New Releases in Lifestyle Books: Winter 2023

A culinary adventure and celebration of African cooking and cultural diversity, from a pioneering West African food writer, television personality, and cooking teacher.

Food writer and cook Lerato Umah-Shaylor’s magnificent cookbook is a delicious eating tour of the African continent, introducing vibrant and varied cuisines that are rich in flavor, diverse in culture, and steeped in tradition.

Lerato adds her own modern twist and inventive style to traditional African dishes that have been passed down and enjoyed for generations, and combines these recipes with personal stories of Africa infused with her delectable sense of adventure.

With Africana, home cooks can learn how to create some of the most iconic African dishes, from Nigeria to Madagascar and Morocco to South Africa. Here are more than 100 recipes to delight and inspire, such as Spice Island Coconut Fish Curry, Harissa Leg of Lamb with Hibiscus, Senegalese Yassa, Tunisian Tagine, South African Malva Pudding, and the secret to the perfect Jollof.

A feast for the senses, bursting with flavor, and offering a sense of wanderlust, Africana will bring the magic of the continent to any kitchen.

Cook, bake, and decorate your way down the rainbow path to Candy Castle with Candy Land: The Official Cookbook. Kids can create delicious candies, drinks, baked goods, and even breakfast foods inspired by the sweet world of Candy Land with recipes ranging from cookie “lollipops,” to rice crispy treats, s’mores, pancakes, and more! 

Featuring enticing full-color photography, step-by-step instructions, color-coded chapters for easy readability, and a sweet and simple introductory guide to cooking and baking, Candy Land: The Official Cookbook will delight kids as they create their own sugary works of art to eat, serve, share and display.

50 SWEET RECIPES: Dozens of recipes for sweet treats from after school snacks to celebration desserts inspired by Candy Land 

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS: Easy to follow directions and an introductory guide to cooking make it easy for even the youngest chefs to make delicious treats

INSPIRING IMAGES: Full-color photos help ensure success

MASTER KITCHEN SKILLS: Kids can learn and practice measuring, rolling, frosting, and decorating

DECORATING TIPS: Includes decorating tips to create Gumdrop Mountains, Lollipop Lane, Peppermint Forest, and other beloved scenes from Candy Land

NEW LOOK FOR FAVORITE GAME: Features a new and diverse collection of Candy Land characters

Desi Kitchen is a unique culinary roadmap to the diaspora of the Indian subcontinent in Britain today, with chapters covering regions from all over the UK and the desi communities that call each one home. Travelling from the Pakistani community of Glasgow to the Nepalese community of Kent and everywhere in between, the book explores how communities from different regions have blended their food and culture to create a cuisine that is distinct, special and diverse. From a Whole Roast Tandoori Chicken Dinner to Onion Bhaji Scotch Eggs and a Neeps and Tatties Keema Pie, these recipes are an exploration and celebration of the desi cuisines that make up modern Britain.

– Cook Gujarati Hasselback Potato Shaak for an alternative take on a side dish

– Make a Ugandan Chapatti Rolex for a great way to use leftover curry

– Sticky and Spicy Mango Chicken Wings are quick and easy to make and finger licking good

– Try Welsh Chilli Rarebit with curry oil and crispy shallots

– Dive into Peshawari Bread and Butter Pudding with honeyed figs

Packed with recipes, stories and authentic voices from each of the communities covered, Sarah Woods, finalist of BBC One’s Britain’s Best Home Cook and herself a second-generation Punjabi, has brought together this collection of dishes and provided a rare and privileged glimpse into desi kitchens from all over modern Britain.

A joyous cookbook full of gratitude, positivity, and 80+ Southern-inspired comfort food recipes from the culinary sweetheart and blogger behind Grandbaby Cakes.

Jocelyn Delk Adams believes every day deserves to be celebrated, from seemingly mundane weekdays to exuberant weekends and holidays. Her approachable take on comfort food features Southern-steeped recipes that are jazzed-up, remixed classics, all sprinkled with the vibrant, colorful personality she’s best known for.

Each flavor-packed recipe suggests a reason to celebrate, a reminder that events big and small can have a moment of culinary gratitude. Try the Georgia Peach Salad with Candied Pecans and Cornbread Croutons on that perfect summer day or the Mojito-Marinated Skirt Steak with Chimichurri for a backyard date night (BYO blanket and bubbly). Or enjoy a Southern Sunday supper of spicy Hot Sauce Chipotle-Fried Chicken and whip up the Turkey and Mustard Greens Enchiladas to deliver to your bestie “just because.” Don’t forget gooey Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies for a really good hair day (because yes, you deserve to celebrate this!).

Everyday Grand shows readers how to cultivate their inner joy through affirmations, thankfulness, and most important, ridiculously good food.

Fake Meat is packed with 125 recipes that will satisfy every kind of meat craving, from a vegan Philly cheesesteak and a basket of wings to a rich, gooey lasagna. 

n Indian Flavor Every Day, Indian cooking authority Maya Kaimal proves it’s possible to experience the joy of this cuisine with minimal time and a handful of special ingredients like ghee and dried chilis. She distills essential flavor-building methods, like creating spice blends and tempering whole seeds in oil to release their essence, and applies these techniques to accessible, flexible main ingredients any home cook has on hand. With many vegetarian, gluten-free, and wholesome, hearty offerings, Indian Flavor Every Day includes both simplified classic dishes and new twists. Recipes like Golden Noodles with Tarka Crunch, Roasted Asparagus with Tamarind and Crispy Shallots, Potato Bonda Burgers, and deeply flavorful Chettinad Chicken with Black Pepper Coconut Masala are designed to build your confidence and spark inspiration, so incredible new flavors can become an everyday pleasure. 

Embrace the simple tips in this book, purchase a few ingredients for your pantry, and Maya promises you will soon have a comfort level with Indian food you didn’t know was possible.

If you’re a fan of Korean dramas, or simply a fan of Korean food, then this book is for you! Here you’ll find 61 delicious recipes for classic Korean dishes, including those you may have seen on your favorite K-Drama shows; including:

Make the Buchimgae Pancakes featured in Episode 3 of Crash Landing on You, when a group of nosy neighbors use a gift of pancakes as an excuse to inspect Jeonghyeok’s new fianceMake the Spicy Noodles in Black Bean Sauce that Jun-wan and Ik-sun enjoy on their date in Episode 7 of Hospital PlaylistMake the Spicy Braised Tofu that Hye-jin stuffs into Ha-nee’s mouth in Episode 3 of Was It Love to make him stop talking

In addition to the easy-to-make, fully illustrated recipes for main and side dishes, you’ll also find recipes for Korean cocktails and tasty snacks to enjoy while you’re watching TV!

