Hmm, I'm not sure 'best' is the right word here. It's so subjective. What one person finds clear, another might find bland. Maybe the better question is what to avoid as a beginner: overly academic prose, experimental literary fiction that plays with form, and epic fantasy with a thousand invented proper nouns right off the bat. Start with something grounded in a reality you recognize.
Even within that, tastes vary wildly. A 'beginner' who loves sci-fi will have a completely different ideal book than one who loves romance. The genre hook matters more than some universal 'easy reading' list.
Biographies of real people can be more inspiring than any fiction. 'Unbroken' by Laura Hillenbrand, the story of Louis Zamperini, is almost unbelievable. Olympic runner, WWII bombardier, plane crash, 47 days at sea, captured by the Japanese... his resilience and capacity for forgiveness are superhuman. The lesson is about the absolute limits of human endurance, both physical and spiritual. It makes most of our daily complaints seem trivial. It’s a stark, powerful reminder of the strength we might not know we have.
‘Midnight’s Children’ by Salman Rushdie is a magical realist epic where the children born at India’s independence have special powers. The narrator, Saleem Sinai, ties his own turbulent life to the fate of his nation. Psychologically, it’s about identity, history, memory, and the fragmentation of the self. Saleem feels he is literally cracking apart, mirroring the political fractures of his country. It’s a vibrant, chaotic, and deeply psychological exploration of how personal and national histories are inseparably woven together.