Nalanda Institute Community 2022 Summer Reading List
By Nalanda Institute
By Nalanda Institute
A summer reading list compiled from members of the Nalanda Institute community.
A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance
Hanif Abdurraqib
$18.00 $16.74Tom Damrauer plans to finish listening to the audiobook of “A Little Devil in America” this summer.
The Wakeful Body: Somatic Mindfulness as a Path to Freedom
Willa Baker
$18.95 $17.62Vanessa ÁineLeigh Kelly has this guide to somatic meditation on her list of summer recommendations.
Humankind: A Hopeful History
Rutger Bregman
$30.00 $27.90Joe Loizzo has Rutger Bregman’s book on his short summer reading list. “Humankind” dismantles the assumptions of classic research on human nature that positions humans as self-interested, and examines how humans can use our inherently good nature to build a better society.
The Trees Witness Everything
Victoria Chang
$17.00 $15.81Geri Loizzo plans on reading this book by best-selling poet Victoria Chang. Geri says, “poetry in Japanese syllabic forms called ‘wakas,’ shaped by pattern and count. This body of work promises to invoke concentration and letting go.”
Subtle Body: A Genealogy
Simon Cox
$113.85Elizabeth Rovere recommends this book. “Embodiment and the history of the subtle body across history and cultures. In this book I learned a lot about how we have grappled through centuries to understand the subtle body via the intellect, or through direct experience, as well as oral tradition, and hidden doctrines. Cox gives us a lot to ponder within what he calls ‘our incarnate predicament.’”
Finding Me: An Oprah's Book Club Pick
Viola Davis
$28.99 $26.96Kiersta Fricke-Gostnell has Viola Davis’s new intimate memoir on her summer reading list.
It's Ok That You're Not Ok: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn't Understand
Megan Devine
$17.99 $16.73Moustafa Abdelrahman recommends this book by Megan Devine, which is also hailed by Jack Kornfield as “grief support and understanding that is heartfelt, straightforward, and wise.”
What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?
Frederick Douglass
$4.99 $4.64One of the books that Kristen Rae Stevens uses to keep her heart fire burning when she has a moment, she dips into some re-reads or quick references on her shelf from time to time….
Undoing Aloneness and the Transformation of Suffering Into Flourishing: Aedp 2.0
$75.89
Zachary Model recommends this book by Nalanda Institute Contemplative Psychotherapy Program faculty member Diana Fosha. “It explores the transformational benefits of emotional processing in the context of secure relationships (such as therapy), with an emphasis on our innate capacities to flourish.”
The Grief Recovery Handbook, 20th Anniversary Expanded Edition: The Action Program for Moving Beyond Death, Divorce, and Other Losses Including Health, Ca
John W. James and Russell Friedman
$17.99 $16.73Moustafa Abdelrahman has this classic resource on his list this summer.
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
David Wengrow and David Graeber
$35.00 $32.55Great minds think alike. Both Joe Loizzo and Tom Damrauer share “The Dawn of Everything” on their summer reading lists. Written by American anthropologist and anarchist, David Graeber and David Wengrow, this book has been hailed as a “radical revision of everything” that “leads us to rethink the nature of human capacities.”
Crazy Brave
Joy Harjo
$15.95 $14.83Add this memoir by Joy Harjo, three-term poet laureate, to your summer reading list says Kiersta Fricke-Gostnell.
The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love
Bell Hooks
$17.99“It’s a wonderful exploration of how patriarchy oppresses and harms us all,” says Joe Loizzo.
Luminous Emptiness: A Guide to the Tibetan Book of the Dead
Francesca Fremantle
$49.95 $46.45Jennifer Ladonne, reflects “the book I’ve been savoring over the last year or more is Francesca Freemantle’s Luminous Emptiness. It has been an absolute joy to read and is now one of the great treasures of my (very limited) library.
Radical Friendship: Seven Ways to Love Yourself and Find Your People in an Unjust World
Kate Johnson
$17.95 $16.69This very popular book among the Nalanda Institute community is recommended for your summer reading by Vanessa ÁineLeigh Kelly.
Finding Refuge: Heart Work for Healing Collective Grief
Michelle Cassandra Johnson
$17.95 $16.69Marianne Gunther recommends this book by social justice activist, social worker, and yoga teacher Michelle Cassandra Johnson.
We Do This 'Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice
Mariame Kaba
$16.95 $15.76Marianne Gunther recommends this New York Times bestseller.
Dreamed Up Reality: Diving Into the Mind to Uncover the Astonishing Hidden Tale of Nature
Bernardo Kastrup
$19.95“I’ve got a stack of books a foot high I want to get to this summer, but here’s the one I'm reading right now. I heard about Kastrup through Andrew Holecek and he’s really a fascinating read,” says Jennifer Ladonne.
Braiding Sweetgrass
Robin Wall Kimmerer
$20.00 $18.60This is the second year that “Braiding Sweetgrass” is on our summer reading list. This year, Dan Donohue looks forward to reading it after having it recommended by Lyla June Johnston in one of our short courses.
American Detox: The Myth of Wellness and How We Can Truly Heal
Kerri Kelly
$18.95 $17.62“I have been following this dynamic author’s activism since 2016,” says Geri Loizzo “and can’t wait to read her take on reclaiming wellness in a critical and compassionate way; that seeks to face and transmute the effects of separation, supremacy, and scarcity to create causes and conditions where everyone can be well.”
The Word for World Is Forest
Ursula K. Le Guin
$15.99 $14.87Geri Loizzo has always wanted to read a book by the celebrated author Ursula K. Le Guin. She has this book on her summer reading list. It is a “science fiction story told through the lens of an Indigenous perspective, challenging the reader to use their imagination to envision a future beyond the effects of colonization.”
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
Heather McGhee
$28.00 $26.04Zachary Model recommends this book saying that “McGhee’s economic analysis meticulously dismantles the ‘zero-sum paradigm,’ demonstrating the heavy costs of racism and inequality in the United States across all demographics. She seamlessly delivers both a personal and highly rigorous exploration.”
The Shamanic Bones of Zen: Revealing the Ancestral Spirit and Mystical Heart of a Sacred Tradition
Zenju Earthlyn Manuel
$18.95 $17.62Heather Shaw recommends this new book from the Zen Buddhist teacher and author Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, saying, “reading this book deeply affirmed so many of the elements of my own personal practice that have felt intuitive but never really had language within the teachings I have received to describe.”
Tales of a Mad Yogi: The Life and Wild Wisdom of Drukpa Kunley
Elizabeth Monson
$19.95This biography of the fifteenth-century Tibetan Buddhist master and crazy yogi Drukpa Kunley is on Vanessa ÁineLeigh Kelly’s list.
The Heart of Who We Are: Realizing Freedom Together
Caverly Morgan
$20.99 $19.52Heather Shaw recommends this forthcoming book. “I have had the honor and privilege of witnessing Caverly’s writing process firsthand and can say that the wisdom she shares comes from a space both humbled and uplifted by the powerful, messy process of acknowledging our completely inexorable interdependence along a path of seeking liberation.”
