In this post, I’ve put together my favourite books to get lost in. They’re also perfect books to read when you need a distraction or if you haven’t read in a while, offering sheer escapism through unforgettable worlds and iconic characters.

The books in this list aren’t Russian classics. Instead, they’re the novels that broke my reading droughts and reminded me precisely why I love books.

Some of these are binge-worthy books you can’t put down, while others evoke intriguing and beautiful worlds that I love getting lost in and don’t want to leave.

To help you to rekindle the joyful habit of retreating into fictional worlds, read on for some of the best novels to get lost in and forget about the world…

The best books to get lost in when you want to escape into a book

1. The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

Full disclosure: I haven’t finished reading The Marriage Portrait yet. But I am completely lost in it right now. I’ve heard a lot about this 2022 bestseller, but as I rarely make time for historical fiction, I approached it tentatively.

A few hundred pages in, it’s been utterly bewitching. Maggie O’Farrell is clearly a magical writer and absolutely capable of following (and exceeding?) the success of Hamnet.

It’s winter in 1561, and Lucrezia, Duchess of Ferrara, is convinced that her husband is going to kill her. She’s sixteen years old and has so far led a sheltered life locked away inside Florence’s grandest palazzo, developing her hidden talent as an artist and stretching the confines of her imagination as her family ignores her.

Now, in a remote villa, Lucrezia is entirely at the mercy of her increasingly erratic husband – and she has no idea what she’ll do against a ruler of a province – and trained soldier – to ensure her survival.

2. City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

Forget about Eat, Pray, Love. Elizabeth Gilbert’s other books are totally different. I adored Elizabeth Gilbert’s most recent novels, The Signature of All Things and City of Girls.

In particular, City of Girls is a perfect novel to get lost in when you want a break. Told from the perspective of Vivian Morris as she looks back on her youth in 1940s New York, City of Girls shares Vivian’s story of female sexuality and promiscuity, pleasure and regret.

It’s a journey of true love and becoming, and an immersive page-turner that makes you feel like you’re there with Vivian.

3. A Place Like Home by Rosamunde Pilcher

I’ve been on something of a Rosamunde Pilcher binge this year. Her gorgeously cozy and slice-of-life writing has been exactly what I’ve needed to bring balance to my life when other things are out of my control.

The Shell Seekers is a good place to start with Rosamunde Pilcher – and Winter Solstice is one of the most perfect books to read in winter – but I also love this collection of short stories, published in 2021 (posthumously, after Rosamund Pilcher’s death in 2019).

Each of the fifteen stories in A Place Like Home is a perfect slice of romance, written with warm and comforting nostalgia and offering an antidote to challenging times.

It’s one of the best books to get lost in, letting you escape through the pages to the Mediterranean sunshine and sparkling blue seas, the fresh spring air of a Northumbrian village, or the fruit orchards of a recuperating stay in the Scottish countryside.

4. Greenwood by Michael Christie

Just like I experienced with its big brother The Overstory, Richard Powers’s bestseller with many similar threads but much greater fame, it took me a few attempts to get into Greenwood by Michael Christie.

The first chapter didn’t pull me in, but after about an hour of reading Greenwood, I was hooked. I read most of this doorstop of a book in a weekend, completely lost in the multi-generational saga.

Greenwood charts a family’s rise and fall alongside its secrets and inherited crimes, accompanied all the while by one steady presence: trees. I didn’t think it could be as good as The Overstory, but I really should have had more belief in it: it’s a superb book.

5. Circe by Madeline Miller

In this stunningly-woven page-turner, Circe sets forth her tale: a vivid, mesmerizing epic of rivalry, love, and loss. It’s a woman’s story told in a man’s world, and her defiance is captivating.

When Circe’s powerful magic threatens the gods, Circe is banished to the island of Aiaia where she hones her occult craft, casting spells, gathering strange herbs and taming wild beasts.

However, Circe isn’t left in peace for long, and it’s an unexpected visitor, the mortal Odysseus, for whom she will risk everything.

Circe is the perfect book to get lost in while waiting for Madeline Miller’s next book and the HBO Max Circe adaptation.

6. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

When I worked in my village bookshop growing up, Cutting for Stone was the book that the shop owner recommended to everyone who didn’t know what to read. I’m so glad I finally picked it up.

This big book is the story of Marion and Shiva Stone, twin brothers born of a secret union between an Indian nun and a British surgeon in Ethiopia.

Bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution.

From Ethiopia to New York City and back again, you’ll meet a fascinating family of doctors who weave an incredible story of heartbreak, loss, and the relationships that shape their lives.

7. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

If you like the idea of a surrealist classic book to get lost in, read Kafka on the Shore. This fan favourite from Murakami (and one of my all-time favourite books) is an immersive and otherworldly book that’s surprisingly tranquil.

Comprising two distinct but interrelated plots, the narrative runs back and forth between the life of fifteen-year-old Kafka Tamura, who has run away from home, and an aging man called Nakata.

It’s also a wonderful book about books. “As I gaze at the vacant, birdless scene outside, I suddenly want to read a book – any book. As long as it’s shaped like a book and has printing, it’s fine by me. I just want to hold a book in my hands, turn the pages, scan the words with my eyes.”

8. Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

If you want a lighthearted book to get lost in, Where’d You Go, Bernadette is a fantastic choice. In this bestselling novel by Maria Semple, the quirky main character flees the anxieties of everyday American life for Antarctica.

It’s the perfect laid-back, easygoing book to immerse yourself in while imagining your own winter escape. I also think it’s one of the best books to read if you haven’t read in a while.

9. I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes

Over the last decade, I Am Pilgrim has been my go-to recommendation for people who don’t read much but love gripping movies, especially crime, action, and detective plots.

