Suggest me a book for my older brother

I’m looking for a book recommendation for my older brother. For Christmas, we decided that we’d each read a book, annotate it, and then give it to the other, so I really want to choose something that feels personal and true to who he is.

A bit about him:

He’s 25, a middle child, incredibly kind, and honestly one of the best listeners I’ve ever met. He’s the type of person people open up to immediately. Because of that, he’s carried some really heavy things that others have shared with him, things that stayed with him and hurt him in ways he didn’t always know how to express.

He’s a free spirit, someone who sometimes feels a little untethered from the world or overlooked, but he never hides who he is. He’s open, vulnerable, and willing to accept whatever comes from living that way. He cares a lot about the environment, and he wants to become a journalist. He is an avid reader and someone who reads like 20 books a year.

I’d love to give him a book, fiction or nonfiction, that speaks to any of this: being the person others lean on, carrying emotional weight, feeling unseen, finding grounding, being fully yourself, or existing gently in a loud world. Something reflective and meaningful, the kind of book that invites annotation. Something that maybe, in its own quiet way, tells him he’s loved and seen, or at least that I love him and see him for who he is 🙂

Do you have any recommendations that might resonate with someone like him?