Hi, all
I have noticed that my family is kind of a bunch of miserable, angry people who hate everything.
All my life I have been suspicious of people and held the notion that everyone is a horrible person until proven otherwise.
In college, now that I am alone and have met new people I am starting to notice how toxic my family was.
Do you guys have any recommendations for books that will make me a better person.
They can be fiction or non-fiction.
In fiction, basically characters who are good people, not in the one dimensional way, but those that became good bonus points if they have a conversation with someone telling why they choose to be kind.
Like, some of Superman's monologues etc.
by HeeHee1939
6 Comments
The War for Kindness by Jamil Zaki
The Power of Kindness by Brian Goldman
Empathy by Roman Rznaric
Born For Love by Maia Szalavitz
All About Love by bell hooks
On Repentance & Repair by Danya Ruttenberg
Chatter by Ethan Kross
Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts by Sarah M. Winston
Anger Management Workbook for Women by Julie Catalano
Mindfulness for Anger Management by Stephen Dansiger
The Anger Management Sourcebook by Glenn R. Schiraldi
Raising a rare girl, one of my all-time favorite books and it will make you look at disability very differently
Hold me tightly, very good for relationships
A man called ove, the great fictional novel about kindness
If your family happens to have any particular strongly held views in certain types of people, make sure your journey includes reading books from those people as well.
You might also find it beneficial to keep a log of things they have told you (anything, even if it doesn’t seem that odd) so you can evaluate for yourself whether or not it’s true. A negative world view (even one that’s not discriminatory in any way) can manifest weird bullshit in places you’d never even think
I really enjoy the diskworld series by terry pratchett they have the added benefit of being hilarious and so full of puns and references to weird shit you’ll find new ones on every re-read. There’s loads of books but for kindness I would recommend first reading those that feature Death. There’s a reading guide on r/diskworld but Mort, reaper man, soul music, hogfather, thief of time. If you want to see of you’ll like it before you commit try watching the hogfather movie/2 part miniseries of the hogfather. Death becomes santa to save Christmas and also the toothfairy.
This is a bit out of left field, but try some children or young adult series. Generally, there’s a good message in them about being a better person, or how to treat others. The books are full of them since they know that kids an young adults will read them.
Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan. It’s a collection of short stories that are really reflective and make you think about your own past/present/future. I feel like it helped me!
Oh, I should also mention that it’s way easier to be kind if you assume others are neutral.
If you assume people are arse then every action is intentional and people are out to get you and you have to defend against it. When I started practising viewing others as just going about their day there was a big, big difference in the amount of shitty people in the world because my defensiveness wasn’t escalating things anymore.