Reading books about life can also connect you to other people. One of the most basic human needs is to connect with others. A lack of connection to others can ruin a life. A good book makes you feel connects you to its characters as well as its author. Reading the experiences of others can make you feel more connected to the people that you have in your life. Even greater, reading a book gives you a connection with everyone else who has had the experience. The more connections with others that you have, and the stronger these connections are, the happier and more complete your life will be.

Modern life can be extremely stressful. Jobs, family, friends, and society at large can put intense pressures and frustrations on all of us. Reading provides a nice, quiet way to escape from the hustle and bustle. Reading is a great way to relax because your attention focuses on the words on the page, allowing you to drown out all of the distractions around you. Stress can cause many other mental and physical health problems. Stress can also make us less effective in our personal and professional lives. Reducing stress, particularly through reading, can make you a happier, healthier, and more effective person.

A World Beyond by Ruth Montgomery

A World Beyond describes life after death and the purpose of our physical lives as related to Montgomery by famous American medium, and recently deceased, Arthur Ford. Ruth Montgomery’s mentor reaches out to her from beyond the grave to reveal many secrets about the afterlife. The book answers many questions about life and death, from the perspective of the late Ford.

Heather’s Return: The Amazing Story of A Child’s Communications From Beyond the Grave by Beri Colozzi Wiitala

Prior to the death of her daughter, Wiitala was a devout Jehovah’s Witness. After her seventeen year-old daughter paranormal events began to occur. These events were witnessed by Wiitala and others. Wiitala’s began to be questioned when it became more and more clear to her that her beloved child was attempting to communicate with her from beyond the grave. The strange occurrences reveal the never-ending nature of life.

Return From Tomorrow by George G. Ritchie

When George G. Ritchie was only twenty years old, he died in an army hospital. Ritchie was dead for over nine minutes, but he came back to life. In those nine minutes, Ritchie had a near-death-experience that profoundly changed him. He met the Son of God and other eternal beings. Return From Tomorrow tells the story of Ritchie’s amazing journey in the afterlife.

Hello From Heaven: A New Field of Research-After-Death-Communication Reveals That Love and Life Are Eternal by Bill and Judy Guggenheim

Hello from Heaven relates over three-hundred and fifty first hand accounts of after-death-communications, or ADCs. After-death-communications when a loved one spontaneously contacts the living without the aid of a third party such as a psychic or a medium. The tales attempt to confirm that there is a life after death and that the love that bonded us in life lasts well beyond our final breaths.

Life After Death by Deepak Chopra

Chopra believes that life after death is perceived differently in Asian countries than it is in the Western world and uses classic Indian stories to introduce Westerners to these differences. In Life After Death, Chopra attempts to answer the question of what happens after death which Chopra believes merely opens the door to a more important stage of our existence

“I must say a word about fear. It is life’s only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unnerving ease. It begins in your mind, always … so you must fight hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don’t, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.”
— Yann Martel (Life of Pi)

“As long as you have life and breath, believe. Believe for those who cannot. Believe even if you have stopped believing. Believe for the sake of the dead, for love, to keep your heart beating, believe. Never give up, never despair, let no mystery confound you into the conclusion that mystery cannot be yours.”
— Mark Helprin (A Soldier of the Great War)

“If you are careful,’ Garp wrote, ‘if you use good ingredients, and you don’t take any shortcuts, then you can usually cook something very good. Sometimes it is the only worthwhile product you can salvage from a day; what you make to eat. With writing, I find, you can have all the right ingredients, give plenty of time and care, and still get nothing. Also true of love. Cooking, therefore, can keep a person who tries hard sane.”
— John Irving (The World According to Garp)

When you’re five, you know your age down to the month. Even in your twenties you know how hold you are. I’m twenty-three, you say, or maybe twenty-seven. But then in your thirties something strange starts to happen. It’s a mere hiccup at first, an instant of hesitation. How old are you? Oh, I’m–you start confidently, but then you stop. You were going to say thirty-three, but you’re not. You’re thirty-five. And then you’re bothered, because you wonder if this is the beginning of the end. It is, of course, but it’s decades before you admit it.

— Sara Gruen, (Water for Elephants)

“Ogbuef Ezedudu,who was the oldest man in the village, was telling two other men when they came to visit him that the punishment for breaking the Peace of Ani had become very mild in their clan.
“It has not always been so,” he said. “My father told me that he had been told that in the past a man who broke the peace was dragged on the ground through the village until he died. but after a while this custom was stopped because it spoiled the peace which it was meant to preserve.”
— Chinua Achebe (Things Fall Apart)

Being a teenager or young adult today is not as easy as it was thirty, twenty, or even ten years ago.  Today’s young adults have more options than any other generation in history as they have access to unprecedented amounts of information, products, education tools, technology, and social connections that are exciting and challenging to keep up with.  Unfortunately, these advantages can also be sources of more stress, confusion, and distraction than any us had to deal with growing up.  More than ever, young adults today need sound advice as they grow into responsible adults.  These books about life will help equip young people to make smarter decisions for their future and become wise beyond their years.

