{"id":1156,"date":"2021-12-17T18:15:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-18T02:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/5-books-that-could-improve-your-life-in-the-new-year\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T19:55:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T02:55:20","slug":"five-books-improve-your-life-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/five-books-improve-your-life-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"5 books that could improve your life in the new year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n    \n                                          \n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-3608-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-3608-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  alt=\"5 books that could improve your life in the new year\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n      <div class=\"image-caption\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Reading can help \u201cupgrade your brain\u201d and give you new perspectives. (Image Source: iStock.)\n\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n          <nav aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\" class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n        <ul>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\">News<\/a><\/li>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\/?category=faculty\">Faculty<\/a><\/li>\n                  <\/ul>\n      <\/nav>\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>5 books that could improve your life in the new year<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Ring in the New Year with these USC Dornsife scholar-recommended reads that promise a little self-transformation. <strong>[4\u00bd min read]<\/strong>\n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:communication@dornsife.usc.edu\">Margaret Crable<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">December 17, 2021<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      <\/span>\n                        <a class=\"a2a_button_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/#copy_link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Link\">\n            <span class=\"a2a_svg a2a_s__default a2a_s_copy_link\">\n              <svg height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 19 19\" width=\"19\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m7.43475275 9.52380952-2.17490843 2.26076008c-1.08745421 1.058837-1.68841575 2.518315-1.68841575 4.0350275 0 1.5167124.60096154 2.9475732 1.68841575 4.0350274 1.058837 1.0874543 2.51831502 1.6884158 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xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m8.14285714 9.42857143c-.17142857 0-.34285714 0-.51428571.08571428l7.28571427 6.34285719c.3428572.2571428.6857143.2571428.9428572 0l7.2857142-6.34285719c-.0857142-.08571428-.2571428-.08571428-.4285714-.08571428zm-1.28571428 1.11428567v.1714286 8.5714286c0 .6857143.6 1.2857143 1.28571428 1.2857143h14.57142856c.6857143 0 1.2857143-.6 1.2857143-1.2857143v-8.5714286c0-.0857143 0-.0857143 0-.1714286l-7.2 6.3428572c-.7714286.6857143-1.8857143.6857143-2.6571429 0z\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\" transform=\"translate(-6 -9)\"\/><\/svg>\n            <\/span>\n            <span class=\"a2a_label visually-hidden\">Email<\/span>\n          <\/a>\n                  <\/span>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n \n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p>You could start the New Year by swearing off alcohol, tying on running shoes and vowing to eat more vegetables. Or, you could begin by picking up a book.<\/p>\n<p>Scholars from across the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences provide five reading recommendations that could help you \u201cupgrade\u201d your brain, rethink the natural world and become a bit more grateful for what you already have \u2014 no running shoes required.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife-center-for-political-future.usc.edu\/staff\/kambiz-kamy-akhavan\/\">Kamy Akhavan<\/a><\/strong>, executive director of the USC Dornsife <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife-center-for-political-future.usc.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Center for the Political Future<\/a>. Akhavan manages all center operations and teaches classes on people skills and launching nonprofits for USC Dornsife.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/us.macmillan.com\/books\/9780374533557\/thinkingfastandslow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Thinking Fast and Slow<\/i><\/a> (Macmillan, 2011) by Daniel Kahneman<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"float: right; border: 1px solid black; margin: 5px;\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/migration-uploads\/cover-fastslow-150-3608.jpg\" alt=\"White book cover shows a swirling pencil mark leading to the sharpened lead end of a short, chewed, yellow pencil with the title \u201cThinking, Fast and Slow\u201d above it.\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cEscaping the confirmation bias and motivated reasoning that traps us inside our own mental hamster wheels is a real challenge. There\u2019s help. Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman\u2019s book meticulously explores unconscious cognitive bias and concludes: Your brain wants to think fast, but you should try to think slow.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHere\u2019s an example of how that book helped me. I used to own an iPhone 5. Soon that phone was limping behind its more advanced counterparts, so I got an upgrade. Upgrades are a constant part of owning a phone. Thanks to Kahneman, I now think about opinions in the same way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUpgrading my views on issues is a constant part of my growing as a person. Even when my views are indeed half baked, I can slow my thinking, ask tough questions, and relish in the growth from learning vs. fearing the shame of being wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/spatial.usc.edu\/team-view\/jennifer-m-bernstein\/\"><strong>Jennifer Bernstein<\/strong>,<\/a> lecturer of <a href=\"https:\/\/spatial.usc.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">spatial sciences<\/a>. Bernstein researches American environmentalism, environmental history, online teaching and learning, and California geography.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/621092\/natural-by-alan-levinovitz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Natural: How Faith in Nature\u2019s Goodness Leads to Harmful Fads, Unjust Laws, and Flawed Science<\/i><\/a> (Beacon Press, 2020) by Alan Levinovitz<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"float: right; border: 1px solid black; margin: 5px;\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/migration-uploads\/cover-natural-150-3608.jpg\" alt=\"White book cover shows an apple covered in and sitting in a pool of red paint with the title \u201cNatural\u201d overlaid.\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe concept of \u201cthe natural\u201d serves as a beacon to many of us. In theory, what is natural must be inherently good, pure and right. But using the natural as a mental shortcut has a darker side. \u201cWhat about the health implications when medicine that has gone through multiple clinical trials and is eschewed in favor of untested \u201cnatural\u201d solutions? What about women who have turned to in vitro fertilization when \u201cnatural approaches\u201d haven\u2019t worked?