'Books for Living' by Will Schwalbe

The journalist and publishing industry insider, perhaps best known for his memoir about the books he read with his mother as she was dying of pancreatic cancer, maps out his life using the books he has read as its pivotal landmarks. At five, he learned to explore the world and his relationship to it with courage from Stuart Little; from The Girl on the Train he better understood the value of the unreliable narrator and faith as a reader and individual; The Odyssey taught him humility; A Little Life the importance of physical contact in human relationships. Some of us have never needed the wisdom and escapism of literature more urgently than now, and Schwalbe provides the perfect guide for choosing the right book for every emotional and psychological need.

Books for Living by Will Schwalbe, $26, penguinrandomhouse.com on December 27.