Higher Education: On Life, Landing a Job, and Everything Else They Didn’t Teach You in College by Kenneth Jedding is a book about life after college that helps young adults tackle the challenges that they may not be prepared for.  College graduates today have to deal with a languid job market, ever-changing technology, and financial hardship brought on by debt.  Kenneth Jedding provides a smart, practical, and relevant guide for today’s young adults as they enter a big, uncertain world that moves at breakneck pace. The young adults that are armed with Jedding’s advice will be better prepared to transition into the real world.

Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos is an autobiographical book about life in the world of drugs, fast money, and the consequences of living on the edge.  This is an account of the tumultuous teenage and young adult years of the author that culminated in his spending time in prison after his involvement in a drug deal.  While in prison, Gantos recorded his thoughts in a journal that reflected the admission of fear and the hope of one day being free and authoring a book of his very own.  During this time, Gantos slowly developed into a focused, zealous writer who gave up the world of drugs and money for the fulfillment of gaining an education and seeing his written work fill a “hole” in his life.  Young adults can learn from the mistakes of Gantos as they see first hand how not thinking ahead and acting on impulse can have severe, lasting consequences, yet they can also see how the virtues of personal responsibility and perseverance can result in overcoming extreme obstacles.

On my Own: The Ultimate How-To Guide for Young Adults by Sally Taylor is a practical, informative guide that deals with issues that young people face as they enter the adult world of work and independent living.  This book is aimed at late high school and early college students who have little to no experience in the basics of living apart from their parents.  Moving out, managing money with a personal budget, picking a college, finding a job, and paying bills are some of the issues that Taylor covers.  There are even chapters that deal with exercise, nutrition, personal safety, and relationship issues.  This book will be both a help and a confidence builder to young adults as they set out on the road to their future.

Lists to live by-the First Collection by Alice Gray, Steve Stephens, and John Van Diest is a collection of practical lists of ideas for improving your life in a variety of areas.   The book is made up of two hundred lists that are placed into categories that include success, friendship, marriage, health, family life, and many more.  The lists are made up of spirited, useful ideas that will prove to be valuable, thought provoking, and even life changing.  The wisdom gained from this compilation of lists is sure to make your life easier and richer at the same time.

The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey is a fast paced book about how to change the way you think about managing your personal finances.  This hard-hitting, tell-it-like-it-is book lays out a plan that will show you how to stop over-spending, get out of debt, and secure your financial future.  Ramsey encourages his readers to look in the mirror and acknowledge that financial problems stem from their own mishandling of money, or as he puts it, “you are the problem with your money.”  The total money makeover plan is simple, powerful, and life changing for those who will accept the challenge.

The Power of One Thing by Dr. Randy Carlson is a book that explains how to intentionally change your life.  Everyone has things in their life that they would like to improve, however, these things are often so large that they cause us to become overwhelmed, which leads to discouragement and ultimately giving up.  To overcome this, Dr. Carlson teaches how to achieve a better life by choosing to focus on one thing that will move an individual toward their goal.  By focusing on one thing at a time, a person will feel a sense of accomplishment and hope, which will provide the inspiration and motivation to keep moving forward in small steps.  Over a period of time, these intentional steps will lead to overcoming big challenges.

Home Court Advantage by Dr. Kevin Leman provides a witty but practical resource for parents that want to raise happy, secure, and confident children.  Rather than simply allowing the T.V. or Nintendo to raise their children, Dr. Leman challenges moms and dads alike to take back their role as the main influence in their children’s lives by investing time, love, and a bit of creativity throughout the child-rearing process. Home Court Advantage make a compelling case for spending more time together as a family because, as Dr. Leman points out, the home is where valuable life lesson are best learned.

You: The Owner’s Manual by Michael F. Rozien, M.D. and Mehmet C. Oz, M.D. is a national best selling book about life in a literal, physical sense.  From knowing your body’s systems to understanding how your body takes in nutrients, this book takes you on tour of the human body and teaches you all about your inner workings.  The authors explain how diseases start, how to prevent and overcome conditions that threaten your quality of life, and offer guidelines in the areas of nutrition, exercise, and alternative tips to take better care of the only “you” that you have.  This book is a valuable guide that will make your body feel younger, stronger, and healthier.

