I have a confession to make – I love reading. But even though I am passionate about self-help (I mean, I run a whole blog about it, duh), self-help books aren’t always my cup of tea. Some self-development books want to spoon-feed you all the ways in which you should be inspired. Sometimes, that’s exactly the kind of read you need. But other times, it’s even more powerful to get lost in a story that leaves you with inspiration, life lessons, and the power of self-development along the way. Are you also looking for inspiring fiction books that can help you change your life just as much (if not more) than traditional self-help books? Read on!
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The Best Inspiring Adult Fiction Books for Self-Development
There are so many inspiring fiction books that can be a tool in your self-help toolbox. From heart-wrenching dramas to uplifting comedies, I’ve selected 5 of my favourites to get you started.
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
“We are all connected…You can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind.”
What if your life was measured in the lives that you touched? This is the question that Mitch Albom poses in The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Eddie is an 83-year-old war veteran and amusement park ride mechanic. When he tragically dies trying to save a young girl from a mechanical malfunction on a fair ride, Eddie enters heaven, where he meets five people whose lives were interwoven with his own. By the end, Eddie, and readers of this captivating story, will understand that there is no such thing as an unremarkable life.
The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley
“The truth often isn’t pretty. It’s not aspirational. It doesn’t fit neatly into a little square on Instagram.”
What people’s lives appear to be on the outside is rarely the way they really are on the inside. This is the backbone of Clare Pooley’s first novel, The Authenticity Project. Readers follow six strangers from vastly different walks of life as they leave the truths about their lives in a mysterious green journal – then pass it on. The book is a quirky, heartwarming, and painfully true look at the power of baring your real self to the world.
A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman
“One of the most painful moments in a person’s life probably comes with the insight that an age has been reached when there is more to look back on than ahead.”
After losing his job and his wife, the bitter and grumpy old Ove feels that he has lost everything he had to live for. That is, of course, until a vibrant and chaotic family moves in next door. Ove’s hilarious story is simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming, and will remind you that healing can sometimes come from the most unlikely places.
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The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
“We only need to be one person. We only need to feel one existence. We don’t have to do everything in order to be everything, because we are already infinite. While we are alive we always contain a future of multifarious possibility.”
In this captivating book, Matt Haig introduces readers to the midnight library – a place between life and death that contains infinite books for each of the infinite choices that can be made in a lifetime. As Nora Seed explores these possibilities, readers are faced with the question – what would your life look like if you could undo all of your regrets?
Mornings With Rosemary by Libby Page
“Never be sorry,’ she says, a storm in her eyes. ‘Never be sorry for feeling. Never be sorry for falling in love.”
Rosemary Peterson is an 86-year-old widower who finds comfort at the local swimming pool. Kate Matthews is an aspiring writer in her 20s, held back by anxiety and her dead-end job writing for the local paper. The two women couldn’t be any more different – until Kate is tasked with writing a story about the pool’s closing. As they work together to stop the closing of the pool, Kate and Rosemary are transformed in ways they never even thought possible. This inspiring fiction book is an uplifting read for anyone craving a tale of love, loss, and community.
The Best Inspiring Biographies and Memoirs for Self-Development
Okay, I know that biographies and memoirs don’t reeeeaaally count as fiction. But if you’re craving an inspiring story instead of diving into a traditional self-help book, these books are the perfect picks.
Educated by Tara Westover
“My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs.”
Born into a survivalist family in the mountains of Ohio, Tara Westover was 17 before she saw a doctor or stepped foot in a classroom. Lacking any formal education but with a thirst for knowledge, Tara began secretly educating herself, eventually being accepted to Brigham University and later embarking on a quest for knowledge that took her around the world. Educated encourages readers to embrace the transformative powers of education, and how it can help us see our own lives through new eyes.
It Was Me All Along by Andie Mitchell
“I will always know that the grass, though it seems emerald and glowing in that field on the other side—it isn’t. Flowers grow here. They grow over there. Weeds do, too. But both are wide, and they’re open. And I can lie and cry in one and move and spin in the other, all while knowing this: they’re the same field. And they’re both mine.”
Andie Mitchell’s powerful memoir reflects on the challenges she faced experiencing life in both larger and smaller bodies – and still not feeling like enough. Andie’s story will help readers confront their own relationships with food and their bodies by exploring what it really means to feel at home in your own skin.
Beauty in the Broken Places by Allison Pataki
“May we always remember to begin the day being grateful for life, however difficult that life may appear.”
Allison Pataki’s life was turned upside down in a split second – the moment that her otherwise young and healthy husband Dave suffered a rare, life-altering stroke. Now a young mother caring for her newborn and her sick husband, Allison began writing daily letters to Dave as a way to make sense of the chaos unfolding around them. These letters are now at the heart of Allison’s heartfelt and intimate memoir that will help readers find their own resilience through the pain that life often throws at us.
The Best YA Inspiring Fiction Books for Self-Development
YA – short for young adult – is a genre of literature aimed at teenagers and young adults. But don’t let the “young” in young adult fool you. There are inspiring fiction books in the YA world that can be life-changing for people of any age.
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
“Courage. Kindness. Friendship. Character. These are the qualities that define us as human beings, and propel us, on occasion, to greatness.”
10-year-old August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from attending mainstream school. Readers follow August’s journey as he finally enters 5th grade and struggles to be accepted by his new classmates. Palacio’s words will make you rethink your ideas of what “normal” means, and explore the ways in which we learn to accept ourselves and those around us.
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The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
“It amazes me what humans can do, even when streams are flowing down their faces and they stagger on.”
