There are some books that leave us feeling inspired, joyful, contemplative, and hopeful about the goodness and beauty of the world. Each of these books offers a unique perspective on life, and with their hopeful messages about the world’s innate beauty, they’re ideal to curl up with during troubled times.

To rekindle your love for the world, here are ten of my favourite books to remind you of the beauty of life, including beautiful books from Tove Jansson, Sy Montgomery, and Annie Dillard among other writers who cherish our natural world.

10 gentle books about the goodness and beauty of life

1. Notes from an Island by Tove Jansson

In her late forties, Tove Jansson, helped by a maverick seaman called Brunström, built a cabin on Klovharun, an almost barren outcrop of rock in the Gulf of Finland. For twenty-six summers Tove and her life partner, the graphic artist Tuulikki Pietilä, retreated to the island to live, paint and write, inspired and energised by the solitude and shifting seascapes.

Notes from an Island, published in English for the first time, is Tove Jansson’s most personal book, featuring gorgeous illustrations by Tuulikki. It’s both a memoir and homage to the island the two women loved intensely and relinquished only when pressed by age, bringing together the meditative beauty of two artists’ work: Tove’s sparse prose, and Tuulikki’s subtle washes and aquatints.

2. Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart by Dr James Doty

Into the Magic Shop is neurosurgeon Dr James Doty’s beautiful testament to the mysterious connections between the human heart and mind. It’s one of my favourite books on approaching life mindfully with a kind, open heart.

“There are a lot of things in life we can’t control. It’s hard, especially when you’re a child, to feel like you have control over anything. Like you can change anything. But you can control your body and you can control your mind. That might not sound like a lot, but it’s very powerful. It can change everything.”

3. The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama

In this graceful novel that will remind you of the beauty and goodness of life, a 20-year-old Chinese painter, Stephen, is sent to his family’s summer home in a Japanese coastal village to recover from a bout of tuberculosis. Here he is cared for by Matsu, a reticent housekeeper, master gardener, and samurai of the soul; above all, a man devoted to doing good and finding beauty in a cruel world.

Over the course of a year, Matsu helps him not just to recover his physical strength, but also to realise profound spiritual insights.

4. How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals by Sy Montgomery

This beautiful memoir of a life well-lived with animals is a wonderful reminder of the kindness, generosity, and love that are innate parts of you, just like the other creatures that accompany us through life. It’s also one of my favourite beautifully illustrated books.

“Thousands of billions of mothers—from the gelatinous ancestors of Octavia, to my own mother—have taught their kind to love, and to know that love is the highest and best use of a life. Love alone matters, and makes its object worthy. And love is a living thing, even if Octavia’s eggs were not.”

5. Water, Wood & Wild Things: Learning Craft and Cultivation in a Japanese Mountain Town by Hannah Kirshner

I came across this beautifully soothing and inspiring book in my local library recently and fell in love with it. Water, Wood & Wild Things is artist and food writer Hannah Kirshner’s journey through the culture and cuisine of Yamanaka, a misty Japanese mountain town with evergreen forests, local water, and smoke-filled artisan workshops.

Part travelogue, part meditation on the meaning of work, it’s a book about slowing down time, appreciating the joy of rituals, and finding purpose in cultivation, craft, and traditions.

From making a fine bowl to harvesting rice, this tender book is a celebration of the simple beauty of life, accompanied by Hannah’s gorgeous drawings and recipes inspired by her time in Japan.

6. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

What better book to help you marvel at the world’s beauty and goodness than Braiding Sweetgrass? This is a true love letter to the land, combining indigenous wisdom, science’s findings on the mysteries of nature, and the teachings of plants through truly beautiful writing.

Admiring the natural world is our first step to protecting it, even in the smaller ways accessible to us via our day-to-day choices about how to live our own lives, alongside the miniature ecosystems we create in our window boxes, balconies, and gardens.

“How do I show my girls I love them on a morning in June? I pick them wild strawberries. On a February afternoon we build snowmen and then sit by the fire. In March we make maple syrup. We pick violets in May and go swimming in July. On an August night we lay out blankets and watch meteor showers. In November, that great teacher the woodpile comes into our lives. That’s just the beginning. How do we show our children our love? Each in our own way by a shower of gifts and a heavy rain of lessons.”

7. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

For a beautifully slow, thoughtful, and meditative description of the natural world, read Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. This is the memoir of a dramatic year in Virginia’s Roanoke Valley, accompanied by muskrats in the creek and fields full of grasshoppers, in which Annie Dillard set out to chronicle “beauty tangled in a rapture with violence.”

8. The Gift of the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

In this beloved and lyrical classic, Anne Morrow Lindbergh gracefully weaves her meditations on youth and age, love and marriage, and solitude and contentment as she settles into a vacation by the sea.

Drawing inspiration from the shells on the shore, the mother of five, acclaimed writer, and pioneering aviator casts an unsentimental eye on the trappings of modernity that threaten to overwhelm us, offering a reminder of the bliss to be found in carving out space for contemplation and creativity within our own lives.

9. Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

Prodigal Summer is probably my all-time favourite book, weaving together the stories of interconnected characters as they witness and experience new life blooming by the mountains during a single summer. It’s a book to restore your faith in the goodness and beauty of the world, grounded in nature’s power for regeneration and human kindness after loss.