“A big, breathless tale of nonstop suspense” is how The New York Times described I Am Pilgrim in 2014. Neither my dad nor my eighteen-year-old brother could stop reading it, which is high praise indeed.

Pilgrim is the codename for a man who doesn’t exist: a man who must return from obscurity, and the only man who can uncover a flawless plot to commit an appalling crime against humanity.

10. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

The Priory of the Orange Tree is an enthralling, epic fantasy about a divided world on the brink of war – and the women who must lead the fight to save it.

I read this book on The Trans-Siberian Railway between Moscow and Russia, and it was the perfect choice for long days with a book as the remote landscape rolled past.

It’s a big book with an even bigger universe inside to explore, including fantastically strong women rulers and protagonists. The sequel, A Day of Fallen Night, is due for release in February 2023.

For more books to get lost in, complement these recommendations with the best books to binge-read or the coziest books to snuggle up with on a quiet evening.

The post 10 of the best books to get lost in if you need a break appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

Book Review | Synopsis | Similar Books | Excerpt | Buy It

A Psalm for the Wild-Built

A Psalm for the Wild-Built is a true balm for the soul, as comforting and wholesome as any of the personalized tea blends imagined and served with love by Dex, the story’s main character.

URL: https://amzn.to/3giY0En

Author: Becky Chambers

Editor's Rating:
4.5

Is A Psalm for the Wild-Built worth a read?

There’s something so therapeutic about Becky Chambers’ writing. As well as anyone who wants a break, A Psalm for the Wild-Built is the perfect book for anyone feeling lost, directionless, or in need of a big change in life. It’s also full of slice-of-life vibes, if you love that in your reading material.

Synopsis of A Psalm for the Wild-Built

“If we want change, or good fortune, or solace, we have to create it for ourselves.”

A Psalm for the Wild-Built

In A Psalm for the Wild-Built, we enter a utopian future years after the end of the Factory Age, when robots put down their tools and gave up their roles as human servants to disappear into the untouched wilderness. That’s where they’ve remained, far from human life.

In Panga’s main city, we meet Sibling Dex: a non-binary twenty-nine-year-old gardener who has no idea what they want to do with their life. But they do know one thing for sure, that despite the beauty and livability of a metropolis, “sometimes, a person reaches a point in their life when it becomes absolutely essential to get the fuck out of the city”.

And so Sibling Dex leaves their job to become a tea monk, skipping the usual apprenticeship route and opting to learn everything themselves. After a rocky start, Sibling Dex is adored by their customers. Dex listens to their problems, and then serves the perfect cup of tea.

Despite becoming perhaps the best tea monk in Panga, Sibling Dex still feels that this isn’t it. There’s something missing in life. They yearn for wildness and the sound of crickets. And so they cycle their wagon further into the wilderness than definitely advised and take in the freedom and beauty of their new surroundings.

That is, until they’re interrupted by a robot, Mosscap, who has left the wilderness to ask one simple question. What do humans want?It turns out that this is actually an incredibly difficult question, and Dex feels like they absolutely cannot answer it.

What follows is a heartwarming and soul-searching journey of adventure deep into the wild to reach an abandoned hermitage. It’s here that Dex and Mosscap find a deeper bond than they could have imagined, learning more about each other, themselves, and what really leads to a meaningful life than ever would have been possible alone.

An in-depth summary of A Psalm for the Wild-Built (spoilers!)

Books like A Psalm for the Wild-Built

Although there’s sure to be a flurry of Becky Chambers-inspired writers in the next few years, no one really writes quite like she does.

For more books like A Psalm for the Wild-Built, you can’t go wrong with other books by Becky Chambers. The sequel, A Prayer for the Crown Shy, was published in 2022 and is perfect to read next.

You can also escape into Becky Chamber’s Wayfarers series, beginning with The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.

Book excerpt

Read the first pages of A Psalm for the Wild-Built, or see the book on Amazon.

The post Summary and review: A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

Yeah, I get it. (And yep, I do it too.) But each time I find a really great book I can’t put down for a weekend, I remember that a good TV series isn’t the only binge-worthy entertainment.

Sometimes, it’s even more immersive to leap into the world of an unputdownable book and not leave it for a while. You also get to spend some time away from a screen (at least non-Kindle ones).

Here are a few recommendations of the best binge-worthy books I couldn’t put down to get you started. I hope they help you to escape into a new world and forget you’re reading too.

Unputdownable books to binge-read instead of watching Netflix on loop

1. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

If you loved The Martian, give Andy Weir’s latest bestseller a read next. In Project Hail Mary, Ryland Grace, the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission to save both humanity and the earth, is hurtled into the depths of space to complete the mission alone.

Like Andy Weir’s other books, this is a fantastically well-researched, nerdy, and lighthearted show of world-building that’s easy to read and hard to put down. I’d especially recommend listening to it as an audiobook – it’s a perfect choice for road trips.

Over on Goodreads, Bill Gates shared about this sci-fi hit: “[Project Hail Mary] is a wild tale about a high school science teacher who wakes up in a different star system with no memory of how he got there. The rest of the story is all about how he uses science and engineering to save the day. It’s a fun read, and I finished the whole thing in one weekend.”

2. The Gifted School by Bruce Holsinger

If you tore through Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies or the screen adaptation, this gripping page-turner by Bruce Holsinger should be perfect for your next read. In The New York Times Book Review, it’s described as “wise and addictive … The Gifted School is the juiciest book I’ve read in ages.”

In the privileged and uneventful community of Crystal, Colorado, a group of close friends are raising their families in harmony. That is until news begins to spread that a ‘gifted school’ will be opening its doors in town.

Places will be sparse, the competition ferocious, and as the facade of their picture-perfect community begins to fade, long-buried secrets threaten to surface under the pressure.

