100 books like Become The Most Important Person in the Room

By Rose Rosetree,

Here are 100 books that Become The Most Important Person in the Room fans have personally recommended if you like Become The Most Important Person in the Room. Shepherd is a community of 9,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Sensitive Is the New Strong: The Power of Empaths in an Increasingly Harsh World

Sydney Campos Author Of The Empath Experience: What to Do When You Feel Everything

From the list on for empaths and highly sensitive people.

Who am I?

I always sensed I was from another planet, here to help create a new world by nature of my heightened sensitivity and ability to perceive beneath the surface of our supposed reality. After decades of struggling and nearly dying through addiction to mute my sensitivity, my healing path led me to see how being an empath is the greatest gift, once we learn to take care of ourselves and refine our abilities. My book The Empath Experience is the guide I wish I had when I was born, that tells my story and guides life-changing practices to master your energy and harness your empathic gifts as the superpowers they are.

Sydney's book list on for empaths and highly sensitive people

Why did Sydney love this book?

I love this book from Anita – it feels like it resonates a lot with the messages in my original book on the empath experience yet includes some other stories and anecdotes that can relate to an even broader audience. I appreciate her core thesis that empaths are really the world’s healers especially at this time – here to teach empathy, compassion, and true connection simply by being who they truly are.

By Anita Moorjani,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Sensitive Is the New Strong as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The New York Times bestselling author of Dying to Be Me returns with “a gorgeous and powerful field guide to the empath living in today’s wild world” (Laura Berman, PhD, author of Quantum Love) and how they can fully embrace their gifts of intuition and empathy.

Empaths not only sense other people’s emotions, but also absorb them—sometimes to their own disadvantage, often leading to overwhelming sensory overload and feelings of confusion or low self-esteem. Their willingness to help and please others might make them prey to opportunists or cause them to give away more energy than they can afford.

But…


Book cover of The Empath's Survival Guide: Life Strategies for Sensitive People

Melody Wilding Author Of Trust Yourself: Stop Overthinking and Channel Your Emotions for Success at Work

From the list on to thrive as a highly sensitive person.

Who am I?

As a human behavior professor, award-winning executive coach, and trained therapist, I’ve spent the last decade helping thousands of high-achieving, highly sensitive professionals discover ways to enjoy their success without self-doubt, stress, and emotional overwhelm. I’m a highly sensitive person myself, so I intimately understand what it’s like to navigate the world as a deep thinker and feeler. Trust Yourself is the actionable guide I wish I had had as a big-feeling, driven person trying to find my way in my career and figure out how to believe in myself in the process.

Melody's book list on to thrive as a highly sensitive person

Why did Melody love this book?

Highly sensitive people (HSPs) have more active mirror neurons, which means they can more acutely sense other people’s emotions. I have found that my empathy can be a tremendous gift, but without the right tools, feeling others’ energy can be draining. I enjoyed that Dr. Orloff’s presented a comprehensive toolkit, particularly for navigating relationships at home and work. This book isn’t a one-time read. It’s the type of book you reference and revisit over time. 

By Judith Orloff,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Empath's Survival Guide as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

What is the difference between having empathy and being an empath? "Having empathy means our heart goes out to another person in joy or pain," says Judith Orloff, MD. "But for empaths it goes much further. We actually feel others' emotions, energy, and physical symptoms in our own bodies, without the usual defenses that most people have." With The Empath's Survival Guide, Dr. Orloff offers a practical tool set to help sensitive people develop healthy coping mechanisms in our high-stimulus world-while fully embracing the empath's gifts of intuition, compassion, creativity, and spiritual connection.

This practical, empowering, and loving book was…


The Intuitive Way

By Penney Peirce,

Book cover of The Intuitive Way: The Definitive Guide to Increasing Your Awareness

Sydney Campos Author Of The Empath Experience: What to Do When You Feel Everything

From the list on for empaths and highly sensitive people.

Who am I?

I always sensed I was from another planet, here to help create a new world by nature of my heightened sensitivity and ability to perceive beneath the surface of our supposed reality. After decades of struggling and nearly dying through addiction to mute my sensitivity, my healing path led me to see how being an empath is the greatest gift, once we learn to take care of ourselves and refine our abilities. My book The Empath Experience is the guide I wish I had when I was born, that tells my story and guides life-changing practices to master your energy and harness your empathic gifts as the superpowers they are.

Sydney's book list on for empaths and highly sensitive people

Why did Sydney love this book?

