Episode Details

Continuing our celebration of Mental Health Awareness Month episode, Joe is joined by Jananie K. Velu to share some of their favorite books that center mental health, healing, growth, and emotional honesty. 

Together, they talk about the stories that stay with us, the comfort books can provide during difficult seasons and the powerful role reading can play in helping people feel understood and less alone. The conversation also explores Jananie’s Anti-Brain Rot reading challenge, the idea of mindful reading, and the challenge of staying intentional with our habits, goals, and attention spans in a world full of distractions. 

This episode is packed with recommendations, from emotional contemporary stories to hopeful, comforting reads, and the full episode description includes an even bigger list of titles that didn’t make it into the conversation. 

Looking for the video version of our show? Check out the Libby App YouTube channel! 

Link to our full book list: 

Find all the books mentioned in Season 3 on Libby Life!  

Book recommendations: 

(Includes picks not mentioned but picked for this episode) 

Jananie’s Picks:  

• Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead - Mai Nguyen 

• An Academy for Liars - Alexis Henderson 

• Alone With You in the Ether - Olivie Blake 

• Haldol and Hyacinths -  Melody Moezzi 

• An Unquiet Mind - Kay Redfield Jamison 

• How to Keep House While Drowning – KC Davis  

• Challenger Deep - Neal Shusterman 

• Darius the Great is Not Okay – Adib Khorram 
  My Year of Rest and Relaxation – Ottessa Moshfegh 

• Turtles All the Way Down - John Green 

• What My Bones Know – Stephanie Foo 

• Evil Eye - Etaf Rum 

• The Secret World of Briar Rose - Cindy Pham 

• Between Friends and Lovers - Shirlene Obuobi 

• Before I Let Go - Kennedy Ryan 

• Cleopatra and Frankenstein - Coco Mellors 

• Big Swiss - Jen Beagin 

Joe’s Picks: 

• Puzzled – Pan Cooke 

• What’s Wrong? - Erin Williams 

• Listen Now