Feeling lonely, lost, or just want to remember what life’s about? These are some book recommendations to accompany you through and lift you out of that funk.

When you aren’t feeling your best, curling up with a book can be unexpectedly soothing, although the hard part is often deciding what to read (and if it’s even worth reading!).

I’m a sucker for fiction writing, so these aren’t your usual self-help books, but they remain capable of eliciting real feelings and inner warmth. Most of these books hold a special place in my heart and I sincerely hope that they bring you some comfort too – even if, like me, they make you cry just a tiny bit.

Here’s a book for when you…

… Feel lost.

So B. It by Sarah Weeks

The only link 12-year-old Heidi has to her past and family is through her mentally disabled mother, whose 23-word vocabulary offers no insight. When her mother suddenly says a new word, ‘soof’, Heidi’s restlessness overcomes her and she sets out to discover where her mother comes from and what ‘soof’ means.

This one’s an easy read – I read it when I was 8 and it remained my favourite book for years after. A beautiful coming-of-age story, it redefines the concepts of love and identity and illuminates the balance between being lost and feeling found. So B. It is about not fully knowing who you are or where you’ve come from, but finding solace in knowing that home is where the heart is.

… Need a reminder that love exists.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Set in the sociopolitically volatile Afghanistan from the 1960s to the early 2000s, A Thousand Splendid Suns follows the lives of Mariam and Laila, two women who share an indestructible mother-daughter bond that thrives despite war, abuse, and oppression.

Simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming, A Thousand Splendid Suns explores the nuances of love, its various manifestations, and its ability to transcend loss. Reading this as a young woman, the novel was at once a cultural experience and a deeply moving exercise in human emotion in its examination of love, freedom, and humanity.

… Feel hopeless.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

An unnamed man and his son traverse a post-apocalyptic world, in which most forms of life and human civilisation have been destroyed, replaced by ash and cannibals. As they struggle to survive, remain as the ‘good guys’, and ‘carry the fire’, The Road is a troubling and morally evocative novel that flits between hope and despair, questioning both God and the meaning of life itself.

A hymn for a lost civilisation, The Road doesn’t insist that you need to be optimistic all the time. Instead, it acknowledges the moral fallibility of humanity and its potential for redemption so we learn that meaning exists within the acts of living and loving in themselves – and that itself can inspire hope.

… Feel lonely.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

From a young age, Maya is forced to endure abandonment, abuse, and bigotry. She is sent to stay in a small Southern town with her grandmother; later, living with her mother, she is sexually assaulted by an adult man. It is only years later that she learns to find meaning in books, accept the kindness of others, and love her spirit and herself.

Maya’s narrative voice brilliantly conveys childish naïveté and her maturation into young adulthood, becoming increasingly self-assured and sophisticated. An autobiographical novel with an acute awareness of identity and prejudice, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings poignantly distills the loneliness of displacement and Angelou’s self-liberating growth out of it and into herself.

… Feel like you’re losing a sense of who you are.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Kathy, a ‘carer’, recalls her childhood at Hailsham, a boarding school in rural England where students are taught art and literature, constantly told that they are special, and governed by strange rules like prioritising their health and having minimal contact with the outside world. Over time, however, the truth behind Hailsham and the reality of their existence is soon made clear.

I won’t spoil the book, but Never Let Me Go is a slow burn that hinges on the very human dread of living a futile life and the morality that underpins human survival. It draws on the themes of childhood innocence, memory and identity, and the downfalls of knowledge to question what really defines humanity and what it is that gives life purpose.

… Want to remember what life’s about.

Mister God, This is Anna by Fynn (Sydney Hopkins)

Anna, an abused runaway, is taken in by 19-year-old Fynn and his mother. The resultant kinship shared between Anna and Fynn is filled with wonder and joy. Endlessly optimistic, she revels in life, asking and answering the most complex of questions with logic and love.

Rather than evading the dark or uncomfortable parts of living, Anna deconstructs the various facets essential to life itself to give it a richness of meaning. Mister God, This Is Anna addresses theological, existential, and philosophical questions through the paradigm of a 4-year-old so that we can appreciate what life’s really about.

… Need to remember that things get better.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Beneath Ove’s difficult, unpleasant, and old-fashioned exterior lies a story of loss and an unaddressed sadness. But when a very chatty family who’s always in need of help moves in next door, his begrudging assistance means that they unwittingly and repeatedly thwart his suicide attempts. As a result, their company ends up giving Ove’s life meaning in more ways than one.

A Man Called Ove blends the issues of grief, loss, and isolation with humour and love. Despite its frank presentation, there is no stigma surrounding Ove’s battle with depression — in its place resides an understanding of the nuances of mental health. It reminds us that things do get better, especially with the love and empathy of others.

There isn’t any straightforward way to get out of a funk. Rather than brushing your feelings aside or bottling them up, however, reading can make those very natural and human emotions more familiar – because what’s really important is facing those feelings to better understand them.

These books aren’t problem-solvers, but they explore the humanness of your experiences and remind you that you aren’t alone in how you feel. Whether you laugh or cry, it is my hope that you remember to look for the meaning in life, so that you see the worth in living and loving.

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7 books for when you…