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31 Books Every Woman Should Read In Her 40s - Essential Books

Books Every Woman in their 40s Should Have on Her Bookshelf

By Muhiuddin AlamPublished 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago 30 min read
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31 Books Every Woman Should Read In Her 40s - Essential Books
Photo by Tom Hermans on Unsplash

In this article, we will share 31 Books Every Woman Should Read In Her 40s. We have looked at life-changing books, self-development books, personal development books, Best Female Empowerment Books, Classic books every woman should read, good books for middle-aged women, books every woman should read in a lifetime of all category, and recommended 31 Books Every Woman Should Read In Her 40s from those. Choose wisely.

Books are beautiful things. Information, entertainment, wisdom, and imagination can all be contained in that beautiful stack of pages. . . Or there may be electronic materials.

But there are many books in this world. To be precise, there are thousands of books, so the question is, "What kind of books are suitable for women in their 40s?" Especially in the first half of your life, you will try to do more. Try to find everything you can get in life. In the beginning, I wanted to say that there are many books that can make up my book list, but I hope you, like me, will continue to read these books during the years of education. However, reading some classic works can be meaningful.

For ladies in their 40s, some of their relatives often like to read books. You can recommend some interesting novels to them.

When you enter your 40s, you have already had a certain experience, and your thinking is slowly maturing. You also need to keep reading some books to improve yourself. The following are the must-read books recommended by the editor for 40-year-old women, welcome to read!

This book is for The majority of middle-aged women tailor-made, tell them: how to welcome the second spring of life with a happy mood; how to show and show the charm of wisdom with careful self-design.

Women in their 40s should strive to create a good image of themselves and devote themselves to work with a positive attitude; at the same time, they should also strive to create the warmth of the family, care for the emotions between husband and wife, and build a harmonious life; with meticulous self-care, Keep in good health, take care of yourself scientifically, and pursue a healthy and happy life.

Women are very sensitive and attentive, so when it comes to reading, women are more likely to understand the truth in books, and women who love to read are very temperamental, and knowledge can also become a woman's confidence. A classic book that a woman must read in her life, come and see.

Some time ago, my friend asked me to recommend Books Every Woman Should Read In Her 40s, but I didn't answer immediately. The reason is that there are different choices due to different genders, ages, hobbies, and orientations in reading. However, trust in bloggers cannot be fruitless. Therefore, after consulting relevant materials and editing this bibliography for women, this article can be regarded as an answer to my friend and also a recommendation for 31 Books Every Woman Should Read In Her 40s to all-female who love reading.

Books Every Woman in their 40s Should Have on Her Bookshelf

Table Of Contents

1. We Should All Be Feminists

2. The World According to Garp

3. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

4. Depression Hates a Moving Target

5. The Year of Magical Thinking

6. The 21 Day Financial Fast

7. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

8. The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?

9. White Teeth

10. Persuasion

11. It’s Called a Breakup Because It’s Broken

12. #GirlBoss

13. Lean In

14. Americanah

15. Everything I Never Told You

16. The Goldfinch

17. Beloved

18. Mistakes I Made at Work

19. The Queen’s Code

20. Teaching Kids to Buy Stocks

21. How to Think Strategically

22. State of Wonder

23. Hannah Coulter

24. The Girl With All the Gifts

25. The Secret Scripture

26. Family Trust

27. Inheritance from Mother

28. The Leisure Seeker

29. The Murder at the Vicarage

30. The Summer Book

31. This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!

1. We Should All Be Feminists

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Summary:

What does “feminism” mean today? That is the question at the heart of We Should All Be Feminists, a personal, eloquently argued essay—adapted from her much-viewed Tedx talk of the same name—by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the award-winning author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun. With humor and levity, here Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century—one rooted in inclusion and awareness.

She shines a light not only on blatant discrimination but also on the more insidious, institutional behaviors that marginalize women around the world, in order to help readers of all walks of life better understand the often masked realities of sexual politics.

