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⍣ must read books ⍣
44
items timeless reads chosen for their impact, quality, and staying power and my favorite quotations ˚ ⁺ ⊹ ⭒
Sections
3
⭒books that will emotionally destroyed you⭒
⭒books that leaves a beautiful ache ⭒
⭒books that feels like a hug ⭒
⭒books that will emotionally destroyed you⭒
Warning: these won’t just make you cry; they’ll leave you hollow. Read these only if you’re prepared to stare at a wall for hours after the final page. These are the ones that leave a permanent bruise.
the undisputed heavyweight champion of emotional trauma for me. I don’t think I’ll ever truly recover from this one; it’s a beautiful, agonizing journey into the deepest parts of human suffering that makes you want to reach through the pages and hold...
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
this book absolutely destroyed me. I bawled my eyes out, had to put the book down, and just sit there because the pain was too much.
this book doesn’t break your heart once — it keeps breaking it over and over again.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
the pain in this book is relentless and very unfair — the quiet suffering, stolen joy, and love that exists in the smallest, most fragile places.
watching what Mariam and Laila endured made me feel angry, helpless, and devastated all at once.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
I knew how it ended and yet I still found myself gasping for air by the final page. It’s a shimmering, golden tragedy that makes you fall in love just to watch the sun set forever.
The Song of Achilles: A Novel
because nothing hurts quite like a narrator who happens to be Death.
The Book Thief
this is a very beautiful book. It starts simply, almost innocently, and before you realize it, you’re emotionally invested in Charlie in a way that feels deeply personal. Reading his thoughts as they change and evolve makes you feel like you’re growi...
Flowers For Algernon a book by Daniel Keyes
I wasn’t prepared for how deeply I would love Old Dan and Little Ann, or how completely their bond with Billy would crawl under my skin. This book feels innocent on the surface, but emotionally it’s ruthless.
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
There are no easy outs here. It forced me to look at a world where hope is a dangerous luxury, leaving me feeling raw and deeply humbled by the characters' resilience.
These characters try so hard to survive with dignity, and life just keeps taking ...
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
I was an absolute wreck. It’s a reminder of how fragile life is and how fiercely we should love while we have the chance —bring the entire box of tissues.
A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole
This one completely blindsided me. It builds up a world of secrets and soft letters just to tear it all down in a way that leaves me staring at the wall in silence for an hour.
The Last Letter - Rebecca Yarros
It’s not a love story; it’s a haunting. I felt the cold wind of the moors in my bones, watching an obsession so dark it consumes everyone it touches.
Wuthering Heights a book by Emily Bronte, Pauline Nestor, Lucasta Miller ...
It’s the quietest kind of devastation—the realization that a whole life can be lived in the shadow of one week that you can never get back.
Madonna in a Fur Coat - Sabahattin Ali
for anyone who has ever felt like a dreamer in a world of reality, the ending of this story is a cold, sharp reminder of how lonely the morning can be.
White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
I’ve never experienced a book that felt so still and so violent at the same time. There’s no big explosion, no sudden twist—just a slow, agonizing realization of a reality these characters accept with a calmness that absolutely broke me.
Never Let Me Go (Vintage International)
I thought I was prepared for this, but I wasn't. There is something about the perspective in this story that strips away all your defenses. It’s a relentless look at loyalty and the unfairness of life, told through eyes that see only the best in peop...
The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel
This book felt like it was written on my own skin. The prose is so uncomfortably intimate that I felt like I was intruding on a private conversation I wasn't meant to hear. It’s a visceral, jagged exploration of trauma and memory that doesn't offer a...
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous: A Novel
The prose is so lush and thick it feels like you're drowning in it. It’s a story about how the 'small things' in life can ripple out and destroy everything you love.
It's a gorgeous, relentless tragedy about the laws of who should be loved, and how...
The God of Small Things: A Novel
This is a slow-motion car crash that you cannot look away from. It’s about two people who are both 'right' in their own way, fighting over a house, and watching their desperation escalate into something irreversible. It left me feeling sick with grie...
House Of Sand And Fog
This isn't just a mystery; it’s an autopsy of a family’s silence. It explores the weight of parental expectations and the quiet ways we fail the people we love most. I spent the last fifty pages just crying for the characters and the things they neve...
Everything I Never Told You: A Novel
⭒books that leaves a beautiful ache ⭒
There is a very specific kind of pain that is actually quite beautiful, and that’s what this section is for. These stories live in the bittersweet middle ground—full of longing, missed connections, and the kind of pining that makes your chest feel ti...
"All these years, they’ve been like two little plants sharing the same plot of soil, growing around one another, contorting to make room, taking certain unlikely positions."
It felt like watching two people love each other in the exact wrong ways at...
Normal People a book by Sally Rooney
The prose is so beautiful it’s almost painful. I felt like I was eavesdropping on the most private, poetic conversation ever written between two people who shouldn't exist
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
I went in for the glamour but stayed for the heartbreak. You’ll find yourself mourning a life of secrets and a love that was forced to stay in the dark for far too long.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
“If I told you my name, would you bow?” His voice was soft. A melancholy caress. “Or would you flee?”
The pining in this is absolutely lethal. I was held captive by the tension and the high-stakes magic, feeling that desperate ache for characters wh...