3. I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes

I’ve recommended this thriller to so many people. I Am Pilgrim was released back in 2013, and I picked it up after seeing several people glued to their copy on the train who would get off at their stop and immediately sit down to keep reading it.

Then, I became one of those people… then my Dad, my brother, husband, friends. Yeah, it’s a good book to binge-read, even for people who don’t usually read.

4. Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

When I first started listening to Mad Honey as an audiobook, I thought this whodunnit might be too intense for how I’ve been feeling (I’ve been gravitating towards easy-going and hopeful books lately).

But after a bit more listening, I was hooked. I finished the 464-page book in a couple of days… oops. Mad Honey is a gripping book to binge-read, about what we choose to keep from our past and what we choose to leave behind.

Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over, after leaving her picture-perfect life in Boston – married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, and raising a beautiful son, Asher— to return to the house she grew up in, taking over her father’s beekeeping business in a sleepy New Hampshire hometown.

This seems like the new start she needed… until Olivia receives a phone call that Lily, the new girl in town, is dead. When she hears that Asher is being questioned by the police, she wonders if she really understands her son at all. 

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

Looking for something lighter? The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is fantastic. It’s the type of book I can read in just a few days, unable to stop reading it for too long but not wanting it to end either.

Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more surprised (and confused) than Monique herself. As things become clearer, she was right to feel surprised – but should also be concerned.

On Reddit, Impossible_Action_82 shared: “My cousin, my partner, and I all read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo in 1-3 days this past month. That book is excellent. Shockingly deep, deals with identity and relationships and family. Just a really really good read. Side note: this cousin doesn’t usually read anything.”

6. 11/22/63 by Stephen King

If you ask book lovers for their best can’t-put-down recommendations, you’ll probably soon get bored of hearing 11/22/63. But it really is good.

When President Kennedy died on November 22, 1963, the world changed forever. But here, Stephen King asks – in his characteristic gripping and terrifying way – what if someone could change it back?

That person turns out to be Jake Epping, a thirty-five-year-old English teacher in Maine, whose friend and owner of the local diner, Al, lets him in on a secret: his storeroom is a portal to the past, a particular day in 1958, where every turn leads, of course, to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald.

Over on Reddit, pkosuda shared: “I could never binge read any book but this one may have been the closest I ever got. Every free moment I had I spent reading the damn thing. Could not put it down. Definitely an underrated book and I wish there was somehow a sequel.”

7. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

The Secret History is one of the best books for dark academia vibes, centered around a group of isolated classic students at an elite New England college. If you want to nerd over the cult-favourite book as you read it, I’ve compiled a list of the 30+ books mentioned in The Secret History.

In a Reddit thread about books you can’t put down, AdamWestsButtDouble shared that, “It’s been more than 25 years, but my answer to this will always be Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. I’d gotten into it a bit and was going to read some before bed one night, about 11pm. Cut to four hours later and I’m still reading.”

8. Verity by Colleen Hoover

Verity has a different vibe than Colleen Hoover’s other books; it’s moodier, darker, and much creepier. You also really shouldn’t start reading this thriller at night if you want to sleep.

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime: completing the remaining books in a successful series by bestselling author Verity Crawford. But her excitement changes to fear when she stumbles upon the unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read.

9. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

If you’re looking for a brilliantly plotted sci-fi thriller that’s mind-bendingly strange, read Dark Matter. It’s one of the best binge-worthy books to make you forget you’re reading.

The last thing Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious is this question: “Are you happy with your life?” He awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits, and a man who Jason has never met saying, “Welcome back, my friend.” 

This life and world he’s woken up to isn’t the one he knows. But is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves?

10. The Windsor Knot by S.J. Bennet

If you loved watching The Crown but would enjoy it even more with a slice of murder mystery, The Windsor Knot is my top binge-worthy book recommendation for you.

11. The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

I’ve been binge-reading Helen Hoang’s books lately. I don’t usually read books with this much romance or sex. But these books with fantastic themes of self-discovery and autism in the mix are a superb place to start.

It was only when researching her first novel in the series, The Kiss Quotient, that Helen Hoang was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder herself. I don’t think I’ve ever read fiction that talks so in-depth about autism spectrum disorder (which I have), and it’s so refreshing.

The Kiss Quotient is the first in a series of three interlinking books, focusing on three characters whose new partners give them a whole new view of love – and themselves.

If you love The Kiss Quotient, here are 8 books to read next with Helen Hoang vibes.

12. Circe by Madeline Miller

Published in 2018, Circe is Madeline Miller’s defiant reimagining of the daughter of Helios, the sun god, and the ocean nymph Perse, known in myth as a dangerous sorceress, perhaps the most dangerous woman a man could come across.

When her gift threatens the gods, she is banished to the island of Aiaia where she hones her occult craft, casting spells, gathering strange herbs and taming wild beasts.

But she won’t be left in peace for long, and it’s for an unexpected visitor, the mortal Odysseus, for whom Circe will risk everything. Binge-read this and get excited for the HBO Max adaptation of Circe which we’ll hopefully hear more about soon.

For more gripping book recommendations to get lost in, remember that unputdownable books don’t have to be fiction. Here are some of the best can’t-put-down non-fiction books that read like fiction.

The post 12 binge-worthy books you won’t be able to put down appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

I had a bad burnout back in 2018, just before leaving my full-time job to never go back (you can read about this in my book, Mountain Song). I made a lot of positive changes back then, including a conscious effort to cultivate environments that support me and allow me to just be me, as a woman with autism spectrum disorder.

Unexpectedly if you follow this blog, books have been a big part of my recovery from burnout – and a way to prevent it from returning. Books have helped me through anxiety, trauma, accepting myself as a woman with autism, and so much more. I knew they had some wisdom to share with me now.

While recovering from burnout, I’ve been choosing books that let me retreat into worlds that intrigue me, reduce my stress levels, and show me windows of opportunity in my own life.