Throughout, she draws extensively on her own experiences—in the US, in her native Nigeria, and abroad—offering an artfully nuanced explanation of why the gender divide is harmful to women and men, alike. Argued in the same observant, witty and clever prose that has made Adichie a bestselling novelist, here is one remarkable author's exploration of what it means to be a woman today—and an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists.

2. The World According to Garp

by John Irving

Summary:

Famous contemporary American writer John Owen is a rich, wise and humorous work. The main axis of the story is a man named Gap. He has a celebrity mother Jenny who was born in a wealthy family. Jenny is an unmarried mother. She said: "I want a job and live alone. I want a child, but I don't want to share my body or life with others." So she raised Gap and grew up.

He spent a lot of energy to expand Gap’s horizons and even spent money to let him spend the night with a prostitute... In Owen’s brilliant writings, Gap’s world is an imaginary world, but the fear, happiness, and anger in this world The stories of love, complexity, and innocence, and the cycle between tragedy and comedy, illuminate real life. This book won the 1980 American National Book Award.

3. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

by Marjane Satrapi

Summary:

Wise, often funny, sometimes heartbreaking, "Persepolis," tells the story of Marjane Satrapi's life in Tehran from the ages of six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken child of radical Marxists, and the great-granddaughter of Iran's last emperor, Satrapi bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

"Persepolis" paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Amidst the tragedy, Marjane's child's eye view adds immediacy and humor, and her story of a childhood at once outrageous and ordinary, beset by the unthinkable and yet buffered by an extraordinary and loving family, is immensely moving. It is also very beautiful; Satrapi's drawings have the power of the very best woodcuts.

4. Depression Hates a Moving Target

by Nita Sweeney

Before she discovered running, Nita Sweeney was 49-years-old, chronically depressed, occasionally manic, and unable to jog for more than 60 seconds at a time. Using exercise, Nita discovered an inner strength she didn’t know she possessed, and with the help of her canine companion, she found herself on the way to completing her first marathon. In her memoir, Sweeney shares how she overcame emotional and physical challenges to finish the race and come back from the brink.

Anyone who has struggled with depression knows the ways the mind can defeat you. However, it is possible to transform yourself with the power of running. You may learn that you can endure more than you think and that there’s no other therapy quite like pavement beneath your feet.

5. The Year of Magical Thinking

by Joan Didion

Summary:

From one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage–and a life, in good times and bad–that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.

Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Days later–the night before New Year's Eve–the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner after visiting the hospital when John Gregory Dunne suffered a massive and fatal coronary.

In a second, this close, symbiotic partnership of forty years was over. Four weeks later, their daughter pulled through. Two months after that, arriving at LAX, she collapsed and underwent six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center to relieve a massive hematoma.

This powerful book is Didion's attempt to make sense of the “weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness... About marriage and children and memory... About the shallowness of sanity, about life itself."

6. The 21 Day Financial Fast

by Michelle Singletary

In The 21-Day Financial Fast, award-winning writer and The Washington Post columnist Michelle Singletary proposes a field-tested financial challenge. For twenty-one days, participants will put away their credit cards and buy only the barest essentials. With Michelle's guidance during this three-week financial fast, you will discover how to:

Break bad spending habits

Plot a course to become debt-free with the Debt Dash Plan

Avoid the temptation of overspending on college

Learn how to prepare elderly relatives and yourself for future long-term care expenses

Be prepared for any contingency with a Life Happens Fund

Stop worrying about money and find the priceless power of financial peace

As you discover practical ways to achieve financial freedom, you'll experience what it truly means to live a life of financial peace and prosperity.

Thousands of individuals have participated in the fast and as a result, have gotten out of debt and become better managers of their money and finances . . . and you can too!

7. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

by Malcolm Gladwell

Summary:

THE TIPPING POINT is the biography of an idea, and the idea is quite simple. It is that many of the problems we face-from crime to teenage delinquency to traffic jams-behave like epidemics. They aren't linear phenomena in the sense that they steadily and predictably change according to the level of effort brought to bear against them. They are capable of sudden and dramatic changes in direction. Years of well-intentioned intervention may have no impact at all, yet the right intervention at just the right time can start a cascade of change.

