I really can't recommend this book enough. It's one of the best and most insightful books I've ever read . . . this book is just amazing for helping you recognize errors in thinking and personal biases that we all experience. It really gets to the roots of what makes people happy and unhappy rather than being some sort of a positive thinking, motivational book. Just outstanding stuff that you can really apply in day to day life.

Examining the ideas of thinkers like Plato, Buddha and Jesus in light of modern research . . . Haidt, a social psychologist, provides practical advice for parenting, romance, work and coping with the political and cultural divisions.

The Happiness Hypothesis is a wonderful and nuanced book that provides deep insight into the some of the most important questions in life - Why are we here? What kind of life should we lead? What paths lead to happiness? From the ancient philosophers to cutting edge scientists, Haidt weaves a tapestry of the best and the brightest. His highly original work on elevation and awe - two long-neglected emotions - adds a new weave to that tapestry. A truly inspiring book.

This is a delightful book . . . Haidt's writing embraces spiritual and mystical viewpoints while retaining scientific and rational coherence.

This unusual book sets itself apart from the self-help category with its extensive scientific references, and intelligent, neutral prose, while the author's illuminating illustration of how the human mind works is both educational and refreshing.

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt shows in his wonderfully smart and readable The Happiness Hypothesis [that] modern science and history have a lot to say to each other

You know what? Reading it did actually make this reviewer happier.

This is my most gifted book.

I talk to myself. And so do you. Yet this remarkable capacity for introspection can sometimes lead us astray. Ethan Kross has written the definitive work on how to redirect our inner voices away from rumination and self-criticism and toward reflection and self-improvement. Chatter is a profound and practical book-one that will leave you with both a fresh understanding of yourself and new strategies to live a fuller life.

Stimulating . . . Kross, the director of the University of Michigan's Emotion & Self Control Laboratory, debuts with an eye-opening look at managing 'the silent conversations people have with themselves'.

[A] fascinating narrative, fluidly written and packed with insight. . . . [Kross] shows us how we might have better chats with ourselves, ones that make us happier, healthier, and more productive. . . . A book that will truly change minds.

Ethan is a deep and original thinker and a thorough, always thought-provoking researcher. He's one of the psychologists whose work I always read whenever I see his name.

A practical, useful guide to quieting one's inner noise.

Ethan Kross illuminates and solves the crucial issue of mastering self-talk in this modern classic. Compulsively readable and refreshingly original, Chatter will help you win the argument with yourself.

*Best books of January 2021

*10 books to read in January 2021

*A notable book of 2021

*Best new wellness books of January 2021

A gorgeous open-hearted read but also a vital, instructive one

A raw, heartbreaking, uplifting memoir about reinvention, being a woman and love in all its forms. An important book, beautifully written

Alexandra Heminsley understands what it is to be a woman in a world that judges us, our bodies, and the experience of these bodies, in every way and at all times... Charting her journey to her own body through loss, heartache and trauma, alongside love, friendship and hope, she suggests that each of us might find our own way to embody our deepest truths, and that we might do so with generosity to others on their own journey

[Heminsley] writes with unflinching clarity

[An] insightful memoir

Bracingly honest...big-hearted... [and] page-turningly compelling

Some Body To Love is an honest and thoughtful memoir that touches on difficult contemporary topics . . . Incredibly moving and very, very powerfu

A powerful treatise on pain and love, this is an honest, moving and authentic examination of the end of a relationship, and the way our lives can fracture and recover from sudden, seismic shifts. Heminsley's writing is sharply resonant - you don't have to share her experiences to be struck by her observations about letting go with love, and how we can find strength in self-love too

I wish I had saved The Shapeless Unease to read in isolation but Samantha Harvey’s book about insomnia, time, death and so many unknowable things is a blessing to have in lonely times. It is a profound and stunning book but funny, too.

A beautiful, jagged little book about insomnia and so many unknowable things: life and death, Buddhism, and how language alters our thinking. But I was most struck by its form and structure.

[Samantha Harvey's] cerebral, startlingly clear account of somehow pulling through [from insomnia] carries an electric charge and meditates on not only the mystery of sleep but also writing, swimming and dreams.

[The Shapeless Unease] is beautifully crafted and its achievement makes itself more apparent on a second reading.

A masterpiece, so good I can hardly breathe. I'm completely floored by it.

This book seems appropriately messy-haired and wild-eyed... Anyone who has lain awake the night before a big test will recognize such manic flourishes. Harvey captures the 4 a.m. bloom of magical thinking; stories proliferate within stories... To read Harvey is to grow spoiled on gorgeous phrases.