I’ve also made my reading time as sacred as possible. There’s nowhere else I’ve needed to be, all I’ve had to do is grab a blanket and a cup of tea and immerse myself in words.

Here are my suggestions of the best books for burnout that can help to guide you towards peace, balance, and energy on the other side. If you’re facing burnout at the moment, I hope they can help you too.

8 books that helped me recover from burnout

1. Lean Out: A Meditation on the Madness of Modern Life by Tara Henley

I loved this book (and shared more thoughts here). Tara Henley, a Canadian journalist, navigates her own burnout in a society that can feel like a surefire recipe for anxiety and exhaustion.

In this memoir, Tara shares the story of her time off from the frantic newsroom to look for different ways of living. In Lean Out, she explores the worlds of self-sufficiency, homesteading, and financial independence and retiring early (FIRE) among other options for a slower, simpler way of life.

More books like Lean Out:

• Meet the Frugalwoods: Achieving Financial Independence Through Simple Living by Elizabeth Willard Thames – If you also love books about frugality combined with financial independence (think Your Money Or Your Life by Vicki Robin), this book is a fantastic next choice. It’s the author’s story of how she and her husband, Nate, retired to a homestead in rural Vermont in their early thirties.

2. Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig

It’s not just you: the world we live in is exhausting and anxiety-inducing, and lately it’s felt like it’s only getting more so. Notes on a Nervous Planet is Matt Haig’s exploration of how modern life feeds our anxiety – and how to live a better, calmer life that prevents burnout and anxiety.

“We often find ourselves wishing for more hours in the day, but that wouldn’t help anything. The problem, clearly, isn’t that we have a shortage of time. It’s more that we have an overload of everything else.”

Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig

More books like Notes on a Nervous Planet:

• Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig – You should absolutely read this bestseller if you’re experiencing depression as well as burnout. Matt Haig’s popular fiction book, The Midnight Library is a great choice too.

3. Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa

Sometimes when you’re recovering from burnout, a wholesome and magical book is just what you need. Think about some of your favourite childhood or feel-good books, or start with Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa, a delightful slice-of-life book about the power of friendship.

Sentaro’s life hasn’t gone to plan. His dream of becoming a writer has long been forgotten, and now he has a criminal record, drinks too much, and spends day after day in a tiny confectionery shop selling dorayaki, a type of pancake filled with sweet bean paste. But when Tokue, an elderly woman with a troubled past, comes into his life, everything changes for both of them.

More books like Sweet Bean Paste:

• For more books like this, you might like my recommendations of the most wholesome comfort reads that feel like a hug, as well as my list of books with a Studio Ghibli vibe.

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

Sometimes during burnout you just want to escape for a while – and a binge-worthy book is a great place to start. You can read my list of the best books to binge-read here, but one of my go-to author suggestions is Taylor Jenkins Reid.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is the perfect book to immerse yourself in during a laid-back, hygge weekend. It’s about an ageing and reclusive Hollywood movie icon who’s finally ready to tell the story of her glamorous and scandalous life: a story that has a lot more to it than anyone could’ve expected.

More books like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo:

• Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid: In this bestselling new novel for 2022, a tennis star legend supposedly past her prime at thirty-seven, is brought back to the tennis court for one more grand slam. 

5. Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

Prodigal Summer is one of my most treasured books, about a single summer in bloom by the Appalachian Mountains. As new life and the sensuality of nature blossom, we’re swept into three different yet interconnected lives in the Appalachian mountains.

Deanna is a local girl turned biologist turned forest ranger, living reclusively in a cabin in the woods. Lusa is a city girl turned entomologist turned farmer’s wife. And Garnett is a grumpy old man, fed up with neighbour Nannie Rawley, everyone else’s favourite eccentric old woman and organic apple farmer.

Each time I re-read this book, especially when I’m feeling burned out and in need of an escape, I remember how much I love all of these characters.

6. Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski, PhD and Amelia Nagoski, DMA

This isn’t just a groundbreaking book about burnout, but also a book about why women experience burnout differently than men. Emily Nagoski, author of the bestselling Come As You Are, provides a simple, research-based plan to help you minimize stress, manage emotions when you’re already operating at 110%, and live a more joyful life in an often sexist world.

More books like Burnout:

• When the Body Says No by Gabor Maté. In this illuminating book, Gabor Maté shows us that emotion and psychological stress aren’t just temporary problems, but also play a powerful role in the onset of chronic illness.

7. Closer to the Ground by Dylan Tomine

Just flicking through the pages of Closer to the Ground is enough to soothe my nerves and calm me down. It’s a deeply personal story of a father learning to share his love of nature with his children, not through stories or pictures, but directly and palpably in their wild surroundings.

Through each of the seasons in the Pacific North West, they forage, cook and eat from the woods and sea. When I first read the book, I looked forward to returning to the book’s beautiful pages every evening and letting the slow and quiet way of life soothe me before bed.

More books like Closer to the Ground:

• You might also like my post on the best books set in nature to imagine escaping into the wild.

8. Down to Earth: A Guide to Simple Living by Rhonda Hetzel

During burnout, I loved settling down in the evenings to spend an hour reading Down to Earth. Rhonda Hetzel writes like the Australian friend you wished you had, offering neighbourly guidance on how to encourage your carrot seeds to germinate, save cash on groceries, knit your own dishcloths, and brew ginger beer.

While taking some time off from work, I’ve been exploring how I can steer my life further in this direction. I loved growing my own vegetables last summer, and already have pots of carrots, radishes, peas, spinach, and kale emerging from the soil on our balcony here in Copenhagen.

Down to Earth has been a wonderful treasure trove of ideas to accompany my urban vegetable garden and help me to slow down, focus mindfully on small projects and tasks around the house, and disconnect from online life.

