It can be hard to find a compelling self-help book. They can be patronizing or preachy, and can even add to our worries. Still, the best self-help books share certain features: thoughtful reflections paired with gentle guidance, personal insights merged with broader knowledge. Of course, humor doesn’t hurt—but neither does seriousness of purpose.
Ultimately, the best self-help book is the book that helps you. You’re likely to find that title in this selection of 11 self-development genre stand-outs. Whether you want to feed your creative practice, improve your love life, or heal your lower back, you won’t go it alone with these authors as your guides.
The Body Keeps Score by Bessel van der Kolk
A leading expert in trauma studies, van der Kolk offers a life-changing look into how the brain and body respond to painful experiences. His research deals with a range of widely occurring traumas, from alcoholism to sexual violence to domestic abuse. With attention to the brain’s ability to be shaped and reshaped, his analysis allows readers to understand the ways trauma lingers—and our capacity to heal from it.
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
Gilbert takes readers by the hand and guides them toward a more compassionate, cooperative relationship with the creative spirit. Her suggestions range from the practical to the philosophical—exploring everything from dressing up to attract inspiration to understanding creative labor as both playful and serious. Her reflections are wise and reasonable, whimsical without being trite. She shares meaningful insights from her own creative practice and gets candid about pressing ahead in the face of work-halting fear.
Healing Back Pain by John Sarno
In his suite of books (including Mind Over Back Pain and The Mindbody Prescription), Sarno argues that common afflictions like lower back, neck, and shoulder pain are not caused by physical irregularities but by repressed emotions. He pulls compelling examples from his extensive medical career, including numerous patients who were able to resume pain-free lives after identifying the real debilitating culprits: anger about family obligations, perfectionistic standards, or even stress about an upcoming vacation.
All About Love by bell hooks
Love is often represented as an ineffable force defying coherent definition. But in this vital volume, first published in 1999, hooks insists that developing a vocabulary for love is crucial to separating it from more unequal forms of relation. The first in her “Love Song to the Nation” trilogy, All About Love takes an incisive look into the heart of our culture, treating love as a subject to be understood and harnessed toward healing ends.
“Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emerson’s famous essay appears alongside his other important works in this 2009 edition. A definitive piece of Transcendentalist moral philosophy, it adopts the premise that men (remember, this is 1841) must turn inward and trust themselves instead of society or institutions to find a way to be. Laid out in a series of lucid reflections, the essay urges people to find inner alignment in order to achieve principled, peaceful lives.
Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
Anxieties, responsibilities, technology—countless things compete for our attention in any given moment. An influential figure in the meditation space, Kabat-Zinn provides this guide to reclaiming the present and dropping into our minds and bodies. He treats mindfulness as a quality to infuse throughout our daily lives, creating a state of attunement through compassion and inquisitiveness.
Navigate Your Stars by Jesmyn Ward
Adapted from a speech she delivered at Tulane University’s 2018 Commencement, this short illustrated book blends Ward’s personal story with a broader message of persistence. She describes the limited opportunities available to her mother and grandmother as poor Black women living in the South. As a young person, Ward charted her own course to Stanford University, only later realizing how factors of intergenerational poverty and trauma narrowed what was possible for those before her. Still, her elite education did not guarantee her future. Instead, Ward shares how adapting to one’s circumstances and making a series of choices creates a way forward.With its beautiful illustrations, the book makes a perfect gift for recent graduates and lifelong learners alike.
Grit by Angela Duckworth
Drawing on her career as a psychologist, Duckworth uses science and experience to explain why grit—a blend of perseverance and passion—determines success more than talent or luck. She takes readers into her research with a series of fascinating case studies: teachers working in challenging schools, cadets starting out at West Point, and young people competing in the National Spelling Bee Finals. She arrives at some encouraging conclusions: grit can be learned and channeled towards achieving one’s greatest goals.
Celebrating Life: Finding Happiness in Unexpected Places by Jonathan Sacks
Britain’s long-serving Chief Rabbi, Sacks was an esteemed commentator and religious leader. Celebrating Life is one of several books he wrote on topics of self-discovery and society. In it, he details his journey to finding happiness after the death of his father. He frames happiness as a particular mode of experiencing reality, a practice rather than a possession. Wise and honest, his uplifting philosophy is intended “for people of all faiths and none.”
The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm
In this important work by the German social psychologist, Fromm asserts that love is an art that can be learned rather than a chance condition into which one “falls.” He challenges several cultural assumptions about love; for instance, that the problem of love is about making oneself lovable rather than mastering the art of love itself. Bold and clearly expressed, his reflections are as relevant today as they were nearly 70 years ago when the book was first published.
The Imagination Muscle by Albert Read
This forthcoming book from Albert Read—former managing director of Condé Nast Britain—delves into the world of imagination, arguing its universal significance beyond creativity. He advocates for cultivating imagination in daily life, offering practical advice from observation techniques to ways of navigating modern complexities. Through historical anecdotes, modern innovations, and more, Read emphasizes imagination as one of humanity’s paramount assets.