Many lessons can only be learned in life through trial and error.  But books can save us a lot of suffering if we learn the same lessons through them!  Guess what?  None of the books on this list are the literary classics that critics laud for being so deep and meaningful.  There’s nothing wrong with classics.  It’s just that I’ve learned far more from what literary snobs call ‘trash’ than I ever did from the books they praise.  What are these life lessons?  Well, here they are:

Lesson: You are not your family.  What they have done is not your fault.

Where I learned it: Run Like Jäger by Karen Bass.

This is a lesson that holds a lot of meaning for me because both of my parents had fathers that were…not so great.  As a kid, I was very sad that I never got to meet my grandfathers and held rather romantic visions of what they must have been like.  Then I actually asked what they were like and was horrified.  How did their past sins reflect on me and my family?  Well, Run Like Jäger, where the main character wrestles with what his grandfather did in Germany during WWII, hit pretty close to home.  I finally made peace with myself and learned that the sins of my ancestors have nothing to do with me. Continue reading →