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I have a confession to make: I have a minor addiction to what might be described as new school self-help books. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying? Yep, my apartment has been Kondo'd many times over. The Happiness Project? Before it was a podcast, it was a book that I turned to whenever I felt like my life was veering off course and needed a little redirection.
And then there's Tiny Beautiful Things, a collection of advice columns by Wild author Cheryl Strayed that has basically been my bible for how to be a better person — and also give myself a break for not being perfect. (We're all just human, right?)
So what do all these books have in common, apart from the fact that they're my go-to gifts for friends during the holidays? Though they vary in subject, these titles are all inspirational reads that might just help get you over the hump when you need a little push. Getting your read on never felt so good.
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Letters to a Young Poet
By Ranier Maria Rilke
The German poet Ranier Maria Rilke wrote a series of 10 letters to a 19-year-old cadet, who sought the poet's advice on his own literary career. In the letters, Rilke explores the ingredients for a good, authentic life. You'll balloon with inspiration by page two.
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Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe
By Yumi Sakugawa
This exquisite graphic novel draws you into the world of metaphysics, mindfulness, and mediation. A book for people who want to be one with life, the universe, and everything, this is "self help" at its hippest.
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How Should a Person Be?
By Sheila Heti
Heti invents a new genre in this part confessional memoir, part self-help manual, part novel about a playwright left reeling after a failed marriage.
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The Geography of Bliss
By Eric Weiner
We distinguish between countries with metrics like GDP, but how about measures of happiness? NPR foreign correspondent Eric Weiner sets off on a round-the-world journey in quest of the happiest country on earth. While jumping from Iceland to India to Bhutan, Weiner offers insights on foreign affairs, the psychology of happiness, and some suggestions for how you, too, can be as happy as the people of Asheville, North Carolna.
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Lincoln in the Bardo
By George Saunders
In this revolutionary work of fiction, Saunders channels hundreds of narrators to create a pastiche narrative around one seminal moment in American history: the death of Abraham Lincoln's son. The characters, both dead and undead, piece together a portrait of Lincoln at his lowest. But really, this isn't just a book about Abraham Lincoln. With his clear belief in the goodness of people, George Saunders has written a book on how to live a good life despite the inevitability of loss.
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The Life of Pi
By Yann Martel
When Pi is 16 years old, he, his family, and their entire batch of zoo animals board a boat that will take them from India to North America. The ship sinks, and Pi is the sole survivor. Well, let's revise. Pi finds himself sharing a lifeboat with a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a massive Bengal Tiger. In long, surreal, sparkling passages, Martel describes Pi's fight for survival and sanity over his 227-day journey.
Courtesy of Mariner BooksClik here to view.
Wild
By Cheryl Strayed
It's time to indoctrinate yourself into the Cheryl Strayed fan club. At the age of 22, Cheryl Strayed's life was at a low point: she'd just lost her mother, was getting divorced, and was hooked on heroine. Four years later, she decided to reboot her life with a solitary trek up the Pacific Crest Trail, stretching from the Mojave Desert to Washington State. You don't have to take the hike to be bettered by the wisdom Strayed picked up along the way.
Courtesy of Alfred A. KnopfClik here to view.
Men Explain Things to Me
By Rebecca Solnit
If you've ever used the term "mansplaining" to explain the phenomenon of a man pedantically to a woman, you have Rebecca Solnit's tiny tome to thank. In this collection of essays, Solnit explores a variety of issues extremely relevant to today's woman. While reading, you're likely to experience a whirlwind of empowerment, anger, and, most importantly, the inspiration to make a change in the way you walk through the world.
Courtesy of Haymarket BooksClik here to view.
The Alchemist
By Paulo Coelho
A young Andalusian shepherd leaves his home to find worldly pleasures. Aside from the Andalusian shepherd bit, sounds a lot like the rest of us, right? Written in simple and beautiful language, Paolo Coehlo’s poetic allegory will inspire you to follow your heart. The Alchemist is the second best selling book in the world, so you’ll be inducted into a large community of people equally touched by Santiago’s dreamquest.
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The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
By Marie Kondo
Should you keep things that give you no joy? That's the revolutionary question behind Kondo's sensational approach to life organization. And if it only inspires you to clean out that junky desk drawer to make room for your art supplies ... Well, isn't that enough?
Photo: Ten Speed Press.Clik here to view.
Bad Feminist
By Roxane Gay
It's tough times, ladies — but luckily, we've got a roadmap for how to get through them, courtesy of our favorite "bad feminist." This collection traverses personal memories and political ideologies, all while interrogating the concept of a "good" feminist.
No matter where you fall on the feminism spectrum though, one thing is for sure: Gay's book will give you some serious food for thought.
Photo: Courtesy of Harper Perennial.Clik here to view.
Travels with Myself and Another
by Martha Gellhorn
If you haven't taken the deep dive into Martha Gellhorn obsession, now's the time to get acquainted. The renowned journalist spent much of her life traveling and trying to make sense of the horrors of the world. To boot, she's just really fucking funny. (It's just not fair, you know?) In her memoir, Travels with Myself and Another, Gellhorn trains her keen wit on her own experiences, reflecting on what she's witnessed.
"Nothing is better for self-esteem than survival," she writes in the opening sentences.