10. The Solitary Summer by Elizabeth von Arnim

If you’re feeling burnt out and need a retreat from the world, Elizabeth von Arnim is an excellent starting point. She’s best known for The Enchanted April, which is another fantastic choice, but I’d also recommend The Solitary Summer.

The protagonist of this little book intends to spend a summer wholly alone to rediscover the joy of life. She isn’t wholly successful in remaining alone, but her effort is valiant, and we can share her enjoyment of magnificent larkspurs and nasturtiums, cooling forest walks, and the refuge of her beloved plants and books.

“Everybody must love something, and I know of no objects of love that give such substantial and unfailing returns as books and a garden.”

For more soothing books, you might like my collection of the most beautiful books to treasure, the most beautifully written books of all time, and the most relaxing books to calm your mind and soothe your soul.

The post 10 soothing books to remind you of the beauty of life appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

“There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot.”

Over on Live Wildly, I recently shared my selection of the most beautiful books for nature lovers. However, in that post I made myself stick to non-fiction. There were just so many books I wanted to share. This post is my follow-up, offering an excuse to share my favourite fiction set in nature to help you dream of life in the wild.

Living off-the-grid, foraging, self-sufficiency, following the stars, identifying trees… if you love reading about wild nature in novels (yep, I do, a lot), I’m hoping you’ll find a few new five-star books from my recommendations below. Many of these books are about strong and introspective female main characters and explore grounding themes of nature, simple living, and beauty.

If you’re a fan of books like The Overstory, Where the Crawdads Sing, and The Great Alone, read on for some more of the best fiction books set in nature.

The best fiction set in wild nature

1. To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey

I first thought of adding the author’s bestselling novel The Snow Child to this list, but settled on another of Eowyn Ivey’s books, To the Bright Edge of the World.

It’s an immersive tale of adventure, love, and survival that transports us back to Alaska in the winter of 1885. War hero Colonel Allen Forrester leads a small band of men on an expedition that has been deemed impossible: to venture up the Wolverine River into the vast, untamed Alaska Territory.

Left on her own at Vancouver Barracks, Allen’s newly pregnant wife, Sofie, yearns to travel alongside her husband. Unaware of how much strength and courage the winter will require from her, Sophie – like Allen – is about to uncover truths that will change her life forever. These truths will also change the lives of those who hear their stories long after they’re gone.

2. The Bear by Andrew Krivak

The Bear is a magical, peaceful yet painful book about the last two people left on earth: a father and daughter.

The father teaches the girl everything she needs to know to live close to nature – to hunt, finish, build shelter, forage, and find her way by the stars. But when she’s left to find her way back home alone, everything she’s learned is put to the test. Luckily, she’s guided by an unexpected companion: a bear who teaches her there are lessons all around, if only she’d stop to listen.

If you enjoy reading The Bear, you might also like The Wall by Marlen Haushofer, which has a similar plot (scroll down to the end of this list to read my thoughts).

“The forest was a world of silence. Deep snow had buried all that was in it but the trees, and it looked to her like the world outside her father’s house in seasons when the snow fell there, too, for days at a time and they waited for storms to stop, then built up their own fire, put on snowshoes made of wood and skins, and stepped outside.”

The Bear

3. Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

Even before I’d finished reading it, I knew Prodigal Summer had become one of my all-time favourite books. It’s one of the best novels set in nature – and one of the best books about women with a deep knowledge of the natural world, be it identifying trees or mosses, discussing the importance of apex predators, or explaining what safe forestry looks like.

“Nannie had asked her once in a letter how she could live up here alone with all the quiet, and that was Deanna’s answer: when human conversation stopped, the world was anything but quiet. She lived with wood thrushes for company.”

Prodigal Summer

4. The Overstory by Richard Powers

A paean to the natural world, Richard Powers weaves together interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. The Overstory is a gateway into the vast, interconnected, and magnificently intricate world that we depend on in so many ways: the world of trees.

“You and the tree in your backyard come from a common ancestor. A billion and a half years ago, the two of you parted ways. But even now, after an immense journey in separate directions, that tree and you still share a quarter of your genes…”

The Overstory

5. Greenwood by Michael Christie

If you enjoyed reading The Overstory (and are desperate to read more books about trees), try reading Greenwood next. This is Michael Christie’s magnificent generational saga that charts a family’s rise and fall and its secrets and inherited crimes, accompanied all the while by one steady presence: trees.

“Maybe trees do have souls. Which makes wood a kind of flesh. And perhaps instruments of wooden construction sound so pleasing to our ears for this reason: the choral shimmer of a guitar; the heartbeat thump of drums; the mournful wail of violins–we love them because they sound like us.”

Greenwood

6. Circe by Madeline Miller

This is Madeline Miller’s stunning retelling of the Greek myth of Circe, daughter of the sun god Helios. After disobeying the gods, Circe is banished to the island of Aiaia to live alone in the middle of nowhere, close to the woods and surrounded by nature. Here, it turns out, she will develop more strength than anyone could’ve imagined.

“I learned to plait my hair back, so it would not catch on every twig, and how to tie my skirts at the knee to keep the burrs off. I learned to recognise the different blooming vines and gaudy roses, to spot the shining dragonflies and coiling snakes. I climbed the peaks where the cypresses speared black into the sky, then clambered down to the orchards and vineyards where purple grapes grew thick as coral.”