Books about life issues can be so compelling because of our human nature to feel a range of emotions.  Every person regardless of location, culture, or place in time has wanted to be loved, has felt sadness, been angry, has struggled with temptation, and has been afraid.  Books about life connect us with people on this human level because we have all felt these feelings or are going through issues that others have experienced and written about.  Stories that involve human nature give a glimpse into the lives of people who have journeyed down a path to reach a point in life that we aspire to reach.  Their stories show us what is possible, and if we allow for it, they offer valuable lessons or provide solutions that we can apply in our own lives.

Our emotions are tied to our personal experiences and circumstances.  The really good books about life tap our emotions by touching an area of our life that we feel strongly about or that we want to know more about.  Seeing how others have navigated the same path that we are on and knowing they reached their target while overcoming difficulty can inspire us.  There is value in struggle that makes reaching a goal more special and more encouraging to us, giving us hope that we can also overcome issues that we are facing.

On a much more basic level, a good book can simply offer an escape from your everyday routine.  As hectic as life can get, we all need a to get away from  it all on occasion.  The feeling of being in a rut or trapped by your job and other circumstances can easily depress your mood.  Not to mention all the bad news we get fed everyday!  To remedy a downcast mood, you could dive into an interesting book about life in an exotic part of the world that you’ve always dreamed of visiting.  You could also lighten the mood by going along side a captivating character on a humorous journey through a fictional world or travel back to another time and place to relive some of history’s greatest moments.  So, if you need to pick-me-up, a good book could be the remedy you need.

In order to escape into a great book, you must first set aside time for reading.  Make it a priority to take a break from your everyday world and fly away into a new world of fun, drama, or learning.  Set your reading time at the point during the day when you will be most receptive to your thoughts and imagination and when you’ll most free from distractions.  Why not make a habit of taking time read at the same time each day?

Once you make it a priority to read, you need to focus on the sort of things you are interested in reading.  What captures your imagination?  What do you find fascinating?  Many people love to read books about life transformations that involve real people overcoming great obstacles in their personal lives.  Others will really enjoy a story set in an exotic location that they’ve always fantasized about visiting.  Obviously, the more passionate you are about the story line, setting, or issue that your reading, the more you will be able to escape into the book by making connections with the characters and feeling as though you are in the setting.

One of the best ways to really get caught up into a story is to free your mind and allow yourself to make an emotional connection with a character or setting that your reading about.  Have you ever been trapped inside on an ice-cold winter day dreaming of what it would be like to stroll through the clear water and warm sand of a South Pacific island?  If so, perhaps you could find a book about life in Tahiti and allow the storyline to make you feel as though you are right there with the main characters as they carry out the details of the story.

Maybe you have always wanted to meet or get to know someone famous but realize that you will never cross paths with them in real life.  A descriptive biography may be just what you need in order to get to know them a little better.  You may even be able to relate to some of the events in their lives, which would allow you to sympathize, knowing that you have felt what they have felt in certain situations.

Books about life can be so powerful because they draw out deep emotions in us.  Love, anger, revenge, admiration, fascination, learning, overcoming hardships, or just plain fun are some of the feelings that we feel when we allow our minds to make these connections with the characters and settings in a great book.  Taking the time to read, freeing your mind and imagination as you connect with the characters and settings can take you anywhere you want to go.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a book about life in a sleepy southern town as seen through the eyes of a young girl named Scout Finch as she and her older brother, Jem, experience the many facets of human behavior.  The story takes place in a small Alabama town during the Great Depression era and follows Scout, Jem, and their father, Atticus, who is a lawyer defending the case of a black man accused of raping a white woman.  The story chronicles the carefree creativity of youth set among the larger issues of life that take Scout, Jem, and their friends on the journey from innocence to tackling real life experiences that are, in some ways, beyond their understanding.  As their father works through the rape trial, Scout and Jem struggle to grasp the realities of racial strife, southern social structure, and their growing interpretation of justice.  The youthful perspective of this story contrasts the joy of childhood with the important life lessons we must learn as we grow up.

The Chosen by Chaim Potok tells the story of the friendship that develops between two Jewish teenagers as they grow up in New York City during the tumultuous World War II era.  The Chosen highlights the differences between Danny, a Hasidic Jew, and Rueven, an Orthodox Jew as they struggle to cultivate a friendship under the pressure of each sect discouraging association with one another.  Rueven describes his experiences growing up with Danny and how each of their fathers, although in very different ways, had a major impact on their respective lives as they reached adulthood.  This coming of age book about life in the Jewish faith offers a compelling view of the different aspects of the faith while teaching and illustrating the principles of friendship, understanding, acceptance, forgiveness, and love.  The lessons that Danny and Rueven learn as they mature are sure to have the same positive effects on readers.

