James Stanier's 3 favorite reads in 2023

I had been wanting to begin exploring historically and spiritually important texts, and I was drawn to this example-driven, practitioner-led exploration of the Bhagavad Gita by Stephen Cope. It highlights the key themes of the Gita and then uses examples from the life stories of real people — both famous and not famous — to expand on the core messages.

Stephen Cope is a careful, considerate, and nuanced writer who brings a text to life in a way that other authors could have produced yet another popular spirituality book.

His deep knowledge of the reference text, plus sibling texts from the Hindu canon, shines in the simple, clear, and concise message that the book delivers. In fact, I loved this so much that I went and read the Gita itself after this: it was a fantastic cornerstone to my understanding of it.

However, regardless of whether you want to explore the original text, this book stands alone as a guide to living a better and more fulfilling life through service to others.

Whilst spending some time reading classic texts, I was drawn towards this more contemporary — and slightly oddball — view of the world.

I mean, is Jed McKenna actually a real person? Does anyone know? Either way, if you want to flip your universe upside-down and read a highly opinionated and characterful depiction of what the meaning of life actually is, then look no further than this book.

Whilst some people feel that the author’s style is narcissistic and divisive, I didn’t take it so seriously — I just found it funny. Fundamentally, it’s solipsism wrapped in a humorous narrative: how can we be sure that anything actually exists at all apart from ourselves?

Sometimes, when you’re having a bad day, and everything feels like it’s unraveling, perspective can be found in a different worldview. You’re likely to find one in this book.

Time is fundamentally very strange. Not just from our relationship with it through memory and predictions of the future but also as a studied notion in physics, from the theory of relativity to quantum mechanics and beyond.

Although the material could easily fill a tome that could be a huge turn-off to the layperson, Carlo Rovelli manages to weave art, philosophy, and poetry into an exploration of time over a short 182 pages that makes it a compelling and beautiful read. What is time? How do we experience it? What is a world without it? What is its relationship to physics, mathematics, and ourselves?

It’s a fascinatingly deep and poetic exploration that will make you want to start over again once you’ve finished it. In fact, I think I’m going to read it again soon.