Many of the social ills that face us today, in other words, areas inherently volatile as the epidemics that periodically through the human population: little things can cause them to tip at any time and if we want to understand how to confront and solve them we have to understand what those tipping Points' are.

In this revolutionary new study, Malcolm Gladwell explores the ramifications of this. Not simply for politicians and policy-makers, his method provides a new way of viewing everyday experience and enables us to develop strategies for everything from raising a child to running a company.

8. The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?

by Rick Warren

Before you were born, God already planned your life. God longs for you to discover the life he uniquely created you to live--here on earth, and forever in eternity. Let The Purpose Driven Life show you how. As one of the bestselling nonfiction books in history, with more than 35 million copies sold, The Purpose Driven Life is far more than just a book; it's the road map for your spiritual journey. A journey that will transform your life.

Designed to be read in 42 days, each chapter provides a daily meditation and practical steps to help you discover and live out your purpose, starting with exploring three of life's most pressing questions:

The Question of Existence: Why am I alive?

The Question of Significance: Does my life matter?

The Question of Purpose: What on earth am I here for?

The book also includes links to 3-minute video introductions and a 30- to 40-minute audio Bible study message for each chapter. Plus questions for further study and additional resources.

The Purpose Driven Life is available in audiobook, ebook, softcover, and hardcover editions. Also available: The Purpose Driven Life video study and study guide, journal, devotional, book for kids, book for churches, Spanish edition, Large Print edition, and more.

9. White Teeth

by Zadie Smith

At the center of this invigorating novel are two unlikely friends, Archie Jones, and Samad Iqbal. Hapless veterans of World War II, Archie and Samad, and their families become agents of England's irrevocable transformation. A second marriage to Clara Bowden, a beautiful, albeit tooth-challenged, Jamaican half his age, quite literally gives Archie a second lease on life and produces Irie, a knowing child whose personality doesn't quite match her name (Jamaican for "no problem").

Samad's late-in-life arranged marriage (he had to wait for his bride to be born), produces twin sons whose separate paths confound Iqbal's every effort to direct them, and a renewed, if selective, submission to his Islamic faith. Set against London's racial and cultural tapestry, venturing across the former empire and into the past as it barrels toward the future, White Teeth revels in the ecstatic hodgepodge of modern life, flirting with disaster, confounding expectations, and embracing the comedy of daily existence.

10. Persuasion

by Jane Austen

Summary:

Jane Austen's last completed novel, Persuasion is a delightful social satire of England's landed gentry and a moving tale of lovers separated by class distinctions. After years apart, unmarried Anne Elliot, the heroine Jane Austen called “almost too good for me,” encounters the dashing naval officer others persuaded her to reject, as he now courts the rash and younger Louisa Musgrove. Superbly drawn, these characters and those of Anne's prideful father, Sir Walter, the scheming Mrs.

Clay, and the duplicitous William Elliot, heir to Kellynch Hall, become luminously alive—so much so that the poet Tennyson, visiting historic Lyme Regis, where a pivotal scene occurs, exclaimed: “Don't talk to me of the Duke of Monmouth. Show me the exact spot where Louisa Musgrove fell! "

Tender, almost grave, Persuasion offers a glimpse into Jane Austen's own heart while it magnificently displays the full maturity of her literary power.

11. It’s Called a Breakup Because It’s Broken

by Greg Behrendt and Amiira Ruotola-Behrendt

Summary:

The latest book by Greg Behrendt, author of the multi-million plus copy bestseller's Just Not That Into You', is another hilarious, wry, and wise take on relationships and how to move on when one goes sour.' He's Just Not That Into You' is more than a book. It's a revolution.

The phrase, coined by Behrendt for an episode of Sex and the City', has now entered the language: it features in ads, it's referred to in newspaper headlines and it has spawned spin-off spoof books and more.' It's Called A Break-up Because It's Broken' promises to do this and more. It will help you get over anyone and move on.

