Books on Life Lessons: There are three types of people in the world: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder how did that happen.
For life to be worthwhile, it requires effort and constant intentions to work through all that comes with it. Life is a continuous learning curve and an adaptation process. By learning how to deal with what comes with life, we become better beings to ourselves and those around us.
Sure, we can learn from a self-help aisle. However, sometimes the best wisdom comes from books on life lessons. Memoirs are particularly essential knowledge-based elixirs. They show and remind us that we are not alone in the learning process and that life itself is a shared experience.
Here are our top inspirational memoirs recommendations to help you see life differently.
What Are The Top Inspirational Memoirs and Books on Life Lessons?
Mysterious Ways, by Jay Gittleson (2022)
Jay suffered multiple traumas early in his life, including a triple family murder but became a teacher and a loving father. Later on, he started a motivational speakers bureau to give the youth across his country inspiration. But Jay also developed kidney failure.
He was brought up Jewish and had the vision to relocate his family to Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Together with his family, they became part of an evangelical Christian congregation that later, together with orthodox Jewish rabbis, helped save his life.
During his dialysis, Jay kept reaching out and encouraging others within and outside the dialysis center. He established a Reconnection Tour which took him back to the people who had positively impacted his life.
Mysterious Ways is more than just a feel-good story. It is inspiring to see the emotional roller coaster Jay had to endure and the triumphant impact he made for himself and those around him. This memoir will motivate you to keep doing good, be kind, love others, and keep unwavering faith despite the circumstances that may come your way.
A Love-Stretched Life, by Jillana Goble (2022)
Life is complicated, messy, exhausting, good, and exhilarating. Everything happens simultaneously. Sometimes you may feel overburdened by the demands, and you may even question how you reached a certain point and how to get through. Jillana has been there.
With candid details, faith, and bits of humor, she chronicles how she has continually kept on learning while being suspended between hope and reality. She became a mom through birth, fostering, and adoption and went through many of life’s curveballs.
In this memoir, she reminds you that you are not alone if you sometimes feel your life is not kept together. She reassures readers that, more often than not, realities are far different from imaginations.
The stories in this book will encourage you to love and love properly even when it is challenging. You will get hope whether you are trying to get through the day or looking to widen your family circle.
Left on Tenth, by Delia Ephron (2022)
Delia struggled with heartbreak after losing her sister and husband, who were both taken from her by cancer. After her husband’s death, Delia decided to adjust her life and make a tiny change. She shut his landline, crashing her internet, and eventually found herself in Verizon hell.
She wrote a New York Times op-ed to channel her grief. Peter, a psychiatrist, was moved by the piece, and he emailed her to commiserate. Peter flew to see Delia, and they were crazy in love. Four months down the line, she was diagnosed with AML.
In this memoir, Delia enchants and seesaws readers between laughter and tears. She details how she navigated suicidal lows as she endured cutting-edge treatment and her off-balance highs of another chance at love. She tells her story about facing death with honesty, warmth, and clarity and invites readers to be warriors and believers.
This is one of the best books on life lessons, that I have read. It is not only touching, but it is also engaging. The author writes in a way that makes you feel as though he is right there with you, walking you through her life challenges. I would highly recommend this inspirational book to anyone looking for guidance in their life.
Never Simple, by Liz Scheier (2022)
This is a story of learning how to survive and trying to liberate a complicated parent who was as loved as she was feared and adoring as she was self-destructive.
Liz’s mother, Judith, was a hilarious news junkie and a charmer. She was a single mom, and her devotion went beyond, turning into an obsession. Grips of mental illness often plagued her daily life, and she became an abusive and violent liar with a shaky reality.
One afternoon, when Liz was eighteen, she told her two details about her life- she had been married to someone she never knew, and her father was made up. These two lies were just the beginning. More minor lies supported them, and when Liz’s mom was almost done, she had formulated a half-true and farcical life for them- a fabricated husband and a fake social security number.
