Sometimes when I’m reading for pleasure, the prose, concerns, conversations, or challenges that protagonists face offer unwitting help as I navigate my own recovery from workplace harm. Concerns about belonging, discerning safety, navigating freedom, remembering missed chances to make another decision, or meeting people who help us along the way – all show up from time to time.
Here are some books that I’ve found wonderful not only in their own right as stories, but as unexpected contemplation and/or balm in recognizing common human(e) experiences of relationship and reconciliation.
Kawaguchi,T. (2020). Before the coffee gets cold, Book 2: Tales from the cafe. London Picador.
Lavelle, D. (2025). Aftertaste. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Lee, M.J. (2018). Pachinko. New York: Grand Central Publishing.
Okorafor, N. (2015). The book of Phoenix. New York: Daw Books.
More to consider:
Haig, M. (2020). The midnight library. New York: Viking.
Solomon, R. (2017). An unkindness of ghosts. Brooklyn: Akashic Books.