On the Curry Trail is an enlightening journey across Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas to explore the origins of curry and the signature, essential curries of each region. This diaspora of curry brings alive not only the most iconic, category-defining recipes from these continents, but also the history, lore, anecdotes, and familial remembrances that fashion each dish. It delves into the story of curry—what it was and what it is, the places to which it has traveled and the ways it has evolved en route (whether because of local ingredients, cultural tastes, or other factors)—and embraces the many interpretations and definitions of this beloved dish.  It makes the flavors of these scintillating curries accessible to the everyday home cook. On the Curry Trail is at once a mash note and an education—one rich in history and sense of place—that tells the definitive, delectable story of this beguiling dish in 50 irresistible recipes. Illustrations throughout.

Reading tarot is all about trusting your intuition and connecting with your spirit guides. When you pull cards, they are a direct message from your guides, giving you insight into your life and choices. There’s no better way to thank and commune with your guides after their counsel than having a drink together.

There has been a long tradition of marijuana-infused baked goods. Brownies are the perennial favorite, but as legalization sweeps the country, the humble brownie is starting to look, well, boring.

Enter Sugar High, which shows you how to dose your dough and make the very best cannabis-baked goods. From the pioneer of cannabis-infused cooking, these 50 recipes range from sweet treats that are elegant and classic to bars, cakes, and cookies that are gooey and decadent. Recipes include the following:

-Brown Butter Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

-Tart and Sweet Citrus Bars

-The Easiest Strawberry Shortcake

-S’Mores Bars

-Decadent Seasonal Trifle

-Creamy Coconut Gelato

-Doughnuts with Strawberry, Maple, and Chocolate Glazes

-And more!

Fun and authoritative, Sugar High will also guide the reader to choosing the strain and dose of cannabis that’s right for them so that enthusiasts and dabblers alike can whip up sweet treats to share with—and wow—their friends.

Polymer clay is a fantastic medium — it is affordable, forgiving, and versatile. With a variety of on-trend colors, polymer clay can be custom colored to match any outfit, mood, or decor. Veteran clay artist Lauren Tomlinson walks you through all the basics with tips and troubleshooting as you go to ensure success. Everything from shaping and baking your pieces to specialty finishing techniques and much more is presented in detailed instruction. Easily form aesthetically pleasing patterns, such as leopard print and marble, and create custom colors. Lauren also equips you with techniques for adding paints and extra elements to your pieces.

Fresh, artistic and cheeky designs for a new generation of creative florists.

Bold, modern and more than a little bit cheeky, Flower Porn ditches the traditional floral bouquets for designer arrangements that you can recreate at home. Kai Kaimins, founder of East London florist My Lady Garden, shows you how to fill your home or office with eye-catching, Instagram-worthy arrangements.

By following her flower recipes, you’ll unlock the secrets of color theory and get up close and personal with a huge array of blooms, season by season. Complete with an essential chapter on floristry techniques, this book will show you how to choose the best flowers for each arrangement, and prepare each stem to make sure that your bold creations will last.

Float into the pages of this flirty flower book to explore: 

– Four chapters of flower arrangements are arranged by season, with each project presented as a recipe, complete with a food-related heading.

– A preliminary chapter will cover the key techniques and processes readers will need to create each flower recipe.

– Featuring vivid photography and modern layouts that capture Kai’s style and the My Lady Garden aesthetic.

There’s nothing quite like a bouquet of flowers, and there is absolutely nothing at all like the bouquets, arrangements and stunning displays in Flower Porn to bring beauty to a room.

With ideas for makes from gifts and stationery to homewares and decorations, this collection shows you how to craft innovative projects from foraged and upcycled materials. The 35 designs include a festive gilded leaf garland, pretty seedpod coasters, floral paper bags, and an appliqué wall hanging. Expert maker Clare Youngs guides you through all the techniques you’ll need, showing you how to use a wide range of materials including fabric and paper off-cuts as well as natural elements such as twigs, flowers, and pebbles. With just a few inexpensive supplies and tools to get you started, you’ll soon be making beautiful works of art and developing your creativity while being kind to the planet.

Macrame for beginners just got even easier! Learn how to do macrame! Books to creatively express yourself with Macrame knots and other basic knots are just what you need!

Macrame Projects and craft ideas for the whole family. Want to start something new? Want to get away from binging Netflix? Sick of embroidery? Well, jump into some knotty macrame knots that the whole family can enjoy. 

Take a moment to yourself with Macrame diy crafts. Having a stressful day? Unsure of yourself? Enjoy a macrame project that sparks emotional regulation for adults. When you get those hands moving, the anxiety ceases. Craft ideas are so much more than just a project, they bring healing to the mind and beautiful art to the home.

Inside, you’ll find:

Tutorials on starting your own macrame projects, macrame kits, and basic knots

How emotionally beneficial it is to make your own knotty crafts and home decor

Crafts to do at home and fun activities for the whole family to participate in

There are times when just hollering obscenities won’t do—you need to stab something. Now you can do both. Maybe Swearing Will Help combines two of the best stress-relievers—cursing, and cross stitch—into one of the most irreverently enjoyable crafting experiences you’ll ever have. 

With 25 patterns from the crafting world’s most bad-ass cross-stitch designers, this book has everything from a modern take on the traditional sampler to retro comic book designs, all with snarky to downright foul-mouthed phrases. It is definitely not your grandmother’s cross stitch!

No previous experience is required. In addition to simple instructions and clear, easy-to-follow patterns, the book includes a guide to basic lesson in cross-stitch techniques, so anyone can start swearin’ and stabbin’ right away. 

Whether you want the world to know that they need to wash their damn hands or you want to stitch a gift for your favorite potty mouth, Maybe Swearing Will Help has just what you need to find your way to inner f*cking peace.