Read this if you're looking to travel, to survive, to live, and to be a person.
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The Empathy Exams
by Leslie Jamison
Jamison's series of essay is exactly what it purports to be: an examination of empathy. The first essay catalogues Jamison's experience as a practice medical patient. (As in, she pretended to be a patient for medical students.) What emerges is a deep rumination on how we cultivate empathy in our lives and how — most importantly — we can be empathetic towards ourselves.
Photo: Courtesy of Graywolf Press.Clik here to view.
Bird By Bird
by Anne Lamott
Lamott's 1994 book on writing gives advice that applies to your writerly life — and literally everything else. The book derives its title from her father's advice re: a book report on birds.
"Just take it bird by bird." Want to write? Take it bird by bird. Sentence by sentence. Want to become a morning person? Take it day by day. Lamott's elegantly worded advice — she is a writer, after all — speaks to the quiet dedication life requires if you want to accomplish anything at all. She believes the act of writing (and the act of trying to write) more important than publication or reward. She encourages crappy writing and failed attempts. Read the book, page by page, and savor its kindly encouraging advice.
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Not That Kind Of Girl
By Lena Dunham
Yep, we're counting this one as inspirational. Dunham is one of our favorite (literal) lady bosses; she accomplished a lot during the wild twentysomething years, and she definitely has wisdom to deliver, with wit to boot.
Photo: Courtesy of Random House.Clik here to view.
How To Be A Person In The World
By Heather Havrilesky
Do you read Dear Polly? If you do, then you already know why this book is the best. If you don't, you're majorly missing out, for reasons that we explained in great detail right her e.
Photo: Courtesy of Doubleday.Clik here to view.
The Year of Magical Thinking
By Joan Didion
When Joan Didion's husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, passed away, she was left to cope with the hole in her life, and in her heart. But this memoir is more elegy than eulogy, as well as a beautiful portrait of how one woman grieves her great loss.
Photo: Courtesy of Vintage Books.Clik here to view.
When Breath Becomes Air
By Paul Kalanithi
Paul Kanthani was a successful doctor in the prime of his life when he learned he had terminal cancer; but in addition to being a brilliant medical mind, he was also a beautiful writer and observer of the human condition.
Compiled from his papers and finished by his wife after Kalanithi's passing, When Breath Becomes Air is an at once heartbreaking and hope-giving book about what it means to truly appreciate life and the little moments that make up our days.
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The Happiness Project
By Gretchen Rubin
Another (slightly) oldie but still goodie: Gretchen Rubin shakes out the cobwebs of her life and figures out how to channel her days toward happiness in a larger sense. If you're feeling blue, this is a practical how-to for shaking things up.
Photo: Courtesy of Harper Collins.Clik here to view.
The Five People You Meet In Heaven
By Mitch Albom
An oldie and a goodie, this book is a work of fiction that functions as a parable for appreciating the time we spend here on this pretty little planet.
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Big Magic
By Elizabeth Gilbert
Even if you sort of think Eat, Pray, Love is insufferable, Big Magic is, well, actually magical. Smart and insightful, and full of that Elizabeth Gilbert charm, Big Magic is the author fully embracing her accidental guru side — and if you're someone who is still working on unleashing their creative potential (aren't we all) then this book, and the podcast of the same name, could be the answer.
Photo: Courtesy of Riverhead Books.Clik here to view.
Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice On Love & Life From Dear Sugar
By Cheryl Strayed
Lifted directly from Strayed's long-running column at The Rumpus, Dear Sugar is a compilations of personal essays meant to answer the readers who wrote in with their heartaches, heartbreaks, and questions about how to deal with the curveballs life throws our way.
But while she's speaking to specific people, Strayed's writing is wonderfully universal, and her wisdom is at once deeply contextualizing and comforting. A perfect pick-me-up that will make you cry and also want to dry your tears.
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The Year Of Yes
By Shonda Rhimes
Um, what advice wouldn't we take from the powerhouse of network TV? Rhimes is basically a genius in our book — and in her book, she proves that by giving badass and totally applicable advice about how to silence self-doubt and channel the person you are truly meant to be. There is a reason that this one is a bestseller many-times over, and you'll find it in the pages.
Photo: Courtesy of Simon & Schuster.Clik here to view.
Books for Living
by Will Schwalbe
When looking to better your life through books, where better to start than a book on the best literature for living your life? Will Schwalbe, a journalist and avid reader, will give you all the pull quotes you need from the various authors that have inspired Schwalbe. The veteran writer and editor uses Melville's Bartleby of "the scrivener" to justify your impulse to give up. (Truth be told, giving up can be one of the healthiest things you do for your well being.) Best yet, Schwalbe encourages you to cancel plans and spend a night at home — the type of advice everyone needs to hear on a Saturday night.
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The Opposite Of Loneliness
By Marina Keegan
Elie Wiesel once said that the opposite of love isn't hate: It's indifference. The opposite of loneliness is equally opaque — but it's what this smart, thoughtful collection gets at.
Another layer: Keegan was newly graduate from Yale and starting a job at The New Yorker when she died tragically in a car crash; her hope for the future makes this collection all the more moving, a reminder that life is precious and should be lived to its fullest.
Photo: Photo Courtesy of Scribner.Clik here to view.
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