Looking for books to read this summer? We have you covered with a list of new books that we think occupational therapy peeps will love. Get lost in a novel, be inspired by a memoir, or take a deep dive in a nonfiction book. Add one of these 14 titles to your reading list!
Novels
Umami by Laia Jufresa
A quietly devastating novel about learning to continue living after losing a loved one. You hear individual stories at different points of time from a variety of characters—a child whose younger sister drowned, their mother, and a few of their neighbors, one of whom is a recent widower.
Autumn by Ali Smith
This Man Booker finalist tells the story of a beautiful intergenerational friendship that started when Elisabeth was a little girl. As an adult, the young woman reflects on their past as she visits her centenarian friend in a nursing home.
Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong
You probably are not used to laughing out loud when reading about dementia, but Khong made me smile, laugh, cringe, and cry. It is a diary-like tale of an adult woman moving home to help her parents as her father’s dementia takes him away from a job that he loves.
Everything Here is Beautiful by Mira Lee
A story of the bond between two sisters—one with a mental illness and the other who would do anything to help her. You hear from both sisters in alternating points of view as they adapt to adulthood and find themselves making very different life choices.
What We Lose by Zinzie Clemmons
Her mother was her strength and her rock. When she lost her to cancer, the main character presents a unique mediation on loss, absence, and identity. The story and details are heartbreaking and honest.
Grief Is The Thing With Feathers by Max Porter
Grief in this short novel takes the form of a crow that has moved in to the home of a widower and his young children. It’s both painful and beautiful to read. If you aren’t in to weird books then this one might be better saved for later, when you would find a crow embodying grief would be a thing you could actually connect with.
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
This book is a recommendation from a member (I haven’t read it yet!): “The book is set in the wilderness of Alaska. Matthew, a main character has a brain injury. He receives OT. The OT teaches him to paint and he excels to being a professional artist. Good book and good promoting of OT.”
Nonfiction
Essays
Tell Me How it Ends by Valeria Luiselli
The author is an immigrant from Mexico who has spent time volunteering to help children in the immigration court system. Her heartfelt essay about the the children who get caught up in the immigration courts tries to answer the question her daughter asks her about the children she is working with—tell me how it ends? In most cases, Luisielli cannot answer that.
The Unspeakable by Meghan Daum
If you like laughing out loud but then walking away with a really profound conclusion, this collection of personal essays is for you. Daum covers everything from losing her mother to the decision to not have children in an honest (but also hilarious) way.
Learn Something
The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Mukherjee tells the history of the gene in the style of an engaging, readable biography. How did we get to where we are today in genetics? Learn about the science and social history, and get a personal narrative of one of the most important modern scientific breakthroughs.
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
In Being Mortal, Gawande explores what he describes as the hardest challenge of medicine—dealing with death. Instead of carrying out devastating procedures to extend life, Gawande challenges the medical profession to focus more on quality of life and how to make a person’s last weeks or months be rich and dignified.
Patient H.M. by Luke Dittric
Following a lobotomy in 1953, Henry Molaison was unable to create long-term memories. This book tells the story of Patient H.M., as Henry was known, and how he became the most studied individuals in the history of neuroscience. Patient H.M. is readable and a page-turner, combining biography, memoir, and science journalism.
Memoirs
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
Part memoir. Part nature writing. You will learn a lot about hawks. If you’re like me, you’ll start imagining yourself owning a hawk. But this book isn’t just about hawks. If anything, it’s more about a young woman grieving after her father’s unexpected death and struggling with a life transition. Helen starts training a goshawk, and that task becomes a way for her to seclude herself from family, friends, and life. It’s a story of bereavement but also how a hawk changed Helen’s life.
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
A neurosurgeon finds out at 36 that he has stage 4 lung cancer. Paul began writing this memoir as he went from being a physician treating the dying to a patient struggling to live. He tackles subjects like morality, being a parent, and what makes life worth living in the face of death. Paul died in March 2015 while writing the book but his words continue to challenge and inspire.
What's On Your List?
AOTA members are talking about the books on their summer reading lists on this discussion here.
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