SWEARING AND STABBING: Get out your aggressions with a easy-to-make foul-mouth cross-stitch projects

25 PATTERNS: Choose from dozens of designs to send just the right message, from Bollocks to F*ck It

FOR EVERY SKILL LEVEL: From beginning potty-mouths to expletive experts, Maybe Swearing Will Help includes complete patterns, step–by-step instructions, and a guide to cross-stitch basics

TOP DESIGNERS: Patterns created by  more than a dozen of the f*cking best-selling cross-stitch designers and influencers on Etsy

INSPIRING IMAGES: Full-color images of the finished projects help ensure success and offer ideas of how to frame and display your beautiful damned artwork

Nail Art Deck teaches users how to easily create their own fun, distinctive nail art. Famed nail artist Hang Nguyen shares tip and techniques for nail prep and painting, plus 30 all-level designs that range from flowers to celestial patterns, holiday motifs, and more, so there’s something for every occasion and mood.

Open the stylish box to discover a sliding tray filled with 30 full-color cards, each with a photo and step-by-step instructions to recreate the designs at home—or bring to the salon for a professional to replicate on your hands. An accompanying booklet features a QR code that links to exclusive how-to videos (perfect for fans of Hang’s digital content!). Paired with a buffer and file or a few bottles of polish, this inspiring, on-trend deck is a super cute stocking stuffer or anytime gift for fans of nail art, beauty, style, or arts & crafts.

EASY-TO-USE FORMAT: The portable deck format is easy to use—no struggling to hold open a book or turn a page while painting your nails!—and allows you to bring a card to the salon if you’d prefer to have a professional paint the designs for you.

SUPERSTAR AUTHOR: Hang has a background in fine art and got her start in the nail world by painting on photoshoot sets. She has worked with numerous brands and had a number of celebrity clients, including Kate Hudson and Demi Lovato, before she moved to the UK. She continues to share nail art on social media, where she’s gained a sizeable following thanks to her creative, contemporary designs and helpful how-to videos.

NAIL DESIGNS FOR ALL OCCASIONS: In addition to plenty of anytime designs, the deck includes seasonal and occasion-based designs, such as Good Morning Spring, The Unpinchable Clovers (St. Patrick’s Day), Red, Blue & Starry (July 4th), and Blissed in Mistletoe Kisses (Christmas), making it the gift that keeps on giving throughout the year.

#NAILTOK: Nail art is wildly popular, thanks to social media and the growing interest in creative, hands-on hobbies that don’t require a screen. This fun, contemporary deck—the first and only one of its kind—is perfect for followers of on-trend nail designs and analog hobbies.

Immerse yourself in the world of watercolor with Sushma Hegde’s array of stunning botanicals. Wildflower Watercolor is the essential comprehensive guide for beginner painters to learn how to create perfect floral masterpieces. With easy-to-follow instructions and step-by-step illustrations, it’s never been easier to master the art of watercolor painting.

Inside, you will find everything you need to get started, including how to mix colors and create striking new shades, how to make various types of brushstrokes and more. With over 30 projects to choose from―wild herbs such as lavender and chamomile and gorgeous flowers such as poppies, buttercups and forget-menots― anyone can create their very own watercolor work of art.

With just a brush, some paint and a little bit of water, you can take the world’s floral beauty to the page.

Lauren “Lolo” Spencer provides a candid and real inside look into the life of being a disabled person. This disability advocate embarks on the importance of visibility for the disabled community because representation matters!

Words from someone doing the work. Lolo Spencer gained popularity as a YouTube personality. On her platform, Sitting Pretty, she encourages viewers to achieve their dreams through making strong choices. Lolo shares how she navigates daily life with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). 

You are more than your limits. Choosing to see herself as more than a wheelchair handicapped disabled person, Lolo chooses to live a bold and courageous life now because representation matters. She created this intersectional guide to provide tools for disabled people to thrive in personal growth, independence, and community building. Add this guide to your list of inclusion books!

Inside, you’ll find:

An intersectional guide on how to grow personally and professionally

Tools for disabled people to live a full life despite limitations and expectations

Words from the inspiring Lauren “Lolo” Spencer, your favorite disability advocate

If you’re looking for gifts for disabled people to get encouraged like Disability Visibility, Demystifying Disability, or Rolling Warrior, you’ll love Rolling Pretty.

An essential, empowering and groundbreaking toolkit and call-to-arms, giving South Asian women the support they need to step into the multiplicity of their cultural, religious and political experiences

You might feel that this fight is too big for you. How on earth can you dismantle so many complex, long-standing systems of oppression? My answer: piece by piece.

Brown Girl Like Me is an inspiring memoir and empowering manifesto that equips women with the confidence and tools they need to navigate the difficulties that come with an intersectional identity. Jaspreet Kaur unpacks key issues such as the media, the workplace, the home, education, mental health, culture, confidence and the body, to help South Asian women understand and tackle the issues that affect them, and help them be in the driving seat of their own lives.

Jaspreet pulls no punches, tackling difficult topics from mental health and menstruation stigma to education and beauty standards, from feminism to cultural appropriation and microaggressions. She also addresses complex issues, such as how to manage being a brown feminist without rejecting your own culture, and why Asian girls – the second highest performing group of students in the country – aren’t seen in larger numbers in universities and head offices.

Interviews with brilliant South Asian Women of all walks of life as well as academic insight show what life is really like for brown women in the diaspora. Part toolkit, part call-to-arms, Brown Girl Like Me is essential reading for South Asian women as well as people with an interest in feminism and cultural issues, and will educate, inspire and spark urgent conversations for change.

Solve the cycle of overwhelm and exhaustion, and empower yourself to create positive change. This interactive workbook from the experts behind the New York Times bestseller Burnout offers up the tools and tips to help get you there.

We all want to achieve wellness. But wellness is not a state of mind or a state of being—it’s a state of action. It’s the freedom to oscillate through all the cycles of being human: from effort to rest, sleeping to waking, autonomy to connection. Burnout, on the other hand, happens when we get stuck. The Burnout Workbook will help you notice when you get stuck and show you how to get unstuck—inside you’ll find:

engaging questions

exercises to practice skills

visual guides

stories

quotes

and more!

Feel better, minimize stress, manage your emotions, and live a more joyful life. Whether or not you’ve read Burnout, this workbook will help you learn what true wellness can look like in your life.

