The Tools by Phil Stutz and Barry Michels (affiliate link)
This is one of the most helpful self help books I’ve read, mainly because it provides practical tools you can use to change your life. Of course you have to apply these tools to make them useful, but using them has proven to be very helpful to me. Consistent application of them has helped me work through fear and resistance and helped me continue a process of creating the life I want to live.
From the Core by John Wineland (Affiliate link)
This was a fascinating and relevant book for me to read, especially as I’ve been continuing to explore my journey into sacred masculinity. The author explores what it means to be rooted to the core of your masculinity and shares how this expresses itself in the relationships you have with other people in your life. I found a lot of the advice relevant, especially in light of starting a new relationship. I found myself changing certain behaviors and being more rooted in a way that honored the people in my life and created better relationships. If you want to live a rooted life in your masculine power this is a good book to help you with that process.
The Masculine in Relationship by GS Youngblood (Affiliate link)
Reading this book helped me get clarity around my relationship with my partner. It helped me see past patterns that hadn’t worked and allowed me to make changes that have helped me really show up in a way where I can lead my partner from my masculine core and enjoy her feminine come out as a result. There is a wealth of information in this book that can help a man step into a truly intimate and deep relationship with his partner.
Men’s Work by Connor Beaton (Affiliate link)
Men’s work provides a no holds barred approach to doing the deep work all men need to do if they want to truly step into their masculine identity. In this book the author provides helpful exercises that enable you to explore your relationship with your emotions, and other areas of your life. I found this book to be very helpful on my journey to explore the sacred masculine.
Circles of Men by Clay Boykin (affiliate link)
Circles of Men provides another perspective on how to create and form men’s groups. The author attempts to differentiate how his approach to men’s groups is different from other models but from what I can tell it’s a fairly similar approach. I still found this book helpful to read and it gave me ideas on how I can better facilitate the groups I am part of.
The choose yourself guide to wealth by James Altucher (affiliate link)
This book continues what James shared in the original title Choose yourself, only he looks at it from the perspective of wealth. It’s filled with James sense of humor but also provides some valuable insights on how to explore the generation of wealth through ideas, networking, and being of service to other people. I found it helpful in terms of mindset and changing how I approach my own wealth generation strategies.
Wired for love by Stan Tatkin (Affiliate link)
In this book the author introduces the concept of the couple bubble, where you create a container for your relationship and focus on getting to know your partner and learning to recognize their patterns of behavior, so you can anticipate and be in better relationship with them. I found the book to be helpful in terms of understanding my partner and her communication style as well as recognizing my communication style and the shortcomings I have…as well as how to work on them and the relationship better as a result.
Book Review: Celebrating the Male Mysteries by RJ Stewart (affiliate link)
In Celebrating the Male Mysteries, RJ Stewart shares the importance of exploring the masculine mysteries and presents a healthy vision of what such mysteries can look like as well as how they can interface into mystery traditions in general. Practical exercises and theory are presented as well as specific visualizations that men can use for sacromagical work. I recommend reading through the book once and then going back through and doing the exercises. This book can be an excellent companion to other men’s work books and offers another valuable resource for creating healthy masculinity and relationships.
Book Review: The Hazards of Being Male by Herb Goldberg (affiliate link)
This book shares the hard truth about male privilege, and how the so-called privilege of men is anything but a privilege. While this book was written in the 1970’s it could accurately describe the experience most men go through even now. Reading this book made me angry and made me realize how trashed men are for the supposed privilege we have, when in reality we end up paying a lot for the privilege we get. This book was eye-opening and helped me recognize how much discrimination men experience in no small part of because of the roles they are thrust into. It also speaks a simple truth: It is up to each man to free himself of the toxic expectations of society and in the process become a self-actualized man.
Book Review: The Passion Trap by Dean Delis with Cassandra Philips (Affiliate link)
This is a fascinating book which explores how to recognize an unbalanced relationship and your role in that relationship as well as work to right the relationship. As I read this book I found myself thinking about all my relationships and recognizing when I had been the one down or one up in the relationship. I’ve also begun applying what I’m reading to my current relationship to help me find a better balance in the relationship.
Book Review: The Male Mysteries by Nikki Dorakis (affiliate link)
In this book the author shares rites and rituals that can be used as coming of age or initiations for men’s mysteries in a Pagan context. This is a fascinating book which can really help men both in terms of using what’s in the book, but also designing their own male mysteries.
Book Review: Swamplands of the Soul (Affiliate link) by James Hollis
In this book the author explores how to deal with the inevitable realities of moments in our lives when we feel depression, sadness, loss, betrayal and other emotions. He shares that rather than trying to always be happy we should strive for meaning and provides some useful perspectives via Jungian psychology on how a person might do this. It’s another excellent book by this author.
Book Review: When Sorry isn’t Enough by Gary Chapman and Jennifer Thomas (Affiliate link)
Other than the occasional sermon on Christianity, this is a really good book to read on how to apologize. The author shares that there are multiple apology languages and discusses how to discover the apology language that applies to the person you are apologizing to, as well as how to identify your own apology language. I’ve already applied the teachings of this book to my apologies and its helping a lot with being able to make good apologies.