Selikem’s Book Recommendations For 2024 (Part 1)
“No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn’t know it. Beware of the place where you are brought to tears. That’s where I am, and that’s where your treasure is.” — Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist)
Hello Again! I am trying so hard to keep my promise of writing in 2024 and welcome to my second article for the year. I don't intend to keep count of them as days go by but rather show up and just write. (Purrrr! In the words of my beloved gen-zs!)
In this writing, I want to share my book recommendations for 2024 for people who want to start reading again or want to read but do not know what to read. You don’t need to read them in order but the idea is to touch on why I am recommending these books and I hope you make time to read one or two of them or even all of them. (No pressure)
Below is what I would recommend you read, not just this year but anytime you feel like reading. I will talk about why you should read them as well.
- Falling Upward By Richard Rohr.
- Jesuit Guide To (Almost) Everything By James Martin, SJ.
- Atomic Habits By James Clear
- The Alchemist By Paulo Coelho
- Learning To Hear With The Heart By Debra K Farrington.
- The Gap & The Gain By Dan Sullivan
- Slipstream Time Hacking By Benjamin Hardy, PhD
- The Richest Man In Babylon By George S. Clason
Let me start with my favorites and why.
Falling Upward By Richard Rohr
So as most of you are already aware, last year was a period of healing as I was grieving my late brother. I was so lost that I needed reasons to keep going. I was on the verge of losing my faith. My spiritual director tried to help me through the period and made me start with this book. In moments of loss, pain, and grief, there’s nothing people can say that will change your situation but an understanding of your thoughts is key to ensuring you don’t lose faith and sight of everything that is still happening around you. Falling Upward was key to helping me understand my then “grief state” and how to navigate it (PS: I am still navigating this space)
Richard Rohr spoke about how our lives are divided into two halves. Read the excerpt below:
“First-half-of-life “naiveté” includes a kind of excitement and happiness that is hard to let go of, unless you know there is an even deeper and tested kind of happiness out ahead of you. But you do not know that yet in the early years! Which is why those in the second half of life must tell you about it! Without elders, a society perishes socially and spiritually.
In the second half of life, we can give our energy to making even the painful parts and the formally excluded parts belong to the now unified field — especially people who are different, and those who have never had a chance.
Just remember this: no one can keep you from the second half of your own life except yourself. Nothing can inhibit your second journey except your own lack of courage, patience, and imagination.
Your second journey is all yours to walk or to avoid. My conviction is that some falling apart of the first journey is necessary for this to happen, so do not waste a moment of time lamenting poor parenting, lost job, failed relationship, physical handicap, gender identity, economic poverty, or even the tragedy of any kind of abuse.
Pain is part of the deal. If you don’t walk into the second half of your own life, it is you who do not want it.
God will always give you exactly what you truly want and desire.
So make sure you desire, desire deeply, desire yourself, desire God, desire everything good, true, and beautiful.
That’s all for Falling Upward. Let’s go to the next book, another favorite that built upon my foundation of understanding life from Richard Rohr’s perspective and now helped me “begin again.”
So make sure you desire, desire deeply, desire yourself, desire God, desire everything good, true, and beautiful. — Richard Rohr
Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything By James Martin SJ.
This book is for anyone struggling with their faith, people who have figured out their faith, and people who want to keep going in their faith. It takes you from whatever background you belong to and gradually ushers you into appreciating a form of spirituality called “Ignatian Spirituality.”
James gives us an idea of how to navigate the various phases of our relationship with God, our desires, life, friendship, work, love life, sex, and religion through the lens of Ignatius.
Your relationship with God will change over your lifetime: sometimes it will happen naturally, almost easily, and feel rich and consoling; at other times it will seem difficult, almost a chore, yielding little in the way of “results.”
But the important thing — as in any friendship — is to keep at it and, ultimately, come to know and love the Other more deeply. And to let the Other come to know and love you more deeply.
In the above, he was talking about how it is so “normal” to experience a change in our relationship with God. Just as our relationship with our parents changed as we grew into adults, so is it with our relationship with God, and there’s no need to worry about this change.
James Martin SJ also spoke about how to become your true self, in a world where we want to be everyone else but our true selves.
By the time you are done with the book, you will learn to appreciate your true self, God, spirituality, friendships, work, life, desires, relationships, and other areas. I guess that is why the title says “Jesuit Guide To Almost Everything”
First, you are not God!
Second, this isn’t heaven!
Third, don’t be an ass!
Let’s talk about The Alchemist. Another favorite.
The Alchemist By Paulo Coehlo
My beloved book! A very short book! (88 pages). I have already read it three times and I intend to read it again this year. A lot of wisdom for life’s journey is covered in this book. Do make it a point to read it.
The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never forget the drops of oil on the spoon.
If God leads the sheep so well, he will also lead a man, he thought, and that made him feel better.
We have to take advantage when luck is on our side, and do as much to help it as it’s doing to help us.
Making a decision is only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.
The closer one gets to realizing his destiny, the more that destiny becomes his true reason for being.
Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything, because it’s written there.
People need not to fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and what.
We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it’s our life or our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand.
That’s it for the Alchemist. Now let’s revisit Atomic Habits. I say revisit because I already have an article on Atomic Habits here.
Atomic Habits By James Clear
If you want to get started with something but are always scared you won’t succeed, Atomic Habits is for you. The focus is to ensure you just make 1% improvements daily. Just 1%!
Yup! That’s for Atomic Habits.
Well, this brings us to the end of our article on my book recommendations for 2024. I am not promising, but I may write Part (2) on the other books I have recommended, in the meantime, here’s the link to access these books! (PS: Atomic Habits is the only one missing. I don’t want James Clear to come for me.)
I hope I was able to convince you. (Well, I tried! ) Let me leave you with a quote by Glennon Doyle
“Your job, throughout your entire life, is to disappoint as many people as it takes to avoid disappointing yourself.” — Glennon Doyle.
All the best and I hope to hear from you when you are done!
Thanks for reading this and you see that clap button errr, remember to hit it as much as you can! Adios!