Every day of the astrological year carries its own singular vibration. Knowing how to tap into them can provide deep and meaningful insights into our life journeys—our joys, wishes, flaws, and fears.

In EVERYDAY RADIANCE, discover a year’s worth of advice, clarity, and renewal through a collection of 365 zodiac-inspired prompts. Divided into the 12 months of the astrological year, each of the approximately 30 approachable and illuminating prompts for each sign provides a quick practice, writing exercise, or creativity nudge designed to harness the power of the day’s unique astrological energy.

Start on any day and follow the prompts throughout the year to nurture your most radiant self.

Follow Your Breath is a practical introduction to life-changing breathing techniques, offering a ‘breathwork menu’ so you can turn to the page according to what you need at any given time and access this incredible life hack.

Whether it’s calming down, sparking up, preparing for physical activity, settling in for a deep meditation, dealing with a health or sinus issue, focusing for a test, managing insomnia or wanting to get a natural euphoric high, Follow Your Breath has you covered. Breath activates communication pathways between the mind and body to positively affect our emotions, and we can even use the breath as a vehicle to shift our level of consciousness. In Follow Your Breath you are offered a range of easy-to-follow practices with step-by-step instructions, diagrams and post-practice notes so you can start shifting your mental state today. By using this book you’ll unlock one of the greatest – and most accessible – life hacks. Your breath will become your personal, pocket-ready superpower that you can pull out anywhere, anytime – no complicated equipment needed.

Doesn’t it seem that the more we seek happiness, the more elusive it becomes?

There is an easy fix, hiding in plain sight. Fun is an action you can take here and now, practically anywhere, anytime. Through research and science, we know fun is enormously beneficial to our physical and psychological well-being, yet fun’s absence from our modern lives is striking. Whether you’re a frustrated high-achiever trying to find a better work-life balance or someone who is seeking relief from life’s overwhelming challenges, it is time you gain access to the best medicine available. The Fun Habit is the ultimate guide to reap the serious benefits fun offers.

Grounded in current research, accessible science, and practical recommendations, The Fun Habit explains how you can build having fun into an actionable and effortless habit and why doing so will help you become a healthier, more joyful, more productive person. In the vein of Year of Yes, 10% Happier, and Atomic Habits, The Fun Habit is an inspiring and motivational guidebook that you will want to share with everyone in your life.

For the past decade, Tara Schuster worked like hell to repair the emotional wounds inflicted during what she refers to as her neglected, “mess-wreck disaster” of a childhood. She brought radical self-care, healing rituals, and self-love into her life, and on most days, she was a grateful, happy, and stable adult. She even wrote a book about it!

But then she lost her job, the one on which she had staked her entire adult identity. Cue an out-of-body-panic-attack-doom-spiral and deep depression that brought her harshest childhood traumas to the surface. Isolated at home during a global pandemic, she experienced piercing loneliness and a lack of purpose like she had never known. Finally, after a particularly dangerous dissociative episode while driving down the highway, she realized that enough was enough; she needed to slow down and pull over, to stop the relentless hustling that had gotten her this far, and to recover her innermost self.

This book is a guide to healing your deepest soul wounds, getting off your “good enough” plateau, developing habits that will give you lasting courage and resolve, and creating the spectacular life that you actually want. Full of practical, free baby-steps we can take today, it’s for people who are ready to liberate themselves from their emotional suffering, discover their purpose, and finally sit in the driver’s seat of their experience. It’s for anyone who is tired, hurting, and feeling like their essential brightness is gone. It’s for people who are ready to glow in the f*cking dark.

Caring for yourself is essential. But we need both direction and intention if we want to find out what we truly need in the moment. This is where Inner Workout comes in: First by redefining what self-care truly is and then by diving deep into areas where you might need some help. Addressing issues like body positivity, burnout, brain fog, self-confidence, and more, this guide offers a variety of practices, prompts, and actionable advice to strengthen your connection to each aspect of yourself.

Think of this as a choose your own self-care adventure: Take the Take Care Assessment and find out which practices you deeply need right now. Flip to a section that resonates with you. Or read through each chapter to discover what each dimension of care can offer you. The guidance within these pages isn’t meant to change who you are, but to strengthen the wisdom you already have within. Whether new to self-care or wanting to deepen the connection you’ve cultivated with yourself, this book is here for you at every step in your wellness journey.

Are you still playing a role you learned in childhood to please others, such as the Good Girl/Boy, the Overachiever, or the Helper? Though these kinds of roles may have gained us attention and affection, they prohibited us from becoming our true selves.

People-pleasing–putting others ahead of ourselves to avoid something negative or to get something we want or need–runs rampant in our society. Saying yes when we should say no leaves us stuck in frustrating patterns. And when we don’t say yes authentically, we say it resentfully, which leads to more problems than if we’d said no in the first place.

The Joy of Saying No will help you identify your people-pleasing style and habits. A six-step framework then teaches you how to discover the healing and transformative power of no to

– establish healthier boundaries,

– foster more intimate relationships and fulfilling experiences, and

– reconnect with your values and authentic self.

It’s time to let go of our curated online worlds and get beyond our need for likes.

For all that we think we’re getting out of social media, we’re also getting duped. The perfection echo chamber oftentimes makes us feel like we’re getting left behind. 

The truth is, life is messy, but curated online fabulousness makes it hard to let our true selves show, and it impedes our ability to have real, meaningful connections. Depression, anxiety, and suicide are also on the rise, and the virtual world is partially to blame, affecting our self-worth, our friendships, and the way we choose to navigate our real lives. 

As the founder and CEO of Squad, an app company built on connectedness, Isa Watson knows firsthand why we need to learn how to be more genuine. The digital world is her lifeblood, but it’s also been an Achilles’ heel: She struggled privately with some of the biggest challenges life can throw at you, while online she seemed to be living her best life—earning high-profile accolades, taking fabulous trips, and partying with the likes of many big name celebrities. It took a personal crisis to make her realize that she needed to change.

In Life Beyond Likes, she gets real, sharing practical guidance on:

Getting over being addicted to likes and letting your true self shine

Recognizing your own damaging habits and developing healthy ones

Getting comfortable with discomfort to make real connections & friends

Determining when a friendship has run its course and letting them go in a healthy way 

Drawing from a wealth of experiences including being the youngest published chemist in the world, working as executive in the upper echelons at JPMorgan Chase, and founding her own company, Isa helps readers better understand what constitutes success, identify what’s really important, and achieve a balance between the curated online world and the enriching, emotionally nourishing world right in front of us.

