Books like The Reading Promise by Alice Ozma

During World War II, a foster girl in Nazi Germany steals books to share with neighbors and a hidden Jewish man, proving literature’s power to nourish the soul amid darkness.

When ten‑year‑old Opal arrives in Naomi, Florida, she discovers friendship, community, and the healing power of a big ugly dog named Winn‑Dixie during her first summer in town.

In Matt Haig’s Midnight Library, Nora Seed explores an infinite library in which every book records a life she could have lived, challenging her to confront regret, choice, and the meaning of a fulfilled existence.

Four women from distinct backgrounds rent a medieval Italian castle for the month of April, where friendship and renewal replace disappointment.

Monsieur Perdu, a literary apothecary aboard a Seine barge, prescribes novels to heal broken hearts. When his own love remains a mystery, he journeys south of France to find closure and prove stories can mend souls.

In 1984, twenty‑five‑year‑old Alice Forrester, struggling with anorexia, faces heart failure and is admitted to Seaview Hospital’s eating‑disorder clinic, where she encounters a diverse group of patients and staff all battling the disease.

During the second semester of 10th grade, Alice wrestles with the challenges of sexuality, commitment, responsibility, and the pursuit of a driver’s license.

Tom Foreman, a seasoned CNN correspondent, transforms from a couch potato into an ultra-marathoner, training with his daughter and confronting the challenges of aging, family bonds, and the triumphs of long-distance running.

Nine-year-old Alice writes a diary‑style school assignment that forces her to confront family relationships—her prickly single mother, absent father, and flamboyant paternal grandmother—while navigating life in London.

"In this funny, insightful memoir, a young socialite risks social suicide when she takes a job at a legendary funeral chapel on New York City’s Upper East Side. Good Mourning offers a behind-the-scenes look at one of the most famous funeral homes in the country--where not even big money can protect you from the universal experience of grieving. It’s Gossip Girl meets Six Feet Under, told from the unique perspective of a fashionista turned funeral planner. Elizabeth Meyer stumbled upon a career in the midst of planning her own father’s funeral, which she turned into an upbeat party with Rolling Stones music, thousands of dollars worth of her mother’s favorite flowers, and a personalized eulogy. Starting out as a receptionist, Meyer quickly found she had a knack for helping people cope with their grief, as well as creating fitting send-offs for some of the city’s most high-powered residents. Meyer has seen it all: two women who found out their deceased husband (yes, singular) was living a double life, a famous corpse with a missing brain, and funerals that cost more than most weddings. By turns illuminating, emotional, and darkly humorous, Good Mourning is a lesson in how the human heart grieves and grows—whether you’re wearing this season’s couture or drug-store flip-flops."--Provided by publisher.

"Wendy W. Fairey grew up among books. Her mother, the famous Hollywood columnist Sheilah Graham, was F. Scott Fitzgerald's last love--he died in her living room in 1940. As part of a 'College of One' education, Fitzgerald would bring Graham literary classics from Charles Dickens to William Thackeray, Virginia Woolf, and Henry James. The protagonists of these books later became Fairey's intimates. Leaving her glamorous Hollywood world as a young girl, Fairey entered the English landscape of David Copperfield, whose sensibility and aspirations she intimately shared, not least because both suffered a terrible stepfather. Her many affinities with David squired her to adulthood, when she became an English professor and eventually a college dean. This memoir is the author's literary journey through the classic British novels of late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Besides David Copperfield, her traveling companions include Daniel Deronda, the hero of George Eliot's last novel, as well as its heroine, Gwendolyn Harleth, whose suffering resembled the author's own in her stressed marriage. Both characters become important presences, and like Daniel, Fairey learned late in life of her Jewish ancestry. Other fictional companions, including Jane Eyre, Mrs. Ramsay (Virginia Woolf), Tess (Thomas Hardy), and Isabel (Henry James), weave in and out, helping her understand her own identity and trajectory. In this inspiring book, Fairey shows how great literature is and can be forever an inspiration, a companion, and a guide to living"--

London-born journalist Alice Steinbach abandons her career to travel the world as an informal student, learning cooking, dog training, art and architecture, and discovering the joy of learning again.