Books That'll Change You

Some books make you laugh, cry and get your mind into a completely different world. They're like a breath of fresh air that takes you out of reality for a moment. And don't get me wrong, I love that sort of book. But lately I have been enjoying an entirely different kind- one that goes beyond letting me pass a few peaceful hours to touching my heart and changing my life.

These are some of those books for me. Books that have inspired me so much that even months after reading them they are still regularly impacting my life.

1. Jane Eyre

I finally read this book in my freshman year of college (after admittedly sparknote-ing it in high school), and fell in love with it. What is beautiful about this classic novel is not necessarily the love story it tells, though that has its own charm. But it's the character of the protagonist that made me really fall in love with it.

Jane is the kind of person I aspire to be. She is plain and simple on the outside, but inside she contains a world that is very much her own, and that she strives to stay true to in everything she does. That's what makes her my favorite fictional character ever. She faced everything from the hardest temptation to societal pressure, and yet she still managed to stay true to herself.

Honestly, I think this is the kind of novel that people will either absolutely love or hate. But I relate so much to Jane's deeply hidden emotions, her attempt to find morality, and her pursuit of who God is to her, not necessarily society. I can always count on this novel to inspire me each time I pick it up.

2. Bittersweet

This is a book I've been reading in the past few weeks. I picked it up as an impulse buy from Barnes & Noble (I seem to make a lot of those lately...), mainly because I fell in love with the writing style after just a paragraph. I also love the kind of author that Shauna Niequist is- brutally honest, open, and relatable. She faces her weaknesses and failures and turns them into art and inspiration. That's the kind of author I want to be.

But it's not just about the pretty language and the way she makes hard things sound more beautiful than they are. She writes about real life. About balancing house chores and errands with connecting with friends and pursuing art. I have dog-eared so many pages in this book so that I can come to them later and remind myself that there is grace and beauty even in imperfection.

3. Love Does

My favorite thing about this book is how seemingly simple it is. The author spends each chapter sharing a story about an incident from his life, and then takes a few pages to share his revelation about God afterward. The crazy thing though, is his stories. I remember thinking as I read them that surely he made most of them up. See, Bob Goff has this incredible way of just doing things. Crazy things. Spontaneous things. The kind of things that I would probably not consider for longer than the millisecond it took for the thought to form in my mind.

But as I was reading his stories it struck me that he is really living life. And the reasons I can think of for not doing the sort of things he does are really all excuses and worries about what people would think, and things that won't really matter in the long run. And I don't want to live like that. After reading Love Does, I've come across a few opportunites that in the past I would've turned down for a variety of reasons, but that I chose to face instead with a simple, "why not?" And so far, I haven't regretted a single one.

4. Daring Greatly

Word of warning on this one: It will absolutely make you uncomfortable. But in a good way, I promise. Researcher Brene Brown wrote this book to share what she's learned about vulnerability, and how essential it is in our search to connect with others. She explains how we avoid it because of shame, and the many walls we build up to protect ourselves from being hurt. But in our attempt to avoid pain, we end up shutting out any possibility for real love and intimacy.

This is the kind of book that leaves you learning more about yourself than you were aware of when you picked it up. So worth the read, and the re-read.

5. Kisses from Katie

This is the story of an 18-year old girl who moved to Africa, adopted 13 girls, and began her own nonprofit organization to empower the people of Uganda. As someone who loves missions, this book has inspired as well as challenged me.

What I most love about the way Katie tells her story is that even though she's a world away doing things most of us don't do in the course of a regular day, her walk with God is still relevant to what we face. Her chapters tell about God's grace when our efforts aren't enough, about what it means to have faith, and about how He is there to help us let go when our hearts don't want to. It's not just a book about a missionary. It's a book about a genuine walk with God, and that's what I most love about it.

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