8 — Daring Greatly/Brene Brown

All I can really say about this book, it must be read. It’s fully of vulnerability, quotes steeped in gratitude and dripping with joy. This is definitely the most powerful book I’ve read so far. I cried throughout, this story taught me about myself, the world, and my place in it. Especially if, like me, you feel like there’s lots of hate going around in the world for “us” (millennials), let this book soothe your fears.

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child love you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but really loves you, then you become Real.”

“Doesn’t it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real, you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out, and you get loose it the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real, you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

9 — Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde/Robert Louis Stevenson