When I was a kid, the governor of Oregon was a guy named Tom McCall who famously said:

"We want you to visit our State of Excitement often. Come again and again. But for heaven's sake, don't move here to live. Or if you do have to move in to live, don't tell any of your neighbors where you are going."

Years ago I was gifted a biography of him called "Fire at Eden's Gate: The Tom McCall Story" and introduced another quote of his that I try to take to heart every day.

"Heroes are not giant statues framed against a red sky, they are people who say 'This is my community and it's my responsibility to make it better.'"

Mistborn. Wouldn't say it changed my life but it really put into words how I feel about religion so I could better communicate it to others. Don't want to spoil anything for anyone but I personally thought the story wrapped up well.

Professionally it was Radical Candor by Kim Scott. I was a struggling new manager from an individual contributor role and it really helped me develop a mindset and ability to set expectations but at the same time assist with their growth.

I read Dragonlance Chronicles when I was in my early teens. It resonated with me as earlier books hadn't. It made me feel all sorts of feelings from a book for the first time.

The first books that touched me.

Jack Forbes 'Columbus and other cannibals' . It made me realize that what I used to call civilization was too often the opposite. I learned (remembered) that groups of people and philosophies exist outside of the Western(or 'modern') line of thought who are by default silenced or drowned against the mainstream, but who we should probably listen to - considering we are walking towards growing ecological disaster. Forbes' book and then 'Braiding Sweetgrass' (cause you can't always be angry) made the world make sense again.