The most recommended new age books

This is the book I wished I had when reading the classic Dion Fortune novels The Sea Priestess and Moon Magic, though Margie certainly is not writing commentary of those novels. She provides a context for the bigger themes in such stories I was ignorant of when first reading Fortune. Lady of the Sea weaves a grand vision of the Goddess from ancient roots, including Egypt, the Celts, indigenous lore, Avalonian traditions, and the modern New Age, but does so with such skill, grace, and practical purpose. It is the best book for deeply describing the inner temple of the Moon, Sea, and Stars and how to work in them as a modern mystic. For that alone it is worth it, but everything leading to and from those sections supports your understanding of why the Lady of the Sea is important to us all.  

I loved this book so much that I cited Dweck and the growth mindset in Pause because every human needs to know about this mind-blowing concept. As a coach, I help my clients understand that a growth mindset is critical to doing anything differently. To be more confident, you have to show up differently. 

This book helped me get off auto-pilot mode or thinking things can’t be done. I learned that I had a lot of fixed mindset, which put a limit on everything I did! Because of this book, I now challenge my assumptions, get curious about what I thought couldn’t be changed or about someone, and learn how to be a more critical thinker about how I showed up–not just about the things I was doing–but the way I did them. 

The simplicity of this book is breathtaking—there’s just one central idea: life should feel easy.

And yet we all instinctively answer, “No, it’s not. It never will be.” And that’s Hamrick’s genius: she asks you to live, for a moment, in a world that lacks any resistance to your dreams or goals. A world where life fully and effectively supports you.

And then she unravels all your own resistance to this idea. 

This book hooked me because it’s deeply researched and a pleasure to read, with interesting and relevant case studies.

There’s a line that leaders must now "create the best job for the person, rather than finding the best person for the job,” which I think is right on the money in today’s environment. That’s hard to do, but the book offers a simple framework to make it a lot easier.

I found the advice very applicable to working not only with my own team, but also committees and groups in other parts of my life.

I love frameworks. Especially ones that make simple and clarifying distinctions about our complex inner life. That’s exactly what Chamine has done with this book. When I read this book in 2012 and completed the accompanying free online assessment to identify my saboteurs, I was greatly humbled by the sobering accuracy of how I self-sabotage.

While reading the book, I was engrossed in the combination of logic, science, and stories helping to illuminate how and why we all have a unique mix of these universal saboteurs: Controller, Stickler, Hyper-Achiever, Restless, Hyper-Rational, Victim, Avoider, Pleaser, Hyper-Vigilant. I learned how to identify when I was coming from a place of self-sabotage and what to do to overcome unhelpful habits, (i.e., strengthen my PQ muscles).

It was fun, engaging, and motivating to read, and the practical tips made this book incredibly useful. I use his framework in conjunction with my own to make… show more.

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.    

This guy tells rip-roaring stories while skewering all the spiritual hucksters you’re likely to meet. I was locked into a spiritual mystery school when a member of the group recommended McKenna as the real thing.

Most spiritual books are boastful; this guy comes off as completely ordinary, except he happens to have freed himself from emotional suffering. Most of the time. The rest of the time, he’s making fun of the bliss bunnies, chanters, philosophizers, charlatans, and sheeplike followers who populate the New Age landscape.

Exploring a spiritual tradition that predates by many centuries the fall/redemption ideology of mainstream Christianity (which Gandhi referred to as a "Christianity without Christ"), Fox presents an alternative quest for wisdom based on the fundamental conviction that we are, each one of us, born into this world not as blotches on creation but as blessings, precious, beloved and of enormous worth and promise.

Fox's theology eventually won him the ire of the Roman papacy and eventually expulsion from the Catholic Church. His response? "Sometimes you have to take your praise any way you can get it!"

This collection, published by Bloodaxe Books, categorizes poems loosely by theme and contains a treasure trove of the best poems to help you keep on living when life is too hard. There is a wide range of themes, as well as some uplifting poems that explore everything beautiful about being alive.

At 800 pages, this was the longest book I read this year by quite a bit. Despite its length, I believe the narrative does a great job at keeping you entertained and interested in what’s going on from start to finish.

There are a few key things that made this a top book for me.

First, the main character is someone who crafts (as in, they make their own equipment) gear that is near-perfect in a way that makes them truly unique. More than that, however, is how the author does an excellent job at making their knowledge of crafting and crafted items believable based on the main character’s background. Every is well-integrated, and minor details begin to matter as a result. Often enough, stories forget to make those things ‘matter.’

Secondary to that is the setting – an academy story, something we’ve all read before; Brian still does a… show more.