Claire’s Reading Recommendations
I read a lot of non-fiction. I enjoy learning from people who are smarter than me, and when I find those people, I want to share them with the world. These are some of my most commonly recommended books (and one podcast!) for authors.
Just because I recommend a book doesn’t mean I endorse every idea presented within it. Some of these books are interesting and caused me to ask provocative questions that led to some greater understanding or healing, but that doesn’t mean I agree with everything between the covers. You’re free to disagree with opinions you find in these books, too! But I do believe each one offers an important discussion for a particular reader, and on the whole, I view the authors as incredibly intelligent people.
All links are part of the Amazon Affiliate program, but I won’t be upset if you buy these books from another retailer.
Enneagram related
Who: Anyone who’s curious how the Enneagram can be applies to an author career.
Especially: Authors who want to be in the game for the long term
Note: This author is not smarter than me. She is, in fact, exactly as smart as me.
Who: Anyone who’s ready to let go of the dream of a silver bullet and focus instead on building a sustainable author career.
Especially: Authors who are tired of running into the same obstacles and patterns in their career and are ready to do the deep work needed to take their business to the next level.
Who: Folks looking for a quick guide to the Enneagram
Especially: People who want to figure out their type
Who: Folks who like to dig in deep on a concept and learn about the development
Especially: Folks who are open to the more spiritual aspects of the Enneagram
Who: Anyone who knows their type but isn’t sure how best to use it
Especially: Folks who are ready for some tough love as they explore the blind spots that are running their life and possibly ruining it.
Who: People who are interested in how the Enneagram can address racial inequality
Especially: Black folks (it’s in the title) and allies in antiracism
Note: the Enneagram sphere has a long history of whiteness and maleness, but there are emerging voices like Agorom’s making crucial and long overdue contributions like this. The very concept of Enneagram Liberation is fundamentally incompatible with patriarchy, white supremacy, and all other forms of oppression, and anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is probably an oppressor.
Who: Anyone who is interested in the Enneagram and is a visual learner
Especially: People who want to write their characters based on the Enneagram
Who: Anyone who’s interested in a more clinical approach to the Enneagram
Especially: Type 5s, since it’s written by one.
Purposeful living
Who: Everyone. Everyone should read this book.
Especially: Folks ready to confront their mortality head on. This book addresses and deconstructs one of the biggest blocks authors I coach tend to come up against, which is accepting that much of what we fill our lives with is a result of avoiding essential pain rather than a conscious decision to build the life we want.
Who: Anyone feeling stuck, listless, or trapped in loops.
Especially: Folks with privilege who are caught up in their own problems.
Who: Women who struggle with anxiety and self-doubt.
Especially: Women with loud inner critics who don’t have a strong mentor along the path they’re traveling.
Who: Anyone who owns their own business.
Especially: Folks who question the push toward constant growth and have other things they want out of life, too.
Heart Center
Who: Anyone who struggles to connect to their Heart Center and struggles to name the emotions they’re feeling.
Especially: Folks raised by parents who couldn’t name more than four emotions and didn’t consider angry people “emotional.”
Who: Anyone who want to feel more comfortable feeling their emotions.
Especially: Folks who struggle with having feelings about their feelings (shame, anxiety, anger, etc. about the way you feel).
Who: Anyone who wants to have their mind blown on their understanding of fear’s place in our life.
Especially: Folks who struggle with anxiety, criticism, over/under functioning, and shame.
Body Center
Who: Anyone struggling to connect to their body or who doesn’t quite feel safe and at home in it.
Especially: Trauma survivors
Note: There are, shall we say, mixed opinions on this author as a person, but keeping that in mind, the concepts in this book are still fundamental to the understanding of trauma and somatic therapy.
Who: Anyone who hasn’t had sex ed since high school and wants to understand sex without the stigma.
Especially: People with female sex organs, as most of the insidious myths being dispelled are about the function and pleasure of those particular body parts. Then recommend it to people who want to have sex with folks with female sex organs so they know what they’re doing.
Who: Anyone who has trouble saying no to others, including those with a tendency toward people pleasing, being “nice,” high achievement, conflict aversion.
Especially: People with an open mind who have done a little work around avoiding too much self-recrimination. I worried going into this one that it could be over-simplified into “if you have chronic health issues, it’s your fault,” but I believe Mate handles the connection between stress and physical symptoms with nuance and compassion.
Who: Anyone who equates large bodies with poor health
Especially: Podcast listeners (it’s a podcast), and folks who haven’t yet addressed the fat phobia we’re raised with. Bonus: various health and wellness myths are researched and debunked in these episodes, so you can stop putting your body through extreme trials and start loving it.
Head Center
Who: Anyone with an online presence
Especially: Folks who hate how much time they’re spending on devices but aren’t sure how best to start cutting back.
Who: Anyone who loves the feeling of a dopamine hit (aka everyone)
Especially: Folks who struggle with focus or have ADHD, pleasure seekers, addictive personalities, and Enneagram 7s
Who: Anyone who owns a digital device
Especially: Folks who believe you can manage your screen time with will power alone or that the human brain even stands a chance of doing anything else if the option of screentime is available
Who: Anyone trying to understand how others can be so, so wrong about basic things.
Especially: People who want to understand their own process for forming opinions and views to ensure they’re not falling into the same blind spots as other people.
Healing your Hurts
Who: Anyone who’s been recently betrayed or who is terrified of making mistakes
Especially: Perfectionists and people pleasers who are afraid to charge forward because they might mess up. Once you feel confident in how to apologize, you can allow yourself to be human and clean up whatever messes come from that.
Who: Anyone who keeps running up against the same problems over and over and can’t intellectualize their way out.
Especially: People who struggle to trust others and form strong relationships, or are otherwise struggling as a result of patterns picked up in childhood. This is a great place to dip your toes into inner child work.
Who: Anyone who is ready to unearth and deconstruct biases they didn’t know they had
Especially: Folks who don’t identify as racist. Kendi compassionately shows how racist (and misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, etc.) beliefs can become internalized in ways we’re unaware of, leading us to unintentionally sever connection with ourselves and others, even when we have the best intentions.
Who: Anyone who needs a pick-me-up and could use a reminder that they are not the only one feeling what they feel.
Especially: Folks in the LGBTQ+ community or those friendly to it who have felt isolated because they don’t fit gendered expectations of who they should be.
Who: Anyone who feels overwhelmed by the world
Especially: Folks who also feel fidgety in the absence of stimulation and can’t find the balance between overstimulation and under stimulation. Also anyone who wants an easy entry point into the wonderful writings of Thich Nhat Hanh.
Who: Anyone who worries about an internet pile-on or has participated in an internet pile-on
Especially: Folks who write the kinda stuff that could incite an internet pile-on and people who have recently been publicly shamed
Who: Anyone with a strained or painful relationship with one or both of their parents (this group seems to be over-represented among authors, go figure).
Especially: Those struggling with a lifetime of loneliness, feeling like you’re not enough, or hyper-responsibility. This book is a classic, and it hits hard, but sometimes you gotta look back to move forward.
Who: Anyone who is wondering why they don’t have the energy they used to and don’t quite feel like themselves anymore
Especially: Women or any folks who are in charge of the mental load of running a household while working a job. Also anyone who has been living in chronic stress.
