Time to put your feet up and get comfy with a good book? Here are ten uplifting, heart-warming, life-changing reads to lighten up your world.
2020 will be remembered not only for a virus that turned the world upside down but also for how it changed our relationship to reading. For many, there was little brain space to take in the complexities of a shopping list let alone a novel with intricate plotting, complex characters and nuanced themes.
Some truly amazing books emerged during the year – Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet, Douglas Stuart’s Shuggie Bain, Evie Wyld’s The Bass Rock – that reminded us of the brilliance of literature. But, to be honest, my pandemic-frazzled brain struggled to fully appreciate them.
There were also some wonderful books that provided that light escape hatch to a more certain world – Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club, Rachel Joyce’s Miss Benson’s Beetle, Pip Williams’ The Dictionary of Lost Words. These were heart-warming, engaging delights that provide much-needed solace in the upside-down times.
So if you have a bit of time to relax and immerse yourself in a good book this week, what could you read?
Here are ten books that will take you to different worlds and help you see your own world with different eyes. While some may be a little more challenging, they are all page-turners and reminders of the beauty and resilience of our lives.
Song of the Crocodile
Nardi Simpson
In Song of the Crocodile, Yuwaalaraay writer, performer & storyteller, Nardi Simpson, tells the story of three generations of the Billymil family living in the campgrounds on the edge of a tiny Australian outback town. Racism, violence, injustice abounds – this is Australia – but it’s the resilience of culture and kin, the lyricism and life of language and the spirits that make this debut an essential read this summer.
Honeybee
Craig Silvey
Australian author of Jasper Jones, Craig Silvey, returns with the story of Sam, a teen with a turbulent upbringing struggling to find their place in the world. With characters to love, Honeybee presents us with a different kind of family – one based on choice. It is a celebration of kindness, bringing much-needed hope and acceptance, joy and humour into our worlds.
Piranesi
Susanna Clarke
Things aren’t always as they seem. I was a little confused when I started to read Susanna Clarke’s new novel, Piranesi. It opens with a man trapped in a strange world – an endless maze of rooms that he has spent years learning. There is another person – referred to as the Other – but his relationship and role is uncertain. The time is uncertain. The reason for his being there is uncertain. Is this fantasy or science fiction or horror? What’s going on? And then the breadcrumbs begin to drop – and the world opens up. I was totally enthralled by Piranesi, driven by the “what the heck is going on?” until the final page. An unexpected delight.
The Ministry for the Future
Kim Stanley Robinson
For me, the best science fiction blends imaginative world building with complex plotting , diverse characters and then, integrates a goodly amount of science fact – and science what-if? KSR pulls all these aspects together to present a vision of the very-near future (2025) grappling with the sudden catastrophic impacts of climate change. You know all those books that came out (or were written) last year about a virus turning the world upside down? Well, I was wondering if The Ministry for the Future was our 2025 prescient climate-change novel – the wake-up novel, lined with hopefulness. We’ve had many dystopian visions of climate change over the last few years that a hopeful vision of the near future is a welcome arrival.
The Vanishing Half
Brit Bennett
Brit Bennett’s new novel, The Vanishing Half, tells the story of identical twins born into a black community in the American south in 1938 who grow up and take different paths. One keeps her history secret from her white husband and the other returns to the town they were trying to escape – with her black daughter. But then the past catches up with them … What is lost and what is gained in the pursuit of perceived freedom? Bennett follows up her acclaimed debut, The Mothers, with a novel that weaves the complexities of relationships and secrets, racism and passing, gender and sexual identity into a compelling and thought-provoking read.
The Survivors
Jane Harper
I love Jane Harper’s crime fiction. She brilliantly captures place – especially the Australian outback – and brings nuanced characters into brain-stretching mysteries. I was particularly taken by her most recent book, The Survivors, as it not only took me into a community and place that was both familiar and intriguing – but the characters’ choices made me contemplate things like forgiveness, kindness, trust, friendship and family. This is page-turning crime fiction that doesn’t dwell in the quagmire of violence, but rather, opens doors to exploring what it means to be a good human.
Humankind: A hopeful history
Rutger Bregman
Humankind: Changing the world One small act at a time.
Brad Aronson
The stories that have shone through for me this year weren’t about achievement, success and making loads of money. The stories that really stood out were about kindness. To help us bring more kindness into the world, we have two excellent books to verse ourselves in its history (Humankind by Rutger Bregman) and its application (stories of kindness in Humankind by Brad Aronson). Both are reminders that it is kindness that anchors our civility, keeps us living and working together in harmony and keeps us alive. If we look at history, it is there. Small acts, simple words can change another’s life. They can change your life. In the end, we have kindness.
Bewildered: Leaving everything behind for 3000km in the wilds of New Zealand
Laura Waters
Time to take a walk? After a coming out of a messy relationship, Laura Waters wanted to press reset on her life. So she decided to take leisurely 3000km hike up the middle of New Zealand on the Te Araroa trail. I do like women-in-the-wilderness tales (see Tracks, Wild, This Wild and Precious Life) and Waters’ Bewildered delivers. Her journey not only traverses a magnificent landscape but takes her from a place of overwhelm and anxiety to peace. It is the story of a human being facing their fears – and walking on. More of that please.
Phosphorescence: On awe, wonder and the things that sustain you when the world goes dark
Julia Baird
Earlier this year, I declared Julia Baird’s Phosphorescence “the book we need right now”. Well, it turns out we needed it all year. How do we find moments of light, when the world seems dark? Baird dives into a world of luminous creatures, stillness, savouring, friendship, wonder and awe. She shares stories of others who have found wonder under the ocean, awe in space and resilience in the most adverse of circumstances.
There is so much to love about this book. I hoovered it up when I read it and found myself in a stupor of happy-place indulgence. Perfect holiday reading.
Happy reading my friends.