March 8th is a wonderful occasion to celebrate feminine strength, wisdom, tenderness, and beauty. And to say thank you to yourself for what you have already done and what is yet to come. For inspiration, here are 8 uplifting and supportive books from MIF Publishing House.
Little Women
A saga about what is truly important: family, love, and friendship
Little Women is a classic novel by American writer Louisa May Alcott about the four March sisters, who go through difficult times together. Drawing on her childhood memories, the writer, who grew up in a close-knit but poor family, shows the reader the lives of such different and yet close girls – Meg, Jo, Bess, and Amy. Each of them follows their own path, but in both joy and conflict, they don’t forget what’s truly important: family, love, and friendship.
I Am My Place of Power
20 Keys to Lasting Happiness and Inner Strength
This book by clinical psychologist and popular blogger Olga Hartman is a practical and very personal guide to inner support skills. In it, you’ll find stories from the author and her clients, exercises, and questions for self-reflection.
This book is both a warm hug and a workshop. It doesn’t promise instant magic, but it provides simple, effective tools that will help you gently change your life every day. Read it if you want to do more than just “get out of fatigue,” but learn to live in touch with yourself, build honest and vibrant relationships, and find joy here and now.
Letters to my daughter
Warm and supportive letters from mother to daughter
This book is a mother’s consolation, addressed to the future. A commandment of love, the pages of which will become a guide for my daughter—and for everyone who reads it. In 30 letters, the author has collected the brightest and wisest things to support, encourage, and guide her child, no matter what happens in life.
This book is not a collection of advice, but warm words that, like a hug, give hope and strength to move forward, reminding you that the most important person in your life is you. The book can be read in its entirety or opened at any point—at those moments when you especially need support and strength to move forward and continue living.
The Tale of Vasilisa
The Heroine’s Journey as a Process of Personal Development and Gaining Feminine Power
Vasilisa the Beautiful is the very same girl with the skull-lantern from the famous Bilibin illustration. She has become the most recognizable fairy-tale heroine of our time.
This book explores Vasilisa’s journey from two perspectives. Firstly, according to the theory of V. Ya. Propp, with numerous parallels in folklore and folk customs. Secondly, from the perspective of Jungian psychology and the theory of archetypes: the death of the “good mother”, meetings in the dark forest, the trials of Yaga, respect for the Mystery, liberation from the power of the Shadow. In this context, the plot and images of the fairy tale turn out to be a reflection of the processes occurring in the human psyche. Folklorist and psychologist Vladimir Ryabov invites us to look deeper into the fairy tale and see in it a universal inner story.
The Giver of Life
The Maternal Experience as a Way of Knowing Oneself and Spiritual Growth
Motherhood is not only great emotional and physical stress, but also a time of intense self-knowledge. It is a true hero’s journey, described in fairy tales and myths that contain the collective wisdom of humanity.
Together with renowned analytical psychologist Lisa Marciano, you will dive into the symbolic depths of motherhood. The book examines in detail the archetypes associated with the role of the mother. Returning from this inner journey, you will have the knowledge necessary to define your own values, accept the rejected aspects of your personality, and gain self-confidence.
The Heroine’s Journey
A Guide to a Woman’s Inner World
Maureen Murdock’s book has become a classic work on the inner life of women and their path in a modern society dominated by masculine values – competition, emphasis on achievement, demonstration of strength. Murdock’s long-term research is a reinterpretation of the famous “Hero with a Thousand Faces” by Joseph Campbell.
Using myths and fairy tales, self-analysis and clients’ stories, the author describes the archetypal path of a woman, which is a cycle of 10 stages: from separation from the feminine principle (in search of recognition and approval) to the unification of the masculine and feminine principles within oneself. This is the path of a modern heroine – from imposed values to true integrity.
A book village in Scotland. Spring of change
A story about love, secrets of the past and changes in life
“The air smelled of spring and adventure…” Once upon a time there were three of them: Shauna, Alfie and Nathan. They were inseparable, until one day everything became too confusing. Now Nathan returns home, ready to finally confess his feelings to Shauna. But to have a chance at happiness, he will have to tell the truth about what he did in the past.
This book has everything you need: a cozy town where everyone knows each other and is ready to support and be there, even when it is difficult, a romantic line, skeletons in the closet, spring, when everything is ahead, a lot of books and… happiness. A light and bright story for those who love books about books, libraries, and bookstores—and when everything ends well.
There is no black and there never will be
A novel about Frida Kahlo, one of the most striking figures in 20th-century art
On a rainy evening on September 17, 1925, the life of eighteen-year-old Frida Kahlo was divided into before and after: the girl was in a car accident, from which she survived only by a miracle. Confined to bed and suffering from constant pain, she began to draw to distract herself. Soon she decides to show her work to the renowned Mexican artist Diego Rivera – and along with his approval, she will meet the greatest love of her – and his – life.
Claire Berest’s novel is the story of two far from ideal people, which has everything: both bright shades of passion and the dark colors of betrayal and disappointment. But among them there is no black and never will be – just as there will be no end to the bittersweet love of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.