“Simple living is not about buying a lifestyle, it’s about building a life – using what you already have.”

Down to Earth: A Guide to Simple Living by Rhonda Hetzel

More books like Down to Earth:

• Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver – If you love Barbara Kingsolver’s fiction, give her non-fiction a go with this collection of essays. The book charts her decision to move from Arizona to the Appalachians in pursuit of fertile earth and local, seasonal food – much of it fresh from her own garden. She navigates the line between environmental call to action and celebration of simpler living wonderfully.

The post 8 books to read during burnout when you feel exhausted appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

Where the Crawdads Sing turned out to belong to a book category I’ve adored in the last few years – novels about introspective women retreating into nature. For this post, I’ve thought about other novels with similar vibes.

Here are some books like Where the Crawdads Sing that are also about nature, wild spaces, and embracing both your uniqueness and solitude.

If you like these books, you might also like my selection of the best books set in nature to escape into the wilderness.

“Slowly, she unraveled each word of the sentence: ‘There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot.’”

Where the Crawdads Sing

Similar books to Where the Crawdads Sing that are set in nature

1. Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah

Like Where the Crawdads Sing, Glendy Vanderah’s Where the Forest Meets the Stars is about a young woman who adores nature and has an encyclopedic knowledge of it. After losing her mother and battling breast cancer, Joanna Teale returns to her graduate research on nesting birds in rural Illinois, living alone in a cabin in the woods.

Determined to prove that her hardships have not broken her, Joanna throws herself into her work until her solitary routine is disrupted by the appearance of a mysterious child who shows up at her cabin barefoot and covered in bruises. Even more mysteriously as the novel unfolds, the child shows Joanna how to love again in this gentle story of companionship, trust, and wild beauty.

Glendy Vanderah also published (in April 2021) The Light Through the Leaves – another beautiful novel of love, loss, and self-discovery that similarly shows love for time alone in the wilderness.

2. Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

“The dawn chorus was a whistling roar by now, the sound of a thousand males calling out love to a thousand silent females ready to choose and make the world new.”

Prodigal Summer

Prodigal Summer is one of my all-time favourite books. Rather than having any big plot points or revelations, it’s a novel about life – and the slow unwinding of a summer. This sets it apart from the “whodunnit” storyline of Where the Crawdads Sing.

That said, it’s a beautiful story of self-sufficient women living life their way in nature, in this case the Appalachian mountains, which overlaps with the nature-loving protagonist of Delia Owens’ novel, Kya Clark.

3. The Middle of Somewhere by Sonya Yoerg

The Middle of Somewhere was another book I read during burnout. It’s easy to read in a weekend and offers a welcome change of scenery – the John Muir Trail in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range.

Weighed down by emotional baggage as much as her backpack, widowed Liz Kroft heads deep into the wilderness for the solitude she craves. That solitude is interrupted when her boyfriend, Dante, decides to tag along, but as two strange brothers appear on the trail, it’s not long until she’s glad of the protective companionship.

4. The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

“… home was not just a cabin in a deep woods that overlooked a placid cove. Home was a state of mind, the peace that came from being who you were and living an honest life.”

The Great Alone

The Great Alone is one of the most frequently recommended books for readers who loved Where the Crawdads Sing and has a similarly impressive reputation.

In this bestseller, Kristin Hannah tells the story of a desperate family seeking a new beginning in the isolated Alaskan wilderness, only to find that their unpredictable environment is less threatening than the behavior of people within it.

5. Wild: A Journey From Lost to Found by Cheryl Strayed

“It had only to do with how it felt to be in the wild. With what it was like to walk for miles for no reason other than to witness the accumulation of trees and meadows, mountains and deserts, streams and rocks, rivers and grasses, sunrises and sunsets. The experience was powerful and fundamental. It seemed to me that it had always felt like this to be a human in the wild, and as long as the wild existed it would always feel this way.“

Wild: A Journey From Lost to Found

How can I not mention Wild? Cheryl Strayed’s memoir of her time hiking the Pacific Crest Trail to come to terms with life and loss is essential reading if you love spending time in nature alone.

6. All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood

All the Ugly and Wonderful Things is a beautiful and provocative love story between two unlikely people. With time, their relationship elevates them above their lives in the Midwest: as the daughter of a drug dealer and a tattooed ex-con with a heart of gold.

Over on Reddit, abcmama89 writes, “one of my all time favorite books, started rereading for at least the 3rd time on Monday and just hit page 300. I will finish this today, had to put it down because I am crying at work.”

7. Circe by Madeline Miller

Circe was another book I ignored the memo on, finally read, and have since recommended to everyone. After unleashing magic that she never believed she could be capable of, Circe, the daughter of Helios, is banished to the island of Aiaia.

Rather than acting as her prison, Aiaia provides her sanctuary. Circe’s days become focused on honing the art of pharmaka – the magic of herbs – as she forages, picks, blends, brews, and experiments with what she finds. Her island makes for the perfect retreat for us as reader, too. If you loved reading Circe, here are 7 similar books about nature and mythology.

8. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

“Don’t settle down and sit in one place. Move around, be nomadic, make each day a new horizon. You are still going to live a long time, Ron, and it would be a shame if you did not take the opportunity to revolutionize your life and move into an entirely new realm of experience.”

Into the Wild

Into the Wild is one of the classic tales of leaving the urban world for the wilderness. After giving away his savings and most of his possessions, 22-year-old Chris McCandless disappeared in April 1992 into the Alaskan wilderness in search of a raw, transcendent experience. This is Jon Krakauer’s story of his haunting and mysterious disappearance.

9. The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert

“From coast to coast, Americans of every conceivable background had looked up at Eustace Conway on his horse and said wistfully, ‘I wish I could do what you’re doing.’ And to every last citizen, Eustace had replied, ‘You can.’”