This is one of my favorite books for learning about how to utilize your intuitive gifts. The way it’s written is so beautiful: in a friendly tone where it feels like you’re speaking with an old friend. It includes great practices for awakening your intuitive abilities and working with your empathic gifts as well which naturally give way to intuitive prowess.

By Penney Peirce,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Intuitive Way as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A renowned intuitive and visionary shows you how to know what you need to know just when you need to know it.

Intuition is not a rare gift that only a gifted few possess but an innate human capacity that can be enhanced and developed. Synthesizing insights from psychology, East- West philosophy, religion, metaphysics, and business, this hands-on workbook in the tradition of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, can teach anyone to achieve a heightened state of perceptual vitality and integrate it into daily life. Intuition, writes Penney Peirce, is “not the opposite of logic,” but rather “a comprehensive way…


Anatomy of the Spirit

By Caroline Myss,

Book cover of Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing

Sydney Campos Author Of The Empath Experience: What to Do When You Feel Everything

From the list on for empaths and highly sensitive people.

Who am I?

I always sensed I was from another planet, here to help create a new world by nature of my heightened sensitivity and ability to perceive beneath the surface of our supposed reality. After decades of struggling and nearly dying through addiction to mute my sensitivity, my healing path led me to see how being an empath is the greatest gift, once we learn to take care of ourselves and refine our abilities. My book The Empath Experience is the guide I wish I had when I was born, that tells my story and guides life-changing practices to master your energy and harness your empathic gifts as the superpowers they are.

Sydney's book list on for empaths and highly sensitive people

Why did Sydney love this book?

This book is so genius in its ability to straddle so many different dimensions of experience – from science to medicine to intuition to energy healing and everything in between. I love Carolyn Myss as a great example of what’s possible in bridging worlds – her story of bringing medical intuition into more mass consciousness is brilliant and endlessly inspiring. This book helped me to affirm what I was already sensing as an energy healer – that all dis-ease and pain is rooted in an underlying spiritual or energetic issue. This book provides great precedents for how we can truly heal and recover from seemingly hopeless ailments by actually getting to the root of our supposed problems and meeting them with love, grace, and acceptance.

By Caroline Myss,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Anatomy of the Spirit as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Encoded within your body, teaches Caroline Myss, is an energy system linking you directly to the world's great spiritual traditions. Through it, you have direct access to the divine energy that seamlessly connects all life. On Anatomy of the Spirit, Myss offers a stunning picture of the human body's hidden energetic structures, while revealing its precise spiritual code and relationship to the sacred energy of creation.

Our most revered wisdom traditions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Hinduism, hold in common essential teachings about seven specific levels of spiritual development, the stages of power in life. These seven great truths also grace…


One-Liners

By Ram Dass,

Book cover of One-Liners: A Mini-Manual for a Spiritual Life Hardcover

Joan Budilovsky Author Of Sages of Young Ages

From the list on new moms to listen and laugh with their children.

Who am I?

I’ve taught yoga and meditation for decades to children from ages 3 to 93. My Doctorate is in Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago. I love to experience personal development and child development has a very special place in my heart. I learn so much from them! It is particularly fun to watch children discover and explore life. Everything old is new again! Sages of Young Ages can open our eyes if we simply open our ears to each child’s unique spoken truths.

Joan's book list on new moms to listen and laugh with their children

Why did Joan love this book?

"Don't take yourself so personally" says Ram Dass. His humor, his insights, his ability to capture great lessons and truths in one line. This book made me think and laugh at the same time = quite a feat! I so appreciate his fun look at life with his deep sense of spiritual understanding. Fantastic read.

By Ram Dass,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked One-Liners as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One-Liners is a collection of over 200 penetrating and pithy spiritual instructions from spiritual guru Ram Dass, who describes it as a 'distillation' of the lectures he has given over the last couple of decades. His insightful quotes cover topics such as Love and Devotion, Suffering, Ageing, Planes of Consciousness, Death and Dying, Service and Compassion, Psychedelics, Social Awareness and Liberation.


Be Here Now

By Ram Dass,

Book cover of Be Here Now

Srikumar Rao Author Of Modern Wisdom, Ancient Roots: The Movers and Shakers' Guide to Unstoppable Success

From the list on spiritual dynamite.

Who am I?

