Books to Inspire New Year's Resolutions & Better Habits
From decluttering your home to cutting back on social media, make your New Year's resolutions stick this time with our round-up of inspirational non-fiction.
List courtesy of Penguin Books and Forbes Magazine.
10% happier : how I tamed the voice in my head, reduced stress without losing my edge, and found self-help that actually works : a true story
Harris, Dan, 1971- author
2014
Becoming
Obama, Michelle, 1964-, author
2018
When she was a little girl, Michelle Robinson's world was the South Side of Chicago, where she and her brother, Craig, shared a bedroom in their family's upstairs apartment and played catch in the park, and where her parents, Fraser and Marian Robinson, raised her to be outspoken and unafraid. But life soon look her much further afield, from the halls of Princeton, where she learned for the first time what if felt like to be the only black woman in a room, to the glassy office tower where she worked as a high-powered corporate lawyer--and where, one summer morning, a law student named Barack Obama appeared in her office and upended all her carefully made plans. Here, for the first time, Michelle Obama describes the early years of her marriage as she struggles to balance her work and family with her husband's fast-moving political career. She takes us inside their private debate over whether he should make a run for the presidency and her subsequent role as a popular but oft-criticized figure during his campaign. Narrating with grace, good humor, and uncommon candor, she provides a vivid, behind-the-scenes account of her family's history-making launch into the global limelight as well as their life inside the White House over eight momentous years--as she comes to know her country and her country comes to know her
The book you wish your parents had read (and your children will be glad that you did)
Perry, Philippa, 1957- author.
2019
In this absorbing, clever and funny book, renowned psychotherapist Philippa Perry tells us what really matters and what behaviour it is important to avoid - the vital dos and don'ts of parenting. Instead of mapping out the 'perfect' plan, Perry offers a big-picture look at the elements that lead to good parent-child relationships. This refreshing, judgement-free book will help you to: Understand how your own upbringing may affect your parenting; Accept that you will make mistakes and learn what you can do about them; Break negative cycles and patterns; Handle your own and your child's feelings; Understand what different behaviours communicate. Full of sage and sane advice, this is the book that every parent will want to read and every child will wish their parents had.
Talking to strangers : what we should know about the people we don't know
Gladwell, Malcolm, 1963- author
2019
In this thoughtful treatise spurred by the 2015 death of African-American academic Sandra Bland in jail after a traffic stop, New Yorker writer Gladwell aims to figure out the strategies people use to assess strangers-to "analyze, critique them, figure out where they came from, figure out how to fix them," in other words: to understand how to balance trust and safety. He uses a variety of examples from history and recent headlines to illustrate that people size up the motivations, emotions, and trustworthiness of those they don't know both wrongly and with misplaced confidence.