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn this engaging and readable book, Levinovitz takes to case the idea that \u201cnatural\u201d is inherently superior. At the end, the reader comes away with a more nuanced understanding of how to abandon the romanticization of the natural while not letting go of nature, and how to embrace the messiness of our hybrid world by prioritizing what is not necessarily natural, but rather morally right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/3369\/welshman-in-los-angeles\/\"><strong>Fr. Dorian Llywelyn,<\/strong><\/a> president of the <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/iacs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies.<\/a> Llywelyn is the author of two books and has published articles in multiple academic journals. His academic interests include nationalism and religion, popular religiosity and Mariology, the theological study of the Virgin Mary.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paulistpress.com\/Products\/2628-1\/gratefulness-the-heart-of-prayer.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Gratefulness: The Heart of Prayer<\/i><\/a><i> <\/i>(Paulist Press, 1984) by David Steindl-Rast<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"float: right; border: 1px solid black; margin: 5px;\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/migration-uploads\/cover-gratefulness-150-3608.jpg\" alt=\"White book cover shows a white calla lily with the title \u201cGratefulness, the Heart of Prayer\u201d overlaid.\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany years ago, I bought Brother David Steindl-Rast\u2019s <i>Gratefulness, <\/i>but it lay unread on my bookshelf for a couple of years. I started reading it in the midst of the intensity of grad school \u2014 although admittedly at first with a certain amount of skepticism. Since my purchase, \u2018gratitude\u2019 had become a buzzword, generating successful commercial enterprises on TV and in the press.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<i>Gratefulness<\/i> in fact helped me tremendously at that point, and it remains one of the books I have greatest affection for. Brother David has the gift of expressing more things with fewer words. He writes profoundly and simply (though never simplistically) and gets directly to what really matters and why, in life as well as in prayer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a Benedictine monk, he points out that when gratitude turns into prayer, it includes giving thanks to the giver as well as for the gift.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/cf\/faculty-and-staff\/faculty.cfm?pid=1080707\"><strong>Maya Maskarinec<\/strong>,<\/a> assistant professor of <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/hist\/\">history<\/a>. Maskarinec is a historian of late antique and early medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, with an emphasis on the city of Rome.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tupress.org\/9781595341877\/unchopping-a-tree\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Unchopping a Tree<\/i><\/a> (Trinity University Press, 2014) by W. S. Merwin, illustrated by Liz Ward<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"float: right; border: 1px solid black; margin: 5px;\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/migration-uploads\/cover-unchoptree-150-3608.jpg\" alt=\"A light green book cover with a lightly illustrated stylistic depiction of thin trees and a green vertical bar of color to the left and the title \u201cUnchopping a Tree.\u201d\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cW. S. Merwin\u2019s prose poem steps us through the arduous, and impossible, task of reconstructing a tree. \u201cWith spider\u2019s webs you must simply do the best you can,\u201d he advises. It is a short book with beautiful illustrations that makes us pause and reminds us to dream.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith irresistible detail, Merwin takes us through the imaginary task, its difficulties and its possibilities. Reconstructing a tree after its destruction may not turn out to be possible, nor the past after the ravages that time has wrought, but if that is the only way to open us, it may well be worth the effort anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/crcc.usc.edu\/people\/najuma-smith\/\"><strong>Najuma Smith-Pollard<\/strong><\/a>, assistant director of community and public engagement at the <a href=\"https:\/\/crcc.usc.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">USC Dornsife Center for Religion Civic Culture<\/a>. Smith-Pollard is a pastor, motivational speaker, author, life coach, radio personality and community activist.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bkconnection.com\/books\/title\/the-body-is-not-an-apology-2nd-edition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>The Body is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love<\/i><\/a> (Berrett Koehler Publishers, 2021) by Sonya Renee Taylor<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"float: right; border: 1px solid black; margin: 5px;\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/migration-uploads\/cover-body-apology-150-3608.jpg\" alt=\"Book cover shows a semi-nude black woman with a corona of bright orange hair lying back on colorful butterfly wings with teh title \u201cThe Body Is Not an Apology\u201d in a gray bar across her mid-section.\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo fully understand the outcry of millions of people who fight against anti-Blackness, one must take time to understand how marginalized people have been marred by the complex views of bodies and body differences.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSonya Renee Taylor breaks down the need for radical self-love to combat issues of racism, anti-Blackness, anti-LGBTQI violence and so much more. You will walk away with a renewed sense of the need to radically love yourself and to better love others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n  \n        \n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-related-stories \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-related-stories\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n    \n                  <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/if-using-chatgpt-is-cheating-what-about-ghostwriting\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >If using ChatGPT is cheating, what about ghostwriting? The old debate behind a new\u00a0panic<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/percival-everett-wins-2025-pulitzer-prize-for-james\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >USC Dornsife\u2019s Percival Everett Wins 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/reading-can-help-overcome-loneliness-and-make-connections\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >What\u2019s in a book? Often, a good friend<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n            <\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ring in the New Year with these USC Dornsife scholar-recommended reads that promise a little self-transformation. <strong>[4\u00bd min read]<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":1159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,10],"tags":[55,103],"class_list":["post-1156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-faculty","tag-books","tag-holidays"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>5 books that could improve your life in the new year<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ring in the New Year with these USC Dornsife scholar-recommended reads that promise a little self-transformation. [4\u00bd min read]\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/five-books-improve-your-life-2022\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 books that could improve your life in the new year\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ring in the New Year with these USC Dornsife scholar-recommended reads that promise a little self-transformation. 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