One day, Liz got an Adult Protective Services voicemail reporting that Judith was no longer paying rent and had refused any help. This call started another journey that took Liz and Judith into more years of lies and deception.
Finding Me, by Viola Davis (2022)
This inspirational memoir is Viola’s story about her life in Rhode Island and beyond. It is the path she took to find her purpose in a world where she was not always seen.
Viola says she wrote the book with her eyes open to the harsh realities of how often we are not granted close examination. Many times, we are forced to reinvent our stories for them to fit a competitive, judgmental, and crazy world.
Viola wrote this book for anyone who keeps navigating life untethered and desperately, anybody trying to find some self-love and anyone clawing their way within vague memories.
Finding Me reminds you that you deserve to live and that a worthy life can only sprout from radical honesty, spirit, and resolution to shed facades. This book is a promise, deep reflection, and a self-love letter. It will encourage you to rediscover yourself and light up your life with a creative expression before people can label you.
Corrections in Ink, by Keri Blakinger (2022)
Keri was a competitive skater while growing up. However, her world was shattered when her skating partnership was halted. She got into self-destruction with all her might. Since her first heroin taste, her next nine years became a blur. She lived on the streets, dug for a vein, sold drugs and sex, and fell off a bridge when it all became unbearable. She did all this while trying to keep together and complete her degree at Cornell.
One day, the police stopped and caught her with heroin; that is how she ended up in a cell, county jail, and later on, state prison. There, she encountered women from all walks of life and callous conditions that changed her world.
She was later released and firmly resolved to make the most out of her second chance. She got a job as a reporter and became an award-winning journalist. She is now dedicated to exposing broken systems.
This is a story of addiction, finding redemption, and the potency of second chances.
Mean Baby, by Selma Blair (2022)
Selma’s first story was that she was a very mean baby. She lived up to her horrible reputation by biting her sisters, lying voluntarily, getting drunk only at seven, and having dramatic behaviors to be the center of attention.
Even though Selma later became a celebrated Hollywood model and actress, she could never shake the darkness that overtook her and the assurance that her life’s heart had a great mystery. Often, she felt as if her arms were on fire like she was being electrically shocked, and she escaped these feelings by getting drunk.
In this beautiful and sometimes devastating inspirational memoir, Blair talks about her alcohol addiction, devotion to her complicated but brilliant mother, and the times she flirted with death. The book contains details of the gift of motherhood, brutal violence, true friendship, passionate love, and Selma’s surprise salvation from a multiple sclerosis diagnosis.
If We Break, by Kathleen Buhle (2022)
If We Break is Kathleen’s story of self-discovery and resilience during her marriage to Hunter.
For many decades, Kathleen played the good wife. Her life began when she met Hunter and fell in love. She later got pregnant and engaged and found herself living a life she had never known. She was ready to build a family with Hunter and was genuinely convinced that their commitment could overcome any hurdles. However, when Hunter’s drinking became dependency, she had to learn how irrevocably and quickly a marriage can fall apart due to addiction. The lies built up and eventually became insurmountable.
Kathleen had to reckon with all the compromises she had made attempting to save her marriage. She kept wondering if she could survive alone.
In this compelling inspirational memoir, Kathleen confronts why she hid so much from herself and her daughters for so long, why she turned out to become highly dependent on one man, and why she remained intensely faithful to a secret vow instead of her truth. This self-actualization book speaks to anyone who has lost their identity and wants to reclaim it.
Final Thoughts on the Best Books on Life Lessons
Learning never ends as long as we are living. That is why you need to check out our best books about life above to equip yourself with practical and tangible life lessons that will stick with you.
Reading about life is important because it can help us learn from others, grow as individuals, and find inspiration. By reading the best books about life, we can gain a better understanding of what it means to live a full and meaningful life.
We can also learn how to overcome difficult challenges, deal with setbacks, and find happiness in the simplest moments. So, if you’re looking for some guidance in your life, be sure to check out some of these amazing books!
If you are looking for more, check out our all time favorite memoirs.