Circe

7. Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson

“To enter Damnation Spring, the debut novel by Ash Davidson, is to encounter all the wonder and terror of a great forest,” writes Ron Charles for The Washington Post.

When Colleen Gundersen, a mother and amateur midwife in redwood country, notices an increase in local miscarriages, she believes it’s caused by the pesticides used by the Sanderson Timber Company. The trouble is that this is the employer of her neighbours and her family. That includes her tree-topper husband, Rich, who leaves the house each morning to do a job that both his father and grandfather died doing.

Damnation Spring is a compassionate story of a family whose bonds are tested, but also a community clinging to a vanishing way of life in a Pacific Northwest logging town.

8. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

One of the most popular books in the girl in wild nature genre from the last few years (especially with the upcoming film adaptation and Delia Owens being wanted for questioning in a murder), Where the Crawdads Sing is the story of quiet and sensitive Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl.

Kya knows more about the marsh she calls home than anyone else in her North Carolina coastal town, having spent her life finding lessons in the sand and watching the gulls. But when Kya becomes the main suspect in an awful crime, it’s hard to believe the town will ever be on her side. If you enjoy it, here are 9 other books like Where the Crawdads Sing.

Reddit user BigFatBlackCat writes about the book: “This isn’t ground breaking writing, but the author does an incredible job of putting you right into the marsh. I recommend this book for any nature lovers that just want to get wrapped up in a story where nature is its own character.”

“Most of what she knew, she’d learned from the wild. Nature had nurtured, tutored, and protected her when no one else would.”

Where the Crawdads Sing

9. The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

The Great Alone is the bestselling story of a city girl who’s forced to learn about the land and fend for herself when her abusive father moves the family to Alaska. She’s surprised to find not only a place where she can thrive in the wild, but also a person she’d like to share that home with.

“Winter tightened its grip on Alaska. The vastness of the landscape dwindled down to the confines of their cabin. The sun rose at quarter past ten in the morning and set only fifteen minutes after the end of the school day. Less than six hours of light a day. Snow fell endlessly, blanketed everything. It piled up in drifts and spun its lace across windowpanes, leaving them nothing to see except themselves.”

10. The Wall by Marlen Haushofer

In a Reddit thread about grounding books with a female lead that focus on nature, simple living, and beautiful landscapes, user chookity_pokpok shares: “The Wall by Marlen Haushofer is exactly what you’re looking for. A woman surviving off the land in the Austrian Alps on her own. It’s beautiful.”

First published in 1963, The Wall narrates a moving story of an ordinary middle-aged woman who wakes one morning to find that everyone else has vanished. Believing this to be the result of a military experiment gone wrong, she begins the terrifying work of survival and self-renewal in nature.

The post 10 of the best novels set in nature to escape into the wild appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

“The picture of everything that people consider to be their happiness and greatness, their sorrow and their humiliation, is complete. That is what War and Peace is.”

It’s no secret that I love War and Peace. I’ve shared the reasons why before, but as a recap: it’s taught me more about life than any other book, it’s beautifully written, and has helped me through anxiety and trauma. A lot of that comes down to the translation I’ve read.

There are four good translations of War and Peace to consider, and there’s no right answer as to which one is best. They’re all good choices. But each translation is different, and your choice influences how easy and enjoyable it is for you to read.

What’s the best translation of War and Peace?

The short answer: it depends whether you want a War and Peace that’s easier to read or a translation that’s more faithful to the original.

The summary:

• For a free version of War and Peace, choose the Maude translation (Project Gutenberg).
• For a Tolstoy-approved War and Peace, choose the Maude translation (Oxford World’s Classics).
• For a bestselling translation in American English, choose Pevear and Volokhonsky (Vintage Classics).
• For an updated War and Peace that reads smoothly in British English, choose the Briggs translation (Penguin Clothbound Classics).

My favourite is the Anthony Briggs: it’s the first translation I read and the one I fell in love with.

Read on for the long answer, comparing four of the best translations of War and Peace and sharing some translation samples to help you decide.

“If life could write, it would write like Tolstoy.”

Isaac Babel

Comparing the best translations of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

1. Constance Garnett translation – the original translation, but can be difficult to read

Garnett’s translation of War and Peace is in the public domain (archive.org), or via Dover Thrift as a paperback. I don’t think it’s necessarily the translation you should read – it’s neither easy-to-read nor precise – but it does have an interesting backstory.

Garnett was largely a self-taught translator and lacked a lot of the dictionaries and resources that would have made translation easier. But she also had the hurdle of losing her eyesight while working on War and Peace. She hired a secretary who would read the Russian text to her aloud, and she would dictate back the English translation.

Garnett published her translation in 1904, working on it while Tolstoy was still alive, and she once travelled to Russia to meet Tolstoy at home.

The translation received a good welcome, including by a young Hemingway, who recalls telling a friend that he could never get through War and Peace—not “until I got the Constance Garnett translation.” However, that was before new translations of War and Peace entered the scene…

2. Aylmer and Louise Maude translation – the Tolstoy-approved version, now in the public domain

3. Anthony Briggs translation – the modern, Britishised version of War and Peace

For me, the best translation of War and Peace will always be the Anthony Briggs translation. This is Penguin’s chosen translation, which they switched to from Rosemary Edmonds’s version.