I am Srikumar Rao – best selling author, TED speaker, and elite coach. I have spent more than five decades studying the teachings of the world’s greatest masters and distilling them into exercises that enable successful individuals to reach entirely new orbits of accomplishment while remaining serene as a Zen monk. My course, Creativity and Personal Mastery, was among the highest-rated and most popular at many of the world’s top business schools and is the only one to have its own alumni association. My work has been covered by major media worldwide and my talks have been viewed by tens of millions on all six continents.

Srikumar's book list on spiritual dynamite

Why did Srikumar love this book?

This is one of the two books that defined the entire era of hippies and flower children in the sixties and seventies. (The other is The Whole Earth Catalog by Stewart Brand.)

The first part of the book is a highly readable first-person account of how Richard Alpert, Harvard psychologist, went to India, met his guru, and became Ram Dass. The next section has hundreds of cryptic sayings in artistic depictions on brown paper.

These are drawn from Eastern traditions and challenge your notions of what is ‘real’. The third and final section is a series of essays on topics like happiness, yoga, transmuting energy, and so on.

By Ram Dass,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked Be Here Now as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Beloved guru Ram Dass tells the story of his spiritual awakening and gives you the tools to take control of your life in this “counterculture bible” (The New York Times) featuring powerful guidance on yoga, meditation, and finding your true self.

When Be Here Now was first published in 1971, it filled a deep spiritual emptiness, launched the ongoing mindfulness revolution, and established Ram Dass as perhaps the preeminent seeker of the twentieth century.

Just ten years earlier, he was known as Professor Richard Alpert. He held appointments in four departments at Harvard University. He published books, drove a Mercedes…


A Course in Miracles

By Dr. Helen Schucman,

Book cover of A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume

Tama J. Kieves Author Of This Time I Dance! Creating the Work You Love

From the list on to help you stay true to yourself and your calling.

Who am I?

I am moved by the deepest potential in all of us. Having graduated from Harvard Law School and working as an unfilled attorney, I finally left everything to follow my true desire to write. So, I know how vital it is to have support for our inspiration instead of our fears. That’s why I’ve written 5 books to champion visionary minds, creative souls, freedom junkies, and more. And as a TEDx speaker and USA Today featured visionary career coach, I am always reading for my own growth and for my students. I recommend these books because they helped me to trust in greater possibilities. I hope they support your dreams. 

Tama's book list on to help you stay true to yourself and your calling

Why did Tama love this book?

I recommend this book because this spiritual text helped me—more than any other—to see and choose from love instead of fear in my own life. When I left my prestigious law job, I had a storm of fears weaken my creative dreams. This book helped me to find and trust my own inner authority. It also helped me to feel more secure in life, no matter what was going on. At first, I found the language off-putting because it “sounded” religious at times. But this path is not about any religion, other than the love and infinite power in all of us. There are gazillions of spiritual books on the market, but this one is a powerhouse, a classic, and a gamechanger.    

By Dr. Helen Schucman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Course in Miracles as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This is the edition of "A Course in Miracles" ("the Course") that its two scribes, Drs. Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford, authorized for publication by the Foundation for Inner Peace in 1975. It is now available in translation in 27 languages and is widely used by students in thousands of Course study groups around the world.
"A Course in Miracles" is a unique spiritual self-study program—a course in mind-training—designed to undo the illusion that you are separate in any way from God or your fellow humans. At the level of the mind we are all united as one. When we…


Book cover of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World

Jones Loflin Author Of Juggling Elephants: An Easier Way to Get Your Most Important Things Done—Now!

From the list on when you are struggling with too much to do.

Who am I?

Way back in 1994 I decided to build my career on the mission of helping people make better choices with their time. And my goal has always been to keep the solutions simple. I believe we have way too much in our lives that is complex and hard. While my primary work is as a keynote speaker, I have chosen to devote a significant amount of my professional hours to being a coach. I love helping people develop a plan for improvement that is aligned with their values and goals, and then walking with them through their season of change.

Jones' book list on when you are struggling with too much to do

Why did Jones love this book?

I always love books that give me a clear plan to improve some aspect of my life. Comer’s book has four key principles that are easy to remember and apply every day. They include silence and solitude, Sabbath, simplicity, and slowing. My favorite quote from the book was, “For all the talk about hurry and overload, most of it is self-inflicted.”

By John Mark Comer,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Who are you becoming? That was the question nagging pastor and author John Mark Comer. By outward metrics, everything appeared successful. But inwardly, things weren't pretty. So he turned to a trusted mentor for guidance and heard these words: 'Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. Hurry is the great enemy of the spiritual life.' It wasn't the response he expected, but it continues to be the answer he needs.