The Book Thief is one of those inspiring fiction books that will stick with you long after the final page. The book, narrated by death, follows Liesel, a young girl living with foster parents in Nazi Germany. Liesel’s story is filled with so much pain; but also so much light. The Book Thief will definitely make you cry (I cry at a lot of books, but this was one of the only books that has ever made me sob almost hysterically), but it will also make you confront the ideas of family, kindness, good and evil, and death in a way that not many books can. A must-read!
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
“But no matter what choices we make – solo or together – our finish line remains the same … No matter how we choose to live, we both die at the end.”
In They Both Die at the End, Adam Silvera imagines a world in which a mysterious service informs everyone of the day they will die. The book follows Mateo and Rufus, two teenagers who have received their alerts and decide to spend their final hours together to live a lifetime of adventures in one single, uncertain day. Featuring a diverse cast and a heartbreaking LGBTQ+ love story, They Both Die at the End is an inspiring fiction book that will leave readers wondering what they might do differently if today was their last day.
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
“Don’t be afraid of death; be afraid of an unlived life. You don’t have to live forever, you just have to live.”
If you could live forever – would you? That’s the dilemma that 10-year-old Winnie Foster faces in Tuck Everlasting. When Winnie meets the Tuck family, cursed (or blessed?) to live forever after drinking from a magical stream, she is sent on an adventure that changes her life as she knows it. Natalie Babbitt’s gorgeous writing explores the ideas of immortality, family, and the power of our choices in this classic novel from 1985.
It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
“People are screwed up in this world. I’d rather be with someone screwed up and open about it than somebody perfect and ready to explode.”
Ambitious teenager Craig Gilner has his whole life planned out – until the pressure becomes unbearable and his anxiety and depression land him in a mental hospital. Vizzini’s writing is funny, raw, and real. Inspired by his own struggles with mental health and time spent in mental institutions, this book will make you rethink your relationship with mental illness, and the pressure we all face every day. Ned Vizzini lost his battle with mental illness in 2013; even more of a reason to read and hold onto the message of hope that he shared in his books.
The Best Inspiring Poetry Books for Self-Development
Poetry has a powerful way of helping us explore ourselves and the world around us. These inspiring poetry books will help your self-love and self-development journey, while also being beautiful, emotional, and a joy to read.
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
“how you love yourself is
how you teach others
to love you”
Rupi Kaur’s bestselling poetry book takes readers on a journey through four stages of hurt and healing: the hurting, the loving, the breaking, and the healing. Rupi’s moving takes on love, loss, and femininity will inspire women everywhere to embrace their sensitivity as their power.
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Shame is an Ocean I Swim Across by Mary Lambert
“Love your body the way your mother loved your baby feet”
Even if you don’t know Mary Lambert’s name, you’ve definitely heard her voice – she wrote and performed on Macklemore’s 2012 hit song, Same Love. She draws on her tumultuous upbringing again in Shame is an Ocean I Swim Across, tackling topics such as her sexuality, mental illness, sexual assault, and body acceptance. But it’s not all dark – Lambert’s poetry is also full of humour, light, and understanding that can help readers heal just as much – or maybe even more – than any self-help book.
The Strength in Our Scars by Bianca Sparacino
“What a shame it truly is— that some of us have lived our entire lives under the impression that the love we have been searching for was to be found, first and foremost, in anyone but ourselves.”
The Strength in Our Scars is an inspiring collection of poems all about the power of healing. Sparacino’s powerful prose tackles topics like self-love, moving on, and finding the peace and strength that you never thought possible. Readers will feel stronger, more resilient, and more hopeful than ever before.
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Have you read any of these inspiring fiction books? What other books have helped change you for the better? Share your faves in the comments below! All my love,
Being a self-improvement blogger, I must admit I tend to read much on self-help. However, a good fiction book is also enjoyable!
Thanks Shar! I totally agree. I can also appreciate a good self-help book but it’s so nice to have some inspiring fiction options as well when that’s what you’re in the mood for!
Yes!! This post is so on point! A lot of people think the only self-help books are the ones labeled as such, but there are soooo many works of fiction that are just as helpful and inspiring, if not more so because of the different delivery of information! I’ve read quite a few of these but will have to check out Mornings with Rosemary! Thank you for sharing this!
Thank you so much, Meghan! I couldn’t agree more. A well-rounded reading list makes for a well-rounded life. Mornings with Rosemary is such a sweet read. I hope you enjoy it too 🙂
“Shame is an Ocean I Swim Across” sounds interesting. I haven’t heard of it before. I’ll have to look into it. I’m actually amazed I don’t know half of the books here and I’m a book lover 😃
The Authenticity Project just might have to be my next read – that sounds so interesting!! Thank you for these wonderful suggestions, I can’t wait to fill my library just a little more!
Thank you so much, Danika! You can never have too many books!
I think I will start with the Midnight Library! What a great suggestion of book, lots to choose from, different stories to nourish the soul! Thank you so much for putting this together, will be my good to for new book suggestions.
I hope you enjoy it! Thanks so much for your comment 🙂
Ahahaha had to laugh at the title of your blog post. But, yes so true right!? Sometimes a great fiction book is better than therapy! We forget how nuanced these novels are and how much they can teach us about our selves. Great post!
LOL, thanks Louise! I personally prefer fiction to traditional self-help books so I thought it would be a fun post. Therapy is so important too – but at least reading is cheaper!
These are all such great recommendations. I absolutely loved Wonder by R.J. Palacio when I was a kid!
Thanks so much for your comment, Leena 🙂 I feel like kid’s/YA books can sometimes be the most inspiring, even for adults!
These are great book recommendations! I’ve read a few of them… and I really want to read The Authenticity Project. Thanks for sharing this! I’m always looking for new books!!
Thanks so much, Christine! The Authenticity Project is a beautiful read! I definitely recommend it 🙂