It’s the holiday season and I wanted to share some of my favorite things (mostly books). If you love stories or you love someone who loves stories. This list will help you find something that they will really love.

Cassandra Speaks: When Women Are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes by Elizabeth Lessor

Cassandra Speaks is about the stories we tell and how those stories become the culture. It’s about the stories we still blindly cling to, and the ones that cling to us: the origin tales, the guiding myths, the religious parables, the literature and films and fairy tales passed down through the centuries about women and men, power and war, sex and love, and the values we live by. Stories written mostly by men with lessons and laws for all of humanity. We have outgrown so many of them, and still, they endure. This book is about what happens when women are the storytellers too.

Out on the Wire: The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio by Jessica Abel

This is a graphic novel by Jessica Abell that shows us visually how Ira Glass and his team at This American Life gather and edit their stories. The book is a lot of fun, not to mention super informative for those of us who edit interviews. I learned a lot about how This American Life edits and the various way to apply story structure.

Power Your Podcast with Storytelling: A Creative Live Course with Alex Blumberg

I took this course a couple of years ago. And I revisit it almost every year. Even if you don’t have a podcast, it’s an amazing resource on how to interview other people and gather their stories. It is one of my favorite resources and I think anyone who tells stories would benefit from it.

Building A StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller

While this great for storytellers, it pretty much works for anyone who sells a business or product. The fastest way we can get people to connect with us is through a story and this book simplifies telling your story through your website. FIY, Donald is selling a bigger, more expensive course with this book which I didn’t take but I still got a lot out of the book all by itself.

My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem

2020 has been a year that revealed a lot about the American people and racism and I can’t help but think that telling our stories in honest, compassionate ways may be one of the most empowering ways to heal trauma. Resmaa paves the way for a new, body-centered understanding of white supremacy—how it is literally in our blood and our nervous system. And he offers a step-by-step healing process based on the latest neuroscience and somatic healing methods, in addition to incisive social commentary. In this book, he talks about trauma in white bodies, in black bodies, and in police bodies. I learned a lot about myself through the process. And I recommend this book for storytellers because as we gather stories we sometimes run into trauma and it’s important to recognize it in ourselves and in others so that we can help space in the storytelling process.

If you have any favorite storytelling books, training, or products. I’d love to hear about them! Drop me a comment below or send me an email at crystaline@crystalinerandazzo.com. I love learning from you! I hope you have a wonderful holiday season.

Holiday Gifts for Your Favorite Storyteller