The Last American Man

If you daydream about escaping into the woods to live in a cabin by a stream, you’ll probably love reading The Last American Man. Although it reads like fiction at times, toeing the line between man and myth, it’s Elizabeth Gilbert’s biography of Eustace Conway who in 1977, at the age of seventeen, left his family’s comfortable suburban home to move to the Appalachian Mountains.

For more than two decades he has lived there, making fire with sticks, wearing skins from animals he has trapped, and trying to convince Americans to give up their materialistic lifestyles and return with him back to nature.

10. Educated by Tara Westover

This bestselling memoir is the story of a girl who, despite being kept out of school, finds a way to leave her Mormon anti-government survivalist family and earn a PhD from Cambridge University. Like Where the Crawdads Sing, Educated has similar vibes of introspection, self-discovery, and finding your way as an outsider.

As Alec MacGillis writes for The New York Times, “By the end, Westover has somehow managed not only to capture her unsurpassably exceptional upbringing, but to make her current situation seem not so exceptional at all, and resonant for many others.”

The post 10 books like Where the Crawdads Sing set in nature appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

Can a book really help you feel better considering the state of the world right now? And what’s more, will this post seem like encouragement to turn a blind eye to situations we really need to be paying attention to?

Here’s my current answer to those questions. We can strive to do what’s in our power to change, but we also need to take care of ourselves. If we can do that while connecting our own human heart with those of others – and stumbling into the rabbit hole of another culture and worldview – then all the better.

I’ll be honest – my reading has become very low-key lately. I’ve been practicing my Danish by reading Harry Potter og Fangen fra Azkaban at the slowest pace imaginable, and also listening to the audiobook of Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

In the following recommendations, you’ll find a few different angles to relieve your own anxiety at the state of the world – or, alternatively, to just sit with your feelings and learn more about the place humankind is in and where we might go from here.

You might also like: 6 books to read during burnout when you feel exhausted

10 books to read when you’re worried about the world and its future

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

If you’re feeling anxious, what’s in your control that you can change? To begin with, think of the kindness, generosity, and love that are innate parts of you. This beautiful memoir of a life well-lived with animals is a wonderful reminder to do so.

“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.”

3. The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green

Reddit user beastie_boo described John Green’s new essay collection as “the right balance of ‘everything is pointless but I’m still hopeful about the world'”. That’s just what some of us need right now. It can be the best reminder to notice beauty, appreciate what matters, share our kindness and love with others, and limit what leads to stress, dread, and agonising over hypothetical questions.

In The Anthropocene Reviewed, John Green brings both humour and food for thought via his reviews of different facets of our human-centered life on Earth on a five-star scale. Dive into the book as he charts the contradictions of contemporary humanity with reviews spanning the QWERTY keyboard, sunsets, Canada geese, and Penguins of Madagascar.

4. Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World by Tim Marshall

If your way of dealing with the stress and uncertainty of geopolitics is to learn more about it, Prisoners of Geography is an accessible and intriguing place to start.

Tim Marshall offers a fascinating look at how the world’s political landscape is shaped by its physical landscape: the mountains, rivers, deserts, and terrain of our world. Iain and I listened to it as an audiobook a few years ago, and we’ve just revisited the first chapter (conveniently focused on Russia) this week.

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

What better book to help you to breathe deeper and marvel at the wonder of nature and its seasons than Braiding Sweetgrass?

Admiring the natural world is a 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.”

6. Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert

One way to look at human civilization, says Elizabeth Kolbert, is as a ten-thousand-year exercise in defying nature. In Under a White Sky, she examines how the very sorts of interventions that have imperiled our planet are increasingly seen as the best hope for its salvation.

Along the way, she meets biologists who are trying to preserve the world’s rarest fish in a single tiny pool in the middle of the Mojave; engineers who are turning carbon emissions to stone in Iceland; Australian researchers who are trying to develop a “super coral” that can survive on a hotter globe; and physicists who are contemplating shooting tiny diamonds into the stratosphere to cool the earth.

7. The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

The House in the Cerulean Sea is one of the most popular “hug in a book” recommendations from the last few years (especially if you frequent bookish parts of Reddit).

It’s the heartwarming fantasy tale of Linus Baker, a 40-year old who leads a quiet life and has a dull job at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. But one day, he’s summoned by Extremely Upper Management and given a highly classified assignment – travelling to an orphanage where six dangerous children reside, and deciding their future.

8. Peace Is a Practice: An Invitation to Breathe Deep and Find a New Rhythm for Life by Morgan Harper Nichols

Morgan Harper Nichols has a voice of such beauty and comfort, and her writing offers a welcome balm for the soul during difficult times. Her latest book, Peace is a Practice, was published in February 2022 and offers an invitation to breathe deeper and find a new rhythm for your life.

9. Modern Nature by Derek Jarman

In 1986, Derek Jarman was suddenly faced with an uncertain future as he discovered he was HIV positive. To find solace, he decided to make a garden at his cottage on the barren coast of Dungeness in England’s southeast. While some plants perished beneath wind and sea spray, others flourished and created brilliant, unexpected beauty.

Modern Nature is both a diary of the garden and a meditation by Jarman on his own life: from his childhood to his time as a young gay man in the 1960s and his renowned career as an artist, writer, and filmmaker.

“But the wind does not stop for my thoughts. It whips across the flooded gravel pits drumming up waves on their waters that glint hard and metallic in the night, over the shingle, rustling the dead gorse and skeletal bugloss, running in rivulets through the parched grass – while I sit here in the dark holding a candle that throws my divided shadow across the room and gathers my thoughts to the flame like moths.

10. 10% Happier by Dan Harris

After having a nationally televised panic attack on Good Morning America, Dan Harris knew he had to make some changes. On a bizarre adventure of self-discovery, Harris learned that what he always thought was his greatest asset – the incessant voice in his head – was actually the source of his problems (and as he writes, “kind of an asshole.”)

