2021: A Year in (Book) Review

I feel like my heart is the muscle I worked out most in 2021, and books were my trainers. Throughout the year I read 108 books - 28,434 pages - which cumulatively shredded my heart and rebuilt it stronger. They contained within them the sentiments and voices that I didn’t know I needed until they reverberated deep within my soul, bringing me peace, love, fulfilment, and everlasting hope.

From my heart to yours, I am sharing my top 10 reads of 2021. I hope within these books you find what serves you - the art of possibility, the act of self love, and the accountability to make change and be changed. Happy reading!

The Wake Up: Closing the Gap Between Good Intentions and Real Change by Michelle MiJung Kim

Calling people into the work of enacting real transformation within ourselves and in the world by deep diving into the nuanced, challenging work of pursuing equity and justice

“In order to stay in alignment with our proclaimed values, we will be met with countless opportunities to truthfully ask ourselves what we are and are not willing to sacrifice to be the person we say we want to be.”

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

A magical book on belonging, identity, love, trauma, nature and renewal that provides poignant insight into migration, the concept of “home,” and connections to our ancestors

“That is what migrations and relocations do to us: when you leave your home for unknown shores, you don’t simply carry on as before; a part of you dies inside so that another part can start all over again.”

The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart by Alicia Garza

An insightful guide into building transformative movements to address the challenges of our times, from one of the leading organizers and co-creators of Black Lives Matter

“We inherit movements. We recommit to them over and over again even when they break our hearts, because they are essential to our survival. Movements are the story of how we come together when we’ve come apart”

Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader's Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You by Frances Frei & Anne Morriss

An indispensable guide for leadership, focused on leveraging trust, love and inclusion to unleash greatness in your people and ultimately in yourself

“If your objective is to lead, then unleashing other people is your fundamental mandate. Rather than threatening your own primacy, other people’s excellence becomes the truest measure of your success, your way to go faster and farther than you ever could on your own.”?

The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather C. McGhee

Weaving together economic and sociological research with startling empathy to paint a new vision for the future in which life can and will be more than a zero-sum game

“We have not allowed our diversity to be our superpower, and the result is that the United States is not more than the sum of its disparate parts. But it could be. And if it were, all of us would prosper. We are greater than, and greater for, the sum of us.”

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant

A book that provokes us to embrace the joy of being wrong, questioning our opinions, and constantly being willing to rethink our stances and decisions

"We favor the comfort of conviction over the discomfort of doubt, and we let our beliefs get brittle long before our bones. Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”?

Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope by Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn

An impossible to ignore exploration of left-behind pockets of rural America, accompanied by first-hand stories of resurgence, imploring us to do better and to focus on policy solutions

“Americans think of poverty as lack of income, but educational failure, family breakdown and social dysfunction work together to destroy individual dignity and self-respect and to engender stress and cycles of self-destructive behaviors that cripple entire families. If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”

Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

A work of meditation, remembrance, and hope, connecting us to one another whilst probing one of the most universal human experiences

“Grief is a cruel kind of education. You learn how ungentle mourning can be, how full of anger. You learn how much grief is about the failure of language and the grasping for language”

Equal: A Story of Women, Men and Money by Carrie Gracie

A first-hand perspective and wider investigation into unequal pay as experienced by a journalist at the BBC, insisting we open our eyes, fix our resolve and act with urgency

“We had the motivation to fix inequality but lacked the means, while our employer had the means but seemed to lack the motivation. Principle is only a word unless you’re prepared to pay something for it.”

All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks

In honour of bell hooks’ life, a powerful book that we should all re-read, sharing ways to think about and to return to love in our self, our relationships and more

“Genuine love is a personal revolution. Love takes your ideas, your desires, and your actions and welds them together in one experience and one living reality which is a new you”