Read These 8 Books to Kick Off 2021
Make 2021 the best year yet!
Read These Books for a Better 2021
The new year always feels like a chance to start over, to make things better. While it isn’t a total reset of your life, it can provide the boost of motivation we need to make changes in our lives.
This round-up includes a bunch of books all about improving our relationships with ourselves mind, body, and soul. The info in these books like Sonya Renee Taylor’s The Body is Not an Apology go beyond the typical self-help book; they look to help us get to know ourselves better to live our best, happiest lives.
There are also a few books that contain great information on ways to improve both our communities and society as a whole, which is the ultimate outcome of accepting ourselves on the individual level.
Enjoy these books that are perfect for the new year!
1. My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem
Resmaa Menakem's My Grandmother's Hands is a heavy book dealing with the trauma on the body inflicted by racism in the United States. No only does it delve into the way white supremacy impacts both mind and body, but also includes ways to help heal from it. It's a tough read, but definitely a worthwhile one.
2. The Politics of Trauma: Somatics, Healing, and Social Justice by Staci Haines
If you're looking for a book to help to understand trauma and heal from it, Staci Haines' The Politics of Trauma is book you'll want to check out. The book delves into the ways that healing from trauma is more than just the individual - it is also focuses on how to heal the community that caused the trauma.
3. Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) by Dean Spade
This past year has been really difficult for everyone thanks to Covid-19. One good thing that’s happened as a result is that it has brought people together. That’s what Dean Spade’s Mutual Aid is all about, instructions on how to create mutual aid to benefit the people who need help including how to organize it, how to avoid burnout from helping others, and how to create a brighter, more compassionate future.
4. Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarsinha is known for creating works on justice and activism. Beyond Survival is about both. The book seeks to help fix violence in society without combating it with violence and incarceration through the criminal justice system. The book features essays from a variety of writers on how to change society for the better at the ground level.
5. Rising Strong: How the Ability to Reset Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown
You’ve probably heard of Brené Brown, the mega popular social scientist and author who even has her own Netflix special. She’s written many books out on strength, vulnerability, and courage of the individual. Rising Strong is a personal favorite of ours that delves leans into emotion rather than shying away from it, especially when we’re facing the difficult and unknown.
6. Wintering by Katherine May
If you’ve ever gone through a difficult time and didn’t know how to handle it (and let’s face it - who hasn’t?), then Katherine May’s Wintering may be the book for you. Drawing on her own tough life experiences, May crafts part-personal narrative, part-inspirational book on how to accept the bad things we all have to go through in our lives.
7. The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor
Practically from birth, we’re taught to dwell on our body’s imperfections rather than their strengths. Sonya Renee Taylor strives to change that through The Body is Not an Apology by combating the body shame we all feel when we’re at our lowest. Taylor teaches us that we have nothing to apologize for if we aren’t perfect, that our bodies are something to be embraced and celebrated. It is the very message we need in a looks-obsessed society.
8. The Art of Showing Up: How to Be There for Yourself and Your People by Rachel Wilkerson Miller
Some people, myself included, have a really easy time helping others while neglecting themselves. Some struggle to be there for others while they’re taking care of themselves. The Art of Showing Up by Rachel Wilkerson Miller teaches you how to do both. How? By providing instruction on how to figure out exactly what you need to care for yourself, asking for help when you need it, and to craft fulfilling relationships with both yourself and others.
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What books are you reading to kick off the 2021?
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