Mallory’s (UPDATED) 2021 Reading List

I look to 2021 to be a year of healing - nothing more, nothing less. We've all gone through so much in the past 365 days and personally, I'm looking forward to the better days that are ahead. A part of that healing process for me includes reading.

There's a little something called bibliotherapy that suggests that words can be used to soothe emotions and alter thoughts. The use of literature can actually help people deal with psychological, social and emotional problems. Aristotle even considered literature to have healing benefits! In fact, he believed that reading fiction could be a way of treating real illness.

I wanted to share with you the books I've picked out to read in 2021. All of which are intended to help heal the body, soul, and or mind.

For the Body

• The Body Book - Cameron Diaz's guide grounded in science and inspired by personal experience detailing what she has learned in her own life and continues to discover about nutrition, exercise, and the mind/body connection.

For the Heart

• For the Love of Men -  offers a smart, insightful, and deeply researched guide for what we're all going to do about toxic masculinity. For both women looking to guide the men in their lives and men who want to do better and just don’t know how, For the Love of Men will lead the conversation on men's issues in a society where so much is changing but gender roles have remained strangely stagnant.
• Tender is the Night (re-read) - A profound study of the romantic concept of character, Tender Is the Night written by F. Scott Fitzgerlad tells the tragic romance of the young actress Rosemary Hoyt and the stylish American couple Dick and Nicole Diver. A brilliant young psychiatrist at the time of his marriage, Dick is both husband and doctor to Nicole, whose wealth goads him into a lifestyle not his own, and whose growing strength highlights Dick's harrowing demise. 

For the Bag

• Rich Dad, Poor Dad - This book explodes the myth that you need to earn a high income to be rich and explains the difference between working for money and having your money work for you.

For the Soul

• Dare to Bloom - Either by choice or by circumstance, we all encounter times of starting over. Seasons of hardships, abundance, seeking, and struggle all have a purpose because growth demands change. Dare to Bloom urges us to be both vulnerable and resilient in new seasons of life as we boldly position ourselves for what God has for us next.
• What I Know For Sure - A collection of essays written by Orpha Winfrey offering a rare, powerful and intimate glimpse into the heart and mind of one of the world's most extraordinary women—while providing readers a guide to becoming their best selves.
• The Alchemist (re-read) -  What starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treasure found within. Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the transforming power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts.

For the Mind

• Women and Other Monsters: Building a New Mythology -  guides women (and others) to reexamine their relationships with traits like hunger, anger, ugliness, and ambition, teaching readers to embrace a new image of the female hero: one that looks a lot like a monster, with the agency and power to match. It's a modern feminists twist on Greek mythology.

(Book synopsis credited to Goodreads.com)