Much of this is down to personal preference. The Briggs translation is written in British English, including a good deal of slang (which doesn’t bother me too much, but might infuriate others). As with the other translations on this list, it’s a good idea to sit down with a few different editions and choose your favourite.

I’ve compared the Briggs translation to the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation before, but the summary from my own reading is that:

• The Briggs translation is less clumsy than the P&V translation
• Whether less faithful to the original or not, I simply enjoy reading the Briggs more
• The Briggs translation is more beautiful to read
• The Briggs version is a great translation for a first-time reader of War and Peace

If you choose to get a copy of the Anthony Briggs translation of War and Peace, Penguin offers a beautiful clothbound edition which I love. You can also choose a Penguin paperback edition.

My older and battered edition of War and Peace is Penguin’s earlier paperback, with a portrait of a Russian princess on the front cover. It’s served me well and I’ll always hang on to it for sentimental reasons… but it’s also now falling apart. I’m fine with having multiple editions and translations of War and Peace on my bookshelves.

4. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translation – the bestselling but clunky (and arguably overhyped) version

The Pevear and Volokhonsky translation is by far the most marketed translation of War and Peace, especially in the United States (where the husband-and-wife translator duo benefitted from the Oprah effect). The most popular edition of their translation has this beautiful cover:

The Pevear and Volokhonsky translation is a common choice to pick up in bookshops and it is serviceable. But I struggle reading it, and I feel it loses the magic of other translations, like Anthony Briggs’s. Try a sample and see how you get on, but don’t be afraid of switching to other translations if you struggle.

Sample text from each War and Peace translation

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With any of the translations on this list, read the first chapter to see how you get on with the writing style before purchasing. If you don’t get on well with it, don’t be discouraged. There might still be a time for you to love Tolstoy yet – you just need to find the right translation.

To help you read War and Peace, you can also check my guide to getting started with the book (and actually finishing it). You might also like my comparison of the best translations of Anna Karenina.

The post What’s the best translation of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy? appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.

Sometimes life is clear – you know exactly where you’re heading and which path you’re on. But often it’s not that simple.

You might run into a feeling of not being where you want to be in your career, finding yourself frozen in one place, or realising you’ve got stuck in a rut.

During these times, you can even lose sight of the one thing you thought you knew: yourself. And with that, what you used to enjoy and aspire for.

But, as always, everything you’re feeling can usually be found in a book somewhere too. Here are some of my favourite book recommendations for when you’re feeling lost and unsure of where to go next.

Including both fiction and non-fiction, these are some of the books that helped me most when I felt lost, especially when I quit my job, started a business, moved countries, and navigated bouts of depression.

10 books to read when you’re feeling lost in life

1. A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (Monk & Robot 2) by Becky Chambers

“Tender and healing… I’m prescribing a preorder to anyone who has ever felt lost. Stunning, kind, necessary,” writes author Sarah Gailey about this now-published feel-good book from the author at the forefront of hopeful science fiction.

A Prayer for the Crown Shy is the second book in Becky Chambers’ Monk & Robot series, weaving an intriguing world about the robots of Panga who long ago laid down their tools and disappeared into the wilderness after they gained self-awareness. But one day, a robot startles a tea monk with a question that no one can seem to answer: “what do people need?”

To start at the beginning of the Monk & Robot series, first pick up a copy of the equally uplifting A Psalm for the Wild-Built. Here’s my review.

2. Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

I read Great Circle right at the end of 2021 and was blown away by it. I’ve been at a fork in the road with my work, trying to steer further in the direction of my creative projects and away from the last of the consulting work I’m doing. I’ve been gradually pivoting towards this position in the last few years, but lately I’ve felt an urge to jump and figure it out afterwards.

If there’s a version of me who knows exactly what they want and has the guts to jump at it, she’d be like Marion in Great Circle. I loved this description of her:

“She couldn’t fathom that others did not see her for what she would become, that she did not wear the fact of her future like some eye-catching garment. Her belief that she would fly saturated her world, presented an appearance of absolute truth.”

It’s not just Marion grappling with who she wants to be in this novel. Her brother says to their uncle: “You’re supposed to be a painter,” to which he responds “I’ve lost the ability”. Her brother’s retort: “No, […] you just need to go out into the mountains like you used to.”

This book poses that powerful question in a multitude of ways: what do you need to do like you used to?

3. The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven by Nathaniel Ian Miller

The Arctic is one of my top happy places, and so as soon as I heard about this book I knew I had to read it. It’s the story of Sven, a man who leaves a restless life in Stockholm for a solitary life in the Arctic Circle, where he’s saved by good friends, a loyal dog, and a surprise visit that changes everything.

At one point early on in the book, Sven laments:

“Since childhood I had envied those who knew with certainty what course they wished their lives to take. I did not know. I have never known.”

Here’s the advice he receives, which I noted down and have returned to a few times since reading:

“For now, take stock of yourself. This is the chance you waxed about so long ago. Listen for the voice that speaks when all others go silent. Be alone—be entirely alone. I am not saying you will find anything of worth there—certainly no cosmic truth—but maybe you will begin to feel as pared down, efficient and clean as a freshly whittled stick.”

4. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

I shared many years ago about how War and Peace is a fantastic book to read when you’re stuck in a rut. Here’s one section I still love:

“‘It seems odd,’ said Pierre, ‘that you, you consider yourself a failure and your life ruined. You’ve got your whole life in front of you, everything. And you…’

He did not say what about you, but his tone showed how much he admired his friend, and how much he was expecting from him in the future.”

If you’d like to give War and Peace a try, here’s my guide to reading it for the first time. I’ve also shared my comparison of the best translations, with this clothbound Penguin classic translated by Anthony Briggs as my top choice.

5. Timeless Simplicity: Creative Living in a Consumer Society by John Lane

If there’s something you know you want to be doing but you don’t yet have the guts to do so, Timeless Simplicity has some unexpected snippets of wisdom. On the surface it’s a guide to pursuing more simplicity in your life, but beneath that there’s plenty of heartfelt advice on making your life your own.

“And if you don’t make the break now, when will you do so? Change is difficult, but it can be made, and has been by millions before you — millions who have found a way to live the kind of life they want to live, and work the kind of way they want to work.”

6. Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Maybe in Another Life is one of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s lesser-known novels, unlike her bestselling sensations The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & the Six. But it’s perhaps her best book to read when you’re feeling lost in life, just like the twenty-nine-year-old protagonist, Hannah Martin.

After a failed relationship and with no job or house to anchor her, she moves back to Los Angeles, where she once again finds herself at a crossroads. After bumping into an old flame, we see in alternating chapters two possible scenarios unfold—with very different results.

“You don’t need to find the perfect thing all the time. Just find one that works, and go with it.”

7. Keep It Moving: Lessons for the Rest of Your Life by Twyla Tharp

I’ve loved Twyla Tharp’s writing (and pretty much everything about her, really) since I first read The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it For Life at least a decade ago. This is her fourth book, in which she shares her wisdom on how to keep moving as you age.

Aged seventy-seven when this book was published, Twyla Tharp is revered not only for the dances she makes as one of the world’s leading choreographers, but also for her astounding routines and vitality. She still hails a taxi at daybreak, hits the gym, and uses that energy to propel her through her commitments. This book answers how.

In Twyla’s own words: “This book is a collection of what I’ve learned in the past fifty-five years: from the moment I committed to a life in dance up until today…it identifies a ‘disease’ and offers a cure. That disease, simply put, is our fear of time’s passing and the resulting aging process. The remedy? This book in your hands.”

“Your objective is to free yourself to be whatever and whoever you need to be right now.”

8. The Sun is a Compass by Caroline Van Hemert

A glaringly obvious addition to this list would be Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found by Cheryl Strayed. And yes, it is a wonderfully relevant book to read when you’re feeling lost and directionless. But I wanted to share something further off the beaten track, as it were – in this case, deep into Alaska.

The Sun is a Compass is Caroline Van Hemert’s memoir of the 4000-mile, human-powered journey she undertook with her partner, Pat, when she was unsure whether to stay in academia or pursue other callings. It’s a stunning book that I’ve mentioned a lot before – here and on Live Wildly – but it’s been one of the rare books to really speak to where I am and hoping to go next.

“I tried to explain that escapism wasn’t our goal—neither of us was running from a broken marriage or drug addiction or academic failure. We weren’t trying to set a record or achieve a first. We were simply trying to find our way home.”

10. Your Life in Bloom: Musings on Finding Your Path & Your Courage, Grounded in the Wisdom of Nature by Lucy Fuggle

This is the book I wrote when struggling with depression during Covid-19. I had also found myself at a fork in the road with my work. It’s a short collection of musings on finding your courage, working out where you want to go in life, and taking a bold step forwards.

“There’s never one right path. There are thousands of versions of your life in which you have the most fantastic time. You can never choose all of them. But you can realise when you’re feeling stuck and take a small step in a different direction. Even when you have no idea where you’re going, you can follow your curiosity, just to see where it takes you. You don’t need a calling or grand mission. It’s more than enough to make your life a gentle pursuit of love, joy, and curiosity…”

Other honourable mentions:

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig – The darling book of the quarantine era, this is Matt Haig’s imagining of the countless different directions a life can take.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh – A novel about one young woman’s efforts to duck the ills of the world by embarking on an extended hibernation with the help of one of the worst psychiatrists in the annals of literature – and a mind-bending combination of drugs.

Into the Magic Shop: A neurosurgeon’s true story of the life-changing magic of mindfulness and compassion by James Doty – A stunning exploration of the ways we can transform our minds when we pay more attention to our thoughts.

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney – If you want to read about rather aimless characters figuring out their way, Sally Rooney’s writing is the perfect place to start.

I Found My Tribe by Ruth Fitzmaurice – A celebration of the delights of wild swimming and the community you can gain alongside it, focused here on an Irish town in Co. Wicklow.

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman – One of my favourite books of 2021, this is a fantastic reminder to reassess the real meaning of time management and spend our time on what really matters to us.

The post Books to read when you’re feeling lost and directionless in life appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

Carving out regular reading time with a good book (even if you have to force yourself to sit still) can be one of the best ways to help you rebalance and get back on track when you’re stressed out.

