Books Read and Recommended in 2021

2021 for me was a year of ‘loss & chaos’ but also ‘hope & serenity’. It taught me the duality & co-existence of good & bad/evil. The helped me understand the distinction between ‘wrong/bad person’ and ‘a person making bad/wrong choices’ & an array of misunderstood or unknown reasons behind it.

It helped me understand how life moves on even after major losses & how ‘pain’ cannot be measured in terms of ‘amount of grief’.

Here is the list of books that helped me go through 2021. I have categorized my recommendations by Authors, Spirituality, Fiction, and Self-Help. However, any book can fall into any category and it all depends on the reader.

1. Eckhart Tolle — My year started with Eckhart Tolle’s ‘Power of Now’ and I have been practicing his mantra of staying in NOW & bringing the consciousness back to NOW’ every day in my daily life. ET (I and my friends call him by this name) has definitely influenced my life for the better. I still had setbacks & issues (since I am alive) but as soon as I bring my consciousness back to the ‘Current Moment’, everything else seems irrelevant.
2. I continued into the year by reading Tolle’s ‘The New Earth’. This book talks about various topics and the most interesting of all is ‘Ego’.
3. I also listened to a few of his ‘Retreats’ on Audible. I would recommend ‘Journey into yourself’ and ‘Touching the Eternal (India Retreat)’ to everyone alive on this planet.
4. Shivi Dua — Shivi is my mentor in the Spiritual world. I make sure to start every new year by revisiting her books namely ‘Let go mom’, ‘Let the power be with you’ and ‘Eternity’. This year’s highlight is her latest book ‘My Shape’. This book talks about the impact of five elements in our day-to-day life. Highly recommend it to everyone.
5. Paramahasa Yogananda — My journey of Spirituality continued with reading one of the most read books on the planet ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ by Paramahasa Yogananda. It an experience of a lifetime to walk along with Yogananda in his journey from before his birth till the end.
6. Eknath Eswaran — ‘The Bhagvad Gita’ and ‘The Essence of the Upanisha’ by Eknath Eswaran are blessings to anyone who wants to understand these two iconic Indian books in a very simple way.
7. Anuja Chandramauli — I became a fan of Anuja’s work after reading her masterpiece ‘Ganga- The constant Goddess’. This year I read ‘Kamadev’ and ‘Shakti’ by the same author. Shakti definitely had a lot to offer in terms of the clarity of concept related to Shiva and Shakti.
8. Sally Kempton — ‘Awakening Shakti’ by Kempton is the one and only book needed to understand the creation of Shiva and Sakthi and to invoke the various forms of Shakti within yourself. A mesmerizing journey in itself.
9. Sadhguru — ‘Death’ is defining not an easy read but I read it in almost one sitting after I lost my only brother in the month of May. It gave me an immense understanding of Death as a part of life rather than the end of life and helped me cope with the pain in my own way. However, I couldn’t finish Sadhguru’s latest book ‘Karma’ in the last 6 months. I would love to read ‘Inner engineering’ soon.
10. Yuval Noah Harari — His books are historic in nature but when I read them I definitely found them spiritual by all means. ‘Homo Sapiens — A Brief History of Humankind’ and ‘Homo Deus — A brief history of Tomorrow’ both should be introduced at the base level in schools. So interesting and insightful.
11. Haruki Murakami — This Japanese Author will never go out of fashion or seem old/historic ever. He portrays human emotions and complex relationships with such ease. I read his short stories ‘Men without Women’ and the love story ‘Norwegian Wood’ this year and I am so delighted I did.

Other Spiritually related reads of the year:

1. ‘Ikigai’: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Francesc Miralles and Hector Garcia — Helped me find my Ikigai for sure!
2. ‘Nirvana in the corporate suit’ by Runjhun Noopur — Hilarious!
3. ‘The Untethered Soul’ by Michael A Singer — A easy and effective revision of all other spiritual books.
4. ‘The Power of Intentions’ by Wayne Dyer — Powerful read to understand the energy of Intentions and how to use it.
5. ‘Switchwords’ by Liz Dean — Setting intentions on special keywords called Switchwords and letting the universe work on them.

Fictions of the year

1. ‘Dark Matter’ by Blake Crouch — introduces an interesting criminal plot against the concept of Parallel lives and Life choices.
2. ‘Midnight library’ by Matt Hag — is another story that revolved around parallel lives in a beautiful way. A must-visit library!
3. ‘Eleven Minutes’ by Paulo Cohelo — Best saga on spirituality from the diary of a sex worker.
4. ‘Norse Mythology’ by Neil Gailman — If you have heard of Norse Gods and Goddess like Loki, Freya, Thor, Frey, Balder, etc.- this is one book for you.
5. ‘The Silent Patient’ by Alex Michaelides — A nail-biting psychological thriller.
6. ‘Anxious people’ by Fredrik Backman — Just wow! My best read fiction of the year. A story that revolves around a bank robbery and everyone involved in it in an active/passive manner.
7. ‘Unfinished’ by Priyanka Chopra — I am adding this book in the fiction section because even if it’s an autobiography and indeed an interesting read, it seems more like a well thought and planned fiction.

Self-Helps of the year

1. ‘May be you should talk to someone’ by Lori Gottlieb — I have recommended this to many friends of mine after I read this book and always got positive responses. Super witty and impactful. The book revolves around the life of a Therapist, her patients, and her Therapist.
2. ‘Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough’ by Lori Gottlieb — A effective book on the concept of choices, partnership, marriage, and divorce.
3. ‘The Gift of Imperfections’ by Brené Brown- Brown is a well-known name in the world of Self-help and her book justifies her name in a beautiful manner. Gem of a book which leaves the reader on a perfectly happy note.
4. ‘The psychology of money — Timeless lessons on wealth, greed and happiness’ by Morgan Housel — Housel has nailed the concept of money by relating it to other daily life concepts of human personality, ethnicity, upbringing, and genes.
5. ‘The Paradox of choice’ (Why More is Less) by Barry Schwartz — My last read of the year that explains minimalistic lifestyle through the labels of Maximizers, Satisficers, and Perfectionists.

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Here is the recap of the Books read and recommended in 2020.