One of my favorite things about reading is how books can change your perspective on life. Whether it’s different experiences or worlds completely unlike our own, reading is a window into the complexities life can offer.
It’s easy to get stuck in our own beliefs. We’re only human, after all. But stepping outside of ourselves builds empathy and perspective that we might not have previously had. These five books have opened my eyes to new ideas and ways of thinking.
Want a new perspective? Check out these 5 books
The listed books will give you the chance to look beyond what you know and challenge your views. Take a chance and experience the world through different eyes.
1. I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
What would it be like to live surrounded only by your own gender? To be confined within a prison where guards march the halls? To know that you, the youngest of your group, will outlive everyone you’ve ever known? Could you imagine the loneliness and infinity of time in that situation?
I Who Have Never Known Men follows a young girl who has grown up in a prison with thirty-nine other women. Armed men guard the cell until one day, they vanish, and the women are freed. As they explore the desolate world around them and what it means to be free of their cage, the young girl grows to understand the truth of their situation. She will be the last to die and must carry that knowledge with her forever.
I Who Have Never Known Men is strange and disturbing, but it examines the power of time in such a brilliant way. This book made me reconsider how I use my time, who I spend it with, and why each second matters when you’re around the people you care about most.
2. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Nature is something that we cannot avoid. From the birds singing outside our window to the berries growing on the side of the road, natural life is everywhere. But what we view as life and how we treat it can actually further separate us from nature.
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a botanist and indigenous woman, bringing science and ancestral knowledge to the conversation of nature. She knows the Latin names of plants but also how her tribe has used them in every day life. In her book, she brilliantly points out how humans are an active part of our ecosystem and how we can reconnect with the earth that we all share.
It’s so easy to feel removed from nature. In our current society, plants and animals are treated as resources, not living beings. But if we want to keep seeing a rich, green planet, we must change how we perceive and engage with the earth. The book is a perfect starting place to do so.
If you prefer audiobooks, the author narrates the audiobook of Braiding Sweetgrass! Check it out here on Overdrive.
3. Maus by Art Spiegelman
Maus is one of those books that has stuck with me through the years. I can’t seem to move past it, because it’s not just a story. It’s history. It was real, and it was awful.
Art Spiegelmann records the conversations he had with his father, a Holocaust survivor. His father recounts the years leading up to World War II, the societal shift in Poland, and the travesty that was the Holocaust. Illustrated through animals, this book is a record of a survivor’s journey and a reminder of all who did not make it.
At first glance, you might be surprised why I included this book. It’s not a happy book but rather a heartbreaking recount of a genocide. But this book did change my perspective on life. I imagined what it was like to have your country turn on you, to have neighbors betray you, to feel unsafe and endangered. What might seem like a distant wound from the past is a reality for people living now. Maus made me revisit the past, recognize the patterns of our present, and comprehend how small decisions can impact millions of people’s futures.
4. 1984 by George Orwell
Imagine that life was controlled by an all-seeing, ruthless government. That your very thoughts could condemn you to prison. That personhood was criminalized and eroded.
George Orwell is known for the gripping social commentary in his books, and 1984 speaks to the post-WWII social climate as well as that of our current world. In a terrifying society where the authoritarian government controls everything, one man risks his life to resist. It’s brutal and intense, and it genuinely changed my perspective on my own life.
As extreme as it might seem, this society is not an impossible future. It is a society in which originality has been replaced with conformity and human connections have been completely sterilized. I left this book grateful for the freedoms we have and armed with the knowledge that we have to fight to ensure that 1984 does not become our future.
5. Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates
If you looked at this title and felt angry, confused, or agitated, just hear me out. We live in a very divided world. Whether it’s gender, race, religion, or another label altogether, humans are great at dividing ourselves up into groups. When it comes to men and women, it can feel like we are impossibly separate. And that feeling can become dangerous.
Laura Bates walks through various avenues of hatred that young men can fall into, such as online forums and life coaches. Things that start out as innocent can quickly turn harmful. Even a pick up line can start a chain reaction.
This is a deeply insightful book that everyone should read. It outlines how to reframe interactions between men and women interact and address violence against women. We don’t have to be divided. But we have to do something about the divisions that already exist.
To look at it all together…
Reading is a powerful tool to adjust your world view. It’s important to look past yourself and consider what life is like for others. All of the listed books have left an indelible impact on me, and I hope that you share the experience. If we can see the world through the eyes of others, then we will come together and grow stronger.
