Self Help Books

Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn offers a concise round-up of the most notable newly released psychology and self-help books of 2024, taking in a study of partisanship in Trump's America, a strongly-argued case against 'the phone-based childhood,' and a manual for improving your own communication skills.

Can we cultivate qualities like grit, tenacity and kindness? How about habits of the successful—hard work, perseverance and productivity? Angela Duckworth, bestselling author of Grit and founder of the Character Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, recommends five books, including a title that graces every CEO's shelf.

If you feel like you lose whole days to procrastination or indecision—or simply have too much to do!—you probably want advice on how improve your productivity. We spoke to David Allen, creator of the perennial bestseller Getting Things Done, about the best books on the subject: why we waste time, and what we can change to be more productive.

If you've stepped inside a school recently, you've probably heard teachers talking about the importance of  a 'growth mindset.' Here psychologist Carol Dweck, who pioneered research into this key concept, explains what it's all about and recommends books—other than her own—that shed light on it.

In a world where many people feel frazzled by the pace of life, can mindfulness help? What's the best way of practising it? Or is it just a fad? Philosopher Nigel Warburton talks to mindfulness expert, Tessa Watt, about the best books on mindfulness.

Feeling stressed and overwhelmed? You are not alone. Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks, selects some of the best books on time management—including two classic how-to guides, plus several texts focused on helping you decide how you really want to spend your finite time on this planet.

Most of us want to be happy, and yet it's hard to achieve. Jonathan Haidt, psychologist and author of  the classic The Happiness Hypothesis, talks us through five books, old and new, to better understand happiness.

Feeling anxiety is a natural part of being a human being, but for some people it can cause terrible mental and physical anguish and prevents them from leading happy and fulfilling lives. Lucy Foulkes, a psychologist at University College London, talks us through books that can help with anxiety.

Elizabeth Day, author of How to Fail: Everything I've Ever Learnt from Things Going Wrong, explains how the road to success truly is paved with failure—and why we must learn to deal with it better.

Most self-help books promise to take you from 0 to 100, but many people reading them are starting at minus 100. The author of What's Stopping You? picks books that helped him come to grips with his own insecurities.