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Hello, and welcome to my first Top 5 Wednesday blog post of September 2024; how exciting it is to be producing this content for yet another month! This month is Self-Care Awareness month, so for this week’s prompt, we are exploring our Top 5 favourite books focusing on self-care or mental health and mental health recovery. This is a very important topic, and it is great to see an increasing amount of literature in this area, so it would be great to find some suggestions based on self-care and mental health recovery. It is also amazing how many of these books take unique approaches when tackling these mental health topics, which is encouraging and refreshing to see when I am reading this type of literature. These books may be either fiction or non-fiction, and I have read so many good books on this topic, so I am very excited to be able to showcase some of them. The one problem is that there are so many to choose from, but in no particular order, let's get straight into it!
1. Desi Girl Speaking by A. S. Hussain
We start this week's post with some fiction which explores the myth that Desi people do not get depressed as we travel with a teenage Desi girl on her journey with depression, which features self-harm, suicide ideation and more. This book explores these topics very well, showing the reader that these feelings and mental health difficulties are more common than they may expect, helping to validate the reader's own experiences. It also provides practical advice throughout the book, which the reader can use.
2. Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? by Julie Smith
We now move on to Dr Julie Smith's bestselling book, which is perfect for everyone, especially those who cannot afford therapy. This book looks at a range of mental health difficulties and explains strategies which the individual can use to help them cope. These strategies are largely strategies which are taught in therapy but can be used by anyone. However, Dr Smith does make it clear that, at times, people may need therapy as well as reading the book, particularly to tackle more challenging mental health scenarios. This is inevitably a very good book and an excellent mental health first aid kit.
3. A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll
This next book is another fictional children's book relevant for everyone as it is largely about equality and stopping discrimination. This book explores Addie's life with her autism, including the additional challenges she faces and the discrimination, both past and present, which Addie advocates for. Addie wants change and will not give up until Juniper is a more accepting place. There is still so much discrimination in the world for those who deviate from the norm, so this book provides a great lesson: we need to accept everyone regardless of their differences and provide them with the support they need to succeed in life.
4. Right Guy, Wrong Time by Louise MacGregor
This next book is about rape and the aftermath for someone who has been through this most terrible, most traumatising experience from a fictional perspective. Although this is a fictional story, the content of this story is very much real, including the feelings experienced by Edie when she is raped and the way her friends support her. This really is a must-read if you want an idea of how someone who has been raped may feel and if you need some ideas on how to help a friend who may have been raped. It is worth mentioning, though, that everyone's experience of rape can be different, but this provides some good knowledge.
5. The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida
Finally, this is another book about autism written by a nonverbal individual, which is largely non-fiction dispersed with pieces of fiction throughout the book. This book essentially answers questions that people may have about autism, which makes a great read if you are autistic or know someone who is autistic. Obviously, everyone's experiences are different but this book provides a good introduction into how some people with autism may experience life with autism.
That is all for this week's post, so I hope you enjoyed reading it and have found some new books you may consider reading. Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts, or just say hello and check out the rest of my blog, including my book reviews and other Top 5 Wednesday blog posts, which are all available. See you next week!
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