Books that built me in the last 20 years

they tell a slice of my biography

When you have more time on your hands after curbing your social media habits, you find yourself revisiting your Goodreads book list from the past 20 years, handwriting it by category in a journal. It's fascinating how the books I’ve read tell a slice of my personal biography.

Pedro Ribeiro Simões (1923) Oil on Canvas

For context, over these two decades, my life’s landscape was defined by the throes of motherhood (my kids are now 27, 23, and 17, so less of a throe these days), climbing the career ladder from mid-career to becoming an executive in corporate America, battling a major health crisis, and starting my own business.

Meanwhile, the global landscape I experienced spanned events like George W. Bush in office, the subsequent War on Terror, activism against the war, rise of social media, the global recession of 2008, the rise of the Tea Party Movement (seeding of MAGA), Obama's first and second elections, MeToo movement, 2016 election, BLM and the pandemic.

Marcellina Akpojotor (2023) Acrylic and Ankara Textile

I always like to note the backdrop of my own small world and the bigger world whenever I reflect because these landscapes shape what I seek to escape. Books were my sanctuary during these moments, helping me emerge more whole.

When I close a book and return to reality, something about the world I step back into feels a little different.

Sometimes, I return with more patience with the world and myself.

Other times, I come back with reverence or insights that influence my work, parenting, or well-being. Books have always been a gateway for me to know myself.

Janet Asante-Sullivan (2024) Oil on Canvas

My reading over the last 20 years has fallen into distinct categories: contemplative, philosophy, African-American literature, African/diaspora literature, health and wellness, poetry, and what I prefer to call "old books" (others might call them "classic literature").

These books have built me, broadened my perspectives, provided clarity during storms, made me a more confident leader, mother, friend, and partner, a more sophisticated conversationalist and thinker.

They have spurred me to take action in various areas of my life and helped me be more visible to myself. I truly believe books become a part of your identity.

I've read over 350 books and will not be listing them all here. However, I wanted to share a few from each category that have been instrumental for me.

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Contemplative - I am moved by contemplative texts. I come from a family history of Christianity but I’ve always been interested in expanding beyond traditional institutionalized religious thought.

I feel most connected to God and the Holy Spirit through writers who speak to the inner landscape of the soul and about nature.

I am drawn to contemplative thinkers such as ex-Catholic Priest and Irish Poet John O’Donohue who poetically explores the sacred and nature and 1990s Essence Magazine Editor Susan L. Taylor whose writings beautifully weave spiritual reflection with personal transformation.

Both approaches have helped me move beyond dogma into a more expansive understanding of spirituality.

A few contemplative books that encouraged my spirit in the last 20 years:

• Lessons in Living by Susan L. Taylor

• Silence in the Age of Noise by Erling Kagge

• Care of the Soul by Thomas Moore

• A Religion of One’s Own: A Guide to Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World by Thomas Moore

• Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O’Donohue 

• Walking in Wonder: External Wisdom for Modern World by John O’Donohue

• When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chodron

• I Put a Spell on You: The Autobiography of Nina Simone by Nina Simone (while this is an autobiography, it reads as a contemplative book on living an authentic life)

  

  Henri Lebasque (1927) Oil on Canvas

Philosophy - I often read philosophy books in the winter months. Winter’s gray landscape sometimes mirrors my inner landscape: uncertain, dimmed, blue.

My mood is unpredictable during winter, especially during February which always feels disorienting and liminal. Reading philosophy books ground me. These books have felt like a flashlight in past dark winters offering clarity:  

• Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

• Zenzele: A Letter to my Daughter by J. Nozipo Maraire

• Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self-Recovery by bell hooks

• How to Keep Your Cool: An Ancient Guide to Anger Management by Seneca

• How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton

• What Do I Know? Essential Essays by Michel de Montaingne

• The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

• True Love: Awakening the Heart by Thich Nhat Hanh

• Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson

• Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by Adriene Maree Brown

• Art Spirit by Robert Henri

• On Women by Susan Sontag

  

  Marcellina Akapojotor (2023) Acrylic and Ankara Fabric

African American Literary - I spent most of my youth in the late 80s and 90s reading Babysitter Club books, VC Andrews, Judy Blume, Danielle Steele and during college, James Patterson and Nora Ephron. It wasn’t until my mid-20s, in the early 2000s that I committed to African American/African/Diaspora literary canon.

This coincided with the cultural shift in Black communities in the early 2000s where we were denouncing traditional beauty standards, embracing natural hair, initiating what was the original “woke’ movement - an innocent call to “wake” up from not appreciating our beauty, art, history, books, stories, resilience and strength, not the diluted, weaponized term its become today.

Books that helped me expand my understanding of the depth and breadth of Black narratives: 

• Beloved by Toni Morrison (which by the way is stupidly banned in some schools across the U.S.)

• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

• The Men of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor

• Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor

• Men We Reaped by Jesymn Ward

• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

• Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston

• No Disrespect by Sister Soulja

• Women, Race and Class by Angela Y. Davis

• Go Tell it On the Mountains by James Baldwin

• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

• Wild Seed by Octavia Butler

  

  Janet Asante-Sullivan (2024) Still Life Oil on Canvas

African/Immigrant/Diaspora Literary - I am a child of African immigrants to the US, so I’ve looked to books at times to help examine and interpret my experience straddling multiple cultures and traditions. These books have strengthened my multiple identities.

• The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

• Dreams of My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama

• Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga

• Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope by Shirin Ebadi 

• Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America and American in Iran by Azadeh Moaveni

• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

• Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

  

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Old Books - Over the last five years, I grew fed up with contemporary books on the NYT Bestseller list. Too often, they left me disappointed—only a few felt worth the read. So, I shifted my focus to what I call “old books,” though others might label them “classics” (a term I avoid for reasons I won’t delve into). I’ve found myself enjoying them in ways contemporary reads often fail to match.

• Middlemarch by George Eliot

• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

• The Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir

• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

• Lady Chatterlay’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence

• Dracula by Bram Stoker

• Changes by Ama Ata Aidoo

• The Souls of Black Folks by W.E.B. Du Bois

• The Street by Ann Petry

• White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky

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Health and Wellness - In 2009, I read a book about factory farming and immediately gave up eating land animals. Since then, I’ve been a pescatarian/vegetarian. Wellness and daily physical movement are core values of mine, which naturally draws me to books on wellbeing. These  books have been foundational in shaping my perspective on health and wellness.

• The Joy of Movement by Kelly McGonigal

• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver

• In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan

• Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran-Foer

• Sistah Vegan: Black Women Speak on Food, Identity, Health and Society by A. Breeze Harper

• Sacred Woman by Queen Afua

• A Philosophy of Walking by Frederic Gros

  

  Janet Asante-Sullivan (2024) Oil on Board

Poetry - I often begin my day with a poem or end the evening by reading one. Poetry feels like a five-minute meditation - a brief, reflective pause. Over the years, I’ve dog-eared countless pages in these books:

• Devotions by Mary Oliver

• Questions for Ada by Ijeoma Umebinyuo

• The Essential Rumi by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi

• I am a Black Woman by Mari Evans

• The Essential June Jordan by June Jordan

• The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde by Audre Lorde

• To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings by John O’Donohue

• The Prophet by Kahil Gibran

Looking back at the literature that has shaped my reading life in the last few decades, I am reminded that each book, not chosen by trend and sometimes the book actually chose me has served a distinct purpose. Together, these books have been anchors and architects in my own personal biography.

Thanks for coming along on this memory lane. I hope one of these books finds its way to you.