If personal growth and deep transformation are on your heart for 2025, you’re exactly where you need to be. I’ve carefully curated a list of ten books that have profoundly shaped my own journey—books that challenge, uplift, and empower. And while I didn’t include my own (though you absolutely should read it 😉), each of these selections holds wisdom that can ignite change in your life. This isn’t just a reading list—it’s an invitation to step into the best version of yourself. Within these pages, you’ll find the raw honesty of Brené Brown, the soulful guidance of Yung Pueblo, and many more voices that have helped me heal, grow, and embrace life with greater purpose. I hope they do the same for you. 💛
My 2025 Reading List
- What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Oprah Winfrey and Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D.
- Clarity & Connection by Yung Pueblo
- Inward by Yung Pueblo
- Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty
- The Power of Letting Go: How to Drop Everything That’s Holding You Back by John Purkiss
- The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown
- Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Jean Greaves and Travis Bradberry
- Life Without Ed: How One Woman Declared Independence from Her Eating Disorder and How You Can Too by Jenni Schaefer
- The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
- Positive Intelligence by Shirzad Chamine
Summaries and Insights
I’ll be honest—this is an ambitious list. Each of these books holds powerful lessons that everyone should experience, but I know life is full, and finding an extra 50+ hours to devour nearly a dozen transformational reads isn’t exactly realistic. That’s why I’ve put together something to help. Below, you’ll find thoughtful summaries of my top five picks—books that have deeply shaped my own journey of self-actualization. Along with a high-level overview, I’ve highlighted actionable insights you can start applying right away. Who knows? One of these might be the spark that leads you to your next great breakthrough.
1. What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Oprah Winfrey and Bruce D. Perry
What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing is a must read for anyone who wants to grow beyond their past and become the best version of themselves. In this book world renowned talk host and philanthropist, Oprah Winfrey, and celebrated brain and trauma expert, Dr. Bruce Perry, provide powerful scientific and emotional insights into the behavioral patterns so many of us struggle to understand. Through deeply personal conversations, this pair shifts the conversations about behavior from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”. What Happened to You? serves as a powerful reminder that our earliest experiences create a filter for all of our future experiences. (Childhood experience can literally change the biological response system in the brain.) Associations become deeply embedded in our minds, which is why old habits and thought patterns are so hard to break. Seemingly senseless, automatic behaviors start to make sense when we uncover where they first began. Together, Winfrey and Perry offer revelationary perspectives on how our past traumas influence our future, and how if we’re not careful they can lead to avoidant, addictive, and dissociative behaviors that hamper self worth and personal development.
2. Clarity & Connection by Young Pueblo
“To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom” —Aristotle In Clarity & Connection, Yung Pueblo describes how intense emotions build up in our subconscious and condition us to act and react in certain ways. Using his signature combination of poetry and prose, Pueblo provides real world advice on how to live a richer life and enjoy more satisfying relationships through the power of healing. Pueblo believes that the more we heal ourselves, the more we heal everyone around us. The only caveat is that healing takes time and effort—it’s not something that happens overnight. At the center of the healing process is the acknowledgement that all people are deeply imperfect, even ourselves. We have to allow ourselves the grace to make mistakes in order to grow. By coming to terms with ourselves and accepting our imperfections, we can more easily understand and accept others, which is the foundation of love. We cannot build a deep connection with others if we are disconnected from ourselves.
3. Inward by Young Pueblo
“To heal yourself is to heal the world” – Yung Pueblo Inward is a collection of poetry, quotes, and prose that explores the power of love, letting go, and connecting with our inner selves. Through his writing, Pueblo reminds us that healing, transformation, and freedom are possible. Throughout this wonderful book, Pueblo reminds the reader to give themselves grace to grow. Life is a work in progress and it’s unfair to expect perfection. What really matters is that you’re moving forward. It’s easy to let ego hold you back and tell you you’re not enough. The best thing you can do for yourself is to let go of ego. True progress is no longer feeling the need to punish yourself for your imperfections. In Inward, Pueblo invites the reader to discover greater meaning in life by giving to others. He holds that giving is the highest form of love, and that if we focus on giving we will feel more fulfilled than if we focus on fulfilling our own desires.
4. Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty
Think Like a Monk is a beautiful meditation on fearlessness and forgiveness. In it Jay Shetty provides practical steps on how to overcome anxiety and live a more meaningful life, based on timeless wisdom he learned while living as a monk.
Forgiveness
In his book, Jetty describes the three basic forms of forgiveness—conditional forgiveness, transformational forgiveness, and unconditional forgiveness—and provides the reader actionable advice on how to forgive. When we lack closure, we carry our past pain from one relationship to the next until we heal ourselves. We become so addicted to rating our relationships based on past experiences that we fail to create new experiences. If you want to heal but don’t know where to start, you can use Jetty’s template—Letter of Forgiveness: I forgive you for ________ Please forgive me for _______
Fearlessness
In his writings on fear, Jetty reminds the reader that fear does not prevent death, it prevents life. While fear is an inescapable reality of life, it’s important not to let it control you. By developing awareness and overcoming fear, you can live a richer and more fulfilling life. The more you are open to the possibilities, the more opportunities you’ll have. Fear of failure shouldn’t stop you from trying, just as fear of death shouldn’t prevent you from living. Jetty identifies the fear of failure, exposure, judgment, emotional pain, and physical pain as the five triggers that are most likely to hold you back. By identifying your fear patterns, you can develop greater awareness and in doing so break the control fear has over your life.
5. The Power of Letting Go: How to Drop Everything That’s Holding You Back by John Purkiss
Buddha once said that “the root of suffering is attachment.” In his book, The Power of Letting Go: How to Drop Everything That’s Holding You Back, author John Purkiss offers a glimmer of hope to a perpetually stressed out world by showing that letting go is possible—you might just need a little help getting started. Do you ever wake up stressed or find yourself suddenly in a panic when completing basic tasks, like filling out paperwork or running errands? Many of our daily struggles stem from the fact that we’ve been conditioned to perceive life in survival mode. Over time, these misguided fight or flight responses become entrenched in our day-to-day thinking, where they become unconscious decision factors that hold us back from accomplishing the things we want to do. Chronic worrying about the future is simply your ego trying to separate you from the present moment. John Purkiss seeks to remedy this condition with practical advice for letting go. The stages of letting go:
- Be Present and Enjoy Each Moment
- Let Go of the Thoughts that Keep You Stuck
- Let Go of the Pain that Runs Your Life
- Surrender and Tune into Something Far More Intelligent than Your Brain
Purkiss’s last point is about intuition. By releasing ourselves from the fear and self-judgement created by our ego, we can connect to the present moment by letting our intuition lead us to experiences that are actually fulfilling. In summary, let go of expectations, shake away your “should haves”, and count your blessings. The result will be a less stressful and more meaningful life.
Conclusion
These books are just the tip of the iceberg of all the resources available for, but they are some of my absolute favorites. To hear my own story of how I was able to make sense of my own experiences and overcome decades of past trauma, check out Exposed: You Can’t Heal When You Hide by Serena Mastin.