what are some books that literally changed your life?

[★emerson★]

for me, it was "The Women" by Kristin Hannah or "Good Grief" by Lolly Winston

[Diane]

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. - My mother raised my sister and I after suddenly losing my father at 9. My mom was 32- 2 girls, unemployed and lost. It wasn’t orbit we made it. Strong women. I found a personal connection with this book, different story but some strong women.

[Sarah]

Body by You: The You Are Your Own Gym Guide to Total Women's Fitness

Never Bet Against Occam: Mast Cell Activation Disease and the Modern Epidemics of Chronic Illness and Medical Complexity

This told me why I wasn't testing positive to the control on my allergy tests. Because I was drinking tea each day. Which is a natural ANTIHISTAMINE. But the allergist doesn't tell you that! But then I started to test positive to the food allergies. Now I have 13 of them.

The Carnivore Code: Unlocking the Secrets to
Optimal Health by Returning to Our Ancestral
Diet


Made me very healthy! I am allergic to all of those carbs you know...

No Grain, No Pain: A 30-Day Diet for Eliminating
the Root Cause of Chronic Pain


When you have the celiac gene and get sick from Gluten. Plus you have a wheat + corn allergy too!

[Katie]

Educated by Tara Westover, Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay Gibson, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Leaving the Fold by Marlene Winell.

[America]

Greenlights- Matthew McConaughey

Forth Wing series- Rebecca Yarros

[Karen]

The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman. The idea that the consciousness that is matter created the world as a way to experience itself was something that never left me and shaped so much of how I see beauty and life in the world. It also fundamentally shaped my idea of what real love looks like and should feel like.

[Fiona]

The Essential Rumi. A book I have dipped into time and time again. It's beautiful.

The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

[Miren]

The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (Read this at 12, so Holden was fascinating/cool to me instead of insufferable lol)

Ender’s Gane - Orson Scott Card (Got me into the Scifi genre)

Saturday - Ian McEwan (beautiful prose)

Assassin’s Apprentice - Robin Hobb (What great fantasy writing looks like)

Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Neapolitan Quartet - Elena Ferrante (everyone should read this)

Beware of Pity - Stefan Zweig (A recent read that totally rocked my world)

[Diana]

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Temple House Vanishing by Rachel Donohue
The Phone bx at the edge of the world by Laura Ima Messina

[Lizabeth]

Thorn Birds…. It inspired me to spend a year traveling around Australia

[Em]

It's silly, but A Good Girl's Guide to Murder got me back into reading in 2022 after a really long reading slump. That rekindled love for reading saved my life a lot during university.