Every book is an agent of change. Books change how we feel through touching our emotions with entertainment and relaxation. They change our capacity for learning by stimulating our imagination and improving our memory. Books change how we think by expanding our horizons or challenging our opinions.
Books are an important part of our lives. They’re food for our soul.
Do you have a favorite book? I think having a favorite is difficult. I’ve read a lot of books. I think I have a favorite and then I read another book.
Do you know that in 2018 there were an estimated 145 million books in print? That’s a lot of books that could potentially become a favorite. And every year 2.2 million more are published. I get to be part of that number later this year with my book Because You Matter: How to Take Ownership of Your Life so You Can Really Live.
Every book has the potential of being someone’s favorite. Today I want to share with you six books that have powerfully influenced me. They’ve changed how I think in specific ways. You could say they’re my current favorites.
Let them wield their power of beautiful change in you.
CONTROVERSY CAN TEACH US
The book The Shack by William P. Young took the world by storm in 2007. I didn’t read it when it came out. I heard the controversy. I was warned it was dangerous. This was before my journey to emerge. I used to hold the opinions of religious leaders too high due to childhood traumas. During my journey to emerge the Spirit of Grace healed my soul and led me to read this story. The visuals Mr. Young draws of forgiveness and the grace, love, and wisdom of God are powerful. If you struggle on those subjects, I highly recommend this book.
Don’t fear controversy. Instead, study and learn for yourself. In fact, controversy might just be the thing you need right now. You decide.
THE POWER OF PAYING ATTENTION
I discovered the book The Listening Life: Embracing Attentiveness in a World of Distraction by Adam McHugh through a website that published an excerpt. After reading the article I immediately purchased the book. I deeply related to the chapter Listening to People in Pain. Being a writer that deals with addressing the pain of trauma, it’s no surprise. However, the rest of the book takes you deeper into the listening world. In the chapter on Listening to Your Life, Mr. McHugh talks about listening to your emotions instead of silencing them like many voices in the world seek to do.
We miss so much when we fail to truly listen. No matter if it’s to God, to others or our own selves. There’s power in paying attention.
POWER TO OWN YOUR LIFE
The book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey was difficult reading for me but worth the effort. Mr. Covey’s vocabulary is further advanced than mine and the concepts he reveals are higher ways to think. I needed them. This book empowers the reader to take ownership of their life and live intentionally and powerfully. I understand why this book has endured so long.
Its lessons are timeless in personal growth and interpersonal relationships.
EXPRESSING LOVE CREATIVELY
In his book, Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People, Bob Goff showed me the creative side of love. I chuckle at how I missed the creativity seeing God is the creator and God is love. Somehow the demonstration of love gets complicated at times. But it’s really quite simple. Where we complicate it might be in an area where we have a wound or issue to address, or maybe just need to grow. My favorite thing Bob did in this book was getting walkie talkies to talk with his neighbor Carol when she was fighting cancer and lived alone.
Many other exciting creative ways are shared. Get a copy and enjoy – you won’t believe the witchdoctor story.
COURAGEOUS FAITH AND RISK
The book In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars is built on the story of a guy in the Bible named Benaiah. The author, Mark Batterson, takes an obscure story from 2 Chronicles 23: 20-21 in the Bible and elaborates on it. The story of why and how a man would do such a dangerous thing, as well as how it benefitted him, is the core message of the book. It takes courage to take risks. It takes faith to take risks. When the three work together and succeed, the results are enormous. Granted there are failures, but they’re framed within the journey and not the end. He also reveals a thing called “hindsight bias” (how we think we know the ending at the beginning when we’ve heard the story)
Those who will dare to believe, take courage to risk, he calls lion chasers. If you have a dream or wish you did, read this book.
LOVE IS A VERB
After reading Everybody, Always I had to get Bob Goff’s first book Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World. His stories both inspire and intimidate me. Bob does things I have trouble believing are true because they’re so far outside my thinking patterns. For example, how he got into law school. (This chapter alone is worth buying a copy of the book.) In one moment, I feel timid and small (I could never do that) only to become challenged to act more courageously (I want to do something).
His intention is to move the reader to action because love is more than words. Love is a verb – love does things.
WHAT NEXT
- Have you read any of the six books?
- Which of the books do find inspiring or intriguing?
- Let’s chat in the comments.
- Get a copy of one or more of them below (affiliate links).
The Listening Life: Embracing Attentiveness in a World of Distraction
7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People
In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars
Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World
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So true Danielle when you say, “Every book is an agent of change. Books change how we feel through touching our emotions with entertainment and relaxation. The Shack is a compelling read! I love how you encourage us to not fear controversy. “As an avid reader I can say that books have changed my life… one book at a time. I look forward to reading yours… “Because You Matter: How to Take Ownership of Your Life so You Can Really Live.” I loved reading “Emerging With Wings”…Blessings my friend.
Thank you, Cori. Fearing controversial things held me back for a long time. I’m so glad to not live with all that fear anymore.
Investigating things that are controversial opens us up to learn. Either new things or what we believe.
I have fallen in love with books so much more in the past few years. I appreciate how they’ve been that agent of change in my life.
I’m honored to be an author so I can be a part of that for others.
Thanks for sharing, Cori!
What a great selection of books! You are so right that books change us. Thank you for sharing this list. I’ll be checking some of them out.
Awesome, Evelyn. Thanks for sharing with me!
I haven’t read any inspirational non-fiction in a very long time. I may have to check out some of these. I’m always scared to take the leap with books like this…I’m afraid they won’t be worth the hype. Thanks for the review.
You’re welcome, Trisha.
The Shack is actually fiction. All the others are non-fiction. You might find them at a library too.
Thanks for sharing!