Hello my bookish friends, Happy Empathy Day! This is run by the charitable reading organisation, EmpathyLab. It celebrates books and stories that helps us see, understand and feel.
I have celebrated it at work, as a school librarian since it first started 6 years ago. I love celebrating another way to promote books and understand why they are so important to us and not about the escapism. It’s also about the importance of representation of us and our feelings. So I thought I would recommend 5 books that I’ve empathised with…
5 Books Recommendations for Read for Empathy
How Hard Can Love Be by Holly Bourne
If you know me there will always be a Holly Bourne book on a list like this. She is the authors that I really empathise with the most, as this particular book I really saw myself in. Amber has insecurity issues and I found that Holly really tried to own that with being the best you can be with who you are.
Influential by Amara Sage
A new contemporary this year that really captures the tocicity of social media and how that can effect some. I feel as a school librarian I can use the feelings Amara explored and how I use this to someone else might feel.
The Honeys by Ryan de la Sala
A Summer Horror story – however what I loved was how I felt educated and on reflection we see Mars trying to fit in and how society (the camp) is this instance views him. I loved how we see Mars being true to himself throughout the whole no matter what.
Something Certain, Maybe by Sara Barnard
This novel is beautiful as it explores life choices and decisiion about friendships, realtionships and their futures. It captures a touching bond between mum and daughter which I empathised with.
The Girl Who Broke the Sea by A. Connors
I loved the character development of the MC, Lily, I felt connected to her on some level and with the fragments of her life, we got an insight into who she is. She is an emotionally raw, deep and open character who accepts her who she is and her flaws and I think we see much more of that as she connects and communicates with others human or otherwise around her.
What a great list, I saw your blog and it intrigued me. I am hoping to start reading more books in my near future and I am known to be an empath. I saw your blog post about these books and it made me truly interested so I can see some of these in my future reading list. Thanks for sharing!
I haven’t read any of these, but Something Certain, Maybe, sounds great!