The books that CHANGED MY LIFE

Jodi Picoult

Author Jodi Picoult will appear at the Henley Literary Festival online on 22 October to talk about her new novel, The Book

Of Two Ways. Here, she shares the books that have made her laugh, cry and think…

THE LAST BOOK THAT MADE ME LAUGH

Beach Read by Emily Henry is (and I mean this as a compliment) author porn. It’s about how authors research and write, how different genres in fiction judge each other; and there’s a great love story, too.

THE LAST BOOK THAT MADE ME CRY

I was simultaneously swept away by the story in The Sight Of You by Holly Miller and awed as a writer, because I didn’t know how she was going to pull off the conceit she’d set up for herself. Big, ugly crying.

THE BOOK THAT CHANGED THE WAY I THINK

I grew up and lived for 50 years without acknowledging the effects of white privilege on my life. Between The World And Me by Ta-nehisi Coates made me stop in my tracks and realise I had a lot of learning to do about myself, about racism and about my unintentional part in it. I gave away about 20 copies to friends.

THE BOOK THAT GOT ME THROUGH A DIFFICULT TIME

When I was a teenager I read Almost Paradise by Susan Isaacs every summer while I was waiting for my life to begin for real.

I fell into the lives of those characters so seamlessly, and wanted to do the same for my own readers when I began writing.

THE BOOK I MOST OFTEN GIVE TO OTHERS

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is the one I recommend the most. It’s about a historical time period (the Holocaust), but it also manages to be about what it means to be human, and how we are destined to repeat our mistakes.