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier brings the reader into the world of Jerry Renault, a teenager at Trinity Catholic school, where boys are expected to follow the code of unwritten social rules set by the Vigils, a large clique of conforming students.  Students at Trinity are expected to comply with the ways of the Vigils, or else risk facing painful physical and social consequences.  Jerry, an independent spirit, decides to buck the system by refusing to sell chocolates as part of his school’s fundraiser.  This refusal causes the headmaster of the school to conspire with the Vigils to make Jerry’s life miserable.  Like many teens, Jerry is faced with the decision to stand on his own and risk being ostracized in the short-term or follow the crowd and blend in safely as an also-ran among his larger group of high school peers.  Jerry will find out if the long-term benefits of sticking with his individual principles will outweigh the temporary ridicule of his peers for not conforming to the crowd.

That Toad Is Mine! by Barbara Shook Hazen tells a humorous story about two friends who share everything from toys to food, bikes to games and everything in between.  Their fun changes to strife, however, when they find a big fat toad hopping along an old fence.  Once they discover that they can’t share a toad the way they do other things, they begin arguing as the human nature tendency towards selfishness takes over.  The pictures and rhymes move the story along at a pace that kids can follow as they learn about the concepts of sharing and solving differences that will become an important part of their lives.

If Only I Had a Green Nose by Max Lucado is a fun story that most all of us have been able to relate to at some point in our lives.  We’ve all looked at ourselves in the mirror and didn’t like what we saw.  If only we could be like the popular kids our lives would be so much better!  If Only I Had a Green Nose is a book about life issues such as self-acceptance, peer pressure, self-esteem and the “grass is greener on the other side” mentality that so many kids struggle with as they grow up.  In this story, Punchinello feels the pressure to keep up with the fads and cool trends set by Willy With It and his crew of popular friends.  Tall shoes, square hats, and noses painted green are what the “in crowd” says you have to have in order to be accepted.  Punch and his friends fall for it.  After all, they want to be like the cool kids!  They want to fit in and will do whatever it takes.  Soon, however, they realize that it takes a lot of work trying to impress others, especially if it involves not being yourself.  Ultimately, they learn that going against their unique design, not being themselves, and trying to fit others idea of acceptance doesn’t make them any happier.

Love You Forever by Robert Munsch is a book about life that tells the story of a young boy passing through the stages of childhood into adulthood and of the love his mother shows him through all of the frustrations that come with each stage of raising a child.  The progression of life stages teaches that, through the dependency of being an infant, the frustrations of the toddler stage, and  the often turbulent teenage years, a parents love endures and crosses over generations.  This story is an illustration of the powerful, unconditional love that parents have for their children and ends with the boy, who has grown into an adult, sharing the same love for his own child.  This is a touching book about the circle of life that kids and parents will enjoy.

When the Legends Die by Hal Borland

Written for young adults, When the Legends Die tells the story of a young Native American boy whose father kills another man. The boy’s family flees into the wilderness to live as their ancestors did, and swear that they will never return to the white man’s world. This doesn’t last, and the boy is eventually forced into the modern world. He experiences a lifetime of bitterness and anger, taking his rage out on the horses that he rides in rodeos. Eventually, an accident forces him to reevaluate the way that he has lived his life.

Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph T.E. Lawrence

The often controversial Lawrence describes his experiences in the Middle East during World War I in Seven Pillars of Wisdom. A dramatic tale of adventure and bravery, Lawrence shows us how we can adapt to changing circumstances that we never would have imagined and find inner strength that we did not know that we had. The famous movie shows many of the scenes of high adventure that Lawrence experienced, but did not show much of the political and cultural intrigue that makes the book so rich and layered.

Animal Farm by George Orwell

A satirical critique of Communism and the rise of the Soviet Union, Animal Farm tell the story of a farm whose animals revolt against their cruel and wicked master. At first the farm seems idyllic, although there is always something sinister going on underneath the surface. Eventually, under the rule of a corrupt group of pigs and their cronies, the farm becomes a far harsher place to live than it ever was under the initial rulers. The book relates many life lessons about expectations, the true nature of others, and what happens when you blindly follow ideals and not who is actually in charge.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

One of the many classic works of Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn tells the story of a social misfit attempting to escape his home on a raft down the Mississippi. Joined by an escaping slave named Jim, the duo goes on many dangerous, exciting, and sometimes comical adventures together. Huckleberry is put into a deep moral dilemma, the law and much of society says that Jim is property, and that by helping him escape he is committing theft against someone who has done him no wrong. However, Jim becomes a true friend to Huckleberry, and leads him to question the morals of the society in which he lives. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn show us how to see things differently from society and how to risk everything for what we believe is right.