Behrendt's voice is unique - combining tell-it-like-it-is advice with humor and the guy's eye view'.The book is filled with solid advice to help you let go of your ex - for example:'It's 3 am, the bottle of wine is empty, do you really want to make that call?' Each insightful chapter is complemented with a Q -and-A with Greg on what he's thinking, case studies, and games. Greg and Amiira tackle tough issues such as break-up sex, how not to lose your friends during a break-up, and 10 great places to cry.

It's the ultimate read and reference for anyone who has ever been in a relationship. and 10 great places to cry. It's the ultimate read and reference for anyone who has ever been in a relationship. and 10 great places to cry. It's the ultimate read and reference for anyone who has ever been in a relationship.

12. #GirlBoss

by Sophia Amoruso

Summary:

#GIRLBOSS includes Sophia’s story, yet is infinitely bigger than Sophia. It’s deeply personal yet universal. Filled with brazen wake-up calls (“You are not a special snowflake”), cunning and frank observations (“Failure is your invention”), and behind-the-scenes stories from Nasty Gal’s meteoric rise, #GIRLBOSS covers a lot of ground.

It proves that being successful isn’t about how popular you were in high school or where you went to college (if you went to college). Rather, success is about trusting your instincts and following your gut, knowing which rules to follow and which to break.

13. Lean In

by Sheryl Sandberg

Summary:

Sheryl Sandberg--Facebook COO, ranked eighth on Fortune's list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business--has become one of America's most galvanizing leaders, and an icon for millions of women juggling work and family. In Lean In, she urges women to take risks and seek new challenges, to find work that they love, and to remain passionately engaged with it at the highest levels throughout their lives.

Lean In --Sheryl Sandberg's provocative, inspiring book about women and power--grew out of an electrifying TED talk Sandberg gave in 2010, in which she expressed her concern that progress for women in achieving major leadership positions had stalled. The talk became a phenomenon and has since been viewed nearly two million times. In Lean In, she fuses humorous personal anecdotes, singular lessons on confidence and leadership, and practical advice for women based on research, data, her own experiences, and the experiences of other women of all ages.

Sandberg has an uncanny gift for cutting through layers of ambiguity that surround working women, and in Lean In she grapples, piercingly, with the great questions of modern life. Her message to women is overwhelmingly positive. She is a trailblazing model for the ideas she so passionately espouses, and she's on the pulse of a topic that has never been more relevant.

14. Americanah

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Summary:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adic was born in Enugu in southern Nigeria in 1977. He first studied medicine at the University of Nigeria, then studied media and political science at Eastern Connecticut State University in the United States, and then at John. Hopkins University received a Master of Arts degree in Creative Writing.

In 2003, her first novel "Purple Hibiscus" was nominated for the 2004 Orange Fiction Award. The novel tells the story of the political turmoil in Nigeria in the 1990s and the tragedy of a family trapped by faith. Her second novel "Half a Yellow Day" peeked into Nigeria's civil war trauma and won the 2007 Orange Novel Award. In 2009, her novel "Things Around the Neck" was nominated for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.

In 2010, Adichie was selected as one of the "Twenty Novelists Under 40" by The New Yorker. In 2015, "Time" magazine selected Adichie as "the 100 most influential people in the world".

In 2014, her TED talk was assembled into a collection of essays of the same name "We should all be feminists". Her latest novel "The Yankee" presents her deep thoughts and feelings about American racial politics. The book won the 2013 National Association of Book Critics Fiction Award and was also the top ten best books of 2013 by The New York Times.

15. Everything I Never Told You

by Celeste Ng

Summary:

Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet...

So begins the story of this exquisite debut novel, about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee; their middle daughter, a girl who inherited her mother's bright blue eyes and her father's jet-black hair. Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue—in Marilyn's case that her daughter becomes a doctor rather than a homemaker, in James's case, that Lydia is popular at school, a girl with a busy social life and the center of every party.

