I love reading books that make you think. They spark something inside of you and make you look at the world in a different way, and your life in a different way. They may not be life-changing in every way, but they touch your life in a way that makes you think about what you’ve done, what you’ll do, and how to do it better. Ever just want to be intrigued? Check out these books – they will not disappoint.
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1. The Measure by Nikki Erlick
This book struck a cord with me. I think about it often- it’s that thought-provoking that you will think about it long after you’ve finished reading it.
The Measure follows the chaos of humanity after each person over 22 years old receives a box with a single string inside, measuring the span of their lives. Nikki Erlick covers the consequences and complexity of knowing when our lives will end, showing conflicting decisions and outcomes through 8 unknowingly interconnected characters. Some struggle more than others with this knowledge, while others accept their fate.
The Measure delves into the ugly side of knowing the length of your life – like knowing your husband or wife has a short string while you have a long string, or your girlfriend breaking up with you because now she sees no future with you and your short string. This book also looks at some positives – like living life to its fullest if you know you don’t have much time left, and spending time traveling or being with your family for the remainder of your time. Or, simply not looking at your string and not knowing how long you have – continuing to live life how you see fit.
You will stay up all night reading The Measure, moving back and forth between feeling heartbroken and inspired. But it will make you think a lot about your life choices, what you have control over, and what you don’t.
This novel leaves you to ponder – “What would you do?” What would you do in the same situation? What if you had the chance to know how long your life would be? Would you want to know? What would you do with that information? Is it better for us not to know? Would our lives matter less if we knowingly had a short string? Would we do more with our lives if we had a long string? Nikki Erlick does an amazing job of building relatable characters and creating unique and dimensional scenarios of what life would be like if we each got a string with the measure of our lives.
I read this book shortly after a loved one passed away. While it wasn’t what I would call comforting exactly, it did make me think about their death – and all deaths differently. Would I have done anything differently had I known he had a shorter string? Is it all pre-determined? Even in the book, the string is just what it is. There’s no way to change it or know how someone dies. Just a reminder to treat every day like it’s your last, and let the ones you love know you care about them.
This book is great for people of all ages who have ever wondered about the consequences of knowing how long we have to live. It’s a really unique premise and an interesting unveiling of what the world would be like if we had the chance to see our fate and hold it in our hands.
2. Sandwich by Catherine Newman
I really enjoyed reading this book. It wasn’t really what I had been expecting, but usually the good ones aren’t. It has a “Beach Read” vibe to it, while getting real and touching on some sensitive topics with parenthood, sexuality, loss, and even menopause. It’s surprisingly funny and witty even with some darker parts throughout, all the while being incredibly relatable and well written.
Sandwich follows a family on their annual family trip to Cape Cod in the same house they’ve rented the same week since the kids were babies – now young adults. Lots of memories and lots of flashbacks. It will leave you shaking your head “yes” to some of the things the mother, Rocky misses about her kids being young – yet also being thankful that they get easier as they get older.
Reminiscing about the “true kid years”, Catherine Newman goes:
“The children can locomote effectively. They can relieve themselves without a lot of drama and maybe even carry their own boogie board or a single pail. They can play mini-golf, tell a decent knock-knock joke, build a sandcastle, read a Magic Tree House book in the shade, put cheese on a cracker. Their teeth are falling out all over the place, but they’re good company and still innocent, still thrilled about seashells, hermit crabs, and bubble gum eye-balls on the Spongebob Squarepants popsicle they pick out from the ice cream truck.”
…”But they still go to bed early, clean and damp-haired in their striped pajamas. After reading to them about a shipwrecked mouse and a friendly whale, you can sneak out to the deck with their dad and a nine dollar bottle of rose.”
Then the truth about older kids:
“They rage at you about privacy and boundaries because you knock to ask if you might sneak in and pee while they monopolize the bathroom for a mysterious hour. They find much of your behavior sketchy, even when you’re way out in the Atlantic Ocean. You might be distracted by an angry cyst on their forehead – the way it glows in the sun like a warning: Code red! This is a menstruating teenager! Retreat! There might be Laffy Taffy wrappers and Dorito bags on every surface when you wake up, a whiff of something funky in the air that maybe isn’t only hormones and sweat. Is it weed? Is it an actual skunk? Nobody knows.”
Sandwich is effortlessly funny and organically real. The author talks about the changes of having kids at different ages, how much you miss them when they are grown and maybe took for granted some of the craziness of when they were little…time you can’t get back. Only in the memories. As she explains from another point of view, “ As it turned out, I had been essentially hosting Jamie and Willa for decades – throwing a permanent kind of dinner party that I wanted the kids to never want to leave. The food was good, the entertainment varied; we loved them well, and now they’re gone.”