Something he always presumed to be either impossible or useless became the quietly powerful tool to change everything: meditation.

“There’s no point in being unhappy about things you can’t change, and no point being unhappy about things you can.”

The post Books for when you’re worried about the state of the world appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

It can seem counterintuitive that we get more done when we work less. But it’s not really a surprise at all. We can’t perform well with a depleted engine. We need to balance exertion with rejuvenation, otherwise we’re running off an empty tank – which isn’t going to get us far at all.

Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang is a wonderful reminder of the power of rest. And it’s a reminder I needed.

“If you want rest, you have to take it. You have to resist the lure of busyness, make time for rest, take it seriously, and protect it from a world that is intent on stealing it.”

I first came across Alex Soojung-Kim Pang via his masterclass on the Calm app; an app I use most days to help me unwind, meditate, or fall asleep. I listened to the masterclass as I closed my laptop for the day, put my coat on, and headed out for a walk around Glasgow where I was spending the last few weeks.

The author talked about how the creatives and scientists we look up to generally balance their impressive work output with deep rest and distance away from their work. They don’t sit at their desk for twenty hours a day, five days a week. They head out for a run, read a book, or hit the climbing gym with friends.

In a world where overwork is increasingly normal (and even expected), rest is more sacred than ever.

We can’t expect ourselves to produce our best work – in our careers, families, relationships, and creative projects – if we’re not taking our need for rest seriously.

After reading this book on a Friday, I ran a bath, soaked for half an hour, and had a relaxing evening of bedtime tea, yoga, and music before bed. I slept better than I had in weeks. That weekend I went to stay with my boyfriend’s family for a Burn’s Night dinner and didn’t touch my work.

On Monday, I got back to my desk and raced through an article I’d been seriously struggling to write the previous week. I poured a cup of tea and worked through more of my to-do list with far less resistance than I was expecting.

I needed the weekend of rest a lot more than I thought. At two o’clock, after getting enough done for the day, I closed my work tabs, called my boyfriend, and started the resting process again.

I’m more aware than ever that I need to keep this habit up. After all, if I don’t say no to overwork, my body will. (For more on this, read When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress by Dr. Gabor Maté.)

Are you getting enough rest? Are you giving your body the relaxation it needs, and your mind the variation it thrives on, to help you feel your best?

Get a copy of Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less as a reminder of the power of rest throughout our lives, especially the busiest moments when we need it most.

The post A reminder to rest (and why we get more done when we do) appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

Although the weirdness and imagination of the second category makes it Murakami, I have a major weakness for his details of mountain hideouts, arguably mundane routines, and getting away from it all.

When I pick up a Murakami novel and the main character is heading to Hokkaido or another remote area of Japan, my heart leaps.

The start of Killing Commendatore, his latest novel to be translated into English, nails a perfect Murakami formula for me.

I don’t mind if it’s predictable. Nor do I really mind if it’s been done in several other Murakami books already. I still love reading it.

We dive straight into the world of the main character: an unnamed 36-year-old portrait artist whose wife has just unexpectedly ended their marriage. He chooses to be the one to leave the house, taking a few belongings and hopping in his car for a month or so of road tripping around Japan. Then, when having a stiff neck and camping on frozen ground become boring, he moves to the mountains; to the house of his friend’s father, Tomohiko Amada. 

Amada, too, is an artist – or was, before facing dementia. He was one of the best Japanese style painters, we hear. In typical Murakami form, Tomohiko Amada’s past has several unconnected dots: he lived in Vienna during the war while studying Western art, but took a sudden detour when he returned and switched to the Japanese style. From then on, Amada “painted exactly what he wanted to paint” and “his brush seemed to freely leap across the canvas.” As his son says,

“Sometimes people go through huge transformations. […] They obliterate the style they’ve worked in, and out of the ruins they rise up again.”

And when that time comes, you have to act fast: “you have to grab it by the tail. Grab it hard, and never let go. There are some people who are able to, and others who can’t. Tomohiko Amada was one who could.”

Living in his house, Murakami’s protagonist finds himself thinking about Amada and his life as an artist:

“When the weather was good I liked to lie on a lounge chair out on the terrace after dinner and enjoy a glass of white wine. And as I gazed at the twinkling stars to the south, I would consider what lessons I might draw from Tomohiko Amada’s life.”

I picked up Killing Commendatore at just the right time.

In my own life, I have a bit of Murakami’s portrait artist in me right now. I’m living in my house by the mountains in Switzerland. I’m doing a little freelance consulting work, but spending the bulk of my time working on my own projects. It’s a strange situation, but I’m finding some creative flow. I think if I keep on channelling that, things will work out.

As Murakami’s protagonist says:

“I wanted to paint again. Not commissioned portraits, or rough sketches, but paintings I could really concentrate on, and undertake for myself. Whether this would work out or not I had no clue, but it was time to take the first step”.

Of course, this attracts the inevitable question from others: “Then how are you going to make a living?” Murakami’s character replies in the same way that most of us do – by cutting back on expenses and getting by on savings (and hoping that something works out).

To be asked that question means you’re probably doing something that takes guts though. And maybe it won’t work out. But there’s a boldness in it.

For Murakami’s character, age also had something to do with it: “I felt that by the time I turned forty, I’d have to secure my own unique artistic world. Forty was a sort of watershed for people. Once you get past that age, you can’t keep going on as you were before.”

Creating the conditions for art

When our unnamed protagonist moves into Amada’s mountaintop home, he finds a perfect artist’s retreat:

“A compact stereo set was on a built-in shelf so he could listen to opera while painting. The wind blowing in the open window carried with it the fresh fragrance of trees. This was, without doubt, a space for an artist to focus on his work. Everything you might need was here, and not one thing extra.”