When Lydia's body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos. James, consumed by guilt, sets out on a reckless path that may destroy his marriage. Marilyn, devastated and vengeful, is determined to find a responsible party, no matter what the cost. Lydia's older brother, Nathan, is certain that the neighborhood bad boy Jack is somehow involved. But it's the youngest of the family—Hannah—who observes far more than anyone realizes and who may be the only one who knows the truth about what happened.

A profoundly moving story of family, history, and the meaning of home, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, exploring the divisions between cultures and the rifts within a family, and uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.

16. The Goldfinch

by Donna Tartt

Summary:

An explosion at the Metropolitan Museum in New York killed the boy Theo’s mother and the thirteen-year-old Theo miraculously survived. But because his father had abandoned their mother and son, Theo could only live in the homes of wealthy classmates. The unfamiliar environment made him at a loss, and the new interpersonal relationship made him feel frustrated, but what made him most unbearable was the pain of losing his mother.

But he accidentally owned the famous painting "Goldfinch" in the museum. This painting was his only consolation when he remembered his mother and brought him into the deep and dark world of art...

As an adult, Theo wandered between the celebrity studio and the antique shop where he worked. He did not become close to this world, he fell in love with a girl. What he didn't know was that he was in the center of a dangerous circle that was shrinking.

"Goldfinch" was created by the famous American female writer Donna Tate for more than ten years. It is a great novel that you will read at night and recommend to all your friends.

17. Beloved

by Toni Morrison

Summary:

Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby.

Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. Her new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died namelessly and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.

Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering achievement by Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison.

18. Mistakes I Made at Work

by Jessica Bacal

In Mistakes, I Made at Work, a Publishers Weekly Top 10 Business Book for Spring 2014, Jessica Bacal interviews twenty-five successful women about their toughest on-the-job moments. These innovators across a variety of fields - from the arts to finance to tech - reveal that they're more thoughtful, purposeful, and assertive as leaders because they learned from their mistakes, not because they never made any. Interviewees include:

Cheryl Strayed, bestselling author of Wild

Anna Holmes, founding editor of Jezebel.com

Kim Gordon, a founding member of the band Sonic Youth

Joanna Barsch, Director Emeritus of McKinsey & Company

Carol Dweck, Stanford psychology professor

Ruth Ozeki, New York Times bestselling author of Tale for the Time Being

And many more . . .

Ideal for millennials just starting their careers, for women seeking to advance at work, or for anyone grappling with issues of perfectionism, Mistakes I Made at Work features fascinating and surprising anecdotes, as well as tips for readers.

19. The Queen’s Code

by Alison Armstrong

The long-standing war between the sexes is the stuff of legend. In TV ads, sitcoms, and chick flick everywhere, we've all seen the images - the long-suffering woman and the clueless, insensitive man.

But what if it's all a misunderstanding?

In this fairy tale for the contemporary woman, Kimberlee seeks advice and discovers a treasure chest of esoteric knowledge hidden within her own family. As she unravels the mysteries of men's behavior in this romantic journey, so will you. As she learns the Language of Heroes and transforms how she relates to men, so will you.

Whether you're in love with men or frustrated by them - or both - The Queen's Code creates a new ethic and approach for interacting with men in a way that honors both sexes. From eight distinct points of view, you'll get an intimate look inside the hearts and minds of both men and women as we

struggle to understand ourselves and each other.

20. Teaching Kids to Buy Stocks

by J.J. Wenrich

Summary:

If today's youth are tomorrow's future, we the village need to properly equip ourselves in order to equip our youth for success.

That means not only parents but grandparents aunts and uncles teachers friends neighbors... You get the picture.

This book seeks to educate the general population in a way that can be passed on to younger generations for years to come. It's adulting for all ages!

21. How to Think Strategically

by Greg Githens

How to Think Strategically is the ideal primer for those who want to develop their mental acumen and make a strategic impact. This book will help you understand what it means to “be strategic” and how to craft a strategy that is effective, powerful, and clever. A competent strategic thinker tolerates ambiguity, notices weak signals, defines the core challenge facing the organization, and designs effective responses with a winning strategic logic.

