A Uniquely Portable Magic


I was always the child who was caught staying up late at night, buried beneath a blanket reading by flashlight. I was so privileged to have a mom who was also a bibliophile, and always encouraged my love of reading. She never censored what I could read as a child, and because of that, I devoured all the books I could get my hands on at bookstores, libraries, garage sales, and second-hand stores. Unsurprisingly, I grew up to be a bookseller in an earlier life for nearly 10 years before I made the decision to go back to school. Even as an adult, I will likely always consider myself to be a perpetual student, and I hope to always, always be learning. We all have so much to teach one another.

So, for that reason, here is a space for me to show the books that I have most recently been reading, as well as some of my favorite to recommend. This is certainly is not an exhaustive list, but I have included all of the books that I felt have helped me learn and evolve. I try to read at least one book each month that challenges my perspectives. The majority of these books come from non-fiction categories such as the social justice, psychology, self-development, or memoirs, but occasionally I'll also include a poignant and thought-provoking novel.

"The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us."

(Ray Bradbury)

A peek at one of my personal bookshelves at home

"That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong."

(F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Current Reads: 2025

January
The Let Them Theory (Mel Robbins)
February
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century (Timothy Snyder)
March
The Truths We Hold: An American Journey (Kamala Harris)
April

CURRENT READ

May
June

“It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.”

(Oscar Wilde)

Recent Reads: 2024

January
Because We Are Bad: OCD & a Girl Lost in Thought (Lily Bailey)
February
Unfuck Your Brain: Using Science to Get Over Anxiety, Depression, Anger, Freak-Outs, & Triggers (Faith G. Harper)
March
Unprotected: A Memoir (Billy Porter)
April
Hood Feminism: Notes From the Women That a Movement Forgot (Mikki Kendall)
May
Good Morning Monster: A Therapist Shares Five Heroic Stories of Emotional Recovery (Catherine Gildiner)
June
Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real About the End (Alua Arthur)
July
Educated: A Memoir (Tara Westover)
August
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of Family & Culture in Crisis (J.D. Vance)
September
The Light We Carry (Michelle Obama)
October
The Message (Ta-Nehisi Coates)
November
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (Jonathan Haidt)
December
The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, & Healing in a Toxic Culture (Gabor Mate)

"You think your pain & your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive."

(James Baldwin)

Prior Years

2023

JAN
The Four Agreements (Don Miguel Ruiz)
FEB
So You Want to Talk About Race (Ijeoma Oluo)
MAR
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, & Body in the Healing of Trauma (Bessel van der Kolk)
APR
We Should All Be Feminists (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)
MAY
Paris: The Memoir (Paris Hilton)
JUN
Finding Me (Viola Davis)
JUL
Pageboy: A Memoir (Elliot Page)
AUG
Have I Told You This Already? (Lauren Graham)
SEP
Take My Hand: A Novel (Dolen Perkins-Valdez)
OCT
Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, & Spirit (Lyanda Lynn Haupt)
NOV
Chatter: The Voice in our Head, Why It Matters, & How to Harness It (Ethan Kross)
DEC
The Woman in Me (Britney Spears)

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge." 

(George R.R. Martin)

2022

JAN
How to Be An Antiracist (Ibram X. Kendi)
FEB
The Psychobiotic Revolution: Mood, Food, & the New Science of the Gut-Brain Connection (Scott C. Anderson)
MAR
Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha (Tara Branch)
APR
Outliers: The Story of Success (Malcolm Gladwell)
MAY
The Hate U Give: A Novel (Angie Thomas)
JUN
Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself (Kristin Neff)
JUL
Between the World & Me (Ta-Nehisi Coates)
AUG
When Breath Becomes Air (Paul Kalanithi)
SEP
Small Great Things: A Novel (Jodi Picoult)
OCT
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race (Beverly Daniel Tatum)
NOV
Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power, & Thrive (Kristin Ness)
DEC
Becoming (Michelle Obama)

"If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads."

(François Mauriac)

Beloveds

Asking me to pick my favorite book is like asking me to pick my favorite day of the year; it all depends on when you ask me, what my mood is, & which favorite I think of first when the question comes up. 

So these are not just books that I love, but the ones that are beloved - the ones that have worn spines & edges, have slips of paper tucked between their pages, notes written in the margins, & likely have some damage from coffee, tears, or rain. These are the beloveds that I have picked up & read countless times, only to feel them just as deeply as if it were the first time, or the ones I have gifted again & again over the years. These books have my highest recommendations (in no particular order).

Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston)
First, We Make the Beast Beautiful (Sarah Wilson)
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking (Susan Cain)
And the Mountains Echoed (Khaled Hosseini)
The Storyteller (Jodi Picoult)
Half Broke Horses (Jeanette Walls)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
Humans of New York (Brandon Stanton)
Postsecret (Edited by Frank Warren)
Hood Feminism: Notes From the Women That a Movement Forgot (Mikki Kendall)
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, & the Horse (Charlie Mackesy)
Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)

"Some books are so familiar that reading them is like being home again."

(Louisa May Alcott)

Want to contribute to the library I'm building for myself and my future students? 

Buy me a book!

"Books are a uniquely portable magic." 

(Stephen King)

"Reading is essential for those who seek to rise about the ordinary."

(Jim Rohn)

"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; 

they are the most accessible & wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers."

(Charles William Eliot)