Books

In no particular order…

Fiction:
Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar

Little soul, gentle and drifting, guest and companion of my body, now you will dwell below in pallid places, stark and bare; there you will abandon your play of yore. But one moment still, let us gaze together on these familiar shores, on these objects which doubtless we shall not see again…Let us try, if we can, to enter into death with open eyes…”

Marguerite Yourcenar

Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

“The power of one is above all things the power to believe in yourself, often well beyond any latent ability you may have previously demonstrated. The mind is the athlete, the body is simply the means it uses to run faster or longer, jump higher, shoot straighter, kick better, swim harder, hit further, or box better.”

Bryce Courtenay

Normal People by Sally Rooney

“Still, Connell went home that night and read over some notes he had been making for a new story, and he felt the old beat of pleasure in his body, like watching a perfect goal, like the rustling movement of light through leaves, a phrase of music from the window of a passing car. Life offers up these moments of joy despite everything.”

― Sally Rooney

Most novels by Lily King
La sombra del viento by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Beasts of a Little Land by Juhea Kim
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
Dublin Murder Squad Series, Tana French
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout
Bel Canto, Ann Patchett

Non-fiction

Joan Didion’s works

To have that sense of one’s intrinsic worth which constitutes self-respect is potentially to have everything: the ability to discriminate, to love and to remain indifferent. To lack it is to be locked within oneself, paradoxically incapable of either love or indifference.

Joan Didion, On Self Respect

Merle’s Door, Ted Kerasote
This Changes Everything, Naomi Klein
Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls
Half Broke Horses, Jeannette Walls
Educated, Tara Westover
Tiny Beautiful Things, Cheryl Strayed