Books which inspire

In return, readers will be able to walk away with mental health-informed tools for mobilization in work and life. Informed expertise, this is one of the most motivational books on the market. No one would have dreamed that Christian Wiman, long-time editor of Poetry Magazine, would end up a professor at Yale Divinity School teaching religious literature.

But after a brush with death from a rare cancer diagnosis, his atheist leanings collapsed as he felt an unexpected calling back to his religious roots. My Bright Abyss touches on the pains and gains that a spiritual person must face in a secular world, and is especially helpful for those questioning their faith.

This inspiring book touches believers and non-believers equally, addressing the meaning of life and the questions that come out of the search for it. Nowadays, the word networking just sounds plain spooky! With LinkedIn and the like doing it for us while we sleep, who has the time to RSVP or even go to a speed network event at the town hall?

Networking Karma will explain, in great detail, how to actually cut through the networking nonsense and cultivate a cutting-edge persona that gives instead of takes. By doing things like offering a hand with an office move, advising pro-bono for an hour or so, or making a connection for someone, Tolstoi-Miller argues that this spirit of selflessness will help you relax, boost confidence, and make a difference in the world.

Seen through such lenses, networking will no longer teeter on the edge of being too boring business card swapping or too extreme sauna events. This motivational book will help you take control of your career destiny.

It might also be his wisest, packed with all the insight and wit and he had plenty of both he had accumulated in his twilight years. With his lively illustrations, inimitable verse, and boundless optimism, Dr. Today, The Seven Storey Mountain is considered one of the most influential works of religious literature.

But when it was originally slated for a 7,copy run in , demand took its publisher by surprise, and the book quickly sold out. This is emblematic of the Seven Storey Mountain itself: a quiet book that snowballs into a transformative story of peace, meditation, and personal enlightenment. When he was 26 years old, Thomas Merton turned his back on a promising literary career and converted to Roman Catholicism. How did he get to that point? This is the profoundly moving account of what motivated him to take his vows with the Trappist monks and enter monastery life at the Abbey of Gethsemani.

Now, in an even more forward-thinking and necessary book, he shows how to take that critical next step on a creative journey—getting known.

Show Your Work! Filled with illustrations, quotes, stories, and examples, Show Your Work! Ever get down as a creative because you feel that no-one actually sees or read your work? Austin Kleon, bestselling author of Steal Like An Artist , is back with another series of important life lessons to help you fix that.

In Show Your Work! Short and entirely actionable, this inspiring book will inspire you to unblock your life by helping you reach the audience you deserve. For forty years, people told Joy Ladin she was a man, but deep-down, she identified as a woman. And while she may have made headlines when she transitioned as the first trans professor at the Orthodox Jewish Yeshiva University, there was more to the story: her own internal wrestling with religiosity and an obligation to keep the peace with her family.

Inside Through the Door of Life is an intimate portrait of the kinds of philosophical questions that come with growing into a new self.

She has a lot to be grateful for: she writes for big-name publications, has a family of her own, and even managed a night with the stars: notably, Sting himself. But achieving happiness wasn't always easy, especially coming from a sometimes dysfunctional family and a half-on, half-off mother. CBS This Morning host Gayle King asked successful people what they would tell their younger selves if they could—which basically means This book will become your go-to for guidance on literally everything: sex, relationships, friendships, money problems.

After surviving an eating disorder, depression, and drug addiction, Kaiser wrote about how to eliminate negativity and fear in order to fall in love with your own life. Rubin woke up one day and decided to dedicate an entire year of her life to becoming happy. Thankfully, this book details everything she learned during those 12 months so you can start your own happiness project. Patel wants to teach you how to make peace with your fears so you can learn from them rather than run.

Her book is filled with inspirational quotes worthy of framing on your wall, reflective personal questions, and beautiful illustrations. Who knew? Knight just wants you to focus your energy on the things you care about. El-Erian is an incredibly clear thinker and explains complex ideas in an articulate way that is understandable to the financial novice while engaging to a seasoned industry veteran.

Although no one can predict the future, this book comes close. I honestly think the teachers pushed me ahead because they couldn't put up with me anymore!

I used my GI Bill benefits to enroll in college. In one of my psychology classes, I was exposed to William James, the father of modern psychology.

He once said, 'If you can change your thinking, you can change your life. I started reading everything I could get my hands on about successful people. What were their thoughts, habits, and philosophies? It didn't take long to discover that my upbringing wasn't in alignment. Once I realized that, I gradually shifted into an entrepreneurial mindset, and I proved James's theory correct.