I found this book incredibly relatable and full of nostalgia as a mother of 2 teens. It made me think about their younger years and if we did enough together, and what it will be like when they are out of the house with their own lives. It makes you want to grab hold of your kids and not let go!
3. Atomic Habits by James Clear
Atomic Habits is a wildly popular inspirational book that I’m sure you’re familiar with. James Clear has an amazing talent for helping people build good habits in a variety of ways that make sense – building small, good habits over time that will add up to huge changes and a better life.
This is the kind of book that you need a copy of. I love to listen to audiobooks while I walk or run, but this is a book that I also have a copy of, so I can highlight great ideas and refer back to it to get reinspired as much as I want. You can find a copy of Atomic Habits here. I was lucky enough to score my copy at a thrift store for $2 on my birthday! Meant to be for sure.
In Atomic Habits, James Clear talks about the quality of our habits, the need for clear habits, and how “a long series of small wins and tiny breakthroughs” is the way to make progress and end up with remarkable results. Even just getting 1% better each day can lead to massive success.
One part I especially enjoy reading about is the author’s view on goals. Of course it’s important to set goals for yourself, right? Well James Clear tells you to forget about goals and focus on systems instead. He goes on to say, “Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results.” Focusing on planning and perfecting your system is how you can ultimately get better results. “Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.”
Make sure your systems are in place, and you’ll be unstoppable! It’s how you’re going about getting to your goals that’s so important, and many of us miss that. We see just the point we are trying to make and trying to get there. But, ok, you get to your goal and then what? Without a great system, your success is temporary. “Fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves”.
Another part I love reading about over and over till it sinks into my head – is that, “True behavior change is identity change. When your behavior and identity are fully aligned, you are no longer pursuing behavior change. You are simply acting like the type of person you already believe yourself to be.” Once you adopt a positive identity, be that change.
You can change anything in your life. “The goal is not to read a book, it’s to become a reader. The goal is not to run a marathon, the goal is to become a runner.” Choose something positive to be, and decide that you ARE that. Even with habits you are trying to break, like smoking or drinking – it’s more important to develop the mentality that you are simply “not a smoker” or you “don’t drink” rather than always saying “I’m trying to quit.”
There are just so many amazing ways to change your life with this book – these examples are just in the first 30 pages! As you dig deeper into Atomic Habits, you learn all about the 4 Laws of Behavior Change, Habit Stacking, Motivation, Reprogramming Your Brain, and so many more incredible techniques to build good habits and break bad ones.
4. Maybe In Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid
I loved this book. It’s a great easy beach read that really makes you think about your choices.
Have you ever wondered how your life would’ve gone differently had you chosen one decision over another? Would it turn out similar? Would you be happier? Would you have ended up in the same job? Have the same husband?
Maybe in Another Life is a book about fate, soulmates, and really how the choices we make affect what direction our lives go. This book is set up to go down the path of how Hannah’s life would have gone had she left a party with her old boyfriend Ethan, or had she gone home with her best friend Gabby. Each chapter is a simultaneous timeline of the opposite choice.
While each choice had huge impacts on her life, it’s interesting to read about the possibilities of whether things happen for a reason, whether we are destined for a certain life, and if soulmates exist – and if there’s more than one. I love books like this because it goes along with the idea that we are all living out our different decisions in another life.
When frustrated with how things were going at one point, Hannah thinks, “I wonder how different my world would be if any of those things hadn’t happened. You can’t change just one part, can you? When you sit there and wish things had happened differently, you can’t just wish away the bad stuff. You have to think about all the good stuff you might lose, too. Better just to stay in the now and focus on what you can do better in the future.” And that’s really all any of us can do.
There’s another interesting part where she digs deeper, thinking, “It doesn’t matter if we don’t mean to do the things we do. It doesn’t matter if it was an accident or a mistake. It doesn’t even matter if we think this is all up to fate. Because regardless of our destiny, we still have to answer for our actions. We make choices, big and small, every day of our lives, and those choices have consequences.”
Do you believe in the idea of another version of you out there, playing out other decisions? The possibility of the world splitting into infinite universes where you live out every outcome of each decision? It’s pretty wild to think about – but that’s what Maybe in Another Life makes you wonder about.
I really enjoyed this book because it was fun to see how 1 night impacted Hannah’s life forever. It was also interesting to see who she ended up with and how her life went – the similarities and the differences. It makes you wonder what split-second decisions you’ve made impacted your life the most and changed the course of your life – or if this is exactly the way it was supposed to go the whole time.
