100 books like The Hero with an African Face

This wonderful South African storyteller enchanted me when I heard her telling stories at the Toronto Storytelling Festival. I loved the empowering story, "Khethiwe, Queen of the Imbira", about a girl who defiantly plays an instrument claimed as the exclusive purview of men. Another is the story of a woman who must go to the depths of the ocean to bring the magic of stories to the world. These, with eight other beautifully told tales, are included in a colourfully illustrated book.

I found this book moving. On one level it is the mythology of the planet we know as Venus, from the perspective of the Maasai people. On another level it speaks to the condition of age and loneliness. And I love the illustrations, which take the reader into the landscape of East Africa and show us the humanity of the old man. Like all the best tales, it can be enjoyed by both children and adults.

This is a classic by the late folklorist, Harold Courlander. If you want to get a basic understanding of the stories that make up the Orishas of Yoruba mythological tradition, this is the go-to book. Here is the story of how the Orishas come to earth, and the powers and power struggles of the Yoruba pantheon. Appendices give a quick overview of Orishas in Cuba and the Americas.

When it comes to oral literature from the African continent, I haven’t seen another collection that matches this in-depth and breadth. Here you will find a fuller version of one of the Soninke epics discussed in the book by Clyde W. Ford. Here are the stories of the Akan, and many other African peoples. I particularly enjoyed the sayings and humorous anecdotes.

In the summer of 2019, my world began to crumble, and this book was the catalyst for the earthquake I desperately needed.

When I picked it up, I was on the tail end of a failing marriage, but I didn’t know it yet. All I knew was that I needed to figure out who I was outside of the trauma narrative I had told about my story, again and again. And I needed to stop feeling like a victim in my own story. 
If you need a swift kick in the rear-end, this book is the one for you. With insightful and encouraging, but direct, prose, Kipp invites you to take a careful look at who you are and what values you truly hold, dispute your best intentions. I thought I knew who I was and what I wanted, but I didn’t feel empowered to make those dreams a reality… show more.

This book is the number one book I’d bring along if stranded on a desert island. Like my magickal friend Stephanya once said, “I rejoice that such a beautiful thing can spring from the brain of a human being!” I couldn’t agree more. This book begins with a story documenting the author’s psychedelic research as a Harvard professor (then known as Richard Alpert), as well as his adventures in India, where he met his mountaintop Guru, Neem Karoli Baba. Ram Dass would soon become a Guru himself and help introduce Western spiritual seekers to deep mysticism and Eastern philosophy.

So, why is this relevant to empaths, even those who aren’t into psychedelics? The reason is simple: every part of this book, most especially the profoundly artistic “brown pages,” deeply, acutely, and spiritually reminds us that separation is an illusion, that we are all one, and we need to live in… show more.

This little memoir (some 200 postcard-size pages) packs so much yoga punch.

Clendenin goes through a lot of bad stuff—a lifelong drinking problem, the death of a relative, a life-altering medical diagnosis—but she relays it all in such a fun, girlfriendy way you can’t help but cheer her on.

Her saving grace is the yoga teacher training she begins as the book does, which carries her through the awful life events. My favorite is the way she summarizes and modernizes the four parts of the classic—and very obtuse—Yoga Sutras (e.g., one take: “don’t let that nasty ego tell you who you aren’t”).

This is a great book, which comprehensively explores the body's immune system. It provides great insights that I was not aware of the various factors that can cause the immunity to breakdown. It is full of information and is easy to read, yet very comprehensive on each area that is explored. I loved the individual exercises included in the book, for example around exploring how toxic your environment is and how this can affect your immunity, which provided great practical information for reflection

This book really helped me with my personal well-being. I am more aware of what can affect my immunity, and how I can live and eat better and enhance my natural defenses.

One of several Lamott non-fiction works that we love, you’ll return to this slim volume many times over for a witty, warming shot of wisdom. With a familiar mix of the philosophical, autobiographical, and anecdotal, Lamott provides a refreshing perspective on coping with hopelessness and suffering, both private and public. For Lamott, meaning comes from ‘living stitch by stitch' and protects us from being overwhelmed by the world’s problems (or our own). Through hard topics including her own addiction and losses, the author testifies to the power of hope and community. Like a therapist or forensic psychiatrist, Lamott talks of the import of bearing witness to the suffering of others, as a path to change.

Drawing upon stories from all the great spiritual traditions, Kurtz and Ketcham keep shocking us out of our assumptions about the spiritual life, and inviting us to abandon the pursuit of perfection that many of us identify with it. They pull the rug out from under us, telling us what we don’t expect to hear. There’s something comical about embracing imperfection. But if they’re right, it’s the only real alternative to living tragically. I suggest watching Chaplin’s City Lights and Laurel and Hardy’s The Music Box, as you make your way through the chapters of this book.