William James really made me aware of what I had been thinking and truly opened my eyes to examining the crippling power and control of the past. The book provides a real appreciation for how our brains work that I find massively applicable in both my work and personal life. A must-read! Whether you are a seasoned business owner or a young entrepreneur, this book is a priceless treatise on the art of identifying and dealing with the good, the bad, and the ugly attitudes of those who sit in the big chair at the office.

It's not a sit-down-and-read-it-in-one session type of book. But I was facing some challenging moments, and she left a copy on my desk with a note that said, 'You need this. Sometimes founding a company is like a war--you need discipline, a game plan, confidence, and to understand the enemy competition.

I keep it on my desk for moments when I'm finding things tough. It's not always relevant, but sometimes it's a better pep talk than any inspirational Instagram post. The challenge for me--and for many business leaders--is why does it always seem harder than it should be?

This book does a great job of being therapist and consultant--from someone who's been there and done that--to those of us who have asked ourselves this very question. Ben's ability to convey, in an easy-to-read, engaging, and thought-provoking way, his thoughts, fears, and struggles about raising money, rapidly growing, restructuring, and ultimately selling his company makes this a must-read for any CEO who wants to build and run a great business.

At the end of the day, success in business comes down to persistence and the willingness to make the hard decisions, day in and day out. To succeed, we must, as Ben suggests, 'embrace the struggle. My main takeaway was when he talked about how he would go to his warehouse at 5 a. He felt that was where he was able to get the best information about what was going on with his business.

Remember, they didn't have advanced inventory data programs and tracking systems to the level we have now. But so many of these wondrous stories are really philosophical thought experiments. Sometimes we need to be inspired to stop and think about things outside of our daily experience. For that, Borges is our guide. Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler This sci-fi novel presents an Afrofuturist vision of the possibility of Black life.

Octavia Butler illustrates what could be if we practiced an ethic that puts people before profit and community before the self. Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn I thought about these characters for weeks after I read this novel — I wanted to call up Tru and find out how she was doing; I wanted to hear if Patsy got a better job. Nicole Dennis-Benn has written characters that are flawed and still lovable, cowardly and still brave, tragic and yet heroic.

Just go read it. The Wind Done Gone by Alice Randall To create systems of inclusion, we really have to expand our point of view and, more importantly, understand the points of view of those around us. Sometimes we can look at or be in exactly the same things and places and have an entirely different experience. This book gives us an alternative account of the American novel Gone with the Wind — but from the vantage point of an enslaved woman.

Talk about perspective! Despite its bleak subject, the book is beautiful and even joyful — imbued with mythology, folklore and history. In the touching determination of a father to help his daughter see beauty amidst despair, I understood the true power of imagination.

By the end of his journeys, Gulliver is a changed man who realizes that many of the things he thought he knew were, in fact, wrong and that there are other forms of knowledge and intelligence in the world. It is a work that is both thought-provoking and humbling at the same time. Each little story is a dreamscape and puts my mind in a different state.

My grandmother is Japanese, but she never really told me too much in the way of medieval tales as a child. The Shack by Paul Young This popular book was also made into a movie. I must have read this book at least eight times — it kept me going through the toughest time of my life after my father died suddenly in He died in Nigeria while I was in the US, and it was very very tough for me to overcome that darkness.

There are six of us — five girls and one boy — and he raised us all the same. So the book really helped me to navigate through losing him so suddenly. My Favorite Thing is Monsters: Vol. I by Emil Ferris This is a book that inspires me just by existing — a massive, award-winning graphic novel, with pages in this volume of densely cross-hatched drawings, done primarily in Bic pen.

A regular ballpoint! Moms by Yeong-shin Ma A graphic novel that includes a fight scene between two women in their 50s? Yes, please. It is 14 individual experiences full of ennui, heartbreak, joy and elation, of humans living their lives stacked inside a box — 14 interlocking stories of the residents of a Chicago apartment building. The 14 pieces in Building Stories includes a game board, a newspaper, two hardcover books and various ephemera filled with lonely, frustrated people aching for connection.

There is a lonely old landlady living on the ground floor, a couple living on the middle floor with relationship problems and Branford, The Best Bee In The World, who is truly a thinking bee. The design is not limited to the story or to the presentation of the book — it is central to the narrative.

Building Stories is remarkable and sets the stage for an entirely new way of storytelling. It inspired Barack Obama in his 20s, and we saw where that led. The book traces his rise from an aspirational youth into the complicated, problematic and power-hungry, ruthless individual he became or maybe always was. Robert Caro is, perhaps, the greatest biographer of the last years at least, and this is his only one-volume biography. It won the Pulitzer Prize!

Need I say more?