Lust for Life by Irving Stone

I am the fourth generation in my family reading this book. The first person to ever read it (in my family) was my great-grandfather, then my grandmother, and my dad. The feeling of reading something knowing it is a family tradition always makes the experience more enjoyable. When I first grabbed this book, it was with two purposes. First, to feel closer to my great grandfather who I never met, and second, to learn more about Van Gogh’s life.

This is Van Gogh’s biography. Before reading the book, I have heard about him cutting his ear and gifting it to a woman, but that was all I knew about his life. I have always enjoyed art– in all of its mediums, but I never imagined that this book would resonate with me as much as it did. If you are an artist of any kind, you will feel a connection with Van Gogh’s constant struggle to make a life out of his art (ironic considering now he is so famous, and his paintings are worth millions!).

Through this beautiful story, we see Van Gogh falling in and out of love with women who never returned his love. He goes through the journey of finding out his purpose in life and (believe it or not) he tries out several different careers before grabbing a paint brush. Even though his peers normally complained that his art was horrible, he kept going. He died not knowing his art would one day be hanging in the best art museums around the world.

This story is filled with love, passion, and heartbreak– mainly caused through art. As an artist, this is the book that will encourage you to keep going.

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

This is one of the stories that needs to be read at least once in your lifetime. The story is narrated through a series of diary entries. The book itself is the journal from a coming-of-age girl which was written as a personal diary and then became a famous book.

Anne Frank, as you probably know, was a Jewish girl who spent most of World War II hiding in an annex with her family and often strangers. This demonstrates the complexity of going through such a catastrophic war being a child. There is tension between the outside world such as bombings, food rationing, hiding, etc. and her inner struggles– the more innocent issues of a young girl. Through the war, she falls in love with a boy who lives with her family, she fights with her mother, she feels belittled by her sister, and she finds a safe space in books.

This book will allow you not only to understand a moment in history but also to understand that even when there are “bigger things” going on, you have your right to have “smaller issues.”  There is still innocence in the voice of this young girl going through a war.

Plato Not Prozac by Lou Marinoff

This book was first gifted to me by my father, who also read it, at a time when I was going through heartbreak and I was constantly struggling with my insecurities. This book mimics therapy sessions but through a philosophical approach. If you are interested in philosophy, this is the book for you!

Through a combination of self-help prose and shorter cases where the author narrates philosophical therapy sessions he had with others, you will learn a lot about introspection. You will be able to look at your own issues from a different perspective. I would recommend this book if you are struggling with any kind of personal issues from heartbreak to job dissatisfaction to grief. It will help you heal in ways that you may not be aware you needed to heal. Like I said, this is like an ongoing therapy session but instead of psychology, which the book criticizes in some aspects, it does so through philosophy.

Just Kids by Patti Smith

In this memoir, Patti Smith narrates her relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe. Like, Lust for Life, it is a book that needs to be read especially if you are an artist. And by artist, I mean painter, writer, designer… any and every kind of artist! Through this narration, we get to see how Robert Mapplethorpe comes to terms with his sexuality, how they both struggle as artists in New York, and their beautiful friendship.

It is the perfect combination of a good narrative with the essence of art embedded into it! Love stories, loyal friendships, struggling artist… the best part is that you can have a peek into their real lives!