Christmas, and the long dog days between Christmas and New Year, is a great time to get stuck into a new book.
We asked the team at A Lust for Life and our mental health advisory panel to recommend a book for Christmas which had a profound impact on their lives. What is a better gift than a book that might change your perspective on life?
“Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl
Man’s Search for Meaning is truly one of the most meaningful books I’ve ever read. It was meaningful for me, not only in shifting my perspective on life, but also immediately and directly shaped how I lived my days after I finished reading it. I first read this book when I was at one of the lowest points in my life, not long after my second psychiatric inpatient admission for depression. To this day I believe this book was instrumental in turning my life around. Viktor Frankl describes his experiences of the trauma and suffering he endured as a prisoner of the Nazi Concentration Camps and what he learned about life through his survival.
Despite the horrors he portrays, the book is ultimately a hopeful and inspiring read. As Frankl says, everything can be taken from a human, except one thing- the freedom to choose our own responses to any situation life presents us with, even the ones that bring suffering. The key is to find your purpose in life and then throw yourself wholeheartedly behind realising this purpose in any way you can. Shortly after I finished Man’s Search for Meaning, I started volunteering for various charities and causes, and slowly over time became more and more passionate about helping others. Within a year, I applied to go back to college as a mature student to study a degree in psychology. Seven years later, I qualified as a Doctor in Counselling Psychology, and I truly hope, continue to help as many people as possible to heal by moving toward their own life purpose and meaning. This book taught me that meaning can be found even in the darkest of places- and where there is the light of meaning, there is life.
– Trish Leonard-Curtin, Counselling Psychologist, Co-Director Act Now Purposeful Living and member of A Lust for Life Mental Health Advisory panel
“The Choice”, by Dr Edith Eger
A profound reminder that you can’t change most of what you face in life – but you can change how you choose to face it.
– Paula McLoughlin, Chair and acting CEO of A Lust for Life
“Cutting For Stone”, by Abraham Verghese
The story itself is enthralling – it follows the story of a British surgeon and an Indian Nun in a missionary hospital in Ethiopia in the 1960s and 1970s, and the surgeon’s subsequent move to the US.
One little snippet that has stuck me since, and resonated when I read it, was some advice the surgeon was given in his training, and subsequently gave to his students: What crisis intervention can be given by ear in an emergency?
Words of comfort.
It brings the science of fear and pain together with humanism and real compassion, the merging of the common touch with the calmness that comes with medical experience and expertise. There is so much good stuff wrapped up in those three words!
– Michael Keane, CEO of Actualise and member of A Lust for Life Mental Health Advisory panel
“Anam Cara – Spiritual Wisdom from the Celtic World”, by John O’Donohue
I love it, it’s just a beautiful, calming book, with insights that use the Celtic vision of life to examine the soul. I pick it up often, O’Donohue’s poetic, eloquent and profound insights help to connect me back to my inner world and my own power within, especially good for times when I get a bit low on fuel and consumed by a frenetic external existence!
– Louize Carroll, Occupational Psychologist, member of The Blizzards, and member of A Lust for Life Mental Health Advisory panel
“Jonathan Livingston Seagull”, by Richard Bach
I just love this book, it’s a fable, it can be read in an hour, and each time I read I gain a new insight about change, persistence, fantasy, permanence, impermanence and myself …. love it, time to read it again.
– Dr Eddie Murphy, Clinical Psychologist, A Lust for Life Board Member and member of A Lust for Life Mental Health Advisory panel
“Radical Acceptance”, by Tara Brach
This book was a both challenge and a liberation to read: in it, Tara Brach asks us to radically accept ourselves, every part of ourselves (even the shite bits), and teaches really useful techniques and skills to manage sitting with and processing uncomfortable feelings and emotions we might ordinarily turn away from. She writes beautifully about what she calls the “trance of unworthiness”, and through storytelling, short meditations and reflections, she invites us to snap out of the trance and see the beauty in our imperfections, and heal feelings of shame and feeling not worthy of love or happiness.
– Ciara O’Connor Walsh, Editor, A Lust for Life
“Stoner”, by John Williams
This is a quiet classic of American literature. It is simple and direct with breathtaking prose. A story about un unremarkable academic. This book is to be treasured mainly for its style and prose.
“The Hearts Invisible Furies”, by John Boyne
A bold epic novel charting 7 decades of Irish history through its central character Cyril Avery. This book is witty, sad and deeply engaging.
“Life after Life” by Kate Atkinson
A truly original novel that deals with life and death, the passing of time, fate and possibility. As a novel it is both astounding and gripping. I couldn’t put it down.
– Niamh Coyne, A Lust for Life Board Member
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