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Let’s be real: It’s hard not to roll your eyes at the very topic of self-help books. So many of them are treacly at best, filled with the sort of one-size-fits-all advice you grew up seeing on posters in middle school guidance counselors’ offices.
After working at Oprah.com for a few years, I felt like I’d seen it all. Books of every variety crossed my desk, but I soon learned there’s a select few that are absolutely worth your time. They’re often business or psychology books, written by professors and laden with research to back up their anecdotal experiences.
This fall, two books have totally bucked that trend — and I still recommend them to everyone I know. The first are more memoir than anything else, but the authors peel back every layer of their experience, provided the raw, unfiltered truth (and the lessons gleaned in hindsight later), that I couldn’t get enough of them.
If you’re looking for something to read over the next few months, try one of these.
Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton
Doyle Melton overcame addiction and anorexia, overcoming both to write a bestselling memoir — only to learn, once she thought she had it all together, that her husband had been cheating on her for years. This book provides an unvarnished look at her journey, and what she gained from every step of the process.
Read more about the book here.
Order a copy here.
Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist
Niequist provides a new mantra for the overworked, showing how her decision to slow down changed every facet of her life — for the better.
Read more about the book here.
Order a copy here.
Rising Strong by Brene Brown
While Brown includes many anecdotes from her life to illustrate her points, the author is first and foremost a counselor/researcher, and she constantly backs up her findings on how shame impacts us — and what it takes to rise after a colossal failure — with studies and info from her field.
Read more about the book here.
Order a copy here.
What books have you read (and loved) lately?
Top Photo: Jazmin Quaynor/Unsplash
