Recovering from a Breakup, Part I
http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/1-bibliotherapy-flashman.jpgTo start with, you should distract yourself from your heartbreak with a great novel. Flashman, by George MacDonald Fraser, is a fantastically entertaining romp through the 19th century wars and adventures of a cad, who becomes a high-ranking British soldier. He beds every available girl, behaves like a coward, but is always decorated for his heroism. Lose yourself in his awful behavior, thus curing yourself of self-pity.
Recovering from a Breakup, Part II
http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/2-bibliotheraphy-we-yevgeni-zamyatin.jpgThen read of a seriously doomed love affair in We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin. The first of the great dystopian romances, this novel describes the hopeless love of D503 for I-330. They both live in One-State, where each man and woman is entitled to the right of sexual activity with any one else, but romance is not allowed or acknowledged. This novel will cheer you up from your own misery, perhaps leaving you feeling that love was never worth it anyway.
For Adjusting to a New City, Part I
http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/3-bibliotherapy-invisible-cities.jpgInvisible Cities, by Italo Calvino, is a treatise on what a city can be, should be and really is. Framed as a conversation between the busy emperor Kublai Khan and Marco Polo, the chapters are more like prose poems, as Polo describes the cities he has seen to Khan. In between descriptions, the two men chat about various ideas brought about by the descriptions of the cities, such as linguistics and the vagaries of human nature.
For Adjusting to a New City, Part II
http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/4-bibliotherapy-explorer-world-smith.jpgHow to be an Explorer of the World, by Keri Smith, is neither a novel nor a philosophical book, but an artist’s book, which looks a bit like a sketchbook. The book suggests ways in which we can use our imagination creatively. Keri Smith, who is a successful illustrator, encourages her readers to observe their environment and see the world with new eyes, and to then document their observations. This book will help you learn to love your new environment.
Overworked and in Need of a Vacation
http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/5-bibliotherapy-year-hare.jpgFinnish author Arto Paasilinna is a master of the vacation of the mind. The Year of the Hare tells the story of a disgruntled journalist who one day runs over a hare, hurting but not killing it. He then leaves his home and family and sets off on the road, with the hare. Very funny and surreal, but well written, you may find yourself wanting to take off into the wild and finding your own long-eared companion.
For Grieving the Loss of a Loved One, Part I
http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/6-bibliotherapy-grief-observed-lewis.jpgC.S. Lewis was a confirmed bachelor until he met a young American woman, Joy Davidson. They fell in love quickly, and enjoyed a happy marriage of only a few years before Joy died of cancer. Devastated, C.S. Lewis worked through his grief in his extraordinary but little known A Grief Observed, in which he describes with great feeling the many aspects of loss.
For Grieving the Loss of a Loved One, Part II
http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/7-bibliotherapy-year-of-magical-thinking.jpgSomeone in this situation might find The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion, helpful. She describes the death of her husband and illness of her daughter, and how she copes with it. The book is widely described as one of the most helpful books about bereavement around, partly because Didion is so factual and, in a way, emotionally removed from her subject.
Anxious About Going Off to College
http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/8-bibliotherapy-dusty-answer.jpgFirst published in 1927, Dusty Answer, by Rosamond Lehmann, is a magical novel describing the coming of age of Judith, a lonely, sensitive girl who falls in love with all her cousins at once. As it is exactly about going to college, the passions and pains inherent in that time, you will find yourself heartened by it and more able to face your own immediate future.
In Between Jobs and Confused, Part I
http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/9-bibliotherapy-rain-king-bellow.jpgIn Henderson the Rain King, by Saul Bellow, Henderson is a very wealthy man in his 50s, who feels a void at the heart of his life. He goes to Africa to find meaning and inadvertently becomes a god-like figure to the tribe he tries to help by ridding their well of frogs. The central themes are religion, spirituality and personal freedom—it’s a great book to read when you are confused about what to do next.
In Between Jobs and Confused, Part II
http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/10-bibliotherapy-bartleby-melville.jpgIf you are only just discovering the joys of unemployment, you could start by reading Bartleby, the Scrivener, by Herman Melville, a hilarious short story in which an employee is constantly asked to do things he "would prefer not to." He is eventually asked to leave, but he remains night and day in the offices. He does it with such grace and dignity that one can only admire him.
Nervous About Being a New Parent, Part I
http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/11-bibliotherapy-here-to-maternity-new.jpgTo make you laugh out loud, read From Here to Maternity, by Mel Giedroyc. This is Giedroyc's fictionalized description of her descent into motherhood—from glamorous TV personality into strange hormonal host to the unknown being within.
Nervous About Being a New Parent, Part II
http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/12-bibliotherapy-room-temperature-baker.jpgNicholson Baker’s Room Temperature will echo your condition perfectly. This book describes a young father sitting feeding his newborn baby girl with a bottle, pondering the minutiae of snot, carpets and air moving slowly towards his mobile phone. This is a moment in time vividly described, when time stands still, like it does in the long hours before dawn.