Note to self-improvement junkies: business books and most personal development books aren’t calming. I love these books, but I know they’ll make me want to start a new project and feel bad about sitting doing nothing. They don’t help me to wind down before bed and sleep soundly, so I save them for my morning reading time and other breaks during the day.

When we need to chill out, especially before bed, we can turn to calming books that slow our heart rate, reduce anxiety, and help us to check in with ourselves.

The selection below is a mix of relaxing fiction, memoirs, non-fiction, and poetry. I hope you can calm your mind and unwind with these peaceful books too.

12 of the best calming books to help you relax when you’re stressed

1. The Bear by Andrew Krivak

I’m reading The Bear at the moment and want to recommend it to everyone (including my husband, who I’ve been reading sections to aloud at every opportunity). It’s a gorgeous book set in an Edenic future of calm streams, towering forests, and windflower-covered mountainsides that offers a wonderfully poetic tribute to nature’s dominion.

This relaxing fiction book is about the two last inhabitants on Earth, a girl and her father living in the shadow of a lone mountain. The father is preparing his daughter for adulthood close to nature, teaching her how to fish and hunt, the secrets of the seasons, and how to read stars. But when the girl finds herself alone in an unknown landscape, it is a bear that will lead her back home through the vast wilderness. His greatest message to her is that there are lessons all around, if only she can learn to listen.

“One morning, they found a patch of goldenrod in a meadow, blooming like the sun, and the bear stopped and watched as bees drifted from flower to flower, then flew off with their lading of pollen. Each one he followed with his snout and stared in the distance after them, as if content with observing their labor alone, until he said to the girl, This way.”

The Bear

2. The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down: How to Be Calm and Mindful in a Fast-Paced World by Haemin Sunim

In this relaxing book that you’ll want to return to again and again, Haemin Sunim, a Buddhist meditation teacher born in Korea and educated in the US, shares his advice for wellbeing, mindfulness and joy in eight areas, including love, friendship, work, and spirituality.

The book is beautiful, and not just for its writing: it contains over thirty full-page colourful and calming illustrations to help you slow down. To best enjoy these, get the little hardback edition if you can.

“What our mind focuses on becomes our world. Seen this way, the mind does not seem so insignificant in relation to the world out there, does it?”

The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down

3. Consolations of the Forest: Alone in a Cabin on the Siberian Taiga by Sylvain Tesson

Walden is easily on my shortlist of calming books to help me relax. But what about other books that talk about escaping into the woods and leaving society for a while? My top vote is Consolations of the Forest by Sylvain Tesson, “a meditation on escaping the chaos of modern life and rediscovering the luxury of solitude”.

Sylvain Tesson takes it to the extreme by exiling himself to a wooden cabin on Siberia’s Lake Baikal. He lives a full day’s hike from any neighbour, with his thoughts, his books, a couple of dogs, and many bottles of vodka for company.

Writing from February to July, Sylvain Tesson celebrates the ultimate freedom of owning your own time, recording his impressions, struggles, and joy in the face of silence.

“As long as there is a cabin deep in the woods, nothing is completely lost.“

Consolations of the Forest

4. Collected Poems by William Wordsworth

When you’re feeling stressed, take a step into the world of the English Romantics. Join them in marvelling at the powerful natural world and take a big deep breath. Alongside W. B. Yeats and Edward Thomas, Wordsworth will always be one of my go-to poets; I find so much magic in his writing.

I’ve also memorised a few of his poems to mull over on train journeys, while hiking in beautiful places, or when I need some time out – I think there are far worse ways I could use up my mental space.

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety

William Wordsworth

5. How to Love by Thich Nhat Hanh

Thich Nhat Hanh has a selection of these “Mindfulness Essentials” books – including How to Relax, How to Focus, and How to Fight – and I think they’re perfect for relaxing reading when you’re stressed.

How to Relax would have been a more obvious choice to include in this list, but How to Love has got to be my favourite (read more of my thoughts here). I think Thich Nhat Hanh’s writing will always be calming, and I especially enjoy it when he’s talking about our connections with others.

“Our true home is inside, but it’s also in our loved ones around us. When you’re in a loving relationship, you and the other person can be a true home for each other. In Vietnamese, the nickname for a person’s life partner is ‘my home.'”

How to Love

6. A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver

The podcast On Being with Krista Tippett has a lovely episode with poet Mary Oliver called “Listening to the World”. I would recommend giving it a listen and then diving into the universe of Oliver’s poems – her work is some of of the most perceptive and gently wise writing on the natural world and our place within it.

In any case, try to get a copy of one of Mary Oliver’s anthologies and head outside, find a lovely spot to sit, and take in her peaceful words surrounded by fresh air and with the sun on your face.

I Go Down To The Shore
I go down to the shore in the morning
and depending on the hour the waves
are rolling in or moving out,
and I say, oh, I am miserable,
what shall—
what should I do? And the sea says
in its lovely voice:
Excuse me, I have work to do.

Mary Oliver

7. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers 1) by Becky Chambers

Becky Chambers is writing some of the best feel-good books today, both in her new Monk & Robot series and in this earlier Wayfarers series.

Commenting on the first book of the series, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Reddit user Synney writes: “I can’t recommend this enough. It leaves you feeling incredibly warm and wholesome and like everything will be ok”.

