9 New and Upcoming Books for Better Living
Your New Year’s resolution may already be a distant memory but do not despair. The wheels of publishing never stop turning, and that’s good news for all of us seeking new or renewed inspiration for personal growth. Here are 9 recent and upcoming works of practical nonfiction (a new term I just picked up, so much better than self-help, don’t you think?) to help get you closer to the life you want to live.
“Is it really possible to change your entire personality in a year?” In Me, But Better, Olga Khazan recounts the year she spent applying research about the science of personality in an attempt to remake her life from the inside out. Could science actually help her change her mind, overwrite lifelong patterns of overachieving neuroticism, and find happiness? Me, But Better is on shelves now, and if critical examinations of the self-care industrial complex are your jam, you’re also going to want to keep an eye out for Amy Larocca’s How to Be Well, due out May 13. Larocca dives deep into the research (or lack thereof) around the multi-trillion-dollar wellness industry and its impact on women’s lives and health.
This one’s for everybody who thinks about keeping a journal but never quite makes it to the part where you do it. The Book of Alchemy (April 22) is Suleika Jaouad’s ode to the benefits of her lifelong journaling practice, and it’s an invitation and instruction for beginning one for yourself. Jaouad shares insight from her decades of experience with journaling, along with wisdom and tips from more than 100 writers, artists, and creative geniuses, including Elizabeth Gilbert, George Saunders, Hanif Abdurraquib, Salman Rushdie, and more. If it’s good enough for them…
Speaking of advice, don’t miss We Can Do Hard Things (May 6), from Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle, hosts of the uber-popular podcast by the same name. Referred to as “the guidebook for being alive,” the book presents direction and encouragement from 118 of “the world’s most brilliant wayfinders.”
Loneliness is such a serious problem that the former surgeon general of the United States, Vivek Murthy, declared it “an epidemic on par with tobacco use.” Connection is the cure, and not just on the individual level. In Good Friends: Bonds That Change Us and the World (April 8), Priya Vulchi makes the case that good friendships can be a vehicle for resistance and social justice. Drawing from the great philosophers and modern thinkers, Vulchi offers lessons to help us establish and maintain relationships that can lead to solidarity and social change. For more on the complexity of friendships and the messy ways they’re portrayed in pop culture, pick up Bad Friend: How Women Revolutionized Modern Friendship by Tiffany Watt Smith (May 6).
Success doesn’t have to mean making billions of dollars running tech companies and then using your status to tear down a country in service of lining your own pockets. Just, you know, as an example. There’s a different way to think about how you’ll spend the 2,000ish weeks of life that will make up your career. In Moral Ambition (May 6), historian Rutger Bregman presents a new framework for ambition that isn’t about hifalutin titles and eye-popping paychecks but being dedicated “to the best solutions to the world’s biggest problems.”
You can use your talents for good. Take it from who knows. Chef José Andrés has more than 30 restaurants and multiple Michelin stars to his name, but it’s his humanitarian work as the founder of World Central Kitchen that really defines him. In Change the Recipe (April 22), Andrés shares lessons and inspiration from his experiences feeding people in kitchens, natural disasters, and war zones around the world.
Finally, if books are our preferred tool for personal change (you’re in the right place!), Bibliotherapy in the Bronx by Emely Rumble (April 29) just might be the cure to what ails you.
