Self-Help Books
Self-Help Books describes a diverse selection of titles that focus on self-discovery and self-improvement. The self-help genre is characterized by literature that shares research and advice to promote self-understanding and prompt changes in one's outlook or behavior, thus improving one's quality of life. The Self-Help Collection features texts that discuss topics ranging from business and personal finance to interpersonal relationships, mental health, and sexuality.
12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (2018) is Jordan B. Peterson’s second book. Peterson’s self-help book seeks to provide practical and virtuous rules to live by for a wide audience and general readership. The book streamlines, simplifies, and reimagines some of the more traditionally academic topics of Peterson’s first book, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief. Each non-fiction work aims to explain human history and human nature according to universal frameworks. 12... Read 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos Summary
21 Lessons for the 21st Century (2018) is historian, philosopher, and acclaimed author Yuval Noah Harari’s in-depth look at the current global affairs and the immediate future of humankind. To Harari, the merging of biotechnology and artificial intelligence potentially represents the end of history with some humans becoming godlike. Despite the ramification of this situation on all of humanity, most people are distracted by irrelevant information and do not realize the debate that is occurring... Read 21 Lessons for the 21st Century Summary
In his compilation of essays, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, Robert Fulghum studies the simplicity embedded in everyday experiences. First published in 1989, this collection captivated a global audience, becoming a cultural touchstone as a #1 New York Times bestseller and selling over 7 million copies. Fulghum draws from his life experiences to craft this collection of essays. This collection, which falls within the self-help, motivational, and personal transformation genres... Read All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten Summary
Elbert Hubbard’s essay “A Message to Garcia” tells of the heroic journey of an Army soldier who must deliver a letter to a freedom fighter, and of the need for a similar spirit of determination in the workplace. The work first appeared as a magazine article in 1899 and became a pamphlet and book that reached millions of readers. “Carry a message to Garcia” (3) was a commonly used phrase in America during the first... Read A Message to Garcia Summary
A New Earth: Create a Better Life by Eckart Tolle was originally published in 2005 with the title A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. The book followed in the wake of Tolle’s seminal 1997 work The Power of Now, which discusses the potential inherent in the present moment and suggests that the destructive voice in our heads, which causes us to be constantly dissatisfied and compare ourselves to others, is the ego and... Read A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose Summary
A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity is a nonfiction book published in 2014 by the husband-and-wife team of Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. The book speaks to altruism and how people can do something to promote more opportunities for others around the world. The authors declare, “We wrote this book mostly to encourage others—rich and poor alike—to join in this push to improve the world” (16). They promote three ways of doing so:... Read A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity Summary
James Clear’s Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones is a guide to adopting good behaviors through incremental changes to your everyday routines. Avery first published the book in 2018, and this guide refers to the ebook edition. The book has unique pagination, with the page numbers beginning again at the start of each new chapter. Clear likely numbered his book this way because of his emphasis... Read Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones Summary
Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) was first published in 1946 and has since become a much-loved and admired book around the world. It is regarded as one of the classics of 20th-century spiritual literature. In 1999, it was named by a HarperCollins panel of authors and scholars as one of the “100 Best Spiritual Books of the Century.” In the book, Yogananda tells the story of his life, beginning with his childhood... Read Autobiography of a Yogi Summary
Daniel H. Pink’s A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, released in 2005, considers and challenges society’s history of valuing left-brained attributes over creative and empathic right-brained thinkers. Pink, an author of several books on business and human behavior, argues that the age of left-brain supremacy is over, making way for whole-minded thinkers who will define and thrive within the coming Conceptual Age. Pink offers six essential whole-minded aptitudes that are key... Read A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future Summary
Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error (2010) is a nonfiction book written by Kathryn Schulz, a journalist who has written for publications such as the New York Times Magazine, the Nation, and the Boston Globe. The book explores the nature of error from a psychological, philosophical, and personal point of view, drawing from philosophical thought, psychology studies, and personal anecdotes. Some themes of the book include the fallibility of the human mind, the... Read Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error Summary
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear (2015) is a self-help guide by author and journalist Elizabeth Gilbert. This New York Times bestseller outlines six elements of creativity: courage, permission, enchantment, persistence, trust, and divinity. Gilbert uses anecdotes from her life and writing career, as well as the work of others, to explain these concepts, and presents her views and philosophical musings about creativity and inspiration. The work explores themes such as The Importance of Play... Read Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear Summary
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott was originally published in 1994. Many of Lamott’s books have been on the New York Times bestsellers list, which qualifies her to offer advice about how to write. She also taught at writing conferences and at UC Davis, received a Guggenheim Fellowship, and was inducted into the California Hall of Fame. Bird by Bird is a combination of memoir, self-help book, and writing... Read Bird by Bird Summary
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell's 2005 New York Times bestseller, describes how snap judgments, first impressions, and intuitions can be more useful than painstaking rational thought.Blink contains three central ideas: “fast and frugal" thinking is a natural attribute of the human mind and often works better than slow-and-careful reasoning; this ability can be distorted or misled; and fast cognition can be trained and improved. The book’s six chapters provide examples from... Read Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking Summary
Published in 2017, Brené Brown’s Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone presents insights and strategies for finding what Brown refers to as true belonging in a time of increasing cultural polarization in America. Based on Brown’s grounded theory research, true belonging is a practice that involves believing in and belonging to oneself so fully that one can share one’s innermost, authentic self with the rest of the... Read Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone Summary
Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, by James Nestor, is a comprehensive treatise on breathing. It combines a journalistic approach with studies in anthropology, biochemistry, human physiology, psychology, and pulmonology to unpack the different techniques of inhaling and exhaling throughout human history and in different societies. With its first publication in 2020, Breath was a bestseller in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, and Sunday London Times and will... Read Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art Summary
Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work, written by Dave Isay with Maya Millett and published in 2016, is a collection of brief, first-person narratives about the value and meaning of work. These stories were collected through the oral history project of StoryCorps, a nonprofit organization that records, archives, and shares stories of life in America. StoryCorps and its founder and president, Dave Isay, have received many grants and awards for the organization’s work, including... Read Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work Summary
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When the Stakes Are High (2002) was written by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Al Switzler, and Ron McMillan. It has become a cornerstone of the field of interpersonal communication and self-improvement, offering insights into the dynamics that govern our most vital conversations. Both Kerry Patterson and Joseph Grenny are leading authorities on organizational change and have advised some of the world’s largest organizations. Al Switzler is a renowned speaker and... Read Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High Summary
Brené Brown’s Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead (2012) is a self-help book that argues people need to embrace vulnerability and live courageously. Rooted in 12 years of ground-breaking research, the book shows that vulnerability is not a weakness but instead it is a measure of courage and the key to a fulfilling life. Daring Greatly is a New York Times best seller and... Read Daring Greatly Summary
Malcolm Gladwell’s 2013 book David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants is an investigation of the relationship—often distorted, in Gladwell’s view—between underdogs and giants. Taken from the Biblical account of David and Goliath, underdogs are cast as those battling (and overcoming) seemingly overwhelming odds, and giants are their adversaries. David and Goliath was a bestseller, but some critics and scholars found Gladwell’s conclusions unsatisfying and the stories he draws from unsubstantiated... Read David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants Summary