Too often we treat the symptoms of toxicity in our modern world instead of trying to pinpoint the cause. A growing number of voices are pointing at hurry, or busyness as…


The Three Supreme Gifts

By Lisa Hromada,

Book cover of The Three Supreme Gifts: A Practical Approach to Self-Mastery and to Transforming Your Life Here and Now

David and Deborah Kozich Author Of Absolute Love: The 12 Principles of Love in Life and Business

From the list on creating deep love awareness.

Who are we?

We have been fascinated by the power and energy of Love as far back as either of us remember. Each of our life's purposes revolves around the belief that Love is the most powerful force in the universe. We support our LoveFoundation and mission to bring Love awareness to individuals and to the world. We are both transformational life coaches and believe and teach that love is essence. Our mission is to change the paradigm of the world from fear to Love, building on the foundation of Absolute Love, restoring hope and faith into the hearts of the world.  

David and Deborah's book list on creating deep love awareness

Why did David and Deborah love this book?

The gifts Lisa shares inside this book, are practical and powerful with many tips, tools, practices, and resources for harmonious transformation.

You will experience love at a deeper level. You being the subject of life to create the life you deserve and desire. A different perspective that is worth reading. This is the second book to Lisa’s first book Love Is the Seed.

She teaches how you can plant seeds of love in your life to live fully engaged with love, thought, and free will. Practical loving wisdom shared to help you find within you all that you need, a practical approach to self-mastery and loving yourself.  

By Lisa Hromada,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Three Supreme Gifts as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"The Three Supreme Gifts is a genuine and honest guide that would make for an amazing gift or for personal exploration that will leave you feeling encouraged, rejuvenated, and with a deeper spiritual understanding."- Liz Konkel, Readers' Favorite

"Reading, digesting, and deepening my understanding of The Three Supreme Gifts has been nothing short of transformational. Lisa Hromada shows us the indisputable truth about who we are innately, and provides an easily understandable framework for the depth of love and inner knowing / guidance that is always available to us."- Barb Wade, M.A.

A book of beauty and simple wisdom, The…


Caravan of No Despair

By Mirabai Starr,

Book cover of Caravan of No Despair: A Memoir of Loss and Transformation

Lynn Alsup Author Of Tinderbox: One Family's Story of Adoption, Neurodiversity, and Fierce Love

From the list on memoirs that crack open a brutal and beautiful world.

Who am I?

As a young social worker, I left the world I knew and moved into violent urban centers and traveled the developing world. The suffering and beauty entranced me. Questions reverberated in me: What does it mean to be part of the vast human community? How can I live most fully? When I adopted children, violence and difference confronted me not “out there” but at home. I wrestled, shocked by my own judgment and narrowness—until I accepted in my bones the myriad ways to live a remarkable life. Curiosity became my superpower. Tinderbox, my unflinching memoir, invites readers into my family’s brutal and beautiful transformation through embracing neurodiversity. 

Lynn's book list on memoirs that crack open a brutal and beautiful world

Why did Lynn love this book?

Starr infuses her language with lyricism and in-your-face honesty. She opened a window for me into the counterculture of the 1970s as a bright young daughter of nomadic parents, landing in Taos among intellectuals and spiritual seekers.

Death crashes into the story in the opening pages with her child’s death and pervades it throughout. It offered me courage to write my own parenting story: fear, mistakes, devastation included. Starr doesn’t hold taboos, facing death, drugs, abuse, and despair as she unveils her story of unfolding adolescence to motherhood.

I felt like I’d kicked off my shoes and tucked my legs under myself to listen to a new friend’s life story, gaining a wise, quirky, compassionate companion.

By Mirabai Starr,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Caravan of No Despair as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

On the day her first book came out-a new translation of Dark Night of the Soul by Saint John of the Cross-Mirabai Starr's daughter, Jenny, was killed in a car accident. "My spiritual life began the day my daughter died," writes Mirabai. Even with decades of spiritual practice and a deep immersion in the greatest mystical texts, she found herself utterly unprepared for "my most powerful catalyst for transformation, my fiercest and most compassionate teacher."

With Caravan of No Despair, Mirabai shares an irreverent, uplifting, and intimate memoir of her extraordinary life journey. Through the many twists and turns of…


5 book lists we think you will like!

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