Reading has become more than just something I enjoy—it’s how I learn, reflect, and grow. I don’t have personal mentors that I speak with regularly, but I’ve found mentorship in the books I read. Each book has offered me something different—guidance, healing, perspective, or truth—at different points in my life. This is a small collection of the books that have shaped me, challenged me, and stayed with me.
❤️ Healing & Self-Understanding
📖 The Tao of Fully Feeling
Pete Walker
This book is teaching me how to sit with my emotions instead of pushing past them or trying to stay strong through everything. For a long time, I’ve been used to being the one who holds everything together, but this has been helping me understand the importance of actually feeling, processing, and releasing what I’ve been carrying. It’s not always easy, but it’s helping me slow down and be more honest with myself—and that feels like an important part of my healing.
📖 The Gifts of Imperfection (10th Anniversary Edition) https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-gifts-of-imperfection-let-go-of-who-you-think-youre-supposed-to-be-and-embrace-who-you-are_bren-brown/247881/#isbn=159285849X
Brené Brown
This book is reminding me that I don’t have to be perfect to be worthy of love, rest, or peace. For so long, I’ve carried the weight of trying to do everything right—showing up for everyone else, holding everything together—but this has been helping me see the importance of letting go of that pressure. I’m learning that being real, being present, and giving myself grace is just as important as anything I accomplish.
Kelly McDaniel
This book has been helping me put words to feelings I didn’t always fully understand. It explores what happens when the kind of nurturing, protection, and emotional support we needed growing up wasn’t fully there—and how that can show up later in life. Reading this has been both difficult and validating. It’s helping me understand myself with more compassion, and reminding me that healing is possible, even if it takes time.
🌱 Growth & Discipline
📖 Year of Yes: 10th Anniversary Edition https://share.google/QdILFZlFh6EgKyOpZ
Shonda Rhimes
This book challenged me to look at the ways I’ve been holding myself back—especially out of fear, doubt, or the need to be everything for everyone else. It made me think about what it would look like to start saying yes to myself—my growth, my peace, and the life I’m trying to build. I’m still learning what that looks like in real time, but this book helped me realize that change starts with small, intentional choices.
📖 Atomic Habits https://share.google/WTuf7A2APPGlx1gSV
James Clear
This book is helping me understand that real change doesn’t come from big, dramatic shifts—it comes from small, consistent actions over time. As I’m building my routines, my garden, and my life, this has been a reminder that I don’t have to do everything at once. I just have to keep showing up, even in small ways. It’s helping me focus less on perfection and more on consistency—and that’s a mindset I’m learning to carry into everything I do.
📖 Can’t Hurt Me https://share.google/iGM8xJPJSNrLlJIpr
David Goggins
This book pushed me in a way I didn’t expect.
After years of being sedentary, it helped me reconnect with discipline, mental strength, and the idea that I’m capable of more than I’ve been allowing myself to believe. It didn’t just motivate me—it challenged me to take action. And in many ways, it played a role in helping me get back into exercising and taking better care of myself.
✊🏾 Identity & Legacy
📖 The 1619 Project https://share.google/ZRLobgtx0DZ6XUzF0
Nikole Hannah-Jones
This book is helping me understand history in a deeper and more honest way. It connects the past to the present in ways that are both eye-opening and necessary, especially when thinking about identity, resilience, and the systems that shape our lives. Reading this has made me reflect not just on history, but on legacy—what we inherit, what we carry, and what we choose to build moving forward.
📖 Their Eyes Were Watching God https://share.google/9o6IrI0ghEWxwIfKH
Zora Neale Hurston
I first read this book in high school, and it left a lasting impression on me—not just because of the story, but because of the experience I had around it. After writing an in-class essay, I was accused of cheating. My teacher didn’t believe that someone with my background could understand the depth and nuance of what Hurston was expressing. That moment stayed with me. But instead of taking away from my love of the book, it deepened it. This story speaks to finding your voice, defining your life on your own terms, and not allowing others to limit how you see yourself. Looking back, I realize I understood more than I was given credit for—and I carry that with me now in how I move through the world.
📖 Story & Perspective
📖 Born a Crime https://share.google/YdWiUc4dy7UMEjfLI
Trevor Noah
This book reminded me how powerful it is to tell your story honestly—even the hard parts. It weaves humor and truth together in a way that makes you reflect on identity, family, and survival, while still finding moments of lightness along the way. Reading this made me think about resilience—how much people can carry, and how strength can show up in unexpected ways.
