I read a lot. Not in a performative “I read 52 books a year” way, but in a “I always have a Kindle in my bag and I genuinely can’t sleep without reading” way. These are the books I keep coming back to, recommending to people, and thinking about long after I’ve finished them.
If you’re looking for your next Kindle read, start here.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
This is the book I recommend more than any other. Nora Seed finds herself in a library between life and death, where every book represents a life she could have lived if she’d made different choices. She gets to try them all.
It sounds like it could be cheesy. It’s not. It’s quietly devastating and deeply comforting at the same time. The central question, “What if I’d done things differently?”, is one every human being asks themselves. Haig handles it with warmth, intelligence, and without patronising the reader.
I read this during a period where I was questioning a lot of my own choices, career moves, relationships, the big stuff. It didn’t give me answers, but it reframed the question in a way that stuck with me. The message isn’t “everything happens for a reason.” It’s closer to “the life you’re living has more value than you think.”
If you’ve ever spiralled into “what if” thinking, read this book. It won’t fix everything, but it’ll make you feel less alone in asking the question.
Best for: Anyone going through a transition, questioning their path, or just needing something that feels like a warm blanket for your brain.
Women Living Deliciously by Florence Given
Florence Given writes like a friend who’s finally saying the thing everyone’s been thinking. This book is about reclaiming joy, rejecting the shame and perfectionism that get piled on women, and actually living in your body instead of constantly monitoring how it looks to other people.
Given’s argument is simple but powerful: for too long, women have internalised the belief that their bodies exist to be looked at, that fully expressing themselves is embarrassing, and that desire is something to distrust. She unpacks all of that with a mix of honesty, humour, and genuine warmth. It’s bold without being preachy, and it’s beautifully illustrated too.
What I loved most is that it’s not another book telling you to “love yourself” without giving you the tools. Given actually breaks down why self-expression feels so hard, where the shame comes from, and what living “deliciously” looks like in practice. It’s the follow-up to her record-breaking Women Don’t Owe You Pretty, and I think it’s even better.
I keep coming back to one idea from this book: a delicious life isn’t achieved through winning other people’s approval. It’s built through the courage of discovering and embodying your own values, whether or not they’re understood by anyone else. That reframed a lot for me.
Best for: Women in their twenties and thirties who feel stuck between who they are and who they think they should be. Also great for anyone who needs a permission slip to stop shrinking and start taking up space.
Staring at the Sun by Irvin D. Yalom
Yalom is a psychiatrist, and this book is about the fear of death. Before you scroll past, hear me out.
This isn’t a morbid book. It’s one of the most life-affirming things I’ve ever read. Yalom’s central argument is that confronting mortality, really sitting with the fact that we will die, is the key to living more fully. He draws on decades of work with patients, philosophical traditions (especially Epicurus), and his own experience of ageing.
The writing is warm, conversational, and surprisingly funny. He tells stories about patients who were paralysed by death anxiety and shows how facing it head-on freed them to actually live. There’s a quote he uses from Epicurus that I think about constantly: “Where death is, I am not. Where I am, death is not.”
I read this during a time when existential dread was hitting hard. Not in a dramatic way, just that low-level hum of “what’s the point?” that creeps in sometimes. This book didn’t eliminate that feeling, but it gave me a framework for working with it instead of running from it.
Best for: Anyone who lies awake at night thinking about mortality, or anyone who wants to think more deeply about what it means to live well.
Honourable Mentions
Attached by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller: The best introduction to attachment theory in relationships. Read this before you start dating anyone new. It explains why some people pull away, why others cling, and why certain combinations are explosive.
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk: If you’ve ever wondered why your body reacts the way it does to stress, or if you’ve experienced trauma of any kind, this book connects the dots between physical sensations and emotional experiences. Dense but life-changing.
How I Read
I do almost all my reading on Kindle. The Paperwhite is perfect. It fits in any bag, the battery lasts weeks, and reading on an e-ink screen before bed is infinitely better than scrolling a phone. I buy most books directly on Amazon, but I also use Libby (connected to my local library card) for books I’m not sure about.
My reading habit is simple: 20-30 minutes before bed, every night. No phone, no exceptions. Some weeks I’ll finish a book. Some weeks I’ll read 10 pages. The consistency matters more than the speed.
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