POETRY
Works & Days (2025) — Gina Myers
Body Memory (2025) — Meriwether Clarke
The Snakes Came Back (2023) — Lora Mathis
Another Last Call: Poems on Addiction and Deliverance (2023) — Kaveh Akbar and Paige Lewis (Editors)
Survival Takes a Wild Imagination (2023) — Fariha Róisín
Austerity (2019) — Marion Bell
General Motors (2018) — Ryan Eckes
Cruel Fiction (2018) — Wendy Trevino
Brazilian is Not a Race (2016) — Wendy Trevino
Tender Points (2015) — Amy Berkowitz
When Angels Speak of Love (2007) — bell hooks
Mercy (2004) — Lucille Clifton
What the Living Do (1997) — Marie Howe
Poems by Kali (1970) — Kali Grosvenor
Letters to a Young Poet (1929) — Rainer Maria Rilke
Sociology, Politics, memoir
Kuleana: A Story of Family, Legacy, and Land in Old Hawai'i (2025) — Sara Kehaulani Goo
The Message (2024) — Ta-Nehisi Coates
Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement (2015) — Angela Y. Davis
Communion: The Female Search for Love (2002) — bell hooks
All About Love: New Visions (1999) — bell hooks
Here I Stand (1971) — Paul Robeson
On Practice & On Contradiction (1937) — Mao Tse-tung
Left-Wing Communism, an Infantile Disorder (1920) — Vladimir Lenin
The State and Revolution (1917) — Vladimir Lenin
recovery & Personal Growth
All the Way to the River (2025) — Elizabeth Gilbert
Liberated Love: Release Codependent Patterns and Create the Love You Desire (2024) — Mark Groves and Kylie McBeath
You're Not Crazy, You're Grieving (2023) — Alan D. Wolfelt
Travelers to Unimaginable Lands: Stories of Dementia, the Caregiver, and the Human Brain (2023) — Dasha Kiper
Welcome to the Grief Club (2022) — Janine Kwoh
Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence (2021) — Anna Lembke
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy (2019) — Jenny Odell
How to Not Always Be Working: A Toolkit for Creativity and Radical Self-Care (2018) — Cody Cook-Parrott
Intimacy in Alcoholic Relationships (2018) — Al-Anon Family Groups
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents (2015) — Lindsay C. Gibson
Simple Steps to a Life Less Shitty (2014) — Adam Gnade
The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Fighting the Big Motherfuckin' Sad (2013) — Adam Gnade
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction (2007) — Gabor Maté
Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life (1999) — Marshall Rosenberg
Healing Trauma: Restoring the Wisdom of Your Body (1999) — Peter Levine
How to Be an Adult: A Handbook on Psychological and Spiritual Integration (1991) — David Richo
Facing Love Addiction: Giving Yourself the Power to Change the Way You Love (1989) — Pia Mellody
Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself (1986) — Melody Beattie
SPIRITUALITY & RELIGION
Sanctuary: A Meditation on Home, Homelessness, and Belonging (2018) — Zenju Earthlyn Manuel
Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible through Palestinian Eyes (2014) — Mitri Raheb
Being Christian (2014) — Rowan Williams
For the Benefit of Many (2002) — S. N. Goenka
Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen (2002) — Shunryu Suzuki
All Will Be Well: 30 Days with Julian of Norwich (1992) — Julian of Norwich (Editor: John Kirvan)
Peace is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life (1991) — Thich Nhat Hanh
The Noble Eightfold Path: Way to the End of Suffering (1984) — Bhikkhu Bodhi
Be Here Now (1971) — Ram Dass
The Doors of Perception & Heaven and Hell (1956) — Aldous Huxley
Jesus and the Disinherited (1949) — Howard Thurman
Bhagavad Gita (B.C.E.) — Translated by Stephen Mitchell
Tao Te Ching: The Book of the Way (B.C.E.) — Lao Tzu
FICTION
Zeal (2025) — Morgan Jerkins
Wandering Stars (2024) — Tommy Orange
Martyr! (2024) — Kaveh Akbar
The City and Its Uncertain Walls (2023) — Haruki Murakami
The Alchemist (1988) — Paulo Coelho
Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953) — James Baldwin
Dark Princess (1928) — W.E.B. Du Bois
Note: These recommendations only include books I've read in full. My "to read" booklist is long — I will add those recommendations once I finish reading them. :)