How to Think Strategically provides numerous real-world examples of individual strategic thinkers in action describing how they constructed a winning strategic logic. Through these examples, you'll learn useful lessons that can be applied in any organization and in your personal life. This book will show you how to:

Internalize the 20 micro-skills of strategic thinking

Develop your personal brand as a competent strategic thinker

Pose high-quality questions that spark strategic insights

Write a concise one-page statement strategy, with five essential concepts that will help you distinguish effective strategy from a list of goals

A design strategy that is clever and powerful

Recognize and mitigate blind spots and decision traps

Distinguish strategic thinking from operational thinking and appropriately apply each

Overcome the excuse of “I'm too busy to be strategic"

Recognize and exploit the four X-factors of strategic thinking: Drive, Insight, Chance, and Emergence

Practice extra-ordinary leadership to confront issues and leap into an unknown future

Improve conversations with other strategists

The author brings a unique perspective that reflects years of experience as a corporate manager, educator, strategy consultant, facilitator, executive leadership coach, and board member. He writes with an engaging style that unpacks the broader concepts into easy-to-remember nuggets. Anyone can improve their strategic thinking if they know where to focus their attention. This book will be an indispensable guide for anyone interested in developing their personal brand.

22. State of Wonder

by Ann Patchett

Ann Patchett raises the bar with State of Wonder, a provocative and ambitious novel set deep in the Amazon jungle. Research scientist Dr. Marina Singh is sent to Brazil to track down her former mentor, Dr. Annick Swenson, who seems to have disappeared in the Amazon while working on an extremely valuable new drug. The last person who was sent to find her died before he could complete his mission.

Plagued by trepidation, Marina embarks on an odyssey into the insect-infested jungle in hopes of finding answers to the questions about her friend's death, her company's future, and her own past. Once found, Dr. Swenson is as imperious and uncompromising as ever. But while she is as threatening as anything the jungle has to offer, the greatest sacrifices to be made are the ones Dr. Swenson asks of herself, and will ultimately ask of Marina.

State of Wonder is a world unto itself, where unlikely beauty stands beside unimaginable loss. It is a tale that leads the reader into the very heart of darkness and then shows us what lies on the other side.

23. Hannah Coulter

by Wendell Berry

In HANNAH's twilight years, the children left the farm, and the husband passed away. What is left is the home she and her husband built bit by bit, and the stories and characters of her life, who accompanied her in a rocking chair, night and night Memories. The first time he read WB's book, he has deep feelings for traditional American farming methods and lifestyles. Very idealistic.

This is his own life background. His father is a lawyer and also runs a farm. WB resigned from the university where he taught, and now runs a farm in KENTUCKY, and writes at the same time. Many of his novels are based on Port William, starting in 1960, NATHAN COULTER. HANNAH COULTER was published in 2004. Andy Catlett in 2006 is also.

24. The Girl With All the Gifts

by M. R. Carey

Melanie is a very special girl. Dr. Caldwell calls her "our little genius".

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.

Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn't know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad.

The Girl with All the Gifts is a sensational thriller, perfect for fans of Stephen King, Justin Cronin, and Neil Gaiman.

25. The Secret Scripture

by Sebastian Barry

Nearing her one-hundredth birthday, Roseanne McNulty faces an uncertain future, as the Roscommon Regional Mental hospital where she's spent the best part of her adult life prepares for closure. Over the weeks leading up to this upheaval, she talks often with her psychiatrist Dr. Grene, and their relationship intensifies and complicates.

Told through their respective journals, the story that emerges is at once shocking and deeply beautiful. Refracted through the haze of memory and retelling, Roseanne's story becomes an alternative, secret history of Ireland's changing character and the story of a life blighted by terrible mistreatment and ignorance, and yet marked still by love and passion and hope.