Microjoys are a practice of uncovering joy and finding hope at any moment. They are accessible to everyone, despite all else. When we hone the ability to look for them, they are always available. Microjoys are the hidden wisdom, long-ago memories, subtle treasures, and ordinary delights that surround us: A polka-dot glass on a thrift store shelf. A dear friend’s kindness at just the right time. The neighborhood spice shop. A beloved family tradition. The simple quietude of being in love. A cherished chai recipe.

Cyndie Spiegel first began taking note of microjoys during the most difficult year of her life—when she experienced back-to-back unprecedented and devastating losses—and she found that these fleeting moments of hope helped her move through each day with a semblance of comfort and a lot more joy.

Through beautifully written narrative essays and prompts, Cyndie shares the microjoys that have kept her going through tough times and shows us how we can learn to see the microjoys in our own lives. Microjoys don’t change the truth of loss or make grief any more convenient, but they allow us to temporarily touch joy, keeping us buoyed and moving forward, one moment at a time.

None of us had a perfect childhood; we are all carrying around behaviors that don’t serve us—and may in fact be hurting us. But it doesn’t have to be that way, says licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Vienna Pharaon. Our past might create our patterns, but we can change those patterns for the better…with the right tools.

In The Origins of You, Pharaon has unlocked a healing process to help us understand our Family of Origin—the family and framework we grew up within—and examine what worked (and didn’t) in that system. Certain dysfunctions (or “wounds”) in that Family of Origin will manifest in our adult behaviors in surprising ways, from work challenges to interpersonal struggles. But the good news: armed with the knowledge about our past, we can actually rewire our programming to meaningfully improve our relationships and our lives in the future.

It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been in therapy for decades, or whether therapy isn’t for you. It doesn’t matter if you have loads of memories from childhood, or struggle to remember anything at all. All that matters is your willingness to look inside yourself, and your determination to find a new way forward. Complete with guided introspection, personal experiences, client stories, frameworks for having difficult conversations, and worksheets to complement each chapter, The Origins of You will teach you how your family can both build you up and break you down…and how you can heal yourself for good.

When we study, we tend to focus on the tasks we can most easily control – such as highlighting and rereading – but these practices only give the illusion of mastery. As Dan Willingham, professor of psychology and best-selling author, explains, familiarity is not the same as comprehension.

Perfect for teachers and students of all ages, Outsmart Your Brain provides real-world practices and the latest research on how to train your brain for better learning. Each chapter provides clear and specific strategies while also explaining why traditional study processes do not work. Grounded in scientifically backed practical advice, this is the ultimate guide to improving grades and better understanding the power of our own brains.

Getting heard is a tricky business: It’s what you say and how you show up, filtered through your audience’s assumptions and biases—and maybe even your own. For women, people of color, immigrants, and queer folks, there’s often a dissonance between how you speak and how we collectively think powerful people should speak: like the wealthy white men who’ve historically been in charge. But, fortunately, the sound of power is changing.

Permission to Speak is your tool kit for making that change. In this revolutionary take on how to use your voice to get what you want, sought-after speech coach Samara Bay offers a fresh perspective on public speaking and a new definition of what power sounds like: namely, you. Blending anecdotes with eye-opening research in leadership, linguistics, and social science, Permission to Speak shows you how to strike the right balance of strength and warmth to land your message; exactly what to do before a high-stakes scenario so that your voice, your mind, and your spirit are ready; and how to turn habits like vocal fry and upspeak into tools. Most important, you’ll discover your voice story: why you talk the way you do, what’s wonderful about it, and what you’ve outgrown.

Fiery, fun, and truly profound, Permission to Speak is a personal and cultural reckoning with what speaking in public is and what it can be. This book meets the moment and offers this provocation: When we change what power sounds like, we change who has it.

You may have noticed that it’s nearly impossible to go even a couple days without coming across the term self-care. A word that encompasses any number of lifestyle choices and products—from juice cleanses to yoga workshops to luxury bamboo sheets—self-care has exploded in our collective consciousness as a panacea for practically all of women’s problems. 

Board-certified psychiatrist Dr. Pooja Lakshmin finds this cultural embrace of self-care incomplete at best and manipulative at worst. Fixing your troubles isn’t simple as buying a new day planner or signing up for a meditation class. These faux self-care practices keep us looking outward—comparing ourselves with others or striving for a certain type of perfection. Even worse, they exonerate an oppressive social system that has betrayed women and minorities.

Real self-care, in contrast, is an internal, self-reflective process that involves making difficult decisions in line with our values, and when we practice it, we shift our relationships, our workplaces, and even our broken systems.

In Real Self-Care, Lakshmin helps listeners understand what a real practice of caring for yourself could—and does—look like. Using case studies from her practice, clinical research, and the down-to-earth style that she’s become known for, Lakshmin provides a step-by-step program for real and sustainable change and solace. Packed with actionable strategies to deal with common problems, Real Self-Care is a complete roadmap for women to set boundaries and move past guilt, treat themselves with compassion, get closer to themselves, and assert their power. The result—having ownership over one’s own life— is nothing less than a personal and social revolution.

Nature is what gives us life—it is the source of all magic and power in the world. That is something that humans have understood since the beginning of time, and it is a constant among cultures around the world. However, the ways in which we celebrate it can vary wildly. Bulgarian Baba Marta Day welcomes the arrival of Spring with Martenitsas, little talismans of red and white string, while in Southeast Asia, that same yearly event is celebrated during Holi, a joyful, riotous dance of colors. Yalda, Soyal, Saturnalia, Dong Zhi, and St.Lucia’s Day (from Iran, Arizona, Ancient Rome, China, and Scandinavia) are all very different—but they all honor the Winter Solstice. 

Each of these celebrations is a ritual, a form of magic created by community and tradition. And while their differences can help us understand their various cultural identities, their similarities can create a bond that reaches across space and time. In this beautifully illustrated book from bestselling magical author Nikki Van De Car readers will learn the history and meaning behind 40 of these ritual celebrations, organized by season. Each ritual will include suggestions for participating in and appreciating these storied rituals, while honoring their origins and the cultures from which they come.

