I figured I would major in English, be a writer, eventually meet someone and marry and be a mother before or by the time I was 30. Obviously none of that happened. I had a boyfriend but we didn’t work out and we both wanted different things. In 2019 I felt God was calling me to blog when I watched a free online course about it and for those who follow my blogs social media accounts on Instagram and Facebook you know the rest is history. Now my blog is succeeding.  

One Italian Summer, another masterpiece by Rebecca Serle is about a grieving woman named Katy who recently lost her mother Carol. What makes the loss worse is she and her mother were supposed to go on a trip to Positano which is a magical town off of the Amalfi Coast in Italy. Katy’s marriage is also on the fritz as well. Katy takes a journey to Positano alone and surprisingly sees her mother Carol in the flesh only she’s 30 years old the same age as Katy is now. Katy meets a version of her mother who she didn’t know all the answers to life. My favorite quote from the novel is “That the same set of circumstances, beliefs, actions that get you to a moment won’t get you to what comes next. That if you want a different outcome, you have to behave differently. That you have to keep evolving.” That quote is so true because as the wise saying goes, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. The novel is more than just about grief and the beautiful Italian coast, it’s about life and taking the plunge to change our lives and how we’re supposed to grow and evolve during this journey called life.

Mika In Real Life, by Emiko Jean is about a woman named Mika who is at a low point in life being fired from her job, her relationship going up in smokes and her very traditional Japanese parents are of course not pleased. Mika’s daughter who she gave up for adoption gets in contact with her and Mika creates a new fake life to impress her daughter. This novel tackles the difficult relationship with Mika and her mother as well. The novel reminds us that mothers are not perfect but they do the best they can, at the same time it also teaches that the child needs to be their own person and not a carbon copy of what their parents expect.

The Kite Runner, by Khalad Hossenini is about two boys named Amir and Hassan who are best friends despite their different class systems and their race. Amir is a wealthy Pashtun and Hassan is a servant boy and a Hazra. Something awful happens to Hassan and Amir saw and didn’t do anything.  It eats both of them up so much Hassan and his father end up leaving and shortly after that Amir and his father flee to America. Years later  the Taliban takes over Afghanistan  Hassan is dead and Amir has to return to Afghanistan to rescue Hassan’s son, Sohrab. When Amir returns he sees a very different Afghanistan to the one he grew up in. Other than learning about a different culture, and learning some history the important lessons in this novel are about friendship and how to stand up for yourself and doing the right thing when you’re scared to death. This novel has a special place in my heart because I can relate to Amir in the sense that we were both doormats for a long time, we had people who didn’t support our goals and we had to learn to stand up for ourselves and not back down to pressure.

No Two Persons, by Erica Bauermeister is about the power of books and how their stories change and impact each of us in different ways. Alice always wanted to be a writer and her stories remain detached but then a tragedy happens that has her open up again and she writes her debut novel. Alice’s novel helps multiple people some of which are a teenager hiding the fact that she’s homeless, an artist angry at the world, a bookseller searching for love, a grieving widower and a diver pushing himself to the brink. This novel doesn’t come out till May 2^nd of this year how I was able to read it was through Netgalley and it is very much worth the read. The writing made the story come alive and I love that it’s a book about books and how they affect us in different ways and make us think and make a change. Out of all the characters I relate to Alice. Alice and I needed a little push to do what we were great at which is writing but in different ways. Alice is creating stories, I’m talking about them on a blog. Who knows maybe I will write a story that is trapped inside of me waiting to be read. Who says I can’t blog and write? 😉