26. Family Trust

by Kathy Wang

“American literature knows family about as well as anything else...By now the clichés write themselves. Yet debut author Kathy Wang confidently leans into them, spicing up old stories — the tense reunions and fatal betrayals and dying fathers — with fresh faces.” (Entertainment Weekly)

Meet Stanley Huang: father, husband, ex-husband, a man of unpredictable tastes and temper, aficionado of all-inclusive vacations and bargain luxury goods, newly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Meet Stanley's family: son Fred, frustrated that his years of academic striving (Harvard MBA!) haven't protected him from career stagnation; daughter Kate, balancing a capricious boss, a distracted husband, and two small children; ex-wife Linda, familiar with and suspicious of Stanley's grandiose ways; and second wife Mary, giver of foot rubs and ego massages.

For years, Stanley has insistently claimed that he's worth a small fortune. Now, as the Huangs come to terms with Stanley's approaching death, they are also starting to fear that Stanley's "small fortune" may be more "small" than "fortune." A "study in the difference between expectation and reality" (npr.org), a bittersweet rumination on what we owe our families, and a sharp-eyed look at Silicon Valley's culture of excess, Family Trust is a "dryly cynical" (Globe and Mail) satire of the American dream.

27. Inheritance from Mother

by Minae Mizumura

Mitsuki Katsura, a Japanese woman in her mid-fifties, is a French-language instructor at a private university in Tokyo. Her husband, whom she met in Paris, is a professor at another private university. He is having an affair with a much younger woman.

In addition to her husband’s infidelity, Mitsuki must deal with her ailing eighty-something mother, a demanding, self-absorbed woman who is far from the image of the patient, self-sacrificing Japanese matriarch. Mitsuki finds herself dreaming of the day when her mother will finally pass on. While doing everything she can to ensure her mother’s happiness, she grows weary of the responsibilities of a doting daughter and worries she is sacrificing her chance to find fulfillment in her middle age.

28. The Leisure Seeker

by Michael Zadoorian

One of my favorite books this year. My dream is to study creative writing as an author in the future, and then become a writer. When I am old and dying, I will travel and die on the road like the protagonist.

"The Leisure Seeker" is an odyssey through the ghost towns, deserted trailer parks, forgotten tourist attractions, giant roadside icons, and crumbling back roads of America. Ultimately it is the story of Ella and John: the people they encounter, the problems they overcome, the experiences they have lived, the love they share, and their courage to take back the end of their own lives. and their courage to take back the end of their own lives. and their courage to take back the end of their own lives.

29. The Murder at the Vicarage

by Agatha Christie

'Anyone who murdered Colonel Protheroe,' declared the parson, brandishing a carving knife above a joint of roast beef,' would be doing the world at large a favor! '

It was a careless remark for a man of the cloth. And one which comes back to haunt the clergyman. Just a few hours later- when the Colonel is found shot dead in the clergyman`s study. But as MISS Marple soon discovers, the whole village seems to have had a motive to kill Colonel Protheroe.

The first MISS Marple mystery, one which tests all her powers of observation and deduction.

30. The Summer Book

by Tove Jansson

When I finished reading it, a hint of coolness suddenly came, and the summer in Hong Kong began to fade...Tove Jansson's little book completely captured me, every day on the island is magnificent!

31. This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!

by Jonathan Evison

'As sweet as it is inventive, profound as it is hilarious, unflinching as it is big-hearted.' Maria Semple, author of Where'd You Go, BernadetteHarriet Chance has spent the last seventy-eight years following the rules... Career girl (brief) Wife (fifty-five years)Mother of two (ongoing)Now widowed, Harriet discovers that her late husband had been planning an Alaskan cruise. Ignoring the advice of her children and wanting to make the most of the opportunity, she decides to set sail..

There, amid the buffets and lounge singers, between the imagined appearances of Bernard and the very real arrival of her daughter, Harriet is forced to take a long look back, confronting the truth about pivotal events that changed the course of her life. What she will discover is that she has lived the best part of her life under entirely false assumptions. Confronted with the notion that her past could have been different, will she take a second chance at life?

First published on Reading and Thinking.com

self help
2

About the Creator

Muhiuddin Alam

I'm Muhiuddin Alam, a blogger and content writer. Explore book recommendations and reviews of fiction, novels, and nonfiction on your trusted site ReadingAndThinking.com. & Geek Book Reviews.com

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