Women of all ages struggle with disordered eating, preoccupation with food, and body anxiety. Journalist Cole Kazdin was one such woman, and she set out to see if the impossibility of her own full recovery from an eating disorder was all in her head. Interviewing women across the country as well as the world’s most renowned researchers, she discovered that most people with eating disorders never receive treatment––the fact that she did made her one of the lucky ones.

Kazdin takes us to the doorstep of the diet industry and research community, exposing the flawed systems that claim to be helping us, and revealing disordered eating for the crisis that it is: a mental illness with the second highest mortality rate (after opioid-related deaths) that no one wants to talk about. Along the way, she identifies new treatments not yet available to the general public, grass roots movements to correct racial disparities in care, and strategies for navigating true health while still living in a dysfunctional world.

What would it feel like to be free? To feel gorgeous in your body, not ruminate about food, feel ease at meals, exercise with no regard for calories-burned? To never making a disparaging comment about your body again, even silently to yourself. Who can help us with this? We can.

What’s Eating Us is an urgent battle cry coupled with stories and strategies about what works and how to finally heal―for real.

Yoga is the exercise of choice for so many because it makes you feel great in body and mind. But modern images of yoga have long featured the same kinds of bodies—white, slim, young, cis-gendered, able. Harmony Willow Hansen knows that a celebration of every kind of body brings more joy and inclusivity to all of us. She has been drawing joyful people in practice for years, creating a presence on Instagram that reaches hundreds of thousands of yoga lovers. Her figures include older people, trans people, differently-abled people, people in different body types and weights. Harmony’s art is all about bodies where anyone can find themselves and feel seen. Here are an array of positions including beginner poses, seated and low poses, lying down poses, standing poses, and partner poses, as well as prenatal and children’s poses and flow. Readers will share in the ease and confidence that radiate from these yogis. An ideal gift for any yoga lover.

A soulful collection of illuminating essays and interviews that explore Black people’s spiritual and scientific connection to the land, waters, and climate, curated by the acclaimed author of Farming While Black

Author of Farming While Black and co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, Leah Penniman reminds us that ecological humility is an intrinsic part of Black cultural heritage. While racial capitalism has attempted to sever our connection to the sacred earth for 400 years, Black people have long seen the land and water as family and understood the intrinsic value of nature.

This thought-provoking anthology brings together today’s most respected and influential Black environmentalist voices —leaders who have cultivated the skill of listening to the Earth —to share the lessons they have learned. These varied and distinguished experts include Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Alice Walker; the first Queen Mother and official spokesperson for the Gullah/Geechee Nation, Queen Quet; marine biologist, policy expert, and founder and president of Ocean Collectiv, Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson; and the Executive Director of the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers, Land Loss Prevention Project, Savi Horne. In Black Earth Wisdom, they address the essential connection between nature and our survival and how runaway consumption and corporate insatiability are harming the earth and every facet of American society, engendering racial violence, food apartheid, and climate injustice.

Those whose skin is the color of soil are reviving their ancestral and ancient practice of listening to the earth for guidance. Penniman makes clear that the fight for racial and environmental justice demands that people put our planet first and defer to nature as our ultimate teacher.

For decades, gardeners have approached vegetable gardening the same way: planting in square or rectangular beds or in straight rows, keeping vegetables separate from flowers, and definitely not mixing perennial plants with annual ones. According to these old rules, every insect must be killed, the garden must be tidy, and nothing should ever be allowed to go to seed. It’s time to break the rules! Today’s gardeners are re-envisioning the vegetable garden as a creative, playful space where the beds may be circles or spirals, beneficial insects are invited to the party, flowers for cutting grow right next to annual vegetables (which might be chosen for their curb appeal as much as their flavor), and a bit of “untidiness” simply creates a garden that more closely mimics the natural world.

With The Creative Vegetable Gardener, lifestyle editor and master gardener Kelly Smith Trimble encourages readers to widen their focus, be playful, and imagine a vegetable garden that reflects their own unique aesthetic and offers a meditative sanctuary as well as a source of fresh, homegrown food. From seed selection to garden layout and regenerative gardening practices, gardeners of all levels will find Smith Trimble’s liberating advice a pathway to making the garden a place of nourishment for the soul and creative spirit, while also feeding the body.

Have you been trying to grow plants at home? Do you want to be able to eat fresh, organic produce and herbs from your balcony? Do you want beautiful plants around your home to add that extra love and warmth to your space?

YouTube sensation Ekta Chaudhary has been teaching gardening to her millions of followers, and for the first time, she is putting it all down in an easy-to-use, fun and simple beginner’s guide to growing plants at home. Right from the amount of light plants need, the kind of soil to use and plants that can thrive indoors and outdoors, to answering all ‘silly’ questions, Garden Up will put a green thumb on anyone!

The therapeutic benefits of living with and tending plants are well known—they offer a connection to the natural world that nurtures our mental and physical health. In Living Wild, Hilton Carter shows how to create a lush, stylish space with flourishing plants that bring life to your home and happiness to your life. He discusses interior design choices—choosing the right color scheme, textures, and materials to showcase gorgeous greenery—then takes a deep dive into styling. From picking the perfect planter to statement plants and taking in centerpieces, living art and hanging planters plus outdoors spaces and plants for kids along the way, Living Wild is packed with interior design and styling ideas that blur the boundary beside inside and out. Finally, we visit 8 unique homes that have been plant styled by Hilton and take a detailed look at his top ten designer plants, along with care and info tips.

An illustrated guide to over 100 types of mushrooms, offering insights and stories about these mysterious organisms

An incredible diversity of fungi is flourishing all around us, not just in the forest but in parks, markets, and even museums. Once you know how to look, you can find mushrooms named after fairies and demons, mushrooms that look so much like woodland birds they are shot at by hunters, mushrooms that glow in the dark . . . and so much more.

Beyond serving as a guide for identification, Mushrooming explores how “the quiet hunt” can radically expand our perspectives, connect us to nature, and enrich our lives. Whether you’re a beginner forager or an expert mycophile, this is the perfect handbook to spark your curiosity and deepen your appreciation for the fantastic, delicious, deadly, and strange world of fungi.