“Humans’ preoccupation with ‘being happy’ was something he had never been able to figure out. No sapient could sustain happiness all of the time, just as no one could live permanently within anger, or boredom, or grief.”

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

8. A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul by Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy considered A Calendar of Wisdom to be his most important contribution to humanity, a compilation of “daily thoughts to nourish the soul” with one page of wisdom per day. 

Tolstoy gathered, translated, abbreviated and expanded on quotations from a huge range of sources, including the New Testament, the Koran, Greek philosophy, Lao-Tzu, Buddhist thought, and the poetry, novels, and essays of both ancient writers and contemporary thinkers.

It’s Tolstoy’s spiritual guide and collection of the quotes that formed his mind, but it leaves enough space and variety to help us to form our own. A Calendar of Wisdom is a superb book to keep lying around ready to be picked up for some calming reading instead of hidden away on a shelf.

9. Goodbye, Things by Fumio Sasaki

Goodbye, Things is not only a remarkably peaceful book to read, but also a fantastic guide to decluttering your life and making room for what’s most important. Fumio Sasaki doesn’t claim to be a minimalism expert or a decluttering guru – he’s just a regular guy who wanted to say goodbye to everything he didn’t absolutely need. This book is the story of his journey and the results.

“Want to know how to make yourself instantly unhappy? Compare yourself with someone else.”

– Goodbye, Things

10. The Haiku of Bashō

There’s just something about reading a haiku to help to calm your mind and feel less stressed. I keep a collection of Bashō’s poetry near me when I’m working and often read a calming haiku or two when I need a break.

Sitting quietly,
doing nothing,
Spring comes,
and the grass grows, by itself.

Bashō

11. Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness by Dr. Qing Li

How much time do you spend in nature? Do you have a forest near you that you can escape to? Written by Dr. Qing Li, who specialises in forest medicine, this is his definitive guide to the therapeutic Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, or “forest bathing”: the art and science of how trees can promote health and happiness.

Like The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down, it’s another book that’s beautifully designed, in this case showcasing the beauty of trees and the natural world.  

Another fantastic tree-celebration that’s also very relaxing to read is The Hidden Life of Trees: The International Bestseller – What They Feel, How They Communicate by Peter Wohlleben.

12. Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

From the master of aviation writing, Wind, Sand and Stars is one of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s best-loved books (after The Little Prince, that is). It’s a great little book to take with you when travelling, or it can be the source of another adventure – sitting at home and leaping into a book.

I can’t help but feel calm when I read his descriptions of the natural world:

“When I opened my eyes I saw nothing but the pool of nocturnal sky, for I was lying on my back with out-stretched arms, face to face with that hatchery of stars. Only half awake, still unaware that those depths were sky, having no roof between those depths and me…“

Wind, Sand and Stars

For more hand-picked relaxing book recommendations, you might like my lists of books to read when you’re stressed, the best bedtime books to help you sleep soundly, and calming coloring books for creative mindfulness.

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“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.”

I’ve written before about the best feel-good classic novels of all time, but that leaves so many uplifting books that have been published more recently.

For this post, I thought about my favourite feel-good novels (and some memoirs) from the last few years. Some books are lighthearted and funny, others are wholesome comfort reads.

Here’s my selection of the best feel-good books to lift your spirits when you’re feeling low, remind you of the good in the world, and bring a smile to your face.

The best feel-good books for happy reading

1. A Place Like Home by Rosamunde Pilcher

If you’re looking for a feel-good cozy book, start with Rosamunde Pilcher’s writing. She’s best known for the timeless classic The Shell Seekers, but this heartwarming collection of short stories (published in 2021) also offers a perfect slice of romance, warmth, passion, and indulgence.

Sarah Maine, bestselling author of Beyond the Wild River shared, “An antidote to challenging times, this set of stories from a much-loved author has a comforting, nostalgic feel – cosy and reassuring – with Rosamunde Pilcher’s signature insight into domestic hopes and yearnings, taking us into a gentler world.”

2. The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller

This full-hearted novel is an easygoing read about Olivia Rawlings, a big-city pastry chef extraordinaire who discovers the true meaning of home when she escapes from the city to the most comforting place she can think of – the idyllic town of Guthrie, Vermont.

This is meant to be just a short getaway, until Margaret Hurley, the cantankerous owner of the Sugar Maple Inn, offers Livvy a job. Broke and not sure what else to do next, Livvy accepts – and realises that the most unexpected twists and turns in life can be the best things to happen to you.

3. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett is one of the very best authors for feel-good reading. In a thread about the funniest books, one Reddit user recommended: “Anything from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. I must have re-read some of his books 5 times and yet I still find something new that makes me laugh out loud each time.”

Here’s a useful reading order guide for the Discworld novels to make it easier to jump into the books. The Colour of Magic is a great place to start immersing yourself in the Discworld – a magical world not totally unlike our own, somewhere between thought and reality.

4. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

An instant bestseller for 2022, this feel-good book about an unlikely friendship between a widow and a giant Pacific octopus is perfect for fans of books like A Man Named Ove.

After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, ever since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

It’s here at the aquarium that Tova meets curmudgeonly Marcellus, an octopus who knows more than anyone can imagine… and deduces exactly what happened on the night that Tova’s son disappeared. Now he needs to put his intelligence to use and figure out how to show Tova the truth before it’s too late.

