23 Life-Changing Books Everyone Should Read at Least Once

Toni Morrison's fifth book, Beloved, is about a slave who escapes from Kentucky to Ohio, but remains unfree while confronting the trauma of losing her unnamed baby. It's inspired by a true story, and it was a 1987 National Book Award finalist.

If you ever find yourself feeling anxious or sad about the state of the world, this book is for you. Written by a Swedish physician, it goes through ten common “-isms” we think we understand about things like poverty, global education, and the environment. The book presents statistics, science, and firsthand insight that contradicts these seemingly doomed narratives. Less a solve and more a call to action, this book will change how you see the world around you. 

Part travelog, part love story, this novel follows an author who spent much of his young adulthood in the shadow of his renowned poet partner and, after his death, finds himself alone and middle-aged, unsure of exactly what happened. Funny, extremely creative, and deeply resonant, this is one of those books you may just read in one sitting and then revisit over and over.

Colson Whitehead’s novel is an unsparing depiction of the horrors of life as a runaway slave, but it's tinged with hope as he reimagines the Underground Railroad as a literal railroad. It will change how you think of the U.S., while empowering readers to keep fighting in order to make it different—and better for everyone. 

Based on a series of lectures given by its author, this book uses anthropology and social science to span all of human history, from the spark of consciousness to now. It’s central thesis—that we succeed as a species because we can work together—is a nice reminder for our troubled times. 

It's hard to choose the most impactful work from author Joan Didion, but Slouching Towards Bethlehem makes it way to the top of the list thanks to her landmark essay "Goodbye to All That," which is featured in this collection. If you've ever fallen in and out of love with a city, you'll be able to relate to this deeply.

In this captivating, pragmatic book, Don Miguel Ruiz has laid out the four agreements we should make with ourselves: 1) Be impeccable with your word 2) Don't take anything personally 3) Don't make assumptions 4) Always do your best.

Delia Owens's Where the Crawdads Sing alternates stories between a young girl named Kya and a murder case that's being investigated by a sheriff who's convinced Kya had something to do with it. The book spent hundreds of weeks on the bestseller list and later became a movie. 

As Glennon Doyle so perfectly puts it in her book, Untamed, we can do hard things. Her memoir is filled with multiple lessons on how to live our most authentic lives and become, quite simply, untamed. By the end of the book, you'll be ready to change your life.

Ibram X. Kendi's How to Be an Antiracist is a masterclass on the conversations America isn't having about racism, showing us how to confront our nation's dark history and what the path towards true equality looks like.

Italy. India. Bali. Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love has encouraged women everywhere to book the ticket and leave behind the life society tells them opting instead for an unpredictable, messy, beautiful journey.

Soon to be adapted into a television series, Cathy Park Hong's Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning remains an essential read during a time when Asian Americans are facing an unprecedented amount of hate crimes. The essay collection dives into the racial consciousness of America and Hong's theory of "minor feelings."

James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room was a groundbreaking book for its time, and remains a classic in the literary world for its representation of the LGBTQ+ community. The book's protagonists are an American expat named David and his ex-lover Giovanni, an Italian immigrant.

Get ready for the glorious glut of teenage angst that is Holden Caulfield. You were probably assigned this book in high school English class and were surprised it passed the curriculum, thanks to its overwhelming amount of slang and blasphemy. But Holden’s unfiltered first-person prose is why this book stays with you; he comes across as an authentic and hilarious voice (or arrogant and selfish, depending on your perspective) as he endures the ups-and-downs of adolescence.

Technically, this book is about a young man who gets into a boating disaster and tries to survive with a bunch of animals. But inside these pages, you’ll find a brilliant and deep-rooted idea about religion that will make you fundamentally question your personal beliefs.

Have you ever tried to justify something you did that you know was wrong? Well, in Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov does it for a whole novel. This book follows the trials and tribulations of an ex-student in Saint Petersburg who decides to kill a pawnbroker for her money. Although the student tries to defend himself by saying the world is better off without a selfish and evil woman, and that he can do better deeds with that fortune (this is where utilitarianism was born, BTW), he forgets to account for the power of human conscience that plagues him after what he’s done.

If you try to highlight all the phrases in The Alchemist that are quotes to live by (like I did!), you’ll leave half the book lit up in color. The story follows the quest of an Andalusian shepherd boy as he chases a prophecy that states he will find treasure and fortune at the Egyptian Pyramids. But it's the lessons that Santiago learns on the journey that will stay with you long after you finish the book. As he realizes his "destiny" and wages on despite the fear and uncertainty, you’ll be inspired too.

This gut-wrenching memoir follows neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi as he deals with a cancer diagnosis and records his musings on life, death, illness, and humanity. A few months after finishing the autobiographical book, he passed away from stage IV metastatic lung cancer. But this book is more about living than dying, and how one can transcend tragedy and make life meaningful in the time you’re given.

Tara Westover’s memoir is an exposé of her former Mormon life  but it serves as a universal coming-of-age story that emphasizes the importance of education and is  an inspirational ode to anyone who comes from a dysfunctional family. Read: You don’t have to remain trapped in your circumstances.

This novel will make you feel on a deep and visceral level. It’s about two boys—Amir, a boy from a wealthy family, and his best friend Hassan, who works in his house. Hosseini beautifully captures the sacred bond of friendship, and how it can persevere even when society tries to rip it apart.

It can be rare for young women to see themselves represented clearly on the page, but Louisa May Alcott did it so perfectly with her depictions of Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March that her story of their teens and early 20s—filled with war, heartbreak, death, and plenty of love and joy sprinkled throughout—still rings true with readers, and remains shockingly relatable, more than 150 years later.

Brit Bennett’s second novel follows two identical twin sisters over the course of several decades. Though both grow up in Louisiana as light-skinned Black girls, their paths diverge as teenagers after they run away to Washington, D.C. and one sister chooses to begin passing as white. They intersect again years later when their daughters happen to meet in Los Angeles. It’s a powerful story about racism and colorism, raising important questions about the identities we craft for ourselves and those crafted for us, and you’ll definitely want to give it a read before the Issa Rae-produced adaptation debuts on HBO.

Each of the nine essays in this collection discusses a facet of our current culture that’s changing the way we live, act, and see ourselves. One, for example, takes a (truly haunting) look at the mindset of constant “optimization” that plagues our society and specifically seeks to tame and shrink women. Tolentino classifies the essays as more of the conversation-starting than solution-offering type, and indeed, they’ll give you plenty to think about long after you’ve turned the final page.