Books every Badass Needs to Read

My all-time favorite books to help me reclaim my inner baddie: are the following: 

101 Essays that will Change the way You Think by Brianna Wiest

The Mountain is You by Brianna Wiest

The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness by Meaghan O’Rourke 

Untamed by Glennon Doyle 

You might have heard of these books (especially the 101 Essays but Brianna Wiest since that one was EVERYWHERE for awhile) and they deserve all the hype they have received. As someone who has always found solace, and power, in reading I make sure that when a book REALLY changes the way I think that I share it with others. These are those books. 

101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think by Brianna Wiest 

These essays WILL change your life, there is something about the way Brianna writes that has made her one of my favorite authors. It’s as if she fully understands the human soul and the breadth of emotions it can feel. There are essays about love, loss, and the changes that life brings to us all. I have found solace in just turning the pages of the book and choosing an essay at random. A quote from the book that has stuck with me (I will be doing this for each of the books):

“Everything I perceive is a projection of who I am. If I want to change my life, I change myself.”

The Mountain is You by Brianna Wieeist

I have read this book more than once and have gained so much from it each time I read it. Some may think this book might be one of those self-help blaming books because of the title, but in my opinion it is far from that. The Mountain is You has only ever gently nudged me back onto the correct life path for me. It breaks up current thought patterns that I could find myself stuck in. Brianna is not a perfect author but she has provided me with nothing but comfort and reflection on myself and helped me self-discover my life’s mission. 

“Your new life is going to cost you your old one. It’s going to cost you your comfort zone and your sense of direction.”

The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness by Meaghan O’Rourke 

For my chronic illness baddies, this next book is really and truly for you. I have never felt more seen than reading this book, especially when it comes to the “invisibility side” of my Crohn’s Disease. The way Meaghan explores her own experience with living with chronic illness and also has years of experience interviewing doctors, patients, researchers, and public health experts. Meaghan’s expansive understanding and investigation into the current health care world not only helped me feel seen, but taught me so much as well. 

“The emotional journey has been as hard as the physical one. The fear I feel, in combination with busy doctors who don’t have time to listen, has really affected me.”

Untamed by Glennon Doyle 

Reading this book felt like getting a hug from a long-distance friend after not seeing them for a long time. Like the other books, this one helped me feel seen, but more so in regard to managing my mental health, while also learning how to fully show up as myself. Growing up in a body that has hurt, held me back and changed my life, has greatly impacted my mental health. Glennon gave me the language I needed to better express that part of myself. 

“I did it by resurrecting the very parts of myself I was trained to mistrust, hide, and abandon in order to keep others comfortable: my emotions, my intuition, my imagination, my courage, those are the keys to freedom.”