Books on Life Perspectives
The majority of us wander through life with rose-colored, dust-coated, or shattered glasses that distort our perspective of reality. As a result, the world seems to be monochrome when it is a bright photograph. But we won’t know unless we alter our perspective of reality or change the glasses we are wearing. But a lot of the time, until something or someone outside of us calls it out, we aren’t even aware that we are wearing flawed glasses. It can be a book or a companion, depending on the situation.
The best is, without a doubt, Victor E. Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. The Holocaust survivor who wrote this book recounts his time spent in Nazi concentration camps and the lessons he took away from them. One of the most important lessons I took away from the book was that no matter how difficult circumstances become or how hopeless they may appear, there is always one thing we can control: how we choose to respond to them. Either we can give up control by becoming victims of our circumstances, or we may cling to what we can control and come out on top.
Hassan Akkad, a BAFTA award winner, maintains hope despite going through the unthinkable and serves as a daily example of the kindness people are capable of. The book Hope Not Fear describes Hassan’s life in Syria before the conflict and his risky asylum-seeking voyage to the UK. It then describes his experiences from the Covid-19 frontline as an NHS worker at a London hospital. Even the government reversed course after hearing about the pandemic and decided to include the families of NHS porters and cleaners in its grief compensation program.
Michelle is looking for more than cuttlefish and scallions as she visits the Asian grocery store chain H Mart. Her mother and aunt, who gave her a passion for Korean cuisine and the only connection to her Korean background, are remembered fondly among the shelves and aisles. In this book about growing up mixed-race, rediscovering her Korean roots, and facing a personal crisis caused by the loss of a loved one, Michelle Zauner recounts a tale of home, cuisine, grief, and endurance.