Within this fun and easy to understand book, you’ll learn how to; root cuttings and leaves in soil and water, germinate pips, pits and seeds along with other propagation techniques. From decorative house plants, to herbs and vegetables, this book will multiply your botanical abundance. Propagation projects include: popular herbs and edibles including rosemary, mint, thyme and pineapple, fruit trees such as orange, olive and apple, popular decorative and indoor plants like monstera, pilea, marantha, and hoya.

Awe is mysterious. How do we begin to quantify the goose bumps we feel when we see the Grand Canyon, or the utter amazement when we watch a child walk for the first time? How do you put into words the collective effervescence of standing in a crowd and singing in unison, or the wonder you feel while gazing at centuries-old works of art? Up until fifteen years ago, there was no science of awe, the feeling we experience when we encounter vast mysteries that transcend our understanding of the world. Scientists were studying emotions like fear and disgust, emotions that seemed essential to human survival. Revolutionary thinking, though, has brought into focus how, through the span of evolution, we’ve met our most basic needs socially. We’ve survived thanks to our capacities to cooperate, form communities, and create culture that strengthens our sense of shared identity—actions that are sparked and spurred by awe.

In Awe, Dacher Keltner presents a radical investigation and deeply personal inquiry into this elusive emotion. Revealing new research into how awe transforms our brains and bodies, alongside an examination of awe across history, culture, and within his own life during a period of grief, Keltner shows us how cultivating awe in our everyday life leads us to appreciate what is most humane in our human nature. And during a moment in which our world feels more divided than ever before, and more imperiled by crises of different kinds, we are greatly in need of awe. If we open our minds, it is awe that sharpens our reasoning and orients us toward big ideas and new insights, that cools our immune system’s inflammation response and strengthens our bodies. It is awe that activates our inclination to share and create strong networks, to take actions that are good for the natural and social world around us. It is awe that transforms who we are, that inspires the creation of art, music, and religion. At turns radical and profound, brimming with enlightening and practical insights, Awe is our field guide, from not only one of the leading voices on the subject but a fellow seeker of awe in his own right, for how to place awe as a vital force within our lives.

After more than a decade of dead-end dates and dysfunctional relationships, Christie Tate has reclaimed her voice and settled down. Her days of agonizing in group therapy over guys who won’t commit are over, the grueling emotional work required to attach to another person tucked neatly into the past.

Or so she thought. Weeks after giddily sharing stories of her new boyfriend at Saturday morning recovery meetings, Christie receives a gift from a friend. Meredith, twenty years older and always impeccably accessorized, gives Christie a box of holiday-themed scarves as well as a gentle suggestion: maybe now is the perfect time to examine why friendships give her trouble. “The work never ends, right?” she says with a wink.

Christie isn’t so sure, but she soon realizes that the feeling of “apartness” that has plagued her since childhood isn’t magically going away now that she’s in a healthy romantic relationship. With Meredith by her side, she embarks on a brutally honest exploration of her friendships past and present, sorting through the ways that debilitating shame and jealousy have kept the lasting bonds she craves out of reach—and how she can overcome a history of letting go too soon. But when Meredith becomes ill and Christie’s baggage threatens to muddy their final days, she’s forced to face her deepest fears in honor of the woman who finally showed her how to be a friend.

Poignant, laugh-out-loud funny, and emotionally satisfying, B.F.F. explores what happens when we finally break the habits that impair our ability to connect with others, and the ways that one life—however messy and imperfect—can change another.

Many of us feel trapped in a grind of constant change: rolling news cycles, the chatter of social media, our families split along partisan lines. We feel fearful and tired, on edge in our bodies, not quite knowing what has us perpetually depleted. For Katherine May, this low hum of fatigue and anxiety made her wonder what she was missing. Could there be a different way to relate to the world, one that would allow her to feel more rested and at ease, even as seismic changes unfold on the planet? Might there be a way for all of us to move through life with curiosity and tenderness, sensitized to the subtle magic all around? 

In Enchantment, May invites the listener to come with her on a journey to reawaken our innate sense of wonder and awe. With humor, candor, and warmth, she shares stories of her own struggles with work, family, and the aftereffects of pandemic, particularly feelings of overwhelm as the world rushes to reopen. Craving a different way to live, May begins to explore the restorative properties of the natural world, moving through the elements of earth, water, fire, and air and identifying the quiet traces of magic that can be found only when we look for them. Through deliberate attention and ritual, she unearths the potency and nourishment that come from quiet reconnection with our immediate environment. Blending lyricism and storytelling, sensitivity and empathy, Enchantment invites each of us to open the door to human experience in all its sensual complexity, and to find the beauty waiting for us there.

What makes a life fulfilling and meaningful? The simple but surprising answer is: relationships. The stronger our relationships, the more likely we are to live happy, satisfying, and overall healthier lives. In fact, the Harvard Study of Adult Development reveals that the strength of our connections with others can predict the health of both our bodies and our brains as we go through life.

The invaluable insights in this book emerge from the revealing personal stories of hundreds of participants in the Harvard Study as they were followed year after year for their entire adult lives, and this wisdom is bolstered by research findings from this and many other studies. Relationships in all their forms—friendships, romantic partnerships, families, coworkers, tennis partners, book club members, Bible study groups—all contribute to a happier, healthier life. And as The Good Life shows us, it’s never too late to strengthen the relationships you have, and never too late to build new ones.

Dr. Waldinger’s TED Talk about the Harvard Study, “What Makes a Good Life,” has been viewed more than 42 million times and is one of the ten most-watched TED talks ever. The Good Life has been praised by bestselling authors Jay Shetty (“Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz lead us on an empowering quest towards our greatest need: meaningful human connection”), Angela Duckworth (“In a crowded field of life advice and even life advice based on scientific research, Schulz and Waldinger stand apart”), and happiness expert Laurie Santos (“Waldinger and Schulz are world experts on the counterintuitive things that make life meaningful”).

With warmth, wisdom, and compelling life stories, The Good Life shows us how we can make our lives happier and more meaningful through our connections to others.

The Happiness Year encourages you to explore different ways of discovering happiness through each season and shows you how to nurture this in your everyday life. Seasons tend to be associated with certain behaviors: spring with hope, summer with sociable relaxation, autumn with harvesting, winter with hibernating. The Happiness Year features a host of tips and exercises to encourage you to break away from certain patterns, including mindful breathing and meditation exercises to help you recharge and reflect, as well as simple projects and seasonal affirmations.

