Wear It Well: Reclaim Your Closet and Rediscover the Joy of Getting Dressed
Very glad I read this, and I’m already looking forward to revisiting her advice probably twice a year (fall and spring)!
Democracy in Retrograde: How to Make Changes Big and Small in Our Country and in Our Lives
Democracy in Retrograde is a fun, short, super accessible guide to becoming more civically engaged. It’s easy to digest in bite sizes and offers some useful tools for thinking about the ways you might derive the most satisfaction from getting involved and presents an excellent case for why you should.
Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts
If you’re a chronically busy, list-making, type-A, overachiever like me, please do yourself a favor and pick up Four Thousand Weeks. If you already did that three years ago, pick up Meditations for Mortals.
How to Baby: A No-Advice-Given Guide to Motherhood, with Drawings
I’m 37 weeks pregnant and felt like this was a gift to me from Finck. Plus, it was dang funny.
Please Unsubscribe, Thanks!: How to Take Back Our Time, Attention, and Purpose in a World Designed to Bury Us in Bullshit
Please Unsubscribe, Thanks! is full of useful, actionable tips plus astute economic and cultural commentary — and it’s very funny! Highly recommend it as a way to find your post-COVID normal.
Quarterlife: The Search for Self in Early Adulthood
Quarterlife is an insightful and pretty helpful book about the phase of life between the late teens and mid-thirties. I recommend it!
Equal Partners: Improving Gender Equality at Home
Equal Partners is a quick read with useful insights and suggestions to help everyone in a home work toward equal distribution, not just visible labor but cognitive labor too.
The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness
The Good Life is one of those rare “self-help” books that actually uses all its pages well. I really appreciated the way it not only presented the research but also provided helpful, actionable tools to carry to its advice in real life.
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
For me, personally, the arrival of Four Thousand Weeks in my lap felt life-changing. I’m going to be recommending it to my fellow burned-out, anxious millennials for a long time.
The Listening Path: The Creative Art of Attention
The Listening Path is a six-week approach to getting in touch with the world, yourself, and the beyond. It wasn’t for me — it was too “woo-woo” as she herself puts it — but it might be for you.
The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You
The Making of a Manager is a helpful, friendly, useful book specifically for people who are becoming managers for the first time. I really appreciated it!
Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity
Radical Candor is a must-read for anyone who manages people in any way, or who expects to soon. I found it really helpful!
You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters
You’re Not Listening is a well-written, readable, persuasive book that underscores the importance of true, unselfish listening and will inspire you to get better at it.
Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer’s Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book
Before and After the Book Deal is a helpful, conversational, informative breakdown of all the things that go into writing and publishing a book. As a book reviewer, I found it so interesting!
Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives
Successful Aging is a scientific but well-written and interesting look at current thinking about how the brain works and how you can protect it as you age.
The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone's Mind
The Catalyst is a helpful, well-researched book about lowering the barriers of resistance in people’s minds. There were some really good nuggets in there that I will probably use quite often.
How to Be an Artist
How to Be An Artist is a slim book containing just over 60 short “lessons.” I think it’s most useful for people pursuing visual art like drawing or painting, but it was a fun little read.
Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick
I was pleasantly surprised that this book did NOT feel like so many others that had come before it. Wendy Wood is an accomplished neuroscience researcher who also has a knack for translating her results into helpful, clear prose.
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
Range was an interesting and (mostly) engaging look at the different approaches to learning that we take in society today. I thought the author was clear and conversational, and he used good examples and stories that are relatable to real life.
Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most
Rating: 4/5 | I read Farsighted as part of my subscription to the Next Big Idea Club. It was fun to have it paired with Joyful, which was about the small things, because Farsighted is about the big things. Big, important decisions and the ways you can ensure that you're making the best choices possible. (Click the post to read more.)