📖 Finding Me https://share.google/5BkGsgCIfe1h1lXgz
Viola Davis
This book reminded me how powerful it is to own your story—every part of it, even the pieces that are painful or hard to face. It speaks to survival, resilience, and the journey of becoming who you are despite everything you’ve been through. Reading this made me reflect on my own path and what it means to truly see myself, accept myself, and continue growing into the woman I’m becoming.
📖 The Midnight Library https://share.google/qwyZCMWbMMr5LTgrg
Matt Haig
This book was recommended to me by a good friend, and I’m so grateful it was. After reading it, I shared it with my family, and it became one of the books we read together as part of our family book club during the COVID-19 shutdown. That was a difficult and uncertain time, but this story opened up conversations about choices, regrets, and the different paths life can take. I truly believe it helped my children in ways I didn’t fully realize at the time. What started as a recommendation became something much bigger—a shared experience that brought us closer together.
📖 The Gift https://share.google/ys8bKa74aXrzIqOB8
Danielle Steel
This book was given to me by my mother when I was in middle school, just before I started high school. She was an avid reader, and I believe this was her way of trying to connect with me. At the time, I may not have fully understood the depth of that gesture, but looking back, it means so much more. What makes this book even more special is that I’ve now shared it with my daughters. It’s become more than just a story—it’s a thread that connects generations of women in my family, even in quiet and unspoken ways.
✨ Spiritual Exploration
📖 The Bible
Sacred text (various translations)
This is a book I’ve returned to many times over the years, reading different versions to better understand how translation can shape meaning. My relationship with it—and with religion as a whole—is complicated. It has influenced how I once viewed relationships, loyalty, and responsibility, and I’m still unpacking what that means for me now. At the same time, I still hold onto my belief in a Creator and the foundational values reflected in the Ten Commandments. I’ve also come to question how religion has been used throughout history—sometimes as a tool for control and manipulation—and how that has impacted people and communities. This book continues to be something I reflect on, not from a place of certainty, but from a place of seeking, questioning, and trying to understand what faith means for me in this season of my life.
📖 The Book of Enoch https://share.google/YAodW8ATiGKLeRfER
Ancient text
This book has been expanding how I think about spirituality, history, and the unseen. It’s very different from what I usually read, but it’s been drawing me into deeper reflection and curiosity about faith, meaning, and the bigger picture of life. I’m still processing what it all means, but it’s opened my mind in a way that feels both challenging and grounding.
🌺 Health & Womanhood
📖 Menopause and the Black Woman https://www.audible.com/pd/Menopause-for-Black-Women-Audiobook/B0CM5GNZJW?source_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdp
April S. Lily
This book is helping me understand a stage of life that isn’t always talked about openly, especially within the Black community. It sheds light on the physical and emotional changes women experience, while also emphasizing the importance of awareness, preparation, and self-care. Reading this feels empowering—it’s a reminder that understanding our bodies is a form of taking control of our health and our future.
🌿 Purpose & Direction
📖 Finding Your Purpose https://share.google/56cd6vvFlleZZz11C
Christine Whelan
This book has been helping me think more intentionally about what it means to live a meaningful life. It’s not just about big goals or achievements, but about how purpose can show up in everyday choices, relationships, and the way I move through the world. As I continue building Haven Harvest and redefining my path, this has been a reminder that purpose isn’t something I have to chase—it’s something I’m actively creating.
🎭 Classic Reflection
📖 Othello https://share.google/3pY2HOZOt06z4gwB2
William Shakespeare
This was the very first play by Shakespeare that I ever read, and it’s one I come back to at least once a year. Each time I read it, I take away something different—especially about love, jealousy, trust, and the importance of understanding both ourselves and others. It’s a reminder of how powerful emotions can be, and how important it is to be grounded in self-awareness and truth. Over time, this story has become a kind of reflection point for me.
👑 Becoming
📖 Becoming
Michelle Obama
I don’t have personal mentors that I speak with regularly, but I’ve come to realize that I’ve found mentorship in the books I read. Michelle Obama is a true inspiration for women all over the world, and reading this book was life-changing for me. Her story reminded me that growth is ongoing, that our paths don’t have to be linear, and that becoming who we are is a process we live through every day. This book didn’t just inspire me—it gave me a sense of guidance at a time when I needed it most.
🌱 Closing
These books have met me at different stages of my life—some during times of confusion, some during growth, and some during healing. Each one has left something with me. I’m still learning, still growing, and still becoming—and I’m grateful for the words that have helped guide me along the way.
Thank you for growing with me 🌿
— Lulu, Haven Harvest Living
Haven Harvest Living 