5. The Art & Science of Getting Happier - Build the Life You Want by Arthur C. Brooks & Oprah Winfrey
This book is so full of interesting concepts of how happiness is perceived, known, and desired. There are a ton of quotes, examples, studies, and experiments by neuroscientists, professors, philosophers, and everyday normal people that help you see how and why people think the way we do about happiness.
“ If you are coming to this book because you are not as happy as you want to be – whether because you are suffering from something in particular, or you have a good life “on paper” but always find yourself struggling – you are the kind of person I relate to best. We are kindred spirits. “ – Arthur xvi
Arthur C. Brooks uses science and ideas to teach courses on happiness at Harvard. He has researched happiness in ways that most haven’t and describes this book as more of a “manual” than about willpower or knowledge. It’s about accepting some unhappiness in order to understand happiness. And about feeling happiness by way of gratitude.
I really like where The Art & Science of Getting Happier goes into the fact that “We are all 2 people – the one who sees and one who is seen.” Because we are. We are someone who judges others and one who is judged by others. We see it all from one side, and we show one side to others.
This book encourages you to spend more time thinking about the world than about yourself. Spend more time enjoying things that amaze you. Incorporate more “awe” into your life, and wander. “Observe where you are going without judgment or intention. Profound and intimate experiences can come when you just observe your journey without expectation of a destination or external payoff. Go for a walk or a car ride with no destination, just observe and enjoy.”
A lot of what I got out of this book is to get out of your own head. We are such a small part of this world, and when we choose hope, we choose happiness. We need to accept certain things and do what we can to change other aspects of our lives to lead a more fulfilling life – “happiness is not a destination, it’s a direction.” Happiness is something that we all want and can all work towards, but it takes inner peace to find it. Sometimes inner peace is finding ways to just enjoy the world we live in.
As the ancient Chinese philosopher Tao Te Ching states, we sabotage ourselves on so many levels, too. “Care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner. The prison of others’ approval is actually one built by you, maintained by you, and guarded by you. Disregard what others think and the prison door will swing open.” You hold the key to your own freedom.
The Art & Science of Getting Happier touches on so many ideas and theories of how to become happier and does a deep dive into accepting ourselves. The author also gets into letting relationships evolve, living with unhappy people, the power of forgiveness, career goals, and mindfulness. It’s jam-packed with so much information to make you think about what you can do better in your life, and it offers a scientific explanation of how our brains work with happiness triggers. It’s all about being ready to get happier and how to do it.
“To embark on a project to get happier, and to do the work to manage your emotions, is to say that you love yourself enough to make this investment.”
6. Do You Remember? By Freida McFaddon
Freida McFaddon is an excellent author and I love so many of her books. She is known for writing best-selling psychological thrillers, but did you know she’s also a practicing physician who specializes in brain injuries? What!
Do You Remember? is about a woman who wakes up every day to learn that she has a brain injury that keeps her from remembering anything from the previous day. Similar to the movie 50 First Dates with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, this book is interesting because while Tess can’t remember her now-husband and seems to have an expensive, beautiful life, she still senses that something isn’t right. Each day she reads an explanation in her own handwriting, saying that she suffered an accident and to trust the people in her life. And yet, she doesn’t.
This book goes on to watch Tess learn the news each day, struggling with who to trust and how to make her days worthwhile if she can’t even leave her house. Why is she locked in each day? Why does she have a “babysitter”? Why does she wake up most days with secret notes written on her body, only for her to see?
While the repetitiveness of learning the news each day can get a little bland, it’s necessary for the storyline. But I assure you, the end is worth it. Is she right to not trust those around her? Or is she paranoid as a result of her injury? Or is there something else going on entirely?
I really liked Do You Remember? because it made me think about how it would end (I’m usually great at predicting the outcome and this one surprised me a bit), and it made me think about what I would do in that situation. If you woke up every day with no memories of the last several years, how would you go about your day? Would you try to accept it and enjoy your day? Would you spend all day looking for answers that you’ll soon forget?
It’s always interesting to me to read books like this – ones that deal with amnesia and memory loss. I mean, forgetting everything each day has got to be the worst, right? How would you react to these changes? How do you face challenges you cannot change? Will your memory return? Could losing your memory be a second chance? Or is missing years of your life too much of a burden? Would you ever feel like part of your own life again?
I enjoyed listening to this book as an audiobook – driving in the car or walking the dog. It was a good book to listen to and daydream – and think about how life can change and how important our memories are.
Books That Make You Think
"I think books are like people, in the sense that they'll turn up in your life when you most need them."
Let me know if you have read any of these books and what you think! Do you have any recommendations? Any books that showed up right when they needed to? I love to read, and I really enjoy a good book that keeps me thinking about it long after. Right now, these are my top 6 – but I will add to it when I find another that touches me in the same way.
