Inspired by @simone.grace.seol on Insta: The top 10 nonfiction books I read this year that challenged me, inspired me, moved me, and evolved the way I think – the book descriptions are largely copied from my own Instagram feed this year, at times with a bit more context.
📘 #thebodykeepsthescore (2014) became a huge pandemic hit in 2020. I read it at the start of this year, and regretted I hadn’t read it sooner:
This is the best book I’ve read on trauma & trauma treatment – a primer on how trauma affects the whole person.
It made me understand trauma so much better. In the book the author shares generously from his work as a psychiatrist & scientist from the late 70s on.
📘 #whatmybonesknow – a memoir of healing from complex trauma: One of the best books I’ve read this year. A riveting memoir on complex ptsd and trauma inherited thru generations, one I found impossible to put down, from @foofoofoo , a Malaysian-born American radio journalist, producer & author – blog post coming up.
📕 Fødselsdag: Mitt første år som mor, eller en reise i underverdenen av @idajackson_ Sterk, viktig, god bok om å få barn, et traumatisk møte med helsevesenet, barselomsorg og veldig mye mer.
Siden jeg aldri har født leste jeg boka som en slags traumehistorie, og den resonnerte sterkt siden jeg har bøttevis av sykehustraumer. Men boka gir selvsagt også et utrolig fascinerende og velskrevet innblikk i det å bli mor. Forlaget kaller den en litterær & selvbiografisk utforskning av livets opprinnelse. Det er også en modig og nyskapende memoar som bryter m mange sjangerkonversjoner og er brutalt ærlig & utleverende.
📗 #debdana ‘s «Anchored: How to befriend your nervous system using polyvagal theory»: Discover your body’s neural pathways to calmness, safety and connection.
The book offers a practical user’s manual for moving from a place of fear and panic into a grounded space of balance and confidence. Loved it!
«Once you understand the role of the autonomous nervous system [ANS] in shaping our lives, you can never not again see the world through that lense.»
You can learn to work with it & to read other people’s ANS: Are they in a state of connection or protection? Invaluable.
📙 In #howtodothework, the brilliant @the.holistic.psychologist Nicole LePera demystifies life-changing therapeutic principles in a way that’s engaging and easy to digest. It felt like a huge bonus to have read «The body keeps the score» first as this discusses many if the treatment methods & tools LePera seamlessly integrates.
📘 #thechronologyofwater: Eloquent & innovative memoir. Brutally honest, captivating, thought-provoking. It lays a life bare: a life that navigates, and transcends, abuse, addiction, self-destruction & the loss of a stillborn child. I was esp. fascinated by how the author writes about addiction, abuse and from the body. What if the body had its own point of view? Ht Ida Jackson
📕 Anne Applebaum’s deeply fascinating analysis of the rise of authoritarianism & nationalism was a great read: It’s so eloquent & thought-provoking it’s kinda irrelevant if I agree with her analysis – it’s given me lots of stuff to ponder and introduced me to several new writers I’d love to explore.
«Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism is a detailed account of how attractive illiberalism can be in the pursuit of power, making the case that political and intellectual elites are a crucial lens for understanding how democracy is steered off course… Applebaum investigates this trend in Hungary, Poland, Spain, the UK and the United States, scrutinizing the choices and attitudes of the powerbrokers who hold the keys, many of whom she knows personally,» Ryan Powell summarizes.
I love a book that challenges me in this way and it’s extra fascinating to me as I actually reported from Warsaw when Kwasniewski won over Lech Walesa in 1995. I also studied intellectual history among other things at uni, and this books is a fascinating work of intellectual history.
📙 Stop Asking Questions: How to Lead High-Impact Interviews and Learn Anything from Anyone: What’s statistically the best questions/interviewing methods? This guy actually crunched the data – loved it.
I’m a journalist myself, but have spent many years now working in science communication, and really would love to improve my interviewing skills for some rather challenging interviews I’m planning, investigating things related to my life history, family history etc. and this book was fascinating reading.
From Amazon blurb: «Andrew Warner has interviewed over 2,000 of the world’s best entrepreneurs to uncover the real factors behind their success. But he’s also learned something even more valuable: How to learn anything from anyone through high-impact interviewing.»
📗 After reading Bessel van der Kolk’s game changing #thebodykeepsthescore on trauma & trauma treatment, it was really interesting & insightful to read Gabby Bernstein ‘s new book «Happy Days: The Guided Path from Trauma to Profound Freedom and Inner Peace» – which I read partly because I did her 21-day meditation challenge 😉 An interesting mix of memoir, popular science & self help.
📕 Spent a few months aquainting myself with a classic on trauma by Peter Levine: «Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma» = fascinating, plenty of food for thought. The last non-fiction book I finished this year – I’m still mulling it.
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