If you love reading and also giving back, you’ll be happy to know that many authors set up their own charitable contributions. Some books help a reader through a specific and sometimes debilitating problem while others provide philanthropy from a portion of the purchase price.  Some of the most successful authors even set up a foundation to deliver aid to multiple non-profits. While other authors give back by providing free services to readers.

If you’re looking for a great book that has the added benefit of giving back to people in a powerful way, here are a few highlights. Each book below contributes in a different way, but is equally effective in impact.

Next Therapist Please – by Laurie Finkelstein

What a fun and inspiring book! Next Therapist Please combines the pure joy in Laurie’s storytelling with a real understanding of what it’s like to suffer from anxiety and OCD. How does this gem of a book accomplish such contradictory goals? Well, first of all, it’s based on the author’s real life experiences.

Janie is a wiz as an artist and home bartender. She makes killer cocktails when her OCD doesn’t prevent her from making a market run. Attending art receptions stretch her social anxieties to the stratosphere leading her right into the ladies room to hide. If only her OCD and issues with public bathrooms didn’t send her right back out into the art-collecting shark infested gallery. Is there no reprieve from awkward situations and devastating interactions for our heroine? Follow this compelling if not tortured woman as she hops from one therapist to another in search of a meaningful, functioning, lifestyle.  Will there be romance for Janie? Maybe, but nothing is typical in her world.

Not only has this book been instrumental in helping families of those suffering with anxiety and OCD, understand what their loved ones go through on a daily basis, but with every sale of Next Therapist Please, Laurie Finkelstein donates 10% of the proceeds to NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness).

The Divorce Recovery Ladder – by Susan Shofer

No doubt about it, divorce can be challenging. From thorny legal issues to emotional, mental, and financial wellness, divorce seeps in and impacts every part of life. Wouldn’t it be great to find a book that walks you step by step through the process and is a guide on how to handle the frightening and isolating experience of divorce?

The Divorce Recovery Ladder: Your Step-By-Step Guide to Successfully Climb Out of Your Divorce is the book that gives back. It answers in a straightforward and pragmatic manner your most burning questions regarding all aspects of divorce. Along with Susan’s personal divorce, her experience in the financial industry and a twenty-five-year career as a private investigator bring you sensible ways to navigate the divorce recovery journey.

Here’s the best part. The Divorce Recovery Ladder Guide is interactive and includes downloadable PDFs that will help you stay organized and on-track, understanding and taking control of your divorce process.

Author Susan Shofer is passionate about helping those dealing with parental alienation, an issue many divorcees experience. She has set up a free webinar for those looking for guidance on the topic.

Susan truly gives back in a way that’s helped many people get through a very challenging time in their life.

Vision in White – by Nora Roberts

Nora Roberts is a New York Times bestselling author and highly acclaimed philanthropist.  The Nora Roberts Foundation gives vast resources to support and promote literacy, education, youth services, arts & culture, animal rescue and humanitarian aid. The foundation, funded by proceeds from her book sales, makes grants to about 140 organizations each year. From ProLiteracy to Habitat for Humanity, Nora exudes the giving spirit.

With all this great work it’s easy to forget that Nora Roberts is an amazing author. Vision in White is a compelling and warm novel of love, friendship, and family. Wedding photographer Mac Elliot is most at home behind the camera, but her focus is shattered moments before an important wedding rehearsal when she bumps into the bride-to-be’s brother.

A stable, safe English teacher, Carter Maguire is definitely not Mac’s type; however, a casual fling might be just what she needs to take her mind off her troubles. Of course, casual flings can turn into something more when you least expect it. Mac will have to turn to her three best friends and business partners to see her way to her own happy ending.

Next time you go looking for a new book to read, check below the surface to see if you can find one that’s trying to improve the human condition. Pick a book that can entertain as well as do some good in the world.

• Category: Culture