5. The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

One of the true masterpieces of Japanese fiction, Yoko Ogawa turns mathematics into an elegant art in this beautiful, unpretentious and clever novel.

Each morning, the Professor and the Housekeeper are introduced to one another. Although the Professor’s mind is alive with mathematical equations, his short-term memory is a mere eighty minutes after a car accident threatened his life and ended his academic career some years ago.

With the clever maths riddles he devises – based on the Housekeeper’s birthday, her shoe size, or other little details – the two are brought together in a beautifully geeky classic love story that forms a bond deeper than memory.

6. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Described by Martha Wells as “an optimistic vision of a lush, beautiful world”, Hugo Award-winner Becky Chambers’s delightful Monk and Robot series gives us hope for the future (which, quite frankly, a lot of us could do with).

If you love Studio Ghibli-inspired books, I’d recommend grabbing a copy of A Psalm for the Wild-Built. In its unique world, it’s been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness, laid down their tools, wandered together into the wilderness, and faded into myth and urban legend.

But one day, the life of a tea monk is turned upside down by a robot at their door. And most problematically, the robot wants an answer to the question of “what do people need?”

7. The Penguin Lessons by Tom Michell

Tom Michell is in his twenties, free as a bird, and seeking adventure in South America around his teaching position in a prestigious Argentine boarding school.

What happens next is a little less ordinary: he rescues a penguin from an oil slick, and the penguin (who is soon named Juan Salvador) refuses to leave his side…. and returns back to school with him. It’s a delightfully uplifting and lighthearted memoir.

8. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

I read The Rosie Project all the way back in 2013 after it was published, and I still have such fond memories of this clever, warm, and delightfully weird love story.

Don Tillman is a brilliant yet completely socially inept professor of genetics who’s decided it’s time he found a wife. So he designs the Wife Project to find his ideal candidate, starting with a sixteen-page survey to filter out the drinkers, the smokers, and the late arrivers.

Unfortunately, Rosie Jarman drinks, smokes, and arrives late. She should be immediately disqualified as a candidate. And yet, somehow, Don is swept into the whirlwind that is Rosie as they collaborate on her own project to find her biological father.

9. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

As one of the most popular feel-good books of all time, this beautifully silly classic follows the galactic (mis)adventures of Arthur Dent, beginning one Thursday lunchtime when the Earth gets unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass.

10. All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot

In my selection of the best feel-good classic books, I knew I had to include All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot. The Yorkshire vet’s memoirs have entranced generations of animal lovers since they were published, and they’re just as heartwarming today.

In this sequel, it’s wartime and James is training as an RAF pilot in bustling London. He’s far from the rolling hills, moody cattle, and curmudgeonly farmers of his day job as a vet in the Yorkshire Dales. He misses his dog, but most of all he misses his wife, Helen, who’s pregnant with their first child.

The questions of whether he’ll go to war and when he’ll get home are serious, but with its reflections of the land he loves and of friends old and new, this wonderfully cozy book is charming, uplifting, and characteristically funny.

11. The No. 1 One Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

In a Reddit thread about the best feel-good books, user bprflip shares: “When someone asks for a male-author-who-can-actually-write-a-female-lead, this book lands. It’s about someone getting by and making the world better, in incremental yet personal ways”.

If you enjoy following the investigations of Precious Ramotswe, Botswana’s premier lady detective, you’re in luck: this is the first in a series of twenty-three books by Alexander McCall Smith.

12. Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

I included TJ Klune’s most popular book, The House in the Cerulean Sea, in my list of the most wholesome books. This more recent release is a warm hug of a book for troubled times, perfect for fans of the feel-good hit A Man Called Ove or NBC’s The Good Place.

Wallace spends his life at the office, working and correcting colleagues. Then a reaper collects him, and he’s dead. Even after death, he refuses to make time for fun and friends, but as he drinks tea and eats scones with Hugo, the owner of an unusual tea shop, he wonders if he should do things differently.

With just one week until he must pass through the door to the other side, Wallace sets about living a lifetime the right way.

13. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

Okay, so bear with me. This cozy feel-good book is about an Orc Warrior who opens a coffee shop. It’s a fun, incredibly lighthearted, and comfy read about following your dreams into new and unfamiliar places. It’s slice-of-life meets modern fantasy, and that turns out to be delightful.

Genevieve Gornichec, author of The Witch’s Heart, writes: “Take a break from epic battles and saving the world. Legends & Lattes is a low-stakes fantasy that delivers exactly what’s advertised: a wholesome, cozy novel that feels like a warm hug. This is my new comfort read.”

14. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Though Enzo cannot speak, he understands everything that happens around him as he bears witness to the story of his human family, observes how they nearly fall apart, and manages to bring them back together.

With humour and heartwarming dedication, and despite what he sees as his own limitations as a dog, Enzo comes through heroically to preserve the Swift family in this wholesome feel-good book.

15. The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman

From the bestselling author of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, The Garden of Small Beginnings manages to be funny and heartwarming but also thoughtful and poignant.

As an intimate journey of a young mother moving on from grief, this quirky novel unlocks the door to Lilian Girvan’s life as an illustrator, parent, sister, budding gardener, and widow as she puts the pieces of her life back together.

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