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If you, like me, already feel like 2023 is coming in a little too hot, maybe you, like me, could use a little hope — which is where this list comes in. I wanted to find the books that Powell’s booksellers consider hopeful, whatever hope might mean to them. But while putting this list together, I realized that hope is a strange vector to triangulate: a book doesn’t have to be happy to be hopeful, but it should offer a path forward for its readers — some ray of light amidst a world that, admittedly, can often feel pretty hopeless.

Below, you’ll find 15 books that we’re sure will infuse your TBR list with some much-needed hope.

A worthwhile narrative about love and people coming together for a common cause. Movements and Moments hopes to catalogue significant occurrences in the last 100 years that showcase the wholly powerful and compassionate force of feminine nature that has cared for the quiet voices around the world, untelevised and radical. — Dana S.

A novel about a woman mourning a dear friend’s suicide while caring for his depressed and not-super-healthy Great Dane might not seem like a slam dunk for a book list meant to fill the reader with hope, but The Friend is an incredible, nuanced portrait of love and loss, memory and friendship. Meeting your friends where they are, even after you’ve lost them, is a difficult and daunting task, but this book is up to that task, and thank god for it. — Kelsey F.

If you like a healthy dose of hope with your science fiction, there’s no better place to start than with Becky Chambers. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet gives us the gift of a found-family ragtag crew of adventurers, genuinely fascinating alien races, and super cool technology (their spaceship runs on algae!). This book, and the rest of the Wayfarers series, builds its foundation on character-driven kindness: that a better, more-hopeful universe can exist if we reach for the people closest to us and choose gentleness over bitterness again and again. Fans of Firefly and Star Trek, reach for this read next! — Anna B.

This book was easily one of the best books I read last year — it’s wildly riotous in scope and tone; its characters are so deeply felt and carefully written; the language is absurdly beautiful. I loved it so much that I wrote up a Powell’s Pick Spotlight on it last year, which I’m going to cannibalize here: “Despite its heft and the weight of the topics it dwells on (including but not limited to immigration, climate change, bodily autonomy, freedom, desire, survival), Thrust is a hopeful book. It shows us a world that might be able to build beyond its brokenness. Imagine! Despite everything: hope.” It’s a big book with an even bigger heart. — Kelsey F.

This is a collection I have read over and over. It is beautiful and heartfelt while simultaneously funny. Each poem lets you into an aspect of Neil's life from how much he loves his wife to how sometimes mental illness can take over our lives and is terrible and hard, but on either end of the spectrum and every step in between, this collection makes you feel so understood and far less alone. Full of nostalgia and longing but also hope for the future. It's the kind of book that you both want to keep all for yourself and share with the entire world. — Aster A.

A deeply necessary collection of essays about learning (or, probably: relearning) how to listen to your intuition, despite society encouraging you away from those important gut instincts. With personal and wonderfully written essays from Lidia Yuknavitch, Jia Tolentino, Samantha Irby, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Amy Poehler, among many others, and edited by Amber Tamblyn, this is an incredibly empowering and wise collection. — Kelsey F.

I can't stop thinking about this book. I can't stop talking about this book. It's really just that good. The Map of Salt and Stars is the story of a Syrian refugee family, told in the most beautiful and moving way. It's such an important topic to be cognizant of, and Joukhadar is the best storyteller you'll ever read. It's a story about stories. A story about loss, displacement, tragedy — but ultimately hope. Please read this book. — Carrie K.

Miriam Toews is probably the only author I’d trust to tell the true story of a group of Mennonite women who have been routinely molested by a group of men within their community, and then made to believe that their experiences were encounters with demons. A bad, bad story. But in Toews’s book, the women, now in the know, gather together to talk through what’s happened to them and how they can possibly move forward. It’s a novel about so much, but especially about finding your agency and your voice, leaning on your collective, and only deciding to choose forgiveness when forgiveness is the right choice for you. — Kelsey F.

This is a book about right now and next year and fifty years from now. A blistering yet quiet story about what climate change will do to us all. Somehow, hope is pulled out of utter hopelessness, kindness out of greed, humor out of darkness. Kim Stanley Robinson makes the science in his science fiction a place the reader can dwell, and he makes the characters into people we want to know and quietly support. — Doug C.

A powerful YA novel about the power of dreams and community, set in an apocalyptic future where Indigenous people are on the run from a government determined to kidnap them and drain them of their ability to dream — an ability that only Indigenous people have retained. A sharp look at the loss and trauma caused by colonization, and the strong streak of resilience that runs through these characters and pushes them to survive against all odds. — Lucinda G.

In this companion to Oliver Jeffers's Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth, What We’ll Build is a letter of hope to build a better future. Together, father and daughter build a world of love, understanding, and compassion, setting aside favorite things and memories for days when everything seems more difficult. Wonderful for reading together. — Kim T.

Honestly, I don’t think I would have thought to include this book (Octavia Butler’s masterpiece!), if not for this essay. It’s a dark, often ruthless book about fifteen-year-old Lauren, who is living in a world nearly ruined by climate change, while hiding her “hyperempathy.” When her safe neighborhood burns to the ground, she’s forced out into the dangerous world, where she cobbles together a small, roaming community. The pain in this book is acute, but so is the empathy and the kindness. Like I said: a masterpiece. — Kelsey F.

Beautiful Country left me in tears. It's a heartbreaking, powerful, and ultimately hopeful memoir. The hardships Qian Julie Wang went through as such a young child living as an undocumented immigrant in the United States can be painful to read, but it's something many Americans need to hear. The author's clear voice and astonishing self-awareness keep you turning the pages, even as she unearths trauma after trauma. If you have any doubt that immigrants make our country more beautiful, please read this book. If you already know that, my request remains: please read this book. — Leah B.

I read a lot of books about climate change. They can be depressing, infuriating, and induce apathy over action. All We Can Save is truly the most inspirational book I've read on our climate emergency. The book is full of essays, poetry, and art by a wonderful variety of women who share their passion, creativity, ideas, and hope as they fight for the future. What fantastic collection. — Lesley A.

This memoir is a marvel. Rebecca Solnit writes with the cool, studied sense of a person who has always had to provide a great deal of proof, and makes a compelling case for how issues of representation, visibility, and credibility fit into the epidemic of violence against women. This book filled me with rage and hope in equal measure, and I loved every word. — Michelle C.

This book follows three generations of Palestinian women as they navigate life in modern-day Brooklyn. An emotionally profound read about family, trauma, and loss, but ripe with themes of courage, hope, and the incredible power of reading. — Tawney E.