During the autumn season, many people take time to reflect on everything they have to be grateful for. From cherished friends and family members to beloved pets, satisfying careers, and myriad kinds of personal fulfillment, there are so many factors that make our lives rewarding. Gratitude can be found in the little things, too: a warm cup of tea, a good book, a snowy day, or a relaxing nature walk. When you really think about it, life’s gifts are never-ending.
However, finding gratitude within ourselves isn’t always easy, especially when faced with hard times. When our blessings seem few, these three books remind us of all the precious people, circumstances, and things we still have to give thanks for.
HOT PICK
The Joy You Make: Find the Silver Linings—Even on Your Darkest Days by Steven Petrow
SYNOPSIS:
In The Joy You Make, award-winning Washington Post columnist Steven Petrow embarks on a search for joy in life’s darkest moments. Unanticipated hardships like sickness, divorce, layoffs, and death are a sad but inescapable fact of life. Despite this, Petrow argues there is always happiness to be found if you look in the right places. Meshing personal anecdotes about the end of his marriage and the death of his parents with expert interviews and illuminating research, Petrow invites readers to join him in his mission of spreading positivity.
WHY:
Steven Petrow’s The Joy You Make is a much-needed roadmap to contentment, helping readers navigate life’s harshest challenges. In our darkest days, joy often seems out of reach. But by learning to adopt a grateful mindset when all seems bleak, we can unlock the hidden happiness present in mundane moments, enduring interpersonal bonds, and even times of sorrow. If you could use a little more joy in your life (and really, who of us couldn’t?), this book is precisely the remedy you need.
COFFEE SHOP READ
Get Me Through the Next Five Minutes: Odes to Being Alive by James Parker
SYNOPSIS:
In Get Me Through the Next Five Minutes, Atlantic staff writer James Parker teaches readers how to fall back in love with existing. For years, Parker has been writing little odes to everything from balloons to squirrels to middle age, naps, cold showers, and so much more. This book collects his writings in one inspirational volume that celebrates the beauty in life’s overlooked blessings. In identifying all the seemingly insignificant things that get him through, Parker encourages readers to find their own pockets of happiness in everyday life.
WHY:
James Parker’s Get Me Through the Next Five Minutes is a masterclass in gratitude. With heaps of humor and candidness, Parker manages to find the silver lining in universally abhorred human experiences like constipation, mood swings, and being dead. (Yes, those are all real topics in his book.) His reverence for each subject is as perplexing as it is admirable and affecting. This book is one you can return to any time you need a reminder of the thrill of being alive.
DARK HORSE
Good People: Stories from the Best of Humanity by Gabriel Reilich and Lucia Knell
SYNOPSIS:
In Good People, Upworthy’s vice president, Lucia Knell, and Head of Content & Innovation, Gabriel Reilich, restore faith in the inherent goodness of the human race. Through over 100 stories of kindness and altruism, they deliver your daily dose of emotional nourishment — a necessary reprieve from the terrors of the mainstream news cycle. Full of lighthearted tales handpicked from Upworthy’s dedicated community of supporters, this book affirms there are many good people left in the world.
WHY:
The Upworthy brand is known for its feel-good social media content that leaves followers smiling through their happy tears. Gabriel Reilich and Lucia Knell’s Good People offers that same kind of catharsis you know and love — this time, in book form! These days, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the internet’s abundant negativity. When you feel yourself slipping into a glass-half-empty mindset, Good People is the perfect antidote, reminding us to be thankful for all the kind strangers we’ve yet to meet.
That’s it for this week’s Three to Read. Thanks for tuning in! Don’t forget to join us next week for more curated recommendations.
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Browse these books and more reads handpicked by the Bookstr team on our Three to Read bookshelf on Bookshop!