He also has the time and freedom to create whatever he wants to: “No need any longer to paint things I didn’t want to in order to earn a living, no more obligation to prepare dinner for my wife when she came home. (Not that I minded making dinner, though that didn’t change the fact that it was an obligation.)”

Some sections about the artist’s routine could be pulled from Murakami’s own memoir on writing and running, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. But this quote from Killing Commendatore also reminded me of Mason Currey’s lovely anthology of creative routines, Daily Rituals: How Artists Works:

“I would get up early in the morning (I generally always wake before six), brew coffee in the kitchen, and then, mug in hand, pad off to the studio and sit on the stool in front of the canvas. And focus my feelings. Listen closely to the echoes in my heart, trying to grasp the image of something that had to be there.”

The conditions are there, but for Murakami’s artist, there are bigger creative blocks at work.

“You can have all the desire and ache inside you want, but what you really need is a concrete starting point.”

It’s not all plain sailing for Murakami’s artist. I love what this teaches us about creating – sometimes it works out, but sometimes the stars aren’t aligned. And often we just need to get time back on our side, which is certainly easier said than done. If you can make it happen though, I salute you.

.   .   .   .

“The courage not to fear a change in one’s lifestyle, the importance of having time on your side. And above all, discovering your own uniquely creative style and themes. Not an easy thing, of course. Though if you make a living creating things, it’s something you have to accomplish no matter what. If possible, before you turn forty …”

.   .   .   .

Killing Commendatore was published in English this month (translation by Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen). You can get your copy here.

The post Finding the courage to start afresh with Murakami in Killing Commendatore appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

Consolations of the Forest: Alone in a Cabin in the Middle Taiga

 

“REASONS WHY I’M LIVING ALONE IN A CABIN
I talked too much
I wanted silence
Too behind with my mail and too many people to see
I was jealous of Crusoe
It’s better heated than my place in Paris
Tired of running errands
So I can scream and live naked
Because I hate the telephone and traffic noise”

If you like the title (and perhaps my post about creating a modern Walden), you’ll probably enjoy reading this book. It does what it says on the tin.

But oh, does it do it beautifully.

Six months in the Middle Taiga

Sylvain Tesson has a fascinating biography. Before completing his studies, he toured the world by bicycle for two years with Alexandre Poussin, an old school friend. The pair then crossed the Himalaya by foot, a five-month journey of 5000 kilometres from Bhutan to Tajikistan. Next, he and photographer Priscilla Telmon crossed the steppes of central Asia from Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan on horseback.

He also followed the route allegedly used by Sławomir Rawicz to escape the gulag as Rawicz described in his book, The Long Walk (1955) from 2003 – 2004. Tesson wrote a book with photographer Thomas Goisque based on this experience, Sous l’étoile de la liberté. Six mille kilomètres à travers l’Eurasie sauvage (“Under the star of liberty. Six thousand kilometers across the Eurasian wild.”)

And in 2010, Tesson undertook a project to live alone for six months on the shores of Lake Baikal in a rustic cabin during winter, about 50 km south of Irkutsk. This is the story we get to enjoy here in Consolations of the Forest.

Consolations of the forest (and a lot of good books)

Sylvain Tesson isn’t entirely alone in his cabin in the Siberian Taiga. He has good company: “Michel Tournier for daydreaming, Michel Déon for melancholy, D. H. Lawrence for sensuality and Yukio Mishima for steely coldness”.

“A little poetry and some philosophers as well: Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, the Stoics. Sade and Casanova to stir up my blood. Some crime fiction, because sometimes you need a breather.”

All of these, among many others, find their way into his large crate of books that travelled with him to the cabin. The crate does not, however, include books on his new environment: “I already knew that one must never travel with books related to one’s destination; in Venice, read Lermontov, but at Baikal, Byron.”

Sylvain Tesson describes how “I listen to Schubert while watching the snow, I read Marcus Aurelius after my wood-chopping chores, I smoke a Havana to celebrate the evening’s fishing.”

I especially enjoyed his explanation of how he chose the books in the crate:

“Guided by a mysterious impulse, my hand selected the books I needed to read. Marcus Aurelius helped me. Giovanni showed me the man I should have been; Chase showed me as I am. Books are more useful than psychoanalysis; they say everything, better than life does. In a cabin, mixed with solitude, they make a perfect lytic cocktail, gradually relieving the symptoms of acute disease.”

Tesson had also, of course, some literary inspiration before deciding to live in his Siberian cabin, some of which he brought with him:

“A small collection of books on life in the woods: Grey Owl for his radical stance, Daniel Defoe for myth, Aldo Leopold for ethics and Thoreau for philosophy, although I find his sermonizing a touch wearing. Whitman – he’s enchanting: his Leaves of Grass is a work of grace.”

As we hear from Tesson, Leaves of Grass really is a favourite (and deserving of its place in the crate):

“On that October day five years ago when I discovered old Walt’s Leaves of Grass, I had no idea that reading it would lead me to a cabin. It’s dangerous to open a book.“

It’s not all emotional plain sailing during his time in the Taiga. But, as Tesson explains, books help. “Tears are kept in check by reading.”

Consolations of the Forest is a beautiful celebration of living slowly, savouring the little things, and returning to ourselves.

Of ridding ourselves of modern distractions and getting back to basics. Of grabbing a small bag and heading out for the day on foot; just ourselves and the natural world.

It’s a reminder to “sit at the window drinking tea, allowing the land to ripple through its nuances, letting oneself steep in the passing hours, no longer thinking of anything, but suddenly seizing a passing idea and jotting it down in a notebook.”

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

“In Life of Rancé, this quotation from the Elegies of Tibullus: ‘How sweet it is while lying in bed to hear fierce winds.’ The wind rampages all day long and I read my Tibullus.”

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