This uplifting book is for anyone seeking joy and wanting to explore the true meaning of happiness.

How to Clean Everything is full of genuinely useful tips and tricks, and advice about not just what but also what not to do. Covering everything from laundry to accidents, and cleaning room by room, this book also contains sections on more general household maintenance, particularly useful for renters or anyone living away from home for the first time. Ann’s approach is realistic, reassuring and easy to follow whatever your circumstances.

In It’s Always Been Ours, eating disorder specialist and storyteller, Jessica Wilson, challenges us to rethink what having a “good” body means in contemporary society. By centering the bodies of Black women in her cultural discussions of body image, food, health, and wellness, Wilson argues that we can interrogate white supremacy’s hold on us and reimagine the ways we think about, discuss, and tend to our bodies. 

A narrative that spans the year of racial reckoning (that wasn’t), It’s Always Been Ours is an incisive blend of historical documents, contemporary writing, and narratives of clients, friends, and celebrities to examine the politics of body liberation. Wilson argues that our culture’s fixation on thin, white women reinscribes racist ideas about Black women’s bodies and ways of being in the world as “too much.”  For Wilson, this white supremacist, capitalist undergirding in wellness movements perpetuates a culture of respectability and restriction that force Black women to perform unhealthy forms of resilience and strength at the expense of their physical and psychological needs. 

With just the right mix of wit, levity, and wisdom, Wilson shows us how a radical reimagining of body narratives is a prerequisite to wellbeing. It’s Always Been Ours is a love letter that celebrates Black women’s bodies and shows us a radical and essential path forward to rediscovering their vulnerability and joy.

Inspired by the lapidaries of the ancient world, this book is a beautifully designed collection of true stories about sixty different stones that have influenced our shared history

The earliest scientists ground and processed minerals in a centuries-long quest for a mythic stone that would prolong human life. Michelangelo climbed mountains in Tuscany searching for the sugar-white marble that would yield his sculptures. Catherine the Great wore the wealth of Russia stitched in gemstones onto the front of her bodices.

Through the realms of art, myth, geology, philosophy and power, the story of humanity can be told through the minerals and materials that have allowed us to evolve and create. From the Taiwanese national treasure known as the Meat-Shaped Stone to Malta’s prehistoric “fat lady” temples carved in globigerina limestone to the amethyst crystals still believed to have healing powers, Lapidarium is a jewel box of sixty far-flung stones and the stories that accompany them. Together, they explore how human culture has formed stone, and the roles stone has played in forming human culture.   

This book is the key to escaping the cycle of failure, disengagement, and regret.

Every day we wake up determined to engage with life—to overcome work challenges, finish that novel, reach fitness goals, or repair a strained relationship. Despite our best intentions, we fall short.

Why is it so hard to finish what we start? Are we doomed to a lifetime of regret?

Reaching goals after repeated frustration starts with understanding the impulse known as the Swipe, a side effect of our high-tech culture. Based on a massive research database, and drawing on disciplines from neurobiology to business, Tracy Maylett and Tim Vandehey reveal a powerful psychological process that makes us disengage from what (or who) we care about most—often when we’re heartbreakingly close to real breakthroughs.

In Swipe, readers will learn how this mechanism works and recognize when they’re caught on the “Hamster Wheel.” They’ll discover how to short-circuit the Swipe, reengage, and finally finish what they start.

A riveting, must-read, year-in-the-life account of three teachers, combined with reporting that reveals what’s really going on behind school doors, by New York Times bestselling author and education expert Alexandra Robbins.

Alexandra Robbins goes behind the scenes to tell the true, sometimes shocking, always inspirational stories of three teachers as they navigate a year in the classroom. She follows Penny, a southern middle school math teacher who grappled with a toxic staff clique at the big school in a small town; Miguel, a special ed teacher in the western United States who fought for his students both as an educator and as an activist; and Rebecca, an East Coast elementary school teacher who struggled to schedule and define a life outside of school. Robbins also interviewed hundreds of other teachers nationwide who share their secrets, dramas, and joys.

Interspersed among the teachers’ stories—a seeming scandal, a fourth-grade whodunit, and teacher confessions—are hard-hitting essays featuring cutting-edge reporting on the biggest issues facing teachers today, such as school violence; outrageous parent behavior; inadequate support, staffing, and resources coupled with unrealistic mounting demands; the “myth” of teacher burnout; the COVID-19 pandemic; and ways all of us can help the professionals who are central both to the lives of our children and the heart of our communities.

Sometimes it’s difficult to take that first step into your future and embrace the unknown. In this collection of art and poetry, Morgan reimagines the classic heroine’s journey—from the very first call to adventure, through trials, hardships, and new relationships, all the way back home—and offers key lessons and affirmations to encourage and equip you every step of the way.

As you travel your own journey of self-discovery, you’re invited to:

Cultivate the courage you need to follow your passions

Develop curiosity about the natural world around you

Find comfort and inspiration for the inevitable trials on your journey

Reflect on how your past has prepared you

Step out in wonder and faith, knowing there is more for you

Morgan’s signature art fills every page of this book, making it a gorgeous addition to your bedside or coffee table. This is a lovely gift to give for birthdays, holidays, and graduations.

Look for the previous books in this series: All Along You Were Blooming and How Far You Have Come.

The pushback that shows up in conversations about fat justice takes exceedingly predicable form. Losing weight is easy—calories in, calories out. Fat people are unhealthy. We’re in the midst of an obesity epidemic. Fat acceptance “glorifies obesity.” The BMI is an objective measure of size and health. Yet, these myths are as readily debunked as they are pervasive.

In “You Just Need to Lose Weight,” Aubrey Gordon equips listeners with the facts and figures to reframe myths about fatness in order to dismantle the anti-fat bias ingrained in how we think about and treat fat people. Bringing her dozen years of community organizing and training to bear, Gordon shares the rhetorical approaches she and other organizers employ to not only counter these pernicious myths, but to dismantle the anti-fat bias that so often underpin them.

As conversations about fat acceptance and fat justice continue to grow, “You Just Need to Lose Weight” will be essential to ensure that those conversations are informed, effective, and grounded in both research and history.