We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal
"Why does the night have to be so beautiful? As I walk through the night, I remember what Mitsutsuka said to me. 'Because at night, only half the world remains.' "
All the lovers in the night captured a specific kind of modern loneliness that made m...
All The Lovers In The Night: Mieko Kawakami
Under Your Scars felt like watching someone slowly peel back a bandage. It’s raw and uncomfortable, but there is something so beautiful about seeing two damaged people try to heal together.
Under Your Scars by Ariel N Anderson
Wrecked feels like reading a truth that’s hard to admit. It’s about wanting someone who takes more than they give, and staying anyway. The love here isn’t soft or healing—it’s consuming, uneven, and slowly erasing.
I felt the debris of this story lo...
Wrecked by Mina, Bree L.
I don’t even know how to describe the hollow feeling this left in me. It’s not a tragedy in the traditional sense, but the way it tracks the friction and the distance between two people over decades is devastating. It captured that specific ache of l...
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A novel
This book is the personification of longing. The concept of being forgotten by everyone you meet the second you leave the room is so lonely it’s almost physical. I found myself pining right alongside Addie, desperate for just one person to remember h...
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
It’s rare to find a book that feels this rhythmic and tense. It’s a very quiet, very intense look at the fear that comes with being truly seen by another person. The pining isn't loud or dramatic; it’s a constant, steady thrum under every single page...
Open Water
A quiet, monumental story about a lifelong friendship between two couples. It captures the 'ache' of aging, the shifting tides of loyalty, and the beauty of a life lived alongside others. It’s not loud or dramatic, but it left me with a profound sens...
Crossing to Safety
This is the ultimate 'ache' book. It’s narrated by a butler who has spent his life being so 'professional' that he missed out on his own heart. The realization of his wasted pining and lost opportunities is so subtle and sharp that it felt like a col...
The Remains of the Day: Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
⭒books that feels like a hug ⭒
When life is too loud, these are your soft places to land. They feel like a warm blanket, a quiet room, and a reminder that everything is going to be okay.
"I think we ought to live happily ever after."
Whenever I’m stressed, I return to this world. It’s pure, chaotic magic and whimsical charm that makes me feel like I’ve stepped into a warm dream where anything is possible.
Howl's Moving Castle a book by Diana Wynne Jones
"People said Ove saw the world in black and white. But she was color. All the color he had."
I started out annoyed with Ove and ended up wanting to be his neighbor. It’s a life-affirming hug of a book that reminds you that you’re never as alone as y...
A Man Called Ove a book by Fredrik Backman
". . . as the future hasn't happened yet, I guess that's up to you. . ."
Before the Coffee Gets Cold is sweet, cozy, and quietly magical. It feels like stepping into a small café where time slows down and everything feels a little softer. The story ...
Before the Coffee Gets Cold: A Heartfelt Novel
“I wanted to see the whole world for myself. I wanted to see the whole range of possibilities. Your life is yours. It doesn’t belong to anyone else. I wanted to know what it would mean to live life on my own terms.”
This is my ultimate "book therapy...
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop: A Novel
“She fought to keep the ugly, chaotic world at bay and to keep a sweet, pretty corner to live in.”
Happy All the Time feels like a quiet act of resistance. It’s a soft book, but not an empty one—its gentleness is intentional, almost defiant. Laurie ...
Happy All the Time by Laurie Colwin
this story is just plain delightful. It’s quirky and strange in the best way, reminding me that there is magic to be found in the most ordinary things—like a loaf of bread.
Sourdough a book by Robin Sloan
"So many things are possible just as long as you don't know they're impossible."
The Phantom Tollbooth is clever, whimsical, and endlessly charming. It feels like pure imagination on the page, packed with wordplay, gentle lessons, and moments that m...
The Phantom Tollbooth a book by Norton Juster and Jules Feiffer
even with the danger, the bond between the main trio feels like home. I’d follow them anywhere just to feel that sense of belonging and fierce loyalty again.
Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
I didn't realize how much I needed a book to just be 'kind' until I read this. It’s the ultimate antidote to a bad week.
The characters are so wonderfully strange and the sense of belonging is so absolute that I felt a physical sense of relief whil...
The House in the Cerulean Sea
This was exactly what I needed to lower my heart rate. There are no villains trying to destroy the world, no massive betrayals—just the quiet, satisfying process of someone building a life they actually want. It’s incredibly grounding and cozy, focus...
Legends & Lattes: A High Fantasy Novel
Everyone knows Anne of Green Gables, but this is her underrated adult masterpiece. It’s about a woman who has lived a repressed, gray life finally deciding to live for herself. It’s rebellious, cozy, and romantic in a way that feels like sunlight bre...
The Blue Castle
Four very different women rent a medieval castle in Italy to escape their dreary lives in London. It’s a story about blooming—literally and figuratively. The descriptions of the gardens and the slow softening of their hearts are so warm they practica...
The Enchanted April
This is a tiny, perfect book. It’s about a war veteran uncovering a medieval mural in a quiet village church during a long, hot summer. It’s about healing, quiet friendship, and the peace of meaningful work. It feels like a long, calm afternoon in th...
A Month in the Country